Democracy: Past, Present, and Future

Catalog description

The year 2024 is an important one for democracy. Citizens in sixty-four countries–including of course in the United States–will go to the polls to decide who should govern. They will do this in an environment where there are concerns that democracy itself is in retreat across the globe. To better understand where we are today, in this course we will begin by taking a step back. We will ask what is democracy in the first place? We will see how it has evolved over time, where it is today, and how it might need to evolve in the future. As we do so, we will see that yes, there are major challenges, but we will also learn that democracy is a common invention of humanity and a near universal aspiration. This course presumes neither previous experience in the study of politics nor an extensive knowledge of history. We welcome broad participation from students across NYU’s many departments and schools.