‘Politics’ Archives
The Pentagon scandal
The Pentagon Scandal In the summer of 1971, President Richard Nixon learned that what you don’t know can hurt you. In June 1971, the New York Times ran a headline that hardly seemed sensational: “Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement.” What the headline did not say was that the study also traced [...]
The Nation
The Nation The Nation, a weekly journal devoted to politics and the arts, was founded in 1865. Under the leadership of its first editor, E. L. Godkin, The Nation supported the Fourteenth Amendment’s extension of the franchise to black men, but the magazine then failed to support radical Reconstruction and adopted an antiunion and culturally [...]
Politics and Ethics
Politics and Ethics Politics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the interactions of people in society, and it includes the proper function of government. Politics is dependent on the three branches. For example, when you vote for candidates for public office, you normally do so because you believe that their policies will be, on [...]
American Federalism
American Federalism As a form of government, ”federalism” describes a system of divided powers, each sovereign within its limited realm but concerned with different spheres—one general, the other local. The federal system created by the United States Constitution is the first specimen of this type, though many other states have [...]
Monarchy
Monarchy In recent years, the monarchy has all but fallen into disrepute in Britain. It was the butt of sophisticated humour on television programmes such as Spitting Image, was lampooned in Sue Townsend’s novel The Queen and I (1994) and became the subject of much tabloid treatment which ridiculed the affairs of Prince Charles, Prince Andrew [...]
Secret Services
Secret Services Founded in 1909, the British secret intelligence service revolves around two major departments of military intelligence with several adjunct executive branches. MI5 is concerned with state security and counter-intelligence. Its responsibilities cover counter-espionage and the investigation of other internal security threats such [...]
The Idea of Liberalism
The Idea of Liberalism The idea of liberalism antedates the use of the term liberalism. It developed in the philosophical and religious traditions of the West, specifically in one trend in Christian theology and political philosophy, as well as in the humanism of Enlightenment philosophy, which had its roots in Europe’s Renaissance and was [...]
Conservatism
Conservatism Conservatism is the doctrine that the reality of any society is to be found in its historical development, and therefore that the most reliable, though not the sole, guide for governments is caution in interfering with what has long been established. Clearly distinctive conservative doctrine emerged in the 1790s, in reaction to the [...]
Middle East
Middle East American foreign and domestic policy are often tied to two primary issues of this turbulent region: religion and oil. Religious ties have focused on the status of Israel (and Palestine) as a Holy Land for Christianity, Judaism and Islam, with special questions about Jerusalem. Since the birth of Israel as a state, the US has often [...]
Midwifery
Midwifery Long-established practices of birth assistance by knowledgeable females, reinforced in the nineteenth century by immigrant cultures, were effectively challenged in the early twentieth century by medical professionalization and concerns about health and hygiene. Midwife-attended births fell from 40 percent in 1915 to 10.7 percent in [...]
