Government is defined as a political system by which a country or community is administered and regulated, according to the Britannica Encyclopedia. Early human civilization saw divisions between social groups manifesting themselves into primitive dictatorships where one ruler or king would arise to control the lives of many.  Classical Greek philosopher Plato described five types of government or “regimes,” and they are Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy and Tyranny. Aristocracy is a government ruled by elites; Timocracy is a system of governance ruled by honorable citizens and property owners; Oligarchy is a power structure where rule rests with a few; Democracy is a form of government in which all citizens are eligible to have an equal say in all matters that affect their lives; Tyranny is rule by a tyrant, or someone with absolute authority and/or rule.

American government traces its history back to the late 18^th century, when influential delegates including James Madison, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin came together on May 25, 1787 at the Pennsylvania State House to craft the United States Constitution. It was Madison who wanted a strong central government to provide order and stability. Delegates devised such a plan including the creation of three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial along with a system of checks and balances to ensure no single branch would ever have too much power.

Advocates for world government, a notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity has yet to come to pass. In 1945, representatives from 50 countries came together in San Francisco, California to draw up the United Nations Charter.  But the United Nations serves primarily in an advisory capacity and has no jurisdiction over the entire planet. Governments today are faced with a huge array of challenges and demands placed on it. The Arab spring is one of the more recent examples of governments being directly challenged by a youth revolution inspired by today’s global technological platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. To be efficient and more responsive to a fast changing environment, governments must learn to leverage a new set of tools so it can evolve in the 21^st century.

For our readers, we wanted to share excerpts from our librarian-selected government books and articles so you can expand upon any of the topics briefly alluded to in this post in your research.

U.S. Constitution

A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments, 3rd Edition

Author: John R. Vile

Author John R. Vile wrote his book as a companion piece to the U.S. Constitution in order to help readers better understand and appreciate one of the most unique documents in the world. Vile takes readers back to the Colonial time period providing important background on relations between the original 13 colonies and Great Britain.

Democracy

What Is Democracy?

Author: Alain Touraine, Translator: David Macey

This book is an extension of the reflections with which the author ended his previous work, Critique of Modernity. Alain Touraine seeks to demonstrate that there is a necessary link between democratic culture and the idea of the subject.

European Union

“Europe’s Autumn? Popular Sovereignty and Economic Crisis in the European Union” The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations. Volume: 13. Issue: 1

Author: Vincent Della Sala

In this article, the author’s aim is to argue that the European Union’s fundamental problems in the face of its economic crisis are rooted in a lack of popular sovereignty. The consequences for the EU resulting from the post-2008 economic crisis will remain unclear for some time, but one lesson seems to be emerging in its myriad forms, popular sovereignty matters.

United Nations

Humanitarian Intervention and the United Nations

Author: Norrie Macqueen

Author Norrie Macqueen is focused solely with the use of military contingents to manage local conflicts. While concentrating on military action the book also embraces such undertakings by the United Nations.

Political Parties

“Continuity and Change in the Organization of Political Parties” Canadian-American Public Policy. Issue: 78

Author: Mildred A. Schwartz

Author Mildred A. Schwartz evaluates continuity and change of political parties through the lens of organizational co-evolutionists. Schwartz treats continuity and change in party organizations through the interaction between environmental and institutional factors with strategic actions.

When you research Questia, users will find a wide ranging series of periodicals to aid them in their research and written assignments, including:

• More than six thousand online books that cover all types of scholarly journal topics from multicultural case studies to teaching academic literacy
• More than three academic journals articles
• More than 2,600 magazine articles and 800+ newspaper articles

A few of Questia’s top archived academic journals online include, Education, The Psychological Record, Studies in the Novel, The Historian, and Philosophy Today. For example, Education is a quarterly journal, founded in 1880 and specializes in the publication of original research and theoretical analysis of subject matter related to innovations in education and teacher preparation. The Psychological Record is a quarterly journal, founded in 1937, and presents articles on the topic of theoretical and experimental psychology.

A list of some of Questia’s more popular academic journals online can be found below. We’ve included some sample specific articles to show you the depth and scope of Questia’s archives.

Education

Physical Activity and Childhood Obesity: Strategies and Solutions for Schools and Parents

Academic journal article from Education, Vol. 132, No. 4

By Green, Gregory; Riley, Clarence; Hargrove, Brenda

Childhood obesity poses a serious threat to the health and well-being of America’s youth. The authors of this article review the medical costs associated with this chronic medical condition, detailing a number of reasons why it is such a pervasive problem. Strategies and solutions are later provided for schools and parents to help both curtail this national dilemma.

