PLT2140

Progress and despair: modern political ideologies and theories

(ART)

Michael Janover

6 points + 2 hours per week + First semester + Clayton + Prerequisite: A first-year sequence in Politics or the permission of the head of school + Prohibitions: COS2140, COS3140

Synopsis: This subject explores some crucial currents of thought on the nature of modernity, community, and liberty from the French Enlightenment until the present. The principal 'isms' of modern politics - liberalism, socialism, conservatism - are studied as both ideologies of progress and expressions of despair in the face of the massive changes in political, economic, intellectual and moral life of the last two centuries. Thinkers discussed will include Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche, Habermas and Foucault. Our key focus will be how these thinkers have characterised and imagined modernity in forms of utopian ideal and dystopian counter-ideal.

Assessment: Tutorial presentation (500 words): 10% +_Tutorial participation: 10% + Essay (2500 words): 50% + Examination (1.5 hours): 30%