What is taught in Political Science

The classics of "sciences po" cover virtually every field of human endeavor, from economic or scientific policy to communications management or the administration of justice, via commercial or military strategies.

To what extent are current phenomena affecting the global political order on the radar of political science courses? To find out, we examined the titles and descriptions of 400 courses offered in political science at four representative academic institutions (Sciences Po, Université Laval, Université de Montréal, UQAM), excluding language, statistics and other generic courses with no direct connection to the subject. (Sciences Po course list - pdf.)

In addition to the diversity of the courses on offer, the breadth and scope of the subjects covered is astonishing; many of them are relevant to today's reality. Far from being disconnected, some courses were almost premonitory in predicting current upheavals, as if it were possible to predict political movements by extrapolating the consequences of social transformations.

Do politicians take political science courses?

To answer this question, we have compiled various references to studies and journalistic articles on the professed competence of elected officials (Duke University. Pew Research Center, Congressional Research Service, Financial Times, etc.).

Here's the resulting chart:

• What do politicians do? They make laws, which is their primary product.
  In fact, worldwide, the best training to become a politician is in law. Nearly 50% of politicians are trained in this field. (Which doesn't mean they don't have other training and experience. This is why the totals in the graph exceed 100%).
  
  Lawyers are in touch with power, they know what can be done legally and constitutionally, they know how to plead and convince, they are able to speak in public and are not afraid of opposition. They are also capable of defending the indefensible and playing the rules in their favor. In short, a profession tailor-made for political activity.
  
  
• The second professional group is made up of economists, public administrators and technocrats, often with degrees from the Sciences Po. Over 35% come from the civil service or the administration of large organizations. Managers from large organizations are often called upon to take over the reins of ministries, and their expertise is often essential; a country is a sort of hyper-diversified mega-company. So yes, a significant proportion of politicians have relevant academic training. They are most often involved in politics in Europe, and least so in Africa.

The following groups of professional qualifications vary across the globe.

• Entrepreneurs and managers with business experience are more common in democratic regimes (25%).
• Military and law enforcement officials are more common in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East (35%).
  

Obtaining power and managing activities are two quite distinct activities. It seems that, in the long term, the best choice is to entrust power to those who know how to manage, rather than to those who know how to keep it.

Finally, the other most frequent professional qualifications are :

• teaching and research (13.6%), especially in Western Europe;
• agriculture and manual trades (11.4%), mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America;
• medicine/health (8.6%), mainly in Africa and Asia;
• and journalism (7.1%), mainly in the Americas and Western Europe.
  

What we teach in political science

Of the 400 courses examined

• the vast majority of courses are analyses of what's being done and what's happening,
  
  
• followed by theoretical courses on the various policies applied around the world and on the fundamentals of public administration. There's a lot of reflection and theory. There are few history courses, even if several include a historical component to situate the evolution of a political trend or region.
  
  
• Roughly a quarter of the courses focus on a particular region or territory; politics in the Middle East or China are necessarily different from those in Europe or South America.
  
  
• 10% of courses focus specifically on defined political orientations such as feminism, human rights, democracy, ecology, multiculturalism and other political currents. The focus seems to be more on realities on the ground than on classical political currents; socialism, communism, totalitarianism, etc., are virtually absent formally.
  
  
• Courses on practical, technical or methodological skills are few and far between, but all relevant: filming politics, writing a web or radio column, mobilization techniques, political marketing, public speaking, methods of analysis or experimentation in political science, and so on. From there to initiating a political movement, the road may be long, but it's not impossible.
  

Institutional training

In short, the field of political science education is exciting and diverse. Many currents rub shoulders. For the time being, we don't seem to be aiming so much at training daring political leaders as at shrewd public administrators who will eventually know how to make government structures work properly.

Which probably explains why the most active politicians don't often have a background in political science, but rather practical experience and a well-stocked repertoire of contacts.