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.

The Permanent Campaign: Why Populist Leaders Can Never Stop Fighting the System

Imagine winning the most powerful office in the world and still governing like you're the underdog. That's the paradox at the center of modern populism and it isn't accidental.  With Donald Trump's inauguration for his second term in January 2025, the fight did not...
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The 2026 Midterms as an Institutional Test

The upcoming 2026 midterm elections are being framed as a referendum on the current executive agenda. But to view them merely though the lens of policy preference is to miss the deeper structural issues within the current state of American democracy. As the nation...
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The loss of trust in the MAGA movement by young conservatives

According to several news outlets, the March 25-28 Conservative Political Action Conference, more commonly known as CPAC, was poorly attended by the younger conservatives who had come in large numbers in the past. The New York Times notes for example that “youths...
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