1 Introduction to American democracy
Dahl, How Democratic is the American Constitution? (2001), chs.1- 2
2 Constitutional history
Dahl, ch. 3; Krutz, American Government, ch. 2
3 Federalism
Krutz, ch. 3; Madison, Federalists 10 and 5
4 Legislative Branch
Krutz, ch. 11
5-6 Executive Branch
Krutz, ch. 12; Dahl ch. 4
7 Midterm review and examination
8-9 Judicial Branch
Krutz, ch. 13; Hamilton, Federalist 78
10-11 Race and American Government
McGhee, The Sum of US (2021); Krutz, ch. 5; watch Eyes on the Prize, ep. 13; Ta-Nahisi Coates, The Case for Reparations, the Atlantic, June 2014; watch the brief (17 min) documentary, Segregated by Design; U.S. Supreme Court, Shelby County v. Holder (2013); Horwitz, pp. 74-88; Brennan Center, The Redistricting Landscape, 2021-22.
12-13 Civil Liberties: guns, speech, religion, reproductive freedom
Listen to Radiolab podcast, "What Up, Holmes?" (skip to 7min); Liptak, First Amendment, 'Patron Saint' of Protesters is Embraced by Corporations , New York Times, March 23, 2015; U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Employment Division v. Smith (1990), Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo (2020); Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021); Horwitz, pp. 106-111
14 State governments
Elazar, American Federalism: A View from the States, ch. 5; John Paul Stevens, "The Other Constitutions," New York Review of Books, Dec. 16, 2018
15. The future of American democracy
Horwitz, ch. 5; Dahl, chs. 6-7; Putnam & Skocpol, “Middle America Reboots Democracy,” Democracy, Feb. 20, 2018.