Ideas in Politics explores some of the central ideas and debates in politics today, including claims regarding the nature of freedom, democracy, power, and the state. An understanding of these ideas and debates is essential for coming to terms with the key ideological clashes that shape politics today and for making effective interventions into these contests. 

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

1. understand the key concepts used in political theory;
2. identify some of the divergent aims for which these concepts are mobilised;
3. demonstrate theoretical familiarity with some of the major thinkers in the canon of western political thought, including Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Mill, and Marx;
4. theorise politics in the manner of contemporary political theory;
5. produce powerful written arguments;
6. produce persuasive verbal accounts of politics.

Essay 3000w (45%) [LO 1, 3, 4, 5]
Final Written Assessment 2000w [ie. take-home assignment in weeks 12-13] (45%) [LO 1, 2, 3, 5]
Tutorial work (10%) [LO 6]

Lectures will be recorded and notes will be available on Wattle. Students will be expected to spend an average of seven hours per week in addition to three contact hours (two hours of lectures, one hour tutorial) in order to prepare for tutorials, conduct research and prepare the written assignments.

6 units of 1000 level Politics and International Relations, or with permission of the Convenor.

Incompatible with POLS1003

No knowledge is assumed.

Andrew Heywood, Political Theory: An Introduction, 3^rd Ed. (Palgrave, 2004) and Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies: An Introduction, 4^th Ed. (Palgrave, 2007)