Module Information

Module Identifier

IP22220

Module Title

Political Theory

Academic Year

2025/2026

Co-ordinator

Dr Kamila Stullerova

Semester

Semester 2

Exclusive (Any Acad Year)

IP32220

Reading List

View example reading list on Aspire

Course Delivery

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment length / details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	Essay 2000 Words	50%
Semester Exam	2 Hours Examination	50%
Supplementary Assessment	Essay 2000 Words	50%
Supplementary Exam	2 Hours Examination	50%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Identify and discuss in detail key themes in the history of political thought.

Demonstrate an understanding of key concepts in political theory.

Demonstrate an understanding of key texts in the history of political thought.

Analyse the key issues and distinctions raised by an original text in political theory.

Evaluate the importance, consistency and coherence of political arguments across centuries.

Brief description

This module provides an introduction to the history of political theory and a close analysis of specific ideas, including good government, state of nature and rule of law, and thinkers, such as Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Kant. It combines lecture tuition with seminars, giving students the wider context as well as an opportunity to get first-hand access to some of the key texts in political theory. By learning about and analyzing ideas from temporally and/or spatially distant contexts, students develop crucial analytical skills that will allow them to better understand, analyse and judge the political issues of our day.

Content

The module is taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops and proceeds through ancient, renaissance and modern political theory. Topics covered during the lectures and seminars include:

• Political theory and its history
• Ancient political thought: Plato
• Ancient political thought: Aristotle
• Medieval political theory: Augustine
• From medieval political theory to renaissance
• The art of government: Machiavelli
• Modern political theory: Hobbes
• Social contract liberalism: Locke
• Context and constitution: Montesquieu
• Society and morality: Rousseau
• General will and democracy: Rousseau
• Universal moral law: Kant
• Systematic political philosophy: Kant and Hegel
• Alienation and emancipation: Marx
• Individuality and liberty: JS Mill
• Political Theory and International Politics

Module Skills

Skills Type	Skills details
Communication	Students will learn how to present their ideas both verbally and in writing and how to assert themselves to advantage. They will understand the importance of information and clear communication and how to exploit these. They will know how to use the many sources of information available and how to use the most appropriate form of communication to the best advantage. They will learn to be clear and direct in their writing and speaking and to be direct about aims and objectives. They will learn to consider only that which is relevant to the topic, focus and objectives of their argument or discussion. Seminars will be run in groups where oral discussion and presentations will form the main medium of teaching and the emphasis throughout the module will be on student participation and communication.
Improving own Learning and Performance	The module aims to promote self-management but within a context of assistance from both the convenor and the fellow students alike. Students will be expected to improve their own learning and performance by undertaking their own research and to exercise their own initiative, including searching for sources, compiling reading lists, and deciding (under guidance) the direction of their essay topics. The need to meet an essay deadline will focus students' attention on the need to manage their time and opportunity resources well.
Information Technology	Students will be expected to submit their work in word-processed format. Also, students will be encouraged to search for sources of information on the web, as well as seeking sources through electronic information sources. Students will also be expected to make use of the resources that will be available on the Blackboard.
Personal Development and Career planning	This module is designed to hone and test skills of use to students in their working lives, particularly in speaking to small groups, listening, thinking and responding to the statement of others. Moreover, the written work includes writing clearly and concisely, which is a common task in the workplace. Students will be encouraged throughout to reflect on their performance and to consider lessons for future application.
Problem solving	Problem solving will be one of the central goals of the module; the submission of an essay will require that the student develops independent research skills as well as problem solving skills. The ability of students to solve problems will be developed and assessed by asking them to: adopt differing points of view; organize data and estimate an answer to the problem; consider extreme cases; reason logically; construct theoretical models; consider similar cases; look for patterns; divide issues into smaller problems.
Research skills	The submission of an essay will reflect the independent research skills of the student. The need to locate appropriate research resources and write up the results will also facilitate research skills.
Subject Specific Skills	Students have the opportunity to develop, practice and test a wide range of subject specific skills that help them to understand, conceptualise and evaluate examples and ideas on the module. These subject specific skills include: • Collect and understand a wide range of data relating to the module • Ability to evaluate competing perspectives • Demonstrate subject specific research techniques • Apply a range of methodologies to complex political problems
Team work	Students will undertake team exercises in the seminars. For many of the topics of this module, seminars will consist of small-group discussions where students will be asked to discuss as a group the core issues related to the seminar topic. These class discussions and debates form a significant part of the module, and will allow students to approach and examine a given topic through team work.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5