Welcome to the Program on
Constitutionalism and Democracy
 

    Our Mission:

• The Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy at the University of Virginia (PCD) promotes scholarship and undergraduate teaching that is informed by political theory and by the political science of the American Founding. 
• In its undergraduate Program, PCD has sought to revive the spirit and intent of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s “Rockfish Gap Report” (1818) that recommends a curriculum on political studies for higher education that is designed to foster an enlightened body of citizens for a liberal democracy. PCD has implemented a two-course sequence on the American Political Tradition taught by Program fellows, and it has begun to join with programs at other universities to form a consortium to encourage the development of similar courses across the nation.
• PCD also supports and encourages advanced scholarship on themes of political philosophy that focus on the foundations of liberal democratic government and on constitutional and institutional issues related to the American founding and the development of the American political system.