Professor Christian List

Optional for MSc Political Theory, MSc Political Theory (Research), MSc Applicable Mathematics, MSc Political Science and Political Economy and the LSE-PKU Double Degree in Public Administration and Government. Available in other MSc programmes subject to space and with prior approval of the course co-ordinator.

No prior knowledge of social choice theory or of any specific mathematical discipline is required.

This course provides an introduction both to social choice theory and current debates in democratic theory. On the social-choice-theoretic side the course introduces students to key results, such as Arrow's impossibility theorem, which imply that making rational collective decisions may be impossible, potential escape-routes from these theorems and responses from the more normative literature on democracy. On the more normative side, the course covers central debates in contemporary democratic theory, which are likely to include the topics of deliberative democracy, outcome-based or epistemic justifications of democracy, representative democracy and democratic legitimacy. While all students are required to understand the key findings of the main social-choice-theoretic theorems, they can approach these either from a formal analytic perspective or from a more normative philosophical perspective and make the debates on democratic theory their main focus.

10 two-hour seminars in MT (with some lecture components) and two two-hour seminars in the first and second weeks of the ST.

Students will be expected to give a short presentation and to write a formative essay. Feedback will be given on this material, but it does not count towards final assessment.

William H Riker (1982), Liberalism Against Populism; Jerry S Kelly (1988), Social Choice Theory: An Introduction; James Bohman & William Rehg ed. (1997), Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics; Amy Gutmann & Dennis Thompson (1996) Democracy and Disagreement. Christian List, "The Discursive Dilemma and Public Reason," Ethics 116(2): 362-404 (2006).

Consists of two parts: (i) a two-hour unseen written examination in the ST, accounting for 75% of the marks; (ii) a single essay of up to 3,000 words on a topic to be agreed with the course teacher by Week 10 of MT. The essay must be submitted by the Friday of the Week one of LT and accounts for 25% of the marks.