CBPC-1444 Democratic erosion: How Democracies Die

What is democracy? How best can we define and measure it? Are there benefits to democratic rule? What is democratic erosion, and what tools can we use to measure the weakening of democratic norms and institutions? What steps have societies around the world taken to counter democratic erosion, and how can we know if these measures have been effective or not? This course asks and seeks to respond to each of these foundational social scientific questions. The course will facilitate students’ understanding about how the social world works, imbuing them with critical perspectives about how to conceptualize democracy while allowing them to identify the political and social contexts within which democracy emerges and is ultimately consolidated (“comprender y familiarizarse con los grandes problemas de la ciencia” knowledge competency). We will interrogate inherited wisdom about the normative desirability of democracy as a system of political rule and ask under what conditions this assumption is likely to hold or not (“cuestionar las evidencias dadas y naturalizadas” ability competency). Because we will harness both qualitative and quantitative tools that span multiple disciplines to measure democratic governance and characterize democratic erosion, students will develop knowledge about these methods (“comprender la diversidad de las metodologías científicas” knowledge competency) while acknowledging their respective advantages and limitations (“poner en diálogo métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos, identificando sus alcances y limitaciones” abilities competency). Students will develop an appreciation for the conditions under which specific social scientific disciplines and their respective methods are best suited to answer specific questions (“respetar las distintas perspectivas científicas” attitudes competency). Finally, students will question and understand how multiple actors—ranging from civil society organizations, opposition politicians, and international organizations and donors—have attempted to counter democratic erosion. To pursue these aims, we will use primary sources, and critically reflect on and evaluate them (“saber aproximarse a las fuentes primarias y su uso crítico” ability competency). Students will confront foundational problems in the social sciences, including how reliable knowledge about political and social processes is and whether it can ultimately be obtained (“comprender el rol social de la ciencia y el rigor de sus métodos” knowledge competency). The goal is, in part, to cultivate curiosity among students regarding the scientific world (“curiosidad por el mundo científico” attitudes competency).