TOPICS: DEMOCRACY AND GLOBAL JUSTICE in Fall 2021 (PO4091C)

This course equips students to analyze (self-)critically problems and conceptions of democracy and justice across, between and beyond states. In order to develop a solid understanding of the concepts of democracy and of global justice, the course starts off by examining some of the core definitions problems of democracy and global justice. Following that, the course explores four major sets of questions about democracy and global justice. First, how should we think of the distributive inequalities across and between countries? We will investigate the cosmopolitan or globalist, nationalist or statist as well as transnational or post-westphalian answers to this question. Second, is there a human right to democracy? Should we think of democracy as a universal value or norm? We will juxtapose and discuss opposing views regarding the claim that there is a human right to democracy. Third, how should we conceive of global democracy? We will study intergovernmental, cosmopolitan, deliberative, and radical approaches to global democracy. In addition, we will engage with authors who put into question the idea of global democracy. Fourth, we will investigate attempts within comparative political theory to globalize the debate about democracy by recognizing the global roots of the idea of democracy. Thus, we will end by studying the African and Confucian conceptions of democracy.

This course pays special attention to close reading and discussion of seminal texts from, among others, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, Charles Beitz, and Nancy Fraser. Readings will be philosophical and social-scientific. The course will include lectures, learning activities in small groups and seminar-style discussions concerning key figures and texts, as well as major philosophical conceptions, political and legal contexts as well as practical problems of democracy and global justice.