POSC 291 - Political Inquiry

Credits: (3)

Instructional Method: Three hours lecture.
Prerequisites: POSC major, POSC 110 or POSC 120, and either sophomore standing or permission of instructor.
Introduces students to the nature of political inquiry and political analysis. Students will critically examine historical, theoretical and methodological foundations of political science, and study various approaches to political inquiry. The emphasis is on understanding the ways in which scholars engage in rigorous political analysis. This course will explore the broad questions of political inquiry. What is political knowledge and why is it an important pursuit? How do we critically evaluate political analysis? What processes and theoretical approaches does the discipline of political science use to create and evaluate political knowledge.