Introduction to Political Theory

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course will address several major, pressing questions of political morality, and introduce students to theoretical approaches to those questions. The class aims to develop students' abilities to address political problems in rigorous and thoughtful ways. Topics will include property rights and distributive justice; the nature and value of freedom; arguments for and against democracy and the proper design of democratic institutions; war and the use of force; racial and gender justice; and global economic justice and human rights. The focus will be on contemporary approaches to these problems rather than on classical works of political thought. Familiarity with such works is not required.