China has special corporation and competition zones in their country. How does that work?

How have your political views changed or evolved?

What have been the biggest factors influencing your political views?
Was it slowly over time, more drastic, or not at all??
Has it affected any of your relationships?

very real, kinda vulnerable post

okay so, i went to school for political science. i love the field, it has shaped me into a person who cares deeply about social justice and how things work internally.
however, i wasn’t a good student. a combination of life and mental health issues, but i digress from that.

due to trump’s new policy on fafsa, i had to drop out of school since i reached the max amount of loans one can take out (ik, ik, like i said: mental health issues). along with that, my gpa wasn’t the greatest (i dropped out right as i was entering academic probation with a 1.9 gpa. again, life and mental health issues). i would like to go back to school and finish my degree (i have 24 credits left) and get into a career in the law field.

what i want to do:
-save enough money to go back to school. issue: due to my gpa, idk if my school (state school) or any school would take me.
-i’d go to school spring ‘28 and spring ‘29 and get my degree spring ‘29. in the times between them, work and save money to be able to afford the semesters and put the minimum payment towards my student loans in between those times as well
-fall’29 get a post-bacc in poli sci so that i can raise my gpa a bit more. issue: these have been really hard to find and i have no clue where to start. the one thing i found was on reddit & it was from covid times (i think)
-get paralegal certification & have it before i even think about the next bullet point
-second degree (possibly in business administration or philosophy. this ties back in later let me cook).
-start masters degree 2031 and graduate in 2032/2033
-begin lsat prep during masters
-lsat a year after graduating with masters

where philosophy ties in: masters in PPE
where business admin comes in: i wanna own a business one day. so knowing the ins and outs is important to me. also, potentially one day becoming a real estate agent, and ik a lot of realtors who go to school for business administration and philosophy.

(i’m a virgo w a cap rising, so yes i did take the time to plan out the next few years and do some research. thank the universe for adhd medication and finally being properly medicated after nearly a decade).

that’s what i would like to do. ik a lot of this is far-fetched and based on so many factors. however, if i can have everything i’ve ever wanted in life. it would be that. ik from where i’m at currently. it is a STEEP uphill climb, but i’m willing to climb it

i’m still young (26), so i’m aware i have all of the time in the world. however, it also constantly feels like i’m running out of time.

idk man, i think i’m just looking for some feedback

anyways, what would you do?

I researched a bit because I realized the other day that why don’t we treat churches as any business entities.

I know the reasons are they say the government could tax and regulate certain ones differently and punish differnt ones and it’s not separation of church and state to tax. Audits and stuff would be required and the Supreme Court say it’s entanglement.

That argument makes no sense though because the act of not taxing and creating laws that don’t tax them is interfence and entanglement anyway. It’s a entanglement inherently supports them and fills their pockets. I also think the argument that the government would have to audit them makes no sense because they would have to be audited and regulated TO declare a church status and not be taxed.

They should pay their fair share like anyone else. We are losing out on so much potential tax revenue. The people who support them being tax free also tell us that poor people just need to work harder. Why arnt churches treated with the same degree?

Hi everyone!

I recently graduated from the University of Ottawa with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Communication, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to build a career with my degree.

I’m particularly interested in government, public policy, diplomacy, international relations, public affairs, and political communications. However, I’m finding it difficult to navigate the job market and identify the right entry-level positions to apply for.

For those who studied Political Science, especially in Canada:

• What was your first job after graduation, and how did you get it? • What career paths are worth exploring beyond the obvious options? • What job titles should I be searching for as a recent graduate? • Did you find it easier to enter the field through government, think tanks, NGOs, political offices, or the private sector? • How important are internships, networking, and graduate degrees when trying to enter these fields? • If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting out today, what would it be?

I chose this degree because I’m genuinely interested in politics and public affairs, but I also want to be realistic about career opportunities and the best ways to gain relevant experience.

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, including what worked for you and what you would do differently. Thanks!

Which scenario is more likely ?

I've often heard the reason why leaders and founding figures of cults, political factions, and rebellions are captured rather than killed is because their death would somehow strengthen their followers. I was wondering if this reasoning actually holds water, especially given the many times the opposite happened, and exiled or arrested leaders ended up coming back and amassing more power like Stalin or Hitler, or managing to rally again like Napoleon.

Is this a holdover from a time of kingly divinity, or have there been cases where a faction increases in power because their leader was killed?

Or are they a separate faction from Republicans?

