Representation and governance in international organizations - Rapkin, Strand and Trevathan (2016) - Can international organizations be representative and democratic?
Text commentary - 7 pages - Political science
Due to all the problems associated with globalization, economic or financial crisis, and climates, the importance of international organizations such as the United Nations, or the IMF, has never been greater. As its name suggests, an international organization is made up of a collection of States...
Paul Kowert, "National Identity: Inside and Out", 1998
Text commentary - 7 pages - Political science
The concept of national identity was emphasized from the beginning of the 1990s as a crucial unit of analysis for scholars of international relations. Indeed, the post-bipolar era is characterized by two opposite trends dealing with the identity issue. First, the resurgence of nationalist...
Ability to change in the social area, veto points and strategies used: the example of French pensions' reforms in 1993 and in 1995 in Bonoli's book The Politics of Pension Reform: Institutions and Policy Change in Western Europe (2000)
Text commentary - 17 pages - Political science
Several authors underline the fact that Europe's 'conservative-corporatist' regime of countries faces the most difficult combination of problems due to strong challenges to its foundational assumptions (particularly strong and constant economic growth, full employment, family...
Why does Rawls believe that decent, non liberal peoples should be tolerated? How is this toleration realized at the level of the Society of Peoples?
Text commentary - 4 pages - Political science
In The Law of Peoples, John Rawls explains how his theory of justice can be extended to the international level. The Society of Peoples, he describes allows two kinds of bona fide members: liberal democratic societies and what he calls decent non-liberal people. Even though these 'decent'...
Contemporary political mass movements and ideologies, PO 336 Dr. Tamir Bar-On, Term paper "El Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional"
Text commentary - 10 pages - Political science
Beyond the political fight, the choice of the date was surely not innocent since it marked the effectiveness of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, United States and Mexico, and as a consequence the triumph of neoliberalism in the country. Among the 10 millions...
The politics of regional economics (Halliday chapter 9, Owen chapter 7)
Text commentary - 1 pages - Political science
In Halliday's text I distinguished three main points of interest, with respect to the interactions between politics and economy. His approach underlines that the Middle East crisis lies in the political economy is all the more interesting, since in France the mainstream popular view considers...
Human Rights, Civil Society and Democratization in the Middle East
Text commentary - 1 pages - Political science
In what is mostly a descriptive study, Owen presents the Middle Eastern states in different categories: the states which have a one-party system, the ones which have a restricted and controlled multi-party rule, the Gulf States mainly under family rule and non-Arab states. In all these countries,...
Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi review of Stride toward Freedom
Text commentary - 5 pages - Political science
"The intellectual and moral satisfaction that I failed to gain from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social contract theory of Hobbes, the ?back to nature' optimism of Rousseau, and the superman philosophy of Nietzche, I found in the...
Belonging, nationality and citizenship
Text commentary - 2 pages - Political science
This essay is based on the article of Lalli Metsola (2009): The Special Field Force and Namibian ex-combatant ?reintegration'. In Jensen and Jefferson (eds): State Violence and Human Rights: State Officials in the South. This article focuses on the study of organized violence in the...
Theorising the shift from security to insecurity
Text commentary - 2 pages - Political science
This essay is based on Mark Duffield's article (2007): Development, Security and Unending War. This article provides us with an analysis of three different books. What is interesting is to understand in what way these articles share the same focus even if, at first, they seem really opposed....
Sovereignty inside the States
Text commentary - 2 pages - Political science
This document is based on Thomas Blom Hansen and Finn Stepputat's article: Sovereign Bodies. Sovereignty is often described as the link between a state and its territory. If we refer to the definition of philosophy given by the Stanford Encyclopedia, we will discover that sovereignty is a...
Terrorist attacks and multiculturalism in Great Britain : commentary of "The vindication of Enoch Powell" by George Jonas (2005)
Text commentary - 3 pages - Political science
Multiculturalism has always been one of the characteristics of the United Kingdom. For ages, multiculturalism, immigration, aliens, have been crucial topics, source of debates and interrogations in this country. As foreigners have more or less been accepted, there was some legislation or some...
Devolution. Study of an extract from The Course of my Life: My Autobiography (Edward Heath)
Text commentary - 5 pages - Political science
The text we are going to study is an extract from the autobiography of Edward Heath published in 1998 and entitled ?the course of my life: My autobiography'. Edward Heath was a member of Parliament; a leader of the Conservative party from 1965 to 1974 and Prime minister of the United Kingdom...
Che Guevara: the end of a modern myth?
Text commentary - 1 pages - Political science
Ernesto "Che" Guevara's fortieth death anniversary was celebrated in October in various ways around the planet. This mythic twentieth century revolutionary figure is increasingly criticized, as the Cuban regime which protected its memory is weakening. Most newspapers notice this evolution but...
Politics essay: Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, known as the "Pacifist Constitution"
Text commentary - 4 pages - Political science
The 9th Article was added to the Constitution of Japan, known as the "Pacifist Constitution" (Heiwa-Kenp during) during the occupation following World War II. It has been written by the Americans, and is aimed at delegating or limiting Japan's military power in favor of collective security....
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...
