1. What are Natural Rights?
2. What does Rousseau mean by the "General Will"?
3. What is a Social Contract?
4. What is the State of Nature?
5. Who is the sovereign in Rousseau's political theory?
6. What does Roussea mean by "Man is born free and yet everwhere he is chains"?
7. Who is Charles I, and why is he important?
8. What is the Exclusion Crisis?
9. What is the Free Market?
10. What is Civic Humanism or Republicanism?
11. Who is Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent?
12. What does Fortuna mean?
13. Why is Machiavelli concerned about mercenary and/or auxiliary soldiers?
14. What is the labor theory of value?
15. Why is Gold so crucial in Locke's theory?
16. Why is Machiavelli classified as a modern political theorist?
17. Discuss Machiavelli's analysis of violence in the political process.
18. What is Mill's "One Simple Principle?"
19. Describe the "legislator" and his role in Rousseau.
20. What does Rousseau mean by the "General Will"?
21. What do Mill and Rousseau mean by "participatory democracy"?
22. What is new about the modern threat to liberty according to Mill?
23. What does Rousseau mean by community?
24. How does Mill differentiate between "dead dogmas" and "living truths"?
25. What are the basic component of non-violent protest according to M. L. King?
26. How does M. L. King justify political protest in his letter?

II. Essay Questions for Short and Long Questions

1. What does the concept of human nature mean? Take two theorists that we have discussed and compare and contrast their discussions of human nature. Why do political theorists discuss human nature?
2. What does the "social contract" mean? Take two political theorists that we have discussed and compare and contrast their views on the social contract. Why do these theorists make use of the social contract in their theories?
3. Compare and contrast the discussions of the state and its role in the theorists that we have discussed. What powers do these theorists give to the state? What checks, if any, do these theorists place on the power of the state?
4. What does the concept of legitimacy mean? Why is this concept implicit or explicit in the discussions of some of the political theorists we have discussed?
5. How are the concepts of consent and options related to the idea of free will? How does the language of choice fit into this, and why is it important?
6. Machiavelli talks a great deal about how to maintain power and control in a province or state. Is he concerned about public opinion and public acceptance of the sovereign's power?
7. John Locke and J. S. Mill are both classified as liberal political theorists, yet there are considerable differences between them. Why are they classified as liberals? Where do they depart from each other in the liberal tradition?
8. What is a free market? What does it imply in terms of the relation between individual citizens and buyers and the larger society and government? Why is it an important component of John Locke's political theory?
9. Contrast and compare Machiavelli in the Discourses with Machiavelli in the Prince. What are the similarities and differences between these two works?
10. What sort of evidence do Rousseau and Locke offer in support of their views on human nature? How would you evaluate the evidence? That is, do they do a good job defending their picture of human nature?
11. Are the theorists we have discussed starting with Machiavelli democratic theorists? Are they within the tradition of democratic theory? Take two theorists and discuss their democratic credentials?
12. Both Locke and Rousseau portray humans as "equal" in the state of nature. What do they mean by equality? How do their views on equality influence their views of the state?
13. How are the concepts of legitimacy, rights, consent, and the social contract linked together in liberal theory? In answering this question, you need to first define what each term means individually and then discuss how they are related.
14. One of the areas where Machiavelli has drawn the sharpest criticism is on his defense of what has been called a "dual standard of morality" or the problem of "dirty hands." What are the issues in dispute here? Does Machiavelli warrant the criticism that he has received?
15. Is Rousseau a totalitarian or a democrat? Examine the main elements of his theory and discuss whether his ideas are a threat to a democratic society or would reinforce such a society.
16. Mill argues in the latter part of "On Liberty" that society has the right to regulate the individual's moral behavior and conduct in life. How can and does society regulate an individual's behavior? Why is society justified in doing this, according to Mill?
17. Let's suppose Machiavelli visited the later part of the twentieth century. Discuss his reaction to Iraq and Saddam Hussein's defiance of U N inspectors? What would he recommend to U S policy makers? What sorts of issues would Machiavelli raise about our policy?
18. What does Mill see as the greatest threat to our liberty? What does he mean by the "Tyranny of the Majority"? How does the majority tyrannize the individual?
19. What does Rousseau mean by the General Will? How is it different than the majority will? In his discussion of the General Will, he talks about "forcing people to be free." What does he mean by that, and is that an attack on liberty and freedom?
20. Rousseau differentiates between natural inequality and social and political inequality. What does he mean by the distinction, and is the distinction an important one?
21. Differentiate between the views of Rousseau and Mill on the issue of women in society and in politics. You should relate your answers to such themes as equality, participation, democracy and human nature.
22. What is the liberal "quandary"? Discuss two of the theorists we have focused on in the course and analyze their ideas in the terms of this quandary. As you analyze the contemporary American political scene, does the "liberal quandary" offer any insight or grounds for thought?
23. Why does Mill give liberty such priority as a political value? How does he argue that liberty is a value worth protecting?
24. Rousseau is seen by many writers as a critic of liberalism. Is that true? Where are Rousseau's ideas consistent with liberalism and where do they depart?
25. Imagine that you are Rousseau or Mill and that you have been dragged into the 20th century in Helm's time machine. What would they have to say about modern society? Would they think that we have progressed or deteriorated from when they wrote?
26. Liberty and equality as values are frequently viewed as being in tension with each other. Where do they reinforce each other, and where do they conflict? Can we resolve the tensions between them?
27. Differentiate between Rousseau and Locke in terms of their theories of the "state of nature." Why are their accounts of the state of nature so important to their theories? In both cases we leave the state of nature through the social contract. Differentiate between their discussions of the social contract.
28. Is M L King a liberal political theorist? How does he conceive of rights and what does he mean by legitimacy? Is his philosophy of non-violence part of the liberal tradition of a theorist like J S Mill?