Contemporary Political Theory

This course examines major contributions to political theory after 1900 regarding the concepts of power and political authority, identity and difference, freedom and the law, and the composition of a just society. As we consider these themes, we will explore the ways that leading liberal, civic republican, communitarian, conservative, cosmopolitan, and postmodern thinkers have responded to the challenges of the contemporary world, especially to the expansion of the bureaucratic state and the acceleration of globalization after the end of the Cold War. Readings will include selections from Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, Václav Havel, Jacques Derrida, John Rawls, Iris Marion Young, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor, Judith Butler, and Giorgio Agamben.