Despite striking levels of disapproval for their respective brands, neither of the two major American political parties seems much interested in doing what it takes to build a durable, broad-based majority governing coalition. This two-session course will offer a deeply critical appraisal of both parties in their present iteration and argue that national-level politics cannot achieve an acceptable level of performance without drastic changes to the parties, and possibly to the party system itself. We will consider an array of possible reforms across the American party system, including ways of opening the current duopoly up to more serious third-party and independent challenges, and how those reforms might be realized in the current environment.

Subject: politics, history

David Ryden joined the Hope College political science faculty in 1994 and is currently director of Hope's Washington DC honors semester. He has published numerous books and articles on such topics as the Supreme Court and the electoral process, the faith-based initiative, as well as other issues at the intersection of religion and politics. He has participated previously with CALL on three courses related to the Supreme Court.