The term ‘developmental state’ has been incorrectly used to describe any state presiding over a period of economic development and improvement in living standards. This essay describes the attributes of the ‘developmental state’ and explains how they led to highly successful economic development in the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs).

Beginning in 1997 Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF ushered in a radical land reform which rapidly accelerating after 2000. Despite ongoing racialised economic inequality in South Africa, the ANC has retained its measured approach along the market-based terms of willing-buyer/willing-seller with a focus on restitution. This essay explores the factors behind their different trajectories.

Violence surrounding the recent election in Kenya has gained high-profile media coverage in Europe and North America. In this context, the dynamics of nationalism and ethnicity in Africa—and popular understandings of the role of ‘identity’—represents a pertinent subject for critical analysis.

When Ronald Reagan took office in early 1981, he emphatically denounced the discredited policy of détente. This investigation will identify Reagan’s motivations and objectives in embarking on a Second Cold War.

Developed regions are generally able to provide basic welfare services for their citizens, while developing regions are plagued by extreme poverty, government ineffectiveness, and other socioeconomic adversities.Many scholars have attributed these disparities to the different processes through which state formation occurred in developed and developing countries. It is the purpose of this essay to examine these claims by comparing the state building processes.

This essay will begin by evaluating the increased role of the Party in all aspects of life, proceed to present the personality cult which Ceauşescu developed around his name, and will conclude by illustrating how these factors impacted the domestic situation in Romania. It will be found that Ceauşescu’s prestige and Romania’s international façade grew at the expense of severe repression and economic mismanagement at home.

The conflicts in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country have attracted a great deal of research on the macro-political, economic, social and conflict management parameters but there has been little research on the evolution and changing nature of ethno politics in regards to the radical ethno nationalist parties; namely Sinn Fein and Herri Batasuna

The purpose of the study is to determine the likely involvement of major world actors if Iran continues to defy the United Nations in its quest for nuclear power. It will conclude that military action against Iran is likely. However, if either the U.S. or Israel leads an attack, they will likely not enjoy the military support of other nations.

The different theories of regional integration have widely different views on regional integration in Europe and offer widely different explanations for it. This essay will deal with three of the main theories of regional integration: intergovernmental institutionalism, neo-functionalism and multi-level governance.

Amidst a euphoric international climate induced by the third wave of democratization, Latin American countries shed their authoritarian skin and embraced democracy throughout the 1980s. Two decades later, we are now in a position to assess whether either of these premises actually stands: has authoritarianism truly been abandoned and to what degree have democratic principles been accepted and incorporated into governance?