Political Science Essay Example

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Get Inspired with these Amazing Political Science Essay Examples

Published on: May 8, 2023

Last updated on: Jan 30, 2024

political science essay example

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Many students struggle to write effective political science essays that meet the expectations of their professors. They may have difficulty organizing their thoughts, conducting research, or making persuasive arguments.

One way to improve your political science essay writing skills is to study examples of successful essays in this field. 

By analyzing the structure, and content of these essays, you can learn valuable lessons that will help you write better essays.

In this blog, we provide examples of high-quality political science essays in different different areas of the field. 

Whether you're a beginner or an advanced student, you'll find valuable insights to help you succeed in your coursework.

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What is a Political Science Essay? Understanding the Basics

A political science essay explores a particular topic or issue within the field of political science. It typically requires students to conduct research, analyze data, and make persuasive arguments based on their findings.

These essays can take many different forms, depending on the specific requirements of the assignment. They can be comparative essays that examine the similarities and differences between two or more political systems.

They can also be theoretical essays that explore different political theories that analyze real-world political phenomena.

Regardless of its specific type, all such essays should adhere to certain basic principles. They should have a clear thesis statement, use evidence to support their arguments, and be written in clear and concise language.

Political Science Essay Examples

Now that we have a basic understanding of these essays, let's take a closer look at some of its examples.

By analyzing these essays, you can gain valuable insights into how to write political essays.

Political Science Paper Example

Political Science Research Paper Example

Political Science Analysis Paper Example

Political Science Term Paper Examples

Political Science Essay Example for Different Fields

Political science is a diverse and dynamic field that encompasses a wide range of topics and perspectives. 

To gain a comprehensive understanding, it's important to study the examples that explore different areas of research and inquiry.

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The examples given below will help you understand the richness and complexity of political science research.

Political Essay About Poverty

Political Science

The Impact Of Social Movements On National Security

Characteristics Of Political Science

American Political Science

The Political Reform of Japan

The United States and Terrorism

The Role of Political Parties and Political Figures in Shaping Political Landscapes

Kosovo protests 2022

Rishi sunak's political career

Political Essay on Politics and Political Decisions

Tips To Write A Write A Compelling Political Science Essay 

To write an effective essay, it is important to approach the topic with care and attention to detail. Consider the following tips for writing a political essay that stands out:

  • Define your Topic: Be clear about the focus of your essay and ensure that it is relevant and interesting to your readers.
  • Conduct Thorough Research: Gather information from credible sources, including academic journals, government reports, and news outlets, to ensure that your arguments are well-supported.
  • Develop A Clear Thesis Statement: Your thesis should be concise and clearly state your argument or position on the topic.
  • Organize Your Essay Effectively: Use clear and logical structure to ensure that your arguments are presented in a coherent and convincing manner.
  • Use Evidence To Support Your Arguments: Incorporate relevant data and examples to support your arguments, and ensure that they are credible and well-sourced.
  • Consider Opposing Viewpoints: Acknowledge and address counterarguments to your position to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the topic.
  • Write Clearly And Concisely : Use simple and direct language to convey your ideas, and avoid unnecessary jargon or technical terms.

Pitfalls To Avoid While Writing A Political Science Essay

To write a strong political essay, it is important to not only follow best practices, but also avoid common pitfalls. 

By keeping these pitfalls in mind, you can create a thoughtful and thorough essay that engages your readers.

  • Oversimplification

Political science is a complex field that deals with multifaceted political issues. Avoid oversimplifying the topic or argument in your essay, and make sure to provide a nuanced and in-depth analysis.

These essays should be objective and free from personal biases. Avoid using emotionally charged language or cherry-picking evidence to support a preconceived conclusion.

  • Using Vague Language

Political essays should be precise and clear in their language. Avoid using vague terms or generalizations, and strive to use concrete and specific language.

  • Ignoring Counterarguments

To write a convincing political science essay, it is important to consider and address counterarguments. Avoid ignoring opposing viewpoints, and make sure to provide a thorough analysis of alternative perspectives.

In conclusion, writing political science essays is a great way to explore important political issues. It can also help you in learning about how power and governance work. 

By looking at examples, and writing tips, you can write a strong essay that contributes to the field. 

Whether you're a student, a policy analyst, or just interested in politics, political essays help you understand how decisions get made.

If you need help writing your essay, CollegeEssay.org has an AI essay generator that can assist you. 

Our political science essay writing service can help you write a well-organized essay that meets your needs.

So what are you waiting for? Reach out to us and request ' write me an essay ' to get started!

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The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Political Science

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you to recognize and to follow writing standards in political science. The first step toward accomplishing this goal is to develop a basic understanding of political science and the kind of work political scientists do.

Defining politics and political science

Political scientist Harold Laswell said it best: at its most basic level, politics is the struggle of “who gets what, when, how.” This struggle may be as modest as competing interest groups fighting over control of a small municipal budget or as overwhelming as a military stand-off between international superpowers. Political scientists study such struggles, both small and large, in an effort to develop general principles or theories about the way the world of politics works. Think about the title of your course or re-read the course description in your syllabus. You’ll find that your course covers a particular sector of the large world of “politics” and brings with it a set of topics, issues, and approaches to information that may be helpful to consider as you begin a writing assignment. The diverse structure of political science reflects the diverse kinds of problems the discipline attempts to analyze and explain. In fact, political science includes at least eight major sub-fields:

  • American politics examines political behavior and institutions in the United States.
  • Comparative politics analyzes and compares political systems within and across different geographic regions.
  • International relations investigates relations among nation states and the activities of international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and NATO, as well as international actors such as terrorists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multi-national corporations (MNCs).
  • Political theory analyzes fundamental political concepts such as power and democracy and foundational questions, like “How should the individual and the state relate?”
  • Political methodology deals with the ways that political scientists ask and investigate questions.
  • Public policy examines the process by which governments make public decisions.
  • Public administration studies the ways that government policies are implemented.
  • Public law focuses on the role of law and courts in the political process.

What is scientific about political science?

Investigating relationships.

Although political scientists are prone to debate and disagreement, the majority view the discipline as a genuine science. As a result, political scientists generally strive to emulate the objectivity as well as the conceptual and methodological rigor typically associated with the so-called “hard” sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics). They see themselves as engaged in revealing the relationships underlying political events and conditions. Based on these revelations, they attempt to state general principles about the way the world of politics works. Given these aims, it is important for political scientists’ writing to be conceptually precise, free from bias, and well-substantiated by empirical evidence. Knowing that political scientists value objectivity may help you in making decisions about how to write your paper and what to put in it.

Political theory is an important exception to this empirical approach. You can learn more about writing for political theory classes in the section “Writing in Political Theory” below.

Building theories

Since theory-building serves as the cornerstone of the discipline, it may be useful to see how it works. You may be wrestling with theories or proposing your own as you write your paper. Consider how political scientists have arrived at the theories you are reading and discussing in your course. Most political scientists adhere to a simple model of scientific inquiry when building theories. The key to building precise and persuasive theories is to develop and test hypotheses. Hypotheses are statements that researchers construct for the purpose of testing whether or not a certain relationship exists between two phenomena. To see how political scientists use hypotheses, and to imagine how you might use a hypothesis to develop a thesis for your paper, consider the following example. Suppose that we want to know whether presidential elections are affected by economic conditions. We could formulate this question into the following hypothesis:

“When the national unemployment rate is greater than 7 percent at the time of the election, presidential incumbents are not reelected.”

