Introductory material covering the theory behind economics and the natural sciences abounds in video form across the internet. But similar introductions to the theory behind political science – and especially the dynamics of political institutions – aren’t so readily available. Those interested in a crash course in political institutions really only have hard-to-approach textbooks – often written for graduate-level coursework – as a resource.
Animated Politics aims to fill this gap. I’ve created several short videos for a course I teach on political institutions at the University of California, Riverside. With these videos, I break down theories of political institutions using animations in order to bring textbook ideas to life – and to provide intuition behind the static figures readers typically encounter in academic work.
The first video considers the simple case of politicians bargaining over a specific policy area: the minimum wage. Later videos in this series will consider simultaneous conflict over multiple policy areas, institutional solutions to problems that arise in democracies, and models of the legislative process to expose students to the analytical tools political scientists bring to bear on the study of lawmaking.
Animated Politics is intended for students of political science, as well as a broader audience. Enjoy – anyone with an openness to thinking through problems mathematically and systematically will likely find the videos especially informative.
Nicholas G. Napolio is a 2025-2026 Good Authority fellow.
