Reading note on Kant's perpetual peace
Book review - 6 pages - Political science
Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg, Prussia in 1724. He studied philosophy, mathematics and physics at the University of Königsberg, and became a renowned teacher and scholar thanks to his works on reason, knowledge and judgment. Indeed, he intended to explain rationalism, and therefore...
Conservative welfare states and the challenge of universal citizenship
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
When the newly unified Germany implemented in 1883 the first health insurance system, it paved the way for further moves towards extensive provision of public welfare for workers, but it also introduced a substantive change concerning the relationship between the state and the citizens. Basically...
The characteristics of traditional French social movements
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
The events of May-June 1968 in France broke out in the wake of an international wave of protest that occurred previously in many countries such as the United States, Germany and Italy (Duyvendak 1992, 137-138). The events of 1870, 1919 and 1936 provide also many examples of disruptive and short...
The Growth-damaging Channels of Corruption in the Developing World
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
If the word corruption needs to be defined with the hope that its meaning would gain common acceptance, then one must consider the words coined by Tanzi in 1998. The words read as ?the abuse of power for private benefit.' The point to be considered is that corruption still remains a concept...
Elites in the United States
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
One of the arguments that have been laid down to explain the defeat of John F. Kerry on the US-Presidential elections in 2004 was his elitist side. Being a White Anglo-Saxon from the North-East, Kerry really corresponded to the image of a politician who would run the country in a technocratic...
The paradox of American democracy (Chap. 1), by John B. Judis - publié le 10/09/2007
Book review - 3 pages - Political science
John B. Judis is a senior editor at The New Republic, where he is working since 1982. He graduated at the University of California at Berkeley in 1965 and taught philosophy there later on. He was an active leftist activist during the 60es and founded the leftwing journal The Socialist Revolution...
Democracy for the few (chap. 15), Michael Parenti
Book review - 4 pages - Political science
Michael Parenti is a professor of political science at several American universities. He has a PhD in political science from Yale University. He is known for being a progressive activist and a provocative thinker. As such, he wrote numerous books that focused on the American nation, the role of...
Thomas Frank's "What's the matter with Kansas?"
Book review - 5 pages - Political science
Introduction Thomas Frank has been deeply astonished and revolted with the myth of the “two-nation” America which has been cultivated by various opinion makers - especially popular journalists. This observation motivated him to look for this true America that so many op-eds and public...
The Relationship between Corruption and Economic Development
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Through the quantitative comparison of corruption and economic development, it can be found that GDP per Capita is partially dependent on the amount of corruption within the governing body of a given nation. The independent variable (x) is the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) as made available...
What kind of leader is Condoleezza Rice?
Tutorials/exercises - 6 pages - Political science
Dr. Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as Secretary of State on January 25, 2005. She is a clear example of a leader, which possesses certain traits that have led her to where she is today. In order to evaluate her as a leader, it is necessary to look at different aspects of her leadership. It is...
Why Can't the Music Industry Stop Illegal Downloads?
Tutorials/exercises - 3 pages - Political science
Can't wait for the new Jay Z album to go on sale to get your own copy? Don't want to shell out $19.99 (plus tax!) for the latest Modest Mouse record? For those growing up in the Internet generation, these hurdles are trivial. Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing has made acquiring media online...
Seeds of Peace: Triumphs and Trials
Tutorials/exercises - 6 pages - Political science
How can one solve an ancient conflict? Is it possible for reconciliation to occur after years, even centuries, of dispute? How can one even attempt to play a constructive role in such a conflict? Seeds of Peace has attempted to make a change in such ancient battles as the Israeli-Palestinian...
Sustainable Agriculture: Achieving Food Reform
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
We have a global crisis on our hands. For decades, industrial agriculturists have ravaged and monopolized our global countryside and our global resources. Recently, as world hunger awareness has grown, these corporations would claim in the name of good will and the elimination of world hunger...
Explain the historical specificity and contemporary relevance of culture
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Today, we can buy a book from a vending machine, like soft drinks and snacks. Germinal and an Ice-Tea have the same value. Culture, in a wider sense, has been taken over by the “spectacular-merchandizing-society”, for which everything, from a book to an iPod, has a trade value. The...
Wacquant's contrast of French and American 'ghettoes'
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
‘The American ghetto is far more closed, penalizing and violent than the decaying French periphery' This introduction by E. Mingione to Wacquant's study summarizes the contrast demonstrated between the ‘Red Belt', that is the French working class cities and the ‘Black Belt'...
