Political Losers

3 Units

The course considers the effects of losing on voters (what happens to voters whose candidates never win?), on candidates (can electoral defeat position a candidate for future success?), on social movements (what happens when a social movement loses badly?), and on nations (can defeat in war advantage the losing party?). Exploring political loss and its impact on losers and on democratic legitimacy, the course focuses not only on loss and how loss can be evaluated and analyzed, but also on how political actors (including countries) can recover from defeat. Counts as a Communication Intensive course.