Improve Your Teaching: Resources

States, Regimes, and Governments

• (Sean Paul Ashley) Lesson plan.
• (Sean Paul Ashley) Response to muddy points exercise. 

Economic Development and Politics (I)

• (Jany Gao) Lesson plan.
• (Shanna Weitz) Lesson plan.

Economic Development and Politics (II)

• (Belén Fernández Milmanda) Activity.
• (Jany Gao) Lesson plan.
• (Sean Paul Ashley) Response to muddy points exercise. 

Democratization and Democracy

• (Shanna Weitz) Lesson plan.

Authoritarianism and Regime Change

• (Sean Paul Ashley) Response to muddy points exercise.

• Ice breakers and group activity
• Spend some time on ice-breakers and getting to know each other. Activity: students break into groups, are assigned a point of view on development that they need to defend in group discussion. Author: Soledad Prillaman
• Ice breakers, the four discussion roles, discussion.
• Spend some time on ice-breakers, cover the four discussion roles, discussion questions on basics of development theories. Author: Rakeen Mabud

• Bring in the state and compare regime types
• Discussion-based section. Synthesize development theories, bring in the state as a central actor, ask whether some regimes are better at economic development. Author: Soledad Prillaman
• Bringing in politics
• Cover Johnson and Bates, then apply Johnson to Africa. Use A&R to evaluate NICs. Author: Rakeen Mabud

• Discussion, US as case study, sample paper topic
• Discussion questions help to define democracy, introduce theories on the emergence of democracy, link development to democratization. Finish with a discussion of US as democratization case, and give example paper topic & how to tackle it. Author: Soledad Prillaman
• Structuralist vs. voluntarist
• Define structuralist/voluntarist explanations. Cover the various authors, including in group discussions where students are assigned an author. Then classify authors on whiteboard into structural/voluntarist explanations. Which type of explanation do students find more compelling? Author: Rakeen Mabud

• Why have some places not democratized?
• Discussion questions lead students through definitions of authoritarian regime, competitive authoritarianism, third wave etc. Activity: students break into groups to discuss prospects for democratization in Middle East / China. Author: Soledad Prillaman
• Discussion and debate on democratization
• Discussion questions help define third wave, Levitsky & Way argument, democratic transitions and cultural arguments. Activity: debate teams to argue over whether Arab monarchies or China are more resilient / more likely to transition to democracy sooner. Author: Rakeen Mabud.

• Revolutions with comparison of Davies and Skocpol
• Discussion based section. Cover main points of authors, then compare Davies and Skocpol on Russia. Think about negative cases, the difficulty of the Iranian case, role of ideology. Author: Jonathan Weigel
• Game and discussion questions
• Start with collective action game to leave class early, discuss how collective action problems get solves. Then discussion questions to define revolution, understand timing/causes, structuralist/voluntarist explanations, revolutionary actors and more. Author: Soledad Prillaman.

• Discussion and structured debate on revolutions today
• Discussion and activity. Students split into three groups and are assigned to argue that a) revolutions today are unlikely, b) revolutions today are most likely to be Islamist, c) revolutions today are most likely to be Marxist-Leninist. Author: Kai Thaler
• Blackboard of theories, discussion
• Create blackboard structured summary of theories. Discuss Third World revolutions, causes of Russian and Iranian revolutions. Prospects for, prevention of, consequences of revolutions. Author: Soledad Prillaman.

• Where does ethnicity come from, when does it become political or violent
• Section focused on making students feel secure in facts and approaches leading up to midterm. Link discussion of ethnicity to American concept of race. Lesson plan comes with PowerPoint slides to illustrate main points. Author: Noah Nathan
• Discussion questions, causes and consequences of ethnic conflict
• Define ethnicity. Classify readings into categories of primordial, instrumental, social constructivist. Discuss the causes of ethnic conflict by author, and the role of politics, actors etc. Finish on discussion of whether ethnic conflict will disappear with modernization. Author: Soledad Prillaman.

