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.

Stealth Authoritarianism in Tunisia

According to Al Jazeera, Tunisia’s January 2026 sentencing of two journalists to three year prison terms for allegedly “spreading false news" illustrates the broader pattern of democratic erosion under president Kais Saied. Once widely regarded as the only democratic...

AI as Democratic Erosion by Proxy: Trump, Synthetic Media, and the Normalization of Anti-Pluralism

Donald Trump’s use of AI-generated media, particularly content that fabricates or manipulates the speech and actions of political opponents, constitutes a form of democratic erosion by proxy: it does not directly dismantle democratic institutions, but it degrades the...

Is India Facing Democratic Backsliding?

Within the past decade, political institutions have listed India’s democracy in a steady decline. The V-Dem Institute lists India as #100 out of 179 countries, classifying it as an “electoral autocracy,” citing the excessive pressures on media and challenges to civil...

Florida’s Censorship of History Puts Their Democracy at Risk

Apr 4, 2023 | University of Utah

Discomfort is a vital tool used in change. People learning about history that makes them uncomfortable forces them to understand the importance of their actions and keeps...

Show Us, Don’t Tell Us: Poll Working and How It Can Increase the Gen-Z Vote

Jan 20, 2023 | Georgia State University Perimeter College

In the 2022 Midterms, young voters nationally had the second highest turnout in history with 27% of people 18-27 showing up to the polls. Some ask for the reason of the...

Use of discriminatory Voter Policy to suppress African Americans

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

by Rajdeep Singh In response to: “The Black-White Wealth Gap Is Unchanged after Half a Century”, The Economist A liberal democracy is one that not only acts upon the desires of the...

The Danger of Populism – Lessons from Rwanda by Matt Willis

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

For this post, I have read an article by Kennedy Ndahiro for The Atlantic, titled "In Rwanda, We Know All About Dehumanizing Language." The concepts elucidated by Ndahiro, a native Rwandan himself,...

The Israel Effect: What Netanyahu’s Election Says About Trump’s America by Emily O’Malley

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

Many Democrats suspect that, given Trump’s performance thus far, his defeat in 2020 is inevitable, which is perhaps why the Democratic field is replete with challengers hoping to win the presidency....

WHY THE PARTIES ARE INCREASING POLARIZATION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON DEMOCRATIC EROSION BY COLLIN SWORDS

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

Article in reference: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/04/13/for-the-first-time-ever-a-majority-of-democrats-identify-as-liberals An article published in the Economist titled...

Attending a City Council Meeting by Sydney Willis

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

Attending a city council meeting is one of the easiest ways to be involved in local politics, but many people don’t attend them because they have a reputation of being long and boring. When I...

The Fragmented State of the Democratic Party by Jacob Buckelew

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

A recent article by David Frum of The Atlantic titled “Democrats Are Falling Into the Ilhan Omar Trap” argues that President Trump is making Representative Omar into the face of the party as the...

The independence of central banks

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

It’s been a long time since a political-economic article has grabbed my attention like The Economist’s “The independence of central banks is under threat from politics.” The article opens with “This...

Why Elizabeth Warren is a Populist

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

Elizabeth Warren is affiliated with the Democratic Party of the United States and is the current senator of the state of Massachusetts. Prior to her political career, she was a prominent academic --...

Populism in the 2020 Presidential Race?

Apr 15, 2019 | Rollins College

When we think of populism, or the rise of populism, it’s pretty easy to think of Donald Trump. We think of his rants against immigrants. We think of his campaign against the elites, his cries to...