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Week 8 · Module overview

Week 8 — Midterm Review & Exam

Introduction to Political Science Free sample edition

Why this matters

A nursing student reading hospital bylaws and a neighbor at a city council meeting both hear claims about how an institution works, and both reason better by asking first: is this about the rules, what happens, or what ought to happen?

In plain language

This week you look back at the first seven weeks and see how they fit together. Each week so far asked you to keep one distinction (two ideas that sound alike but must be kept apart) and gave you one pinned text (a short passage from a real document, checked word for word) to practice on. You also learn one new tool, the three-layer read (a way to sort any claim about an institution by asking whether it is about the rules, about what really happens, or about what ought to happen). That tool carries you into the second half of the course, where courts, elections, and whole countries come under the same careful eye.

  • Already covered: claims, power, ideologies, theory, regimes, constitutions, and legislatures and executives (Weeks 1 to 7).
  • This week: one distinction and one text per week, the three-layer read, and the midterm.
  • How they connect: the three-layer read splits Week 1's empirical side into design and practice.
  • Where we're going next: Week 9, judiciaries, courts, and judicial review.

Focus

What one distinction does each week ask for, and which layer is a claim about an institution on?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

  • [ ] name and apply the key distinction from each of Weeks 1 to 7
  • [ ] sort a claim as empirical or normative, by kind and not topic
  • [ ] place a claim about an institution on the design, practice, or verdict layer

To-do

Plan your week

  1. Read Chapter 8 (about 35 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
  2. Do the practice set (about 20 minutes) and the discussion (about 45 minutes).
  3. Use the study guide and practice exam, then take the midterm.

This week's checkpoint: sort three claims about the Senate onto the design, practice, and verdict layers.

You've got this

You have done this work already. Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if a step snags.

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