Political Science posters
LearnPosters has 100 free printable political science posters, grouped into 7 topics: Political theory, Comparative politics, International relations, Public policy, Elections & voting. Theory, institutions and the methods used to study both. They are made for undergraduates, professionals and anyone revising the subject. No account and no watermark.
From political philosophy to voting systems and international relations — the concepts a politics degree returns to in every module.
100 free printable posters · 7 topics · vector PDF
Political theory
Justice, liberty, authority and the state.
The State
What distinguishes a state from other organisations.
Why Obey the State?
The main justifications for political authority.
Liberty
The two main conceptions of freedom, and what each implies.
Justice
The main accounts of what a just distribution looks like.
Why Democracy?
The arguments for majority rule, and its known weaknesses.
Equality of What?
The dispute is rarely about equality itself, but about its currency.
Power & Authority
The difference between being obeyed and being entitled to be.
Political Ideologies
The main traditions and their core commitments.
Rights
What a right is, and what having one implies for others.
Civil Disobedience
Deliberate lawbreaking as political argument.
Difference & Recognition
How political theory handles cultural and group difference.
Legitimacy
What makes the exercise of power acceptable rather than merely effective.
Political Realism
Whether political theory should start from ideals or from conduct.
Toleration
Putting up with what you disapprove of, and where the limit sits.
The Common Good
Whether politics serves shared interests or aggregates private ones.
Comparative politics
Regimes, parties and institutions across countries.
Regime Types
How political systems are classified, and why the middle is crowded.
Presidential & Parliamentary
Two ways of organising the executive, with different failure modes.
Party Systems
How many parties compete, and what determines that.
Federal & Unitary States
Where authority sits between the centre and the regions.
Democratic Transitions
How regimes change, and what makes the change stick.
Democratic Backsliding
How democracies erode without a coup.
Political Culture
The shared attitudes that shape how institutions work.
Interest Groups
How organised interests influence government.
Bureaucracy
The permanent administration, and its relationship with elected politicians.
Why Authoritarian Regimes Last
The mechanisms that sustain non-democratic rule.
The Comparative Method
How political scientists compare across countries.
State Capacity
The ability of a state to do what it decides to do.
Clientelism
Exchanging particular benefits for political support.
Civil Society
Organised life between the family and the state.
How Institutions Change
Why institutions persist, and how they shift when they do.
International relations
Anarchy, power and the main IR theories.
The Main IR Theories
Four lenses on the same events, each seeing something different.
Anarchy & the Security Dilemma
Why defensive measures can make everyone less safe.
Balance of Power
How states respond to a rising power.
Institutions Without Government
What institutions do when there is no world government.
Sovereignty & Intervention
The tension between non-interference and preventing atrocity.
Why Wars Happen
The rationalist explanations, and what they have in common.
Deterrence
Preventing action by threatening consequences.
Soft Power
Getting outcomes through attraction rather than coercion.
Global Governance
Managing problems no single state can solve.
Economic Statecraft
Using economic tools for political ends.
Regional Organisations
Cooperation below the global level.
Diplomacy
The practice of managing relations between states.
International Law
How law works between states with no central enforcer.
Nuclear Politics
How nuclear weapons changed strategic reasoning.
Displacement
How the international system handles people who flee.
Public policy
How policy is made, implemented and evaluated.
The Policy Cycle
The stages from problem to evaluation, and why the model is tidier than reality.
How Problems Reach the Agenda
Why some problems get attention and others do not.
Policy Instruments
The tools available to change behaviour.
The Implementation Gap
Why policies do not deliver what was announced.
Evidence in Policy
What evidence can settle, and what it cannot.
Evaluating Policy
Establishing whether a policy actually caused the outcome.
Why Policies Fail
The recurring patterns behind expensive failures.
Designing Regulation
Choosing how prescriptive a rule should be.
Consultation
Involving affected people in decisions, meaningfully.
Borrowing Policy From Abroad
Why a policy that worked elsewhere may not work here.
Policy in a Crisis
Deciding under time pressure and deep uncertainty.
Changing Behaviour
The options when a policy needs people to act differently.
