Locke
Enlightenment
Federalist/Antifederalist
Civil Disobedience
Recitation Readings
100

How Locke says you can acquire (aka appropriate) property

What is by mixing your labor with it.

100
de Gouge's critique of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

What is IT LEAVES OUT WOMEN

100

What Madison says is dangerous about factions

What is factions, when impassioned (worked up) will create a mob-like mentality that completely overcomes the minority view

100

What prompted Thoreau to write "Civil Disobedience"

What is being asked to pay a poll tax (a fee to be able to vote)

100

What Mills says is wrong with the social contract

What is it was made for one racial group, and it sets up a dynamic where people are bound to a contract they did not have a role in making

200

Name and describe both provisos

What is the spoilage proviso, which limits accumulation of wealth by requiring people to sell what they produce before it goes bad, and what is the enough/as good proviso, which requires you to leave enough and as good in the commons (not appropriate it)

200

Kant's view of the Enlightenment project

What is achieving a kind of public reason through the rational and critical thinking of people

200

The purpose of dividing the House and the Senate

What is the house represents "the people" more closely, while the Senate represents and preserves the power of the elites

200

The point Douglass was making with "What to a slave is the Fourth of July"

What is that the American system was deeply hypocritical in basing its legitimacy on freedom and equality while actively enslaving people

200

What Rosen says is Madison's nightmare, OR the sentence that French is concerned about in the Constitution 

What is (for Rosen) the extreme polarization of the country/ how factious it has become OR (for French) "the executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America" 

300

How Locke justifies the right of revolution

What is the people retain the right to disobey and overthrow unjust rulers, because unjust rulers have broken the social contract between the people and their government

300

Explain how Smith's invisible hand of the market works

What is individuals make self-interested rational choices, which all together shapes the direction of the market towards the public good (the expression of everyone's desires)

300

The point of the electoral college

What is to prevent populism and encourage deliberation

300

The goal of civil disobedience, according to Thoreau

What is creating change more immediately instead of waiting for the majority to change 

300

What MLK Jr claims is the purpose of civil disobedience

What is how to create change without waiting for the majority without breaking into violence

AND/OR disobeying unjust laws as an expression of justice

400

How Locke's duty of toleration creates a public/private distinction

What is religion is something that belongs to the private sphere, which means that it is not something that can be coerced by the government or politics, which is the public sphere.

400

How Paine supported the project of the French Revolution

What is making a justification for the transition from monarchy (the old government) to a democracy (the new government) on the basis of reason and human equality

400

The causes of factions and how their effects could be controlled, according to Madison 

What is factions are caused by liberty, selfishness, and economic class differences, and can be controlled by establishing a compound republic (federalism) and extending the geography of the state so that representatives reflect diverse ideas

400

Where Thoreau says about majority rule

What is the majority expresses the views of the majority of the people, but that doesn't mean it actually is just or virtuous

400
What Stanley argues is why universities are under attack by fascist movements

What is universities teach you critical thinking skills and allow you to dissent, which fascist movements/ideologies cannot tolerate because they require rigid ideological thinking

500

How Locke's theory of property connects to freedom, and how money potentially complicates that

What is liberty and freedom stem from the individual's ownership of property because it allows them to be free from being dependent on others. Money can be problematic because it gets around the spoilage proviso, and allows for unlimited accumulation of wealth, which creates enough inequality such that it's possible for those without money to not have true freedom.

500

The implications of Smith's theory of self-interest for political theory

What is because people's self interests are rational, you do not need state interference in people's lives

500
The antifederalist critique of the Constitution, AND where the federalists and anti-federalists agree

What is the federalist proposal will take away the power of the states and basically reproduce the monarchy and aristocracy (with the presidency and the senate) AND they agree on the problem of gridlock and limited representation

500

The main differences between plebiscite democracy vs oppositional democracy

What is insider vs outsider positions, procedural decisionmaking vs a kind of social criticism, legitimacy from majority/process vs normative claims and reversing decisions, political equality and majority rule vs free speech and assembly

500

How Nozick justifies his claim that taxation by the state is the equivalent of forced labor

What is if the state can claim some aspect of what you produce, you have to work, so the state is forcing you to do labor

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