r/PoliticalScience • • Mar 15 '26

[MEGATHREAD] "What can I do with a PoliSci degree?" "Can a PoliSci degree help me get XYZ job?" "Should I study PoliSci?" Direct all career/degree questions to this thread! (Part 3)

12 Upvotes

r/PoliticalScience • • Oct 13 '25

[MEGATHREAD] Reading List/Recommendations

16 Upvotes

Read a great article? Feel like there’s some foundation texts everyone needs to read? Want advice on what to read on any facet of Political Science? This is the place to discuss relevant literature!


r/PoliticalScience • • 4h ago

Question/discussion is a country still a democracy if most people vote to repress a tiny minority?

6 Upvotes

suppose most people in a country don’t like some tiny minority. they vote for a party that promises to go after them and that party gets a supermajority. the elections are completely fair, nobody’s votes are suppressed and everyone can still say whatever they want about the party.

then the government passes laws against that minority, like banning their religion or taking away their right to assemble or something it’s not some dictator doing this against the will of the people, the majority actually wants this.

obviously that’s wrong, but would that country still count as a democracy? because technically it’s just doing what most people voted for right?


r/PoliticalScience • • 4h ago

Question/discussion Comment se construire une opinion politique quand on cherche avant tout la vérité et qu'on est entouré d'avis contradictoires ?

3 Upvotes

Bonjour à tous et à toutes,

À l'approche des élections présidentielles de 2027, je me retrouve face à deux problèmes dans mon rapport à la politique et dans la construction de mes convictions. J'aimerais vous les partager pour avoir vos retours d'expérience.

1. Mon rapport à la vérité me rend méfiant (envers les partis politiques)

Je suis très attaché à la recherche de la vérité, c'est ce qui me met mal à l'aise avec l'idée d'adhérer intellectuellement à un parti politique.

Je me reconnais notamment dans la thèse de Simone Weil, dans Note sur la suppression générale des partis politiques : loin de favoriser la démocratie, les partis peuvent empêcher les citoyens de penser librement et de rechercher le bien commun. L'appartenance à un parti pousse à défendre les idées de son groupe plutôt qu'à chercher personnellement ce qui est vrai ou juste.

Or, je suis extrêmement curieux de nombreux domaines de la connaissance humaine : économie, sociologie, psychologie, histoire, philosophie, géopolitique, etc.

Plus j'approfondis ces sujets, plus je prends conscience de la complexité du réel, des limites de nos connaissances et de la difficulté à formuler des jugements catégoriques. Et plus je ressens un décalage avec certains discours politiques, dont l'objectif semble souvent moins être de comprendre et de décrire fidèlement la réalité que de convaincre, de mobiliser et, finalement, de gagner des élections (wow breaking news-)

J'ai donc du mal à accorder ma confiance à des organisations qui ont structurellement intérêt à présenter les faits sous un angle favorable à leur propre camp.

Mais je suis bien conscient des limites naïves de cette position.

Je peux mettre mon idéalisme de côté, accepter le principe de réalité et reconnaître que la politique ne se résume pas à une recherche du vrai et du faux. Elle implique aussi des valeurs, des arbitrages, des priorités et des désaccords légitimes sur la manière d'organiser la société.

Et puis, concrètement, je vais bien devoir glisser un bulletin dans l'urne en avril 2027.

C'est là qu'intervient mon deuxième problème.

2. Malgré ma curiosité intellectuelle, je n'arrive pas à me construire une opinion politique suffisamment solide

D'aussi loin que je me souvienne, j'ai toujours été entouré de personnes aux convictions politiques très différentes. C'est une richesse, mais c'est aussi une source permanente de remise en question.

J'ai aussi bien des proches mélenchonistes convaincus que des sympathisants fervents de Bardella. Mon père, que j'admire beaucoup, déteste Mélenchon et LFI, tandis que plusieurs de mes amis proches comptent voter LFI ou Glucksmann. Encore ce soir, j'étais avec des amis qui considéraient David Lisnard comme un homme du centre. Demain, je vais en voir d'autres qui considèrent Glucksmann comme un droitard. Bref, vous voyez le tableau.

