Topics for Machiavelli: “The Prince”
1. How much of The Prince is relevant to contemporary society?
Topics for Thomas Hobbes: “The Leviathan”
1. Does ‘The Leviathan’ set up a totalitarian state?
Topics for John Locke: “Two Treatises of Government”
1. Locke and private property – an analysis.
Topics for Montesquieu: “Spirit of the Laws”
1. Discuss le Baron’s influence on the American Founding Fathers.
Topics for Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “The Social Contract”
1. What do you make of the concept of the ‘common will’?
2. In what significant ways do Rousseau’s ideas differ from those at work in modern democracies?
Topics for the Introduction to American Political Thought:
1. Does the current American political system still reflect its founding principles?

*If you’re interested in writing something different from the topics the questions above inspire, email me, or to come and talk to me about it.