Cornell's Department of Government is devoted to the study of political power, political institutions, public policy, public opinion and participation, political economy, interactions between citizens and governments, and between governments and non-governmental actors, on the one hand, and the international system, on the other.

Some faculty members concentrate on political theory and others on applications. Some concentrate on historical questions and others on contemporary issues. Some analyze the great texts of political philosophy, while others address political institutions and the behavior of power wielders, states, non-state actors and publics in the United States, other societies and the international system. Finally, some faculty members emphasize quantitative and formal approaches to politics, while others use qualitative methods. The Government Department, in short, is diverse in both topics of interest and methodologies.

The field of Government at Cornell is divided into four subfields: American politics, comparative politics (the institutions and political processes of other nations), political theory and philosophy, and international relations (or transactions between states, international organizations and transnational actors). While these subfields (together with methodology courses) summarize the focus of the department, the boundaries separating them are regularly crossed when the issues at hand - as is so often the case - require multiple perspectives.

Latest News:

Professor Peter Katzenstein has been elected as President-Elect of the American Political Science Association.

Professor Theodore J. Lowi has been awarded the James Madison Prize, awarded every three years to an American Political Scientist who has made a distinguished scholarly contribution to the profession. It is one of the very highest accolades of the discipline.

Professor Jonathan Kirshner has won the Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship.

Graduate student Lucia Seybert has won the Arts and Sciences Dean's Prize for Distinguished Teaching.

Assistant Professor Burke Hendrix is the recipient of the Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award.

Professor Susan Buck-Morss will be the first occupant of the Jan Rock Zubrow '77 Professorship in Social Sciences.

Professor Christopher J. Anderson has just received the Journal of Politics Best Paper Award for his article (together with Aida Paskeviciute) on "How Ethnic and Linguistic Heterogeneity Influence the Prospects for Civil Society: A Comparative Study of Citizenship Behavior," Journal of Politics 68 (4): 783-802.

Graduate student Michael Miller has just received the Warren J. Mitofsky Student Paper Award from the New York Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research for his paper , "Bringing Campaigning Back In: Public Money, Candidate Time, and Electoral Outcomes in State Legislative Elections."

Jason M.K. Lyall, Ph.D. 2005, received the 2007 Helen Dwight Reid Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of international relations, law and politics. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Politics & International Affairs at Princeton University.

Emmanuel J. Teitelbaum, Ph.D. 2006, won the 2007 Gabriel A. Almond Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of comparative politics. He holds the position of Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.