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.
Social cognition is the study of how people make sense of other people and themselves. As an area of study, social cognition relates directly to the study of attitudes, persuasion, stereotyping, and small group behavior. Political cognition, a subset of social cognition, is the study of how people …
Why do some communities function well, while others do not? The concept of social capital recently flourished in political and social sciences, because it provides an explanation for prosperous and democratic social development. The definition of social capital is somewhat ambiguous, but an accepted definition is that it …
Social choice theory is as old as ancient Greek times. Social decisions, involving “diverse interests” and “concerns,” were explored by Aristotle and Kautilya around the fourth century BCE. It grew into a systematic theory around the time of the French Revolution (1789–1799). The intellectual climate during the European …
Social conservatism is an ideological perspective on how individuals in free societies ought to respond to matters having to do with moral beliefs or behavior, cultural traditions, religious institutions, or patterns of social interaction generally. It involves the desire to see older norms and assumptions regarding all of …
The social contract is an agreement between the people and government, according to which rulers agree to rule justly and the people to obey. The idea is most familiar from works of the great contract theorists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean …
Social Darwinism is the theory that human societies obey the same process of natural selection that Charles Darwin identified in the natural world. Applying the idea of “the survival of the fittest” to society, politics, and economics, social Darwinists argue that the wealthy or strong succeed under conditions …
Social democracy as a political movement is intimately connected to the rise of modern industrial capitalism and the emergence of the industrial proletariat. This new social class of wage earners stood free from earlier forms of feudal allegiances and responsibilities, and social democracy can be seen as a …
In a broad sense, any social change brought through deliberate efforts by government (i.e., all laws and policies) that have the effect of changing behavior and characteristics of a society can be labeled social engineering. In its standard usages, the term has rather a negative connotation. The development …
Socialism was the most influential secular movement of the twentieth century, worldwide. It was a political ideology (or world view), a wide and divided political movement, and a socioeconomic model tried and developed on a large scale. Weakened in the current twenty-first century, it is still a significant …
In classical Marxist theory, the transition to socialism is the period between the overthrow of capitalism and the achievement of communism. Although there is a sketch in Marx’s writings of what communism will look like, the institutional and social features of the socialist transition were not comprehensively outlined …
Political socialization is the process by which individuals develop a relationship to the political world and acquire the knowledge, beliefs, values, and behaviors conducive to citizenship. Through socialization, people gain a sense of belonging to a society and community and are inducted into the political culture of their …
One of the developments in both global and national political systems since the end of the Second World War (1939–1945) has been the emergence of groups, organizations, and individuals who seek to influence society, the state, and public policies that are directly or indirectly concerned with public interest. …
Often times, the political sphere’s understated preference for the mundane seems to be best understood as a ringing endorsement of routine and formality and a stinging rebuke of conflict and struggle. However, because most political arrangements—outside of anarchic examples—are structured on some sort of hierarchical system of authority, …
Social order is the result of a common search for cohesion within a given group or society. Some theoreticians believe that social order comes from coercision, while others argue that it is a rational decision made by individuals. As opposed to the brutal rule of the strongest, French …
Social policies can be defined as public interventions affecting the distribution of vital opportunities for citizens and their general well-being. Such a generic definition should acknowledge other public policies, not “social” in sensustrictu, which also aim at the improvement of people’s living conditions and the advancement of social …
Social security refers to a category of programs that insure individuals and families against the r isk of income loss due to contingencies such as old age, disability, or death of the family breadwinner. As a government program, social security entails a set of legal entitlements to payments …
A social welfare policy is any policy that improves the welfare of citizens. As a result, a range of programs affecting the health, education, housing, employment, civil rights, and economic conditions of citizens can qualify as a social welfare policy. However, the primary types of social welfare policies …
Sociobiology, the synthesis of ethology and population biology, was both hailed and damned when it was first presented systematically in Edward O. Wilson’s 1975 path breaking volume of the same name. Spurred by Wilson’s promise that this emerging new field would lead to the absorption of the social …
Socrates (469–399 BCE) was a classical Greek philosopher whose thought had a profound influence on his field. Little is known about his early and middle years, although according to ancient tradition, he worked as a stonecutter. The fact that he served as a helot (heavily armed foot-soldier) in …
The Sophists were itinerant teachers for hire who taught how to argue effectively and to advance interests in judicial, civic, and business forums in Greece, especially in Athens, largely during the second half of the fifth century BCE. It is clear from the texts of contemporaries that the …
