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.
Legal realism, as an approach to politics and law, developed in the early twentieth century. It arose in response to the mechanistic view that the law was objective and unchanging, not influenced by external events, and was distinct and separate from politics. This mechanistic view of the law …
Legislative drafting is the process of writing a text with the aim to enact it as legislation. In most democracies, legislation is an important medium through which law is expressed. Before a document can function as law it needs to be enacted in some form or other. Most …
Legislative hearings are the primary institutional mechanism for collecting information about policy-related issues from a variety of actors, including Congress, the executive branch, interest groups, and citizens. Most frequently conducted on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, witnesses run the gamut from executive branch officials to interest group lobbyists …
The term legislative system refers to the institutional arrangement for enacting laws, centered usually on one or two deliberative assemblies that claim to represent the nation. Those bodies may be called the legislature to denote their lawmaking function, or the parliament to denote their deliberative character, or the …
Legislatures come in as many varieties as political systems. Most contemporary states, including authoritarian ones, have at least the facade of formal elected assemblies. All but a handful of countries, whether democratic or authoritarian, have some form of legislature. Of 192 states belonging to the United Nations (UN) …
The relationship between courts and legislatures in the United States is sometimes cordial but often strained. Most court-legislative interactions are routine. For example, courts regularly interpret statutes written by Congress. If Congress is unhappy with a federal court’s statutory interpretation decision, the legislature can simply enact a new …
Legitimacy is one of the most enduring concepts in modern political science, going back to the opening question of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract (1762) of whether “there can be any sure and legitimate rule of administration.” It is a concept that spans both empirical and normative political …
Legitimate violence emerged as a core theme in social science with the lasting contribution made by German sociologist Max Weber in the early twentieth century. Initially known as (legitimate) use of physical force, the concept became a central contribution in modern sociology and more particularly in the definition …
Vladimir Ilich Lenin (1870–1924) was a major Marxist theorist who put his ideas into practice by leading the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and bringing communist government to Russia. His political philosophy, called Leninism or Marxist Leninism, inspired communist movements throughout the world in the twentieth century. Lenin—born as …
Leninism is a political philosophy associated with Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), leader of the 1917 Bolshevik (Communist) Revolution in Russia. Lenin considered himself a Marxist, and much of Leninism is grounded in Karl Marx’s observations about politics, economics, and society. Compared with classical Marxism, Leninism gives a greater emphasis …
Max Lerner (1902–1992) was an influential journalist, scholar, and public intellectual who made contributions to American political thought and culture. During his career, he held a number of faculty positions at leading colleges and universities. He resided the longest at Brandeis University, where he was on the faculty …
Concerted activist challenges to the oppression of sexual minorities date from the late nineteenth century, intensifying in the decades following World War II (1939–1945), and broadening across the globe from the 1990s on. From its beginnings, the movement has been based primarily in large urban centers, where anonymity …
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons participated in electoral politics as voters, activists, and candidates. Of these activities, voting in elections is the most widespread form of political participation of all citizens in liberal democratic societies. The study of how both individuals and groups in society vote …
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) movement is a modern coalitional movement of people with a same-sex or bisexual sexual orientation, transgender people, and their allies. The movement has legal, social, cultural, and political dimensions. Those who identify with it seek a wide range of ends that include …
Gay rights are also referred to as LGBT rights or LGBTQ rights to encompass lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identities within gay communities. The gay rights movement in the United States can be traced from 1924 with the first known gay rights organization, the Society for Human …
The 2003 landmark case of Lawrence v. Texas is perhaps the most important U.S. Supreme Court case concerning gay and lesbian rights and liberties to date. Although the 1996 case of Romer v. Evans was path breaking in its own right, ensuring that state referenda could not preempt …
Liang Qichao (1873–1929) was a scholar, journalist, translator, reformer, and historian in China during the Qing Dynasty. His works are a commentary on one of the most eventful eras marking the transition of China from monarchy to republic. After obtaining his juren degree in 1889, Liang became a …
The term liberal democracy usually refers to a system of representative government involving the rule of law; competitive multiparty elections for office; limited government powers; protections for private property and for basic individual rights such as free speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion; and a …
Many Americans associate the term liberalism with, for good or ill, such emotionally charged topics as big government, welfare, socialism, and civil rights. It is axiomatic that the meanings of political labels can change over time. Liberalism is no exception to this rule. This entry briefly reviews the …
The term liberal is often ambiguous. In the United States, the expression liberal parties refers to left-wing social democrats or socialists, whereas in Europe, the term applies to the centrist parties grouped in the European Parliament and the Liberal International. In the latter usage, the parties include the …
