Course Details

Course offered Autumn 2016

HONORS 230 A: Leadership, Democracy and a More Thoughtful Public (SSc)

HONORS 230 A: Leadership, Democracy and a More Thoughtful Public (SSc)

SLN 15841 (View UW registration info »)

Roger Soder (Education)
Office: MGH 211, Box 353600
Email: rsoder@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

We will consider the following six interrelated propositions, and we will consider the implications of these propositions for the conduct of good (i.e., ethical and effective) leadership.

1. Leadership involves at its base the creation of a persuaded audience; but beyond that, leadership involves creating and sustaining a more thoughtful public, a public capable of rising above itself.

2. A more thoughtful public must not only be created and sustained, but, given that things inevitably fall apart, must be recovered and reconstituted.

3. Distinctions must be made in the leadership functions of (a) initiating, (b) sustaining, and (c) recovering and reconstituting. What it takes for a leader to sustain isn’t quite the same as what it takes to initiate, and neither of these approach what it takes to recover and reconstitute when the organization or regime falls apart.

4. Good leadership involves ethical and effective information seeking. A leader must have knowledge of what must be done, knowledge of what it takes to persuade others of what must be done (and, in persuading, helping to create a more thoughtful public), and knowledge of how an audience/public will respond. Only with a thorough understanding of the principles, strategies, and costs of information seeking will one be able to engage in ethical and effective leadership.

5. Leadership always has a political context; leadership in a democracy is necessarily different than leadership in other kinds of political regimes.

6. Leadership always involves assumptions (tacit and acknowledged) about human nature.

Sources of texts will include Tocqueville, Orwell, Machiavelli, Bacon, Dostoevsky, and Sophocles, as well as contemporary authors.

Method of instruction: close reading of texts, coupled with fifteen short papers on texts, plus a longer (9-10 page, single-spaced) synthesis paper; small and large group discussions with each other and visiting scholars/practitioners.

For further details, please see 230 class page at: https://catalyst.uw.edu/workspace/rsoder/7019. The class page links to most of the readings plus a draft of the Aut2016 syllabus. I strongly recommend consulting the syllabus with care in order to get a sense of expectations and consequent demands on your time.

You will note that some of the readings are deceptively short in length. For example, our readings from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America are all of thirteen pages. The Bacon essay, just three pages. But these texts (and others throughout the course) demand multiple close readings.

I will be glad to talk with you further about any aspect of the course. The surest way to reach me is via email: rsoder@uw.edu