Political Science 193 Course Outline

University of the Philippines Visayas
Division of Social Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences

Political Science 193
(Modern Political Theory)

Instructor: Brian C. Ventura
Term: Second Semester AY 2009-2010
Class Meeting: TF 8:30-10:00 Room: CF AV106
Consultation Hours: MTh 2:45-3:45, TF 10:300-11:30, 1:00-4:00 or by appointment
Prerequisite: None Section:1 Credits: 3 Units
E-mail Address: brian.c.ventura@gmail.com
Office: Division of Social Sciences Faculty Room CAS Building

He that is to govern a whole nation must read in himself, not this or that particular man, but mankind…
……Hobbes
If you want to have peace of mind, have faith. If you want to be a disciple of truth, search.
…..Nietzsche

General Course Description:

This course will endeavor to understand selected modern political theories from Machiavelli to Alexis de Tocqueville.

Prerequisites:

It is necessary that students who will enroll in this subject have a good sense of, if not interest in world history. This is needed so students could visualize the time and space of the thinkers and their ideas to help in further comprehension. It is also important that students have interest in astutely dissecting voluminous readings to uncover the thoughts buried behind the philosophers’ works.
Course Objective:

What is the purpose of reading, carefully understanding and applying the ideas of political thinkers who lived centuries ago to a student of political science? There are many reasons. One reason is that the importance of ideas and topics that they have presented transcends the boundary of time and space. Another is the manner of their presentation of these ideas. By manner I pertain to the seemingly impenetrable way they structured their arguments that lead them into a certain conclusion about issues that are of central importance to the study and practice of politics. As much as we would attempt to provide answers to some of the points that the philosophers raised, it is correspondingly important to ask intelligent and intelligible questions for us to probe deeper into their ideas. Why did they think about what they thought? What do they hope to achieve by the articulation of ideas and practical (or probably impractical) prescription that they have provided? These will be the interest of the class in this course.

More importantly this course will go beyond merely repeating and verbalizing the ideas of these thinkers. The class will be introduced into thinking that philosophers’ ideas are product of the investigation and interpretation of the condition where they are contextualized. The class will be conducted in a manner where everybody’s task at hand is to participate, and hopefully contribute, in the continuous examination and construction and/or destruction of the spectacles employed to the study of politics.

Specifically the course will endeavor to achieve the following objectives:

• identify and understand the key concepts (like human nature, liberty, equality, democracy, justice, domination, power, revolution and relationships between individual and society and government and economy) that the thinkers are addressed
• locate the thinkers and their ideas of in their respective historical and spatial context
• explore the contemporary forms, applications and impacts of the thinkers’ ideas
• develop among students the skill of articulating, constructing and critiquing arguments based on the works of the political thinkers

Assessment Scheme:

Assessment of students’ performance in this class will be based on the following;

Components Grade percentage
Class participation 20%
Final Paper 30%
Comprehensive Oral Examination 30%
Quizzes and Assignments 20%
Total grade 100%

Class Participation: It is expected that students are prepared when coming to class every meeting. This means that he/she has read, reread, and dissected the assigned reading/s before entering the class. Coming to class means you are interested to contribute and learn in classroom activities. Class time will not be wasted by discussing the basic details in the assigned reading/s that could be understood by students upon reading. Participation in discussion means raising pertinent and well grounded points or questions and not merely reading the book in front of your teacher and classmates. Names will be called based on random picking from the class list, unless there are volunteers. It should be noted that class participation includes not only answering but asking pertinent and discussion worthy questions as well. You will also engage in informal debates and argumentation, therefore skill in construction, defense, and offense of argument is important. However, it is imperative that exchange of ideas should always be in a cordial and non-antagonistic manner. If you disagree to a certain idea, disagree in an agreeable manner. Monosyllabic answers should be avoided.

Quizzes and Assignments: Quizzes are not announced. They are given to check whether you have done your reading assignments or not. It is always in essay form. Assignments will be given either individually or as a group. It is important that when group assignments are given you should thoroughly discuss it with your co-members. Make sure that the group has understood both the instruction and the group output. Quizzes can be given to only one member of the group but the score will be credited for the whole. Peer learning is a valuable learning strategy. You should learn how to practice it.

