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Department of Political Science
About the Department

Yale has been home to some of the world's foremost political scientists and the current faculty includes diverse practitioners of all the major methodologies of political science. The undergraduate program offers a range of courses including American government, comparative government, international relations, analytical political theory, and political philosophy. The graduate program trains professional political scientists for careers in research and teaching, government, international organizations, business, and other callings outside the academic world. Learn more at http://www.yale.edu/polisci/

Courses

PLSC 114 - Introduction to Political Philosophy
with Professor Steven B. Smith

Fall, 2006

This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. The course will focus on three broad themes that are central to understanding political life: the polis experience (Plato, Aristotle), the sovereign state (Machiavelli, Hobbes), constitutional government (Locke), and democracy (Rousseau, Tocqueville). We will focus especially on ...more >>