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baskent.edu.tr

Ph.D. in Political Science

PSIR608

CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THEORY

Course Code
PSIR608
Semester
-
Theory+Practice
3 + 0
ECTS
10
Course TypeElective Course
Course LevelDoctorate Of Science
Year of Study-
Semester-
ECTS10
Name of Lecturer(s)
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

  1. Develop capacity to evaluate critically the paths that the two main/rival traditions of modern political thought liberalism and socialism- have followed in their efforts to conceptualize the modern capitalist societies.
  2. Discuss the changing meanings of the notions of "power" and "resistance" especially after the Second World War.
  3. Understand the debate that some contemporary thinkers -like Zizek- have opened by rejecting Marx's claim that "they don't know it but they are doing it" and instead arguing that what rather describes today's world is "they know very well what they are doing, but still, they are doing it".
Mode of DeliveryFace to face
PrerequisitesNo
Recommended Optional Programme ComponentsNone
Course DescriptionWhen it comes to the 20th century, the flow of history had accelerated to the extent never seen before. While major wars, advanced industrialization and capitalism have changed the face of the world swiftly, they had created both their alternative and monster: socialism and fascism. Then a question which Gramsci posed and later Frankfurt School scholars and Arendt thought over marked the first half of the century: why it was fascism that came about while a socialist revolution was being expected The course will start with these thinkers' inquiry on this question. This question is actually part of the effort since ancient times to give a meaning to the world, try to understand how it should be, and to think about the nature of the bonds between people and their community. Especially after the Second World War, differences and the question of living together despite growing differences in continuously differentiating and complex societies; and the conceptualizations of power and authority and changing nature of struggle against these developments, have brought the rethinking of the meanings attached to concepts of democracy, democratic politics and democratic struggle concepts. The second part of the course, focus on these issues by analysing approaches of thinkers such as Rawls and Habermas, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, Zizek, Laclau, Mouffe and Butler.
Course Contents
WEEK TOPICS
1st Week Introduction to the course, expectations from the students
2nd Week Gramsci
3rd Week Frankfurt School and Critical Theory
4th Week Arendt
5th Week Habermas
6th Week Rawls
7th Week Foucault
8th Week Mid-term exam
9th Week Deleuze
10th Week Guattari
11th Week Derrida
12th Week Zizek
13th Week Laclau and Mouffe
14th Week Butler
Recommended or Required ReadingRenate Holub, Antonio Gramsci Beyond Marxism and Postmodernism, London and New York: Routledge, 1992.

Roger Simon, Gramsci's Political Thought, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1991.

Max Horkheimer, Traditional and Critical Theory in Critical Theory: Selected Essays, pp: 188-244.

Theodor W. Adorno, Art, Society and Aesthetics, in Aesthetics Theory, 1-16.
Walter Benjamin, Critique of Violence, in One Way Street, pp. 132-154.

Herbert Marcuse, Liberation of the Affluent Society, and Reification of the Proletariat, in Critical Theory and Society: A Reader, pp: 276-292.

John Bokina and Timothy J. Lukes, Marcuse From the New Left to the Next Left, University Press of Kansas, 1994.

David Held Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas, Introduction & Chp: 2.

Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 2nd edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Craig Calhoun (ed.) Habermas and the Public Sphere, MIT Press, 1999.

Murat Özbank (ed.) Rawls-Habermas Tartışması: Neden Demokrasi? Nasıl İstikrar?, İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2009.

Joseph Losco and Leonard Williams (ed.) Political Theory Classic Writings, Contemporary Views, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.

Stephen Eric Bronner, Twentieth Century Political Theory, New York and London: Routledge, 1997.

Saul Newman, From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, Lexington Books, 2001.
Slavoj Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, London and New York: Verso, 1999.

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 2nd ed. London and New York: Verso, 2001.

Chantal Mouffe, Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically, London and New York: Verso, 2013.
Joseph Losco and Leonard Williams (ed.) Political Theory Classic Writings, Contemporary Views, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.

Stephen Eric Bronner, Twentieth Century Political Theory, New York and London: Routledge, 1997.

Saul Newman, From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, Lexington Books, 2001.
Slavoj Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, London and New York: Verso, 1999.

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 2nd ed. London and New York: Verso, 2001.

Chantal Mouffe, Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically, London and New York: Verso, 2013.
Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods
  • Lecture
  • Discussion
  • Questions/Answers
Assessment Methods and Criteria
Quantity Percentage (%)
Assignment 1 40
Attendance 1 10
Total(%) 50
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%) 50
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%) 50
Total(%) 100
ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload
Activities Quantity Duration (Hour) Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam
Preparation for Quiz
Individual or group work 14 8 112
Preparation for Final exam 1 80 80
Course hours 14 3 42
Preparation for Midterm exam
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam 1 2 2
Homework 1 68 68
Total Work Load304
Total Work Load / 30 (h)10.13
ECTS Credit of the Course10
Language of InstructionTurkish
Work Placement(s)No

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

LO1 LO2 LO3
K1 X X X
K2 X X X
K3 X X X
K4 X X X
K5 X X X
K6 X X
K7 X X X
K8 X X
K9 X
K10
K11 X X X
K12 X