Political Science Essays Examples. Islamic Uprising. The Causes of Coups around the World and Impacts on the Economy.

Political science is a social science that deals with systems of governance, and the analysis of political activities, thoughts and political behaviors of individuals. It deals with theories and practices of politics commonly thought of as determining the distribution of economic resources and power. Political science usually comprises of many sub-branches including political economy, political theory, public administration, public policy, international relations and political methodology. Furthermore, political science is largely related to the field of law, economics, geography, history, anthropology, and economics. It ventures into the sources of power, its exercise, those who exercise it and how they exercise it. It investigates the demonstration, acquisition, and sustainability of political power in the entire society (Dunleavy, Patrick, 5).

Politics is usually regarded as a game of influence and power as it manifests itself in instances involving authority, the hierarchy in the society and decision making. The power relation would hold that that the person in the higher authority wields more power than those in lower levels in the hierarchy. Political science, therefore, centers on the civil government, state, and public affairs. The sources and exercise of power and the human conflicts and modes of conflict resolutions. Political science is divided into other fields, or branches which include Comparative Politics, International Relations, Public Administration, Political Theory and Public Policy (Johnson et al. 24).

To begin with, Comparative Politics is the study of more than one government system of government. There exist varied forms of governments in the world depending on the geographical location or the historical and cultural orientation of a particular society (Dunleavy, Patrick, 5). This study usually aims at finding out why some systems are more effective than others, and why there are stable governments in some nations while others are reeling in political turmoil.

The second branch is International Relations which deal with the interaction mainly among states and anything that may be cross-border. The interaction may be in an antagonistic or a friendly manner. This field specializes in studying international organizations and organizations, global political economy, strategic and security studies, foreign policy processes and peace research.

The other branch is the Public Policy which is a system of laws and regulatory measures enforced by the government and the proper courses if actions meant for administrative purposes. It is most times presumed that public policies are made for the wellbeing of the society which is sometimes untrue. Public Policy, therefore, helps draw parallels to improve where necessary.

Finally, there is Political Theory which studies political concepts like justice, power, and human rights while analyzing their applications in various scenarios. This field hence overlaps other areas like philosophy and law in its operations as it tries to dwell on the best form of governance.

The study of political science is very useful and valuable to the ruler and those ruled. Among the importance of studying political science include imparting knowledge on the state. It also helps in giving understanding of government and administration to the political leaders, diplomats, and administrators. States also require a sound knowledge of the Political Science to perform their functions with efficiency. It also leads to the creation of democratic values such that it makes people conscious of their rights and duties. It makes citizens of a country vigilant, intelligent and patriotic. Lastly, it imparts co-operation and tolerance among people. No society can prosper without cooperation as people depend on each other for different things. People of all walks of life should co-operate for better development of the country.

Works Cited

Dunleavy, Patrick. Democracy, bureaucracy and public choice: Economic approaches in political science. Routledge, 2014. p 1-15

Johnson, Janet Buttolph, Henry T. Reynolds, and Jason D. Mycoff. Political science research methods. Cq Press, 2015. p 24-30

Essay 2

Islamic Uprising

Introduction

Many Muslim States have been involved in warfare since the time of Muhammad, the last prophet. The concept, known as Jihad is the religious duty of every Muslim to survive. The violent struggles between Muslims and the non-Muslims is associated with the Jihad concept. Many observers refer to the conflicts as lesser jihad as they maintain that Jihad should be an inner spiritual strive (Adesoji, Abimbola, 95). Differences between illegitimate and legitimate warfare and prescription of the appropriate and inappropriate conduct by the combatants are provided by the Islamic Jurisprudence of war. The numerous anticolonial military campaigns in the Islamic nations by the United States are waged as the fight against Jihadists.

Early Instances of Struggles between the Muslims and non-Muslims

The earliest struggle between the different faith groups occurred after the migration of Prophet Muhammad and his people from Mecca to Medina. The migration was caused by the persecution and oppression of the Muslims by the Meccans because of their faith. Prophet Muhammad did not leave Mecca with all the Muslims, and those who were left continued struggling under the authority of non-Muslims.

There were significant battles in Mecca between the Muslims and Meccans. One of the most important battle was the Battle of Badr in which the Muslims won. The victory was interpreted to show that the Muslim had divine guidance and intervention and could win any battle even if they are outnumbered. The Battle of Badr is also featured in the Quran which states that Allah sent an army of unseen angels to help the Muslims in the battle. The battles that followed were unsuccessful including battles in Uhundu and Hunayn.

