166-219 Modern Political Thought

Note

Available as 166-319 at 3rd-year level.

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Normally 25 points of first-year Politics; students with only 12.5 points in Politics may apply to the 2nd/3rd-year coordinator.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

An accessible survey of the wide range of political ideas in western civilisation from Plato to postmodernism. In particular, the subject examines the development and principal arguments of the major schools of political thought in the past 250 years, especially those that have motivated and expressed the needs of large groups of people. The principal schools of political thought surveyed include: the Enlightenment, liberalism, Marxism, feminism, anarchism, syndicalism, communism, nationalism, fascism, socialism, social democracy, conservatism, the New Right, and environmentalism. Tutorial discussion centres on primary source documents for each school of thought, which are provided in the reading pack. Students who complete this subject should: have an appreciation of the extraordinary range of political ideas that have motivated and expressed the needs of large groups of people since Athenian democracy; be familiar with the development and principal arguments of the major schools of political thought in the past 200 years; have improved their critical and analytical skills in the area of political theory and their ability to express their ideas in written form.

Assessment

One 3000 word essay and a 2-hour open-notes class test. '

Prescribed Texts

None. A reading pack will be provided.