The goal of the Political Science Program at Santa Barbara City College is to prepare students to develop the fundamental understanding of the American political experience as a unique experiment in “self-government,” going beyond studying how America is governed to look at other political systems with a view to realizing the differences and commonalities between these political systems. The program examines these differences in an attempt to understand something about the degree to which one system is better suited to a country than another, and whether or not one can indeed speak of one type of political arrangement as the “best.” Our discipline also seeks to understand the causes, dynamics and possibilities of conflict and conflict resolution in the international arena, by studying the interactions of states, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and non-state actors on the global scene.