Thursday, Oct 23 at 1:00PM
On Zoom
Dynamics of Democracy
October 23,30, November 6,13, December 4
This 5 session course covers political change in democratic states-especially their decline. The sequence of steps in democracy's downward progression will be discussed.
Each class intersperses analysis with different feature-length films that exemplify the decline. Students are expected to view the films before the class.
The movies to be discussed will be
October 23 "All the King's Men (1949),"
October 30 "Cabaret,"
November 6 "1984,"
November 13 "Lord of the Flies," and
December 4 "Good Night and Good Luck."
The movies are available on a number of streaming platforms.
The presenter is Craig McCaughrin, who holds a PhD in political science from the University of Minnesota. Now retired, he was previously a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and at Washington and Lee University, where he taught classes on international politics, ran a film festival, and hosted a radio show on game theory and opera. He also taught for two years at the American University in Bulgaria.