Bureaucracy and the American Political Landscape

3 Credits.

In this course, we will revisit canonical understandings of the American bureaucracy as a provider of public goods and as accountable to elected officials within a system of democratic governance. The course will examine the role and operation of the executive branch bureaucracy across key phases of American political development. In Part I: Expansion, we will examine the role of the bureaucracy in territorial consolidation and the overseas expansion of the American state. In Part II: Removals, we will examine the role of the bureaucracy in managing populations. In Part III: Surveillance, we will examine the role of the bureaucracy in monitoring and surveilling citizens and noncitizens alike.