Office: Room 1723 HW
Phone: (212) 772-5507
e-mail: apolsky@hunter.cuny.edu
Office Hours: Monday, 1:15-3:00 and by appointment
http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~apolsky/
 

Course Description

    Political ideas may embody abstract principles, but they are also tied to the political world: they reflect social concerns and shape governing institutions and political practice. This has been especially true in the American case. American political theorists, while not indifferent to the long tradition of political discourse, have responded to the pressure of events and sought in turn to mold political outcomes. During the Revolutionary period, political thought focused upon justifying independence; soon thereafter the concern shifted to the appropriate governing arrangements for the new republic. Questions of slavery, race, sectionalism, and national authority dominated political discourse in the first half of the nineteenth century. After the Civil War, the social landscape was transformed by industry, technology, urbanization, and corporate organization. American political thought faced the problem of how best to refashion the political order to accommodate the emergent urban-industrial social reality. During the past generation the expanded state that Progressive and New Deal theory proposed has itself become a central problem for political thought across the ideological spectrum. We will follow the development of American political thought over time to identify the questions theorists posed for themselves, the historical context that framed their work, the impact of their ideas on politics, and the current significance of those ideas.

Course Prerequisite

    By department policy, all students enrolled in a 300-level political science course must have completed ENG 120 or the equivalent. Students who have not done so may be dropped from the roster by the Registrar.

Accessability

    In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Hunter College is committed to ensuring educational parity and accommodations for all students with documented disabilities and/or medical conditions. It is recommended that all students with documented disabilities (Emotional, Medical, Physical and/ or Learning) consult the Office of AccessABILITY located in Room E1124 to secure necessary academic accommodations. For further information and assistance please call (212- 772- 4857)/TTY (212- 650- 3230).

Statement on Academic Integrity

    Hunter College is strongly committed to the principle that students should do their own work, give proper credit for information gained from any source, and acknowledge any help received in completing assignments. I will pursue any suspected violations on written assignments (including non-graded ones) through the college's formal mechanism for adjudicating such cases and seek the most severe penalties permitted under college policy. Students may be asked to submit their papers to a plagiarism detection service.

Course Requirements

    1) Complete assigned reading before class meetings (see schedule below). Be aware that sometimes the volume of reading is heavy, as is common in political theory courses. Please bring the assigned reading to class.

    2) Attend class regularly and on time. No student shall be permitted to enter the classroom late; I will treat such lateness as an unexcused absence. Students who miss more than two classes without a valid, documented reason shall be penalized in the final grading (see below).

    3) Participate in class discussion. The study of political theory requires active engagement with the texts. This is not a lecture course. Your grade will reflect your contribution to class meetings.

    4) Write ten short summaries (two page maximum) of assigned readings. For the proper summary format and guidance on what a summary should include, "Reading Summaries,"which can be found on-line at http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~apolsky/ SUMMARY.htm. Summaries must be submitted at the start of the class period in which the reading will be discussed. Where multiple readings/chapters are assigned for a class period, I may direct you in the prior class meeting to summarize one or two readings. I may also divide the list of readings to assure that not everyone summarizes the same one. Accordingly, if you are absent, be sure to check with me by e-mail about what to summarize for the next class. Only one summary may be submitted per class. If you are absent, you may arrange to have someone else deliver the summary. I will accept no late summaries for any reason, and summaries may not be faxed or sent via e-mail. If I find a summary inadequate (usually because it is too vague, based only on the first few pages of the reading, or too long), I will reject it and you will need to do another one. Otherwise, individual summaries are not graded. Note, however, that completion of the required number of summaries factors into the class participation component of the grade (see below).

    5) Complete all written assignments. Written work for the course consists of three papers, each 6-8 pages. The course is divided into four units. You will write a paper on the first unit of the course and on any two of the remaining three units. Each paper will be due approximately one week after the completion of the respective unit, with the paper for the final unit due at the scheduled time for the final exam. (There will be no in-class final exam.) You will have the option to revise one of the first two papers to earn a better grade on that assignment; this rewrite will be due at the final regular class meeting on May 17th. Papers must be typed; they may not be faxed or submitted via e-mail. Suggested topics for papers will be distributed, though students may obtain approval for other topics. Guidelines for writing papers and the grading rubric may be found on my home page, and I strongly urge you to review them before you write each paper.

