[EL] Ideas for the first day of class

[Gardner, James]

Here’s the description from my syllabus of what we cover on the first day of Election Law (used in conjunction with chapter 1 of the Gardner & Charles casebook):

In this introductory class, we will ask some Big Questions.  What is democracy?  How do we know when a system is “democratic”?  What’s so good about democracy?  Pay close attention to the excerpt from Plato’s Republic.  What kind of government does Socrates advocate, and why?  He has a very negative view of democracy.  Why?  And why isn’t he right about its defects (if in fact he’s not)?  Make sure you understand the difference between the various conceptions of democracy (protective, developmental, etc.).  Are there better and worse ways of thinking about democracy, and if so, what makes them better or worse?

Jim
___________________________
James A. Gardner
Interim Dean
Bridget and Thomas Black SUNY Distinguished Professor
SUNY Buffalo Law School
The State University of New York
Room 319, O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
voice: 716-645-2052
fax: 716-645-5968
e-mail: jgard at buffalo.edu<mailto:jgard at buffalo.edu>
www.law.buffalo.edu<http://www.law.buffalo.edu>
Papers at http://ssrn.com/author=40126

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Joey Fishkin
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2016 1:49 PM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] Ideas for the first day of class

Happy new year to all.

With the semester starting in a couple of weeks, I’m unsatisfied with the first day of my election law syllabus.  I’d thought I’d see if you all had some ideas.

I typically do a one-off topic the first day, then start in with the first real unit of the syllabus (suffrage restrictions & access to the ballot) on day two.  On the first day, I want students to —
— learn some election law, and play with concepts that will show up again in the class
— be engaged, especially if still shopping the class
— be able to participate reasonably well in the conversation even if they haven’t done the reading (e.g. because still shopping)

Any ideas?  Do you have a way of starting the semester that you love and want to share?

Thanks,
Joey

Joseph Fishkin
Professor of Law
University of Texas School of Law
727 E. Dean Keeton St.
Austin, TX 78705
jfishkin at law.utexas.edu<mailto:jfishkin at law.utexas.edu>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20160104/cf62c0b6/attachment.html>