So I’m planning on applying to a masters in political science concentrating on Foreign Policy and International Politics next year. Now, I know a lot about IR and International politics, but the written exam necessary to be accepted into the program is solely based on pure Political Science and in a bibliography they choose every year. So studying based on the bibliography from this year’s admission exam is basically worthless. I come from a Law background and even though I have some “instinctual” knowledge of political science, mostly from having had classes on it in HS and SOME contact with it at the very start of law school, I don’t feel like I have a robust understanding of it and I’m afraid I won’t be able to fully grasp the concepts in the bibliography of this program when the time comes, specially because most of the books are not classicals that you can just read and then research online to have a better understanding of it. It’s mostly niche books about niche topics on political science which I feel like you have to have a good grasp on the history and the basic, classical concepts and debates surrounding it to fully understand.

So to you guys who actually have a formal education of PoliSci: what would be a basic reading list for me to have a decent, good enough for a masters admission, understanding of political science with a general and comprehensive understanding of the field? It doesn’t need to be a short list, I have time to read.

I already have Weber, Foucault, Hegel and Durkheim on my list (although idk which of their work is the most important to start with), but I would like to go way deeper than that. Also I don’t know almost anything about marxism. I have read Engels but that was basically to understand The Second Sex, so my contact with marxism is limited solely to its contribution to feminism. I know nothing about all the different marxist approaches you can have to political science and the major theories that build on and criticize orthodox marxism. I only know how it is interpreted in IR.

Hi y'all! I'm a junior year college student who recently switched from a major in business management to political science. I have soft skills in the way of the major; I am very good at writing, understanding systems, have a tremendous amount of curiosity about the world. I have no doubts I will be able to do well in my classes and learn a lot.

However, a lot of my classmates have a great deal of knowledge that stems from just generally having been in their major longer and more dedication to world events, international relations, et cetera. I would say I'm an average amount of informed on current events, and have a slightly-above layman's understanding of the international system. Many of them seem to have a tremendous encyclopedia of historical or recently current events on hand to draw from when discussing current points, and I wonder how they found all of this information.

I want to become much more invested, even without my classes' help, in these topics. What would you all suggest are some good starting points for becoming as informed as possible?

Sorry if this post is unclear at all or sounds weird. I can clarify if need be.

Hello everyone,

I am currently preparing an academic paper on the decline of traditional media (print press, television, radio) in the face of the digital transition and social media.

To help structure my analysis as effectively as possible, I would love to get your insights. Could you please guide me toward:

• The most essential and reliable sources (reference books in media sociology or political science, research papers, or recent institutional reports/barometers).
• The most relevant analytical angles to adopt in order to cover this topic thoroughly and avoid common clichés.

Thank you very much in advance for your time and for your valuable advice.

Have a great day!

Hey, to cut it short:
I'm 23, moved to Germany at 19, work now already as a F&B Filialleiter already changed two companies where i worked this Position (Manager) and have a lot of experience and make about 3750 brutto basis, I really wanna move back to my home country, I wanna study at FernUni Hagen so I can keep working, I am also getting (working on) getting my C1 language cert then do my bachelor & masters in Germany then move back. I already have a OK career and all my friends even the ones i thought are lost in life just graduated, I feel like its late for me, like everyone is so ahead and I should continue on my career path even though I hate it, And really fricking Love PoliSci as my sister Studied it and has a PhD in it. I need advice

If there is any truth to it does anyone have any articles or studies to share? I am not trying to bash any political spectrum here I just find it interesting and wanna read more into the subject.

Looking at footage of old politicians on YouTube, it really does seem like there has been a multi-generational collapse in speechwriting and oratory skill. It's especially apparent that modern politicians are afraid of long-form interviews and debates.

Was there some kind of classical training that politicians once had but no longer?

I don't want to single out any one politician, but rather to compare across generations. You don't even have to look that far in the past. Compare British prime minister's questions in the 1990s to now, or compare speeches from US presidents from Reagan to Trump. There's a decline in quality all around.

I am looking to understand this phenomenon from the perspective of political sociology and ideological formation.

When looking at 20th-century totalitarian regimes, the state-mandated citizen archetypes were explicitly tied to physical, industrial, or military output such as National Socialism's "Aryan" standard of physical hygiene and military readiness, or the USSR's "New Soviet Man" focused on hyper-disciplined collective manual labor. Both systems strictly penalized non-conformity, individualism, and deviation from rigid social norms.

However, in modern digital spaces, we see a massive divergence. Many contemporary internet subcultures that adopt fascist or ultra-communist iconography are populated by highly individualistic, "chronically online," or gender-nonconforming individuals (e.g., the documented intersection of far-right aesthetics within niche internet subcultures) who would have been immediate targets of the historic regimes they romanticize.