Ces groupes fonctionnent souvent comme des chambres d'écho rempli de biais de confirmation : les gauchos avec les gauchos et les droitards avec les droitards, et chacun finit par être exposé à une partie différente de l'information. Chaque groupe développe sa propre lecture des événements, ses propres références, ses propres indignations et parfois même sa propre définition de ce qui relève de l'évidence. Et moi, je navigue entre ces différents environnements.

Le problème, c'est que je comprends souvent les raisonnements des uns comme des autres, sans parvenir à déterminer lesquels sont les plus solides.

Un exemple concret : les manifestations étudiantes d'octobre 2026

J'ai notamment été frappé par les réactions aux manifestations étudiantes des 17 et 24 octobre 2026, marquées par des tensions, des dégradations et des violences impliquant manifestants et forces de l'ordre. J'ai moi-même participé à celle du 24 octobre qui s'est très bien passé à Paris.

Dans certains de mes cercles, le récit était essentiellement centré sur la responsabilité de l'État et des forces de l'ordre : répression policière, entrave au droit de manifester, violences institutionnelles. J'ai notamment vu des manifestants faire des doigts d'honneur aux policiers, dans une ambiance parfois franchement hostile.

Dans d'autres cercles, la lecture était presque inverse : si la manifestation avait dégénéré, c'était avant tout la faute des manifestants. Après tout, si tout le monde respectait les règles, pourquoi les choses se passeraient-elles mal ?

Je caricature à peine.

Ce qui m'intéresse ici n'est pas tant de débattre de ces manifestations en particulier que de souligner à quel point un même événement peut donner lieu à des récits radicalement différents, chacun mettant en avant certains faits et en laissant d'autres de côté.

Et c'est précisément ce qui me pose problème.

J'ai l'impression que chacun détient une partie de l'histoire, mais rarement l'ensemble. Chacun sélectionne, consciemment ou non, les informations qui confortent sa vision du monde.

Évidemment, je ne prétends pas être moi-même immunisé contre ces biais.

Mais comme je fréquente des personnes issues de plusieurs de ces environnements, je suis régulièrement confronté à des arguments contradictoires qui me semblent, pris individuellement, relativement convaincants.

Et je me retrouve incapable de trancher.

Au-delà des faits, il y a aussi des désaccords sur les valeurs

Je suis également conscient que ces divergences ne viennent pas uniquement d'une exposition différente à l'information.

Elles reposent parfois sur des conceptions philosophiques différentes : quelle place accorder au déterminisme et à la responsabilité individuelle ? Comment arbitrer entre liberté et égalité ? Quelle importance donner à l'ordre, à la justice sociale, à la solidarité ou à l'autonomie ?

Deux personnes peuvent être d'accord sur les faits et malgré tout défendre des politiques opposées parce qu'elles ne hiérarchisent pas les mêmes valeurs.

Je comprends intellectuellement cette distinction, mais elle ne m'aide pas nécessairement à savoir où me situer.

J'ai donc le sentiment d'être constamment entre plusieurs visions du monde, capable de comprendre leurs arguments respectifs, mais incapable d'en adopter une avec suffisamment de conviction.

Et plus j'apprends, plus j'ai parfois l'impression de mesurer l'étendue de ce que j'ignore, plutôt que de me rapprocher d'une opinion claire, ce qui fait que je suis d'autant plus étonné de voir que des gens ont des opinions très très clair sur des sujets alors qu'ils sont problablement moins renseigné que moi.

Une précision importante sur ma manière de m'informer

Je réalise aussi que je consomme beaucoup plus d'analyses politiques que de discours politiques directement.

Autrement dit, je lis des articles, des livres, des travaux de recherche et des analyses qui interprètent les positions des responsables politiques, mais je prends relativement peu le temps d'écouter leurs interventions intégrales, de lire leurs programmes ou de confronter directement leurs propositions.

Je me demande donc si une partie de mon problème ne vient pas de là : je construis peut-être davantage ma compréhension des interprétations de la politique que ma propre appréciation des propositions politiques.

Mes questions

Est-ce que certains d'entre vous se reconnaissent dans cette situation ?

Comment avez-vous réussi à construire des convictions politiques tout en restant conscients de vos biais, de la complexité du réel et de la légitimité de certains arguments adverses ?

Comment distinguez-vous les désaccords qui relèvent des faits de ceux qui relèvent des valeurs ?

