The growth of the political science major at Saint Mary's shows the increasing interest women are taking in government and politics. Increasing career opportunities have developed in government from the local to the international level and in related areas in the private sector.
The department offers a number of programs and concentrations of study in the major: American Politics, International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Public Law. These prepare the student for graduate study, teaching, or careers in government from the local to the international level, as well as in the allied fields and professions of law, paralegal services, journalism, and business.
The rationale for a political science program in a liberal education format is the obvious relation of the subject matter to women's very existence. No area of human activity has greater potential and power for directly shaping the lives and fortunes of individuals and societies than does politics. Thus, a truly liberal education must involve the study of politics as a major field of inquiry.
The aim of courses in political science is to provide the student with an understanding of the political environments within which communities operate. Citizens must be able to respond innovatively to their environment and to comprehend, organize and control their social and political world.
Political science is the systematic study of the complex forces at work in the political environments in which woman exists, and with the political roles and structures whose interactions order life in society.
The major at Saint Mary's College is intended to introduce the student to the major techniques of the field, and to provide a background in the broad flow of concepts and developments of both Western and non-Western political theories. The process of political change, as it affects modern society, is also examined to determine its impact on the practices, processes and current problems of national and international societies.
The department believes that the study of political and governmental life must be both conceptual and experiential. In classes students are taught political concepts and a wide variety of theories to enable them to analyze political behavior. Yet, the department recognizes that students must also learn about politics by contact with the political world. Through fieldwork requirements in many classes, the Washington Semester program, the program of internships, its offerings in the Rome and other off-campus programs, and its program of speakers, students are encouraged to explore directly the political universe and to apply concepts and theories to various aspects of that universe.
