DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
5229 Social Science
Plaza B; (949) 824-5361
Mark P. Petracca, Department Chair
The Department of Political Science offers a wide variety of courses at the introductory, lower-division, and more specialized upper-division levels. Courses in both micropolitics (individual and group politics) and macropolitics (politics at the state and international levels) are offered. The curriculum is organized into five areas: American politics and society, political theory, international relations, comparative politics, and public law. The Department also offers an Honors Program in Political Science for juniors and seniors, culminating in a senior honors thesis.
The Department is composed of a strong and diverse faculty especially interested in analyzing central questions of political science related to such topics as policy-making, political structures, participation, conflict, change and development, power and authority, and interstate relations. The faculty has particular strength in interdisciplinary approaches, in comparative analysis, and in the application of quantitative data to political science issues.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE
University Requirements: See pages 59-64.
School Requirements: See page 442.
Departmental Requirements for the Major in Political Science
School requirements must be met and must include 11 courses (44 units) as specified below:
I. Five lower-division (one or two digit) Political Science courses selected as indicated either in option A or option B. Students are encouraged to take most of these courses during their first two years as a Political Science major at UCI.
Option A: Political Science 6A, 6B, and 6C (12 units), plus the lower-division introductory course (4 units) for the module selected under II below, plus any one additional lower-division course in Political Science (4 units).
Option B: Three lower-division courses (12 units) selected from Political Science 21A, 31A, 41A, 51A, and 61A, plus any two additional lower-division Political Science courses (8 units). One of these five courses must be the lower-division introductory course for the module selected under II below.
II. Six upper-division courses in Political Science (24 units) chosen from among the Political Science modules numbered 120-179. Three of these courses must be from one module.
Honors Program in Political Science
The Honors Program in Political Science is open to all junior and senior Political Science majors who meet the minimum academic qualifications (3.5 GPA in Political Science courses and 3.2 GPA overall). In addition to satisfying the requirements for the major in Political Science, Honors Program participants must complete additional course work as specified below.
During the year prior to the year in which the thesis will be written, a prospective Honors Program student should identify a Department of Political Science faculty member who is willing to supervise the student's thesis. Students are ordinarily expected to take an upper-division Political Science course or a Political Science 199 Independent Study course with the advisor prior to their senior year. Students must also prepare a written proposal for their senior thesis. Proposals are approved by the faculty advisor and filed with the Department and Undergraduate Counseling offices.
During their senior year, students must enroll in the Honors Thesis Workshop (Political Science H182A, offered during the fall quarter), and three quarters of the Senior Thesis course (Political Science 190). Students write their senior thesis, which is designed and completed under their faculty advisor's supervision. Upon successful completion of their senior thesis, students graduate with Honors in Political Science and their transcripts note that they were in the Honors Program in Political Science.
Public Affairs Internship Program
The Public Affairs Internship Program, sponsored by the Department of Political Science, is designed to provide Political Science and other students with professional experience in the fields of government, nongovernmental organizations, the media, law, business, consulting, and others. The program is open to all sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
This program provides a selection of internship opportunities open to students by intern-sponsors, as available. Students also may create their own internship opportunities, consistent with Departmental guidelines. Students are required to enroll in Political Science 183 during the quarter of their internship. This course, supervised by the internship coordinator and participating members of the faculty, is offered Pass/Not Pass and cannot be used to satisfy upper-division Political Science requirements.
Information and applications are available in the Department office.
Political Science Minor Requirements
Requirements for the minor in Political Science are met by taking seven political science courses (28 units) as specified below:
A. One course selected from Political Science 6A, 6B, or 6C.
B. Three upper-division political science courses, chosen from one Political Science module.
C. Three additional courses in political science, chosen from those numbered Political Science 6A, 6B, 6C, 20-79, or 120-179.
