Global Arc

This course examines different forms of protest and resistance, with a special emphasis on the concept of civil disobedience. Our perspective is primarily that of normative political theory, but we will also draw on recent empirical work examining the effectiveness of different forms of protest and occasionally venture into legal theory. The main focus is on the US, but there will also be a ranger of international comparisons.

The distinction between public and private spheres of life is both foundational to modern liberal democratic politics and also fraught with controversy. This course examines such conflicts in the context of political theory, ethics, law, and public policy. Including the tense interface between public values and religious conscience and practice, and the scope of freedom with respect to marriage, family, and sexual relations. How broad are the claims of private liberty and what is the nature and extent of legitimate public authority when it comes to activities claimed to be private? Can paternalist and perfectionist policies ever be justified?

In many colonial countries, indigenous peoples were displaced as part of the settlement process. Their descendants remain part of our society, reduced in number and often economically and culturally vulnerable. What is the proper way for settler societies like the US to respond to this history? Does it owe indigenous peoples special rights, reparations, or a symbolic apology? In considering the answers to these questions, we will examine some important topics in political philosophy, including rights over property and territory, the importance of preserving indigenous cultures, and claims to self-determination and self-government.

The seminar explores the political theory of international human rights. We will ask some philosophical questions about these rights. For example: Are human rights really a kind of right? How are human rights related to the "natural rights" of the Western political tradition? What is the moral basis of human rights? Are human rights best understood as points of agreement among the world's moral cultures? How should we decide which rights are properly considered human rights? We will try to answer these questions through critical discussions of contributions to the philosophical literature about human rights of the last few decades.

Contemporary liberal democracies are characterized by important forms of diversity, including racial, religious, cultural, and linguistic diversity. The course examines recent work in normative political theory that debates how liberal democracies ought to respond to these varying forms of diversity. How should concepts of 'race,' 'religion,' and 'culture' be understood by political theorists interested in these debates? Do racial, religious, and/or cultural minorities as such have rights to recognition or accommodation? And what would the basis of any such rights, or of opposition to them, be in the principles of liberal democracy?

Investigation of a major theme in American politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in American politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

This course considers how gender enters and shapes politics, primarily in the US context. It addresses a range of questions that center elections: How did women gain the right to vote? Are women voters really different than men voters? Are women politicians really any different than men politicians? Has women's involvement in electoral and institutional politics changed anything? It also considers how the gendered space of the American electoral system has limited its effectiveness in delivering outcomes desired by some groups of women, what their alternatives might be, and how those alternatives have been and continue to be pursued.

Investigation of a major theme in American politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature.

What does it take to increase youth voting in 2020? Students will collaboratively design, implement, and evaluate concrete interventions to register and turn out young Americans. Interventions might provide information on how to vote, explain issues at stake, activate social relationships or identities, work with community groups, motivate by entertaining, or highlight how voting matters. Students will read existing studies, consider what is effective, apply it, and evaluate it. Most of the work is in small groups. Planning and implementation will be completed before Reading period. This course is faculty guided but student led.