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.

The New GOP: Small-Government to Anti-Government

Oct 20, 2022 | Suffolk University

“I’m scared, Cameron. Things never used to be like this. They were never great but they’ve never been this bad.” This was my mom’s reaction to watching the news coverage of...

Viktor Orbán and the GOP

Oct 19, 2022 | SUNY-Binghamton

On August 4, 2022, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary gave a speech in Dallas, Texas—by his own admission “more than five thousand miles” from his homeland—and was met...

Is America A Populist Regime? by Kenjiro Lee

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

In Chapter 2 of "What Is Populism?", Jan-Werner Müller takes to task the concept of how a populist in power operates, mainly deconstructing the concept that a populist can no longer use tactics of...

International Pressures and the Sudanese Promissory Coup by Sammy Elmasri

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

Nancy Bermeo, in her 2016 paper “On Democratic Backsliding,” describes the transition of “the classic open-ended coups d’état of the Cold War years [to what she calls] promissory coups,” which, of...

The Foreign Policies of Personalist Dictators by Carter Squires

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

Democratic peace theory, one of the closest semblances to an empirical law in international relations, espouses quite simply that democracies are unlikely to go to war with one another. This seems...

Democratic Backsliding in Romania by Ruth Selipsky

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

Over the past two decades, Romania has enacted several democratizing reforms, including founding the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), repealing defamation laws, and finally joining the...

Populism as a Bid for Legitimacy by Renee Colby

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

"When and why do men obey?" Max Weber poses this question in his 1918 lecture 'Politics as a Vocation'. " Upon what inner justifications and upon what external means does this domination rest?" The...

Is Trump’s Use of Twitter Effective in Cutting Out the Media “Middleman”

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

President Trump has used Twitter to connect with his supporters in an unprecedented way. His use of the platform has increased far...

Bernie Sanders: Populist or Not? by Leon Chin

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

Too often, the word “populist” is used to describe different political characters in the United States and around the world. Although this term of populism is frequently used, the actual definition...

Legislative aggrandizement in sub-national governments. The case of North Carolina.

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

Democratic erosion and authoritarian tendencies tend to go hand and hand with the executive power. Unlike the self-coups of years past executive aggrandizement has become more common as a way to...

Trump and International Isolation: A Populist Strategy by Jorge Garrigo

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

On Friday at an NRA rally in Indianapolis President Trump, live on stage, signed an executive order effectively pulling the United States out of a UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) which aimed to set...