OVERVIEW

Political representation: views, discourses, platforms

The course will analytically examine the theme of political representation in modern and contemporary democratic thought. It will delve into the roots of the issue of political representation, the normative criteria for assessing the actions, rhetoric, and decisions of representatives, and the methods of constructing collective identities in pluralistic societies.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims at providing students with essential philosophical tools to grasp ongoing transformation in democratic rhetoric and political representation. Students:

• will be aware of the main theories concerning the link between political language and democratic representation;
• will master the main references in contemporary disputes about political representation;
• will be able to compare and assess different types of representative claim. 

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students

• will be aware of the main tools of philosophy of ordinary language;
• will be aware of the relationship between language and political representation;
• ·will be able to critically approach different types of representative claims; 
• will master the vocabulary to examine the quality of public debates in contemporary democracies;
• will master examples and normative problems at the heart of contemporary disputes about the quality of public rhetoric in contemporary democracy;
•  will know how to discuss and analyze political speeches;
• will have enhanced important social skills, such as the ability to respect others and their needs, the willingness to overcome prejudices, to express and understand different points of view, and the ability to manage one's own social interactions.

PREREQUISITES

None

TEACHING METHODS

Seminars, debates, problem-based learning, flipped classroom, case-based learning, role playing. 

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course is divided into 4 parts.

Part I. Hobbes, Rousseau and the issue of representation

We will read:

• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan,
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract

Part II. Delegates e Trustees

We will read:

• Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist Papers,

Part III. The constructivist turn

We will read

• Erving Goffman, The Presenation of Self in Everyday Life
• Lisa Jane Disch, Making Constituencies. Representation as mobilization in mass democracy
• Nadia Urbinati, Lo scettro senza il re. Partecipazione e rappresentanza nelle democrazie moderne
• Michael Saward, The Representative Claim, in Contemporary Political Theory, vol. 5, pp. 297-318.

Part IV. Audience democracy 

We will read

• Bernard Manin, The Principles of Representative Government
• Richard Sennett, The Performer. Art, Life, Politics

We will discuss several cases such as Non Statuto” Movimento 5 Stelle (2009); “Statuto dell’Associazione Rousseau”; Roberto Fico “Noi non ci arrendiamo”; Calenda, Chiusura della campagna elettorale 6 giugno 2024; discorso di Nilde Iotti dopo la sua elezione a Presidente della Camera (1979); Solinas, “Attivare lo stato d’emergenza in Sardegna”; discorso di Bob Geldof, Bono e Midge Ure al Live 8 di Edimburgo (2005); discorso di Umberto Bossi a Pontida 1994; Silvio Berlusconi, discorso della discesa in campo 26 gennaio 1994; Joe Rogan Experience #2219 (episodio con ospite Donald Trump) .

The final syllabus will be uploaded to AulaWeb during the first week of the semester.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

READING LIST FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS

The reading list will be uploaded to aulaweb in the first week of the course.

READING LIST FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

G. Cosenza, Semiotica e comunicazione politica, Laterza, 2018.

Opt for one of: 

• Hannah Fenichel Pitkin, Il concetto di rappresentanza, Rubettino, Soveria Mannelli, 2017.
• Nadia Urbinati, Democrazia sfigurata. Il popolo fra opinione e verità, Egea, Milano, 2017.

Opt for one of: 

• Bernard Manin, Principi del governo rappresentativo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017. 
• Richard Sennett, La società del palcoscenico. Performance e rappresentazioni in politica, nell’arte e nella vita, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2024.

*** all readings can be read in English and/or in the original language *** 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

CORRADO FUMAGALLI (President)

FEDERICO ZUOLO

VALERIA OTTONELLI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

20/02/2025

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Oral exam or written essay.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Oral exam

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Final written essay, for those who have attended the course. Alternatively, the student can choose an oral exam. 

The exam, both it its oral and written form, aims at ascertaining the student's critical awareness of the normative and theoretical issues examined during the course and an adequate knowledge of the main positions within the academic debate on the course's topic. The written essay must not consist in a mere summary of the existing literature, but must develop and defend by proper arguments a specific claim relating to a theme discussed during the course (on the model of academic essays of the relevant field).

Exam schedule