Democratic Erosion

Catalog description

The course responds to the widespread media coverage and commentary suggesting that democracies around the world are backsliding into authoritarianism by treating 'the threat of democratic erosion as an empirical question, rather than merely a political one'. The first week of the course focuses on definitions—democracy, democratic consolidation, democratic erosion. In each of the next six weeks, the following particular themes will be investigated: institutions, populism, the media, polarization, exclusion, and resistance. 001552