Concepts.

An agent capable of acting politically — individual, group, office, or state.

Names who acts in A to B.

The observable outcome of a political act on another party or institution.

Names what follows from A.

The capacity of A to bring about an effect B that would not otherwise occur.

Anchors the entire line.

The authority to decide, command, and maintain order within a political community.

Explains final authority.

Recognized right to command and be obeyed.

Distinguishes legitimate from coercive power.

The belief that an authority's commands ought to be obeyed.

Explains durable compliance.

Protected claims individuals or groups hold against the state or each other.

Constrains permissible A.

Voluntary acceptance of authority or rule.

Grounds legitimacy.

The duty to obey legitimate authority.

Closes the consent loop.

The standing of one to act politically on behalf of others.

Bridges citizens and state.

An organization claiming monopoly of legitimate force over a territory.

Names the principal A.

A stable rule-bound structure that shapes political behavior.

Explains regularities.

Authoritative rules enforced by the state.

Concretizes A's commands.

Aggregate attitudes of a public on political questions.

Constrains and prompts A.

A stake an actor has in a political outcome.

Predicts A's choices.

A group defined by shared position in economic structure.

Explains aligned actors.

An organization that contests elections and organizes governance.

Channels A into office.

A structured belief system that orders political action.

Explains coherent A patterns.

Contestation between actors with incompatible aims.

Drives most A to B chains.

Power exercised through force or threat.

Names hard A.

Observable adherence to a command, norm, or law.

Operationalizes B.

Patterned stability of political relations.

Names system-level B.

Freedom from undue interference or domination.

Normative constraint on A.

Equal standing or treatment under law and politics.

Benchmark for B.

The principled distribution of benefits, burdens, and recognition.

Evaluates B.

Rule by the people through institutionalized participation.

Names a system of A to B.

Power exercised so the subject is dependent on the dominator's will.

Names unfree B.

Formal political membership in a polity, with rights and duties.

Defines who counts.

Observable political conduct of individuals and groups.

Operationalizes A.

A coherent framework that organizes questions, methods, and theories.

Selects which A to B counts.

A disciplined procedure for generating and testing claims.

Tests the A to B reading.

Observations marshaled to support or undermine a claim.

Warrants B.

The reasoning move from evidence to claim.

Connects evidence and theory.

The relation by which A produces or alters B.

The arrow itself.

A simplified representation that explains A to B for a class of cases.

Names the best line.

The simplest classical model that adequately tracks A to B across the case.

Closes the classical step.

The field studying U.S. institutions, behavior, and policy.

Frames U.S. A to B.

The field studying interactions among states and global actors.

Frames inter-state A to B.

The field comparing political systems and within-country variation.

Frames cross-case A to B.

The normative and conceptual study of politics.

Frames what A and B should be.

The study of methods used to make political claims.

Disciplines the inference.

The study of constitutional, administrative, and judicial structures.

Frames legal A to B.

The study of the interaction of politics and economic structures.

Frames economic A to B.

The study of media institutions, content, and political effects.

Frames mediated A to B.

A paradigm emphasizing individual rights, consent, and limited government.

Rights to restraint.

A paradigm emphasizing power, interest, and order under anarchy.

Interest to balance.

A paradigm in which identities and norms shape interests and action.

Meaning to behavior.

A paradigm in which institutions structure political outcomes.

Rules to behavior.

A paradigm in which class and material relations drive politics.

Class to state.

A paradigm centered on non-domination and civic virtue.

Institutions to non-domination.

A paradigm valuing tradition, order, and prudential change.

Continuity to stability.

A paradigm analyzing gendered power and its political effects.

Gender to political outcome.

A paradigm exposing structures of domination and ideology.

Ideology to consent.

A paradigm analyzing colonial legacies and global hierarchies.

Colonial history to present.

A paradigm focused on observable, measurable political behavior.

Stimulus to behavior.

A paradigm modeling actors as utility maximizers under constraint.

Preference plus constraint to choice.

A paradigm emphasizing path dependence and temporal sequence.

Prior to present.

A paradigm focused on meaning, understanding, and context.

Meaning to action.

Statistical procedures for inferring patterns from numeric data.

Tests A to B at scale.

Interpretive procedures for studying meaning, process, and context.

Tests A to B in depth.

Mathematical modeling of strategic interaction.

Derives A to B from assumptions.

Tracing political outcomes through time and sequence.

Locates A to B in time.

Interpretation of legal texts, doctrines, and judicial reasoning.

Tests legal A to B.

Study of how language structures political meaning and power.

Tests framing to reception.

Study of relations among actors as a structural system.

Tests relational A to B.

Reconstruction of actors' meanings and self-understandings.

Tests meaning-laden A to B.