F0SP 2030 - Controversies in Democratic Theory

The course will look at various topics and debates in Contemporary Democratic Theory (mainly analytic). Readings/Topics not fixed yet, as this is a new course, but we will probably start with a week or two on Rights (readings from Jeremy Waldron), and then some readings on equality before plunging into some readings on procedure and substance, representation and descriptive representation, sortition v electoral representation, political parties, and perhaps some recent work on the ethics of voting in non-ideal v highly non-ideal democracies, the demos problem, democratic ‘backsliding’ and perhaps closing with questions about the justification of democracy (is it justified? is that justification epistemic, etc). There are some interesting recent special issues that it would be fun to look at, but I’m not sure yet whether/how to use them so the course maintains some structure. I usually have a collection of required readings and a much larger collection of ‘optional extras’ for students to explore, if they want, especially in essays. But as I’m currently reconsidering the way I normally grade this course (usually, two essay, short and longer) we need to see a bit more.

TBD

Normally I ask for two essays – a short and a longer one. I may still keep that format, as I use it to give DETAILED feedback on essays and because writing for analytic essays is rather different from the type of essay-writing you are used to. But because there are so many interesting special issues that are relevant to this course, I also wondered whether it wouldn’t be nice to have some group presentations as well. So, I’m afraid I’m still thinking about what to do.

NB this is a seminar so YOU ARE REQUIRED TO DO THE READINGS EACH WEEK and to participate in class.