Aperçu des sections
Understanding US Politics: course description, objectives, contents
American Politics and its various aspects and operational layers within and outside the US system of government constitute one the basics in the study of United States (civilization, history, and society). The course introduces the basics of the US system of government to Master 1 students of Anglophone Studies specialized in Literature and Civilization. The course covers the first semester of the Master programme and consists of two sessions: one lecture and one tutorial per week. The lecture is devoted to an overall introduction to the different concepts, individual and collective actors, institutions, procedures, and mechanisms that govern American politics. The tutorials are devoted to class discussions based on students’ compulsory weekly in-depth readings of primary and secondary sources.
Lecture 1: The Idea of Democracy
- Introduction
- Historical and Philosophical Origins
- Philosophical Contribution to American Democracy
- References
- Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (Excerpts)
- John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (Excerpts)
- Two Stories of Democracy. From K. Hutchings, Modelling Democracy. Global Society 12:2 (1998).
Section 2
- Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" (1776) - excerpt.
- The US Declaration of Independence (1776)