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...

Egypt Still Has a Pharaoh: The Al-Sisi Regime

Nov 30, 2022 | Suffolk University

Gone are the days of the ancient Egyptian Kingdom where the great pyramids were built and one of the earliest forms of written communication were developed, but one thing...

“Make Spain Great Again”… Sounds Familiar?

Nov 30, 2022 | Suffolk University

Vox leader Santiago Abascal during campaign rally in Seville 2019 | Cristina Quicler/AFP via Getty Images Vox has risen towards becoming Spain’s third strongest political...

Modi annexed Jammu and Kashmir, is it a bold move towards authoritarianism?

Dec 10, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

“Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders — presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power” were the strong words of Steven...

Indigenous Struggles: A Shortfall of Philippine Democracy

Dec 9, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

The Philippines opened the 30th Southeast Asian Games this year with a performance celebrating the country’s indigenous cultures. A day earlier, indigenous Aeta communities were given a notice...

The Future of Democracy is Purple

Dec 9, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

In a world of increasing political polarization, a fast-growing group of people from media and academe are pushing back in the United States in defense of democracy— donning the color purple....

Russian Social Media Misinformation and its Attack on US Democracy

Dec 9, 2019 | Salem State University

During the last five years, Russian-organized spreads of disinformation over various social media platforms have undermined...

Making Sense of Imperial Manila: The Philippine Rural-Urban Divide in the Era of Rodrigo Duterte

Dec 9, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

The 30th South East Asian Games (SEA Games) hosted by the Philippines in 2019 have caused social cleavages to resurface at a time when the host nation should be presenting a united front. Trouble...

Mayor of Manila: A Portrait of Populism as Performativity

Dec 9, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Last September, I started a new job in Manila City. Despite having lived right next to it for all of my adult life, spending most of my waking hours in a new city – the country’s capital – has taken...

Is orange ever a possibility in Thai politics?

Dec 9, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Thailand is the country that has had the most number of coups in modern history. This says a lot about how troubled Thai politics is and how deep polarization occurs in this relatively progressive...

The Destruction of Democracy In Honduras By Jackeline Sosa

Dec 8, 2019 | Georgia State University

Has Honduras failed to uphold the upmost value of Democracy, while submitting into the hands of Dictatorship? Honduran voters got an unexpected end result when two presidential competitors asserted...

Hong Kong Protests by Max Tewksbury

Dec 8, 2019 | Georgia State University

Throughout history, democracies have worked and fallen. Venezuela and North Korea are examples of this. Great Britain gained control of Hong Kong on January 25, 1841, and maintained Hong Kong until...