Final Paper: Students will be asked submit a paper as an assessment of how they employ the theory in analyzing particular political phenomenon or of how they can effectively integrate concepts, construct arguments and communicate ideas in writing. Generally, the paper is expected to fall in at least one of these categories;
a.) pointing out anomalies or contradiction on the ideas or concepts that the philosopher developed, and proposing how to resolve or to clarify this anomaly or contradiction;
b.) comparing or contrasting the ideas of two or more thinkers and developing assessment criteria for judging who has a better position;
c.) examining the historical, social or political context that can help better explain the ideas of the philosopher;
d.) proposing a more contemporary understanding of certain ideas and or concept raised by philosophers discussed in class
e.) assessing the contemporary usefulness or the decline in popularity of the concepts or proposals advanced by the philosopher/s

The Final Paper must be submitted in three formats, a hard copy, a soft copy in Microsoft word or its Linux Open Office equivalent, and a PDF copy. The paper should be from 5,000 to 6,000 words in length, in Times New Roman (font size 11-12) or its Open Office equivalent. It must have a minimum of seven cited sources. Citations should be within texts (ex. Ebenstein 2000, 234 or Ebenstein 2000). For the list of cited literature format see the Reference section of this course outline.

The soft copies are to be submitted to the email address provided above. Follow this format in labeling your file attachment: Course, Surname, Title (ex. Pol. Sci. 193-Reyes; The Utility of Religion According to Machiavelli). Use this labeling format for both the Word and PDF files. Take note of the following important dates for the Final Paper;

End of Consultation for the Topic Outline Friday February 27, 2009, on or before 5:00 pm; due date for the Final Paper Thursday March 12, 2009, on or before 5:00 pm.

Be reminded that it is highly unlikely to have your topic outlines approved after the first consultation, it is therefore expected that by the time of the deadline for consultation all topic outlines have already undergone from two to four revisions.

Comprehensive Oral Examination: After discussing the readings students’ understanding and ability to analyze and evaluate the basic concepts discussed in the class will be assessed in a comprehensive oral examination. Students are expected to provide appropriate explanation and defense of their answers articulately. It is important that you will carefully understand the instructions for the oral exam because failure to follow the instruction will result to a grade of 5. The schedule of the examination will be announced near the end of the term. Depending on time availability, the exam may last from 30 minutes to 1 hour.

For effective studying take note of three levels of familiarity that you will need in order to succeed in the Comprehensive Oral Examination. The First Level is familiarity of the concepts, arguments and proposals of a philosopher and how they relate with each other. The Second Level is familiarity of how ideas of various philosophers relate with each other, be it obvious similarity, implied agreement or direct opposition. The Third Level is familiarity of how the ideas of the philosophers relate with their own milieu and with the issues and problems facing the study and practice of politics today.

Rating Scale and Grading Policy: Since due dates are nonnegotiable no grade of “INC” will be given in this class. Those who are unable to submit the requirement/s in due time will have a corresponding grade of “5.0” for that specific component. Conversion of the percentage grade into the final grade will follow this matrix.

Percentage Final Grade
Equivalent
100% 1.0
95-99% 1.25
90-94% 1.5
85-89% 1.75
80-84% 2.0
75-79% 2.25
70-74% 2.5
65-69% 2.75
60-64% 3.0
55-59% 4.0
54% and below 5.0

General Class Rules:

Attendance and Tardiness: Students with more than six unexcused absences will be automatically given a grade of five (5) unless he or she has formally dropped the course. It is the responsibility of the students to apply for dropping, not the course instructor’s prerogative. Arriving fifteen minutes (15 min.) after the start of the class is considered late. Arriving half an hour after the start of the class is considered as absent. Three late marks are equivalent to one absent mark. Being absent on the previous meeting/s means that it is your responsibility to review the discussion on the day/s when you were absent. You are an important participant in learning therefore your contribution in class room learning is highly valued.

Rule for Mobile Phones: Mobile phones should be set in silent mode inside the class. If you need to make an important SMS, MMS conversation, or phone call, you should excuse yourself from the class and conduct your business outside.

Due dates: Submission schedules for this class should be promptly observed. Late submissions of assigned works will not be accepted. It will be helpful if you finish and print assigned papers at least 24 hours before the due time. Be alert with any possible change of schedule so you won’t be confused with the exact due date. Do not hesitate to ask the Instructor if you are confused about schedules or formats of any assigned work. It is better to be sure than sorry.

Class Discussion: Names will be called based on random picking from the class list. Once your name is called the right and the duty to contribute to class discussion is yours. Refrain from asking impertinent, pointless, and elementary questions for you may only annoy the class and disturb the momentum of the discussion. Language is not a barrier for articulating ideas so long as mutual understanding is guaranteed. It is however highly encouraged that class discussions is to be conducted in English.

Student Responsibility: It is expected that students are reading and understanding the literatures assigned to or pertinent with the topic before coming to class. The role of the instructor is only to assess students’ performance. Grades are not made but only calculated by the course instructor based on the set of given provided by the students’ performance.

