Theater, a social institution established to re-create dramatic situations, will be examined here as a domain where key social and political issues are explored before a public. Reflecting the social situation of the time, theater itself has been -- especially during times of social crisis -- a facilitator of new social situations and ideas. For those who study culture, society, and politics, theater bridges the gap between the political theories and discourse of the time and the time’s manifested cultural forms. Certain dimensions of democracy– described variously as deliberative, agonistic, or performative -- represent a kind of political engagement -- critical for any democracy -- in which the key identity of its actors is that of citizens, and in which the good of society at large, and not that of a narrow interest group, is at stake. Utilizing diverse literary, visual, and theoretical sources, we will examine such questions as those posed by the Greeks on the rights and responsibilities of the ruler; post-revolutionary and post-romantic debates on how people should be governed, and on the need for a nation-state; the defense of the proletarian revolution and the contestation of emerging fascism in 1920s Europe; the political transformation in former communist block of East and Central Europe; the carnivalesque street performances and the theater of resistance in different parts of the world. This course includes a required online and/or out of class component. This four-credit course meets for fewer in-class hours than others but requires additional outside of class activities.