I put together a discord server for the 2026-2027 cycle if anyone is interesting in forming a small group to chill, chat, and discuss personal statements or late LSATs.

Hopefully can help a bit on status updates, essay swapping, and moral support!

https://discord.gg/beBpPCR467

Therefore, making it a communist monarchy?

This originally started as a comment on someone’s post about polisci jobs, and these last few days I’ve seen more and more of these kinda posts. I feel like I have something worthwhile to say on it.

Bear with me, but I think a lot of you guys are missing the point of your degree.

You’ve been taught soooo many things other than just policy making.

An issue I see with polisci graduates a lot is they keep complaining they can’t find jobs “in their field” but most times they do not fully understand what their field actually is, believing it to just be either academic research or various levels and departments of government.

If you’re someone genuinely passionate by those aspects of it, by all means chase your dreams.

But for those of you of a more practical nature; you are trained political animals. Think advisors next to the throne, consiglieres, “right hand men”, leaders, and thinkers.

You have all been (hopefully if you listened in class lol) trained to think, to analyze and criticize, to act independently, and be able to see through your own personal axioms and incorporate levels of analysis.

Most importantly, if you’ve written enough papers, then you’ve surely learnt how to plan, organize and prioritize tasks, and execute them efficiently and effectively.

These are REAL skills, real VALUABLE skills that a lot of companies and NGOs would pay top dollar for. C-suit type shit.

Expand your horizons, if you’re limiting yourself to a single narrow career path and are experiencing difficulties finding your spot, that’s why!

Is it really your dream to knock doors for some politician’s campaign?

Or do ya’ll wanna make a real difference?

This is now purely my own personal opinion, but if you’re someone who wants to “do good”. Then just do good. Don’t wait around for the politicians to do it. Go out in the world and be an agent of the change you wanna see, in any endeavour you end up in.

I am conducting an independent research project to see how a person's socioeconomic background and academic background/stream, shapes their views on wealth, traditional culture, and government.

It would only take around 3 minutes, please help me gather some data for my paper. Here's the link

https://forms.gle/4cY8rGG9GhRTxPTH7

A little bit of click bait here, because the job market is cripplingly bad right now and I seriously sympathize with anyone trying to find work - it’s a desert right now.

That said, something I RARELY see people in this sub pursue or recommend is campaign work.

You can’t get a job in the state department or the hill? Tough shit! I guarantee (especially in a midterm year like 26) there was a campaign near you in desperate need of field organizers, research associates, communications roles, press assistants, etc. campaigns are the PERFECT entry level jobs for someone with a PoliSci degree, campaigns desperately need articulate, well educated people to help communicate with voters, and there are campaigns in every locality, in every state, for every party.

Saw someone say we should be encouraging people to pursue other fields - bullshit! If you’re civically educated and passionate, get on a campaign right now.

Misconceptions of College and Career / Not Getting Job Offers Before Graduation or within 3-6 months of graduating (here is some advice to recent college graduates and young adults):

This phenomenon of having a signed job offer in your junior year of college let alone before graduating your senior year doesn’t work/doesn’t exist for everybody, especially for people from working class backgrounds who went to decent, mid-teir/upper-mid-teir universities (≈ T60-T200); this practically only applies to people who already have a load of connections and inherited a network from family (and friends) with pre-existing professional connections, or those who go to Ivy League universities, Ivy Plus, UCs, a few Flagship universities with a ton of cultural capital because of their football teams, Jock Schools, and some Party School universities that get better traction just because of their name recognition which happens to be largely based off of their social or cultural capital i.e. the cultural impact they have on a given region over the actual contents of their education and degree programs. Mostly nowadays for the vast majority of people at non-fancy/non-prestigious universities that don’t have strong partnerships with employers resulting in a dedicated direct pipeline to certain jobs through On Campus Recruiting (OCR) or On Campus Interviews (OCI) - plus certain fields like law, accounting, and finance almost exclusively hire through OCI/OCR with some exceptions - , (but overall for most jobs) they instead want you to complete your degree first before applying to jobs. Very few people get a job offer before graduating; and for a vast majority of recent graduates getting a job offer within 3-6 months of graduating is literally impossible (for some job applications you don’t even get a response in less than 6 months after applying — whether that be a rejection or being called to interview for the employer).

