From the Paper
"This paper will discuss the philosophic foundations of Machiavelli's view of politics. Niccolo Machiavelli lived in Florence, Italy, during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. As such, he lived during the Renaissance period, a time when the Western world was undergoing a shift from the unquestioned power of the church toward a more secular or humanistic orientation. Machiavelli became a spokesman for this new trend as it affected politics, with the publication in 1513 of his book entitled The Prince. In The Prince, Machiavelli developed a political philosophy which was solely concerned with power. For him, success in politics meant only one thing: "The acquisition and preservation of political power". In this way, Machiavelli rejected the traditional morality of the church in favor of a secular approach which was considered controversial ... "

From the Paper
"This research examines the role of the European Court of Justice in the political integration of the member states of the European Communities. The Court of Justice is a body of the European Communities. There are several sub-communities of the European Communities, of which the most widely known is the European Economic Community.

Integration in Europe
Within the context of international regional integration, there are five levels--(a) free-trade area, (b) customs union, (c) common market, (d) economic union, and (e) political union (Grosse & Kujawa, 1988). Each successive level involves a greater degree of integration. At the lowest level of integration, the free-trade area, tariffs are eliminated on the ... "

From the Paper
""Perhaps no question is as central to political discourse as that of political leadership. For if there is an 'irreducible fact' of politics, it is that in any political society some shall be the rulers and some the ruled" (Dahl, 1968, p. 251). If that fact of consensus exists, it is perhaps the only one that accurately describes what a leader is. Political leadership is a difficult and somewhat nebulous term to define; some define it as a power relation, others a form of influence or persuasion, still others as the effect of individual personalities on the political system as a whole. Political leadership is also associated with both formal and informal organizational systems, organized or unorganized, and in groups of every size and dimension (Kellerman (ed.), 1986, p. xiii).

In looking at such issues surrounding political leadership as the ..."

From the Paper
"Under the rubric of the governmental system of the United States of America, political and social constraints are, in theory, supposed to exist between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the government. In practice, it is often the case that one branch or another is more powerful. This may be caused by a variety of reasons, and the perception from the public is that special interest groups, the media, and other extraneous factors combine in a variety of ways to influence political decisions. There is a relatively vague area in which influence peddling becomes lobbying. Lobbying is rather restrictive, yet it is often difficult to substantially prove that lobbying has occurred, and the various social engagements in which political activities are discussed are one of the most difficult areas of governmental life to police (Cowan, 1989)."

From the Paper
"The international political economy of the Middle East is complex and derives both from historical factors and economic and political actions of recent origin. The tensions in the Middle East date back centuries, but they have been exacerbated by such actions in recent times as the creation of the state of Israel, Israeli actions with regard to the Palestinians, the discovery and development of oil in the Arab countries, and shifts in the world geo-political situation, with the results of the most recent shifts on the latter macro-level still in the process of working themselves out on the world stage. The Middle East holds a place of particular strategic importance, and the tensions existing there impinge on relations between nations outside the region. These tensions have been of particular concern at various times because of perceived ... "

From the Paper
"Income distribution refers to the proportional share of economic benefits received by the different segments comprising an economy. The definition of segments tends to shift, based on the perspective of the examination, and the composition of segments overlap as the perspective changes. Economists often distinguish between the owners of capital and labor in considerations of income distribution, while social activists are more apt to be concerned with the distribution of income between the wealthy and the poor (Nasar, 1986), white and nonwhite, and male and female, and tax planners are interested in income distribution according to population-income ... "

From the Paper
"The death penalty has become a topic of serious controversy in recent years. In particular, debate has been made over whether or not the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for severe crimes such as murder. Although the topic has been the subject of recent debate, it is interesting to note that the basic opinions on both sides of the argument date back to ancient times. The two philosophical theories which support the death penalty are known as the "retribution theory" and the "utilitarian theory." The retribution theory is based on the idea that criminals deserve to be punished in a manner which reflects the severity of their crimes. According to this viewpoint, a person who commits murder deserves to have his or her own life taken in return. The utilitarian view, on the other hand, is based on the idea that punishment should be used as a means for ... "

From the Paper
"This study will compare and contrast the views of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson on the social contract, including consideration of how the contract should be established, what kinds of freedom are guaranteed, and what the obligations of the members of the contract should be.


There are many substantial similarities in theme, content and intention in Rousseau's "The Origin of Civil Society" and Jefferson's "The Declaration of Independence." Before we note those, however, it would help to place the two works in context in order to see that there are differences between them.