Grading

    In computing your course grade, each paper and class participation will be given equal weight, yielding four grades. If you submit the paper rewrite, the new grade will replace the one you received initially on that assignment. No extra credit work will be accepted.
    Class participation will be based on timely submission of summaries, attendance, and regular contributions to discussion. Submission of the ten summaries establishes a base participation grade of B; your active, informed contributions in discussion will improve this. Three or more unexcused absences will lower the participation grade by one-third of a letter grade, rising to one full letter grade for five or more absences. Failure to submit the required number of summaries also lowers the participation grade by one-third of a letter, increasing to one full letter for fewer than seven. Be sure to submit summaries regularly so you do not fall behind. Remember that you cannot submit more than one summary per class; thus, you cannot catch up at the end of the semester. (Students with more than ten unexcused absences and who submit three or fewer summaries will receive an F for class participation.)
    I expect you to complete written assignments on time. Extensions will be given only for valid reasons and documentation will be required. Otherwise, late work will be penalized, and beyond a certain date will not be accepted; also, you may not rewrite a paper on which you receive a late penalty. The same conditions apply to requests for incompletes, which I approve infrequently and which extend for only as long as the period of time during which you were unable to work (e.g., if you were ill for one week at final exam time, you will be given one extra week in June to complete the last paper). The exact duration of an incomplete will be set at the time a student requests it.
    Note on credit/no credit grading: College rules specify that to be eligible for credit/no credit, students must complete all course requirements. In this course, students who wish to be graded on the credit/no credit system must have submitted at least five summaries and all three papers.

Books

    This course relies upon a large course pack and books available at Shakespeare Books on Lexington Avenue between 68th and 69th Streets. One copy of the course pack will be placed on reserve in the Hunter College Library. Besides the course pack, the following titles have been ordered for purchase at the bookstore:
    Merrill Peterson, ed., The Portable Thomas Jefferson (New York: Penguin, 1977).
    Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers.
 

Schedule of Class Assignments

    The dates below are only approximate. As this schedule is subject to revision, students are responsible for keeping up with any announced changes.
 

Part One: From Colony to Nation

January 29th and February 1st. Colonial Foundations of American Political Thought: From Puritanism to Material Ambition.
    John Winthrop, "A Modell of Christian Charity" and "Winthrop's Speech to the General Court, July 3, 1645," in Perry Miller and Thomas H. Johnson, The Puritans: A Sourcebook of Their Writings (1938; reprint ed., New York: Harper and Row, 1963), pp. 195-99, 205-207. [course pack]
    Elisha Williams, "The Essential Rights and Liberties of Protestants," in Ellis Sandoz, ed., Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805 (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1990), pp. 51-72, 91-100. [course pack]
    J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer (1782; reprint ed., New York: E.P. Dutton, 1957), Letter III "What Is an American," pp. 35-64. [course pack]

February 5th and 8th. Ideals for a New Nation.
    Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence," in Peterson.
    Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia," Queries 8, 11, 13-14, 17-19, 22, in Peterson.
    Abigail Adams, "Letter to John Adams." [course pack]

February 12th. No class.

February 15th, 21st (Wednesday), and 22nd. (February 19th. No Class.) The Case for the Constitution.
    The Constitution of the United States, in The Federalist Papers.
    The Federalist Papers, Nos. 1, 9, 15, 21, 10, 14, 11-12, 23, 38, 37, 39, 45-51, 56-57, 62-63, 68-70, 78, and 84.

February 26th and March 1st. The Vision of the Anti-Federalists.
    Herbert J. Storing, What the Anti-Federalists Were For (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), chap. 3 "The Small Republic," pp. 15-23. [course pack]
    The Federal Farmer, Letters I-IV and VII, in Herbert J. Storing, ed., The Anti-Federalist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981, 1985), pp. 32-60, 73-79. [course pack]
    Essays of Brutus, I-IV, VIII, and XVI in Herbert J. Storing, ed., The Anti-Federalist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981, 1985), pp. 108-32, 150-53, 187-91. [course pack]
    A Farmer [Maryland], from V in J.R. Pole, ed., The American Constitution: For and Against (New York, Hill and Wang, 1987), pp. 83-95. [course pack]
 

Part Two: Tensions in the New American Republic

March 5th and 8th. Disputing the Meaning of a New National State.
    Alexander Hamilton, "Report on Manufactures," in Morton J. Frisch, ed., Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1985), pp. 277-318. [course pack]
    Thomas Jefferson, "The Kentucky Resolutions," in Peterson.
    Jefferson, "First Inaugural Addresses," in Peterson.
    Jefferson, "Second Inaugural Address," in Peterson.
    Jefferson, letters to John Adams, October 28, 1813 and to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816, in Peterson.

