Amer Political Theory

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

American political institutions and culture are uniquely the product of ideas and self-conscious choice, and those ideas, in turn, are uniquely the product of experience. Even to the extent events and evolving values have changed our institutions and the ideas on which they are based, they remain deeply embedded in what might be called our political DNA. To understand who we are today, and what we may or may not aspire to be, it is necessary to understand the foundations of the American republic as well as the ideas that continue to animate our political institutions. Consequently, we will spend the bulk of our time in this course examining the theoretical foundations of the Constitution, beginning with its roots in the early colonial settlements and continuing through the challenges to it that culminated in the Civil War. Finally, we will look briefly at how ideas of freedom and the role of government evolved in the late 19th and the 20th centuries.