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.
The structure of policy making is a continuous multistage process during which programs or policies are designed, implemented, evaluated, and modified. Program evaluations are the part of the process focused on determining whether intended objectives have been met. In this way, program evaluation is an institutional tool for …
Typological exercises to grasp the essential features of political parties are manifold in political science, and for nearly a century, new classification schemes evolved within the scholarly literature. Various criteria have been used to differentiate between worldwide party types. Among these, organizational, functionalist, and sociological types are the …
The ancient philosophers were aware that the earliest periods of human history were primitive in nature, and that the more advanced social condition of the present arrived after a number of intervening stages of development. Aristotle, for example, traces social development through the clan, the village, and finally …
Progressivism is an ideological perspective broadly opposed to conservatism in regards to any number of political, economic, social, or moral issues. As such, it is often, though not always, premised upon a philosophy of history that affirms the continual possibility of progress toward improved conditions of justice in …
The term proletariat refers to a political, social, and historical idea used to describe the class of people who do not own any means of production, and who sell their labor power to capitalists—or the bourgeoisie—in order to earn enough money to provide for their families’ immediate material …
Pronunciamiento is translated as pronouncement or declaration, and refers to the military overthrow of a government in Latin America or, historically, Spain. Although it has precedents in seventeenth-century Spain, the model is based largely on rebellions after the restoration of Ferdinand VII in 1813. The concept involves the …
In previous centuries, the verb to propagate meant to transmit faith to people who otherwise were seen as “lost” forever; thus, for Catholics—as established in the Catholic Congregatio de Propaganda fides in 1622—propaganda was seen as a service given to pagans and tribes who believed in magic and …
Property rights are at the foundation of liberal democratic societies and social orders. However, how property rights are justified, and accounts of their limits, are matters of considerable debate. Nevertheless, the protection of property rights is a primary function of the liberal state and forms the basis of …
In political psychology, proportionality is usually considered as the principle, rule, or value, describing distributive justice within a state or local or regional populace. In this sense, according to proportionality, individual outcomes need to match individual inputs to achieve justice within a system. In making the allocation decision, …
Proportional representation was developed in the late eighteenth century at a time when representative democracies were gaining popularity in the midst of the American Revolution (1776–1783) and the French Revolution (1789–1799). Fearing tyranny of the majority, which was a persistent accusation made against representative democracies or republican forms …
Prospect theory is the most influential behavioral theory of choice in the social sciences. Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky created it in 1979 when they discovered that how someone thinks about a choice influences one’s attitude toward risk. To illustrate, when given a choice between a sure …
Protectionism is a term used to describe action that a national government takes to affect the importation of goods or services in the interest of sheltering domestic producers or service providers from international competition. Traditionally, the most common form of protection has been the tariff, which constitutes a …
The Protestant Reformation set in motion a series of largely unintended revolutions, from the sudden transformation of European geopolitics, to the formation of the modern nationstate, as well as the reshaping of families and the ideals of individuality. Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German, and John Calvin (1509–1564), a …
Protest music encompasses many artistic forms, such as poetry, music, or satire with a dose of politics. As a genre, protest music exists in various cultures. Unlike military marches and national anthems, contemporary protest music and songs criticize a state’s establishment and propose another social vision. There are …
Worldwide, protests against a state or a political entity, or in advocacy of a public cause, happen frequently, in a variety of ways, and are usually short-lived. The effectiveness of a protest can be measured and interpreted by a variety of factors, not all dependent on achieving the …
French philosopher and author Pier re-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) was the first to call his social philosophy anarchist. He considered state order to be artificial, contradictory, and ineffective, thereby engendering oppression, poverty, and crime. Furthermore, he believed public and international law, along with the varieties of representative government based …
Psephology is the quantitative analysis of elections and balloting. Psephology is Greek for “pebble” and refers to the stones used in ancient Athens to indicate voter preferences. British political scientists and election commentators, R. B. McCallum and Robert McKenzie popularized the term in the 1950s. Psephology uses voting …
Italian historian Ptolemy of Lucca (ca. 1227–1327), also known as Bartholomew of Lucca or Tolomeo of Lucca, was a member of the Dominican order and held several influential positions within the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the author of On the Government of Rulers. Originally, …
Public diplomacy (PD) is a communication process employed by states and nonstate actors to influence a foreign government by influencing its citizens. It is a relatively new field of practice and scholarship. It attracted attention in the previous century with the opening of diplomacy to the media and …
Public domain can refer to land that is under the direct control of a government, or to art, literature, music, or other intellectual property that is no longer under copyright restrictions. Public domain includes those territories that belong to the central government and not state or private entities. …