Economic and political transition in Bahrain: Strong Rentier States and Strong Rentier Societies
Essay - 18 pages - Political science
Bahrain, often overlooked in both academic and media analyses of the Middle East, has a strategic importance hidden by its small size. As home of the American Fifth Fleet, Bahrain hosts a deterrent against Iran from blockading the Straits of Hormuz as it has recently threatened to do. As such...
Conflicting Zionisms in the context of George Orwell's "Notes on Nationalism"
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
I begin this essay with an anecdote: when I read the headline announcing the resignation of Fidel Castro, I asked several American friends their instinctive reaction to Castro, regardless of their views on his forty-nine year rule. While the reactions were not as visceral as one might expect...
The developmental state in pre-revolutionary Iran
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
The oft-repeated maxim of Italian politics, that when Mussolini was in power, “at least the trains ran on time,” while probably inaccurate, summarizes well the widely popular belief that authoritarianism serves for (sometimes brutal) efficiency in government. Indeed the opposite saying...
Stephen Colbert: Truthiness of the times
Essay - 12 pages - Political science
By any historical standards, the last decade has been an extremely eventful and difficult one for America. With the flawed and still-debated 2000 presidential election we witnessed a fault line in our democracy and the election of a politically radical president; September 11th forced many...
Guatemala and the Spanish conquest
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Spain mercilessly imposed it control over the territories that today encompass Central America. Enslavement and European diseases severely depopulated the indigenous civilizations, and the territories that made up New Spain became heavily Iberian in nature not by influence but rather by force....
Race, immigration and changing U.S. - Cuban relations
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
United States - Cuban relations over the last century have been rocky to say the least. Just 90 miles South of Florida, the U.S. has always liked to think of the island as within its sphere of influence. In the long Cuban war for independence from Spain the United States sheltered leading...
Hungary's economic plight, the result of imperfect politics
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
While the international community, business leaders and politicians may have known the degree of Hungary's economic crisis, it wasn't until mid-September, 2006, with the leaking of MSzP (Hungarian Socialist Party) Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's confession of lying “morning, evening and...
An expansive republic: The Federalist response to Confederate failure
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
Of the many issues that Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay sought to confront and explain in their Federalist Papers, one of the overriding matters of contention was the new Constitution's focus on expanding the proposed size and scope of the republic. The Federalists believed that...
Marxism and the peasantry
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
The majority of Marxist theory correctly focuses on the revolutionary role of the urban industrial proletariat. A deeper reading of the first successful proletariat revolution reveals that a key albatross pulling on the neck of the Soviet system was the question of what to do with the rural...
Social revolution: Conflict of ideology as a driving force towards war
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
As described by Stephen M. Walt in his essay Revolution and War, social revolutions, or revolutions that seek to overthrow and reshape the social structure of a nation, are fueled and motivated by ideology. Walt writes that “it is hard to imagine a mass revolution succeeding without an...
The road to nationalism: Self-Defeating colonialism and the power of high culture
Essay - 8 pages - Political science
In his book The Dynamics of Global Dominance, David B. Abernethy proclaims that imperialistic colonies are, by design, inherently “self-defeating enterprises.” That is, historically as a colony grows and progresses according to the design of its ruling nation, the volatility of that...
German vs. Italian nationalism
Case study - 14 pages - Political science
Indeed, in tracing the development of nationalism in the early 19th century, we are confronted with the inherent weaknesses of division, particularism and mass indifference; dubious motives of ‘nationalists' and oft-yieldless attempts to surmount forces of repression- to the point that it is...
Presidential association: Effective strategy in the Bob Casey Pennsylvania Senate Campaign
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Of all the competitive races of the 2006-midterm elections, the Pennsylvania Senate race between Bob Casey Jr. and Rick Santorum stood at the top of the list of elections that would prove to have serious implications in deciding the partisan majority of the Senate. Although the race was...
The Partisan handling of political scandal in the House of Representatives
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
When a political scandal breaks it has a way of dominating the national discourse between the political parties. Seemingly regardless of the nature of the scandalous content, once that label has been affixed within days media news outlets are saturated with condemnations, protests of innocence,...
Medicare Prescription Drug act of 2003: Its implications to the US Health Care Systems
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
The Medicare Prescription Drug Act of 2003 introduces one of the most innovative additions to the present Medicare Law. It has been hailed as one of the truly heartfelt laws to come along. It now attempts to cover outpatient prescription drugs. The present law covers drugs received by inpatients...
