3 Credits
Professor Old
TR 1:30-2:45 pm
Cross-listed with POLS 355X.

This seminar will introduce students to the study of political ideologies with special emphasis placed on the ideologies that shaped the twentieth-century political world and those that seem most likely to continue shaping the world in the twenty-first century.

We will begin with an introduction to the concept of ideology and various approaches to the study of ideologies. This will allow us to consider questions such as what constitutes an ideology, what distinguishes ideologies from other systems of thought such as myth and utopia, and what kinds of roles ideologies play within political orders.

We will read examples of ideological writings representing many of the most important political movements of the past century, including liberalism, fascism, communism, and socialism, as well as several more recently emerging ideologies such as fundamentalism, feminism, environmentalism, and anarchism. Common texts will include non-fiction, fiction, film, and other media.

Requirements: Seminar participants are expected to participate actively in class discussions. On occasion, students will be assigned roles as advocates or critics of particular ideological positions and will be expected to lead class discussion. Writings assignments will include reviews of books advocating specific ideological positions and a research project in which students will analyze a contemporary political issue from different ideological perspectives.

Texts may include:
Isaiah Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty.
Milton Friedman, Selections from "Capitalism and Freedom".
Michael Walzer. Town Meetings and Workers Control.
Noam Chomsky. The Relevance of Anarcho-Syndicalism.
Michael Oakeshott. On Being Conservative.
Benito Mussolini. The Doctrine of Fascism.
Arthur Koestler. .