Department of Political Science

Professors: Geoffrey Vaughan (Chairperson), Bernard J. Dobski (Sabbatical 2025-26), Gregory Weiner (President); Associate Professor: Jeremy Geddert (Director of LEX minor); Assistant Professor: Brigid Flaherty Staab.

Mission Statement 

The major is designed to provide a comprehensive grounding in the fundamental principles and problems of a science whose relevance to contemporary life is immediate, yet whose tradition is venerable. Its concern is to help students become liberally educated men and women, rather than narrowly trained functionaries. Nevertheless, it prepares students in more than a general way for successful work in such fields as government service, international affairs, graduate study, journalism, law, teaching, publishing and business. The political science program consists of basic courses, open to all students, and advanced courses for all students except first-year students.

The basic Political Science courses are:

Selections from these basic courses may be counted toward Foundations Program requirements as well as for credit in a Political Science major or minor. The courses cover the major fields in Political Science, namely:

  • American National Government—the constitutional founding, institutions and parties, constitutional law, civil rights, and political thought in the U.S.
  • American Public Policy and Administration—political economy, urban politics, and democratic leadership.
  • Major Foreign States—the institutions, practices, and traditions of European, Latin American, Asian, and African States.
  • Political Philosophy—reflection on political life from Plato and Aristotle to Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and Nietzsche.
  • International Politics—relations of peace and war among states, American foreign policy, and diplomacy.

Students are urged to plan a program of study by selecting from among major and elective courses those appropriate to their personal interests and objectives.

Programs of Study

Courses

POL 110: POLITICAL ISSUES: THE QUEST FOR JUSTICE

Credits 3

This beginner’s course in political science provides an introduction to politics through a critical examination of a full range of political issues and of classic and contemporary texts that illuminate the ongoing human—and American— “quest for justice.” Classic works of political reflection, political literature, speeches and writings by statesmen, as well as contemporary American political debates on domestic and foreign policy will be analyzed to put the “issues” of politics in a broader and deeper perspective. 

POL 201: AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

Credits 3
This course is an introduction to the principles, institutions, and processes of American government. It focuses on our political principles, such as liberty, democracy, and equality, especially as reflected in our government institutions—Congress and the Executive and Judiciary branches—and in our extra-governmental institutions, such as political parties and interest groups. Consideration will also be given to major contemporary issues—free speech, racial and sexual equality, privacy—as expressions of debates over our principles.

POL 203: MODERN STATES

Credits 3

A comparative analysis of major types of ancient and modern political systems, with an emphasis on the Western European liberal democracies of Great Britain and France and on the 20th century experience of totalitarian despotism. 

POL 205: POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Credits 3
This course is an introduction to the nature and place of political philosophy in the political thought and life of Western Civilization. It examines the basic principles of political philosophy according to thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Machiavelli, and Marx.

POL 207: PEACE AND WAR

Credits 3

This course examines the role of war in human affairs, especially during the 20th century of “total war,” and at the outset of the 21st century. It considers why no enduring peace was achieved after the two world wars, the characteristics of international politics since the end of the Cold War, and the instruments for maintaining or restoring peace. Major interpretations of world politics are evaluated.

POL 312: THE AMERICAN FOUNDING

Credits 3
An investigation into the fundamental principles that informed the founding of the American political order and have subsequently oriented the American way of life. In seeking to understand those principles, we also examine the political and philosophical tradition that preceded the founding.

POL 315: THE JUDICIARY

Credits 3
This course explores the U.S. judiciary as an institutional force in American politics. Beginning with the foundations of the judiciary and continuing through its prominent position in the interpretation and sometimes formation of policy and law today, the course considers the place courts do and should occupy in the constitutional scheme, how effective they are in producing social change, why their role has changed and how other branches of government react to them. Students will consider major Supreme Court cases and political controversies that illustrate the effect of the federal judiciary on American government.

