Course Description
Summary
Who’s running America, how, and to what ends? To get at these questions, we will conduct a wide-ranging overview of American governance. With an eye on the 2020 general election, our focus will be on political parties, the electoral college, campaign strategies, voting rights, congressional representation, “dark money,” social media politicking, and emerging cyber-threats to representative democracy. Taking a longer view, we will explore challenges to the status quo, and interesting initiatives to form a more perfect union. As a required element of the course, we will participate in several online events related to the 2020 elections, hosted by the Center for the Advancement of Public Action. More information on this will be provided at the start of the semester. Weekly readings, discussion posts, response papers, collaborative activities, presentations.
