printer friendly pagePOLISCI 230A: Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought (CLASSICS 181, CLASSICS 381, PHIL 176A, PHIL 276A, POLISCI 330A)
(Formerly
CLASSHIS 133/333.) Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and law, civic strife, and constitutional change.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Ober, J. (PI)
POLISCI 231: High-Stakes Politics: Case Studies in Political Philosophy, Institutions, and Interests (CLASSICS 382, POLISCI 331)
Normative political theory combined with positive political theory to better explain how major texts may have responded to and influenced changes in formal and informal institutions. Emphasis is on historical periods in which catastrophic institutional failure was a recent memory or a realistic possibility. Case studies include Greek city-states in the classical period and the northern Atlantic community of the 17th and 18th centuries including upheavals in England and the American Revolutionary era.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Ober, J. (PI)
;
Weingast, B. (PI)
POLISCI 232T: The Dialogue of Democracy (AMSTUD 137, COMM 137W, COMM 237, POLISCI 332T)
All forms of democracy require some kind of communication so people can be aware of issues and make decisions. This course looks at competing visions of what democracy should be and different notions of the role of dialogue in a democracy. Is it just campaigning or does it include deliberation? Small scale discussions or sound bites on television? Or social media? What is the role of technology in changing our democratic practices, to mobilize, to persuade, to solve public problems? This course will include readings from political theory about democratic ideals - from the American founders to J.S. Mill and the Progressives to Joseph Schumpeter and modern writers skeptical of the public will. It will also include contemporary examinations of the media and the internet to see how those practices are changing and how the ideals can or cannot be realized.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI, GER:EC-EthicReas
Instructors:
Fishkin, J. (PI)
;
Chang, S. (TA)
POLISCI 233: Justice and Cities (URBANST 134)
Cities have most often been where struggles for social justice happen, where injustice is most glaring and where new visions of just communities are developed and tested. This class brings political theories of justice and democracy together with historical and contemporary empirical work on city design, planning, and policies to ask the following questions: What makes a city just or unjust? How have people tried to make cities more just? What has made these efforts succeed or fail? Each session will include a case study of a particular city, largely with a focus on the United States. Students will develop research projects examining a city of their choice through the lens of a particular aspect of justice and injustice.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
Instructors:
Coyne, B. (PI)
POLISCI 233F: Science, technology and society and the humanities in the face of the looming disaster (FRENCH 228, ITALIAN 228)
How STS and the Humanities can together help think out the looming catastrophes that put the future of humankind in jeopardy.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
Instructors:
Dupuy, J. (PI)
;
Chen, T. (TA)
POLISCI 234: Democratic Theory (PHIL 176P)
Most people agree that democracy is a good thing, but do we agree on what democracy is? This course will examine the concept of democracy in political philosophy. We will address the following questions: What reason(s), if any, do we have for valuing democracy? What does it mean to treat people as political equals? When does a group of individuals constitute "a people," and how can a people make genuinely collective decisions? Can democracy really be compatible with social inequality? With an entrenched constitution? With representation?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
Instructors:
Coyne, B. (PI)
POLISCI 234P: Deliberative Democracy and its Critics (AMSTUD 135, COMM 135, COMM 235, COMM 335, POLISCI 334P)
This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern age? What kinds of distortions arise when people try to discuss politics or policy together? The course draws on ideas of deliberation from Madison and Mill to Rawls and Habermas as well as criticisms from the jury literature, from the psychology of group processes and from the most recent normative and empirical literature on deliberative forums. Deliberative Polling, its applications, defenders and critics, both normative and empirical, will provide a key case for discussion.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Fishkin, J. (PI)
;
Chen, K. (TA)
POLISCI 237M: Politics and Evil (ETHICSOC 237M)
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the political theorist Hannah Arendt wrote that ¿the problem of evil will be the fundamental question of postwar intellectual life in Europe.¿ This question remains fundamental today. The acts to which the word ¿evil¿ might apply¿genocide, terrorism, torture, human trafficking, etc.¿persist. The rhetoric of evil also remains central to American political discourse, both as a means of condemning such acts and of justifying preventive and punitive measures intended to combat them. In this advanced undergraduate seminar, we will examine the intersection of politics and evil by considering works by philosophers and political theorists, with occasional forays into film and media. The thinkers covered will include: Hannah Arendt, Immanuel Kant, Niccolò Machiavelli, Friedrich Nietzche, and Michael Walzer.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PUBLPOL 103C: Justice (ETHICSOC 171, PHIL 171, POLISCI 103, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include financing schools and elections, regulating markets, discriminating against people with disabilities, and enforcing sexual morality. Counts as Writing in the Major for PoliSci majors.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Reich, R. (PI)
;
Basu, J. (TA)
;
Kaufman, B. (TA)
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Instructors:
Reich, R. (PI)
;
Basu, J. (TA)
;
Kaufman, B. (TA)
;
Lenczewska, O. (TA)
;
Schwartz, A. (TA)
PUBLPOL 103D: Ethics and Politics of Public Service (CSRE 178, ETHICSOC 133, HUMBIO 178, PHIL 175A, PHIL 275A, POLISCI 133, URBANST 122)
Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service work and justice. Is mandatory service an oxymoron? History of public service in the U.S. Issues in crosscultural service work. Integration with the Haas Center for Public Service to connect service activities and public service aspirations with academic experiences at Stanford.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP
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