The records of the Department of Political Science document its administrative functions from 1910 to 2009 and the bulk of the records date from 1970 to 2009. The record group is divided into seven series: Committees, Correspondence, Course and Degree Information, Departmental Meetings, Faculty, Topical Files, and Audio-Visual.
Although the Department of Political Science was not formally established until 1910, courses in what came to be known as the field of political science have been taught at the University of Michigan since 1860, when Thomas McIntyre Cooley began to offer classes on the Constitution within the Law Department. After 1865, courses in government were offered in the Department of History, reflecting the focus of history on political institutions, individuals, and events. Within this department, Charles Kendall Adams taught lecture courses in the growth of liberty in England and the history and characteristics of the Constitution of the United States. From 1872 to 1910, President James B. Angell taught classes in Public International Law and the History of Treaties which were available to students in both the Law Department and the Department of Literature, Science and the Arts (LS&A). In 1881, a School of Political Science was formed within LS&A with Adams as dean. The new school combined the curricula taught by these three men with other topics such as political economy, social science, sanitary science, comparative administrative law, and forestry administration. The school only lasted through the 1887-1888 academic year, however, dissolving as a result of administrative difficulties and the departures of Adams to Cornell in 1885 and temporarily of Cooley to the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887.
Once the School of Political Science was discontinued, courses in this subject were again taken over by the history department. With the retirement of President Angell in 1909, it was determined that a new faculty member should be appointed to teach his courses and this process led to the establishment of a new department within LS&A. In 1910, the Department of Political Science was established with Jesse Siddall Reeves appointed as its first professor. Reeves taught courses in American Government, Municipal Government, Public International Law, and the History of American Diplomacy. The courses proved quite popular and faculty appointments and student enrollment increased for several years. Joseph Hayden was the first to receive a Ph.D. from the department in 1915. The Center for Political Studies was formally created in 1970 within the Institute of Social Research with Professor Miller serving as the first director. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford was appointed as an adjunct professor and came to campus to give presentations on foreign policy. In 1990, the chair of the department, Jack Walker, died in a car crash, which caused the Undergraduate Affairs Conference to be renamed the Walker Conference.
In 1997 U.S. News and World Report ranked the department as number one in the field of American government and politics, and second for its overall program. The department currently teaches courses within six major fields of political science: American politics, comparative politics, world politics and international relations, political theory, law and courts, and methodology.
Department of Political Science Chairs
| Date |
Event |
| 1910-1937 | Jesse Siddall Reeves |
| 1937-1944 | Joseph R. Hayden |
| 1944-1947 | Everett S. Brown |
| 1947-1961 | James K. Pollock |
| 1961-1964 | Arthur W. Bromage |
| 1964-1970 | Samuel J. Eldersveld |
| 1970-1971 | Donald G. Stokes |
| 1972-1977 | Harold K. Jacobson |
| 1977-1982 | Samuel H. Barnes |
| 1982-1989 | John W. Kingdon |
| 1990-1993 | Arlene Saxonhouse |
| 1993-1999 | John E. Jackson |
| 1999-2004 | Daniel H. Levine |
| 2004-2008 | Donald R. Kinder |
| 2008-2014 | Charles R. Shipan |
| 2014- | Nancy Burns |
