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.

You Can’t Sit with Us: The Practice of Democratic Gatekeeping and How It Has Saved Democracies

At the 11th hour of the 2024 election many Republican politicians and members of congress took a stance against Republican candidate, Donald Trump. Through the “Republicans for Harris” tagline, they urged their supporters through various forms of appeals to vote...

The Erosion of an Already Weak Democracy: The Rise and Fall of Jovenel Moïse

Jovenel Moïse's presidency marked a dangerous shift from Haiti's already shaky democracy to overt authoritarianism. Delayed elections, unchecked abuse of executive power, and violent suppression of resistance became the norm. By the time of his assassination in 2021,...

Undermining the Feedback Loop: How Trump’s Educational Policies Hinder Democratic Accountability

In a larger trend of censoring opinions which the Trump administration views as undesirable, the Trump administration’s actions towards schools and universities has a negative impact on democracy as a whole. Such a system depends on the free transmission of...

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...

Ala-kachuu

Nov 22, 2022 | Suffolk University

Ala-kachuu was once a beautiful, thoughtful practice. The so-called practice right now isn't the tradition in its proper form; it is a horrible crime masked under the...

Why The Election of Jair Bolsonaro is the First Step in the Erosion of Brazil’s Democracy by Felicia Gordon

Apr 7, 2019 | Boston University

Jair Bolsonaro was elected into power to serve as Brazil’s President on January 1, 2019. While the brief amount of time since his Presidency began limits Bolsonaro’s role thus far in forming new...

Mueller’s Failed Indictment: An Agent for Democratic Erosion by Huy Do

Apr 7, 2019 | Boston University

This past week, the Mueller investigation’s preliminary findings sprung across American news outlets, indicating that neither President Trump, nor any of his aides conspired or coordinated with the...

A False Sense of Hope: Thailand’s Recent Election – By Dean Weeden

Apr 6, 2019 | Boston University

Many observers were looking toward the Thailand elections in late March as a sign of changing times; the country has been governed by a military junta for the past five years. However, as the...

Fake News: How Trump’s Attack on the Media is an Attack on Democracy

Apr 4, 2019 | Utah State University

Madison R. Wadsworth It seems as though every day there is another article about the United States President, Donald Trump, calling reporters foul names, trying to bar partisan press from press...

Murder of Polish Mayor Highlight’s Hostile Political Divisions by Isa Colyer

Apr 4, 2019 | Saint Louis University

On Sunday, January 13th of this year, hundreds of Polish residents flocked to an outdoor stage in Gdansk to attend the Great Orchestra of Christmas, Poland’s largest annual charity event. It was the...

Reparations, Apologies, and the Spanish Conquest by Taylor Williams

Apr 4, 2019 | Saint Louis University

Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador is the current president of Mexico, elected in 2018 as part of the National Regeneration Movement party. In attempts to facilitate the national recognition and subsequent...

It Wasn’t Always This Way: How Republicans Went from Gatekeepers of Democracy to Promoters of Populism by Kyle Friant

Apr 4, 2019 | Utah State University

Antipathy to liberal democracy has become a staple of the modern incarnation of the Republican Party, a move that is detrimental to the entire international community. In a myriad of examples over...

A New Age of Politics in El Salvador by Olivia Kesselring

Apr 4, 2019 | Saint Louis University

37 year old Nayib Bukele, wearing his signature blue jeans and leather jacket, was democratically elected president of El Salvador in February of 2019, ushering in a new era of politics for the...

Evo Morales’s 2019 Presidential Run and How We Got Here by Brett Jones

Apr 4, 2019 | Saint Louis University

Not many would disagree, international observers and Bolivians alike, that this upcoming election in Bolivia will be a fork in the road for the country and the state of its democracy. The election...