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.

Censorship With a Legal Stamp: How the Philippines Silences Its Press

On January 22, there was a conviction that had prominent organizations and experts – including UN experts, the International Federation of Journalists, and more – decry and call for immediate release. The Regional Trial Court of Tacloban City sentenced Filipino...

Moldova’s 2025 Parliamentary Election: Democratic Erosion or Resilience?

Moldova is an interesting case of a country stuck between two major orientations. It has been tied with Moscow for centuries, getting colonized by the Russian Empire, and being a part of the Soviet Union up to 1991. Even after its independence, Moldova continued to be...

Hungary Still Holds Elections. So Why Is Its Democracy Getting Weaker?

When we think about democracy, we usually think about elections. People vote, a party wins, and the government is supposed to represent the people. But what if a country keeps holding elections while the rules become less fair? Hungary made me think about this...

Truth Social was a failed populist experiment. A second Trump victory could change that.

Oct 10, 2024 | Brown University

If former President Donald Trump is a populist, he certainly isn’t a traditional one. An analysis of the former President’s speeches by UCLA researchers found that he...

A Turning Point for Immigration Reform in the 2024 Presidential Election

Oct 10, 2024 | Ohio State University

The failure to address immigration in formal debate is something that has happened for at least a decade now! The failure to EVEN have discourse about immigration is...

Where Do Trump Supporters Draw the Line?

Nov 26, 2019 | Salem State University

The public phase of the impeachment hearings started on November 18th. Trump’s time in office has created a divide in politics far greater than ever before. Not surprisingly, the president’s...

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Poland’s “Frankenstate”

Nov 25, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Source: Rzeczpospolita The Law and Justice Party in Poland is taking both Law and Justice into its own hands. After winning a Parliamentary majority in 2015, the PiS seized control of the Polish...

Anti-Immigrant Policies and Democratic Erosion in Hungary

Nov 24, 2019 | Salem State University

Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban is a well-established populist and a wolf in sheep’s clothing when it comes to democratically elected leaders. His reputation and recent actions as an...

Brazil in Peril

Nov 24, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a former military man, populist and was considered as an outsider in the political scene has been gaining attention these past few months. From his extremist...

Anti-Immigrant Trump shakes crowd for 2020

Nov 24, 2019 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

A right to live in a peaceful place, a right to get asylum and a right to live without discrimination or prejudice. These are few of the basic human rights we are taught when we were still living in...

Russia & Control of the Media in Ukraine

Nov 21, 2019 | Salem State University

Recently the Kremlin has been manipulating the news from behind the scenes in places like Ukraine. This isn’t the first time Russia has tried to control the press. It’s quit a common occurrence....

Are we fighting Drugs or Democracy?

Nov 20, 2019 | Salem State University

Since 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has claimed the lives of over 20,000 people attracting global attention. In reality these killings have very little to do with...

Erdogan, the Kurds, and Legitimacy

Nov 18, 2019 | Salem State University

Erdogan, the Kurds and Legitimacy In October, a series of invasions along the Syrian-Turkish border devastated the Kurdish people...

Modi’s Efforts to Define the “Real People” of India.

Nov 13, 2019 | Salem State University

On August 31st, India released a revised citizenship list for the territory of Assam. The NRC, the National Registry for Citizenship, decided to exclude roughly two million people from this list --...