Contacts | Program of Study | Application to the Democracy Studies Minor | Summary of Minor Requirements | Approved Courses | Additional Requirements | Courses
Department Website: https://democracy.uchicago.edu
Program of Study
In this age of global democratic crisis, a thorough grounding in the study of self-government is essential to intellectual and civic competence. Although democracy was long a central thematic of both general education and curricular programs in the social sciences and humanities throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it gradually fell out of curricular programming toward the end of the Cold War and is oddly absent as a systematic focus today.
A minor in Democracy Studies provides students with a corrective to this erosion, providing essential knowledge, insights, methods, and critical perspectives necessary to understanding the world around us and the historical developments that have placed it in such a precarious state. Students in the minor will learn that bitter, even divisive contests over public power, representation, and inclusiveness are not recent developments, but have defined democracy since the dawn of politics. More fundamentally, they will learn that tensions between liberty and equality, political will and the rule of law, collective welfare and individual rights, cooperation and competition, produce dilemmas that must always be confronted but can rarely be fully resolved. Finally, they will learn that democracy entails more than a matter of elections or governmental structures. Democratic society extends well beyond the political arena. It is not just a governance system or a structure of power, it is a mode of social organization and cultural cohesion. It encompasses a broad set of structures, conceptions of which have evolved throughout time: political institutions; civic organizations; laws; deliberative practices; rhetorical strategies; cultural forms; collective imaginaries; moral, ethical, and spiritual codes; and more.
The minor therefore offers a broad range of courses allowing students to select cross-disciplinary electives suitable to forming a broadly conceived program of study.
Beyond its broader educational and civic value, a minor in Democratic Studies offers preparation for a range of career interests, from politics, law, and public policy to education, social work, journalism, media, and public interest advocacy. Students pursuing careers in STEM may find a minor in Democracy Studies to be useful preparation for the ethical and professional challenges awaiting them in the marketplace. A minor in Democratic Studies also provides a compelling interdisciplinary topical focus for students interested in pursuing graduate study in the social sciences and humanities.
Application to the Democracy Studies Minor
Interested students must complete the Democracy Minor Map and return it to the Program Manager (elizabethshen@uchicago.edu) to declare their intention to pursue the minor, no later than Spring Quarter of their third year. Students can also meet with Abigail in person or via Zoom for a longer meeting, should they wish. Abigail will contact the student to let them know if they have been approved, upon which the student should submit the approval to their College adviser for the latter’s approval during the quarter. Note that students may be given credit for approved courses taken before declaring the minor.
Summary of Minor Requirements
Students who wish to complete the minor in Democracy Studies will need to complete a total of five courses, including one required course, DEMS 15000 Democracy and Its Critics, and four electives (see table below).
| DEMS 15000 Democracy and Its Critics | 100 | |
| Four electives chosen from list of approved courses | 400 | |
| Total Units | 500 | |
The required Democracy and Its Critics course provides students with an introduction to the many ways in which struggles over self-government have raised fundamental challenges within politics, culture, and society. Critically engaging the concept of democracy from multiple disciplinary perspectives, students discover how democratic questions may be tackled in a distinctive fashion using different disciplinary approaches.
Students are required to take one “global” course, which largely focuses on the democratic experience of countries outside of the United States. Students are further encouraged, but not required, to take one course on democracy in ancient times (defined as prior to 650 AD).
Qualifying courses counting as electives are indicated in the Approved Courses list below, with those qualifying as “global” marked with an asterisk * and those as "ancient" denoted with an obelus †.
Approved Courses
The following elective courses and any of their cross-listings may be counted toward minor requirements. The current list of approved course offerings will be continually updated on the Democracy Curriculum website. As of December 2022, the list includes the following elective courses and any of their cross-listings.
