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Week 3 · Readings & resources

Week 3 — Readings & Resources · Political Ideologies

Introduction to Political Science · POLS 1 Fall 2026 · Prof. Halloran Fictional sample

Course: Introduction to Political Science (POLS 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Halloran
Objectives covered: Objective 3 (the major political ideologies, compared evenhandedly).

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 two primary excerpts 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 45–55 minutes if you do everything, far less if you pick one per group.

Order that matches the lecture: ① what an ideology is, and liberalism/conservatism/socialism defined → ② the rest of the family (communism, social democracy, anarchism, fascism, nationalism, environmentalism) and the left–right spectrum → ③ this week's two primary texts (for the workshop).

A habit to start now, and to keep all term: before you accept any description of an ideology — in these resources, in the news, or from a chatbot — ask: is this how that ideology's own strongest defenders would state it, or is it a caricature?

① Ideology, Liberalism, Conservatism, and Socialism, Defined

Maps to Lecture Segments 2–4. What an ideology is; liberalism (classical and modern); conservatism; socialism — each stated on its own terms.

Reading — "Political Ideologies and the Political Spectrum" (OpenStax, Introduction to Political Science)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/1-introduction (use the book's contents page to locate the ideologies chapter — search-verify the exact chapter slug before deep-linking; the contents page is always a safe path in)
🔗 Contents (safe fallback): https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science
Why it's assigned: a free, readable statement of exactly this week's ground — how political scientists define and compare ideologies without ranking them.
⏱ ~12 min

Video — "Political Ideology: Crash Course Government and Politics #35" (CrashCourse, YouTube)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_k_k-bHigM (full playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOfse2ncvffeelTrqvhrz8H)
Why it earns the click: a brisk, evenhanded walk through how political scientists define ideology and sort the major families — a nice complement to the lecture's values/fears/argues frame.
⏱ ~10 min

② The Rest of the Family & the Left–Right Spectrum

Maps to Lecture Segments 5–7. Communism vs. social democracy sorted out; anarchism, fascism, nationalism, environmentalism; the left–right spectrum and its limits.

Reading — OpenStax, Introduction to Political Science — ideologies chapter, continued (communism, social democracy, and the other traditions)
🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science (contents page; navigate to the ideologies chapter — verify the exact section slug before linking directly, per this course's link-checking practice)
Why it's assigned: covers the same neutral, side-by-side treatment for the ideologies beyond the "big three," including how political scientists distinguish socialism from communism from social democracy.
⏱ ~10 min

Reading — Khan Academy, "Political ideology" (US Government and Civics)
🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics
Why it earns the click: short explainers on how the left–right spectrum is used (and debated) in practice — search the site's Government and Civics unit for "political ideology" and "political spectrum."
⏱ ~8 min

③ This Week's Primary Texts (for the Workshop)

You'll close-read these in Political Analysis Workshop 3. Read each once before the workshop so you arrive ready to analyze its claim, its premises, and what it values and fears.

Primary text A — Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848), opening of Section I
🔗 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61 (Project Gutenberg — landing page)
🔗 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61/pg61-images.html (Project Gutenberg — full text)
Why it's assigned: the founding document of the communist tradition, in its own words — the opening line ("the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles") states the theory's central empirical claim before it draws any normative conclusion.
⏱ ~8 min for the excerpt

Primary text B — Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
🔗 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15679 (Project Gutenberg — landing page; the text appears within Burke's Writings and Speeches, Vol. III, beginning at that volume's page 231)
🔗 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15679/15679-h/15679-h.htm (Project Gutenberg — full text)
Why it's assigned: the founding document of modern conservatism, in its own words — Burke's defense of "prejudice" (inherited custom) as accumulated collective wisdom, written as a direct response to the French Revolution's break with tradition.
⏱ ~8 min for the excerpt

Optional one-stop references (free online)

Pick-one quick path (≈25 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Watch the CrashCourse ideology video (group ①) — the ideologies, defined and sorted.
2. Read both primary excerpts once, slowly (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 Project Gutenberg ebook-number landing page (gutenberg.org/ebooks/61 or /15679) in the meantime.

~ Prof. Halloran's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com