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Institut für Politikwissenschaft Institut für Politikwissenschaft

Alan Lloyd Draper Alan Lloyd Draper

402125

SE Vergleich politischer Systeme - Vertiefung: Introduction to American politics

SE 2

5

keine Angabe

keine Angabe

Englisch

BA § 5 (2) 10 b Vergleich politischer Systeme - Vertiefung Diplomstudium § 10 (2) Vergleich politischer Systeme

These are exciting times in American politics. Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections, which brought the first black president, Barack Obama, to power, were quickly followed by Republican success in the 2010 midterm elections. What happened? Why have political fortunes between the parties changed so rapidly? This course will try to answer these questions by approaching American politics through the perspective of political economy. That is, American politics is at the intersection of a free market economic system that produces inequality and a democratic political system that is based upon the equality of all citizens. What happens when people enjoy procedural democratic rights in the midst of real, substantive inequality? How is the tension between democracy that produces political equality and free market capitalism that produces social inequality managed? Is it possible for American democracy to be distorted by inequality at the same time democratic rights make it possible for ordinary people to challenge and reduce it? This course covers not only American political institutions, such as Congress, the Judiciary, and the Executive, but also the political culture and economy in which these institutions are imbedded. Our tour of American politics begins with how economic power is distributed and how this creates a mobilization of bias, a structural advantage for some groups politically. It next proceeds to review the distribution of social power, especially the construction of political values. Fortsetzung des Inhaltes finden Sie unter Anmerkungen

Two exams: 25% each Analytical questions due every other week: 25%. Review Essay: 25% No late papers are accepted. In order to pass the course students must accumulate at least 75 points.

Fortsetzung des Inhaltes: Only after reviewing the economic and social context of American politics do we proceed to study its formal institutions. We next discuss American political parties and other channels of political participation, and then proceed to examine the Founding of the Republic, and the three branches of government, the executive, Congress and the judiciary. If political participation is the motor that drives the machine of political institutions, then public policy charts the direction the machine moves. Consequently, we next move to a discussion of public policy, the output of the political institutions we just reviewed. We end by reviewing American domestic and foreign policy, with particular attention to the shift from President Bush to President Obama.
Beginn: siehe Termine