——

So the whole “what are you going to do with your major” question is going to be a very loaded question because there are too many options to list out and most people aren’t going to get their dream job straight out of college (or even at all), they’re going to have to choose something else on the large list of positions their degree(s), experience, and/or their personal, familial, and professional connections can potential lead them to. There are tons of careers that require or prefer that you have a bachelor’s degree but don’t require a degree in a specific subject area because several bachelor’s degree programs that are to many to mention cover the specific skills they’re looking for (which are transferable from one field to another) or they tend to hire several people who studied different subject areas to work together on the same projects because each field brings its own professionally educated perspective at problem solving.

Most people aren’t going to get their dream job straight out of college (or at all), they’re going to have to choose something else on the large list of positions their degree can potential lead them to. There are tons of careers that require or prefer that you have a bachelor’s degree but don’t require a degree in a specific subject area because several bachelor’s degree programs that are to many to mention cover the specific skills they’re looking for (which are transferable from one field to another) or they tend to hire several people who studied different subject areas to work together on the same projects because each field brings its own professionally educated perspective at problem solving. A specific major can get you into 50-100 different job titles, some are going to be different from each other while others happen to be identical positions with different titles.

——————

College is meant to teach you how to problem solve and critically think when Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) all fall apart, while skilled trade vocational education and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), mostly only teach how to operate within a very broad and generic imperfect facsimile of SOPs, while bachelor’s degrees teach both. One issue today is that many employers don’t give people the chance to learn on the job skills that can’t be taught in the classroom but are learnt by doing things on the job by trial and error or by following the lead of a more senior coworker (even internships let alone entry-level roles are starting to lack on-the-job training and only very few mostly prestigious or prestigious-adjacent universities have formal co-op programs with industry partners); so now there is a very small gap in practical knowledge between what is taught in a classroom/internship setting and what a job needs that can’t be closed without employer-provided on-the-job training, causing a loss of institutional knowledge because employers are too lazy to train employees in very specific company or niche industry SOP which are too specific and to many per specific industry/position/sector to cover in tertiary education or post-secondary education/training settings.

A Ton of Jobs Require or Prefer a Bachelor's Degree or Higher, The Job Market Across Sectors is Terrible, and a Political Science Education Can Fulfil The Need for Higher Education:

Most Administrative Assistant jobs (at least in the United States) require a bachelor's degree and 2 years of experience, an associate's degree with 4 years of experience, or a high school diploma and 5 to 8 years of directly related experience doing the same job you're applying for or some other similar job. Several companies categorize all of their entry-level recent college grad employees as Administrative Assistants, Secretaries, Administrative Clerks, and Management Assistants, and require them to hold a bachelor's degree in a field related to the industry the company works in or the specific practice area of the project that the mid-level/senior-level employee they're assisting is working on. Most Executive Assistant (EA) positions I’ve seen require about 5-8 years of work experience mostly as an Administrative Assistant (AA) or in a non-AA role related to the work of the company, or 5-10 years of work experience if you don’t have a bachelor’s degree. 

About 96% of Paralegals, Legal Assistants, File Clerks, Administrative Assistants, Conflicts Analysts, Legal Secretaries, and other Professional Support Staff (a.k.a. Non-Lawyers) in law firm settings (and some other similar office settings at consulting, accounting, advocacy, trade association, professional association, commercial-residential property management companies, and government relations firms, etc.) practically all have at least a bachelor’s degree (though on paper the job description might let you use a high school diploma + paralegal certificate/paralegal vocational training but these are few, far between, and hard to find or at minimum an associate’s degree for Mail Clerk positions); 1% are older people (Boomers, Gen X, maybe some Older Millennials) who were grandfathered in with only a high school diploma +/- secretarial school due to their years of experience from back when entry requirements were far more lax; 2% are younger people (Millennials & Gen Z) from out-of-town who laterally transitioned into a role here with only a high school diploma and/or a paralegal certificate because that’s what jobs in their hometown metropolitan areas where they started their careers only required; as well as 1% that got in with a high school diploma or less because of personal connections with friends, family, or acquaintances (many times outside of professional connection/formal networking/formal hiring settings).

Depending on the location and the job market, receptionist jobs are looking for people with at least a bachelor’s degree (maybe an associate’s degree) and at least 2-3 years of experience or a high school diploma and 5 years of experience if you don’t have a degree.

