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Pol 350-02
Special Topics in Politics:
Dealing with Diversity:
Contemporary American Political Thought


Dr. Knippenberg

Phone: 364-8341

Email: jknippenberg@facstaff.oglethorpe.edu

It has been argued that for roughly the first 200 years of its history, the United States lived off the cultural and moral capital it inherited from Europe. In simplest terms, the United States was a country dominated by Protestants, indeed by "White Anglo-Saxon Protestants." Protestantism and Americanism were virtually identical. Public education, for example, was by and large nondenominational Protestant education. Needless to say, this description increasingly inaccurate. Indeed, it was already challenged by Roman Catholics in the great school wars of the nineteenth century.

This condition has posed a challenge to thoughtful observers of politics. Classical and early modern political philosophy assumed that a certain homogeneity was a necessary precondition of healthy politics, a position most forcefully articulated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The liberalism developed by John Locke and his successors purported to deal with religious (and presumably other sorts of) diversity by privatizing these sorts of allegiances and preferences. Public life was made peaceful by being severed from its connection with those things that made human life most meaningful.

Recently, this solution has come under increasing critical scrutiny. Some have argued that, far from being neutral, liberalism itself represents a substantive choice, an option for some ways of life and against others. As such, it may not adequately accommodate even the diversity with which it purported to deal. Further, the increasing presence and public assertiveness of non-Western or non-European points of view within a liberal polity has created a new challenge. Can the framework early American political thinkers adapted from Locke and his successors encompass this new situation and accommodate these new sources of diversity?

We will address this question in this course by reading some of the leading works in contemporary American political thought and focusing on what they have to say about diversity and community.

TEXTS:

Please purchase the following books:

Amy Gutmann, ed., Multicultuarlism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton)
Melzer, Weinberger, and Zinman, eds., Multiculturalism and American Democracy (Kansas)
Nancy Rosenblum, Membership and Morals
Jeff Spinner, The Boundaries of Citizenship (Johns Hopkins)
Stephen Macedo, Diversity and Distrust (Harvard)
Melissa Williams, Voice, Trust, and Memory (Princeton)

ASSIGNMENTS:

Two 7-10 page papers………………….25% each
Due:
March 1, April 24
Presentation………………………………..10%
Participation………………………………..15%
Final Exam…………………………..……….25%
Due:
May 8

ACADEMIC POLICIES AND REGULATIONS:

In accordance with Oglethorpe's Honor Code, all the work you hand in must be pledged: "I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid in completing this assignment." For the purposes of this course, "unauthorized aid" consists in plagiarism, which (as "The 'O' Boo" states) "includes representing someone else's words, ideas,...or original research as one's own and, in general, failing to footnote or otherwise acknowledge the source of such work." If in completing an assignment you consult secondary sources, be sure to cite them properly. Unless we announce otherwise, you may discuss any assignment with your colleagues, but the work you submit must be your own. You may find the complete text of the Honor Code in "The 'O' Book."

Attendance is mandatory. I reserve the right to give the grade "FA" to students who regularly miss class.

I penalize late papers two points per weekday, up to a total of ten points, after which I will not accept them. We will not reschedule exams without a medical excuse. I will, however, be pleased to help you manage your academic schedules by granting extensions on papers if you request them one week in advance.

If for some reason you have to take an "Incomplete" in this course, you must arrange it with me before the end of the term. We must agree to a contract containing a schedule for the completion of the course requirements. You must then take the initiative in completing the work.

You may find the grading scale, as well as the policy governing the S/U (satisfactory/unsatisfactory) option, on pp. 70 - 71 of the 2000 - 2002 Oglethorpe University Bulletin.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF READING ASSIGNMENTS:

Weeks 1 and 2: Gutmann

Weeks 3 and 4 Melzer, Weinberger, and Zinman

Weeks 5 - 7 Rosenblum

Weeks 8 and 9 Spinner

Weeks 10 and 11 Macedo

Weeks 12 - 14 Williams