POLS 190-003: Fresh Sem: Poli Sci: Political Leadership in US&UK (Spring 2010)

There are two main goals of this seminar. The first is to explore the politics of political leadership in the United States and the United Kingdom.  The second is to introduce students to different approaches to the study of politics that make up the discipline of political science.  The first goal involves looking closely at the constitutions of these countries and at some important political figures who have served as leaders in each. Among the leaders we will discuss are Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair and Barack Obama.  A central concern of political science involves generalizing or theorizing about how the political world works, so the second goal involves stepping back and looking for broader patterns. Is the executive more powerful in one country than the other, or are these positions essentially similar in modern democracies?  Do cultural differences or differences in the constitutions of the U.S. and the U.K. cause leaders to act differently in the two countries?  Finally, the seminar will include some readings from the field of political science known as political philosophy and we will consider the standards by which great statesmen can be distinguished from less praiseworthy political leaders.