HENB01405U English - Elective 3, topic 5: Contemporary American Politics in 2018: The Trump Administration Unfolds

“Contemporary American Politics in 2017” will focus on American politics a year after President Donald Trump took office, and nine months before the important midterm elections of November 2018. How resilient has the political system been in terms of accommodating Trump? How much has Trump had to fit a change agenda into the realities of office? To answer these questions requires knowledge of the US political system. The course will thus give an in-depth survey as to how the political system works and how that system interacts with wider American culture outside of Washington, DC. The course takes the post 9/11 era as its background, and will thus use a mix of political theory, contemporary history and topical articles from newspaper and media articles from the New York Times, Foreign Policy, New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Financial Times, Washington Post, New Standard, American Conservative, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and other respected sources. These articles will be supplemented by data and materials assembled by think tanks and polling institutions, including the US Census Bureau, Brookings, Heritage, Pew, and the like.

By the end of the course you will have a good overview of the political system and electoral dynamics in 2018 and the issues which preoccupy the nation and its leader(s). You should be able to use the theoretical and practical knowledge you have acquired to understand the American political system, and how it differs from the Danish, to identify the issues facing the Trump administration and the nation, reflect on why these issues have the salience they do, and to be able to consider how the state of the nation’s politics is likely to develop over the near future. This course is especially aimed at students who plan or writing BA projects on topics within contemporary American politics and society, and acts as a first port of call for students considering graduate work within the fields of American history, politics, and society. There are no entry requirements, though I do expect for students to have followed Makings 1 and Makings 2 (or equivalent), that you read the materials set for each week, that you participate in classes, and that you agree to give presentations during the semester.