Politics: An Introduction

Description

This course is designed to introduce the tools, techniques, and topics of Political Science.  It is also a course full of questions.  We begin by discussing the nature of Political Science.  Is politics a science?  an art?  madness?  something else?  We then turn to some more basic and more difficult questions.  Who are we?  Here we will explore the nature of identity and its relationship to politics.  Nation, religion, and ethnicity are all sources of identity powerful enough to cause tremendous destruction in our world, and will all be considered.  How are we governed?  Since politics and politicians have a major impact on our daily lives, we will explore how political systems work.  How does democracy come about?  Over the last few decades, thousands of people like you and I have battled armed soldiers in the streets in order to win the right to participate in a democratic system.  We will try to understand the reasons they care so passionately.  Finally, we ask the most intriguing questions of all: Where do we go from here?  Is globalization our future?  Does the future hold peace and prosperity?  Or war and chaos?