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.
Stein Rokkan (1921–1979), professor of comparative politics at the University of Bergen, Norway, was one of the world’s leading social scientists. His life work produced a gigantic “historical fresco” of political development in Europe universally acknowledged as being fundamental to the study of the formation of nation-states and …
Roll-call analysis could be defined as the use of quantitative or qualitative research methods to understand the decision-making process behind a legislator’s vote; the reasons and rationale behind that vote; and the implications and consequences of the vote. Roll-call studies can use single roll calls or aggregated data, …
Roll off is a form of incomplete voting participation. In modern elections, voters rarely are offered only one electoral position on a ballot. If a voter participates in the top-of-the-ballot election and does not vote in other elections on the ballot, participation is not complete. This failure to …
Catholic social thought is a systematic Christian reflection on the social order. Neither Jesus nor the early church sought the cooperative agency of the state, sharply delineating the two realms. Seeking to strip politics and the state of divine pretensions, the church, under Pope Gelasius I, in 494, …
Roman political thought is characterized by the influence of moral philosophy and individual ethics on theorizing political questions. This is due, in large part, to the centrality of Epicurean and Stoic philosophy, both of which primarily focus on individual well-being and on the moral status of the individual …
A leading philosopher of his time, American Richard Rorty (1931–2007) challenged the foundations of modern Western philosophy. His work is most often linked with American pragmatism—that is, to the work of such individuals as Charles Sanders Pierce, William James, John Dewey, Wilfred Sellars, W. O. Quine, Donald Davidson, …
Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) was a twentieth-century political economist and social theorist in the modern libertarian tradition. The author of more than twenty-five books and thousands of articles, he constructed a libertarian politics that drew from neo-Aristotelian realism, Lockean natural rights theory, individualist anarchism, the Austrian school of …
Rotten boroughs is primarily an English term used to describe electoral districts with very small populations. Initially the phrase applied to English districts in the late seventeenth century, but today, the term typically refers to the dominant political party within a district, which likely remains uncontested due to …
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was a French political and social thinker recognized as making major contributions to social contract and democratic theory through his writings, such as the Social Contract (1762). Rousseau’s works are credited also with being a major influence on the French Revolution (1789–1799), as well as …
Manabendra Nath Roy (1887–1954), popularly known as M. N. Roy, was a Bengali Indian revolutionary, philosopher, political theorist, activist, and exponent of the philosophy of radical humanism. Born as Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, he became a militant nationalist at the age of twenty and was jailed thrice before the …
Rulemaking is the process by which executive branch agencies write regulations that have the force of law. Rules include everything from requiring public corporations to notify shareholders that proxy voting materials are available on the Internet in a manner prescribed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, to specification …
The rule of law initially seems a simple and straightforward idea, concisely articulated by Aristotle in his view that the laws, not men, should rule in a well-ordered polity. This aspirational prescription for good government unites thinking about the rule of law from the ancient Greeks down to …
Rules of order are standardized procedural rules adopted by any deliberative body or assembly. Constitutions, bylaws, and rules of order are the general documents used to govern and define deliberative bodies. The purpose of rules of order is the regulation of the day-to-day conduct of debate. Bylaws and …
Run-off electoral systems use two rounds of voting to select a single winner. The first round eliminates some of the candidates, while the second round chooses between the remaining candidates. Run-off elections are commonly used to elect presidents. Indeed, with the adoption of run-off systems by many South …
British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) made significant contributions to mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. He also wrote many widely read books and essays on education, history, political theory, and religion. Russell defined philosophy as a “no-man’s-land” between, on the one side, the moral certainty of theology and, on …
Russian political thought, like Russian society, has been undergoing a wrenching transition since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The old verities that had been inculcated in three generations of Soviet citizens had collapsed. This was a crisis for the rulers, ordinary people, and intellectuals. They …
A professor of philosophy at Cornell University from 1931 until his retirement in 1948, George Holland Sabine (1880– 1961) was a highly regarded American historian of political ideas. His A History of Political Theory was required reading in political theory courses during the 1940s and 1950s, influencing generations …
In democratic systems, a sacrificial lamb candidacy is an office seeker chosen by a party to contest an election even if there is little or no likelihood of success. Sacrificial lambs are chosen for a variety of reasons. In some cases, a party may put forward a sacrificial …
The radical literary views and persuasive style of the Palestinian American Edward W. Said (1935–2003) rapidly promoted him to one of the most prominent and influential cultural critics of the twentieth century. Said was born in Jerusalem and studied in Cairo, Egypt; Northfield Mount Her mon in Massachusetts …
Claude-Henr i de Saint-Simon (1760–1825) was a French social reformer. Though still influenced by the aspect of Enlightenment thought that placed emphasis on philosophical inquiries, Saint-Simon also envisioned the usefulness of empirical studies and social science. While Saint-Simon’s disciple, Auguste Comte, became known as the founder of sociology, …
