42 courses with the subject PLAP, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Surveys the fundamentals of American government and politics, systematically covering the major institutions of our system (the presidency, the Congress, the courts) as well as the system’s essential processes.
Effective Date 01/01/2011 Introduces a wide variety of domestic and international environmental policy issues. Explores how political processes, scientific evidence, ideas, and values affect environmental policymaking.
Effective Date 01/01/2026 Explores the theoretical ideas that informed the creation and development of America’s political system and considers contemporary challenges to the maintenance of liberal democracy. Topics include the political thought of the Founders, constitutional changes wrought by the Civil War and Reconstruction, competing theories of constitutional interpretation and authority, and the contested responses to industrialization and economic modernization.
Effective Date 05/01/2026 Special Topics in American Politics.
Effective Date 01/01/2023 Examines the role of mass media in the political process including such topics as print, broadcast, and online news, media and election campaigns, political advertising, and media effects on public opinion and political participation.
Effective Date 04/20/2016 This course looks at the production and consumption of food in a political context. We will explore legislation, regulation, and other policies that affect the food system and examine their implications for the environment, public health and democratic politics. We will look closely at controversies over agricultural subsidies, labeling requirements, farming practices, food safety, advertising and education.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 This course explores the power of the US president. It is not a class about individual presidents or what the Constitution says about presidential. Instead, we will study the presidency as an institution-a set of norms and rules that dictate how presidents, regardless of their party, personality, age, race, gender, etc., are incentivized to exercise their power. Our focus is on the modern presidency in the era following World War II.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 Through academic study, practitioner dialogues, case studies, site visits, experiential activities and workshops, participants connect the application of theoretical and empirical scholarship to creatively approach addressing public issues and needs. This course provides community-engaged learning experiences, connecting with political and civic actors and institutions to develop a deeper understanding of democratic practices and institutions.
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Survey of empirical and, to a lesser extent, normative questions concerning actors and institutions in American judicial politics. Topics include the selection of judges, judicial decision making, the legal profession, the impact of court decisions, and the role of judges in a democracy.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 This course examines the current presidential and congressional elections. It considers the generalizations we can make about candidates, parties, campaigns, the media, and voters; how these components and players interact; and whether theory and practice converge. Our in-depth study of the current political landscape will rely on analyses from political scientists, journalists, pundits, candidates, and voters.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 The Supreme Court plays a large role in American government, deciding questions of governmental power and individual rights. This course explores how the Court has gained these powers and the ways it has exercised them. It considers legal doctrines, historical and sociological context, and political science theories of judicial decision-making to explain some of the Court’s most important decisions.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 This course explores how artificial intelligence technologies are being developed and used in politics. Participants gain experiential learning opportunities to creatively address challenges AI technologies pose, such as manipulating voter behavior, exacerbating inequalities in political access and participation, and undermining public confidence in institutions and elections.
Effective Date 08/01/2025 This course examines public opinion and its place in American democracy. We study the psychological and political roots of citizens’ opinions, as well as the relationship between public opinion and political campaigns, the media, and government.
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Examines the power, purposes, and problematics of the presidency as a role of national leadership in the American and political constitutional system. While the emphasis is on the modern presidency (1933-present), attention is given to its historical development.
Effective Date 08/01/2025 Focuses on the contemporary organization and workings of the United States Congress. Emphasizes elections, the committee system, political parties, staff, and the law-making process, as well as the role of Congress in the national policy making system.
Effective Date 05/01/2011 Provides students with the opportunity to be directly involved with the research, programming, operations, and outreach of the University’s non-profit, non-partisan Center for Politics. Includes projects focused on state and national politics, political history, civic engagement, voter behavior, media and politics, campaign finance and political analysis.
Effective Date 10/03/2017 This course explores the historical development of the American economic system since the Founding, and its relationship with political institutions. We will examine various economic regimes such as mercantilism, Progressivism, the welfare state, and neoliberalism, among others. While some basic economic principles will occasionally be drawn upon, no previous knowledge of economics is required for the course.
Effective Date 01/01/2012 Course will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the structure, functions and processes of state and local government in Virginia and to introduce students to political leaders and policymakers of state government. When the course is finished, students should be able to answer journalist Guy Friddell’s query: “What is it about Virginia?”
Effective Date 08/01/2026 Topical offerings in American Politics
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Studies the role of public administration in contemporary government, emphasizing administrative structure, control, and relations with other branches of government.
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Examines how attributions of racial difference have shaped American Politics. Topics include how race affects American political partisanship, campaigns and elections, public policy, public opinion, and American political science.
