Covers how democracy works in the UK and how far people take part in it: the balance between representative and direct forms, the long argument over who gets the vote, the influence of pressure groups and lobbyists, and the rights citizens hold against the state.

• Current systems of representative and direct democracy16
• A wider franchise and debates over suffrage14
• Pressure groups and other influences16
• Rights in context12

Covers what parties are for and how they are paid for, the ideas and internal divisions of the established parties, the smaller parties that shape policy without governing, and whether the UK still has a two-party system.

• Political parties and their funding11
• Established political parties11
• Emerging and minor political parties12
• Party systems and parties in context14

Covers the voting systems used across the UK, what each does to the relationship between votes and seats, how referendums have been used since 1997, and the arguments over reforming the Westminster system.

• Different electoral systems14
• Referendums and how they are used13
• Electoral system analysis13

Covers why people vote the way they do, worked through the general elections of 1979, 1997 and 2010: the results themselves, the policies and campaigns that shaped them, the social factors behind party support, and the influence of the press and broadcasters.

• The 1979, 1997 and 2010 general election results13
• Why elections are won and lost13
• Class, partisanship and social factors10
• Analysing voting behaviour data13
• The influence of the media14

Covers the ideology built on the individual: what liberals mean by freedom, equality and a limited state, how classical and modern liberals came to disagree, and the thinkers from Locke to Friedan who set out the case.

• Individualism, equality and the liberal state11
• Freedom, the rule of law and limited government10
• Rationalism, social justice and liberal democracy16
• Differing views and tensions within liberalism10
• Locke, Wollstonecraft and Mill13
• Rawls, Friedan and modern liberalism8

Covers the ideology of caution and continuity: human imperfection, tradition and the organic society, the paternalism of the one-nation tradition, the free-market turn of the New Right, and the thinkers behind each.

• Pragmatism, tradition and human imperfection16
• The organic society, hierarchy and paternalism9
• The New Right: neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism13
• Differing views and tensions within conservatism13
• Hobbes, Burke and Oakeshott20
• Rand, Nozick and the New Right11

Covers the ideology built on cooperation and equality: common ownership, class and workers' control, the long argument between revolution and reform, and the thinkers from Marx to Giddens.

• Collectivism, common ownership and common humanity16
• Equality, social class and workers' control15
• Differing views and tensions within socialism12
• Marx and Engels: historical materialism and class13
• Webb, Luxemburg and the revisionism debate12
• Crosland, Giddens and social democracy15

Covers the rules that govern how the UK is governed: an uncodified and unentrenched constitution drawn from five sources, the reform programme begun in 1997, the devolution settlements and their consequences, and the arguments over codifying the whole thing.

• The nature of the UK constitution14
• The sources of the UK constitution14
• How the constitution has changed since 199714
• Devolution and its impact on the UK14
• Debates on further constitutional reform18

Covers the two chambers at Westminster: how each is composed, what powers each holds and why they are unequal, how a bill becomes law, and the means by which Parliament holds ministers to account.

• The structure and role of the Commons and Lords9
• The comparative powers of the two Houses9
• The legislative process and scrutiny of the Executive10

Covers the centre of British government: how the executive is built and what powers it holds, the two doctrines of ministerial responsibility, how a Prime Minister picks and controls a Cabinet, and whether the office has become presidential.

• The structure and powers of the Executive14
• The roles of the Executive and ministerial responsibility13
• The Prime Minister, the Cabinet and ministerial selection14
• Prime-ministerial power and the presidentialisation debate11

Covers how the courts, Parliament and the executive check one another: the Supreme Court and judicial review, executive dominance of the Commons, the effect of EU membership and its ending, and where sovereignty now sits.

• The Supreme Court, judicial independence and judicial review16
• Parliament and executive dominance14
• The European Union and its impact on the UK12
• The location of sovereignty in the UK12

Covers the ideology that rejects the state outright: the moral case against political authority, the claim that order arises without it, the split between collectivist and individualist traditions, and the thinkers from Stirner to Goldman.

• Anarchism: core ideas and the rejection of the state13
• Liberty, order and the anarchist economy13
• Collectivist and individualist anarchism compared8
• Types of collectivist anarchism15
• Types of individualist anarchism11
• Stirner and Proudhon12
• Bakunin, Kropotkin and Goldman16

Covers the ideology built on the relationship between people and the natural world: holism and environmental ethics, the critique of consumerism, the split between shallow and deep green thinking, and the thinkers who shaped each.

• Ecology, holism and environmental ethics11
• Post-materialism, consumerism and sustainability11
• Different types of ecologism19
• Leopold, Carson and the land ethic13
• Schumacher, Bookchin and Merchant17

Covers the ideology built on the analysis of patriarchy: the distinction between sex and gender, the argument over equality and difference, the traditions from liberal to postmodern feminism, and the thinkers behind them.

• Sex, gender and patriarchy12
• Equality, difference and intersectionality12
• Different types of feminism11
• Feminist thinkers and their ideas20

Covers the ideology built on cultural difference: why recognition is held to matter to identity, the case for minority rights and the objections to it, the traditions from liberal to pluralist multiculturalism, and the thinkers who set out each position.

• Key concepts and the politics of recognition13
• Minority rights and their critics9
• Diversity and its critics11
• Different types of multiculturalism17
• Berlin, Taylor and value pluralism14
• Parekh, Modood and Kymlicka17

Covers the ideology of the nation: what a nation is taken to be, the claim to self-determination, the civic, cultural, ethnic and expansionist traditions, and the thinkers from Rousseau to Garvey.