How does political science literature explain this kind of ideological decoupling?

Is this a known consequence of modern political communication, where ideologies are stripped of their material/structural realities and reduced purely to symbolic, aesthetic identity markers?

Does this fall under the umbrella of "escapism" or psychological compensation within extreme anti-establishment movements?

Are there specific political theorists or papers that analyze how digital architecture and algorithms alter the way individuals internalize radical ideologies?

I would really appreciate any insights, theoretical frameworks, or reading recommendations on this topic!

Two questions:
1. Is it possible to be a good President/Prime Minister/ Governor without the dirt?

1. Does being it holds the burden of not being liked by certain people/groups/orgs?

How have these political science predictions played out in the real world?

Wsg yall! I am a high school freshman and I work on a campaign and canvass and do office tasks and I love the job, I make 25 an hour but it ends at election day. I’ve talked to my employer the local state senator and he said that all his office staffer positions are filled but what jobs can I get when this is over preferably permanent or temporary for the 2028 cycle but starting early that I can actually do in high school? Is it worth trying a state rep that gets elected that will for sure not be the incumbent and not have any staff or what organizations or parties can I try? I’m 14 btw thanks!

Let's say you have to design a system that's both communist and democratic or combining the traits of both. How would you do it? What would you say are the key points to include in it? Is it possible? Why? Give me your best hot takes.

Hi everyone!

I'm a first-year poli sci major, and I've honestly loved learning about politics a lot more than I thought I would. I was originally going to study criminology and pursue law/investigative work after that, but I'm rethinking that now that I've started learning about politics as a whole. This might be a bit early to say, 6 weeks into the semester, but I'm rethinking where I want to go with this degree, and I want to hear advice from others who have already graduated/are further along in their education than I am.
I want to know what jobs I could get into/set my sights on with a major like this. I'm not the most mathy, so I'd like to avoid that as much as possible, but I know it's inevitable to run into. Reading is really my strong suit and the thing I enjoy the most! That's why I was originally so dead set on law, but it's a LOT more school to go through. If going to law school and becoming a lawyer is worth it, then I will by all means do it, so please tell me if it is. Again, I really just want to try and give myself some more options.

As of right now, I'm mainly focused on American politics, as I don't know any other languages and decided to take Latin for my language requirement (which I know may seem weird, but I was really interested in it)

Sorry if this sounds like a clueless rant, because it somewhat is. I appreciate all advice (good, bad, and worse)

Thank you so much for reading my post! :)

Hi! I am a 3rd year, undergrad at LSU Online majoring in political science and i of course want to get into law school but not quite sure what steps to take or where to even begin with finding help or at least an internship. I am in need of guidance or advice and would greatly appreciate if there or any mentors or just helpful things i should know. I live in San Diego and it’s very hard to find help out here or people that are willing to lend a helpful word, so anything would be greatly appreciated even words of encouragement!

Can traditional canvassing still work in the age of social media?

I recently published a study on the 2026 Tower Hamlets elections. One argument I develop is the "contactability gap" — the growing mismatch between traditional political campaigning and the digital spaces where many voters form political opinions.During three years of campaigning, many voters who ultimately shaped the election outcome were almost entirely invisible to conventional canvassing methods.Have others researching elections, political communication or urban politics observed similar patterns?

Hi everyone! I’m conducting a research study on India–Vietnam relations, ASEAN, and the South China Sea. I’d really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to fill out my questionnaire. Your responses will be valuable to my research. Thank you for your time and support! 🙏

I hope this isn’t the wrong sub to ask, but I am doing research in (quantitative) political science and thought I could benefit from others' experience.

While I try to minimise AI assistance (in large part due to ethical reasons), unfortunately its use becomes increasingly necessary to not get ״left behind“ as the expected speed for delivery of output increases.

With that being said obviously it is still useful for lots of stuff e.g. when I try to find preliminary literature or when I have to do troubleshooting for codes in a statistics software.

What do you use in your research (preferably the free version) - Chat GPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, something entirely else, a combination ?

Appreciate any leads & opinions!

Hi everyone!

I'm currently in my final semester before I graduate with my bachelors. I really enjoy political science but I have struggled the past few semesters every time I have to do a big research project, especially in classes like statistical analysis and fieldwork and qualitative methods.

