The history of political theory is broken down into several stages, with foundations dating back to ancient greece. Plato's republic and aristotle's politics laid the groundwork for the modern conception of politics. Concerned with how to live in the city state, or polis, aristotle was the first thinker to systematically study and categorize political systems. Machiavelli and hobbes represent the shift to the modern concept of political theory and the effort to make it more scientific. Many core concepts of political theory were developed in the modern period, from the 15th to 19th centuries. Other central figures of this time include locke, burke, rousseau, mill and marx. They laid the framework for the contemporary study of politics with themes such as the social contract, the state of nature, democracy and representative government, constitutional law, and the relationship between economics and political systems.

The founding fathers were well read and versed in the political theories and ideas of both ancient and modern thinkers, which in turn provided an opportunity to put political theory into practice. The american political landscape can be thought of as an experiment in developing a democratic and representative form of government, thus presenting a plethora of topics for a political research paper. A few possible ideas include 1 james madison and the federalist papers, 2 the american constitution, 3 the executive, legislative and judicial division of powers, 4 alexis de tocqueville's interpretation of american democracy and 5 the history of american foreign policy.

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The study of politics concerns not only the relationship between governmental authority and the people of a particular country or nation, but also the relations between nations. In this sense politics is international, and can be studied in both a historical and contemporary context. In the former sense, international politics began with the emergence of the nation state, particularly the european nation state. The global environment in the 20th and 21st centuries saw the need for international regulating bodies such as the united nations, the world bank and the world trade organization.

The development of the internet also changed the face and complexion of traditional political boundaries. In addition to its theoretical dimensions, political science is interested in the empirical and concrete details of political life, utilizing a number of methodologies and strategies, such as empirical research, hermeneutic approaches, and quantitative studies and statistics, to investigate and analyze political phenomena. Practical concerns that engage political scientists include such topics as voting and election patterns, the influence of media on politics, and economic trends and the formation of political parties. Whether political science is your major or not, you may face the necessity to write a political research paper.

As politics is a very important issue for our society and every one of us, you have a chance to learn much interesting and important information. Political science studies both: theory of politics practice of politics this means, that your political research paper can be either focused on studying theoretical issues or investigating a concrete case. Consult with your professor about whether you are allowed any of these two approaches. To choose a political research paper, you need first to decide which subject area is the most interesting for you. For example, the following fields are popular with students who are to write political research papers:

forms of government history of political theory methodology of political science national political processes international relations political psychology political philosophy et al

then, you go narrower and choose a subject that you will study. For example, if you focus on political philosophy, you may study rights or justice.

After you have chosen a subject, read several information sources in order to formulate a question that you will answer in your political research paper. To illustrate how a political research paper topic can be formulated, we have prepared a list of sample topics for you: political research paper: topic 1. Political aspects of regional economic cooperation political research paper: topic 2. Comparative study of democracy in the ancient greece and in the modern usa political research paper: topic 3. Confucius rsquo s approach to ethics in politics political research paper: topic 5.

Empirical methods in political scienc use the research databases, below, that index, describe, and add subject terms to articles all of which makes it easier to find relevant material. The databases often provide the text of the article or a way to find the article through other library sources. Lexisnexis academic rich source of full text newspaper and magazine articles, as well as law and medical sources. Academic search premier this searches for both scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers.