Undergraduate Calendar 2011-2012

Politics and Economics

Programme Objectives

Introduction
Political Science
Economics

Introduction

The primary purpose of the Politics and Economics Department is to provide the Officer Cadets of the Royal Military College of Canada with the best possible university-level education in two major fields of the social sciences - economics and politics. This education must benefit first and foremost the students themselves and, as a direct consequence, the professional development of the future officers of the Canadian Forces. The quality of this education must be such that the doors of every graduate school will be opened to the best of these students.

Social scientists seek to understand and to analyse human behaviour. In their study of society they make both normative and positive statements. Normative statements concern what one believes ought to be. They are based on value judgements related to philosophical, cultural and religious systems. Positive statements, on the other hand, are about matters of fact. They are testable statements and can be proved by empirical evidence. Successfully predicting the behaviour of a large group of people, for example, is made possible by the statistical "law" of large numbers which asserts that irregularities in individual behaviour tend to cancel each other out and regularities tend to show up in repeated observations.

Language and writing skills are a basic requirement for studying social sciences. Hence students are encouraged to take maximum advantage of all the opportunities, including the services of the Writing Centre, made available to them during their first two years of study to develop these skills.

Political Science

Courses in political science focus on a broad spectrum of domestic and international social issues whose resolution has political implications.

Courses cover a range of issues from the following fields of study:

  • Canadian politics;
  • International relations;
  • Comparative politics;
  • Political theory;
  • Public administration and policy;
  • Geography

Students will complete the following fields of study:

  • The study of Canadian politics examines the structure, the institutions and the decision-making process of the Canadian polity in the context of the roles and goals of the citizens in the polity. Political parties, interest groups, elections, the Constitution, the Charter of Rights, the Judiciary and the rule of law are closely scrutinized. While POE328 and POE330 provide an overview of all aspects of Canadian politics, POE416 concentrates on defence and foreign affairs.

  • In POE216 students are introduced to the theory and practice of international relations, while in POE317 contemporary strategic studies are covered. This is followed by POE412 which focuses on contemporary foreign and defence policies of the United States. POE460 and POE462 deal with international conflict analysis from the political, economic, social and military perspectives. All aspects of terrorism are discussed in POE458, while POE413 analyses the nuclear issues.

  • Each country in the world has adopted a somewhat different system of government that reflects its particular history, development, culture, values and resources. The study of comparative politics examines the diversity of political systems and approaches. In POE320 and POE322 students are introduced to theories of comparative politics and their application. POE424 focuses on the theories of modernization and political development in the Third World, while POE426B involves case studies of selected countries.

  • Political theory studies the methods of inquiry of political analysis and considers the tenants of the political philosophers over the centuries. Every course in politics is founded on political theory, especially POE102, POE312, POE314 and POE328. POE418 and POE420 deal with political "isms" (i.e. socialism, liberalism, capitalism, etc).

  • Modern governments are large organizations or bureaucracies faced with problems of leadership and authority, communication and accountability, policy formulation and delivery, and many others. How governments organize themselves to solve these problems is the study of public administration. In POE332 students study organization theory and its application to the practice of public administration in Canada. POE334 studies theories of public policy-making and their application in the federal government of Canada.

  • Geography courses survey the evolution of regions, geopolitical patterns and processes including disintegration of empires, geostrategic theories, spacial patterns, migration, demographics, and the ecological consequences of resource exploitation. In GOE202 students study basic concepts of political geography. Four major regions of the world are studied in GOE305 and GOE307 while GOE418 analyses different approaches to cultural and historical geography. Seminar courses address urban-economic and cultural geography of North America, geopolitical aspects of international law and maritime boundaries. The Distinguished Speakers Series in Political Geography addresses contemporary geopolitical issues.

Economics

Economics is a social science in that it studies social problems of choice from the scientific viewpoint, which means that it is built on a systematic explanation of problems of choice where resources to satisfy unlimited human wants are scarce. This systematic explanation involves both the formation of theories and the examination of data. Unlike the approach generally used by political scientists, economists commonly construct models of the economy using varying degrees of mathematical sophistication to depict particular features of the economy with which they are concerned.

Students are introduced to economics in the First Year courses, ECE103 Introduction to Microeconomics and ECE104 Introduction to Macroeconomics. These courses familiarize students to the methods of economics. Microeconomics studies the behaviour of individual decision makers such as firms and households. It deals with determination of prices and quantities in individual markets and with the relationship among markets. In contrast, macroeconomics looks at the behaviour of the economy as a whole, in particular the behaviour of such aggregate measures as overall rates of unemployment, inflation, economic growth and the balance of trade. Separate courses taken by all students enrolled in the programme, ECE206, ECE308, ECE224 and ECE326, concentrate on macroeconomics and microeconomics, respectively, in much greater depth with respect to both theory and policy issues.

n addition to the above courses in economics all student are required to take a one-term course in Statistical Analysis for Social Scientists. To complete the number of courses in economics required in the two senior years, students may select the appropriate number from the following courses:

  • ECE300: Money, Financial Institutions and Markets
  • ECE312: The Development of Economic Ideas
  • ECE316: Canadian Economic History
  • ECE318: International Economic Problems
  • ECE320: Industrial Organization
  • ECE342: Introduction to Econometrics
  • ECE411: Public Finance
  • ECE417: International Economics
  • ECE424: Economics of Defence
  • ECE428: Economics of National Security
  • ECE442: Economics of the Environment
  • ECE448: Cost Benefit Analysis
  • ECE450: Topics in Microeconomics
  • ECE452: Topics in Macroeconomics
  • ECE492: Directed Readings in Economics Seminar

Students who contemplate later on pursuing postgraduate degrees in economics are strongly urged to include the two courses in quantitative analysis in their undergraduate studies. They also are encouraged to take as many courses in economics as are allowed in the economics degree programme at the College.