The construction of a national identity: the case of France
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
According to Ernest Renan, in Qu'est ce qu'une nation, "Nations are not eternal. They had a beginning and they will have an end". While the opposite assumption is widespread, nations are in fact recent in the human history. They are younger than their official histories that the...
Russian rule, Nationalism and Independence, 1860 - 1930: Latvia, Poland and Finland
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
In 1860, the Latvians, the Poles and the Finns had witnessed different developments. Latvia belonged to the Russian Empire since the end of the 18th century, but the Baltic Germans continued to hold power locally and enjoyed a great economical and social hegemony over the country. In Poland, the...
Interest groups in the EU's social policy
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
In order to create appropriate and legitimate policies, the European Union's institutions maintain relationships with the civil society, which take different forms. Interest groups are one of these intermediary organizations that link European institutions and the citizens of the EU. Indeed,...
Church and State in Franco´s Spain
Essay - 14 pages - Political science
“In the last sixty years the mutation of the Spanish Catholic Church has been extraordinary. It is as though we had been watching a play of several act, complete with changes of scenery, of the plot and of the personality of the characters and even the emotional tone: furious in the...
Race relations (in UK and in France)
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
The racial relations in a country are often problematic. The United Kingdom and France are not exceptions about it, even if for a long time Great Britain was considered as a model to reconcile races in a state. That perhaps explains why this subject is very interesting. This article will make a...
What is the role of the Equal Rights Amendment?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
The Equal Rights Amendment, better known as the ERA, is an amendment requiring that both sexes be treated equally under the law. It has been a matter of heated debate and battle for the last 83 years. The ERA was first introduced to Congress in 1923; three years after the 19th Amendment had...
What is the role of IO's - IGO's and NGO's - regarding hostage takings and kidnappings in the world?
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
Today hostage taking is considered as a crime or as a terrorist act. Indeed, hostage taking is one of the many ways of action of the terrorists because, by this way, they can put pressure on States and thus obtain an important media coverage. The hostage taking is one of the favourite ways of...
How useful are Marxist theories of Capitalist world hegemony?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Even if the word "hegemony? linguistically comes from the Greek "egemon? meaning leader or ruler, one can find the roots of this word in Marxist thought as it was first used by Russian Social-Democrats from the late 1890's through the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Nevertheless, since the...
Political Parties, Pressure Groups, and Voting Behavior
Tutorials/exercises - 5 pages - Political science
The National Rifle Association is among both the most effective and most controversial lobbying groups in the United States today. While their initial intention is to preserve people's right to bear arms, they have done so by staunchly opposing any piece of legislation specifically targeting any...
Present first the background for the present security arrangements in the Nordic countries. Discuss then whether the tendency is towards greater similarities or differences between the Nordic countries
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
“Since 1720, all the Nordic countries have remained minor powers on the international stage. As such, the Nordic states have had to adapt to the constraints that are usually beyond their control.” This statement could summarize the geopolitical situation which has shaped the security...
How to Lobby, Literally
Tutorials/exercises - 5 pages - Political science
Since the United States' foundation, the people have constitutionally been granted the right to assemble and express themselves freely. The most effective assemblies over time have become the active voices of the people, pursuing fair legislation when deemed necessary through the lobbying of...
Case study: To what extent did the democratization process cause Côte d'Ivoire to collapse?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Between 1960 and 1990, Côte d'Ivoire was regarded as a model of state stability and state efficiency. But in 2002 the Ivorian State completely collapsed. At the same time the level of democracy in Côte d'Ivoire went up between 1990 and 2002, leading the country from a paternalistic...
Country sheet: Belgium
Worksheets - 2 pages - Political science
The territory of Belgium has always been subject to the influence of both the German and Latin world. So when Belgium separated from the Northern Netherlands in 1830, a cultural pluralism was already there. It is those differences in language, culture and so on between the different parts of the...
Did the Catholic Church play a leading part during World War II?
Essay - 13 pages - Political science
The question of the part played by the Catholic Church during World War II is highly controversial. Historiography maintained its silence about this subject for quite a number of years. However, during the years 1964-1965, the Pope Pius XII had been the subject of numerous campaigns of...
The impact of the American values on the population's humanitarian involvement
Essay - 2 pages - Political science
When I think of American culture and civilization, the first observation that strikes me is the power of the American values. I used to think that the Americans and the French shared exactly the same views on most of things but after having spent a semester studying with students and teachers...