Course Schedule: The discussion will follow the sequence as outlined below. In case of any unforeseeable and unavoidable interruptions a make up class or a substitution class will be scheduled in a mutually convenient and feasible time and place.

Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is a serious academic offense punishable by a grade of 5.0 or expulsion. Students are expected to observe proper rules in citing sources and to provide appropriate credits to borrowed ideas. Cheating during examination and quizzes will also be subject to similar rules.

Consultation: In case you are not available during the consultation hours provided above you may arrange for an alternative schedule ahead of time. During consultation only the group or the person consulting is allowed inside the faculty room. You should wait outside if the instructor is not yet around or if it is not yet your turn for consultation. Observe proper decorum when you are inside the faculty room.

Points for better learning experience in this class:

On dealing with the literature: Not all the literatures are easy to comprehend. In order to better understand what the philosophers mean you need to read and reread their works. Reading it once is obviously insufficient. It will also be helpful if you consult various sources for different interpretations of the text. However, reading the interpretation of other authors must not be treated as a substitute to reading the original text. The list of references provided in this outline is not exhaustive. The library and the world wide wed have more books and other literatures that can help you in achieving the objectives of this class. The supplementary articles provided below may be useful for your paper. Inform the class instructor ahead of time if you need a copy.

Always have with you a dictionary to help in defining words and concepts in the philosophers’ texts that are still unfamiliar to you. It is wrong to assume that by repeatedly reading a concept that you can’t understand you will eventually get its meaning. Having such an assumption will prevent you from understanding some key concepts that are being addressed by a philosophers work. Remember that the goal of the class is to comprehend and analyze the theories and not just reread and repeat it.

About the Class Paper and other written assignment: Let the following serve as your guide in writing your paper. Demonstrate in your paper that you have thoroughly read and comprehended the assigned readings, cited literatures and class room discussion; organize your paper properly, take note of the flow of ideas; present an argument and demonstrate insights and capacity to evaluate and synthesize ideas, show interrelationships, explain cause-and-effect and incorporate a thorough library research; and lastly submit a neatly written paper free from grammatical and spelling errors, and ball point pen and whiteout corrections. To avoid loss of file save it in multiple disks and e-mail it to your address so you could check it anywhere you go with internet connection.

Topic Outline

A. Introductory Lecture
a. Political Philosophy and Political Theory

B. Niccolo Machiavelli
a. Introduction
b. The Prince and the Discourses
1. The Art of Politics
2. The Political Value of Religion
3. The Liberation of Italy
4. The Establishment and Maintenance of Rome

C. Thomas Hobbes
a. Introduction
b. The Leviathan
1. The State of Nature
2. The Social Contract
3. The Commonwealth
4. Rights of the Sovereign
5. Liberty of the Subject
6. Civil Law and Natural Law
7. Subversive Political Doctrines

D. John Locke
a. Introduction
b. Two Treatises of Civil Government
1. The State of Nature
2. The State of War
3. Slavery and Property
4. Political Society
5. The End and Limits of Government
6. The Right to Rebel

E. Jean Jacques. Rousseau
a. Introduction
b. The Social Contract
1. The Nature of Man
2. The Right of the Strongest and Slavery
3. The First Convention of Society
4. The Social Compact
5. The Sovereign and the Civil State
6. The Inalienability and Indivisibility of Sovereignty
7. The Infallibility of the General Will and the Limits of Sovereign Power
8. Law and the Legislator
9. The People and Government in General
10. Democracy, Deputies or Representatives and Voting

F. Adam Smith
a. Introduction
b. The Wealth of the Nations
1. The Division of Labor
2. Economic Value
3. Role of the Government

G. Marx and Engels
a. Introduction
b. The Communist Manifesto
1. Bourgeois and Proletariats
2. Proletarians and Communists
Socialist and Communist Literature

H. Friedrich Nietzsche
a. Introduction
b. The Antichrist
1. Revaluation of all Values
2. Attempts at a Critique of Christianity
b. The Genealogy of Morals

I. Alexis de Tocqueville
a. a. Introduction
b. Introduction Democracy in America
1. Tyranny of the Majority and the Power of the Majority Over Public Opinion
2. Democratic Nation’s Love of Equality more than Liberty 3. Equality, Free Institutions and Centralization of Political Power
4. Democracy and Despotism
5. The Coming Era of World Democracy

J. Concluding Discussion
a. In Defense of Politics
b. Political Theory and Political Philosophy

References:

Primary Texts:

Collins, Randal and Makowsky, Michael. The Discovery of Society Fifth Edition McGraw-Hill, Inc. USA, 1993

