News media : is the "fourth estate a power?
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
Today, the permanent and instantaneous flow of information pass through a wide range of channels, called 'the media'. There are two types of channels: print media (e.g. newspapers) and broadcast media (e.g. television, radio). It is precisely the capacity to create information, that is at...
National Security as an ambiguous symbol, by Arnold Wolfers
Book review - 2 pages - Political science
In this text written in 1952, Arnold Wolfers tries to point out the scope of the concept of national security, its meaning and its various implications as well as the way the states deal, and should deal, with it. We will first clarify the evolution of the notion of national interest, which...
Can an ethical case ever be made for the use of torture during interrogation?
Essay - 11 pages - Political science
In the ancient Greece and Rome, the testimony of a slave would not be taken into account in a judicial investigation, unless the statement had been obtained after the subject was submitted to torture. Nowadays, although torture has been banned from legal systems and condemned at the international...
What are the main obstacles to the provision of global public goods?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Global public goods are hard to define. Even though, there is a consensus about the definitions of public goods and collective goods, there exists different approaches. Public goods are supposed to be available for all and they are characterized by two principles: non-rivalry, which means that...
Race and gender as structuring factors of election: A typically American reality?
Worksheets - 1 pages - Political science
Does racism still prevail in the US? The last election in the United States was a forceful reminder that race and gender have always played a role in the American elections and, more generally, in the American society. It is only in 1920 that American women were allowed to vote and much later in...
Effective leadership in public administration: "The great leader is seen as servant first", Robert K. Greenleaf
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
Globalization, decentralization, economic uncertainties, and other contemporary challenges ask for a new kind of governance and a new role for public agents in every country. Governments have to reshape the public sector to cope with this environment that requires civil servants to assume new...
Women and Unions in Contemporary Japan
Essay - 15 pages - Political science
Post-war Japan has seen considerable change with regard to women. The 1946 Constitution guaranteed for the first time, the equality of men and women under the law. Subsequently, the revised Civil Code and a range of domestic laws, including the Fundamental Law of Education and the Labor Standards...
To what extent does media coverage of grass-root citizen activity promote citizen activism?
Essay - 2 pages - Political science
The American citizen has evolved as a well-behaved political spectator, keen towards national affairs. The combination of an authoritative presentation style on behalf of the network news organizations and a lack of thorough coverage on citizen activist groups has cultivated a pacified audience...
How democratic is the British government?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
In fact, we could set a few provisional requirements to the evaluation of a government as democratic in order to analyze the British particular case. These requirements would be of different natures, and would be related first to the institutional system, then to the society itself. Indeed, the...
Measuring the efficacy of the weekly presidential radio address
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
The first presidential radio address in United States history was delivered by President Warren G. Harding on June 14th, 1922. He delivered a speech in Baltimore, MD and it was broadcasted by WEAR (now WFBR). Perhaps more historic than this was the first official radio address delivered in 1921...
Does devolution constitute a challenge to the British political tradition?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
In 1998, the New Labor government passed the Scotland Act, the Government of Wales Act and the Northern Ireland Act, enforcing devolution in the United Kingdom. In order to determine if devolution constitutes a challenge to the British political tradition, one needs to look at pre-devolution...
The Iraq war: an International Relations Theory Analysis
Case study - 16 pages - Political science
On the nineteenth of March 2003 America and its allies started their invasion of Iraq. This intervention had the official goal of the struggle against a terrorism-friendly country, to avoid the expansion of mass destruction weapons and establish a democratic breakthrough in the Middle East. This...
"Does the United Kingdom Still Have a Constitution?" by Anthony King
Book review - 5 pages - Political science
"Does the United Kingdom Still Have a Constitution?" is a book written by Anthony King. It is composed of four chapters based on the Hamly Lectures delivered at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in 2000. The book also contains a short chapter written by John Bridge about the Hamlyn Trust...
Explain the reasons for the durability of the National Front
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Even though it is not the biggest extreme-right party in Europe, the French National Front finds a particular resonance internationally, considering its long-lasting influence on the national political field. Often wrongly considered as a simple heir of Poujadism, it can no longer be considered...
Evaluate Charles Taylor's arguments against neutralist liberalism
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Every society needs cohesion to survive. However, we are likely to have different views on how to implement and manage this cohesion. In this context, the state has a primary role regarding this task as it is often seen as the only alternative to anarchy. The question then arises as to the basis...
