Winston Berg (Committee on Degrees in Social Studies)
First-Year Seminar 74D | Spring Term | Monday, 9:45-11:45 AM
Enrollment limited to 15 | CANVAS SITE
Democracy is supposed to run on knowledge—citizens deliberating, reasoning, forming informed opinions about policies and leaders. This assumption shapes contemporary anxieties about political misinformation, conspiracy theories, and ideological polarization. But what if democracy has never really worked that way? Public opinion research has long challenged the idea that democracy functions through rational deliberation. Voters lack basic political knowledge, interpret facts through partisan lenses, and rely on intuition. At the same time, democracy has persisted despite never quite living up to its own ideals.
This seminar explores how public opinion actually works, rethinking what it means to “know” in democratic politics. To do so, this seminar bridges two approaches that are often considered separately: political theory, which asks what democracy ought to be, and empirical research, which studies how people actually make political decisions. Each side has something to learn from the other: theory challenges assumptions embedded in public opinion research; empirical findings push theorists to grapple with real political behavior.
Readings will range from pragmatist philosophy to media studies, from classic public opinion research to contemporary debates about misinformation and expertise. Alongside this, we’ll analyze real political crises—from viral hoaxes to subverted elections—asking: Is democracy really in trouble? And if it is, how can we fix it?
Note: This is a first-year seminar designed to introduce students to the diverse tools of political science. No prior background is required—only an interest in understanding how democratic politics functions, beyond (and through) the myths we tell about it.