Special Topics in Political Theory: Power, Freedom, and Democracy

This course explores ideas of individual ethics and political community, the ethics of political rule, freedom and slavery, popular sovereignty and democracy, and equality and inequality in political thought.  Readings will be drawn from both canonical and contemporary authors, including Sophocles, Douglass, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, and Tocqueville.  This course provides a broad overview of political theory, emphasizing both thematic and historical approaches.