Constitution of the United States must be understood within the broader cultural, historical contexts in which it was drafted and ratified. The most basic explanation of the "original intent" of the Constitution is that the founders needed to formula Continue Reading...
democratic system for governing a group of people, small or large, must maintain the best interests of all the individuals involved. This general criterion must be upheld regardless of whether specifically what these best interests are cannot be una Continue Reading...
Democratic and Republican parties have been able to maintain their strength and their membership numbers since the Civil War for both structural and ideological reasons. The ideological reasons are the most obvious to an observer and to many members Continue Reading...
Constitution The United States Constitution is based on the self-interest view of human nature. It was created to provide people with a large number of freedoms. When the Founding Fathers sat down to write it, they carefully considered all the issue Continue Reading...
Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" Henry David Thoreau's essay on "Civil Disobedience" inspired many leaders, spanning from Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr., to use nonviolent resistance to enact change. King wrote: "I became convinced that Continue Reading...
Democracy In some quarters, democracy has been regarded one of mankind's greatest institutional achievements. With that in mind, democracy as a concept has been subject to extensive research over time and in a way, these studies have helped us under Continue Reading...
Constitution & Governmental Gridlock Constitutional Change #1 A constitutional amendment is needed to overturn the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United, Appellant v. Federal Election Commission. In this case, the United States Supreme Court Continue Reading...
Public administration is one of the constructs upon which every government functions. It incorporates the concepts of administrative responsibility and public interest upon which the idea of ethical obligation and the dilemma brought about by the pri Continue Reading...
However, post-Reconstruction, 'states rights' often became a code word for Jim Crow legislation. Southern states demanded the 'right' for the majority to engage in de facto segregation of schools and to institute limits upon how voting rights were e Continue Reading...
Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens' "Cornerstone Speech" The Civil War was by far the most costly war in terms of human life ever fought by the United States, and the events that precipitated this conflict on U.S. soil included the succe Continue Reading...
Gilded Age A Brief Look at the Progressive Movement and the Gilded Age The Gilded Age was a period of seemingly unbounded economic expansion in the United States that lasted roughly from the election of Ulysses S. Grant to the elevation of reformer Continue Reading...
45, for instance, where he argues that "the State governments may be regarded as constituent and essential parts of the federal government; whilst the latter is nowise essential to the operation or organization of the former. Without the interventio Continue Reading...
This program requires the states to create their own safety standards and to implement their rail safety oversight and audit programs in measuring compliance to that program. But the diversity of legal authorities, budgets and staff levels of oversi Continue Reading...
" (19:481) in order to wield the power of the opaque concept of 'national security' in foreign policy, the executers must use a careful construct of realities and perceptions that hang between an actual danger and a perceived threat. (9:144) Taking Continue Reading...
CNN, referring to the decision by the Russian Federation to call to Moscow its ambassador for NATO, for consultations (http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/03/world/europe/ukraine-crisis/). This comes as a measure against rising tensions, following Russia Continue Reading...
The merits of the two-party system all stem from its perceived (and probably justifiably so) stability. That stability is offered by many as reason enough to avoid rocking the boat. But, as presented here, the arguments against the two-party system Continue Reading...
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke: Perspectives on Governance and Power Though John Locke's theory of natural law and natural rights at first glance seem to oppose the conservative authoritarianism of Thomas Hobbes', both men set out to establish a frame Continue Reading...
founding fathers and their fear of "dangerous leveling" in the society. It will furthermore explain the problem of equalization of the society and would thus lead to the reduced inequalities of wealth, income, talents and virtues. The paper will hig Continue Reading...
Indeed, the reference to "institutional sclerosis" concerns the fact that virtually every conceivable interest in contemporary society is protected by a variety of laws that provide for extensive advising, participation and appeal procedures, a proc Continue Reading...
Police Reform in Post-Authoritarian Brazil A majority of new democracies entail an unbelievable illogicality of an immensely feeble citizenship coalesced with a stern description of the constitutional guarantees. In order to explicate this disparity Continue Reading...
