POLS 3025 - Democracy and Social Justice

Democracy suffers from a persistent gap between promise and performance. While democracy enjoys a sterling reputation, it routinely fails to deliver the various forms of social justice people, citizen and non-citizen alike, have every right to not only expect but demand of it. This phenomenon manifests itself along lines of race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, sexual identity, and others. The course explores the discrepancy between democratic ideal and reality, offers explanations for it, and seeks possible remedies to it.