For More Information

For more information about the graduate programs in politics, consult the FAQ section of the Politics Department website or the "politics" section in the Brandeis University Bulletin.

Overview

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The graduate program in politics offers two degree programs leading to the Master of Arts in political science and Doctor of Philosophy in political science.

The graduate program in political science is distinguished by methodological emphasis on analytical case study, including comparative case study rather than abstract mathematical modeling or statistical analysis. Substantive emphasis is on the politics of democratic and democratizing regimes.

The graduate curriculum emphasizes linkages among the patterns of American political development, contemporary American politics and the politics of other developed and developing democratic systems. The graduate curriculum also addresses the advanced industrial democracies of Western Europe, the democratizing states of Eastern Europe and the international political, economic and military-security relations among these states.

Ph.D. students receive training in each of the major subfields of political science, including qualitative research methods, through graduate-level "field seminars."

The graduate program features:

  • instruction in small seminars under close faculty supervision
  • supervised independent study within the program
  • supervised teaching assistantships
  • opportunities for study in the consortium of universities in the Boston area
  • the opportunity to incorporate work in related and relevant fields
Graduate student research and other scholarly activities are supported in part by additional funding from the Gordon Center for Public Policy and the Research Circle on Democracy and Cultural Pluralism.