The political role of the judges in law and politics
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
My presentation is concerned with the relationship between law/the judiciary and politics. The laws relating to civil and criminal wrongs are indeed made either by Parliament in the form of Acts of Parliament (also called statutes) or by the judges themselves (then called the common law). The...
Aristotle and the best kind of life in society
Essay - 5 pages - Social, moral & civic education
Nicomachean Ethics (NE) is generally considered, not without any reason, as one of the main books in the history of the ethics. Indeed, Aristotle describes and constructs in his book major concepts, like virtue or happiness that have been used for a long time, from Kant to Arendt and that do...
The European Union's Policy in African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries: Towards an Effective Democratisation?
Essay - 7 pages - European union
“Since 1992, the European Community has included in all its agreements with third countries a clause defining respect for human rights and democracy as ‘essential elements' in the EU's relationship. This clause is unique in bilateral agreements. This approach has been further...
Explain Marx's conception of communist society and assess critically in comparison and contrast with the social ideals of Rousseau
Thesis - 5 pages - Political science
"A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism." This is the prophetic opening line of The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, one of the major and most well-known work of Marx and Engels, dealing with their ideal of a communist society. However, The Communist Manifesto is not a...
Milestones in the emergence of the Palestinian problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
In January 2006, the Islamic militant group Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentary elections, with 42.2% of the votes. The election in Palestine of a group that remains committed to an armed struggle, the destruction of Israel and retaliatory attacks on Israeli civilians shows that nearly sixty...
The Committee of the Regions
Thesis - 3 pages - European union
The construction of the European Union is, and has always been done by states. Since the Maastricht treaty however, sub national authorities have an official advisory body from which they can influence the making of the European policy: the Committee of the regions. This committee is made of 317...
Cultural relativism or universalism ? An essay in political ethics
Essay - 10 pages - Political science
This is an essay on cultural relativism in the field of political ethics. Yesterday confined to anthropological studies, the idea infiltrated the domain of international morality after the Second World War. It developed from its original virtues of tolerance and understanding to more defensive...
Can any theory fully explain the process of European integration? If not, why not?
Essay - 13 pages - European union
European integration is a process which began with the birth of the European Coal and Steel Community the 18th of April 1952. This process was at first essentially economical, but the necessary structures needed for an economic integration led also to a political integration. This process has...
The employers' organizations in Britain: The case of the CBI
Thesis - 4 pages - Political science
I decided to speak about employers' organisations in Britain because of a personal and very simple interrogation: I was actually wondering what the equivalent of the French MEDEF in Britain was. At first sight, I discovered quickly that this equivalent is the CBI, The Confederation of British...
Descartes' version of the ontological argument in the light of Kant's criticism
Thesis - 4 pages - Social, moral & civic education
God has always been a subject of debate and it will probably always be so. One of the reasons leading to this perpetual debate is that people have never agreed on the concept of God. Some religions (e.g. Hinduism) believe that there are several Gods whilst others (e.g. Christianity, Islam,...
The revival of the small business sector in the UK
Thesis - 11 pages - Economy general
According to data from Labour Market Trends in 1999, enterprises with fewer than 50 employees provide 45% of UK non-government employment and account for 38% of turnover, the employment figure includes the self-employed who employ no one and comprise 2.3 Million out of a total of 3.7 million of...
The European Commission
Thesis - 6 pages - European union
If Jacques Delors, one of the most famous President of the European Commission (between 1985 and 1995), called the European Union as a UPO or Unidentified Political Object, it can be explained by the special characteristics of its architecture. The European Commission (EC) is undoubtedly one of...
If you lack money do you also lack freedom? Please explain your position with reference to the works of at least two of the following: Berlin, Taylor, and MacCallum
Essay - 5 pages - Social, moral & civic education
“Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.” (Edmund Burke). Defining justice and how achieve a just society depends on the conception we have of the notion of liberty and equality. These two elements are the core notions of political...
Niccolo Machiavelli
Thesis - 5 pages - Political science
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) is one of the most ambiguous political scientist of the history. Some used to qualify him as being immoral because of his promotion of force and deception to protect a State. However, according to the researchers that have analyzed his works, he is “the...
International Organisation: The UN system
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
Is global governance a chimera in a world of states, or is there as Keohane suggests, limited global governance in a partially globalized world, or is global governance an effective form of western hegemony? Is global governance a chimera in a world of states, or is there as Keohane suggests,...
Multiculturalism in the UK or the end of a Utopia?
Essay - 4 pages - Social, moral & civic education
Have you ever tried to fill in a job application form in the UK? If so, you may have been surprised, as a foreigner, to be asked the colour of your skin (white British, white West European, white East European, black, etc.). In France such a thing has long been unfeasible, even if today, the...
The European North: Historical Geopolitics and International Institutional Dynamics
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
A “brave political experiment” calling for “unconventional decisions” promoting sub-regional cooperation that ultimately might develop into “a common European social and economic space” : this is how the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Viktor Khristenko, identified in...
The universal human rights concept has its roots in western political thought, so can we say that it applies to all human beings?
Essay - 5 pages - Social, moral & civic education
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders...those are some of the many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) around the world based on the protection of human rights. Given they are international organisations, does it mean human rights are universal, i.e. they apply to...
Globalisation
Essay - 3 pages - Economy general
« Globalisation » is a word that comes up much more often than others in debate topics. For some, nothing better than globalization (and the liberalizing process that comes with it) could happen to us. On the other side, globalisation's detractors hold it responsible for a great number of the...
Why did Clinton Health Security Act of 1993 failed despite the opportunity to reform?
Thesis - 6 pages - Political science
Reforming the US health care system was one of the top priorities of the presidential battle in 1992 and William Jefferson Clinton managed to appear as the most competent candidate to deliver a comprehensive plan to solve this problem. Since the late 1970's, the country was facing problems...
US policy towards the Taliban since the end of the cold war
Thesis - 2 pages - International relations
The withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989 did not provoke the fall of Najibullah's communist regime, but rather the beginning of Civil war between the different factions and ethnics. The US was officially not interested anymore in that part of the world and focused primarily in Europe. However, the...
Assess the significance of the Watergate scandal
Thesis - 4 pages - Political science
Born in 1913 in California, Richard Nixon became the 37th president of the United States in 1968, after being governor of California in 1950, then vice-president at the side of Eisenhower. This republican president earned a big success at the beginning. He indeed managed to end the war in Vietnam...
The structure of the Terror locally and nationally
Thesis - 3 pages - International relations
The terror is often depicted as the most violent period of the French Revolution, and maybe of the French history. The terror is a regime set up by Robespierre and the Committee of public safety in the aftermath of the fall of the Girondins on the 2nd of June 1793. The committee of public safety...
Japan since 1945-left Asia to join the West?
Tutorials/exercises - 7 pages - International relations
In 1639, the rule of Tokugawa Iemitsu officially stated the edict of separation of Japan, establishing a long period of isolationism for the Nippon archipelago. During this period, every contact between Japan and the outside world was forbidden, and “every Japanese who would leave the...
Feminist perspectives : The contribution of Ann Ticker to the revision of the concept of security
Essay - 5 pages - Social, moral & civic education
As a searcher in international relations, Ann Tickner was firstly stroke by the law number of women working in the field. She then realised that not only were women excluded as researchers, but also as subjects of study. That was the first step of her carrier as one of the main feminist authors...
Regulations: Direct applicability and Direct effect
Essay - 8 pages - European union
Article 249 of the European Community Treaty provides that Regulations shall be directly applicable in all Member States. Does this mean that they are also necessarily directly effective? As notices Josephine Steiner , this question is of paramount concern to EC lawyers. If a provision of EEC law...
To what extent can we say Great Britain and the USA have a special relationship? What have the advantages and the disadvantages of the relationship been?
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
Many signs in history show that the UK and the USA detain a privileged relation. As one of the first British colony to be liberated, the USA has always been related to Great Britain. These two countries share the same language, the same political tradition, the same religion. From the point of...
The relationship between the different types of suffrage and the creation (or construction) of democratic institutions in France from 1789 to 1870
Thesis - 5 pages - Political science
From 1789 to 1870 in France, not less than eight constitutions and twelve regimes followed one after another. France also experienced all types of suffrages, from the most restricted one of the Ancient Regime, to the universal manhood suffrage. This period is undeniably crucial to one who aims to...
What are the main milestones in the emergence of the Palestinian problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict? - published: 12/01/2009
Thesis - 5 pages - International relations
“In a higher phase of communist society ... after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want ... only then can ... society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability to each according to his needs!” (‘Critique of the Gotha Programme', p. 569)....
To what extent is Belgium a sui generis federation?
Thesis - 6 pages - Political science
Only 25 countries out of the 193 world-wide existing operate with a federal political system . If we look at the ones situated in Europe, there are very few: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain , and Switzerland. I am here interested in the newest one: Belgium. The reforms starting the...