Participating Faculty
Matthew N. Beckmann: American political institutions, the Presidency, Congress, interest groups, and survey research methodology
Alison Brysk: International relations, Latin American politics, human rights
Russell J. Dalton: West European politics, mass political behavior
James Danziger: Urban political systems, public policy analysis, and technology and politics
Louis DeSipio: American politics, ethnic politics, Latino politics and public policy
David Easton: Political systems, political structures
Martha Feldman: Organization theory, organizational change, decision making, public management, qualitative research methods
Lisa García Bedolla: Chicana-Latina studies, American politics, race and ethnicity
Bernard Grofman: Mathematical models of collective decision making, formal democratic theory, sequential decision making, and politics of small groups
Helen Ingram: Public policy, U.S.-Mexico relations, American politics
Marek Kaminski: Institutions of democracy, game theory, methodology, and statistics
Claire Jean Kim: Racial and ethnic politics, protest and social movements, contemporary political theory
Cecelia Lynch: International relations, peace politics, and international law
Richard Matthew: International politics, environmental policy
Anthony McGann: Formal modeling of political systems, comparative political economy, West European politics
David S. Meyer: Social movements, public policy, peace and war, social justice
Kristen R. Monroe: Political economy, rationality, American politics, methodology
Patrick Morgan: National security policy, American foreign policy, international politics, U.S.-European relations, Soviet politics
Jack W. Peltason: Constitutional law and civil liberties
Mark P. Petracca: American political institutions (presidency and congress), interest organizations, public policy, power and political discourse
Shawn Rosenberg: Political psychology, cognitive psychology, public opinion
Kamal Sadiq: Comparative politics, immigration in developing countries, India and South East Asia, Asian security
Wayne Sandholtz: International political economy, European community
William Schonfeld: Authority, democratic theory, and comparative politics
Caesar D. Sereseres: U.S. foreign policy, U.S.-Latin American relations, Mexican-American politics
Etel Solingen: International relations theory, international political economy, and world politics
Dorothy J. Solinger: Chinese domestic politics and political economy, comparative politics, East Asian politics, and democratization
Rein Taagepera: Mathematical models and quantitative analysis of elections, inequality, arms races, growth-decline phenomena and Baltic area studies
Katherine Tate: African American and minority politics, voting behavior, public opinion and American elections, state and urban politics
Rodolfo D. Torres: Urban politics, the State and class structures, studies in racism and inequality, poverty and social policy
Yuliya V. Tverdova: Comparative politics, methodology
Carole J. Uhlaner: Comparative political participation, formal models of political behavior
Robert Uriu: International relations, international political economy, Japanese political economy
Martin Wattenberg: American political behavior and institutions
The Department of Political Science offers a Ph.D. degree program in Political Science. The Department has attained a reputation for producing the very best innovative and interdisciplinary scholarship. Faculty are engaged in the study of such key questions as the politics of advanced and democratizing societies, international cooperation and peace, the politics of racial and ethnic minority groups, and the origins of altruism and morality and their impact on world politics.
Graduate students can pursue concentrations in public choice and political psychology and specializations in democracy studies, international relations, and race and minority politics. The Ph.D. program offers big payoffs to graduate students, in fact, because of the extended range of inquiry an interdisciplinary program affords.
Political Science faculty members are regular participants in and help direct several research units on campus. The Center for the Study of Democracy, an Organized Research Unit at UCI, sponsors research and education aimed at improving the democratic process in the United States and expanding democracy around the world. The UCI Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality explores questions concerning the origins and causes of morality. The Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies (CGPACS), housed in the School of Social Sciences, is a multidisciplinary program dedicated to promoting scholarly, student, and public understanding of international conflict and cooperation. The Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, also located in the School of Social Sciences, offers opportunities for participation in ongoing faculty research, notably with faculty members engaged in fields of public choice and political economy.
ADMISSIONS
The deadline for application for fall quarter admission is January 15. Students are admitted for winter or spring quarters only under exceptional circumstances. Additional information is available in the general section on admission to Social Science graduate programs. Please note especially the required examinations.
