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.

Press Access and Democratic Erosion

  Democratic erosion does not just happen quickly through canceling elections or censorship of the press, it can also occur gradually even with democratic institutions maintaining themselves. The recent conflict with the Trump administration and several major...

Turkey and T24: How Erosion is Demonstrated Through the Populists Toolkit

On September 30th, Turkey’s Criminal Court of Peace banned T24, a news portal based in the country, for alleged “LGBT Propaganda”. This follows suit in a growing number of interdictions spurned on by Recep Erdoğan, the current president since 2014’s, right leaning and...

Defending Democracy While Restricting Press Freedom in Moldova

Can a democratic government protect democracy while restricting press freedom? Ahead of the 2025 parliamentary election, the Moldovan government used broad emergency powers through the “Commission for Exceptional Situations.” As documented in Amnesty International’s...