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.

Orbán Lost. But Did Democracy Win? Hungary’s Election and the Limits of Electoral Recovery

On April 12 2026 Viktor Orbán's sixteen-year grip on Hungary ended. This is when Péter Magyar's Tisza party won a landslide securing a two-thirds supermajority in parliament. The same threshold Orbán had used for years to rewrite the constitution in Fidesz's favor....

Democratic Erosion and the Far-Right in Post-Estallido Chile

A fundamental question haunts any serious analysis of Chile's recent political trajectory: did the democratic erosion now visibly accelerating under the far-right begin with the mass mobilizations of 2019, or did it come after? The answer requires resisting the...

When Saving Democracy Looks Like Killing It: Romania’s Election Crisis and the Paradox of Militant Democracy

Romania’s 2024–25 election crisis reveals that annulling a Russian-manipulated vote may have saved democracy procedurally while deepening the institutional distrust that makes democracy fragile in the first place.

The Imminence of a Second Trump Presidency?

Jun 25, 2024 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Donald Trump seems to defy all reason. Despite his persona that was uncharacteristic of a world leader, he won the US presidential elections in 2016. Despite the notoriety...

Cutting the Head Doesn’t Kill the Snake: Bolsonaro’s Autocratic Legacy

Jun 25, 2024 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Authoritarianism is already a menace in the history of the world; however, the recent wave of autocratization has allowed for the birth of a different type of monster that...

Evaluating Potential Authoritarian Threats: Is French President Emmanuel Macron a Populist Leader?

Feb 13, 2020 | Boston University

Many consider National Front leader Marine Le Pen’s loss of the 2017 election a victory for the preservation of French democracy, as she is widely considered an anti-democratic populist. By Levitsky...

A Toll for Democracy: Why Thailand’s First Mass Shooting Should Be the Last Manifestation of Its Democratic Decay

Feb 13, 2020 | Boston University

Following the shocking mass shootingin the commercialized northeastern region of Thailand, Twitter trended with the hashtags “#ReformtheMilitary” and “#PrayuthRIP.” This public dissent for the...

How Mass Incarceration Threatens Democracy and Perpetuates Institutional Inequalities

Feb 12, 2020 | Boston University

While Kim Kardashian West reinvigorated the debate surrounding criminal justice reform outside of CNN or Washington, D.C. think tanks, the issue at hand is very prominent and detrimental to the...

Is Hungary Still a Democracy?

Feb 12, 2020 | Boston University

Viktor Orbán states how he is shaping an “illiberal democracy” in Hungary. He claims that “democracy is not necessarily liberal. Just because something is not liberal, it still can be a...

How Jair Bolsonaro’s Presidency Incites Democratic Erosion in Brazil

Feb 12, 2020 | Boston University

According to political scientist Juan J. Linz, the countries that are most vulnerable to democratic breakdowns are those that are relatively new democracies, and this is no exception for Brazil.[1]...

The Curious Case of Roger Stone

Feb 12, 2020 | Boston University

For centuries this country has operated on a system of checks and balances, ensuring that the only way democracy endures is through an understanding of each branch’s role and limitation. With the...

Trump’s Abandonment of Democratic Norms

Feb 12, 2020 | Boston University

Trump has stated in October of 2019 that Joe Biden was “only a good vice president because he understood how to kiss Barack Obama’s ass”, and this is one of many examples of how Trump has...

One Machine, Two Results: The Role of Election Anxiety in the Erosion of American Democracy

Feb 12, 2020 | Boston University

On November 5th, 2019, Pennsylvania’s Northampton County held elections through digital voting machines manufactured by Election Systems & Software. The machines, called the...

Democratic Erosion in the 2020 Iowa Democratic Caucus

Feb 12, 2020 | Boston University

On the night of February 3, 2020, Democratic voters across the United States looked to Iowa to set the stage for the 2020 Democratic primaries. Iowa has the unique position of being first in the...