SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES

Department of Political and International Studies

Introduction to Political Study (153400001) 2010-2011

LECTURER

Dr. Rochana Bajpai (rb6@soas.ac.uk)

Office hours Term 1: Tuesdays 3.30-4.30pm, Wednesdays 5.30-6.30pm.

TUTORS

Dr. Manjeet Ramgotra (mr18@soas.ac.uk)

Dr. Christina Petsoulas (cp2@soas.ac.uk)

DESCRIPTION

This is a compulsory and core course for all students taking Politics degrees in the
Department and must be taken in the first year. It provides an introduction to the key
concepts of political theory through a study of classic texts and contemporary debates.
The syllabus is organized into six parts. Part I introduces key definitions of politics,
and the sub-field of political theory. Part II focusses on political obligation and
democracy. Students will be introduced to Hobbes‟ Leviathan, Rousseau‟s Social
Contract, Schumpeter‟s notion of democracy, and contemporary debates on
arguments for democracy. Part III is on freedom. Students will examine JS Mill‟s On
Liberty, Berlin‟s two concepts of freedom, the relationship of freedom to equality and
democracy, and a contemporary controversy over freedom of speech. Part IV is on
civil society. It comprises Tocqueville‟s Democracy in America, and recent debates
about civic society and democracy. Part V focuses on power and ideology. Students
will read Marx‟s selected works (The German Ideology, The Communist Manifesto,
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and Preface to A Critique of Political
Economy), the writings of Lukes and Foucault on the scope of power, and of Freeden
on ideology. Part VI is on contemporary controversies. It will introduce students to
recent debates in political theory on nationalism and global justice, multiculturalism
and gender.

AIMS

 To instil in students an awareness of political theory and its relevance to the

study of practical politics.
 To develop students‟ abilities to reason analytically about key political
concepts.
 To develop students‟ capacities to think critically about current political
debates.
OBJECTIVES

This course seeks to introduce students to

 Some basic concepts in political theory

 Key arguments of selected political theorists on these concepts
 Some core questions in political theory

At the end of the course, students will be able to

(i) Identify key concepts in the study of politics

(ii) Demonstrate knowledge of the differing ways in which theorists have
defined these concepts;
(iii) Identify and comment critically on the principal arguments of texts;
(iv) Begin to develop their own arguments.

The course seeks to equip students with the analytical skills needed to undertake
courses in political theory in subsequent years of their degree programme. It also
provides students with tools that other specializations may draw upon.

In addition, as this is the first term at university for most students, this course is
designed to help develop the following study skills:

 Careful reading
 Note-taking
 Presentation and verbal skills
 Participation and team-work
 Writing essays
 Time management and meeting deadlines

TEACHING ARRANGEMENTS

The course will be taught by means of lectures (one hour per week), and tutorial
seminars in which students meet in groups of around ten (one hour per week).

The lecture will introduce the main arguments on the topic for that week and suggest
areas to concentrate on in readings and discussions. It is intended to provide a starting
point for further exploration of a topic.
The recording of lectures is not normally permitted: students who have good reasons
should first apply to the lecturer for permission.

The tutorial seminar will provide an opportunity to explore the themes sketched in the
lecture in greater detail, to clarify difficulties in the understanding of readings, and to
develop your own ideas through discussion with others. The tutorial on a topic will be
held in the week following the lecture on the same topic.

The lectures will be held on Tuesdays at 2-3pm at Vernon Square in room V211
from the week beginning 4 October. You are also required to attend one tutorial

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session per week from the week beginning 11 October. Tutorial timings are listed on
the SOAS web timetable (www.soas.ac.uk/timetable/).
COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Assessment is based on examination and coursework. The examination comprises

80% of the final mark for this course, and will be held in May-June 2010. It lasts
for three hours, and you are required to answer three unseen questions out of a total of
around twelve. You will receive advice nearer the time on examination techniques
and revision. Please also consult the Undergraduate Handbook for advice on
preparing for examinations.

Coursework requirements are TWO essays of approx. 2,500 words each. The
essays comprise 20% of the final mark for this course. Essay questions are
provided below.

The deadlines for the submission of essays are:

Essay 1: Friday, 17 December 2010, 4pm

Essay 2: Friday, 25 March 2011, 4pm

The above are serious deadlines, essays handed in late without good cause (such
as illness) will be marked down at the rate of two percentage points per working
day. If you are unable to meet an essay deadline and wish to request that the penalty
be waived or reduced, you need to apply to the Faculty Office (Room 251, Russell
Square), as per the procedure set out in the undergraduate handbook for late
submission of coursework. Please note that only the Sub-board of Examiners has
the authority to remit the 2% per day penalty for late submission. Course
convenors and tutors cannot grant extensions or waive the penalty. No essay will
be accepted after the school deadline.

Please note that the completion of essays is a course requirement, not an option.
The failure to produce essays without good cause will result in denial of entry
into the examination (see Undergraduate Handbook).

You are required to hand in two copies of each essay so that a copy can be made
available to the external examiner. You are also required to complete the submission
form, which will be provided by the staff in the Faculty Office (room 251). One copy
of the form will be returned as proof of submission. Essays will only be accepted if
accompanied by the appropriate form. These should be written on a word processor.
Essays must demonstrate engagement with the relevant literature in the reading
list.

