...the United Kingdom. The British throne and the Royal family is one of the most infamous and influential families in the world. In Iran the supreme leader and their family is equally if not more influential and infamous in their own region. While a key difference in their sphere of power is the fact that in Iran their governing body is well spelt out in a written constitution and in the United Kingdom there is no such written constitution. At the same time however the two governments are very similar in the way that they balance their power and leadership through different people and branches of government. Both governments have elected and unelected officials who hold some sort of power. While the UK has been able to balance the power amongst the elected and unelected officials, Iran has struggled to maintain such a balance which has led to and caused the country to be more susceptible to political violence. The UK is simply classified as parliamentary democracy even know they have a monarchy with a figure head who does not really hold any power. Iran, on the other hand is a mix between the traditional ways of Iranian theocracy mixed with a presidential democracy. What is most interesting between these political structures is that although they are similar in the aspect of mixed governments with a balance of power through different departments, the people of Iran lack the freedom and equality that is well represented in the United Kingdom. We will look at how each political structure...
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...Achieving global balance is critical to the success of nations. The United States and the European Union are examples of democratic entities that work on a global level through foreign policy to achieve national initiatives. This is evident through world trade systems, military involvement, common belief systems and the desire for our world to prosper socially, economically, politically and environmentally. Maintaining independent sovereign nations is achievable through collective work in the global sphere. The modern world is a complex combination of beliefs, cultures, societies and government combined to create global sources of power. Achieving balance within those multi-faceted sources of power is an ongoing struggle. While individual nations focus on their own needs, it is within the best interest of the global society to pursue goals that shape our collective world into a balanced representative entity. The global balance of power is not only defined by the pursuit of national goals, but transnational goals, as well. When one or more nationalities formally join to create a political union, this action constitutes a modern nation-state. According to Bergman and Renwick (2008), “The nation demanded personal dedication and allegiance from its citizens. Therefore, the perfect state was a nation-state, a state ruling over a territory containing all the people of a nation” (p.442). This nation-state will create a system of law and government to structure their society...
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...Republic of China’s Influence in the Americas: Potential Consequences facing the United States, Brazil &Venezuela Abstract This research seeks to examine the strategic implications facing the United States of America’s due to its benign interest in the Caribbean and Latin America (Americas) given the People’s Republic of China (China) increasing economic interest in the region. It is intended to first define the current security environment of the Americas and the relations between Brazil and Venezuela with that of the United States of America (United States) and China. Thereafter, China’s economic and domestic agenda in the Americas will be examined with hypotheses of the emerging global power potential growth success, challenges or possible collapse in her foreign policy. The likely consequences facing Brazil, Venezuela and the United States will also be examined. The assessment will be done across a continuum of China’s realized economic growth, development of hostile relations due to competition for scarce energy sources or possible collapse due to the country’s internal problems. Finally, the research seeks to encourage proactive thinking by the United States on China’s increasing political and military influence in the region and its possible underlying agenda of becoming the next global super power or hegemony. Introduction A general perception persists in the Caribbean and Latin America that the United States is disinterested in the security of...
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...Joseph S. Nye is an article emphasizing the changing role in the political view and how to take advantage in the new century in which old-fashioned political are not helpful. In the new era, leaders need to have both soft and hard power, including attractiveness, legitimacy and credibility, to be ahead in international affairs. In this article, the author defines power in international settings. In defining power, one cannot measure without knowing the background of the behavior of others. In the modern era, technology has changed the dimension of international power. The traditional authentic politics of the military and economic power have been converted into cyber-dimension based on technology. It has both positive and negative aspects, but it helps spreading nationalism. This trend marks a changing point of view of the role of traditional power. Internet communication has shaped both political dialogues and civilization conflicts. Therefore, countries have to reconsider the power of technology as the changing shift in the interaction between soft and hard power. In defining power, I accept humorously that power is just like love: easier to experience than to define or measure. Leaders may fall into the bias towards imaging power as a stable component of one-fit-all settings. Thus, they tend to apply one theory to all situations and that does not work. The case study reveals the differences between the role of America in the Vietnam War and in preventing the September 11 tragedy...
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...an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929. Besides ruining many thousands of individual investors, this precipitous decline in the value of assets greatly strained banks and other financial institutions, particularly those holding stocks in their portfolios. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency; by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed. The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force. The Great Depression began in the United States but quickly turned into a...
