My teaching revolves around democracy’s current challenges, with a particular focus on how they play out in Latin American, European and US politics. The topics that I cover include democratization, protest campaigns, terrorism, the rise of the radical right, and persisting racial inequalities. Below is an overview of the graduate and undergraduate courses that I have taught so far, where I briefly highlight how they incorporate the themes of my research. It also includes links to the corresponding course syllabi as well as the official end-of-semester course evaluations. If you would like to see the results of the official mid-term course evaluations, or the unofficial paper evaluations, please contact me via e-mail (wkastart [at] wynandkastart [dot] com). For my other teaching experiences, please access my CV.
Undergraduate Courses
Democracy and National Security
Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2020
My class on Democracy and National Security surveys a wide range of theories that account for several puzzling observations involving democracy and political violence within and between states, such as the “democratic peace” and the democracy-terrorism link. Throughout these discussions, I stress the importance and efficacy of peaceful methods of political influence and control for investigating the causal relationships between democracy and political violence. I also ask whether and how democracies, and the United States (US) in particular, can combine state secrecy with political accountability.
African American Politics
Fall 2016
In my course on African American Politics, I explore the concepts of racial inequality and democracy, as well as the causal links that connect them, through the prism of African American political thought and behavioral political science. This class opens up a conversation about the conceptual foundations of race, racial injustice and democracy through a critical interrogation of several African American political ideologies, including black nationalism, black Marxism, and black liberalism. Furthermore, I ask how the politics of race plays out both inside and outside US electoral institutions and the political parties that exploit them. I draw particular attention to the ways in which these institutions attenuate but also exacerbate racial inequalities in present-day US law enforcement and its criminal justice system.
West European Politics
Fall 2017, Fall 2019
My class on West European Politics investigates the violent origins of West European democracies, and asks why some of these democracies collapsed in the interwar years, whereas others did not. This course also draws attention to the main differences among the dictatorships that replaced them, as well as the particular legacies each of these authoritarian regimes have left behind. In particular, I link the political disaffection and the growing electoral appeal of radical right-wing parties among contemporary West European publics to the waning memories of varying authoritarian and wartime experiences. These topics complement the discussions about the institutional differences between present-day West European democracies.
Politics of the European Union
Spring 2018, Spring 2020
In my course on the Politics of the European Union (EU), I contrast Europe’s postwar economic and political integration to the wartime efforts to unify the European continent through force and imperial conquest. I subsequently trace the emergence of the EU to these wartime experiences with violence and dictatorship. I also draw on the EU’s “democratic deficit” debate to explore the tensions between extensive regional integration and democratic accountability, as well as their perilous implications. For instance, I discuss the efforts of radical right-wing parties to exploit the Eurosceptic popular attitudes that result from these tensions to pursue their anti-democratic and illiberal agendas. This class also includes an optional simulation component, where students earn credit for participating in the Midwest Model European Union (MMEU).
Political Science Practicum III
Spring 2019
This course familiarizes students with deliberative bargaining processes in highly institutionalized political environments, and the EU in particular. It does so by preparing students for the Midwest Model European Union (MMEU) conference. This class begins by surveying the rules that govern the MMEU “breakout sessions”, as well as the different roles that the delegates occupy in them. Next, it equips students with the skills to read, write and debate short policy directives from the perspective of the country that they represent at the conference. Several practicum sessions follow, in which students put into practice these skills in settings that approximate the MMEU experience. Finally, students represent their institution and debate their peers from other colleges and universities from around the US at the MMEU conference. In Spring 2019, my students placed second in the overall, “Best Country Delegation” category.
Contentious Politics
Winter 2020
This course explores the causes, conduct and consequences of domestic political contention. To do so, it starts by laying out the conceptual groundwork for examining both the definitional overlap between political institutions and political contention, and the causal and empirical links that connect the two (Part I). Next, this course examines the implications of contentious politics for a wide range of political outcomes, including democracy and civil peace (Part II). It then investigates the causal forces that spur the emergence of political contention and shape its conduct (Part III). Does democracy encourage terrorism? Does civil resistance outperform armed struggle as a method of political influence, or does violence offer a more effective alternative? Does nonviolent conflict advance the cause of democracy, or is it the other way around? These are some of the questions this course explores.
Latin American Politics
Winter 2020
This class is closest to my substantive research interests. Its premise is that we cannot understand present-day Latin American politics without understanding its past. Drawing upon recent insights from within the field of Comparative Politics, this course explores the legacies left behind by the democracies and dictatorships of Latin America’s past. To do so, it starts by laying out the conceptual groundwork for examining both the definitional overlap between democracy, dictatorship and political conflict, and the causal and empirical links that connect them (Part I). Next, this course examines whether and how the political past shapes present-day manifestations of political conflict. It does so by first tracing the enormous variability in the political histories of the countries of Latin America (Part II), and next by investigating the political implications of these differences for the shape and stability of political institutions, as well as the strength and orientations of the political actors that enforce, exploit or oppose them (Part III).
Political Institutions
Fall 2021, Fall 2022
The study of political institutions occupies a central position in political science. Drawing upon both established and recent research from within the field of comparative politics, this course surveys the major theories and findings about the causes, consequences and conduct of political institutions. It does so by first laying out the conceptual groundwork for examining the causal links between institutions, organizations and the costs of exchange (Part I). Next, this course traces the origins of and changes in political institutions through the lenses of competing schools of thought (Part II). Finally, it systematizes the variability in the shape of political institutions in democracies (Part III) and its implications for policy (Part IV).
Introduction to Political Science
Fall 2021, Fall 2022
Democracy and the resolution of political conflict are two desirable outcomes, yet they often occur in each other’s absence. Drawing insights from recent and established research within the fields of Comparative Politics and International Relations, this course explores the complex, multifaceted relationship between democracy and conflict resolution from a political science perspective. It does so by first laying out the conceptual groundwork for examining both the conceptual overlap between democracy and conflict resolution, and the causal and empirical links that connect the two (Part I). Next, this course investigates how political conflict is resolved inside democratic institutions, as well as the conditions under which conflict induces the erosion and breakdown of these channels of political influence and control (Part II). It then examines whether and how democracy shapes the manifestations of political conflict that operate outside political institutions, with a particular focus on political violence (Part III).
Graduate Courses
Workshop in Democracy, Power and Inequality
Winter 2022
This course surveys influential scholarship from within the fields of comparative democratization and contentious politics, with a particular focus on theory development and research design. It does so by first laying out the principles that enhance the validity of descriptive and causal inferences (Part I). Next, this course critically examines research investigating the causal links that connect democracy to economic inequality (Part II) and political power (Part III). Finally, seminar participants present and discuss their research proposals (Part IV).