INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS MOD. 2

The target of the course are the students of the first year of the BA programme in Philosophy, International and Economic Studies (PISE). Thanks to its historico-methodological approach, the course contributes to the achievement of the multidisciplinary objectives of the BA programme.

The module is a course in the History of Political Thought and aims to provide students with notions and insights of a historical-conceptual nature, complementing the first part of the course, which is of a theoretical-political nature.
By the end of the course, students will have developed a thorough knowledge of the history of the political categories of Tyranny, Despotism, Absolutism, Napoleonism, Bonapartism, Caesarism, Charisma, Dictatorship, Totalitarianism, and Populism. In particular, students will be able 1) to recognise the unique features of each concept and its relationship with the others; 2) to grasp both the diachronic development and the synchronic dimension of this reflection; 3) to collocate in their historical and theoretical contexts the usages of these concepts made by the single authors mentioned.
More generally, the course aims at 1) strengthening the learning abilities of the students; 2) enhancing their capacity to tackle with complex theoretical issues; 3) developing a critical approach towards the secondary literature and stimulating the original thinking of the students.

No prior familiarity with the specific topic of the course is required.

The course aims to offer an overview of the thinking about authoritarian regimes from the antiquity up to our times, by investigating a number of political categories which belong to the same ‘conceptual family’: Tyranny, Despotism, Absolutism, Napoleonism, Bonapartism, Caesarism, Charisma, Dictatorship, Totalitarianism, and Populism.
The approach will be 1) philological, insofar as we will investigate the evolution of these categories in a lexical-diachronical perspective, highlighting the similarities and the differences between them and 2) historical, since the contextualisation in their given time will be an essential part of this reconstruction.
Investigating these political concepts will allow us to explore the works of some key figures of the History of Political Thought – from Montesquieu to Weber, from Tocqueville to Schmitt.

For attending students:
- Antonini, F., ‘Caesar, Caesarism, Caesarisms in Gramsci’, in Bellomo M. and E. Zucchetti (eds.), “Power, Coercion, Consent: Gramsci’s Hegemony in the Roman Republic”, De Gruyter 2025 [forthcoming]
- Baehr, P., “Caesarism, Charisma, and Fate: Historical Sources and Modern Resonances in the Work of Max Weber”, Transaction Publishers 2008, pp. 32-45.
- Baehr, P., ‘Max Weber and the Avatars of Caesarism’, in Baehr P. and M. Richter (eds.), “Dictatorship in History and Theory: Bonapartism, Caesarism, and Totalitarianism”, Cambridge University Press 2004, pp. 155-174.
- Bell, D., “Men on Horseback: The Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution”, New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux 2020, Chapter I (‘Mr. Boswell goes to Corsica’), pp. 19-52.
- Burns, J.H. ‘The Idea of Absolutism’, in Miller, J. (ed), “Absolutism in Seventeenth-Century Europe”, Palgrave, 1990, pp. 21-42
- http://www.politicalconcepts.org/dictatorship-andreas-kalyvas/
- Lee, D., “Popular Sovereignty in Early Modern Constitutional Thought”, Oxford University Press 2016, Introduction (‘Popular Sovereignty, Constitutionalism, and the Civil Law’), pp. 1-23.
- McCormick, J.P., ‘From Constitutional Technique to Caesarist Ploy: Carl Schmitt on Dictatorship, Liberalism and Emergency Powers’, in “Dictatorship in history and theory: Bonapartism, Caesarism, and totalitarianism”, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 197-200.
- Mudde, C. and Kaltwasser, C.R., “Populism: A Very Short Introduction”, Oxford University Press 2017, Chapter 1 (What is Populism?), pp. 1-20.
- Richter, M., ‘A Family of Political Concepts: Tyranny, Despotism, Bonapartism, Caesarism, Dictatorship, 1750–1917’, “European Journal of Political Theory”, 4(3), 2005, pp. 221-248.
- Richter, M. ‘Tocqueville on Threats to Liberty in Democracies’, in Welch, C. (ed.), “The Cambridge Companion to Tocqueville”, Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 245-275.
- Rinke, S., ‘The Epitome of Modern Dictatorship in the Early Nineteenth Century: Dr. Francia in Paraguay or “The Chinese Emperor of the West”’, in Prieto, M. (ed.), “Dictatorship in the Nineteenth Century: Conceptualisations, Experiences, Transfers”, Routledge, 2021, pp. 133-149.
- Traverso, E., ‘Totalitarianism Between History And Theory’, “History and Theory”, 56, 2017, pp. 97-118.
- Turchetti, M.,’“Despotism” and “Tyranny” Unmasking a Tenacious Confusion’, “European Journal of Political Theory”, 7(2), 2008, pp. 159-182.

For not attending students:
- P. Baehr and M. Richter (eds.), “Dictatorship in History and Theory: Bonapartism, Caesarism, and Totalitarianism”, Cambridge University Press 2004.
- D. Bell, “Men on Horseback: The Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution”, New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux 2020.

Attending students: the final examination will be written and will cover the topics covered during the course (the lecturer's PPT presentations will be provided) and the texts from the reading list.

Not attending students: written final examination on the special programme.

Academic lectures. Active participation by the students (questions, comments, etc.) is highly encouraged.

English

written