All work submitted as part of the requirement for any examination of SOAS,
University of London, must be expressed in their own words and incorporate their
own ideas and judgements. Plagiarism – the presentation of another person‟s
thoughts or words as though they were the student‟s own - will be heavily penalised,
and essays containing plagiarism will be graded 0. Direct quotations from the
published or unpublished work of others must always be clearly identified as such by
being placed inside quotation marks, and a full reference to their source must be
provided. If you summarise another person‟s ideas, you must refer to that person in

3
the text as your source and include the work referred to in your bibliography.
Plagiarism is an examination offence, and any cases will be reported to the Registrar
for appropriate action. Students should consult their lecturer or tutor if they are in any
doubt about what is permissible. Self-plagiarism is also not allowed. Where students
draw on their own previous written work, this must be clearly stated. Coursework
essays submitted for one course may not be used for another course without
acknowledgement or prior approval.

In addition to essays, students are also required to make tutorial presentations as

determined by their tutor, and to participate actively in the class discussion. All
students are expected to make at least one formal presentation for this course
during the academic year. The presentation/s can focus on one of the study
questions specified in the reading list, or alternatively, a question decided in
consultation with the tutor. Tutorial topics, questions and readings are listed below.

As per School regulations, you are expected to attend all classes that form part of
the course and to complete all course work. If you are unable to attend lectures or
classes, you should inform your tutor as well as your personal tutor. Medical
evidence will be required if absence is prolonged. If you fail to attend two
successive classes, you will be sent a letter of warning. Prolonged failure to
attend without good cause could result in your being denied entry to the
examination for that course.

WRITING ESSAYS

Writing essays is a course requirement. There are good reasons for this
requirement. First, while reading is an important and unavoidable way of getting to
grips with a subject, it is through writing that you know how much of your reading
you have understood. Second, writing is an important skill which forces you to
organise your thoughts and to learn how to communicate them effectively to others.
Third, writing essays gives you practice for writing examination answers. Finally, it
provides useful revision material. The following advice on writing essays
supplements that given in the Political Studies Undergraduate Handbook, which you
should also consult. In addition, you may want to look at more extensive expositions
on essay writing, such as Peter Redman, Good Essay Writing: A Social Sciences
Guide (Second Edition) (London: Sage Publications, 2001), copies of which are
available at the Vernon Square Learning Resources Area.

In writing essays, you are learning to deploy evidence and reasons in the form of an
argument in an original and critical manner. You can learn to do this by reading
actively, i.e. by studying how published scholars carry out these tasks. This almost
always means literally taking notes on what you read: these should flag the author's
key pieces of evidence and crucial arguments and include your own original and
critical reflections on them. These notes form the building blocks for your essays.

With reference to the form of the essay, the following general guidelines apply:
1. All essays should have an introduction (usually no more than one or two
paragraphs) in which you identify the problem raised in the question and briefly
outline how you are going to respond to it.

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2. Essays should be written in paragraphs (i.e. some ten to twenty lines of text). Each
paragraph should make a substantive point by presenting evidence and making part of
your overall argument. When you have finished that point start a new paragraph.
Paragraphs can often be linked so as to present a continuous and coherent argument,
i.e. the concluding sentence of one paragraph can point to the next major point to be
discussed in the following paragraph.

3. An essay must have a conclusion in which you briefly summarise the main findings
of your argument. Here you should express your own final judgement on the topic.
This judgement must follow on logically from the evidence presented in the body of
the essay. It cannot be a mere assertion of opinion: it must be supported by the
evidence, analyses and arguments which you have deployed earlier in the essay.

Be prepared for the hard fact that unless you happen to be not only a genius but also
an extremely gifted writer, you will find producing essays very hard work and will
discover that no first draft is ever a good one. Every essay, once written, can benefit
from being re-written and re-written again. Indeed, this is often when the best
insights emerge. If you want to have a good final product, you must start drafting as
soon as you have some building blocks in hand, and allow yourself time to do several
re-drafts at the end of your writing process. Similarly, every essay can benefit from
being looked at critically with eyes other than your own. You must take full
responsibility for the actual writing and for the final intellectual product. However,
sharing drafts with fellow students (and anyone else who is prepared to look at the
fruits of your arduous labours!) for comment is not only acceptable, but recommended
(again, as long as you don't let someone else do the thinking and writing for you).

With reference to essay presentation, the following general guidelines apply:

1. Essays should be typed using double spacing and wide margins to allow room for
your tutor‟s comments.
2. They must be submitted as hard copy. Versions on disc or via email will not be
accepted.
3. All essays must be properly referenced and have a full bibliography listing all the
books and articles used. Various referencing systems are available. You are not
required to adopt any particular system, but, having chosen one, you are required
to use it consistently. The following is an example for your guidance.

(a) Footnotes need to give the name of an author and the date of the text along
with the page(s) you are referring to. Thus: Levine 2002, p.24.Where an
author has more than one publication in the same year, you should
distinguish them by a, b, c.

(b) Bibliographies should take the following form:

For books: A. Levine, Engaging Political Philosophy: From Hobbes to Rawls

(Oxford, Blackwell, 2002).

For articles: J. Waldron, „Rights in conflict‟, Ethics 99 (1989), pp. 503-519.

5
Further guidance is available in the Undergraduate Handbook and in Peter Redman,
Good Essay Writing: A Social Sciences Guide (Second Edition) 2001, copies of which
are available at the Vernon Square Learning Resources Area. Please note that poor
spelling and grammar, inadequate or careless referencing and bibliography in
essays will affect your grade. The Learning and Teaching Unit (LTU) at SOAS
offers several useful courses on essay writing and language training, which you
should sign up for if you would like some help.

