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 are student blog posts written by student participants in the Democratic Erosion Course. These posts were not written by nor represent the views of the Democratic Erosion Consortium.

Food Security is Rooted Abroad

Global fertilizer supply chains connect geopolitical events abroad to food production at home in ways most consumers don’t see.

The Meaning of Silence : What the moment of silence for Melissa Hortman says about American democracy

On June 14, 2025, the lives of Melissa Hortman who was a House speaker in Minnesota and her husband Mark were taken in what authorities believe to be a politically motivated act of violence. The same day Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot and...

The New Future of Warfare? How Social Media is Inflating Tensions Between the U.S. and Iran.

Social media is moving to the forefront of the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with political elites from both sides of the conflict using social media as a weapon to fabricate narratives and generate AI videos to publicly denounce the actions of one...

UniTeam Division: Marcos-Duterte Fallout and Its Democratic Ramifications

Jun 20, 2024 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

"Uniteam has formally been dissolved and she has just become the leader of the opposition… Harry Roque, former spokesperson for Rodrigo Duterte, on Sara’s resignation from...

Navigating The Polarization of Female Political Representation in the Philippines

Jun 18, 2024 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Unequal gender representation has always been apparent in Philippine politics. Being predominantly Catholic, the Philippine electorate has historically sided with...

Democratically Wrong: Examining the Authority of Democratic Decisions

Oct 17, 2019 | Salem State University

The pressing political issues of today raise important political questions regarding the value of democratic decisions. Following the most recent Democratic Party debate, the right-side of the...

Trade Disputes Weaken More than Alliances

Oct 17, 2019 | Salem State University

Can a weakened market weaken the foundation of democracy? The strength of democracy is in the people, but if the people loose faith in democracy what could happen? The trade war between the US and...

The Trouble in North Carolina

Oct 17, 2019 | Salem State University

How anti-democratic measures are eroding democratic norms in North Carolina In the book How Democracies Die, Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky argue that backsliding governments may reject the...

The World’s Biggest Democracy in an Undemocratic Light

Oct 16, 2019 | Salem State University

India, the world’s biggest democratic government, is facing serious challenges to its democracy. To the North, in Kashmir, civil strife is rampant. China, Pakistan, and India all lay claim to parts...

Netanyahu: Pushing the Limits of Democracy

Oct 15, 2019 | Salem State University

The September 2019 parliamentary elections in Israel raise concern about the future of democracy in the country. The Blue and White party, created just this year, ran neck and neck with the...

The 2019 elections in Israel: Evidence of democratic backsliding?

Jun 7, 2019 | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

On May, 9, 2019, elections to the Israeli parliament—the Knesset—were once again conducted. By and large, as on all previous occasions, they were competitive, free, and fair. During the campaigns,...

Rhetoric, democratic backsliding, and Netanyahu’s 2019 election campaign by Tal Been

Jun 6, 2019 | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

An election campaign is of great importance to a country’s political culture, affording an opportunity to examine the behavior of political actors and their influence upon public discourse. In this...

The 2019 elections and the boundaries of the political space by Tally Keigen and Noa Shemesh

Jun 6, 2019 | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

One of the most fundamental values in a democracy is the right of political participation, derived the right to vote and be elected. The “paradox of a defensive democracy” raises the question of the...

The exclusion of the Arab minority by Daniel Padon

Jun 6, 2019 | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

The 2019 elections shed light on the schism between Israel’s Jewish majority and its Arab citizens, who constitute roughly 16% of all eligible voters (CBS 2019). A good starting point is the...