Description and Objectives

US Government and Politics is a recommended but not required prerequisite for this course, which will take our federal and republican form of government as a launching point for study of political communities both internal and external. 

Internally, students will study the state and local governments of the DMV, with a particular focus on their own place.  In addition, the class will explore the political history of Washington DC—a topic that will address, in a special way, our Federal City’s experience of race from the time of the founding, through the ratification of the Civil War Amendments, the Brown vs. Board era, the integration debates, and other trials, triumphs, and travails of the 20th century.

The second semester will turn our gaze externally to political communities and states beyond our own national borders.  It is at this juncture that the class will overlap with the AP Comparative Government and Politics curriculum, which focuses on Mexico, England, Nigeria, Russia, Iran, and China.  Topics will include: 

• Forms of Government: Political Systems, Regimes, and Governments
• Political Institutions
• Political Culture and Participation
• Party and Electoral Systems and Citizen Organizations
• Political and Economic Changes and Development

In Washington D.C., our locality is international, and our nation is of local concern.  There’s no better place from which to look in and look out.  We will do both with a spirit of optimism in the abundant goodness of the modern world.

Textbooks

We will be guided in this class by excerpts from, among other sources, Democracy in America, Aristotle’s Politics, and Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in our Nation’s Capital.  The second semester in particular will draw largely from news sources and, likely, a textbook to be identified over the summer.

Course Requirements

• Nightly short readings and writing;
• Quarterly papers;
• Two quarterly tests;
• Daily quizzes;
• Decorum in class.

Successful Students

Note that this course will require careful attention and detailed study.  The time requirements will be very moderate but unavoidable.  I will not hesitate to use grades to communicate to the academic community and your parents whether you are rising to the challenge or not.

You can count on my steady support in and out of class.  I will count on your good faith and attention.

Proper decorum will be observed by students wishing to do well in this course.  Ours is a diplomatic and political city.  Body language matters here, and it will in our classroom.