Curtis, Michael. The Great Political Thinkers vol. 1 and vol. 2 Avon Books New York 1981,

Ebenstein William and Ebenstein, Alan. Great Political Thinkers. Plato to the Present Sixth Edition Thompson Wadsworth Singapore 2000

Smith, Steven B. “Political Science and Political Philosophy: An Uneasy Relation” PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 33, No. 2, June 2000

Supplementary articles:

Affeldt, Steven G. “The Force of Freedom: Rousseau on Forcing to be Free,” Political Theory Vol. 27, No. 3, June 1999

Baumgold, Deborah. “Hobbe’s and Locke’s Contract Theories: Political not Metaphysical,” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 2005

Bryson, Valerie. “Marxism and feminism: Can the ‘unhappy marriage’ be saved?” Journal of Political Ideologies, Vol. 9, No. 1, February 2004

Campbell, Sally Howard, and Scott, John T. “Rousseau’s Politic Argument in the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 49, No. 4, October 2005

Forde, Steven. “International Realism and the Science of Politics: Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Neorealism,” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 2, June 1995

______________. ”Natural Law, Theology, and Morality in Locke,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 45, No. 2, April 2001

Friedlander, Eli. “Chambery, 12, June 1754: Rousseau’s Writing on Inequality,” Political Theory, Vol. 28, No. 2, April 2000

Glenn, Paul E. “The Politics of Truth: Power in Nietzsche’s Epistemology,” Political Research Quarterly Vol. 57, No. 4, December 2004

Grofman, Bernard, and Feld, Scott L. “Rousseau’s General Will: A Condorcetian Perspective,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 82, No. 2, June 1988

Hoffman, Stanley. “Rousseau on War and Peace,” The American Political Science Review Vol. 57, No. 2, June 1963

Knutsen, Torbjorn L. “Re-Reading in the Post-Cold War World,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 31, No. 3, August 1994

Kraynak, Robert, P. “Tocqueville’s Constitutionalism,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 81, No. 4, December 1987

Langton, John, and Deitz, Mary G. ”Machiavelli’s Paradox: Trapping or Teaching the Prince,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 81, No. 4, December 1987

Lorenzo, David, J. “Tradition and Prudence in Locke’s Exceptions to Toleration,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 47, No. 2, April 2003

Lukes, Timothy J. “Lionizing Machiavelli,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 95, No. 3, September 2001

Maletz, Donald J. “Tocqueville on Mores and the Preservation of Republics,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 49, No. 1, January 2005

Picket Brent L. “Nietzsche’s Ethics,” The Journal of Politics, Vol. 59, No. 2, May 1997

Putterman, Ethan. “Rousseau on the People as Legislative Gatekeeper, Not Framers,” The American Political Science Review Vol. 99, No. 1, February 2005

Sabl, Andrew. “Community Organizing as a Tocquevillean Politics: The Art, Practice, and Ethos of Association,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 46, No. 1, January 2002

Scott, John T. “Rousseau’s Anti-Agenda-Setting Agenda and Contemporary Democratic Theory,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 99, No. 1, February 2005

Skinner, Quentin, et. al. “Political Philosophy: The View From Cambridge,” The Journal of Political Philosophy Vol. 10, No. 1, 2002

Steger, Manfred B. “Ideologies of globalization,” Journal of Political Ideologies, Vol. 10, No. 1, February 2005

Steinberger, Peter J. ”Hobbesian Resistance,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 46, No. 4, October 2002
Talshir, Gayil. “Knowing right from left: The politics of identity between the radical left and the far right,” Journal of Political Ideologies, Vol. 10, No. 3, October 2005

Tetsuzo, Fuwa. ”Marxism and the 21st Century World,” Lecture at the Communist Party of China’s Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, Japan Press Weekly, Special Issue August 2006

Thomas, Paul. “Review: Four Books on Rousseau (And Another for Good Measure),” Political Theory, Vol. 29, No. 1, February 2001

Tuckness, Alex. “Rethinking the Intolerant Locke,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 46, No. 2, April 2002

Weaver, David R. “Leadership, Locke and the Federalist,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 41, No. 2, April 1997

Williams, Michael C. “Hobbes and International Relations: A Reconsideration,” International Organization, Vol. 50, No. 2, Spring 1996

Wingrove, Elizabeth, “Review: Interpretive Practices and Political Designs: Reading Authenticity, Integrity, and Reform in Jean-Jacques Rousseau,” Political Theory, Vol. 29, No. 1, February 2001

Young, T.R. “Marxism and Social Movements: Theory and Practice for Social Justice,” Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 28, No. 3, May 1999