• Department of Political Science

    The Department of Political Science is devoted to the study of politics and government, domestically and abroad. This includes the study of political institutions that exercise government authority, including legislatures, courts, and administrative agencies; political organizations through which individuals and groups seek to reshape the political landscape, including parties, interest groups, and social movements; public policies that reflect governmental efforts to regulate the actions of individuals and corporations, including civil rights, immigration, and environmental policy; and the interactions between and among nation-states and transnational organizations that shape patterns of trade and development, conflict and cooperation, war and peace.

    At the undergraduate level, political science majors will be exposed to political inquiry across a broad array of substantive topics, while also concentrating in one of the following areas: American Politics & History, Law & Politics, Political Economy, Political Participation & Mobilization, Global Governance & Foreign Policy, Political Violence & Conflict, Public Policy, Parties & Elections, Comparative Politics, Citizenship & Democracy, or Political Thought & Philosophy.

    At the graduate level, doctoral students receive broad training in quantitative and qualitative methods of social science research, while also concentrating in two of the following substantive fields: American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Political Theory, Public Administration & Policy, Law & Courts, or Security Studies.

  • Commitment to Inclusion

    The Maxwell School stands in support of all students demanding change in the face of racism and hate speech on our campus. We are committed to making our school and our university a more inclusive and just community for all.

    There is absolutely no place here for behavior or language that degrades any individual or group’s race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability or religious beliefs.

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  • Political Science News RSS Feed

    Elizabeth Cohen cited in NY Mag article on ICE, McKinsey & Company

    A passage from Elizabeth Cohen’s forthcoming book, Illegal: How America's Lawless Immigration Regime Threatens Us All, was cited in the New York Magazine article "ICE Didn’t Need McKinsey’s Help to Abuse Detainees." Cohen reveals that abusive approaches were also in place during both the Clinton and Obama administrations, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection obstacles.

     

    Gueorguiev article on China, dictatorship published in Washington Post

    Earlier this fall, Mike Bloomberg said that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “not a dictator,” and that the long-ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) "listens to the public." Dimitar Gueorguiev weighs in on Bloomberg's comments and explains why China is still a dictatorship in his article "Mike Bloomberg said China isn’t a dictatorship. Is he right?," published in the Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog.

     

    Reeher comments on the political impact of impeachment in the Hill

    "On paper, you would say it has to hurt him [Trump] and there are public opinion data that back that up," says Professor Grant Reeher. "But there are different ways this might be spun that we can’t predict right now. It could be that this mobilizes a set of voters in a way that helps Trump." Reeher was interviewed for the Hill article "The Memo: Will impeachment hurt Democrats or Trump?"