POL20010 Individuals and the State: The Idea of Freedom in the History of Political Thought

Academic Year 2024/2025

The slogan of the French Revolution is still popular: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Liberty is usually the most glorious and most popular ideal, but what does it mean to be free? Free from what? Free to do what? How is my freedom from interference compatible with your freedom to act? How is the authority of the state compatible with my individual liberty? Equality also is still a very popular ideal but the question of what kind of equality matters when is very controversial. Are equal rights enough? Should there be equal opportunities? What about equality of well-being? Fraternity, finally, has a lovely ring to it, but is quite complicated to. And not just because of the sexist undertones. When is the idea of community and belonging important enough to allow compromising some liberties and/or some aspects of equality?
The key question of this model is how freedom is compatible with the authority of the state. Over the course of this module we will look at some classical responses to this question as well as to the related questions of how to organise statehood in a way that balances concerns for liberty, equality, and community.
In exploring the theoretical foundations of today’s debates on these issues, we will initially focus on a selection of historical thinkers from the pre-Enlightenment period onwards, later bringing the debate more up to date with scholarship by more modern thinkers.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On the completion of this module, you will be able to
• read and critically engage with historical as well as contemporary normative political theory texts
• summarize and explain central positions on liberty, equality, and community
• analyse and evaluate different arguments about balancing the authority of the state with individual liberty
• develop and defend your own normative political theory arguments in the form of a clearly structured normative political theory essay

Indicative Module Content:

Legitimacy
Social Contract Theory
Liberalism
Republicanism
Feminism

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Autonomous Student Learning

81
Lectures

22
Tutorial

8
Total

111
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
• Reading
• Listening
• Contemplating
• Debating
• Writing
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Learning Recommendations:

Ideally, students would have taken INRL 10010 Introduction to Political Theory and International Relations or another module introducing the methods of normative political theory.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 1 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 2 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 3 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 4 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 5 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 6 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 7 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 8 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 9 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 10 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 11 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: MCQ quiz on required readings via Brightspace. Week 12 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

2

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Homework in preparation of tutorial. Week 2 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Homework in preparation of tutorial. Week 4 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Homework in preparation of tutorial. Week 6 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Homework in preparation of tutorial. Week 9 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Homework in preparation of tutorial. Week 11 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Participation in Learning Activities: Completing in-class tutorial exercises. Week 2 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Participation in Learning Activities: Completing in-class tutorial exercises. Week 4 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Participation in Learning Activities: Completing in-class tutorial exercises. Week 6 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Participation in Learning Activities: Completing in-class tutorial exercises. Week 9 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Participation in Learning Activities: Completing in-class tutorial exercises. Week 11 Pass/Fail Grade Scale No

3

 No
Assignment(Including Essay): The main assignment for this module is a 2500 word essay on a question of normative political theory. Week 14 Graded No

51

 No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Group/class Feedback, pre-assessment in terms of detailed rubric Feedback individually to students, post-assessment, with reference to rubric Group/class feedback, post-assessment In line with university policy students will be provided with feedback within 20 days of the deadline for submitting the assignment.

Hobbes, Thomas. 1996 [1651]. Leviathan, edited by Richard Tuck. Cambridge University Press.

Locke, John. 1960 ]1689]. Two Treatises of Government, edited by Peter Laslett. Cambridge University Press.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1994 [1762]. The Social Contract, translated by Christopher Betts. Oxford University Press.

Karl Marx: Selected Writings Second Edition (2000), edited by David McLellan. Oxford University Press.

Berlin, Isiah. 1969. Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford University Press.

Arendt, Hannah. 1998 [1958]. The Human Condition, Second Edition. Chicago University Press.

Rawls, John. 1999 [1971]. A Theory of Justice, Revised Edition. Harvard University Press.

Rawls, John. 2005 [1993]. Political Liberalism Expanded Edition. Columbia University Press.

Hirschmann, Nancy J. 2003. The Subject of Liberty: Towards a Feminist Theory of Freedom. Princeton University Press.

Pettit, Philip. 1997. Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford University Press.

Boucher, David and Paul Kelly (eds). 1994. The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls. Routledge.

Hampsher-Monk, Ian. 1992 A History of Modern Political Thought. Blackwell Publishers.

Pateman, Carole. 1989. The Problem of Political Obligation: A Critique of Liberal Theory. Polity Press.

Rawls, John. 2007. Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy, edited by Samuel Freeman. Harvard University Press.

Morris, Christopher W. (ed.). 1999. The Social Contract Theorists: Critical Essays on Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. Ch’s 1, 3 and 4. Rowman and Littlefield.