The Political Science Department seeks the following objectives for its students:

• to understand the major forms of government in the world;
• to understand the political and economic relations among nations, including the causes and consequences of war;
• to know the most important works of political inquiry, and their connection to the political arrangements by which men and women have governed themselves, in the past and in the present;
• to know the varying methods by which modern social science seeks to understand the political world;
• to think analytically, write cogently, and speak clearly about political matters;
• to understand American government in a way that will allow students to become thoughtful and effective citizens.