DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL SOCIETY
HISTORY, NORM, PRACTICE
SOC30470
School of Sociology, University College Dublin
2021/22, Spring Trimester
Instructor: Professor Andreas Hess, Newman Building, D420
Email: a.hess@ucd.ie
Office hours: t.b.a. (Please get in contact via email to make an appointment).
Time and location of lectures: See official timetable. The module content will be delivered face-to-face (unless deteriorating C19 conditions and/or restrictions make that impossible). However, assuming that not every student in the ongoing pandemic will be able to attend all lectures, I will at the end of each week provide Brightspace access to two 20-25 min audio lectures which will cover the week’s lecture material.
Rationale:
This module aims at undergraduate students in the social sciences and the humanities. It is designed to introduce advanced undergraduate students to the history, norm(s), practice(s) and problems of modern democracy and civil society.
The module itself is structured along four historical blocks. Part I introduces students to the early history and the discourse(s) of civil society, covering mainly the 18th century. Part II deals with the long struggle for inclusiveness in the 19th century. Part III discusses the modern challenges of the 20th century. Finally, Part IV looks at the challenges democracy and civil society are confronted with today and addresses also possible solutions to such challenges. The subject matter of this module demands both an interdisciplinary approach and an international outlook. Thus, this module will include a wide range of readings from philosophy and history to such subjects as political economy, sociology and politics.
Learning outcomes:
This module is an exercise in modern citizenship education at university level. It aims at making students better, that is more informed and more knowledgeable, citizens in the republic of knowledge. Students will gain theoretical and practical-critical understanding of the main issues at stake, i.e. the problems and challenges that democracy and civil society were confronted with in past and present, and that democracy and civil society are likely to be confronted with in the foreseeable future. Nowadays some of the most basic knowledge and understanding of how democracy and civil society work are too often simply taken for granted. This course assumes that an active pedagogical effort must be made in order to deepen and increase the knowledge of the historical, political and social roots of our contemporary societies and their respective democratic political system(s). It is hoped that such an understanding about their making will bring forward in students a more critical, questioning attitude and awareness, and critical self-reflection, particularly in relation to how to tackle the problems of modern citizenship in all its various aspects and dimensions.
Assessment:
This module is assessed by an essay (2500-word long, worth 70%) and three shorter reviews (length 600x3=1800 words, copied into one Word document portfolio, worth 30%). Both are to be submitted in electronic format (via Brightspace) by the date announced in class and on Brightspace (further instructions and deadlines to follow).
Explanatory note as to the reviews: the three reviews should draw on texts selected from the essential reading list (marked #), chosen from three of the four different parts of this module. Alternatively, two of the three reviews can be replaced by either a film review of Animal Farm (1954, see link to video in the reading list further down) or a review of Orwell’s book (see link to electronic copy of text, also further down). The required length for either the book or the film review is 1200 words (together with one additional 600 word review = 1800 words in one portfolio/Word document).
Please also note that while the essay will be graded along the full spectrum of grades, the reviews/portfolio will only be graded on a submitted/non-submitted basis (i.e. a capped ‘A’ for submission, FM/ABS for non-submission; penalties for late submission apply).
Reading material
With very few exceptions all readings/texts/excerpts listed in this handout are available as pdfs on Brightspace. Additionally, in the majority of cases either e-book copies or individual chapters of the texts/titles listed are available from the UCD Library.