In search of identity: The evolution of Indian political theatre
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The study of Indian political theatre is the study of a quest for identity on a grand scale. Political theatre in post-independence India is marked by the expression of conflicting social paradigms, whose complex interplay signifies a deep-seated confusion regarding the question “What does...
The role of litigation in intercollegiate athletics of title IX
Case study - 8 pages - Political science
Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments Act reads “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial...
Cuba: Prospects for democracy
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Cuba, largest and most western island of the West Indies. For most of its past, Cuba was the wealthiest island of the Caribbean due to its fertile soil and abundant sugar and tobacco production. Its strategic location and wealth of resources contribute to a long history of external intervention,...
The political theory of totalitarianism and its relationship to terrorism:A discussion on the relationship between totalitarianism and terrorism in the context of political theory
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
Throughout the twentieth century the concept of Totalitarianism has functioned on political, moral, religious and theoretical level. Designating regimes that maintain themselves in political power by means of propaganda, state-controlled media and economy and restriction of free speech,...
Federal policy changes after 9/11
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
September 11, 2001 was a date that was very tragic for the American people since this was the date that America was attacked by terrorist groups using commercial airplanes to destroy the Twin Towers of New York and other federal buildings in America. Because of the tragic events that occurred...
Initiative and Referendum
Essay - 7 pages - Political science
Initiatives and referendums, two words that extremely excite or worry people, but why? Initiatives have the power to place any measure, put forth by any citizen, on a ballot to be voted on by their fellow citizens. This worries some because of the extreme power uninformed individuals can have...
Limited role of litigation
Essay - 4 pages - Political science
The role and power of the Supreme Court in the American system of government has long been debated, with scholars arguing both for and against the extent to which the Judiciary can produce social change. Klarman, Rosenberg, and Fisher all take a similar view that the Court does not have enough...
U.S. policy towards Israel and OPEC
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
The Arab oil embargo of 1973 had no significant effect in changing the United States pro-Israeli policies, as the threat of an economic sanction alone did not induce policy changes. The embargo did however influence U.S. policy changes toward OPEC member countries, especially in the Middle East...
Foreign policies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
James Earl “Jimmy” Carter was the thirty-ninth President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Before becoming president, he was the Governor of Georgia, and served two terms at the senate. He was regarded as an outcast to traditional party politics. The start of his presidency was...
The basis for and results of a christian philosophy
Essay - 5 pages - Political science
The Basis for and Results of a Christian Philosophy The history of ideas is full of steel-traps. Men of science, men of art, men of literature, and men of religion, whose names we utter reverently, and to whom we credit a plethora of theories and analyses, have made the traps that wait there to...
La violencia, la literatura, y como se responde la una a la otra
Essay - 3 pages - Political science
El poder de la palabra escrita radica sobre todo en su pretendida autonomía. Los escritores deben tener la libertad de hablar sobre cualquier tema que les venga en gana. Como miembros de una institución del arte, ellos seguramente funcionan como los símbolos de la potencia creativa humana. Sin...
A broad overview of modern secessionist movements
Essay - 9 pages - Political science
Secessionism is a process that has been part of international discourse since the development of government. Regardless of the success or equity created under a particular rule, various groups have sought separation from the state in an effort to create more autonomy and achieve a higher level of...
Youth political participation in the United States
Essay - 19 pages - Political science
Statistical analysis of voting trends in the United States show that after reaching stable levels in 1950, voter participation has decreased significantly throughout the last half of the twentieth century. This trend has been especially noted among youthful voters between the ages of 18 and 34....
An analysis of one of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches: "The Sinews of Peace" or the Iron Curtain speech.
Essay - 6 pages - Political science
Throughout the course of history, notable social and political leaders have offered up their opinions on specific subjects and pressing issues of the day. While many of the leaders have given impassioned, well-reasoned and well-delivered speeches, only a few have gone down in history as truly...
Electoral emendation: Changing the college that chooses our commander-in-chief
Essay - 11 pages - Political science
Stewart is an elector representing the state of Vermont in the Electoral College for the election of the president. The popular vote has been tallied and it is time to finally elect the president. The results for Vermont's popular vote tells Stew that he is supposed to vote for Blaine Darvy,...
