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Monarchy
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What is Monarchy?

Monarchy is one of the oldest and most studied forms of government, making it a central subject in political science, history, and Western civilization courses. Students examine how monarchical systems concentrate power in a single ruler, how they gained legitimacy, and how they evolved or collapsed over time. The topic spans ancient political philosophy, including the work of Aristotle and Cicero on mixed constitutions, through medieval tensions between the papacy and monarchies, to early modern debates over kingship and sovereignty. France's role in monarchical history — from centralized royal rule to the birth of the First French Republic — gives the subject particular academic weight, as does the enduring presence of constitutional monarchies in countries like Norway today.

Student papers on this topic approach monarchy from several angles. Historical analysis is common, covering periods such as the Norman Conquest in England, the Middle Ages, and the decline of the Roman Empire. Comparative work appears frequently, contrasting monarchical governments with republican or revolutionary alternatives and examining how figures and movements transformed feudal, monarchy-based systems. Regional case studies extend the topic beyond Europe, with papers addressing contemporary monarchies in places like Saudi Arabia and Iran. Some papers take a philosophical or constitutional lens, while others focus on policy questions such as European integration.

A strong essay on monarchy should establish a clear, period-specific thesis rather than attempting to survey all monarchical history at once. Evidence drawn from primary sources, historical events, or political theory carries the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating monarchy as a single uniform system — successful essays distinguish carefully between absolute, constitutional, and theocratic forms of royal rule.

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Paper Undergraduate
The Muslim Brotherhood's role in the Arab Spring and Western concerns
This is an essay discussing the organization begun by al Banna in the 1930's--the Muslim Brotherhood. The goals of the organization are to return Arab countries to fundamentalist rule and to create a single Arab state. Western countries and Israel see a problem with this and are trying to make sense of this nonviolent organization.
Paper Undergraduate
Local governance and crown authority in sixteenth-century Castile
Historically, 16th-century Castile was considered to be fundamentally an urban society that depended on cities and towns for the articulation of its local and centralized administration (Elliott, 1991). Privilege was considered to be a matter of a priori rights founded on traditions associated with nobility and wealth. The lower social stratum was maintained in order to provide fiscal and military support for the crown. The qualities of separateness—both cultural and logistical—between the urban central and diffuse local jurisdictions engendered very different perspectives regarding authority. Rather than arbitrating reasonable agreements, local authority worked to undermine what was considered to be overreaching by the crown. I contend that the autonomy of local jurisdictions worked against the crown's insistence on absolutism and a monarchy of estates that were grounded in medieval social concepts, however, the diffusion of authority at the local level also eroded the capacity to effectively organize and achieve a truly liberalized state.
Research Paper Doctorate
Theissen and Merz's comprehensive guide to the historical Jesus
Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz bridge a gap between trade book and scholarly discourse with their 642-page tome The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide. This joint effort by Theissen and Merz explores the subject…
Paper Doctorate
Political conceptions of virtue and justice in Aristotle, Hobbes, and Machiavelli
What are the different conceptions of knowledge that inform Hobbes's and Aristotle's respective accounts of politics? Be specific about questions of individualism, virtue, and justice.
Thesis Undergraduate
John Stuart Mill's libertarianism and the constraints of the U.S. Constitution
None of the issues being raised today by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement are new, but rather they date back to the very beginning of the United States. At the time the Constitution was written in 1787, human rights and civil liberties were far more constrained than they are in the 21st Century. Only white men with property had voting rights for example, while most states still had slavery and women and children were still the property of fathers and husbands. Only very gradually was the Constitution amended to grant equal citizenship and voting rights to all, and even the original Bill of Rights was added only because the Antifederalists threatened to block ratification. In comparison, the libertarianism of John Stuart Mill in his famous book On Liberty was very radical indeed, even in 1859 much less 1789. He insisted that individuals should be left totally free to do as they pleased so long as they did no harm to others. To that extent, he would have supported the rights of OWS to protest and dissent, and been highly critical of how the authorities were suppressing the movement on the flimsiest of pretexts. As a supporter of free markets, he would also have opposed the trillions in dollars in bailout money that large banks and corporations have received from governments. On the other hand, he probably would have found the ideas of many OWS supporters too radical or socialistic, but at the same time have defended their right to assemble and demonstrate
Research Paper Doctorate
The French Revolution's Reign of Terror and lasting consequences
The French Revolution was known as a Reign of Terror. It is important to understand why it began, how it was justified, its goals and whether the goals were accomplished.
Research Paper Doctorate
Comparing the reforms of Hammurabi and Akhenaten
The ancient histories of Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations have much in common. Both regions were inhabited since prehistoric times by nomadic groups, which began to settle down in towns and villages by around…
Paper Doctorate
Dumbledore's philosophy of death in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
This order is a series of two explications that tie into a major thematic structure found in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The first quote is from the novel itself and is Dumbledore speaking to Harry directly about the nature of how death is a natural part of life. The second is from a critical work which shows how Harry's own adventure truly began after the knowledge of his parents' deaths.
Research Paper Doctorate
Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815
¶ … Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon last days as an Emperor. The paper briefly touches upon the war strategies of both sides and explains why Bonaparte encountered a crushing defeat at Waterloo.
Paper Doctorate
Differences between autocratic and democratic government systems
This paper discusses the dual concepts of democracy and autocracy. These are two different systems of government entirely. Democracy is a form of government where the people are in control of policy making either through direct vote or through representation. Autocracy on the other hand is rule of one person who controls everything.