As a general overview I recommend: Crick, B. (2002) Democracy. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Key for the titles/texts/excerpts on the reading list:
# = essential reading
*= background reading (optional)
PART I (18th Century)
Early civil society discourses
Lecture 1: Axial ideas: arguments for civil society before its victory
# Broadie, A. (ed.) (1997) The Scottish Enlightenment – An Anthology, Edinburgh: Canongate Classics; excerpts from A. Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiment (excerpt 7) and The Wealth of Nations (excerpts 22 and 24) and A. Ferguson’s An Essay on the History of Civil Society (excerpt 26) [Smith and Ferguson are also excerpted in Kramnick (1995); see further down for details]
# Kramnick, I. (ed.) (1995) The Portable Enlightenment Reader, New York (excerpts from J-J. Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and The Social Contract and I. Kant’s What is Enlightenment? and Perpetual Peace)
*Foa, R.S. and Mounk, Y. (2017) “The Signs of Deconsolidation”, in: Journal of Democracy (January, No 1), 5-15
*Hirschman, A. O. (1977) The Passions and the Interests, Princeton NJ: Princeton (Part III)
* Oz-Salzberger, F. (1995) Translating the Enlightenment, Oxford: Clarendon Press, chapter 1
Lecture 2: History intervenes: the Atlantic Revolution(s)
# Arendt, H. (1963) On Revolution, New York: Viking (chapter: ‘The social question’)
# Cobban, A (1950) The Debate on the French Revolution 1789-1800, London: Nicholas Kaye, (excerpts from Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man, 170-177; and Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, 180-187)
* Palmer, R.R. (1959) The Age of Democratic Revolution. A Political History of Europe and America, 1760-1800. Princeton: Princeton University Press (chapters VIII, IX, XIV and XV)
Lecture 3: How to represent civil society politically
# Madison, J. Hamilton, A., and Jay, J. (1987[1788]) The Federalist Papers, New York: Penguin (No X, XIV, XXXIX and LI)
# Tocqueville, A de (1994[1835/1840]) Democracy in America, London: Fontana, (Vol. 1, Part I chapter 4; Part II Chapter 7; Vol. 2, Part II chapters 1 and 4)
*James, C.L.R. (1990) The Black Jacobins, London: Allison & Busby
*Pitkin, H. F. (1967) The Concept of Representation, Berkeley: University of California Press (chapter 7)
Lectures 4 and 5: Study project: Film/book Animal Farm (George Orwell)
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXkicQRl6vg
Book: https://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/
PART II (19th Century)
The long struggles for inclusiveness
Lecture 6: The rise of ‘the social’: the positive state and the emergence of modern capitalism
# Appleby, J. (2010) The Relentless Revolution. A History of Capitalism, New York: W. W. Norton & Company (chapter 1)
# Mokyr, J. (2009) The Enlightened Economy, London: Penguin, (chapter 16)
*Osterhammel, J (2014) The Transformation of the World. A History of the 19th Century, Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press (chapters XI and XII, XIX-XVI)
*Wolin, S. S. (2004, expanded edition) Politics and Vision Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (chapters 9 and 10)
Lecture 7: 1848: Democracy - for whom and for what purpose?
# Herzen, A. (1979) From the Other Shore, London: Oxford University Press (chapter 7: ‘Omnia mea mecum porto’)
# Kamenka, E. (ed.) (1983) The Portable Karl Marx, London: Penguin (‘Critique of the Philosophy of Right’ (115-124) and ‘The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte’ (287-323))
# Tocqueville, Alexis de (2015): Recollections, University Of Virginia Press (Part II, chapters 1 and 2)
# Osterhammel, J. (2014) The Transformation of the World. A History of the 19th Century, Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press (chapter X no 3)
* Rosanvallon. P. (2013) The Society of Equals, Cambridge MA: Cambridge University Press (chapters 1 and 2)
Lecture 8: Order and inclusion: liberalism and democracy
# Fawcett, E. (2014) Liberalism. The Life of an Idea, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press (chapters 4, 5 and 6)
# Habermas, J. (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Cambridge: Polity (Introduction and chapter 3)
* Gerth, H. and Mills C. W. (eds.) (1946) From Max Weber, New York: Oxford University Press (chapters ‘Class, Status, Party’ (VII), ‘Bureaucracy’ (VIII), and ‘The Sociology of Charismatic Authority’ (IX))
* Landes, J. B. ‘The Public and the Private Sphere: A Feminist Reconsideration, in: Joan B. Landes (ed.) (1998) Feminism: the Public and the Private Sphere, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (135-163)
* Rosenblatt, H. (2018) The Lost History of Liberalism, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press (chapters 5 and 7)
*van Horn Melton, J. (2001) The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Introduction and chapters 6 and 7)
Lecture 9: Excluded by default? Empire, colonialism and imperialism
# Osterhammel, J (2014) The Transformation of the World. A History of the 19th Century, Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press (chapters VIII and XVII)
* Kumar. K. (2017) Visions of Empire. How Five Imperial Regimes Shaped the World, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press (chapter 1)
