MA in State and Government Studies

Course Overview

The MA in State and Government Studies at LSLPE is a research-informed Master's degree running one year full-time or two years part-time across on-campus, online and distance routes. The programme reads the modern state as a set of institutions, constitutional settlements and executive capacities that can be compared, evaluated and reformed. It is aligned with the guidance of the Political Studies Association and the Institute for Government, and every taught module is calibrated to the analytical standards expected of a senior civil service or think-tank researcher.

By graduation you will have produced Whitehall-style briefs on cabinet government, machinery-of-government reform and inter-institutional negotiation, contributed to at least one seminar in the select-committee tradition, and completed a 12,000 to 15,000 word dissertation supervised by a practising policy adviser or academic.

Key Features

• Comparative teaching that sets Westminster alongside continental, presidential and post-conflict systems.
• Curriculum benchmarked to Political Studies Association (PSA) and Institute for Government (IfG) analytical guidance.
• Supervised dissertation with named academic and practitioner co-supervisor where relevant.
• Select-committee style oral examinations in constitutional and executive modules.
• Weekly seminars with tutors drawn from Whitehall alumni networks and Chatham House-adjacent researchers.
• Careers pipeline into policy analyst, parliamentary researcher and think-tank fellow roles.

What You Will Learn

• Comparative constitutional design across Westminster, US federal, French semi-presidential and consociational systems.
• Machinery of government reform and the political economy of departmental reorganisation.
• Executive-legislative bargaining, cabinet-committee practice and the UK Cabinet Manual.
• Public administration reform and the transition between civil service traditions.
• Quantitative and qualitative research methods for state and government analysis.
• Sub-national and devolved government, including Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish settlements.
• Emergency powers, statutory instruments and the boundaries of prerogative authority.
• Dissertation design, ethics approval and the composition of a defensible research argument.

Who This Course Is For

• Civil servants and policy officers moving into senior grades or into the fast-stream research track.
• Parliamentary staff and constituency researchers looking to add a formal academic credential.
• International applicants comparing their own government systems against the UK model.
• Journalists, campaigners and NGO staff needing an evidence-anchored account of executive practice.
• Graduates preparing for doctoral research in political science or public administration.

Career Pathways

• Policy Adviser inside a Whitehall department or executive agency.
• Parliamentary Researcher supporting a select committee or front-bench team.
• Political Analyst at a think tank such as the Institute for Government.
• Public Affairs Officer at a trade body, NGO or corporate government-relations team.
• Foreign Policy Adviser or embassy political section researcher.
• Government Relations Manager coordinating stakeholder engagement.
• Strategic Intelligence Analyst working across government and private-sector clients.

The LSLPE careers service runs at least one careers day each academic year connecting Master's students with Whitehall recruiters, think-tank principals and international body hiring managers.

Entry Requirements

• A UK Bachelor's degree (2:2 or above) or equivalent international qualification in politics, law, public administration or a cognate social science.
• IELTS 6.5 overall (no band below 6.0) for non-native English speakers.
• Applicants without a Bachelor's degree but with 5+ years of senior professional experience in government, policy or parliamentary roles are considered on portfolio.
• One academic and one professional reference.
• A 500-word research proposal describing the intended MA in State and Government Studies dissertation topic.

Why Study at LSLPE

LSLPE is a specialist division of Harold International College of London that reads politics, law and economics as three interlocking disciplines. State and government cannot be taught by lecture; the MA in State and Government Studies is delivered in small, tutor-visible cohorts using the case-room and select-committee tradition so evidence is argued rather than repeated.

Central London places Parliament, Whitehall, the Royal Courts of Justice and Chatham House within a short tube ride of every classroom, and the LSLPE careers service holds standing conversations with recruitment leads across government departments, think tanks and international bodies. Online and distance students join the same weekly seminar structure with named programme-tutor support.

Apply for MA in State and Government Studies

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