Course level: Graduate
Fall 2021
The American University of Paris
This course equips students to analyze (self-)critically problems and conceptions of democracy and justice across, between and beyond states. To develop solid understandings of the concepts of democracy and global justice, the course starts off by examining some of the core definitions of democracy and global justice. Following that, the course explores four sets of questions about democracy and global justice. First, how should we think of the distributive inequalities across and between countries? We will investigate the cosmopolitan or globalist, nationalist or statist as well as transnational or post-westphalian answers to this question. Second, is there a human right to democracy? Should we think of democracy as a universal value or norm? We will juxtapose and discuss opposing views regarding the claim that there is a human right to democracy. Third, how should we conceive of global democracy? We will study intergovernmental, cosmopolitan, deliberative, and radical approaches to global democracy, and we will engage with authors who put into question the desirability and feasibility global democracy. Finally, we will study attempts within comparative political theory to globalize the debate about democracy by recognizing the global roots of the idea of democracy. For that purpose, we will delve into African and Confucian conceptions of democracy.
Syllabus:
Updated_Sept 7_Democracy and Global Justice_MA_AUP_Fall 2021
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