What is Political Science and how does it fit into the liberal arts objective?
Politics has been defined as the authoritative allocation of values, and, less grandly, as who gets what, when and how. Political Science is a shorthand expression for the “systematic, theoretically oriented study of political phenomena.” But no simple definition can capture the broad range of subject matter that is included in political science. You can get some idea of the scope of the discipline from the main areas of specialization that make up the undergraduate curriculum: Political Theory, Comparative Government and Politics, International Relations, and American Government. Among the central concerns of political scientists are such topics as the exercise of power and influence; sources and resolution of conflicts; the relation of politics to the economy, culture, and other aspects of a society; the adoption and implementation of public policies; the development of political systems over time; and the normative judgments in which institutions, policies, and actions are evaluated
