POL381Y1Y L0101

Topics in Political Theory

Realist Political Theory

Themes

A survey of both historical and contemporary work in the realist tradition of political thinking.

Texts

Texts to include: Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War; Augustine, The City of God; Machiavelli, The Prince; Hobbes, Leviathan; Hume, The History of England; Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, The Federalist; Weber, The Vocation Lectures; Schmitt, The Concept of the Political; Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness; Shklar, Legalism; Geuss, Philosophy and Real Politics; B. Williams, In the Beginning Was the Deed; Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox; and several contemporary articles and book chapters.

Format and Requirements

Two hours of lecture per week (with attendance and participation to be noted and evaluated). Tentative assignments: (fall term): two short (ca. 1500 words) papers and an end-of-term test; (winter term): one longer (ca. 3000-3500 word) analytic paper preceded by a mandatory, graded, outline; (cumulative): final examination at the end of the academic year. Precise weighting to be announced.

Prerequisites

POL200Y1 or POL200Y5 or (POLC70H3 and POLC71H3)