Undergraduate Course: Democracy & its Discontents (PLIT10096)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Politics |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course offers an introduction to the histories, theories and practices of democracy. Its purpose is to provide students with a systematic overview of the complex discourses on democracy today. What is democracy? Where does the idea of democracy come from? Has the idea one or many origins? Can democracy be justified, and if so, on what grounds? What are the limits of democracy? These, and many more, questions lie at the heart of democratic theory. The course will in particular focus on four central issues: (1) the historical origins of democracy in ancient Greece, and later developments in the Western hemisphere that have led to modern mass democracies; (2) the state of the contemporary debate in political theory, with positions ranging from minimalist to radical democracy; (3) recent changes in democratic practices, from new fora that exceed the nation state to novel mechanisms to reach inclusive and representative decisions; and (4) crucial challenges with which democracies around the globe are currently confronted, including the ever-expanding reach of market forces and the place of religion in the public sphere. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 4 Politics/International Relations courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2014/15 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: 45 |
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Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
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| Additional Notes |
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| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
40 %,
Practical Exam
10 %
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| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students are expected to be able to:
-grasp the diverse histories, theories and practices of democracy.
-understand how democracy can be justified from a variety of normative standpoints.
-assess various arguments about the limitations of democracy.
-identify where new contexts and scales of democratic agency have emerged.
-analyse the main challenges democracy faces today.
|
Assessment Information
| The course will be assessed by essay (40%)(This constitutes a formative feedback event), exam (50%) and tutorial participation (10%). |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Open to 3rd & 4th years
The course will be taught in 11x1-hour lectures by the convener. The total contact hours will be 30. The lecture will be accompanied by weekly tutorials. Students should attend every tutorial and lecture. This course will be very much focused on student participation. Preparation for and participation in tutorials will therefore count towards the final mark. The tutorials are intended to complement the lectures by giving the students the opportunity actively and critically to engage with the ideas introduced in the lectures in the context of hard cases. In preparation for each tutorial, students are expected to read background material on the case being explored, complete a list of definitions (of the key philosophical concepts in democratic theory), and prepare provisional answers to questions that relate to the core readings for the tutorial. This will require independent research on the students behalf, using the internet and library to go beyond the sources listed below. The focus will be on the quality rather than quantity of student contributions. Assessment of student participation relates broadly to essay and exam marking descriptors. |
| Syllabus |
Week 1
Introduction: Outline, Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes.
Thematic Block I:
Ancients and Moderns
Week 2
Historical Origins: Democracy, Isonomia and Sortition.
Week 3
Republicanism: The Citizens Rule.
Week 4
Modern Mass Democracy: Representation and Constitutionalism.
Thematic Block II
Theory Today
Week 5
Minimalist and Aggregative Democracy.
Week 6
Deliberative Democracy.
Week 7
Radical and Agonistic Democracy.
Thematic Block III
Recent Transformations
Week 8
Scaling Democracy beyond and beneath the Nation State.
Week 9
Innovating Democracy.
Week 10
Democracy, Secularism and Religion.
Week 11
Conclusion & revision.
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
-Dahl, Robert Alan, Ian Shapiro, and José Antônio Cheibub, eds. The Democracy Sourcebook. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.
-Cunningham, Frank. Theories of Democracy: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2002.
-Held, David. Models of Democracy. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Polity, 2006.
-Shapiro, Ian. The State of Democratic Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
-Tilly, Charles. Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
The book by David Held will serve as the textbook for this course. This means that you will find it in general useful for all the topics we will discuss ¿ but you will still have to consult other resources to gain a more complete picture of the topics discussed.
-Canfora, Luciano. Democracy in Europe: A History of an Ideology. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
-Dunn, John. Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy. London: Atlantic, 2005.
-Graeber, David. The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2013.
-Isakhan, Benjamin, and Stephen Stockwell, eds. The Secret History of Democracy. Houndmills/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
-Keane, John. The Life and Death of Democracy. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009.
-Müller, Jan-Werner. Contesting Democracy: Political Thought in Twentieth-Century Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.
-Runciman, David. The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present, 2013.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Mathias Thaler
Tel: (0131 6)51 5769
Email: Mathias.Thaler@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Andra Roston
Tel: (0131 6)50 3932
Email: Andra.Roston@ed.ac.uk |
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