Week 8 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Political Science Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 8 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 48–60 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more review before the midterm, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (17–21 min total)

① Which kind of claim is it?

Chapter 8, Section “Sort claims by kind, not topic: the Declaration” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Claims, power, and the social contract” · Remember: an empirical claim can be checked against evidence, a normative claim is argued from values, and the topic never decides the kind.

Empirical and Normative Questions — Dustin Avent-Holt — a short talk on telling a question about what is from a question about what ought to be; pause after each example and say which kind it is before the speaker does. Use it while working through the Week-8 module overview. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
Are Humans Naturally Good or Bad? Hobbes vs. Locke Explained — International Relations Explained — a quick refresher on the two thinkers students most often swap; as you watch, match each idea to the thinker who fears chaos or the thinker who fears tyranny. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)

② Is it a democracy, and who really said it?

Chapter 8, Section “Separate the floor from the house: electoral and liberal democracy” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Democracy and attribution” · Remember: elections are the floor of democracy, and a liberal democracy adds protected rights, a free press, and independent courts.

Illiberal Democracy and Undemocratic Liberalism — Sociologylearners — an explainer on regimes that hold elections while weakening rights and courts; listen for the gap between the electoral floor and the rest of the house. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
The “Regimes of the World” data: how do researchers measure democracy? — Our World in Data — a data team's plain explanation of how researchers sort countries into closed autocracies, electoral autocracies, electoral democracies, and liberal democracies; read the four definitions, and notice that an index reports the practice layer, not a verdict. (reading, 8–12 min)
The Worst Form of Government — International Churchill Society — a one-paragraph quote page with the words "it has been said" in place; compare its wording with the Hansard record the chapter quotes and spot the small difference, a reminder to check every quotation against its pinned source. (reading, 1–3 min)

③ Does the rulebook bind?

Chapter 8, Section “Ask whether the rulebook binds: constitution and constitutionalism” · Session 2, Segment 3, “Constitutions and constitutionalism” · Remember: a constitution is the rulebook, and constitutionalism is the rulebook actually binding the people who rule.

Federalist No. 51 — Bill of Rights Institute — a short summary of the essay's argument for checks and balances, followed by the full text; read the summary, then find the ambition sentence in the text below it. (reading, 3–5 min)
Federalist Paper #51 Explained: American Government Review — Hip Hughes — a quick walk through the essay's design logic, giving each branch the means and the motive to resist the others; listen for where design stops and practice begins. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)

④ Which layer is the claim on?

Chapter 8, Section “Run the three layers on the Senate” · Session 2, Segment 4, “The three-layer read on the Senate” · Remember: name the layer first, then check design against the text, practice against evidence, and argue the verdict from values.

Equal State Representation — U.S. Senate — the Senate's own history page on how the convention arrived at two senators for each State; read it as the story behind the design layer, and notice that it settles neither the practice nor the verdict. (reading, 3–5 min)
Constitutional Compromises: Crash Course Government and Politics #5 — CrashCourse — a fast tour of the bargains behind the two-chamber design, including the one that gave each State equal seats in the Senate. This builds on Week 7's work with legislatures and the choice of one chamber or two. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)
What was the Great Compromise and what were Madison's objections to it? L10S3 — Center for Civic Education — a two-minute clip on the compromise and on one framer's objection to it; sort what you hear into the design layer and the verdict layer. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription — U.S. National Archives — the full transcript of the document this week's Senate example comes from; use your browser's find tool to search for the words two Senators from each State, read that one sentence, and stop there. (reading, 3–5 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com