Category: Political Science Essay Examples
See our collection of political science essay examples. These example essays are to help you understanding how to write a political science essay. Political science is not merely an academic discipline, and political scientists do not just study the anatomy of politics. Political science is renewed with every political administration and with every major political event and with every political leader. Influential political leaders construct their own -isms (Fidelism/Castroism, Maoism, Gandhism, Reaganism, and so on) so that the political philosophies and ideologies that undergird the discipline have to be reinvented constantly. Also, see our list of political science essay topics to find the one that interests you.
Gender quotas are a corrective measure used by political actors (e.g., political parties) to enhance representation of women in political and public institutions such as parliaments, councils, and parties. They require women or female candidates constitute a targeted minimum of the members of a publicly elected or appointed …
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) emerged as a “temporary” intergovernmental organization in 1947. It served as a negotiating forum promoting multilateral trade liberalization. Despite its small secretariat and uncertain status, it promoted significant reductions in tariffs, but it was supplanted in 1995 by the World …
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is the plenary and main deliberative organ of the UN. In the UNGA and its six main committees, all member states of the UN (i.e., today this means practically all states of the world) are represented. While the size of national delegations …
Although he was neither the first nor the last to use it, the concept of the general will is inextricably linked to the political thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). In a number of works, but especially his Social Contract (1762), Rousseau argues that a just political society is …
The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties concerning the treatment of prisoners and civilians in times of war. The Geneva Conventions have a long history and were developed over many years and through a number of wars. The History Of The Geneva Conventions In 1864, in Geneva, …
A concept created by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, the term genocide was originally used for Nazi patterns of state violence against the European Jewish populations during World War II (1939–1945).The word combines the Greek prefix for race or tribe (geno-) with the Latin suffix for killing/murder (-cide). The …
Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944) was an Italian philosopher, educator, and politician. As a neo-Hegelianist, he developed an extremely rigid form of idealism referred to as “actual idealism” or “actualism.” He eventually considered himself the “philosopher of Fascism,” even though he showed an interest for this movement only after the …
The concept of geopolitics is widely used in the public domain by politicians, journalists, policy analysts, and academics. As a result of its broad usage, providing a precise, succinct definition of the term is nearly impossible. In the academic world, the concept of geopolitics is used in many …
Alexander George (1920–2006) was an American political scientist and scholar of international relations. He saw the role of the political scientist in a democratic polity as that of scholar-advisor to the policy maker. He was particularly concerned about the origin of foreign policy crisis and the management of …
Henry George (1839–1897) was an American political economist whose works have influenced social and political theorists of the left and the right and whose books sold in the millions. An opponent of private monopolies in business and state interference in economic matters, George’s primary influence has been on …
German political thought is an equivocal concept that may be best understood in the way of a Wittgensteinian “family resemblance.” While the adjective German can be understood to refer to a core of works written in German, by Germans, and reflecting the institutional, social, and cultural context of …
Gerrymandering, a pejorative term, earned its name from the fifth U.S. vice president, Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814). While Elbridge Gerry was serving as governor of Massachusetts from 1810 to 1812, the Massachusetts legislature, which was controlled by the Democratic-Republicans, changed the district boundaries in Essex County in order to …
A major American writer of the early twentieth century, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s (1860–1935) literary contribution to feminist theory was largely forgotten for several decades after her death. However, during the 1960s women’s movement, a new generation rediscovered her writings. Charlotte Anna Perkins lost her father shortly after her …
The campaign for glasnost (meaning “openness”) was the first sign that Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was serious about reform. Gorbachev used the word in his first speech after he came to power in March 1985. The next year, finding his …
The glass ceiling is a metaphor for the range of unofficial and artificial barriers that stop otherwise qualified individuals from obtaining promotions or top positions within an organization. These obstacles are usually not apparent or formal, hence the reference to a “glass” barrier. The concept was popularized in …
The German word gleichshaltung (meaning “synchronization” or “coordination”) originally referred to the campaign by the National Socialists (Nazis) during the 1930s to have the Nazi party take complete control of the German state through the creation of a cult of personality around the party leader, Adolf Hitler. The …
The phrase “democratic deficit” has been most frequently used in reference to the European Union, but it is applicable to any supranational organization to which states belong but of which their citizens do not have direct democratic control. International institutions raise at least two issues relating to democracy: …
Globalism is a ubiquitous term often used in a sloppy manner to describe general globalizing trends as well as particular systems of ideas and values connected to various globalization processes. For purposes of analytical clarity, however, it is useful to distinguish between globalism, a political ideology that endows …
Since its earliest appearance in the 1960s, the term globalization has been used to describe a process, a condition, a system, a force, and an age. To avoid both the indiscriminate usage of these concepts and the sloppy conflation of process and condition that encourages circular definitions, it …
Globalization is an increasingly important phenomenon affecting the world in political, economic, social, and cultural arenas. In her 1999 article “Gender and Globalization,” Valentine Moghadam describes globalization as “a complex economic, political, cultural and geographic process in which the mobility of capital, organizations, ideas and discourses and peoples …