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...POLITICAL SCIENCE/INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 360 Western European Politics Fall, 2015 Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30-3:45 pm Mundelein 620 Lake Shore Campus Dr. Vincent Mahler Coffey 327 (773) 508-3067 E-mail: vmahler@luc.edu Office Hours: TTH: 10:00-11:15 am, M: 5:30-6:45 pm, and by appointment This course begins with an introduction to the comparative politics of developed democracies, focusing on political culture and attitudes; interest groups and political parties; political institutions; and public policy. We will then go on to discuss a (lively) overview of contemporary Western Europe by longtime reporter and commentator T. R. Reid. Next, we will explore political institutions, processes, behavior and policy in three major Western European countries, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Four times, spaced throughout the semester, I will offer brief factual comparisons of Western Europe and the United States in important areas, including public policy, the economy, education, social policy, and moral issues. If time permits, the course will conclude with a brief examination of the institutions and policies of the European Union, a regional organization linking twenty-eight European countries. In an effort to enliven our discussion, at the beginning of most classes I will introduce an unusual fact, song or comedy sketch that in some way deals with Western Europe, with a particular focus on the smaller European countries. READING ...
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...What is a Constitution? A constitution is a set of rules, written or unwritten, relating to how states are run and organised depicting the functions, powers and composition of the major institutions of government as well as their relationship between each other and the population. This means that anybody who agrees to withhold a citizenship of the country must agree to the constitution. “The Constitution is colour-blind ad neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens” -John Marshall. This quote by Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States portrays the fact that once you are a citizen, no matter what race, colour , size or background you come from, the rules of the constitution apply to you. There are two types of constitution, codified and uncodiefied. Codified being the provisions of the constitution set out in a single written document. These constitutions normally result from political upheavals and trauma, such as the Grant of Independence by Colonial Power in India in 1948. These constitutions tend to be more rigid in nature as there is a limited reliance on unwritten rules (conventions). However, uncodified constitutions are not set out in a single written document, thus they tend to be more flexible and consist of a greater amount of unwritten conventions. Constitutions must exist for a reason, therefore there are functions to them, and the five functions of a constitution are, to distribute power, to provide legitimacy to...
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...The United States of America (also called the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[6] The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion (23% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity).[3][7] Indigenous peoples descended from forebears who migrated from Asia have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact. The United...
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...Home and Abroad………………………........................................... 6 II. Neutral and Worthwhile Political Role………………………………............................................... 7 III. Uniting and Stabilizing the Nationality……………...……………….............................................. 7 B. Weaknesses…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8 I. An Obsolete and Non-democratic Institution………...……………………………………………... 8 II. Obstructing the Future Development of the Britain…….………………………………………. 8 III. Expensive……………………………………………...…………………………………………………………. 9 6. Comparison to American Head of State…………………………………………………………………… 11 7. Recommendation……………………………………………..……………………………………………………. 11 8. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 9. References……………………………………………..……………………………………………………………… 14 1. Introduction Monarchy was the primary government form for a majority of European countries before 1914 (Bogdanor, 1995). However, in modern Europe, few countries retain the monarchies. The United Kingdom, as one of the most developed countries, still maintains the position of monarch as the head of state. Today’s British monarchy, which is also called a Constitutional Monarchy, is quite different from the past ‘absolute monarchy’. “The monarchical shell remains intact, but the inner workings have been taken over by party political leaders,” says Norton (2007). In the past, the monarch...
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... page 11 Equality CHAPTER III page18 Autonomy CHAPTER IV page 26 Autochthony CHAPTER V page 37 Membership CHAPTER VI page 42 Co-operation CHAPTER VII page 48 Symbols CHAPTER VIII page 56 Members of the Commonwealth REFERENCES page 61 FOREWORD The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-four independent member states. All but two of these countries were formerly part of the British Empire. The member states co-operate within a framework of common values and goals as outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. The Commonwealth is not a political union, but an intergovernmental organization through which countries with diverse social, political and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status. Its activities are carried out through the permanent Commonwealth Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General, and biennial Meetings between Commonwealth Heads of Government. The symbol of their free association is the Head of the Commonwealth, which is a ceremonial position currently held by Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth II is also monarch, separately and independently, of sixteen Commonwealth members, which are known as the "Commonwealth...
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...A Nation is a culture group living within a territory of a political state. A group of people are a nation if: They are a permanent resident of a defined territory, they have some form of government. They have a common culture, and they declare to be and are considered by others to be Sovereign (Perry, J. A., & Perry, E. K. (2009). For instance North American Native Indian peoples which consist of many diverse nations. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is one example of this. Even though the Cherokee nation and other Native American nations live within the U.S. most have retained their own cultures apart from America and live in land areas or reservations within U.S. states. The definition of State is the abstract embodiment, or the symbol, of the political institution. The State is the formal representation of government. One example of State is Scotland. Scotland is a country and is part of the United Kingdom. A Nation-State is a state ruling over a territory containing all the people of a nation and no others. A nation-state has fixed territory, sovereignty, and common cultures. If it doesn’t have all three then it’s not a nation-state. One example of a nation-state is Iceland. Most of the inhabitants are related or are of Scandinavian decent. They have their own national culture and language that is only found in Iceland. Iceland has no cross border minorities this is because it’s not close to any other land, thus giving it fixed boarders. (Perry, J. A., &...
