RealClear American Civics: “The Constitutional Studies and Tocqueville Programs: Making Republican Citizens”
By Mike Sabo
In recent months, Mike Sabo at RealClear Public Affairs has been highlighting civic institutions that are working to instill a solid understanding of American civics among students and teachers, including the Constitutional Studies and Tocqueville Programs at the University of Notre Dame. The Civic Institutions Series features several programs that have partnered in some way with the Jack Miller Center in these pursuits – at Notre Dame, JMC supports the Potenziani Program in Constitutional Studies.
Two programs at the University of Notre Dame seek to instill in undergraduates a knowledge of and respect for civic education and institutions that support a free people.
The Potenziani Program in Constitutional Studies and The Tocqueville Program for the Inquiry Into Religion and Public Life are directed by Associate Professor Vincent Phillip Muñoz, a political scientist with a strong background in American constitutionalism and religious liberty. His well-received book, “God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson,” explores the views of key American Founders on the relationship between religion and government.
The Constitutional Studies Minor gives students the opportunity to “engage in learning and discussion about constitutionalism, including church-state issues and First Amendment rights,” Muñoz says. The courses are “neither liberal nor conservative in a narrow political sense” but instead “help students appreciate our political heritage by introducing them to the great debates in American political and constitutional history.”…
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Mike Sabo is the Editor at Real Clear Public Affairs’s American Civics portal. He is a graduate of the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College.
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