The class will be in English, so profound knowledge of the English language is a prerequisite.

Students will have to take over the role as an expert in one to two of the course units. That means to intensively prepare a text, an author, or a concept to make it accessible to other students via textwork. They may use different methods in doing so.

Students will have to turn in an argumentative short essay on a self-chosen topic (related to the topic of the class) by the mid of the term and will have to write a 20 page term paper by the end of the term. The paper may (and reasonably should) build upon the former.

Students are also expected to actively participate in in-class discussions.

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Recommended Readings (to be continued):
• Barber, Benjamin (1984): Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age. Berkeley, CA: UC Press.
• Crouch, Colin (2020): Postdemocracy. After the Crisis. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Deenen, Patrick (2018): Why Liberalism Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Fukuyama, Francis (2022): Liberalism and its Discontents. London: Profile Books.
• Horkheimer, Max & Adorno, Theodor W. (1972/1947): Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York, NY: Herder and Herder.
• Marx, Karl (1844): On the Jewish Question.
• Mearsheimer, John J. (2018): The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Mouffe, Chantal (2006): The Return of the Political. London/New York, NY: Verso Books.
• Rawls, John (1971): A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
• Schmitt, Carl (2005/1934]): Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Schmitt, Carl (1988/1923): The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Taylor, Charles (1991): The Malaise of Modernity. Toronto: House of Anansi Press.

Students will assess the broader scale of the theory of liberalism as well as well as the even broader field of critique on liberalism. They will be able to theoretically reflect on questions like: What are the roots of modern liberalism, what are core concepts and in what way are liberal theories different from each other? What different strains of critique on liberalism exist and how are they themselves rooted in the political history of ideas? Which of these critiques might actually be compatible with a conception of democracy and which might not? After this class, students will be able to independently research political ideas and political ideology not limited to but with a special focus on liberalism and illiberalism. Students will be able to use, adapt or reject discourses from political theory in political als well as scientific discussions.

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