Political Science

Political Philosophy II

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Political Philosophy II PHIL/HIST/PSCI 0815 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Seminars History Philosophy Political Science Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

Each seminar runs only subject to sufficient student demand. This seminar explores western political thought at a crucial period in its development, between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. It centres on readings from key texts in political thought, informed by consideration of the wider historical and intellectual context. Among the major themes of the era were the religious strife generated by the Reformations, the intellectual aspiration for rationality, and the increasingly intensive governments developed by western European states, including their colonial ventures. (Foreign language texts are read in English translation: there is no language requirement for this course.)

Sample Syllabus

The Renaissance background
More and Erasmus
Reformation Political thought: Luther & Calvin
Jean Bodin
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
David Hume, Political Essays
Adam Smith
Voltaire, Political Writings
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality and The Social Contract

British Politics Since 1945

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

British Politics Since 1945 PSCI 0240 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

Since the Second World War, British politics has been in some ways stable and in others subject to radical change. The norm of two-party politics in the House of Commons has been undermined electorally and challenged by Celtic nationalism, anti-immigration politics and disillusion with the political class. Management of the economy by the government has been contested from the beginning of the period, although some see evidence of a post-war consensus on the mixed economy and the welfare state. The formal British Empire is no more, but Britain still seeks a world role in parallel with its semi-detached membership of the European Union. Attlee, Thatcher, Blair and others have sought to fundamentally change the character of the British state, but some continuities remain remarkably enduring.

European Politics

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

European Politics PSCI 0220 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This tutorial explores European politics since the Cold War. European states have grappled with a series of challenges since the collapse of communism. Familiar party competition between social democracy, liberalism and Christian Democrats has been dramatically altered by the end of traditional west European Communist parties, the rise of Green politics, and the insurgent anti-immigration far right. Politics in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia has become much less predictable now older certainties are eroded. At the same time, democratic transitions in eastern Europe have proven remarkably durable as the European Union has pushed for monetary and fiscal integration in the depths of crisis over the Euro. Nevertheless, rising Euroscepticism threatens to undo the process of integration, even as further crises emerge on Europe’s periphery.

Modern Africa

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Modern Africa PSCI 0200 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This tutorial explores Sub-Saharan Africa’s politics and history since 1945. The rise of African nationalism, the ideals of Pan-Africanism, and the decolonisation of the continent by European powers between 1945 and 1975 culminated in the democratisation of South Africa after apartheid in 1990-1994. Since those heady days, Africa’s fate has been contested and different to hopes and expectations. War and disease, especially malaria and HIV/AIDS, have killed many millions, but the continent’s economic and political renaissance has begun in some parts to refute catastrophe and disaster. Democratic transitions in the 1990s away from military rule and one-party states have led to success in some states, but not in all. Resource endowments, not least oil fields, continue to attract outsiders and reignited competition for influence. Ongoing environmental and ethnic conflicts present challenges to the African Union’s hopes of an African century.

International Relations

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

International Relations PSCI 0120 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

Since the Cold War International Relations has evolved significantly as a discipline. The failure of older theory to predict and explain the end of the superpower rivalry has meant a flourishing in new theory. At the same time, a more unpredictable world order has been a fruitful testing ground for rethinking ideas of the ‘democratic peace’, regional integration in the European Union and elsewhere, sub-state ethnic conflict and the purported ‘clash of civilisations’, the causes and nature of globalisation, the role of the IMF, World Bank and WTO, and the origins of a state’s foreign policy, amongst many others. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have further questioned the nature of international order and modern warfare and security, as has nuclear proliferation and the Arab Spring.

Nineteenth-Century Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Nineteenth-Century Political Thought PSCI 0060 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

The legacy of nineteenth-century political thought is long and enduring, having shaped the contours of twentieth and twenty-first-century political theory and practice. This course examines nineteenth-century political thought. It explores how the advent of democracy, and the competing visions of it, shaped fundamentally the preoccupations of nineteenth-century political thinkers defining the way they understood concepts such as equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, tyranny, and revolution.

Sample Topics:

Benjamin Constant, Political Writings

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

J.S. Mill, On Liberty

J.S. Mill, Subjection of Women

Robert Owen, A New View of Society

G.W.F. Hegel, Elements of Philosophy of Right

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Enlightenment Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Enlightenment Political Thought PSCI 0050 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

The legacy of Enlightenment thinkers has left an indelible mark on Western political thought. This course aims to introduce students to the main intellectual and political currents of the Enlightenment. It begins with an analysis of philosophical and political rationalism. It examines debates pertaining to concepts such as rights, obligations, power, progress, refinement, liberty, equality and political sovereignty. It traces the development of political ideas and practices through the eighteenth century and shows how Enlightenment political thought served as the impulse to the political radicalism of revolutionary Europe.

Sample Topics:

David Hume, Political Essays

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

Denis Diderot, Political Writings

Voltaire, Political Writings

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

J.-A.-N.C. Marquis de Condorcet, Sketch on the Progress of the Human Mind

Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment?

Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Renaissance Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Renaissance Political Thought PSCI 0040 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This course presents a detailed historical survey of political thinking in the Renaissance. It was during this period that many important and influential political concepts, such as virtue, liberty, equality, power, republics, kingship, and tyranny began to assume the forms that remain familiar to us today. The course analyses the philosophical underpinnings of those concepts, their historical contexts and development, and their changing constellations.

Sample Topics

Dante Alighieri, Monarchy

Marsilius of Padua, Defender of the Peace

Leonardo Bruni, The New Cicero

Coluccio Salutati, On Tyranny

Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier

Francesco Guicciardini, Dialogue on the Government of Florence

Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Nicolo Machiavelli, The Discourses

Ancient and Medieval Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Ancient and Medieval Political Thought PSCI 0030 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This course explores the development of western political thought from its Greek foundations through to the late Middle Ages. A historical overview of the progress of central political concepts is allied to a close reading of particular authors, with reference to the ways in which political thought related to broader philosophical, cultural and religious concerns.

Sample Topics:

Plato, Republic
Aristotle, Politics
Cicero, De Re Publica, De Legibus
Augustine, City of God
John of Salisbury, Policraticus
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae
Dante, De Monarchia
Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pacis

Classical Political Thought

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:20:53 +0000

Classical Political Thought PSCI 0020 / CLAS 0020 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/13/2020 - 16:20 Tutorials Classics History Philosophy Political Science Autumn 2022 Autumn 2023 Autumn 2024 Autumn 2025 Spring 2023 Spring 2024 Spring 2025 Spring 2026

This course covers the political thought of the ancient world, from Classical Athens to the Roman Empire. This period saw the formulation of fundamental elements in political thought: the state, justice, citizenship, notions of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy, and the concept of politics in itself. At the end of the period, Augustine of Hippo integrated elements of classical political thought into his Christian theology. Key thinkers are explored with reference to their historical and intellectual context.

Sample topics

Plato, The Republic

Plato, The Laws

Aristotle, Politics

Epicurean political thought

Cicero’s political thought (On Duties and other texts)

Seneca’s political thought

Augustine, The City of God