Jobs / Science and research / 19-3094.00
Political Scientists
Study the origin, development, and operation of political systems. May study topics, such as public opinion, political decisionmaking, and ideology. May analyze the structure and operation of governments, as well as various political entities. May conduct public opinion surveys, analyze election results, or analyze public documents.
- US jobs
- 5,540
- Median wage
- $142,080 a year
- Job family
- Science and research
Can agents do the work of political scientists?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Science and research:
- Task levelPartialThin evidence. CORE-Bench asks agents to reproduce the results of published papers in computer science, social science, and medicine from the authors' code and data. Princeton's HAL team declared it solved in December 2025: Claude Code with Claude Opus 4.5 scored 95.5% after manual regrading. No benchmark in our collection tests new experiments or lab work.
- Project levelNot yetThin evidence. On PaperBench, where agents replicate machine learning papers from scratch, the best official result is 26.0% (o1, April 2025). On a small subset, ML PhDs scored 41.4% against o1's 26.6%. No newer official results exist, and no benchmark tests research projects in other sciences.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in science and research, not always this occupation's tasks.
- 95.5%Claude Code + Claude Opus 4.5 (after manual regrading) · 3 Dec 2025Solved
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Teach political science.
- Maintain current knowledge of government policy decisions.
- Develop and test theories, using information from interviews, newspapers, periodicals, case law, historical papers, polls, or statistical sources.
- Disseminate research results through academic publications, written reports, or public presentations.
- Advise political science students.
- Collect, analyze, and interpret data, such as election results and public opinion surveys, reporting on findings, recommendations, and conclusions.
- Interpret and analyze policies, public issues, legislation, or the operations of governments, businesses, and organizations.
- Identify issues for research and analysis.
- Serve on committees.
- Forecast political, economic, and social trends.
- Consult with and advise government officials, civic bodies, research agencies, the media, political parties, and others concerned with political issues.
- Evaluate programs and policies, and make related recommendations to institutions and organizations.
Other job titles for this occupation (23)
Citizen Participation Specialist · Government Affairs Researcher · Government Affairs Specialist · Health Policy Analyst · Legislative Affairs Specialist · Legislative Analyst · Legislative Liaison · Legislative Policy Analyst · Local Governance Specialist · Medical Policy Analyst · Policy Advisor · Policy Analyst · Policy Associate · Policy Officer · Policy Specialist · Political Advisor · Political Aide · Political Analyst · Political Consultant · Political Research Scientist · Political Researcher · Project Policy Analyst · Strategist