I started my class called “Modern Political Ideology” today and was pleased to see that we are reading, Plato, Marx, Rousseau, Locke, Solzhenitsyn, and Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, and Schumpeter. Iam pumped for this. I never expected my school to allow these ideas fair game in a discussion class. I’ve also noted that the last 4 classes i have taken have mentioned libertarianism (except one, but the professor brought up Ron Paul. It was banking class, but was sympathetic to the cause)
Here’s the syllabus, there may be some readings here people have not read, I don’t know.
II. DEMOCRACY
9/6. Democracy in ancient Greece.
Required:
Pericles’ “Funeral Oration” from Thucydides, The History of Peloponnesian War (see Oncourse)
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_thucydides_funeral.htm
9/8. A critique of democracy.
Required:
Plato, The Republic (selections from Books 6 and 8 posted on Oncourse).
The full text is available here: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html
9/13. A defense of democracy.
Rousseau, The Social Contract (selections) in David Wootton, Modern Political Thought: Readings from Machiavelli to Nietzsche, Hackett, 2008, 2nd enlarged ed.
Required:
Book I, ch. 1, 6-8;
Book II, ch. 1-4;
Book III, ch. 4, 15,
Book IV, ch. 1-2.
9/15. What are the real advantages of democracy?
Required:
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (selections).
Volume II, Part II, Chapter 6: “WHAT ARE THE REAL ADVANTAGES THAT AMERICAN SOCIETY GAINS FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF DEMOCRACY? (pp. 375-400)
http://files.libertyfund.org/files/2286/Tocqueville_1532.02_LFeBk.pdf
9/20. The dangers of democracy.
Required:
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (selections).
Volume II, Part II, Chapters 7-8: “OF THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE MAJORITY IN THE UNITED STATES AND ITS EFFECTS” and “OF WHAT TEMPERS TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY IN THE UNITED STATES” (pp. 402-420;424-450)
http://files.libertyfund.org/files/2286/Tocqueville_1532.02_LFeBk.pdf
9/22. How does democracy work in reality?
Required:
Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (selections)
Chapters 21-23 (Oncourse)
9/27. CLASS DISCUSSION. Democracy between ideal and reality. Which of the three authors studied thus far (Thucydides/Pericles, Plato, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and Schumpeter) has a better theory of democracy? And what would they say if they visited America today? Review of the texts studied in class.
9/29. PAPER # 1 DUE IN CLASS FOLLOWED BY CLASS DISCUSSION. Your paper should answer the following two questions: Can democracy be exported in the world? Are there significant differences between different versions of democracy around the globe? There are various ways of answering these questions and you are free to choose the best ones that suit you. You will be asked to do some research into contemporary subjects that could shed light on these questions. Choosing relevant contemporary examples is essential. Also make sure to select specific passages and themes from the authors studied in class and discuss their contemporary relevance for this paper.
III. LIBERALISM
10/4. Political liberalism (I)
Required:
Hobbes, Leviathan, chs. 13 and 17, in Wootton, ed., Modern Political Thought
Locke, Second Treatise in Wootton, ed., Modern Political Thought.
The following sections from Locke are required (the Roman number designate the chapter, the Arabic one designates the section). II: 4-8; II: 13; III: 19-21; IV: 22; V: 27-32; V: 36; VII: 87-90; VII: 93, VIII: 95-99; VIII: 121).
10/6. Political Liberalism (II)
Required:
Locke, Second Treatise in Wootton, ed., Modern Political Thought.
IX: 123-131; XI: 134-142; XIII: 149, 155; XIX: 211-212, 214-217, 219, 221, 225, 240, 242-243.
10/11. Political liberalism (III)
Required:
Locke, selections from A Letter on Toleration (Oncourse)
I. Kant, “What is Enlightenment” in Wootton, ed., Modern Political Thought, pp. 522-25.
10/13. Political liberalism (IV)
Required:
J. S. Mill, On Liberty, Chapters 1, 2 in Wootton, ed., Modern Political Thought
10/18. CLASS DISCUSSION. Applications of Mill’s principles.
Required:
J. S. Mill, On Liberty, Ch. 5 in Wootton, ed., Modern Political Thought
10/20. MID-TERM (IN CLASS) EXAM.
10/25. Classical liberalism (I)
Required:
Leonard E. Read, “I, Pencil,” http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapters 1-3
http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN1.html
F. A. von Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” (text posted on Oncourse)
10/27. Classical liberalism (II)
Required:
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part 4, Chapter XV. The Market.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Mises/HmA/msHmA.html
The following sections of this chapter are required: 1. The Characteristics of the Market Economy; 3. Capitalism; 4. The Sovereignty of Consumers; 6. Freedom; 8. Entrepreneurial Profit and Loss
11/1. Libertarianism
Required:
Murray Rothbard, For a New Liberty (selections), pp. 21-29, 39-50, 56-70, 119-124, 126-129, 134-136. http://mises.org/rothbard/foranewlb.pdf
[also http://mises.org/rothbard/newliberty.asp]
11/3. PAPER # 2 DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS FOLLOWED BY CLASS DISCUSSION.### Topic: How do the post-2008 crisis lessons fit the theory of economic classical liberalism regarding the virtues and functioning of the free market? How much state involvement do we need today?
(That should be fun to write)
IV. CONSERVATISM
11/8. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
Required: Wootton, ed., Modern Political Thought, pp. 502-21.
11/10. Required: Michael Oakeshott, On Being Conservative (Oncourse)
Robert Bork, “Modern Liberalism and Cultural Decline” (Oncourse)
11/15. Required: Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, pp. 25-81.
11/17. CLASS DISCUSSION. Conservatism in America today. What is the future of conservatism in the 21st century?
Required: Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, pp. 81-91, 336-347.
Ralph Reed, “A Religious Conservative Vision for America” (Oncourse)
V. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM
11/22. Socialism and Communism in theory
Required: Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question, Alienated Labor, Theses on Feuerbach, The German Ideology, in: David Wootton ed., Modern Political Thought, pp. 764-782, 790-797.
11/29: Communism and social democracy
Required:
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto in: David Wootton ed., Modern Political Thought, pp. 798-815.
Edward Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism, Part III: “The Tasks and Possibilities of Social Democracy.” The following sections are required (the others are optional):
III, c: Democracy and Socialism; III, d: The Most Pressing Problems of Social Democracy.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bernstein/works/1899/evsoc/index.htm
12/1. Communism in practice
Required: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Solzhenitsyn Reader, ISI Books, 2006, pp. 87-101, 223-237, 253-273, 561-575.