• Discussion questions and outside material on ethnic violence
• Lesson plan with discussions and links to PBS documentary, NYT article, outside papers to be used to stimulate discussion. Author: Jon Weigel
• Fitting cases to theories, discussing role of different actors
• Fitting Rwanda and Yugoslavia into theories from last week. Discussion questions on role of state, democracy, media, international actors. What are the solutions to / consequences of / goals of ethnic conflict? Author: Soledad Prillaman

• Comparing institutions
  
• Formal vs. informal institutions, illustrate trade-off of principles in institutional design, debate on presidentialism vs. parliamentarism, and link to a Danish drama that illustrates procedure of forming a government after elections in a parliamentary system. Author: Chase Foster
• Types of institutions, advice to hypothetical government
• What are institutions, what are different constitutional designs? If you advised a democracy on institutional design, what would you say, and what would your advice depend on? What are informal institutions? Author: Dominika Kruszewska

• Democracy activity and discussion of democratic conundrums related to institutions
• Cover the definitions of different electoral systems and consociationalism. Build your own democracy activity. Discuss representation vs. efficiency, ethnocratic democracies, US racial relations hypothetical. Author: Soledad Prillaman

• Introduction to state strength, discussion of how to create it
• Illustrate capacity and scope on board by reference to prior weeks. Where do strong states come from? In Europe? Elsewhere? Finish with discussion of "million dollar question" in current development debates: where do we get stronger states if we are not willing to "let them fight it out"? Author: Noah Nathan
• Discussion of state-building, role of various actors.
• Define state-building by author. Create reading summary on blackboard. Discuss Tilly and extensions. Then bring in domestic actors, international actors, regimes. What are the prospects for state-building in Latin America and Africa? Author: Soledad Prillaman

• Discussion with focus on social capital and its relation to prior weeks
• Discussion questions: cover Putnam's theory, move to whether social capital is in decline or always good. Relate back to previous topics in term. Conclude on welfare state variations. Author: Soledad Prillaman
• Welfare states: why and how
• Focus on welfare states. Introduction of theories on why states would redistribute and provide welfare. Discuss why some places do so more than others. Add theories missing in A&G. Apply the identified elements to the current implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Author: Chase Foster 
• Discussions of welfare and Iraq + illustrated study strategies
• Discussion of welfare states, role of race and culture with an Economist article for students to read and discuss. Strategies for studying for the final with an application to Iraq. End with debate on whether/how democracy in Iraq can be encouraged. Author: Rakeen Mabud

• Classical Development Approaches - Debate - Republic of Unfulfilled Potential
• Group-based debate activity. Students act as advisers to the president of a developing country (The Republic of Unfulfilled Potential). They split into groups, and each group is given an argument to explore and defend.

• Discussion Questions Introducing Politics
• Discussion question based section. Framed around idea of introducing political actors and institutions to development. Conclude by asking students what they would advise if they worked in NGO or WB on development issues. Author: Rakeen Mabud.
• Compare and Contrast State and Market. 
• Discussion question based section. Covers key concepts, contrasts state- and market led development. Compares Johnson to A&R, end on comparison of state-led theories to Bates

• Democratization - Structuralist vs. Voluntarist.
• Create a structure of arguments on blackboard: authors are classified on continuum from voluntarist to structuralist. In course of discussion, critiques of approaches (especially modernization) build up systematically. Includes overview of Dahl.
• Democratization - When Does It Occur?
• Discussion question based section. Define democracy, structuralist, voluntarist. When does democratization occur? Cover cultural contexts, conditions for transition in detail (contrast authors). Finish with discussion on origins of American democracy.
• Democratization - Mechanisms
• Discussion questions. Quickly cover definitions of democracy, structural, voluntarist. Discussion introduces concept of mechanisms, and considers what mechanisms different authors emphasize. Distinguish transition and persistence. Author: Julie Faller

• Democratization in developing world - with activity
• Activity and discussion questions. Start with discussion on international context. Then activity where students go in groups and try to predict potential for democratization in Syria and China. Author: Volha Charnysh
• Democratization - discussion and sample essay activity
• Discussion and essay outlining exercise. Start with overview of Huntington and Levitsky/Way. Paper outlining exercise discusses authoritarianism in Middle East and China, and introduces students to Gov20 papers.
• Democratization - draw arguments
• Activity and discussion. Start by covering Huntington argument. Use blackboard to draw the Levitsky/Way argument. Then students in groups practice drawing arguments of assigned readings, these are shared with class. Finish with discussion of China, Arab countries.
• Discussion based section
• Discussion based section. Cover Huntington, Levitsky and Way. Why do transitions not happen? How important are cultural arguments? Are Arab countries or CCP more resilient? Author: Rakeen Mabud
•  Democratization - discussion and case of Uganda
• Discussion questions and concept illustration. USe case of Uganda (additional info provided) to discuss the Levitsky/Way framework. Covers rest of readings with discussion and covering main arguments. Author: Julie Faller.

