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.

Look at What They Took From You: MAGA Polarization Through Social Media

With the accessibility of social media, how does the current administration use it to create polarization?

From Secularism to Islamic Authority: Democratic Backsliding in Bangladesh

The journalists and citizens of Bangladesh look to the Jamaat to abide by the July National Charter of 2025, which seeks to prevent autocratic rule from institutionalizing once more.

From Left to Right-Wing Populism: Can Argentina Survive Another Movement?

In November 2023, self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei won the Argentinian presidency. His campaign ran on the promise of dismantling the existing political establishment that many Argentinians had grown dissatisfied with. Yet, rather than departing from...

Takaichi’s Era: Democracy on the Edge?

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

Japan has long been regarded as a consolidated parliamentary democracy since the post–World War II constitutional reforms, a status reaffirmed by its classification as a...

Orbán and the Courts: Why Hungary’s Democracy Is at Risk

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

Orbán and the Courts: Why Hungary’s Democracy Is at Risk Is Hungary’s Democracy Still Alive? If you’ve been following European politics, you might have seen news about...

Executive Order 14171: A Deceptive Tool for Democratic Erosion

Feb 14, 2025 | Boston University

On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, marking the beginning of his second term in the Oval Office. That day, he signed a myriad of...

Netanyahu’s Not-So-Stealthy Authoritarianism

Feb 14, 2025 | Boston University

Long considered to be the “Middle East’s only democracy,” Israel as it stands today is a shell of the idealistic Jewish utopia its Zionist founder once envisioned. The Israeli government has been...

Erosion of Taboos: The Dangers of the AfD Party

Feb 14, 2025 | Boston University

Less than two weeks away from the crucial elections in Germany, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has endorsed Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate of the far-right political group Alternative...

Trump’s January 6 Pardons

Feb 14, 2025 | Boston University

Donald Trump's pardoning of roughly 1,500 criminal defendants charged from the January 6th insurrection is a dangerous step in undermining American democracy and freedom. It reveals deeper concerns...

The Fear of Losing Family: Donald Trumps Controversial Immigration Policies

Feb 14, 2025 | Boston University

Image From: Chicago Council of Global Affairs Since he first ran for office in 2016, one of Donald Trump's biggest concerns was clear: illegal immigration. President Trump has won millions of votes...

The Restoration of Poland and the Desolation of the United States

Feb 14, 2025 | Boston University

From 2015 until 2023, Poland was under the process of democratic erosion; however, recently they reversed this backsliding as the PiS, Law and Justice Party, had ultimately been removed from power...

Threats to American Democracy

Feb 14, 2025 | Boston University

Since the 2024 election and the inauguration of Donald Trump (and dating back to the 2016 election), democracy in the United States, along with its democratic norms and practices that have...

Trump’s Challenging of the 14th Amendment: The Question of Birthright Citizenship

Feb 13, 2025 | Boston University

In the mere three weeks following his inauguration, President Donald Trump has ushered in a range of feelings across the nation regarding, what many may consider drastic, policy changes he has...

Blog Post 1

Feb 13, 2025 | Boston University

One reading I’d like to touch on is Chapter One of Levitsky and Ziblatt’s book, “How Democracies Die”. At first, I didn’t understand why the Aesop passage was included in the chapter: then I...