The Department of Political Science offers courses for students interested in understanding government and political affairs at the international, national, state, and local level. The Department does not offer a graduate degree, but it does teach several courses that can be taken for graduate level credit.

The mission of the department is to maximize students' capacity to analyze, interpret, and evaluate political events and governmental processes. Students will learn what the discipline of political science already knows by studying the literature of major thinkers and scholars in the discipline. Students are introduced to the methods of social inquiry and to political problems, institutions, and processes, as well as to more general accounts of the impact of governmental actions on the world, of forces which shape those actions, and of the behavior of citizens and political elites. Students will learn to do political science themselves, to apply what they have learned. Questions concerning the normative foundations of the state, the legitimate scope of its activity, and the nature of justice are also addressed. Although the major provides a political education in depth for students who have a particular interest in things political, whatever their occupational and professional goals and whatever their talents and interests, it is especially good preparation for careers in teaching, government service, practical politics, and law.

Department of Political Science, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
2801 South University Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72204-1099
(501) 569-3331 Fax: (501) 569-8271
Dr. Neil Snortland, Department Chair

Last Updated: September 21, 2006.