Collecting data

In the research model designed to test this hypothesis, the dependent variable (the phenomenon that is affected by other variables) would be the reelection of incumbent presidents; the independent variable (the phenomenon that may have some effect on the dependent variable) would be the national unemployment rate. You could test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables by collecting data on unemployment rates and the reelection of incumbent presidents and comparing the two sets of information. If you found that in every instance that the national unemployment rate was greater than 7 percent at the time of a presidential election the incumbent lost, you would have significant support for our hypothesis.

However, research in political science seldom yields immediately conclusive results. In this case, for example, although in most recent presidential elections our hypothesis holds true, President Franklin Roosevelt was reelected in 1936 despite the fact that the national unemployment rate was 17%. To explain this important exception and to make certain that other factors besides high unemployment rates were not primarily responsible for the defeat of incumbent presidents in other election years, you would need to do further research. So you can see how political scientists use the scientific method to build ever more precise and persuasive theories and how you might begin to think about the topics that interest you as you write your paper.

Clear, consistent, objective writing

Since political scientists construct and assess theories in accordance with the principles of the scientific method, writing in the field conveys the rigor, objectivity, and logical consistency that characterize this method. Thus political scientists avoid the use of impressionistic or metaphorical language, or language which appeals primarily to our senses, emotions, or moral beliefs. In other words, rather than persuade you with the elegance of their prose or the moral virtue of their beliefs, political scientists persuade through their command of the facts and their ability to relate those facts to theories that can withstand the test of empirical investigation. In writing of this sort, clarity and concision are at a premium. To achieve such clarity and concision, political scientists precisely define any terms or concepts that are important to the arguments that they make. This precision often requires that they “operationalize” key terms or concepts. “Operationalizing” simply means that important—but possibly vague or abstract—concepts like “justice” are defined in ways that allow them to be measured or tested through scientific investigation.

Fortunately, you will generally not be expected to devise or operationalize key concepts entirely on your own. In most cases, your professor or the authors of assigned readings will already have defined and/or operationalized concepts that are important to your research. And in the event that someone hasn’t already come up with precisely the definition you need, other political scientists will in all likelihood have written enough on the topic that you’re investigating to give you some clear guidance on how to proceed. For this reason, it is always a good idea to explore what research has already been done on your topic before you begin to construct your own argument. See our handout on making an academic argument .

Example of an operationalized term

To give you an example of the kind of rigor and objectivity political scientists aim for in their writing, let’s examine how someone might operationalize a term. Reading through this example should clarify the level of analysis and precision that you will be expected to employ in your writing. Here’s how you might define key concepts in a way that allows us to measure them.

We are all familiar with the term “democracy.” If you were asked to define this term, you might make a statement like the following:

“Democracy is government by the people.”

You would, of course, be correct—democracy is government by the people. But, in order to evaluate whether or not a particular government is fully democratic or is more or less democratic when compared with other governments, we would need to have more precise criteria with which to measure or assess democracy. For example, here are some criteria that political scientists have suggested are indicators of democracy:

  • Freedom to form and join organizations
  • Freedom of expression
  • Right to vote
  • Eligibility for public office
  • Right of political leaders to compete for support
  • Right of political leaders to compete for votes
  • Alternative sources of information
  • Free and fair elections
  • Institutions for making government policies depend on votes and other expressions of preference

If we adopt these nine criteria, we now have a definition that will allow us to measure democracy empirically. Thus, if you want to determine whether Brazil is more democratic than Sweden, you can evaluate each country in terms of the degree to which it fulfills the above criteria.

What counts as good writing in political science?

While rigor, clarity, and concision will be valued in any piece of writing in political science, knowing the kind of writing task you’ve been assigned will help you to write a good paper. Two of the most common kinds of writing assignments in political science are the research paper and the theory paper.

Writing political science research papers

Your instructors use research paper assignments as a means of assessing your ability to understand a complex problem in the field, to develop a perspective on this problem, and to make a persuasive argument in favor of your perspective. In order for you to successfully meet this challenge, your research paper should include the following components:

  • An introduction
  • A problem statement
  • A discussion of methodology
  • A literature review
  • A description and evaluation of your research findings
  • A summary of your findings

Here’s a brief description of each component.

In the introduction of your research paper, you need to give the reader some basic background information on your topic that suggests why the question you are investigating is interesting and important. You will also need to provide the reader with a statement of the research problem you are attempting to address and a basic outline of your paper as a whole. The problem statement presents not only the general research problem you will address but also the hypotheses that you will consider. In the methodology section, you will explain to the reader the research methods you used to investigate your research topic and to test the hypotheses that you have formulated. For example, did you conduct interviews, use statistical analysis, rely upon previous research studies, or some combination of all of these methodological approaches?

Before you can develop each of the above components of your research paper, you will need to conduct a literature review. A literature review involves reading and analyzing what other researchers have written on your topic before going on to do research of your own. There are some very pragmatic reasons for doing this work. First, as insightful as your ideas may be, someone else may have had similar ideas and have already done research to test them. By reading what they have written on your topic, you can ensure that you don’t repeat, but rather learn from, work that has already been done. Second, to demonstrate the soundness of your hypotheses and methodology, you will need to indicate how you have borrowed from and/or improved upon the ideas of others.

By referring to what other researchers have found on your topic, you will have established a frame of reference that enables the reader to understand the full significance of your research results. Thus, once you have conducted your literature review, you will be in a position to present your research findings. In presenting these findings, you will need to refer back to your original hypotheses and explain the manner and degree to which your results fit with what you anticipated you would find. If you see strong support for your argument or perhaps some unexpected results that your original hypotheses cannot account for, this section is the place to convey such important information to your reader. This is also the place to suggest further lines of research that will help refine, clarify inconsistencies with, or provide additional support for your hypotheses. Finally, in the summary section of your paper, reiterate the significance of your research and your research findings and speculate upon the path that future research efforts should take.

Writing in political theory

Political theory differs from other subfields in political science in that it deals primarily with historical and normative, rather than empirical, analysis. In other words, political theorists are less concerned with the scientific measurement of political phenomena than with understanding how important political ideas develop over time. And they are less concerned with evaluating how things are than in debating how they should be. A return to our democracy example will make these distinctions clearer and give you some clues about how to write well in political theory.

Earlier, we talked about how to define democracy empirically so that it can be measured and tested in accordance with scientific principles. Political theorists also define democracy, but they use a different standard of measurement. Their definitions of democracy reflect their interest in political ideals—for example, liberty, equality, and citizenship—rather than scientific measurement. So, when writing about democracy from the perspective of a political theorist, you may be asked to make an argument about the proper way to define citizenship in a democratic society. Should citizens of a democratic society be expected to engage in decision-making and administration of government, or should they be satisfied with casting votes every couple of years?

In order to substantiate your position on such questions, you will need to pay special attention to two interrelated components of your writing: (1) the logical consistency of your ideas and (2) the manner in which you use the arguments of other theorists to support your own. First, you need to make sure that your conclusion and all points leading up to it follow from your original premises or assumptions. If, for example, you argue that democracy is a system of government through which citizens develop their full capacities as human beings, then your notion of citizenship will somehow need to support this broad definition of democracy. A narrow view of citizenship based exclusively or primarily on voting probably will not do. Whatever you argue, however, you will need to be sure to demonstrate in your analysis that you have considered the arguments of other theorists who have written about these issues. In some cases, their arguments will provide support for your own; in others, they will raise criticisms and concerns that you will need to address if you are going to make a convincing case for your point of view.