NOTES ON THE READING LIST

The reading list is made up of different kinds of readings: books, chapters in books,
journal articles, and study pack items. To help you navigate the lists, the readings are
divided into two sections: essential readings and further readings. The „*‟ sign
indicates a further reading that is particularly recommended. Study questions are
listed for each week to aid reading and tutorial work. All of you are required to do the
essential reading in advance of each tutorial. The further readings should be consulted
for your essays, time permitting. These have been included in the syllabus for your
convenience, both for this course and for the future.

To the extent possible, the essential readings and a few of the recommended further
readings have been included in the Study Pack. Please buy one from the Brunei
Gallery bookshop. The Study Pack has been designed primarily as an aid to tutorial
work: please note that for essays and examination answers, it is not sufficient to
rely on the study-pack alone.

It is essential to familiarise yourself with the SOAS library and its resources
(http://www.soas.ac.uk/Library/). You will be provided some training in the use of
electronic resources during a library orientation session in the first term. It is also
important that you spend time browsing along the library shelves. This will give you a
sense of the variety of writings on politics and will help you identify substitutes for
books on the reading list if necessary. We have tried to ensure that there are multiple
copies of important books, and/or that these are on short loan to increase their
accessibility. If there are significant omissions of relevant books, please do let us
know as soon as possible, and we will try to rectify this. In addition, London has some
of the best library resources in the world. For this course, you should use resources at
Senate House, Birkbeck, LSE and the British Library, all of which are close to SOAS.

The internet contains a range of resources which may be useful in the preparation of
essays and presentations. For journals, http://www.jstor.ac.uk is a very good site,
where one can access and browse past issues of many periodicals, do searches by
authors‟ names, titles, keywords. Another useful site for journals is
http://www.ingenta.com. Relevant journals for this course include Philosophy and
Public Affairs, Ethics, Political Theory, Journal of Political Philosophy, and the
Journal of Political Ideologies. For encyclopaedias, see the Stanford Encyclopaedia
of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu and
http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/ptbase.htm

Finally, course lecturers and tutors will have weekly office hours when they are
available to see students. You are strongly encouraged to use these to talk about any

6
questions or concerns that you have. Please do not be afraid to ask for help, guidance
or feedback.

READING LIST

GENERAL READINGS
D. Boucher and P. Kelly, Political Thinkers from Socrates to Present (Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 2003). [A320.0922/730089]
*T. Christiano and J. Christman (ed.), Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy
(Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). [A320.01/731015]
*J.S. Dryzek, B. Honig and A. Philips, The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006). [A320.01/967822]
R.E. Goodin and P. Pettit (eds.), A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy,
(Oxford, Blackwell, 2003). [A320.01/919626-7 or /968044-51]
I. Hampsher-Monk, A History of Modern Political Thought: Major Political Thinkers
from Hobbes to Marx (Oxford, Blackwell, 1992). [A320.09/686668 or /686378-80]
A. Heywood, Political Theory: An Introduction, 3rd edition (Basingstoke, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2004). [A320.01/917784 or /927705-07]
W. Hodges, Logic (London, Penguin, 2001), pp. 13-60. [A160/967887-8]
*A. Levine, Engaging Political Philosophy: From Hobbes to Rawls (Oxford,
Blackwell, 2002). [A320.01/951568-9 or /967903-10]
C. McKinnon, Issues in Political Theory (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008).
[A320.01/730995]
J. Plamenatz, Man and Society: A Critical Examination of Some Important Social and
Political Theories from Machiavelli to Marx, 2nd revised edition (London,
Longman, 1992), volumes 2 an 3. [A320.01/647389 or /685577-79 (vol II) and
A320.01/685578-685580 (vol III)]
*J. Rawls, Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy, ed. Samuel R. Freeman
(London, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007). [A320.01/727641]
P. Singer (ed.), A Companion to Ethics (Oxford, Blackwell, 1991).
J. Shand, Arguing Well, (London: Routledge, 2000).
*A. Swift, Political Philosophy: A Beginner's Guide for Students and Politicians
(Cambridge, Polity Press, 2006). [A320.01/967890-8]
*J. Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, 2nd revised edition (Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 2006). [A320.01/937180-2 or /967878-83]

READINGS WITH REFERENCE TO POLITICAL THOUGHT IN ASIA AND

AFRICA

Ibrahim Abu-Rabi`, Contemporary Arab Thought (Malden MA: Blackwell Pub.,

2004), pp 63-92, 203-222, 279-295. N297.197/968012
D. Bell, East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia (Princeton
Princeton University Press, 2000). CF320/829938
D. Bell, ed. Confucian Political Ethics (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008).
A. Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought (Edinburgh, University of
Edinburgh Press, 2001), pp 308-348. N297.1977/840209
M. Browers, Democracy and Civil Society in Arab Political Thought (Syracuse,
NY,Syracuse University Press, 2006). NR323.4/996772

