The department offers two MA programs: a twelve-month MA in Political Studies. Comparative Politics is our Department's largest sub-field. Eight of the Political Studies Department’s twenty-three full-time faculty list Comparative Politics as one of their research fields. Comparativists usually combine two foci. First, they are generally interested in a range of themes, concepts or issues. Second, they research these matters within a particular country or set of countries, or regions of the world; although some comparativists research their thematic interests wherever they are salient and not just in particular places. At Queen’s comparativists are concerned with broad questions that relate to some of the most important themes of our day. These include nationalism, ethnicity and multiculturalism; class and political economy; identity and culture; regime transitions and democratization; and political institutions including federalism, power-sharing (consociationalism), political parties, and elections. Some of us are interested in the nexus between Comparative Politics and International Relations, in such areas as international political economy, globalization, or the effects of evolving international norms on minority rights and human rights. Our area specialists work on a wide range of different regions, including North America, Latin America, Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Comparativists at Queen’s conduct research in the following areas: ethnic conflict; minority nationalism; federalism; power-sharing (consociationalism); diasporas; state-society relations, including relations between the security sector (police and army) and society; democratization in Latin America; democratization in eastern Europe; language politics; the welfare state, including the politics of employment equity; industrial relations; the politics of aging; the politics of prisons; political corruption; as well as the politics of the European Union, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Iraq, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Peru, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.