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.

Tempering Potential Post-Election Expectations in Hungary

Hungary’s 21st century shift from liberal democracy into a “hybrid regime” – or a competitive authoritarianist state, as the phenomenon is also sometimes known – has been well-studied and quite heavily maligned by political science thinkers while it has been...

Due Process Violation and Democratic Erosion in El Salvador

In March 2022, El Salvador declared a state of emergency that would reshape not only the country's political landscape but also their legal foundation. Under the current President Nayib Bukele, the government launched an extreme and shocking crackdown on gang...

How weak institutions led to the fall of Afghanistan’s democracy.

From 2004 through 2021, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was established after the invasion by the U.S. This invasion was a response to the September 11 attacks, and to prevent any further international terrorists from replicating. The Afghan government heavily...

UniTeam Division: Marcos-Duterte Fallout and Its Democratic Ramifications

Jun 20, 2024 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

"Uniteam has formally been dissolved and she has just become the leader of the opposition… Harry Roque, former spokesperson for Rodrigo Duterte, on Sara’s resignation from...

Navigating The Polarization of Female Political Representation in the Philippines

Jun 18, 2024 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Unequal gender representation has always been apparent in Philippine politics. Being predominantly Catholic, the Philippine electorate has historically sided with...

Does This Florida Legal Battle Spell the End of American Democracy?

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

On September 11th 2020, a federal court of appeals decided that Florida’s former convicts must pay all court fines before they can vote. This blunted the effect of Amendment 4, which passed in 2018,...

The Thai Government and Their Textbook Erosion

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

The Thai Government has demonstrated various textbook examples of authoritarianism and democratic erosion in the past year or so, and protests continuing despite COVID concerns exemplifies the...

In This Election, It’s Not Democrat or Republican on the Ballot– It’s Democracy

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

After a summer marked by a global health crisis, social upheaval, and a devastating economic downturn, the stakes of an American presidential election have never been higher. And with early voting...

Thailand’s Hypocrisy: A Case Study of Stealth Authoritarianism

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

Though the Thai government does not necessarily hide its autocratic tendencies, it is far from willing to let go of the democratic label. On October 15th 2020, after three months of student-led...

Unions and Political Representation: How the Decline of Collective Bargaining Threatens Democracy

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

In the United States, union membership has set a national standard – a north star – for employee protections, labor rights, and political organization in the workplace. However, since the 1980’s,...

The Danger of Trump’s Rhetoric in American Democracy

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

In 2016, a man with no political experience and little political support was elected president of the United States. Previously, no president had been elected without a background in government or...

Constitutional Hardball and the United States Supreme Court

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

In their seminal work How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt identify two principal constitutional guardrails that, they argue, have allowed democracy to survive in the United...

The End of Nicaraguan Democracy

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

In 1984, Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) won the presidency after having overthrown the almost ten-year dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Ortega served one...

The Threat Against Democracy in the Era of “Fake News”

Oct 23, 2020 | University of Chicago

In 2016, American trust of mass media was at an all-time low. Gallup found that of 1,020 adult Americans surveyed, 32% reported having a “great deal/fair amount” of trust in the media. When sorted...