POSC 365 - The Evolution of the American Party System

This course examines the evolution of the American political party system from the late eighteenth century to the present. Students will examine the causes and consequences of shifting party coalitions; changes in the parties’ organizational structures; and the relationship between parties and other organizational actors in civil society. In addition, students will evaluate U.S. political parties from a normative perspective. The course will examine the ways in which their emergence has complicated the functioning of the U.S. constitutional system (whose designers did not anticipate the existence of parties). The course will ask whether parties have tended to promote or discourage a healthy culture of civic engagement. And it will examine whether the recent polarization of the electorate along partisan lines poses a threat to democratic institutions in the United States. Letter grade with Pass/No Pass option. (Offered every year.) 3 credits