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.

Democratic Erosion in Bolivia: A Case of Gradual Internal Decline

Bolivia’s case shows that democracy is not maintained by elections alone, and that there is a possibility of both crisis and recovery through civic participation at the same time despite institutional weakness.

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Democratic Backsliding: Be Observant

Setting the Stage for Autocracy Democratic backsliding is nothing if not the gradual death of democracy. Democracy is eroded through incremental steps taken by the dominant political party to consolidate power into their own hands. The specific means of doing this is...
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Propaganda, The Iran War, and Democratic Erosion

The U.S. response to the Iran conflict demonstrates how propaganda and narrative manipulation transform foreign policy into a domestic political tool, contributing to democratic erosion by undermining informed citizenship, weakening accountability, and expanding...
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