Category: Essays on Controversial Topics
Browse our collection of essays on controversial topics. Each topic in this category represents a controversial issue and thus is a good choice if you are looking for argumentative or persuasive essay topics. When writing an argumentative essay or a persuasive essay you should focus on picking a topic that is current and relevant to society and can be argued logically.
While a strong interest in a topic is important, it’s not enough to be interested. You have to consider what position you can back up with reasoning and evidence. It’s one thing to have a strong belief, but when shaping an argument you’ll have to explain why your belief is reasonable and logical. As you explore the topics, make a mental list of points you could use as evidence for or against an issue.
When organizational survival and leader interests displace an organization’s goals, an organization experiences oligarchy. In a 1911 study of the German Social Democratic Party and labor movement, Robert Michels discussed how bureaucratization, or large-scale organization, allows leaders’ interests to dominate over the masses. Michels’s iron law of oligarchy …
The term oligopoly designates a market form in which a few sellers dominate the market sector. This creates disequilibrium in the market, affecting both its efficiency and the entire society. In an ideal free-market economy, firms operate in perfect competition, producing each product at the lowest possible cost …
Arguably, one of the most permanent racialized ideas in the history of the United States has been the insistence on human classification. Regardless of its biological and scientific invalidity, the notion of “race” is an endemic feature in social relations and continues to artificially separate individuals who have …
Oppositional culture theory primarily explains the academic underperformance of young African American males. It holds that black youth have constructed an oppositional collective identity in response to a society they perceive as racist and antagonistic to their general well-being. From this oppositional perspective, black youth interpret the institution …
Organized crime constitutes in and of itself a social problem, but, in reality, it becomes an influential factor in producing many other types of social problems. Attempts at finding a definition of organized crime acceptable to all the disciplines that deal with its subject matter have met with …
Outsourcing is a business arrangement in which one organization contracts with another organization to perform services that it normally would have done itself. This occurs generally in areas outside of an organization’s core competencies in order to take advantage of cost savings. Several different types of outsourcing should …
Atmospheric ozone (O3) is found mostly between about 9 and 23 miles above the Earth’s surface in a region called the stratosphere. This ozone layer acts as a barrier protecting life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. From 1970 on, scientists expressed concern that …
A pandemic is the spread of a highly infectious disease across a large area, such as a continent or worldwide. In the World Health Organization (WHO) definition, the microbial agent that causes a pandemic must be a new one, never before found in human beings, and spread easily …
Parole is the conditional release of a person in prison (the “parolee”) before he or she completes the terms of a sentence. Parolees are under supervision of a state or federal parole agent who monitors the parolees’ adjustment to society until completion of the time of the originally …
Patriarchy has many different interpretations, depending on the theoretical and disciplinary orientation of the writer or speaker. Within anthropology, for example, patriarchy defines a condition in which male members of a society predominate in positions of authority. In female-dominated societies, the term matriarchy is used. For feminists, however, …
The USA PATRIOT Act or “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001” was signed into law without legislative committee debate on October 26, 2001. Despite the fact that Senator Russ Feingold was the only senator to vote against …
Peacekeeping is the intervention by a third party (a neutral actor) in armed conflict, a practice utilized in both conflict management and conflict resolution. Primarily, military components, such as regular troops and military observers, intervene between warring parties and oversee truces or the implementation of peace agreements. However, …
Pedophilia, a term coined in 1896 by Richard Krafft-Ebing, refers to a pubescent individual who is sexually attracted to prepubescent individuals. U.S. concern about child molestation dates back to 1894, when a wave of legislation geared toward increasing the age of sexual consent was enacted. This interest was …
Pensions and Social Security are programs designed to provide some measure of financial security to people during their retirement years. A variety of policies and programs have developed over time to address the kinds of problems faced by many, although not all, of the elderly. The situation can …
President William Clinton, on August 22, 1996, signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The intent of this law was to transform the U.S. welfare system into one that provided government assistance in exchange for work. The plan contained specific work requirements and a performance bonus …
What it means to be a “person” is a question that has intrigued philosophers for millennia. At least two major schools of thought in philosophy have considered personhood: deontology and utilitarianism. Deontology, sometimes called “duty-based” or “rule-based ethical theory,” was advanced by German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Kant, …
Occupations traditionally considered women’s work are termed pink collar. These occupations typically include the clerical, sales, and service fields. Nurse, waitress, elementary school teacher, secretary, administrative assistant, sales clerk, cashier, child care worker, and beautician are among the most common female-dominated occupations. They are termed pink collar in …
From a legalistic point of view, intellectual property refers to the exclusive rights to intellectual objects. In the United States, intellectual property includes the rights conferred by copyright, patent, and trademark laws. Copyright law grants an author the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, perform, and adapt a literary, …
To represent oneself as the author of some work that is in fact the work of someone else is to plagiarize. Plagiarism may include the “passing off” of the form of the work—for example, the exact words of a piece of writing—or the intellectual content, or both. Plagiarism …
Plea bargaining refers to the practice, common in U.S. courts, wherein a criminal defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for leniency by the prosecutor or district attorney. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 95 percent of criminal convictions in U.S. courts are obtained through guilty pleas. …