The Psychological Record

The Role of Intraverbalat Exchanges in Assessing Parent-Child Relationships

Academic journal article from The Psychological Record, Vol. 62, No. 2

By Gokhan, Nurper; Dennis, Tracy A.; Crossman, Angela M.

Verbal communication is an essential characteristic of human activity that distinguishes us from other animals. The authors of this article explore a number of different research papers that explore areas of emotional development, attachment, and socialization.

Studies in the Novel

Small Language and Big Men in Virginia Woolf

Academic journal article from Studies in the Novel, Vol. 43, No. 1

By Shirkhani, Kim

Author Kim Shirkhani

Near the beginning of Virginia Woolf’s essay, “Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown,” Woolf declares she will forego “analyzing and abstracting” in favor of telling a “simple” story. Author Kim Shirkani examines further Woolf’s discrediting of analytical statements even though she uses them as well to advance her own agenda.

The Historian

The Forgotten Attempts to End the Forgotten War: Congress, Korea, and McCarthyism

Academic journal article from The Historian, Vol. 72, No. 4

By Blomstedt, Larry W.

The wars in Afghanistan and Korea both proved problematic due to hazy definitions of victory and dwindling public support over time. Yet, these conflicts were fought and debated in very different political environments. Larry Blomstedt’s article examines how lawmakers tried to end the Korean War during the Truman presidency.

Philosophy Today

Sartre’s Absolute Freedom in Being and Nothingness: The Problems Persist

Academic journal article from Philosophy Today, Vol. 56, No. 4

By Landau, Iddo

Freedom to choose and freedom to obtain are interrelated, according to Sartre, since the specific projects we undertake assign particular meanings to the situations in which we find ourselves, and it is only within these spheres of meaning that we obtain, or fail to obtain, certain specific ends. This essay reviews reviews criticisms of Sartre’s philosophy concerning human individual freedom and whether or not universal absolute freedom does not collide with common experience.

For even further research, check out our blog post on “How to research communication journals on cross-cultural communications, advocacy and interpersonal communications.”

What are some of your favorite academic journals for online research? Tell us in the comments below!

Instructors suggest 10 hours or more to complete the final paper, recognizing the many steps involved to craft an effective research paper. For their part students know that writing a research paper can be overwhelming, taking entire days, weeks or months to complete. Yet while over 52% of college instructors recommend starting a research paper the day it is assigned, only 17% of students report doing so.

The reasons for this disconnect vary. Many of the skills required to write an effective research paper are new to students, who often enter college level courses ill-prepared to take on an extended research assignment.   Sound academic writing requires that students understand how to avoid plagiarism, how to integrate sources seamlessly, and how to correctly cite sources, yet teaching the fundamentals of the research process takes focus away from the main course objectives in most courses.  Students face a process that can be unfamiliar or daunting, and do not plan accordingly.

Questia‘s brand new tutorials teach the research process in a completely digital, multi-modal format including 50 videos, 50 learning activities, and 500 quiz questions.   When students dive into Questia’s wide range of research tutorials, they’ll find complete sets of faculty-developed instructional videos, example lessons and quizzes to master every step of the paper-writing process.  Combined with an online library of more than 75,000 books, 9 million articles and an unmatched set of research tools, Questia now presents a unique and powerful set of solutions to the problems students and instructors face when working on a research project.

A sampling of Questia’s comprehensive research tutorials include:

• Planning a Paper: Finding the right topic, developing a point of view, and organizing thoughts and sources in a coherent way is crucial. This tutorial helps students start off on the right foot.
• Evaluating Sources: This tutorial helps students learn to evaluate print and Web sources by deciding whether a source is credible, safe to use and highly relevant to their research topic.
• Avoiding Plagiarism: The difference between paraphrasing and plagiarizing is often misunderstood. This tutorial teaches students when and how to quote directly, paraphrase passages or, simply summarize the main points.
• Quoting Sources: Quality research assignments include citing an array of quality sources. Students can learn how to effectively quote sources and follow the correct in-text citation.
• Working with Documentation Styles: With differences between in-text citations, bibliographies and quotation styles, it’s no easy feat to master all writing style guidelines. This tutorial introduces students to MLA, APA, and Chicago documentation styles, as well as the features that all citation styles have in common.

