Politics Interview - Suggested Reading List (Expert Oxford & Cambridge Application Advice)
Shortlisted candidates applying for PPE or History & Politics at Oxford will be required to attend a politics interview as part of their application. The themes, topics and questions of the interview will naturally vary depending on the tutor, college and the specialisation of the given tutor. This article will give you a brief introduction to the main sub-categories of political science that are taught and studied at Oxford, and how to best prepare for each one by taking you through the introductory literature in each of these sub-disciplines. Note that this is not an exhaustive list of the sub-disciplines, and your application can succeed whilst focusing on other, distinct areas of political sciences.
If you’re applying for PPE or History & Politics you are not required to have studied A-level politics (or equivalent) and hence not expected to have any specific prerequisite knowledge of the subject. Interviews are more about the way you think and how you respond to new information and an intellectual challenge; they are not designed to test how much you know.
However, wider reading can be useful if it helps to furnish your arguments and interpretations. The wider your knowledge-base, the larger the set of arguments that you can draw upon in your own interview. Introductory reading into the subject also helps to demonstrate your preparedness, commitment to your studies, and helps to soothe your nerves ahead of the interview.
Political science is usually divided into four sub-disciplines, each of which might be the subject of your interview. Each of these disciplines is unique and has its own academic literature that you will come to know (at least in part) over the course of your studies. Below are a few works that form a good introduction into each of these disciplines. Don’t worry if you find them difficult or challenging to read. Your focus instead should be on thinking through the arguments of these works and evaluating their authors’ ways of thinking and understanding the political world.
Comparative government
First-year students politics students at Oxford are required to read Arend Lijphart’s ‘Patterns of Democracy’ as a way of introduction to conceptualising different democratic political systems, and trying to find statistical evidence allowing for their direct comparison. This is an advanced read, but I would recommend it to anyone wanting to find out what studying politics really looks like. This book poses fundamental questions regarding causation and correlation in political science, and this, in turn, becomes the topic of many politics tutorials in the first year of your studies and beyond. If you’re not able to read the whole book, it’s also worth reading its summaries or reviews particularly from academic journals available on akademia.edu or wikisum.com.
Political Philosophy
Frequently raised issues in political philosophy interviews include: questions on the legitimacy of the state and state power; ethical and moral issues with international borders; moral and practical superiority of democracy over other political systems; and questions such as is it better to be feared or loved? You might also be asked to think about the disagreements between and internal paradoxes of mainstream political ideologies.
Simon Blackburn's ‘Think’ and Jonathan Wolff ‘Introduction to Political Philosophy’ remain the most popular introductory titles on the subject. For more advanced discussions, I’d advise reading writers associated with particular ideological outlooks, as their works are more likely to give you arguments that you can think over and critically evaluate. My suggestions would include: Friedrich von Hayek’s essay ‘Why I’m not a conservative’. Roger Scruton’s book ‘A Political Philosophy: Arguments for Conservatism’, J.S. Mill, ‘On Liberty’ and G.A. Cohen’s ‘Why not Socialism?’.
International Relations
An enormous field in its own right with multiple sub-disciplines and scholars committed to studying them. A good way to begin your study of IR is to familiarise yourself with some of the most well-known schools of IR theory: realism, liberalism, Marxism and constructivism. For a light but stimulating read, I would recommend ‘Theories of International Relations and Zombies’ by Daniel Drezner, which an excellent yet humorous introduction to IR. Alternatively, as with political philosophy, you could read authors who espouse clear theoretical outlooks and then try your hand in evaluating their viewpoints. The list here is endless, but some of the best-known titles include Kenneth Waltz’s ‘Men, the State and War’, Hans Morgenthau’s ‘Politics amongst Nations’ and Alexander Wendt’s ‘Social Theory of International Relations’.
Political Sociology
Political sociology is concerned with the study of sociological phenomena and their implications on the wider political processes. Particularly pertinent in an era when the political status quo is being overturned in much of the western world, political sociology tends to take a more granular look at the world than, for instance, international relations. Political sociologists are also interested in the questions of state legitimacy, but unlike philosophers, they seek to explain, for example, how the state has arisen and how it came to be viewed as legitimate, not whether it is legitimate. The last couple of years has seen a deluge of books concerned with analysing events such as Brexit and Trump’s elections through the prism of political sociology. Some best known and most interesting titles include 'Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right' by Arlie Russell Hochschild and ‘The Road to Somewhere’ by David Goodhart. If you’re interested in sociology as an academic discipline, you might also want to read some works by the founders of the discipline: Durkheim and Weber, or books concerning sociology from Oxford’s Very Short Introductions series.
Quantitative Methods
As a social science, politics is also becoming increasingly quantitative in its method and approach. This transition has also led to Oxford introducing compulsory QSTEP modules which teach you how to work with political data and use some basic programming language to supplement your analysis. As such, a basic background in statistics is useful, at the very least to ensure that you’re able to understand graphs and statistics that you might be presented with. For more formal introductions to the subject, you could start with Timothy Urdan’s ‘Statistics in Plain English’.
Current Affairs
Any politics applicant worth their salt must have a good grasp of contemporary political developments. The best way to do so is to read high-quality publications from across the political spectrum. I would personally recommend: Foreign Policy, The Economist, Politico, The New Yorker magazine, Foreign Affairs, National Review and Prospect.
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This article was written by Wojciech (Oxford - History & Politics).
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Author: Wojciech - Oxford
BA History & Politics
Since graduating I have acquired extensive experience in Mentoring for Oxbridge admissions. I have worked in person with students in London, Hong Kong and Budapest and taught A-level History and Politics at Akademeia High School in Warsaw.