Drafting your paper

If you have used material from outside sources in your paper, be sure to cite them appropriately in your paper. In political science, writers most often use the APA or Turabian (a version of the Chicago Manual of Style) style guides when formatting references. Check with your instructor if they have not specified a citation style in the assignment. For more information on constructing citations, see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.

Although all assignments are different, the preceding outlines provide a clear and simple guide that should help you in writing papers in any sub-field of political science. If you find that you need more assistance than this short guide provides, refer to the list of additional resources below or make an appointment to see a tutor at the Writing Center.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Becker, Howard S. 2007. Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article , 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Cuba, Lee. 2002. A Short Guide to Writing About Social Science , 4th ed. New York: Longman.

Lasswell, Harold Dwight. 1936. Politics: Who Gets What, When, How . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Scott, Gregory M., and Stephen M. Garrison. 1998. The Political Science Student Writer’s Manual , 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Turabian, Kate. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, Dissertations , 9th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Category: political science essay examples.

See our collection of political science essay examples. These example essays are to help you understanding how to write a political science essay . Political science is not merely an academic discipline, and political scientists do not just study the anatomy of politics. Political science is renewed with every political administration and with every major political event and with every political leader. Influential political leaders construct their own -isms (Fidelism/Castroism, Maoism, Gandhism, Reaganism, and so on) so that the political philosophies and ideologies that undergird the discipline have to be reinvented constantly. Also, see our list of political science essay topics to find the one that interests you.

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Department of Political Science

political science essay example

Senior Essays in Political Science

Introduction, summer research, the advising process, the one-term senior essays in conjunction with a seminar, the independent, one-term senior essay course (plsc 480), length and format of one-term senior essays, year-long senior essays, the intensive senior essay, the qualities of a good senior essay, an important note research on human subjects, submitting the essay, penalties for late submission, senior essay grades and grade submission.

  • Senior Essay Prizes  

One of the requirements of the Political Science major is the senior essay. The senior essay is an opportunity to go more deeply into a topic or puzzle than you ordinarily would on a final assignment for a course. At first, this may seem like a daunting task. This document is designed to allay some of that anxiety as well as familiarize you with things you need to know about the essay requirement.

Most Political Science majors write their senior essays in conjunction with a one-semester seminar. A small number of students write it in the independent, one-term senior essay course (PLSC 480), the year-long senior essay courses (PLSC 490 and 491), or the intensive senior essay courses (PLSC 490 and 493). More information can be found on these various options below

Whatever the venue in which you write your senior essay, you will have to develop a research topic, formulate specific questions that your essay will try to answer, and offer a strong motivation for the project – make the case to your readers that something valuable would be lost if your research questions were not answered. Your adviser will be your most important resource in helping you to develop the topic, questions, and motivation. There are also published guides that can help. A good one is:

• Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. 2008. The Craft of Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Another valuable resource is reference librarians, both in the Social Science library and elsewhere in the Yale library system. Many useful sources are now available on-line; the reference librarians will often be more up-to-date about how to access these resources than your adviser.

During part or all of the summer between their junior and senior years, some students choose to conduct research related to their eventual senior essay project. Some carry out research in the United States, others abroad. The Political Science Department distributes, on a competitive basis, Frank M. Patterson grants for such research (Patterson grants also support summer internships). Application deadlines are posted on our Undergraduate Funds Page . Yale supports summer undergraduate research through several other programs; the link to the “Grants and Fellowships Database” is on the website.

There are several settings you can enroll in for the writing of your essay, as described in the next sections. Common to all of them, however, is the need for a close working relationship with an adviser, be it the instructor of the senior seminar in which you write your essay or an adviser for your independent research. Of absolute importance is for you to make and appear at regular appointments, and to submit drafts of your ongoing work on time. This means that, at the outset, you need to make an agreement with your adviser about a schedule for meetings and preliminary drafts. You will find some suggestions about a schedule below. Do not wait for your adviser to bring up this matter or suggest a schedule. Having a set of deadlines can have an important effect on your time management and the ultimate quality of your essay.

If you are unsure about whom to recruit as an adviser and which seminar to take, use the Political Science website to get more information about our faculty and their interests . Although the ideal adviser is someone with whom you have taken courses and interacted in the past, many students have good experiences working with instructors with whom they have never worked before. Most importantly, you will want to select someone whose research and teaching interests overlap with your own. (It’s not that he/she has to have published on your topic, but you usually would not ask an international relations expert to advise you on an essay in, say, political philosophy.)

When thinking about the faculty adviser, keep in mind that the Department requires that this person be an instructor in Political Science. Such an instructor may, for example, be in the Sociology department, but teach a course that is cross-listed with Political Science. The objective behind this rule is to have students approach their topic as a Political Scientist would. Please feel free to turn to Yale instructors who have no connection to the Political Science Department for informal advice, but your formal adviser must be an instructor in the Department. If you have any questions about whether an instructor is qualified to advise you, please consult with the DUS.

When you are in the process of recruiting an adviser, give him or her the sense that you are hard-working, committed, and independent. Yale faculty are committed to research and enjoy guiding students through what is usually their first research experience. But keep in mind that Yale professors are also very busy people, with multiple responsibilities. Email is not the most effective way to initially contact a potential adviser; they receive dozens each day and yours may fall through the cracks. A better strategy is to visit the instructor during her or his office hours , describe your thoughts on the project, and explain why you hope to work with them. In advance of the meeting, review the information on the faculty member’s personal web page, so that you are familiar with their research and how their areas of expertise relate to your topic.

You should plan to meet with your adviser regularly over the course of the semester and we recommend that you meet at least once every three weeks. In many ways, the most crucial meetings will be the early ones, when she or he helps you to develop a topic and identify sources. Furthermore, many seniors incorporate primary materials into their essay, and/or analyze publically-available information in new and inventive ways. Your adviser can help you to develop an understanding of what the relevant primary materials might be for your chosen topic, and how to go about finding, assembling, and analyzing them. While your adviser can make suggestions on your research design and suggest relevant sources, it is your responsibility to conduct the research on your topic and gather the relevant literature. In addition, your adviser can provide written and oral commentary on your drafts and give you constructive criticism on your arguments and evidence. However, keep in mind that your adviser is not responsible for providing you with an answer to your research question; it is up to you to decide upon the argument you would like to make. Please know that the best senior essays at Yale make exceptionally creative arguments or depend on extensive and sometimes original data collection or field research.

We also recommend that you elect three deadlines to help pace your progress throughout the semester. The first should be for an essay proposal of 1-2 pages. Your proposal should identify a specific question, give a provisional answer to the question, and include a specific plan of research. The proposal deadline should fall around the third week of classes. The second and third deadlines should be for drafts of your essay. By “draft,” we mean a complete essay, including all elements (introduction, body, conclusion, full references, etc.). The first draft deadline should be approximately six weeks prior to the final essay deadline; the second should be around three weeks prior to the deadline.

