modern politics essay

Debate Topics

Need to write an argumentative essay? Preparing for an upcoming debate? ProCon.org has over 100 topics complete with pro and con arguments, quotes and statistics from experts, historical information, and other pertinent research.

Abortion – Should abortion be legal?

Alternative Energy – Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels?

American Socialism – Should the U.S. become socialist?

Animal Dissection – Should K-12 students dissect animals in science classrooms?

Animal Testing – Should animals be used for scientific or commercial testing?

Artificial Intelligence – Is artificial intelligence good for society?

Banned Books – Should parents or other adults be able to ban books from schools and libraries?

Binge-Watching – Is binge-watching good for you?

Cancel Culture – Is cancel culture (or callout culture) good for society?

CBD for Pets – Is CBD good for pets?

Cell Phone Radiation – Is cell phone radiation safe?

Cheerleading – Is cheerleading a sport?

Churches & Taxes – Should churches (including mosques, synagogues, etc.) remain tax-exempt?

College Education – Is a college education worth it?

Congressional Term Limits  – Should term limits be imposed on U.S. Senators and Representatives?

Constitutional Carry of Handguns – Should permitless, “constitutional carry” of guns be legal?

Corporal Punishment – Should corporal punishment be used in K-12 schools?

Corporate Tax Rate – Should the federal corporate income tax rate be raised?

Cuba Embargo – Should the United States maintain its embargo against Cuba?

DACA & Dreamers – Are DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and the DREAM Act good for America?

Daylight Saving Time – Should the United States keep daylight saving time?

DC AND Puerto Rico Statehood – Should Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico be granted U.S. statehood?

Death Penalty – Should the death penalty be legal?

Defund the Police – Should police departments be defunded, if not abolished?

Dress Codes – Should dress codes be implemented and enforced?

Drinking Age – Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age?

Drone Strikes – Should the United States continue its use of drone strikes abroad?

Drug Use in Sports – Should performance-enhancing drugs be accepted in sports?

Election Day National Holiday – Should the election day be made a national holiday?

Electoral College – Should the United States use the electoral college in presidential elections?

Employer Vaccine Mandates – Should employers be able to mandate vaccinations?

Felon Voting – Should people who have completed felony sentences be allowed to vote?

Fighting in Hockey – Should fighting be allowed in hockey?

Filibuster – Should the U.S. Senate keep the filibuster?

Fracking – Should the United States continue fracking

Free College – Should public college be tuition-free?

Fur Clothing Bans – Should fur clothing be banned?

GMOS – Should genetically modified organisms (GMOs) be grown?

Gold Standard – Should the United States return to a gold standard?

Golf – Is golf a sport and are golfers athletes?

Gun Control – Should more gun control laws be enacted?

Historic Statue Removal – Should historic statues be taken down?

Homework – Is homework beneficial?

Illegal Immigration – Should the U.S. government provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants?

Internet – Is the internet “making us stupid?”

Kneeling during the National Anthem – Is kneeling during the national anthem an appropriate form of protest?

Mandatory National Service – Should the United States have mandatory national service?

Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) – Should medical aid in dying be legal?

Medical Marijuana – Should medical marijuana be legal?

Milk – Should humans consume dairy milk?

Minimum Wage – Should the federal minimum wage be increased?

Net Neutrality – Should the U.S. have net neutrality laws?

Obesity – Is obesity a disease?

Olympics – Are the Olympic games an overall benefit for their host countries and cities?

OTC Birth Control Pills – Should birth control pills be available over-the-counter (OTC)?

Penny – Should the penny stay in circulation?

Pit Bull Bans – Should breed-specific legislation (“pit bull bans”) be enacted?

Pokémon – Is Pokémon Go good for our society?

Police Body Cameras – Should police officers wear body cameras?

Prescription Drug Costs – Should the U.S. federal government regulate prescription drug prices?

Presidential Election, 2024 – 2024 Presidential Election Site

Private Prisons – Should prisons be privatized?

Recreational Marijuana – Should recreational marijuana be legal?

Reparations for Slavery – Should the federal government pay reparations to the descendants of slaves?

Right to Healthcare – Should all Americans have the right (be entitled) to health care?

Sanctuary Cities – Should sanctuary cities receive federal funding?

Santa Claus – Is there really a Santa Claus?

Saturday Halloween – Should Halloween be moved permanently to Saturday?

School Uniforms – Should students have to wear school uniforms?

Single-use Plastics Ban – Should single-use plastics be banned?

Social Media & Digital Addiction – Does social media spur digital addiction and other social ills?

Social Security Privatization – Should social security be privatized?

Space Colonization – Should humans colonize space?

Standardized Tests – Do standardized tests improve education in America?

Student Loan Debt – Should student loan debt be eliminated via forgiveness or bankruptcy?

TikTok Bans – Should TikTok be banned?

Uber & Lyft – Are ride-sharing companies a benefit to society?

Universal Basic Income (UBI) – Should the United States implement a universal basic income?

U.S. Supreme Court Packing – Should packing the U.S. Supreme Court ever be considered?

Vaccines for Kids – Should states be allowed to mandate vaccines for school attendance??

Vaping E-Cigarettes – Is vaping e-cigarettes safe?

Vegetarianism – Should people become vegetarian?

Video Games & Violence – Do violent video games contribute to youth violence?

Voting Age – Should the voting age be lowered to 16?

Voting Machines – Are electronic voting machines the best method for voting?

Zoos – Should zoos exist?

Archived Topics

Please note that ProCon no longer updates these debates.

ACLU – Is the ACLU good for America?

Big Three Bailout – Should the big three car manufacturers be bailed out by the U.S. government?

Born Gay – Is sexual orientation determined at birth?

Climate Change – Is human activity primarily responsible for global climate change?

College Football Playoffs – Should college football replace the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) with a playoff system?

Dakota Access Pipeline – Should the Dakota Access Pipeline be completed?

D.A.R.E. – Is the D.A.R.E. program good for America’s kids (K-12)?

Gay Marriage – Should gay marriage be legal?

Congressional Insider Trading – Should insider trading by Congress be allowed?

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – What are the solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Obamacare – Is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) good for America?

Paying College Athletes – Should colleges and universities pay college athletes?

President Bill Clinton – Was Bill Clinton a good president?

President Ronald Reagan – Was Ronald Reagan a good president?

Presidential Election, 2008 – Which candidate would make the best U.S. president?

Presidential Election, 2012 – Which candidate should be U.S. president in 2012?

Presidential Election, 2016 – The candidates and where they stand on the issues

Presidential Election, 2020 – 2020 Presidential Election Site

Prostitution – Should prostitution be legal?

School Vouchers – Should states have school voucher programs?

Tablets v. Textbooks -Should tablets replace textbooks in K-12 schools?

Teacher Tenure – Should teachers get tenure?

Under God in the Pledge – Should the words “under god” be in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance?

U.S. Drone Shot down by Iran – Was the U.S. drone shot down by Iran over international waters?

U.S.-Iraq War – Should the U.S. have attacked Iraq?

WTC Muslim Center – Is it appropriate to build a muslim community center (aka the ”ground zero mosque”) near the World Trade Center site?

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Essays About Politics: Top 5 Examples and 7 Writing Prompts

Essays about politics address delicate and intriguing matters. See our top essay examples and prompts you can incorporate into your writing.

Politics encompasses movements and ideas that aim to control and encourage progress. It attempts to run a country through relevant developments and efficient governance. Though it started in the 19th century , it’s also the root of many disputes. Because of its complexity, politics is a famous essay topic coaxing writers to be open-minded and wise. It’s also an extensive subject to tackle.

5 Best Essay Examples

1. the impact of media on teens’ views on politics by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 2. the problem of gun politics in the united states by anonymous on papersowl.com, 3. education: controversial issue in florida politics by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 4. the politics of modern day abortion in jamaica by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 5. the importance of public awareness in politics by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 1. the role of a politician, 2. why do we need political parties, 3. qualifications of a good politician, 4. the effect of having uneducated politicians , 5. social media and political campaigns, 6. politics and corruption, 7. if i were a politician….

“With the spike in internet usage and the rapid spread of thoughts and ideas, the effect on the human psyche comes into question. Applications like Instagram and Twitter have a “Like-Button” that acts as a representation for interest and has created an uproar on the need for attention amongst teens.”

The author examines the different media released online that are easily accessible to young people and how these contents receive engagement through likes and comments. The essay talks about government officials with social media accounts and how their simple posts can instantly change a teen’s view about politics. The piece also includes statistics on teens’ participation in these networking sites, the elections, and the effects of teens on politics.

