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Lehrende: Prof. Dr. Peter Niesen
Veranstaltungsart:
Interaktive Lehrveranstaltung
Anzeige im Stundenplan:
PEP 9
Semesterwochenstunden:
2
Credits:
6,0
Unterrichtssprache:
Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl:
- | 45
Kommentare/ Inhalte:
This year's political theory seminar will discuss problems of collective decision-making.
How should collectives make decisions when their common affairs are at stake, but individuals‘ interests are set against each other? This seminar proposes to look at various historical and contemporary examples. We will start with papers on sortition and the current debate about „lottocracy“ and then look at various modes of aggregative decision-making (majority vote, supermajority vote).
One special mode of aggregation is deliberative decision-making, i.e. decision-making based on reasoning processes. We will examine how reasoning and aggregation can be related. Deliberation is often understood to aim at unanimous decisions based on consensus. Another mode said to aim at unanimous agreement is compromise.
In discussing the modes of decision-making, we will focus on the democratic virtues they are purported to have: effectiveness, equality, fairness and epistemic quality („truth“). We will look at some of the historical contexts in which proposals and practices arose – ancient Greece, Victorian Westminster, and early 21st century experiments with democratic innovations.
Lernziel:
Students will be able to:
- explain and compare key concepts in normative political theory
- reconstruct, analyze, and interpret complex theoretical texts
- evaluate and criticize arguments
- develop and defend arguments
- produce and assess texts in political theory
Vorgehen:
This is a discussion-based seminar. It is expected that students carefully prepare all of the assigned readings and actively participate in class discussion.
The seminar follows the principles of research-based learning. It implements a conference format where two students prepare position papers (1000 words), often providing opposing positions, that respond to the readings assigned for that week. Paper are supposed to deveolp a cogent argument with respect to one issue raised by the text(s).
These papers will be uploaded before the sessions at the platform OpenOlat and serve as basis for brief (5 mins.) presentations. The authors will be expected to take a leading role in our discussion for that week. Introductions to topics will be provided by the course convenor for download on OpenOlat..
Depending on the biosecurity situation, I plan to offer small sessions with alternating participants on campus, open to all via Zoom. Presentist elements will be optional, not required. All classwork can be done remotely.
Literatur:
A detailed list of readings will be distributed in the first session. The course does not presuppose prior exposure to political theory/philosophy.The mandatory reading will be provided online, but some additional reading for position papers may have to be sourced in libraries.
As an introduction to the topics of our class, you could look at the following work:
- Umbers, Lachlan (2020): Against Lottocracy. European Journal of Political Theory
- Risse, Mathias (2004) Arguing for Majority Rule. The Journal of Political Philosophy 12, 41-64
- Owen, David (2003): Democracy. In: Bellamy, Richard/Mason, Andrew (eds.): Political Concepts. Manchester. 105-117.
Zusätzliche Hinweise zu Prüfungen:
To be admitted to the final exam, students are required to complete the following coursework:
- weekly preparation of texts, with upload of one statement or question per session to OpenOlat,
- participation in seminar discussion,
- position paper,
- presentation and defense of position paper in class.
The final exam is a term paper (4000 words) due on March 31, 2021. A first draft of the proposal will be due on Jan 5, 2021. The mark for the position paper can upgrade the mark for the term paper (conditional on pass) by a maximum of 0.7.
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