This module will introduce students to key concepts, debates, and findings in political science. Topics to be discussed include the state, elections, parties, the legislature, the executive, party systems, and political regime types. The module will discuss these topics with reference to democracies, non-democracies, and everything in between. Students will also be introduced to research design in political science, focusing on case selection, methods, data, and generalisability. Students will build on material covered in SESS0016 (‘Understanding Politics I: The Big Questions’), but the focus will shift to the empirical (not theoretical) study of politics. We will explore how our knowledge of ‘how politics works’ is created, challenged, and changed. Weekly lectures are complemented by weekly tutorials. Following completion of the module, students will be familiar with key debates in contemporary political science; will be familiar with different methodologies used in the study of political phenomena; and will be comfortable with reading, understanding, and critically engaging with political science research articles.