The shadow of the sun, Ryszard Kapuscinski
Book review - 3 pages - Political science
Like the young Scottish travelers going from Casablanca to Niamey, I did not know a lot about Africa before reading Ryszard Kapuschinski book. I do read the news, have studied economics of less developed countries, saw Shooting Dogs, and have met African people, but these experiences were nothing...
What are the most important features of contemporary Irish political culture? Has this political culture really change significantly since 1960? If so, why has this not had a greater impact on the political party system? - publié le 01/08/2007
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
Irish political culture is often seen as a peculiar one compared to western European countries. The political culture might be considered as a psychological part of political system: the set of values and attitudes of a political community. According to J. Coakley, it can be divided in tree...
Russian and east European politics - publié le 01/08/2007
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
Full democratization does not necessarily follow regime change. Hybrid or ‘grey democracies' have also emerged after 1989. Choose two countries from the former Soviet bloc, one from the countries recently admitted to the European Union and one such as Ukraine, Belarus, or Moldova and...
Communist systems of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
Essay - 2 pages - Political science
During the XXth century, the communist system, an alternative political system to capitalism, emerged in Russia after the October Revolution. The features of this system are the important ideologies, the role of the communist party, the central planned economy and also the terror that took place...
Southern attitudes towards Northern Ireland
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
Since the creation of the Republic of Ireland in 1922, the territory of Ireland is divided between two parts. The first one, Northern Ireland, is still taking part of the United Kingdom whereas the Republic of Ireland became an independent state. Since then, there is a constitutional conflict...
Do you agree with Mernissi that the modernizing Moroccan society she studied in the 1970s provided no norms for heterosexual interaction between the sexes? - How far is this applicable to other Moslem societies you have read about?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Gender interactions in the Moslem world and in Western societies are often opposed in terms of the woman's place in society. The Cultural differences between the two worlds can be underlined but it is not the subject of sociology to evaluate which one of the both ways of gender interaction is the...
Ireland: Culture, Religion and Identity
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
In this essay, we are going to see the relationship between culture, religion and the identity in Ireland. The first part of the essay focuses on the Irish culture. We are going to answer questions like: Does Ireland have a distinctive and homogeneous culture? What does it mean to be Irish...
Structuralism and history: Levi-Strauss, Althusser, Foucault - publié le 31/07/2007
Essay - 12 pages - Political science
Structuralism may originate from Saussurian linguistics. In the Course of General Linguistics, Saussure defines one essential methodological principle: in response to previous methodologies, which defined historical evolution as the main object of linguistics, Saussure assumes that language must...
Is social capital a useful tool for explaining the politics of public health in the twentieth century city?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
The development of “politics of public health” is historically dated. As Foucault noted, it appeared with the broader emergence of the idea of “population” which provides, in the modern era, the conceptual framework of health policies. The existence of a common concept,...
Understanding the Rejection of the European Constitution in France through the Interaction of Politics and Public Opinion
Essay - 17 pages - Political science
After years of intense negotiations between member States, the European Convention led by former French President Valéry Giscard d?Estaing submitted the final draft of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe (hereafter referred to as "TECE") on July 15th, 2003. The aim of the treaty was...
Conflict assessment report: Lebanon
Essay - 16 pages - Political science
With its unique geographic location at the crossroads of three continents, Lebanon has always been a passageway to many different peoples and cultures. The coexistence of a dozen and a half of different religions in such a tiny territory has been a model for diversity. However, this diversity has...
Non-Governmental Organizations and the United Nations System History, Problems and Prospects - publié le 25/07/2007
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
NGOs have been active in the United Nations (U.N.) system since its inception in 1945. Although the U.N. was created as an intergovernmental organization, there was a need since the early days of the Organization to allow representatives of the civil society to participate, through formal and...
UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and US multilateralism
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The United Nations Security Council Resolution of 1559 was adopted by the Security Council on September 2, 2004 by a vote of 9 in favor (Angola, Benin, Chile, France, Germany, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom, United States), to none against, with 6 abstentions (Algeria, Brazil, China, Pakistan,...
The Gender Gap in voting behaviours
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
European women first acquired the right to vote in 1906 in Finland. After the First World War, women were given the right to vote in a certain number of European countries. In the UK, it was gained in two stages: first in 1918, it was initially given to married women, women householders and women...
Tony Blair's third way
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
When Tony Blair decided, in 1997, to challenge the electoral power of four consecutive Conservative governments, he pertinently chose to call his draft for Labor's electoral platform New Labor, New Life for Britain. Indeed, Labor or shall we say New Labor manifesto flaunted an unprecedented...
