Contact Us
PHONE
(518) 580 - 5240
FAX
(518) 580 - 5259
MAIL
Office Location: Ladd Hall, Room 309
DEPARTMENT CHAIR:
Roy H. Ginsberg, Professor and Chair
ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR:
Barbara McDonough
Critical Issues In World Politics
Skidmore College Timothy Burns; Ladd 316
Spring 2005 phone: 580-5247; tburns@skidmore
Tu Th 12:40-2:00 Office Hours: T TH 11-12 and 2-3
Ladd 207 or by appointment
This course provides an introduction to three subfields in political science: political theory, international relations, and comparative politics. The course is therefore divided into three topics: Liberal Democracy and Its Alternatives, War and Peace, Democracies: Presidential and Parliamentary. In studying these topics, we will discuss the origin and principles of modern liberalism and of its opponents, the origins and consequences of modern war, and the institutions and goals of democratic forms of government.
I. Required Texts, available at the Skidmore Shop:
Dawson & Dawson, Democratic Government in Canada
Heck, A Child of Hitler
Levine, Political Issues Debated
Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto
Macridis, Contemporary Political Ideologies
Nye, Understanding International Conflicts
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War
II. Course Requirements:
Three Examinations 25% each
Attendance, Participation, and quizzes 10%
Blog project, 10 pages: 15%
You are strongly encouraged to read a national daily newspaper such as The New York Times or The Washington Post in order to keep abreast of recent developments that relate to the topics under consideration in the course. Pay particular attention to the op-ed section.
Attendance: For each unexcused absence, three points will be deducted from your final grade. Excused absences will be granted upon presentation of a doctor’s note or a relative’s obituary.
III. Class Schedule:
Tuesday, January 25 Introduction to the course
A. Individuals and Communities
Thursday, January 27 Politics ancient and modern: the ancient city versus the modern liberal state
Aristotle, Politics I.1-2, III.9 (handout); Hobbes, Leviathan, chapters 13,14, 17 (handout)
Tuesday, February 1 Modern liberalism (continued)
Benjamin Constant, “The Liberty of the Ancients compared with that of the Moderns (handout)
Macridis, pp. 21-23 and ch. 2
Thursday, February 3 Communism
Macridis, ch. 5; Marx, Communist Manifesto
Tuesday, February 8 Communism (continued) Macridis, chs. 6-7; Z, “To The Stalin Mausoleum” (handout)
Thursday, February 10 Socialism and Conservatism
Macridis, chs. 3-4
Tuesday, February 15 Nazism and Fascism
Macridis, chs. 8-9
Thursday, February 17 Heck, A Child of Hitler
Tuesday, February 22 Strauss, “German Nihilism” (Handout)
Thursday, February 24 Exam
B. War and peace
Tuesday, March 1 Theories of International Politics
Nye, Understanding International Conflicts, chs. 1-2.
Thursday, March 3 World War I: Liberal Democracy vs. monarchy
Nye, ch 3; Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, ch. 1
Tuesday, March 8 World War II: Liberal Democracy vs. Fascism
Nye, ch 4; Stoessinger, ch. 2
Thursday, March 10 The Cold War: Liberal Democracy vs. Communism
George Kennan, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” (handout); Winston Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace” (handout)
Tuesday, March 15 Spring Break
Thursday, March 17 Spring Break
Tuesday, March 22 Korea
Stoessinger, ch. 3; Nye, ch. 5
Thursday, March 24 Vietnam
Stoessinger, ch. 4
Tuesday, March 29 The end of the cold war
Abram Shulsky , “Human Rights and the International State System”; Carnes Lord, “Human Rights Policy in a Nonliberal World”; Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?” (handouts)
Thursday, March 31 The Middle East: Israeli democracy vs. Islam
Stoessinger, chs. 5 and 6.
Tuesday, April 5 Islamic terrorism (handouts)
Thursday, April 7 Islamic terrorism (continued)
Tuesday, April 12 Future of US foreign policy (handouts)
Thursday, April 14 Second Exam
C. Democracies, Presidential and Parliamentary
Tuesday, April 19 Political Parties and Elections
Levine, chs. 7, 8
Thursday, April 21 Federalism, Parliamentary and Presidential Democracies
Levine, chs. 9-11
Tuesday, April 26 Canadian Parliamentary Democracy
Dawson & Dawson, Democratic Government in Canada, ch. 3
Thursday, April 28 Dawson & Dawson, 5-8
Tuesday, May 3 Dawson & Dawson, 11-12 and appendix
Tuesday, May 10, 1:30-4:30 p.m. Final Exam
