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 (sims@yorku.ca)

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 legitimacy and the fate of those excluded from political participation.

Required Reading:

Machiavelli, Selected Political Writings

Hobbes, Leviathan

Locke, Second Treatise of Government

Rousseau, The Basic Political Writings

Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Penguin)

Marx, Selected Writings (Hackett)

Mill, On Liberty and Principles of Political Economy

Reading Kit (Winter Term)

Format: Two lecture hours and one tutorial hour

Evaluation:

Term Test 15% October 17, 2006 (in class)

First Essay 20% -- 5-6 typed pages (Due: Nov. 28, 2006)

Second Essay 25% -- 7-8 typed pages (Due: Mar. 6, 2007)

Final Exam 25% -- in Exam Period

Tutorial A/P 15%

Important Note on Tutorials

Due to lower than expected enrollment, the 6pm tutorial has been cancelled, and the class will be split into two groups meeting alternating weeks after lecture in room ACW 307.

Important Dates:

Last date to drop a course without receiving a final grade: Feb. 2

Last dates to submit term work: Fall Term, December 6; and Winter Term, April 11

Final Examinations: start: April 11, end: April 30

Recommended Readings

Klosko, George, History of Political Theory Vol. 2 (Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995).

Shanley, Mary Lyndon and Carole Pateman, eds., Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991).

Macpherson, C. B., The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism (London : Oxford University Press, 1964).

Held, David, Models of Democracy [especially ch. 3] (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).

Miller, David et. al., eds., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987) [Or any good encyclopaedia or dictionary of political thought/theory].

Schedule of Weekly Readings

Fall Term

Sept. 12: Introduction: What is political theory?

Sept. 19: Machiavelli, The Prince in Selected Political Writings

Sept. 26: Machiavelli, The Discourses, in Selected Political Writings

Ð''Letter', Ð''Dedication', and:

BK I, chs. 1-6, 9, 12, 18, 26, 34, 55 and 58

BK II, chs. 1-3, 19 and 20

BK III, chs. 1, 3, 7-9, 41 and 43

Oct. 3: Hobbes, Leviathan, author's Ð''Introduction' and chs, 1-6, 10-11 and 13-15

Oct. 10: Hobbes, Leviathan, chs. 17-21, 24, 26, 29, 31 and 46

Oct. 17: ***IN CLASS TEST***

***Note: No dictionaries or electronic equipment allowed***

Oct. 24: Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Ð''Preface' to

ch. 7.

Macpherson, Ð''Editor's Introduction', pp. vii-xxi.

Oct. 31: Locke, Second Treatise on Government, chs. 8-19

Nov. 7: Rousseau, Ð''Discourse on the Origins of Inequality' in The Basic Political Writings

Nov. 14: Rousseau, Ð''On the Social Contract', Bks. I-II in The Basic Political Writings

Nov. 21: Rousseau, Ð''On the Social Contract', Bks. III-IV

Kant,