Democracy Course Guide

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor David Waldner

I invite you to consider three puzzles: these are not puzzles in the sense of an enjoyable game, for they may literally involve life or death.  Rather, these are puzzles in the sense of questions or problems that defy easy answers and that require ingenuity, knowledge, and sustained hard work. The first puzzle: why are some countries democratic while others are authoritarian? The second puzzle: why are some countries relatively prosperous, others relatively poor?  The third puzzle: why are some countries plagued by lethal civil wars, others relatively civic and pacific? As we consider possible answers to these questions, we will have an occasion to ask other questions: Why do nation-states exist? What role do ordinary citizens have in the emergence of democracy? Are some ways of organizing democracies more compatible with accountable and representative governments than others? 

The field of Comparative Politics attempts to answer these questions.  We have made progress, but there is still much we do not know.  That we do not have all the answers yet is troubling: if we knew the answers, then presumably we would be in a better position to make the world more compatible with basic and universal ethical principles. But on the other hand, that we do not yet have answers means that you have the opportunity to contribute to research that may help us find answers in the future.  Your responsibility in this class is thus not to memorize material from a textbook, but to learn how we learn about the political world and to participate, in ways big and small, to discarding bad answers and drawing attention to good answers. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professors Dreama Johnson and Louis Nelson

This course defines public service and introduces students to the practices that support impactful service. Through speakers, readings, and reflection, students will begin to define their mission, recognize the power of collaboration, evaluate their strengths, and learn from challenges encountered during service. Students will understand how their own rights and responsibilities and those of their fellow citizens combine to sustain democracy.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan 

This course is a survey introduction to the complex and increasingly pervasive impact of mass media in the U.S. and around the world. It provides a foundation for helping you to understand how mass media -- as a business, as well as a set of texts -- operates. The course also explores contextual issues -- how media texts and businesses are received by audiences and by regulatory bodies.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Vijay Phulwani 

The importance of moral philosophy to the study of the legal and political institutions of the modern state. In addition to exploring the nature of morality and moral reasoning, the course deals with basic questions about the concept of law and the justification of the state. Possible topics include inalienable rights, distributive justice, civil disobedience, secession, and the priority of liberty. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Jon E. Lendon 

History of Ancient Greece from the Homeric period to the death of Alexander the Great. Development of the city-state, Athenian democracy, and the nature of Greek politics; the conflict between Greece and Persia, and between Sparta and the Athenian naval empire; consequences of the latter conflict--the Peloponnesian War--for subsequent Greek history; finally, the Macedonian conquest of Greece and Persia.

Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy

Professor Peter Johannessen

This course will introduce students to both the process of public policy and the tools of policy analysis. The first part examines the actors, institutions, and procedures involved in the adoption, implementation, and evaluation of public policy. The second part introduces students to the basic concepts and tools of policy analysis including problem definition, specification of alternatives, and solution analysis.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Danielle Charette 

This course explores the theoretical ideas that informed the creation and development of America's political system and considers some of the major contemporary challenges to the maintenance of American liberal democracy. Topics to be treated include the political thought of the American Founders, the place of religion in public life, the nature of written constitutions and the role of America in the world. Students will hear from 2-3 guest lecturers per semester and will also have the opportunity to participate in outside events, such as the Constitution Day lecture. The Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy runs an extracurricular reading group, open to students who have completed the course.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Stephen Parks

Students in this course will explore the role of public writing within non-violent campaigns for democratic and human rights. The opening moments of the course will focus on theories of public writing, democracy, and non-violent movements. More than just study such theories, however, this course will actively train students in how to undertake such public work. Students will work through a series of workshops on non-violent organizing strategies created by the Nobel Peace Prize nominated Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies, with direct engagement with its founder Srdja Popovic.  