Et surtout, comment parvenir à faire un choix politique sans avoir le sentiment de sacrifier son exigence intellectuelle ou de se raconter une histoire pour se convaincre ?

Je suis preneur de vos expériences, de vos conseils de méthode et de vos éventuelles recommandations de lecture.

Merci à ceux qui auront pris le temps de me lire !

PS : j'ai demandé à l'IA de mieux structurer ma pensée qui était un peu brouillon, désolé si cela fait AI Slop


r/PoliticalScience • • 3h ago

Resource/study Competitive Authoritarianism in America

2 Upvotes

r/PoliticalScience • • 12h ago

Career advice Will there be more legislative office/political aide jobs opening after the US midterms? Recent grad desperately looking for work... seeking guidance on what to do next.

3 Upvotes

Hey all. 22f here, graduated in December 2025 with my Bachelor's in Political Science and a minor in Law, Justice, and Public Policy. I've been looking for work for about a year now and starting to feel hopeless.

My dream has always been to work in politics. With the mess of federal government right now, I've been especially focused on my own state, where I feel like I could have more of an impact. One day, I'd like to run for office myself, once I'm older and more established. But until then, I thought I could learn from others by serving on their staff, or just build a career in the network, once I'd broken in. But that's proving to be difficult.

In addition to my degree, I was an active member of my university's party chapter where I did my best to network. I also did a specialized semester-long program focused on state politics, my focus. I won awards. I did a campaign management training fellowship. I worked as a student assistant in a state government agency, and even though it was bureaucratic in nature, I handled policy work. I have glowing references from my time there.

But is that not enough? In the past year, I've interviewed for jobs in my state senate majority leader's office, governor's office, state PACs, unions, nonprofits, legislative jobs... and I've never made the cut. When I'm told why, it's usually because they chose a candidate with more experience.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to volunteer through the campaigns. I've had to work a shitty retail job to make ends meet, leaving me with no time for that particular avenue... and yes, trust me, I'm kicking myself for that.

But now with the election almost over, I've been told by some that there should be more jobs coming after the midterms. I'd like to believe this, but I have no way of knowing-- so is it true?

Even then, I just don't know how to make the cut. I couldn't do a legislative internship in college, which is coming back to bite me-- no legislative experience. But my government job was paid, and many of the internships were not, and I had to pay my bills. Even if it's not directly the same, I was hoping it would still serve me well... but now I'm afraid I'll be not only competing with more experienced candidates, but people who had the ability to work on campaigns when I couldn't. Still, I have to try!

All I'm trying to get is my in! An entry-level political job! So if you all have any insight into what to look for in the near future or any pointers, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.


r/PoliticalScience • • 13h ago

Research help Belgian political data - the 2024 federal election on the municipal & provincial level

Post image
4 Upvotes

For posterity and the people who love data, we have visualized the 2024 federal election on the Municipal and Provincial level.

Ever wanted to know how younger people, people who live in the biggest cities or have an above average income voted? With the data provided to us by StatBel we have created a list of filters where you can play with.

Interactive map: https://1830belgium.com/Federale-verkiezingen-2024

Tools used:

HTML, CSS, JavaScript and SVG for the interactive map. JSON and geographic data files for storing and processing the election results and projections.

Data sources:

  • Official election results: Belgian federal election of 9 June 2024, municipal-level results published by the Belgian Federal Public Service Home Affairs (FOD Binnenlandse Zaken / IBZ).
  • Geographic data: Belgian municipal boundaries for 2024 via bmesuere.
  • Population data: StatBel

Are there more filters we should add? Is it visually good? Any other recommendations? Please let me know!

Enjoy!


r/PoliticalScience • • 10h ago

Question/discussion How long can a country be a regency until it is no longer a monarchy?

1 Upvotes

A popular example being Hungary being a kingdom for about 3 decades without a king.


r/PoliticalScience • • 1d ago

Question/discussion Political Science Degree Questions

5 Upvotes

I’m currently a political science major in my second year. I’m on track and I’m planning to use it towards law school, but I’ve been recently debating on taking a minor in MIS, finance, or economics. I want to open up more job opportunities in case I can’t find a job after law school. I heard a lot of lawyers end up being teachers or working a government job, which isn’t a bad thing, but it isn’t ideal for me. I have always been interested in technology, so I feel like it wouldn’t hurt to make changes now, especially since we’re in the age of AI.

