State and Local Government

Catalog description

This course explores the structure and function of state and local governments in the United States, with an emphasis on their roles as partners with the Federal Government in a system of cooperative federalism. Students spend much of the course playing and critiquing their own performance in Camelot, a role-playing simulation. In Camelot, they assume the roles of civic leaders, representatives of organized interests, and other interested parties in a hypothetical city. The students then try to resolve controversial policy dilemmas like the ones that confront local communities throughout the United States.