For one company I’ve seen, 5 out of 5 Administrative Assistants had a bachelor’s degree and at least 2 years of prior work experience before starting the role, and 4 out of 5 also had a master’s degree. For another job I saw, every Receptionist had a bachelor’s degree and at least two of them had about 3-4 years of experience made up of internships and prior receptionist experience. I’ve literally seen a Front Desk Receptionist job require a bachelor’s degree w/5 yrs exp., a master’s with 2 yrs exp., a PhD with 0 yrs exp., or a high school diploma/GED w/10 yrs exp.;NOT KIDDING.

Also, I’m seeing tons of people laid off from late entry-level (4-5 years of experience) and early mid-career (5-8 years of experience) jobs with experience in more complex non-administrative support roles taking on entry-level administrative assistant (or at times even receptionist/front desk assistant) roles  (that historically only required 0.5-3 years of experience, a high school diploma, and employer provided on-the-job training or onboarding). In addition to residual effects from the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, DOGE’s layoffs of U.S. federal government civil service employees and  its cancellation of government contracts with private sector companies/organizations and local/state governments, is completely flooding the job market. Senior level and c-suite employees are going after mid-career jobs, mid-career employees are taking on entry-level jobs, and entry-level employees are taking on internships, receptionist, data entry clerk, and freelance jobs and everyone’s fighting over temp jobs to get their foot in the door (it’s like entry-level jobs are starting to barely exist). Things are looking like they’re going to get worse, definitely worse than 2008 (if course correction doesn’t happen). 

What is Political Science?:

Political Science is a social science, it’s not performing and fine arts (like drawing, painting, dancing) nor is it a humanities subject (but it does interact with and borrow from humanities subjects like philosophy and history, among others) but it’s also not a natural science (like chemistry or physics).

——————

I’d say there are at least 8-9-ish disciplinary paths that could exist at a university’s political science department (also known as public policy school or department of government) as well as several interdisciplinary programs created in conjunction with other departments, constituent colleges, or schools.

In my experience, the sub-disciplinary paths of political science I’ve seen (even in undergraduate bachelor’s degree-level settings) are: (1) political theory/political philosophy and political history; (2) international relations and security studies; (3) political methodology (quantitative political analysis); (4) comparative politics; (5) international political economy; (6) public policy and public administration (nonprofit management, basic accounting/budgeting/finance, policy development, stakeholder management, program evaluation, human resource management, etc.); (7) law and governance or legal studies (legal research, legislative analysis, stakeholder engagement, legal sociology, advocacy and government relations, etc.); as well as (8) political sociology and theories of political behavior.

The interdisciplinary programs I’ve seen that have some sort of layer of political science coursework are: (1) global studies (global affairs); (2) philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE); (3) political communications; (4) legal studies and philosophy and law (pre-law); (5) environmental studies; (6) intelligence studies (intelligence analysis); as well as (7) international business and commerce.

Though this is the case, it is true that a vast majority of political science departments especially at most 4-year bachelor’s degree granting liberal arts colleges (LAC) but most especially associate’s degree-level community colleges (CC) focus almost exclusively on political theory and maybe international relations to a certain extent; departments at research universities (those granting everything from bachelor’s, master’s, professional, and doctoral degrees) tend to branch out into more sub-fields of political science (even in undergrad) whether it means taking a few classes among those course as a hard requirement or whether it is an optional concentration or group of in-major field study electives.

————————————————————

Actually, undergraduate political science courses write in a myriad of writing styles: to be honest a lot of lower level undergraduate freshman/sophomore courses do use flowery language, are persuasive, and can be overly partisan but a lot of the upper level undergraduate junior/senior and graduate master’s/doctoral courses are generally (but not always) to the point, not too ideologically persuasive, non-partisan, look at things from a neutral or near-neutral point of view, and/or are more so interested in the evaluation of the outputs, outcomes, and efficacy of policies, programs, procedures, or initiatives as well as the implementation of such things to produce the intended outcomes.

Some types of literature in political science include the following: for Academic Literature - see Journal Articles and Essays (Research Papers, Reflective Papers, Persuasive Papers, most Term Papers); for Professional Writing - see Case Studies, Memoranda/Briefing Notes/Memos (Policy Memos), Position Papers, Policy Papers (Policy Papers and Policy Memos written using the Policy Development, Policy Analysis, and Program Evaluation methods, etc.), Reports, Intelligence Assessments, White Papers and Gray Literature, Legal Briefs and Amicus Curiae Briefs, Grant Writing, and Journalistic Writing (News style writing).