*Landes, D. S. (1998) The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Why Some are so Rich and Some are so Poor, New York: WW. Norton and Company (chapters 12, 14 and 25)
PART III (20th century)
Modern Challenges
Lecture 10: Democracy and dictatorship
# Arendt, H. (2004[1951]): The Origins of Totalitarianism, New York: Schocken Books, (Part III chapter 4)
# Arendt, H. (1994) “On the Nature of Totalitarianism: An Essay in Understanding”, in: Essays in Understanding 1930-1954, New York: Harcourt Brace & Company (328-360)
# Neumann, F. L. (1986) The Democratic and the Authoritarian State, New York: The Free Press (chapters 9 and 11: ‘Notes toward a theory of dictatorship’ and ‘Anxiety and politics’)
*Bobbio, N. (1989) Democracy and Dictatorship, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, (chapter 4 ‘Democracy and Dictatorship’)
*Holmes, S. (1993) The Anatomy of Antiliberalism, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press (Part II)
*Moore Jr., B. (1966) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Boston: Beacon Press (Part III chapters 7-9)
Lecture 11: Decolonisation and new democratic struggles
# Fanon, F. (2001) The Wretched of the Earth, London: Penguin (chapters ‘The Pitfalls of National Consciousness’ and ‘On National Culture’)
# Rodney, W. (1974) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Washington DC: Howard University Press (chapter VI)
*Aimé, C. (2000) Discourse on Colonialism, New York: The Monthly Review Press
*Memmi, A. (1967) The Colonizer and the Colonized, Boston: Beacon Press (Part II)
Lecture 12: The modern rhetoric of inclusion: the role of political culture, citizenship, and rights
# Shklar, J. N. (1991) American Citizenship. The Quest for Inclusion, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press
# Marshall, T. H. (1951) Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (Part I: ‘Citizenship and Social Class’)
# Hirschman, A. O. (1991) The Rhetoric of Reaction, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (chapter 5)
* Bobbio, N. (1996) The Age of Rights, Cambridge: Polity Press (chapters 2, 3 and 4)
* Crick, B. (2000) Essays on Citizenship, London: Continuum (chapter 5)
*Phillips, A. (ed.) (1998) Feminism and Democracy, Oxford: Oxford University Press; (therein particularly Susan Moller Okin: “Gender, the Public, and the Private” (116-141), Jane Mansbride “Feminism and Democracy” (142-158), and Anne Phillips “Democracy and Representation: Or, Why Should it Matter Who our Representatives Are?” (224-240))
Lecture 13: The collapse of communism and the resurgence of civil society: A victory for capitalist democracy?
# Alexander, J. C. “Civil Society I, II, II” in: Alexander, J. (ed.) Real Civil Societies. Dilemmas of Institutionalization, London: SAGE (pp1-19)
# Beyme, K. von (1996) Transition to Democracy in Eastern Europe, London: Macmillan (chapters 2, 6 and 8)
# Siedentop, L. (2000) Democracy in Europe, London: Penguin (chapters 2)
* Garcelin, M. “The Shadow of the Leviathan: Public and Private in Communist and Post-Communist Societies, in: Weintraub, J. and Kumar, K. (eds.) (1997) Public and Private in Though and Practice. Perspectives on a Grand Dichotomy, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 303-332
* Kumar, K (2001) 1989: Revolutionary Ideas and Ideals, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (chapters 4 and 5)
* Havel, V. (1988) “Anti-Political Politics” in: John Keane (ed.) (1988) Civil Society and the State, London: Verso (pp381-398)
* Offe, C. and Preuß, U. K. (2016) Citizens in Europe. Essays on Democracy, Constitutionalism and European Integration, Colchester: ECPR Press, (chapters 1 and 17)
PART IV (21st Century)
Where do we go from here?
Lecture 14: Unresolved: questions of representation and incorporation; the role of the media
# Alexander, J. C. (2006) The Civil Sphere, New York: Oxford University Press (chapters 3 and 8)
# Jacobs, R. N. and Townsley, L. (2011) The Space of Opinion, New York: Oxford University Press (chapter 4)
# Wolin, S. S. (2016) “Fugitive Democracy” and “Democracy, Difference and Re-cognition”, in Fugitive Democracy and Other Essays, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press (chapters 5 and 23 respectively)
*Phillips, A. (1991) Engendering Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press (chapter 6)
Lecture 15: A future for democracy?
# Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2013) Why Nations Fail? The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, London: Profile (chapter 15)
# Runciman, D. (2013) The Confidence Trap, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press (Introduction and Epilogue)
# Runciman, D. (2018) How Democracy Ends, London: Profile (Preface and chapter 3)
* Dahl, R. A. (1998) On Democracy, New Haven CT: Yale University Press (chapters 1 and 4)
* Geoghegan, P. (2020) Democracy for Sale, London: Head of Zeus, (chapter 8 “Digital Gangsters”)
* Snyder. T. (2018) The Road to Unfreedom. Russia, Europe, America, London: The Bodley Head