POLS 015. Democratic Theory: Everyday Debates in Democratic Politics (TH)

This class draws on from ancient, modern, and contemporary thinkers to reflect on wide-ranging issues in democratic politics: the tension between positive and negative freedom, the underlying dangers of a manipulable populace, the important but not unproblematic demarcation of public and private spheres, the justifiability of exclusion in democracy, and the delicate balance between individualism and collective governance.

By examining the works of historical and contemporary thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Arendt, Pateman, Pettit, Mansbridge, and Phillips, this class introduces important debates in democratic theory with a critical lens. The intellectual exercises we employ in this class will provide you with theoretical tools to appraise major debates in contemporary democratic politics.
This course falls within the theory subfield but only POLS 11, 12, 100, 101, 107 or 117 satisfy the theory requirement.
Social sciences.
1 Credit.
Fall 2025. Huang.
Catalog chapter: Political Science

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