Stanford University Civics Initiative

A higher education civics curriculum should ensure students can do more than simply pass a naturalization exam. In addition to providing a basic grasp of American history and government, it should explain to students why democracy is difficult to get and to keep; how those difficulties have been addressed in the past; and the contemporary challenges to democracy. Stanford University, a four-year institution in Palo Alto, California, has made a whole-campus commitment to this effort, especially through its curriculum.

Program Description:

The Stanford Civics Initiative began informally in 2017 with discussions among a group of Stanford faculty from schools and departments across the university who agreed that Stanford was failing in its historic responsibility to teach the next generation the fundamental knowledge and skills required for effective participation in a constitutional democracy.

The result, in 2018, was the Stanford Civics Initiative (SCI). SCI coordinates teaching on topics related to civics by regular Stanford faculty and senior fellows of the Hoover Institution, a think tank on Stanford’s campus. SCI also pays for three postdoctoral teaching fellows who offer two or three courses each year in the areas of political thought, history, and economics. Fellowships are financed by individual donors and foundations and managed by a volunteer faculty committee.

The Initiative has two primary areas of focus. The first is the development and implementation of an introductory course, Citizenship in the 21st Century, for first-year students. Next, and currently in development, is an academic minor in Civic Thought and Practice, to be offered to second- and fourth-year students, as well as an honors program.

In 2020, the Stanford University Senate approved a three-part sequence of courses, dubbed “COLLEGE: Civic, Liberal and Global Education.” First-year students are required to take any two of these courses. As a result, in the winter 2025 quarter, around 1,200 of the approximately 1,800 first-year students on campus took Citizenship in the 21st Century. Pending Senate approval, all three courses will soon be mandatory.

The course is taught seminar-style to groups of fifteen students (currently about fifty-three instructors teach around eighty sections), using a common syllabus designed and annually reviewed by a faculty committee (see text box for more about the syllabus). Each seminar meets twice per week. Students read texts that take contrasting positions on inherently difficult, value-laden questions on which students are likely to have diverse views. Class time emphasizes discussion, employing norms of mutually respectful civil discourse, and assignments include responding to discussion questions, annotating readings, a midterm paper, and a final paper.

The syllabus includes the following questions and topics: 
What is citizenship? Why should we study it? Can citizenship work in a divided society? How can we communicate across differences? How should we study citizenship? Citizenship as cooperation: Thomas Hobbes’s challenge and the dangers of free riding. Institutionalizing citizenship: constitutions, norms, and rules. Free speech in divided societies. Technology and citizenship. Race and the contested boundaries of citizenship. Immigration, naturalization, and taking on new forms of citizenship. Citizenship, diversity, and culture. Social class and citizenship. Economic inequality and citizenship. The threat of authoritarianism. Civil disobedience, exit, and revolution. The possibility of global citizenship.

Impact:

Stanford has now offered Citizenship in the 21st Century at full scale for three years—previously, the course was tested with only a small number of sections. Initial results of student evaluations are positive, suggesting it is meeting a real need.

Meanwhile, the minor and honors programs in Civic Thought and Practice are in the planning stages. The goal is to enable Stanford students with a serious interest in civics, regardless of their major, to take a coordinated sequence of advanced courses along several tracks, including constitutionalism and law, political thought, political history, and political economy.

Population Served:

First-year students at Stanford University are required to take any two of the available courses. As a result, in the winter 2025 quarter, around 1,200 of the approximately 1,800 first-year students on campus took Citizenship in the 21st Century. Pending University Faculty Senate approval, all three courses will soon be mandatory.

Learn more here. 

Page last updated in August 2026