Macheveli

AK/POLS 3490.06 POLITICAL THOUGHT IN THE MODERN AGE

Term F/W 2006-07    Tuesdays 7-10
Room: ACW 307
Course Director: John Simoulidis ([email protected])
Office Hours: Mondays, 3:30-5:30, TEL 3026
Course website: http://quartz.atkinson.yorku.ca/2006y-akpols3490a-06

Description: The course begins with the key writings Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau and moves on to a detailed study of liberal-democratic and socialist political theories, with a focus on their best nineteenth century formulations by Mill and Marx.  The constitution of political power and the relation of the modern state to civil society are analyzed with reference to the issues of sovereignty, justice, legitimacy, government, individuality, liberty, equality, justice, property, welfare, and social class. The forms of political association and participation are taken to be the foundations of political power and the political principles that regulate various styles of government. By the end of the first half of this course, among other things, students should be able to understand and evaluate the different analyses of the relationship between individual and state offered by Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, and to give an account of such ideas as Hobbes's view of the state of nature, Locke's theory of private property and Rousseau's concept of the general will. With Marx, the political economy of capitalism is presented alongside his political writings on socialism and the relation of state to civil society is shown to define the functions and rules of government. Mill's developmental model of liberal democracy will be analyzed next. The course ends with a discussion of some important 20th C contributions, bringing attention to the issues of limits of political le ...
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