Faculty and students of the Department of Political Science engage in teaching and learning -- critically and systematically -- about government, politics, public affairs, and public policy in the United States and the world. Political Science courses embrace elements of the liberal arts, social sciences, and citizen education. We offer pre-professional education for a variety of careers in government, non-profit
organizations, and business, as well as for admission to graduate and law school. The Department provides four options for our majors: General Political Science; Global Politics; Prelegal Studies; and Public Administration. We also offer minors in General Political Science, Prelegal Studies, Public Administration, and Global Politics to students majoring in other subjects.
The Department of Political Science offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs to prepare students for professional careers in public service, law, international relations, and teaching, and for more effective civic participation.
Undergraduate students should be sure to check our "roadmaps" for completion of their bachelor's degree.
Top Row from left to right: John Lopez (UNESCO), Fernando Trejo (ATT), Alejandro Hurtado (HRC), Karla Garzon (CND), Keith Gallarzo (Graduate Assistant), and Prof. Acevedo. Bottom Row from left to right: Jamie McField (CSW), Jeronimo Garcia (ECOSOC), Andrew Morales (GA 1), Vanessa Reed (ICJ), Alexander Speak (GA 2), and Jazmine Jones (CSustD) (larger version of photo)
April 2012: Cal State L.A. Model United Nations delegation is recognized. Cal State LA’s Model United Nations represented the Kingdom of Belgium in New York, April 1-6, 2012. The Model United Nations team was awarded Honorable Mention. Only 28 universities were awarded in this category, out of 201 delegations ranging from 5 to 32 participants per country. Cal State LA students managed to engage and collaborate with incredibly large delegations of 192 states while only having two students per committee. Five out of the eleven committees CSULA represented were awarded Outstanding Position Paper. This is a high honor as less than .02% of delegates for each committee were honored with this award. The respective committees (and students) were recognized for their outstanding position papers: General Assembly, First – Andrew Morales; General Assembly, Third – collective effort of three students: Karla Garzon, Alejandro Hurtado and Vanessa Reed; Human Rights Council – Alejandro Hurtado; Economic and Social Council Plenary – Jeronimo Garcia; Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty – Fernando Trejo. More photos here.
March 2012: Cal State L.A. Political Science Association visits Washington, DC. Nine members of CSULA's Political Science Association, a club for political science majors, visited Washington D.C. over spring break 2012. They were accompanied by Prof. Taylor Dark and his son. The group of 11 met with Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CSULA class of ’65) for about 30 minutes, and had photo ops with Rep. Judy Chu and Senator Feinstein. They also were able to spend about five minutes inside the Supreme Court chambers during the health care arguments.
They toured the National Archives and saw the original parchment versions of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution, visited the various monuments (Jefferson, Lincoln, WWII, Vietnam, FDR, MLK, etc.), and watched the House and Senate chambers in action as they voted on various pieces of legislation. They also watched a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, and had a tour of the Library of Congress. A video of the trip is here.
September 2011: CSULA’s Outstanding Lecturer Award has been presented to Atsuko Sato, Political Science Lecturer. This year’s Outstanding Lecturer is Atsuko Sato (Monrovia resident), an internationally-recognized political analyst who has conducted field research in Japan every summer since 2007, with an emphasis on the tri-level (international, national, and local) policy analysis of global environmental problems. She is also conducting research on women’s political representation comparing Japan and South Korea. She began teaching at Cal State L.A. since 2000 in the Department of Political Science. She has taught a variety of courses based on her expertise in comparative politics/public policy, and her extensive training and experiences in research design and methods. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2002. More here.
What Do Political Scientists Do? Political Science is the study of politics, including political institutions, political behavior, and the making and implementation of public policy in settings varying from international to local. It is both a science and an art, in the sense that the art of governing is central to political science, but the discipline has taken on many of the methods and characteristics of a science in the last three decades.
Political scientists study:
American politics
Comparative politics (politics of other nations)
International relations
Public law (the judicial system and basic laws that govern how our government acts)
Political theory (the development of ideas and concepts about politics and government)
Public administration (how governments administer programs)
Public policy (how programs and policies are formulated, implemented and evaluated), and
World politics
In broad terms, political scientists focus on the social processes that determine who gets what, when, and how. Political scientists study elite and mass behavior, conventional and unconventional participation, as well as political economy at the global, regional, national, and subnational levels. Political scientists conduct research about political parties, interest groups, public opinion, voting, and judicial, legislative and administrative behavior. They also study the impact of public policy and the implications of political institutions and behavior.
Our Mission
The mission of the Department of Political Science is to combine teaching, research, and scholarship to educate students to:
Think critically and systematically about government and politics across local,
national, and global settings;
Prepare for successful careers and graduate study in law, public service, politics, international affairs, and numerous other fields;
Become active and informed citizens through an understanding of American politics
and society; and
To contribute to the discipline of political science through professional participation and
scholarly activities in academic and civic communities.
Scholarships The Department, through the University Student Financial Services Office, recommends the award each year of several Hector Elizalde and Ake Sandler Scholarships to outstanding undergraduate and graduate students. You apply for the scholarships each fall through the financial aid office. There are also the John Houk and William Lloyd Scholarships for graduate students in history or political science. Again, you apply through the financial aid office.
The University's Office of Graduate Studies and Research has forms, financial aid information, thesis policies, policies regarding travel support for students attending conferences, and other information specifically for prospective and current graduate students.
Employment Opportunities After graduation, political science majors are employed in almost every part of the public and private sectors. Some graduates go to law school or accept positions with government at the federal, state, or local level -- the traditional goals of political science majors -- but many go into business, the arts, public relations, teaching American and comparative politics in secondary schools, campaign consulting, urban and regional planning, or journalism. Others pursue any of the other careers common to liberal arts majors. All of them have one things in common: they like politics and find it fascinating. Some political science majors have gone on to quite lucrative careers, according to The New York Times.
Cal State LA graduates currently occupy important positions in the public sector at the federal, state, and local levels. Political Science majors from Cal State LA have recently gone to such law schools as UC Davis, Hastings, Loyola, Southwestern, Pepperdine, Chapman, University of Chicago, New York University, University of Santa Clara, and many others. Our students have been accepted for graduate school at UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, University of Hawaii, George Washington University, University of Southern California, Brown University, Claremont Graduate School, Florida State University, Emory University in Atlanta, Arizona State University, and the University of Texas at Austin.
After graduation, political science majors are employed in almost every part of the public and private sectors. Some graduates go to law school or accept positions with government at the federal, state, or local level -- the traditional goals of political science majors -- but many go into business, the arts, public relations, teaching American and comparative politics in secondary schools, campaign consulting, urban and regional planning, or journalism. Others pursue any of the other careers common to liberal arts majors. All of them have one things in common: they like politics and find it fascinating. Some political science majors have gone on to quite lucrative careers, according to 
