Spring 2004 Mr. Strong, Mr Leitch, Mr. Lyon, Mr. Selby, Ms Wong

POLITICAL SCIENCE 13: POWER AND JUSTICE

The course deals with 1/ the relationship between our understandings of who and what we are as human beings and citizens and the political and social worlds in which we live (we may call that the topic of justice) and 2/ how those understandings are shaped by forces both in and not in our control (call that the topic of power).. Required books may be purchased at the book store. In addition a reader should be purchased from URPS – it will be available after class.

My office hours are Monday 1:30-3:00 in SSB 374 and by appt at 534 7081. Email is tstrong@weber.ucsd.edu. Your TA will announce her/his office hours and location.

Requirements for the course include attendance, participation in sections (10%), two papers (30% each) and a final in -class exam (30%). In addition, please read, before the first paper, Michael Harvey, THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF COLLEGE WRITING (bookstore). Grammar, spelling and style will be taken into account.

This is the beginning of the syllabus

March 29: Introduction: Political Theory, Politics, and Political Science.

SECTION ONE: Power and the politics of identity in difficult situations

March 31: FILM: "Obedience" by Stanley Milgrim

April 5: The limits of selfhood and identity:

READING: Bettelheim: "Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations" (reader)

April 7, 12: The self and political commitment

READING: Koestler, Darkness at Noon (BOOKSTORE)

April 14, 19: What does it mean to be a citizen:

READING: Plato, Apology, Crito (BOOKSTORE)

April 21: What obligations does a citizen or anyone else have?

READING: Pitkin, “Obligation and Consent” (reader)

FIRST PAPER DUE ON APRIL 26 IN CLASS

SECTION TWO: Justice and the politics of identity in a changing world

April 26: Persons, Humans and Citizens

READING: "Griswold v. Connecticut," "Roe v. Wade" in Shapiro, ed. The Abortion Decisions (BOOKSTORE)

April 28: Continuation

READING: "Webster v. Reproductive Health Services," "Planned Parenthood v. Casey," in Shapiro.

May 3, 5: Selfhood and Society

READING: Mill, On Liberty (BOOKSTORE)

SECOND PAPER DUE ON May 10

Section Three: The Limits of Citizenship and Citizenship at the Limit

May 10, 12: What are the demands of politics?

READING: Thoreau, Walden (BOOKSTORE) (selections to be announced)

May 17: If not a citizen then what?

READING: Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (BOOKSTORE)

May 19: Selfhood without Society

Kateb, “Walt Whitman and the Culture of Democracy” (reader)

May 24, 26: Being in and being out:

READING: Ellison, Invisible Man (selections to be announced) (BOOKSTORE)

May 31: No Class: Memorial Day

June 2: Visions of the present

READING: Marx, Wage Labor and Capital; Frost, In the Clearing; Hawthorne, The Celestial Railroad (reader)

FINAL IN CLASS AT REGULAR TIME

THIS MARKS THE END OF THE SYLLABUS. FINAL EXAM IN CLASS AS SCHEDULED