Politics, Law and Social Thought
Politics, Law and Social Thought
https://politics.rice.edu/
116 Humanities Building
713-348-4548
Peter C. Caldwell
Program Director
caldwell@rice.edu
Politics, Law and Social Thought (PLST) is an interdisciplinary minor open to all undergraduate students at Rice from all backgrounds. Its task is the study of political ideas in their philosophical and historical contexts as well as with regard to their effects on constitutional law and social and political practices.
The central focus of the minor is political theory, taken in a wide sense to mean the theory and philosophy of how polities form, function, and fail. The minor has a strong orientation toward works of political, legal, and social philosophy, understood in their historical context. Politics, Law and Social Thought is a program of study that enables Rice students to engage successfully with the “big” political questions relevant to contemporary society in a global setting: Why democracy? What are the foundations of law? What is political liberty? What is political citizenship? Are states necessary? How do normative political and social orders come into existence? Is there a philosophical justification for human rights?
The Politics, Law and Social Thought interdisciplinary minor is an initiative of the Schools of Humanities and Social Sciences, administered by the School of Humanities.
Politics, Law and Social Thought does currently not offer an academic program at the graduate level.
Director
Peter C. Caldwell
Humanities Faculty Director, Law, Justice and Society Scholars
Shannon LaBove
Professors
Dominic C. Boyer
Peter C. Caldwell
Steven G. Crowell
Luis Duno-Gottberg
Christian J. Emden
David W. Leebron
Melissa J. Marschall
Donald Ray Morrison
George Sher
Lora Wildenthal
Harvey E. Yunis
Associate Professors
Andrea Ballestero
Gwendolyn M. Bradford
Sophie Esch
Julie Fette
Aysha Pollnitz
William Suarez-Potts
Assistant Professor
Vida Yao
Professor in the Practice
Steven W. Lewis
Lecturers
Shannon LaBove
Rudy Ramirez
Robert Werth
For Rice University degree-granting programs:
To view the list of official course offerings, please see Rice’s Course Catalog
To view the most recent semester’s course schedule, please see Rice's Course Schedule
Politics, Law and Social Thought (PLST)
PLST 238 - SPECIAL TOPICS
Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Seminar, Lecture/Laboratory, Independent Study
Credit Hours: 1-4
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Topics and credit hours may vary each semester. Contact department for current semester’s topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.
PLST 301 - MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT: MACHIAVELLI TO RAWLS
Short Title: MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: Introduction to political theory and political philosophy from the Renaissance to the present: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Pufendorf, Montesquieu, Kant, Hegel, Constant, Mill Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Habermas, and Rawls. Topics include human rights, political power, citizenship, democracy, the modern state. Required core course for minor in Politics, Law, and Social Thought.
PLST 302 - CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THEORY
Short Title: CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THEORY
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: Introduction to contemporary political theory. Topics include freedom, democracy, empire, citizenship, human rights, radical democracy, protest and civil disobedience, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, postcolonial political thought, transnational and global governance.
PLST 303 - HOW DEMOCRACY FAILS
Short Title: HOW DEMOCRACY FAILS
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: Course examines the conditions under which democracies and republics can fail. Draws on political theory, constitutional debates, and historical examples. Topics include: constitutional crises, states of emergency, popular sovereignty, populism, nationalism, revolution, political violence, civil disobedience, post-democracy, illiberal democracy, and neoliberalism.
PLST 305 - INTRODUCTION TO LAW
Short Title: INTRODUCTION TO LAW
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: Course introduces students to the U.S. legal system and provides them with a preview of the first year of law school, including the basic principles of Tort, Contract, Criminal, and Criminal Procedure Law. Additionally, the class will teach students how to conduct appellate argument and to write briefs. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for PLST 305 if student has credit for COLL 201.
PLST 315 - AUTHORITARIAN CONSTITUTIONALISM AND DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIPS SINCE 1848
Short Title: AUTHORITARIAN CONSTITUTIONS
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture
Distribution Group: Distribution Group I
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: This communication intensive course examines the notion of the "authoritarian constitutionalism" of states that are authoritarian in practice despite having constitutions that assert principles of liberal democracy. The course will examine the concept both analytically and historically. In the second phase of the class, students will divide into groups to analyze specific examples of authoritarian constitutionalism from the past two centuries, based on primary and secondary sources, which will be presented in visual, oral, and written form.
PLST 316 - DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL THEORY IN ANCIENT GREECE
Short Title: DEMOCRACY & POLITICAL THEORY
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: The Greeks created political society and studied political society in order to understand and improve it. One particular form of political society, democracy, reached its pinnacle in Athens. We shall attempt to understand how ancient Greeks thought about politics from the rudimentary beginnings in Homer to the complex, incisive arguments of Aristotle. Cross-list: CLAS 316.
PLST 330 - RACE AND THE LAW: HOW LAWS AND INSTITUTIONS HAVE PERPETUATED RACISM AND SUPPORTED PROGRESS
Short Title: RACE AND THE LAW
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: This course is intended to introduce students to legal frameworks of analysis and sources of law pertaining to issues of racial equality. We will focus on questions such as: How has law been used to perpetuate inequality? How has law made it more difficult to achieve reforms to advance equality? How have law and legal institutions helped advance racial equality and justice? Some of the areas of focus include land use policy and segregation, criminal justice, education, environmental disparities and voting. Readings will include both secondary sources (books, scholarly pieces and popular media) and legal materials (primarily Supreme Court decisions).
PLST 401 - LEGAL PRACTICUM
Short Title: LEGAL PRACTICUM
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Internship/Practicum
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: This course focuses on the public and private practice sectors of the legal profession through a work experience coupled with classroom instruction at Rice. The goal is to expose undergraduates to the field of law through structured on-site experiences, relevant coursework, and professional development opportunities. Students must have completed at least 9 credit hours in a humanities or social sciences discipline for course eligibility. Instructor Permission Required. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for PLST 401 if student has credit for HUMA 404/SOSC 405.
PLST 402 - JUDICIAL PRACTICUM
Short Title: JUDICIAL PRACTICUM
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Internship/Practicum
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: Students will participate in a semester-long practicum with a sitting judge (federal, or Texas appellate) in Houston. This program is designed to give select Rice undergraduates a broad and practical introduction to what lawyers do in court and how judges and the law clerks who work with them think about the questions they are asked to resolve. Students must have completed at least 9 credit hours in a humanities or social sciences discipline for course eligibility. Instructor Permission Required. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for PLST 402 if student has credit for HUMA 401/SOSC 406.
PLST 477 - SPECIAL TOPICS
Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS
Department: Politics Law Social Thought
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Internship/Practicum, Seminar, Lecture, Laboratory
Credit Hours: 1-4
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: Topics and credit hours may vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.
Description and Code Legend
Note: Internally, the university uses the following descriptions, codes, and abbreviations for this academic program. The following is a quick reference:
Course Catalog/Schedule
- Course offerings/subject code: PLST
Department (or Program) Description and Code
- Politics, Law and Social Thought: PLST
Undergraduate Minor Description and Code
- Minor in Politics, Law and Social Thought: PLST
CIP Code and Description1
- PLST Minor: CIP Code/Title: 22.0000 - Legal Studies, General
| 1 | Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) 2020 Codes and Descriptions from the National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/ |