4. Political Science
| Faculty Member
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Areas of Specialization
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Courses Taught
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| Chessa, Cecilia
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Comparative politics, Western & Eastern European politics, politics in a post-communist context, transitions to democracy
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Comparative Political Systems, U.S. Government: National Politics, Comparative Nationalism, Transitions to Democracy, European Agrarian Development in Comparative Perspective, Problems of Communism & Postcommunism, European Politics
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| Eisinger, Robert
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Public opinion, U.S. government, the presidency, political parties and interest groups, research methods, religion and politics, process of legislation
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U.S. Government: National Politics, Research Methods in Political Science, Public Opinion & Survey Research, Political Parties & Interest Groups, Congressional Politics, Presidential Politics, Religion & Politics
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| Johnson, Curtis
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Political theory, the history of political thought, American government, research methods
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American Political Thought & Ideology, Pillars of Western Political Thought: Plato to Machiavelli, Pillars of Western Political Thought: Hobbes to Foucault, Senior Thesis, Problems in Political Theory
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| Silverstein, Gordon
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American & comparative public law, constitutional interpretation & judicial review, civil liberties, the Supreme Court & judicial politics
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American Constitutional Law: Civil Liberty, American Constitutional Law: Judicial Review, Constitutional Law: American Foreign Policy |
The Current Program
Political Science is the formal study of authoritative power in societies. It is about who rules, how rulers acquire power, what they do with it, how they hold onto it, and how they lose it. Political Science is also about the ruled, their rights, obligations, and participation in the political society. In short, Political Science is concerned with how societies are governed, with the allocation of advantages and disadvantages in society, and with the management of conflict within and between societies.
The Political Science major consists of a minimum of 40 semester hours (10 courses), eight of which are in the Department, and one each in Economics (ECON 100) and International Affairs (IA 100). Five of the departmental courses are required of all majors, either POLS 101 (Introduction to Politics) or 103 (Introduction to U.S. Government), 102 (Comparative Politics), 201 (Research Methods), 310 or 311 (Political Theory), and 400 (Senior Thesis). The remaining three courses are electives, although one must be in the area of American government and institutions.
Another course in International Affairs at the 200 level or higher may be substituted for one course in Comparative Politics. The major culminates in the Senior Thesis, a year-long course structured to enable students to complete a research paper of approximately 25 pages. All courses except Senior Thesis are open to non-majors. The Department also offers a minor, consisting of five courses.
The Future
Normal staffing in the Department has been 4 FTE for many years, distributed according to the principal subdivisions within the discipline: political theory, American government and political institutions, public law and civil rights, and comparative political systems. (The fifth major subdiscipline, international relations, is handled at Lewis & Clark by a separate department.) The Department faces challenges in mounting an adequate level of its introductory courses and political theory due to an administrative assignment for the political theorist. With a recent retirement the Department also lacks a regular faculty person who is able to teach any course in Natural Resource Policy, an important core course in the Environmental Studies major. To remedy these deficiencies, the Commission recommends that the Political Science Department work with International Affairs to craft a joint position that would begin to address staffing issues in both departments (see Recommendation 6). Along the same lines, these two departments, along with Economics, may wish to discuss the creation of more formally structured curricular opportunities for students who wish to combine study between or among these disciplines. The Department's close connection with the Law School should also be sustained and developed, as appropriate, to enrich the undergraduate curriculum.
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