Week 13 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Political Science Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 13 (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 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 69–81 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 depth, 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 (18–22 min total)

① How do you compare countries on a plan?

Chapter 13, Section “Compare on a plan: most-similar and most-different designs” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Two ways to plan a comparison” · Remember: similar cases with different outcomes point to a difference, unlike cases with a shared outcome point to a common thread, and neither proves a cause.

Concepts 1: The Comparative Method — mflamoe — a calm, lecture-style walk through why political scientists compare cases and how they choose them; use it while working through the Week-13 module overview, and pause to name each design before the speaker does. (video, 10 min) (captions: automatic)

② Is a strong state the same as a democracy?

Chapter 13, Section “Separate two axes: state capacity and regime type” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Two axes, not one” · Remember: state capacity asks whether the state can tax, deliver, and enforce, and regime type asks who rules and how.

AP Comparative Quick Review #7: State - Capacity and Autonomy — Josh Clark — a short review of what it means for a state to have the capacity to carry out its decisions; as you watch, ask whether each example says anything about who rules. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
Worldwide Governance Indicators — World Bank — the home page of a second family of governance scores, built from surveys and expert assessments; read the opening and the usage advisory, and notice that it calls its scores estimates rather than definitive ratings. This builds on Week 5's work with regime types and constitutional structures. (reading, 4–6 min)

③ Why do some countries become democracies?

Chapter 13, Section “Weigh three rivals: institutions, culture, and the resource curse” · Session 2, Segment 3, “Four rival explanations” · Remember: modernization, institutions, culture, and the resource curse each have a strong case and a serious critique, and no winner is handed to you.

Seymour Martin Lipset Modernization Theory — Sociologylearners — an overview of the modernization explanation and the ideas behind it; notice any causal language and test it against this week's rule that the link between wealth and democracy is a correlation whose direction is still debated. (video, 10 min) (captions: automatic)
Three theories of democratization — Carolyn Coberly — a short lecture-style comparison of explanations for why countries democratize; as you watch, write one critique of each explanation it presents. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
Popular science background: why some countries are rich and others poor — NobelPrize.org — a plain-language account of the research behind the institutional explanation, including why a correlation between institutions and prosperity is hard to read as a cause; it makes one side's case, so set the critics' measurement worry beside it. (reading, 8–12 min)
The Resource Curse — Carolyn Coberly — a four-minute explainer of the claim that oil and mineral wealth tends to come with weaker democracy; afterward, state one reason critics give for doubting the pattern's strength. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Primer: The Resource Curse — Natural Resource Governance Institute — a short primer from a group that works on how countries manage oil, gas, and mining; read the key messages, and treat its general claims as one side of a debate scholars still dispute. (reading, 4–6 min)

④ What does an index score tell you?

Chapter 13, Section “Read Freedom in the World 2026: what an index measures” · Session 2, Segment 4, “Reading two indices” · Remember: an index reports conditions as expert coders scored them against a method, with its edition and year, and never shows a cause.

Which Country is the Most Democratic? — TLDR News Global — an explainer on why different democracy indices can rank the same country differently; its figures come from older editions, so use the chapter's 2026 figures and keep each index's categories in its own words. (video, 11 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Freedom in the World Research Methodology — Freedom House — the index's own account of its 25 indicators, its 0 to 4 scoring, and its three statuses; read how each indicator is scored and how a total becomes a status, then stop here before the theories of international relations, which next week takes up. (reading, 8–12 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.

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