DPI 205
[DRAFT]
Responsibility and Representation: The Demands of Political Life
Michael Ignatieff
Monday 10:10-11:30
Wednesday 10:10-11:30
Office Hours: Rubenstein 216, Tuesdays 2-4pm
Faculty Assistant: Sarah Doyle
Course Description
This is a course for students considering a career in politics and seeking to prepare
themselves for its characteristic dilemmas: staying truthful versus saying what it
takes to win; balancing partisanship with civility, doing what your constituents want
versus what you think is right, managing the pressures of money and influence;
being loyal to party versus being loyal to yourself and your people; maintaining the
distinction between enemies and adversaries; knowing the difference between an
honorable compromise and a rotten one; knowing when to fight and when to make a
deal ; when to shoulder responsibility alone and when to force it on to others.
The readings will balance the classics—Edmund Burke, James Madison, Niccolo
Machiavelli, Max Weber, Isaiah Berlin—with case studies designed to test student
responses to challenges, both ethical and practical, that face those seeking and
holding public office in the United States and in democratic societies in the rest of
the world.
Michael Ignatieff, Professor of Practice at the Kennedy School, holds a PhD in history
from Harvard and is a former Member of the Canadian Parliament and Leader of the
Liberal Party of Canada.
Grading:
Students will be assessed on the following assignments. Grading will follow the
standard HKS grading curve.
1. One Class Presentation: 20%
2. Two Assigned Topic Memos, 1000 words each: 40%
3. One Final Free Choice Paper 3000 words: 40%
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Syllabus
Each week of the course introduces a new theme, with Monday classes devoted to a
reading that raises issues of principle and many of the Wednesday classes focusing
on a case study that examines the principle in practical detail.
Students will sign up to present one of the case studies in the Wednesday class.
Students will present in teams; a good presentation requires extra reading and
teamwork; and a good one should be no longer than 15 minutes in length.
Presenters should be ready for an extended question and answer with the instructor
and fellow students.
1.
January 28 -30: Being Responsible
To seek office is to seek responsibility. What is an ‘ethics of
responsibility’ and to whom is it owed?
Max Weber “Politics as a Vocation” in Gerth and Mills (eds) From Max Weber
2.
February 4-6: Being a Representative
What does it mean to represent ‘the people’ and to be accountable to
them? How does a leader reconcile his judgment with those he serves?
Edmund Burke “Letter to the Electors of Bristol”, 1774, excerpts
Arthur Applbaum Ethics for Adversaries, “Lessons from Legislative Ethics”
Jane Mansbridge “A Selection Model of Representation”, HKS Research
Papers,2008
3.
February 11-13: Standing in Politics
How does a candidate secure a hearing? How does she establish
standing with voters? What narratives of the self are successful?
Which ones fail?
Michael Ignatieff “Standing in Law and in Politics”
Drew Westen The Political Brain, ch. 1,
Case Study: Saving a Candidacy
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Barack Obama “Towards a More Perfect Union”, Speech, Philadelphia
Constitution Hall, March 2008
4.
February 18-20: Reaching Voters
What attracts voters to candidates? What messages and narratives turn
them off? How do leaders manage to create their own electorate?
Drew Westen, The Political Brain, ch. 2
Russell Hardin “Democratic Participation”, ch. 3 in How Do You Know?: The
Economics of Ordinary Knowledge.
Case Study: Micro-Targeting and Marketing a Candidate
Sasha Issenberg The Victory Lab, ch. 10, and epilogue
“Obama and the Power of Social Media and Technology” Stanford Graduate
School of Business, 2009
“The Marketing of Barack Obama”, IBSDC Case, 2009
5.
February 25-27: Language in Politics
Why do words matter so much in politics? Why do politicians make
mistakes with language? How do they recover?
George Lakoff The Political Mind, “The Brain’s Language” ch. 17
Case Study: Loose Talk Damages a Candidacy
“Al Gore and the Embellishment Issue: Press Coverage of the Gore
Presidential Campaign”, KSG Case, 2003.
6.
March 4-6 : Handling the Money
How should politicians handle the pressures of money in politics? What
can be done to reduce the influence of money in the pursuit of power?
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Joshua Cohen “Money, Politics, Political Equality” in Philosophy, Politics,
Democracy (HUP), ch. 8
Bruce E. Cain “Moralism and Realism in Campaign Finance Reform”,
University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1995, 111-140.
Case Study: Campaign Finance Reform.
United States Supreme Court “Citizens United versus Federal Election
Commission”, 2010, excerpts
Elections Canada website: Frequently Asked Questions on Political Financing,
2012
http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=fin&dir=faq&document=inde
x&lang=e#finan2
Lawrence Lessig, One Way Forward, ch. 5-6
7.
March 11-13. Getting Your Hands Dirty
When do noble ends justify ignoble means in politics?
Michael Walzer “The Problem of Dirty Hands”
Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince, excerpts
Case Study: Torture and Disclosure
“President Obama and the ‘Torture Memos’” (2011)
8.
March 18-20:Leadership and Deception
Is it ever acceptable for leaders to deceive citizens? Are there
situations that justify being ‘economical with the truth?”
Doris Kearns Goodwin A Team of Rivals, “The Final Weeks”, 703-735
Case Study: Roosevelt and Entry into World War II, 1940-1
9.
March 25-27. Reaching Across the Divide
How do politicians persuade adversaries to change sides? How do
adversaries find common ground?
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George Lakoff The Political Mind, ch. 2-4
Case Study: Gun Control
Drew Westen The Political Brain, ch. 9: “Gunning for Common Ground”
10.
April 1-3: Compromises: Honorable and Rotten
When is a political deal a reasonable compromise and when is it a sellout? When should a politician split the difference and when should she
hold out for a principle?
Avishai Margalit, On Compromise ,ch 6, 147-173: “The Economic versus the
Religious Picture of Politics”
Amy Gutmann Dennis Thompson The Spirit of Compromise, introduction
and conclusion.
Case Study : Fiscal Cliff and Debt Ceiling Negotiations, 2010-12
Bob Woodward The Price of Politics, (2012), ch 21
11.
April 8-10: Partisanship and the Limits of Loyalty
How do you reconcile party loyalty and personal judgment?
When does partisanship go too far?
James Madison The Federalist Papers, No. 10
Nancy Rosenblum On the side of the angels, (Princeton, 2008), ps. 1-20,
456-8
Michael Ignatieff “On Partisanship: Enemies and Adversaries in Politics”
Case Study: A Proposal for Reform
Mickey Edwards The Parties Versus the People, ch 1, 12,13
12.
April 15-17: Carrying the Can: Resignation and Responsibility
If failure is inevitable in politics, when must a leader take
responsibility? When is it time to fall on your sword?
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Case Studies: One of Three
Cyrus Vance’s Resignation over Iran, 1979
David Petraeus’ Resignation over an extra marital affair, 2012
Lord Carrington’s Resignation over the Falklands, 1981
13. April 22 -24. Judgment in Politics
What ‘sense of reality’ must political leaders have? How does a ‘sense of
reality’ create good judgment in politics?
Kenneth Winston, “Moral Competence in Public Life”, HKS, 2002.
Daniel Kahnemann Thinking Fast and Flow, chs. 8-10 and conclusion.
Isaiah Berlin “Political Judgment” and “The Sense of Reality”
Michel de Montaigne ‘Of the Uncertainty of Our Judgment’ and “Of the
Inconsistency of our Actions”, in Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Works,
ed. Donald Fr. Frame, 2003, 248-254,290-296
14. April 29-May 1: Summing Up
Michael Ignatieff “The Politics of the Common Life”
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