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 166-020 Modern Political Thought

Note

Formerly available as 166-219/319. Students who have completed 166-219/319 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Availability

2nd and 3rd year

Credit Points

12.5

Coordinator

Verity Burgmann

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of first year Politics subject. Students with only 12.5 points in Politics may apply to the second/third year coordinator.

Semester

2 (view timetable)

Contact

Usually a two-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial per week

Subject Description

An accessible survey of the wide range of political ideas since Athenian democracy until the present, from Plato to postmodernism and postcolonialism. 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 in the lectures include: liberalism, Marxism, feminism, anarchism, 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 and which include classical political essays such as Marx's Communist Manifesto and Mill's On Liberty.

Assessment

An essay of 2000 words, and a take-home test of 2000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A subject reader will be available.

  • I Adams, Political Ideology Today. 1993.
  • J Morrow, History of Political Thought. 1998.


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Email Enquiries:          Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au