As a fourth year student doing a joint major in philosophy and political science, I took this course as an upper year political science credit to fulfill my degree requirements. However I was drawn to this course because I genuinely enjoy theory based courses. Being a philosophy major, many of my courses are based in theory. Reading different theories and debating over the various merits of each theory is something I enjoy doing. Although I have always enjoyed political philosophy, after taking a particular political theory class last year, I became especially drawn to political theory. I believe that political theory is so important to learn and study as it is most assuredly a topic that affects everyone. We live in a world where many people ignore politics, while politics and political theories are shaping the way we live everyday. I feel empowered learning about the many different theories on how different governments and policies work and more importantly, what we can do to change or improve them. It is my goal to be an informed citizen who can participate in politics that affects my life in multiple aspects. I believe the only way to do this is to educate yourself and endeavor to be more than a subject to the various governments and policies. Blindly following laws, policies, and rules without understanding and empowering yourself to make a difference would be subjecting oneself to the government instead of acting as a participating citizen.
International relations theory is an another step to understanding politics from a different perspective. Having not yet delved into the various theories in great details, at this moment my impression of this course is that I will need to focus on learning various theories in a way that seems different than what I have learned previously. It seems that political theory is clear on the “what, how, and why” they want to study various political theories. The theories debate among each other about which theory best explains the current political climate of a specific time and place and more importantly, what can be done to improve it. Whereas, as Prof. Crawford stated multiple times, international relations theorists cannot agree on “what, how, and why” we should study. This, of course, makes it more difficult to study clear cut theories and pit them against each other in a debate of their merits. However, as I said previously, I believe expanding my knowledge on politics in any form can only be contributing to making informed decisions. Learning political theory has really given me insight on my self in terms of understanding and solidifying what I believe in. I hope to gain the same thing from learning international relations theories.
This is a nice post Susan. There is no question that political theory can seem far more coherent and cohesive than what often passes for theory in IR. There are, however, some approaches that see no sharp distinction between the fields (e.g. that view IR as essentially political theory applied outward). We will discuss this in the weeks ahead. Good job on the post.