DMHR7311 | CRITIQUES OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

A critical study of the concepts of democracy and human rights. The course discusses the following topics: the economic foundations of liberal democracy; the problematic assumptions of human rights theory; the meaning of the term ‘man’ as used in human rights discourses; critique of democratic and human rights ideas and arrangements, both in theory and practice, with emphasis on contemporary discussions; critiques of democracy from different perspectives—Marxist, feminist, etc.; critique of different types of Islamic democratic discourse; liberal democratic critique of other types of democratic discourses; radical critique of contemporary forms of democracy. The course will also present criticisms of various types of human rights discourse along the lines indicated above.