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.

Public Choice and Social Choice Theory

• Pivotal Politics Model

Political Economy

• CAGE Distance Framework

• Outbidding

• Wilson-Lowi Matrix

International Relations

• Bargaining Model of War

• Constructivism

• Institutionalism

• Rationalism

• Realism

Comparative Politics

• resources for Comparative Politics on this wiki:

  • listings of states and city-states

  • listings of empires (including de facto empires)

Reading Notes

• Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, William L. Riordon, 1905

• England in the Age of the American Revolution, Lewis Namier, 1931

• An Economic Theory of Democracy, Anthony Downs, 1957

• Countering Guerilla Attack, Walt W. Rostow, 1961

• Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City, Robert Dahl, 1961

• The Calculus of Consent, James M. Buchanon and Gordon Tullock, 1962

• The Theory of Political Coalitions, William H. Riker, 1962

• Political entrepreneurship and patterns of democratic instability in plural societies, Alvin Rabushka, Kenneth A. Shepsle, 1971

• Politics in plural societies, Alvin Rabushka, Kenneth A. Shepsle, 1972

• Congressmen in Committees, Richard F. Fenno, Jr., 1973

• Congress: The Electoral Connection, David R. Mayhew, 1974

• Autocracy, Gordon Tullock, 1987

• Hard and Soft Law in International Governance, Kenneth Abbott and Duncan Snidal, 2000

• International Human Rights Law and Practice in Latin America, Ellen Lutz and Kathryn Sikkink, 2000

• Eighteenth-Century British Premiers: Walpole to the Younger Pitt, Dick Leonard, 2010

• The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, John J. Mearsheimer, 2014 (2nd ed.)

• The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era, James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee, 2020

• City Diplomacy: From City-States to Global Cities, Raffaele Marchetti, 2021

• Epistemic superimposition: the war in Ukraine and the poverty of expertise in international relations theory, Jan Dutkiewicz and Jan Smolenski, 2023

• To help end war in Ukraine, the Quad should back India to engage Russia, Adarsh Badri, 2023

• Is It the Message or the Messenger? Examining Movement in Immigration Beliefs, Hassan Afrouzi, Carolina Arteaga, and Emily Weisburst, 2024

• Has the Outbidding on Trade Protectionism Finally Ended?, Daniel W. Drezner, 2024

• Economic Sanctions as a Foreign Policy Tool, Michael Klein and Daniel W. Drezner, 2024

• A Case for Congress: Shared Power for a Divided Society, Frances E. Lee, 2024

• The Nobel for Econsplaining, Brendan Greeley, 2024

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