POLSC 110: Political Analysis

What distinguishes a pedestrian understanding of politics versus an academic political analysis? Is punditry, as seen in the media, a form of political analysis? This undergraduate course on political analysis focuses on the frameworks of political analysis and approaches for understanding and explaining political phenomena. It intends to help students recognise and appreciate the implications of one’s ontological and epistemological positions, as well as one’s methodological choices, on the conduct of political research. This foundational course introduces students to the theoretical and methodological approaches used in the study of politics and acquaints them with the building blocks and stages of the research process. As the first course in the series of research methods courses to be taken by political science undergraduate students, this course will help students formulate theoretically driven research questions and review scholarly attempts to unravel these questions in the literature. You should have taken and passed POLSC 101 before this course.

Soc Sci 2 [X1 and X4] Midyear 2025

Soc Sci 2 [X2]

Soc Sci 2 [X3-1]

Soc Sci 2 [X3]

Soc Sci 2 [X4]

Why be bothered with what the Western thinkers of earlier centuries say about how we should live our lives and organise our society? How does this course even make sense to someone who is not necessarily within the realm of the social sciences, such as the natural and engineering sciences? This general education course is a survey of social, economic, and political thought from classical to contemporary times. The goal is to provide an understanding of the main themes of the works of selected social, economic, and political thinkers of various periods of Western civilisation in order to examine different issues of the day as well as develop a capacity for critical thinking. Of course, this course will not directly teach you how to think critically. Instead, by presenting the “great conversation” of Western civilisation and human history, we are equipped with traditions that can enable critical thinking. Note my emphasis on Western thinkers and civilisation, that is, European (mainly British) and American. This means you should not expect that there will be Asian or African thinkers in this course.

Soc Sci 2 [X5]

Soc Sci 2 [X6]

Soc Sci 103 [X2]