7
P. Chabal, Africa: the Politics of Suffering and Smiling (London, Zed, 2009)
U320/729920
J. Esposito, Islam and Democracy,Vol. l, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996).
N297/1977/723986
Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Political Thought (Austin, University of Texas Press,
1982 and 2004), pp 125-159. N320.101/690687
M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, ed. A.J. Parel (Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 1997), JA320.54/754989
A. Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939 (Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1983), pp103-160 P892.785/784875
Keping Yu, Democracy is a Good thing: Essays on Politics, Society, and Culture in
Contemporary China, (Washington, DC, The Brookings Institution, 2009),
chapters 1-6; CC320.9/729549
Ali A. Mazrui, Power, Politics, and the African Condition, ed. R. L. Ostergard, Jr., et.
al. (Trenton, NJ, Africa World Press, 2004) U320.9/814491
Syed Abul ala Maududi, „The Political Theory of Islam‟, „Fallacy of Rationalism‟ in
Contemporary Debates in Islam, M. Moaddel and K. Talattoff, eds. (NewYork, St.
Martin‟s Press, 2000), pp. 207-21, 265-71 N297.197/931616
B. Syed Ahmad Khan, “Intellectual Pluralism and Freedom of Opinions,”
Contemporary Debates in Islam, eds. M. Moaddel and K. Talattoff (New York, St.
Martin‟s Press, 2000), pp. 109-121. N297.197/931616
Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India, (New Delhi, Penguin Books, 2004)
JA954/938681
A. R. Norton, ed. “Introduction,” Civil Society in the Middle East, v. 1 (Leiden, E.J.
Brill, 1995), pp. 1-25; see also vol. 2, pp. 4-16; NB323.042/746867
T. Pantham and KL Deutsch eds. Political Thought in Modern India (New Delhi,
Sage, 1986). JA320.5/685793
B. Parekh, Gandhi (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997). JA923.2/720293
A. Sami Zubaida, “Islam, the State, and Democracy: Contrasting Conceptions of
Society in Egypt,” Middle East Report, 179 (1992), 2-10 (ONLINE).
S. R. Schram, Mao Tse-tung (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1966) CC320.532/MAO/
444573
Mao, Zedong, The Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung, ed. and transl. S.R. Schram
(Harmondsworth, Penguin. 1969) CC329.02092/MAO/172573

TERM 1

PART I: POLITICS AND POLITICAL THEORY

WEEKS 1 AND 2 WHAT IS POLITICS? WHAT IS POLITICAL THEORY?

AS WEEK ONE IS FOR LIBRARY ORIENTATION, THERE WILL BE ONE

LECTURE ON THIS TOPIC. THE READINGS ARE FOR TWO WEEKS OF
TUTORIAL SEMINARS.

STUDY QUESTIONS

8
What is politics the study of? How do different approaches conceive of the subject-
matter of politics?

What is political theory? Why do we study political theory?

ESSENTIAL READING
A. Leftwich, What is Politics? The Activity and Its Study (Cambridge, Polity Press,
2004), pp. 1-40, 53-66, 100-134.[STUDY PACK; A320/932565-66; /935545-60 or
/931275-77]
A. Swift, „Political Philosophy and Politics‟ in A. Leftwich (ed.) What is Politics?
The Activity and Its Study (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2004), pp. 135-46. [STUDY
PACK; A320/932565-66; /935545-60 or /931275-77]
C.McKinnon, Issues in Political Theory, 2008, Introduction. [A320.01/730995]
[STUDYPACK]

FURTHER READING
Aristotle, The Politics (c.350BC). Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Available online at:
http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Aristotle.html [ONLINE].
B. Crick, In Defence of Politics, 5th edition (London, Continuum, 2005).
Chapter 1 is especially important [Chapter 1-2 are available ONLINE/Google
Books; A320/934732-5]
*R.A. Dahl, and B. Stinebrickner, „What is Politics‟ in their Modern Political
Analysis, 6th edition (London, Pearson Education, 2003), pp. 1-17. [STUDY
PACK; A320/951443-4]
A. de-Shalit, „Political Philosophy and Empowering Citizens‟, Political Studies 52:4,
2004, pp.802-18.
M. Freeden, „What Should the “Political” in Political Theory Explore?‟, Journal of
Political Philosophy 13:2 (2005), pp. 113-134. [ONLINE]
G. Gaus, Political Concepts and Political Theories (Boulder, CO, Westview Press,
2000). A320. 01/935705
D. Glaser, „Normative Theory‟ in G. Stoker and D. Marsh (eds.) Theory and Methods
in Political Science, 1st edition (New York, St. Martin‟s Press, 1995), pp. 21-41.
[STUDY PACK; A320.01/747481-5]
R.W. Grant, „Political Theory, Political Science, and Politics‟, Political Theory 30:4
(2002), pp. 577-595. [ONLINE]
D. Held, „A Discipline of Politics?‟ in his Political Theory and the Modern State
(Cambridge, Polity Press, 1989), pp. 243-59. [A320.1/684817 or /685760]
D. Held (ed.), Political Theory Today (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991), pp.11-21.
[Available ONLINE/Google Books] [A320.01/749685-90]
W. Kymlicka, „Introduction‟ to his Contemporary Political Philosophy: An
Introduction, 2nd edition (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 1-9.
[A320.5/903303 or /968212-4]
*A. Leftwich, What is Politics? The Activity and Its Study (Cambridge, Polity Press,
2004). Chapters 5, 6, 9-12 [A320/932565-66; /935545-60 or /931275-77]
D. Miller and L. Siedentop (eds.), The Nature of Political Theory (Oxford, Clarendon
Press, 1983).The introduction and the chapter by A. MacIntryre („The
Indispensability of Political Theory‟) are especially important. [A320.01/478213]

9
N. O'Sullivan (ed.), Political Theory in Transition (London and New York,
Rourledge, 2000). Chapters by P. Kelly and B. Parekh are especially important.
[A320.01/828335-7 or /933089-91]
*P. Pettit, „The contribution of analytical philosophy‟ in R.E. Goodin and P. Pettit
(eds.) A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy (Oxford, Blackwell,
2003), pp. 7-38. [A320.01/919626-7 or /968044-51]
J. Plamenatz, „The Use of Political Theory‟, in A. Quinton (ed.) Political Philosophy
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 9-31. [A320.01/952019-20]
J. Rawls, „Four Roles of Political Philosophy‟ in his Lectures on the History of
Political Philosophy, ed. Samuel R. Freeman (London, Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 2007), pp. 10-11. [A320.01/727641 or A320.011/951571]
D.D. Raphael, „Politics and the State‟ and „What is Political Philosophy‟ in his
Problems of Political Philosophy, 2nd edition (London, Macmillan Education,
1990), pp. 1-55. [A320/685715-6]
G. Sabine, George H. (1939) 'What is Political Theory', The Journal of Politics, 1: 1-
16 [ONLINE].
A. Vincent, The Nature of Political Theory, 2004.
S. Wolin, „Political theory as a Vocation‟, American Political Science Review 63:4,
1969, 1062-82 [ONLINE].

