Prof. Robert Adcock Psc 8107. Spring 2011

Prof. Robert Adcock Psc 8107. Spring 2011

Prof. Robert Adcock PSc 8107. Spring 2011

Email: Mon 3:30-5:30

Office: 416 Monroe Hall of Government Office Hours: Wed 2:00-4:00

Political Science 8107: Modern Political Thought and Ideologies

Course Overview

In his introduction to Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville declares: “A new political science is needed for a world altogether new.” Tocqueville’s claim reflects a dynamic interaction between socio-economic change, political change, and intellectual change that is both a recurring topic and dilemma for modern political thought. This dynamic provides the thematic focus of our study of modern political thought and ideologies. We explore how major Western thinkers from the 18th through early 20th century envisioned grand transformative processes—conceptualized as “civilization,” “progress,” or later “rationalization”—that they saw giving rise to, and continuing within, “modern” societies and economies. We ask, in turn, how these visions of transformation were refracted within the claims, hopes, and anxieties of their political theories.

We address these questions in two periods. First we look at the 18th-century Enlightenment via works of Montesquieu, Hume, Rousseau, and Kant. Major topics include the rise of commerce and its social and political consequences, republican versus monarchical forms of governments, and the impact of socio-economic changes and political regimes on international war or peace. The second part of the course looks at the century or so from the end of the Napoleonic Wars through World War 1 via works of Tocqueville, JS Mill, Marx, and Weber. Major topics include democratization as a social and a political phenomenon, and industrialization and its political consequences. In sum we explore how Enlightenment debates about commerce and it relations to republics were remade by the socio-economic, political, and intellectual transformations of the 19th century into debates about industrial capitalism and its relations to democracy, which were, in turn, the starting point for many research agendas within 20th century social science.

Required Texts Ordered for Purchase

Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, trans and ed. A. Cohler, B. Miller, H. Stone (Cambridge

University Press, 1989)

David Hume, Political Essays, ed. K. Hasskonssen (Cambridge University Press, 1994)

Jean Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on Inequality, ed. Maurice Cranston (Penguin, 1985)

Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and other later political writings, ed. V. Gourevitch (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Immanuel Kant, Political Writings, ed. H. Reiss (Cambridge University Press, 1991)

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. H. Mansfield and D. Winthrop (Chicago University Press, 2000)

John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Vols 2-3 in Collected Works of John Stuart Mill (Liberty Fund, 2006)

Karl Marx, The Marx-Engels Reader (2nd ed.), ed. R. Tucker (Norton, 1978)

Max Weber, Political Writings, eds. P. Lassman and R. Speiers (Cambridge UP, 1994)

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism with Other Writings on the Rise of the West, 4th ed., trans. Stephen Kalberg (Oxford University Press, 2009)

The Mill volumes can alternatively be accessed free online at Short readings (ex. from Constant) not in assigned texts will be made available electronically.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of completing this course, students will be able to:

 Identify and explain core concepts & claims of major modern Western political theorists

 Analytically contrast & critique arguments advanced by different theorists on a topic

 Compare concepts and arguments of canonical theorists with recent social scientific work they have been introduced to in other classes to identify connections and divergences

 Craft and support synthetic historical interpretations of major changes within European political and social thought from the Enlightenment through World War One

Course Requirements and Grading

Reading and Discussion: The reading for this course is demanding with 170-200 challenging pages assigned for each week. In order for you and your classmates to get the most out of our seminar meetings you must make time to read the assigned material carefully and completely, and to reflect on what you have read before class.

Paper(s): You may choose to write either two shorter (12-15 pages) papers based on assigned readings alone, or one longer research paper (25-30 pages) that also uses unassigned works by thinkers we read and/or secondary literature on those thinkers. If you chose the first option, the first paper is due Friday March 11. If you chose the second option the details of the topic and type of research paper you will write should be discussed and agreed on with me by Friday April 8. Under either option the final paper is due Wednesday May 4. Papers are to be turned into my box in the political science department office (440 Monroe) before the office closes at 5pm.

Grading: Your paper(s) will count for 80% of your grade and productive participation in seminar discussion, with the evidence it shows of your reading, will count for the remaining 20%.

Academic Integrity

I strongly support, and do report violations of, the GW Code of Academic Integrity. It states: “Academic dishonesty is defined as cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one’s own work, taking credit for the work of others without crediting them and without appropriate authorization, and the fabrication of information.” For the remainder of the code, see: http://www.gwu.edu/~ntegrity/code.html. If you have questions about the appropriate use and citation of sources, please come see me in office hours before you turn in your work.

Course Schedule and Reading Assignments

1/10 Kant: “An Answer to the Question: ‘What is Enlightenment?’”

