Richard Bourke (QMUL)

This course traces the history of theories of democracy in the modern world. The aim of the course is to explore historical controversies surrounding the relationship between key democratic institutions and values. The political institutions and mechanisms examined include voting, parliamentarism, assemblies, committees and governments, while the political values and issues examined will include equality, liberty and representation. The course will investigate the clash between institutions and values as examined in influential documents and treatises extending from seventeenth-century England to revolutionary America and France, and into the era of modern mass democracy. By the end of the course, students will have an advanced understanding of the history of debates about modern democracy, and be familiar with the detailed concerns of a selection of the most important theorists of modern democracy on such pressing issues as popular sovereignty, egalitarianism, freedom and public opinion. Figures to be studied include: Hobbes, Smith, Rousseau, Madison, Sieyes, Maine and Schumpeter.