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Democracy around the world is threatened by autocratic leaders who wants to demolish the fundamental democratic values. In this essay the aim is to get an understanding of how democratic backsliding in Poland and Hungary appears and what differences and similarities there is between the two countries and to see if there is a generalization. The theory is constructed by Bermeo, Haggard and Kaufmans definition and research of democratic backsliding. To be able to specify the research Levitsky and Ziblatts four warnings signs of autocratic tendencies have been used.  The time frame is between 2010 – 2022 because it is when the Hungarian party Fidesz was elected. The study is a qualitative comparative study. The result of the research could show that there is a democratic backsliding happening in both countries and there is a lot of similarities between them. Most of the backsliding is due to the changes in legislation and the political system.

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Thesis advisor: G. Michael Barnett / Many stakeholders emphasize the importance of diverse populations’ participation in the sciences, though the motivations for this vary. Some reference an economic standpoint by emphasizing the importance of either recruiting more science workers to compete in a global economy, or of individual financial success for people from historically marginalized groups. However, a growing body of researchers and educators has emphasized the importance of increasing representation from historically marginalized communities in science because their exclusion from discussions about science funding, research, and implications has resulted in widespread harm to communities. The goal of this research is to broaden science participation for the purposes of democracy and strong equity. This work expands on the Democratic Science Teaching (DST) framework, articulated by Basu & Calabrese Barton in 2010. While the original work articulated a theory by identifying goals and practices in existing science classrooms, this work explores the possibilities of using DST as a framework for teacher learning.This dissertation consists of three papers. Paper 1 details the development of an instrument to measure teaching practices aligned with democratic science teaching. The instrument could be used and built on by researchers, teacher educators, and school leaders who wish to use tools to develop democratic accountability in their systems. Paper 2 is a case study exploring how teacher beliefs and actions are activated through interaction with the DST framework. The study follows one novice physics teacher who participated in a DST-aligned professional learning fellowship for one academic year. Paper 3 is a practitioner-facing piece that functions as a starting point for teachers who are interested in developing democratic teaching practices in their own classrooms. The paper outlines the DST framework for teachers, explores how a photo-journal project supported students in making connections between their personal lives and science content, and presents other strategies used by teachers to bolster student voice, shared authority, and critical science literacy. Altogether, these papers offer understanding of teachers’ experiences as they work with the DST framework as learners, and provide tools for science teachers, teacher educators, and other education leaders to develop DST-aligned programming, and more broadly consider democratic and holistic systems of accountability for teachers. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Dedication to a Process argues that while judicial review is a justified decision-making procedure in a democratic scheme of government on instrumentalist grounds, it will always come at a politico-moral cost. Chapter One surveys Thomas Christiano’s egalitarian conception of democracy to establish a scheme of democracy upon which to ground this analysis. This chapter argues that under Christiano’s account of the normative grounds of democracy, which is rooted in the fundamental social justice principle of public equality, there are necessary limits to democratic authority. When these limits are exceeded, there is a results-based argument available that can justify the use of judicial review from a Razian perspective, however, this manner of decision-making comes at the concession of a significant politico-moral value that is bound up with democratic authority: intrinsic justice. Chapter Two analyzes Ronald Dworkin’s constitutional conception of democracy to determine if there is a way to pay down the cost of judicial review. This chapter will argue that a purely content-based analysis like the one Dworkin is suggesting with his holistic scheme of democratic authority may be able to avoid the loss of intrinsic justice. However, if we are more concerned not with content but with who the authoritative voice is on constitutional matters, as is the case with Christiano’s modular scheme of democratic authority, then we must revert to the conclusion reached in Chapter One. Chapter Three considers Wil Waluchow’s theory of Community Constitutional Morality to rule out the possibility that judges appealing to a community’s positive normative commitments as a kind of customary constitutional law can be grounded in public equality, thereby retaining democratic authority and avoiding the politico-moral cost established in Chapter One. This chapter will argue, however, that despite passing the Public Equality Test mechanically, there is an important value argument to be made that locates intrinsic justice within characteristically democratic institutions such as the legislature and that any compromise of the democratic process must result in a politico-moral loss if we are indeed dedicated to the process. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The security and development nexus outlines the interdependence between security and development, this theoretical framework has been used in peacebuilding efforts around the world and the idea of the concept is that both security and development reinforce each other, more security is expected to create more development and vice versa. If a society is riddled with poverty and economic despair, insecurity will follow as a result, and likewise an economy will not be able to grow and flourish if a secure environment is not applied. Both security and development are key to secure a sustainable peace in countries that are ravaged by civil war, this security and development nexus is today consensus in the community of peace of development. Development and security are reinforcing each other in both a positive and a negative circle, higher levels of security leads to higher levels of development and vice versa. El Salvador is a country plagued by underdevelopment and grave security concerns. Recently the country has managed to heavily increase its levels of security from criminal gangs, although this has come at the expense of the country's democratic structure, which has been undermined by the government. This thesis used the concept of democratic backsliding as a theory, which manifested in El Salvador. The study has also utilized the security and development nexus to analyze the connections between security and development in El Salvador. The study confirms the connection that the nexus outlines, which can be observed in El Salvador. Security has improved and the economy has continued to grow at a moderate pace. The nexuses between security, democracy and development have been examined in this study, and our research indicates that all three concepts together don't enforce each other positively in the case of El Salvador. This study has been utilizing both qualitative and quantitative sources of information.

This thesis investigates how the level of democratic values differs between active members of different civil society organizations. Civil society has been considered a fundamental aspect of democracy and research have highlighted that some organizational characteristics are associated with democratization and sustainable democracy. However, variations in democratic values at the individual level, disparities between members of different civil society organizations, and the connection to democracy have to some extent been overlooked. This study investigates the nuanced relationship between organizational membership and democratic values across eight African countries using data from the World Value SurveyWave 7. This thesis focuses on exploring the disparities in democratic values among members of quotidian civil society organizations (QCSOs) which have been found to significantly contribute to democratization, compared to members of human rights civil society organizations (HRCSOs) where such significance is not observed. The research employs linear regression analysis to uncover subtle yet statistically significant differences. The findings indicate a marginal but noteworthy distinction in democratic values between active members of QCSOs and HRCSOs. This study highlights the importance of recognizing individual level differences in understanding the diverse landscape of civil society and its relation to democracy.

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