Course Offerings

The Department of Political Science offers three levels of courses that satisfy requirements for our major and minor, along with other majors and minors, and the old SAGES and new UGER general education requirements. They are open to all undergraduate students and, for the most part, do not have prerequisites.

Click here to view our course descriptions

100-level Courses

We have three 100-level introductory courses, taught by department faculty and normally capped at 35 students. All three are required for the Political Science major. Yet for majors and non-majors alike, they are terrific introductions to our discipline’s main subfields, and we encourage undergraduates to take these courses even if they did well in high school AP classes and received CWRU credit.

Introductory Courses

  • POSC 109: The U.S. Political System
  • POSC 160: Introduction to Comparative Politics
  • POSC 172: Introduction to International Relations

200-level Seminars

We have a growing number of 200-level seminars open to all undergraduates. These writing-intensive courses are capped at 18 students and fulfill the UGER Communication Intensive requirement, as well as the old SAGES University Seminar requirement. Political Science majors and minors may take up to two 200-level seminars.

Communication Intensive Courses

  • POSC 201: Politics: Participation and Power
  • POSC 210: Political Losers
  • POSC 215: The Arctic in the System of States, Science and Markets
  • POSC 219: Politics and Money
  • POSC 221: Social Media’s Role in Elections
  • POSC 229: Writers and Government
  • POSC 231: Conflict Resolution: Essential Communication Skills

300-level Seminars

We offer a large number of 300-level seminars that are open to all undergraduate students and are capped at 20 or 25 students. Many of these courses fulfill UGER Perspectives and/or Disciplinary Communication and old SAGES Department Seminar requirements. Many of these courses offer graduate sections available to students enrolled in MA programs.

There are two special 300-level courses: POSC 395 and 396. POSC 395 allows for a student to do an independent study project with a supervising faculty member and POSC 396 is our mandatory Capstone Project that fulfills both the UGER and old SAGES requirements. Students may count only one section of POSC 395 towards the major in addition to POSC 396.

Please note that Stellic is frequently inaccurate about course offerings in future semesters. SIS and our website are accurate one semester in advance.

Disciplinary Communications Courses

  • POSC 341: U.S. Political Parties and Elections
  • POSC 345: The Politics of Guns in the U.S.
  • POSC 347: Economic Inequality and Power in the U.S.
  • POSC 349: Political Science Research Methods
  • POSC 370M: Theories of Political Economy
  • POSC 373: Politics of the European Union
  • POSC 375: The International Politics of Technology
  • POSC 377: Politics of Russia
  • POSC 378: International Relations Theory
  • POSC 380A: State and War in Africa and the Middle East
  • POSC 385: Doing Government Work: Public Administration in the U.S.
  • POSC 387: Environmental Justice