POLI 381 - Democracy and Empire

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

What happens when apparently democratic societies - in which citizens author the laws of the land and actively participate in shaping domestic and foreign policy - undertake imperial projects of expansion? Can we still consider a society democratic when its citizens tacitly or explicitly endorse the conquest, coercive expropriation, and exploitation of foreign lands and resources and the sexual and racial subordination of foreign peoples? This seminar examines contemporary practices of democracy and imperialism- e.g., projects of development, nation-building and state-building, and the “opening of markets” to foreign investment - through analysis of the tensions that emerge in democratic theory and practice in at least three distinctive historical contexts of “democratic” imperial expansion, namely: 1) the expansion of the Athenian empire during the “golden age” of Athenian democracy, 2) the era of Western Europe’s “liberal” colonizing projects and “civilizing missions” and of westward expansion in North America and 3) the era of liberal-democratic imperialism leading up to the first and second World Wars. Mr. Hoffman.

Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period.

Courses numbered 310-319 are advanced courses that meet twice a week and are limited to nineteen students. These courses do not require permission of the instructor for sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have taken at least one previous political science course. These courses can meet the requirement for two graded 300-level courses but do not meet the requirement of one 300-level seminar during the senior year. Seminars in the 340s, 350s, 360s, and 370s are generally limited to twelve students and require permission of the instructor. Students taking seminars are expected to have taken relevant course-work at a lower level. The content of seminars can vary from year to year depending upon interests of students and instructors. Seminars might focus on topics too specialized to receive exhaustive treatment in lower-level courses; they might explore particular approaches to the discipline or particular methods of research; they might be concerned with especially difficult problems in political life, or be oriented toward a research project of the instructor. The thesis (POLI 300, POLI 301, POLI 302) and senior independent work (POLI 399) require permission of the instructor.