United States versus democracy
Thesis - 10 pages - Political science
Throughout history individuals have discussed the term democracy, which has its origins in ancient Greece, and is derived from the words demos and kratos. The literal definition of this term is “rule by the people.” However, this definition is ambiguous and has allowed scholars to...
Transition of Croatia - publié le 09/01/2009
Essay - 20 pages - Political science
According to Linz and Stephan, five interacting areas need to be in place before a consolidated democracy can exist in a state. First, there must be a free and lively civil society. A civil society is the arena of the polity where self-organizing groups, movements and individuals can express and...
Is there a distinct American political culture? - publié le 09/01/2009
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
We often assess that some behaviours are “American” and some “European”. Doing this, we mean there is a distinct American culture. Does it match for political culture? Political culture could be defined as a set of behaviours and habits towards the political system of one's...
Comparative analysis of the political parties and the party systems: the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Case study - 6 pages - Political science
Although sharing institutions for over seventy years, and the transition pathways from communism, the two successor states of the former Czechoslovakia have faced different challenges in the state-building process and adopted distinct economic policies over the past thirteen years since Slovakia...
Evaluate Charles Taylor's arguments against neutralist liberalism - publié le 08/01/2009
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Every society needs cohesion to survive. However, we are likely to have different views on how to implement and manage this cohesion. In this context, the state has a primary role regarding this task as it is often seen as the only alternative to anarchy. The question then arises as to the basis...
What are the principal models or theories of the British political system? Identify how, according to these models, political institutions in Britain provide for accountability and representation
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
The British political system, fully encompassed in the monarchical democracy, offers a unique and original view on domestic politics. The British political system found its roots on strong historical grounds, which may be called the "path dependency" model. Nevertheless, it has also evolved...
Can all the efforts devoted to capacity building in the sphere of civil society in new democracies be justified?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Civil society appears as a main actor of the implementation and the resilience of democracy. Indeed, it enables citizens to participate more actively in public current debate and symbolizes a well mean of integration. Civil society fosters the circulation of information in the society, standing...
The Colombian political regime
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
Colombia gained its independence from Spain in 1819. After different territorial modifications throughout the nineteenth century (including the separation of Ecuador and Venezuela in 1830), the Republic of Colombia was proclaimed in 1886. The Constitution enacted this year, lasted for more than a...
History of Russia: A look at the Russian political gravity
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
Autocratic rule in Russia initially evolved at odds with the interests of the landed gentry before finally undermining their power via the establishment of a service gentry, loyal to the state, and appeasing them with the slow institutionalization of serfdom. The primary ingredients of early...
The presidency: Where foreign policy and domestic politics collide
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Political scientists have long sought to discover where the foreign and the domestic spheres of the presidency connect. Presidents, it is assumed, must balance military needs with political needs, whether those political needs entail gaining domestic support for the president's agenda or...
Appropriate and necessary: The U.S. Supreme Court's need to intervene in Bush v. Gore
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The presidential election of the year 2000 will be the source of controversy for years to come. Since its conclusion on Dec.12, 2000, in the U.S. Supreme Court, volumes have been written criticizing the court's decision in Bush v. Gore - which stopped hand recounts of ballots in Florida and gave...
Breakdown of election 2004: Bush v. Kerry
Thesis - 5 pages - Political science
On November 2, 2004 almost 120 million voters cast ballots for President of the United States. Just fewer than 60% of the population let their voices be heard in one of the most controversial and closest elections in history (Electoral Results). The phrase characterizing this election, “too...
Japanese military independence
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
The Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF) was developed as a provisionary force during the Cold War and is restricted under Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. The SDF has been under much scrutiny over the most recent decade. Debates regarding the amendment or abolition of Article 9 itself,...
International political sociology
Essay - 10 pages - Political science
Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry developed by sociologists and political scientists to study the dynamic relationship between society (a complex web of social institutions and social behavior) and politics. Much of the impetus for the development of the field grew out...
The struggle for democracy: An analysis of false flag terrorism in post-war Italy and its contemporary relevance
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
To analyze politics is to attempt to understand the evolution and application of ideas in circumstances that are seldom clearly defined. These ideas are formulated into ideological structures that become the governing principles of specific political philosophies. Words such as morals, culture,...
The roadmap of 'The Republic'
Book review - 6 pages - Political science
When tackling a text of great literary merit, it is important to remember to approach it in the right way. For instance, if we look to the New Testament of the Bible, while masterfully written, it is not a verbatim moral or ethical code of human behavior. Likewise The Analects of Confucius,...
