This course aims to engage students with the major political and social thinkers who have shaped 20th and 21st century political theory. The course aims to explore how core political concepts like the state, liberty, democracy, revolution, leadership, and the political itself have been reformulated and contested in response to the crises and transformations of modernity. Consequently, this course will analyze and discuss the political thought of figures such as Hobbes, Rousseau, Constant, Tocqueville, Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Luxemburg, Schumpeter, Schmitt, de Beauvoir, and Shklar, situating each thinker's contribution within broader debates over the nature and purpose of political theory.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
Identify the key concepts, thinkers, and debates that define 20th and 21st century political theory,
Explain the historical and intellectual contexts that shaped major theoretical responses to the modern state, liberty, and democracy,
Analyze primary source texts to identify their core arguments regarding political authority, freedom, and social change,
Compare competing theoretical accounts of revolution, leadership, and the political across different thinkers and traditions,
Apply theoretical frameworks drawn from these texts to contemporary political issues and evaluate their relevance and limitations for present-day political practice,
Construct a coherent, textually grounded argument on a selected problem in modern political theory, demonstrating both oral and written communication skills.