POL 316: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

Credits 3
The role of the Supreme Court in the American political system. Constitutional powers and limitations, with primary emphasis on judicial interpretations of the 1st and 14th amendments.

POL 318: CIVIL LIBERTIES

Credits 3
This course will take up in detail some important problems in the field of civil liberties. These problems will include the meaning and scope of the freedoms of speech and religion, including such issues as seditious speech, obscenity, school prayer, parochial school aid, and free exercise of religion.

POL 321: PUBLIC POLICY

Credits 3
This course examines selected major contemporary national problems of the U.S. and the federal policies designed to deal with them. Particular problems considered might include poverty, welfare, the economy, education, health, transportation, consumer protection, environmental protection, and energy. It considers the interaction between parts of the government and between government and interest groups, in formulating and executing public policy. It evaluates the thinking of those who have advocated and opposed the expansion of government responsibility for a large range of social action.

POL 322: POLITICAL ECONOMY

Credits 3
The purpose of this course is to clarify the tradition of political economy, to understand its foundations and historical permutations, and to study its relationship and pertinence to pressing public policy concerns of our time. The relationship between “political” and “economic” phenomena and analysis will be investigated. The course focuses on the origins of political economy in moral and political reflection rather than in abstract “scientific” considerations. Authors to be studied include Smith, Marx, Keynes, de Jouvenel, Hayek, and Berger.

POL 337: POLITICS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Credits 3
The Middle East stands at the crossroads of three continents and three major world religions. For millennia, it has been the source of both hope and conflict. This course will provide historical context on current issues such as religious sectarianism, colonialism, terrorism, ethnic rivalry, revolution, democratic development, and the political economy of oil. It will examine well-known Israeli-Palestinian and Saudi-Iranian conflicts, as well as lesser-known regional rivalries, such as the Russian-backed conflict in Syria. It will also explore intra-regional co-operation, from OPEC to Ba’athist Pan-Arabism and beyond.

POL 338: NATIONALISM AND FASCISM

Credits 3
This course has as its focus the nation, as a unique form of political organization, and nationalism as the unique movement which gives that form its primary expression. Distinctions will be drawn between moderate and patriotic forms of nationalism and that extreme form known as fascism. It will analyze the rise of major manifestations of nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as the 21st century challenges posed to the sovereignty of the nation by multinational corporations, intergovernmental organizations, terrorism, transnational bodies (the EU), and even individuals.

POL 345: POLITICAL MASS MURDER

Credits 3
Scholars who have studied the 20th century say that far more people were killed by their own governments during this time than by foreign enemies in wars. This course examines this phenomenon and compares selected major cases of political mass murder, including the Jewish holocaust, great state induced famines under Stalin and Mao, the killing fields of Cambodia, genocide in Rwanda and Sudan and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. It considers how outside powers, especially the U.S. and U.N, have responded, when they intervene and how effectively; when and why they refrain from acting; and whether moral principles or international law permit or oblige states to intervene.

POL 350: REPUBLICANISM ANCIENT AND MODERN

Credits 3
Is it possible for a political community to combine the rule of wisdom and virtue with popular consent? Can such a regime satisfy the need for both stability and energy? To understand why and how republics ancient and modern answered these questions, as well as why some republics succeeded and others failed, students will explore the theoretical and historical texts that illustrate the evolution of this political form. Rising above any particular party, policy, or platform, this course will distinguish the ancient effort to secure ordered liberty from its medieval and modern counterparts, throwing into specific relief the character of our own republican democracy and the challenges facing its success.

POL 351: CLASSICAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Credits 3
Study of the origin and principles of political philosophy in the works of Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle. Relevant works by Roman-era philosophers and historians (Cicero, Plutarch, Seneca, Sallust, Tacitus and Livy) may also be studied.

POL 352: EARLY MODERN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: MAKING NATURAL RIGHTS

Credits 3
This course will explore the major philosophers of the period, from Machiavelli to Rousseau. These figures made the modern world through their claim that each individual is best positioned to know what is right for that person. This is the origin of natural rights.

