Power, Liberty, and Virtue

Catalog description

This course studies the perennial challenge of how to create governing structures powerful enough to be effective yet limited enough to avoid tyranny. Using tools of inquiry from history, politics, and the social sciences, the course pays special attention to: the text of the U.S. Constitution, the governmental system it prescribes, and the fundamental freedoms it envisions; the thought of key figures who informed the political experiment in the United States; the role of free markets from the founding period to the present; the influence of Judeo-Christian principles on U.S. history; and public policy's relationship to community and family life. Meets foundational core civic engagement or general social science requirement.