LC Politics & Society study plan

Map the core institutional architecture (legislatures, executives, judiciaries, constitutions) and label each with its formal powers and constraints.

Compare presidential, parliamentary and semi-presidential systems by writing out how each separates or fuses executive and legislative power.

Explain how electoral systems (FPTP, PR, mixed) translate votes into seats and identify two consequences for party systems.

Build a one-page glossary of institutional terms you will reuse all course.

Distinguish power, authority and legitimacy and apply each concept to two real constitutional arrangements.

Classify Weber's ideal types of authority and give one contemporary example of each with a limitation noted.

Trace how a constitution or convention converts raw power into accepted authority.

Draft short answers explaining why legitimacy can erode even when institutions remain intact.

Define democracy in procedural and substantive terms and list three criteria for judging quality of democracy.

Evaluate participation channels (voting, parties, interest groups, direct democracy) by who they empower and exclude.

Assess representation models (trustee, delegate, descriptive, substantive) against a case you choose.

Diagnose one participation problem and propose a reform with its trade-offs.

Summarise the core claims of liberalism, conservatism, socialism and one further tradition (e.g. feminism or nationalism) in your own words.

Contrast left/right and liberty/equality axes and place each tradition on them with justification.

Trace how one ideology shaped a concrete policy or institution you have already studied.

Identify two internal tensions within a single tradition.

Distinguish class, status and party as dimensions of stratification and apply them to one society.

Explain at least two measures of inequality (e.g. Gini, income quintiles) and what each conceals.

Analyse how one identity category (ethnicity, gender, religion, nationality) intersects with class outcomes.

Evaluate one policy aimed at reducing inequality and state its limits.

Explain the state's roles in the economy (regulator, provider, redistributor) and the arguments for and against each.

Compare two public-policy models (e.g. universal vs targeted welfare) on cost, equity and political feasibility.

Trace a policy cycle from agenda-setting to evaluation using one concrete policy.

Link an inequality finding from week 5 to a specific policy instrument.

Classify civil-society actors and social movements by goals, tactics and resources.

Assess how media ownership and platform algorithms shape the public sphere, with one example each.

Explain two globalisation mechanisms (trade, migration, institutions) and their effect on state authority.

Evaluate one international institution's legitimacy using week 2 criteria.

Synthesise all nine domains into a concept map linking institutions, power, ideology and inequality.

Complete two timed mixed-domain practice sets and log every error by domain.

Re-teach your three weakest concepts from memory without notes.

Finalise a one-page exam-day framework of definitions and comparison tables.