Politics

Chairman and Associate Professor: JOHN GRANT
Professors: LARRY P. ARNN, MICKEY CRAIG, STEPHEN J. MARKMAN, RONALD PESTRITTO, KEVIN PORTTEUS, MATTHEW SPALDING, THOMAS G. WEST
Associate Professors: ADAM CARRINGTON, KHALIL HABIB, MARK KREMER, JOSEPH POSTELL, KEVIN SLACK
Assistant Professor: DANIEL O'TOOLE
Visiting Assistant Professor: MICHAEL DRISCOLL
Lecturer: TIMOTHY W. CASPAR

The Politics Department does not accept transfer credit for required courses in the major. Credit toward the major or minor is not granted for hours earned by Advanced Placement (AP) work. Finally, for students who participate in the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program, the Politics Department offers one three-hour, 300-level Politics elective each semester at the Kirby Center. Students may count that course toward the Politics major or minor.

Degrees

Courses of Instruction

POL 101: U.S. Constitution

Credits 3
This course introduces students to early American political thought and its crowning political achievement, the United States Constitution. Focusing on The Federalist Papers and other original source documents from the Founding period, students learn basic American political concepts such as natural rights, social compact theory, religious liberty and constitutional features such as limited government, separation of powers and the rule of law. By studying the Constitution, students will understand better the nature of political justice and the serious challenges, especially those represented by the Civil War and the rise of progressivism, in preserving "the American experiment of self-government under law."

POL 202: American Political Thought

Credits 3
This course focuses on the political thought of the late 19th century through today with special emphasis on the Progressive movement, New Deal, Great Society and contemporary politics.

POL 211: Classical Political Philosophy

Credits 3
This course will offer an overview of major themes in classical political philosophy. The course will focus on the writings of Plato and Aristotle and selections from other writers such as Thucydides, Aristophanes, Xenophon and Cicero.

POL 220: Introduction to American Foreign Policy

Credits 3
American statesmen have defended the principles of the regime and the rights of its citizens in a world of empires and nation-states. This course provides an overview of controversies over independence and imperialism, modern tyranny and regime change, which have marked U.S. foreign policy from the founding to the present day.

POL 301: American Government

Credits 3
This course focuses on the relationship between the major institutions of American government with a special emphasis on the relationship between the Presidency and the Congress in the formation of policy and in the control of the bureaucracy.

POL 302: The American Congress

Credits 3
This course is a study of the legislative power in the American regime. It focuses on the nature of the legislative power, and how that power was institutionalized in the Constitution. Emphasis is also placed upon the way the theory of the modern progressive administrative state has altered our conceptions of Congress and the legislative power, and how that change is manifested in the delegation of legislative power to administrative agencies. The course also introduces the student to contemporary functions and procedures of Congress.

POL 303: The American Presidency

Credits 3
This course is an intensive study of the American presidency. It seeks to understand the structure and function of executive power in the American constitutional order. It will begin with the place of the president in the constitutionalism of the Founding Fathers, and then examine how that role has been altered by the modern progressive administrative state, along with the implications of that alteration for constitutional government.

POL 304: Constitutional Law

Credits 3
Survey of the Constitution and leading decisions of the Supreme Court concerning the separation and distribution of power within the national government and between the national government and the state governments. Specific topics covered, among others, include judicial interpretation, judicial review, federalism and the nature and scope of executive, legislative and judicial powers.

POL 305: Civil Rights

Credits 3
A study of civil rights in the American regime, with a view to this question: what are the rights of the individual, and how does government protect them? Supreme Court and other court cases will be studied, along with other sources in the American tradition. Topics include freedom of speech and press, religious liberty, freedom of association, gun rights, rights of persons in judicial proceedings, equal protection of the laws, due process of law, and privileges and immunities of citizenship. For each topic, the current liberal and conservative approach will be contrasted with that of the Founders.

POL 306: Political Parties and Elections

Credits 3
This course begins with an overview of the role of elections in a constitutional republic. The course then traces the development of American political parties from the founding period to the present day, with a special focus on presidential elections and the electoral college.

