The extra credit (OPTIONAL) consists of: writing a journal on 2018 political issues. The task is to read one newspaper/internet article per day (foreign sources are o.k.), during five days. All the articles should be connected to the same topic. Students have to summarize in a paragraph the content of the article selected, and then in a second paragraph provide a commentary (please include a complete citation […]

The Cold War was a 44-year conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two largest superpowers in the world when it began in 1946. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union was in shambles. They had 20-27 million war-related deaths, and Germany occupied several of their republics, not to mention the damage to their economy (Painter, 1999, p. 5). […]

The collapse of Communism began with “deepening of respect of human rights” and the “creation of democratic institutions” (Thomas, 2005, p. 110). Liberalism began to shift people’s views from Communism. Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania all started to turn away from those political governments ruled by Communists. There were civilian protests, which got violent in Romania. One of the reasons that Communism […]

All three agencies manage a sizable amount natural land and that is primarily where their similarities end. The National Park Service dedicated to preserving unique and rare landscapes such as Yellowstone National Park. The U.S. Forest Service manages over 193 million acres of national forest, with an emphasis on balancing timber production, wildlife protection and wildfires. However, the Bureau of Land Management main focus is […]

A common resource is a resource like pasture or water that provides tangible benefits to all the users. However, an issue of concern regarding common resources is the concern about use and overuse mainly when there are poor management systems to protect the resources. This assignment will briefly describe the environment as a shared resource to determine how it is best managed, the concepts of rivalry […]

Nationalism is the idea that one’s identity is created by the region in which they live. It can be associated with Patriotism because the Nationalist should be proud of their own country. According to Kramer (2011), nationalism involves loyalty to a particular nation as well. He writes: “Modern people encounter stories about their nations in almost every sphere of their political, social, and economic activities- […]

For this assignment you will take on the role of a government adviser and select one of the issues below and brief a policy maker on the issue including the background and your recommendations/proposed solutions to the issue. You may take advise a US policy maker, European, African, or otherwise. The most important facet of this assignment is that you use a wide variety of […]

do you think a non-Western way to attain political development is feasible? Or this discussion is just irrelevant today as there are certain constant principles in achieving political development that every nation has to follow including ensuring freedom from want (meeting basic needs such as food, shelter, health care and education) and freedom from fear (upholding citizens’ human rights, freedom from torture and arbitrary detention, and […]

 Throughout the course, we have seen many challenges to democracy in the U.S. & California political systems. We have also seen that in the past such challenges have been overcome by the workings of our institutions and processes. From the topics below, choose 2 topics and discuss how they have either helped or hindered democracy. Do you think that your evidence shows that the U.S. […]

Movie Essays: Film portrayals, whether they be historical or satirical in nature, offer a perspective on past or current events that may enhance your understanding of our topics. In three units, you will watch a film (you will have a choice for each unit) and write about how the film affects your understanding of our topic, where it diverges or agrees with our readings, how […]