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If you are a senior honors candidate in Government, or a junior still
trying to decide about the honors program, you should also be sure to
carefully read the Senior Honors Handbook, available online at www.gov.harvard.edu
and in the Undergraduate Program. While the Guide should prove an invaluable
reference that you find yourself consulting throughout the year, it
should not be a substitute for more direct forms of communication between
you and other members of the Department. The DUS holds office hours weekly, and there is a Concentration
Advisor (CA) on duty every day in the Undergraduate Program. Resident and
Non-Resident Tutors in your House are an important resource as well,
and we encourage you to meet and maintain contact with them. You should
also initiate conversations with your professors and teaching fellows
who can provide valuable information and guidance.
What is political science?
Of all the social sciences, political science has perhaps the least
definitive boundaries and the widest concerns. Almost anything that
is not politics can be made relevant to politics, and a political scientist
is almost never heard to say: "That is not a political question."
Consequently, political science covers many different subjects, uses
several diverse methods, and appeals to a
variety of students.
Students come to political science because they are interested in politics:
some of them with an eye to a political career, some with a scholarly
intent and many wishing to know more about this central, inescapable
human concern.
The Government Department aims to make all students aware and critical
of their first opinions (since human beings are at their most opinionated
in politics), to open up the possibilities of politics, to reveal permanent
political problems, to impart a discipline, and to supply a guide for
choice.
Some people think that political science comes out of the daily newspaper.
Since most citizens have their judgments influenced by other people
- friends, family, and peers - political science provides a background
for the composition of the daily newspaper.
To acquaint students with the different topics, issues, and approaches
in the study of political science (or Government in the case of Harvard),
the department requires each concentrator to take a general course in
each of the four subfields. It is recommended that anyone considering
the honors track choose two of these courses from the four introductory
courses (Government 10, 20, 30, and Historical Study A-12.) For students
in classes prior to the Class of 2004, at least two of these courses
must be chosen from the four introductory courses.
Understanding the four subfields:
The Government Department does not require that its concentrators become
experts in any particular field of political science, and students are
never asked to declare a particular area of interest. Instead, students
are given a basic introduction to all parts of the discipline and are
allowed to explore and define their particular interests through the
courses they choose to meet their requirements.
Students should seek a coherent program of study that shows both a
general familiarity with political science and an understanding of that
field or combination of fields that captures their interests. To this
end the department is divided into four fields:
Political Theory
Comparative Politics
American Politics
International Relations
What follows is a brief description of each subfield and the kinds
of courses you might find in that subfield.
Political Theory
The inquiries of political theory are fundamental. What is human nature?
What are the standards of right and wrong, just and unjust, legitimate
and illegitimate? How can we know the answers to such questions? Political
theory is also comprehensive. Rather than taking as its focus any one
particular historical context or political setting, it includes every
historical period in its purview.
Political theory studies political thought with an eye to what is relevant
for our time, and for every time. Political theory is also comprehensive
in another sense; it is self-critical. Studying political theory, which
is often called political philosophy, is more akin to participating
in an ongoing debate.
Government 10 is the department's introduction to political theory.
The course explores the conflicts among public and private sources of
authority, and the reasons for and against extensive private freedoms.
Do individuals have a right to accumulate unlimited amounts of property?
Do the principles of political justice apply to family life? Does liberal
politics rest on controversial religious claims? Readings include Socrates,
Plato, Locke, John Stuart Mill, Rousseau, and Marx.
Other courses in the field of political theory are more likely to be
investigations of several different political philosophers and their
various answers to important questions of the discipline.
Comparative Politics
The field of comparative politics is based upon the premise that only
through the careful understanding and comparison of many political systems
can one generate a set of propositions valid for all political systems,
or for any one.
Thus comparative politics encompasses not only the various subfields
of the area studies, but also the cross-national study of political
institutions, processes, and behavior. The comparative method easily
lends itself to the study of issues central to the concerns of all the
disciplines of political science, such as the sources of political stability
and instability, political prerequisites of economic backwardness and
development, and the origins of democracy and dictatorship.
Government 20, the introductory course in this field, exposes you to
the comparative method through a judicious mixture of several case studies
and theory. The purpose of the course is not only to acquaint the student
with the institutions and processes of a number of governments, but
also to cause students to think analytically about these systems, making
comparisons between them and with their own political experiences. Other
comparative courses might focus on the political systems of Western
Europe, Japan, the former Soviet Union, China, the Middle East,
Latin America, or Africa. Comparative courses also focus on broader
issues such as political and economic development, revolution, socialism,
public policy, democracy, and dictatorship.
American Politics
A quick glance through the course catalogue or the faculty summaries
suggests the breadth of this field. Americanists conduct theoretical,
institutional, and behavioral analyses of topics in both domestic politics
and foreign relations, using a variety of methodologies ranging from
literary analyses to mathematical modeling. Typically, Americanists
draw on several of these approaches when conducting their political
studies. Political theorists, for instance, examine the American "noble
experiment" in order to assess its "nobility" and its
contribution to the development of democratic government. But that assessment
requires institutional and behavioral studies of actual political processes.
These, in turn, require strong theoretical grounding if they are to
proceed beyond mere description. Institutional studies encompass far
more than analyses of the Presidency, Courts, and Congress, including
urban politics, interest groups, intergovernmental relations, and electoral
processes. Behavioral analyses focus on the sources, types, and levels
of political activity for both "elites" (leaders and activists)
and "non-elites" (the public). This research draws heavily
upon the other social sciences and humanities, as well as comparative
studies.
Government 30 is the introductory course in American Government, providing
students with a thorough grounding in the theory and operation of American
political institutions and political behavior. Other courses are more
specific in their focus, and presume an ability to criticize different
theories and models of American politics.
International Relations
International relations is the study of political, economic, and military
interactions across national boundaries. It is generally concerned with
the relations between sovereign states, although non-state actors have
come to play an increasing international role.
International relations includes the analysis of the foreign policy
of individual countries, international law, international organization,
nuclear weapons and arms control, and international economic relations.
International relations is distinct from comparative politics, although
the two are connected. Whereas comparative politics looks at patterns
of domestic politics and political development in various countries,
international relations examines relations between nations and their
foreign policies. This distinction often becomes blurred, however, as
domestic politics may influence foreign policy.
Historical Studies A-12, the introductory course in International Relations,
provides a broad overview of the field. The course addresses such questions
as why states go to war, whether America is in decline, the nature of
power, and the impact of economic and ecological interdependence. In
more advanced courses many students of international relations choose
to specialize either in international political economy or national
security affairs. While some specialization is inevitable, the Government
Department recommends that students attempt to acquire a basic understanding
of both subjects. |
