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Power
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What is Power?

Power is one of the most expansive concepts in academic study, appearing across disciplines including political science, sociology, literature, history, art history, and business. Its appeal lies in how it connects individual agency to broader structural forces, making it relevant whether students are analyzing social hierarchies, organizational dynamics, or cultural production. Works like Plato's Meno raise questions about knowledge and authority, while frameworks such as Porter's Five Forces apply power dynamics to competitive markets. Texts and documentary projects examining race, such as Race: The Power of an Illusion, show how power operates as a social construct with real consequences. Colonial oppression, Cold War politics, and the authority structures dramatized in The Crucible all demonstrate that power shapes history, identity, and representation in ways that reward sustained academic attention.

The papers archived here approach power from a wide range of angles. Some conduct case studies of specific industries or organizations, while others use literary analysis to examine how authority and resistance function in drama or comics. Historical and cultural approaches appear in papers on medieval Islamic art, Greek and Roman sculpture, and colonial oppression. Conflict theory provides a sociological lens, and applied topics like project management evolution and alternative energy sources show power operating within institutional and policy contexts.

A strong essay on power requires a focused thesis that specifies whose power is being examined, in what context, and through what mechanisms it operates or is contested. Evidence drawn from primary texts, historical records, or concrete case analysis carries more weight than broad generalization. The most common pitfall is treating power as a single, uniform force rather than something that shifts depending on relationships, institutions, and circumstances.

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Paper Doctorate

Imogene King's Theory of Goal Attainment in Nursing Practice

The thrust of Imogene King's theory of goal attainment is a loosely-coupled partnership between the nurse and the patient that enables communication about the patient's condition, their health goals, and a plan of…

Chris Anderson's Long Tail Theory: Economics and Communication

Long Tail economics explores how Internet retailers can increase their revenues by selling smaller volumes of a larger basket of merchandise. This differs from the traditional model in which only a few select products are chosen.

Paper Undergraduate

Camp David Accords: A Case Study in International Negotiation

THE CAMP DAVIDS ACCORDS: A CASE STUDY ON INTERNATIONAL NEGOTITAON

Paper Undergraduate

Hope Hygieia Statue: Medium, Myth, and Roman Culture

According to the website of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, The Hope Hygieia is a marble, life-sized statue of the ancient goddess of health that was originally discovered in the ancient Roman port of Ostia in 1797. It was originally owned by the British collector Sir Thomas Hope before being sold to William Randolph Hearst, who donated it to the city of Los Angeles in 1950. Over the years, the statue has been restored, de-restored to the condition in which it was originally found, the re-restored at the Getty Museum in 2006. This is a white marble statue with the clothing and hairstyle of a young Roman woman from an aristocratic background. The snake wrapped around her upper body is normal in Hygieia statues and symbolizes medicine and healing, while her expression is serene, gentle, graceful and virginal, which is how she was usually portrayed in ancient sculpture.

Paper Doctorate

British Airways Flight 9: Volcanic Ash Crisis Management

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers report entitled "Volcanic Ash: To Fly or Not to Fly? reports that the prediction of "ash movement and dispersal has become more sophisticated over the years. In the UK, the Met Office uses Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modeling Environment (NAME), computer model, developed after the Chernobyl accident in 1986." (2010, p.3) This model is reported to have tracked various atmospheric dispersion events and to have as its purpose the prediction of "how far and how concentrated, emitted particles will be dispersed, using a number of factors, such as wind, rainfall and particle size…" (Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 2010, p.3) On June 24, 1982 British Airways 747-200, Flight 9 near Jakarta Indonesia ran into trouble when the crew accidentally flew into a volcanic ash cloud from Mount Galunggung in west Java, Indonesia. The ash caused severe damage to all four engines and the aircraft lost its flying power briefly. The crew was however able to restart the engines once the plane glided out of the dust cloud. The crew was able to make an uneventful landing in Jakarta with none of the 15-crew members or 247 passengers being injured.

Essay Doctorate

Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel": Biblical Allegory and Political Satire

This paper is about the 17th and 18th century poet John Dryden. Specifically, it focuses on his epic poem "Absalom and Achitophel." The poem is a satire about the reign of Charles II and the various people who tried to take power away from him and claim that they had the right to ascend after his death. Dryden uses the historical allegory to prove the horros of greed.

Essay Doctorate

Leadership Theories and Their Role in Business Organizations

Leadership is important in the management of any organization, regardless of if the organization is a profit making or charitable one. All the people who have leadership traits can be managers, but not all managers are leaders. This paper aims at distinguishing between leadership and management, application of leadership theories in organizations and analysis of the effects of power and influence on followers. Leaders have the power to influence the behavior of followers into doing the things that they want them to do. Discussed in the paper are the roles of transformational and transactional leadership. For better understanding, the traits and characteristics of leaders are identified, to allow for management to imitate them. How leadership supports the mission and vision of the organization is also discussed, in length, to allow leaders to link their duties towards the realization of the organization's goals.

Paper Undergraduate

Community Policing Efficacy: Programs, Evidence, and Limits

The Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act of 1994 heralded the beginning of a massive effort to reform policing strategies in the United States, in part through implementation of community-policing programs at the local level. Congress has allocated billions of federal dollars over the years since to support such efforts and by the end of the 20th century, close to 90% of all police departments serving communities larger than 25,000 reported implementing community policing strategies. However, empirical studies examining the effectiveness of this style of policing are limited and most reveal a modest improvement. This report examines studies that have revealed some of the factors that contributed to the failure of community policing programs to meet the expectations of policy makers. A lack of police organizational commitment and citizen leadership are major factors that have undermined attempts to implement community policing more fully.

Paper Undergraduate

Native American Bias in K–12 Literature and Curricula

Native American portrayls in children's literature is often biased and stereotypical. This paper explores examples of this including an analysis of The Indian and the Cupboard. The theoretical framework of racial and ethnic bias is explored, as well as bias found in the library system that classifies and organizes such abstracts.

Research Paper Undergraduate

Nursing Leadership Theories: Comparison and Analysis

The work of Cherie and Gebrekida (2005) report that there is both formal and informal leadership in that managers are formally "delegated authority, including the power to reward or punish. A manager is expected to perform functions such as planning, organizing, directing (leading) and controlling (evaluating)." On the other hand, informal leaders are "not always managers performing those functions required by the organization. Leaders often are not even part of the organization. Florence Nightingale, after leaving the Crimea, was not connected with an organization but was still a leader." (Cherie and Gebrekida, 2005)

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