Political Science Overviews

Why Major in Political Science? Michael Munger, current Director of Undergraduate Studies, gives a broad and substantial set of reasons for why political science is a great undergraduate major.

Taught by Professor of Political Science, Joseph Grieco, this course addresses an important question about world affairs: are governments and their respective societies making progress in building a more peaceful and just global order? To pursue this question the course will have three main sections. The first will demonstrate that the question of international progress is driving important contemporary debates about foreign policy and world affairs, and has long commanded the attention of writers in the fields of politics, history, sociology, and philosophy. The second part of the course will assess the presence or not of international progress in three key areas of world politics: peace and war, democracy and human rights, and economic development. The final section of the course will examine several possible causal mechanisms that may be contributing to or impeding international progress: global culture and reason/empathy, industry and technology, democracy, global capitalism, and U.S. hegemonic leadership. During the semester we will devote several class meetings to writing workshops centered on the preparation of successive sections of the research paper, discussed in the next section. Students will constitute small working groups, typically four students to a group. Prior to each workshop, students will send the relevant section to the members of their working group electronically. At the workshops, students will provide feedback to one another and will receive suggestions from the TAs and the instructor. This course will be of particular interest to students who wish to pursue an internationally oriented career in government, business, with an NGO, or in the media. The Duke Signature Courses unite a diverse range of undergraduates in the exploration of compelling challenges or “big questions” of our time. These courses--taught by our most renowned scholar-teachers--highlight Duke's particular strengths in promoting active interchange among faculty and students in the humanities, natural and social sciences, arts, and engineering. Signature courses are designed to integrate curricular and co-curricular engagements, and to foster the skills that prepare you for life-long learning. Drawing explicit connections between the past and present, these courses provide you with an informed analytical context for understanding significant social, cultural, political, or scientific issues, events, or historical moments.

POLSCI 101 at Duke University provides a broad introduction to politics from the local to the global level. We will explore empirical analysis and political philosophy to understand the relationship between politics, law, and economics--and other fundamental and timely questions in political life, such as: What is the nature of power and how is it related to authority, legitimacy, and ethics? What is a state? And are we experiencing the rise of serious competitors to the modern state as the dominant form of political organization? We will also examine the role of money, ethnicity, and ideology in American politics; compare how legislative institutions translate public preferences into policy across democratic and non-democratic countries; and study major issues in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. POLSCI 101 is taught by faculty in the Department of Political Science at Duke University.