Political Power
When philosophers talk about justice, rights or freedom they are at least implicitly
presupposing or recommending particular structures or divisions of political power.
The question of what sort of power they have in mind therefore arises. So what is
political power? Is it a feature of individual or collective agents, or an aspect of some
sort of social structure? Does it consist in a capacity to act in a certain way, or is it
itself a form of action? Is it inherently relational? What distinguishes political power
from power of other kinds? Is power distinct from violence? In this module we shall
address these and other questions by examining a series of influential interpretations of
power, some historical and some contemporary.
Lectures: The lectures for this module will be held in **, on Tuesdays from 6-7pm in
the Autumn Term. The lecturer is Prof. Susan James (s.james@bbk.ac.uk).
Seminars: The seminars for this module will be held in **, on Tuesdays from 7-8pm in
the Autumn Term. They will be led by the lecturer and by **.
Readings: There is one ‘essential reading’ for each session. You need to read this
before you come to class. The ‘additional reading’ is optional, but it is advisable to
read it if you can. At the start of term I shall provide fuller reading lists to go with each
essay title.
Essays (BA): This module is assessed by one essay of around 3,000 words. It must be
written in response to one of the set questions listed below, except with permission
from the module convenor. For details concerning submission of the essay, including
deadlines, see the BA Handbook.
Prior to this assessed essay, you may also write up to two essays during the course,
taken from the titles below, and receive feedback on them from your seminar leader.
These can be useful practice for your eventual assessed essay. You should submit the
first such essay by the first seminar after reading week, and the second by one week
after the last seminar of term. [Notes: 1) You are always welcome to submit an essay
earlier than these dates; 2) the seminar leader should not be expected to comment on
the same essay more than once.]
Essay (MA): This module is assessed by one essay of around 3,500 words. It must be
written in response to one of the set questions listed below, except with permission
from the module convenor. For details concerning submission of the essay, including
deadlines, see the MA Handbook.
Moodle: Electronic copies of course materials are available through Moodle, at
http://moodle.bbk.ac.uk. You will need your ITS login name and password to enter.
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Week 1
Conceptual Maps and Problems
Essential reading: Steven Lukes, Power: A Radical View, 2nd edition (Palgrave, 2007),
ch. 1.
Additional reading: Barry Hindess, Discourses of Power from Hobbes to Foucault
(Blackwell, 1996), Introduction.
Week 2:
Maintaining Power: Niccolo Machiavelli
Essential reading: Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (Many editions.)
Additional reading: Erica Benner, Machiavelli’s Prince: A New Reading (Oxford
University Press, 2013), pp. 9-29.
Week 3:
Sovereign Power I: Thomas Hobbes
Essential reading: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (many editions. I recommend the one
edited by E. Curley and published by Hackett), chs. 10, 13-19.
Additional Reading: Quentin Skinner, ‘Hobbes on Representation’, European Journal
of Philosophy 13 (2005), pp. 155-84.
Week 4:
Sovereign Power II: Benedict de Spinoza
Essential Reading: Benedict de Spinoza, Political Treatise trans. S. Shirley (Hackett,
2000), chs. 2 and 3.
Additional Reading: Moira Gatens, ‘Spinoza’s Disturbing Thesis. Power, Norms and
Fiction in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus’, History of Political Thought , 30.3
(2009), 455-68.
Week 5:
Contested Power: Karl Marx
Required Reading:
 Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Additional Reading: G. A. Cohen, ‘Exploitation in Marx. What makes it unjust?’ in his
Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 1995).
READING WEEK
Week 6:
Diversification of Power: Max Weber
Essential Reading: Max Weber, ‘Basic Categories of Social Organisation’ and ‘Class,
Status Groups and Parties’ in W. G. Runciman ed., Weber: Selections in Translation
(Cambridge University Press, 1978).
Wolfgang Mommsen, ‘The theory of the “three pure types of legitimate domination”
and the concept of plebiscitarian democracy’ in The Age of Bureaucracy (Blackwell,
1974).
Week 7:
Further Diversification of Power: Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan
(London: Penguin Books, 1977), Part 3.
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Additional reading: Axel Honneth, The Critique of Power (MIT Press, 1991), ch. 5.
Week 8
Power and Violence
Essential Reading: Hannah Arendt, ‘On Violence’ in Crises of the Republic (various
editions).
Additional reading: George Kateb, Political Action: its nature and advantages’ in Dana
Villa ed. The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt (Cambridge University Press,
2000).
Week 9
Power and Gender
Essential Reading: Wendy Brown, ‘Finding the Man in the State’, in States of Injury
(Princeton University Press, 1995), pp. 166-96.
Further Reading: Chantal Mouffe, The Return of the Political (Verso, 2005), ch. 5.
Week 10
Power and Toleration
Essential Reading: Wendy Brown, ‘Tolerance as a Discourse of Power’ in Regulating
Aversion (Princeton University Press, 2007).
Additional Reading: Chantalle Mouffe, The Return of the Political (Verso, 2005), ch. 7.
Essay Questions
Explain and assess Machiavelli’s analysis of the optimal means by which a prince
maintains his state.
Is Hobbes right to claim that a multitude of individuals can only act when a sovereign
represents their will?
Critically discuss Spinoza’s account of the relation between power and political power.
Are fictions essential to the maintenance of political power? Discuss with reference to
Machiavelli or Spinoza.
How, according to Marx does ideology serve to maintain the domination of the ruling
class? Is his account persuasive?
What role do social classes play in upholding the power of the state?
‘Foucault’s attack on an early-modern juridical conception of political power is
anticipated within early modern political philosophy.’ To what extent can this claim be
justified?
‘Disciplinary power, as Foucault represents it, effaces the agent.’ Do you agree?
Is there a defensible distinction between violence and power?
How, if at all, do liberal conceptions of citizenship disadvantage women?
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