PS 526: Capitalism and Democracy

Books 

The following books have been ordered and should be at the Bookstore:

Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (Monthly Review Press)

Moaddel and Talattof, eds., Modernist and Fundamentalist Debates in Islam: A Reader

Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo (Vintage)

John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Belknap Press)

Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (Univ of Chicago Press)

Other readings can be found online or in Canvas.

Requirements

Attendance Policy: 

Attendance is mandatory. Roll will be taken. No more than one undocumented absence will be allowed. Additional undocumented absences will lead to an automatic reduction of your participation grade by 2 numerical points (see grade scale below: one point is a third of a letter grade) per session missed (if you have earned a B for participation, based on your participation when present, this would drop to a C- with two unexcused absences). Documentation must be verified through the Dean of Students Office, or other appropriate University office (religious holidays excepted, but notice must still be provided in writing).

Participation: 

Participation accounts for 15% of your total grade. This is a seminar, so your engaged participation is particularly important. Being an active participant involves asking questions and talking, but also listening and responding, in a respectful way, to others. It is important that note, however, that you are not being graded on the frequency of your participation alone, but also the quality of your contribution to the class discussion.

Discussion Leader: 

Each graduate student will lead discussion for part of one class session. The student should begin by presenting some aspect of the reading to the class (roughly 5-7 mins). Your presentation should be clear, should refer to the reading assigned for that day, and should be timed. You should not merely summarize the reading, and you do not need to cover everything in that day's reading. Instead, take a passage (or two or three) that interests you, explain the context for the passage, and explain what you find interesting. Give the students enough information so that they can (1) find the passage and (2) understand the context. You may choose the date for your presentation, so long as you let me know within the first three weeks. Otherwise, I will choose for you.

Written Assignments: 

1. Exam. There will be a final exam – which will be cumulative.

2. Journal Research Paper. Examine an academic journal that publishes scholarly articles on political theory (for example, Political Theory, Signs, History of Political Thought, or Journal of Politics. For other examples, please see the Resources tab on this website). Choose an article that in some way focuses on one of the authors we read this semester. Write a review of the article in a paper no longer than 5pp. in length. Your review should clearly state, and evaluate, the argument of the article. The review is due by 5pm, September 29th. LATE PAPERS WILL BE PENALIZED

3. Paper. Each student must complete a 15pp paper by Friday, December 1st. This paper should be on a topic mutually agreed between the student and me. You should plan to meet with me to talk about your topic before spring break.

NB: INCOMPLETES MUST BE REQUESTED IN WRITING. THEY WILL NOT BE AUTOMATICALLY GRANTED. WORK NOT COMPLETED BY THE END OF THE SEMESTER, WITHOUT WRITTEN EXPLANATION, WILL RECEIVE A FAILING GRADE. 

When making your request, please consult the Graduate Bulletin, p. 40.

Further Information About the Papers

Papers should be typed, double-spaced in a 12-point font, and carefully edited and proofread. You should be very attentive to the texts and problems you are asked to address when completing assignments.

All written work you turn in should be original. A paper that is constructed from the words of others, even where copiously attributed to their correct source, may still earn a failing grade if the paper contains little original thought. This does not mean that you have to think of something no one else has ever said or thought. But it means that your paper should mainly consist of your own thoughts and words, not those of others.

The use of secondary sources (those not on the syllabus) is neither necessary nor desirable, but if you do use them the following is a useful definition of plagiarism: 

"Plagiarism is representing someone else's ideas, words, statements or other works as one's own without proper acknowledgment or citation. Examples of plagiarism include:

• Copying word for word or lifting phrases or a special term from a source or reference – whether oral, printed, or on the Internet – without proper attribution.

• Paraphrasing, that is, using another person's written words or ideas, albeit in one's own words, as if they were one's own thought.

• Borrowing facts, statistics, or other illustrative material without proper reference, unless the information is common knowledge, in common public use."

(University of Michigan, LS&A Bulletin, Chapter IV, p.23, http://www.lsa.umich.edu/UMICH/lsa_bulletin/Home/Archive/Bulletin2009.pdf, accessed August 20th, 2009) 

Plagiarism or other cheating will result in an automatic failing grade. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, or about other aspects of academic integrity, please ask! A useful resource is the Student Handbook, pp.49-50: (http://www.usm.edu/union/studenthandbook.pdf). We will talk more about this.

Grading

All exams, papers, and quizzes will be returned with a number marked between 0 and 12. This is your grade for this assignment. In calculating your final grade (A, B, C, D, or F) I consider whether your work for the semester has been consistently in the low or high end of the letter grade range. USM does not give + or - grades as final grades.

Grade scale:

All exams, papers, and quizzes will be returned with a number marked between 0 and 12. This is your grade for this assignment. In calculating your final grade I consider whether your work for the semester has been consistently in the low or high end of the letter grade range.

• 12: high A 6: high C 

• 11: A 5: C

• 10: low A 4: low C

• 9: high B 3: high D

• 8: B 2: D

• 7: low B 1: low D

• 0: F

Distribution:

• Participation 15%

• Discussion Leader 5%

• Review 25%

• Paper 25%

• Final Exam 30%

Grading Standards

The following general standards guide assessment of work in this course. Use the questions to assess your own written and oral work, as you are developing it.

• Clarity: Are your core ideas communicated clearly? Do you use examples and illustrations?