Cosmopolitanism according to Kant, Negri, and Hardt
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
What is cosmopolitanism? The etymology of the word goes back to Ancient Greek, and is composed of the words kosmos, world, and polites, citizen. Cosmopolitanism should therefore be a theory of world politics, of a world in which a single shared political order would rule and of which every...
Calhoun, Tocqueville, and Lincoln on the tyranny of the majority
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
As the virtues and advantages of democracy were rediscovered at the end of the eighteenth century, so were its defects and drawbacks. Most authors, including Tocqueville, were faced with an empirical and theoretical vacuum in describing this new regime which began to rise in America and in France...
Saint-Malo and the birth of common european security and defense policy
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
The European defense department has a long history, and has been through many ups and downs. The Western European Union's (WEU) the first attempt at a common European alliance was superseded by NATO. The EDC (European defense Community) was another attempt at a unified European Defense which...
"Almost all nations observe almost all principles of international law and almost all their obligations almost all of the time": Discuss
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
"Almost all nations observe almost all principles of international law and almost all their obligations almost all of the time". This is the statement made by Louis Henkin, a prominent international lawyer and an influential scholar in the field of the international law, in his book entitled How...
How do different Marxists understand the issues of social cohesion and consent?
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
Although highly criticized, and sometimes even demonized, the Marxist thought represented one of the most serious challenges to the cultural hegemony of capitalism and parliamentary democracy. Marx and his followers attempted to understand and deconstruct this complex system of economic...
What is state terrorism? How would it be possible to differ it from authoritarian policies of states to enforce law and order?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The term state terrorism is of topical interest since the 1970s. Originally, it was used by the USSR during the Cold War era to describe the Operation Condor in South America. This strategy of massive repression of left-winged insurrectionary movements, led by the most authoritarian regimes of...
What is governmentality? Is it a useful concept?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Although the concept of governmentality was elaborated in Foucault's last years, its philosophical premises are to be found in many of his earlier publications. From 1961 (Madness and Civilization) to 1984 (The History of Sexuality) , he explored various forms of powers and constraints, in...
Citizenship & Democracy: Civil Society and the Democratization of Kosovo
Case study - 5 pages - Political science
The emergence of Kosovo as a modern nation-state is a recent development, tracing its immediate roots to the 1990s. At this time Kosovo was still a province of Serbia and under the authority of Serbia's leader, Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic went to extreme measures to put down the insurgency...
Genetically Modified Organism
Worksheets - 5 pages - Political science
A Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) is a plant, or an animal whose genetic code has been altered, subtracted, or added in order to give it characteristics that it does not have naturally.
A Race to the Finish : A struggle for equal rights
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
The United States, despite its libertarian ideals and emphasis on equality, has more than once turned its back on its own citizens. Slavery, the most bruising, shameful mark in the history of this democracy, divided the American culture even after the Civil War ended and the slaves were freed....
The Chinese century, the rising economy and its impact on the global economy, the balance of power, and your job, Oded SHENKAR, 2005
Book review - 6 pages - Political science
China is at the heart of the present-day economic debate. China is indisputably booming economically. Its enormous growth rate attests of this evolution; all economists agree on this assertion. What seems more debatable at the moment is the impact this rise could have on the global economy, and...
Madagascar: A Country's Struggle for Public Discourse Through Media
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
In independent Madagascar, while citizens celebrate a free media system, their simultaneous struggle for media access puts them at great disadvantage. Formerly a French colony, Madagascar has only had its independence for several decades, little time to build an effective media and communication...
Comparative study of cultural aspects of Baltic History
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
Living for a time in the Baltic States area makes one realize how different Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are from each other. With respect to the political, economic and social fields, the three countries experience different phenomena and do not follow the same paths. This fact questions the...
The German minority in Latvia and Estonia:From the national awakenings to the Second World War
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
Latvia and Estonia are now experiencing a situation, which is recognized as unique in Europe. Their populations are multi-ethnic due to their history, and a significant part of their national minorities does not hold citizenship. This explains the fact that many studies and research papers are...
The German minority and its cultural activities in Latvia: 20's and 30's of the 20th century
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
After many years of "national awakening" and a very painful "liberation war", Latvia became an independent and non-occupied state in 1919-1920, for the first time in its history. Thus began a very new political process of nation-state building. While ethnic Latvians had to face many difficulties,...
