Center for the Study of Democracy

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• Democracy Studies Minor
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Announcements

Spring 2009 Upcoming Events

    December 8, 2008

    Democracy in Old and New Europe Film Series: European Societies in Transition
    Indigenes: Days of Glory

    Cole Cinema | 8:00 PM

Hype can be a dangerous thing, and the newspaper ads touting Days of Glory (aka Indigenes, French for "Indigenous") as "so powerful it changed the world" are nigh on impossible for any movie to live up to. This one doesn't, but director Rachid Bouchareb's World War II drama still makes for compelling viewing. Confronting the Nazis both in Italy and at home in 1943, the French Army recruits men from Algeria, then a French colony, and other North Africans to help out. Of the film's two principal themes, one, the horrors of war, is nothing new. But the battle scenes are well done; the first major clash, on a bleak Italian hillside, effectively conveys the young Muslims' confusion and abject terror. The second theme is clearly the one that inspired Bouchareb in the first place: the eternal issue of race and discrimination (also explored in 1989's Glory, about black soldiers in the Civil War). Focusing in particular on four Algerians, including Jamel Debbouze as the naïve Saïd and Roschdy Zem as the lovestruck Messaoud, the films depicts how they are denied basics like food, mail delivery, time off, and such, effectively rendering meaningless the French ideal of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. It all culminates in a small town in Alsace, where the four find brief respite before having to face a much larger and better equipped German force (this scene, as well as a final bit in a cemetery, carry heavy echoes of Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan). Bouchareb apparently made Days of Glory at least in part to shame the French government into handing over long-frozen pensions to surviving soldiers and their kin. French president Jacques Chirac finally approved the funds in 2006--apparently after seeing this film. So maybe it did change the world a little after all.

 Spring 2009 Democracy Studies Minor classes are now posted

 
Welcome 

The Center for the Study of Democracy focuses on different dimensions of liberty and democracy in national and international contexts.  The Center regularly investigates and discusses Maryland democratic history and contemporary Maryland politics; international dimensions of democratic development and U.S engagement in world affairs.  Students, faculty, and community members are encouraged to join our programs and participate in understanding our history and in discussing democracy in our world today.

The Center promotes a wide range of student activities that include curricula and coursework, special educational events and community activities.  The Center currently provides support for the democracy studies minor at St. Mary’s College and funds summer internship offerings in state, federal and local government service.  The Center also promotes citizen engagement in the political process by supporting student organizations that advocate for student participation in elections and government. 

The Center supports student organizations interested in the many languages of democracy by funding activities of interest to them—whether they are speakers, exhibits, literary or artistic performances.  We ask students to join the discussions we host on campus and to recommend new speakers and dialogues on contemporary problems we face. 

The Center strives to give SMCM students the intellectual and experiential foundations for all aspects of responsible citizenship and to empower them with the knowledge that they can make a positive difference.  Through its programs and activities, the Center promotes a diverse set of democratic practices, including the importance of engaging in civil discourse, illustrating a wide range of free speech activities to enable respect of diverse opinions, service to the community and civic engagement activities for students.  

The Center has also helped foster discussion and debate about what democracy means in the 21^st century, while promoting scholarly discussions about Maryland’s democratic promise and failures.  The Center’s programs benefit SMCM’s nearly 2,000 undergraduates, the larger college and local communities, and Marylanders as a whole. International students from diverse parts of the world have been awarded scholarships from the Center while other foreign visitors have been hosted to investigate and explore American democracy. 

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) We the People initiative awarded the Center a $500,000 challenge grant in September 2004. In 2008, the Center certified $1.5 in private and non-federal funds to receive the full $500,000 federal matching grant. The Center expects to reach a $2 million endowment in late 2009.