The Spirit of Democracy

This course provides an overview of the diverse cultural origins of democratic ideals and practices, their global evolution, the challenges confronting them, and innovations that can make democracy work better. The course places American democracy in a global and comparative perspective, noting the distinctive features and challenges of U.S. democracy and the wide variety of other democratic institutional forms in the world. It deals both with competing visions of what democracy might be and their actual realization around the world. A major element of the course is to consider different conceptual approaches to democracy-direct, representative, participatory, and deliberative. How do different political systems borrow from these concepts to enhance or justify their forms of governance? How are they evolving or reforming in ways that may address the current crisis of democracy and renew public faith in the efficacy and worth of democracy? Democratic institutions are subject to a living dialogue, and we intend to engage the students in these debates, at the levels of both democratic theory and ongoing democratic practice and institutional designs. In the second half of the course, we will examine innovations like Deliberative Polling and institutional reforms of electoral systems and accountability structures that could increase civic participation, reduce polarization, rein in corruption, and improve the functioning and legitimacy of democracy.