Robert Webking
This course is designed to provide an introduction to politics. Its goal is to lead the student to an understanding of the importance of political associations for human beings and the quality of their lives. In particular, the course aims at preparing the student to understand the importance of political decisions in the United States of America for shaping the lives of the people of that community.
American politics is a particular kind of politics. It makes the lives of Americans different from the lives of people who lived in ancient Rome or who now live in, for example, contemporary China or Egypt. To understand human beings, how they live, and why they live differently from place to place it is necessary to understand the role that political decisions play in creating the differences between countries and the people's lives within them.
In order to appreciate the influence of a particular set of political arrangements upon people's lives, it is necessary first to understand the role of politics in general. Only with some appreciation of what politics can do and not do can one understand the particular choices in a country to shape the community in one way rather than in others. For that reason, the course does not begin with a consideration of American politics in particular, but with a consideration of politics in general, so that later the student can understand American politics in context.
In order to develop an understanding of the importance of political associations for human beings in general, the course begins by analyzing two case studies of political phenomena: two examples of conflicts between people and political communities. These two case studies, Antigone and the Apology of Socrates, raise questions about politics that lead to a careful analysis of what political communities do, why they do it, how they might go about doing it well, and why they often do it badly. These topics are approached through the study of arguments and examples from Plato, Aristotle, and American novelist Herman Melville.
Having shaped an appreciation of what politics can do in general, the course turns to American politics to analyze what it does and does not do in particular. The decisions of the American founders about how to approach the problems of political associations are examined through the great founding documents of the Declaration of Independence and The Federalist Papers. Finally, the effects of those decisions of the American founders on the day to day lives of people in the United States are studied through Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.
Objectives:
At the end of this course you (the student) will be able to:
send questions or comments to rwebking@utep.edu