Elective Requirements

Meeting the Elective Requirements

All Government Department concentrators are required to take at least 3 Government electives; concentrators who take a methods course besides Government 50 are required to complete one additional elective course. The list below details ways to meet this requirement. Concentrators can meet up to 2 of their 3-4 elective requirements by taking classes at the Harvard Kennedy School, but only using courses preapproved by the Department of Government.  

Please note: The list below is intended for concentrators, not students interested in the secondary field in Government. Not all of the courses below will count toward the secondary field. For the list of courses that meet secondary-field requirements, please visit Secondary Field.  

Government Elective Courses for Concentration Credit, Fall 2025

**A full list of undergraduate Fall 2025 courses that meet the Government elective requirement for concentrators (and potentially other requirements) can be found on our Courses page.**

All Government Department courses (except Gov 91r, Supervised Reading and Research) count for Government elective credit. Gov 92r may be taken more than once, but only one semester may count as a Gov elective.

The following FAS courses have been approved for elective concentration credit in Government. Except as noted, these courses may not count for subfield credit. If there is a course that you think should count toward the Government Department requirements and it is not on this list, please contact the Undergraduate Program. The list of HKS courses that can be used to meet up to 2 of the elective requirements (see above) can be found here.

If there is a course that you think should count toward the Government Department requirements and it is not on this list, please fill out this form to petition to have it counted.  

Please note: The list below is intended for concentrators, not students interested in the secondary field in Government. Not all of the courses below will count toward the secondary field. For the list of courses that meet secondary-field requirements, please visit Secondary Field.  

African American Studies

• African American Studies 134Y: The Philosophy and Politics of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Terry)

East Asian Studies

• East Asian Studies 198: Political Parties of East Asia (Koss)

General Education

• GENED 1052: Race in a Polarized America (Hochschild) (may also count for American subfield) 
• GENED 1092: American Society and Public Policy (Skocpol & Waters)(may also count for American subfield) 

Social Studies

• Social Studies 50: Foundations of Social Science Research (Reichert) (may count as a research practice course for senior thesis writers)
• Social Studies 98WD: The Politics of Health and Medicine in the United States (Reichert)