Initially, I was planning to go into big law.

Should I change my major and instead minor in poli sci, or take a minor which wouldn’t place me too far behind on graduating? Which one of the degrees would be best suited for making money coming out of college in case law school doesn’t work out?


r/PoliticalScience • • 19h ago

Question/discussion When does military dependence give an ally leverage over peace negotiations?

1 Upvotes

A state receiving military support can keep formal authority over its peace negotiations while depending on an ally for the means to keep fighting. That separates the right to reject a settlement from the practical ability to sustain the rejection.

Dependence alone doesn’t show how much leverage the supplier has. An ally may keep delivering essential equipment because the recipient’s survival serves its own security interests, and the recipient may have alternative suppliers, domestic production or reserves to withstand an interruption.

The kind of support matters too. Withholding future deliveries builds pressure over time, while restricting intelligence or communications can bite much sooner.

Credibility matters as well. A supplier may threaten to reduce support, but following through could damage its strategic position or its reputation with other allies, and a recipient that understands those costs may resist despite its material disadvantage.

Leverage may depend less on the volume of assistance than on control over capabilities that are essential, hard to replace and vulnerable to interruption. Even then, influence has to be separated from agreement between partners who already prefer similar terms.

That leaves an empirical question: what would show that dependence changed the recipient’s negotiating position? A concession after a threat to withdraw support could suggest leverage, but it could also reflect battlefield developments, domestic pressure or a reassessment of the settlement on offer.

How can researchers distinguish concessions induced by an ally’s control over essential military support from concessions the recipient would have made anyway?


r/PoliticalScience • • 22h ago

Question/discussion Reformist to Tyrant Trajectory & Economics

0 Upvotes

Richard Werner showed that commercial banks dont need to borrow money to loan it,... they print it out of thin air and then loan it out. The implications is that a small group of banks controls at large what a nation builds on their behalf. This becomes an extremely political process.

Trying to understand why things like the AI bubble with very little retail demand can find so much capital... this is what made this make sense. AI is insolvent, but the banks dont care since they get bailed out.

So obviously this seems extremely unfair, and of course everyone should then refuse to participate in such a system. Even if they knew this is what it was. But of course no one revolts because of the prisoners dellima. And the people who try and change things for the better, the whistle blowers etc... they get crucified by society. Being a leader to change the regulations and having caps on who/ how money can be created to make things better for the community is thankless, and often this can destroy ones career etc.

This leads to the main topic, reformist to tyrant trajectory and the iron law of oligarchy. People get corrupted as an ends to the means... to eventually do good. The folks who do things by the book, are handy capped.

This stream of thought is why Im asking if this is a wildly accepted view of the political science community. To me this idea explains what Ive seen, better than anything else and it predicts some pretty scary things. It also seems to suggest a way to game systems,... which in American society is to solve some problem that these banker types care about and then sell equities/ shares dumped on the public.

I know I have a lot of themes going on in this post, but I wanted to capture the major themes of what Ive noticed about systems at large.


r/PoliticalScience • • 1d ago

Question/discussion Political theory & history text recommendations?

2 Upvotes

I’m an undergrad primarily studying a double degree Urban and Regional Planning alongside Philosophy. I’m planning on majoring in International Politics next year alongside Philosophy, and was hoping for some pointers on books that would introduce me to political science/theory and history. I have a decently good entry-level knowledge to politics, mainly the more philosophical texts, such as On Liberty by Mill, Marx, Foucault, Aristotle etc.

I’m looking to dive even deeper, connecting political theory/science/philosophy to history, and reading texts that give me a clear and comprehensive picture of (primarily western) politics, as well as Chinese politics and history.

Apologies also if my post is poorly worded. I just woke up lmao

Cheers!


r/PoliticalScience • • 1d ago

Question/discussion Can a "Party" like the Students-List in Serbia survive in the long run?

2 Upvotes

The "Party" (not sure about the political correctness here since it’s a "just" a List) established itself mainly as an anti-corruption movement, but I can’t imagine that all their members share the same opinion on certain topics (for example in the discussion around the independency of Kosovo, or "simpler" stuff like economics, foreign affairs,…), which they will have to deal with sooner or later.