•  Activity and discussion questions
• Activity on collective action problem, followed by covering arguments from readings. Close on discussion on whether students prefer structuralist or voluntarist theories. Author: Volha Charnysh
• Collective action and discussion
• Activity and discussion questions. Start with activity to illustrate collective action problem (gamble to end class early). The different theories of revolution are then covered; includes illustrations of arguments for board. Author: Julie Faller
•  Covering the readings
• Section focused on covering main concepts and approaches. Define revolution. Systematically cover the different approaches. Explicit contrasts drawn between pairs of authors.
•  Revolutionary Bingo 
• Activity: revolutionary bingo. Students work in groups to identify mechanisms and players in different accounts of revolution. Answers are then covered with whole class; each correct answer gives a Bingo point. Author: Rakeen Mabud
•  Revolutions - covering the authors
• Section focused on covering authors one at a time. Main argument of each is clarified. Can be used for creating blackboard with parallel accounts of author arguments.
• Standalone Handout - PowePoint Revolutions
• Powerpoint version of colorful summary of theories, and overview of Skocpol.
• Standalone Handout - PDF Revolution
• PDF version of colorful summary of theories, and overview of Skocpol.

• Revolutions in table format
• Activity and discussion. Revolution theories and cases are schematized in table. Students fill in missing rows in groups; then whole class goes over correct answers. Conclude with some discussion questions.
•  Activity - authoritarians and revolutionaries
• Activity and discussion. Start with theories, key phrases, Russia and Iran. Then activity where students pretend to be the authoritarians or revolutionaries in a hypothetical country. They present strategy to class. Includes handout. Author: Julie Faller
•  Discussion questions
• Review key components of last week’s theories; analyze the causes of revolution in Russia and Iran in the context of these theories; discuss the likelihood of future revolutions.

•  Ethnicity table and quotations activity
• Cover key concepts, activity. Go over readings, filling in table with a schema of arguments. Activity where students match quotations to authors. Finish with discussion on which arguments most convincing.
•  Ethnicity discussion, tree
• Discussion based section. Begin by illustrating ethnic identity with activity where students list own identities. Illustrate different approaches with tree diagram of ethnicity. Institutions, violence covered. Author: Julie Faller
• Debate on Sierra Leone
• Debate based section. Students read BBC country report on Sierra Leone, are assigned primordial/constructivist/instrumentalist approaches to defend. Teams get opening statements and time for rebuttals, conclusions. Author: Rakeen Mabud
• Ethnicity discussion based
• Discussion based section. What is ethnicity? Cover each author with definitions of key terms.
• Handout - EthnicConflictReview
• Handout: colorful summary of theories. Author: Chiara Superti

• Ethnic violence discussion questions
• Discussion based section. Is ethnic violence planned or spontaneous? Does it matter where ethnicities come from? Why does violence come in bursts? Author: Rakeen Mabud.
• Ethnic violence group exercise
• Group exercise. Students break into groups, applying either Wilkinson or Brown to either Rwanda or Yugoslavia. Author: Julie Faller
•  Ethnic conflict cover arguments and group exercise
• Cover theories and group exercise. Start by covering Wilkinson and Levitsky. Students in groups apply both theories to Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Whole class discussion concludes.

• Institutions and review of critique types
• Discussion based section. Starts with a review of types of critiques of arguments (for second short paper). Definitions of institutions. Do they have an independent effect on outcomes? Author: Julie Faller
• Discussion questions and review of critique types II
• Discussion based section. Starts with review of types of critiques of arguments. Detailed coverage of readings, table with pros and cons of presidential and parliamentary systems.

• Electoral institutions overview and activity
• Section based on overview and class activity. Overview (schematic for blackboard) of the institutional debates. Class interactive exercise: given profile of hypothetical country, what should the institutional design be? Authors: Julie Faller, Colin Brown

• Handout with argument summary
• Class handout: one page summarizes key theoretical argument of state strength authors. (Author: Brad Holland)

• Civil society discussion questions
• Discussion based section. Definition and illustration of civil society. What outcomes does it affect? Is Putnam right? (Author: Julie Faller)

• Discussion and final exam strategies
• Discussion and final exam strategies. Why are European and American welfare states different? Should we expect democracy in Iraq? Strategies for final, dividing course into big independent and dependent variables. (Author: Julie Faller)

• Ancient vs modern liberty & build-your-own democracy
• Discussion of different concept of liberty, what are virtues of government, then build-your-own democracy activity. Author: Gabe Katsh
• Discussions of deliberative democracy, equality & activities
• Questions about deliberative democracy, exercise where students think about how we should determine who gets to vote, discuss why democracy. Author: Chris Celaya

• Group discussions and activity with different voting rules
• Small group discussions with directed questions leading up to whether voting is democratic. Then voting exercise; using three voting schemes class chooses cookies for following week. Finish with discussion questions on parties. Author: Chris Celaya.