PART II: POLITICAL OBLIGATION AND DEMOCRACY

WEEK 3 POLITICAL OBLIGATION: THOMAS HOBBES, LEVIATHAN

STUDY QUESTIONS

What is political obligation? Why, according to Hobbes, should we obey the state?

ESSENTIAL READING
T. Hobbes, Leviathan, 1946 edition, chapters 13-20 [STUDY PACK].

FURTHER READING
I. Hampsher-Monk, A History of Modern Political Thought: Major Political Thinkers
from Hobbes to Marx, chapter on Hobbes. [A320.09/686668 or /686378-80]
J. Hampton, „Contract and Consent‟, in R.E. Goodin and P. Pettit (eds.) A Companion
to Contemporary Political Philosophy (Oxford, Blackwell, 2003), pp. 7-38.
[A320.01/919626-7 or /968044-51]
K. Hyams, „Political Authority and Obligation‟ in C. McKinnon, ed. Issues in
Political Theory (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008) [A320.01/730995]
J.Horton, Political Obligation (Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan, 1992).
G. Klosko, Political Obligations, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005).
A. Levine, Engaging Political Philosophy: from Hobbes to Rawls, chapter on Hobbes
[A320.01/951568-9 or /967903-10]
H. Pitkin, „Hobbes‟ Concept of Representation-II‟ in The American Political Science
Review, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Dec., 1964), pp. 902-918 [ONLINE].
N. Malcolm, „Hobbes‟s Theory of International Relations‟ in his Aspects of Hobbes
(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2002), pp.432-456.
C. B. Macpherson, „Hobbes Today‟ in The Canadian Journal of Economics and
Political Science, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Nov., 1945), pp. 524-534 [ONLINE]

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J. Rawls, Lectures on the History of Political Thought (see 3rd chapter on Hobbes)
A3220.01/727641
A. J. Simmons, Moral Principles and Political Obligations, (Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1979), especially chapter 2. A323.65/4481144.
*J.Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, 2006, pp.8-29, 34-61.
[A320.01/937180-2 or /967878-83] [STUDY PACK].

WEEKS 4 and 5 DEMOCRACY 1: JJ ROUSSEAU, THE SOCIAL

CONTRACT

STUDY QUESTIONS
What problem is Rousseau seeking to solve in The Social Contract? Is he successful?
What does Rousseau mean by the 'General Will'?

ESSENTIAL READING
J.J. Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762). Translated by G. D. H. Cole. Available
online at: http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm. [ONLINE, SELECTED
PORTIONS ARE IN THE STUDY PACK]

FURTHER READING
*C. Bertram, Routledge philosophy guidebook to Rousseau and the Social Contract
(London, Routledge, 2004). [Chapters 5-10; A320.11/723530 or /967861]
*A. Cobban, Rousseau and the Modern State, 2nd edition (London, Allen & Unwin,
1964). [Chapters 1-3; A320.1/215352; /305875 or /925194]
J. Cohen, „Reflections on Rousseau: Autonomy and Democracy‟, Philosophy and
Public Affairs, 15:3 (1986), pp. 257-297. [ONLINE]
D.M. Estlund, J. Waldron, B. Grofman and S.L. Feld, „Democratic Theory and the
Public Interest: Condorcet and Rousseau Revisited‟, American Political Science
Review, 83:4 (1989), pp. 1317-1340. [ONLINE]
*P. Gardiner, „Rousseau on Liberty‟ in J. Gray and Z. Pelczynski (eds.) Conceptions
of Liberty in Political Philosophy (London, Athlone Press, 1984), pp. 83-99.
[STUDY PACK; A323.4401/534772]
*D. Held, „Republicanism: Liberty, Self-Government and the Active Citizen‟ in his
Models of Democracy [2006 edition available ONLINE/Google Books;
A321.8/847230 or /842885-8 or /950921-4].
*A. Levine, „Rousseau‟ in his Engaging Political Philosophy: From Hobbes to Rawls
(Oxford, Blackwell, 2002), pp. 55-94. [partly available ONLINE/ Google Books;
A320.01/951568-9 or /967903-10]
*C.Pateman, The Problem of Political Obligation, 1985, pp.142-162 [STUDY-
PACK]
J. Plamenatz, „Rousseau‟ in his Man and Society: A Critical Examination of Some
Important Social and Political Theories from Machiavelli to Marx, 2nd revised
edition, Vol.2, (London, Longman, 1992), pp. 123-208 [A320.01/647389 or
/685577-79 (vol II)]
*J. Rawls, „Lectures on Rousseau‟ in his Lectures on the History of Political
Philosophy, edited by Samuel R. Freeman (London, Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 2007), pp. 191-250. [STUDY PACK; A320.01/727641]
J.J. Rousseau, Discourse on Political Economy and the Social Contract, translated by
C. Betts (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994). [A320.01/711248 or /847234]

