<p>The Gov department has some amazing faculty, including Stanley Hoffman, Michael Sandel, Stephen Rosen, Robert Bates, Theda Skocpol and Sidney Verba. Here’s a link to the faculty list:</p>
<p>[Gov</a> Dept Faculty Spring 2008](<a href=“http://www.gov.harvard.edu/pub/gov_facluty_spring_08/]Gov”>http://www.gov.harvard.edu/pub/gov_facluty_spring_08/)</p>
<p>The course offerings are pretty broad, and the junior seminar program has been particularly successful. Here’s a listing of this year’s course offerings (the junior seminars are the Gov 90 series):</p>
<p>[HERS</a> Output](<a href=“http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/courses/Government.html]HERS”>http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/courses/Government.html)</p>
<p>And Gov department people also have access to resources at the Kennedy School and the Institute of Politics.</p>
<p>However, Gov is a large department and there have been complaints about inadequate advising, lack of personal attention, and the g-d awful sophomore tutorial (now mercifully only one semester instead of two because Harvard now doesn’t require students to declare a major until the end of the first semester of sophomore year). The number of Gov concentrators has declined from 236 in the Class of 2008 to 164 in the Class of 2009 to 125 in the Class of 2010, as described in this article in the Crimson:</p>
<p>[The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Fewer Students Opting for Gov](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=521683]The”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=521683)</p>
<p>The decline in concentrators seems to have woken up the Gov department administration, and they’re pledging to address the compaints. Between that and the smaller size of the department, it will probably get better. If it’s an area that interests you, the academic resources really are very good. But you might be happier in a smaller, more intimate, concentration if there’s one that interests you equally.</p>