Am I wrong for thinking that their party/list will shatter into many smaller parties until there is nothing left of it?

Theoretically it’s not a bad thing, but there’s this risk that old SNS voters go back to SNS since they may feel like the students party is too instable and paralyzed in their decision making since their opinions vary too much.


r/PoliticalScience • • 1d ago

Resource/study Political spectrum matrix

Thumbnail politicalspectrummatrix.com
0 Upvotes

Found an interesting way to break down political ideologies by the structural definitions of traditional political labels. Rather than just give you a list of policy positions you ascribe to, it places ideologies into one of six cells on a matrix. Hope you guys find it helpful.


r/PoliticalScience • • 1d ago

Question/discussion Why people's preference is divided into few broad categories only

1 Upvotes

So i revently came and cross the terms liberal and conservative.

I am astonished how broadly these labels are mentioned in context of role of government, social or cultural rules and economic preferences.

However an individual can have its own preferences like someone can be activist but still values tradition

In video games like rimworld individual lables and opinions makes much sense but even so two opposite spectrums never emerge

Everywhere in broadcase and mass communication i can see the liberal and conservative division but I never intuitively understand them

Can anyone explain is there any benefit of such classification or is it just a political tool.


r/PoliticalScience • • 2d ago

Question/discussion What does evidence based policymaking procedures look like across the policy life cycle ?

1 Upvotes

​

Is there any examples or model laws or regulations of what systemization of evidence based policymaking looks like in top level governance of states and organizations ?


r/PoliticalScience • • 2d ago

Question/discussion What to Know About the Israeli Elections

1 Upvotes

My friend Ran Heilbrunn wrote this piece for Café Américain, Part 1 of a four-part series on contemporary Israel, ahead of the October 27 vote. His main claim should interest this sub: the 2022–2026 Knesset was the first since 1988 to serve its full term, and he argues that a widely contested government had a strong reason to stay together and put off elections, so "a lack of popular support has paradoxically produced electoral stability." He also looks at the broader trend of a democracy's constitutional structures becoming the thing elections are fought over rather than the framework they happen in. The link goes to Café Américain's post on X, which links to the article. If you think it's worth it, reposts or replies there are welcome, and I'd be curious whether people here buy the legitimacy-deficit reading of coalition durability: https://x.com/keithwhitson/status/2114460007144345608


r/PoliticalScience • • 2d ago

Question/discussion The Adaptive Governance Dilemma

1 Upvotes

A government faces a recurring dilemma. If it tightens restriction to secure order, it raises the probability that grievance, elite defection, digital coordination, and external sponsorship will produce rebellion—or a punitive successor regime. If it loosens restriction to preserve liberty, it raises the probability that insecurity, polarization, corruption, and organized capture will generate public demand for a strongman—or allow a faction to seize the state.
 
This is not a simple tradeoff between order and liberty, because citizens’ preferences are partly endogenous: fear can be manufactured, trust depleted, and emergency powers ratcheted. State capacity is asymmetric: coercion and surveillance are easier to build than impartial justice and accountable security. Crises reward speed over consent and create path dependence. Elites and security forces can defect under either course. Information abundance empowers demagogues and foreign manipulation; information control hides corruption and radicalizes excluded groups. Liberalizing too fast invites capture; liberalizing too slowly invites revolt. The “safe zone,” if it exists, is not a fixed midpoint but a moving corridor sustained by legitimacy, capacity, credible constraints, and sequencing.
 
The dilemma’s core is a pair of feedback loops. The repression loop runs: insecurity → demand for control → surveillance and restriction → grievance, elite defection, and coordination → more insecurity → more control. The liberalization loop runs: opening → insecurity and polarization → demand for a strongman or factional capture → illiberal correction. Each loop can become self-reinforcing, and the tools used to stabilize one failure mode can create the other.
 
