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.

On the ousting of Orbán

On the lessons learned from Orbán’s ouster.

Democracy in Exchange for Security; What is Left When the Concert Ends?

Shakira’s sold-out El Salvador residency exemplifies how Bukele uses high-profile events to showcase his dramatic security transformation while obscuring the democratic erosion, economic decline, and human rights abuses that made it possible.

Counter-Gerrymandering and What it Means for American Democracy

Gerrymandering is a word well known to most with even a passing interest in politics, but to many who don’t pay attention, it’s a word they’ve just recently started hearing. Gerrymandering is the process by which elected officials are able to engineer their own...

The Ongoing Battle of Electoral Legitimacy in the United States

https://democratic-erosion.org/2026/02/13/the-ongoing-battle-of-electoral-legitimacy-in-the-united-states/

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University, Uncategorized

Americans have seen changing tides in the last ten years, marked by what many call a rise of a populist, a global pandemic, changes in mutual tolerance and forbearance of...

Poland Shows How Democracy Can Bend, But Not Break

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

The people of Poland have witnessed democratic norms erode over the past decade, marked by the absence of credible courts, judicial collapse, and a lack of accountability....

Democratic Erosion and a Coup in Myanmar

Dec 20, 2022 | SUNY-Binghamton

Democratic Erosion and a Coup in Myanmar Myanmar, or Burma, is a Southeast Asian country that neighbors Thailand. It is a nation now-controlled by its military. Prior to February 2021, Myanmar was a...

Democratic Backsliding in the Philippines and the Power of Fake News

Dec 20, 2022 | SUNY-Binghamton

Since the Philippines became a democratic nation in 1986 following the deposition of theDictator Ferdinand Marcos, the stability of liberal democratic institutions in the country havebeen unstable....

What the Dobbs Decision and the Feminist Green Wave Mean for Democracy

Dec 19, 2022 | Skidmore College

Common conceptualizations of democracy emphasize the importance of government and institutions in protecting the rights of marginalized people. In a democracy, laws are meant to apply equally to...

Polarization and the Further Division of Spain

Dec 19, 2022 | SUNY-Binghamton

https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/divided-spain/ Spain has seen political polarization and country-wide division in its recent history. At the conclusion of Francisco Franco’s authoritarian regime...

Democratic Erosion with the 2022 Italian General Election

Dec 19, 2022 | SUNY-Binghamton

Democratic Erosion in Italy with the 2022 elections For most of the modern era the Italian Republic has been an incredibly unstable democracy since its creation after the second World War. For...

Constitutional Rights in a State of Emergency: The Case of Vietnam

Dec 18, 2022 | Boston University

In March 2020, COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic; as the medical community worked to find a vaccine, the information world was rampant with misinformation. The Vietnamese government...

The Hostess with the Mostest

Dec 18, 2022 | Skidmore College

Qatar has been ruled by a single family known as the Al Thani since 1847. Although the Al-Thani have always controlled Qatar they have gone through phases of colonization by the British. Qatar...

The End of an Era: It May be Time to Let Twitter Go

Dec 17, 2022 | Skidmore College

Elon Musk has started to run Twitter into the ground. He has laid off about half of the company’s full-time employees, caused chaos after making blue check mark verifications a purchasable...

Winter Is Coming, But We Are Already in a Cold Civil War

Dec 17, 2022 | Skidmore College

Since the recent polarization of American political life, voter suppression and anti-democratic sentiments have been on the forefront of a war against democracy. America is in the heat of...