The CQ Press Career Guide for Political Science Students. Wendy N. Whitman Cobb

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СКАЧАТЬ areas. Although bureaucrats are often maligned, these types of jobs are necessary for the everyday functioning of American government. It might seem boring, but the jobs these bureaucrats are carrying out can be exciting and rewarding.

      Peace Corps

      Established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, the Peace Corps is an esteemed volunteer program that provides needed assistance throughout the world in areas ranging from health and agriculture to economic development. With almost seven thousand volunteers serving worldwide, the Peace Corps is an attractive postcollege option but can be quite competitive to get into. There is no general application for the Peace Corps; instead, potential volunteers apply for specific positions in designated countries. This allows potential volunteers to choose which projects interest them the most and which projects they can most directly benefit. Most volunteers serve in a two-year program, but quick-response teams are also open to past volunteers. A political science degree can provide excellent preparation for a stint in the corps, as understanding global dynamics, institutions, and development are key when participating in Peace Corps projects.

      Lawyers

      One profession often crosses the boundary between public and private: the law. Not only can you practice in private, lawyers are in demand in the public sector. While being a lawyer in court is what usually comes to mind when you think about the law, there are plenty of other positions for lawyers in the government. Lawyers can be used when crafting and creating legislation, when analyzing legal implications for policy, and for interpreting and implementing legislation.

      The most obvious place for lawyers in government is the Department of Justice, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting federal crimes. However, most bureaucracies have legal departments whose responsibilities include analyzing legislation, writing regulations, ensuring that all laws are being followed, and recommending policy directives. Lawyers also have a role to play in the Department of Defense, as they can provide guidance on the interpretation of international agreements like the Geneva Convention. Similarly, lawyers are instrumental in crafting diplomatic agreements and treaties, centered in the Department of State.

      One area of law that is particularly important for the bureaucracy is called administrative law. Administrative law involves the body of law that governs how the government is organized and run. Administrative law includes things like regulations that bureaucracies craft and administer and how those regulations are carried out. The major piece of legislation that governs administrative law is the Administrative Procedures Act of 1946. The APA requires that bureaucracies wishing to publish new regulations must follow certain procedures to not only inform the public of those regulations but to give the public an opportunity to comment on them before they are put into effect. Many challenges to regulations today come out of the APA and the requirements it lays out for making and implementing regulations. In fact, this is so consequential that there is an entire court system, the administrative courts, that hears cases related to administrative law.

      Private-Sector Jobs

      By the term private sector, we mean nongovernment jobs. Believe it or not, as many job opportunities that exist in the government for political science majors, there are even more in the private sector. Since we left off talking about lawyers in government service, we’ll pick up with that topic here.

      Lawyers

      If you watch much television, you’re probably quite familiar with the sight of the courtroom lawyers. They either work for government to prosecute crimes or are defense attorneys, defending their clients from a charge or set of charges. While this is certainly a legitimate area of law, there are far more other areas of law that you could become interested in if you choose to become a lawyer. Here’s just a sampling:

       — Animal law

       — Antitrust law

       — Banking law

       — Business law

       — Communications law

       — Constitutional law

       — Contract law

       — Entertainment law

       — Family law

       — Health law

       — Immigration law

       — Juvenile law

       — Marital law

       — Music law

       — Patent law

       — Space law

       — Sports law

      Law degrees can also lead to jobs in entertainment or sports as an agent or representative for business affairs or contracts. It can also be parlayed into teaching constitutional law or writing on judicial issues for the media. Just because you get a law degree does not mean you’re limited in the types of things you can do with it.

      Campaigns and Elections

      Just as there are opportunities for lawyers both in and out of government service, jobs in the realm of campaigns and elections straddle the border as well. Due to laws restricting the use of governmental staff in the service of campaigning, when politicians run for office, they require a whole separate apparatus to organize and run their campaigns. Opportunities to work on political campaigns are wide and varied but unfortunately ebb and flow with the coming and going of election season. Campaign operatives are needed to assist in organizing travel for both the candidate and needed staffers, communicating with the press, establishing a message to potential voters, mobilizing potential voters, writing speeches, testing public opinion, and, perhaps most importantly, raising money. Today’s modern campaigns require staffers to address new dimensions of life and society, including social media and rapid reaction to comments made by others. Often, jobs with candidates can be parlayed into government positions, if and when the favored candidate wins election.

      The importance and scale of campaigns and elections are such that cottage industries specializing in all of these tasks have grown to behemoth scale. These policy shops provide specialized advice to candidates and their campaigns about what their message should be or sound like, the appearance of the candidates themselves, public policy issues, and public opinion. In fact, pollsters, those who construct and conduct public opinion polls, are in high demand not just for those seeking public office but those already in it. Other firms provide services such as crafting media messages and campaign commercials. One of the most important services that these operatives can offer is on how to raise the enormous amounts of money that are often needed to run successful campaigns. A political science degree is excellent preparation for these professions because, in addition to the basic knowledge gained, many programs require courses in research methods and statistical methods that impart strong analytical research skills.

      One final area of employment in the arena of campaigns and elections is that of campaign finance law. Given the flow of money into politics today and the complicated laws and regulations about what can and cannot be accepted, campaign finance lawyers are often needed to advise campaigns on what is acceptable or not and to file the required disclosures that most all candidates must file revealing who has given what to their campaign. These lawyers СКАЧАТЬ