REQUIREMENTS
First-year students must take a core program of graduate seminars, focusing on major substantive areas as well as research methods. Students are required to complete one year of statistics, preferably before enrollment but no later than their first year. Competence in a foreign language is required. Students may substitute mastery of an advanced research skill in place of a foreign language. To acquire such a skill (which could involve course work in such disciplines as economics, mathematics and computer science, or statistics), students could take courses in econometrics, advanced multivariate regression, or computer science. Attendance in a colloquium series also is required for all graduate students during their first two years in residence.
Reviews and Examinations
Students ordinarily are expected to maintain a grade point average of 3.5 or better. At the completion of the first year, a review of performance in the graduate program will be conducted for each student by the Political Science faculty.
A set of three papers,
normally completed by the third year of study, tests the student's competence in
a set of major domains for intellectual inquiry. These domains are determined by
the student and the Political Science Graduate Director. Upon successful completion
of these papers and demonstration of competence in mathematics and a foreign language
or an advanced research skill, a candidacy committee is appointed to oversee the
qualifying examination and the formal advancement to candidacy. Students are expected
to advance to candidacy by the ninth quarter of graduate study. After the student advances to candidacy,
the doctoral committee, usually composed of three members of the candidacy committee,
reviews a dissertation prospectus and supervises work toward completion of the dissertation.
Within six months of the oral qualifying examination (the formal advancement to
candidacy), students are expected to meet with their doctoral committee, in order
to discuss with the members a dissertation prospectus.
The normal time for completion of the Ph.D. is six years, and the maximum time permitted is seven years.
Concentration in Public Choice
Public Choice is an interdisciplinary field, at the intersection of political science and economics, which draws on sophisticated quantitative tools to model the functioning of political institutions. Public Choice examines such areas as theories of voter and party choice; the theory of constitutions; the theory of committees and elections; models of regulation; problems of public goods and externalities; rent-seeking models; and issues in social choice, social welfare, and demand revelation.
This concentration is administered by an interdisciplinary committee of faculty from the Departments of Political Science and Economics. Students who elect this concentration are admitted under the normal procedures for the program in Political Science and must fulfill all the requirements for the Political Science degree, with the following modifications:
(1) Students must complete the three-quarter core sequence in Public Choice, which is taught jointly by Political Science and Economics faculty. This sequence is usually taken in the student's second or third year.
(2) Students must complete three additional graduate-level, four-unit courses in related fields with the consent of their graduate advisor, chosen from a set of courses designated by the interdisciplinary committee. The courses chosen are to be tailored to the individual interests and academic background of the student and usually will include at least two Economics courses (such as Econometrics, Game Theory, and Law and Economics) and one Political Science course (such as those on electoral systems, party systems, constitutions, courts).
(3) Students are expected to write their dissertation on a topic related to Public Choice. Usually the dissertation advisor will be a Political Science member of the interdisciplinary committee.
Concentration in Political Psychology
The last two decades have seen an explosion of interest in the field of political psychology. UCI's graduate concentration is part of this development, but enjoys a rather distinctive place. The concentration offers students a broader education than is typically available at other institutions. In this vein, the program aims to provide: (1) a strong background in both political science and psychology; (2) an emphasis on theoretical and conceptual issues as well as empirical and methodological ones; and (3) a familiarity with research being done outside of the United States as well as within it. In this context, a number of research concerns central to the participating faculty are considered, including: social change and democratization, ideology, altruism, social and political identity, public policy, community building, mass media effects, voting behavior, and international integration. Believing in academic community, the concentration's sponsoring faculty offer a host of activities including colloquia, reading groups, and joint research opportunities to facilitate contact between students and faculty and among the students themselves.
Requirements. The purpose of the concentration is to provide a course of study which supplements the Ph.D. degree in Political Science. Therefore, students are required to complete all degree requirements for the Ph.D. stipulated by the Department of Political Science. As part of or in addition to these requirements, students must take five courses: Introduction to Political Psychology I and II (Political Science 285A and 285B), and three graduate psychology courses which provide a strong background in psychology (selected from an approved group which includes courses such as Personality in Development, Society and Pathology, Personality Assessment, Proseminar in Cognitive Science, and Human Information Processing). These courses are taught in the Department of Cognitive Science in the School of Social Sciences and the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior in the School of Social Ecology.
