The far-right in Europe
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
The far-right in Europe has been a permanent feature in the European countries since the fifties. But for some years the far-right movement, most of the time a mix of populism and nationalism, has an increasing audience among the European population. Earlier it was indeed seen as a marginalized...
Can the military be a-political? Should it be?
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
The world has been stunned since 1989 by the speed with which the countries of Eastern Europe abandoned four decades of Marxist-Leninist rule and moved into Western-style democracy and capitalism. Although the process of transition was, of course, delicate, it seems that very often economic and...
Critical summary and reflective analysis of Gerard Alexander's essay, "Making Democracy Stick."
Essay - 2 pages - Political science
Published in the issue of December 2005 & January 2006, the article “Making Democracy Stick” written by Gerard Alexander is part of a wider movement distancing itself from the American muscled intervention in Iraq and its lack of preparation for democratic consolidation. The initiators...
The United States: A "theodemocracy"? The ambiguous relationship between religion and politics
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
As Julia Gronnevet said, “comparing the United States to the Roman Empire is a popular pastime” . For instance, in his book entitled Are we Rome?: the Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America (2007), Cullen Murphy established some parallels between these two political entities both...
Did government policy influence the development of large local firms and/or business groups in South Korea? What have been some of the long run benefits and problematic legacies of such policies?
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
The South-Korean state's industrialization programs achieved national economic ob-jectives through the use of government economic policies, defined as “measures by which a government attempts to influence the economy” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008). This paper focus on three government...
The construction of the modern State
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
'Man is by nature a political animal', arguing on that Aristolte induced the existence of political communities. Men lived in communities for decades. However, man's living condition has changed with the passage of time. One landmark change was in his environment. Each evolution was a...
Saving souls or saving the world: The Jesuits and politics in the 20th century
Essay - 17 pages - Political science
On Monday 7th January 2008, the 35th “General Congregation” of the Society of Jesus, the famous religious order founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola and some followers, met to elect its 29th “General Superior”, after the demission of P-H Kolvenbach for cause of old age. The...
Child protection and child abuse
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
The problem of child ?buse h?s become incre?singly evident in ?ll p?rts of the world including ?meric? ?nd Europe. Between 1980 ?nd 1993, for ex?mple, the number of children reported once or more than once to the public ?uthorities complaining about m?ltre?tment. The number has more th?n doubled...
The function of democratic control of the European Parliament - Analysis of S. Veil's speech
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
Since the origins of the building of the European Community, the idea of a direct election of the EP was present. In the Rome Treaty, the commitment to abolish the system of nominated members was settled, but no timetable was laid down. Thus, it occurred only in 1979, after the reluctance of the...
The suburbs in France: Drugs, violence & riots
Essay - 13 pages - Political science
This paper gives the reader an introduction to a real French suburb. Recently, the suburbs of France are quite in the picture of the world's media, because of the several riots in November 2005 and even now at this moment. On October the 27th it will be precisely one year ago that the hype...
"Dancing with Dogma. Britain under Thatcherism" by Ian Gilmour
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
The document under study here is extracted from Dancing with Dogma. Britain under Thatcherism, a book by Ian Gilmour, a Scottish leading figure on the liberal, or "wet", left-wing of the Conservative party, essentially under the governments of Heath and Thatcher. The piece of writing concentrates...
The balance of power
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
It was not until the beginning of the 17th century, when the science of international law took shape at the hands of Grotius and his successors, that the theory of the balance of power was formulated as a fundamental principle of diplomacy in the realist theory. According to Cobden, the first...
Try and identify Jonathan Swift's political stands
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
To put it simply, party politics in England during the 18th century were practiced in two different camps - Tory and Whig. Globally, the differences of opinion between the two were based on three key topics - (1) the origin of government, (2) the position of the Church in society and (3) the role...
The third way
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
In 1999, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder issued a joint statement entitled The Third Way, Die neue Mitte. The statement committed itself to a “newly defined role for the active state” and stated that “the essential function of markets must...
Is there a French Affirmative Action Policy?
