Political Science

[M. Arnott]

Even though I have a few years to go in high school, I really have to start planning for my future. I am only in gr. 10 currently, but I have had to pick gr. 11 courses already. I have been looking at post secondary education programs. I saw that there is are political science programs at various universities. I find politics facinating, so I am wondering more about this type of program.

[Cod Father]

Political Science is the study of Power and Authority. Political Science most often focuses on government, public policy, public administration, international relations, and has cross-over implications with economics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy. Most students who go on to do Law school do political science as a precursor.

You will learn loads of theories of governance, ideology, and thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_science
http://www.mun.ca/posc/welcome/
http://www.stfx.ca/academic/political-science/

[Flashman]

Cod Father hit the nail on the head. I'm in a double major History & Political Science program - the Political Science aspect is very interesting (History is too!).

[AMothfromWpg]

It also includes such flavours as local, provincial, Canadian studies, International relations including such delicious items as Defence & Strategic Studies, Peace and Conflict Resolution.
*All Subject to your local universities political alignment and/or course offerings.

[Chief Hoult]

Many universities will offer 4 or 5 'streams' of political science.

The Four typically are:

1. Canadian Politics
2. Comparative Politics
3. Political Theory
4. International Relations

the 'fifth' field can shift, depending on the school. Some schools offer a legal stream, others offer peace studies. Other schools, as mentioned above, may specialize in a certain area.

Also, depending on your program, you may be obligated to do some or all of the streams. For example, at Acadia, if you are doing a major in PoliSci, you must complete one year long course in 3/4 of the streams. If you are doing your Honours, you must do a year long course in all streams. Most students will end up specializing in a particular area (that is, having a concentration of their courses in one or two streams).

All-in-all, it's a major I love :)

CH

[MThornback]

I'm a Poli Sci (and History) major at York....and its a very interesting program...if you want to do something to ramp yourself up for it...and see if your interested...try picking up something by Aristotle or one of the other early political theorists....in my experience....they almost always touch on Aristotle at one point directly or otherwise...and being even kind of familiar with it before hand helps alot even if you need to re read it later :p

Hopefully that helps a little?

[J. Gleiberman]

Most students who go on to do Law school do political science as a precursor.

Actually that is not entirely correct, notwithstanding that fact that I did a dual specialist in History and Poli Sci at U OF T, law schools are now looking for diversity. In my class there were a lot of students who were engineers, commerce types, and we even had a couple of nurses. I would say Poli Sci people are a minority in most law school classes now.

[MThornback]

I agree, most Poli Sci people who are planning to go to law school aspire to be politicians or work in the political arena whether it be policy or something else...

Alot of my friends are adding Poli Sci courses to broaden their understanding of whats going on around them & become more involved in the political process....other more obvious concerns notwithstanding.

[Vie en Rose]

I was in Poli Sci last year, but realized that unless I was lucky enough to get a job at Parliament Hill/Queen's Park, my degree would pretty much amount to nothing. Then I realized it wasn't so much Politics I enjoyed, but Law! So after I finish my degree in History and English here at UofT, I'm going to college to get a diploma in Legal Administration!

[Juice]

Historians in denial ;) Haha, I kid.

JB

[Vie en Rose]

Historians in denial ;) Haha, I kid.

JB

Just a bit, just a bit. =P

[Chief Hoult]

PoliSci in general isn't just applicable to parliament hill, though. Or really, government. A lot of polisci students end up in the business world, private administration, etc.

At its core, PoliSci is not about what party is in power, or whether you're a conservative or a liberal. It is about the study of power, relationships between competing interests, and how to mediate those relationships effectively. That is useful in just about any field.

Politics exists in every interaction that you have on a daily basis, making it a useful thing to understand :)

CH

[TBird]

Even though I have a few years to go in high school, I really have to start planning for my future. I am only in gr. 10 currently, but I have had to pick gr. 11 courses already. I have been looking at post secondary education programs. I saw that there is are political science programs at various universities. I find politics facinating, so I am wondering more about this type of program.

Somewhat off topic but I would suggest when you're picking your HS crses do what interests you in the academics and you won't have to worry about the courses you have to get into a University if you are staying in BC. That's also true for going to Post-Sec in most Provinces in Canada. When I was graduating RMC actually had some of the most specific course requirements. It's worth looking at schools you might be interested in (although it sounds like you are doing that) to find out what they want. My school basically just wanted three provincial exams and two electives. Easy as pie.

[DMCorrigan]

I am currently a fourth year at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) in Political Science. I'd imagine you're probably looking at UBC as one of your future options, seeing as it (along with SFU) is the closest university to you.

What's more, it's also a fine program with world leaders in research working there. And truth be told, I've not met a poor instructor out of the lot of them yet.

UBC's Political Science program is fairly broad in scope. It allows many options and has sets of courses for several different focus areas. I would divide them as follows:

-legislative politics (including governmental systems, and a wide variety of courses in federalism)
-security studies (genocide studies, inter/intra-state conflicts, peacekeeping, etc.)
-political theory (political philosophy, basically, learning about the ideologies of the 'great political minds' of the past and present)
-international relations (although UBC has an IR degree program in itself, there are many IR courses available that focus primarily on ideology and institutions)
-comparative politics (comparing different political systems; unfortunately, most of the courses for comparative politics are 4th year and their number are very limited)

By far, the first four of the five are best developed at UBC, with a somewhat weak Comparative Politics program for undergraduates to study. I personally have chosen to focus on security studies along with a fair helping of legislative politics because intelligence agencies and their activities are what interest me the most about the political institutions of the day. The trick is to find what floats your boat and go with it.

That said, a fundamental knowledge of all these subjects are required; in one's first and second year, one must take Canadian Politics or Introduction to Politics (legislative), Political Philosophy (theory), Global Politics (IR/security) and Introduction to Comparative Politics (comp-poli/security). These provide a set of fundamental basics for all future classes in UBC's system to build upon. In your first two years, you will have a LOT of room for electives. However, two full years of English and a full year of first-year French are required, along with some elective science courses.

All in all, I'm happy with what I'm learning at UBC. The classes are not overly large in upper years, and the professors in the department, while researchers, are also interested in the development of their students. It's a decent place to learn about politics, imo.