“Every day 39 children and teens are shot and survive, 31 injured in an attack, 1 survives a suicide attempt and 7 shot unintentionally. Not only is the 2nd amendment giving access to guns to protect ourselves, it is giving others access to commit violent crimes that involve a firearm. Guns are not just used to have protection against harm, but it is also used to create dangerous scenarios out in the public.”

The essay delves into gun politics problems for US citizens. It mentions how bearing guns give people easy access to heinous acts such as mass shootings and suicides. The writer offers relevant statistics to demonstrate how severe the situation is, citing people who die or get injured from gun violence. At the end of the piece, the author says that they believe the 2nd amendment isn’t for protection but for crimes and violence.

“Some schools are already implementing full-time education, while others are not ready to accept students in person. Undoubtedly, this can still be dangerous for all stakeholders, but the state does not have a definite policy in this regard. Nevertheless, online education also comes with some challenges. It is difficult for teachers to maintain the required level of quality of distance learning.”

The essay focuses on Florida’s politics and how it affects the state’s educational system. Even after the pandemic’s peak, some Florida schools still struggle to implement policies that may help their schooling structure. The author also mentions that these institutions do not prioritize students’ mental health and don’t take racism seriously, which leads to high suicide rates and violence.

“Currently Jamaica maintains one of the most unique positions, with abortion being illegal officially, but still performed as part of the status quo in particular situations. The discussion around abortion in Jamaica is inherently complex, stemming from colonial influences on modern sociopolitical and religious perspectives.

The author shares their opinion about Jamaica’s political view on abortion and the protection of women. Abortion is illegal in Jamaica. However, some still do it by paying medical professionals handsomely. Abortion is a complex issue in Jamaica, as there are many things politicians need to consider before coming up with a solution. Although this topic still needs a lengthy discussion, the author believes there is a massive opportunity for change as people gradually forget the traditional beliefs about abortion.

“It’s imperative to get involved with politics so people can get educated and grasp their own opinion instead of listening to others. These aspects are vital to the understanding of how the government works and how a citizen of America will shape the country.”

The writer explains that being aware of politics is key to voting correctly during elections. Moreover, they say that involving young people in politics will help with the structure of the laws in the country. This is because understanding politics and governance yourself is better than believing others’ opinions, mainly when the country’s future depends on this framework.

Tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead. 

7 Prompts on Essays About Politics

List the duties and responsibilities of a politician running the country. Then, add your opinion on whether your country’s politicians are successfully fulfilling their duties. You can also discuss whether politicians are necessary for a country to thrive.

Political parties are groups of people sharing the same political ideas. They usually band together and support each other in hopes of earning the public’s trust. They also help shape the opinions and decision-making of the citizens on who to vote for. Use this prompt to discuss why political parties are essential in a government, give examples, and add some of their principles. You might also be interested in our guide on the best books about American politics .

Everyone can be a politician. But to be good at their job, they must have an excellent educational background and character to manage the country’s issues and its citizens. Identify and explain each qualification. You can also add events or names of politicians considered good at their jobs. 

Education is a right for everyone in most countries, and so does having educated politicians. An uneducated politician can’t successfully run a nation because they lack the knowledge to discern what’s best for different segments of the economy, etc. As a result, they tend to make wrong decisions and affect citizens’ political behavior. Discuss the risks of giving uneducated politicians government positions and add previous incidents to support your claims.

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are utilized to spread information, including political campaigns. A single post from a knowledgeable person across these three platforms can change a silent reader’s mindset about a particular political party. This prompt explains how politicians use social media in today’s political campaigning. You can also add the dangers of immediately believing viral posts online. 

Politics is also concerned with managing budgets to improve infrastructures and institutions. However, because it involves large sums of money, corruption is also rampant. Use this prompt to explain how corruption happens within the government, including the measures used to stop it. You can add statistics about the most and least corrupt countries. Then, add examples or scenarios to make your essay more interesting.

Being a politician is not easy because you’ll have to consider not only yourself and your family but the welfare of many in every decision you make. Use this prompt to share what you want to focus on if you are a politician. For example, you’ll pay more attention to education so the youth can have a better future.

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Modern Politics - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Modern politics refers to the current contemporary system of governance where political parties and leaders compete for power in democratic societies. It involves the use of social media, traditional media, and technology to reach and influence voters. Policies on climate change, immigration, healthcare, and equality are major topics in modern politics. It also involves the role of international organizations and global cooperation to address issues beyond borders. However, modern politics is often marked by rampant partisanship, polarized opinions, and a decline in civic engagement.

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• 150 Political Essay Topics

Whether it’s for a political science class, government class, or history class, you will eventually have to write a political essay. A political essay explores the various explanations for particular events that have transpired in the past and the different effects of those events on society and politics.

Political essays can be pretty challenging for students because the depth and scope of the subject matter can be quite vast. Additionally, a lack of knowledge about the workings of government and the political process can make writing a political essay quite difficult.

Fortunately, we’ve created a handy guide detailing essential components of political essay writing. Additionally, we’ve included 150 political essay topics students can use to get started.

The Basic Components of a Political Essay

Regardless of the topic’s complexity, political essays all have the same essential components – an introduction, a thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Students can create an assertive and well-crafted political essay by understanding how these components work together.

The Introduction

The introduction of a political essay should grab the reader’s attention and give them an overview of the main points covered in the essay. An excellent way to do this is by starting with a provocative statement or posing a thought-provoking question. A great example of a political essay introduction could sound something like:

“In a world where the powerful seem to always get their way, is there any hope for democracy?”

The Thesis Statement

The thesis statement is the most critical component of a political essay. It is the main argument or points that the essay will be making. Everything else in the essay should support the thesis statement. A thesis statement is probably the most challenging part of writing a political essay for many students because it can be challenging to distill the essay’s main argument into one or two sentences.

Some tips for writing a strong thesis statement include:

• Make sure that the thesis statement is arguable. In other words, it should be something that someone could reasonably disagree with.
• Be as specific as possible. A thesis statement that is too vague will make it difficult to write a strong essay.
• Keep it short and to the point. A thesis statement should be no more than one or two sentences.

Great examples of a political essay thesis statement include:

“The current state of democracy is in danger due to the rise of populist leaders who exploit the fears of the people.”

“The government should do more to combat the rising inequality in society by implementing policies that help the working class.”

The Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs of a political essay are where the essay’s main argument will be fleshed out in detail. Each body paragraph should focus on one specific point that supports the thesis statement. When writing body paragraphs, it is essential to:

• Start with a topic sentence that introduces the main point
• Support the topic sentence with evidence from credible sources.
• Connect the evidence back to the thesis statement.
• Repeat for each body paragraph.

The Conclusion

The conclusion of a political essay should sum up the main points of the essay and leave the reader with a solid and clear understanding of the argument being made. A great conclusion should:

• Restate the thesis statement in different words.
• Summarize the main points of the essay.
• Leave the reader with something to think about.

Some examples of final thoughts to end a political essay could be:

“It is clear that democracy is under threat from populist leaders. However, there is still hope as long as people remain engaged and fight for their rights.”

“The current state of democracy may be troubling, but it is nothing new. Throughout history, there have always been those who seek to undermine it. The key is to remain vigilant and to stand up for what we believe in.”

The Do’s and Don’ts of Political Essay Writing

While the tips above will help you write a solid political essay, there are also some things to avoid if you want your essay to be successful. Here are some dos and don’ts of writing a political essay:

Do research your topic inside and out.

A well-informed essay is always more persuasive than one that simply regurgitates the opinions of others. When researching, always use reliable sources and take good notes so you can easily refer back to them later.

Don’t forget to proofread and edit your work.

No matter how well-written and informative an essay is, if it is full of typos and grammatical errors, it will likely not make a good impression on the reader. Before submitting, proofread your work and fix any errors you may have missed.

Do be sure to stay objective.

A political essay is not the place for you to share your personal opinions. Instead, it should be a well-reasoned and unbiased exploration of the topic at hand.

Don’t forget to cite your sources.

If you use any information from outside sources in your essay, be sure to properly cite them according to the required citation style. Not only is failing to do so plagiarism, but it also makes your argument look weaker if you cannot back up your claims with evidence.

Do try to be concise.

A political essay is not the place to ramble on and on. Instead, get to the point and make your argument in as few words as possible. This will keep the reader engaged and prevent them from getting lost in your essay.

With the advice above, you should be well on your way to writing a successful political essay. However, if you need some additional inspiration, here are 150 more essay topics to get you started.

