Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences
Degree Offered: Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science
Minor Offered: Political Science
The goals and priorities of Political Science reflect the liberal arts and sciences thrust. Each student seeking a bachelor’s degree in Political Science is expected to demonstrate a breadth and a depth of knowledge to be nationally competitive with others in the discipline. He or she is also expected to be superior in his or her abilities to synthesize and analyze material, conduct research, speak, advocate, write, and make decisions. The Political Science major at Truman State University should also be prepared to enter graduate school in political science, public administration, public policy, and business administration. In addition, the program should prepare the student for law school as well as other graduate and professional programs requiring a liberal arts undergraduate major. Generally speaking, Political Science graduates should be competent and confident of their abilities to compete nationally for positions of leadership, scholarship, and service.
The Political Science curriculum builds on the student’s liberal arts and science background. Within the major, students must take a core curriculum which provides them with basic discipline knowledge in each of the subfields of the discipline – American politics, international relations, comparative politics, and political theory. Students will take a survey course in each of the following four areas:
American National Government
Introduction to International Relations
Principles of Comparative Politics
Political Thought
In addition, each student will take a course in methodology (Political Science Methodology), a second level integrative course in American politics (Public Policy Making), and a senior-level seminar which integrates all of the courses in the discipline. Students seeking a BS degree will have one course added to the core curriculum—Principles of Public Administration. Since the BS degree is the more applied of the two Political Science degrees, these students need a basic knowledge of public administration.
Each student will be able to choose electives to supplement the above. The elective flexibility is designed to correspond to the varied career and professional school patterns of Political Science majors. For example, those interested in law school will be advised to take electives such as Judicial Process and Constitutional Law. Those who are interested in public administration will be advised to take courses such as Policy Analysis and Budgeting, and State and Local Government.
Research will be included in a number of courses in the curriculum, but specifically students will be required to write a statistical-based research paper in Political Science Methodology and a government documents-based research paper in Public Policy Making.
DEGREE REQUIREMENTS:
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