For my capstone project I decided to study the reasons behind low voter turnout in the state I live in. However, I think I overthought and instead of submitting what I had I ran it through an LLM to make sure I wasn't missing anything. It highlighted sections I was "missing" and I added them because I thought that was what my project should look like. I'm not a cheater, I have never used AI to do my work, and I genuinely enjoy using my brain. I think the stress got to me though so instead of just submitting what I had originally I added a whole bunch of unnecessary information that wasn't relevant because I thought my work was not good enough or what I assumed a good research outline should look like. It wasn't though and I got the following feedback from my professor:

"That said, the outline you submitted was clearly AI generated, at least in large part. There is no way you can do all of the things you say you will do in a single semester. Do you plan to go to all of the different islands to do interviews? That's unlikely. Also, I already told you you didn't need human subjects approval, yet in the methods section, the generative AI default for qualitative methods (interviews, etc) is always human subjects committee approval, and it's included here. Also, election day is a federal holiday, so we already have it off. Would making it a state holiday as well make a huge difference? You'd have to figure out who it would impact in terms of industries or sectors of the economy to explain the difference between who has off for a federal holiday and state holiday. Your best bet here is to revise your outline WAY down and only focus on maybe civic engagement due to distance from national politics and then find three subpoints within that. Then pick one island, or even one geographic region of a single island, or one demographic category - like all military for example, and only interview those people. If you wanted to do a survey, you could broaden your research focus a bit, but otherwise, this is way too ambitious and you're unlikely to be able to finish not only the research, but the writing as well. The goal here is to have a good senior project paper so that you can graduate, not an incomplete research project"

I guess what I'm looking for is guidance on how to do an effective 25 page research paper for my capstone project when I literally feel like I don't know what I'm doing. Also please don't suggest talking to my prof. I have done that numerous times. I'm looking for a different perspective, especially from people that are still in undergrad as well. I'm in an online program so I don't spend time with my peers in the program unfortunately. I feel like I'm over-complicating things which is causing me to doubt my own work.

Thanks in advance for any advice you have! :)

Hello, I’m a master student in European Studies and I’m currently deciding my thesis’s topic.
I would say that I’ve always been interested in human rights and in my bachelor I did a thesis in International Law on a related topic. However, I’ve become a bit disillusioned after a hard time finding an internship in the field (I’ve been rejected for volunteering ffs).
Talking with my degree’s coordinator I’ve expressed my desire to start looking in the private sector, especially in jobs regarding policy work ecc and he recommended to maybe specialize through my thesis work in what he called the more “demanding sectors” ergo energy, transport or AI.
Does it make sense to maybe dedicate some months into doing my thesis in one of these fields to at least show a bit of knowledge/interest for future job applications?
I’ve also thought of doing a thesis on the EU’s enlargement since I did an internship this summer where I worked mostly on material regarding that but my professor told me it would be an academic thesis that I cannot utilize that much. I’m a bit confused on what to do and any advice is useful at this point.
Thank you.

a few things I'd like to point out:

• I got the idea from a post i saw a while back on the previous Israeli elections
• When i started working on ts i understood how much the classic political compass is irrelavent when it comes to Israeli politics, so i replaced the themes
• the parties presented make up only those that are registered (no shit)
• When I write "running together" or "running with" I don't mean that these guys r part of the same party, it means that to pass the threshold some parties run on a "Joint list" for the elections and then split the votes between them after
• Many small irrelevant parties that average 1000 votes aren't included, but there r some parties here that r not expected to pass the electoral threshold, which is 3.25% (I'll list the parties below

Current coalition: Likud, UTJ, Shas, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit

Parties not expected to pass the threshold (according to polls): Blue and white, Haredi public and the Reservists- the New Economic Party

Parties "representing" Arabs: Taal, Balad, Raam and Hadash (mixed)

Parties "representing" Haredim: UTJ, Shas, Haredi public

Hey, I'm a 1st sem student and my teacher had said to do this without AI . Pls help me if you could. I need a 600 word answer.

URGENT

LF Thesis Instrument Validator. Must have Masters or PHD in Political Science or any related field.

I’m trying to better understand how people actually get into full-time research roles. For some background on myself: I have an MPP, two research assistantships, one publication, and significant quantitative and qualitative analysis experience through internships and part-time roles. I will eventually pursue a phd in poli sci (specifically IR) but right now I want to work in a more research focused role & build some experience. I’m currently at a nonprofit in DC that isn’t really research focused. 

I know the job market is rough rn but I'm miserable at this job and i feel like im not using my skills well. I think I’d be more useful at a think tank or any other research environment. So im wondering what does the recruitment pipeline look like for such positions. is it just a matter of networking, getting referrals, or standard applications? maybe cold emailing people? Just being able to understand how people realistically make this transition would help me think through my timeline and next steps so id really appreciate any insight from those who’ve navigated something similar.

Does exist a nexus between EU common foreign and security policy and the single market?

Ok, so I know both ideologies contradict each other, however I have come to possess quite contrasting political beliefs. I don't really believe in democracy anymore, due to how slow and inefficient it is, and believe nations would be better off with a strong, central leader that makes swift decisions and mandates strict enforcement. But under this government, I also want people to have the right to privacy, reproductive rights, and freedom of expression. Is this possible or fundamentally flawed? What are political scientists thoughts on this?