The Political Science BS program gives students a broad education in politics and government institutions through courses that sharpen analytical thinking skills, expose students to animated debates about theory and methodology, which have been an integral part of the discipline over the past half century; and challenge students to critically evaluate the rights and responsibilities of citizens living in political societies.
Students pursuing the political science BA will have opportunities to take introductory, foundational, and advanced upper-division courses in the discipline’s four distinct subfields:
· American Politics, which focuses on the American political system, including institutions (e.g., Legislative, Executive, Courts, and Bureaucracy) and mass political behavior (e.g., elections, public opinion, and the media).
· Comparative Politics, which focuses on foreign governments outside of the United States, with an eye to comparing how different political systems affect political outcomes. Topics include the study of political and economic institutions, as well as mass political behavior across different contexts.
· International Relations, which explores how nation states interact in the global system. Topics include the study of international conflict and the role that international institutions play in shaping nation states’ behavior.
· Political Theory, which theoretically evaluates how individuals behave and ought to behave in a collective polity. Political theorists bring precision to fundamental–yet contested–key political concepts, such as freedom, equality, democracy and justice.
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