Questia has always saved students valuable time on research papers and projects, and now its research tutorials can serve as students’ own private tutor, helping them strengthen their grasp of research and writing. If not already a member, students may sign up for a free one-day trial at Questia.com and start writing better research papers faster. Instructors may receive more information and a demonstration from their Cengage Learning representative.

Mexican history

The seeds of Mexican independence were planted when on September 16, 1810 a priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, with a historic proclamation, urged his fellow Mexicans to take up arms against the Spanish government. Ending Spanish Colonial rule took Mexico down a long, difficult road towards establishing independence. Being forced to endure many civil uprisings, Mexico lost nearly half of its geographical landscape to the United States during a two year war ending in 1848.

We at Questia want to open the doors to our digital library by granting access to reference works on five books that explore Mexican history, tracing its roots back to the Mayans all the way through the fight for independence to the continuing challenges faced by today’s native population.

Mayan Civilization

In this second edition, author John S. Henderson has reorganized his research to take into account the vast new quantities of data about the Maya that was unearthed in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Epigraphers have put forward an avalanche of new interpretations of glyphs and readings of texts that provide a rich source of information for reconstructing the politics of Classic Maya cities. All of the new research has shifted basic perceptions about the Maya cultural tradition. [Henderson, John S. The World of the Ancient Maya. 2nd ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1997. Questia. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.]

Mexico under Spanish Rule (New Spain)

Author Susan Schroeder examines Mexico’s nonnative populations who, not uncommonly, still feel threatened and angry whenever there is a manifestation by indigenous groups to make known their grievances. Why this misplaced animosity toward Indians continues is difficult to understand but one can pinpoint a series of recent instigating events including the United States designating 1992 as the year of the American Indian. According to Schroeder, nonnatives’ qualms are rooted in the colonial era, when Spaniards worried constantly about Indian uprisings. [Schroeder, Susan, ed. Native Resistance and the Pax Colonial in New Spain. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 1998. Questia. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.]

Mexican War of Independence

Author Jaime E. Rodriguez examines the complex process of New Spain’s transition from a kingdom of the Spanish Monarchy to the First Federal Republic of Mexico. During his first ten years of research, Rodriguez  worked in the archives and repositories of Mexico City; the second decade he spent researching in the states of Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Yucatán, Jalisco, Michoacán, and Zacatecas in Mexico as well as in the archives of Madrid and Seville.  The overriding question Rodriguez explores is why one former colony, the United States, succeeded in establishing a stable government and a flourishing economy, while other former colonies, the Spanish American countries, endured political chaos and economic decline. [RodrÍguez O., Jaime E. "We Are Now the True Spaniards": Sovereignty, Revolution, Independence, and the Emergence of the Federal Republic of Mexico, 1808-1824. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2012. Questia. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.]

The Mexican War (U.S.-Mexican War)

The editors have chosen to spotlight the Mexican war diary of controversial Southerner, Lt. Daniel Harvey Hill, and 4th Artillery, USA. It is the day-by-day chronicle of young Lt. Daniel Harvey Hill, Company E, 4th Artillery, U.S. Army, from June 8, 1846, when he embarked for Mexico at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, to March 24, 1848, when he sailed back home.  The Mexico City campaign was among the most important military operations conducted by American arms prior to the Civil War, and Hill’s perceptive eye provides the reader with unique insights into the expedition. [Hill, Daniel Harvey. A Fighter from Way Back: The Mexican War Diary of Lt. Daniel Harvey Hill, 4th Artillery, USA. Ed. Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr. and Timothy D. Johnson. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2002. Questia. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.]

The Mexican Revolution

Authors Hodges and Gandy try to solve the puzzle of what happened to the Mexican Revolution? What happened to the social pact that was supposed to benefit the business community, the bureaucrat-professionals, the proletarian workers, and the landless peasants? The outcome of the Mexican Revolution is still a mystery. According to both authors, the revolution had not only been betrayed; an invisible hand had also remodeled the business corporation. Professionals not only seized the reins; they had become the corporations’ chief beneficiaries. [Hodges, Donald C., and Ross Gandy. Mexico, the End of the Revolution. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002. Questia. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.]

Today, Mexico is not only one of the world’s largest economies, but its strong ties to the United States through its free trade agreements have enabled it to produce 1.7 trillion in overall gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011, and with Volkswagen’s latest auto plant opening in Mexico, the country seeks to become the world’s top car maker.

