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.
Incumbent refers to the current holder of a political office. The term is used mostly in reference to elections as candidates are often defined by their status as an incumbent or a nonincumbent because incumbency instills benefits that are elusive for nonincumbents. One of the most difficult aspects …
The Indian Ocean region (IOR) comprises the forty-seven countries in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australasia that share the coastal waters of the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean is the third largest world ocean, covering about 20 percent of the earth’s water surface. History The region has …
In an indirect election, the voters do not choose a candidate directly for office but instead choose electors who then decide whom to elect for the constituency. Indirect elections are relatively common, with perhaps the most well-known example of an indirect election involving the U.S. electoral college, which …
The interdependent relationship between the individual and society has been explored by classical philosophers and modern researchers, beginning with Aristotle’s description of humans as social animals about twenty-five hundred years ago. At the heart of this exploration is the puzzling question of how society enters into each individual …
Individualism is largely understood today as a normative doctrine holding the autonomy of individuals to be the final object of moral and political life. The term was originally descriptive, however, invented in the early nineteenth century to describe the atomization of European society that attended democracy’s emergence after …
In its most general form industrial democracy refers to employees’ right to be involved in the decision-making process at the workplace. In some countries such as Germany and Sweden, so-called codetermination between employers and employees is a matter of law (since 1976 in Germany with the Mitbestimungesesetz and …
Inferential techniques allow researchers to learn something about unknown phenomena from known evidence or data. There are chiefly two types of inference: descriptive inference involves extracting useful explanations from masses of evidence; causal inference pinpoints the explanatory factors, frequently suggested by theory, underlying the available data or evidence. …
Australian economist Colin Clark stressed the dominance of different sectors of an economy at different stages of its development and modernization, thus leading to the recognition of the three basic sectors: agriculture, industry, and service. The dominance of each sector was brought about by revolutions, especially in the …
The information technology revolution is transforming business and the economy, leading to the creation of entirely new markets and the transformation (and sometimes destruction) of old ones. Its consequences for politics are more subtle but equally profound. New technologies—including most particularly the Internet but also advances in telecommunications, …
The initiative, a type of direct democracy, allows voters by petition to place one or more constitutional and statutory propositions on the referendum ballot. Propositions also may be placed on the referendum ballot automatically by a constitution (illustrated by the question of convening a constitutional convention placed on …
Inner city refers to the decaying central area of a major city, urban metropolis, or conurbation, comprising the most deprived neighborhoods around the central business district. It is different from the rest of the city in a number of its characteristics: it is an area affected by long-term …
Inspectors general are found throughout bureaucratic and military apparatuses around the world. The main purpose of an inspector general is to ensure efficiency and compliance with standards of mission statements for bureaucracies or standards of military service. Inspectors general are often recognized for their expertise within their field …
In comparative politics, like in other subfields of political science, the starting point of the contemporary institutionalist scholarship is the idea of “bringing the state back in,” which became a rallying cry in the 1980s. Reacting to intellectual trends such as Marxism and system theory, this type of …
Insurgency is a form of intrasocietal conflict within a state, in which a no ruling group attempts to destroy, reform, or degrade the legitimacy and popular support of the state’s ruling group to effect political change. Insurgencies are primarily political movements rather than conventional military conflicts, as insurgent …
Insurrection is an armed uprising; insurgency is armed resistance by an organized political movement against an established government. While uprisings were common during the colonial era, they differed from insurgencies in that they were generally revolts led by elites in defense of traditional rights and obligations. Such was …
Intellectual property refers to patents, copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets. Intellectual proper ty poses interesting problems because, unlike physical property, knowledge goods and information are not necessarily rivalries. Simultaneous usage of such goods rarely detracts from their social utility. As they are not physical property, knowledge and information …
Intelligence failure is a term used to describe situations when intelligence organizations, military commands, foreign ministries, or even law enforcement agencies fall short in providing accurate and timely warning to officials of nascent dangers or opportunities. The term is used to describe failures to predict specific events rather …
Intelligence services undertake counter intelligence operations, monitor internal security, make and break codes, or conduct covert operations. Some specialize in gather in information from open sources, espionage, or domestic surveillance activities to produce secret intelligence reports for government officials, members of the armed forces, or the intelligence service …
Interdependence refers to independent social actors who are structurally affected by one another’s behavior. The actors are involved in each other’s affairs (functional or integrative interdependence), or they are part of the same system (systemic interdependence) (see Figure 1). Interdependence can be operationalized into a three-dimensional concept, which …
Citizens hold various values or preferences that they wish to promote in public policy, such as protecting the environment or encouraging steel production, and these amount to their interests in government and politics. Citizens with similar political interests often organize into interest groups, and the related concepts of …
