Political Science 442

Problems in Democratic Theory

What=s Democracy and What=s So Good About It?

 Spring, 1998

Here is the first update. It contains some summary of the main points that seem to have been raised by examining each student's response to the question of "what is democracy" and suggest some issues you might want to consider as you read assigned material. To see it click

Notes from first week and some guides for reading

Professor Bruce E. Wright

UH 506

email bwright@fullerton.edu

 This class in an advanced level political philosophy class. It will be an exploration of the nature of democratic political theory, beginning with some analysis of classical political philosophy, proceeding through some traditional works of democratic theory and ending with some analysis of alternative contemporary views of democracy.

 The class meets the upper division writing requirement for political science majors. The assignments will be three essays on the nature of democracy. Each essay will be read and criticized in detail both with respect to content and writing style.

 Class Schedule

 Weeks 1 & 2 Introduction of class members and some basic thoughts about traditional attitudes to democracy in classical and modern political thought.

 Weeks 3-4 Classical Republicanism

Each student should read Federalist # 10 and either Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America or Friedrich A. Von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom.

 Weeks 5-6 Classical Liberalism

Each student should read John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government

 Week 7-8 Contemporary Liberalism

Read John Rawls, A Theory of Justice.

 Week 9 Libertarianism

Each student should read Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia.

 Week 10 Contemporary Communitarianism as a Critique of Liberalism

Read Robert Booth Fowler, The Dance with Community

 Weeks 11-13 Contemporary Marxist Theories of Democracy

Each student should read Ellen Meiksins Wood, Democracy Against Capitalism

 Weeks 14-15 A Postmodernist Theory of Democratic Politics

Each student should read Ernesto Laclau and Chantel Mouffe, Hegemony & Socialist Strategy : Towards a Radical Democratic Politics.

Some of the texts may be found on the internet. For example, you can find Mills, Considerations on Representative Government at: http://www.knuten.liu.se/~bjoch509/works/mill/repr_government.txt

 Federalist Paper #10 can be found at:

http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm

I don=t know sources for any of the others but they might well be there. One virtue of getting a text from the internet is that you can download it into your word processor and search it for key terms.

 Assignments:

 Paper 1

 Democracy, as such, has seldom been praised in the tradition of political philosophy until the 18^th or 19^th centuries. Write a paper considering how your readings from The Federalist, Hayek or Tocqueville, and J.S. Mill respond to classical objections to democracy with the development of some sort of republicanism and/or liberalism and have been the basis of contemporary democratic thought and practice, especially in the theory and practice of classical liberalism.

 Paper 2

Considering what you have written in the first paper consider how contemporary liberalism, libertarianism and communitarian theory attempt to make sense of politics both in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Discuss the extent to which you think we can understand contemporary political discussion as arising from these theories and the extent to which the theories are a reaction to political events and interests. Do these theories make sense of the basic issues faced in an attempt to develop democratic politics in the contemporary world?

 Paper 3

Your final paper should be a consideration of the extent to which Ademocracy@ remains a viable concept in contemporary political theory and practice. Does the term have any real meaning, given the many alternative sorts of political action and political evaluation that refer to the concept. Is democracy good, and why?

  Goals for the class:

Each student should have a comprehensive understanding of alternative theories of democracy and how they apply to contemporary political discourse. This understanding should include the capacity to engage in intelligent discussion of relevant issues and the ability to write complex arguments related to these issues.