Western-style social science division at the University of Tartu, with the faculty composed of both local and foreign professors. Teaching and research are the main activities of the department.
The research interests within the department are
democratic transition- electoral systems
- parties and party systems
- critical geopolitics, civil society
- Baltic history and politics
- international relations in the Baltic sea region
- nationalism and comparative ethnopolitics
The department is a member of the European Consortium for Political Research; it disseminates its research output by giving papers at the World Congress of the International Political Science Association, the Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, as well as at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association.
Website provides information (in both English and Estonian) on the projects and programs of the department as well as a list of publications.