Reference no: EM132190949
Essay Questions
Please choose one essay topic to write a 1,500 words essay. It should not be on the same topic of your mid-term exam. You need to use at least THREE academic sources and it should include the discussion of relevant examples. You should use the Harvard, Chicago or footnoting reference systems (no APA).
Don't forget to include references to page numbers. Do not use Wikipedia, the class slides, dictionaries, or other unreliable sources in your essay.
The library is well stocked with books on any of these topics and there is also an electronic library where you can access academic journal. Please answer the question directly.
1. ‘Power is dispersed across society'. Comment this sentence considering debates between pluralist thinkers, Neo-Marxists, Elite Theorists and Neo-Pluralists.
2. In what ways is power exercised and manifest?
3. Which factors led scholars to conclude that ideologies do not matter anymore?
4. What is an ideology?
5. Does it still make sense to talk about left and right?
6. Compare and contrast classical liberalism and social liberalism.
7. ‘Individualism is the core concept of liberalism'. Discuss this statement.
8. Compare and contrast democratic socialism and social democracy.
9. Was the Third Way social-democratic?
10. Why is social democracy in crisis?
11. Examine the points of agreement and disagreement between socialists and liberals.
12. ‘Any attempt to justify government on rational grounds will only lead to unsolvable arguments about the expediency and legitimacy of any government'. Comment on this quote by Conservative philosopher Joseph de Maistre.
13. Which factors explain the gradualism in the practice of socialist ideology?
14. Why are Conservatives so resistant to change?
15. Is nationalism an ideology?
16. Is conservatism an ideology?
17. Which value is more important for socialists: Equality or Fraternity? Why?
18. Is fascism a totalitarian ideology?
19. Is fascism a form of nationalism?
20. American conservatism differs in many ways from traditional conservatism. Explain those differences.
21. ‘The personal is the political'. Explain this feminist axiom.
22. Compare and contrast liberal feminism with radical feminism.
23. Critically assess Marx's theory of historical evolution.
24. Explain the differences between ‘environmentalism' and ‘ecologism' in Green ideologies.
25. To what extent, if any, have Green ideologies been successful at influencing contemporary politics?
26. To what extent was the Soviet experience a faithful application of Marxist theories?
27. What is the moral basis of an anarchist society?
28. Is anarchism a synonym of disorder?
29. In what ways, if any, is socialism (following the Second International) different from Marxism Communism?
30. Which factors explain the rise of populism in Europe and the United States?
31. Is populism a threat to democracy?
32. Is populism an ideology?