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.

Politics and Populism Brazil: Increasing Polarization

Populism has played an important role in the shaping of Brazilian politics over the past century. An approach that pits "the people" against "the elite," populism thrives under conditions of economic uncertainty, political distrust, and social inequality, which have...

Democracy for Sale: How a Chinese National Briefly Became a Mayor in the Philippines

In 2024, the integrity of Philippine democracy was called into question as evidence revealed that a local municipality had unknowingly elected a Chinese national as Mayor, following reports of illegal activities in her jurisdiction.

The fire from within: American Democracy is dying?

” There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide” - James Adams. If the average empire fails at 250 years and America is 248 years old, could we say that the death of democracy was something foreseeable and the uprise in authoritarian form of...

Brazilians Will Have To Choose The Lesser of Two Evils

Jun 9, 2022 | University of California, San Diego

Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images This year is an election year for the fourth biggest democracy...

Myanmar in Shambles with the Revival of the Death Penalty

Jun 9, 2022 | University of California, San Diego

The Myanmar military government recently rejected appeals against the death sentencing of two prominent democracy activists in an effort to repress the anti-coup resistance....

Authoritarian practices of Donald Trump and the Republican Party. By Alexander Henshaw-Greene at Boston University.

Sep 27, 2017 | Boston University

Stealth Authoritarianism, as expressed by Ozan Varol, refers to regime practices that make a country less democratic without outright violating laws or repressing opposition. Varol writes that...

Is the U.S. in the throngs of totalitarianism? According to history (and Arendt), not yet. By Amalia Perez at Brown University.

Sep 26, 2017 | Brown University

More than half a century after being written, Hannah Arendt's hypotheses explaining the roots and contours of totalitarianism remain, unequivocally, a preeminent theoretical framework. The Origins...