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.

Donald Trump the Nazi Reincarnate?: Godwin’s Law and How This Phenomenon is Counterproductive to Understanding Democratic Erosion

What do we hope to accomplish when comparing President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, a tyrannical perpetrator of genocide?

The Russia-Ukraine War Bodes Poorly for Democracy, But Not in the Way You Think

The Russia-Ukraine War is a serious threat to global democracy through the growing wave of isolationism in the United States, an entity that has typically been at the forefront of fighting authoritarianism across the world.

The Trump Administration’s Attack on USAID

The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID, increase concerns about democratic backsliding as it could result in a trend with the executive undermining institutional legitimacy.

Selective Forgetting: Uncovering History Doesn’t Imply Cancellation

Nov 22, 2022 | Suffolk University

Everyone is taught about Christopher Columbus in elementary school, “In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Teachers taught students that he...

Can Civil Disobedience Save America’s Eroding Democracy?

Nov 22, 2022 | Suffolk University

“Forced motherhood is female enslavement” pleaded a pro-choice protester. Is slavery really what we are reverting to in 2022? In May of 2022, an initial draft of the Supreme...

Turkey’s invasion of Syria: A democratic crisis

Dec 5, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Ras al-Ayn bombing on October 10, 2019. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. When United States President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of American troops in northern Syria in October, chaos and...

The Trump of the Tropics

Dec 4, 2019 | Salem State University

How Bolsonaro takes Trump's extremes to the extreme On the rise of a certain president, Brian Winter, editor in Chief of Americas Quarterly, remarks that, in a politically divisive election year, “…...

In the Philippines, the biggest threat to press freedom is Duterte

Dec 3, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Ten years ago, on November 23, 2009, 58 people—32 of them journalists—were brutally killed in the sleepy and impoverished town of...

Japan’s Democracy under Abe: National Security over Civil Liberties?

Dec 3, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press, and all other forms of expression are guaranteed. No censorship shall be maintained nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication...

South Korea’s Kind of Populism

Dec 3, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

“The sovereignty of the Republic of Korea shall reside in the people and the authority shall emanate from the people.”-Section 2, Article 1, Chapter 1, Constitution of the Republic of Korea Populism...

Severity of Curtailing Press Freedom in the Philippines: Is history repeating itself?

Dec 2, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Article 3, Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines states that “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of the speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right...

Duterte’s Metamorphosis: From an Illiberal Democrat to an Authoritarian?

Dec 2, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Metamorphosis, a Greek word that means transformation in structure or substance by supernatural means. Like butterflies, “democratic” leaders have life stages too. Some leaders start as an illiberal...

Rebirth of Democracy or a More Chaotic Political Crisis in Bolivia?

Dec 2, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

The tension is still high and Morales’ supporters were claiming that Evo Morales was a victim of a coup drawn by the military and political enemies (right-wing politicians). The possibility of an...

The Courts & Democratic Erosion

Dec 2, 2019 | Salem State University

The political battlegrounds for the America’s courts spilt into national news coverage once more this past weekend when 86-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was briefly...