📜Intro to Political Science

Defining Politics: Who Gets What, When, Where, How, and Why?

Public Policy, Public Interest, and Power

Political Science: The Systematic Study of Politics

Normative Political Science

Empirical Political Science

Individuals, Groups, Institutions, and International Relations

What Goals Should We Seek in Politics?

Why Do Humans Make the Political Choices That They Do?

Human Behavior Is Partially Predictable

The Importance of Context for Political Decisions

The Classical Origins of Western Political Ideologies

The Laws of Nature and the Social Contract

The Development of Varieties of Liberalism

Nationalism, Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism

Contemporary Democratic Liberalism

Contemporary Ideologies Further to the Political Left

Contemporary Ideologies Further to the Political Right

Political Ideologies That Reject Political Ideology: Scientific Socialism, Burkeanism, and Religious Extremism

The Freedom of the Individual

Constitutions and Individual Liberties

The Right to Privacy, Self-Determination, and the Freedom of Ideas

Freedom of Movement

The Rights of the Accused

The Right to a Healthy Environment

What Is Political Participation?

What Limits Voter Participation in the United States?

How Do Individuals Participate Other Than Voting?

What Is Public Opinion and Where Does It Come From?

How Do We Measure Public Opinion?

Why Is Public Opinion Important?

Political Socialization: The Ways People Become Political

Political Culture: How People Express Their Political Identity

Collective Dilemmas: Making Group Decisions

Collective Action Problems: The Problem of Incentives

Resolving Collective Action Problems

Civil Rights and Constitutionalism

Political Culture and Majority-Minority Relations

Civil Rights Abuses

Civil Rights Movements

How Do Governments Bring About Civil Rights Change?

What Is an Interest Group?

What Are the Pros and Cons of Interest Groups?

Political Parties

What Are the Limits of Parties?

What Are Elections and Who Participates?

How Do People Participate in Elections?

What Do Legislatures Do?

What Is the Difference between Parliamentary and Presidential Systems?

What Is the Difference between Unicameral and Bicameral Systems?

The Decline of Legislative Influence

Democracies: Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential Regimes

The Executive in Presidential Regimes

The Executive in Parliamentary Regimes

Advantages, Disadvantages, and Challenges of Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes

Semi-Presidential Regimes

How Do Cabinets Function in Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes?

What Are the Purpose and Function of Bureaucracies?

What Is the Judiciary?

How Does the Judiciary Take Action?

Types of Legal Systems around the World

Criminal versus Civil Laws

Due Process and Judicial Fairness

Judicial Review versus Executive Sovereignty

The Media as a Political Institution: Why Does It Matter?

Types of Media and the Changing Media Landscape

How Do Media and Elections Interact?

The Internet and Social Media

Declining Global Trust in the Media

Contemporary Government Regimes: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority

Categorizing Contemporary Regimes

Recent Trends: Illiberal Representative Regimes

What Is Power, and How Do We Measure It?

Understanding the Different Types of Actors in the International System

Sovereignty and Anarchy

Using Levels of Analysis to Understand Conflict

The Realist Worldview

The Liberal and Social Worldview

Critical Worldviews

The Problem of Global Governance

International Law

The United Nations and Global Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)

How Do Regional IGOs Contribute to Global Governance?

Non-state Actors: Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)

Non-state Actors beyond NGOs

The Origins of International Political Economy

The Advent of the Liberal Economy

The Bretton Woods Institutions

The Post–Cold War Period and Modernization Theory

From the 1990s to the 2020s: Current Issues in IPE

Considering Poverty, Inequality, and the Environmental Crisis