Political Science after the Insurrection: Teaching about Democratic Backsliding in US Classrooms

Abstract

In the context of a deeply polarized electorate, venturing into analysis of current events in the Political Science classroom can be fraught, especially regarding the quality of democracy. We argue that we have a responsibility to give students the tools to engage with the current moment of democratic tension, including questions of the quality and sustainability of democracy in ways that link with current events. The 2020–2021 academic year threw the urgency of this task into sharp relief. In this paper, we suggest a series of classroom interventions–in information literacy, conceptualization, and losers’ consent–which can help students leverage social science research skills to analyze current events without falling into undesirably heated partisan discussion. We argue that this suite of activities, which can be deployed throughout a semester, either as structured or on-the-fly interventions, can serve as a toolkit for instructors to engage their students’ pressing questions while maintaining an appropriately analytic lens.

Keywords:

• Information literacy
• political learning
• undergraduate education
• Civic education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M. P. Broache

M. P. Broache is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. Their teaching and research focus on international relations, international law, and political violence, with a substantive emphasis on the International Criminal Court and a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Carolyn E. Holmes

Carolyn E. Holmes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her work focuses on issues of nationalism, racial and ethnic politics, and democracy, particularly in Southern Africa.

Sherry Zaks

Sherry Zaks is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California. Her book project, Resilience Beyond Rebellion, examines the conditions under which rebel groups are able to transform into political parties in the aftermath of civil wars.