Democracy and Democratic Erosion

Course Description

This seminar offers an in-depth exploration of democracy, democratization, and democratic erosion through competing theoretical explanations. We address three core questions: Why do democracies emerge? Why do democracies erode? Why do some democracies resist erosion while others succumb? Topics include modernization, inequality, elite bargaining, populism, polarization, media, civil society, violence, electoral manipulation, and democratic resilience.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze rival theoretical frameworks explaining why democracies emerge, erode, and resist, with attention to structural, elite-based, and mass-politics explanations.
• Develop skills to assess scholarly claims by identifying core assumptions, evaluating evidence and methodology, and recognizing scope conditions.
• Build skills to identify unresolved empirical puzzles, adjudicate between rival explanations, and communicate complex theoretical debates clearly.

Requirements

Component	Weight
Participation	25%
Response Papers (three, ~2 pages each)	25%
Paper Proposal	10%
Presentation	10%
Research Paper (~20 pages)	30%

Topics

1. Defining and measuring democracy
2. Modernization vs. inequality explanations for democratization
3. Elite strategy, diffusion, and democratic transitions
4. Defining democratic erosion and backsliding
5. Structural vulnerabilities: information, institutions, inequality
6. Elite strategies: how autocrats dismantle democracy
7. Populism and the crisis of representation
8. Cultural backlash and identity politics
9. Media, information, and the construction of political reality
10. Civil society, opposition, and resistance
11. Violence, coercion, and security tradeoffs
12. Electoral manipulation and autocratic learning
13. Democratic resilience