Business and Politics
Business and politics are more deeply intertwined than either discipline might suggest in isolation. Political decisions shape the environment in which businesses operate, through regulation, taxation, trade policy, competition law and public procurement. Businesses in turn influence politics through lobbying, campaign finance, the economic power they wield and the employment they provide.
Understanding this relationship from both sides, with the analytical tools of business alongside the theoretical and historical frameworks of politics, is the aim of this combined degree.
At Aston University this four-year full-time programme develops your understanding of business across its core disciplines, including strategy, marketing, finance, organisational behaviour and international business, while also giving you a serious engagement with political science, public policy, international relations and political economy. You will examine how markets and political institutions co-evolve, how globalisation changes both business strategy and political calculation, and how different political systems shape different business environments. The programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study business and politics in a different national context and to build the comparative perspective that is essential in a world where decisions made in one country rapidly affect businesses everywhere else.
Graduates from business and politics programmes go on to careers in management, public affairs and government relations, policy research, consultancy, international organisations, journalism, the civil service and politics itself. The ability to move fluently between business and political analysis is increasingly valuable in a world where the two domains are inseparable. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in business administration, public policy, international relations or political economy.
This degree suits people who want to understand how power and commerce interact, and to build careers at the point where they meet.