Political Theory

The political theory field encourages students to pose and to analyze key questions that motivate the study of politics. What is social power, and how does it shape human freedom? In what would a just social and political order consist? What does democratic government entail, and what are its institutional implications in the twenty-first century? How does our intellectual heritage underwrite our political institutions and inform our attitudes toward them?

Because these questions are fundamental to the study of political science, we seek to engage actively other fields in the discipline. We encourage both interdisciplinary and methodological diversity. We are open to a wide range of theoretical approaches, including analytical, historical, interpretive, and critical theory.

The political theory group sponsors the OSU Political Theory Workshop, a forum for theorists from OSU and other universities to present and to discuss their research in progress.

Faculty: S. M. Amadae, Eric MacGilvray, and Michael Neblo.

Courses include:

• PLSC 670: Ancient and Medieval Political Thought
• PLSC 671: Early Modern Political Thought
• PLSC 672: 19th Century Political Thought
• PLSC 673: Topics in Contemporary Political Thought
• PLSC 763: Fundamental Concepts in Political Theory
• PLSC 764: Democratic Theory
• PLSC 765: Interpretation of Texts in Political Theory
• PLSC 766: Selected Topics in Political Theory

The faculty encourages graduate students majoring in Political Theory to engage the empirical fields in the discipline, for example by minoring in American Politics, Comparative Politics, or International Relations.