The course is designed to equip students with the analytical and conceptual skills required to examine US politics. These skills are fundamental to postgraduate study, but are also transferable to many other areas, academic and professional, as well as being invaluable for vocational and personal development. The course’s particular emphasis is on the battles over policymaking. Internationally-recognised experts will provide you with a depth of study and choice of specialisms that you will not find elsewhere. You will be introduced to cutting-edge research and encouraged to develop your own research skills. Our interdisciplinary approach, together with a large and active research community on American issues within Keele, contributes to a thriving intellectual culture of which you can expect to be a part as a student of US Politics. The USA is wrestling with its changed status in a multi-polar world, but it remains a vital force in international politics and a source of fascination to outside observers. Domestically, its politics are riven by competition between its parties and contentious debates across a whole range of policy areas. As the players in Washington DC and the statehouses struggle for power and the media reflect an increasingly coarse and strident form of politics, the American public have become more frustrated.