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 are student blog posts written by student participants in the Democratic Erosion Course. These posts were not written by nor represent the views of the Democratic Erosion Consortium.

South Africa’s Democracy: Why Gradual Institutional Weakening and Public Distrust Matter

Democracy doesn't necessarily die suddenly. A country can continue to have elections, courts, political parties, and freedom of speech, but its democracy could gradually erode. I think South Africa is a great example of that. South Africa remains a democracy but...

Venezuela Still Had Elections. So, What Happened to Democracy?

Venezuela and Democratic Erosion When people imagine a democracy turning authoritarian, they often picture a military coup or a leader suddenly canceling elections. Venezuela shows that democratic decline can happen much more slowly. Elections, courts, legislatures,...

Bread in a Backsliding Circus? Broken Distributive Promises Fueling Indonesia’s Student Protests

Indonesia has long maintained a fragile relationship with democracy, teetering between dictatorship under Suharto until 1998, to becoming one of Asia’s most celebrated democratic success stories in the 2000s, and now again slowly backsliding towards authoritarianism...

Implosion by Design: The Fragmenting of Turkey’s Opposition and Why It’s So Dangerous

Oct 23, 2026 | Brown University

“I am 59 years old. All these years, I have had my own worldview, my own outlook on life. If I abandoned all of that in a day and switched to the AKP, first of all, the...

Student Union Crackdowns: How We’re Losing A Generation of Student Organizers in Hong Kong

Oct 23, 2026 | Brown University

The Lennon Wall in the University of Hong Kong (HKU), famously known as the “democracy wall” among students, used to have pro-democracy and protest materials as a form of...

Bolivia’s Double-Edged Transformation: How Resource Nationalism Strengthened – and Strained – Democracy

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

In 2016, Bolivians were asked a simple question: should President Evo Morales be allowed to run for another term? They answered no. Yet, one year later, Bolivia’s Constitutional Tribunal removed the...

Thaksin Shinawatra: Rise, Ruin, and Political Rebirth

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

First the father, then the brother-in-law and sister—and now the youngest daughter. The fourth prime minister from the Shinawatra family has been dismissed by the constitutional court. In August...

Democracy Explained by Citizen Power, Not Economic Development Alone: The Case of Malawi

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

Many countries with high levels of democracy are also wealthy. This suggests that economic development and democracy are closely related. However, economic growth does not automatically lead to...

How Indonesia’s Democracy Getting Threated in Silence

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

After the collapse of President Suharto’s autocratic New Order regime in 1998, Indonesia was widely celebrated as Southeast Asia’s most resilient constitutional democracy. The successful transition...

How Does Democratic Erosion of Pakistan Make Security Concerns

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

Introduction The suicide bombing in August 2nd, 2026 (in Kabal, a town in Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, 14 people died and more than two dozen people were injured) is not...

Democratic Erosion in Kenya: Ethnic Politics, Political Elites, and Democratic Institutions

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

Introduction According to Freedom House, Kenya is a multiparty democracy that holds regular and competitive elections. However, having elections does not always mean that a democracy is strong. In...

Mexico Holds Elections. Cartels Hold the Veto: How Criminal Governance Undermines Subnational Democracy

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

On April 1, 2024, Bertha Gisela Gaytán stood at a campaign rally in Celaya, a city in Guanajuato torn apart by a cartel turf war. She was running for mayor, promising to fix the roads and rein in...

Indonesia’s 2025 TNI Law Blurs the Line Between the Military and Civilian Government

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

If an active-duty military officer works inside a civilian government agency, who is really in charge of that officer? The civilian agency, or the military that the officer still belongs to?...

A Wound that Never Heals: The Return of the Caudillos in Peru

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

On December 7th, 2022, Pedro Castillo—then President of Peru—went on live television. What should’ve been a routine presidential address turned into horror: he announced he was dissolving Congress...