UniLIFE

What did I study in university and what were the essays I wrote?

Year 1 – Politics, Philosophy and International Relations
1. Keeping Promises; A Moral Duty
2. Does Mill’s theory avoid the problems of other versions of utilitarianism?
3. Compare and contrast pluralist and Marxist accounts of political power.
4. ‘Not only are there important differences between political parties in the UK and US, the UK and US party systems are also very different.’ Discuss.
5. ‘The only way to avoid descent into civil war is to acknowledge the unlimited authority of government’. Explain and assess this Hobbesian thought.

Year 2 – Political philosophy, European politics, globalisation
1. Outline the main features of ‘globalisation’. How important is this phenomenon for understanding the character of 21st century international politics?
2. Analyse the proposition that the ‘entrepreneurial city’ is a crucial site for neoliberal globalisation.
3. Why was the Spanish transition to democracy an elite-negotiated transition?
4. Compare and explain the political instability experienced by pre-Fifth Republic France during the Third and Fourth Republics, Weimar Germany and post-war Italy.
6. Is MacCallum’s account of freedom superior to those offered by proponents of positive and negative liberty? If so, why, and if not, why not?
7. Non-interference and the ‘ASEAN Way’; conflict management of the haze and the East Timor crises.

Year 3 – US Politics, post-structuralism, dissertation
1. In what ways, if at all, do neo-Gramscian notions of hegemony assist us in understanding the nature and exercise of US power in the contemporary world order?
2. To what extent is post-structuralism able to address ethical questions?
3. Apply normative institutionalism to the theme of class structure in the movie Good Will Hunting.
4. ‘Whether economic inequality is unjust depends fundamentally on whether it exists within states rather than across states’. Explain and evaluate this claim.
5. ‘The Orientalising gaze on shopping, fashion and art in contemporary China.’