Realism Term Paper -- Political Science

Realism by definition is an approach to global politics derived from the tradition of power politics and belief that behavior is determined by the search for and distribution of power. [5] By using the concept of power it is easy to discuss basics of realism. Realist theories are based of beliefs that states are motivated by aggressive or defensive urges, the national interest is survival and states are unitary actors each moving towards their own national interest.[4] The first key feature of realism is statism. Statism is an idea that the state is an accurate representative of the will of its people.[4] The state is sovereign and therefore is able to govern itself as it wants. With this sovereignty that state is able to institute security. After a state has established security it is then able to continue with a communal culture. In international relationships however sovereignty does not supply security therefore a state must vie with its neighboring states to accomplish it. This can lead to a power struggle to ensure that state’s people can live in security.[5] A second key point of realism is survival. Survival to realists is rather simple; the state with the most power stands a better likelihood of survival. Naturally it is believed that survival is the definitive objective of realism. To guarantee survival a state may stray from their set of ethics because it cannot worry about moral issues. If state were to hold onto its set of beliefs, it may suffer at the expense of a more powerful state. In realism cases there are two conflicting segments, defensive and offensive realists.[5] A state with a defensive realist perspective believes they must obtain enough power to ensure security, but not so much power that their security... ... event. Works Cited 1. http://www.orsam.org.tr/tr/trUploads/Yazilar/Dosyalar/201229_ortadoguetutler_volume3_no2.pdf#page=11). Ozlem TUR. January 2012. ORSAM. 13 Apr. 2012 2. (http://www.laidi.com/sitedp/sites/default/files/The%20Arab%20Counterrevolution_0.pdf). Hussein Agha and Robert Malley. September 29 2011. The New York Review of Books. 13 Apr. 2012 3. (http://www.pomeps.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/POMEPS_BriefBooklet4_Syria-TEXT_WEB-1.pdf) Mona Yacoubian and Radwan Ziadeh. 4 May 2011 Project on Middle East Political Science. 13 Apr. 2012 4. Tim Dunne and Brian C. Schmidt, â€Å"Realism,† in John Baylis and Steve Smith, The Globalization of Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 162-183. 5. Mansbach, Richard and Kirsten Taylor, Introduction to Global Politics. New York: Routledge. 2008 Print

Heart of Darkness †An Allegory? Essay

Heart of Darkness is in its entirety not an allegory. Its surface is too profound and meaningful to allow itself to be interpreted in more than two ways. There are however several parts in the novel that hint at the opposite and that prove that the context of the novel can be seen from more than one angle. This can mainly be perceived in the life of Mr. Kurtz, as his descent into madness can be seen as an allegory for the colonization and destruction of the African continent and its people by the Europeans. Because just as Kurtz was a perfectly sane and normal man before he went into the African wilderness so were also the European nations very civilized before they came to Africa. And just as the nations of Europe governed Africa and its people without rules and restrictions so did isolation compel Mr. Kurtz to live his life without boundaries. Proof of this can be found on page 83, â€Å"His mother was half-English his father was half-French. All of Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz.† This shows that Kurtz can be seen as a symbol of Europe, as he is the typical European explorer – ambitious, greedy and adventurous. And if Kurtz is Europe embodied then it would be quite logical that Africa should be represented by the â€Å"harlequin† (p.87) his faithful Russian comrade. Their relation greatly resembles that of the relation between Africa and Europe, although the African people act quite differently to their â€Å"masters† compared to how the Russian acted towards Kurtz. The similarities lay in how the master treats the subordinate. â€Å"He wanted to shoot me too one day†¦.I had a small lot of ivory†¦he wanted it, and wouldn’t hear reason†¦and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom he jolly well pleased.†(p.92). The way Kurtz treats the Russian is mirrored in the way the Europeans governed Africa and extracted its riches. They stopped at nothing to make their colonies as effective and prosperous as possible. This of course included killing any opposition, or in the words of Conrad, killing whoever they jolly well pleased. In conclusion it can be said that the two voyages in Heart of Darkness, the one in the mind and the one on the Congo River, are not as much an allegory  as they are descriptions of two separate, but still closely linked, plot developments. For example, as the company sails ever closer to Kurtz and the heart of the African jungle Marlow’s internal voyage alters his morals and opinions according to his experiences. This might seem as an allegory to some, as it features two separate levels, one relatively superficial the other underlying and sometimes also very symbolic, as when Kurtz is portrayed as a devil. However the novel misses out on the most important aspect of an allegory, that of it having a layer used only to represent or suggest other elements, often abstract, than those found in the main story. So although Heart of Darkness contains much symbolism and dual meanings, it falls short of being a true allegory of anything, but perhaps the voyage of Mr. Kurtz soul.

What is the F-Distribution

There are many probability distributions that are used throughout statistics. For example, the standard normal distribution, or bell curve, is probably the most widely recognized.  Normal distributions are only one type of distribution.  One very useful probability distribution for studying population variances is called the F-distribution. We will examine several of the properties of this type of distribution. Basic Properties The probability density formula for the F-distribution is quite complicated.  In practice, we do not need to be concerned with this formula. It can, however, be quite helpful to know some of the details of the properties concerning the F-distribution. A few of the more important features of this distribution are listed below: The F-distribution is a family of distributions. This means that there is an infinite number of different F-distributions. The particular F-distribution that we use for an application depends upon the number of degrees of freedom that our sample has. This feature of the F-distribution is similar to both the t-distribution and the chi-square distribution.The F-distribution is either zero or positive, so there are no negative values for F. This feature of the F-distribution is similar to the chi-square distribution.The F-distribution is skewed to the right. Thus this probability distribution is nonsymmetrical. This feature of the F-distribution is similar to the chi-square distribution. These are some of the more important and easily identified features. We will look more closely at the degrees of freedom. Degrees of Freedom One feature shared by chi-square distributions, t-distributions, and F-distributions is that there is really an infinite family of each of these distributions. A particular distribution is singled out by knowing the number of degrees of freedom. For a t distribution, the number of degrees of freedom is one less than our sample size. The number of degrees of freedom for an F-distribution is determined in a different manner than for a t-distribution or even chi-square distribution. We will see below exactly how an F-distribution arises. For now, we will only consider enough to determine the number of degrees of freedom. The F-distribution is derived from a ratio involving two populations. There is a sample from each of these populations and thus there are degrees of freedom for both of these samples. In fact, we subtract one from both of the sample sizes to determine our two numbers of degrees of freedom. Statistics from these populations combine in a fraction for the F-statistic. Both the numerator and denominator have degrees of freedom. Rather than combining these two numbers into another number, we retain both of them. Therefore any use of an F-distribution table requires us to look up two different degrees of freedom. Uses of the F-Distribution The F-distribution arises from inferential statistics concerning population variances. More specifically, we use an F-distribution when we are studying the ratio of the variances of two normally distributed populations. The F-distribution is not solely used to construct confidence intervals and test hypotheses about population variances. This type of distribution is also used in a one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA). ANOVA is concerned with comparing the variation between several groups and variation within each group.  To accomplish this we utilize a ratio of variances. This ratio of variances has the F-distribution.  A somewhat complicated formula allows us to calculate an F-statistic as a test statistic.