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...discovery of America many centuries ago, the country has continued to attract millions of immigrants from all over the world. Some of the common reasons that have led to increased numbers of immigrants into the country are things such as plentiful job opportunities, cases of overpopulations in other countries, search for religious and political asylum, and the advertisement for free land. However, some of the main reasons behind the immigrations include, but are not limited to, education, economic, social security, and cultural aspects. Using the above four reasons as the main points, this paper helps to explain why USA has remained a major attraction for immigrants from allover the world. As a matter of fact, USA offers a lot in terms of education compared to what other countries in the world are able to provide for their citizens (Rumbaut, 1994). The country is home to some of the best universities and colleges in the world, and for that reason, has continued to attract students from all parts of the world. Some of the famous institutions of higher education in the country will include universities such as California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of California, New York University, University of Michigan, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. Most of these institutions have constantly featured in the World University Rankings, thus amassing too much recognition from across the world. More importantly, these institutions have also continued...
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...Deception in Islam: A Foundation for Pragmatic Wariness in the West In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City we have seen an increase in the number of Muslims in the United States. This has created a new subculture in major metropolitan areas of the United States, many of which are closed off to the outside world and institute their own Islamic law, or Shari’a law, within their bounds, ignoring completely the common law that bounds our nation. What is our nation’s response? By and large, politicians afraid to offend any member of their potential constituency echo their cries of racism and support their right to operate outside the confines of our laws. The bottom line is that Islam seeks not to be held in equal esteem with other religions, as outlined in our Constitution, but to become the dominant religious and political force in order to implement a policy of non-tolerance towards non-Muslims and stamp out the presence of all other religions. This essay is not designed to put down Muslims, as I believe that Muslims are overall well-intentioned people. The issue at hand is the greater institution of Islam. There are key aspects of Islam which I believe make it more than practical to be wary of our Muslim counterparts, but the very foundation of all of these aspects of Islam is the exercise of the concept of Al-Taqiyya, which can be translated accurately as “dissimulation.” In this piece I will endeavor to stray from...
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...history of the United States as covered in American schools and universities typically begins with either Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage to the Americas or with the prehistory of the Native peoples, with the latter approach having become increasingly common in recent decades.[1] Indigenous peoples lived in what is now the United States for thousands of years and developed complex cultures before European colonists began to arrive, mostly from England, after 1600. The Spanish had early settlements in Florida and the Southwest, and the French along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. By the 1770s, thirteen British colonies contained two and a half million people along the Atlantic coast, east of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonies were prosperous and growing rapidly, and had developed their own autonomous political and legal systems. However, with the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Great Britain altered its relationships with the colonies by imposing tighter administrative controls and greater financial obligations on the colonists.[2] Tensions grew, eventually leading to armed conflict beginning in April 1775. On July 4, 1776, the colonies declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. With large-scale military and financial support from France and military leadership by General George Washington, the American rebels won the Revolutionary War and peace was achieved in 1783. During and after the war, the 13 states were united under a weak federal...
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...sentences for each ID, being sure to define the term, explain its context, and identify its significance. Terms in BOLD are primarily from American Society since 1900. Paul Robeson: African American singer and actor who became involved with the Civil Rights Movement. He became politically involved in response to the Spanish Civil War, Fascism, and social injustices. His advocacy of anti-imperialism, affiliation with Communism, and his criticism of the US government caused him to be blacklisted during McCarthyism. Furthermore, Native Land was labeled by the FBI as communist propaganda. Anschluss: the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938.[2] This was in contrast with the Anschluss movement (Austria and Germany united as one country) which had been attempted since as early as 1918 when the Republic of German-Austria attempted union with Germany which was forbidden by the Treaty of Saint Germain and Treaty of Versailles peace treaties. Germany became a dictatorship in 1933, when Adolf Hitler became chancellor. Hitler openly defied the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which stated that Germany was not to acquire new territory or build up its military. Hitler, originally from Austria, saw the opportunity to take over Austria as beneficial to his plan of a German Reich (empire). Appeasement: Appeasement, the policy of making concessions to the dictatorial powers in order to avoid conflict, governed Anglo-French foreign policy during the 1930s. It became...
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