John C. Scott 's Comparative Politics Essay

In the year of 1776, the United States became an independent country. At that moment, the great men who fought for its independence began to create the government and shape American politics. In Richard Hofstadter's The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, he identifies twelve of the most influential men and the political traditions they created, including the Founding Fathers who started it all. Additionally, Hofstadter informs the reader of other significant government officials including Andrew Jackson and his democracy, the progressive, trustbuster Theodore Roosevelt, and ending with Franklin D. Roosevelt and his programs of the New Deal. Richard Hofstadter's ideas are brilliantly

Political philosophy is the attempt to understand the foundations of society that we are in today. In order to understand current political situation we have to try to read and recognize early writings on political philosophy, Some of the earlier works by Plato called "The Republic", in the piece there are conversations between characters Socrates and Glaucon, Aristophanes, Adeimantus where they try and explain ideas and views of justice and what a truly just man and/or just "state" would appear How we come to the decisions as human beings that would be for the greater good of a man and/or state.

To understand changing patterns of global power is no easy feat, but several theories may give us an insight to the shift of power in our modern world, I wish to talk about these theories and how we can use them to better understand our past and present global power situations.

James C. Scott has been sitting on these ideas of anarchism for over 20 years before putting out the book Two Cheers for Anarchism and the viewpoints are still relevant today. It has been my favorite book we have read and discussed this semester due to the fact that everyone at a point in their life has had certain ideas or has looked at the world in a way that wasn’t going to be universally liked. That’s what Scott has done and on the first page of the preface he writes, “Again and again over three decades, I found myself having said something in a seminar discussion or having written something and then catching myself thinking, Now that’s what an anarchist would argue” (ix).

Comparative politics is the empirical comparative study of political systems. It involves the classification and comparison of institutions - ‘a rule that has been institutionalised’ (Lane and Ersson, 1999: 23) - in order to determine the nature of political regimes. The study of comparative politics has come to be guided by three major research schools: rational choice theory, culturalist analysis and structuralist approaches; each of which spearhead a distinctive notion over what about institutions affects the nature of the political process. Rationalists are methodological individualists who assert that

When looking into the ideas of political theorists it is important to the use of political concepts that may play an important role in what the theorists are suggesting and also how they may affect the relationship between to state and the individuals living within a state. The concepts that will be looked at within this essay are: power, authority and also accountability.

A “Eurocentric” approach to history is a way of teaching history, mainly focused on Europe, while ignoring the other countries such as China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia, or other societies.

Politics is defined as the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power. I think this definition is perfect for American politics. Our government is constantly changing. There are new members of government being voted in, committees trying to get their ideas voted into law, and the Supreme Court is constantly interrupting the Constitution in new ways for our ever changing society. This all is included in the debate and conflict of parties trying to gain a foothold of power in our ever changing democracy. I think democracy looks far different today than in the founding fathers time. I am excited to further discuss my thoughts in this reflection paper.

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future,” quoted by John F. Kennedy at the Loyola college alumni banquet. E.J. Dionne is a political journalist and commentator for The Washington Post also a University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at the McCourt School of Public Policy. In Dionne’s book, “Our Divided Political Heart,” he talks about how American citizens cannot agree on who we are because we cannot agree on whom we have been. The American custom, Dionne expresses, points not to be self-sufficient and selfish, but to even out our compassion of individual freedom and our loyalty to the public. Understanding of our nation’s history, Dionne shows an insightful examination of how self-reliance is toxic to our present political ambience. He participates the Tea Party’s involvement with American history, but also shows it’s catastrophic past while supporting the Wall Street movement in America’s public and Populist traditions.

Politics is the activities, actions, and policies that are used to gain and hold power in a government or to influence a government.

The United States is built upon a certain set of ideals and values , written seemingly clearly within the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Yet, despite this, there are various disagreements in how political promises to the people of the country play out. The unifying factor of what I believe American politics is, is the development to live up to these ideals and values. It is a nation built on the stifling of true, direct, democracy of the masses, built upon favoring wealth and an elitist system, but despite all this, it takes its Creed very seriously. Though interpretations may differ on how this is accomplished, the basic politics surrounding the United States, combined with a shared national identity and history, demands an attempt, or at least a show of fairness, equality, responsibility, and representation. It may never succeed in living up to the ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but that does not stop the demand of both policymakers and citizens to uphold and defend these rights.

Politics at its core is fundamentally about the struggle for who has power in the system. From the beginning of groups of mankind, individuals have struggled to determine who has control, and that has essentially been the ruling elite class. Traditionally, that has been people from four traditional classes. First, the dominant religions and religious theocracies, such as Iran, the Church of England, etc. Secondly, they tend to be the dominant race of ethnic groups who control the land, wealth, and power – although this is not always the case (South Africa for example.) Third, they tend to the military acting on behalf of the fourth category, the Government.

1. The most general definition of politics would be the process by which values are authoritatively allocated for a particular society. More specifically that allocation speaks to the process where it is decided when, what, who, and how resources are distributed. Many would say that politics is no more than the art of governing humanity through deception, and some would even go as far as to say it is nothing more than conducting public affairs for private gain.

Politics is about the distribution of power. In the Introduction to Social Science course guide it is stated that, “politics can be anywhere”. Therefore, politics is in the language we speak. Power is the “ ability to

Morganthau (Cited in Haas,1953, pp.445) argues that the Balance of power can be viewed as either a description of any state of international politics in relation to power distribution or a policy or action intending to distribute power. From this framework we can use the balance of power to both understand static moments in history to observe where power lies at that moment in time and to look at how states themselves actively implement foreign policy for their own power related interests whether that be looking to balance the set of scales or to tip them