Two Games for Introducing Political Science

Extract

We wish to pass on two exercises that we have found useful in introducing political science courses. Typically, finding a common basis of experience from which students can relate to the concepts and theories of the discipline is a problem. A few students will have experienced politics in government by working in campaigns, for example, and others will have recognized that politics pervades many activities outside government. But these threads are only drawn together by an instructor with difficulty and, anyway, will be just second hand experiences for many students.

Introducing the students by using a brief game can solve the problem admirably. We will outline two games, each likely to consume an hour or so of class time; both could be conducted within one hour.