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.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) was a German theologian, pastor, and professor. His public rejection of the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences ignited the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, which led to a permanent schism in the church. Luther’s actions and beliefs exerted great influence over subsequent theories …
Born in Zamosc, Poland, to assimilated Jewish middle-class parents, activist Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) demonstrated remarkable intellectual achievement and a highly rebellious nature from an early age. As a teenager she joined Proletariat, one of the first Polish Marxist groups. Forced to leave Poland in 1889, she enrolled at …
Lu Xun (1881–1936) is generally acknowledged as China’s greatest twentieth-century author. His sardonic humor, literary skill, and sense of the absurd made him an effective advocate of Chinese nationalism, the rejection of a self-satisfied traditionalism, and the need to embrace a pragmatic program of modernization. Communist leader Mao …
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) was a French theorist known for ushering the concept of postmodernity into the philosophical discourse. He gained international acclaim for his book The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979). This volume, as well as other lesser known but equally sophisticated works such as Just …
Poet, raconteur, diplomat, historian, military and political theorist, and secretary to the short-lived Republic of Florence (1498–1512), Italian Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was much more than the author of The Prince, although this work, written in 1512–1513 but published posthumously in 1531, remains the centerpiece of his political legacy. …
Machine politics refer s to politics in which votes are exchanged for discrete benefits. Under machine politics, voting is driven by a direct exchange between voter and political candidate rather than by opinion or ideology. (Hence, the term machine politics is related but not equivalent to political machine. …
Crawford Brough Macpherson (1911–1987) was a Canadian political theorist educated at the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics. After completing his studies in London, he returned to the University of Toronto, where he spent his academic career. Each year the Canadian Political Science Association awards …
Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the economy as a whole. The “economy as a whole” means the aggregation of the activities of all economic actors and its subsequent treatment as if it were one unit. It can also analyze the economy’s major parts, such as …
James Madison (1751–1836) was an American politician and the fourth president of the United States. Born into a prosperous family of planters in Virginia, he was the eldest son of Nelly and James Madison. As a student, Madison excelled in history and had a keen interest in law …
The Maghreb refers to the North African countries of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, which formed the Maghreb Empire from the Arabization of these lands in the tenth century CE. The majority of people in the region share a common Arab identity, and Berbers represent the most significant non-Arab …
The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” consists of a preamble and 62 clauses that English barons extracted from King John (1167?–1216) at Runnymede in 1215 in a fruitless effort to avoid civil war. Later monarchs, including John’s immediate successor, Henry III, reaffirmed this document that lies at the …
Joseph Mar ie de Maistre (1753–1821) was a conservative writer, diplomat, and lawyer best remembered for his opposition to the French Revolution (1789–1799) and his defense of throne and altar. For the first half of his life, he lived in provincial obscurity as a lawyer and senator in …
Majority-minority districts are political wards in which racial minorities compose the largest voting block. The districts are created to ensure that minority votes are not diluted and to increase the number of minority officeholders. In the United States, the 1982 Voting Rights Act requires that such districts be …
Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) was an Italian anarcho-communist whose writings remain influential within contemporary anarchist movements. Initially an advocate of an insurrectionary approach to social change emphasizing the agitational work of small bands of activists in fomenting upr isings or revolution, Malatesta came to argue that anarchists should be …
Mandarins were political, military, and judicial officials of the Chinese Empire. The term was coined by the Portuguese from the Malay term mantra or councilor. The mandarins were classified into 18 different ranks and gained office through a series of rigorous examinations that could last six weeks. Many …
The mandate system was an innovative international procedure to assist the transition toward independence of former colonies and dependencies after World War I (1914–1918). The mandate system was established by the founding treaty of the League of Nations (1919) and represented a compromise between the new liberal principles …
The mandate theory of representation states that an elected representative should behave as a true agent to his/her principal, the constituency. Representatives are therefore expected to serve the interests of their constituents. Hence the theory requires that the policies adopted by incumbents be those preferred by voters. The …
A manifesto is a document that details the values, principles, and goals of an individual or political organization. Manifestos are generally written as public documents and provide people with information about a group or movement, but manifestos can also be secret and designed to provide internal guidance for …
Karl Mannheim (1893–1947), was a Hungarian-born sociologist. He is considered one of the leading figures in the development of sociology as a discipline and is regarded as the founder of the sociology of knowledge. Mannheim, originally named Mannheim Károly, was born in Budapest, which was then part of …
Maoism refers to the body of thought and practices associated with Mao Zedong (1893–1976). As the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Mao led the party to victory in 1949 by defeating the Nationalist Party under Chiang Kaishek (1887–1975) in a protracted civil war that dated back …
