Political Science 390D - Dictatorship:TheoryHistory Pol

This course surveys the conceptual and political history of dictatorship at its inception (Roman Antiquity), its unearthing and reception (Renaissance and Modern thought and politics), reconceptualization (with the re-birth of republicanism in post-American revolution), and its reactionary retake by the right-wing politics (early twentieth century and onwards) through illustrative case studies. In political colloquialism dictatorship is vaguely used as the synonym of tyranny and thus as the antidote of liberal democracies. In this class we will elaborate on the concept of dictatorship in and of itself and follow the historical evolution of this concept to its republican beginnings with Roman Antiquity. We will answer what dictatorship was in its origin, how the concept traveled across centuries and continents while constantly evolving, and what have remained as its defining features. The main objective of this course is to help students recognize a dictatorship when we see one today, in our contemporary politics. In order to do so, the course will provide the salient aspects of dictatorship as a political concept and highlight the historical turns at which dictatorship met tyranny and analyze the contemporary dictatorial and authoritarian trends. Secondly this course also aims to call the taken for granted confidence in contemporary democracies. We take dictatorship as a central concept and the anchor of this course; however, we will also frame dictatorship as the dialectical twin of republics and liberal democracies. With that, the course aims a careful assessment of the vulnerability of contemporary democracies vis-a-vis dictatorial trends, and creatively thinking about how to strengthen them against dictatorship.

Open to junior and senior Political Science majors and minors.