March 12th, 15th, and 19th. Jacksonian Democracy and Its Critics.
    Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1969), pp. 50-60, 231-45, 316-20, 340-63, 521-24. [course pack]
    Orestes Brownson, "The Laboring Classes," in Michael B. Levy, ed., Political Thought in America: An Anthology, 2nd ed. (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1988), pp. 238-44. [course pack]
    "The Seneca Falls Declaration and Resolutions," in Kenneth M. Dolbeare, ed, American Political Thought, 2nd ed. (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1989), pp. 255-58. [course pack]

March 19th, 22nd, and 26th. Slavery and the Limits of National Authority.
    Frederick Douglass, "Fourth of July Oration," in Levy, ed., Political Thought in America, pp. 262-71. [course pack]
    Abraham Lincoln, "Speech in Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857," in J. Mark Jacobson, ed.,The Development of American Political Thought: A Documentary History (New York: Century Co., 1932), pp. 377-84. [course pack]
    Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, "First Joint Debate," in Robert W. Johannsen, ed., The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), pp. 37-74. [course pack]
    Abraham Lincoln, "First Inaugural Address," in Lincoln, Selected Speeches and Writings (New York: Vintage/Library of America, 1992), pp. 284-93. [course pack]
    Lincoln, "Address on Colonization to a Committee of Colored Men, Washington, DC," in Lincoln, Selected Speeches and Writings, pp. 338-42. [course pack]
    Lincoln, "Address at Gettysburg Pennsylvania," in Lincoln, Selected Speeches and Writings, p. 405. [course pack]
    Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address," in Lincoln, Selected Speeches and Writings, pp. 449-50. [course pack]
 

Part Three: Industrial Conflict and the Progressive State

March 29th. Class Strife and the Social Darwinist Response.
    William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, in Dolbeare, ed., American Political Thought, pp. 340-56. [course pack]
    William Graham Sumner, "The Conquest of the United States by Spain," Yale Law Journal 8 (1899): 168-93. [course pack]

April 2nd, 5th, and 9th. No class.

April 12th and 16th. The State as a Constructive Instrument.
    Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life (1909: reprint ed., Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1989), chaps. 1, 7, 12. [course pack]

April 19th. Women, Politics, and the New State
    Jane Addams, "The Larger Aspects of the Women's Movement," in Christopher Lasch, ed., The Social Thought of Jane Addams (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965), pp. 152-62. [course pack]
    Walter Lippman, Drift and Mastery (1914; reprint ed., Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), chap. 11 "A Note on the Women's Movement," pp. 123-34. [course pack]
    Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "His Religion and Hers," in Levy, ed., Political Thought in America, pp. 370-74. [course pack]

April 23rd. The Continuing Problem of the Color Line.
    W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, chap. IX "Of the Sons of Master and Man," in Eric J. Sundquist, ed., The Oxford W.E.B. DuBois Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 184-98. [course pack]
    W.E.B. DuBois, "The Future of the Negro Race in America." in Sundquist, ed., W.E.B. DuBois Reader, pp. 362-73. [course pack]

April 26th. The Dark Side of Progressivism: Militarism and Repression.
    Randolph Bourne, "The State," in Levy, Political Thought in America, pp. 561-65. [course pack]
 

Part Four: Critical Reflections on Modern American Democracy

April 30th. Foundations of the Welfare State.
    Franklin D. Roosevelt, "The Commonwealth Club Address," in Levy, Political Thought in America, pp. 419-26. [course pack]
    John Dewey, "The Future of Liberalism," in Howard Zinn, ed., New Deal Thought (1966; reprint ed., Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003), pp. 28-35. [course pack]

May 3rd. From the Left: Power and Disempowerment in the Modern American State.
    Michael J. Sandel, Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy (Cambridge: Harvard/Belknap, 1996), "Conclusion: In Search of a Public Philosophy," pp. 321-51. [course pack]

May 7th. From the Right: Civil Society and the State.
    William A. Schambra, "The Progressive Assault of Civic Community," in Eberly, ed., Essential Civil Society Reader, pp. 317-51. [course pack]

May 10th. The End of the Cold War and the Triumph (?) of Capitalism.
    Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, (New York: Free Press, 1992), chap. 27 "In the Realm of Freedom," pp. 287-99, and chap. 30 "Perfect Rights and Defective Duties," pp. 322-27. [course pack]

May 14th and 17th. Envisioning Alternatives.
    Robert N. Bellah et al., Habits of the Heart, updated ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), chap. 11 "Transforming American Culture," pp. 275-96. [course pack]
    Daniel Kemis, Community and the Politics of Place (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990), chap. 8 "The Art of the Possible in the Home of Hope (The Politics of Re-Inhabitation)," pp. 109-42. [course pack]
    Robert A. Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), chap. 23 "Sketches for an Advanced Democratic Country," pp. 322-41. [course pack]

May 21st (Final Exam Week). Final Paper Due.