Is there evidence of democratic pluralism, or, perhaps the opposite, a democratic deficit in local TN politics? What frameworks best conceptualize how local politics in TN is governed? In Comparative Democratization, students will investigate the larger frameworks and causes of democratization and democratic backsliding cross-nationally and apply what they have learned using TN local politics as a case study. This course aims to balance three components: a wide conceptual overview of the academic literature, a grounding in different case studies across the world, and a civic engagement component where students observe and analyze local politics. Throughout the course, students will become acquainted with various theories and perspectives on democratization, why countries become democratic, and why they backslide. Specifically, students will learn about the many components of a well-functioning democracy, such as open and competitive elections, a vibrant civil society, an independent judiciary, executive constraints. political rights and civil liberties, a government that is responsive to majority rule, but protective of minority rights. We will cover multiple themes; a few examples are institutions, social movements, elections, the economy, authoritarianism, international interference, and political violence. The course also covers the rigorous social science coding of democracy; how scholars measure democratic institutions, laws, norms, and behaviors, and then use those measurements as a basis for comparisons and scholarly inquiries. Lastly, this course will bring the former two components to bear to better understand local politics in TN. For instance, is there evidence of political pluralism, majority representation, respect for minority rights, coalition-building, democratic norms, effective lobbying and interest group activity, public participation, and open and transparent government processes? Students will be tasked with observing the local school board and
My plan is for students to observe, analyze, and hopefully meet with two local democratic institutions in practice, the Franklin County, TN School District and the Franklin County, TN County Commission. First, my plan is for students to attend two sessions of each, observe their procedures and evaluate them based on guiding questions from the theories we discuss in class. I will ask students to reflect on challenge they see to their democratic procedures, institutions, and norms; and for ways these can be improved. Furthermore, how do these two local political institutions compare? Can helpful also comparisons be made to other countries? In addition, my hope is to bring multiple elected officials to speak to my class (I already have one commitment from a school board member). Instead of asking these elected officials to talk about specific issues, I will ask them to talk about how democracy works in their institution: is it an open process, are their checks on their power, is lobbying effective, or elections competitive and representative, are their challenges to their democratic institution? My hope is for students to be intimately aware of local TN politics in all of its complexities and to have the opportunity to put what they learned in class to the test by observing and analyzing actual democracy in action.