Course Description:
In this course we will be discussing both the structure of American elections, who runs for office and how they do so, how voters make decisions during an election, and what it means to participate in politics and our democracy more broadly. This course is not about the 2020 Election, but unsurprisingly we will use the Election as a vehicle to understand these topics and also as a way by which we can see how the scholarly literature matches up against politics as we observe it. Additionally, the 2020 Election will look different from any election that has come before (and hopefully after) so a part of this class will be analyzing just how it is different and why those differences may, or may not, matter.
