Bachelor of Arts [B.A] [Political Science] From Brown University

Political science is about questions like these. You can grapple with every one of them –and many more— in the classrooms of the Brown political science department. We study how people –nations, regions, cities, communities— live their common lives. How people solve (or duck) their common problems. How people govern themselves. How they think, talk, argue, fight, and vote. 

Traditionally, political science includes four subfields: (1) the study of politics in the United States (American politics); (2) the comparative study of different political systems and individual nations around the globe (comparative politics); (3) the study of relations among states and peoples (international relations); and (4) the philosophical study of political ideas (political theory). To provide a wider range of course offerings, the undergrad program combines the comparative politics subfield with the international relations subfield into a single subfield called international and comparative politics (ICP).

What particularly moves us at Brown are the big questions about political life – both at home and around the world. We engage these questions in a wide range of different political contexts, often in ways that cross between the traditional subfields. We also pay particular attention to how our analyses touch the real world of people and politics. You’ll find us involved all around the campus: At the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, the Watson Institute for International Studies, the Political Theory Project, Development Studies, Middle East Studies, the India Initiative, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Politics, among others.