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.

Israel’s Nation-State Law and the Fight Over Belonging

Israel’s Nation-State Law and the Fight Over Belonging Every democracy is based on a single premise: equality. That is why Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law matters. In July 2018, the Israeli Knesset passed Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, also...

Can a Democracy Die With 90% Approval?

Just as we overlook the origins of our daily coffee, failing to question the institutional costs of immediate safety and efficiency allows authoritarianism to legally dismantle democracy until it becomes an unquestioned “norm.”

Is Mexico’s Democracy Slipping?

This post explores how the rise of drug cartels affects of accountability which leads the democratic backsliding in Mexico, creating a dangerous state of “shadow governance.”

Turkey Still Holds Elections, So How Does Erdoğan Make Use of Religiously Entangled State Power to Erode Democracy?

Apr 20, 2026 | George Mason University

Turkey still holds elections, yet democratic competition in the country has become increasingly constrained. Freedom House’s 2026 report rates Turkey 32/100 and classifies...

The Quiet Erosion of Democracy : Why Israel’s Political Crisis Should Worry Us All

Apr 20, 2026 | George Mason University

The Quiet Erosion of Democracy : Why Israel’s Political Crisis Should Worry Us All GOVT133 Seungyun Lim A country can hold free elections and still slowly lose the quality...

Elections Without Democracy: The Case of Thailand

Apr 19, 2026 | George Mason University

Elections Without Democracy: The Case of Thailand In 2023, the people of Thailand chose change. The Move Forward Party, which carried a progressive platform, won the election by a landslide. But...

Silencing the Bench: How Poland’s “Muzzle Law” Accelerates Democratic Erosion

Apr 19, 2026 | Suffolk University

Democracy depends on more than just elections: it requires strong independent institutions, specifically courts, that can check and balance political power. In Poland, a nation once praised for its...

What Does the United States Democracy Have in Store?

Apr 19, 2026 | Suffolk University

The United States has always had a fair democracy, but in a year our democracy has fallen. One President has made tremendous changes, but many of these changes haven’t been good for us as...

Turkey’s Attempted 2016 Coup is a Symptom, Not a Cause of Democratic Erosion

Apr 19, 2026 | Suffolk University, Uncategorized

On July 15, 2016, tanks and members of the Turkish military took to the streets of Istanbul in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government. Soldiers invaded the headquarters of the ruling...

Democratic Erosion in Poland’s Judicial Reform

Apr 19, 2026 | Suffolk University

Poland is actively making corrupt efforts to silence those who muster the courage to speak out. In late 2019, the Polish Sejm approved a new law, the muzzle law, that is aimed towards taking...

Ignoring the Referee: Court Defiance and America’s Last Guardrail

Apr 19, 2026 | Suffolk University, Universities

Democracies don’t usually die in a single dramatic moment. They erode quietly and gradually, through a thousand small surrenders. But occasionally, a government does something so blunt that it...

The Democratic Unraveling of Hungary

Apr 19, 2026 | Suffolk University

Economic development alone is insufficient to ensure democratic survival : Tunisia’s case (According to Lipset, Przeworski)

Apr 19, 2026 | George Mason University, Uncategorized

Tunisia shows that ‘economic development alone’ is insufficient to ensure democratic survival- as political institutions and leadership play a critical role. Tunisia was once considered a successful...

Military-Made Sinkholes: The Constitutional Court and the Collapse of Thai Democracy

Apr 19, 2026 | George Mason University

13 and 9. These numbers are of coups d’état that happened in Thailand since adopting the constitutional monarchy in 1932: 13 were successful, and 9 were unsuccessful. Democracy and the political...