• Key concepts, discussion, structured debate
• Review of key concepts, discussion questions on values and processes, structured debate (timeline here) on legitimacy of judicial review. Author: Chris Celaya
• How to reconcile democracy and judicial review
• Systematic summary of key arguments defending judicial review as consistent with democracy; discussion questions; activity where students act as Supreme Court justices and decide on vignettes based on real cases. Author: Gabriel Katsh

• Money in Politics lesson plan
• Overview of key arguments and concepts; discussion questions on misinformation, role of money in politics. Activity: constitutional convention to change electoral college and President's emergency powers. Author: Chris Celaya

• Ultimatum game to illustrate reputation and credible commitments
• Start with group activity: repeated ultimatum game with M&M's. Discuss one-shot games and reputation building. Move into discussion of institutions, credible commitments. Finish with discussion of Acemoglu and Robinson. Author: Rakeen Mabud.
• Discussion with application to the US today
• Key concepts and arguments, classification of problems to overcome and suggested solutions, discussion questions on institutions, role of culture, link to the USA today. Author: Chris Celaya

• Worlds of capitalism, mechanisms of CME and LME
• Discuss and illustrate features and origins of three worlds of capitalism. Contrast LME and CME. Are democracy and capitalism compatible? Activity where students individually take on different demographic profiles and think about what social protections would be most important to them. Author: Chris Celaya
• Discussion around US/Finland, activity on skill profiles
• Link to Atlantic article about welfare state, use it for discussion of the rationale for welfare states. Why is the US different from Finland - look at different explanations. Activity where students are divided into groups with different skill profiles (as above) and think about what social protections would be most important to them. Author: Rakeen Mabud

• Democratic revolutions and logic of causal relationships
  
• Overview of approaches, extensive introduction to logic of causality in the social sciences. Discussion questions on origins of revolutions, regime stability, democracy. Author: Chris Celaya.

Collective action failure! Nothing here. Maybe submit your own lesson plan so this doesn't happen again?

• Democracy at War with connection to contemporary hot topics
  
• Discussions of democratic peace theory, audience costs, contemporary issues such as "drones and phones". Is Snowden a hero or a villain? How do we think about trusting the government to uphold civil rights vs. effective protection of the population? Author: Rakeen Mabud.

• Does new media make the world more like an Athenian democracy, or more like Orwell's 1984?

• Questions to probe students' understanding of readings, bigger picture discussion questions and links to related WaPo and The Atlantic articles. Author: Tess Wise

• Do high levels of international economic integration reduce the role of the state?
• Discussion section in four parts: First era of globalization; Second era of globalization; Globalization and the state; Private politics. Author: Arjun Ramamurti
• Discussion questions + videos and discussing winners/losers
• Discussion questions cover student understanding of first and second phase of globalization, and globalization & the state. After break, watch two videos with Zizek and John Oliver, discuss winners and losers of globalization. Author: Tess Wise.

• Discussion q, group brainstorm, quiz
• Discussion with group breakdown to brainstorm 'what is democracy', comprehension check quiz. Includes notes on readings.
• Discussion section and icebreaker
• Ice-breaker with Singapore puzzle. Discussion around the Why, What, and Who of democracy. Author: Chiara Superti.
• Introduction to student ideas of democracy
• Discussion moves from students intuitive understanding of democracy (during icebreaker) to the definitions in readings. Author: Rakeen Mabud
• Definitions of democracy discussion
• Brainstorm qualities of democracy, then definitions from readings with focus on Dworkin. Author: Tsin Yen Koh
• Why is democracy valuable
• Extended icebreaker and intro followed by discussion of why democracy valuable and comparisons to other spheres of life than politics. Includes handout with section syllabus. Author: Shelby Grossman

•  Bullet points - do we agree what democracy is
• Discussion set up around whether we can agree what democracy is, questions we ask about scope and problems with democracy.
• Build your own democracy activity
• Handout for activity where students use a checklist of options to create their own 'best' democracy. Author: Chiara Superti
• Section structure before 'build your own democracy' activity
• Cover key features of ancient/modern democracy and citizenship followed by 'build your own democracy' activity. Author: Tsin Yen Koh
• Discussion section with activity and extra questions to spare
• Discussion question based section with 'make your own democracy' activity at end. Lots of spare questions for inspiration. Author: Rakeen Mabud
• Systematic coverage of authors around theme of justifying democracy
• Continue group-building, followed by systematic coverage of the authors, structured around the question of how we justify democracy. Author: Shelby Grossman.

