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POLITICAL SCIENCE 13
Power and Justice
INTRODUCTION
• Instructor: Tracy B. Strong
• Office: SSB 374
• Office hours: M: 2-3; W 11-12; by appt (534
7081) or drop in
• Email: tstrong@ucsd.edu
• I am assisted by Ike Sharpless and Caleb
Scoville.
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Outline and logic of the course
Requirements for the course include attendance, participation in section (10%), 2 midterms (25% each) and a final in-class exam
(40%).
March 31: Introduction: Political Theory, the Political, Politics, and Political Science.
SECTION ONE: Power and the politics of identity in difficult situations
April 2: FILM: "Obedience" by Stanley Milgram
April 7-9: The limits of selfhood and identity:
READING: Bettelheim: "Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations" (reader)
April 14,16: The self and political commitment
READING: Koestler, Darkness at Noon (BOOKSTORE)
April 21, 22: What does it mean to be a citizen?
READING: Plato, Apology, Crito (BOOKSTORE)
April 28 : What obligations does a citizen or anyone else have?
READING: Pitkin, “Obligation and Consent” (reader)
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FIRST MIDTERM, April 30 IN CLASS –BRING BLUEBOOKS
SECTION TWO: Justice and the politics of identity in a changing world
May 5, 6: Persons, Humans and Citizens
READING: "Griswold v. Connecticut"; "Roe v. Wade"; "Webster v. Reproductive Health Services"; "Planned Parenthood v. Casey": in
Shapiro, ed. The Abortion Decisions (BOOKSTORE).
May 12, 14: Selfhood and Society
READING: Mill, On Liberty (BOOKSTORE)
May 19: Politics, Contracts and Technology
READING: Locke (reader); “In the Matter of Baby M” (2 Court decisions in reader)
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SECOND MIDTERM ON May 21 – BRING BLUEBOOKS
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MAY 25 = MEMORIAL DAY
SECTION THREE: The Limits of Citizenship and Citizenship at the Limit
START READING ELLISON
May 28: If not a citizen then what?
READING: Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” (reader); (Optional) Kateb, “Walt Whitman and
the Culture of Democracy” (reader)
June 2, 4: Being in and being out: who speaks for whom?
READING: Ellison, Invisible Man (BOOKSTORE)
FINAL IN CLASSROOM AT SET TIME (June 12, 11:30-2:30)
Reading: you are asked to read the
works of a number of individuals.
• How to approach them.
• These are particular individuals -- political
theorists.
Political Theory
• That which is POLITICAL is about the arrangements that
people make to live a life in common, that is with others who are
not their blood relations.
– Implies sharing (having something in common) and thus
difference or individuality. (I and you)
– I like to think of human activities as answers to questions.
Thus:
• psychology is the answer to the question of what or who
am I?
• Religion to the question of why do I suffer
• economics to that of how do I get what I want
• morality to that of what should I do
• and POLITICS to that of the simultaneous answer to
what am I and who are we? (Eg what one is claiming
when I says (I take this to be political) “I am an
American” – It is thus a claim on others.
What makes something political?
• I hold a claim that I make to apply to others
A. “Eavesdropping on private conversations without
a warrant is un-American.”
B. “How can you say that? The country is in danger
from terrorists.”
A. “Well, that is what I feel.”
“A’s” response is not political
A. “Eavesdropping on private conversations without
a warrant is un-American.”
B. “How can you say that? The country is in danger
from terrorists.”
A. “The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution
clearly forbids it.”
A’s response is political.
But not resolved
• B. “In cases like this one the President can
make an exception. Lincoln did it during the
Civil War.”
• Now we have an argument, an argument that
is political. It cannot be resolved except in the
interaction of A and B. Hence politics involves
conflict.
Note this difference for a non-political
exchange
A. 2 + 2 = 4.
B. I think it is 22.
A. No – that is a “plus” sign, not some symbol
for association.
B. Oh, of course! You are right.
And from this one
A. I would like to buy that car.
B. It really too expensive for you, given your
income.
A. Nevertheless, I am going to – I really want it.
[Or: Damn! I guess you are right.]
Here, no claim is made to something common
to the two, there is no “I” to “We” claim.
And this one
A. Eavesdropping on private conversations
without a warrant is un-American.
B. Perhaps so, but that is a small price to pay
given the danger.
– Here, any notion of a common claim (“being
American”) is ruled out. B reveals his preference
and willingness to pay a price.
What has gone wrong here?
• King Lear (that one) has in the First Act asked
“Which of [our daughters] shall we say does
love us most?” and proposed to divide his
kingdom accordingly. Cordelia famously
refuses the test. Lear banishes her and
decides to live alternately with others (Goneril
and Regan), taking his very large retinue of
knights and retainers with him. The daughters
object to the extent of Lear’s retinue. He
responds:
LEAR [To GONERIL]
I'll go with thee:
Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
And thou art twice her love.
GONERIL
Hear me, my lord;
What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?
REGAN
What need one?
KING LEAR
O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life's as cheap as beast's:…
Act II, sc. 4
What is theory?
• THEORY is derived from the Greek word theoros - spectator,
often a delegate from one city to another to observe their rituals.
– Theory is seeing , getting it. “Oh! I see.” And KNOWING
what it is that you have gotten in such a way that you can make
it available to yourself and to others.
• POLITICAL THEORY is thus understanding about politics:
most generally about what humans try to do when they live a
life with others.
• These political Theorists are central to who we are, i.e. to how
we understand ourselves when we live in a political matter.
– Who is “we” -- explain. -- anyone who finds these voices in
him or her or rejects them. -- provocation as modality of
knowing
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Political Theory
• 1/ who is “we”? What do we find out about
about “we”?
– E.g. of property
2/ how do we study this in this course?
classic texts
literary texts (give us a world)
scholarly analyses
theory in practice(court cases)
Power
• 1. power to make a decision
• 2. power to set an agenda
• 3. power to control what counts as a
contestable item
Justice…
• Why is it hard to determine it?