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.

Who are supplying Guns for Haiti’s Escalating Violence?

  Although steps have been taken to restore democracy in Haiti with the appointment of a governing Transitional Presidential Council, violence continues to escalate in the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding regions.  Therefore, many may ask where...
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Serbia, Serbian Orthodox Church and Twin Tolerations

The relationship between religion and democracy is a complex one, which makes the interaction between religious communities and the state particularly nuanced. At times, churches act as pillars of authoritarian stability; at other times, they become the loudest voices of opposition. The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) offers a particularly interesting example in this regard—both similar to and distinct from other historical cases of alliance and conflict between altar and state.

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Whole-Process People’s Democracy: How China’s Rebranding of Democracy Challenges Global Norms

When Xi Jinping declared that China had achieved “a whole-process people’s democracy,” many outside observers saw the phrase as contradictory. How could an authoritarian, one-party state claim to be democratic? Yet this rhetoric is not mere propaganda, it represents a...
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