BA in Political Science, Public Policy Focus

In addition to requiring many of the same core requirements as Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, the public policy-focused degree includes four upper-level electives, three of which are related to public policy. All students majoring in political science with a public policy focus also complete a required proseminar as juniors or seniors, in which they examine a policy issue and produce scholarly writing on the topic.

Many students in this program supplement their classwork with study abroad and internships for credit.

Per Columbian College of Arts and Science policy, students must complete the major requirements at the time of declaration. Students who declared a major before Fall 2020 are beholden to prior major requirements.

Apply to GW

Declare a Major or Minor

Opportunities & Resources

"During my freshman year, I remember listening to The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, who was held hostage in Iran for 544 days. His experience will always remind me that there are real-world, human impacts to public policy."

Jeremy Marsh
BA ’19

Course Requirements

The following requirements must be fulfilled:

The general requirements stated under Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), Undergraduate Programs. CCAS stipulates that a student must complete the major requirements published in the Bulletin for the academic year in which the student declares their major.*

Program-specific curriculum:

Code	Title	Credits
Prerequisite courses
PSC 1001	Introduction to Comparative Politics
or PSC 1001W	Introduction to Comparative Politics
PSC 1002	Introduction to American Politics and Government
or PSC 1002W	Introduction to American Politics and Government
PSC 1003	Introduction to International Politics
or PSC 1003W	Introduction to International Politics
or IAFF 1005	Introduction to International Affairs
Students in the Politics and Values program are required to take PSC 1011 and PSC 1012W. For such students, these two courses fulfill the prerequisite requirement and count as a Group E (political thought) course.
Required for the major
Six 2000-level political science courses (18 credits) distributed as follows: ^**
Three courses (9 credits) selected from the following:
PSC 2211	State and Urban Politics
PSC 2212	State and Urban Policy Problems
PSC 2213	Judicial Politics
PSC 2216	The American Presidency
PSC 2217	Executive Branch Politics
PSC 2218	Legislative Politics
or PSC 2218W	Legislative Politics
PSC 2219	Political Parties and Interest Groups
PSC 2222	Science, Technology, and Politics
PSC 2224	Issues in Domestic Public Policy
PSC 2240	Poverty, Welfare, and Work
PSC 2241	The Politics of Education Policy
PSC 2446	U.S. Foreign Policy
PSC 2468	Post-Soviet Foreign Policy
Three courses (9 credits) from the following groups. One course must from group D.
Group A (comparative politics)
PSC 2330	Comparative Politics of Western Europe
PSC 2331	Comparative Politics of Central and Eastern Europe
PSC 2332	European Integration
PSC 2333	Reunification, Reconciliation, and Resentment
PSC 2334	Global Perspectives on Democracy
PSC 2336	State–Society Relations in the Developing World
PSC 2337	Development Politics
PSC 2338	Nationalism
PSC 2339	Comparative Political Economy
PSC 2366	Russian Politics
PSC 2367	Human Rights
or PSC 2367W	Human Rights
PSC 2368	Politics in the Two Koreas
PSC 2369	Comparative Politics of South Asia
PSC 2370	Comparative Politics of China and Northeast Asia
PSC 2371	Politics and Foreign Policy of China
PSC 2373	Comparative Politics of Southeast Asia
PSC 2374	Politics and Foreign Policy of Japan
PSC 2377	Comparative Politics of the Middle East
or PSC 2377W	Comparative Politics of the Middle East
PSC 2379	Politics and Foreign Policy of Israel
PSC 2381	Comparative Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa
PSC 2383	Comparative Politics of Latin America
PSC 2993	Special Topics in Comparative Politics
Group B (American government and politics)
PSC 2213	Judicial Politics
PSC 2214	U.S. Constitutional Law and Politics I
PSC 2215	U.S. Constitutional Law and Politics II
PSC 2216	The American Presidency
PSC 2218	Legislative Politics
or PSC 2218W	Legislative Politics
PSC 2219	Political Parties and Interest Groups
PSC 2220	Public Opinion
PSC 2221	African American Politics
PSC 2223	Campaigns and Elections
PSC 2225	Women and Politics
PSC 2226	The Politics of Race and Ethnicity in the United States
PSC 2228	Media, Politics, and Government
PSC 2229	Media and Politics
PSC 2230	Law and Justice: The View from Hollywood
PSC 2241	The Politics of Education Policy
PSC 2992	Special Topics in American Politics and Government
Group C (international politics, law, and organizations)
PSC 2439	International Political Economy
PSC 2440	Theories of International Politics
PSC 2442	International Organizations
or PSC 2442W	International Organizations
PSC 2444	Public International Law
PSC 2446	U.S. Foreign Policy
PSC 2447	American Presidents at War
PSC 2449	International Security Politics
or PSC 2449W	International Security Politics
PSC 2451	Theory of War
or PSC 2451W	Theory of War
PSC 2453	U.S. Foreign Policy Perspectives
PSC 2454	Humanitarianism
PSC 2455	Global Governance
PSC 2461	European-Atlantic Relations
PSC 2468	Post-Soviet Foreign Policy
PSC 2475	International Relations of East Asia
PSC 2476	The Arab-Israeli Conflict
or PSC 2476W	The Arab-Israeli Conflict
PSC 2478	International Relations of the Middle East
PSC 2482	African International Politics
PSC 2484	International Relations of Latin America
PSC 2994	Special Topics in International Relations
Group D (research methods)
PSC 2101	Scope and Methods of Political Science
or COMM 3110	Research Methods in Communication
or IAFF 2101	Qualitative Methods in International Affairs
or PSYC 2101	Research Methods in Psychology
or SMPA 2151	Research Methods
or SOC 2101	Social Research Methods
PSC 2102	Visualizing and Modeling Politics
Group E (political thought)
PSC 2105	Major Issues of Western Political Thought I
PSC 2106	Major Issues of Western Political Thought II
or PSC 2106W	Major Issues of Western Political Thought II
PSC 2107	Twentieth-Century Political Thought
PSC 2109	Global Justice
PSC 2110	American Political Thought
PSC 2120W	Freedom in American Thought and Popular Culture
PSC 2991	Special Topics in Political Thought
One proseminar (3 credits) and one advanced topics course (3 credits)
PSC 3192W	Proseminar: Political Science (Taken in the junior or senior year. Topic must be policy oriented.)
PSC 3500	Advanced Topics in Political Science