POL 307: Administrative Law

Credits 3
The course focuses on the legal framework within which national policy and regulations are promulgated by administrative agencies, and on the role played by federal courts in supervising the process of making regulatory policy. A central theme of the course will be the connection between the principles of administrative law today and the original principles of the U.S. Constitution. The course will take a case-law approach.

POL 308: Public Policy

Credits 3
Study of the principles and practice of public policy-making in America, with special attention to major controversies in contemporary public policy. Possible topics, among others, include welfare, immigration, education, campaign finance, business, religion, morality and national defense.

POL 313: Christianity and Politics

Credits 3
This course explores the political tension between what Augustine called the City of God and the City of Man. It examines the interaction between Christian theology and tradition, politics, and the philosophical claims of reason. Authors studied include Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, Luther, Calvin and others.

POL 319: World Politics: The Modern State

Credits 3
The modern state has dominated world politics for more than three-and-a-half centuries. Beginning with the philosophic origins of the modern state in Machiavelli and Hobbes, the course then moves from the political beginnings of the state system in 17th-century Europe to the beginning of the First World War. Special attention is paid to the causes influencing the formation and change of political regimes.

POL 324: Comparative Politics: 20th Century Founders

Credits 3
The 20th century saw new, often radical challenges to the regime of commercial republicanism. The political thought of the founders of major regimes-including Lenin, Hitler, Gandhi, de Gaulle, Khomeini and Havel-will be examined in order to understand the character of those regimes.

POL 401: Statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln

Credits 3
This course focuses on the political thought and actions of Abraham Lincoln and his contemporaries, including Stephen Douglas, John C. Calhoun and Roger Taney, and the political controversies of the antebellum and Civil War periods.

POL 403: American Progressivism and Liberalism

Credits 3
An examination of the Progressive political thought that was integral to the new direction undertaken in American politics in the 20th century. The course addresses the most important national Progressive thinkers and their arguments, and also aims to understand the Progressives in light of the sources in the tradition of political philosophy from which they drew their principles. The course examines how progressivism has impacted contemporary American politics, and focuses on Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Croly, Theodore Roosevelt and John Dewey, among others.

POL 404: American Conservatism

Credits 3
This course will explore the nature and origin of American conservatism through a careful study of its principal thinkers and writers. Possible authors include, among others, Richard Weaver, Eric Voegelin, Leo Strauss, Harvey Mansfield Jr., Harry Jaffa, Russell Kirk, Irving Kristol, Robert Nisbet and F.A. Hayek. Special attention will be given to the conservative movement after 1945.

POL 406: The American Founding

Credits 3
A thorough study of the political theory of the American founding. Topics include natural law and social compact theory, the purpose and structure of national and state governments, the relation of the American revolution to the British political tradition and Enlightenment thought, foreign and domestic policy, and the character of religion in America. The doctrines of the founding will be contrasted with Progressive and later liberal and conservative views of justice.

POL 407: The Federalist

Credits 3
This course examines the political teaching of The Federalist in order to discover the distinctive features of American constitutionalism, to explore theory and practice in the American Founding, and to see how Publius meets the challenges of its critics. This course will be based upon an explication of each paper in the text and will address the argument of Publius in light of his Anti-Federalist adversaries.

POL 412: Politics and Literature

Credits 3
This course takes seriously the claim that great works of literature can serve as the source for the serious study of philosophic, moral and political problems. Students will study great works of fiction, which treat the permanent political questions. Possible authors include, among others, Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, Dostoyevsky, Twain and Orwell.

POL 421: International Politics: The 21st Century

Credits 3
"Globalization," "democratization," the "clash of civilizations," the "war on terror": citizens in the contemporary world confront challenges unanticipated at the end of the last century. This course highlights current themes and debates in light of the perennial questions of political life

POL 422: Statesmanship of Winston Churchill

Credits 3
This course examines the principles and practice of statesmanship and focuses on the writings and actions of Sir Winston Churchill. The course aims to discover what a statesman is, what sort of statesman Churchill was, and what is the place of and need for a statesman in a popularly governed nation.

POL 431: Readings in World Politics

Credits 3
This course will focus on a particular text or set of texts crucial to the understanding of some key theme or set of themes in international politics. A classical author (e.g., Grotius, Vattel) or an important topic (e.g., Islam, nuclear deterrence, the Cold War) will frame the inquiry.