Political Essay Topics About History

• Compare and contrast the policies of two different presidents.
• How did the Cold War shape American foreign policy?
• What was the most significant event of the 20th century?
• How did the American Revolution change the political landscape?
• What were the causes of World War I?
• How did Napoleon Bonaparte rise to power?
• What were the significant effects of the French Revolution?
• Compare and contrast the American and French Revolutions.
• What caused the fall of the Roman Empire?
• How did Ancient Greece contribute to modern democracy?
• What were the major political parties of the 19th century?
• How did the Industrial Revolution change the political landscape?
• What were the major triggers of World War II?
• What was the Holocaust, and how did it impact politics?
• How did the Cold War end?
• What are the legacies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher?
• How has the European Union changed over time?
• What are the major political parties in power today?
• Compare and contrast the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
• How has social media changed the way we engage in politics?

Political Essay Topics About Ideologies

• What is the difference between socialism and communism?
• What is capitalism, and how has it changed over time?
• What is Marxism, and what are its significant tenets?
• What is fascism, and how did it come to power?
• How do different political parties view taxation?
• What is the role of the government in a capitalist society?
• How does socialism differ from fascism?
• What is the difference between conservatism and liberalism?
• What is the difference between nationalism and patriotism?
• How do different political parties view welfare?
• What is the role of the government in a socialist society?
• How does communism differ from socialism?
• What is the difference between democracy and dictatorship?
• What is the role of the government in a communist society?
• How do different political parties view education?
• What is the difference between environmentalism and climate change activism?
• What is the role of the government in protecting the environment?
• How do different political parties view gun control?
• What is the role of the government in ensuring public safety?
• How do different political parties view healthcare?

Political Essay Topics About International Relations

• Compare and contrast the foreign policies of two different countries.
• How has globalization changed the international political landscape?
• What are the major causes of war?
• How does terrorism impact international relations?
• What is the role of the United Nations in international politics?
• What are the significant issues facing the European Union today?
• What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and what is its role in international politics?
• What are the major issues facing NATO today?
• What is the difference between developed and developing countries?
• How do developed and developing countries view each other?
• What is the role of the International Monetary Fund in international politics?
• What are the significant issues facing the International Monetary Fund today?
• What is the World Trade Organization, and what is its role in international politics?
• What are the major issues facing the World Trade Organization today?

Political Essay Topics About Social Issues

• How has the abortion debate changed over time?
• Discuss the political influences that make someone pro-choice or pro-life?
• How has the gay rights movement changed over time?
• Has the government been effective in stymieing the rise of racism?
• What is the difference between sexism and misogyny, and is one political party more prone to it than another?
• How has the Me Too movement changed the conversation about sexual assault and harassment?
• What is the relationship between poverty and crime, and does politics have anything to do with it?
• What is the relationship between education and income inequality?
• Has the government been effective in tackling income inequality?
• How do different political parties view reproductive rights?
• How does religion influence politics?
• What is the relationship between immigration and crime?

Political Essay Topics About Economic Issues

• Should political affiliation have any bearing on economic policy?
• What is the difference between a free market and a command economy?
• How has globalization changed the world economy?
• What are the major issues facing today’s world economy, and are politics to blame?
• Should voters or Congress be responsible for economic policy?
• What is the role of the government in an economy?
• What is the difference between Keynesian economics and supply-side economics?
• What is the difference between laissez-faire capitalism and crony capitalism?
• How have politics funded the rise of inequality in the United States?
• Should the rising cost of healthcare be considered a political issue or a social issue?
• How do different political parties view deregulation?

Political Essay Topics About Politicians

• Compare and contrast the political careers of two different politicians.
• Analyze the effectiveness of a politician’s political campaigns.
• Discuss the role that charisma plays in politics.
• How much does a politician’s personal life influence their political career?
• What is the difference between a successful and unsuccessful politician?
• How do special interest groups influence politics?
• What is the difference between a lobbyist and a politician?
• What is the difference between a career politician and a term politician?
• Compare and contrast the political ideologies of two different politicians.
• Are career politicians more effective than term politicians?
• How do campaign finance laws influence politicians’ decision-making processes?

Political Essay Topics About Elections

• Should the Electoral College be reformed or abolished?
• What is the difference between primary and general elections?
• Discuss the role that voter turnout plays in elections.
• How does gerrymandering influence elections?
• How do campaign finance laws influence elections?
• What is the difference between open and closed elections?
• Should there be term limits for politicians?
• Should people be allowed to vote by mail or early voting?
• How did democratic elections come to be?
• Should voting be mandatory?
• How can we make sure that every vote is counted?
• What is the difference between a hung parliament and a coalition government?
• Should countries have more than two political parties?
• What is the difference between a first-past-the-post system and a proportional representation system?
• What is the difference between a parliamentary system and a presidential system?

Political Essay Topics About Laws and Regulations

• How does a bill become a law?
• What is the difference between a law and a regulation?
• How do regulatory agencies influence politics?
• Discuss the pros and cons of gun control laws.
• Should there be stricter penalties for hate crimes?
• Should the death penalty be abolished?
• Should there be term limits for Supreme Court justices?
• What is the difference between civil law and criminal law?
• How do interest groups influence the passage of laws?
• Should there be limits on campaign spending?
• Should corporations be allowed to donate to political campaigns?
• What is the difference between a veto and a filibuster?
• How does the process of impeachment work?
• What is the difference between judicial review and judicial activism?
• Should members of Congress be allowed to vote for pay raises?

Political Essay Topics About Foreign Policy

• Should the United States have a policy of isolationism?
• How does foreign aid influence politics?
• Should the United States intervene in other countries’ affairs?
• How does the United Nations influence politics?
• What is the difference between diplomacy and foreign policy?
• How do trade agreements influence politics?
• What is the difference between an alliance and a treaty?
• How do sanctions influence politics?
• What is the difference between a colony and an empire?
• How does decolonization influence politics?
• How do border disputes influence politics?
• What is the difference between a refugee and an immigrant?
• How does immigration policy influence politics?
• What is the difference between a country and a nation?
• How does nationalism influence politics?

Political Essay Topics About Civil Rights and Liberties

• What is the difference between civil rights and civil liberties?
• How do the Bill of Rights and the Constitution influence politics?
• Should there be limits on free speech?
• How do hate speech laws influence politics?
• Should there be limits on the right to bear arms?
• How do gun control laws influence politics?
• What is the difference between a search warrant and a warrantless search?
• How do search and seizure laws influence politics?
• How do Miranda rights influence police interrogation?
• What is the difference between probable cause and reasonable suspicion?
• How do stop and frisk laws influence politics?
• Should there be limits on police use of deadly force?
• How do racial profiling laws influence politics?
• What is the difference between affirmative action and reverse discrimination?
• Should there be limits on affirmative action?

No matter the type of essay you need to write, these 150 political essay topics should give you plenty of material to work with. Remember that you can always narrow your focus to a specific country, a specific type of government, or specific law or regulation. And if you need help writing your essay, re-read the helpful tips above to ensure you get a good grade.

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Essays on Contemporary American Politics

In contrast to most of modern American political history, partisan control of our national elective institutions has been unusually tenuous during the past several decades. This essay series argues that the ideologically sorted parties that contest elections today face strong internal pressures to overreach, by which I mean emphasizing issues and advocating positions strongly supported by the party base but which cause the marginal members of their electoral coalitions to defect. Thus, electoral losses predictably follow electoral victories. Institutional control is fleeting. The first group of essays describes the contemporary American electorate. Despite myriad claims to the contrary, the data show that the electorate is no more polarized now than it was in the later decades of the twentieth century. What has happened is that the parties have sorted so that each party is more homogeneous than in the twentieth century; liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats have largely passed from the political scene. The muddled middle is as large as ever but has no home in either party. The growth in the proportion of self-identified independents may be a reflection of the limited appeal of today’s sorted parties. The second group of essays develops the overreach argument, discusses the role of independents as the marginal members of an electoral majority, and explains how party sorting produces less split-ticket voting. Rather than most voters being more set in their partisan allegiances than a generation ago, they may simply have less reason to split their tickets when almost all Democratic candidates are liberals and all Republican candidates are conservatives. The third group of essays embeds contemporary American politics in two other contexts. First, in a comparative context, developments in the European democracies are the mirror image of those in the United States: the major European parties have depolarized or de-sorted or both, whereas their national electorates show little change. The rise of anti-immigrant parties may have some as yet not well-understood role in these developments. Second, in a historical context, the instability of American majorities today resembles that of the late nineteenth century, when similar significant social and economic changes were occurring. A final postelection essay will wrap up the series.

For More Information

Unstable Majorities

The American public is not as polarized as pundits say. In Unstable Majorities Morris P. Fiorina confronts one of the most commonly held assumptions in contemporary American politics: which is that voters are now more polarized than ever. Bringing research and historical context to his discussion of the American electorate and its voting patterns, he corrects misconceptions about polarization, voter behavior, and political parties, arguing that party sorting—not polarization—is the key to understanding our current political turbulence.

