New Online Course Teaches Democracy Development for People Around the World

A new course that aims to help individuals around the world build and improve democracy in their own countries will soon be available online. The free course will be taught by Larry Diamond, democracy scholar and director of the Center on Democracy, Development & the Rule of Law at Stanford University.

The 10-week course, which begins April 1, is offered through Coursera, an online platform that partners with universities around the world to offer free online courses. The democracy development course will cover topics such as democracy consolidation, electoral systems, class structure and inequality, and constitutional design using current and historical examples from different countries. Through the online course, Diamond hopes to provide accessible expertise to international educators, government officials, development professionals, civil society leaders, journalists, activists and others working to foster democracy around the world.

Coursera has partnered with 62 universities around the world including Brown, Columbia, École Polytechnique, Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, University of Tokyo, Technical University of Munich and Vanderbilt University.

Click here to view the course syllabus and sign-up information.

Published March 21, 2013