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.

How Democracy Erodes: A Comparison between the U.S. and Brazil

Both the United States under President Trump and Brazil under Jair Bolsonaro experienced a period of anti-democratic rhetoric. That led to the decline of significant indicators of stable democratic regimes. Among these indicators are election intimidation, attacks on...

Why The Save Act Misses The Mark

The current administration's push for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act has become yet another polarizing topic between the left and the right. The SAVE America Act mandates voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of...

The Election That May Save Hungary’s Democracy

"Today we won because the Hungarian people didn't ask what their country could do for them, but what they could do for their country," -Péter Magyar Hungary just held its most consequential election in a generation, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s sixteen year reign...

Inclusion vs. Liberalism: The Two Faces of Bolivian Democracy

Apr 20, 2026 | George Mason University, Universities

Introduction Did Bolivia's democracy advance or retreat? Answering this question requires not just looking at the election results but also understanding the two conflicting...

Peru’s Democracy Wasn’t Taken. It Was Given Away.

Apr 20, 2026 | George Mason University

The night he went after Congress, the courts, and the constitution all at once, most people backed him for it. That detail tends to stop people. It should. April 1992,...

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...

The Permanent Campaign: Why Populist Leaders Can Never Stop Fighting the System

Apr 19, 2026 | Suffolk University

Imagine winning the most powerful office in the world and still governing like you're the underdog. That's the paradox at the center of modern populism and it isn't accidental. With Donald Trump's...

The 2026 Midterms as an Institutional Test

Apr 18, 2026 | Boston University

The upcoming 2026 midterm elections are being framed as a referendum on the current executive agenda. But to view them merely though the lens of policy preference is to miss the deeper structural...

The loss of trust in the MAGA movement by young conservatives

Apr 18, 2026 | Salem State University, Uncategorized

According to several news outlets, the March 25-28 Conservative Political Action Conference, more commonly known as CPAC, was poorly attended by the younger conservatives who had come in large...

Why Peaceful Protesting Won’t Save American Democracy Anytime Soon

Apr 18, 2026 | Boston University

On March 28, 2026, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets under the “No Kings” banner in protest of the current Trump Administration. The crowds were incredibly peaceful, and the...

Italy’s Nationalism: A History of Italian Populism

Apr 18, 2026 | Boston University, Uncategorized

The rise of populism is not a new topic. Across the world, populist leaders are being elected as right-wing parties are taking control in some of the most powerful countries in the world: United...

Disabling the Judiciary: How Tension Between Israel’s Judiciary and Governing Coalition Threatens Democracy

Apr 18, 2026 | Boston University

As of today, dozens of federal judicial positions in Israel, including 4 Supreme Court positions, remain vacant. This comes as a result of Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s continued refusal to convene...

Collapsing Democratic Norms in Peru

Apr 17, 2026 | Boston University

In an article published April 9, 2026, Diana Roy titles Peru, “South America’s most politically unstable country.” (Roy, 2026) In the past ten years, Peru has had 8 different presidents and will...

Hungary’s Opportunity

Apr 17, 2026 | Boston University

Under the leadership of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Fidesz party, Hungary faced years of gradual erosion of its democracy. By rewriting the constitution, a power granted by a ⅔...