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The Department of Political Science

The dark side of politics: essays on the unpleasant realities of political life.

• Benjamin Ginsberg (author)
• Routledge Publishers , 2024
• Purchase Online

This series of scholarly chapters explores the unpleasant realities of modern politics – and American politics in particular – by examining how self- interest, war, violence, deception and institutional failure continue to characterize the political landscape.

Author Benjamin Ginsberg argues that the political world in which we like to think we live – the world of civic engagement, representative government and principled political discourse – is fleeting and fragile, resting uneasily upon the foundation of a harsh and dark reality.

Making a fundamental contribution to our understandings of politics, this book is an important read for students and scholars of American Politics and Government.

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Student voices

Get the inside view on student life at York.

Tips for writing Politics essays

15 February 2023 by Kitty

Hiya! I’m Kitty, and I study Politics with International Relations at the University of York! In my blog post, I share the methods I’ve developed to write a good Politics essay. Academic writing is very different to anything I had done before, and it took me a while to understand how to go about developing the correct skills.

Expectations vs reality

When I started university, I felt confident that I’d have no issues with writing essays, as it was something I was well practised in thanks to my A levels. When I received feedback suggesting that my approach to academic essays and writing wasn’t quite right, I felt my confidence waver and I was unsure how to adapt my skills. Through a bit of trial and error, I have developed an approach to essays which has drastically improved my confidence and skill.

Essay preparation

Throughout first year, I noticed that my skills improved as I read more academic articles. These exposed me to academic writing, and just through reading them for seminar work, I noticed that I was becoming more accustomed to the style. When I first started writing essays, I found looking back at articles an easy way to remind myself of the style and format.

I also started putting more effort into the formative assessments, as this is the main opportunity to receive feedback on your essay style. If the feedback is ever unclear or leaves me with questions, I make sure to go to the tutor’s feedback and guidance hours. I often find verbal discussions more useful than written feedback, so I try to make a note of any important information. This way, I am able to remind myself of what was said while I’m writing the essay.

Do some wider reading

When I plan an essay, I like to start by reading some of the key resources on the topic to ensure that I have a good understanding of the central debates. I usually look through the reading list on the VLE, as this tends to have the most relevant resources. As I’m reading these, I will make a note of the resources they reference, as this is another quick way to find the relevant texts. While reading, I make notes of any nuggets of information or quotes that I think could be useful to include in my essay. I always try to note the page numbers as I go, to save myself from having to search through again later.

Give your essay some structure

Once I feel that I have read enough resources to give me a good overview of the topic, I think of how I want to structure my essay, using the existing literature to develop my own argument. I start by creating a rough structure of the essay using bullet points and brief notes of what will be said where. I then start to expand the bullet points by adding in references to resources and my own opinion. Slowly the bullet points transform into sentences, paragraphs, sections, and eventually an essay.

Often, I find that I need to adapt the essay as I write, and I always try to leave enough time to have a few days break from it. This allows me to re-read the essay with fresh eyes. Having some distance from my work helps me identify any errors in the writing or overall structure, and gives me time to make any changes I see necessary. I also try to get a friend or family member to read over the essay to ensure it’s understandable to someone who’s not as close to the topic. This is important, as sometimes I phrase something in a way which I think is digestible, but actually isn’t very clear.

I have developed this approach to essays through a lot of trial and error, but find that a methodical and steady style works best for me.

Best of luck in your future essays!

Read more student experiences of studying Politics at York.

About Kitty

I’m Kitty, and I study Politics with International Relations at the University of York! I’m in my final year, and have found the course incredibly engaging and enjoyable!

Reader Interactions

16 August 2023 at 2.00 pm

this is really helpful thank you 🙂

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Introduction to modern political thought

Related Papers

Aaron Harper

John McMahon

This course is a survey of modern political theory (approximately the 16 th-19 th centuries), examining the revolutionary challenges to classical and medieval political philosophy posed by such writers as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke, and Marx. Our work seeks to address themes and questions such as: what is modern about modern political theory? What is human nature? What is power and how is it deployed? What are the possibilities and limits of social contract theory? What are the nature and scope of rights, duties, freedom, and equality? What is the relation between the state and the individual? What are rights and do they authorize political resistance? What are the core modern political values and how do modern political theorists grapple with their implementation? Does modernity signify an age of progress in terms of knowledge about the world and freedom for human beings? Or do modern technological, political and social developments actually constitute a new kind of prison? How do modern political thinkers conceptualize or fail to conceptualize race and gender? In what ways can modern political thought animate thinking about contemporary politics? Simultaneously, we seek to critically engage with these classic texts about politics, political subjects, and political life in two ways. First, we will question what " modern " or " modernity " means historically and theoretically; in doing so, we will interrogate practices and theories of exclusion and violence that seek to grant only some subjects and collectivities access to the presumed progress of " modernity. " Second, and in a related vein, we will analyze these texts for the discourses of race and gender they produce, both explicitly and tacitly. We pursue these objectives by examining contemporary readings of this time period and of the theorists upon whom we will focus. This is a writing-intensive course. This class will primarily be a discussion format, with the occasional lecture. Therefore regular attendance, careful preparation, and active participation are essential. You must prepare for every class by doing the reading, reflecting upon the course texts, and bringing to class issues, questions, and passages for discussion. Bring the relevant text to class, always!

Derek Denman

Cody Campbell

Course Description The political theory canon is often divided into three eras, each separated by deep ideological and political crises. The Modern period, which we will be studying this semester, stretches from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century, and sets itself off from what came before in that the Aristotelian Scholasticism of the Middle Ages, among other things, could no longer withstand the scientific, political, and economic changes sweeping through Europe. The moderns were, in this context, striving to build political institutions and construct worldviews that corresponded to their own times. The contemporary period, beginning roughly at the turn of the twentieth century, also experienced an array of ideological and political crises that likewise cannot be explained or resolved by the theoretical apparatuses of the modern period. We, too, only a century into this new era, are grappling with how best to construct our world. Over the course of the semester, we will gain a working knowledge of modern political theory and its debates by interrogating the ways in which theorists attempted to grapple with a series of crises, both ideological and political. In doing so, we will ask how past theories failed to address the severity or novelty of these crises, as well as how these crises prompted innovative ways of imagining a new future, one unencumbered by the past.

Course Content This course examines the development of theoretical inquiry into politics through the works of major political thinkers and philosophers throughout the modern period. By focusing on the classical texts of prominent intellectual figures, it grapples with the perennial issues of political theory such as the origin of political community, political authority, obligation, justice, legitimacy, freedom, and equality. Course Requirements The final grade will be based on the following components: 40% midterm exam 40% final exam 20% class participation, including attendance and contribution to discussion.

I. COURSE DETAILS: Course Description: The Second World War brought about nothing short of an intellectual crisis. The occurrence of mass genocide and the use of atomic weapons threw almost everything into question. How could modern, educated, 'civilized' societies commit such atrocities? And more importantly: Could it happen again? This is not a course on political ideologies, but rather, a course on the various theoretical approaches to the problem of ideology-a problem that continues to shape the world we live in. A general consensus emerged in the postwar period that the unchecked proliferation of imperial, authoritarian, and fascist ideologies was responsible for plunging the world into violence. From this perspective, peaceful societies are those which successfully constrain the influence of ideologues and ideologies that designate some group of human beings as unworthy of subordinate. Whereas the driving problems of pre-20th century modern political theory centred on how regimes of democracy, rights, and individual freedom could be justified, these new contemporary approaches to political theory were concerned with how liberal democratic regimes collapsed into, or perhaps even facilitated, their antithesis. Still, many abandoned altogether what they felt to be an intractable study of value judgements, choosing to develop a more scientific value-free approach to issues of governance. In light of this shift to positivism in politics, a famous historian of political thought declared that normative political philosophy was dead. But the assessment was inaccurate. Many political theorists took up the challenge of examining the conditions under which citizens became susceptible to the power of harmful ideologies (ie, authoritarianism, colonialism, and empire), in order to determine how societies can be alerted to their promulgation and how political life can be insulated against their influence. Some declared victory in the postwar reformation of liberal theory; some pressed for greater democratic inclusion; some embraced ideology as inevitable; while others cast a suspicious eye on both the relativists and the positivists. In this course, we will become familiar with the great declarations and debates that shape the contemporary political landscape.

Adam Etinson

Robert W. Glover

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Home — Essay Samples — Philosophy — Machiavelli — How Political Ideas In Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince Relate The Modern Politics

How Political Ideas in Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince Relate The Modern Politics

• Categories: Machiavelli The Prince

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Published: Nov 22, 2018

Words: 1068 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

Modern Political Ideas in Machiavelli’s The Prince

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A Brief History of the Political Essay

From swift to woolf, david bromwich considers an evolving genre.

