POL 254 - Topics: American Political Institutions (1)

In this course, we will explore the major institutions of the US federal government, with a special focus on the Presidency and Congress. At its heart, this course is about representation.The course will begin by asking why we have a representative democracy at all, and what we really mean by representation. Then, we will turn our attention to the ways in which these particular political institutions help or harm the process of representing the views of citizens in policymaking. We’ll cover a variety of historical and contemporary theories about how lawmakers represent us and how institutions interact with one another to either improve representation and accountability. You will conduct your own in depth research project on a particular member of Congress to explain the connection (or lack thereof!) between the member and their district. In this course, we’ll turn a critical eye to these institutions - and the people in them - to ask if our representative government is working well.
(Social Science)