In the first place, Rousseau's work is theoretical, whereas Jefferson's is practical and directly aimed at a specific set of circumstances. Certainly Rousseau was writing to influence the people and leaders of France in the middle of the 18th century..."

From the Paper
"An Analysis of the Underclass Theory and Possible Solutions

Nothing directly explains why poverty has been surprisingly persistent in a nation such as the United States. Despite considerable efforts to reduce it, the incidence of poverty in 1986 is as high as it had been in the late 1960s and higher than the rate in most other industrial countries.1

Unfortunately the persistence of poverty has taken its toll on particular groups that the public at large feels ambivalent about: unwed mothers, drug users, gang members, and the like. Wilson and those that support his theory have identified a new "underclass" in America--in part fostered by the perception of the poor being concentrated in inner-city areas where crime, teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency are common.2 Ironically,..."

From the Paper
"This study will consider the nature of Plato's political philosophy as expressed in The Republic. The study will argue, essentially, that Plato is not a democrat, that he is not in favor of widespread freedoms (speech, belief or vocation), and that he is fundamentally a nonegalitarian, not trusting the people enough to be strongly in favor of equality (political, socioeconomic, or of opportunity).

Plato is far more concerned with order and organization and a smooth-running and economically efficient society than with democracy. However, the Greeks to whom he expounded his views had come to be accustomed to a measure of democratic practice, so he had to sell what he really believed in a package which the people would believe contained something other than that which it truly contained."

From the Paper
"Abstract

The news media has critics both within the profession and external to it regarding the ways in which they view politicians and their attendant political processes and the ways in which they attack these government officials and their decision and policy formulation. While parental teaching and the news media are both influential in formulating attitudes about politicians and politics, the latter proves more relevant than the former given that it provides the bulk of politically-oriented information to children through adults. There are differing conceptions of privacy when considering individual citizens and politicians, with the former being assured more privacy than the latter. As a remedy to this disparity, information about the private lives of politicians that may prove irrelevant to the ..."

From the Paper
"Bill Clinton beat incumbent George Bush for the biggest prize in American politics: the presidency of the United States. He accomplished this goal - an achievement that seemed impossible to consider, according to the conventional wisdom of political analysts only 18 months earlier - by the simple strategy of winning more votes than his opponent.


Conservative analysts will say that George Bush, sitting president of the United States, lost the 1992 election more than Bill Clinton, sitting governor of Arkansas and Democratic Party challenger, won it.. This would be doing Bush a disservice: facing Clinton - and third-party challenger Ross Perot - the incumbent president was forced to bear the burden of responsibility for 12 years of Republican Party control of the White House. Clinton and Perot ran against those 12 years, not..."

From the Paper
" NEGATIVE BELIEFS ABOUT WOMEN IN THE MILITARY
American attitudes on the role of women in the military have evolved dramatically in a relatively short period of time. Only fifty years ago there were no servicewomen other than nurses. By 1980 we had President Carter seeking authority to register women for possible future draft and when the United States deployed its awesome military forces to the Persian Gulf --- more than 35,000 were women.

Historically war and soldiering have been an all-male preserve.. The armies of Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, Wellington and Washington were all male. A generation ago this fact-of-life would have gone unchallenged. Men were warriors and hunters. Women maintained the hearth and bore the children. Men were aggressive and women passive. There.."

From the Paper
"The purpose of this research is to examine Barrington Moore's Social origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World with a view toward showing the extent to which different material conditions in England and France influenced the character of class alliances that formed in each country and eventually contributed to the emergence of industrial democracy in both. The plan of the research will be to set Moore's approach to comparative analysis in appropriate context, and then to show, by reference to Moore's examination of the French and English cases, how different structures of social-class alliance in each country led eventually to roughly the same result in social structure.

To understand the importance of different material conditions in England and France as central to the manner of.."

From the Paper
"The mass media in America have an influence over nearly every aspect of American life, and there is no reason to believe that the development and implementation of American foreign policy should be any different. Bennett (1994) sees the media as intruding into the frame of world events and cites a number of instances in which the presence of the media has shaped the way foreign policy has been conducted. Dramatic examples are derived from military operations such as the Gulf War, Grenada, and Panama. Bennett also cites the vivid images on American television of the Tiananmen Square incidents in China in 1989 and the fact that 1992 images of starvation in Somalia forced the mobilization of an international humanitarian intervention by the U.S. military. Bennett looks at the Gulf War as showing how well the government can use the media to shape policy and to sell foreign policy. Bennett concludes.."