Political Science

In the Constitutional system as it has evolved over the centuries, the monarch has come to have no actual "power." The Queen now (or King when there is one in future) is the head of state, but this...

There are substantial differences within as well as between the systems of parliamentary democracy and presidential democracy. To take two specific examples as patterns, some of the differences and...

People have tried to define a state going at least as far back as the days of Plato. In 1933, representatives from a number of countries gathered in Uruguay to define what makes a state, in what...

The similarities between interest groups and political parties are broad. Both interest groups and political parties try to shape political policies. Both try to protect and promote the causes they...

The House has a reputation of being much more contentious and impulsive when it comes to legislation. By comparison, it is fairly easy to be elected to the House, which means you have won a...

Interest groups play an important role as the “voice” of the people to advocate for their rights and push forward their agenda. Thus, without some interest groups or pressure groups, the voice and...

Political science, by nature, is a social science that deals with humans and their interactions. As a branch of sociology, it essentially deals with the large-scale actions of humans, and group...

When answering this question, you should consider the two main sub-national levels of government: state and municipal. (There are also county and township levels of government, but these tend to be...

The term "political cue" is one that has a different meaning for political professionals than members of the voting public. To the former, it refers to any signal that reveals to a legislator what...

Social movements are varied, but they do have a few shared characteristics. Generally speaking, social movements are geared toward creating, perpetuating, or stopping social or political change....

Vertical versus horizontal policy-making is a product of the nature of the organization involved in the process. Horizontal policy-making exists when departments or individuals within an...

There are similarities and differences between descriptive representation and substantive representation. Descriptive representation is when an elected official represents people based on some...

There are, in theory, ten potential steps a bill can go through before it becomes law. Although a president, a member of cabinet or head of a federal agency may propose a bill, only a member of...

Government is necessary because human beings aren't angels. Almost everyone is a mixture of good and bad, and, one could argue, it's the bad side of human nature that needs to be restrained by the...

The term "political science" derives from the Greek word "polis" (plural: "poleis") which means "city state". In Greek philosophy, human affairs and the science of understanding them are divided...

Interest groups are often criticized for being "single issue." This means they will support whichever political candidate promises to champion their one issue. The political candidate could have a...

A bill has to pass through both houses of Congress to make it to the president because the Framers of the Constitution wanted to make sure that it was hard for the government to oppress us and...

Political parties influence public policy precisely because that is why they exist: to influence public policy. Political parties are large groupings of like-minded individuals who collectively...

Having worked on many cases on behalf of the constituents of the members of Congress for whom I worked on Capitol Hill, I can provide many examples of casework. My first two employers served on...

Anything can be considered as part of the political process if it is a process through which governmental institutions interact with the people. To understand what this means, look at Greenberg...

After seven weeks of hard work during the summer of 1787, the Constitutional Conventional was in serious jeopardy of concluding without a document that would replace the ineffective Articles of...

I think that one obvious advantage to the polling process would be that it provides a solid read to candidates or elected leaders on the pulse of the public on specific issues. Polling enables the...

The difference between a multinational-state and a nation-state is pretty basic and hinges on simple definitions of sometimes complex concepts. Let's start with the definition of "nation" for...

Although there are several variants of the phrase scattered among different authors, perhaps the best known within the context of the United States is from a speech by Wendell Phillips (1811–1888),...

Government The major similarity between monarchy and democracy is that they are both forms of government. Government is dedicated to establishing hierarchy of authority, rule of law, social order...

A voting cue is something that helps someone know how they should vote on a particular issue. It is often used with regard to members of legislatures, but can also refer to the voting behavior of...

There are reasons to support and to refute the claim that the federal system is the best way to govern the United States. There are several reasons why the federal system is a good system for the...

Wars can be beneficial in all the ways already mentioned. World War II is probably one of the few instances in which both the victors and the losers benefitted from the war -- the victors by...

Public participation is very important especially in running a democratic government and this does not stop after elections. The public is responsible for most of the actions and decisions that the...

The best answer to this is “it depends.” Some individuals are clearly made less important by the committee system. However, others are made more important than they otherwise would have been. In...

The other two answers define cross-cutting cleavages and provided American examples, so I thought I'd contribute a global case. In India, the north-south divide splits people economically. Southern...

"Fences make good neighbors," as they say. And borders and boundaries, in theory, make for good relations between nations. Clearly-established boundaries should mean that there are no territorial...

The answer to this question is going to depend almost completely on how your book defines a republic. As the link below tells us, there is no consensus among scholars ... as to exactly what a...

The importance of freedom is that it allows us to develop our morality and our consciences. If we lack freedom, we cannot truly become mature human beings. When we are forced to do things or not...

Pork barrel spending is spending that is intended for specific projects that benefit donor or constituent groups. Pork barrel spending can make legislation easier to pass because it allows for...

There are various forms of government, but political philosophers have often looked at monarchies, oligarchies, and democracies. Neither of the three governments are inherently good or bad. All of...

I just want to specify and add to the post above, because I believe one of the key element that, in the end, prevents tyranny, is an independent court system. When Federal judges are appointed,...

In answering this question, we have to be careful not to ask questions that would be more properly asked by economists or by sociologists. We have to ask questions that are mainly the concern of...

By far the largest branch of the federal government is the executive branch. Practically all federal employees work for the executive branch. The legislative branch and the judicial branch are...

This would be a very long answer, but I would say that one of the greater influences on my life has been capitalism. While I dislike many aspects of this economic system, American capitalism...

Technology has allowed the president to instantly reach hundreds of millions of people with a simple Tweet. It has also allowed the media, which operates across television, the radio, and the...

Madison answers this question most directly in Federalist No. 51, the essay where he addresses the system of checks and balances built into the Constitution. Madison tells his readers that in...

Typically, in modern American presidential administrations, the Executive Office is much more important to the President than is his (or maybe someday her) cabinet. This is because the members of...

Political geography is different from political science in that it is a much more limited area of study. Political geography, like political science, is concerned with the study of politics....

The similarities between the nations' governments are practically all surrounding how the government is run and how it was established. The nations are both democracies, established as federations...

Devolution can lead to balkanization or it can be a result of balkanization. It can also occur without balkanization. Devolution occurs when a unitary government hands increased powers to lower...

What limitations there are on a democracy depend upon what democracy is being considered. Democracy can take many forms, and so can the limitations. The democracy with which I am most familiar is...

The economic system of a country often determines how it is governed. For example, the United States moved from the mixed economy of the mid-twentieth century, in which there was both a strong...

Liberalism is predicated on the idea of democratically elected governments, individual freedom, and religious toleration. Under liberalism, every person, at least in theory, has the equal...

The most important power that Congress has must surely be the power to make laws. This is the most fundamental power in any system of government. Nothing can be more important than this power....