AMERICAN POLITICS

Catalog description

This course examines the key actors, institutions, and processes in American politics from an explicitly comparative and rational choice perspective. Topics covered include federalism and the states, the constitution and its interpretation, Congress and its committees, the presidency and bureaucracy, the court system, and voting and elections. For each, America is compared with other advanced industrial democracies, newer democracies, and authoritarian regimes. These comparisons generate insights into what makes America alternately typical and atypical, successful and unsuccessful. Studying American politics from a comparative perspective also sheds light on the effects of reform proposals, suggests new modes of political participation, and informs students about the world's leading exporter of democracy. 001797