About Politics and International Relations at Monash
The Politics and International Relations program is part of the School of Political and Social Inquiry within the Arts Faculty of Monash University; it is based on the Clayton and Caulfield campuses. We offer undergraduate, Honours and postgraduate degrees. Many subjects are available for study and there's a range of expertise available for supervision. Numerous careers are potentially open to Politics graduates.
Politics as an academic discipline
A key issue in Politics (of which International Relations is a sub-set) is the study of power. Where does power come from, who has it, and how does it affect who gets what? Politics is also very concerned with 'values', which are special types of ideas -- such as freedom, democracy, equality and security. What do such ideas really mean, and how can we achieve them in practice?
Within this setting, Politics covers a vast spread of more specific issues. These include the following examples: elections and public opinion; terrorism & the responses to it; foreign policy; globalisation; the role of the media; and Canberra's place in managing the Australian economy. Many more topics can be added to this list.
At Monash three broad areas of politics are particularly well represented, with each offering a range of units for study: Political Theory & Philosophy; Australian Government and Politics; and International Relations.
Studying Politics develops capabilities which can be applied in many other areas of study as well as work. These include the following overlapping skills:
- Analysis and logical thinking. The ability to sort things out and impose intellectual control on what is otherwise an overwhelming or confusing set of facts and opinions.
- The capacity to make connections between events and ideas that may not be apparent at first sight. Recognising more than the immediately obvious, identifying ways of developing the 'big picture'.
- Critical detachment and perspective. To fully understand an idea or event one has to be able to separate oneself and one's emotions from the matter at hand. One has to be able to escape the pressures of immediacy, see the historical context and the wider background to the issue, see the broader chain of cause and effect.
- The ability to present knowledge, ideas and arguments in a clear, logical, well grounded and considered manner.
Another way that studying politics enhances intellectual development arises from its combination of theoretical inquiry and exploration of concrete matters. After all, Politics is an engaged discipline: as well as reflecting on abstract argument it also deals with the 'real' world in the form of, for example, explaining and critiquing government policy.