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
Affirmative action was born in the United States. It was originally designed to favour Black people, whose ancestors where slaves. Then, such programs extended to other underprivileged categories of the population: the disabled, the women, the Latinos. The first to use the phrase...
Case Study: Surasia's ministry of internal affairs (headquarters)
Essay - 13 pages - Political science
This paper will analyse the Suraisia government Ministry of Internal Affairs' attempt to introduce an innovative culture to the Ministry of internal affairs HQ (MIQ) through the creation of “SSS” and “3i” initiatives. This analysis will take into account the drivers of the...
Building democratic institutions: East and West Lecturer: A. Dimitrova
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The accession in May 2004 of eight countries from Eastern Europe to the European Union and the future membership of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 tends to show the importance, for these post-communist states, to find a new order and to gain more stability and security. Indeed, the end of the Cold...
To what extent can the Thatcher-type reforms be applied in France or adapted to France?
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
During the past twelve years, three of Jacques Chirac's Prime ministers -Alain Juppé, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin- decided to reform but backed out in the face of protests. The election of a new President, who claimed that he was the candidate for change, during the whole...
What's wrong with the elite theory of democracy?
Essay - 7 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....
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...
The nature of present-day public administration theory
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
“A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation”. This quote from Edmond Burke can be applied not only to the state but also, to some extent, to the field of public administration. Indeed, a book such as The Public Administration Theory Primer (2003),...
Critically consider Thomas Franck's argument about an emerging right to democratic governance in international law with particular reference to the recent Palestinian elections returning a Hamas governing authority
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
“Democratic tradition involves a richly evolving collection of diverse beliefs, processes and structures that are neither easily characterized in concise terms nor summarized in a single systematic philosophy of governance” . The complexity of democratic governance could not be better...
Social policy and practice in Canada, a history, by Alvin Finkel
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Social Policy and Practice in Canada is a history book, which deals with the birth and the evolution of the Welfare State in Canada since pre-confederation times. It aims at narrating but also analyzing the social policy, defined as a “set of non-market decisions, public and private, that...
Quebec separatism
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
One of the main concerns since the creation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867 has been the Quebec question. Nowadays, it is still a big issue in Canadian politics. Quebec has always appeared as a 'distinct society' within the country. It is the core of the main cleavage in Canada: the...
Judicial activism in Canada
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
In 1982, Canada has known a very significant shift with the adoption of the Charter of Right of Freedom. Before this date, Canada only had a Bill of Rights (1960's) which was a statute and did not allow the courts to restrict the action of the Parliament. But the 1982 Charter of Rights and...
How far have the French succeeded in imposing a necessary reduction on the role and power of the state?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
The French state has always occupied a central and essential role and has over the years taken measures to reduce state power. This necessity has to be related to the unprecedented shift in the balance of power, when the Socialists won the elections in 1981. For the first time during the Fifth...
What are the causes and the consequences of division within the mainstream Right, and to what extent has the creation of the UMP in 2002 created a new unity?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
The French party system has traditionally been very divided. However, the Fifth Republic is the most “efficient” and stable democratic regime France has ever experienced. Despite this, there still appear to be divisions between the mainstream Right. Therefore, to begin with, the...
Crisis? What crisis? Darfur
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Is there a crisis in Darfur? This question looks at first sight rather provoking; everybody is aware of what is happening there. It is one of the main international hot spots. All the more so as the horrible events in Darfur are everything but new. However, this conflict takes place while the...
Explain the chief causes of the conflict in Chechnya
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
The conflict in Chechnya constitutes one of the most burning issues of the post Cold War Russian federation politics. Actually, the two wars, that took place under Yeltsine's and Putin's presidencies, from 1994 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2001, and even to nowadays, have been the most important...
Explain why French trade unions, which enjoy so little support, nevertheless seem to exert considerable political influence
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
In France, trade unions were legalised in 1884, but developed very slowly. Trade unions have never enjoyed phenomenal support in France as in the post-war period approximately 35% of workers belonged to a trade union as opposed to a mere 8-9% nowadays, which is by far the lowest proportion...
