What to call the genocides of the Second World War and why?
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
“Historians are not always trustful guides when we have to reconstitute past”. Those words, of Lucy DAWIDOWICZ -an American historian who wrote quite a lot of books about the historiography of genocides- directly aimed at criticizing historians of genocides, who treated the murder by...
How and why has the adoption of free market economic policies affected the consolidation of democracy?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
“Economic factors have significant impact on democratization but they are not determinative.” (Huntington 1991: 59). To Huntington, there is a clear link between economy and democracy as a form of regime, bond that few people could deny nowadays. Actually, this bond can be shown by the...
Parties and party systems in contemporary democracies
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Laver and Schofield wonder what makes length of a government's life through the examples of Italy and Germany, but also of other countries. Firstly, is the number of parties of the political system related to cabinet stability? This is right in Italy, Belgium and Finland. They have a higher...
Assess the claim that Thatcherism decisively recast political and economic relationships in the 1980s
Essay - 11 pages - Political science
Thatcherism is a political thought applied by the 3 successive governments led by Margaret Thatcher, from 1979 to 1990. It quickly evolved as a doctrine. Thatcherism came at a time when the post-war consensus was collapsing, and aimed at checking the decline of the British economy, suffering...
Devolution
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
Devolution is “a form of subsidiary passing power back to the people “ ; “ it is the transfer to a subordinate elected body , on a geographical basis, of functions at present being exercised by Ministers and Parliament.“ (“Definitely British, Absolutely American!”,...
Is Russian political culture a serious obstacle to democratization?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
From the end of the Cold War to nowadays, Russia has endeavored to reform itself so as to exit from a situation of crises. Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to give a new start to the economy of the Soviet Union, to reform its plethoric administration and take steps towards a more democratic,...
How has the nature of war changed? Has it changed the way of making peace?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
“War appears to be as old as mankind, but peace is a modern invention” . This quotation of Sir Henry Maine seems obvious: wars have been a common feature of mankind history. On the other hand, implementation of durable peace, and not only end of the war, is a more intricate notion. The...
Milestones in the emergence of the Palestinian problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
In Critique of the Gotha Programme, written in 1875, Marx distinguishes different stages of communism from "crude communism? to a "higher phase of communism?. He defines crude communism as "a communist society [which has not] developed on its own foundations, but on the contrary, [has] just...
Is the Common Agricultural Policy indispensable for the future of Europe ?
Essay - 22 pages - Political science
The CAP has long been a stumbling block among EU members. Last year, Jacques Chirac strongly opposed Tony Blair's proposal about the CAP. Indeed, France is the country which receives more agricultural subsidies while the United Kingdom does not get any concern in the agricultural policies. The...
Cook's resignation from the English government due to his rejection of the policy lead by downing street on the subject of the war on Iraq
Essay - 1 pages - Political science
On March 18th 2003, Robin Cook resigned from government because he did want to go to war in Iraq without a strong international coalition and a UN resolution backing it. To him, the British government went to war not because of British reasons but for the reasons that US had along with...
The relationship between the different types of suffrage and the creation (or construction) of democratic institutions in France from 1789 to 1870
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
From 1789 to 1870 in France, not less than eight constitutions and twelve regimes followed one after another. France also experienced all types of suffrages, from the most restricted one of the Ancient Regime, to the universal manhood suffrage. This period is undeniably crucial to one who aims to...
The French policy in sub-Saharan Africa since 1960 - publié le 12/04/2007
Essay - 10 pages - Political science
The French military presence in Africa has been a major determinant of African political issues since 1960. The French army has stayed in Africa to accomplish several missions. Those missions were all aimed at maintaining stability. Some were intended to defend countries against foreign and...
Is there a French Affirmative Action Policy?
Essay - 10 pages - Political science
Affirmative action was born in the United States. It was originally designed to favour Black people, whose ancestors where slaves. Then, such programs extended to other underprivileged categories of the population: the disabled, the women, the Latinos. The first to use the phrase...
The French policy in sub-Saharan Africa since 1960
Essay - 10 pages - Political science
The French policy in Africa is frequently deemed neo-colonialist. France would enduringly attempt to keep its former colonies within its sphere of influence for economic and political reasons. Cases in point are the lyrics of the song “Françafrique” by the Ivorian descent artist Tiken...
