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.

These blogs reflect the views of the student authors, and not those of the Democratic Erosion Consortium.

Stealth Authoritarianism in Tunisia

According to Al Jazeera, Tunisia’s January 2026 sentencing of two journalists to three year prison terms for allegedly “spreading false news" illustrates the broader pattern of democratic erosion under president Kais Saied. Once widely regarded as the only democratic...

AI as Democratic Erosion by Proxy: Trump, Synthetic Media, and the Normalization of Anti-Pluralism

Donald Trump’s use of AI-generated media, particularly content that fabricates or manipulates the speech and actions of political opponents, constitutes a form of democratic erosion by proxy: it does not directly dismantle democratic institutions, but it degrades the...

Is India Facing Democratic Backsliding?

Within the past decade, political institutions have listed India’s democracy in a steady decline. The V-Dem Institute lists India as #100 out of 179 countries, classifying it as an “electoral autocracy,” citing the excessive pressures on media and challenges to civil...

The Boiling Point of Election Violence: Democratic Erosion in Tanzania

Jan 1, 2026 | University of Pittsburgh

Once hailed for its relative stability in an otherwise politically volatile East Africa, Tanzania has exploded into violence and political protest following the...

Amnesty for Atrocities: Peru’s Democratic Backsliding in the Shadow of Fujimori

Dec 18, 2025 | University of Pittsburgh

On August 13 2025, recently impeached Peruvian President Dina Boluarte signed bill No. 366 of 2023 into law, which provided amnesty to those who committed crimes against...

Nayib Bukele and the Quiet Dismantling of Salvadoran Democracy

Apr 18, 2025 | Boston University

Nayib Bukele has become one of the most infamous populist leaders in Latin America, winning international praise for his aggressive anti-gang policies and his unapologetic, millennial persona. But...

Trump Targets Former CISA Director

Apr 18, 2025 | Boston University

On April 9, 2025, Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum titled “Addressing Risks from Chris Krebs and Government Censorship.” The memo claimed that Chris Krebs “is a significant bad-faith...

The Death Files: The Trump Administration’s Dangerous and Anti-Democratic ‘Self-Deportation’ Strategy

Apr 18, 2025 | Boston University

A social security master-list previously known as the ‘Death Master List’ meant for invalidating the social security numbers of deceased individuals is being repurposed in the Trump Administrations...

Democratic Erosion: Trump’s threats on vulnerable students

Apr 18, 2025 | Boston University

The Trump Administration has caused an influx of high-profile arrests of international students across the United States by the Department of Homeland Security over the last few weeks, following the...

Militarizing The U.S. Boarder With Mexico: A Sign Of Democratic Erosion

Apr 17, 2025 | Boston University

On April 11, 2025, President Donald Trump granted the U.S. military permission to occupy federal lands along the border between the United States and Mexico. (Per The Guardian) The declared purpose...

The JFK Files: Make America Paranoid Again

Apr 17, 2025 | Boston University

Donald Trump recently released 80,000 CIA files on the JFK assassination and the following investigation. These files were released to some degree in 2017, as was mandated by the National Archives...

The Brandmauer and its Recent Deterioration

Apr 17, 2025 | Boston University

Firewalls and regional equivalents to it have recently come under heavy strain as nationalist far-right parties have found themselves relative electoral success in the past two years in Central and...

Populism and Authoritarianism in Venezuela

Apr 17, 2025 | Boston University

Cyrus Sadr Democratic Erosion Professor Steven Rosenzweig 4/9/25 Populism and Authoritarianism in Venezuela The 2024 election of Nicolas Maduro is widely viewed as being fraudulent...

The Erosion of Democracy: Sending U.S. Citizens to El Salvador

Apr 17, 2025 | Boston University

The idea floated by former President Trump to deport “homegrown criminals”—U.S. citizens—to a maximum security prison in El Salvador is a troubling sign of democratic erosion in the United States....