Students will then typically work directly on a specific international project focused on democratic rights. Past projects have included working with Evan Mawarire/Zimbabwe and Myo Yan Naung Thein/Myanmar, as well as worked with Russian advocates and Ukrainian students on issues of democracy and authoritarianism. In the past, students have also taken part in international dialogues with college advocates, which resulted in the publication Equality and Freedom: An Engaged Generation/A Troubled World as well as (available through the Working and Writing for Change Series, Parlor Press).

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Kate Sweeney

This course introduces you to the style and structure of news writing. The main goals are to sharpen your writing, reporting, and critical thinking skills, as well as teach you about news values and ethics. We will focus on writing “hard news” stories and feature stories, and we will draw from current events to discuss what makes news newsworthy.

The course is practical. It’s designed to teach you to think like a journalist and participate in the truth-telling process by learning to report and write accurate stories on deadline. You’ll receive feedback on your writing, and you will have the opportunity to revise your writing for inclusion in an end-of-the-semester portfolio.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Kevin Driscoll

This is a hands-on introduction to global media history. The course situates technologies, industries, texts and programs in the context of social, cultural, and political changes. Students will acquire basic competencies in historical research and writing: developing research questions, evaluating secondary sources, selecting archives, querying databases, managing notes, citing sources, sharing resources, and communicating findings as a team.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Paul Freedman

Examines the role of mass media in the political process including such topics as print, broadcast, and online news, media and election campaigns, political advertising, and media effects on public opinion and political participation.

Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Fake news, censorship, surveillance, disinformation, decaying business models, news deserts, declining trust in institutions – journalism faces dilemmas from every direction. But imagine for a moment that it’s 2032 and the dilemmas of today are in the past; local newspapers are thriving; journalism bridges divides, and the public has regained trust in the press. What does such a landscape look like? What actions did the press, the public and the powerbrokers take to get there? 

In this course, we will examine the obstacles confronting journalism and we’ll trace significant changes in the news industry from the 1970’s forward, but we won’t dwell on what’s gone wrong. Instead, we’ll focus on what we can do about it. We’ll define the role of journalism in society; we’ll ask what we can learn from past innovations, startups, satirists, and savvy reporters; we’ll examine emerging models of solutions-based journalism, and we’ll envision new models for community-minded news-sharing.   

You won’t be reporting the news in this course. Instead, you will be asked to think critically about past and current industry practices and effects. You’ll research and propose solutions. And you will work in small teams to pitch your own news-sharing model. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Chris Carter

This course provides an overview of politics in Latin America. Topics include the organization of the New World colonies, the legacies of the colonial period for development, the nature of political competition in Latin America's newly independent states, import-substituting industrialization and populism, the emergence and eclipse of military regimes, the transition to democracy and free markets, and the performance of democracy.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Kenneth Stroupe

Provides students with the opportunity to be directly involved with the research, programming, operations, and outreach of the University's non-profit, non-partisan Center for Politics. Includes projects focused on state and national politics, political history, civic engagement, voter behavior, media and politics, campaign finance and political analysis. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Justin Kirkland

Investigates the political dynamics of subnational political institutions, parties, and elections. Includes state parties and elections, intergovernmental relations and institutional powers, representation and democracy in federal systems, and subnational policy processes.

School of Education and Human Development

Professor Alexa Rodríguez

We often think of schools as neutral spaces where students learn the fundamentals of reading, writing, and mathematics. However, since the nineteenth century, public schools in the US have been linked with the expansion of democracy. Throughout history, school administrators and teachers in the US mainland and in US-controlled territories used public schools as spaces to foster changing definitions of democratic citizenship. Why has this been the case? How have notions of education and democracy been contested in the classroom? How have schools been employed to support the expansion of US democracy while also used to expose the limits of it?   

In this course, we will explore how schools have been integral to teaching the role and responsibilities of citizenship in a US-style democracy, in addition to revealing the boundaries of this form of citizenship. We will move chronologically and thematically, from education during the colonial era to the start of public schools in the US during the nineteenth century, ending with new discussions about education, citizenship and democracy during the early twenty-first century. While focused primarily on schools within the borders of US mainland, the course will also cover areas influenced by US education policies but that are often excluded from traditional accounts of US education, such as Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Philippines.   

