Foundations of Democracy (History & Philosophy)

Course goals

After completion of the course, students can

1. Defend their own view on what makes democracy valuable, and explain the implications of their view for democratic society.
2. Distinguish between different forms of citizens’ participation in different conceptions of democracy, and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses.
3. Define and describe the historical development of key concepts in democratic theory and practice.
4. Develop, execute, and communicate an interdisciplinary research project in which they analyse challenges and innovations to democratic institutions from a historical and philosophical perspective.
5. Place theories about democracy in the context of key debates in history and philosophy. 6. Critically analyse arguments about democracy in history and philosophy.

Content

Throughout history, ideas and practices of democracy have evolved. It has been defined and redefined, copied and adapted, supported and criticized. There is no fixed meaning of democracy, one principal justification, or merely one institutional form. This implies that historic democratic regimes and current-day democracy are a combination of peculiar variants and recurring features. It also means that democracy can be imagined differently in and for the future.

This course starts from the idea that an analysis of present-day and future challenges to democracy requires a thorough grounding in the history and principles of democracy. What exactly is valuable about democracy? Why was democracy broadly considered a dangerous form of government until deep into the 19th century? Have elections always been taken as the core mechanism of democratic decision-making? Is there a principled difference between direct and representative, and deliberative and aggregative democracy? What is “liberal” about liberal democracy – and when did liberalism embrace democracy? The course on Foundations of Democracy will reflect on these questions from philosophical and historical perspectives.

By the end of the course, you will not only know key debates in research on democracy, but you will also have a better understanding of how to do philosophical, historical, and interdisciplinary research yourself. You will practice assessing and developing political philosophical arguments, analysing and doing your own historical case studies, and evaluating theories in the history of political thought. In the exercises and in our lectures, we will also devote time to discussing how you can combine the disciplines to create new insights.

This course has priority rules and a waiting list.

Additional information

This course is only open to students from the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Governance.

This course has priority rules and a waiting list. Your enrolment is guaranteed if you are: 

• a student in the BA PPE enrolled in the thematic package Democracy and its Discontents.

In all other situations, you will be placed on a waiting list if you enrol in this course. For any remaining slots in the course, lots are drawn among the students on the waiting list.