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.

At What Point Does Protecting Democracy Become Undemocratic?

The classical understanding of democracy rests on the abstract concept of the “common good” and the idea that people elect representatives to carry out their collective will, a conception Schumpeter famously critiqued. While scholars tend to differ in the principles...

Social Media is Bad for American Democracy

Social media hurts American Democracy. As Waldner and Lust describe, democracy relies on two forms of accountability to function. One is vertical accountability, meaning that citizens can hold officials accountable through elections, which pressures representatives to...

States of Exception: The Successful Rejection of Executive Overreach in Chile

After storming to the presidency in the 2025 presidential elections,[1] Chilean President José Antonio Kast has wasted no time attempting to enact his campaign agenda. In August, the President presented the Chilean Congress with a reform to address organized crime and...

The Ballot Box Is Open, but Is Democracy Free? Cartel Power in Mexico

Oct 23, 2026 | Brown University

Put frankly, yes, Mexico is still a democracy in an important sense. Citizens vote, opposition parties compete, and political power changes hands. In June 2024, Claudia...

When Accountability Becomes a Weapon: The Powell Investigation and the Limits of Stealth Authoritarianism

Oct 23, 2026 | Brown University

A criminal investigation of a powerful official doesn’t seem like democratic erosion. Equal application of the law is a central democratic principle. The real questions are...

Reversing the Tide: How Polish Voters Defeated an Electoral Autocracy

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

In 2023, Polish voters did something that many political scientists thought was almost impossible. They defeated a strong populist government that had been changing the rules in its own favor. For...

Digital Authoritarianism and Democratic Backsliding in Serbia

Oct 17, 2026 | George Mason University

Introduction What if a country could still hold elections and call itself a democracy while its political system was becoming increasingly unequal? Serbia still holds elections, but that does not...

Censorship With a Legal Stamp: How the Philippines Silences Its Press

Oct 16, 2026 | George Mason University

On January 22, there was a conviction that had prominent organizations and experts – including UN experts, the International Federation of Journalists, and more – decry and call for immediate...

Moldova’s 2025 Parliamentary Election: Democratic Erosion or Resilience?

Oct 16, 2026 | George Mason University

Moldova is an interesting case of a country stuck between two major orientations. It has been tied with Moscow for centuries, getting colonized by the Russian Empire, and being a part of the Soviet...

Hungary Still Holds Elections. So Why Is Its Democracy Getting Weaker?

Oct 16, 2026 | George Mason University

When we think about democracy, we usually think about elections. People vote, a party wins, and the government is supposed to represent the people. But what if a country keeps holding elections...

Beyond the Ballot, the Year of the Paradox: South Africa After 2024

Oct 16, 2026 | George Mason University

On May 29 2024, South Africa held it’s seventh democratic general elections. The results shook the country’s political landscape. The African National Congress (ANC), which had dominated and...

The Slow Death of Democracy: How Tunisia Fell Back into One-Man Rule

Oct 16, 2026 | George Mason University

When people think about how democracy dies, they often imagine violent military coups. However, in the modern world, democracy usually dies slowly, legally, and from within. Tunisia was once...

The Court Takeover and Democracy: How Poland Lost Its Way

Oct 16, 2026 | George Mason University

It is easy to think that a democracy ends when there is a military coup, a war, or another sudden event. But democracy can also become weaker slowly from inside the government. Poland is one...

Fixing The System to Save It: How Mongolia’s Electoral Reforms Shield Democracy in a Tough Neighborhood

Oct 16, 2026 | George Mason University

Can a nation surrounded entirely by autocratic giants keep its democracy alive when internal corruption threatens to pull it apart? Sitting directly between Russia and China, Mongolia stands as one...