PLAW 281 Political Parties

Parties provide the necessary tools for the polity to effectively organize and coalesce its politics.  They are critical to campaigns and elections and the functioning of legislative bodies.  This course explores the three major dimensions of political parties: party-in-government, party-in-the-electorate, and party organizations, the colorful history of US party politics, including its origins, growth, and evolution, from the first party system in the 1790s to the contemporary period.  The course also applies a comparative approach, incorporating select case studies from major inflection points in British political history from the mid-1700s to the modern era.  Overall, the material implicates broader debates over political systems, party models, and party adaptability.