Week 6 — Readings & Resources · Constitutions, Constitutionalism & the Rule of Law

Course: Introduction to Political Science (POLS 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Halloran
Objectives covered: Objective 4 (regime types and constitutional structures).

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 texts 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 constitutions do and constitutionalism vs. mere constitutions → ② separation of powers and checks and balances → ③ the week's primary texts (for the workshop).

A habit to start now: before you trust any claim about "what the Constitution says" or "how separation of powers works" — in these resources or anywhere — ask the questions from class: is this about the formal design, or about practice? And what would verify it?

① Constitutions, Constitutionalism & Regime Types

Maps to Lecture Segments 2–4. What constitutions do; the written/unwritten divide; why having a constitution isn't the same as having constitutionalism.

Reading — "Categorizing Contemporary Regimes" (OpenStax, Introduction to Political Science, §13.2)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/13-2-categorizing-contemporary-regimes
Why it's assigned: walks through how real constitutions (from North Korea's to Mexico's) create governments and distribute — or fail to distribute — power, with concrete comparative cases of unitary vs. federal systems and parliamentary vs. presidential structures. A useful preview of Weeks 7 and 10 as well. (Read the sections on authoritarianism vs. representative regimes and unitary vs. federal; skim the country cases.)
⏱ ~15 min

Video — "Separation of Powers" (OpenStax-linked short video, via §13.2)
🔗 https://openstax.org/r/separationofpowers
Why it earns the click: a short, direct explainer on the philosophy behind dividing government power — the design idea Madison defends in this week's primary text.
⏱ ~4 min

② Separation of Powers & Checks and Balances

Maps to Lecture Segments 5–6. The rule of law defined precisely; separation of powers vs. checks and balances vs. federalism (the classic mix-up).

Video — "Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances" (Khan Academy, US Government and Civics)
🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-foundations/us-gov-principles-of-american-government/v/separation-of-powers-and-checks-and-balances
Why it's assigned: a compact walkthrough of how the three branches check one another in practice (vetoes, veto overrides, and the rest) — the mechanism that makes Madison's "ambition must be made to counteract ambition" design actually operate rather than stay a diagram.
⏱ ~6 min

Reading — "Principles of American Government" (Khan Academy article)
🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-foundations/us-gov-principles-of-american-government/a/principles-of-american-government-article
Why it earns the click: a short article-form companion covering the same separation-of-powers and checks-and-balances ground at a slightly higher altitude — useful if you'd rather read than watch.
⏱ ~8 min

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

You'll analyze these in Political Analysis Workshop 6. Read them once before the workshop so you arrive ready to source them and take their arguments apart.

Primary text 1 — The Federalist No. 51 (published February 8, 1788; traditionally attributed to James Madison, though the Avalon Project itself flags genuine scholarly uncertainty — "HAMILTON OR MADISON")
🔗 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed51.asp (The Avalon Project, Yale Law School — official transcript)
Why it's assigned: the classic argument for why constitutional design — not the virtue of officeholders — is what's supposed to constrain power: "if men were angels, no government would be necessary," and "ambition must be made to counteract ambition." This week's workshop close-reads it directly.
⏱ ~12 min

Primary text 2 — Magna Carta (1215)
🔗 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/magna.asp (The Avalon Project, Yale Law School — official transcript)
Why it's assigned: the traditional starting point of the rule-of-law lineage in English constitutional history — including the promise, in clauses 39 and 40, that no free man would be punished except by lawful judgment, and that right or justice would not be sold, refused, or delayed. You don't need to read the whole document (it's mostly feudal-property law); the workshop tells you exactly which clauses to focus on.
⏱ ~8 min (for the relevant clauses; skim the rest)

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 9 and 10.
  🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics
• The Avalon Project (Yale Law School) — full document collections. Where both of this week's primary texts live, alongside hundreds of other law, history, and diplomacy documents we'll return to (Weeks 9, 14).
  🔗 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/major.asp

Pick-one quick path (≈25 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Read OpenStax §13.2, the authoritarian-vs.-representative and unitary-vs.-federal sections (group ①) — constitutions and constitutionalism in practice.
2. Read the two primary-text excerpts flagged in the workshop (group ③) — Federalist No. 51's key sentences and Magna Carta's clauses 39–40 — 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 Avalon Project's document-collections hub above in the meantime.