POL 387 - American Constitutional Democracy

This course examines the principles of American constitutional democracy, beginning with the Declaration of Independence and its ideals of liberty, equality, and government by consent. We explore the fundamental challenges of self-government through the political philosophical and legal texts that shaped and critiqued the American experiment: we engage early debates among Federalists, Anti-Federalists and others about foundational ideals, and consider how these ideals were translated into the structures of U.S. democracy and the principles of the Constitution. After a midterm interlude with readings from Tocqueville and Du Bois that serve to both ground our inquiry in history and elevate our theoretical perspective, we turn to debates at the core of contemporary constitutional law including presidential power, administrative authority, the Second Amendment, voting rights, and equal protection. Throughout we critically assess how these frameworks intersect with - and often obscure - the history of Indigenous dispossession and the labor of enslaved Africans. These tensions remain central to our evaluation of how ideals of American constitutional democracy operate today.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): HUM 110
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.