Fall, 2005

George Mason University

Prof. Carol Gould

Phil 391/Govt 329: Democratic Theory: Contemporary Issues

Class meetings: Tuesday, Thursday, Enterprise Hall 277.

Office hours: Tuesday 3-4 and by appointment. Robinson B453. Tel. 703-993-4510.

Email: cgould@gmu.edu

Books (required):

Ronald J. Terchek and Thomas C. Conte, eds., Theories of Democracy (Rowman &

Littlefield, 2001).

Thomas Christiano, ed., Philosophy & Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2003).

Barry Holden, ed. Global Democracy: Key Debates (Routledge, 2000)

Format: The course will proceed in seminar-style, with extensive class participation and short oral presentations. In addition, it will requires a substantial research paper on a topic of the student’s choice and a final exam (in-class and take-home).

Requirements:

Oral presentation. Topic to be chosen from the weekly readings. Maximum length, 10 minutes. 20%.

Research paper. 8-10 pages. Due December 1^st (at the start of class). 1-2 page proposal stating problem to be addressed and provisional thesis and bibliography, due November 8^th. 40%. Key requirement—originality.

Final exam: In-class closed book, Dec. 8; take-home essays, distributed Dec. 8, due Dec. 15^th at 12 noon, as an email attachment (word doc). Total--25%. (50/50 in-class and take-home).

Attendance and active class participation. 15%.

Additional requirements: Students must follow the GMU honor code at all times. Students are expected to retain copies of all written material during the course and for one month afterwards. There may be a midterm exam and/or quizzes, which would modify the above percentages.

Course outline:

Aug: 30: Introduction

Part I: Theories of democracy and their critique (All readings from Terchek and Conte, eds., Theories of Democracy)

Sept. 1: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Considerations on Representative Government and

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 34-49.

Sept. 6: Horace Mann, “The necessity of education in a republican government,” and

Robert Bellah, “Community properly understood: A defense of ‘democratic communitarianism,” 78-87.

Sept. 8: Milton Friedman: “The role of government in a free society,” 112-121 and

Robert Dahl, Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy, 131-139.

Sept. 13: Anthony Downs, “An economic theory of political action in a democracy,” 154-163 and

Benjamin Barber, Strong Democracy, 171-180.

Sept. 15: Chantal Mouffe, “Radical democracy: Modern or postmodern?” 223-233.

Sept. 20: Jurgen Habermas, “Three normative models of democracy,” and

Sheldon Wolin, “The Liberal/Democratic Divide,” 236-250.

Sept. 22: Anne Phillips, Engendering Democracy, 252-264.

Sept. 27: Cornel West, Race Matters, 264-268;

Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference, 268-277.

Sept. 29^th: No class.

Oct. 4: Mohatma Gandhi, “Speech at Muir College Economic Society,” and Hind Swaraj;

Desmond Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness, 282-296.

Oct. 6: Aunng San Suu Kyi, “In quest of democracy,”

Adolfo Perez Esquivel, “Conditionality, human rights, and democracy,”

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, “Ten commandments of democracy in Haiti,” 296-314.

Part II: Controversies in the philosophy of democracy (all readings in Christiano, ed., Philosophy & Democracy)

Oct. 13: Joshua Cohen, “procedure and substance in deliberative democracy,” 17-38. Session to be led by Esfand Nafisi.

Oct. 18: Thomas Christiano, “An argument for democratic equality,” 39-68.

Oct. 20: David Estlund, “Beyond fairness and deliberation: The epistemic dimension of democratic authority,” 69-91.

Oct. 25: Guest Speaker: Rachelle Hollander, Senior Science Adviser for the NSF will be speaking on “Global Responsibilities, the National Science Foundation and Science and Society.” Mason Hall, D3A&B (ground floor)

Oct. 27: Ronald Dworkin, “What is equality? Part 4: Political equality,” 116-137;

Jon Elster, “The market and the forum: Three varieties of political theory,” 138-158.

Nov. 1: Guest Speaker: Prof. Timothy Hayward, Reader in Political and Social Studies, University of Edinburgh, “Human Rights vs. Emissions Rights: climate justice and the equitable distribution of ecological space.” Mason Hall, D3A&B.

Nov. 3: Ronald Dworkin, “The majoritarian premise and constitutionalism,” 241-257.

Nov. 8: Guest Speaker, Prof. David Wood, School of Law, University of Melbourne, “Law, Democracy and International Human Rights: how law embodies and sometimes distorts basic moral values.” Mason Hall, D3A&B.

Nov. 10: Michael Walzer, “Philosophy and democracy,” 258-274.

Nov. 15: Charles Lindblom, “The market as prison,” 275-284.

Part III: Transnational democracy (all readings in Holden, ed., Global Democracy)

Nov. 17: David Held, “The changing contours of political community: Rethinking democracy in the context of globalization,” 17-31 and

Michael Saward, “A critique of Held,” 32-46

Nov. 22: Danilo Zolo, “The lords of peace: from the Holy Alliance to the new international criminal tribunals,” 73-86 and

Tony Coates, “Neither cosmopolitanism nor realism: a response to Danilo Zolo,” 87-101.

Nov. 29: Johan Galtung, “Alternative models for global democracy,” 143-161.

Dec. 1: Richard Falk, “Global civil society and the democratic prospect,” 162-178.

Dec. 6: Richard Bellamy and R. J. Barry Jones, “Globalization and Democracy—an Afterword,” 202-216

Dec. 8^th: In-class part of final exam; distribution of take-home exam.