POL 304
Conservative Political Thought
Jan-Werner Mueller
MW, 10:00-10:50 am
We ask whether conservatism is a disposition or a doctrine, whether it is a particularly modern phenomenon, and whether it needs to be grounded in religion. We compare the history of European, American, and non-western conservative thought and investigate whether doctrines such as libertarianism and nationalism are inherently conservative - leading up to the question whether the conservative movement in the US is characterized by inner tensions, or might even be in terminal crisis, as some now claim. The last part of the course is devoted to contemporary policy issues in areas such as bioethics and the legitimacy of nation-building abroad.