The Institute for Governance and Civics proposes a multidisciplinary undergraduate degree in Civics and Liberty Studies (CLS).
The program’s core, reflecting the IGC's legislative mandate and faculty’s expertise, will be the American civics traditions, broadly construed, mixed with a heavy emphasis on social science and methods of analysis. After taking a core set of classes, students will specialize in one of four areas of liberty: constitutional, economic, conscience, and educational liberty.
Course instruction and research supervision will be undertaken by IGC faculty and faculty from a variety of FSU departments. The degree’s interdisciplinarity will open up avenues for cooperation with existing, single-discipline departments.
The proposed curriculum is designed to provide a comprehensive education organized around civic thought, political philosophy, social science, and empirical methods. The courses together form a robust interdisciplinary program that prepares students to lead and to understand and analyze our unique republican form of government. This interdisciplinary program integrates classical and modern texts, empirical social science, legal analysis, and rhetorical training to develop thoughtful, data-informed, and ethically grounded civic leaders. The degree culminates in a senior research seminar and paper for every student.
This multidisciplinary undergraduate program falls under CIP code 30.5101 (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics).
CLS uniquely integrates political history, political science, philosophy, and economics into the study of American civics, setting it apart from existing programs that typically focus on narrower disciplinary perspectives. The curriculum also supports the IGC’s statutory mission to “[p]rovide students with access to an interdisciplinary hub that will develop academically rigorous scholarship and coursework on the origins of the American system of government, its foundational documents, its subsequent political traditions [and] evolutions….” It aligns with the BOG’s 2025 Strategic Plan, especially its aims to “address the significant challenges and opportunities facing Florida’s citizens, communities, regions, the state, and beyond,” and to [d]eliver knowledge to advance the health, welfare, cultural enrichment, and economy through community and business engagement and service.”
Why get a degree in Civics and Liberty Studies?
Like you, we are concerned about the cynicism with which many students leave universities, the ignorance about the history of national and local institutions, and the declining faith in our institutions. Liberty is never more than one generation away from extinction. To protect it, we must understand it and apply civic skills. This degree is an effort toward a renewed civic pragmatism.
The Civics and Liberty Studies degree is dedicated to civic formation in two parts.
The Liberal Arts Tradition. In the first part, the degree examines civic formation through the liberal arts. The curriculum focuses on constitutional thought, political philosophy, religion, and great books—with the hope of sharpening students’ acumen, opening their minds to great ideas, and softening their hearts to engage civilly in fruitful discussion over complex issues.
The Empirical Tradition. The degree also contains an empirical foundation. Citizens today must be capable not only of grasping the foundations of politics but also of navigating the increasingly data-driven environment of public life. To be effective citizens, they must know how to read a poll, interpret a margin of error, and discern whether results are randomized or biased. These are not optional skills. Without them, citizens risk exclusion from entire sectors of work and will be poorly equipped to evaluate what politicians and pundits tell them.
A Renewed Civic Pragmatism. These two features combine in what we call a “renewed civic pragmatism.” It is a pragmatism that balances the liberal arts’ cultivation of the whole person with the acquisition of technical competence. The aim is to provide a broad service: to train students in the application of social-scientific tools to civic life.
This degree program thus integrates policy studies with liberal arts education. It emphasizes statistics, surveys, and public opinion research, embedding these methods alongside classical instruction. Polling, in particular, functions as both a spotlight and a pedagogical instrument: a way of teaching students why data matter, how they tell a story, and how they can be used to evaluate leaders’ actions. Politics are increasingly visualized in graphs and statistics; to participate effectively, citizens must be able to interpret and, when necessary, challenge the numbers that shape public debate.
We need citizens who are both thoughtful and equipped—knowing, capable, appreciative of their institutions, and ready to engage in the practical work of modern American life.