The political essay has never been a clearly defined genre. David Hume may have legitimated it in 1758 when he classified under a collective rubric his own Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary. “Political,” however, should have come last in order, since Hume took a speculative and detached view of politics, and seems to have been incapable of feeling passion for a political cause. We commonly associate political thought with full-scale treatises by philosophers of a different sort, whose understanding of politics was central to their account of human nature. Hobbes’s Leviathan , Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws , Rousseau’s Social Contract , Mill’s Representative Government , and, closer to our time, Rawls’s Theory of Justice , all satisfy that expectation. What, then, is a political essay? By the late 18th century, the periodical writings of Steele, Swift, Goldsmith, and Johnson had broadened the scope of the English essay for serious purposes. The field of politics, as much as culture, appeared to their successors well suited to arguments on society and government.

A public act of praise, dissent, or original description may take on permanent value when it implicates concerns beyond the present moment. Where the issue is momentous, the commitment stirred by passion, and the writing strong enough, an essay may sink deep roots in the language of politics. An essay is an attempt , as the word implies—a trial of sense and persuasion, which any citizen may hazard in a society where people are free to speak their minds. A more restrictive idea of political argument—one that would confer special legitimacy on an elite caste of managers, consultants, and symbolic analysts—presumes an environment in which state papers justify decisions arrived at from a region above politics. By contrast, the absence of formal constraints or a settled audience for the essay means that the daily experience of the writer counts as evidence. A season of crisis tempts people to think politically; in the process, they sometimes discover reasons to back their convictions.

The experience of civic freedom and its discontents may lead the essayist to think beyond politics. In 1940, Virginia Woolf recalled the sound of German bombers circling overhead the night before; the insect-like irritant, with its promise of aggression, frightened her into thought: “It is a queer experience, lying in the dark and listening to the zoom of a hornet which may at any moment sting you to death.” The ugly noise, for Woolf, signaled the prerogative of the fighting half of the species: Englishwomen “must lie weaponless tonight.” Yet Englishmen would be called upon to destroy the menace; and she was not sorry for their help. The mood of the writer is poised between gratitude and a bewildered frustration. Woolf ’s essay, “Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid,” declines to exhibit the patriotic sentiment by which most reporters in her position would have felt drawn. At the same time, its personal emphasis keeps the author honest through the awareness of her own dependency.

Begin with an incident— I could have been killed last night —and you may end with speculations on human nature. Start with a national policy that you deplore, and it may take you back to the question, “Who are my neighbors?” In 1846, Henry David Thoreau was arrested for having refused to pay a poll tax; he made a lesson of his resistance two years later, when he saw the greed and dishonesty of the Mexican War: “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” But to Thoreau’s surprise, the window of the prison had opened onto the life of the town he lived in, with its everyday errands and duties, its compromises and arrangements, and for him that glimpse was a revelation:

They were the voices of old burghers that I heard in the streets. I was an involuntary spectator and auditor of whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent village inn,—a wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a closer view of my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I had never seen its institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions; for it is a shire town. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were about.

Slavery, at that time, was nicknamed “the peculiar institution,” and by calling the prison itself a peculiar institution, and maybe having in mind the adjacent inn as well, Thoreau prods his reader to think about the constraints that are a tacit condition of social life.

The risk of political writing may lure the citizen to write—a fact Hazlitt seems to acknowledge in his essay “On the Regal Character,” where his second sentence wonders if the essay will expose him to prosecution: “In writing a criticism, we hope we shall not be accused of intending a libel.” (His friend Leigh Hunt had recently served two years in prison for “seditious libel” of the Prince Regent—having characterized him as a dandy notorious for his ostentation and obesity.) The writer’s consciousness of provocative intent may indeed be inseparable from the wish to persuade; though the tone of commitment will vary with the zeal and composition of the audience, whether that means a political party, a movement, a vanguard of the enlightened, or “the people” at large.

Edmund Burke, for example, writes to the sheriffs of Bristol (and through them to the city’s electors) in order to warn against the suspension of habeas corpus by the British war ministry in 1777. The sudden introduction of the repressive act, he tells the electors, has imperiled their liberty even if they are for the moment individually exempt. In response to the charge that the Americans fighting for independence are an unrepresentative minority, he warns: “ General rebellions and revolts of an whole people never were encouraged , now or at any time. They are always provoked. ” So too, Mahatma Gandhi addresses his movement of resistance against British rule, as well as others who can be attracted to the cause, when he explains why nonviolent protest requires courage of a higher degree than the warrior’s: “Non-violence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment.” In both cases, the writer treats the immediate injustice as an occasion for broader strictures on the nature of justice. There are certain duties that governors owe to the governed, and duties hardly less compulsory that the people owe to themselves.

Apparently diverse topics connect the essays in Writing Politics ; but, taken loosely to illustrate a historical continuity, they show the changing face of oppression and violence, and the invention of new paths for improving justice. Arbitrary power is the enemy throughout—power that, by the nature of its asserted scope and authority, makes itself the judge of its own cause. King George III, whose reign spanned sixty years beginning in 1760, from the first was thought to have overextended monarchical power and prerogative, and by doing so to have reversed an understanding of parliamentary sovereignty that was tacitly recognized by his predecessors. Writing against the king, “Junius” (the pen name of Philip Francis) traced the monarch’s errors to a poor education; and he gave an edge of deliberate effrontery to the attack on arbitrary power by addressing the king as you. “It is the misfortune of your life, and originally the cause of every reproach and distress, which has attended your government, that you should never have been acquainted with the language of truth, until you heard it in the complaints of your people.”

A similar frankness, without the ad hominem spur, can be felt in Burke’s attack on the monarchical distrust of liberty at home as well as abroad: “If any ask me what a free Government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so; and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.” Writing in the same key from America, Thomas Paine, in his seventh number of The Crisis , gave a new description to the British attempt to preserve the unity of the empire by force of arms. He called it a war of conquest; and by addressing his warning directly “to the people of England,” he reminded the king’s subjects that war is always a social evil, for it sponsors a violence that does not terminate in itself. War enlarges every opportunity of vainglory—a malady familiar to monarchies.

The coming of democracy marks a turning point in modern discussions of sovereignty and the necessary protections of liberty. Confronted by the American annexation of parts of Mexico, in 1846–48, Thoreau saw to his disgust that a war of conquest could also be a popular war, the will of the people directed to the oppression of persons. It follows that the state apparatus built by democracy is at best an equivocal ally of individual rights. Yet as Emerson would recognize in his lecture “The Fugitive Slave Law,” and Frederick Douglass would confirm in “The Mission of the War,” the massed power of the state is likewise the only vehicle powerful enough to destroy a system of oppression as inveterate as American slavery had become by the 1850s.

Acceptance of political evil—a moral inertia that can corrupt the ablest of lawmakers—goes easily with the comforts of a society at peace where many are satisfied. “Here was the question,” writes Emerson: “Are you for man and for the good of man; or are you for the hurt and harm of man? It was question whether man shall be treated as leather? whether the Negroes shall be as the Indians were in Spanish America, a piece of money?” Emerson wondered at the apostasy of Daniel Webster, How came he there? The answer was that Webster had deluded himself by projecting a possible right from serial compromise with wrong.

Two ways lie open to correct the popular will without a relapse into docile assent and the rule of oligarchy. You may widen the terms of discourse and action by enlarging the community of participants. Alternatively, you may strengthen the opportunities of dissent through acts of exemplary protest—protest in speech, in action, or both. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. remain the commanding instances in this regard. Both led movements that demanded of every adherent that the protest serve as an express image of the society it means to bring about. Nonviolent resistance accordingly involves a public disclosure of the work of conscience—a demonstrated willingness to make oneself an exemplary warrior without war. Because they were practical reformers, Gandhi and King, within the societies they sought to reform, were engaged in what Michael Oakeshott calls “the pursuit of intimations.” They did not start from a model of the good society generated from outside. They built on existing practices of toleration, friendship, neighborly care, and respect for the dignity of strangers.

Nonviolent resistance, as a tactic of persuasion, aims to arouse an audience of the uncommitted by its show of discipline and civic responsibility. Well, but why not simply resist? Why show respect for the laws of a government you mean to change radically? Nonviolence, for Gandhi and King, was never merely a tactic, and there were moral as well as rhetorical reasons for their ethic of communal self-respect and self-command. Gandhi looked on the British empire as a commonwealth that had proved its ability to reform. King spoke with the authority of a native American, claiming the rights due to all Americans, and he evoked the ideals his countrymen often said they wished to live by. The stories the nation loved to tell of itself took pride in emancipation much more than pride in conquest and domination. “So,” wrote King from the Birmingham City Jail, “I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court because it is morally right, and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances because they are morally wrong.”

