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If it’s been a while since high school civics or you want to know more about how Congress works than you got from Schoolhouse Rock’s I’m Just a Bill, Harvard University is now offering four online courses about U.S. government and American politics — and they’re free through edX.
(EdX is the online nonprofit educational platform launched in 2012 by Harvard and MIT to provide courses, programs and degrees from universities and other organizations around the world.)
Taught by Thomas Patterson, PhD, Harvard's Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, the four courses cover our country’s Constitutional foundations, the three branches of government, the power split between federal and state governments, Constitutional guarantees of personal freedoms and civil rights, the types of public policies politicians pursue and how public opinion impacts elected officials.
“For citizens, an understanding of their government can help them better understand how it works and what role the citizen can play, as well as the rights and responsibilities they have as citizens,” Patterson told VoxPopuli in an email.
He said he was inspired to develop the course, "like the many other faculty at various institutions that teach these free courses ... to impart knowledge to a wider number of people, and to do so free of charge to them.”
Each course has six pre-recorded lectures with quizzes and a final essay. They’re self-paced and open to anyone who is interested. Completion certificates are available for $149. (With four courses, there’s a certificate discount.)
There’s been widespread speculation on social media that the courses were created as in response to the Trump administration’s escalating war with Harvard (which started when Harvard refused to allow the White House to dictate hiring, admission practices and curriculum), and that they included a section called “How to Recognize a Dictatorship Takeover 101.” Snopes ruled that false.
Patterson told VoxPopuli that the courses have been offered since before the COVID-19 pandemic and are not related to the current presidency.
“The course is about American politics generally and not about any particular Administration,” he said. “The courses were created several years ago and [are] updated periodically. The last update was 2024 and thus predates the current Administration. The courses have always been free to take, so that, too, is not new.”
Courses include:
American Government: Constitutional Foundations. Click here for more information.
U.S. Political Institutions: Congress, Presidency, Courts, and Bureaucracy. Click here for more information.
Citizen Politics in America: Public Opinion, Elections, Interest Groups, and the Media. Click here for more information.
U.S. Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies. Click here for more information.