The Origin of the Jihad Concept

Jihad can be traced back to the Quran with reference to Prophet Muhammads words and actions. However, in the Quran, the term Jihad is not used to mean fighting for Allah. A legal historian, Lia, says that the Islamic people developed the doctrine of Jihad close to the end of the eighth century (157). Jihad was adopted from a doctrine known as naskh which basically says that Gods revelations improved over the course of Muhammads mission.

Jihadist in the modern world

In 1993, Samuel Huntington wrote a controversial article for Foreign Affairs. In the article, Huntington stated that the great struggles between Europe and Asian Islamic states are brought about by historical fault lines between civilizations. The fights will continue over many years to come he predicted. He concluded that future conflicts will not be ideological or primarily economic but will occur along the same cultural lines they have always originated from.

However, the idea of a cultural schism is continually losing its ground. The current situation in Syria is a clear indication of this fact. The Syrian Muslim communities, Sunni and Shia, have struggled to co-exist for years. The conflicted has changed to become one of the largest and longest ethnic war. In 2012 to 2015, Syria had the largest number of refugees seeking political asylum in other countries. Similar cases are seen in Nigeria by the terrorist group knwn as Boko Haram (Adesoji, Abimbola, 95)

Again, Muslims are trying to integrate themselves into the globalizing world. The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, undermined the Muslims quest for modernization. According to Mohammed, Muslim filmmaker, this day was a turning point not only for the Americans but also the Muslims as they are trying to reclaim the opportunities denied to them even by some of their own people (595).

Works Cited

Adesoji, Abimbola. "The Boko Haram Uprising and Islamic Revivalism in Nigeria/Die Boko-Haram-Unruhen und die Wiederbelebung des Islam in Nigeria." Africa Spectrum(2010): 95-108.

Lia, Brynjar. The architect of Global Jihad: the life of al-Qaida strategist Abu Mus ab al-Suri. London, 2007. p 157-168

Mohammed, Abdul. "Limits of Authoritarian Upgrading in Syria: Private Welfare, Islamic Charities, and the Rise of the Zayd Movement." International Journal of Middle East Studies 41.4 (2009): 595-614.

Essay 3

The Causes of Coups around the World and Impacts on the Economy.

A coup refers to an unexpected and unlawful deposition of a regime usually done by a group of the present state organs to replace the ousted regime with the other. However, these replacing governments can be civil or military. Military coups are the most common and are usually a planned action by the military of a particular nation which is generally meant to bring down and replace its administration (Powell, 1070) Military coups can succeed or fail, but most succeed, and the usurpers ascertain their legality if the attacked governments fail to stop them by permitting their consolidations while receiving the ousted governments surrender. The usurpers then get the full backing of the public and the other non-participant armed forces.

Most military coups in the world are temporary. In temporal ones, the usurpers hand over the power quickly as seen in instances of Zimbabwe in 2017, where the main purpose of the military is to fix a prevailing situation. On the other hand, it may be permanent in nations with no civil order, and therefore the army may want to restore it. Some military coups end up being bloody resulting in deaths of citizens, whereas others are peaceful and bloodless. Military coups are thus very different from revolutions and civil wars as they bare deep top to down actions initiated and controlled from already existing forms of a state against another (Casper, & Tyson, 548)

Many countries in the world have experienced coup in the world the most recent being of Zimbabwe in 2017 where the military successfully overthrew the government of Robert Mugabe who had stayed in power for thirty-seven years. Also, we have seen cases of Pakistan which have experienced several coups. It is therefore worth noting that the state of Pakistan usually shifts its leadership over time from a civilian to military governments. Bangladesh is another country in Asia which has experienced another military coup. However, we have seen many presidents and prime ministers losing their lives in successful and unsuccessful coups and various schemes of power struggles.

Military coups usually occur due to some reasons. I their article for the Journal of Politics, Casper, & Tyson, propose that the main cause of coups is due to the economic backwardness and conditions made by the leaders of these countries (548). Thus people comply with these military regimes hoping that they would propel the economy back to progress. Secondly, most people view military coup as a way to stop corruption in instances where leaders have become so corrupt that citizens are willing to substitute democracy for military rule. Military coups may take place where the institutions of democracy of these states have been abused, misused and vastly exploited by these leaders leading to misuse of processes of the law of courts of justice by prominent persons to defeat justice.

Military coups usually lead to serious problems onto the economy. To begin with, most investors tend to shy away from these economies due to the general unconducive environment that comes with a coup. They, therefore, close down their establishments. Again, because of fear people doing business might even sell their businesses because they dont know what will happen next. This impact negatively to the GDP of a country as many citizens lose their jobs. Other nations may also not want to be associated with this regime, affecting the cross-border trade between the c...