A subtler enemy of liberty than outright prejudice and violent oppression is the psychological push toward conformity. This internalized docility inhabits and may be said to dictate the costume of manners in a democracy. Because the rule of mass opinion serves as a practical substitute for the absolute authority that is no longer available, it exerts an enormous and hidden pressure. This dangerous “omnipotence of the majority,” as Tocqueville called it, knows no power greater than itself; it resembles an absolute monarch in possessing neither the equipment nor the motive to render a judgment against itself. Toleration thus becomes a political value that requires as vigilant a defense as liberty. Minorities are marked not only by race, religion, and habits of association, but also by opinion.

“It is easy to see,” writes Walter Bagehot in “The Metaphysical Basis of Toleration,” “that very many believers would persecute sceptics” if they were given the means, “and that very many sceptics would persecute believers.” Bagehot has in mind religious belief, in particular, but the same intolerance operates when it is a question of penalizing a word, a gesture, a wrongly sympathetic or unsympathetic show of feeling by which a fellow citizen might claim to be offended. The more divided the society, the more it will crave implicit assurances of unity; the more unified it is, the more it wants an even greater show of unity—an unmistakable signal of membership and belonging that can be read as proof of collective solidarity. The “guilty fear of criticism,” Mary McCarthy remarked of the domestic fear of Communism in the 1950s, “the sense of being surrounded by an unappreciative world,” brought to American life a regimen of tests, codes, and loyalty oaths that were calculated to confirm rather than subdue the anxiety.

Proscribed and persecuted groups naturally seek a fortified community of their own, which should be proof against insult; and by 1870 or so, the sure method of creating such a community was to found a new nation. George Eliot took this remedy to be prudent and inevitable, in her sympathetic early account of the Zionist quest for a Jewish state, yet her unsparing portrait of English anti-Semitism seems to recognize the nation-remedy as a carrier of the same exclusion it hopes to abolish. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to a widened sense of community is the apparently intuitive—but in fact regularly inculcated—intellectual habit by which we divide people into racial, religious, and ethnic identities. The idea of an international confederation for peace was tried twice, without success, in the 20th century, with the League of Nations and the United Nations; but some such goal, first formulated in the political writings of Kant, has found memorable popular expression again and again.

W. E. B. Du Bois’s essay “Of the Ruling of Men” affords a prospect of international liberty that seems to the author simply the next necessary advance of common sense in the cause of humanity. Du Bois noticed in 1920 how late the expansion of rights had arrived at the rights of women. Always, the last hiding places of arbitrary power are the trusted arenas of privilege a society has come to accept as customary, and to which it has accorded the spurious honor of supposing it part of the natural order: men over women; the strong nations over the weak; corporate heads over employees. The pattern had come under scrutiny already in Harriet Taylor Mill’s “Enfranchisement of Women,” and its application to the hierarchies of ownership and labor would be affirmed in William Morris’s lecture “Useful Work Versus Useless Toil.” The commercial and manufacturing class, wrote Morris, “ force the genuine workers to provide for them”; no better (only more recondite in their procedures) are “the parasites” whose function is to defend the cause of property, “sometimes, as in the case of lawyers, undisguisedly so.” The socialists Morris and Du Bois regard the ultimate aim of a democratic world as the replacement of useless by useful work. With that change must also come the invention of a shared experience of leisure that is neither wasteful nor thoughtless.

A necessary bulwark of personal freedom is property, and in the commercial democracies for the past three centuries a usual means of agreement for the defense of property has been the contract. In challenging the sacredness of contract, in certain cases of conflict with a common good, T. H. Green moved the idea of “freedom of contract” from the domain of nature to that of social arrangements that are settled by convention and therefore subject to revision. The freedom of contract must be susceptible of modification when it fails to meet a standard of public well-being. The right of a factory owner, for example, to employ child labor if the child agrees, should not be protected. “No contract,” Green argues, “is valid in which human persons, willingly or unwillingly, are dealt with as commodities”; for when we speak of freedom, “we mean a positive power or capacity of doing or enjoying something worth doing or enjoying.” And again:

When we measure the progress of a society by its growth in freedom, we measure it by the increasing development and exercise on the whole of those powers of contributing to social good with which we believe the members of the society to be endowed; in short, by the greater power on the part of the citizens as a body to make the most and best of themselves.

Legislation in the public interest may still be consistent with the principles of free society when it parts from a leading maxim of contractual individualism.

The very idea of a social contract has usually been taken to imply an obligation to die for the state. Though Hobbes and Locke offered reservations on this point, the classical theorists agree that the state yields the prospect of “commodious living” without which human life would be unsocial and greatly impoverished; and there are times when the state can survive only through the sacrifice of citizens. May there also be a duty of self-sacrifice against a state whose whole direction and momentum has bent it toward injustice? Hannah Arendt, in “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship,” asked that question regarding the conduct of state officials as well as ordinary people under the encroaching tyranny of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Citizens then, Arendt observes, had live options of political conduct besides passive obedience and open revolt. Conscientious opposition could show itself in public indications of nonsupport . This is a fact that the pervasiveness of conformism and careerism in mass societies makes harder to see than it should be.

Jonathan Swift, a writer as temperamentally diverse from Arendt as possible, shows in “A Modest Proposal” how the human creature goes about rationalizing any act or any policy, however atrocious. Our propensity to make-normal, to approve whatever renders life more orderly, can lead by the lightest of expedient steps to a plan for marketing the babies of the Irish poor as flesh suitable for eating. It is, after all—so Swift’s fictional narrator argues—a plausible design to alleviate poverty and distress among a large sector of the population, and to eliminate the filth and crowding that disgusts persons of a more elevated sort. The justification is purely utilitarian, and the proposer cites the most disinterested of motives: he has no financial or personal stake in the design. Civility has often been praised as a necessity of political argument, but Swift’s proposal is at once civil and, in itself, atrocious.

An absorbing concern of Arendt’s, as of several of the other essay writers gathered here, was the difficulty of thinking. We measure, we compute, we calculate, we weigh advantages and disadvantages—that much is only sensible, only logical—but we give reasons that are often blind to our motives, we rationalize and we normalize in order to justify ourselves. It is supremely difficult to use the equipment we learn from parents and teachers, which instructs us how to deal fairly with persons, and apply it to the relationship between persons and society, and between the manners of society and the laws of a nation. The 21st century has saddled persons of all nations with a catastrophic possibility, the destruction of a planetary environment for organized human life; and in facing the predicament directly, and formulating answers to the question it poses, the political thinkers of the past may help us chiefly by intimations. The idea of a good or tolerable society now encompasses relations between people at the widest imaginable distance apart. It must also cover a new relation of stewardship between humankind and nature.

Having made the present selection with the abovementioned topics in view—the republican defense against arbitrary power; the progress of liberty; the coming of mass-suffrage democracy and its peculiar dangers; justifications for political dissent and disobedience; war, as chosen for the purpose of domination or as necessary to destroy a greater evil; the responsibilities of the citizen; the political meaning of work and the conditions of work—an anthology of writings all in English seemed warranted by the subject matter. For in the past three centuries, these issues have been discussed most searchingly by political critics and theorists in Britain and the United States.

The span covers the Glorious Revolution and its achievement of parliamentary sovereignty; the American Revolution, and the civil war that has rightly been called the second American revolution; the expansion of the franchise under the two great reform bills in England and the 15th amendment to the US constitution; the two world wars and the Holocaust; and the mass movements of nonviolent resistance that brought national independence to India and broadened the terms of citizenship of black Americans. The sequence gives adequate evidence of thinkers engaged in a single conversation. Many of these authors were reading the essayists who came before them; and in many cases (Burke and Paine, Lincoln and Douglass, Churchill and Orwell), they were reading each other.

Writing Politics contains no example of the half-political, half-commercial genre of “leadership” writing. Certain other principles that guided the editor will be obvious at a glance, but may as well be stated. Only complete essays are included, no extracts. This has meant excluding great writers—Hobbes, Locke, Wollstonecraft, and John Stuart Mill, among others—whose definitive political writing came in the shape of full-length books. There are likewise no chapters of books; no party manifestos or statements of creed; nothing that was first published posthumously. All of these essays were written at the time noted, were meant for an audience of the time, and were published with an eye to their immediate effect. This is so even in cases (as with Morris and Du Bois) where the author had in view the reformation of a whole way of thinking. Some lectures have been included—the printed lecture was an indispensable medium for political ideas in the 19th century—but there are no party speeches delivered by an official to advance a cause of the moment.

