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Political Theory

Political Theory

Our large theory faculty enables us to offer courses in the entire history of political thought: ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary. Faculty also have a strong interest in politics and literature, human rights, and feminist theory, among other topics.

We encourage students to do course work in related disciplines, including Philosophy, Theology, Economics, History, and English. Theory students also have access to the faculty and fellows associated with special centers located on campus including the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for the Study of Philosophy of Religion, the Center for Ethics and Culture, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Medieval Institute, the Nanovic Center for European Studies, and the Center for Civil & Human Rights in the Keough School of Global Affairs.

Our students have written dissertations on a diverse range of topics such as friendship in political thought; ethical integrity and democratic citizenship; patriotism in a cosmopolitan age; Rousseau on commerce and mores; love and the passions in Augustine’s political thought; the life of the mind in Hannah Arendt; natural right and the problem of natural justice; Montesquieu on law and morals; theories of immigration; the family in political life; and Plato's Cratylus, Republic, Laws, and Statesman.