Democratic Erosion University Course Student Blog

Students enrolled in our course are encouraged to write for the course blog, and to read and comment on posts from students at other participating universities. The blog offers students the opportunity to analyze current events through the lens of the theory and case studies they engage with through the course.

Arresting Opposition and Squashing Protests: Democratic Backsliding in Turkey Under Erdoğan

Turkey has been inching towards autocracy under Erdoğan and the AKP for the last 22 years.

2025 Romanian Elections: An Election Redo and a Barred Candidate

Only two weeks out from Presidential Elections, Romanian voters face a tough decision in deciding on the next leader of their country. The latest opinion polls show that nearly 40% of voters are still undecided on who to vote for. After all, most voters already cast...

Why Protecting American Democracy Means Coming Together In Protest

In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, the Democratic Erosion Consortium's very own professors Robert Blair and Steven Rosenzweig wrote an article in The Boston Globe urging readers to “Get ready to protest like democracy depends on it.” The article was in...

Conservative Demagogues Use a Scapegoat When Confronted About Gun Violence

Apr 9, 2023 | Rollins College

A loved one has just been murdered at school days prior in yet another mass shooting and, rather than doing something about it, your legislators make it even easier to...

How Moldova Advances Its Democracy by Distancing Itself from Russia

Apr 5, 2023 | University of Utah

Russia’s relations with Moldova have been problematic and increasingly aggressive, especially since Vladimir Putin’s military intervention in Ukraine. Nevertheless, this is...

Reshuffling “Bad Apples”: Mexico’s Issue With Security

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and his promises of maintaining security have been minimal at best as Mexico reached an all-time high of homicides in 2019 and has experienced recent increased...

Beyond Electoral Fraud: Rooting Bolivia’s Coup in a History of Clientelism and Repression

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

The Bolivian coup d’etat against Evo Morales was not, and should not be examined solely as, the result of a fraudulent election. To suggest this erases the deep entrenchment of Bolivia’s neo-fascist...

The Necessity for Responsible Reporting on Crime in Mexico

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

You may not realize it, but the news media plays an enormous role in shaping how the public views and responds to crime. As Vincent Sacco states in his paper, “Media Constructions of Crime”, the way...

Migrant Caravans, U.S. Intervention, and the Case of Honduras

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

AFP/Getty, October 2018 You have likely come across the striking wide-shot, panoramic depictions of a blurred mass of bodies on the move. Blocking entire roads as far as the eye can see and...

Color, Corruption, and COVID-19: South Africa’s Democratic Balancing Act

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

A nation’s economy contracts by 51% in three months. Blatant corruption severely undermines the legitimacy of a country’s most prominent political party. Racial unrest and an increasingly fraught...

An Alternative to Militarization: Building Public Infrastructure to Fight Crime

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

The intuitive approach to deterring criminal behavior is to punish it. But what if legal behavior were instead incentivized such that criminal activity lost some of its relative appeal? Years of...

Negotiating with MS-13: Pragmatism, Corruption, or Both?

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

Outrage, shock and dismay greeted the publication of a report from El Faro news site claiming that El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele “cut deals” with the Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13) in order to...

AMLO’s Amnesty Proposal: How Government Pardon in Mexico Adds Fuel to the Fire

Oct 10, 2020 | Brown University

Mere weeks before assuming office as the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, often referred to as AMLO, published an eight-pillared plan for the construction of a peaceful future for...

Opal Tometi’s NYU Webinar

Oct 8, 2020 | Suffolk University

In the past few years, Black Lives Matter has grown from a simple Facebook hashtag to one of the worlds most powerful and provocative activist groups. Their mission to shed light on the...