Two exceptions to the principles may prove the rule. Abraham Lincoln’s letter to James C. Conkling was a public letter, written to defend the Emancipation Proclamation, in which, a few months earlier, President Lincoln had declared the freedom of all slaves in the rebelling states; he now extended the order to cover black soldiers who fought for the Union: “If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive—even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept.” Lincoln was risking his presidency when he published this extraordinary appeal and admonition, and his view was shared by Frederick Douglass in “The Mission of the War”: “No war but an Abolition war, no peace but an Abolition peace.” The other exception is “The Roots of Honour,” John Ruskin’s attack on the mercenary morality of 19th-century capitalism . He called the chapter “Essay I” in Unto This Last , and his nomenclature seemed a fair excuse for reprinting an ineradicable prophecy.

__________________________________

From Writing Politics , edited by David Bromwich. Copyright © 2020 by David Bromwich; courtesy of NYRB Classics.

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Essay on Politics for Students and Children

500+ words essay on politics.

When we hear the term politics, we usually think of the government, politicians and political parties. For a country to have an organized government and work as per specific guidelines, we require a certain organization. This is where politics comes in, as it essentially forms the government. Every country, group and organization use politics to instrument various ways to organize their events, prospects and more.

Politics does not limit to those in power in the government. It is also about the ones who are in the run to achieve the same power. The candidates of the opposition party question the party on power during political debates . They intend to inform people and make them aware of their agenda and what the present government is doing. All this is done with the help of politics only.

Dirty Politics

Dirty politics refers to the kind of politics in which moves are made for the personal interest of a person or party. It ignores the overall development of a nation and hurts the essence of the country. If we look at it closely, there are various constituents of dirty politics.

The ministers of various political parties, in order to defame the opposition, spread fake news and give provocative speeches against them. This hampers with the harmony of the country and also degrades the essence of politics . They pass sexist remarks and instill hate in the hearts of people to watch their party win with a majority of seats.

Read 500 Words Essay on Corruption Here

Furthermore, the majority of politicians are corrupt. They abuse their power to advance their personal interests rather than that of the country. We see the news flooded with articles like ministers and their families involving in scams and illegal practices. The power they have makes them feel invincible which is why they get away with any crime.

Before coming into power, the government makes numerous promises to the public. They influence and manipulate them into thinking all their promises will be fulfilled. However, as soon as they gain power, they turn their back on the public. They work for their selfish motives and keep fooling people in every election. Out of all this, only the common suffers at the hands of lying and corrupt politicians.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Lack of Educated Ministers

If we look at the scenario of Indian elections, any random person with enough power and money can contest the elections. They just need to be a citizen of the country and be at least 25 years old. There are a few clauses too which are very easy.

The strangest thing is that contesting for elections does not require any minimum education qualification. Thus, we see how so many uneducated and non-deserving candidates get into power and then misuse it endlessly. A country with uneducated ministers cannot develop or even be on the right path.

We need educated ministers badly in the government. They are the ones who can make the country progress as they will handle things better than the illiterate ones. The candidates must be well-qualified in order to take on a big responsibility as running an entire nation. In short, we need to save our country from corrupt and uneducated politicians who are no less than parasites eating away the development growth of the country and its resources. All of us must unite to break the wheel and work for the prosperous future of our country.

FAQs on Politics

Q.1 Why is the political system corrupt?

A.1 Political system is corrupt because the ministers in power exercise their authority to get away with all their crimes. They bribe everyone into working for their selfish motives making the whole system corrupt.

Q.2 Why does India need educated ministers?

A.2 India does not have a minimum educational qualification requirement for ministers. This is why the uneducated lot is corrupting the system and pushing the country to doom. We need educated ministers so they can help the country develop with their progressive thinking.

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Machiavelli: Father of Modern Politics Analytical Essay

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Introduction

Politics and ethics, reference list.

The contemporary political world owes a lot of its stature to defining and perception of Nicolo Machiavelli in his works, and The Prince gives a particularly vindictive view with respect to the societal norms and ethics. This view, therefore, evoked (and still does draw) criticisms, giving the author a distasteful appeal to the realists who are more inclined to morality and ethical practices in leadership and governance (Baron 1988, 78).

During his time, the society placed ethics and morality above everything, and politics were not an exception. For anything to be recognized and accepted as a means of achieving leadership and thus governance, it had to be in keeping to what was widely accepted as being morally upright and acceptable. Machiavelli’s approach was different in that it separated the two (Baron 1988, 35).

His separation of politics from ethics not only embodied his ideas to what is practiced today, but also set his approach on a path that, even though challenged by realists, gets sufficient support from philosophies widely experienced in the world. According to his views, power and the authority that comes with it is the ultimate drive behind politics.

This power centers around one person. The lengths that individuals have to go in their quest to achieve it or for those that already have it to retain it do not necessarily have to conform to set ethical statutes, unless such a move would result in achieving or retaining power (Hooker 2010, 13).

Contemporary politics are centered on power. In fact, it is viewed as ‘the tool’ to achieving it. Politicians go out of their way in their pursuit of power.

They are ready to do whatever it takes to wrest it from their opponents, irrespective of the murk they would have to endure, or the effects of whatever approach applied. This is a complete contrast to what was realistically viewed and accepted as the norm- power inheritance (Mansfield 1995, 67).

He eludes fortune to a lady that is the subject of attention to draw a line between what was and what should be- Ideally, the lady was courted and pleaded with before accepting a hand in marriage. For Machiavelli, the ideal prince went against morals –he got what he wanted forcefully (Hooker 2010, 35).

By this, he sought to express the principle behind politics being independent or indifferent to virtues and societal norms in pursuant of power. He goes ahead and recognizes popes Alexander VI and Julius II who retained power through warfare success, despite the society’s negative views about them.

The prince, therefore, is portrayed as a villain by ignoring the-seek- (and beg) until- you- find an approach to woo Lady Fortune and instead takes her by force as noted by Hooker (2010, 45). This makes him one of the greatest men to ever live.

Harsh as his ideas may have been, Machiavelli is without a doubt the father of modern politics, since his ideologies form the stem of politics as we know it today. The Prince represents the power seekers of the day, who go beyond societal norms, to claim it. As long as they achieve what they desire, the end justifies the means. According to Mansfield (1995, 12), he was a go-getter in all his undertakings and never shied away from his goals.

Baron, Houghton.1988. In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism . Oxford: Wiley.

Hooker, Richard. 2010. The Renaissance Reader: The Prince .Web.

Mansfield, Hitoler. 1995. Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress: History and the Idea of Progress. Cornell: Cornell University Press.

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Guest Essay

I’m a College President and I Hope My Campus Is Even More Political This Year

By Michael S. Roth

Mr. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University.

Last year was a tough one on college campuses, so over the summer a lot of people asked me if I was hoping things would be less political this fall. Actually, I’m hoping they will be more political.

That’s not to say that I yearn for entrenched conflict or to once again hear chants telling me that I “can’t hide from genocide,” much less anything that might devolve into antisemitic or Islamophobic harassment or violence. But since at least the 1800s, colleges and universities in the United States have sought to help students develop character traits that would make them better citizens. That civic mission is only more relevant today. The last thing any university president should want is an apolitical campus.

College students have long played an important, even heroic role in American politics. Having defended the voting franchise during the civil rights movement and helped to end the Vietnam War, they have continued to work for change across a range of social issues. If you went to college in the past 50 years, there’s a good chance the mission statement of your school included language that emphasized the institution’s contribution to society. Like many others, my university’s founding documents speak of contributing to the good of the individual and the good of the world. Higher-education institutions have never been neutral .

The issue that matters most to many activists right now is the war in Gaza, and protesters will undoubtedly continue to make their voices heard. Last spring at Wesleyan, students built an encampment of up to about 100 tents to protest the war and to call for the university to divest from companies thought to be supporting it. Since the protest was nonviolent and the students in the encampment were careful not to disrupt normal university operations, we allowed it to continue because their right to nonviolent protest was more important than their modest violations of the rules.

I walked through the protest area daily, as did many faculty members, students and staff members. I also met with pro-Israel students, mostly Jewish, some of whom felt beleaguered by what their classmates were saying. I made clear that if any of them felt harassed, I would intervene. I also said that I could ensure their ability to pursue their education, but that I could not protect them from being offended.

I disagreed with the protesters ’ tactics and some of their aims — and I was often the target of their anger — but I respected their strong desire to bear witness to the tragedy unfolding in Gaza. Before commencement, we reached an agreement with the students that they would clear the encampment and in turn be able to make their case to the board of trustees. They will do so this fall, as will pro-Israel students. I trust the experience will be a valuable lesson in how to communicate with people who may not share your views.

