What is Political Science?

Training Canada's Next Generation of Political Leaders and Officials

Since we see that every city is some sort of partnership, and that every partnership is constituted for the sake of some good (for everyone does everything for the sake of what is held to be good), it is clear that all partnerships aim at some good, and that the partnership that is most authoritative of all and embraces all the others does so particularly, and aims at the most authoritative good of all. This is what is called the city or the political partnership.
- Aristotle, The Politics

Politics affects everyone. It is through politics that the future of the world we inhabit is shaped. Aristotle called politics the master science because he recognized how wide and pervasive politics is. The interests of political scientists are diverse. They may include conflict at city hall or in the courtroom; the arguments and processes through which our national existence might be preserved; the collapse of Communism and the struggle to establish new political arrangements in its place; the role of pressure groups in shaping public policy; electoral reform; the control of civil servants; the rule of law among nations; the place of moral principle and national interest in the conduct of foreign policy; or how far any citizen might have the right or duty to disobey an unjust law.

Political Science offers us the opportunity to become freer human beings and citizens because, whatever the subject of our immediate inquiry, the focus is always upon the ideas, institutions and processes that shape our lives. The study of Political Science at Brock aims to teach students how to focus on these aspects of political life, helping them to become better members and effective leaders of the Canadian political community.