Interest groups and voter ignorance
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Certain interest groups are often depicted as pursuing only their self-interest. They are supposed to "push government to enact policies that benefit small constituencies at the expense of the general public". These criticisms lead to the creation of a new word: lobbying, which designates the...
How effective is the communitarian critique of liberalism? Use Rawls, Sendel and McIntyre to organise your arguments
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Communitarianism is a political and social philosophy that emphasizes the importance of community in the functioning of political life, in the analysis and evaluation of political institutions, and in understanding human identity and well-being. It was developed in the 1980s and '90s in...
The debate of the carrying of arms in the United State and the role of the NRA (National Rifle Association)
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
The question of the regulation of handguns is 'one of the most divisive social issues in American society' because 'firearms in general, and handguns in particular, are emblematic of individual autonomy and freedom from government intrusion' . This debate is actually centered on...
Mel Lastman, Mayor of a Megacity (Toronto: 1998-2003)
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Melvin Douglas 'Mel' Lastman was born to Polish-Jewish immigrants in 1933. He entered into politics in 1969, after having created a chain of stores in the area of Toronto. According to legend, at the age of 22, he borrowed $2,000 and a truck to open his first appliance store; and the...
Security and emancipation
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
The 20th century has witnessed many struggles for emancipation, and a strong emphasis put on security agenda in many countries. Regarding emancipation, many examples come to our mind like the decolonization era, after World War II, the feminist struggles for equality between genders all over the...
How does Gramsci understand social cohesion and consent?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Antonio Gramsci is without doubt, a spiritual follower of Marxism. Drawing the consequences of his experiences of worker's movements and communist party politics, as well as of his numerous readings and philosophical influences, he has greatly contributed to the evolution of Marxist thought...
Three ideas of contractualism : the ones of Locke, Rousseau and Rawls
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
“The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, including the classical Aristotelian and Thomist philosophers, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State” , noted the American anarcho-capitalist Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995). Indeed, what...
The provision of welfare in the United Kingdom
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
Among all the typologies, which exist within Welfare States, most authors classify the United Kingdom as a 'liberal state'. For example, Titmuss sees the United Kingdom as a 'residual model of social policy', where the needs are met by the state only when the private market and...
How useful are Marxist theories of Capitalist world hegemony?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Even if the word "hegemony? linguistically comes from the Greek "egemon? meaning leader or ruler, one can find the roots of this word in Marxist thought as it was first used by Russian Social-Democrats from the late 1890's through the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Nevertheless, since the...
What is the role of IO's - IGO's and NGO's - regarding hostage takings and kidnappings in the world?
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
Today hostage taking is considered as a crime or as a terrorist act. Indeed, hostage taking is one of the many ways of action of the terrorists because, by this way, they can put pressure on States and thus obtain an important media coverage. The hostage taking is one of the favourite ways of...
Case study: To what extent did the democratization process cause Côte d'Ivoire to collapse?
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
Between 1960 and 1990, Côte d'Ivoire was regarded as a model of state stability and state efficiency. But in 2002 the Ivorian State completely collapsed. At the same time the level of democracy in Côte d'Ivoire went up between 1990 and 2002, leading the country from a paternalistic...
Differences and similarities among the contemporary security policies in Nordic countries
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
“Since 1720, all the Nordic countries have remained minor powers on the international stage. As such, the Nordic states have had to adapt to the constraints that are usually beyond their control.” This statement could summarize the geopolitical situation which has shaped the security...
Calhoun, Tocqueville and Lincoln's views on tyranny
Thesis - 7 pages - Political science
As the virtues and advantages of democracy were rediscovered at the end of the eighteenth century, so were its defects and drawbacks. Most authors, including Tocqueville, were faced with an empirical and theoretical vacuum in describing this new regime which began to rise in America and in France...
Cosmopolitanism according to Kant, Negri, and Hardt
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
What is cosmopolitanism? The etymology of the word goes back to Ancient Greek, and is composed of the words kosmos, world, and polites, citizen. Cosmopolitanism should therefore be a theory of world politics, of a world in which a single shared political order would rule and of which every...
What is governmentality? Is it a useful concept?
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Although the concept of governmentality was elaborated in Foucault's last years, its philosophical premises are to be found in many of his earlier publications. From 1961 (Madness and Civilization) to 1984 (The History of Sexuality) , he explored various forms of powers and constraints, in...