• Nationalism: core ideas and principles15
• Different types of nationalism12
• Rousseau, Herder and cultural nationalism11
• Mazzini, Maurras and Garvey11

Covers the document that frames American government: its democratic features and its undemocratic ones, the strengths and weaknesses of a text written in the eighteenth century, and the long argument over whether the United States remains genuinely federal.

• Democratic features of the US Constitution12
• Constitutional strengths, weaknesses and modern debates14
• Federalism, state powers and the laboratories of democracy11
• The Supreme Court, fiscal federalism and the centralisation debate19

Covers the American legislature: how the two chambers are built and elected, the powers each holds, how a bill becomes law and why so few do, the oversight of the executive, and the debates over how well Congress represents and governs.

• The structure of Congress and congressional elections13
• The distribution of powers within Congress10
• Representation: incumbency and influences on how members vote9
• The legislative process and gridlock16
• Oversight and relations with the presidency12
• Checks on the other branches, and debates about Congress14

Covers the American executive: the powers the Constitution grants, the informal power to persuade and to act by order, the relationships and limits that constrain a President, and the argument over whether the office is imperial or imperilled.

• Formal sources of presidential power10
• Informal power, persuasion and the Executive Office10
• Relationships with Congress and the Court, and limits on power11
• The imperial presidency debate and presidential case studies10

Covers the American judiciary and the rights it protects: the argument between living constitutionalism and originalism, how far the Court has actually advanced civil rights, and the record of affirmative action and immigration reform.

• The living Constitution and originalism11
• How effectively the Supreme Court protects rights9
• The limits of Supreme Court rights protection9
• Affirmative action: successes and failures9
• Immigration reform and equality9

Covers American parties, money and interest groups: why two parties dominate, what each stands for, how campaigns are financed and regulated, and how organised interests reach into policy.

• The US two-party system10
• Democratic and Republican party ideas11
• Campaign finance and its regulation10
• Interest groups: methods, access and power19

Covers the systematic comparison of British and American politics: legislatures, executives, courts and rights, parties and pressure groups, each read through the rational, cultural and structural approaches.

• Comparing the UK and US legislatures: structure and powers11
• Comparing the UK and US legislatures: strengths and approaches12
• Comparing the executives: powers and selection16
• Comparing the executives: accountability and approaches19
• Comparing the Supreme Courts: powers and appointments20
• Comparing rights protection and interest group litigation19
• Comparing party systems and party ideas17
• Comparing campaign finance and pressure groups12
• Applying the three approaches to democracy and participation18
• Comparative theories: rational, cultural and structural15

Covers the sovereign state under pressure: what sovereignty means, the forces driving global interconnectedness, the argument between hyperglobalisers, sceptics and transformationalists, and how far globalisation helps with poverty, conflict, rights and the environment.

• The nation state, sovereignty and key concepts13
• The drivers of globalisation and interconnectedness13
• Debates about the impact of globalisation14
• How far globalisation addresses contemporary global issues8

Covers the institutions through which states manage common problems: the United Nations and NATO, the IMF, World Bank and WTO, the theories of development that underpin them, and the criticisms of how they handle poverty.

• Key institutions and terms in global governance11
• The United Nations: structure, strengths and weaknesses12
• NATO and the IMF: mandate, strengths and criticisms11
• The WTO, the G7/G20 and theories of development10
• Poverty, the critique of economic governance, and NGOs15

Covers international law and environmental governance: the courts that enforce human rights, the record of humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect, the climate agreements from Rio to Paris, and the civil society that pushes both along.

• International law and human rights institutions10
• Humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect20
• Environmental governance: the UNFCCC and the IPCC18
• The effectiveness of international law and international courts15
• Deep and shallow green ecology and the tragedy of the commons8
• International environmental agreements from Rio to Paris16
• Global civil society and NGOs13

Covers how power is held and used between states: the forms it takes, how states are classified by it, what different polar structures mean for world order, the systems of government states adopt, and the spread of markets, law and democracy.

• Different types of power: hard, soft and structural12
• Great powers, superpowers and emerging powers12
• Polarity and the changing world order13
• Systems of government and their consequences for global order10
• The development and spread of liberal economies, the rule of law and democracy10
• How power and developments address contemporary global issues16

Covers states cooperating by region: the forms regionalism takes and what it does to sovereignty, the organisations outside Europe, the treaties and institutions that built the EU, its weight as a global actor, and how far regionalism resolves shared problems.

• Regionalism: forms and growth10
• Regionalism, sovereignty and levels of integration14
• NAFTA, the USMCA and the African Union15
• The Arab League and ASEAN16
• The treaties that built the European Union11
• EU institutions and enlargement12
• Economic and Monetary Union and the euro8
• Supranationalism, intergovernmentalism and the drivers of integration14
• The EU's political and economic influence13
• The EU's military influence and normative power11
• How regionalism addresses conflict, poverty and rights13
• The limits of regionalism in resolving global issues16

Covers the two main theories of international relations and the third that sits between them: realism on anarchy and the balance of power, liberalism on interdependence and institutions, where they divide, the society of states, and how each reads events since 2000.

• Realism: states, anarchy and the balance of power11
• Liberalism: morality, interdependence and global governance11
• Divisions between realism and liberalism10
• The anarchical society and the society of states10
• Evaluating realism and liberalism against events since 200010