11
M. Schwartzberg, „Voting the General Will: Rousseau on Decision Rules‟, Political
Theory, 36:3 (2008), pp. 403-23. [ONLINE]
*J.L. Talmon, „Totalitarian Democracy‟ in his The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy
(London, Secker and Warburg, 1955), pp. 38-49. [STUDY PACK; A321.9/437369
or 189115]
*R. Wokler (ed.), Rousseau and Liberty (Manchester, Manchester University Press,
1995). Chapters by J.H. Mason, R. Wokler, M. Cranston, L. G. Crocker and I.
Hampsher-Monk are especially important [advanced; partly available
ONLINE/Google Books].
*J. Wolff, „Who should Rule?‟, in his An Introduction to Political Philosophy, 2nd
revised edition (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 62-103.
[A320.01/937180-2 or /967878-83]

WEEK 6 READING WEEK

WEEK 7 DEMOCRACY 2 : SCHUMPETER AND BEYOND

STUDY QUESTIONS
How does Schumpeter define democracy? Is his definition convincing? Is it useful?
What are the main arguments for democracy?

ESSENTIAL READING
J.A. Schumpeter, „Two Concepts of Democracy‟, in A. Quinton (ed.) Political
Philosophy, pp. 153-88 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1967) [STUDY PACK;
A320.01/952019-20]
T. Christiano, „Democracy‟ in C. McKinnon, ed. Issues in Political Theory (Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 2008) [A320.01/730995] [STUDY-PACK]

FURTHER READING
*E. Anderson, „Democracy: Instrumental vs. Non-Instrumental Value‟ in T.
Christiano and J. Christman (eds.) Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy
(Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pp. 213-28. [A320.01/731015]
*A. Arblaster, Democracy, 3rd edition (Buckingham, Open University Press, 2002).
[Chapters 5-9; A321.8/845110].
R.J. Arneson, „Defending the Purely Instrumental Account of Democratic
Legitimacy‟, Journal of Political Philosophy, 11:1 (2003), pp. 122-32. [ONLINE]
*I. Budge, „Direct Democracy: Setting Appropriate Terms of Debate‟, in D. Held
(ed.) Prospects for democracy: North, South, East, West (Stanford, Stanford
University Press, 1993), pp. 136-55. [Available ONLINE/Google Books;
A321.8/936974]
*J. Cohen, „Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy‟ in D. Estlund (ed.) Democracy
(Oxford, Blackwell, 2002), pp. 87-106. [advanced; A321.8/936147]
*R.A. Dahl, On Democracy (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2000) [Parts I-III;
A321.8/843798-802] OR R.A. Dahl, Democracy and its Critics (New Haven, Yale
University Press, 1989). [Chapters 4-8; A321.8/660273; /685593 or /766543]
C.G. Griffin, „Democracy as a Non-Instrumentally Just Procedure’, Journal of
Political Philosophy, 11:1 (2003), pp. 111-21. [ONLINE]
R. Harrison, Democracy (London, Routledge, 1993). [Chapters 1, 9, 10 and 11;
A321.8/995223]

12
*D. Held, „Competitive Elitism and the Technocratic Vision‟ in Models of
Democracy, 2nd edition (Oxford, Polity Press in cooperation with Blackwell, 1996)
[STUDY-PACK]. See also Chapters 1-6 and 9 A321.8/847230 or /842885-8 or
/950921-4 [2006 edition partly available ONLINE/Google Books]
J. Higley 'Democratic Elitism and Western Political Thought', Comparative
Sociology, 8(3):2009, pp. 440-58.
*J. Lively, Democracy (Oxford, Blackwell, 1975). [A321.8/460718]
G. Mackie, „Schumpeter's Leadership Democracy‟, Political Theory, 37:1 (2009), pp.
128-53. [ONLINE]. See also Green, J.E. (2010) 'Three Theses on Schumpeter:
Response to Mackie', Political Theory, 38(2): 268-75, and Mackie, G. (2010)
'Response to Green', Political Theory, 38(2): 276-81 [ONLINE].
C.B. Macpherson, „Participatory Democracy‟ in D. Held et al (eds), States and
Societies, 1983.
*J. Medearis, Joseph Schumpeter’s Two Theories of Democracy (Cambridge, Mass.,
Harvard University Press, 2001). Especially important are chapter 4.
[A321.8/733488]
*D. Miller, „The Competitive Model of Democracy‟ in G. Duncan (ed.) Democratic
Theory and Practice (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 133-55.
[A321.8/480900; partly available ONLINE].
*D. Miller, „Deliberative Democracy and Social Choice‟, Political Studies, 40: S1
(1992), pp. 54-67. [ONLINE]
*A. Przeworski, „Minimalist Conception of Democracy: A Defense‟ in I. Shapiro and
C. Hacker-Cordon (eds.) Democracy’s Value (Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, 1999), pp. 23-55. [A321.8/951448]
*A. Swift, Political Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide for Students and Politicians
(Cambridge, Polity Press, 2006), pp. 179-224. [A320.1/967890-98]

PART III: FREEDOM

WEEK 8 JS MILL, ON LIBERTY

STUDY QUESTIONS
Why does Mill think liberty is important? What is the harm principle? Is it a useful
way of testing the legitimacy of restrictions on individuals?

ESSENTIAL READING
J.S. Mill, On Liberty (1859). SELECTED PORTIONS ARE IN THE STUDY PACK.
Available online at: http://www.utilitarian.net/jsmill/. This site provides an
excellent resource on Mill and utilitarianism, in general.

