Major Requirements

In total, majors must complete at least 11 courses (44 units). ECON 101 is strongly recommended. No course will count toward the Politics major that the student takes CR/NC.

Fundamental Courses

POLS 101	American Politics and Public Policy	4
POLS 300	Research Methods in Politics and Public Policy	4
POLS 495	Comprehensive Seminar	4

Subfields

Students must select one course in each of the following subfields: International Relations, Comparative Politics, American Politics, Political Theory, and Public Law.

For the subfield courses, DWA courses may count towards International Relations or Comparative Politics with department approval, and UEP courses may count for American Politics with department approval, but 

Political Theory and Public Law must be taken within the Politics Department.

International Relations

POLS 130	Introduction to International Relations	4
POLS 232	International Political Economy	4
POLS 233	International Security	4
POLS 235	United States Foreign Relations	4

Comparative Politics

POLS 120	Introduction to Comparative Politics	4
POLS 218	Russian Relations with the World	4
POLS 221	Latin American Politics	4
POLS 223	Dilemmas of Democracy	4
POLS 226	Contemporary Chinese Politics	4
POLS 227	East Asian Politics: China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan	4
POLS 320	Advanced Theories of Comparative Politics	4
POLS 321	Gender and Politics in the Developing World	4
POLS 325	Politics and Security in New Europe	4

Public Law

POLS 140	Law and Society	4
POLS 243	Juvenile Justice: Children in Conflict with the Law	4
POLS 244	Constitutional Law	4
POLS 247	Supreme Court Politics	2
POLS 340	Rebellious Lawyering	4
POLS 342	Human Rights in the United States	4
POLS 345	The Fourth Amendment	4
POLS 346	Civil Rights and Civil Liberties	4
POLS 347	Race and Law	4

American Politics

POLS 201	Work and Labor in America	4
POLS 202	Leadership in the Public and Private Sphere	4
POLS 204	Campaigns and Elections	4
POLS 205	Latino/a Politics	4
POLS 206	Race and American Politics	4
POLS 207	Los Angeles Politics	4
POLS 208	Movements for Social Justice	4
POLS 250	American Intelligence and National Security	4
POLS 262	California Politics	4
POLS 264	Disaster Politics: New Orleans in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina	2
POLS 301	Urban Policy and Politics	4
POLS 302	The American Presidency	4
POLS 303	Gender and American Politics	4
POLS 336	National Security in Practice: How Washington Works	4

Political Theory

POLS 150	Introduction to Political Theory	4
POLS 251	European Political Thought: From Plato to Machiavelli	4
POLS 252	European Political Thought: From Hobbes to Marx	4
POLS 253	European Political Thought: From Nietzsche to the Present	4
POLS 254	American Political Thought	4
POLS 256	Ethics and Politics	4
POLS 257	Conservative and Libertarian Political Philosophy	4
POLS 258	Theoretical Accounts of Racism	4
POLS 350	HobbesPlato, Machiavelli, and Hobbes	2
POLS 351	Tocqueville, Marx, and Nietzsche	4
POLS 352	Black Political Thought	4
POLS 353	Seminar: Advanced Study in Political Theory	2
POLS 354	Seminar on How Tyrannies Work	4

Additional Electives

Three required electives must be taken within the Politics Department.

WRITING REQUIREMENT

The Junior Writing Seminar is Politics 272 or any 300-level Politics, DWA, or UEP course (except Politics 300) that focuses on research and oral presentation skills.

COMPREHENSIVE REQUIREMENT

All politics majors must complete a Comprehensive Seminar in the spring of their senior year. Students will read and discuss political science journal articles that raise interesting questions for the field, combine theory with empirical data, and serve as models for their own senior thesis. Simultaneously, each student is asked to develop a senior thesis on a topic in one of the sub-fields of the major, demonstrating theoretical sophistication, an ability to find and evaluate sources of data, to develop and test hypotheses, and to argue a thesis. Papers are subjected to peer review and to a rigorous drafting process. All seniors are required to submit a proposal for their thesis by the end of September in their senior year. These proposals should state the research problem, demonstrate a significant command of the relevant bibliography, and include a tentative outline of major components in the study.

HONORS

We encourage highly motivated students to pursue Department Honors. They qualify for this program by achieving a 3.25 grade point average overall and a 3.5 grade point average in courses counting toward the Politics major. Only under extraordinary circumstances will the Politics faculty members approve a petition to have this 3.5 grade point average waived. Students interested in pursuing Honors should complete the courses required for the Politics major by the end of Fall Semester. They will be required to meet all of the obligations of the Comprehensive Seminar in the spring semester and complete a major research paper as a part of that experience.