Key Debates in Political Science 1 (POLS40024)

This is an Honours reading seminar that examines key theoretical and methodological texts in political science.  The subject is designed to provide preparation for writing an Honours thesis while also enabling the consolidation, broadening and enhancement of students’ knowledge of the discipline. Key texts across the sub-disciplines of political science are critically examined in relation to theory, method, current political debates, case studies and empirical scholarship.

Alongside its companion subject, Key Debates in Political Science 2, this subject will reflect the breadth of the discipline of political science, with a focus on identifying, distinguishing and relating key sub-disciplines and trans-disciplinary theoretical debates in politics and international studies.  This iteration focuses on the foundational question: What is Politics? This sets up a larger debate about the proper subject and scope of political analysis, something examined through several major ways of trying to identify and examine politics.

The second half of the subject then examines how these issues play out in one of the core sub-disciplines of political science: political theory. Looking at the difference between liberal, critical and poststructuralist approaches to political theorizing, it illustrates how these foundation issues inform differing approaches to several major debates. Students completing the subject will have a robust understanding of what characterises the contemporary scholarly terrain of the discipline, and where their own research interests are located.