Political Science is the study of government, public policies and political behavior. Political Science uses both humanistic and scientific perspectives and skills to examine all countries and regions of the world. The Political Science Program is based on the educational objectives emphasized in the California State University Channel Island’s mission. All students graduating with a degree in Political Science will have taken course work and developed competencies in all four key areas of the university mission: interdisciplinary and integrative learning; multicultural perspectives; international perspectives and civic engagement through service learning or experiential learning. Unlike traditional political science majors, all students will be required to complete a course on racial politics in the United States. This is not only consistent with our mission, but it reflects the ethnic and racial reality of California in the 21st century. The curriculum will have a strong international component as well, as all graduates will take international politics, and comparative government, and many of the elective courses emphasize international perspectives. Finally, experiential and service learning are woven throughout the curriculum, and the required capstone course is a community based project designed to synthesize learning through analysis of an important policy issue.

Careers

The Political Science Program prepares students for careers in federal, state, and, local governments, law, business, international organizations, nonprofit associations and organizations, campaign management and polling, journalism, education, electoral politics, research and advocacy. In addition, the major in Political Science prepares students for graduate and professional study in the field of Political Science as well as International Relations and Public Administration.

Program Learning Outcomes

Students completing the requirements for a B.A. degree in Political Science will be able to:

• Write clearly and with purpose on issues of international and domestic politics and public policy;
• Participate as a civically engaged member of society;
• Analyze political and policy problems and formulate policy options;
• Use electronic and traditional library resources to research key local, state, national and international policy issues and present results;
• Demonstrate competency with basic tools underlying modern social science research including competency in statistics and qualitative analysis;
• Demonstrate critical thinking, including the ability to form an argument, detect fallacies, and martial evidence, about key issues of public policy and politics;
• Discuss the major theories and concepts of political science and its subfields; and
• Deliver thoughtful and well articulated presentations of research findings

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