Most of the political science courses that teach job applicable skills like policy development (policy analysis, implementation, evaluation, and revision), stakeholder engagement/stakeholder management, legal research, program evaluation, strategic communications and public relations, budgeting and finance (financial management, financial statement analysis, generally accepted accounting principles - GAAP - ), research methods and analysis, procurement and logistics, organizational theory/administrative theory, data manipulation and data collection (to a lesser extent basic data analysis - which is mostly taught in-depth in graduate master’s/PhD programs), fundraising and development, basic marketing, government relations and advocacy, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), professional writing, project and program coordination, and intelligence analysis, among others are mostly taught in upper-level (300-level to 400-level) undergraduate courses taught in the last 2 to 2.5 years of a bachelor’s degree program if you choose your field study (in-major electives), concentration(s), and general elective (out-side-of-major) courses wisely like taking on courses in political science subfields such as public policy, public administration, comparative politics, security studies, political methodology, human resource management, nonprofit management, complex international relations frameworks, and political analysis, instead of only taking basic survey-level political theory courses (mostly covered in community college and undergrad freshmen year political science curriculum). To be honest, more in-depth and complex skills/topics are covered in graduate master’s and doctoral programs like MPA, MPP, MA Security Studies, MS Biodefence, MA/MS International Development, MA/MS Intelligence Studies, etc.

How to Choose a Bachelor’s Degree Program:

One advice I see often see when people ask about picking a major, I always hear that: whatever you do you need to pick a major (undergraduate college/university degree program) that you’re comfortable studying and working in but also teaches skills that will come in handy on the job (not a “hobby” major either) but not something you hate or can’t handle. This isn’t high school where you can easily skate through classes and get passed on to the next grade. People shouldn’t do majors they aren’t equipped to handle because they’re bound to do poorly, flunk out, and get expelled for bad grades (academic dismissal) with a limited-to-no chance of l finishing your degree which can (or will) lead to limited career prospects or advancement. It’s far better to do a major in a subject you are interested in and are capable of thriving in than flunking out with no degree at all or graduating by cheating your way through without learning much (and putting others in danger). Also, the “pick a major that will make you money” push is based on a very subjective idea that fluctuates with the market. After this push, now we have a bunch of computer science grads, a tech field that is over saturated with a shrinking number of positions many of whom don’t even like the field working at it aimlessly, and a bunch of nurses and doctors (physicians) who are a reckless danger to their patients because they are disinterested in the job in such a way that it negatively impacts their performance putting tons of people in grave danger.

It doesn’t have to be a STEM subject like engineering, computer science, medicine, or nursing; a social science subject like political science (public policy, public administration, international relations), law, economics, business administration (accounting, finance, management, marketing), social work; nor a humanities subject like literature, language, or history if you hate it and can’t handle the academic workload, subject matter, or won’t be able to stand working in the field due to disinterest - but this doesn’t mean you should go for what some people call a “hobby degree” just for fun like fine arts subjects like art, music, or dance (no offense - but at least you should have a plan to use it to teach and not actually to perform in a professional capacity unless you already have pre-existing family and professional connections to get you job in the fine arts). The notion that 'every degree besides medicine, nursing, law, and engineering’ are useless degrees is illogical though some do believe this lie.

Going into Medicine or Nursing when you are disinterested in the job or subject is the worst idea I’ve ever heard in my life. Do not under any circumstances go into Medicine or Nursing if you hate the job, are terrible at the it, are very careless and lazy, or are literally only doing it for the money. This is how you end up getting people killed or severely injured.

People need to understand that to become a physician (Doctor of Medicine - MD - or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine - DO - ) or lawyer (Doctor of Jurisprudence - JD - ) you have to go to graduate school and to get into graduate school you need a bachelor’s degree in a different field as a prerequisite. You can’t just straight up apply to Medical School or Law School right out of high school/secondary school without a previously awarded bachelor’s degree or enrollment in a dual degree program. The market for lawyers is over saturated, the number of residencies required to become a physician are capped at low numbers, and not freaking everyone can or needs to be an engineer or a nurse. So the notion that 'every degree besides medicine, nursing, law, and engineering’ are useless degrees is illogical when you need a bachelor’s degree in a different field as a prerequisite to enter medical school or law school.

Article Title and Citation:

"Careers with a Political Science Education: Not Everybody Gets a Job Offer Their Junior Year of College or Three Months After Graduation and Not Everyone Gets Their Dream Job, But an Education in Political Science Still Produces Job Applicable Skills" at r/PoliticalScience - https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalScience/comments/1x5xvrt/careers_with_a_political_science_education_not/ .

