Course Description: It is 2024, and thus time for that quadrennial exercise in expensive (also sometimes ludicrous and scary)
political theater and media madness otherwise known as the U.S. Presidential Election. Serving as both a national cultural event,
as well as a contest for political power, the presidential selection process has long been a core element in the formation and re-formation
of national self-identity, perhaps never more so than now (at least since the 1860 contest on the eve of the U.S. Civil War), as, without
hyperbole, this year’s “battle” (and in the current hyper-partisan/tribal order of U.S. politics, the “war” analogy is more applicable than ever) may well
determine the fate of the nation, and perhaps much of the rest of the remaining small “l” liberal democratic order around the world for decades to come.
In short, if Donald Trump wins again, and if the Republicans also gain control of the U.S. Congress and expand their hold on statehouses and legislatures,
then, "all bets are off," as we say in the United States.
But the U.S. elections arenot the only "game in town" this year. Several other very large countries teetering on the brink of autocracy -
Indonesia (which has already voted in a former military leader this year), Russia (which will have completed its "election" before our class begins), and
the world's largest "democracy," India - have or will be having elections this year as well, and let's not forget the EU Parliamentary contest in June and
the upcoming German State elections in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia in September. If right-wing/nationalist parties sweep all of these contests,
then we are in for "interesting" times, so to speak.
Course Goals:Needless to say, we can only begin to address some of these issues within the limited confines of the class, but we can:
1) Increase your understanding of U.S.culture by exploring the origins, evolution and “mechanics” of the U.S.government(s) (national, state and local)
and election process (the electoral college, primaries, funding, redistricting, etc.), as well as the general outlines of the nation’s political “landscape,” including its cultural,
economic and other foundations;
and 2) Better understand and analyze the ever-expanding political-media landscape as it intersects with and drives the U.S. election process.
Moreover, 1). As students will be assigned a particular U.S. state to focus on during the semester (though a national contest, of course, the U.S. election system is
still state-based), they will get a more in-depth view of specific locales and regions within the diverse patchwork which is the contemporary United States.
Meanwhile: 2) Students will get to know and practice some of the rudiments of political journalism (a very large area in Anglophone writing), and in the
process sharpen their analytical writing and speaking/presentation skills in English.
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