Through the courses it offers, the research its members conduct and the events it sponsors, the Department of Political Science does this by stimulating examination of these questions: What is the good life? and How can members of the civic community be effective creators of a good life characterized by justice?

The department is committed to the education of the whole student, to the scholarly life, and to an approach which is not "ivory tower," but rather which reaches out in service to society. The primary focus of the discipline of Political Science is the good life. Within the context of St. Mary's University, the mission of the Department of Political Science, the civic conscience of the university community, is to foster the building of the good life.