I am sharing an article of mine recently published in Political Communication: The Politics of the Non-Political: A Conceptual Review, that might be of interest for people here.

As political science and political communication are increasingly studying ostensibly "non-political" stuff, what does that mean? Does politics always look so natural as polisci researchers take it as?

I look forward to having conversations with you all on it!

Is there some sort of coalition ?

like the title says, I have a coordinator position on a local city council race. now what? the election is in November, after that I have no idea what I am able to do. I have a degree, I am 25, and have previously worked as a preschool teacher. I have been a legislative intern for my states house if reps but it seems like no matter how hard I try, no one is hiring with anything less then 3 years of experience. I do not want to go back to teaching, I love political work but have no idea what to do after next month.

EDIT: I should have put "socialism" in quotation marks, since I was referring to popular right-wing usage instead of the original definition. I can't seem to be able to edit the title accordingly.

TLDR: Monopolies are used to extort and keep people poor to benefit few people at the top, which is what we criticise about "socialist countries".

By effectively, I mean that the rules don't change but the dynamic of money flows and living conditions of the people become the same.
Let's take the stated strategy by Peter Thiel to establish a monopoly as a goal for every business.
Once the monopoly is set, one can raise the prices (taxes) arbitrarily and leave people with close to no money beyond necessities.
The thought came when paying subscription fees looked to me like paying taxes to e.g. Amazon and basically becoming a citizen of a company.
Depending of how strong the monopoly is, Amazon can collect "taxes" (advertisement fees) from companies and even suppress unwanted business.
Amazon then gets to decide what to do with the money (e.g. aerospace projects).

I guess, currently the difference is that companies cannot force you to stay with them like countries can force you to stay, but this might only be a question of how established the monopoly is.

I got my bachelors degree in political science in December of 2024 and I feel like shit because I can’t find stable work. I’ve been working in retail/ cosmetic sales for the past 5 years and I can’t get out of it. I feel trapped. I wanted to get a job as a paralegal or a legal intake specialist or even a legal assistant. Every interview I went to, I got rejected because they picked someone else.

I’m not saying I regret my degree because I did learn a lot of useful stuff about society, culture, voting and government structures. I just wish my degree was enough to find a good job. I live in a small town with very little job options. I can’t afford to move to a big city and most of the legal assistant jobs I interviewed for that WAS in a big city, it only pays $19 an hour. The same amount I make at Sephora.

I want to go to law school someday but I’m feeling discouraged because competition is getting worse in terms of law school applications. I had a 3.3 GPA and my LSAT practice tests scores are awful. Application expectations for law schools are getting out of control where you basically have to get a 170+ to get accepted.

I’m 26 years old, I definitely thought I’d be at least starting my career by now. Don’t get me wrong I love makeup, it’s been a huge hobby of mine since I was 13 years old and I applied to Sephora 8 times before they fully offered me a job. I just don’t understand why every career feels impossible to achieve anymore.

A state can collect taxes effectively, field a capable military and enforce its decisions while many of its households become less economically secure. Calling that state “strong” bundles together several different things.

State capacity is what public institutions can implement. International power is the ability to influence other actors. Household welfare is how people actually live. The three can reinforce one another, but they don’t necessarily move together.

Military expenditure shows the measurement problem. A bigger budget measures resources committed; it does not by itself establish greater operational capability. Higher tax revenue doesn’t necessarily show better administration either, since it can reflect growth, inflation or higher rates. Neither tells us whether public services have improved.

This matters for the question of whether domestic economic decline eventually limits a state’s power. Falling household welfare can erode the future tax base, recruitment or political support, but the effects may be delayed. Governments can sustain particular capabilities through borrowing, resource revenues or by shifting costs onto groups with little political influence.

One way to frame it is the difference between a state’s current ability to mobilize resources and its ability to reproduce that capacity over time. Education, infrastructure and population health bear on the second even when they don’t immediately constrain the first. Mann’s distinction between despotic and infrastructural power (1984) offers a related way to distinguish forms of state power. The question here is how household welfare affects their durability.

Two questions follow:

1. How do political scientists separate welfare declines caused by external shocks from those attributable to institutional choices?
2. Which measures best capture a state’s ability to sustain its capacity over time, rather than just the resources it can command today?

Any views on Modern Democracy especially in developing world being a Sectarian Kleptocracy? Isn’t it time to bring on a new model? Being a liberal, I feel liberalism is in crisis all over.