Political Science

The political science major has four core learning goals:

• Building a discipline-specific knowledge base in the four major political science areas of American government, international relations, comparative politics and political theory
• Developing critical thinking, problem-solving, oral and written communication and research skills
• Preparing students to participate in a democratic community and globally interconnected society through life-long civic engagement
• Enhancing and expanding the student’s knowledge of a particular area(s) of political science or international relations through a second major, a minor, or an academic internship experience

Studying political science at Saint Michael’s gives you the foundation to understand how traditional governments operate, but we do more than that; we look beyond the formal institutions of government. In this major, you will explore and examine political parties, interest groups, corporations, the media, other nations, and the allocation of values and goods. And because politics is an inherently moral enterprise, one involving the pursuit of justice, we are concerned not only with how societies are governed, but also with how they ought to be governed. You’ll take classes such as International Relations, Western Political Thought, Comparative Politics, and American National Politics and expand your outlook about social phenomena through courses from other departments: Anthropology and Sociology, Economics, Geography, History, and Psychology.