Modern Political Thought

• • Political theories of : Machiavelli
  • Thomas Hobbes
  • John Locke
  • Rousseau
  • Edmund Burke
  • John Stuart Mill
  • Karl Marx
  • Bakunin
  • Carl Schmitt
  • John Rawls
  • communiatrian thinkers
  • Michel Foucault

Equivalent subjects

You cannot enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

• MAQ-POIX206

Others

Politics units at 100 level.

Special requirements

• OtherDetails -

  Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.

What are the limits of the legitimate use of force by political authorities? How should the power of government be limited? When is a government or political regime legitimate? These and related questions have been the subject of a continuous debate in political theory since the sixteenth century. This unit examines the various theories of human rights and of social contract as well as theories which reject the liberal/democratic approach to the question of legitimacy. Among the authors to be read are Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Burke, Marx, Rawls, Schmitt, and Foucault.

NOTE: There are no recorded lectures. Lectures are offered in written form.

• Essay (45%)
• Short paper (15%)
• Take home exam (30%)
• Discussion (10%)