Teaching & Academic Service

The “Business and Government Relations” is an alternative to Business Law in satisfying the “legal and political environment of business” requirement. The course is designed to prepare students for the time when, as senior managers of business firms, they will find their business activities being partly determined by government policies.

Over the course of the semester, students will learn the Skills: to analyze normative arguments about what government and corporate policies ought to be; to analyze positive arguments regarding claims made about the effects of government policies on business; to understand the how and why of government policy-making; and to learn to “forecast” changes in government policy.

Students will develop Substantive Knowledge: of political institutions, here and abroad; of the effects of differing government policies on national industrial organization; and of the effects of business on government, in the United States and abroad.

Students will Reflect: on the appropriate role of corporations in the democratic political process; and on how civic obligations should affect them in their roles as managers.

The course readings will compare American political and business institutions with those of other democratic capitalist countries. Formerly offered as MGMT 265.

The regional and current topics courses focus on current events and/or the conditions in a particular region related to business, economics, policy, and the social or political climate.

This course will examine the dialogues of Plato that focus primarily on political philosophy. Like nearly all early political philosophers, Plato did not limit his analysis of politics to questions of institutions. Instead, his political thought extends beyond politics to incorporate ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, and theology into a broader philosophy that asks fundamental questions about how individuals and political communities can best live.

Plato’s answers to these questions do not rely on well-designed institutions as the foundation of successful politics. Rather, he argues that good political practice depends first on the well-being of the individual. In addition to exploring how Plato integrates multiple branches of philosophy into his political thought, the course will also examine how his views on politics evolved over time. There is a marked difference between the political philosophy of the Republic and the ideas presented in his final work, Laws. Not only did Plato revise his proposed solutions and their implementation, but the underlying reasoning behind his arguments also shifted from one dialogue to another.

The importance, complexity, variety, and depth of Plato’s political philosophy will be central to the lectures and discussions in this course. By studying his political thought, students will gain an understanding of how Plato profoundly influenced the history of political philosophy.