Democracy is under threat in the United States and elsewhere, leading to widespread concern about human rights, election legitimacy, delivery of essential government services, and increasing violence. Nearly every metric used to measure the strength of democracy concludes that democratic backsliding has occurred in the 21st century. How we understand the source of democratic unraveling and the possible solutions will shape what type of world we live in moving forwards. In this class, we will focus in particular on the urgent question of can democracy be saved and how different institutional arrangements, financial resources, and collective movements shape the field of what is possible.
There is an expansive set of issues that relate to global threats to democratic governance, but this course will focus largely on the development and future of democracy in the United States. The course begins by examining the theoretical foundations of democracy and evolving standards of democratic practice. Next, we will turn our attention to analyzing the central challenges that democratic governance is facing. We then examine several modes for strengthening the formal institutions and intermediary institutions of democracy. The course concludes with a deeper focus on how people, both domestically and globally, have attempted to save democracy.