This course explores the practice of democracy in contemporary Western liberal democracies, such as Britain and Germany. It also examines the breakdown of democracy, as exemplified by Weimar Germany in the 1930s, and explores the challenges of implanting democracy in non-Western settings such as Japan and in new democracies such as Mexico. The problems posed to democratic politics by multi-ethnic societies such as India may also be explored. This course is taught in a lecture-and-discussion format, with sections averaging twenty-five to thirty students.