This course aims at retracing the origins and establishment of American institutions, placing specific emphasis on the ideological framework that inspired the drafting of the country’s founding documents, while challenging widespread perceptions of conceptual unanimity. US institutions were not born out of consensus but out of confrontation and debate. Ideas evolved in ways that were often hard to reconcile. The spirit of the Declaration of Independence of 1776, for example, was very different from that of the Federal Constitution of 1787, itself largely the result of compromise. Similarly, the strong emphasis that the founders placed on constitutional flexibility exposed the document to constant reinterpretations. Building on the idea that the workings of the American political system are not as fluid as one might think, the second part of the course assumes a more contemporary approach, inviting students to analyze some of the latest institutional challenges that the US is having to face in the context of an increasingly divisive, dis-United political landscape.
- Enseignant: Francesca GENESIO
- Enseignant: Veronique SOLER