FACULTAD DE FINANZAS, GOBIERNO Y RELACIONES

INTERNACIONALES

PROGRAMA DE CURSO

Nombre de la Materia The History of Political Ideas

Plan de Estudios Finanzas, Gobierno y Relaciones Internacionales

Profesor Louise Lowe

Número de créditos 2 Grupo 402I Salón G-603 Semestre II

Horario de clase Thursday 7 - 9 Horario de Atención Thursday 9 – 10

Correo electrónico louisel100@yahoo.co.uk

Course Description
This course is a brief history of some of the most important ideas in Western political thinking
in distinct periods of time: ancient, medieval, modern and post-modern. The five principal
themes that will be developed throughout the course are: power, political regimes, the state,
justice and the social contract.

Course Objectives
Students will be able to identify and critically analyse the principal ideas both within their
historic context and with reference to modern day situations.

Specific objectives:
 Critical thinking
 Analysis and synthesis of information
 Comparing and contrasting of different ideas and perspectives
 Application of theoretical ideas to real situations
 Development of skills in academic writing, specifically in English

Methodology
The course will be a combination of input by the professor, group work, open class discussion
and presentations by students.
Each week students will be assigned an academic article and / or a podcast or audio lecture.
Students are recommended to explore the archive of In Our Time podcasts at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl in addition to the podcasts assigned in specific
weeks.
Students are expected to attend class prepared and ready to actively participate in discussion.

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Evaluation
Presentation: 30%
 Students will give either: an individual 10 minute presentation based on the main
theme of the assigned week, or two 10 minute presentations with a partner. The
presentation(s) is/are worth 20% of the final course grade.
 Students must submit a pre-presentation assignment one week before their
presentation. This will be a plan of the presentation including: key ideas, structure of
the presentation and sources. This pre-presentation assignment is worth 10% of the
final course grade.

Midterm exam: 20%

 Students will complete a written exam in week 8 of the course: Thursday 24th
September, 7-9am.

Final essay: 25%

 Students will submit an individual essay, of approximately 1,500 words, based on
applying one of the key ideas of the course to a modern day situation.
 Essays must be submitted in week 14 of the course: Thursday 5 th November. Essays
must be emailed to the course professor by 23:59 that day.
 Essays will be graded based on: level of analysis, referencing and sources, overall
impression (each criterion has equal weight.)

Final exam: 25%

 Students will complete a written exam on Thursday 26th November, 7-9am.

Schedule and bibliography

Week 1 - 30th July

Introduction to the course: Why study the history of political ideas?

Week 2 – 6th August

Ancient Greece: The Birthplace of Political Ideas

Reading: Strauss, L, & Kropsey, J, “History of Political Philosophy,” (3rd Edition), The
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987, Chapter “Plato,” pages 33 – 87

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Week 3 – 13th August

Aristotle’s “Politics”

Audio Lecture: Dalton, D, “Aristotle - Politics”, Great Minds of the Western Intellectual
Tradition series, The Teaching Company, 2000, Lecture 5

Reading: Aristotle, “Politics”, pages to be confirmed

Week 4 – 20th August

From ancient Greece to ancient Rome: Eclecticism and Skepticism

Presenters: Maria Rey & Santiago Sanchez

Audio Lectures: Adams, J, “Roman Eclecticism: Cicero and Polybius,” and “Roman
Skepticism: Sextus Empiricus,” Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition series,
The Teaching Company, 2000, Lectures 11 and 12

Week 5 – 27th August

Medieval Political Ideas: Religion and Secularity

Reading: Strauss, L, & Kropsey, J, “History of Political Philosophy,” (3rd Edition), The
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987, Chapter “St Augustine,” pages 176 – 203

Audio Lecture: Adams, J, “Aquinas and Christian Aristotelianism,” Great Minds of the
Western Intellectual Tradition series, The Teaching Company, 2000, Lecture 20

Week 6 – Día FIGRI

Activity to be confirmed

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Week 7 – 10th September

Idealism vs Realism: Machiavelli

Presenters: Jairo Mesa & Camilo Niño

Podcast: In Our Time – Machiavelli

Reading: Machiavelli, N, “The Prince”, 1513, Chapter IX “Concerning a Civil Principality,”

pages 43 – 47, Chapter XI “Concerning Ecclesiastical Principalities,” pages 51 - 54

Semana de Receso – 14th to 19th September

Week 8 – 24th September

Midterm Exam

Week 9 – 1st October

The Enlightenment: Revolutions and Reforms

Presenters: Jairo Mesa & Camilo Niño

Reading: Jennings, J, “Revolution and the Republic,” Oxford University Press, 2011,
Chapter 1, “Rights, Liberty and Equality,” pages 29 – 65

Week 10 – 8th October

The Social Contract: Hobbes and Rousseau

Presenters: Aldo Fajardo & Valentina Hernández

Podcasts: (1) In Our Time – Hobbes

(2) In Our Time – The Social Contract

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Week 11 – 15th October

Liberalism: Locke

Presenter: Sebastian Gonzalez

Reading: Lakoff, S, “Ten Political Ideas That Have Shaped The Modern World,” Rowman &
Littlefield, Plymouth, 2011, Chapter 3 “Liberalism”, pages 39 – 73

Week 12 – 22nd October

Marxism

Presenter: Mariana Ayala

Podcast: In Our Time - Marxism

Reading: Marx, K, & Engels, F, “The Communist Manifesto,” 1848, Public Domain, pages 1
– 24

Week 13 – 29th October

Totalitarianism in the 20th Century

Presenters: Aldo Fajardo & Valentina Hernández

Readings: (1) Eric Hobsbawm, Chapter 4: The Fall of Liberalism (pages 109 – 141), in “Age
of Extremes: The Short 20th Century, 1914-1991”, Abacus, London, 1994
(2) Text of speech by Adolf Hitler, 30th January 1937

Week 14 – 5th November

Neocontractualism: Rawls

Audio Lecture: Staloff, D, “Rawls’ Theory of Justice”, Great Minds of the Western
Intellectual Tradition series, The Teaching Company, 2000, Lecture 79

Reading: Rawls, J, “Political Liberalism,” Columbia University Press, New York, 2005, pages
to be confirmed

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Week 15 – 12th November

Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School

Presenters: Maria Rey & Santiago Sanchez

Podcast: In Our Time – The Frankfurt School

Reading: Habermas, J, “Modernity vs Postmodernity”, New German Critique, No. 22,

Special Issue on Modernism, Winter 1981, pages 3 – 14

Week 16 – 19th November

Looking outside the mainstream

Readings:

To be confirmed

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