STUDY ABROAD Independent study:
Power and Politics: Plato, Machiavelli, and Locke at ISTITUTO EUROPEO
Independent study (15 contact hours, 1 contact hour: 45’, of lesson and 30 completely independently by the student)
Italy is the land of politics for politics, where politics based itself only as self-assertion, the land where prevails the lack of reforms, that is murdered by too many worthless laws.
The country where democracy has no more need of vote (now three governments have being following each other without people's consensus).
The land where the president of Italian Republic acts as an intermediary of the strong powers who rule the world.
Come down with us to the roots of Machiavelic Italian politics to understand the incomprehensible policy of Italian politics
Who should wield political power and why? This course will look at this broad question through the work of three major political philosophers: Plato, Machiavelli, and Locke. Each thinker seems to have a distinctly different idea as to what makes political authority legitimate, yet close readings of their major texts will reveal similarities and overlap even amidst the striking diversity in their outlooks. We will work chronologically, being sure to place each man in his own historical context. With this grounding, we will explore the theories espoused, linking ideas both to their cultural milieux and then thinking more abstractly, comparing and contrasting the core principles each promoted