You will be encouraged to reflect on your own notions of education and citizenship in course discussions and in-class assignments. Our class meetings will often feature a short lecture, whole group and small group discussions, as well as in-class activities such as examining primary sources such as political cartoons and documents. The course is also designed to have multiple check-in points and places to engage in peer feedback to allow you to grow from the revision process.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professors Mary Kate Cary and Jennifer Lawless

This course examines the 2024 presidential and congressional elections. It considers the generalizations we can make about candidates, parties, campaigns, the media, and voters; how these components and players interact; and whether theory and practice converge. Our in-depth study of the current political landscape will rely on analyses from political scientists, journalists, pundits, candidates, and voters.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Rachel Potter

This is a class about the power of the U.S. president. It is not a class about individual presidents or what the U.S. Constitution says about what presidential power should be. Instead, we will study the U.S. presidency as an institution—a set of norms and rules that have evolved over time and that dictate how presidents, regardless of their party, personality, age, race, gender, etc., are incentivized to exercise their power. Our focus is on the modern American presidency, defined as the era following World War II.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Bruce Williams 

This hands-on course prepares students to read, evaluate, and design research in media studies. Drawing on critical, historical, administrative, and industrial traditions in the field, students will learn to assess the validity and anticipate the ethical requirements of various methods & data collection procedures. Following a theme selected by the instructor, the course culminates with each student proposing a new, original research study. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Mark Hadley

An examination of the ethos of democracy as articulated by various philosophers and religionists in the American context and the ways in which that ethos has been warped by racism.  We will consider a diverse set of theorists of American democracy including Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Jane Addams, W. E. B. Du Bois, John Dewey, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Baldwin, as we also explore the racial and religious milieu they are responding to. 

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor John Echeverri-Gent

Surveys political development in India and Pakistan examining the process of nation-building, the causes of democratization and authoritarian rule, the development of ethnic and religious conflict, environmental politics, the political impact of cultural globalization, and gender-related political issues. Prerequisite: Some background in comparative politics and/or study of history and society in South Asia.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Alexander Motchoulski

This course will consider three central questions in political philosophy: Why do political societies exist? What kind of political society is best? And, what is the proper role of the state in the social and economic affairs of its citizens? Rather than a comprehensive overview of the subject, this course will offer a chance to carefully examine some of the most influential attempts to answer to these core questions.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor David Nemer 

This course studies the relationship between social media and Global South societies. Students in this course will analyze the various theories related to the effects and affordances of social media on ideological polarization, social influence, social capital, and social movements. Students will be required to look beyond positive/negative effects of social media, and conduct in-depth interrogations about issues that surround them.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner

This seminar offers an examination of the state, civil society, and citizens, focusing on the ways in which these actors and institutions interact to shape economic, human, and political development. The course introduces theories of the state, civil society, and citizenship, and examines the linkages between these spheres, applying these theories to substantive issues and policy arenas.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Paul Freedman

Explores the role of political advertising in American democracy. Examines ad messages as strategic political communications, analyzing both classic and contemporary ads. Explores the effects (if any) of political advertising on citizens' attitudes and behavior. 

Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy 

Professor Peter Johannessen 

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the major policy-making institutions, and how does the current system of American governance compare with that of other advanced societies? This class will examine the key institutional and political actors in policymaking; focusing on the increasing role of non-governmental institutions in problem solving.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor James Savage 

This course examines the development of American political thought from the Puritans through the Civil War. The questions they posed and attempted to answer are the eternal questions of all political thought, such as, what is the best form of government; what are the rights and obligations of citizens; what is the proper relationship between the state and religion.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Kenneth Stroupe

This class examines campaigns and elections from the perspective(s) of a candidate for public office and their staff. The objectives of the class are to provide students with a better understanding of the evolution of political campaigns, campaign strategies and political parties in the United States. We examine how candidates interact with the electorate; study some common effects of interest groups on political campaigns; and explore the processes of image-making and widely used techniques for influencing public perception of candidates and campaigns.  We examine these and other common challenges and requirements that confront candidates and campaigns leading up to, and during a typical campaign for public office all as students run a mock campaign for the United States Senate.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Charles Kromkowski

This course will expose students to the scholarly literature on Virginia elections and the election data associated with these elections. Students will critically review the literature and use of a variety of analytical techniques, including GIS mapping software, to analyze both historical and recent elections in Virginia. Prior GIS expertise is not required for this course, but an elementary mastery of election data analysis and GIS mapping skill.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Kirill Zhirkov

This course discusses political polarization in the United States. It covers the debate on mass and elite ideological polarization, the phenomenon of affective polarization, the process of partisan sorting, and its sources as well as consequences. Class sessions are structured as discussions of the key papers led by students. Final projects are team-based research proposals. Familiarity with the basics of quantitative analysis is expected.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Daniel Gingerich

Intensive analysis of selected issues and concepts in comparative government. Prerequisite: One course in PLCP or instructor permission.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Gerard Alexander

This course uses theory and historical cases from several regions of the world to investigate what caused sustained economic growth and the emergence of representative politics in many countries in the last 200 hundred years.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Chris Carter

A critical analysis of important issues and works in comparative politics from diverse perspectives. Students are required to write weekly analytical essays and actively participate in small seminar discussions on issues including: democratic and authoritarian regimes, political economy of development, and ethnic and religious conflict. 

Prerequisite: Admission to Politics Honors Program

Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy 

Professor Gerald Warburg

This course will provide a solid foundation of insights into how Congress works, essential for aspiring public policy advocates. Topics investigated include historical precedents for policymaking, the process of Congressional decision-making, and power dynamics in Congress. We will also identify and develop the leadership skills and tactics of successful advocates, placing recent controversies and public policy issues in an historical context.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Rachel Potter 

This seminar provides a general introduction to the field of American Politics.  It is structured as a “survey” course, providing both an overview of classic works and coverage of important new research in and across the major subfields of American politics. The course is divided into three segments covering political behavior, American political development, and political institutions.  Given finite time and vast literatures, breadth is emphasized over depth.  This means that what we read is not the “final say” but just one part of a larger (and often ongoing) conversation in the literature. Students are encouraged to pursue course topics beyond the required reading; we are happy to provide additional direction in this regard.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Richard Handler 

The concepts of identity, authenticity, and culture are central to most nationalist ideologies, in which the nation’s existence and identity are thought to be manifested in and through an authentic national culture. Nation-states use many agencies, institutions, and practices (like the post office, museums, support for the arts, calendrical celebrations, and patriotic rituals) that together make a “politics of culture” that fosters an ideologically desired version of national identity. Initial case studies will be drawn from Canada and the US. Students will research case studies of their choice, drawn from any region or period.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professors Indrani Chatterjee and Amir Syed  

The DI Seminar will provide a unique learning experience that combines interdisciplinary inquiry with diverse forms of scholarly engagement, opportunities to interact with distinguished guests, both academics and community leaders, from on and off-Grounds. The fall semester will be devoted to readings that explore critical, conceptual, and methodological problems on the seminar theme.

College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 

Professor Scott Miller

This course is about "financial civics," or how the markets, institutions, and instruments in finance have interacted with the public will ("democracy") and its instrument, the regulatory establishment. Finance and democracy have stimulated each other on a recurring basis over the centuries, and this stimulus provokes a response.

School of Law

Professor TBA 

This course will explore the development of the American administrative state from the nineteenth century through the present. We will engage in political and theoretical debates over the bureaucratic state's role, and its implications for democracy and inequality.