Political Science
Political science is best defined in comparison to political philosophy: one attempts to understand politics from first principles, reasoned outward, in a coherent and consistent theory; the other attempts to understand politics from observations and theories of what explains the variance therein. This page addresses the latter.
Comparative Politics
Pretty much everything where states are the unit of analysis.
Political Parties and Movements
Comparative politics methods applied to non-states. There is some overlap with public choice theory (esp. institutional design).
Public Choice and Social Choice Theory
Public choice and social choice are highly interconnected. In general, public choice seeks to be strictly positive, while social choice leans into philosophy and normative study. Like, 'given a voting system, which agent has most control' vs. 'what is the most fair voting system'. But the theorists fundamentally speak the same language, and it's more coherent to group them together by field of study.
Political Economy
International Relations
Miscellany
- Some resources on this wiki:
listings of states and city-states
listings of empires (including de facto empires)
Reading Notes
Note: reading notes for the above topics are listed on the respective pages, not here.
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, William L. Riordon, 1905
England in the Age of the American Revolution, Lewis Namier, 1931
Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City, Robert Dahl, 1961
Hard and Soft Law in International Governance, Kenneth Abbott and Duncan Snidal, 2000
City Diplomacy: From City-States to Global Cities, Raffaele Marchetti, 2021
Economic Sanctions as a Foreign Policy Tool, Michael Klein and Daniel W. Drezner, 2024
Data Notes
- Relevant government agencies, which link to many data notes: