The British constitution has no single document: it is drawn from statute, common law, convention, authoritative works and the prerogative, and can be changed by an ordinary Act. Runs from Magna Carta to the reforms since 1997 and the arguments over codifying it.

• Codified and Uncodified Constitutions19
• The Rule of Law and Parliamentary Sovereignty9
• Magna Carta and the Early Constitution17
• The Parliament Acts of 1911 and 19498
• Individual and Collective Rights14
• Freedom of Information and the Equality Act15

The two chambers, how a bill becomes law, the competing theories of what an MP is for, and the machinery, select committees, questions, the opposition, by which Parliament holds the government to account.

• The Composition of the Two Chambers16
• The Passage of a Public Bill13
• Burke and the Trustee Model9
• Descriptive Representation and the Role of an MP20
• Scrutiny of the Executive and PMQs11
• Select Committees and the Public Accounts Committee18

The core executive: how a Prime Minister is made and what patronage buys, how policy is actually made, and the conventions of individual and collective responsibility that are supposed to keep ministers answerable.

• The Core Executive and the Prime Minister's Powers13
• Policy Making and the Cabinet Office15
• Ministerial Responsibility9
• Accountability in Practice and Crichel Down13

Judicial independence and impartiality, the reforms that separated the top court from the legislature, and what judicial review lets the courts do to ministers, including the Miller rulings.

• Judicial Independence and Impartiality8
• The Constitutional Reform Act and Separation of Powers16
• The Creation of the UK Supreme Court15
• Judicial Review and the Miller Cases13

What was devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and how it differs from federalism, why England is the gap in the settlement, and how the money is shared out.

• Devolution, Federalism and the Scottish Parliament11
• Scotland and Wales since Devolution16
• The West Lothian Question and EVEL12
• English Regional Devolution and the Barnett Formula13

What makes a system democratic, the case for and against deciding things directly, how the franchise was won, and the modern worry about turnout and participation.

• Democracy, Legitimacy and Liberal Democracy11
• Direct and Representative Democracy Compared19
• The Franchise before 1832 and the Great Reform Act12
• Suffragists and Suffragettes14
• Who Can Vote Today, and Votes at 1612
• Forms of Political Participation14
• Turnout, Apathy and Proposals for Reform16

The electoral systems used across the UK and what each does to a result, three general elections that turned on something, why people vote as they do, and the place of referendums.

• Majoritarian and Proportional Systems17
• The Additional Member System and STV17
• The 1945 and 1979 General Elections11
• The 1997 General Election19
• Models of Voting Behaviour14
• Leadership, Manifestos and Campaigns18
• The Nature and Use of Referendums15
• Regulating Referendums, and the Case For and Against10

What parties are for, the ideas and internal structures of the three main parties, where their money comes from and the controversies that follow, and the rise of the minor parties.

• What Political Parties Do16
• Labour, Clause IV and Social Democracy8
• Labour's Internal Structure13
• Party Funding and Short Money9
• Donations, Loans and the Funding Controversies20
• Two-Party, Multi-Party and Dominant-Party Systems10
• Minor Parties in UK Politics20

What separates a pressure group from a party, the insider and outsider routes to influence, the argument about whether groups enrich or distort democracy, and the regulation of lobbying.

• What Pressure Groups Are15
• Outsider Groups and the Law on Protest19
• Pluralism and the Democratic Balance Sheet16
• Lobbying and the 2014 Act16

The institutions of the EU and how they differ from one another, the aims the Union set itself and the four freedoms, and what membership did to British politics.

• The Institutions of the European Union9
• EU Aims and the Four Freedoms20

A codified, entrenched constitution and what follows from it: the separation of powers and the checks each branch holds, the federal division of authority, and how the document changes.

• The Nature of the US Constitution8
• Checks and Balances18
• Federalism and the Division of Powers11
• Coercive Federalism and Federal-State Disputes11
• Amending the Constitution11
• Informal Constitutional Change and the First Amendment14

A bicameral legislature of two very different chambers, how a bill survives the committee stage, and the powers, money, confirmation, oversight, impeachment, Congress uses against the executive.

• The Composition of Congress9
• The Powers of Each Chamber17
• How a Bill Passes Congress13
• The Power of the Purse and Oversight17

Where presidential power comes from, formally and informally, the checks that hold it back, the cabinet that does not decide policy, and the argument over an imperial presidency.

• The Sources of Presidential Power8
• Signing Statements, Privilege and Pardons18
• Congressional Checks on the President8
• Term Limits, Lame Ducks and the Press15
• The US Cabinet15
• The Imperial and Imperilled Presidency11

Nine justices appointed for life, how a case reaches them, the power of judicial review claimed in 1803, and the landmark rulings and Court eras that show what that power does.

• The Composition and Tenure of the Court18
• How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court8
• Judicial Review and Guardian of the Constitution14
• The Debate over the Court's Power13
• The Warren Court and Landmark Rulings12
• Later Landmark Rulings and Court Eras18

The electoral college and the road to a nomination, what money and incumbency do to a race, how Americans vote and why that has shifted, and direct democracy in the states.

• Electing the House and the Senate11
• The Electoral College17
• The Invisible Primary, Primaries and Caucuses12
• Super Tuesday, Momentum and Delegates17
• What Decides a US Election19
• Campaign Finance Regulation11
• Party Coalitions and Voting Behaviour16
• Realignment, Dealignment and Split-Ticket Voting14
• Direct Democracy at State Level19

What the two parties now stand for, how they are organised around candidates rather than members, the polarisation that has hollowed out the centre, and why third parties get nowhere.

• The Ideologies of the Two Main Parties12
• Party Traditions and Organisation15
• Polarisation and Ideological Sorting15
• Factionalism and the Decline or Renewal Debate11
• Two-Party Dominance and Ballot Access12
• Third Parties and the Spoiler Role10

Pluralism and the many access points American groups can use, the money that flows through PACs and Super PACs, and the revolving door between government and the interests it regulates.

• Pressure Groups and Political Pluralism14
• Think Tanks, Lobbying and Insider Methods14
• PACs and Super PACs8
• The Revolving Door and Washington Insiders20

Where rights come from in a codified system, how the Fourteenth Amendment carried them into the states, the civil rights movement and its methods, and the issues still being fought over.

• Civil Liberties, Civil Rights and the Bill of Rights11
• Incorporation and the Fourteenth Amendment20
• The Civil Rights Movement11
• Rights Groups and the Courts8
• Contested Rights Issues Today19

The three lenses, structural, rational and cultural, that a comparison of the UK and USA is expected to use, and what each explains that the others do not.

• Structural, Rational and Cultural Approaches19

One constitution codified and entrenched, the other neither; one legislature sovereign, the other constrained. What follows for amendment, for federalism and devolution, and for committees and control of money.

• The Two Constitutions Compared14
• Devolution and Federalism Compared13
• Parliament and Congress: Powers and Chambers9
• Committees, Scrutiny and Control of Money16

A Prime Minister who is head of government but not of state and holds office at their party's pleasure, against a president elected nationally for a fixed term, and what each can do to the other branches.

• Prime Minister and President: Office and Tenure16
• Executive Power over Courts, Officials and Abroad9

Two supreme courts of different size, appointment and tenure, and why one can strike down a statute while the other can only declare it incompatible.

• The Two Supreme Courts: Size, Appointment, Tenure12
• Judicial Impact, Activism and Restraint13

How each country elects its legislature and chief executive, why one can cap campaign spending and the other cannot, and how far each is really a two-party system.

• Electing Legislatures and Executives Compared11
• Campaign Finance Compared13
• Party Systems and Third-Party Barriers19
• Minor Parties and the Ideological Spectrum8

Why the American system offers groups so many more points of entry, how executive dominance narrows the British ones, and how methods, targets and the revolving door compare.

• Access Points and Group Power Compared8
• Group Methods and Targets Compared13

Entrenched constitutional rights against rights granted by statute, what each highest court may do about a breach, and how both countries have traded liberty for security.

• How Rights Are Protected in Each Country13
• Security, Guns and Reforming the Rights Framework10

The individual as the unit of analysis, freedom, limited government and foundational equality, and the split between the classical liberalism of the minimal state and the modern liberalism that would use the state to make freedom real.

• The Individual and Individualism11
• Limited Government and Foundational Equality17
• Classical Liberalism and the Night-Watchman State16
• Modern Liberalism and the Continuity Debate12
• Locke: Natural Rights and Legitimate Government11
• Rawls: The Original Position and the Difference Principle15

Human imperfection, organic society and the authority of tradition, running through traditional and one-nation conservatism to the New Right and the tension inside it between free markets and social order.

• Human Imperfection in Conservative Thought9
• Organic Society and Paternalism17
• Traditional and One-Nation Conservatism8
• The New Right: Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism14
• Hobbes: The State of Nature and Sovereignty19
• Rand: Objectivism and Rational Egoism10

Common humanity, cooperation and the critique of alienation and private ownership, and the long argument between those who would take power by revolution and those who would win it at an election.

• Common Humanity, Fraternity and Cooperation16
• Alienation, Common Ownership and Social Justice11
• Revolutionary Socialism and the Vanguard Party14
• Revolutionary Socialism and Social Democracy Compared9
• Marx and Engels: Materialism and Historical Stages13
• Webb: Gradualism and Co-operation17

The nation as the proper basis of the state, and the very different politics that follow, liberal, conservative, expansionist and the minority nationalisms of stateless peoples.

• The Nation, the State and Self-Determination10
• Liberal and Expansionist Views of the Nation16
• Minority Nationalism17
• Types of Nationalism11
• Rousseau: The General Will10
• Herder and Mazzini20

The distinction between sex and gender, patriarchy, and the divide between a liberal feminism seeking equal treatment and radical, socialist and difference feminisms that dispute what equality means.

• Sex, Gender and Patriarchy17
• Feminist Views of the State13
• Liberal Feminism8
• Radical, Socialist and Difference Feminism16
• Perkins Gilman: Reform Darwinism11
• De Beauvoir and Millett19

Diversity as something to endorse rather than tolerate, the politics of recognition, and the arguments over assimilation, integration, segregation and where cohesion policy shades into pressure to conform.

• Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition14
• Assimilation, Integration and the Melting Pot13
• Integration and Segregation10
• Interculturalism and Civic Integration14
• Berlin: Negative Liberty and Value Pluralism12
• Taylor: Recognition and the Politics of Difference18

The rejection of the state and of the social contract that is supposed to justify obedience, and the split between an individualist tradition drawing on liberalism and a collectivist one drawing on socialism.

• The Anarchist Case against the State13
• Propaganda by the Deed and the Charge of Chaos12
• Individualist and Collectivist Anarchism20
• Stirner: The Ego and the Spooks13
• Goldman: Marriage, Violence and Revolution17

Nature valued for itself rather than for what it yields, sustainability and the limits to growth, and the gap between light greens who would reform the system and dark greens who would replace it.

• Ecologism, Environmentalism and Ecocentrism9
• Sustainability and the Limits to Growth17
• Light Greens and Dark Greens8
• Green Consumerism, Technology and Greenwashing13
• Leopold: The Land Ethic10
• Carson and Schumacher20