Fall 2018 Seminar: Democracy and Marxism with Peter Bratsis

Left to right: Emory Douglas Illustration, Aristotle, Nicos Poulantzas

(4:30–6:30pm): an eight week course — $15 per ses­sion or $100 for all eight ses­sions.

The eth­ic of democ­ra­cy is cen­tral to the project of Marx­ism. This class will exam­ine the con­cept of democ­ra­cy and how it has been incor­po­rat­ed with­in the Marx­ist tra­di­tion. The Marx­ist cri­tique of lib­er­al ‘democ­ra­cy’ and the rela­tion of democ­ra­cy to human cre­ation as well as eco­nom­ic pro­duc­tion will also be inter­ro­gat­ed. Read­ings will include works from Aris­to­tle, Marx, Gram­sci, Pan­nekoek, Lux­em­burg, Cas­to­ri­adis, and Poulantzas.

Read­ings will include:

Spet. 29, Week 1: Cor­nelius Cas­to­ri­adis “The Greek Polis and the Inven­tion of Democ­ra­cy” in Phi­los­o­phy, Pol­i­tics, Auton­o­my

Oct. 6, Week 2: Conthttp://b-ok.xyz/book/981479/71b4f2inuation of Cas­toridis and Book 1 of Aristotle’s Pol­i­tics

Oct. 13, Week 3: Karl Marx, On the Jew­ish Ques­tion and Cri­tique of the Gotha Pro­gram

Oct. 20, Week 4: Rosa Lux­em­burg, “Orga­ni­za­tion­al Ques­tions of Russ­ian Social Democ­ra­cy” and The Russ­ian Rev­o­lu­tion, in The Rosa Lux­em­burg Read­er

Oct. 27, Week 5: Anton Pan­nekoek, Work­ers Coun­cils, (Chap­ter 1, “The Task”, and 2, “The Fight”).

Nov. 3, Week 6: Jean-Paul Sartre, “Elec­tions: A Trap for Fools”, and Claus Offe, “The Two Log­ics of Col­lec­tive Action”

Nov. 10, Week 7: Anto­nio Gram­sci, “The Mod­ern Prince” and “State and Civ­il Soci­ety” in Selec­tions from the Prison Note­books

Nov. 17, Week 8: Nicos Poulantzas, State, Pow­er, Social­ism, (part 4, “The Decline of Dcmoc­ra­cy”, and 5, “Toward a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Social­ism”)

Click here to watch this sem­i­nar on our Youtube chan­nel!

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Purchase all sessions of Democracy and Marxism:

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Purchase all sessions for all three seminars with the Institute for the Radical Imagination:

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* It is also possible to pay per session in person.