Since 2000, we have extraordinarily high expectations from our political leaders at every level of government - federal, state, and local. We expect a mayor of our city to make sure our local economy is growing, and our streets are safe. We implore our governor to secure funds for K-12 education, and not to raise taxes on the working poor to pay for it. We demand the President of the United States to answer questions about his foreign policy decisions around the world. And the list goes on and on. We might be satisfied with the answers that our elected representatives give us, and we might be infuriated with what they say. In some cases, we might be puzzled with what they leave out. At election time, we have the opportunity to decide who stays in and who is out. We have also experienced extraordinary political polarization. We disagree on every point on what our elected leaders should do, and how government should work. Recent studies show that divisions along urban/rural, east/west, young/elder, or left/right, continue to be further apart than ever before. Yet despite our many disagreements, we fundamentally agree that our democracy works for us. Why democracy matters is the overarching theme for this course. The first objective of this course is to provide students a descriptive, thoughtful, and critical account on the way our government works, the reasons for the way it works, and how democratic principles are embedded. The second objective is to examine the sources, conditions, and practices to maintain a robust democratic society. A fundamental task of this course to link what we learn in class with what's going on in our society in order to understand our contemporary moment, and where do we go from here.

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