Politics Degrees, Populism, & a Graduate Skillset to Thrive In a Polarized World

• In Event: TLC at APSA: Civic Engagement: Learning by Doing

Abstract

This paper investigates the question: how can we design political science degree programs in a way that equips graduates with the necessary skillset to thrive in an increasingly polarized political environment? The election of Donald Trump to the US presidency in November 2016 on an anti-globalist platform, exacerbated polarization between domestic proponents and opponents of this platform. This phenomenon is reflected in countries from the Philippines, to Hungary, and Brazil, where the election of a populist political actor, gaining electoral success on a nationalist anti-globalist platform, has exacerbated domestic political polarization between supportive and opposing groups. The phenomenon of domestic polarization in established democracies has had ramifications beyond the domestic arena, threatening the stability of the rules-based international order. This is the political domestic and global environment in which political science graduates will work, live, and make an impact, in coming decades.

So, what skillset do political science graduates need to thrive in an increasingly polarized domestic and global political environment? This paper posits that politics graduates need to be equipped, not only with traditional scholarly and analytical competencies, but also with group-level aptitudes including group decision-making, facilitation of inter-group conflict and collaboration amongst multiple stakeholders, as well as individual-level aptitudes such as leadership skills and innovative thinking, that provide competencies to thrive in a polarized world. Political polarization is predicated on the inability of human actors to skillfully facilitate group decision-making, collaboration amongst multiple-stakeholders, inter-group conflict, leadership challenges, and to move beyond polarized positions by applying innovative thinking to seemingly-intractable problems. These group-level and individual-level skills can be integrated into a politics degree as a new, necessary skillset.

In recent years, political science degrees have increasingly employed active learning methods to provide students with a more integrated understanding of complex conceptual material and real-life political dynamics (Glazier 2011); this paper suggests extending this trajectory to provide graduates with aptitude in the issue-areas critical to thrive professionally in a polarized political world. Under this model, a politics degree program would more explicitly integrate theoretical, conceptual, and analytical skills, with the inter-personal and intra-personal skillsets outlined. In this way, political science graduates would complete a degree program not just knowledgeable about different strategies of decision-making, but having facilitated decision-making outcomes and gained competence in this practice. Students would graduate not only comprehending group preferences, strategies, and interactions but having practiced various methods of conflict facilitation and dispute resolution. Graduates would not only understand the theory of different leadership styles but would be skilled in the practice of leadership, having identified their own leadership style, and integrated its application in real-life scenarios.

The paper addresses three challenges to this model. First, it may require an additional skillset for lecturers in order to be able to teach competently in such a politics degree program. Second, this degree model may raise an equity issue, as students would be required to participate in face-to-face sessions; this may be prohibitive for some students. Third, there may be ethical issues regarding the participation of students in active learning methods that provide students with practice in group-level skills such as facilitation.

Author

• Jessica Genauer, Australian National University