Administrative, Political and Economic Sciences

LUCA COBBE

General aim of the course is to contribute to the acquisition of the expected basic knowledge in the political-historical field, through the reconstruction of the main trends of development of Western political thought, from the early modern period to the 19th century with some references to contemporaneity.
Thecourse will deepen classical contents regarding the state, sovereignty, authority and its legitimacy, from an interdisciplinary point of view which gives value to the intersections with historical and politological disciplines.
The course also aims at stimulating the ability to use this knowledge to develop a more reflective and aware approach to the complex political-institutional trends of our age.
The course aims, moreover, at improving the communication skills of the students and their autonomous ability to judge through open discussion on the main authors and issues addressed in the lectures.

Students are expected to gain knowledge and understanding of the main lines of development in political thought, classical, medieval and, especially, modern. These skills will be acquired through discussion and confrontation in class.
The goal is to develop
- a capacity for judgement starting from critical reflection on the main junctures in the history of political thought by comparing the different theoretical-political systems and the complex political-institutional dynamics of each historical period
- communication skills, based on classroom interaction with the teacher and fellow students;
- critical learning skills capable of combining knowledge and reasoning, in order to then be able to achieve autonomous thinking and judgement.

No prerequisites required.

Forms of order and institutions of power in modern political thought:
- The republic before the State: Machiavelli and the Reason of State;
- Common power and the political body: sovereignty in Hobbes;
- Government and property: John Locke;
- Democracy and multitude in Spinoza;
- The Scottish Enlightenment and the invention of society;
- Sovereignty, government and democracy in Rousseau and in the French eighteenth century political thought;
- Constitution, government and society in Bentham;
- The State in the wake of the Atlantic revolutions;
- From organisation to administration: Saint-Simon, Tocqueville, Von Stein;
- State, economy and freedom in J. S. Mill;
- Social power, critique of political economy and the State in Marx.

The course aims to provide the students with the basic knowledge of the main thematic nuclei of Western political thought from early modern period to the 19th century. In particular, emphasis will be placed on tracing the way in which both the problem of political order and its specific institutional architecture have been conceived throughout modernity, reconstructing the semantic trajectories of the main concepts of modern political thought: republic, political body, civil society, sovereignty, organisation, administration, state, constitution.

1) C. Galli (a cura di), Il pensiero politico moderno, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017 (eccetto cap. XII)

2) una coppia di materiali a scelta tra le seguenti proposte (ove non specificato, va bene qualsiasi edizione dell’opera in questione, purché integrale):

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N. Machiavelli, Il Principe

F. Raimondi (a cura di), Machiavelli. Antologia di scritti politici, Carocci, 2025 (eccetto le parti relative al Principe)

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T. Hobbes, Il Leviatano (parti I e II)

M. Piccinini, Potere comune e rappresentanza in Thomas Hobbes, in Il potere. Per la storia della filosofia politica moderna, a cura di G. Duso, Carocci, Roma 1999, pp. 123-141.

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J. Locke, Secondo trattato sul governo

C.B. Macpherson, Libertà e proprietà alle origini del pensiero borghese. La teoria dell’individualismo possessivo da Hobbes a Locke, Isedi, Milano 1962 (da pag. 225 a pag. 296)

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J.-J. Rousseau, Il Contratto sociale

A. Marchili, Rousseau e la fondazione della volontà generale: popolo, nazione, opinione pubblica, in Il governo del popolo. 1. Dall’antico regime alla Rivoluzione, a cura di G. Ruocco e L. Scuccimarra, Viella, Roma 2011, pp. 133-160.

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J. Bentham, Il catechismo del popolo, a cura di L. Formigari, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1982.

P. Rudan, Governare la felicità. Riflessioni sulla rinuncia al contratto originario nel pensiero politico di Jeremy Bentham, in Storia dei concetti. Storia del pensiero politico. Saggi di ricerca, a cura di S. Chignola e G. Duso, Editoriale Scientifica, Napoli 2006, pp. 63-117.

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I. Kant, Scritti di storia, politica e diritto, a cura di F. Gonnelli, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2019

G. Solari, La formazione storica e filosofica dello stato moderno, Guida editori, Napoli, 1990 (da pag. 75 a pag. 129)

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A. de Tocqueville, L’antico regime e la Rivoluzione

M.L. Lanzillo, Introduzione, in A. de Tocqueville, Antologia degli scritti politici, a cura di M.L. Lanzillo, Carocci, Roma 2004, pp. 11-42.

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K. Marx, Salario, prezzo e profitto

S. Mezzadra, M. Ricciardi, Introduzione, in K. Marx, Antologia degli scritti politici, a cura di S. Mezzadra e M. Ricciardi, Carocci, Roma 2002, pp. 11-43.

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J.S. Mill, Considerazioni sul governo rappresentativo, a cura di M. Prospero, Editori Riuniti, Roma 2019.

L. Cobbe, Il carattere di un popolo. John Stuart Mill e le semantiche del collettivo, in Il governo del popolo. 2. Dalla Restaurazione alla guerra franco-prussiana, a cura di G. Ruocco e L. Scuccimarra, Viella, Roma 2012, pp. 101-129.

Recarding the didactic method, teaching consists of lectures and optional group work. Both contribute to the achievement of the training objectives. In particular, the latter stimulate in the students the ability to apply the acquired knowledge and to independently analyze and form opinions on the topics covered during the lessons.
The main objective of the course is to provide students with the basic methodological and conceptual tools to stimulate critical knowledge and analytical skills, through active participation in meetings and debates concerning topics covered during the lessons. The course aims to offer the students' training in the historical-political field, enabling them to develop original concepts and carry out research into the disciplinary field of reference, and also from a comparative perspective, enabling them to communicate and work in groups, as well as express opinions in an autonomous way, magking use of the various initiatives prepared for this porpouse (debates, seminars, conferences, etc.).

Non-mandatory attendance

The test will take place at the end of the course in oral format and will last approximately 20 minutes and be based on at least three questions. To pass the exam, the student must demonstrate that he/she has acquired and adequate knowlendge of the topics covered during the course and be able to explain them in a logical and coherent manner. In any case, the test will only concern texts and readings indicated in this program.

Could you tell me about Bodin’s concept of sovereignty?
Why is Hobbes’s sovereign a representative figure? What does Tocqueville mean by the term ‘tyranny of the majority’?