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.

Fighting Fake News: Lessons from the World’s Top Target

2018 was a year of awakening in Taiwan. Two high-profile events threw the consequences of fake news into relief. First, Su Chii-cherng, the envoy to Osaka for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, took his own life in September 2018 after false reports about him...

Can Democracies Wait Another 2,500 Years to Meet Today’s Needs?

In 500 BC, during Athens' golden age of democracy, the voting age was set at 18. Over 2,500 years later, this threshold remains the same in the vast majority (90%) of countries. However, as democracies grapple with rising populism, authoritarianism, marginalization of...

Présidence Impériale: Executive Aggrandizement in Macron’s France

Amidst significant challenges to France’s democracy, President Emmanuel Macron has ignored democratic norms and abused constitutional articles to expand his own power—periling France’s democracy.

Could Packing the Supreme Court be the Beginning of the End?

Ohio State University

If one day, the president of the United States decided to absolve the Supreme Court it is safe to say most citizens would be concerned about the health of the democracy....

Democrats Do Away With Democratic Practices?

Ohio State University

The 2024 Presidential Election has taken a form different than any in history, many elements being questionable legitimacy and ethics wise, such as the substitution of...

What the Dobbs Decision and the Feminist Green Wave Mean for Democracy

Skidmore College

Common conceptualizations of democracy emphasize the importance of government and institutions in protecting the rights of marginalized people. In a democracy, laws are meant to apply equally to...

Polarization and the Further Division of Spain

SUNY-Binghamton

https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/divided-spain/ Spain has seen political polarization and country-wide division in its recent history. At the conclusion of Francisco Franco’s authoritarian regime...

Democratic Erosion with the 2022 Italian General Election

SUNY-Binghamton

Democratic Erosion in Italy with the 2022 elections For most of the modern era the Italian Republic has been an incredibly unstable democracy since its creation after the second World War. For...

Constitutional Rights in a State of Emergency: The Case of Vietnam

Boston University

In March 2020, COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic; as the medical community worked to find a vaccine, the information world was rampant with misinformation. The Vietnamese government...

The Hostess with the Mostest

Skidmore College

Qatar has been ruled by a single family known as the Al Thani since 1847. Although the Al-Thani have always controlled Qatar they have gone through phases of colonization by the British. Qatar...

The End of an Era: It May be Time to Let Twitter Go

Skidmore College

Elon Musk has started to run Twitter into the ground. He has laid off about half of the company’s full-time employees, caused chaos after making blue check mark verifications a purchasable...

Winter Is Coming, But We Are Already in a Cold Civil War

Skidmore College

Since the recent polarization of American political life, voter suppression and anti-democratic sentiments have been on the forefront of a war against democracy. America is in the heat of...

What If It Was Lebron James: Brittney Griner’s Release and the Bigger Picture

Skidmore College

If it were Lebron James or Tom Brady, the United States would have gone to war. What should be celebrated as a win for America, the release of wrongfully detained WNBA star Brittney Griner, has...

Protesting in Mitch McConnell’s Backyard

Suffolk University

On June 24th, 2022 the United States Supreme Court issued one of the most controversial decisions in its two centuries of existence. Supreme Court - Source: Unsplash This past summer, having just...

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