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...

Seeing Politics in a Different Light

Nov 22, 2022 | Suffolk University

This past Spring, I worked as a District Intern for my Congressman. Most of the job was easy desk work, fielding calls and directing constituents to my higher ups,...

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...

Voter Restrictions in the Wake of Shelby County v. Holder, by Shiva Kangeyan

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

The Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision occurred in June 2013. The premise of the case was that Shelby County, Alabama sued the federal government over sections 5 and 4(b) of the 1965...

Information Literacy and Fake News by Isabet Tranchin

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

While propaganda in democracies have been studied for decades, the scope has widened to include other terms. Following disagreements between the media's evidence and the White House Press Secretary...

Dawn of Digital Totalitarianism by Luis Sierra

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

Since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has significantly increased controls over its already censored cyberspace. With the introduction of the social credit system which is aiming...

Populism in France: a threat to the European Union?

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

May 26th marks the day of the European elections and in France, tensions are at a boiling point. On the front-lines of Europe’s battle against populism, France’s resistance is not new. Two years...

Is Poland scapegoating LGBT people? by Victoria Malloy

Apr 29, 2019 | University of Chicago

Warsaw Pride 2015 (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz) (The Associated Press) Jan-Werner Müller distinguishes populism from other political movements that utilize the...

To Exclude or Engage? Asymmetric Gate-Keeping in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Apr 28, 2019 | University of Chicago

While the global ascendance of insurgent anti-establishment political forces and the consequent threats to democratic norms have been widely acknowledged by scholars of democracy, the efficacy of...

Protected: China in Formosa: Democracy Under Threat?

Apr 28, 2019 | University of Chicago

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American Democracy Erosion in the Pre-Trump Era by Omar Battisha

Apr 28, 2019 | University of Chicago

In 2018, for the first time in the 46 years that Freedom House's global study of political freedom has been conducted, the United States failed to get a 1/7 rating (where 1 is most free and 7 is...

Australia’s Infringement on Democratic Rights by Aimee Hwang

Apr 28, 2019 | University of Chicago

What is the Pacific Solution? Since 2012, the Australian government has been intercepting the refugees and asylum seekers who attempt to arrive by boat to Australia and detaining them in Refugee...