| Big Problems | ||
| Digitizing Human Rights | ||
| Classical Studies | ||
| Democratic Failure in Greece and Rome. | ||
| Thucydides and Athenian Democracy at War *† | ||
| Plato on Tyranny and Injustice | ||
| Politics and Political Space in Ancient Rome *† | ||
| Caesar and his Reception *† | ||
| Comparative Human Development | ||
| English Language and Literature | ||
| Democracy and the School: Writing about Education | ||
| Wealth, Democracy and the American Novel | ||
| Germanic Studies | ||
| Babylon Berlin: Politics and Culture in the Weimar Period * | ||
| Global Studies | ||
| Caste and Race: The Politics of Radical Equality * | ||
| What Is Socialism? Experiences from Eastern Europe * | ||
| History | ||
| The United States in the Age of Total War | ||
| Democracy in America? | ||
| Performing Democracy | ||
| The Idea of Freedom in Antiquity *† | ||
| Paris and the French Revolution * | ||
| American Revolution, 1763 to 1789 | ||
| Revolution, Dictatorship, & Violence in Modern Latin America | ||
| American Revolution in Global Context *† | ||
| Early American Political Culture, 1600-1820 | ||
| History Colloquium: The CIA and American Democracy | ||
| Human Rights | ||
| Human Rights: Contemporary Issues * | ||
| Human Rights: Philosophical Foundations | ||
| Militant Democracy and the Preventative State | ||
| Memory, Reconciliation, and Healing: Transitional Justice * | ||
| Democracy: Athens and America *† | ||
| Law, Letters, and Society | ||
| The American Constitution | ||
| Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse | ||
| Public Engagement and Participation | ||
| Philosophy | ||
| Locke and Rousseau | ||
| Political Science | ||
| What Should Democracy Mean Today? | ||
| Race, Social Movements and American Politics | ||
| Democracy, Race and Equal Protection | ||
| Democracy and the Information Technology Revolution * | ||
| Democracy and Equality | ||
| Reconstructing Democracy: Tocqueville and Du Bois | ||
| Politics of the U.S. Congress | ||
| After Multiculturalism: Democratic Citizenship & Indigenous Resurgence in Settler Colonial Contexts | ||
| The American Presidency | ||
| Democracy's Life and Death * | ||
| Political Parties in the United States | ||
| Democratic Erosion | ||
| The Economy of Conspiracy | ||
| Challenges to Democracy | ||
| Introduction to Political Theory Note: This counts toward the minor in AY2022-23, as it focuses on democracy, but may not in future years | ||
| The Politics of Authoritarian Regimes | ||
| Introduction to Comparative Politics * | ||
| Public Policy Studies | ||
| Does American Democracy Need Religion? | ||
| The Health of American Democracy | ||
| The Politics of Authoritarian Regimes | ||
| Romance Languages and Literatures | ||
| Literature and/of/Against Fascism * | ||
| Religious Studies | ||
| The Global Revolt Against Liberalism * | ||
| Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity | ||
| Global Human Rights Literature * | ||
| African American Political Thought: Democracy's Reconstruction | ||
| The Age of Emancipation | ||
| Sociology | ||
| Political Sociology | ||
| Democratic Backsliding * | ||
| Human Rights: Contemporary Issues | ||
| South Asian Languages and Civilizations | ||
| South Asia after Independence * | ||
| * | Approved as "global" elective course |
| † | Approved as "ancient" elective course |
Additional Requirements
Courses in the minor may not be double counted with a student’s major(s), other minors, or general education requirements. This prohibition against double counting holds for courses in the Democracy general education sequence (SOSC 18400-18500-18600 Democracy: Equality, Liberty, and the Dilemmas of Self-Government I-II-III), although students participating in the minor are welcome to also take that sequence. Courses for the minor must be taken for quality grades (not pass/fail). More than half of the course requirements for the minor must be met by registering for courses bearing University of Chicago course numbers.
Democracy Studies Courses
DEMS 26409. Revolution, Dictatorship, & Violence in Modern Latin America. 100 Units.
This course will examine the role played by Marxist revolutions, revolutionary movements, and the right-wing dictatorships that have opposed them in shaping Latin American societies and political cultures since the end of World War II. Themes examined will include the relationship among Marxism, revolution, and nation building; the importance of charismatic leaders and icons; the popular authenticity and social content of Latin American revolutions; the role of foreign influences and interventions; the links between revolution and dictatorship; and the lasting legacies of political violence and military rule. Countries examined will include Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico. Assignments: Weekly reading, a midterm exam or paper, a final paper, participation in discussion, and weekly responses or quizzes.
Instructor(s): B. Fischer Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Some background in Latin American studies or Cold War history useful.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 36409, HMRT 26409, LACS 36409, LACS 26409, ENST 26409, HIST 26409