Why “Political Studies” rather than “Political Science”?
When the department of Political Studies was first created at TWU it was decided that Political Studies was a more inclusive name than Political Science. The term Political Science used commonly throughout the world reflects the development of the study of politics as a social science, particularly in the light of the behavioural approaches taken beginning in the 1960s and 1970s. At TWU the department enjoys close association with the humanities as well, in particular in the field of political theory and philosophy. For this reason, it was thought that the term Political Studies embraced both the social science and humanities aspects of political analysis. Students at TWU are required to take courses that expose them to both qualitative and quantitative research methods which are the hallmarks of the two ways of studying politics. In general, then, a Political Studies degree is no different from a Political Science degree. We tend to use the two terms interchangeably at TWU.
