Please note: There are no prerequisites for the following courses, which are open to all students regardless of major. Students with questions are encouraged to email me at mkrasner@sover.net. Thanks, Michael Krasner Department of Political Science NEW COURSE!! POWER in AMERICA IS THE UNITED STATES STILL A DEMOCRACY?² Political Science 222 (81524) Tues/Th 3:10-4:25 PH 121 Professor Michael Krasner Is the United States still a representative democracy--a government that is responsive to the peopleor has it become an oligarchy, a government that is responsive to the few who are rich? Recent trends, including the huge (sometimes secret) campaign contributions (³dark money²) made by wealthy individuals and corporations, the corporate capture of the agencies meant to regulate them, the failure of the federal government to prosecute a single person responsible for the gigantic frauds that produced the Great Recession, the Supreme Court¹s decision to allot First Amendment rights to corporations make this a serious, urgent issue. Likewise, post 9/11 actions of the executive branch of the federal government such as the extra-judicial murder of American citizens, the kidnapping (³rendition²) and torture practiced by the CIA, the CIA¹s spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee, the provision in the Defense Authorization Act that allows the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without charge, all raise the question as to whether the expansion of federal power has fundamentally eroded the civil liberties that distinguish a democracy from an authoritarian state. NEW COURSE!! ³POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS THROUGH FILM² PSCI 209 2 (81529) Weds. 1:40-4:30 Professor Michael Krasner
From Mexico to China, from Russia to France, from India to South Africa, from the American Revolution to the Arab Spring, revolutions have shaped the world in which we live. This course will use films such as ³Potemkin,² ³Burn!,² ³Z,² ³The Battle of Algiers,² ³Triumph of the Will,² and ³Madison² to explore the causes of revolution and the forces that shape them, including the reasons why a social crisis sometimes produces a revolution of the right and sometimes a revolution of the left. The course will also consider the results of revolutionwhether and why they achieve their goals or not.
Students are invited to email Professor Krasner for further informationmkrasner@sover.net <mailto:mkrasner@sover.net> .