If you are like most Yale students, your senior essay will be the longest paper you have written to date. It would be a big mistake to attempt to write it at the last minute. Remember that a bad process often results in a weak paper. The key to writing a strong senior essay is to start early, work steadily, and seek feedback well ahead of the final deadline. Start writing as soon as possible, even well before you really feel ready to do so. Often you will find that you are more ready than you suspect. Writing can also help you identify gaps in your research or argument. Also, it will be much easier for your adviser to give you useful feedback on an actual piece of writing than on an idea expressed verbally in a meeting.

This is the most common way that students write their essays. Ideally, you will write an essay in conjunction with a seminar on a topic about which you have done some prior coursework, and/or taught by an instructor with whom you have worked in the past. If you plan to write your senior essay in a seminar, review the course offerings for the full year and identify two or three potential seminars. Of course, the seminars being offered during the semester in which you plan to write the essay, and the availability of slots in these courses, may affect your choices and decisions. You may have good reasons to write your essay in one semester, but flexibility can also be an advantage. If the perfect course (for you) on African politics or the U.S. presidency is only offered in the fall, it may be worth it to change your plan and write your essay in the fall. If the ideal seminar isn’t being offered, we encourage you to broaden the list of seminars you would consider taking. Surely your interest can be sparked by a topic that is new to you at the beginning of the term and you can still write a satisfying one-term essay in this case.

Be sure to take advantage of the pre-registration process and apply for a slot in the seminars that interest you. Keep in mind that senior majors are accepted into seminars at higher rates than other students, especially when applying through pre-registration. Pre-registration is a great opportunity to make a case for yourself. In the form that the DUS provides to you, explain your background, previous coursework, and any relevant experiences you have had. You should also indicate that you would like to write your senior essay in his or her course. In other words, applying to a seminar is the first step in recruiting your adviser.

Once you have secured a slot in the seminar, be sure to meet with the instructor early, confirm his/her willingness to advise you on the essay, and have a full, substantive discussion about your topic and how to proceed. Again, office hours are a better setting for such discussions than classrooms crowded with students trying to get into that seminar. Please also have a discussion with your instructor early in the semester about his or her expectations for your senior essay and the course’s other assignments. Often, a term paper will be the final assignment in the seminar and your senior essay will be an extension of this paper. In fact, a senior essay differs from a term paper in that it is generally a bigger, more ambitious project. Whether you will produce a separate term paper as well as a senior essay is up to your instructor. In some seminars, the final project will not be a term paper; here again, it is up to your course instructor/essay adviser whether (if at all) your requirements in the course will be modified, in light of your work on the essay. What’s important is that you find out early in the term how the instructor wants to handle your course assignments.

Occasionally, students take a seminar with the intention of writing a senior essay and then, during the semester, change their minds. If you find yourself in this situation and would like to opt out, you should contact your instructor, the DUS, and the DUS Assistant.

Note: Seniors cannot take the course in which they write their senior essay Credit/D/Fail.

Some majors have a long-standing interest in a topic or a problem related to politics or public policy about which they want to write, but no seminar is offered that is related to their topic. Such students will frequently have worked with a faculty member in the past in a related course or project, and may have already taken the relevant seminars before their senior year. For these students, writing a senior essay in the context of the independent, one-term senior essay course (480a in the fall, 480b in the spring) is a good option. In order to pursue this option, they must recruit an adviser who is willing to work with them to develop a reading list and fulfill all of the other tasks involved in writing the essay. It is very important, if you want to fulfill your essay requirement this way, to approach a professor in the Department with your ideas and obtain her or his agreement to work with you before the term starts. For a fall essay, it would be best to do this in the spring of your junior year; for a spring essay, make arrangements during the fall of your senior year.

Please note that PLSC 480 counts as a course credit toward the total number of credits that a major is required to have. It does not, however, count as a seminar. Seniors writing their essays in this course also need to take a seminar during their senior year.

Whether you write your essay in a seminar or in PLSC 480, one-term senior essays should be double-spaced and at least 25 pages long using Times New Roman 12 and one-inch margins. This amounts to about 6,250 words, excluding long verbatim quotations, bibliography, tables and figures, or other appendices. You should include a title page with the title of your essay, your name, your adviser’s name, and the date. You must number the pages.

You are required to pay careful attention to footnoting or end-noting. You must have a bibliography or reference section. There is no single correct format for any of these, but you should choose a standard citation format and adhere consistently to it throughout.

You may want to consult your adviser to see if he or she has any specific requirements about the format. If you and your adviser agree that you may depart from the above requirements (other than length), you must indicate that in a note attached to the essay. If you and your adviser wish to reduce the minimum length, please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies well in advance of submission for possible approval.

Some students elect to use the senior-essay requirement to take on a more extensive and substantial research project than could be carried out in a single semester. A small number of students write year-long senior essays. Many such students conduct related research during the summer between their junior and senior years. (This is by no means a requirement. See the section about sources of funding for summer research.) Year-long essays are expected to be substantially longer than a regular term paper. While there is no fixed length, the year-long senior essay is usually about 50-60 pages in length.

To write a year-long senior essay, students must apply during the spring term of their junior year. The application is usually due at the end of March. (Check the website for exact deadlines ). Students should submit to the DUS Office: (1) the yearlong senior essay prospectus form signed by the faculty adviser who has agreed to supervise the student’s essay, (2) a two-page statement of project, and (3) an up-to-date transcript. Normally a successful candidate will have at least an A- average in Political Science and a B+ average outside the major. It is expected that no more than fifteen students will be admitted.

Students who are admitted take two courses related to their essay. In the fall of their senior year, they take PLSC 490a, The Senior Colloquium, a course designed to hone their research skills. In this course, they develop a research prospectus for the senior essay, begin their research, and share their progress on a weekly basis with their instructor and their fellow classmates. (Note that 490a counts as a senior-year seminar.) In the spring, they take PLSC 491b, The Senior Essay, in which they work closely with their adviser to complete the essay. Please know that students receive a temporary grade of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory in 490a. Once they have completed the senior essay, they receive a letter grade, which applies retroactively to 490a and to 491b.

During their junior year, a small number of students are accepted into a version of the major called the Intensive Major. To be accepted into this major, students need to apply in November of their junior year. (Check the website for exact deadlines ). During the spring of their junior year, Intensive Majors take PLSC 474b, Directed Reading and Research for Junior Intensive Majors. In the fall term of their senior year, they take PLSC 490a, The Senior Colloquium, and in the spring term they take PLSC 493b, Senior Essay for Intensive Majors. By taking PLSC490a/493b, Intensive Majors pursue a year-long independent study in partnership with their adviser. The intensive senior essay is similar to the year-long senior essay in scope and length.

There is no single standard or set of standards for what constitutes an excellent senior essay. For specific guidance, rely on your adviser. For a political science essay, of course, you should situate your essay within the best and most important literature on the politics of the question being examined (including political science literature), engage with the relevant ideas and controversies (both public and academic), bring to light important relevant evidence (with due research diligence), and engage the reader with an original, distinct, and hopefully even distinguished argument.

Rarely does an excellent essay rely exclusively on articles, especially journalistic ones, found on the internet with a search engine. Read and rely on a few scholarly books too, as well as academic journal articles. A good way to get leads on what those might be is to trace the published sources identified in footnotes of interesting books or articles you have already found. Be sure to consult your adviser about the quantity and quality of sources you are using.