The moral question is therefore not whether to choose order or liberty, but how a government can build enough capacity to protect citizens, enough constraint to prevent tyranny, enough openness to correct error, and enough sequencing to survive crises—without letting the instruments of stabilization become either a repression ratchet or a gateway to authoritarian capture. The difficulty is that these goods are mutually dependent yet asymmetrically costly: capacity without constraint becomes predation; constraint without capacity becomes paralysis; openness without sequencing becomes capture; sequencing without openness becomes irreversible emergency.


r/PoliticalScience • • 2d ago

Resource/study According to author David Todd, the luxury industry had a vested interest in preserving the monarchy in the 19th century

Thumbnail youtube.com
0 Upvotes

r/PoliticalScience • • 2d ago

Question/discussion I feel like a lot of politicians are nerds who aren’t on the street

0 Upvotes

Saying that as a nerd myself


r/PoliticalScience • • 3d ago

Question/discussion Is it still democracy if there are local elections but no national elections?

5 Upvotes

What would that be called?


r/PoliticalScience • • 3d ago

Career advice After polsci career path advice

1 Upvotes

I've been firmed before that I wanted to take law after my college undergrad. But experiencing law subjects in my pre-law which really caused me great burnout (it stresses me so much that I put it last on my priorities). Mas na e-enjoy ko 'yung ibang subjects, specifically international relations. I'm amazed on how that work and on how I can understand the concepts easily.

Now, I don't know what path to take. Should I still take law? (kasi iniisip ko rin na baka ngayon lang 'to, phase lang). Are there people here who experiences the same? how do you manage it or cope from it?


r/PoliticalScience • • 3d ago

Resource/study From India: Just sharing a basic guide to 400 books one should read in political science on Substack.

2 Upvotes

Curated 400 books on political science, philosophy, economics, and humanity’s centuries-long obsession with telling others how to live.

Includes reading pathways and a shorter canon for those still pretending to have a social life.

For anyone who finds questioning authority more entertaining than obeying it.

https://open.substack.com/pub/anuragmoderno/p/the-anti-syllabus-guide-to-read-political?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=521dq5


r/PoliticalScience • • 3d ago

Question/discussion I'm 16 and trying to get into politics, but I don't know where to start

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I'm a 16 year old from India, and lately I've been getting more interested in politics and its significance in the world today. I'd say I know a decent amount about certain topics, but I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as I'd like to be, and I'm not really sure how to improve.

One thing I've noticed is that I can usually see both sides of an argument, including their pros and cons, which makes it difficult for me to form a solid opinion on certain issues. I don't want to blindly pick a side just for the sake of having one. I'd rather understand the reasoning, evidence and context behind different perspectives before coming to my own conclusions.

For example, I recently started looking into Fidel Castro's history and his significance in Cuba. I understand why his anti imperialist stance and opposition to American influence appealed to many people, but I also came across a lot of criticism regarding his government's actions and treatment of its citizens. I'm struggling to understand why he's still admired by so many people despite all of that, and I'd like to understand the historical context rather than just rely on surface level explanations.

I also don't want my understanding of politics to be limited to social media, where information is often oversimplified, biased or taken out of context. I'd like to develop a more comprehensive understanding of political ideologies, history, economics, international relations and how governments actually function.

So, for those of you who are more knowledgeable about politics, how would you recommend getting started?

Are there any books, documentaries, YouTube channels, podcasts, newspapers or other reliable sources you'd recommend? Are there any activities or habits I should develop to improve my critical thinking and learn how to evaluate political arguments properly?

I'm especially interested in learning how to distinguish reliable information from propaganda and bias, and how to understand opposing viewpoints without automatically accepting or dismissing them.

I know this is a broad subject, and I'm not expecting to become an expert overnight. I just want to build a solid foundation and become informed enough to develop my own opinions rather than simply adopting someone else's.

I'd appreciate any advice or recommendations. Thanks!


r/PoliticalScience • • 3d ago

Question/discussion Help me friend current research that presents an ideal approach to voting and frequency of voting

1 Upvotes

Hi,

I need some help finding academic work that focuses on the different electoral and voting systems in democratic nations to present an ideal framework.

I specifically am looking for work that presents an ideal model for voting and the frequency for voting.

The question comes from only voting every two years, one local and one national.

In between that, as a voter, I am not involved in the decisions parliament makes and a lot has changed in the last four years.

Does the ideal framework for this maybe mean more frequent votes? Votes for key issues? A framework to determine what issues parliament ought to hold a referendum for to ensure their choices stay democratic?

Not looking to debate this at all, more just looking for resources and see what is out there✨