[Socrates] New courses for this term--open to all

Michael Krasner mkrasner at sover.net
Thu Jan 15 10:51:47 EST 2015


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 at 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 people‹or 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 revolution‹whether and why they achieve their goals
or not.
 
Students are invited to email Professor Krasner for further
information‹mkrasner at sover.net <mailto:mkrasner at sover.net> .
 




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