Our Mission

The faculty of the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University share a broad commitment to excellence in education and the advancement of scholarship in the discipline of political science. This commitment to education and scholarship in political science is reflected in the faculty’s activities in support of a wide range of university missions:

• Creating and disseminating knowledge to promote a fundamental understanding of politics in a wide variety of settings.
• Providing a broad liberal education to Michigan State undergraduates to prepare them for future roles as citizens and professionals.
• Providing a first-class education to doctoral students to prepare them for careers of teaching and scholarship in political science.
• Preparing professionals to participate in the contemporary policymaking world through the masters program in public policy and administration.
• Providing appropriate service not only to the department, college, university, and professional societies but also to the broader geographic communities – international, national, regional, state, and local – in which the faculty work and live.

Scholarly research holds a special role in the intellectual life of the department. The department’s long-standing emphasis on research productivity, as well as the high caliber and hard work of its faculty, have earned the department some of the highest comparative rankings within the university on a number of national rankings and assessments.