FURTHER READING
F.R. Berger, Happiness, Justice and Freedom: The Moral and Political Philosophy of
John Stuart Mill (University of California Press, 1984), pp. 123-31, 150-53, 290-
92.
*W. Donner, „Liberty and Self-Development‟ and „Liberty and Harm to Others‟ in her
The Liberal Self: John Stuart Mill’s Moral and Political Philosophy (Ithaka/N.Y.
and London, Cornell University Press, 1991), pp.160-197. [A171.5092/952033]

13
*G.W. Smith, „J.S. Mill on Freedom‟ in J. Gray and Z. Pelczynski (eds.) Conceptions
of Liberty in Political Philosophy (London, Athlone Press, 1984), pp. 182-216.
[A323.4401/534772]
*J. Gray and G.W. Smith (eds.), On Liberty in Focus (London, Routledge, 1991).
Especially the Introduction and the Chapters by J.C. Rees, J. Gray, C.L. Ten.
[partly available ONLINE/Google Books]
*J. Gray, „The Principle of Liberty‟ in his Mill on Liberty: A Defence, 2nd edition
(London, Routledge, 1996), pp. 48-69. [STUDY PACK; A323.44/951606-7]
I. Hampsher-Monk, „John Stuart Mill‟ in his A History of Modern Political Thought:
Major Political Thinkers from Hobbes to Marx (Oxford, Blackwell, 1992), pp.
339-408. [partly available ONLINE/Google Books; A320.09/686668 or /686378-
80]
*A. Levine, „Mill‟ in his Engaging Political Philosophy: From Hobbes to Rawls
(Oxford, Blackwell, 2002), pp. 128-77. [STUDY PACK; partly available
ONLINE/Google Books; A320.01/951568-9 or /967903-10]
H.O. Pappe, „Mill and Tocqueville‟, Journal of the History of Ideas, 25:2 (1964): pp.
217-34. [ONLINE]
*J. Rawls, „Lecture on Mill‟ in his Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy, ed.
Samuel R. Freeman (London, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007),
pp. 251-318. [A320.01/727641]
*J.C. Rees, „The Principle of Liberty‟ in A. Ryan (ed.) Mill: the Spirit of the Age, on
Liberty, the Subjection of Women (New York, W.W. Norton, 1997), pp. 294-310.
and also published as 'A Re-Reading of Mill on Liberty', Political Studies, 8, 1960:
113-129 [ONLINE].
*A. Ryan, „On Liberty: Beyond Duty to Personal Aesthetics‟ in his The Philosophy of
John Stuart Mill, 2nd edition (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1987), pp. 233-56.
[A192/542560]
C.L. Ten, „Mill and Liberty‟, Journal of the History of Ideas, 30:1 (Jan.-Mar. 1969):
pp. 47-68. [ONLINE]
*C.L. Ten, Mill on Liberty (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1980). [A323.44092/446228]
N. Urbinati and A. Zakarias, John Stuart Mill’s Political Theory: a Bicentennial
Reassessment (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007). [advanced]
R. Vernon, „John Stuart Mill and Pornography: Beyond the Harm Principle‟, Ethics,
106:3 (1996): pp. 621-632. [ONLINE]
*J. Wolff, „The Place of Liberty‟ in his An Introduction to Political Philosophy
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 104-32. [STUDY PACK;
A320.01/937180-2 or /967878-83]

WEEK 9 MORE ON MILL AND FREE SPEECH

STUDY QUESTIONS
Can speech harm? If so, should it be restricted? Should the state restrict people‟s
freedom for their own good?

ESSENTIAL READING
Feinberg, Joel, 'Harmless Wrongdoing and Offensive Nuisances', in his Rights,
Justice, and the Bounds of Liberty: Essays in Social Philosophy, 1980 [STUDY
PACK], A323/448989.

FURTHER READING

14
A. Brown, „The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006: a Millian response‟, Critical
Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 11:1 (2008), pp. 1-24.
[ONLINE]
D. Braddon-Mitchell and C. West, „What is Free Speech?‟, Journal of Political
Philosophy, 12:4 (2004), pp. 437-60. [ONLINE]
P. Devlin, The Enforcement of Morals (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1965).
[A344.2/328066]
*G. Dworkin, „Paternalism‟ in R. Wasserstrom (ed.) Morality and the Law
(Wadsworth, 1971). [A340.112/348105]
O.M. Fiss, „ The Silencing Effect of Speech‟ in his The Irony of Free Speech (New
Haven, Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 5-26. [A323.4430973/995204]
D. Jacobson, „Mill on Liberty, Speech and the Free Society‟, Philosophy and Public
Affairs, 29: 3, 2000: 276-309. [ONLINE]
C.A. MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law, 1987, pp. 127-
213. [A342.6134/665221]
*B. Parekh, 'The Rushdie Affair: Research Agenda for Political Philosophy', Political
Studies, 38, 1990: 695-709, also in W. Kymlicka, Will (ed.) The Rights of Minority
Cultures (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 3-3-20. [ONLINE];
A323.1/968642-5]
D. Richards, „Toleration and Free Speech‟, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 17: 4,
1988: 323 -336, [ONLINE].
T. Scanlon, „A Theory of Freedom of Expression‟, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1:
2 (1972): 204-226. [ONLINE] (advanced)
*J. Waldron, 'Rushdie and Religion' in his Liberal Rights: Collected Papers, 1981-
1991 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 134-43. (on offence and
and free speech). [A323/751551]

CASE STUDY: THE DANISH CARTOON CONTROVERSY

*The Danish Cartoon Affair: Free Speech, Racism, Islamism, and Integration in
International Migration, 44: 5 (2006); articles by Modood, Tariq “The Liberal
Dilemma: Integration or Vilification”; Hansen, Randall, “The Danish Cartoon
Controversy: A Defence of Liberal Freedom”; Bleich, Eric, “On Democratic
Integration and Free Speech: Response to Tariq Modood and Randall Hansen”
[ONLINE]

WEEK 10 NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE FREEDOM

STUDY QUESTIONS
How does Berlin draw the distinction between negative and positive liberty? Do
„freedom from‟ and „freedom to‟ refer to distinct concepts of freedom?

