China and the USSR in the 1950's: Has China been a satellite-State of the Soviet Union?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Stalin used to say: “Sincere diplomacy is no more possible than dry water or wooden iron”: this quote can perfectly apply to the relations that the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union have fostered during the first years of the creation of the People's Republic of China....
Mao's reforms: A total failure? - publié le 06/12/2007
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
“In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements.” This quotation from the Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976) could perfectly apply to his economic policy. When Mao came to power in October 1949, China was out of a decade of war and its economy was still very...
European Court of Justice - motor for European integration?
Essay - 2 pages - European union
In 1996, British Prime Minister John Major has bitterly noted that European Court of Justice (ECJ) should “have its wings clipped”, as already back in 1996 some member states, eager to protect their sovereignty, feared the growing influence of the court. Yet, 10 years later, the...
The foundations and the evolution of the notion of European citizenship
Essay - 3 pages - European union
According to the European Commission, “citizenship of the Union is both a source of legitimation of the process of European integration, by reinforcing the participation of citizens, and a fundamental factor in the creation among citizens of a sense of belonging to the European Union and of...
Compare and contrast the causes and nature of the two 1917 Russian Revolutions - publié le 05/12/2007
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
“Every social group, every nationality, every region, every town, every village, had its own revolution”, wrote Christopher Read and indeed, 1917 proved to be for Russia a year of turmoil and change. Traditionally, however, 1917 is known as a year of two revolutions, February Revolution...
Judaism and Rechtsstaat
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
The modern political philosophy, influenced by the Enlightenment and the ideal of individual liberty developed by Locke, considers that the political sphere must be independent from the religious sphere. In Israel, this separation between the State and the religion is not so clear. The...
Typical Assimilation?
Essay - 3 pages - Social, moral & civic education
The stereotypes presented in the novel, Typical American by Gish Jen, clearly show a mutual misunderstanding between races. It also illustrates the use of racism as a defense mechanism when new to integration and assimilation. Stereotypes in this story are a sort of segue from an old way of...
Visions of America
Essay - 7 pages - Social, moral & civic education
As most of the exchange students who came here in Lund for one or two semesters, and who decided to attend the class on Swedish society and everyday life, I've been struck in several occasions by the Swedes, some of their behaviours or some elements of their everyday life I could barely recognize...
Nationalism and Regionalism in the era of the making of a common European identity
Essay - 4 pages - European union
The year 2000 will be and have already been pivotal for the European Union. Ten new countries became full members of the Union and Turkey is on his way to the membership. But the 2005 failure to make all the countries sign the project of European constitution asks legitimate questions about the...
Environment and international trade
Essay - 4 pages - Ecology & environment
The warming of the planet and global climatic change has been the centre of heated debate for the last few years. The environmental problems, by the force of nature, somehow set themselves to the political agenda of the planet. In this paper I'd like to see if the concepts of trade and...
Gender related differences in patterns of employment in Sweden, and the effects of the parental leave in a woman's employment
Essay - 14 pages - Social, moral & civic education
Sweden is very often taken as a model when a conversation comes to any gender or equity related question. It is said to be, not without any reason, one of the most if not the most advanced country in the world as far as equality of chances or the cause of women are concerned. Tough, it had long...
Towards a democratisation of the Middle-East?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The Middle East has traditionally been a region where democracy has never really managed to break through. The times of the caliphs had been replaced by a more or less violent period of colonisation. When the time for decolonisation finally came, most of the states -some more or less artificially...
A number of assumptions are typically made on preferences to give so-called "well-behaved indifference curves"
Essay - 5 pages - Economy general
The consumer choice theory aims, among other things, at modeling preferences that will guide the consumer in his choices. To do this, an assumption will be made: the consumer is able to rank any two consumption bundles as to their desirability, that is, the consumer is aware of his own tastes and...
Explain the role of conjectural variations within the context of quantity settings duopoly. Use this idea to explain the difference between Cournot and Stackelberg models of duopoly
Essay - 7 pages - Economy general
In the context of oligopoly, firms do not have to worry about strategic behaviour as do monopolies, as far as consumers are concerned. Nonetheless, as they face competition from a few other firms, strategies in terms of price-setting and quantity-setting are of prime importance. What we want to...
What's wrong with the elite theory of democracy? - publié le 27/11/2007
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The elite theory of democracy has emerged out of two major concerns of its precursors: no theory of democracy until now has given leadership the importance it ought to have, and none has really settled the issue of whether the common man is up to the task of governing a modern and large society....
