The purpose of the political science major at Nazareth University is to prepare students for active citizenship and for careers in politics, government, law, diplomacy, and civil society. Our primary educational goal is to provide our majors with a solid grounding in the principal subfields of the discipline, namely, Political Philosophy, U.S. Government, Comparative Politics and International Relations.
The goal of Political Philosophy is to define justice and design political systems which embody it. In this subfield we study normative theories focused on justice which make recommendations about how political power is and ought to be distributed. In our courses we study the work of major political philosophers from the classical Greek period to contemporary times. U.S. Government courses examine the history, structure and function of different branches and levels of government, of political parties, movements, and ideologies, and of social, economic and foreign policies.
Comparative Politics entails the study of foreign governments in their internal composition. Because we learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of governments by comparing them to one another, in these courses we engage in the analysis of European, Asian, Middle Eastern, African and Latin American states. In the International Relations subfield, scholars analyze the ways in which countries and international organizations deal with each other. Courses examine theories of international relations, U.S. foreign policy, international law and contemporary problems in international politics across the globe.
Students seeking initial certification at the early childhood and childhood levels may double major in Political Science and Inclusive Early Childhood/Childhood Education. All Inclusive Early Childhood & Childhood Education students are required to have a cumulative GPA of 2.7 or higher in order to advance into Junior-level education coursework.