Reflection on a discourse by Tony Blair to the American Congress
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Tony Blair addressed a discourse to the congress of the United States of America (USA) on July, 17th, 2003. It is a political text strongly related to the political context at that point of time, which I will discuss later on. The discourse can be explained by looking at each of the sentences and...
Le concept universel des droits de l'Homme a pris racine dans les pensées de la politique occidentale, peut-on donc dire qu'il peut s'appliquer pour tous les êtres humains ?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters sans frontières… voici quelques-unes des organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) présentes dans le monde, qui oeuvrent pour la protection des droits de l'Homme. Il s'agit d'organisations internationales, mais cela veut-il dire que les...
The "Memorial Laws"
Essay - 12 pages - Political science
In the first part of this paper, I give an account of a recent controversy that arose in France and in which historians played a significant role. This controversy involves a number of actors: the French government, which passed the so-called “memorial laws”; the interest groups that...
The Committee of the Regions
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
The construction of the European Union is, and has always been done by states. Since the Maastricht treaty however, sub national authorities have an official advisory body from which they can influence the making of the European policy: the Committee of the regions. This committee is made of 317...
To what extent is Belgium a sui generis federation?
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
Only 25 countries out of the 193 world-wide existing operate with a federal political system . If we look at the ones situated in Europe, there are very few: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain , and Switzerland. I am here interested in the newest one: Belgium. The reforms starting the...
How were the 2006 labour protests seen in France and abroad? - publié le 05/04/2007
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
On 9 December 1905, a law was passed in France separating the church and the state. However, today in the United States of America, the President takes an oath on the Bible to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic. To the French, it may sound...
How were the 2006 labour protests seen in France and abroad?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
On 9 December 1905, a law was passed in France separating the church and the state. However, today in the United States of America, the President takes an oath on the Bible to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic. To the French, it may sound...
Gender, sexuality and politics: masculinity - publié le 02/04/2007
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
We need to acknowledge the power that men have in society. All men feel powerful in their individual lives, but they also have to recognize their inherited sense of superiority in relation with women.
Was the Macmillan government's decision to apply for membership of the European Communities the product of Britain's declining global status?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The fear that Britain would become, as Labour's post-war Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin put it "just another European country" , was one of the main reasons to explain the British refusal to join a European supranational organisation. The Attlee government was indeed in favour of cooperation...
Gender, sexuality and politics: masculinity
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
“Somehow we need to be able to acknowledge the power that men have in society without thereby feeding a myth that all men feel powerful in their individual lives…we also have to recognize our inherited sense of superiority in relation to women…” (Seidler, 1997, p.51-53).
Was the Macmillan government's decision to apply for membership of the European Communities the product of Britain's declining global status? - publié le 02/04/2007
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The fear that Britain would become, as Labour's post-war Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin put it “just another European country” , was one of the main reasons to explain the British refusal to join a European supranational organisation. The Attlee government was indeed in favour of...
Thomas Hobbes
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
Thomas Hobbes was born in England, in 1588, prematurely because of the fear created by the approaching Spanish Armada. He studied at the Magdalen College, Oxford until the age of nineteen, and then he became connected to the Cavendish family, serving as tutor to the later second duke of...
Niccolo Machiavelli
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) is one of the most ambiguous political scientist of the history. Some used to qualify him as being immoral because of his promotion of force and deception to protect a State. However, according to the researchers that have analyzed his works, he is “the...
Risk Society thesis - publié le 30/03/2007
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
By offering a radical reorientation of mainstream sociology, modern social theories illuminate theoretical themes in environmental sociology. Indeed, it has recently begun to contest the honoured epistemological assumption of the environment as an independent, objective reality. New environmental...
The European North: Historical Geopolitics and International Institutional Dynamics
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
A “brave political experiment” calling for “unconventional decisions” promoting sub-regional cooperation that ultimately might develop into “a common European social and economic space” : this is how the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Viktor Khristenko, identified in...
The European citizenship: A transnational challenge
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
A citizen is “by definition a citizen among citizens of a country among countries. His rights and duties must be defined and limited, not only by those of his fellow citizens, but also by the boundaries of a territory [...]”. Hannah Arendt asserted thus, in 1968, that the concept of...
