Here are all the courses that the Department of Political Science offers on a regular basis, which is to say, courses which are taught at least once every two years, and many once a year. In fact, in the case of some high demand courses such as Political Science 210 (American Politics), several sections every quarter are offered. The courses listed below are arranged not in the usual numerical order, but according to "sub-field" of the discipline of Political Science. For, information on the courses needed for a major or minor in political science, please consult the online version of the CWU catalog corresponding to your entry year at http://www.cwu.edu/~catalogs.

For a schedule of current offerings, visit http://www.cwu.edu/~regi/course_information.html#. Be sure to click on "Classes" and scroll down to POSC

Here are the required courses for a BA in Political Science:

• POSC 101, Introduction to Politics and Political Science
• POSC 210, American Politics
• POSC 260, Comparative Politics
• POSC 270, International Politics
• POSC 489, Senior Assessment

Choose one of the following four courses:

• POSC 481, Early Political Thought
• POSC 482, Early Modern Political Thought
• POSC 483, Recent Political Recent Thought
• POSC 485, American Political Thought and Culture

Electives can be selected from the following list of courses which have traditionally been offered:

There are some additional courses which don't fit neatly into the above classification scheme: POSC 311, Women and Politics, is one such course. We also have "Special Topics" courses, numbered 298, 398, and 498, which are "temporary" courses, so to speak, offered by instructors who wish to pursue some particular subject. POSC 490, Cooperative Education, is reserved for students who are doing off-campus internships related to politics. POSC 499 is for occasional seminars. If one wishes to minor rather than major in Political Science, Department requirements may be stated very simply: Take POSC 101, 210, 260, and 270 and an additional ten credits in any other political science courses, making a total of thirty credits. Two of our courses, 260 and 270, are exactly the same as the previous 360 and 370. We've simply changed the number. On the other hand, POSC 489 is a relatively new course which is required of all political science majors in their final quarter here or in their next to last quarter here. It's offered every quarter.

Learning Goals:

Various Authorities, greater in power than this Department, have required that each degree-granting program publicly list what are called "learning goals". These are the skills and types of knowledge specific to a particular program that a student graduating with a degree in that program must demonstrate that she or he knows before receiving a degree in that program of study. Below, then, are the Learning Goals which must be met by students graduating with a degree in Political Science.

Graduating political science majors will be expected to:

• Be thoroughly familiar with the structure and organization of the discipline of Political Science. Specifically, the student will understand the differences in subject matter between the four traditional subfields of American Politics, Comparative Politics (the study of other political systems), International Politics, and Political Thought and Philosophy.
• Demonstrate an understanding of basic concepts and facts in each of the above four subfields. Besides the evaluative procedures and tasks in the courses themselves, students will demonstrate this knowledge in the end-of-major capstone course.
• Acquire the analytical skills and tools useful to and associated with the discipline of Political Science.
• Demonstrate a familiarity with scholarly resources available to CWU students (such as the library and internet resources) and demonstrate how to utilize these resources in carrying out a research project - a project which is also part of the capstone course.