• Accuracy: Is your argument supported with relevant evidence, or quotes from texts read in class?

• Precision: Is the central argument specific and detailed?

• Relevance: Is your discussion related to the questions you have asked, or the question posed in the assignment? Do you draw on relevant class discussion/lectures and readings?

• Depth: Do you deal with the complexity of the issue you are discussing?

• Logic: Does the paper/essay make sense?

Academic Integrity 

All students at the University of Southern Mississippi are expected to demonstrate the highest levels of academic integrity in all that they do. Forms of academic dishonesty include (but are not limited to):

• Cheating (including copying from others’ work)

• Plagiarism (representing another person’s words or ideas as your own; failure to properly cite the source of your information, argument, or concepts)

• Falsification of documents

• Disclosure of test or other assignment content to another student

• Submission of the same paper or other assignment to more than one class without the explicit approval of all faculty members’ involved

• Unauthorized academic collaboration with others

• Conspiracy to engage in academic misconduct

Engaging in any of these behaviors or supporting others who do so will result in academic penalties and/or other sanctions. If a faculty member determines that a student has violated our Academic Integrity Policy, sanctions ranging from resubmission of work to course failure may occur, including the possibility of receiving a grade of “XF” for the course, which will be on the student’s transcript with the notation “Failure due to academic misconduct.” For more details, please see the University’s Academic Integrity Policy: https://www.usm.edu/institutional-policies/policy-acaf-pro-012 Note that repeated acts of academic misconduct will lead to expulsion from the University.

Calendar

Week 1

Mon. 8/21

Introduction

A. The End of History

Wed. 8/23

Hegel, The Essential Writings (selections, pp. 273-284) (CANVAS)

Week 2

B. Bourgeois Dialectics

Mon. 8/28

Marx, "The German Ideology, Part 1," pp. 147-163; 193-200 (CANVAS)

Wed. 8/30

Nietzsche,On the Genealogy of Morals, pp. 15-56

Week 3

Mon. 9/4 LABOR DAY

Wed. 9/6

Nietzsche,On the Genealogy of Morals, pp. 57-96

Week 4

Mon. 9/11 

Mill, On Liberty, chapters 1-2

Wed. 9/13 

Mill, On Liberty, chapters 3-4

Week 5

Mon. 9/18                   

T.H. Green, "Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract" (CANVAS)         

C. Novelty and Nostalgia

Wed. 9/20

Nakae Chomin, A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government (selections) (CANVAS)

Week 6

Mon. 9/25 

NO CLASS

Wed. 9/27 

Hu Shih, "The Civilizations of the East and the West" (CANVAS)

Li Dazhao, "Women's Liberation and Democracy" (CANVAS)

He Zhen, "The Declaration of Women," "On Women's Revenge," and "What Women Should Know About Communism" (CANVAS)

FRIDAY 9/29

JOURNAL REVIEW PAPER DUE BY 5PM (TURNITIN/CANVAS)

Week 7

Mon. 10/2

Modernist and Fundamentalist Debates in Islam, selections

   Moulavi Chiragh Ali, "Islamic Revealed Law versus Islamic Common Law" (pp. 29-34)

Qasim Amin, "The Liberation of Women" (pp. 163-181)

Sayyid Qutb, "Islam and the Foundation of Knowledge" (pp. 197-206)

Murtaza Mutahhari, "On the Islamic Hijab" (pp. 361-371)

D. Crisis

Wed. 10/4

Weber, "Politics as a Vocation"

Week 8 

Mon. 10/9

Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, 19-45

Wed. 10/11

Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, 45-79

Week 9

Mon. 10/16

Gramsci, "The Modern Prince," pp. 135-188 (CANVAS)

E. Perspectives on the Crisis I: Explanations

Wed. 10/18

Hayek,  "Individualism: True and False" (CANVAS)

Schumpeter, "Can Capitalism Survive?," chs. XII-XIV (CANVAS)

Week 10

Mon. 10/23

Polanyi, "Freedom in a Complex Society" (CANVAS)

F. Perspectives on the Crisis II: Return?

Wed. 10/25

Strauss, "Progress or Return? The Contemporary Crisis in Western Civilization" (CANVAS)

Week 11

Mon. 10/30

Arendt, "Introduction into Politics" and "Epilogue" in The Promise of Politics (CANVAS)

Wed. 11/1

Foucault, Discourse and Truth (lectures 1, and 3-6) (CANVAS)

Week 12 

Mon. 11/6 

Mou Zongsan, "Appearances and Things-in-Themselves," and "The Principles of Authority and Governance" (CANVAS)

G. Renewing the Enlightenment

Wed. 11/8

Rawls, Justice as Fairness, 1-38

Week 13

Mon. 11/13

Rawls, Justice as Fairness, 39-79

Wed. 11/15

Habermas, Inclusion of the Other, chapter 9 and 10 (CANVAS)

Week 14

H. Psychic Legacies and Cyborg Futures

Mon. 11/20

Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (entire)

Wed. 11/22 THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week 15

Mon. 11/27 

Rubin, "The Traffic in Women"

Wed. 11/29

Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto"

FRIDAY 12/1

FINAL PAPER DUE BY 5PM (TURNITIN/CANVAS)

Mon. 12/6: FINAL EXAM: 10:45am-1:15pm