The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to the general concepts and approaches used in political studies. We will do this by providing an overview of the ideas, practices and institutions that inform political life both in theory and practice. We will examine these ideas and practices from a broad perspective with special attention paid to the Canadian and North American context, as well as the political, cultural and ethical challenges to liberal democracy in the 21st century.
This course will examine the major issues, questions, and concepts in the history of political thought as they are explored and illuminated in the works of important figures from ancient to modern times. We will pay particular attention to elucidating the theoretical origins and development of liberal democracy, especially through the contrast between ancient and modern thought, and by analyzing the reservations about modern liberalism expressed by liberalism’s friendly and not-so-friendly critics. Thinkers studied will include Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
This course explores the political thought of the ancient world. It focuses primarily on the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, but can also include the Pre-Socratics, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch and others. Topics include the question of justice and the best regime, both in political history and political philosophy.
This course will examine the ideas and important works of the major figures in early modern political thought with a view to exploring such issues as the emergence of political realism, the formulation of natural rights theory, the relation of science and society, and the development of modern constitutionalism. The thinkers studied will include some or all of the following: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, Descartes and Locke.
This course will examine the development of American Political Thought from colonial to contemporary times. It will focus on the American understanding of rights and constitutional government, as well as the issues of freedom and equality as they emerged in the Founding era, the Civil War period, the progressive era and in the current debates about the role of race and gender in American society. Thinkers and works studied will include Franklin, the Federalist Papers, Emerson, Henry Adams, W.E.B. DuBois and Susan Moller Okin.
This class explores the institutional and conceptual framework of liberal democracy in America and brings to light some of its potential benefits and costs. We examine the theoretical foundations of the American political system and the major institutions and actors in American government, including Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court. We also study elections, focusing on the presidential election of 2012.
This course will examine the core elements of the continental strain of modern political thought as it related to the question of political legitimacy and sovereignty, to the moral and political claims of reason, and to the emergence of history and culture as a focus of political philosophy. The thinkers studied will include some or all of the following: Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche.
The aim of this course is to examine the origin and development of the English Liberal tradition from the early modern period through to the nineteenth-century. We will explore the philosophical foundations of the main elements of classical liberalism including civil liberties, religious toleration, the spirit of commerce, and constitutional government. We will also examine the way these core liberal commitments changed or were modified in response to various challenges to liberal assumptions posed by conservative critics, by radicals calling for greater equality, and by the rise of utilitarianism. Thinkers studied may include Locke, Hume, Burke, Paine, Wollstonecraft and J.S. Mill.
This course examines in detail the structural and ideological aspects of
the media in Canada and the world. Topics considered include the
political economy of the media, its relationship to the political
process and the internal structure of media institutions as they fulfill
ideological function.