Students’ Support for Civil Liberties

Ed. Note: The questionnaire and tables described in this essay are available from the editor upon request. After a number of years of relative neglect, scholarly attention is once again being paid to the teaching of political science, particularly the introductory American government course. In many states such courses are required of virtually every college student, usually on the grounds that better citizens will somehow result. The underlying assumption is that learning about the structure and function of government and the rules of democratic procedure will produce citizens more committed to democratic ideals. Most studies of students’ democratic values have focused on the effect of the college experience as a whole rather than on the specific effect of exposure to political science courses.