Want to see more? Get full access to these books and more by joining Questia today!
Click here to see a complete listing of all the newly added book titles.

"Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11" By: Amy B. Zegart

"The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy" By: David Kaiser

"Brain Sense: The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us" By: Faith Hickman Brynie

"Scorsese by Ebert" By: Roger Ebert

1. Everything in moderation – including moderation. “The secret to good physical and mental health is to avoid excess,” Tracy notes. She explains, “Although you need to be persistent, I’d rather you didn’t become a health freak. In a student environment, you can’t be totally disciplined. Just pay attention to how you lead your life most of the time. A healthy lifestyle is one that doesn’t take the healthy lifestyle to extremes.”
2. Eat well. Tracy says this means paying attention to both what you eat and how. She recommends a varied diet with vegetables and fresh fruits which are good for the brain.  Add “avocados, soya beans, and fish…if you like them and want some extra brain power.”  Also, “You are not just what you eat, you are also how you eat – so take time off for meals.”
3. Exercise. “In my experience,” notes Tracy, “students know the value of exercise…Suffice it to say that exercise plays a vital part in counterbalancing the stress responses produced in our bodies by having to meet deadlines and exams.”
4. Sleep. Calling sleep “a hugely underrated activity,” Tracy notes we’re getting less and less of it. “Although the hours of sleep before midnight are thought to be the most beneficial,” she says, “it’s common for students to burn the midnight oil, to watch TV or meet social or academic demands. An erratic lifestyle like this commonly produces sleep problems.”  Her tips for re-regulating your body clock include “going to bed and getting up at regular times, even if you feel exhausted all day.”
5. Express yourself. “The way you feel about your work and other issues in your life plays a huge part in how you deal with stress,” explains Tracy. “Practice taking a longer view, setting yourself realistic targets, and being forgiving of yourself if you fail to meet your deadlines. Remember to keep disconnecting your self esteem from your grades.”

Tracy emphasizes that “Your studies are important, but never at the cost of your physical and mental well-being… Besides, if you are well, you will perform better in exams. Exams offer you an opportunity to practise facing challenges by building up your strengths, so that when the deadline comes, you meet it alive and kicking.”

Find additional details on each of the Five Pillars of Health plus guidelines for maximizing them in the chapter Healthy body, healthy mind.

Are you taking advantage of your free time?

Most of us spend our days scrambling to get everything in. So when school or job breaks offer up a chunk of free time, we can be at a loss for how to fill it. Rather than zoning out until the hours dribble away or filling up the time with busy work, consider these fun – and frugal – alternatives.

ZenCollegeLife.com suggests, “if you work hard, I mean really hard, you have to play hard during the breaks, to even the universe.”  Their hard-playing suggestions include building the biggest snowman possible, ice skating, creating something (“Music, film, art, anything that you enjoy and can showcase your talents”), and visiting a zoo, museum, symphony orchestra, or theatre.

Other ideas: “Find a good book, curl up by a fire, and read, read, read.”  And “Spend quality time with family. This may not be on the top of your priorities, but once school starts you won’t get the chance even if you want to.  Take a little time to connect with the family.” See their article Work Hard, Play Hard: Things to do during the Winter Break for more excellent things to do – and a few not to do – while you’re on holiday.

In Endangered Arts, Psychology Today talks about “a meandering chat” and notes that “Few things are in fact as pleasurable and fertile as engaging in good talk.”  They cite Daniel Menaker, author of A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation, who says, “”Non-goal-oriented conversations are a great luxury now.” He explains, “It’s not like it’s simply nice if you can have them—conversations are necessary for creating wisdom about the self and others.”

Even when newfound time is the result of a mandated furlough, there can be benefits. In her Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article Work Zone: No-pay (and no work) furlough can provide opportunity to recharge, Cindy Krisher Goodman reports that, while these cost-cutting measures by businesses, schools, government, or other organizations are considered by some employees to be “a temporary pay cut… this forced unplugging from work can mean truly reconnecting with family and friends.”

And in the (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Star Tribune piece Upside of forced downtime, Kim Palmer shares stories of “idled workers” who are “making the most of their furloughs by exploring new interests, volunteering or just kicking back.” Palmer notes that, “There’s even a new term for it: funemployment, along with websites where the funemployed can find free and low-cost activities or connect (funemployedsingles.com).”