The relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades was infamous in antiquity. Alcibiades’ notorious betrayal of the Athenians during the Peloponnesian war helped to bring about Athens’ downfall, and the charges of corrupting the young and impiety for which Socrates was ultimately executed point unambiguously to the misdeeds of his most renowned and treasonous pupil. In Plato’s Alcibiades, Socrates approaches Alcibiades for the first time, claiming to have the power to bring the youth’s grandest and most tyrannical political hopes to a culmination. What does the ensuing conversation tell us about the nature of Alcibiades’ ambition and about Socrates’ intentions in associating with him? In this essay, careful attention is paid to the structure and unity of this underappreciated dialogue in order to uncover Plato’s teaching about the roots of political ambition and the approach of Socratic philosophy. The resulting analysis reveals that Socrates is interested in recruiting politically ambitious students because of how powerfully youthful political ambition seeks the good by means of just, noble, and honorable activity, and that Socrates’ hope is to awaken Alcibiades to the ambiguous and unquestioned character of his belief that the greatest human good can be obtained in the world of politics. Having recognized this as central to the Socratic project, we can consider how and to what extent political ambition relies on some misapprehension about the relationship of the good and the advantageous to the just and the noble. / text

abstract: Objective. Both the civic education literature and the political ambition literature leave a gap in addressing the impact of political science coursework on political ambition. I address this gap by specifying the relationships between civic education, political knowledge, and political ambition. Methods. I employ paired t tests, chi-square tests, and Fisher's exact probability tests on an original dataset of 174 paired pre- and post-test survey responses. My survey improves upon prior works in the ambition literature (Fox and Lawless 2013) by virtue of its field experiment design. Results. My findings indicate that political science coursework has a positive impact on political knowledge, but only among women, and that political science coursework has a negative impact (among women) on one of the most valid measures of political ambition—how likely one is to run for office in the future. Conclusions/Implications. The results have negative normative implications for those trying to use political education as an instrument to reduce the gender gap (see Lawless and Fox 2010, Fox and Lawless 2013) in political ambition. This suggests the need to explore further options for increasing political ambition, particularly among women. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Political Science 2014

A pesquisa que dá lugar a presente tese de doutorado tem como seu objeto de estudo a carreira política dos vereadores paulistanos eleitos para seis legislaturas que compreendendo o período que vai da eleição de 1982 até a de 2004. A hipótese principal é de que a Câmara Municipal de São Paulo (CMSP), a maior do país em Magnitude (55), caracteriza-se como sendo um incentivo político para a vida política daqueles que em sua maioria procuram progredir em direção a outros cargos públicos, mas precisam do capital político necessário para tornar tal empreendimento viável. Tal incentivo, embora não seja uma exclusividade da câmara paulistana, encontra-se nas poucas edilidades de maior Magnitude. Paradoxalmente, esta mesma instituição, que tem o condão de recrutar os candidatos que irão assumir diferentes postos na administração pública brasileira, depara-se com enorme dificuldade para estimular uma carreira que se faça no próprio município, o qual lida com significativo orçamento público, elevado quadro de funcionários, conta com importantes empresas públicas e privadas, gera muitas riquezas para o próprio Brasil, atrai recursos humanos de diferentes quadrantes do Brasil e do mundo, entre tantos outros fatos de grande relevância. / The subject of the present research is the political career of the São Paulo councilors elected along six terms, from 1982 till elections of 2004. The main hypothesis is that as the largest City Council of Brazil, with magnitude of 55 seats, the municipal legislative branch is eventually an important incentive to those whom want to go ahead in the political career, as getting an incumbency of state legislative, federal representative or in the executive branch. Besides, São Paulo municipality is the richest of Brazil local governments, its public budget is around R$ 15 billions (2004), and its councilors are able to pass bills of several different important matters. Paradoxically, the City Council is not being a sufficient incentive to develop a permanent career, once the most councilors have only one term (although law affords they can run for office any time they want) or run for state and federal levels.

A pesquisa que dá lugar a presente tese de doutorado tem como seu objeto de estudo a carreira política dos vereadores paulistanos eleitos para seis legislaturas que compreendendo o período que vai da eleição de 1982 até a de 2004. A hipótese principal é de que a Câmara Municipal de São Paulo (CMSP), a maior do país em Magnitude (55), caracteriza-se como sendo um incentivo político para a vida política daqueles que em sua maioria procuram progredir em direção a outros cargos públicos, mas precisam do capital político necessário para tornar tal empreendimento viável. Tal incentivo, embora não seja uma exclusividade da câmara paulistana, encontra-se nas poucas edilidades de maior Magnitude. Paradoxalmente, esta mesma instituição, que tem o condão de recrutar os candidatos que irão assumir diferentes postos na administração pública brasileira, depara-se com enorme dificuldade para estimular uma carreira que se faça no próprio município, o qual lida com significativo orçamento público, elevado quadro de funcionários, conta com importantes empresas públicas e privadas, gera muitas riquezas para o próprio Brasil, atrai recursos humanos de diferentes quadrantes do Brasil e do mundo, entre tantos outros fatos de grande relevância. / The subject of the present research is the political career of the São Paulo councilors elected along six terms, from 1982 till elections of 2004. The main hypothesis is that as the largest City Council of Brazil, with magnitude of 55 seats, the municipal legislative branch is eventually an important incentive to those whom want to go ahead in the political career, as getting an incumbency of state legislative, federal representative or in the executive branch. Besides, São Paulo municipality is the richest of Brazil local governments, its public budget is around R$ 15 billions (2004), and its councilors are able to pass bills of several different important matters. Paradoxically, the City Council is not being a sufficient incentive to develop a permanent career, once the most councilors have only one term (although law affords they can run for office any time they want) or run for state and federal levels.

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