Learning objectives
The aim of the module is to teach students about the main concepts of political thought in the modern and contemporary age (state, rights, representation, sovereignty, etc.) and to provide a historical and political exploration of the processes behind the rise and crisis of the state/nation.
Course unit content
The course will analyse the most important notions of the state throughout the history of European political thought. The course will be structured in two modules: the first will be dedicated to the general part regarding the evolution, throughout the history of political thought, of the main concepts that characterise the development of the state: sovereignty, legitimacy, representation. The lecture part conducted in the second module will be dedicated to the rise of the state in the modern age.
Bibliography
M. D’Addio, Storia delle dottrine politiche, Genoa, ECIG, 2002 (single volume), following chapters: <br />
Ch. 1 (Greek civilisation and politics); Ch. 3 (Philosophy and politics: Plato); Ch. 4 (Politics as science: Aristotle); Ch. 5 (Authority, power, Empire: the Roman political experience); Ch. 10 (Political realism and autonomy of politics: Machiavelli); Ch. 11 (The state and the international community: Bodin and Suarez); Ch. 13 (Reason, law of nature and politics: Hobbes’ Leviathan state); Ch. 15 (Society of nature, civil society and constitutional state for Locke); Ch. 17 (Liberty and constitutional state: Montesquieu); Ch. 18 (Liberty and equality: the democratic state. Rousseau); Ch. 20 (The Federalist. The American Revolution and the formation of the United States); Ch. 21 (History, revolution and state. Burke); Ch. 26 (Liberalism and constitutional state: Constant); Ch. 27 (Liberty and equality: the problem of democracy. Tocqueville). Ch. 32 (Utilitarianism and liberalism: Stuart Mill). <br />
2. R. Gherardi (edited by), La politica e gli Stati. Problemi e figure del pensiero occidentale, Carocci, Rome 2004, following chapters: <br />
Part One, Chs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. <br />
Part Two, chapters on the following authors: Burke, Sieyès, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Constant, Tocqueville, Mill, Marx, Mosca, Weber, Dewey, Kelsen, Schmitt, Arendt. <br />
Teaching methods
An oral examination may be taken.