POL 353: IDEOLOGY AND REVOLUTION

Credits 3
A study of modern revolutions and their connection to “ideologies” which promise a fundamental transformation of political life. We examine the political history of the French and Soviet Revolutions to understand the originality of ideological revolution as distinct from traditional political revolutions which have had more limited aims. The course also compares totalitarian tyrannies with traditional forms of dictatorship. The anti-totalitarian Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe are also considered.

POL 356: MACHIAVELLI: TEACHER OF TYRANTS?

Credits 3
Is Machiavelli a teacher of tyrants, as so many today like to think? Or is he a benefactor of humanity, responsible for the freedoms that we have come to associate with the modern world? What if the answer to both questions is "yes"? To address these questions, we will engage Machiavelli's enormously influential Discourses on Titus Livius, a study that will shed light on his deeply complex presentation of princely politics and classical republicanism.

POL 358: TOCQUEVILLE’S DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

Credits 3
Alexis de Tocqueville has been called the greatest observer of democracy and the greatest observer of America. In 1831, Tocqueville spent nine months in America, seeking to understand why democracy had succeeded in America when it had failed in his native France. But Democracy in America is more than a vivid, insightful and often humorous chronicle of American culture, one that remains highly relevant today. It is a journey through the possibilities and dangers of democracy. Can we enjoy political liberty without being dragged down to a lowest common denominator? Tocqueville shows us how.

POL 371: FOREIGN POLICY AND DIPLOMACY

Credits 3
This course examines the making and character of the foreign policies of major states in the world today. This study is made against a background consideration of Thucydides’ interpretation of relations between states, the nature and development of diplomatic practice, and the impact of modern Western civilization on the contemporary world.

POL 372: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

Credits 3
A study of the policy of the United states regarding important areas and problems in the contemporary world, and the development of the American involvement in foreign affairs from the Roosevelt-Truman era of World War II to the present time. Legalist, moralist, realist and revisionist interpretations of American foreign policy are evaluated.

POL 376: TERRORISM AND THE MODERN WORLD

Credits 3
An introduction to modern-day terrorism and the challenges it poses to contemporary political life. This course distinguishes three ways in which terrorism manifests itself in the modern world, capturing the difference between those who see terror as an end in itself, those who use terror as an instrument to achieve political goals, and those who understand terrorism to serve “otherworldly”, or non-political, ends. Students will examine how these manifestations of modern terrorism vary from each other in their origins, historical development, the justifications they employ, the goals they pursue, and the tactics, targets and technologies that they use.

POL 377: THE POLITICS OF JUST WARS

Credits 3
Are “just wars” possible? This class examines reflections on just war thinking at the core of the political, military, religious and philosophic traditions within Western civilization, and how they apply to contemporary reflections on human rights and international law. It begins with military justifications from classical antiquity, moving to the origins of just war theorizing in the early Church, Judaism and Islam. It then weighs the most serious criticisms of the moral and political teachings of the classical and Christian world posed by the “Catholic New Left,” feminist political theory, Islamist terrorism, and the allure of a world without borders.

POL 381: SHAKESPEARE’S POLITICS

Credits 3
Perhaps transcending the distinction between philosopher and poet, Shakespeare has given the world dramatic portrayals of the most enduring human problems. This course focuses on one of those problems through a careful reading of some of Shakespeare’s British histories. To be more precise, it explores Shakespeare’s portrait of Britain’s development from a tribal kingship under the political and spiritual influence of “Rome” into a constitutional monarchy whose separation of church from state prepared the way for its modern republican character.

POL 409: RESEARCH SEMINAR: POPULISM, ANCIENT AND MODERN

Credits 3
Populism and democracy: what is the difference between populism and democracy? Where does republicanism come in? These questions and others will be explored through a variety of readings both contemporary and historical.