The Ph.D. Program in Political Science of the City University of New York, located in the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York at 365 Fifth Avenue in New York, consists of a community of scholars dedicated to the tasks of acquiring, expanding, and transmitting reliable knowledge about political phenomena. Its essential function is to educate professional political scientists capable of independent research and qualified for careers in academic institutions, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector. Although the Ph.D. Program in Political Science features a diversity of approaches, all students are expected both to specialize and to develop an understanding of the discipline as a whole. Comparative Politics was founded by the Political Science Program of the City University of New York in 1968 to further its scholarly mission by promoting research in the field of comparative politics and is an integral part of its contribution to the discipline of political science.