Lehrman American Studies Center

Objectives

This is an upper-division level political science course that will examine classical to modern accounts of American democracy. Students will learn the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the American republic and the social and political implications that result from them. By the end of this course, the student shall acquire the skills of critical thinking, logical reasoning, and effective communication as well as an understanding of nature and source of American democracy.

Required and optional texts

• Michael B. Levy, Political Thought in America (Prospects Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1988)
• Alexis de Tocqueville, 'Democracy in America, Volumes I & II

(New York: Vintage Books, 1990)

• Michael Sandel, The Procedural Republic (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996)
• Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001)

Assignments

Students will be evaluated on class participation (10%), three eight-page essay examinations (75%), and a final examination (15%).

• Class participation: counts for 10% of the student's grade and is determined by the quality, not quantity, of inquiries, comments, and discussion in class.

• Examination essays: count for 75% of the student's grade (25% per examination). These essays will be expected to display cogent reasoning, mastery of information, elegance of style, and grammatical correctness. The student’s grade will be penalized one letter grade per day when essay assignments are received past the due dates. With the exception of a familial death or illness, extensions will not be granted for the essay assignments. More information about how to write these essays will be given to students later in the course.

• Final examination: count for 15% of the student's grade. More information about the final examination will be given to students later in the course.

Course Schedule

Week 1, Class 1

• Political Thought (pp. 1-47)

1. How did the Puritans conceive of liberty, church discipline, and religious conscience? How do their views differ from Roger Williams'?
2. What is the relationship between natural rights and natural law in John Wise's A Vindication?
3. What is the basis of equality and individualism in Hector St. John de Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer?

Week 1, Class 2

• Political Thought (pp. 53-91)

1. What was the differences in the Old Orthodoxy and New Orthodoxy among the American Whigs?
2. What are the similarities and differences in Adams', Paine's, and Jefferson's arguments for independence?

Week 2, Class 3

• Political Thought (pp. 97-137)& U.S. Constitution

1. Should America be an Agarian Republic or Commerical Republic?
2. What is Madison's argument in Federalist Numbers 10 & 51?
3. What is this new science of politics that is claimed in the Federalist Papers?

Week 2, Class 4

• Political Thought (pp. 138-164)

1. What are Madison's, Winthrop's, and Jefferson's objections to the Commercial republic? Do these objections still have validity today?

Week 3, Class 5

• Political Thought (pp. 169-216)

1. What should predominant in republican government: order or equality? What are the arguments for each position?

Week 3, Class 6

• Political Thought (pp. 217-272)

1. What is Lincoln's argument for the republican government to be based on equality?
2. What are the arguments for greater equality? Are any of these arguments still with us today?

Week 4, Class 7

• Political Thought (pp. 273-317)

1. What is majority tyranny? What are possible remedies to prevent majority tyranny?
2. What is Calhoun's view on equality?

Week 4, Class 8

• Political Thought (pp. 331-390)

1. Is political equality possible with economic inequality? Why or why not?
2. Which position do you find most attractive: Carnegie's, George's, or Du Bois? Why?

Week 5, Class 9

• Political Thought (pp.395-432)

1. What is the new liberalism? How does it differ from the old liberalism?

Week 5, Class 10

• Political Thought (pp. 433-490)

1. What is the left's criticism of the new liberalism?
2. What is the right's criticism of the new liberalism?

Week 6, Class 11

• Democracy's Discontent (chapters 1-2)

1. Is Sandel's account of contemporary liberalism the same as the new liberalism that was studied earlier?
2. Is the contemporary liberal state truly netural?

Week 6, Class 12

• Democracy's Discontent(chapters 5-6)

1. Does Sandel's account of the economic virutes of the early republic comport with what we had read earlier?
2. What is the argument of free labor versus wage labor? How is this related to previous conceptions of equality that we had studied?

Week 7, Class 13

• Democracy's Discontent (chapters 7-8)

1. Is Sandel's description of progressivism the same as we had studied?
2. What is the Keynesian Revolution?

Week 7, Class 14

• Democracy's Discontent (chapters 3-4)

1. What is the relationship between religious liberty and free speech?
2. How is privacy related to family law?

Week 8, Class 15

• Democracy's Discontent (chapter 9 & conclusion)

1. Is the United States a procedural republic? Is this a good or bad thing? Why?
2. What public philosophy should the United States adopt? Are we capable of creating one?

Week 8, Class 16

• Democracy in America (vol. II, bk. 1, chapters 1-10)

1. What is the philosophical method of the Americans? Is it capable of creating a public philosophy that Sandel calls for?

Week 9, Class 17

• Democracy in America (vol. II, bk. 3, chapters 1-13 )

1. Do Tocqueville's comments about privacy, servants, and women comport with Sandel's argument in books 3-4 of Democracy's Discontent?

Week 9, Class 18

• Democracy in America (vol. II, bk. 3, chapters 14-26)

1. According to Tocqueville, what is the relationship between civilians and the military in democracies?

Week 10, Class 19

• Democracy in America (vol. II, bk. 4, chapters 1-6)

1. What is the depositism that democratic nations have to fear?

Week 10, Class 20

• Democracy in America (vol. II, bk. 2, chapters 1-9)

1. What is civil society?
2. What is self-interest rightly understood?
3. Why do democratic citizens love equality more than liberty?

Week 11, Class 21

• Democracy in America (vol. I, chapters 14, 16-17 & review chapter 15)

1. What are the causes that mitigate majority tyranny and maintain republican government?
2. Is Tocqueville correct?
3. Are any of these applicable today?

Week 11, Class 22

• Bowling Alone (chapters 1-4)

1. How does Putnam define political, civic, and religious participation? Does this definition comport with Tocqueville's?

Week 12, Class 23

• Bowling Alone (chapters 5-7)

1. What is the difference between formal and informal social connections? How are they related to social capital?

Week 12, Class 24

• Bowling Alone (chapters 8-9)

1. Do the values of social capital truly come from the social connections that Putnam contends? Is the same as Tocqueville's argument?
2. Is there are a fundamental difference in the social connection with people versus the internet? Does this difference affect social capital?

Week 13, Class 25

• Bowling Alone (chapters 10-13)

1. Do new technologies affect our social connection and therefore social capital? Why or why not?

Week 13, Class 26

• PBS Documentary: Growing Up Online

1. Do new technologies affect our social connection and therefore social capital? Why or why not?

Week 14, Class 27

• Bowling Alone (chapters 14-20)

1. What is killing civic engagement? Is it more than generational?
2. What is the relationship between social capital and education, welfare, crime, health, and happiness?

Week 14, Class 28

• Bowling Alone (chapters 21-22)

1. What is the dark side of social capital? Are Putnam's concerns the same as Tocqueville's?

Week 15, Class 29

• Bowling Alone (chapters 23-24)

1. What are the lessons of history that Putnam proscribes? Does his account of history comports with Sandel's? With what you have read in Levy's book?

Week 15, Class 30

• Review Session for Final Examination