First Year Seminar: Democratic Erosion, Racial Threat and The Future of American Politics

Catalog description

As the United States rapidly undergoes changes to its demographic landscape, politics will inevitably change as well. This course addresses these potential implications by investigating foundational work in population change and politics. Students who take this course will take a deep dive into how past, present, and future changes to the racial, ethnic and cultural landscape of the U.S. can alter politics. We will address a variety of ideas: whether the increasing size of racial minority groups promotes harmony or conflict; the role of emotion in individual reactions to demographic change; the coming “majority-minority” flip, where whites are projected to become a minority; and how different causes (e.g., immigration, changing birth rates) of racial and ethnic demographic change affects politics in different ways.