Executive Order and Law: An executive order can be described as a presidential directive that consists of the force of law though it has a much more restricted jurisdiction than the statutes of the Congress. Generally, an executive order is a presi Continue Reading...
British policy style? As one begins to consider British policy, both foreign and domestic, one conjures pictures of the Queen-mother and her regal adherence to British tradition. In this way the Queen-mother stands as an icon of everything that is Continue Reading...
The truth is that the forefathers were actually quite surprised at the effect that the signing of the Constitution had created in America; at the democratic society and government that resulted after the ratification of the Constitution. The ratifi Continue Reading...
conservative intellectual movement, but also the role of William Buckley and William Rusher in the blossoming of the youth conservative movement Talk about structure of paper, who not strictly chronologically placed (ie hayek before the rest) - in Continue Reading...
Plato, Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau each had widely differing ideals relating to the government, its necessity and the responsibility of citizens towards this government. These views were all closely related to each philosopher's person Continue Reading...
United States Congress Over the past 200 years or so, the relationship between the House of Representatives and the Senate has changed quite a bit, but not always for the better. The relationship between Congress as a whole and the Presidency has a Continue Reading...
new leaders of Iraq have just read Lijphart's Patterns of Democracy and have decided to adopt a majoritarian form of government. What are the advantages of this form of government? Are there any drawbacks? Would you advise them to adopt the majorita Continue Reading...
History / Politics There are a number of salient issues to consider when discerning a mayoral candidate for a city as large and as prominent as New York City. Many of these issues are discussed within this week's readings, the introduction to Bruce Continue Reading...
Obama & Romney -- Foreign Policy Approaches If "realist" stands for a person who pursues "security" based on "self-interest," "determinism," and "morality" on the international scene (quotes chosen from Chapter 1); and if "liberal" stands for "c Continue Reading...
" To quote the Encyclopedia of World Biography's entry on Thomas Paine (2004) "his contributions included an attack on slavery and the slave trade. His literary eloquence received recognition with the appearance of his 79-page pamphlet titled Common Continue Reading...
In addition, he notes that the Chinese and Russians somehow "choose" to be continuing autocracies, and then acknowledges the power of their leaders. Thus, the people are under the thumb of their leaders, and may be "settling" for autocracy because Continue Reading...
revolution was economic in origin, or depended largely on politics and other areas of American life. The American Revolution came about for a variety of reasons. Many people believe the biggest reason was "taxation without representation," which bec Continue Reading...
Elections Role of Diminishing Marginal Return on Voter Turnout This paper looks at the effects of diminishing marginal returns on voter turnout by comparing voter turnout in various countries. The paper will look at countries with both high and low Continue Reading...
Limits of Power As detailed in Federalist Paper No. 67, although the executive power of the new American republic had certain absolute executive privileges, such as the ability to fill vacancies in the Senate, most significant powers were either ch Continue Reading...
French Quebec Nationalism A major turning point in the history of Canada was the fall of Quebec which resulted in the transformation of a French colony into a British colony. Had it not happened, English would never have become the first language o Continue Reading...
Political Compromise Compromise and Politics Public choice should be at the forefront of any politician's minds when compromising. However, many people working in politics recognize they are motivated by self-interests and personal ideologies as mu Continue Reading...
Force and Wars on Terrorism The objective of this work is to consider that as one of the governing principles of the United Nations, the UN Charter Article 2(4) prohibits the use of force in international relations, but its Article 51 permits the u Continue Reading...
Unruly Americans In Woody Holton's Unruly Americans, the author endeavors to bring to light many of the as-yet unwritten aspects of the founding of the United States of America. Many men and women have written on the subject. There are films and doc Continue Reading...
A Critique of Democracy: the Latin American Left Introduction The Latin American Left was mainly inspired by the idealism of Marx. Marx (1873) believed that “the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind and tran Continue Reading...