Needless to say, good writing is an essential element to a good essay—that is to say an essay that is clear, engaging, and otherwise “a good read.” Strive for a captivating introduction, and a satisfying conclusion. Write, re-write, and re-write again, until the argument develops and flows from paragraph to paragraph, from beginning to end. You should, by all means, seek advice from resources in the Yale University Center for Teaching and learning (CTL) writing labs .

If you use a source for your essay, you must acknowledge it. It hardly needs saying that evidence of plagiarism can result in a failing grade for your senior essay and a delay of graduation. Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s work, words, or ideas as if they were your own. You must make clear in your written work where you have borrowed from others—whether data, opinions, questions, ideas, or specific language. This obligation holds whether the sources are published or unpublished. What counts as a source varies greatly, but the list certainly includes readings, lectures, Web sites, conversations, interviews, and other students’ papers. For more information see the  Center for Teaching and Learning’s ‘What is Plagarism?’ page .

Ethical concerns incorporated in university rules require prior approval from Yale’s Human Subjects Committee for research involving gathering information from human subjects (a living person about whom an investigator gets identifiable private information through either a direct interaction with the person or through access to private data sources) in interviews, participant observation, experimental, medical and other personal records and potentially other kinds of research. Material gathered through such research cannot be included in your senior essay unless you received prior approval. Be sure to discuss this matter early with your adviser, and both of you should consult the Yale Human Research Protection Program and review the Educational Resources available on their website.

Upon completion of your essay, you must deliver a hard copy to your adviser. We recommend that you have your thesis bound, but this is not required. (If you choose to bind it, we recommend TYCO Printing, DocuPrint & Imaging, or Staples.) At the very least, it should be stapled. You may want to ask your instructor what he or she prefers.

You also need to email an electronic copy, in Word or PDF, to the DUS Office (send to undergrad.polisci@yale.edu ). You must include the entire essay (all text, tables, bibliography, etc.) in one electronic file. Please name the electronic version of your essay as follows: Last name_First name.

Note: You must submit a hard copy to your adviser, but we ask that you do not deliver a copy to the DUS Office as well. Instead, please send an electronic copy only to undergrad.polisci@yale.edu .

Your Senior Essay Prospectus form is due during Shopping Period of the semester in which you plan to write the essay. This form will outline your plans for completing the essay and, like all Political Science forms, it is available on the Political Science website ( http://www.yale.edu/polisci/undergrad/forms.html ). Please submit a hard copy of this form to the DUS Assistant in Rosenkranz Hall, Room 130. Check the Political Science website to see the exact date it is due ( http://www.yale.edu/polisci/undergrad/deadlines.html ).

NEW: the independent essay courses (PLSC 480, 490, 491, 493) now carry red permission keys. Students who enroll in PLSC 480 will not be able to seal their schedules until they have submitted the Senior Essay Prospectus form by the Department’s deadline. Once the DUS has signed your form, you will receive a green permission key and will be allowed to seal your schedule. Students who enroll in PLSC 490, 491, and 493 will automatically receive a green key before schedules are due.

Mid-way through the semester, the DUS Assistant will ask you to submit your tentative essay title. Please respond promptly. The title should give a clear idea of what your research is about. We need working titles early on to help the staff assign appropriate second readers to your essays. You are free to modify the title before final submission.

Please check the Undergraduate Program Deadlines Page to learn the date the senior essay is due and know that it is due no later than 4:00 p.m. on that day. By 4:00 p.m., you must give a hard copy to your adviser. You must also send an electronic copy to the DUS Office ( undergrad.polisci@yale.edu ). (Please do not deliver a hard copy to the DUS Office.)

We understand that in rare cases, unexpected or extenuating circumstances interfere with a student’s plans to complete his or her essay on time. Please know that extensions can only be granted by your residential college dean. Instructors cannot grant an extension unless the residential college dean has authorized one. In the event that you receive an extension, please submit a Dean’s Excuse to your adviser and the DUS Office that explains why the essay is late.

A late essay, for which there is no authorized extension, is penalized one half letter grade (e.g., A to A-) for each three days the essay is late.

Your faculty adviser will serve as the first reader of your senior essay, and will assign it a letter grade. The DUS will also appoint an anonymous second reader, who will assign a grade of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. (The second reader’s grade does not average into your final grade.) In the rare case of a failing grade from the first reader or an Unsatisfactory grade from the second reader, you will be asked to revise the essay and resubmit it.

Note that in order to graduate from Yale College, a student majoring in Political Science must achieve a passing grade on the senior essay.

If the essay is written for PLSC 480, the grade on the essay is the grade for the course. Instructors will be asked to report that grade to the DUS Office who will submit the grades on the Faculty Grading Submission site (FGS). If the essay is written in a seminar, the adviser will report the essay grade to the DUS Office and will calculate the grade for the seminar based on the essay and the other course requirements. Seminar instructors will be asked to submit their course grades on FGS. Please consult your adviser (not the DUS Office) for your final essay grade.

Your essay grade helps determine whether you will receive distinction in the major. To graduate with distinction in Political Science (as in all majors), you must receive an A or A- on your senior essay (as well as course grades of A or A- in 75% of your Political Science courses).

Senior Essay Prizes

Faculty advisers (and second readers) may nominate senior essays, whether written in the fall or spring semester or as year-long projects, for the following prizes:

  • James Gordon Bennett Prize for the best senior essay in International Relations.
  • Philo S. Bennett Prize for the best senior essay in Political Philosophy.
  • Charles W. Clark Prize for the best senior essay in Comparative Government or Politics.
  • Frank M. Patterson Prize for the best senior essay on the American Political System.
  • Percival N. Clement Prize for the best senior essay in support of the principles of the American Constitution and its first ten amendments.

At the end of the academic year, all of the majors and all faculty members will be notified of the recipients of these prizes. In addition, these essays will be posted on the Department’s website.  YOu can see previous years award winner and their essays on the Prizes Page .

99 Political Science Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best political science topic ideas & essay examples, 📑 interesting topics to write about political science, 🥇 good essay topics on political science, ❓ political science essay questions.