Constant: “The Liberty of the Ancients compared with that of the Moderns”

Tocqueville: Democracy in America, Vol. 1: Introduction

1/17 No class (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)

Part One: The Science of Politics in the Age of Enlightenment

1/24 Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws, Author’s Foreword, Preface, Bks 2-5, Bk 8 (ch 1-10, 15-21), Bk 9, Bk 11, Bk 12 (ch 1-2), Bk 19 (ch 27)

Hume: Political Essays, 1-3, 5-8, 19

1/31 Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws, Bk 7 (ch 1-7), Bk 14 (ch 1-9), Bk 17, Bk 18 (ch 1-17), Bk 19 (ch 4-11), Bk 20, Bk 21 (ch 1-5, 14, 17-23), Bk 22 (ch 1-10, 14-15, 19-21)

Hume: Political Essays, 10-18

2/7 Hume: Political Essays, 4, 23

Montesquieu: Spirit of the Laws, Bk 1, Bk 10 (ch 1-4), Bk 15 (ch 1-9), Bk 26 (ch 1, 3, 6, 15-16, 20-23)

Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Preface, Intro, Parts 1 & 2, Notes 9, 15, 16

Rousseau: On the Social Contract, Bk I

Rousseau: Selections from Geneva Manuscript of the Social Contract

Kant: “Conjectures on the Beginning of Human History”

2/14 Hume: Political Essays, 27

Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Epistle Dedicatory

Rousseau: On the Social Contract, Bks II-IV

Rousseau: Discourse on Political Economy

Rousseau: Considerations on the Government of Poland, Ch 3-5, Ch 7 (§1-17), Ch 11 (§1-9)

2/21 No class (President’s Day)

2/28 Kant: “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose,” “On the Common Saying,” “Perpetual Peace,” selections from Metaphysics of Morals and Contest of Faculties

Constant: The Spirit of Conquest, Chs 1-10, 15

Part Two: The Science of Politics in the Age of Democracy and Industry

3/7 Constant: Principles of Politics, Bk X “On the Action of Government with regard to Property” (access via

Tocqueville: Democracy in America, Vol. 1: Part 1 (ch 2-4, ch 5 [pp. 56-65, 82-93],

ch 8 [pp. 143-54]), Part 2 (ch 1-4, ch 5 [pp. 187-99, 210-20], ch 6-8)

3/14 No class (Spring Break)

3/21 Tocqueville: Democracy in America, Vol. 1: Part 2 (ch 9, ch 10 [pp. 379-96])

Vol. 2: Notice, Part I (ch 1-2, ch 5, ch 9, ch 15, ch 20), Part 2 (ch 1-17), Part 3 (ch 5-8)

Marx: “On the Jewish Question.”

Weber: “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism.”

3/28 Tocqueville: Democracy in America, Vol. 2: Part 3 (ch 21-22), Part 4 (all)

Mill: “De Tocqueville on Democracy in America [II],” pp. 155-59, 163-70 (to break near top), 188 (from “To sum up”)-200 (end at asterisks). In Collected Works, Vol. 18. Access via OLL.

Mill: Principles of Political Economy, Preface, Prelim Remarks, Bk 1 (ch 7, ch 8, ch 9 (§1-3)), Bk 3 (ch 17 (§3-5)), Bk 4 (ch 1), Bk 5 (ch 1, ch 8, ch 9 (§5), ch 11)

4/4 Mill: Principles of Political Economy, Preface to 3rd ed., Bk 2 (ch 1, ch 2 (§1-2, §5-7), ch 3, ch 5), Bk 4 (ch 7 (§1-4, §6 [p.775-76, 785-94], §7), Bk 5 (ch 10 (§5))

Marx, “Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction,” “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” (through p. 93), “Manifesto of the Communist Party”

Weber, “Socialism”

4/11 Marx: Grundrisse (pp. 222-36)

Mill: Principles of Political Economy, Bk 1 (ch 3, 4, 5(§1, §4), 10, 11), Bk 2 (ch 11, 12 (§1-2), 13, 15), Bk 3 (ch 1, 2, 3, 4 (§1-4), 7, 8 (§1), 9 (§1-2), 12 (§2-3), 14-15), Bk 4 (ch 4, 5, 6)

4/18 Marx: “Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” (Note: this appears on pp. 3-6 in Tucker ed. as “Marx on the history of his opinions”), “Wage Labor and Capital,” Grundrisse (pp. 236-44), Capital (all selections); Grundrisse (pp. 278-93)

4/25 Weber: “Prefatory Remarks to Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion,” The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

4/27 (Designated Monday) Weber: “Parliament and Government in Germany under a New Political Order,” “Politics as a Vocation”