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.

Arresting Opposition and Squashing Protests: Democratic Backsliding in Turkey Under Erdoğan

Turkey has been inching towards autocracy under Erdoğan and the AKP for the last 22 years.

2025 Romanian Elections: An Election Redo and a Barred Candidate

Only two weeks out from Presidential Elections, Romanian voters face a tough decision in deciding on the next leader of their country. The latest opinion polls show that nearly 40% of voters are still undecided on who to vote for. After all, most voters already cast...

Why Protecting American Democracy Means Coming Together In Protest

In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, the Democratic Erosion Consortium's very own professors Robert Blair and Steven Rosenzweig wrote an article in The Boston Globe urging readers to “Get ready to protest like democracy depends on it.” The article was in...

Democracy in Peril: The Menace of Fake News and Propaganda of the Marcoses on Social Media in the Philippines

May 27, 2024 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

After the People Power Revolution ousted Ferdinand Marcos, the Filipinos vowed that neither the Marcoses nor the tyranny of martial law would ever return to Malacañang...

Authoritarian Digitalization in the Philippines: How the Dutertes Controlled the Filipino Citizenry through Social Media

May 27, 2024 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

The authoritarian landscape is changing, yet the strategies and objectives remain the same in some aspects. Some weak democracies are exhibiting patterns of resurgent or...

Has Florida Gone Down the Rainbow Road of Authoritarianism?

Apr 5, 2022 | Rollins College

Photo courtesy of Daniel James, unspash.com In an Op-Ed published on April 1, Michelle Goldberg writes about the ongoing fight between Disney and the Right over the recent passage of Florida’s H.B....

“Point Out Voters’ Frustrations:” The Downfall of True Political Discussion

Apr 5, 2022 | Rollins College

Scott Menchin The New York Times article “Can Republicans Win by Just Saying No?” by Blake Hounshell and Leah Askarinam examines the strategies contemporary politicians act upon to effectively...

What the State Secrets Privilege Means for Executive Power and Democratic Backsliding

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

The Supreme Court case of United States v. Zubaydah reached its final decision on March 3, 2022--a landmark decision on the issue of the state secrets privilege. Abu Zubaydah—a suspected al Qaeda...

Cuban American Partisan Attachment and Antipathy

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

William Kelly’s article, “The Cuban revolution explains why younger Cuban Americans supported Trump” discusses how the most recent Cuban U.S. immigrants were projected to be more liberal than their...

Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill is a Pipeline to the Radical Right

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis assumed office in early 2019 and has quickly come to dominant both state and national level politics. From his harsh resistance to COVID-19 restrictions to his blatant...

Hungarian Democracy: The Gradual Decline of Democratic Norms

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

On April 3rd, 2022, Hungary held elections for the National Assembly and for the prime minister. The nation’s incumbent leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, declared victory1. Widely seen as a...

The Conservative Political Action Conference Threatens Liberal Democracy

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was held in Orlando, Florida on February 24th through February 27th, 2022. CPAC is one of the largest and most influential conventions for...

To Fund or Not to Fund? Police Rhetoric and Democratic Backsliding

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

Perceptions on crime rates among American citizens radically differ from the truth of the matter.[i] Who is to blame for this widespread misinformation? The very people Americans hire to reduce the...

Extremism Is a Global Threat: Here is Why

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

“How far right extremism is becoming a global threat” published by The Economist details the ways in which radicalization has infected numerous places around the world—such as the United States,...