  • Positivism Theory as Applied in Political Science The main goal of this paper is to analyze the positivism theory to determine its strengths and weaknesses. It led to the development of logical positivism that was based on the principle of verification.
  • Political Science in Nigeria The transformation of the political arena in the early 1990s saw the country embrace democracy and political expediency. Critics of the Nigeria’s political system argue that the reinvention of the Nigerian governance in the 1990s […] We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
  • Political Sciences: Nelson Mandela as a Critical Thinker One of the aspects that make Mandela a critical thinker is his ability to reflect on ideas, beliefs, arguments, and conclusions.
  • Public Administration as an Interdisciplinary Field: Assessing Its Relationship With the Fields of Law, Management, and Political Science Bradley Wright, the author the article, provides both theoretical and practical views on the discussed issues to understand the influence of other disciplines on public administration.
  • Role of Theory in Research: Institutional Theory in Political Science In general, the goal of a majority of research works is to test a theory. Moreover, this theory implies that institutional power is what defines social norms and the way society is organized.
  • The Sovereign State Concept in Political Science In contrast to military force, the role of diplomacy or relations with other states and recognition has become more prominent in the issue of sovereignty.
  • Political Science: James Daniel Jordan Personally, I have been to one of the shelters in the line of my work, and it is surprisingly authentic that a shelter supposed to host thirty children has over five hundred children.
  • Turkey, Iran, and Israel in Political Science The transformation from the old Ottoman Government system into a modernized newly nation of Turkey, stabilization of Iran, and establishment of the state of Israel with the political values along irrevocable political cultures and behavior […]
  • Political Science: Constitutions, Political Parties, Elections Modern constitutionalism is based on the principle of universal principles, the independence of the judiciary, the separation of powers, the power and freedom of the people otherwise referred to as the sovereignty of the people, […]
  • Political Sciences. Globalization and Its Downside The government of any country has to realize that globalization brings about the issue of the close relation of foreign and domestic issues hence the need to be alert in handling challenges that emerge.
  • The American Army: Political Science John wanted to become a warrior, belong to the company of the best soldiers in the world, to see the world, and to have financial stability.
  • Political Science and United States Politics The Bipartisan campaign Act 2002 minimized contributions made to third parties and directly to candidates Civil liberties are those rights that the government guarantees citizens as outlined in the bill of rights.
  • Political Science Description and Explanation of Terms On the price theory he concentrated on the laws of supply and demand where he pleaded with the parliament to lower interest rates to raise value for money.
  • US Political Science: Constitution Establishing justice is surely also the consequence of injustice that dominated the human and legal relations in the USA in the times of the British reign.
  • Political Science. Alternative Gas Policies To encourage the production of ethanol, the government has introduced a tax credit of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol produced.
  • Economics & Political Science: Friedrich von Hayek He admitted in the University as a student of Law but he has found his interest in Economics and Psychology. He continued his producing The Fatal Conceit in 1988 and at the age of 89.
  • Political Science: Aristotle’s View on Human Nature A citizen, for Aristotle, is an individual who has the capacity and the right to engage in the governance of a “polies”.
  • Political Science. Texas vs. Federal Government The government of the United States is using the federal government as the centralized body governing the US and backed up by the constitution.
  • Political Science. The Federalist Papers The inspiration for this constitution, the framework, the framers, and the people who opted to choose the right path and inspiration, is the subject for this paper.
  • Political Sciences: Gun Control Laws The most prominent constitutional issue related to the topic is reflected in the Second Amendment that defends the individual right to keep and bear arms.
  • World Political Science Discussion: Conflict Analysis The crisis in Sudan can be attributed to democracy issues because the people felt that the government was not paying attention to the voices of the population.
  • Political Science Research Design In the case of the number of voters in elections, the most effective research design is a case-control study, which is with the help of correlation methods.
  • Political Sciences: “Washington Rules” by Andrew Bacevich United States of America’s military budget is equal to the collective military budgets of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Cuba. The defense budget of apparent enemies should not be the decisive factor […]
  • Political Science and History: The Influence of Interests on Policy Change But statistics show that on a non-electioneering year, they make a couple of trips to their constituencies and go the extra mile to get in touch with issues at the grassroots.
  • Theory of Imperial Overstretch in the Political Science The role of the military force in contemporary politics is as high as it was in the period of the cold war which is marked with two devastating conflicts that influenced the economic, political, and […]
  • Political Sciences: American Immigration To understand the attitude, it is important that one considers the fact that, based on the history of the nation, many members of the population are immigrants.
  • Political Sciences: Reconnaissance in Middle East-North Africa The process of retrieving information from the inhabitants of the MENA region may become extremely complicated for the representatives of another ethnicity due to the obvious cultural differences between the representatives of the reconnaissance team […]
  • Political Sciences: US Response to Russia’s Actions Even though the results of the vote favored Russia, it suffered a setback because members of the G7, EU, and the NATO were quick to denounce the move terming it a plot to deprive Ukraine […]
  • Political Sciences: US and UAE Policy and Presidency The Obama’s foreign policy in this block includes strategies for ending the Iraqi war, militarization of local groups fighting terrorism, the provision of aid to Gaza and Syria, rebuilding and constructing strong alliances with Israel, […]
  • Political Sciences: Privacy in the Future However, we have just learned that the Library of Congress has plans to archive all the tweets to form researchable information that the government can use to understand the needs of its citizens.
  • Political Sciences: The United States Army This is in line with the embrace of professionalism in the army as embedded in the rules that guide the operation of the United States Army.
  • Political Sciences: Countries Development Models In the US, institutions are well placed to tackle political and economic conflicts that are likely to emerge whereas the Scandinavian countries, especially Norway and Denmark, have the strongest social institutions that cater for the […]
  • The Feeling of Rationality: The Meaning of Neuroscientific Advances for Political Science Recent advances in neurosciences have offered a wealth of information on the workings of the brain and the interactive processes between the body and mind.
  • Political Science Concepts Though USA had made a crucial step and was about to regain its strength in terms of defense, Ronald Reagan insisted that much was yet to be achieved for the sake of citizen’s safety. At […]
  • Roy Bhaskar’s ‘Political’ About Political Science
  • Analyzing Incomplete Political Science Data: An Alternative Algorithm for Multiple Imputation
  • Between New Political Economy and Political Science: Convergence and Divergence of Disciplines
  • Comparison of State Centered and Power Centered Political Science
  • Theories and Methods in Political Science: Sanders
  • Coevolving Relationships Between Political Science and Economics
  • The Goals and Uses of Political Science Citizenship and Democracy
  • Developing Analyzing Political Science Statistics
  • London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Structural Power and Political Science in the Post-crisis Era
  • Effective Strategies Against Terrorism in Modern Political Science
  • Elite Theory and Democratic of Political Science
  • The Theoretical Frameworks for Understanding Foundations of Political Science
  • Exploring the Fundamental Purpose of Political Science
  • Five Limitations: Political Science Applied to the Non-west
  • Flexible Causal Inference for Political Science
  • Frankfurt School and Political Science on Totalitarianism
  • Gendered Citation Patterns Across Political Science and Social Science Methodology Fields
  • History and Political Science and Why the United States Was Able to Defeat England
  • The Concept Of Race In Political Science
  • Menu Kilojoule Labelling Policy Adoption From a Political Science Perspective
  • Political Marketing: Lessons for Political Science
  • John Lock Argument and Understanding of the Book Political Science
  • Modern and Classical Theories in Political Science
  • The Past and Future of European Political Science
  • Importance of Interview Research in Political Science
  • Machiavelli: The Father of Modern Political Science
  • The Relationships Between Political Science and Contemporary World Politics
  • The Challenge of Politics: An Introduction to Political Science
  • Rational Choice Theory in Political Science
  • Inter-Disciplinary and Intra-Disciplinary Schisms in Legal and Political Science
  • Political Science Tools for Assessing Feasibility and Sustainability of Reforms
  • Public Choice and Political Science: A View From Europe
  • Relation Between Sociology and Political Science
  • Advantages of Quantitative Methodology in Political Science
  • Sociology and Political Science in the Patrimonial Society
  • Albert Hirschman’s Contribution to Political Science
  • The Public Choice and the Traditional View of Political Science
  • The Relationship Between Health Promotion and Political Science
  • Thomas Hobbes and the Philosophy of Political Science
  • What Are Main Points of Political Science?
  • Who Is the Father of Political Science?
  • Who Called Political Science?
  • What Is Political Science Ideology?
  • What Is the Nature of Political Science?
  • What Is Political Science Behaviour?
  • Where Is the Origin of Political Science?
  • What Do Political Scientists Do?
  • How Is Political Science Used in Society?
  • Who Is the First Scientist of Political Science?
  • What Is Power in Political Science?
  • What Is Called Modern Political Science?
  • What Is the Growth of Political Science?
  • Is Political Science an Art or Science?
  • Does Political Science Have a Future?
  • Is Political Science a Scientist?
  • Why Do We Need Political Science?
  • What Is the Main Importance of Political Science?
  • What Does Political Science Teach You?
  • What Is State in Political Science?
  • What Are Political Science Skills?
  • What Is Political Science Example?
  • What Are the Types of Political Science?
  • What Is Theory in Political Science?
  • When Did Political Science Start?
  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

