Type of Credit: Elective
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Number of Students
‘Introduction to Political Science’ is a one-semester module for undergraduate students. It aims at (1) presenting the scope and core areas of political science to students, (2) nurturing their abilities to reflect on politics, and (3) developing their abilities to express their analysis and interpretation of politics through coherent arguments.
The module, therefore, is organised into two major themes: political phenomena and ideas, with a strong emphasis on the theory and history of political science. Apart from the first two weeks that introduce the theme of the module and its historical origins, the module unfolds with (1) the mapping of key political phenomena (week 3-7), before moving onto (2) the essential aspects of politics (week 9-15). To conclude the module, the last two weeks will include an open discussion on the future of political science (week 15), and a three-round debate (week 16).
能力項目說明
The objectives of the module include (1) familiarising the students with the core analytical or interpretative objects and approaches of political sciences, (2) cultivating the students’ ability to critically thinking about the political environment they find themselves in, and (3) encourage students to form and present their political arguments in public in an debate.
The design of the assignments, including the essay abstract (mid-term), class debate (week 16), and term paper (end of term), aims to help students develop the ability to form coherent and succinct arguments and present them in an articulate, well-informed, and academically sound term paper.
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Week 1. Introduction: Why Political Science Today? Reading (excerpt): Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (University of Chicago Press, 1996). |
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Week 2. Political Sciences between the Ancients and the Moderns Reading (excerpt): Aristotle, The Politics (CUP, 1988). Niccolo Machiavelli, Machiavelli: The Prince (CUP, 1988). Shang Yang, The Book of Lord Shang: Apologetics of State Power in Early China, Yuri Pines ed. and trans. (Columbia University Press, 2017). |
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Week 3. War, State, and Man Reading (excerpt): Homer, The Iliad (OPU, 2011). Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (OUP, 2009). |
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Week 4. Authority and Legitimacy Reading (excerpt): Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (CUP, 1991). Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, and, The First and Second Discourses (Yale University Press, 2002). |
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Week 5. Constitution and Institutions Reading (excerpt): Emmanuel Sieyès, Sieyès: Political Writings: Including the Debate Between Sieyes and Tom Paine in 1791 (Hackett, 2003). |
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Week 6. Production and Distribution Reading (excerpt): Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (OUP, 2008). |
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Week 7. Revolution and Transformation Reading (excerpt): Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Yale University Press, 2014). |
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Week 8. Debate Observation Screening: Cambridge Union, This House Would Disband The UN Security Council, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk4PpUiEYh8&list=PLYpyB-7KwFc7PgCzSPZWEtNbRwWL4GW_h. |
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Week 9. Worlding, Ordering, and the International Systems Reading (excerpt): Dante Alighieri, Dante: Monarchy (CUP, 1996). Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum (Telos Press, 2003). |
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Week 10. Political Ideologies Reading (excerpt): Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (Penguin, 2017). |
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Week 11. Political Memories and Culture Reading (excerpt): Ruti G. Teitel, Globalizing Transitional Justice (OUP, 2014). |
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Week 12. Human Rights Reading (excerpt): Simone Weil, The Need for Roots (Penguin, 2023). |
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Week 13. Identity Politics Reading (excerpt): Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2018). |
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Week 14. Genocide, Massacre, and Peace Reading (excerpt): Judith Butler, Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? (Verso, 2016). |
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Week 15. The Future of Political Science Reading (excerpt): Mark Coeckelbergh, The Philosophy of AI: An Introduction (Polity, 2022). |
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Week 16. Debates
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Class Attendance |
10% |
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Participation |
10% |
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Group presentation in debates |
30% |
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Abstract of term paper (1 page) |
20% |
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Term paper (1500-2000 words) |
30% |
Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy (OUP, 2023).
Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Bertrand Badie & Leonardo Morlino eds., The SAGE Handbook of Political Science, SAGE, 2020.
Robert E. Goodin, The Oxford Handbook of Political Science, OUP, 2011.
Michael G. Roskin, Robert L. Cord, James A. Medeiros, and Walter S. Jones, Political Science: An Introduction, Global Edition (Pearson, 2016).