Economics and Politics

Economics and politics share a preoccupation with the most fundamental questions of how societies organise themselves and distribute their resources. Politics examines how power is acquired, exercised, and constrained, and how collective decisions are made through institutions, ideologies, and democratic or authoritarian processes. Economics analyses how markets allocate resources, how policy can correct market failures, what drives growth and inequality, and how states manage their fiscal and monetary affairs.

The interaction between the two disciplines is continuous and often decisive: political choices shape economic outcomes, and economic conditions shape political possibilities.

At Stirling you will study this four-year full-time programme, with a year abroad available within the degree. You will develop both the formal analytical tools of economics, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, and quantitative methods, and the qualitative analytical approaches of political science, which range from empirical comparative analysis to normative political theory. The combination gives you the range to engage with complex policy questions from multiple angles, and the year abroad broadens your comparative perspective by exposing you to different political economies and academic traditions.

Graduates of economics and politics find their combination of skills valued across a range of career paths. Finance, including investment banking, asset management, and economic consultancy, is a major destination, as is the civil service, where economic and political literacy are both valued. Think-tanks, international organisations, journalism, policy research, and roles in politics and public affairs are also common.

The quantitative skills from economics and the analytical breadth from politics together create a distinctive professional profile. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in economics, public policy, international relations, or political science.