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Political Science Essays

The complex landscape of healthcare politics and policy in america, diplomacy can be effective in managing crises and resolving conflicts, defining democracy: exploring the distinction between civil liberties and civil rights, navigating ethical challenges in intelligence operations: a comprehensive analysis, impacts of brexit on the european union, covid-19 protests: societal impacts & policing responses, the impact of globalization on public policy in the united kingdom since 2010., the tea party, donald trump, and the transformation of conservative political thought in the usa., how does the chips act fit into a larger framework of u.s. industrial policy aimed at national security is it a template for future legislation in other sectors, the impact of legislative session length and term limits on texas politics: a critical analysis, what is the libertarian critique of rawls, foundational principles of liberal democracy in australia, profit and privatization: examining the canadian world view through the lens of government and taxes, congress representation analysis, public issues in canadian society, essays on political science.

This explores the theory and practice of government and politics at different levels which include local, state, national and international. Although political science might feel somewhat removed from your day-to-day life it’s always around us. Political science examines how our government works, how it should work and how to function within the system to get the most out of it.

If you switch on any news outlet almost any time, you can see the importance of a sound understanding of political science. The rules and complexities, theories and practicalities of politics change the course of culture and country on a daily basis, and those who do not understand it can get swept away by it quickly.

How to write an essay on Political Science

Essays on political science can cover extremely controversial subjects. Because of this, it’s critical to do proper research and sourcing. Claiming something is true without being 100% sure of its accuracy can alienate your audience and create problems for you down the line. This is especially true when discussing politically sensitive topics in a politically divided landscape.

Essays on political science will usually follow the classic essay structure (introduction, three body paragraphs, conclusion). Ensure you understand the desired format depending on who will be reading the essay and its purpose.

What can you talk about in an essay on Political Science?

Political science is a huge topic that’s relevant to every country in the world and narrows down to smaller relevance for state and local governance. This gives you a huge range of selections for topics that you can tie back to daily life.

Topics you can cover for political science essays include:

• How and when did politics originate? • Change in politics in wartime • Terrorism as a political instrument • The Historical views of politics • Advantages and disadvantages of legalizing drugs from a political perspective • The philosophy of politics • Do people in your country have enough civil rights? • Connections between politics and the media • Political scandals: pros and cons • Psychology of politics • The effect of state governance on local governance and vice versa.

Looking for essay samples in order to understand how to write your own paper? Well, you are in the perfect place! You can find essay examples on this page and use them to motivate yourself to create your own piece.

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Political Science, Essay Example

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In politics, sociological cleavages influence the choice of voters and are defined as perspectives emphasizing decisions made by voters during the voting process. This decision triggered by factors such as membership of individuals to certain groups. This is so because members of the said group are interested and concerned about issues relating to their group. Therefore, these members present similar choices during voting. For instance, members of the same social class, ethnic and religious group vote for the same person due to their shared interests and analogous affiliations. Additionally, this perspective has helped in explaining New Deal Coalition patterns of voting. Sociological cleavages for instance include royal families voting for their relative in order to pass the throne to their lineage. In this case, an example relates to Bush’s family. Most of those who voted for Bush belonged to the same social class as him and strived to make him stay in office. This is because they are inclined to the same social group and hence, share the same thoughts, feelings and imagination.

Nevertheless, not all people are influenced by the voter’s decision when it comes to voting patterns. These individuals follow the retrospective voting pattern, where they link their decision to the performance levels of both the past and present of their candidates. The decision made depends on penalties or rewards awarded to candidates’ level of performance. This model mostly applied by the middle and lower caste members of the society. Before making their decision, they reflect back at the benefits accorded to them by the said candidate. This model is suitable because it gives leaders a chance to explain and elaborate further on ways and means used during their sovereignty in office, if chosen. Leaders will be given an assignment of exploring pragmatic and unrealistic options to present to the public on why they should choose him or her over the other individual. Retrospective patterns of voting give candidates the opportunity of interacting with the public and learning more on their problems.

Many Western countries employ social cleavages in their voting patterns because they stabilize voting behavior and thus, reduce volatility during the election process. Social cleavages emphasize social structure impacts on voting behaviors by looking at the influence on membership of social groups to vote choice. In today’s society, voters are instrumental because they choose parties that best reflect their interest groups.

When voting, voters use cleavages by reflecting on social differentiation, which looks at material or symbolic, political policies for different groups in society. They also need to appoint a government that transmits conditions from one generation to another. Lastly, they employ physical and social conditions emphasizing proximity for long-term contact for generations to succeed. Political scientists argue that social paradigms not only affect group identities behavior of voting, but social cleavages structure also determines the number of parties in a political state. In short, in response to social cleavage interests, political parties build their theories. In addition, this sociological approach influences attitudes and interests of identity group, which affects voting behaviors of people.

Retrospective patterns also contribute significantly to 2012 elections because they have positive impacts. Voters will choose leaders who positively impact their lives and pass a bill that affects them directly and positively. Leaders making rush decisions during their term will not be voted for again because they risked people’s lives at some point. For example, Obama’s decision to go into war with Iraq posed as a threat to many Americans and other developing countries and thus, many voters are not convinced of his leadership styles and techniques employed. Voters need leaders who bear in mind their well being and accommodate them in all their decisions and plans. True leaders interact with people in order to gain an insight on problems and challenges faced by people of different states in the country. Americans will choose a leader who will pass bills that improves their living standards and looks into their problems.

In conclusion, retrospective voting patterns and social cleavages are approaches inclined to current patterns and behaviors of voting. People emphasize on social groups reigning in order to keep the generation going and benefit from it with the rise of globalization aspects. Social cleavages are factors contributing substantially to voting behaviors displayed by voters. Retrospective patterns are a challenge to leaders because people want to see results and actions implemented. Voting behaviors should accommodate people’s views, opinions and living standards because it spills down to development and productivity in a country.

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American Political Science Association (APSA) Citation Style: APSA Sample Papers

  • APSA Style Guide
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Research Paper

Category: political science research paper examples.

Political Science Research Paper Examples

We have collected almost 100 example papers on the most important political science research paper topics . This collection of political science research paper examples highlights the most important topics, issues, questions, and debates that any student obtaining a degree in this field ought to have mastered. The purpose is to provide students in political science with an authoritative reference source that will help their research paper writing efforts with far more detailed information than short essays.

Political Science Research Paper

What is a literature review?

"A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. [...] In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries."

