Unit rationale, description and aim

Understanding how Australia and the United States evolved from colonies of British subjects to modern self-governing democracies is important for anyone wishing to contribute to public life.

This unit offers a chronological-thematic survey of the key ideas, institutions and practices that characterized the emergence of modern liberal democracy in Australia, the US and Great Britain, including shared norms such as the rule of law, self-government through accountable parliamentary rule, and the eventual extension of the voting franchise across economic, racial and gender lines. 

It sets such historical developments alongside major texts and thinkers, beginning in the Middle Ages with the Magna Carta, then proceeding through John Fortescue, Richard Hooker, James VI and I, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, the American Declaration of Independence, the US and Australian (federal and colonial) constitutions, Mary Wollsonecraft, and culminating in the civil rights movements in Australia and the United States.

The unit's examination of the relationship between Britain, the US and Australia facilitates exploration of themes such as the distinctiveness of Australian democracy in relation to its shared heritage, the enduring legacy of British ideas and institutions, the battle for and achievement of women's right to vote, and Indigenous engagements with democratic ideas, institutions and possibilities.

This unit aims to develop students’ understanding of the foundation and historical development of political thought, institutions, and practices, in Britain, the United States, and Australia.

2026 10

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  • Term Mode
  • Semester 2Campus Attendance

Prerequisites

WPOL200 The Rise of Liberalism: Authority, Society and Freedom

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Describe key aspects of the great works of Anglo, ...

Learning Outcome 01

Describe key aspects of the great works of Anglo, American and Australian political thought in relation to the evolution of liberal democracy in those countries
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Discuss the social, historical, philosophical, pol...

Learning Outcome 02

Discuss the social, historical, philosophical, political and ethical ideas and movements in texts drawn from, and related to, the development of democracy in Britain, the USA and Australia
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Examine knowledge from diverse historical sources ...

Learning Outcome 03

Examine knowledge from diverse historical sources and communicate complex ideas and findings with sophistication and confidence to a range of audiences
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC3, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Formulate intellectually grounded, evidence-based ...

Learning Outcome 04

Formulate intellectually grounded, evidence-based judgments about the historical development of political thought, institutions, and practices in Britain, the U.S.A. and Australia.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Content

Topics may include: 

  • The legacy of the Medieval political thought, including the Magna Carta, and John Fortescue’s On the Laws and Governance of England.
  • The gradual emergence of parliamentary constitutional monarchy in England through the course of the Reformation, Civil War, and Glorious Revolution. 
  • The legacy of the English Reformation in establishing national sovereignty and the Church of England.
  • The emergence of an established church, religious toleration, and the long historical debates about these ideas, particularly in the American and Australian constitutions.
  • The context, nature and legacies of John Locke’s theory of government and his understanding of religious toleration.
  • The intellectual sources and legacies of American revolutionary political thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.
  • The idea of the distinctiveness of the British political tradition, particularly in Edmund Burke’s critique of the French Revolution. 
  • Australian advocacy for self-rule and extension of the franchise
  • Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, engagements with democratic ideas, institutions and possibilities in America and Australia
  • Campaigns for and achievement of women’s right to vote in Britain, the US and Australia

Assessment strategy and rationale

There are three types of assessment for this unit, each enabling students to develop a distinct set of skills and body of knowledge contained in the Learning Outcomes. Frist summative task demonstrating students’ understanding of the significance of a major Anglophone text in political thought [Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, or equivalent] Second comparative research essay on some aspect of the development of political thought in Britain, the United States, and Australia,  [topics may change from year to year]. Third group presentation with accompanied media output (such as podcast, blog entry, video or multi-media presentation) which assesses their ability to evaluate and synthesise knowledge from diverse sources and communicate complex ideas and findings with sophistication and confidence to a range of audiences.

Overview of assessments

Assessment Task 1: Summative Task Summative task...

Assessment Task 1: Summative Task

Summative task on the significance of a foundational text.

Weighting

20%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Assessment Task 2: Group Presentation A group pr...

Assessment Task 2: Group Presentation

A group presentation with accompanied media output (such as podcast, blog entry, video or multi-media presentation) which assesses the ability to evaluate and synthesise knowledge from diverse sources and communicate complex ideas and findings with sophistication and confidence to a range of audiences.

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO3, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Assessment Task 3: Comparative Research Essay Co...

Assessment Task 3: Comparative Research Essay

Comparative research essay on an aspect of the historical development of political thought in Britain, the USA and Australia.

Weighting

50%

Learning Outcomes LO2, LO3, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The close-reading of seminal texts in their original context provides students the opportunity to develop insight into the complexities and foundations of modern Anglophone political thought. Examining distinct thinkers and texts across time and place serves to untangle and disaggregate strands of thought often wrongly rolled together, highlighting often profound differences in philosophical and religious emphases. Such differences were often as fundamental as an understanding of human nature itself. 

A second feature of the learning and teaching strategy that provides students with a high-quality learning experience is the careful approach use of transnational history to encourage students to think carefully about both points of connection and distinctiveness between Britain, America and Australia.

Although focused on great books and thinkers, the unit also highlights some of the limits of that methodology for understanding the actual historical development and everyday experience of vast constituencies in each of the three countries.

The unit offers an opportunity to meet LO4 by focusing on Indigenous engagements with Western thought over time in the USA and Australia. Examples might include the Cherokee nation’s promulgation of a constitution modelled on that of the US, or the 1930s activism of Aboriginal man William Cooper in Australia. 

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Alfred Deakin, The Federal Story: The Inner History of the Federal Cause [available at http://adc.library.usyd.edu.au/view?docId=ozlit/xml-main-texts/fed0002.xml;chunk.id=LEVI;toc.depth=1;toc.id=LEVI;database=;collection=;brand=default 

John Fortescue, On the Laws and Governance of England, ed. Shelley Lockwood, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, (Cambridge: 2002). 

Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, ed. Arthur Stephen McGrade, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, (Cambridge: 2004). 

James VI and I, True Law of Free Monarchies ed.,Johann Somerville, (Cambridge: 1995). 

John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, (Cambridge: 2008). 

 Magna Carta https://magnacartaresearch.org/read/magna_carta_1215  

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, ed. Sylvana Tomaselli, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, (Cambridge: 2017). 

The Federalist Papers [available at https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/fed.asp ]  

Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum , https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html 

Thomas Jefferson, Political Writings, ed. Joyce Appleby, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought (Cambridge: 1999). 

William Cooper, Petition to King George V from the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Australia. 

https://www.naa.gov.au/students-and-teachers/student-research-portal/learning-resource-themes/first-australians/politics-and-advocacy/william-cooper-petition-cabinet-paper-1938 

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