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Studies the legislative, executive, and judicial branches and the functional and territorial distribution of powers as reflected by Supreme Court decisions. Includes the nature of the judicial process. (No CR/NC enrollees.)
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Studies judicial construction and interpretation of civil rights and liberties reflected by Supreme Court decisions. Includes line-drawing between rights and obligations. (No CR/NC enrollees.)
Effective Date 08/01/2025 A survey of the way gender ideas shape political behavior in the American political system, historically and today.
Effective Date 08/01/2012 A seminar introducing students to the study of political psychology. Topics include authoritarianism, tolerance, altruism, ethnocentrism, the role of affect and cognition in political choice, the role of racial stereotyping in political campaigns, and psychological challenges to rational choice models of political decision-making.
Effective Date 01/01/2010 Explores the role of political advertising in American democracy. Examines ad messages as strategic political communications, analyzing both classic and contemporary ads. Explores the effects (if any) of political advertising on citizens’ attitudes and behavior.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 This course examines the politics of federal budgeting and its role in economic policy making. Students will learn about the creation of the presidential budget, the politics of the Congressional budget process, tax policy, defense spending, social spending, fiscal federalism-the connection between federal and state governments-and the relationship between fiscal policy and the Federal Reserve’s making of monetary policy.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 American courts decide many important questions of public policy. Not all judges are elected, however, and there have long been debates about how much judges should be insulated from the public. This course will consider topics such as judicial elections and appointments, the relationship between public opinion and judicial behavior, the role of courts in the electoral process, and normative questions about the role of judges in a democracy.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 American politics seems deeply polarized today. This seminar will explore the who, what, when, where, why, and how of this phenomenon. What does it mean when we say that things are polarized? Who is polarizing and why? When did this start happening? Where is the most egregious? How can we fix this? Should we even try? What does polarization mean for government, society, and the future of American democracy?
Effective Date 01/29/2025 In this class, students will learn the nuts-and-bolts techniques needed to write persuasive, entertaining, factually accurate political speeches. Topics include mastering the basics of structure, tone, and research; knowing your audience; using anecdotes, statistics, and humor; writing sound bites; and understanding the ethics of speechwriting. Examples of effective speechwriting from a variety of political leaders will be analyzed.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 This class examines the relationship between aggregate public opinion and public policy outcomes in the US at both the national and subnational levels. We consider the role of political institutions in enhancing this form of representation, and many circumstances in which representation of public opinion succeeds and fails.
Effective Date 01/29/2025 This class examines many efforts to reform American political institutions from an outcomes-oriented perspective. We examine what the intended outcomes of a reform effort were meant to be, and whether those reforms achieved those goals, along with any unintended consequences of reform efforts.
Effective Date 01/01/2010 This course examines the major reform movements in American history, from the Founding to the New Deal. Special attention will be devoted to the intellectual history of reform periods and to answering the question whether the social contract has been redefined periodically in American political history.
Effective Date 08/01/2025 Reviews and analyzes the techniques and technologies of modern American election campaigns.
Effective Date 08/01/2012 This course will expose students to the scholarly literature on Virginia elections and the election data associated with these elections. Students will critically review the literature and use of a variety of analytical techniques, including GIS mapping software, to analyze both historical and recent elections in Virginia.Prior GIS expertise is not required for this course, but an elementary mastery of election data analysis and GIS mapping skill.
Effective Date 01/01/2026 Investigates a selected issue in American government or American political development.
Effective Date 08/01/2012 Democracy in America
Effective Date 08/01/2025 Explores the vexatious lines between the rights of individuals and those of the state in democratic society, focusing on such major issues as freedom of expression and worship; separation of church and state; criminal justice; the suffrage; privacy; and discrimination. Focuses on the judicial process.
Effective Date 01/01/2016 An examination of classic and contemporary theories, partial theories, and perspectives on constitutional interpretation.
Effective Date 04/21/2009 Examines the structure and process of judicial policymaking, focusing on agenda-setting, deciding cases and opinion writing, implementation, compliance, and impact. Particular attention is given to the United States Supreme Court and its relationship to lower federal and state courts and the political environment.
Effective Date 03/18/2009 A critical analysis of important issues and works in American politics from diverse perspectives. Students are required to write weekly analytical essays and actively participate in small seminar discussions on issues including: the founding, parties and elections, public policy, federalism, the presidency, Congress, and the judicial system.
Effective Date 03/01/2009 Supervised work on a thesis in American politics for especially motivated students.
Source: University of Virginia-Main Campus's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 59
