Week 1 — Readings & Resources · What Is Political Science? Subfields, Concepts & Methods

Course: Introduction to Political Science (POLS 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Halloran
Objectives covered: Objective 1 (the discipline, its subfields, and its methods).

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy.

This week's load is deliberately light: 2 short readings + 1 video + the primary text you'll use in the workshop, grouped by the ideas from the lecture, plus a couple of optional references. Read or watch one item per group and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them and you'll be very comfortable. Total time is roughly 40–50 minutes if you do everything, far less if you pick one per group.

Order that matches the lecture: ① what political science is and its subfields → ② empirical vs. normative and the toolkit → ③ the week's primary text (for the workshop).

A habit to start now: before you trust any political claim — in these resources or anywhere — ask the questions from class: What kind of claim is that — is or ought? And what's the evidence?

① What Political Science Is — and Its Five Subfields

Maps to Lecture Segments 1–3. The discipline defined; the five subfields (political theory, comparative politics, international relations, American government, political methodology) as five lenses on the same world.

Reading — "What Is Politics and What Is Political Science?" (OpenStax, Introduction to Political Science, Ch. 1)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/1-introduction
Why it's assigned: a free, readable statement of exactly this week's ground — what politics is (§1.1 is literally titled with Lasswell's shorthand, "Defining Politics: Who Gets What, When, Where, How, and Why?"), what makes its study systematic (§1.3), and how the discipline divides its labor. (Read §1.1 and §1.3; skim the rest of the chapter if curious.)
⏱ ~12 min

Reading — "Political Science" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is for theory; for the discipline overview, use the OpenStax preface tour of the field)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/preface
Why it earns the click: two pages that show how the whole textbook — like the whole discipline — is organized around individuals, groups, institutions, and the international system; a preview of your entire semester.
⏱ ~5 min

② Empirical vs. Normative & the Toolkit

Maps to Lecture Segments 5–7. The distinction that runs the course — claims about what is vs. claims about what ought to be — and the discipline's core tools.

Reading — "Normative Political Science" + "Empirical Political Science" (OpenStax, Introduction to Political Science, §1.4–1.5)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/1-4-normative-political-science
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/1-5-empirical-political-science
Why it's assigned: walks the same line the lecture walks — normative political science asks about the meaning, purposes, and goals of politics; empirical political science tests claims against evidence about what is. The distinction that runs this whole course, in the discipline's own words.
⏱ ~10 min

Video — "Introduction: Crash Course U.S. Government and Politics #1" (CrashCourse, YouTube)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrk4oY7UxpQ (full course playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOfse2ncvffeelTrqvhrz8H)
Why it earns the click: a brisk on-ramp to one of the five subfields — American government — which this course visits in depth in Weeks 10–12. Watching it now shows you what a subfield "lens" looks like in action; we'll return to this series all term.
⏱ ~7 min

③ The Week's Primary Text (for the Workshop)

You'll analyze this in Political Analysis Workshop 1. Read it once before the workshop so you arrive ready to source it and take its argument apart.

Primary text — The Declaration of Independence (adopted July 4, 1776; principal drafter Thomas Jefferson)
🔗 https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript (National Archives — the official transcription)
Why it's assigned: the most famous political argument in American history — and a perfect first specimen: its second paragraph packs a definable concept (legitimacy by consent), a deductive argument structure, and a deliberate braid of empirical and normative claims into five sentences you've heard quoted your whole life. This week you stop hearing it and start reading it.
⏱ ~10 min

Optional one-stop references (free online)

• OpenStax, Introduction to Political Science — the free survey text this course's link set returns to; a solid reference for any week.
  🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science
• Khan Academy — US Government and Civics. Short explainers you'll find linked again in Weeks 10–12.
  🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics
• The National Archives — America's Founding Documents. The Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights in official transcription; we link into this set repeatedly (Weeks 6, 7, 10).
  🔗 https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs

Pick-one quick path (≈25 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Read OpenStax Ch. 1 §1.1–1.3 (group ①) — the discipline and the empirical/normative line.
2. Read the Declaration's transcript once, slowly, second paragraph twice (group ③) — for the workshop.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell Prof. Halloran and use the OpenStax contents page or the National Archives founding-documents hub above in the meantime.