• Discussion questions 3 actors
• Discussion questions. Focus on 3 actors: voters, electoral systems, parties. Then bring all together.
• Discussion questions with three actors structure
• Discussion questions, another version organized around three actors followed by synthesis. Author: Tsin Yen Koh
• Discussion and activity on mandatory voting
• Discussion questions plus details on activity where students read, summarize and debate op-eds on compulsory voting. Author: Shelby Grossman
• Discussion + mandatory voting activity
• Uses both discussion questions and activity on mandatory voting. Author: Rakeen Mabud

• Debate on French ban of full veil
• Read short news piece and debate banning full veil in public places in France. Author: Chiara Superti
•  Discussion questions individual rights, constitution and is judicial review democratic
• Discussion on US constitution with specific example of where courts draw limits of free speech; then judicial review questions. Author: Tsin Yen Koh
• Questions with videos on judicial review 
• Introduce judicial review in authors, then videos on supreme court hearings and debate. Excerpt from federalist, court expected to be weak. Author: Shelby Grossman
•  Discussion, then debate with assigned positions, quiz
• After introduction to author positions on judicial review, students assigned positions to debate whether judicial review is democratic. End with quiz for understanding.

• Discussion with examples on campaign finance and tea party
• Discussion questions. Includes facts and quotes to bring up on campaign finance and Tea Party. Author: Tsin Yen Koh.
• Discussion with outline of campaign finance regulation
• Define democracy, then discuss campaign finance (overview of major regulations) and Tea Party.
•  Discussion of topic preceded by exercise on thesis statements
• Discussion questions, thesis statement practice, student handout for tracking important concepts. Author: Shelby Grossman
• Discussion - democracy as participatory v institutional
• 2 parts. 1st discussion of how to evaluate democracy, participatory and institutional criteria. 2nd discussion of Tea Party. Author: Rakeen Mabud.

• Revolutions with comparison of Davies and Skocpol
• Discussion based section. Cover main points of authors, then compare Davies and Skocpol on Russia. Think about negative cases, the difficulty of the Iranian case, role of ideology. Author: Jonathan Weigel
• Game and discussion questions
• Start with collective action game to leave class early, discuss how collective action problems get solves. Then discussion questions to define revolution, understand timing/causes, structuralist/voluntarist explanations, revolutionary actors and more. Author: Soledad Prillaman.

• Discussion, activity on causation
• Activity, discussion of causality, contrasting authors. Comes with a handout for the activity. Author: Rakeen Mabud.
• Students present assigned papers
• Use tylenol example for teaching causality; then students do short presentations on pre-assigned papers. Author: Shelby Grossman
• Worksheet of causality and endogeneity
• Use class to fill in systematic worksheet on authors' arguments, causal pathways and alternative explanations. Author: Tsin Yen Koh

• Worksheet and causal arguments analysis
• Authors' arguments analyzed in systematic worksheet; exercise in analyzing causal arguments. Author: Tsin Yen Koh
• Individual activity, cover authors, country case activity
• Students give own reactions to readings; cover causality and readings; then activity consulting a country for democratic consolidation. Author: Shelby Grossman
• Discussion questions and activity
• Discussion questions cover authors, version of consulting activity with democratization target in Vietnam or Qatar. 

• Discussion and overview + activity
• Birds-eye view of course, discussion of Russia and China, activity on "policy pick-and-mix" for Egypt. Author: Tsin Yen Koh.
• Discussion questions
• Discussion questions: elements of democracy, what role for protest, China and Russia; pictures of Putin.

• Section with discussion questions and game
• Discussion questions in depth, game to illustrate strategic behavior, examples from Syria and real world situations to illustrate arguments. Author: Tsin Yen Koh
• Lesson plan with Poker
• Discussion, poker game to illustrate strategic behavior, student debate to end class.

• Democracy activity and discussion of democratic conundrums related to institutions
• Cover the definitions of different electoral systems and consociationalism. Build your own democracy activity. Discuss representation vs. efficiency, ethnocratic democracies, US racial relations hypothetical. Author: Soledad Prillaman

• Questions and mini-debates
• Discussion questions, mini-debates on global democracy, private politics, link to NYT article with additional food for thought.
• Effects of globalization
• Questions organized around effects of globalization, accountability, markets. Author: Tsin Yen Koh.