Democratic Erosion University Course Student Blog

India has been experiencing some forms of democratic backsliding, including, but not limited to, the loss of legitimacy as rival political parties don’t recognize each other as legitimate rivals, and the use of potentially intentional asset freezes experineced by the Indian National Congress Party exposes the incumbent Party under Prime Minister Modi to undermine the efforts made by his biggest rival, the Indian National Congress Party.

Flash forward to 2026, and that humble narrative has completely eroded away. Advertisements for cryptocurrency exchanges line sports arenas. The POTUS has several personal cryptocurrencies that they flaunt at every opportunity. You’ve almost certainly had at least one unbearable acquaintance or family member “try to get you in on the ground floor” of some “totally radical new cryptocurrency that’s going to shake up the ecosystem”, much to your chagrin. There’s a lot of narratives regarding crypto, but one that I particularly loathe is that cryptocurrency will eventually be a useful, positive tool for the purposes of democracy. It won’t. We’re gonna spend a lot of time talking about just how “won’t” it will be. 

Hungary’s 21st century shift from liberal democracy into a “hybrid regime” – or a competitive authoritarianist state, as the phenomenon is also sometimes known – has been well-studied and quite heavily maligned by political science thinkers while it has been...