Recent years have witnessed a deluge of commentary warning of imminent threats to democracy in the US, the West and the world. In the US, this rhetoric has become especially heated with the rise of Donald Trump.
Is American democracy really under threat? What about democracy in the West, or the world more generally? If democracy is under threat, what can we do about it? And if it’s not under threat, why are so many of us so worried that it is? The Democratic Erosion Consortium aims to help answer these questions through a combination of teaching, research, and civic and policy engagement.
The Democratic Erosion Consortium is a collaboration between academics, students, policymakers, and practitioners that aims to help illuminate and combat threats to democracy both in the US and abroad through a combination of teaching, research, and civic and policy engagement.
The Democratic Erosion Consortium consists of four pillars: pedagogy, data collection, evidence briefs, and public outreach.
Since fall 2017, faculty at more than 60 universities have taught a collaborative course on Democratic Erosion using the same shared syllabus. Our students work together on assignments and are expected to engage not only with their peers, but with the public as well.
We have also constructed a unique event dataset capturing the symptoms and precursors of democratic erosion across countries and over time, which we have used to conduct research and prepare reports for our partners in the policymaker and practitioner communities.
We have now begun producing research briefs that synthesize rigorous empirical evidence on topics related to democratic erosion and communicate that evidence to policymakers, practitioners, and the public writ large. The briefs will be accompanied by a series of public-facing conferences, convenings, and roundtables.
To learn more and receive updates on our activities, please sign up for our listserv.