Political Science

Lee Thornton, who has served as the Dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and who also during the Ford and Carter administrations covered the White House for CBS News, writes in a recent academic journal that President Obama was able to effectively alter the tradition operation of the American political system by using technology to educate and mobilize American voters.  More specifically, Thornton argues that What the American political system witnessed this time around was a perfect...

Negative campaigning or mudslinging has long been considered as part of American political culture. As a means to securing an electoral seat, it is considered the norm in politics and is as they say as American as Mississippi mud (Goodman, 1996, p. 13). As a result of excesses in candidate-centered campaign contributions, political advertising is often mean-spirited and foul, focusing not on candidates platform but on character. Because candidates are essentially engaged in a political contest,...

When one thinks of the foreign service, embassy and diplomats come into mind.  In the world of the foreign service of the diplomatic corps, negotiation is the most important function or tool in diplomacy (Berridge200520).  The reason why the diplomatic service exists is to help facilitate cordial relations among nations and this also includes resolving problems and issues in a peaceful way rather than resorting to war or precipitate any turmoil in the world. Diplomats have been in the...

Democratic elections are supposed to propel into political and civil office leaders who have a clear vision of the future. Only such a visionary leadership can guarantee the strengthening of social and political institutions for the prosperity of future generations. Because of this fact, young adults between the ages of 18 and twenty four would be expected to be the most enthusiastic voters but this has not been the case. Less than 50 percent of those below 25 responded in the affirmative if asked...

The term democracy refers a system of governance where the people are actively involved in the election of leaders who serve in the government.  The political government within a democracy is facilitated by representative democracy or direct democracy. A constitution facilitates the protection of the freedom of citizens, civil rights, liberty and legitimized rights. The term constitution refers to a body of fundamental rules and principles in a nation that determines the power and duties of...

Sundown Towns, by James Loewen, describes the historical, economic and social factors which created the phenomenon of towns all across America where African Americans and other minorities are shunned by the explicit or implicit message that they are not welcome after sundown. Minorities in these towns occupy an extremely small percentage of the population or, in some cases, none at all. Loewens title refers to an example of the message which caused this exodus or extermination of the minority populations...

Communal conventions have always been an indispensable element of administrative performance in East Asia. Communal conventions successfully reflected the cultural specificity of Asian communities and were used by them to promote stability and sustained administrative order. Specific patterns of community and administrative development in East Asia varied across countries. China, Vietnam, and Japan all pursued different self-management paths. Yet, it would be fair to say that communal conventions...

Nationalism is a hard to define phenomenon. Manu experts have theorized that humans organized as societies from needs of physical security first, to which were later added religious and cultural affinities that served to further bind them together as a nation. The Westphalian construct transformed this concept of nation into a nation-state with fixed geographical boundaries wherein sovereignty of that nation-state became a prime driving factor for the rise of what is called as nationalism. This...

The current healthcare debate in Congress has every side fighting to have their positions heard. President Barack Obama thinks his health care plan will help people without insurance receive much-needed access. Opponents argue that his plan will cost taxpayers too much and will not solve the problems of spiraling out-of-control health care expenses. Whichever side one subscribes to understands that there are other groups who believe in them. Those groups are called lobbyists, and their job is to...

In his book, Wheeler undertakes an assessment of the situational changes that the humanitarian intervention environment and the global contribution it achieves. He underscores the basis for legitimizing humanitarian intervention and further responds to skeptics who believe that humanitarian intervention is basically a tool for power politics that powerful nations use to achieve their geopolitical pursuits. He uses the case studies of Indias invasion of East Pakistan (1971), Tanzanias use of force...

Morality can defined as a set of principles that are perceived by the society as virtuous. Morality can be viewed from three different angles, that is, normative, descriptive, and also from an ethical point of view (Wren, 1991, p.18). Morality, defined from its normative logic, refers to good or bad deeds, irrespective of what the society thinks. Basically, it is the perfect moral person in a given scenario. Morality from its descriptive view refers to an individuals cultural standards, affiliations...