The main focus of the course is the history of democracy from antiquity to the late 20th century, both in terms of how actual political systems from different parts of the world have been organized as well as what their intellectual underpinning has looked like. Special attention will be given to the development of modern forms of democracy from the 17th century onwards. Apart from academic textbooks, students will also encounter and work with key source texts from the intellectual history of democracy in order to gain a fuller understanding of the requirements that need to be met in order to maintain different kinds of democratic systems.
The course further contains a comprehensive overview of different theoretical models for understanding and defining democracy as well as sample of model cases from the 20th century where democracy has been challenged or put under threat. The purpose of this is to provide students with an historical perspective that will enhance their ability to identify and assess contemporary cases of challenges and threats against democracy.
