The USA is a country of many political contrasts: land of individual freedom and economic opportunities on the one hand, it is aslo struggling with entrenched inequalities, enduring racial conflicts and shrinking social mobility. While often described as one of the oldest and most stable Democracy in the world, it is also plagued with abstention from voting, political parties' war and defiance against the federal government. This course has two main objectives: First, to familiarize students to some essential features of American politics such as its political culture, the organization of its political system and political Institutions, and the electoral and power logics that shape the contours of the state and the policies implemented. Second, to discuss key issues of today's US political debate, such as political and party polarization, rising economics inequalities, minorities and women rights.
Anne-Laure BEAUSSIER
Séminaire
English
No specific prerequisite for this class as this is an introduction course.
Autumn 2022-2023
- Weekly oral presentations (20%)
- Mid-term test (2-3 questions) (20%)
- Final essay (+/- 5000 words) on a major issue in the political debate on American politics in à comparative perspective
Ginsberg, B., Lowi, T. J., Weir, M., Tolbert, C. J., Campbell, A. L., & Spitzer, R. J. 2019. We the people: An introduction to American politics. W.W. Norton.
Lowi, Theodore J, Benjamin Ginsberg, Kenneth A. Shepsle, and Stephen Ansolabehere. 2015. American Government: Power & Purpose. W.W. Norton.
Jacobs, Lawrence R., and Theda Skocpol. 2005. editors. Inequality and American Democracy: What We Know and What We Need to Learn. Russell Sage Foundation.
Hacker, Jacob S. 2011. Winner-Take-All Politics : How Washington Made the Rich Richer, and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. New York :Simon & Schuster