Taught By:
Zahra Ahmed
Assistant Professor of Politics
Saint Mary's College of California
zga1@stmarys-ca.edu
Read profile here.
Course Description:
American elections constitute the foundation of our democracy. While our system is far from perfect, elections allow citizens to communicate with our government and articulate our preferences re: our elected officials. It is also important for us to consider why individuals do or do not vote and those institutional factors that hinder full participation. This allows us to develop a more realistic understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of our electoral system.
This course will address these issues through our analysis of the structure and function of political parties, forms of political participation, organized groups and their role in the political process, and the influence of media over political campaigns. In order to facilitate your understanding of the campaign process, you will also spend the semester using course material as a basis to design your own social action campaign.
This course utilizes an interactive format which requires your insights, comments and reflections to build classroom community and expand our knowledge. With that in mind, we are all important contributors to the course, so we should think, speak and act accordingly.
