Ask a question for clarification 2013.

[TonyEcon]

Hi everyone, for those who don't know I did international studies (Global politics) and national politics (Australian politics) and am relatively knowledgeable in these areas. Feel free to ask questions and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

[Vermilliona]

Hi, thanks for offering to do this!

I have a question which perhaps isn't quite Global Politics specific, but feeds into a lot of the other humanities subjects I'm doing.. When a question asks you to 'evaluate' (the extent to which this global actor has achieved its aims, blabla), is it basically the same thing as 'discuss', i.e. you're giving their successes and failures, but with 'evaluate' at the end you make a conclusion as to whether they have achieved their aims? And should you also have a reason?

Also, sidenote, any recommended reading? I have a good 'newspaper summary' app, and have also been reading Chomsky, which has just made me a very angry person who throws things at the TV when the news comes on, but can you suggest anything that maybe helped you?

Thank you in advance!

[TomPosa]

For Global at least, evaluate means that you have to make a judgement. It doesn't really matter what your judgement is, but there needs to be a statement that includes "successful", "unsuccessful", "relatively successful", "mixed success", or something along those lines. YOu also need to back it up obviously with evidence and for an 8-mark question (which are often evaluate) you probably need to make a least two separate points to support your argument/use several types of example. So for example, in AOS2, if you wanted to evaluate the success of a state in achieving its national interest, you would need to examine several different types of power/foreign policy instruments and how the state has used them as well as providing ways they have and haven't been effective (ie. discuss both success and failure).

Wow, Noam Chomsky... You might want to read something to balance out his views LOL. To be honest reading books for GP is not essential; you'd be better to read The Economist. Guaranteed to be something useful in every issue as well as lots of interesting IR stuff. Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs are also good magazines as well for politics and international relations in general.

[Vermilliona]

Thank you! 

[TonyEcon]

^ Just about answers it. I'll just add one thing, even if a question asks you to discuss, if the question is above eight marks you are expected to intertwine an evaluation.

[edwin]

Hi there!

With questions like "Discuss the power, authority, and influence of...", I often find it rather difficult to distinguish between the three categories. Is there an easy way of doing that, and then finding specific examples relating to each? They effectively seem like the same thing...

Also, on the note of examples, asides from those given in the textbook, what would be good sources to search from? I seem to be trawling through the internet aimlessly sometimes haha.

Thanks

[TonyEcon]

Hi there!

With questions like "Discuss the power, authority, and influence of...", I often find it rather difficult to distinguish between the three categories. Is there an easy way of doing that, and then finding specific examples relating to each? They effectively seem like the same thing...

Also, on the note of examples, asides from those given in the textbook, what would be good sources to search from? I seem to be trawling through the internet aimlessly sometimes haha.

Thanks

All three concepts are inextricably interlinked.  As a general rule power is defined as influence and therefore it is encompassed in the definition of power. Influence tends to just be a broader way at looking at power.  Authority slightly differs, there are two different kinds of authority, legitimate and illegitimate authority.  For instance, the Australian governments authority is derived from legitimate elections, contrast that to the illegitimate authority exercised by the former dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.

[edwin]

Thank you!