The American myth of individualism, the cyber-generated sense of impatience and the attendant inability for deferred gratification, the Internet world of individuation and disaggregation, rising income gaps, increasing demographic diversity, limited upward social and economic mobility, atrophying social groups, educational inequality, and increasing activism on the part of women - how do these and other factors influence the structure, function, and interaction of the elements of the American political system, and the actions and responsibilities of the president, Congress, the courts, and the voters, some of them with shrill voices of dissent? Open to first-year students. Offered Term 2. (A) (MOD)