American Political Thought

Catalog description

The origins and development of American political thought from the Puritan times to the present. The course will include study of basic themes in American thought: the scope and bounds of legitimate government power, majority rule and minority rights, federalism and centralization, participatory democracy, checks and balances, religious freedom and separation of church and state. The course will include study of major political issues emergent since Reconstruction: race and gender issues, immigration, urbanization, multiculturalism, business-government relations, management of the American economy, and America's relationship to the world. Also counts as a political theory and philosophy course.