James Johnson
Fall 2012 — R 14:00-16:40

Course Syllabus

This seminar addresses different topics in different years. This year (2012) the topic will be Democratic Theory. We will read a range of classic and contemporary works on a variety of topics. The primary focus will be on the role of democratic decision-making mechanisms in the design and re-design of political-economic institutions.

James Johnson
Fall 2011 — R 14:00-16:40

Course Syllabus

This seminar addresses different topics in different years. This year (2011) the topic will be Democratic Theory. We will read a range of classic and contemporary works on a variety of topics. The primary focus will be on the role of democratic decision-making mechanisms in the design and re-design of political-economic institutions.

James Johnson
Fall 2009 — W 14:30-17:15

Course Syllabus

This seminar addresses different topics in different years. This year (2007) the broad focus is on the role of vision and representation in politics. We will start be reading the debate between John Dewey and Walter Lippmann in order to identify why vision and representation are central to democratic politics. We then will explore a wide variety of efforts to represent broadly political phenomena and events such as famine, epidemics, torture, migration and so forth across a broad spectrum of media. The aim of our explorations will be to cultivate a broadly instrumental view of how vision and representation figure in the "art" of politics.