History and Political Science Exam Questions - Essay Example

The case study countries can be said to relatively conform to the ideal model of liberal democracy. The three constitutional forms mentioned above are depicted in the case study countries. Political competitiveness is observed in the U.S, Nigeria, France and Russia. Elections are held after a specified period of time, and constitutional provisions allow for free and fair elections. Spain on the other hand practices democracy through a constitutional monarchy. While such a political process may not be competitive, transparency in governance is provided for by political laws.

Q2 The growth and development of the civil society is an important aspect of the larger population within a country or a state. The management of human capital in the civil service is primarily undertaken by the civil society, and it therefore accounts for the major needs of the larger society. The development of the civil society and its influence to the state are intertwined. A developed civil society is one that accounts for the diversity and dynamisms realized in the state and one that further seeks to match this trend with the performance of the state.

It therefore stands a strong ground to significantly influence the state. Q3 Centralization of legislation is the basis upon which unitary states function. This is form of legislature is however not necessarily the best in the contemporary world. Political systems and governments seek to uphold efficiency and effectiveness of governments, thereby delegating legislation duties. The concentration of authority and power to a single unit of governance is longer deemed as an aspect of democracy. As a result, political systems and governments of the modern times tend to create organs of governance that function just as the overhead arm of government.

Decentralized legislature is thus a key defining factor of democracy. EXAM 2 Q1 The Rational Actor Model makes four assumptions that fail to conform to the real world phenomena. As a result, the use of this model in the evaluation and assessment of foreign relations is limited, and to a more extent unrealistic. The model assumes that governments are unitary in nature, cost and benefit analysis is the mode of policy formulation, actors execute decisions faithfully and ineffective policies are optimized through adjustment (Held, 2006, p.329). These assumptions are unrealistic since they do not account for the ulterior motives of actors in foreign relations.

On the same note, policy formulation keep conflicting with other policies already in place, and therefore optimality of policies is not realistic. Q2 Foreign policy making is subject to both rational processes and political influences. The extent to which these two factors affect foreign policy formulation and implementation is crucial in determining whether the goals of foreign policy reflect political interests. Foreign policies are formulated and implemented by states that identify foreign relations issues that need to be addressed by these policies.

Due to this aspect, the rationality of foreign policy making is lost. This is due to the fact that the emerging foreign policies reflect collaborative political interests, and are therefore deemed to serve purposes that are beneficial to the formulating agencies even when the rationality of these policies is questionable. EXAM 3 Q1 States are endowed with powers within their jurisdiction to formulate and implement policies, among them