European integration theories
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
There is an increasingly accepted agreement that the EU and the process of European integration are just too complex to be captured by a single theoretical approach. Hix holds to this point: “We do not have a general theory of American or German politics so why should there be a general...
Induced Misunderstanding
Tutorials/exercises - 3 pages - Social, moral & civic education
In recent news, Polner writes “Linden Corrica lost his freedom and his life in New York over $10 worth of marijuana.” Corrica is an immigrant who lived in New York with his wife and kids. He was one day caught with a small ten dollar bag of marijuana, and pleaded guilty. He spent 20...
Student Culture and Michael Moffatt
Essay - 2 pages - Social, moral & civic education
Michael Moffatt, author of Coming of Age in New Jersey, performs a study at Rutgers University during the mid 1980's. In hopes of gaining a better understanding of the student culture, Moffatt conceals his anthropologist identity by resembling - in appearance and in manner - a freshman student at...
US Foreign Policy and international law
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
The United States has been the main supporter of the development of international rules since the end of World War II. The US sought to rebuild an international system that would promote international cooperation in various areas to avoid conflicts: economic (through the creation of an...
Afghanistan: Threats and opportunities for the Transatlantic relation
Essay - 10 pages - International relations
Afghanistan represents undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges for the Western democracies. The reversal of the Taliban by the international coalition led by the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attacks was seen as a symbol of hope. This war was considered as legitimate, because of the...
Should the US help India and Pakistan normalize their relations? If so, what role should it play? Mediation, facilitation or hands off?
Case study - 3 pages - International relations
Although a full historical of the disputes between India and Pakistan and the problem of Kashmir is not necessary, it is important to remember that in the last years, the situation has greatly evolved with for instance, the nuclear tests of 1998, the Kargil War of 1999, the US-led war on terror...
Humanitarian intervention: The responsibility to protect (R2P)
Essay - 3 pages - International relations
The protection of human rights is now considered as an important element of International Law. However, if there are frequent calls for “humanitarian interventions” (that is “coercive action against a state to protect people within its border from suffering grave harm” ) like...
UN peacekeeping operations
Essay - 3 pages - International relations
Peacekeeping operations (PKOs) illustrate both the successes and the difficulties of the United Nations in the fulfillment of their primary goal: "the maintenance of international peace and security." They symbolize the ambitions of the organization but also its adaptation: it is thus interesting...
Problems in multilateral diplomacy: Iran's nuclear program
Case study - 3 pages - International relations
“Iran now lies at the center of the Middle East's major problems”: civil wars in Iraq and Lebanon, development and security challenges in Afghanistan and in the Gulf, oil crisis, etc. But the main issue concerning the Islamic Republic of Iran for the international community is the...
Genocide: The case of Rwanda
Case study - 3 pages - International relations
The situation in Darfur illustrates the difficulties the international community faces when it comes to deal with acts of genocide. Genocide has been defined as a crime in international law, an international Convention has been signed and international tribunals have been created to try...
Evaluate the evolution of the world trade system
Essay - 7 pages - International economy
Before the creation of a world trade system in 1947, the countries had protectionist economic policies or preferential trade agreements for the Empires as the one of Britain and France. In the 1930s, these policies clearly showed their limits with the economic depression and the World War II. As...
The Democratic Deficit in the EU
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
For years, the European construction appeared to be legitimate through a 'permissive consensus' since no significant opposition to the integration process was to be noticed. Nevertheless, a major debate underlined a 'democratic deficit' in the 1980s, denouncing that the European...
Was there ever any realistic chance of an accommodation between the United States and the People's Republic of China in 1949/50?
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
In early 1949, China was a nationalist country, ruled by Chiang Kai-shek and sustained by the United States. At the same time, the Chinese Communists were rebelling and ruling large parts of the country, and were constantly progressing. It was obvious that they were soon going to rule the...
To what extent does multiculturalism in developed liberal democracies adequately address the issue of religious diversity?
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
In recent years diversity in developed liberal democracies has deeply increased. Indeed, in European countries, as in America or in Australia many migrants came to work. Whereas the first migration movements happened within Western countries (e.g. many Italians and Poles came to France to work in...
Did Thatcherism bring an end to the 'post-war consensus?'
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Since 1979 the so-called 'Thatcher experiment' or the 'Thatcherism' was at the centre of many debates, partly because Mrs Thatcher's government has broken with many features of the postwar consensus and partly because her government's record is contested (Kavanagh, 1987,...