ESSENTIAL READING
I. Berlin, „Two Concepts of Liberty‟ in D. Miller (ed.) Liberty (Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 1991), 33-57 [STUDY PACK; A323.44/860760] or in I. Berlin,
Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1969), 118-72.
[A123.5/705680, /746030 or /530616]

FURTHER READING

15
I. Carter, „Positive and Negative Liberty‟ in E.N. Zalta (ed.) The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring 2003 Edition, available at
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2003/entries/liberty-positive-negative.
[ONLINE]
J. Christman, „Saving Positive Freedom‟, Political Theory, 33:1 (2005), pp. 79-88.
[ONLINE]
Galston, W.A. 'Moral Pluralism and Liberal Democracy: Isaiah Berlin's Heterodox
Liberalism', The Review of Politics, 71 (2009): 85-99.
*F.A. Hayek, „Freedom and Coercion‟ in D. Miller (ed.) Liberty (Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 1991), pp. 80-99 . [A323.44/860760]
*G. MacCallum, „Negative and Positive Freedom‟ in D. Miller (ed.) Liberty (Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 100-22. [A323.44/860760]. Also in The
Philosophical Review, 76:3 (1967): pp. 312-334. [ONLINE]
*D. Miller, „Introduction‟ in his Liberty (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991), pp.
1-20. [A323.44/860760]
E. Nelson, „One or Two Concepts Liberty: One Concept Too Many?‟, Political
Theory, 33:1 (2005), pp. 58-78. [ONLINE]
*A. Swift, „Part II: Liberty‟ in his Political Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide for
Students and Politicians (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2006), pp. 51-90.
[A320.1/967890-98] [STUDY PACK]
*C. Taylor, „What‟s Wrong with Negative Liberty‟ in D. Miller (ed.) Liberty (Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 141-62. [STUDY PACK; A323.44/860760]

WEEK 11 FREEDOM, EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

STUDY QUESTIONS

Does poverty undermine liberty? How, if at all, are democracy and individual
freedom related?

ESSENTIAL READING
G.A. Cohen, „Capitalism, Freedom and the Proletariat‟ in D. Miller (ed.) Liberty
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 163-82. [STUDY PACK;
A323.44/860760]

Q. Skinner, „The Paradoxes of Political Liberty‟ in D. Miller (ed.) Liberty (Oxford,

Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 183-206. [STUDY PACK; A323.44/860760]
or „Free States and Individual Liberty‟ in his Liberty Before Liberalism
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998. [A323.44/860760 or
A323.44/951447]

FURTHER READING
G.A. Cohen, „The Structure of Proletarian Unfreedom‟, Philosophy and Public
Affairs, 12:1 (1983), pp. 3-33. [ONLINE]
K. Dowding, „Can Capabilities Reconcile Freedom and Equality? Journal of Political
Philosophy, 14:3, 2006 [ONLINE]
R. Dworkin, „Do Liberty and Equality Conflict?‟ in Paul Barker ed. Living as Equals,
(Oxford, Oxford University Press,1996).

16
M. Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press,
1962). A330.122/172875
P. Pettit, „Negative Liberty, Liberal and Republican‟, European Journal of
Philosophy, 1:1 (1993), pp. 15-38. [ONLINE]
P. Pettit, „Keeping Republican Freedom Simple: On a Difference with Quentin
Skinner‟, Political Theory, 30:3 (2002), pp. 339-56. [ONLINE]
A. Ryan ed., The Idea of Freedom Essays in Honour of Isaiah Berlin (Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 1979).
A. Sen, „Well-being, Agency and Freedom‟, Journal of Philosophy 82, 1985, 169-
221.
Q. Skinner, Liberty before Liberalism, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1998). A323.44/951447
C. Sypnowich, The Egalitarian Conscience: Essays in Honour of G. A. Cohen
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006). [advanced; A335.41/983932]
*J. Waldron, „Rights,‟ in R. Goodin & P. Pettit (ed.) A Companion to Contemporary
Political Philosophy (Oxford, Blackwell, 2003), pp. 575-85. [A320.1/968044-51
(2003 ed.) or A320.1/726015 (2007 ed.)]
*J. Waldron, „Homelessness and the issue of freedom‟ in R. E. Goodin and P. Pettit
(eds.) Contemporary Political Philosophy: an Anthology, 2nd edition, (Oxford,
Blackwell, 2006), pp. 432-48. [STUDY PACK] A320.1/967914-21

QUESTIONS FOR FIRST ESSAY (DUE FRIDAY 17 DECEMBER 2010)

1. What are the strengths, and the weaknesses, of the different definitions of
politics that you have studied?

2. Why should we obey the law? Discuss with reference to Hobbes.

3. Is Rousseau an enemy of freedom?

4. To what extent is Schumpeter‟s „competitive elitism’ a theory of democracy?

5. Why is liberty valuable? When can it be legitimately restricted? Discuss with

reference to JS Mill.

6. Is there only one concept of freedom? Discuss with reference to Berlin.

17