A one-week online seminar for college undergraduates, The James Madison Seminar on the Theory and Practice of Statesmanship, seeks to help students answer the underlying question at the bottom of politics and public life: What is statesmanship?

Online, live

Overview:
From that, we will explore statesmanship’s defining qualities, why we seem to have so little of it in modern times, and whether we can aspire to statesmanship. We will examine four fundamental aspects of statesmanship:

1. The identifying characteristics (as opposed to ordinary political life, demagoguery, or tyranny)
2. What the classical political writers had to say about statesmanship (Aristotle, Cicero)
3. Lived examples: 18th-century (George Washington), 19th-century (Abraham Lincoln), and 20th-century (Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, Konrad Adenauer)
4. Statesmanship in the Democratic Context – judicial statesmanship, administrative statesmanship, intellectual statesmanship

Readings will be in primary sources including Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch, Washington, Lincoln, Churchill, Weber, and Havel.

The James Madison Seminar on the Theory and Practice of Statesmanship

Jun 27 - Jul 01

1 week

Online

100 USD

Program fee includes course materials.

Financial Aid

Financial aid is not available.