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Call for Applications: The 2024 Essay Competition on the topic “Digitalization of Armed Conflicts”

• Republic of Moldova
• Learning and teaching IHL
• New technologies and warfare
• Cyber and information operations

The International Committee of the Red Cross in the Republic of Moldova (ICRC) is proud to announce an essay competition on the theme Digitalization of Armed Conflicts . The competition seeks to spotlight that, applied in the spirit in which they were designed to protect and function, the Geneva Conventions can rise to the modern challenges of today’s armed conflicts.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, a moment of recommitment towards IHL. The Geneva Conventions were adopted in 1949 and are now universally ratified. They represent a universal acknowledgement that war needs rules to limit its devastating impact. In an often-divided world, when parties respect the law, lives are saved, humanitarian actors are enabled to provide aid to affected populations and the principle of humanity is upheld. 

At the same time, new challenges such as cyber warfare have become reality in contemporary armed conflicts. We, therefore, encourage students to approach the topic from various perspectives, such as: What are the ethical challenges of using cyber operations in warfare? How can technology be used responsibly in armed conflicts so as to ensure civilian safety? How can the global community work together to reduce the risks of cyber warfare? How does international humanitarian law protect humanitarian workers from cyber warfare? How can media reporting on military cyber operations help raise awareness about civilian risks during armed conflicts? These are examples, and participants are welcome to choose one of these questions or explore other related topics in their essays.

In today’s world, that is increasingly polarized and where international commitments are being challenged, the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law embody universal humanitarian values that preserve lives and dignity. What the world needs more than ever is a more robust adherence to the Geneva Conventions. This is where the students of today - the future generations of professionals - step in. We at the ICRC support the students in exploring, engaging and debating with the ethical and humanitarian issues arising from armed conflict so that they are able to play their role of re-affirming the enduring relevance of IHL, the deep-rooted respect for human dignity, both in peacetime and in the midst of armed conflict. Doris El Doueihy, Head of Delegation, ICRC, Chisinau

To participate, students must submit their essays along with a copy of their identification and proof of enrollment in a university programme (undergraduate or masters). These documents must be received by the ICRC Chisinau Delegation no later than 31 October 2024 at 23:59 . Submissions can be sent by email to [email protected] or by mail to Bulgara Str. 23, MD-2001, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. Participation in the competition is individual, collective work is not accepted. Essays can be written in Romanian, Russian or English. Winners will be informed in the last week of November 2024 and invited for an awards ceremony scheduled for early December.

The winning entries will be selected by a panel of IHL experts chosen by the ICRC. Participants will be assessed on their logical arguments, the depth to which they develop their answers, structure and demonstrated knowledge of the subject matter. 

The winners will be notified by the end of November 2024 and invited to an awards ceremony. 

The 1 st prize essay:  an internship at the ICRC in Chisinau ;

The 2 nd prize essay:  a day spent at the ICRC in Chisinau and attendance of an ICRC event on IHL ;

The 3 rd prize essay:  ICRC IHL publications

Certificates of participation will be provided for all submissions that are not disqualified.  

Useful links to sources on the topic of the competition:

ICRC Report,  Protecting Civilians Against Digital Threats During Armed Conflict , September 2023

Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog,  Foghorns of War: IHL and Information Operations During Armed Conflict , Tilman Rodenhauser and Samit D’Cunha, October 2023

Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog,  What We Don’t Understand About Digital Risks in Armed Conflict and What to Do About it , Rizk and Cordey, July 2023

ICRC Position Paper,  International Humanitarian Law and Cyber Operations during Armed Conflict , November 2019

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New developments in renewable energy are making headlines and inspiring hope in communities worldwide, from a remote Arctic village working to harness solar and wind power under challenging conditions to a U.S. Air Force base planning an advanced, utility-scale geothermal power system.

As much of the world grapples with mitigating the effects of climate change and global warming, innovation and advancements in renewable energy have emerged as a bright spot. Solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, geothermal energy and biomass energy generation is better for the planet than the burning of fossil fuels including oil, natural gas and coal.

But for all of the advantages of renewable energy, its development and use has disadvantages, too. Let’s take a look at both.

The advantages of renewable energy power sources are wide-ranging, and some are more obvious than others.

Inexhaustible supply

One of the main benefits of renewable energy sources like the sun, wind and water is that they will never run out. In contrast, non-renewable resources are not only finite, but cost more as their availability declines and require more extreme extraction methods with greater environmental impacts.

Carbon-free energy generation

The goal of the clean energy transition is decarbonization . Carbon dioxide emissions reached 11.2 gigatonnes (Gt) in 2022 from oil alone, whereas renewable energy generation emits little to no carbon emissions to power homes, cars and businesses.

A cleaner, healthier environment

The burning of fossil fuels, like coal, releases airborne pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, while the mining of these resources can result in water pollution and damage animal habitats. Using renewable energy in place of fossil fuels can reduce these pollutants and help mitigate risks to human health and natural environments.

Energy independence

Renewable energy provides for stronger energy security by opening up new opportunities for domestic energy production, thereby reducing reliance on foreign-sourced energy supply. For example, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European countries have sought to reduce their imports of Russian oil and gas. In 2023, domestic renewable energy production in Europe rose to account for a record 44% of the EU’s electricity mix while imports from Russia declined, helping build a more stable, resilient power grid.

Less maintenance

For certain types of renewable energy sources, the maintenance and maintenance costs of their infrastructure are minimal. Solar photovoltaic systems, for example, generally don’t have moving parts and can last 25 years or more with little maintenance. Hydroelectric power plants typically have low operating costs and require little maintenance as well, with long-lasting equipment that can remain in operation for decades.

Affordable energy

When it comes to costs, renewable energy sources once compared unfavorably to fossil fuels. But as fossil fuel prices rise renewable energy has emerged as an affordable alternative energy option. An estimated 96% of new utility-scale solar and wind power projects had lower generation costs than new coal and natural gas plants. As more renewable energy resources are integrated into power grids, businesses are also implementing energy management programs to optimize energy usage and reduce overall energy costs.

Job creation

While both clean energy and fossil fuel industries have seen job growth in recent years, growth has been markedly faster in the former. As a result, clean energy roles now account for more than half of the 67 million jobs in the global energy sector. Such growth is fueling demand for additional workers and retraining for existing fossil fuel workers to transition to the renewable energy industry.

For all the celebrated benefits of renewable energy, the sector has some downsides as well. Understanding the disadvantages of renewable energy can help organizations better plan its deployment. Here are some of the cons of renewable energy projects today:

High upfront costs

Shifting to renewable energy technologies saves money in the long run but component costs and initial costs for set-up can be expensive. For example, small businesses can expect to pay USD 100,000 or more for commercial solar installations, depending on their energy needs. However, legislation for incentives, tax credits and various rebates can help offset these costs.

Location and landmass requirements

Most renewable energy power generation is location dependent—solar farms require unobstructed sunlight, hydropower requires water movement, wind farms require open spaces and traditional geothermal power requires proximity to sources of hot water. In many cases, renewable energy systems require a lot of space—more than traditional power stations. Research conducted by the ICF Climate Center found that large-scale renewable energy installations require 10 times more land than coal- and natural gas-fired power plants.

Production volatility

Renewable electricity generation is vulnerable to weather conditions: solar power is susceptible to cloudy days, hydropower to droughts and wind power to calm days. As such, guaranteeing the amount of energy produced at any given time is a challenge. To help companies adapt to this volatility, solutions like the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite use sensors, geospatial data , advanced analytics, machine learning , artificial intelligence (AI) and weather data to generate day-ahead wind and solar forecasts .

Storage requirements

Due to the intermittent nature of renewable power, batteries are required to collect energy during peak production periods for distribution in a controlled, consistent manner during periods of low- to non-production. Energy storage systems to support utility-scale applications are costly but technology is being developed to support more affordable long-term storage.

Supply chain limitations

Supply chain hurdles are hindering the installation of renewable energy projects. According to a report by McKinsey, project developers face three main challenges : access to raw materials and rare earth metals amid a projected shortage; access to the talent and machinery necessary; and little supplier diversification for critical components. For example, in the case of polysilicon, a material used in solar panels, 79% of global capacity is concentrated in China, making the solar PV industry vulnerable to disruptions in that country.

Carbon footprint and waste

Although solar and wind power emit no harmful emissions during power generation, the manufacturing, installation and transportation of renewable energy equipment does often produce greenhouse gas emissions . Additionally, waste products are created during asset production process and disposal, with wind turbine blades and solar panels taking up space in landfills.

Businesses in the renewable energy industry or interested in sourcing renewable power can proactively monitor renewable energy trends with the right tools. The IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite uses historical energy generation data, weather data and more to generate high-accuracy energy forecasts for wind and solar assets to inform key decision-making at the enterprise level.

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