This class will examine the way current challenges confronting
liberal democracy are handled by important contemporary works of
political theory. While some attention may be paid to
such "classical" theorists as Rousseau, Mill, and Schumpeter, the
core texts will be writings by John Rawls and Jurgen Habermas. The
course will deal with these writers, and others, as participants in a
scholarly theoretical discourse and as public intellectuals
addressing broad public issues and sometimes seeking a broader public.