Seminar in American Politics: American Political Development

The study of American political development provides a vehicle for exploring how American democracy has come to assume its present form. It emphasizes the intersection between institutional incentives, institutional and "state" development, and political agency. This course examines what we mean by a "state," and how institutional "development" provides a set of analytically distinctive problems for political actors. We give particular attention to the importance of racial, gender, and class divides in the development of the American political system. We discuss theories of political change and best methodological practices.