(from "The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Writing It," http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review )

Strategies for conducting your own literature review

1. Use this guide as a starting point. Begin your search with the resources linked from the political science subject guide. These library catalogs and databases will help you identify what's been published on your topic.

2. What came first? Try bibliographic tracing. As you're finding sources, pay attention to what and whom these authors cite. Their footnotes and bibliographies will point you in the direction of additional scholarship on your topic.

3. What comes next? Look for reviews and citation reports. What did scholars think about that book when it was published in 2003? Has anyone cited that article since 1971? Reviews and citation analysis tools can help you determine if you've found the seminal works on your topic--so that you can be confident that you haven't missed anything important, and that you've kept up with the debates in your field. You'll find book reviews in JSTOR and other databases. Google Scholar has some citation metrics; you can use Web of Science ( Social Sciences Citation Index ) for more robust citation reports.

4. Stay current. Get familiar with the top journals in your field, and set up alerts for new articles. If you don't know where to begin, APSA and other scholarly associations often maintain lists of journals, broken out by subfield . In many databases (and in Google Scholar), you can also set up search alerts, which will notify you when additional items have been added that meet your search criteria.

5. Stay organized. A citation management tool--e.g., RefWorks, Endnote, Zotero, Mendeley--will help you store your citations, generate a bibliography, and cite your sources while you write. Some of these tools are also useful for file storage, if you'd like to keep PDFs of the articles you've found. To get started with citation management tools, check out this guide . 

How to find existing literature reviews

1. Consult Annual Reviews.  The Annual Review of Political Science consists of thorough literature review essays in all areas of political science, written by noted scholars. The library also subscribes to Annual Reviews in economics, law and social science, sociology, and many other disciplines.

2. Turn to handbooks, bibliographies, and other reference sources. Resources like Oxford Bibliographies Online and assorted handbooks ( Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics , Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior , etc.) are great ways to get a substantive introduction to a topic, subject area, debate, or issue. Not exactly literature reviews, but they do provide significant reference to and commentary on the relevant literature--like a heavily footnoted encyclopedia for specialists in a discipline. 

3. Search databases and Google Scholar.   Use the recommended databases in the "Articles & Databases" tab of this guide and try a search that includes the phrase "literature review."

4. Search in journals for literature review articles.  Once you've identified the important journals in your field as suggested in the section above, you can target these journals and search for review articles. 

5. Find book reviews.  These reviews can often contain useful contextual information about the concerns and debates of a field. Worldwide Political Science Abstracts is a good source for book reviews, as is JSTOR . To get to book reviews in JSTOR, select the advanced search option, use the title of the book as your search phrase, and narrow by item type: reviews. You can also narrow your search further by discipline.

6. Cast a wide net--don't forget dissertations.  Dissertations and theses often include literature review sections. While these aren't necessarily authoritative, definitive literature reviews (you'll want to check in Annual Reviews for those), they can provide helpful suggestions for sources to consider.

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DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

  • Undergraduate
  • Honors Thesis

Award Winning Theses

The following theses are recent examples of outstanding work:.

  • Avery Goods:  "An Inconvenient Group: The Effect of Motivated Messages on Climate Change Attitudes and Behaviors of Skeptic Audiences" 2019 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Joshua Varcie: "The Artificial Incumbency Advantage: How Bipartisan Redistricting Schemes Protect Incumbents" 2019   Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
  • Benjamin Alan Weinberg: " Ballot Challenge: Explaining Voting Rights Restrictions in 21st-Century America"  2018 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Logan Scott Peretz:  "How Hillary May Have Lost the White House: The Electoral Effects of Presidential Campaign Visits in 2016"  2018   Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
  • Aaron Gordon: "An Empirical Appraisal of the Liberty of Contract"  2017 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Hayley Hopkins: "Restrict the Vote: Disenfranchisement as a Political Strategy" 2017 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Matthew Gates: "Ideological Basis for the Gay Rights Movement"  2017   Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
  • Elena Barham: "Passing the Buck: World Bank Anti-Corruption Reform and the Politics of Implementation" 2016 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Remy Smith: "Inherently Unequal: The Effects of Equal Representation on Senate Policy Outcomes" 2016 Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
  • Laura Rozier:  "The Media, the Innocent, and the Public: A Nuanced Look at Exonerations and Public Opinion of the Death Penalty"   2015 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Kaitlyn Chriswell: “Cross-cutting cleavages: Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Terra Lliure, and the centrality of networks” , 2014 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Jordan Fein:  "Searching for Health Care Reform: Studying Media Coverage and Framing Public Opinion of the 2009-2010 Health Care Debate" , 2011 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Dylan Lewis:  “Unpaid Protectors: Volunteerism and the Diminishing Role of Federal Responsibility in the National Park Service” , 2011 Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
  • Benjamin Zhu:  “Resource Distribution in Post‐PRI Mexico: De‐Politicized or Re‐Politicized?” , 2011 Senior Marshall for Distinguished Honors Thesis
  • Ben Armstrong:  “Ne Touche Pas Ma Constitution: Pressures and Presidential Term Limits” , 2011 Barry Farrell Prize for Academic Achievement
  • Jeffrey Paller:  “Where are the people? The Relationship between Government and Civil Society in South Africa” , 2006 Janda Prize Co-Winner for Best Honors Thesis
  • Samir Mayekar:  “The Piquetero Effect: Examining the Argentine Government’s Response to the Piquetero Movement” , 2006 Janda Prize Co-Winner for Best Honors Thesis 


Janda PRIZE for DISTINGUISHED Honors Thesis REcipients

The Kenneth F. Janda Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Political Science  is awarded annually for the best undergraduate Honors thesis of the year.

COMMENTS

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    Political Science in Nigeria. The transformation of the political arena in the early 1990s saw the country embrace democracy and political expediency. Critics of the Nigeria's political system argue that the reinvention of the Nigerian governance in the 1990s […] We will write. a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts.

  12. PDF A Guide to Developing and Writing Research Papers in Political Science

    The Six Parts of a Research Paper. A research paper in political science typically has 6 parts: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature review, (3) Theory, (4) Research Design, (5) Analysis, and (6) Conclusion/ Discussion. While papers do vary in their construction, that variation usually finds a way to embrace these 6 parts.

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  18. Political Science, Essay Example

    Political scientists argue that social paradigms not only affect group identities behavior of voting, but social cleavages structure also determines the number of parties in a political state. In short, in response to social cleavage interests, political parties build their theories. In addition, this sociological approach influences attitudes ...

  19. APSA Sample Papers

    American Political Science Association (APSA) Citation Style: APSA Sample Papers

  20. Political Science Research Paper Examples

    We have collected almost 100 example papers on the most important political science research paper topics. This collection of political science research paper examples highlights the most important topics, issues, questions, and debates that any student obtaining a degree in this field ought to have mastered. The purpose is to provide students ...

  21. Political Science Subject Guide: Literature Reviews

    The Annual Review of Political Science consists of thorough literature review essays in all areas of political science, written by noted scholars. The library also subscribes to Annual Reviews in economics, law and social science, sociology, and many other disciplines. 2. Turn to handbooks, bibliographies, and other reference sources.

  22. Award Winning Theses

    The Kenneth F. Janda Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Political Science is awarded annually for the best undergraduate Honors thesis of the year. Student name. Year. Kelly Miller. 2022. Andrew Myers (Honorable Mention) 2022. Julian Freiberg. 2021.