Yorktown University's M.A. in Government degree program is intended to provide access to some of the most important scholarship in the humanities, government and economics as they pertain to mastery of the science of politics, political economy and culture.

The M.A. in Government degree program is a twelve course (36 credits) program of advanced courses distributed into four area concentrations. Students must choose an area "concentration" and earn at least 3 credits in two concentrations other than a student's "major" area concentration. The course of study concludes with a comprehensive examination.

Foundations of Democracy in America and Western Europe

The transformation of the American nation from a federal republic to a nation-state with imperial obligations worldwide has not occurred without transforming our fundamental law.  What transformation has occurred; its implications for political life in the 21st century and the relation of contemporary public policy to the Constitution is the focus of this area concentration.  The origins and meaning of the U.S. Constitution have never been more important and more frequently the subject of public debate.  Courses offered in this area concentration will be of interest to attorneys, government executives, elected officials, journalists, bloggers and all persons who want to understand the critical legal issues of the day.

Political Economy

Economics is fundamental to the character of government and to the relationship between free citizens and their government.  A free people who are ignorant of economics can easily transform elected governments into engines for the abuse of state power by changing the economic-state power balance.  Yorktown University's concentration in Political Economy is founded on the insight that fuelled those early Americans to choose freedom and to inaugurate the "Spirit of '76."

Political Theory

Too many educated citizens, journalists, politicians, cultural and religious leaders are ignorant of the Western tradition of philosophy and are ill-equipped, to recognize the difference between ideology and philosophy.  The former is the source of disorder in the modern era.  Ignorance about philosophy contributes directly or indirectly to cultural relativism, the misuse and corruption of language, and the vulgarity so pervasive in public discourse today.  This neglect has created an intellectual vacuum from which a deepening nihilism has seeped into the American political community.  That cultural decline can be overcome on a personal and societal level only by good education.

American Culture and the Life of the Citizen

The area concentration in American culture develops the importance of non-utopian faith for civil society and society's need for some form of public ritual that honors the sovereignty of God.  American literature, religion, art and architecture reveal the truths-and distortions of truths-that Americans have shared throughout their history.  Popular music, works of art and architecture, popular literature, Pop Science, Pop Psychology, and the many New Age nostrums to which modern man clings are responses to changes in the way Americans interpret their experience of the sacred, the profane, order and disorder.  A reasoned critique of modern culture, exploration of the roots of civil society and the outlines of a course for cultural recovery has been sought by scholars of several generations.  At Yorktown University, we challenge our graduate students to join that search.