Associate in Arts in Political Science

at Santa Barbara City College

The study of politics in our contemporary world is the study of how people govern themselves. We examine the process by which scarce resources are allocated to an expanding population with ever-increasing demands. We look at American politics as an experience in "self-government" and realize that our system is quite different, for example, from the political system developed by the People's Republic of China -- and also different from other Western democracies. We examine these differences and attempt to understand something about the degree to which one system works better than another.