POL2430: American Political Thought

Abstract

COURSE DESCRIPTION The genius of America lies in its politics. No other country has as self-consciously and as scrupulously examined its reason for being politically or as mindfully elevated its political principles virtually into a moral standard. The American Political Tradition has implied a consensual core. Yet this liberal democratic tradition has its inner contradictions as well as variations on its central theme. Indeed the American political tradition might be defined as a set of uneasy tensions in constant struggle for supremacy. In this course we shall be examining the consensual core and the inner tensions of the evolving American political tradition.