To what extent may Sarkozy be considered a gaullist ?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Exactly 50 years after the birth of the 5th Republic, the influence of its founder is still omnipresent in the organization of French politics. De Gaulle was not only the leader of French resistance during WWII and the leader of the "la France libre", solution to the Algerian crisis; he was also...
Economic and political transition in Bahrain: Strong Rentier States and Strong Rentier Societies
Essay - 18 pages - Political science
Bahrain, often overlooked in both academic and media analyses of the Middle East, has a strategic importance hidden by its small size. As home of the American Fifth Fleet, Bahrain hosts a deterrent against Iran from blockading the Straits of Hormuz as it has recently threatened to do. As such...
Conflicting Zionisms in the context of George Orwell's "Notes on Nationalism"
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
I begin this essay with an anecdote: when I read the headline announcing the resignation of Fidel Castro, I asked several American friends their instinctive reaction to Castro, regardless of their views on his forty-nine year rule. While the reactions were not as visceral as one might expect...
The developmental state in pre-revolutionary Iran
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
The oft-repeated maxim of Italian politics, that when Mussolini was in power, “at least the trains ran on time,” while probably inaccurate, summarizes well the widely popular belief that authoritarianism serves for (sometimes brutal) efficiency in government. Indeed the opposite saying...
Barbara Ransby, ' Columbus and the Making of Historical Myth ', Race & Class
Text commentary - 3 pages - Political science
This article is figures out how the real and historical Columbus has been transformed through centuries into a mythical (superhero) and exemplary explorer. The author's thesis then is that this transformation has been triggered and brought about by decades of government propaganda, mainly...
Essay: what is the " essential glue that binds people together " and what can school do to create ' greater community cohesion "?
Essay - 2 pages - Political science
Max ERNST, a surrealist painter and writer, stated in Ecritures, "l'identité sera convulsive ou ne sera pas". The political concept of national identity has always made up the core of a nation, from its birth to its rehearsal. As national identity aims at defining what is to be French,...
The FARC: Are we at the story's end?
Essay - 14 pages - Political science
The Fuerzas armadas revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo, more generally known under their shortest acronym: FARC, have been playing a great part in Columbia's political life since 1964. For more than forty years, it has been that the first guerilla involved in the Columbian armed...
Suitable area for Paris to get a French global city region
Essay - 12 pages - Political science
As Saskia Sassen well defined it, a global city region is a region that “overlaps the global city” . Today, it can be admitted that Paris has a lot features that make this city close to a “global city”, such as the central corporate functions, and the “highly specialized...
Stephen Colbert: Truthiness of the times
Essay - 12 pages - Political science
By any historical standards, the last decade has been an extremely eventful and difficult one for America. With the flawed and still-debated 2000 presidential election we witnessed a fault line in our democracy and the election of a politically radical president; September 11th forced many...
Guatemala and the Spanish conquest
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Spain mercilessly imposed it control over the territories that today encompass Central America. Enslavement and European diseases severely depopulated the indigenous civilizations, and the territories that made up New Spain became heavily Iberian in nature not by influence but rather by force....
Do U.S. policies towards Egypt and the Muslim Brothers' success affect the democratization process?
Essay - 11 pages - Political science
9.11 attacks and the U.S. reaction to launch a war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, aside with the perpetuating Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the U.S policies toward Egypt triggered an increased popularity of Islamists. In the context of the up coming Anti-terrorist law due to be presented...
Race, immigration and changing U.S. - Cuban relations
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
United States - Cuban relations over the last century have been rocky to say the least. Just 90 miles South of Florida, the U.S. has always liked to think of the island as within its sphere of influence. In the long Cuban war for independence from Spain the United States sheltered leading...
Hungary's economic plight, the result of imperfect politics
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
While the international community, business leaders and politicians may have known the degree of Hungary's economic crisis, it wasn't until mid-September, 2006, with the leaking of MSzP (Hungarian Socialist Party) Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's confession of lying “morning, evening and...
Torture as political terror: analysis of a phenomenon over time and space
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
The word "terrorism" appeared during the French Revolution and was associated with the Reign of Terror. Since Antiquity, human beings have used torture to extract information. However, an "organ of political authority" may also adopt a "policy of torture" to control and terrorize any given...
