Politics

Politics is the study of power: how it is organised and legitimised, how it is contested and constrained, and how the decisions that affect all of us are made. It examines the concepts that underpin political life, including justice, democracy, authority, and conflict, alongside the empirical realities of governments, parties, elections, and international relations. Political science uses rigorous methods to analyse and compare political phenomena across countries and systems, combining theoretical depth with empirical investigation in ways that illuminate both how politics works and how it ought to work.

At the London School of Economics, this three-year full-time BSc Politics places you at one of the world's leading centres for the social sciences. You will study political theory and the history of political thought alongside comparative politics, international relations, and the analytical methods used to investigate political phenomena. The degree develops your capacity to engage with competing theories, evaluate evidence, and construct arguments that can be defended against critical scrutiny.

A year abroad is available, deepening your understanding of political systems and cultures beyond the United Kingdom and adding an international dimension to your academic development.

LSE's location in central London, close to Parliament, the civil service, think tanks, and the international organisations headquartered in the city, provides a context that is itself an educational resource, and the connections between LSE's academic work and the practice of politics and policy are unusually direct.

Graduates from LSE Politics programmes move into careers in the civil service, diplomacy, politics itself, think tanks and policy institutes, journalism, international organisations, law, consultancy, and finance. The analytical and communication skills the degree develops are valued across virtually every sector where evidence-based argument and understanding of governance matter. Postgraduate study in politics, international relations, or public policy is a common path for those who want to develop deeper expertise or pursue academic careers.