Code	Title	Credits
Six courses (18 credits) in other social sciences and statistics, including:
Four required courses:
ECON 1011	Principles of Economics I
ECON 1012	Principles of Economics II
ECON 2101	Intermediate Microeconomic Theory
STAT 1051	Introduction to Business and Economic Statistics
or STAT 1053	Introduction to Statistics in Social Science
or STAT 1111	Business and Economic Statistics I
and two courses selected from the following:
ECON 2122	Monetary Theory and Policy
ECON 2136	Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
ECON 2151W	Economic Development
ECON 2151	Economic Development
ECON 2157	Urban and Regional Economics
ECON 2158	Industrial Organization
ECON 2159	Government Regulation of the Economy
ECON 2167	Economics of Crime
ECON 2181	International Trade Theory and Policy
ECON 3142	Labor Economics
ECON 3148	Health Economics
ECON 3161	Public Finance: Expenditure Programs
ECON 3162	Public Finance: Taxation
ECON 3190	Law and Economics
ECON 3191	Game Theory
SOC 2105	Social Problems in American Society
SOC 2112	Evaluation Research
SOC 2135	Youth and Delinquency
SOC 2136	Criminology
SOC 2137	Transnational Crime
SOC 2139	Alternatives to Imprisonment
SOC 2143	Criminal Justice System Arrest Through Appeal
SOC 2145	Criminal Law
SOC 2146	The Bill of Rights and Criminal Justice
SOC 2161	Sociology of Complex Organizations
SOC 2162	Sociology of the Family
SOC 2163	Sociology of Education
SOC 2169	Urban Sociology
SOC 2170	Class and Inequality in American Society
SOC 2174	Sociology of Immigration
SOC 2179	Race and Minority Relations
STAT 1129	Introduction to Computing
STAT 2118	Regression Analysis
STAT 2123	Introduction to Econometrics
STAT 2183	Intermediate Statistics Lab/Packages

^*Bulletins covering prior academic years are archived.

^**In addition to the courses listed, a maximum of 3 credits in PSC 2987 may count toward the 2000-level course requirement. However, these credits do not count toward any group.