Social Relationships and Responsibility: Social Theory and Tenets of Democracy

Theme: Social Theory and Tenets of Democracy

This course will explore the process of social identity formation in the United States through the lens of modern social theory. The goal of the class is to explore multiple perspectives on the formation of the state, individual rights within society, equality as well as the roles and responsibilities of individuals within their respective communities. The focus of the class will concern itself with the roots and application of “Western ideals” of freedom and equity that arguably form the basis for the United States’ liberal democracy.

The seminar will outline the origins of the enlightenment and the basis for “natural” rights and freedoms in conjunction with the derived roles of society and government. We will then examine how the universalist ideals of the liberal enlightenment have implicitly or explicitly excluded those without property, people of color, and women. We will also define what the “social compact” has meant in different periods of American history, and the relationship of various groups to this compact.

Can liberal democracy really provide equal citizenship for workers, women, and people of color? How have the movements of socialism, reconstruction, decolonization, ethnic identity, gender diversity and feminism endeavored to reformulate and transform the social order?