Perspectives on American Civics and Government

Catalog description

This course provides a critical introduction to the study of the American civic tradition and to American national government in historical context. The course places particular emphasis upon (a) the major intellectual traditions that have shaped American social and political thought; (b) the philosophical and historical underpinnings of the US economic system; (c) the historical roots and theoretical foundations of the US Constitution’s structural distribution of powers and its substantive protections of individual rights; (d) the basic structures, powers and operations of the major institutions of American national government; and (e) the relationships of those governmental institutions to one another and to the American public at large. PA-2A. IIC.