The Young League Forum

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY        This is a body that is made up of intellectuals, constitutional lawyers or jurists etc., composed for the purpose of ratifying a draft constitution by the constitutional draft committee. Constitutional draft committee on the other hand is a body that drafts new constitution for a country. The primary functions of the Constituent Assembly are: to examine and ratify the primary function of the constitutional draft committee which is to draft new constitution for a state.

CONSTITUTIONALISM      We should note that one thing is for a country to have a constitution and another thing is to have constitutionalism. The principle of constitutionalism states that everybody , both the ruler (government) and the ruled (subjects) should abide by the provisions of the constitution. It means that nobody is above the law. The principle of constitutionalism is anchored on the rule of law that everybody is equal and subject before the law.      Shively (2005) did an elaborate research on the tenets constitutionalism. He started in his logical analysis by posing the following questions: given that each state has a constitution, how faithful is a state to its constitution? That is, how fully do the leaders honour the rules of politics in the state? He defined constitutionalism as “the doctrine that states that, states should be faithful to their constitutions because the rules so provided are all that can protec...

CONSERVATISM      Conservatism is a form of political ideology that believes in the existence of social, political, and economic order, stability and the lack of change of political systems be it in cultural, customary and traditional practices of society or otherwise. In other words, conservatism advocates for status quo and if change must occur at all it should be by incremental or evolutionary.      The conservatives believe that change is good but it must be gradual so that it does not affect the tradition, custom and the social orderliness or practices of society. They advocate for small governments that will not intervene in the affairs of individual and their cultural practices. In other words, it seeks for the preservation, rigidity and continuity of the existing practice. The principle or tenet of conservatism opposes any form of change in existing system in society. Those who oppose change are called reactionaries, ...

COMMUNISM      According to Karl Marx, communism is the highest stage of socialism in which all forms of injustice, exploitation, man’s inhumanity to man and other deprivations will cease to exist. He went further to posit that even the state and its monopoly will wither away or cease to exist because it is a mere instrument of the ruling class to exploit the poor; the state is not an impartial being as claimed by the liberal scholars. Therefore, communism is the extreme form or last stage of socialism. It is a subset of socialism.      Karl Marx was the founder of the extremist and radical revolutionary movement known as the Communist League in the 1840s. He conceptualized the notion of communism in his famous book entitled the Communist Manifesto which was co-authored by Frederick Engels and published in 1848. He criticized the asocial nature of capitalist society and called for revolution which will overthrow capitalist mode of product...

BEHAVIOURAL REVOLUTION      This is the hallmark of scientific origin of political science which started in the 1920s in Europe and North America.  According to Gerardo L. Munck, “the first turning point in the evolution of US political science can be conveniently dated to the 1921 publication of a manifesto for new science of politics, which implied a departure from the history embraced by many founders of political science in the US, by the University of Chicago professor, Charles Merriam (1874 – 1953).’’ This publication led to the convention of National Conferences on Science of Politics which was an important event to the discipline (political science). According to Munck, it was also followed by the formation of Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the world’s first national organization of all social sciences. What this connotes is that new crop of scholars in political science and new methods of political an...

BEHAVIO URAL REVOLUTION      This is the hallmark of scientific origin of political science which started in the 1920s in Europe and North America.  According to Gerardo L. Munck, “the first turning point in the evolution of US political science can be conveniently dated to the 1921 publication of a manifesto for new science of politics, which implied a departure from the history embraced by many founders of political science in the US, by the University of Chicago professor, Charles Merriam (1874 – 1953).’’ This publication led to the convention of National Conferences on Science of Politics which was an important event to the discipline (political science). According to Munck, it was also followed by the formation of Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the world’s first national organization of all social sciences. What this connotes is that new crop of scholars in political science and new methods of political a...

Spring Theory is social science theory which was founded by Andrew Oforma Eze in August, 2017. Andrew is a Political Scientist. What is spring theory? It is an anti-thesis to elite theory. In nutshell, spring theory is a socio-political theory which sees masses as elastic in nature which can absorb and endure pressure, humiliation, oppression, and other inhuman treatments by the state and its machinery, but must surely spring up or bounce back t the oppressors. The Major Propositions of Spring Theory according Andrew Oforma Eze, the proponentincludes: 1. That masses are not ignorance of socio-political systems that they are only resilient of them contrary to elite theorists perception. 1. That masses are not apolitical, myopic , unintelligent, inert etc., as claimed by elite theorists 2. That every society will under go either revolutionary or revolutionary changes. 3. That revolution is not evil but a necessarily societal change anchored by majority will.

About the Author Andrew Oforma Eze, hails from Ede-Oballa in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria. He is a graduate of Political Science from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.  He gained admission in the institution in the year 2011. He completed his secondary school education at the Community Secondary School Ede-Oballa in the same year. Andrew is a young political analyst, human rights activist, social critic and consultant on political issues. He is the Founder and National Coordinator of Young African Writers League (the Young League), the Ideological Revival Movement (IRM), and a one-time honourable member of the Parliament in the Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria Nsukka. Apart from this book he is the author of the Contemporary Basic Concepts in Government and Politics, and many other yet to published works. Andrew is a budding scholar in the field of political science.

BANANA REPUBLIC BY ANDREW OFORMA EZE       Contemporarily, the term banana republic is used to describe a country that is economically and politically unstable and dependent on foreign countries, especially developed countries despite their attainment of political independence. In other words, it is a country that has attained flag independence without actual political and economic independence. The sovereignty of banana republic is questionable because such a state is a dependent one. Attributes of banana republic and failed state are almost the same. (See Failed State).      Origin: The term was coined by an American writer Henry, O (real name; William Sydney Porter) in 1904 in his fictional book where he used it to describe small republics (especially in South America) that are largely dependent on exporting minor agricultural products like banana. BANDWAGONING      Bandwagoning is a concept in international relatio...

    ABOUT THE BOOK The central theme of this book is ' Insecurity of Social Security Systems in Nigeria' is the “primacy of man’s social security”. It started with an open letter to the Executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the need to guarantee social security for all Nigerians. This book is all about social insecurity systems especially in Nigeria and its concomitant consequences in other sectors which often than not lead to corrupt practices. It contends that it is the primary responsibility of government to protect the social wellbeing of its citizens. It also elucidates the reasons why the state and its machinery (government) exist. Comments This is a very good attempt towards meeting the challenges of corruption in the Nigerian nation – Dr.E.U. Okorie This is the perfect work on the theme of corruption as it affects Nigeria and the Third World Countries – C. O. Eze       ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eze Andrew Oforma hails f...