Advanced Topics
- Political Behavior & Identity
- International Relations & Global Politics
- Political Economy & Development
- Public Policy, Administration & Governance
You do not need to study all of them. You can study one track deeply, several tracks at a lighter level, or even return later to explore more. There is no required order among the specialization tracks—choose based on your curiosity.
The specialization tracks are:
- Political Behavior & Identity: how ordinary people think, vote, and form political identities.
- International Relations & Global Politics: war, peace, diplomacy, global power, and relations between countries.
- Political Economy & Development: money, markets, inequality, why some countries grow rich while others stay poor.
- Public Policy, Administration & Governance: how governments actually make and implement decisions, laws, regulations, and city policies
Political Behavior & Identity
| Subject | Book | Online Course |
|---|---|---|
| Political Behavior | Dalton – Citizen Politics (Archive.org) | — |
| Nationalism | Anderson – Imagined Communities | — |
| Identity Politics | IEP – Identity & Politics entries | — |
International Relations & Global Politics
| Subject | Book | Online Course |
|---|---|---|
| International Relations (Intro) | — | MIT OCW – Introduction to International Relations (closest match; search for full IR intro) |
| IR Theory (Advanced) | Waltz – Theory of International Politics | — |
| Security Studies | Freedman – Evolution of Nuclear Strategy | — |
| International Law | Shaw – International Law (Archive.org) | — |
| Foreign Policy Analysis | Hudson – Foreign Policy Analysis | — |
| Global Ethics | Global Justice (Archive.org) | — |
Political Economy & Development
| Subject | Book | Online Course |
|---|---|---|
| Global Political Economy | Global Political Economy (Oxford) | — |
| Development & State Capacity | Why Nations Fail (official site with excerpts) | — |
| Authoritarian Politics | The Politics of Authoritarian Rule (limited preview) | — |
Public Policy, Administration & Governance
| Subject | Book | Online Course |
|---|---|---|
| Public Policy Analysis | Weimer & Vining – Policy Analysis | LSE Public Policy Lectures (free) (search for open lectures) |
| Public Administration | Public Administration: Concepts and Cases | — |
| Regulatory Politics | Wilson – Politics of Regulation | — |
| Urban Governance | Governing Cities | — |