POG 235 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Oligarchy, Democracy, Ancient Greece
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
POG 235
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
POG235
09/10/18
Lecture 1
Prof- Colin Mooers ([email protected])
Office- JOR814 mon 11-12, Thur 2-3
All texts available on course website
What is Political Theory?
Value latent question of what is the best kind of society to live in and what do we have to do to
get together
- Starts with what is wrong with present world
- Debate over good society
- People have fought over nature and meaning of good society- not always a story of dead
white men, it is also about people fighting over (sometimes physically) the meaning of
good society
- Majority of people were illiterate till 19th century
- Written history of western political thought is a history to some large extent of record
written by educated, wealthy, privileged white men
- Debate of good study is from a century before Christ- till end of 19th century- this is when
real corer stones of wpt were layed down
- Great modern traditions of democratic thought came to be- conservatism, liberalism,
socialism and/or Marxism- these traditions that have extended and expanded over
hundreds of years, each of them in their way speaks to question of democracy- how much
democracy should be permitted, what kind of representation is necessary to represent
views of people, what kind of equality is therefore required of society in order to allow
for and permit meaningful conversations in politics- all relate to growth and idea of
democracy
- Democracy is not exclusively western but democracy has birthed there (ancient Greece is
birthstone of democracy)
- Ancient Greece elicited fierce debates amongst great political people and thinkers
Second major period we look at
- 17th and 18th century
- in and around Europe – England and France
- social upheaval and revolution
- began in England
- Thomas Hobbes and john Locke will be looked at
- Period where much of that thinking was driven by what happened in the world
- Major contributions follows by experience- responding to real events, conflicts, debates
in their own society and their theory is a product of their lived experience to some extent
- Globalization round ideas going on in this period- ideas travelling with very little instant
media that we understand now
- Ideas powerful enough to find a home and travel to many parts of the world including the
developed world
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Third major period
- 19th century
- get liberal concept of individuality and reaction to rise of liberal individualism in form of
socialism- social response to industrial capitalism
Short paper
- think piece asking you to think through a topic of discussion discussed in lecture, tutorial
and reading
- exercise in seeing how you are doing- test of knowledge of material
Reading journal
- record of your reading (deep reading) of assigned reading selections in course
- will choose short part of readings (2/3 paragraphs), write summary of what is being said
in short selection and in second paragraph say how you feel it relates to overall picture
(find answer in lectures)
- Do not leave till end of course
Final exam
- Matching, short answer question and one essay
Participation
- Choose 6 tutorial questions from lectures and write half a page answer to the question
- For two of answer- have to perform it in front of tutorial class
- Lecture attendance and tutorial attendance
What is Political Theory?
- Wages for people in parliament suggests there is a problem with representation for those
without money because they cannot leave their work in order to represent their
constituency
- We are too poor to sit in parliament all year and not get paid
- Theoretical questions- who gets represented?
- Cluster of questions to how you can define good society- who should rule? Once having
achieved that power- in whose instance should they rule?
Study of state
- Political theory in first instance is about study of political institutions which make up the
state
- State is used to describe a whole cluster of institutions
- If we talked about Canadian state today- we would be thinking about also armed forces,
permanent bureaucracies, people who issue license, health card etc.
- Institutions which control, regulate and govern through laws and legislation, what you
can and can’t do in certain circumstances
- Modern state was set of institutions separate from community
- May surprise you to learn that for good part of human history, states in meaningful sense
did not exist
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Value latent question of what is the best kind of society to live in and what do we have to do to get together. Starts with what is wrong with present world. People have fought over nature and meaning of good society- not always a story of dead white men, it is also about people fighting over (sometimes physically) the meaning of good society. Majority of people were illiterate till 19th century. Written history of western political thought is a history to some large extent of record written by educated, wealthy, privileged white men. Debate of good study is from a century before christ- till end of 19th century- this is when real corer stones of wpt were layed down. Democracy is not exclusively western but democracy has birthed there (ancient greece is birthstone of democracy) Ancient greece elicited fierce debates amongst great political people and thinkers.
