The Role of Executive Power in Undermining Democracy

Catalog description

This three-credit graduate seminar will examine the role of executive power in undermining democracies. In recent years, democracies across the globe have become autocracies. In many cases, democracies have disappeared through a gradual erosion of democratic norms, rather than through a sudden military coup. Elected populist heads of state have driven this decline, with the cooperation of the governing political party. Each student in the class will prepare a case study examining the role of executive power in democratic decline in a country that has experienced substantial movement toward autocracy, examining the role of centralization of executive branch power and emergency powers in particular. The students will also present their preliminary findings to the class.