OSHER 674 - Democracy in Peril: The United States in 2020

This course will have three parts. The first will discuss democracy: what it is, how it is supposed to work, and what keeps it from failing. The second will involve brief discussions of some the countries that have recently changed from democracies to authoritarian regimes: Hungary and Turkey will be the main examples. The third part will focus on the United States, looking at recent developments that some see as a change towards a more authoritarian, less democratic kind of system. We will compare the U.S. with other countries to examine whether our democracy is in peril. We will also pay attention to the upcoming election and ask what might result from either a Republican or Democratic victory. This course will continue and add to discussion began in a previously offered course during Osher's winter 2020 term, which was also called Democracy in Peril.