Democratic Erosion

This course explores the causes and consequences of democratic erosion in comparative and historical perspective. The course will provide an opportunity for students to engage, critically and carefully, with the claims they have doubtlessly already heard about the state of democracy in the US and Europe; to evaluate whether those claims are valid; and, if they are, to consider strategies for combating democratic erosion here and abroad. The course will be taught simultaneously at roughly two dozen universities, with a number of cross-campus collaborative assignments.