The Cost of Inaction
Why inaction is a decision with its own costs.
Designing Public Services
Building services around the people who use them.
Regulating New Technology
Making rules for something that changes faster than legislation.
Elections & voting
Systems, behaviour and representation.
Voting Systems
How different systems translate votes into seats.
Voting Behaviour
What predicts how someone votes.
Turnout
Who votes, who does not, and why it matters.
Drawing Districts
How boundaries shape outcomes independently of votes.
Campaign Effects
What campaigns actually change.
Polling
How polls work, and why they miss.
What Representation Means
Different things a representative can be doing.
Referendums
Direct votes on a question, and their design problems.
Election Integrity
What makes an election credible.
Political Communication
How political information reaches people, and what that does.
Candidate Selection
Who chooses the candidates, and why it matters.
Forming a Government
What happens when no party wins a majority.
Participation Beyond Voting
The other ways people act politically.
Media & Elections
The role of news coverage in campaigns.
Political economy
Where politics and markets meet.
Varieties of Capitalism
Market economies are organised in systematically different ways.
Welfare State Regimes
The main models of social provision.
Distributive Politics
How political systems allocate benefits and costs.
Corruption
What sustains it, and what reduces it.
Inequality & Political Power
How economic inequality affects political influence.
Populism
What the term describes analytically, beyond its use as an insult.
Resource Politics
How natural resource wealth affects governance.
Central Bank Independence
Why monetary policy is often removed from elected control.
The Politics of Trade
Why trade policy rarely follows the economics.
State & Market
The recurring argument about where the boundary sits.
Organised Labour
How worker organisation shapes economic policy.
Industrial Policy
Governments deliberately shaping the structure of the economy.
Financialisation
The growing weight of finance in the economy and in politics.
Public & Private Ownership
When ownership form matters for outcomes.
Research methods
Designing and testing political arguments.
Asking a Researchable Question
Turning a political interest into something that can be investigated.
Concepts & Measurement
Turning abstract political concepts into things you can observe.
Case Studies
What a single case can and cannot establish.
Qualitative Methods
Interviews, documents and observation in political research.
Quantitative Methods
Using statistical evidence in political science.
Experiments
Randomisation in political research, and where it applies.
Working With Political Data
Where the data comes from, and what to check.
Making an Argument
Structuring a political science argument.
Theory & Evidence
How a theory relates to the data used to test it.
Selecting Cases
The design error that quietly invalidates many comparisons.
Research Ethics
Obligations to participants, especially in sensitive contexts.
Reading a Study Critically
Assessing a political science claim before accepting it.
Questions about the Political Science posters
- What is the Political Science section of LearnPosters?
- Theory, institutions and the methods used to study both. From political philosophy to voting systems and international relations — the concepts a politics degree returns to in every module.
- What topics do the Political Science posters cover?
- 100 posters across 7 topics. Political theory — Justice, liberty, authority and the state. Comparative politics — Regimes, parties and institutions across countries. International relations — Anarchy, power and the main IR theories. Public policy — How policy is made, implemented and evaluated. Elections & voting — Systems, behaviour and representation. Political economy — Where politics and markets meet. Research methods — Designing and testing political arguments.
- Who are the Political Science posters for?
- The political science charts are pitched at undergraduates and professionals — the frameworks and equations a course keeps returning to. Nothing here is tied to a school year, so a curious beginner and someone revising the same material for an exam are looking at the same political science chart.
- Which Political Science poster should I print first?
- The State, Why Obey the State? and Liberty are the ones people reach for first — they are the references the rest of the political science set assumes you already have on the wall.The StateWhy Obey the State?Liberty
- Are the Political Science posters free to print?
- Yes — all 100 of them. Each political science poster is a free vector PDF that needs no account, prints on US Letter or A4, and enlarges to A1 without softening. Home, classroom, library and tutoring use are all covered by the licence.Read the licence
Where the political science charts come from
These posters summarise. When you need the full account — or the normative text a chart is compressing — start here.
- United Nations documents and charter — United Nations. Primary text behind the international-relations sheets.
- V-Dem democracy data — V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg. The comparative dataset behind regime-type classifications.