Lesson Report:
**Title: Understanding Politics Beyond Formal Institutions: Rules, Reality, and Negotiation**
**Synopsis:**
In this session, the class delved deeper into the foundational understanding of politics, emphasizing its relevance in everyday interactions and decisions. The lesson revisited the definition of politics as the distribution of resources, who gets what, when, and how, using relatable personal stories and interactive activities. The class aimed to contextualize politics as a broader societal phenomenon, overloaded with formal laws, social norms, and the harsh boundaries of reality. As students engaged in activities and discussions, they conceptualized political processes as dynamic negotiations influenced by these factors, both in personal spheres and at larger state levels.
**Attendance:**
No students were explicitly mentioned as absent, but one student noted to be joining late, and another had an issue with joining the eCourse platform, which could affect future attendance records.
**Topics Covered:**
1. **Introduction and Administrative Details:**
– Request for students to join the Telegram group for sharing readings and course materials.
– Challenges noted in using eCourse for attendance, suggesting inefficiency that might warrant future adjustments.
2. **Revisiting Political Definitions:**
– Reminder of the simplified definition of politics as “who gets what, when, and how.”
– Discussion on politics occurring in everyday situations such as family dynamics, and academic decision-making.
– Politics as negotiations over resources, highlighting a broader understanding beyond formal political settings.
3. **Concept Mapping Activity:**
– Students paired up to discuss personal political decision-making experiences.
– Activity to identify the elements of ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, and ‘how’ in their stories, focusing on negotiations and decision strategies.
4. **Lecture on Rules vs. Reality in Politics:**
– Explanation of how decisions are made considering methods, strategies, and the fairness of these processes.
– Politics compared to a game involving rules (laws and norms) and realities (scarcity, uncertainty, imbalance).
– Examples included resource allocation and dealing with systemic power imbalances.
5. **Applied Scenario – Country Case Study:**
– Examination of three fictional countries (Alpha, Beta, Gamma) with a historical free trade agreement encountering economic conflicts.
– Discussion on real-world political decision-making influenced by economic pressures, norms, and political realities.
– Objective to simulate complexities and unpredictability in political negotiations similar to real state dynamics.
**Actionable Items:**
– **Administrative and Technical:**
– Ensure all students have successfully joined the eCourse platform to avoid future attendance issues.
– Continue striving for a more efficient attendance-taking process.
– **Homework and Reading Assignments:**
– Assign reading of two chapters in PDF format, which will be posted on eCourse.
– Reminder for students to read the chapters before the next class on Tuesday to prepare for discussion, no written work required.
By maintaining attention to these elements, the progression of the course will successfully build upon today’s foundational understandings of politics in personal and state contexts.
Homework Instructions:
ASSIGNMENT #1: Read Two PDF Chapters
To prepare for our next class and enhance your understanding of the topics discussed in today’s lesson, you are required to read two chapters that will be provided to you. These readings will help you grasp the foundational theories and concepts related to political science, focusing on the dynamics of power, rules, and reality, as we explored with real-life examples in class.
Instructions:
1. Log into eCourse where the two chapters have been uploaded in PDF format.
2. Download and carefully read both PDF chapters.
3. As you read, consider how the concepts discussed in the chapters relate to the examples of personal and national political situations we discussed in class.
4. Note down any questions or interesting points you would like to discuss in our next session.
5. Be prepared for an in-class discussion about these readings on Tuesday. Participation in this discussion will help deepen your understanding of the course material.
No written work is required for this task, but thorough reading and preparation for discussion are essential.