lseupr school essay competition

LSEUPR Annual Essay Competition

Submission deadline, field(s) of study.

Unrestricted

Award Amount

Description.

Each year we hold an essay competition for students who are yet to complete their A-Levels, IB or equivalent, i.e. those entering years 12 and 13, or equivalent. This year the essay question is “What is the most important lesson governments can learn from the Covid-19 epidemic?” and the deadline is 1 October. The essay should be no more than 1,000 words long, in order to not detract from the students’ studies, but could also be completed over the summer break. This essay competition was created to act as an outreach effort by the LSEUPR and as an opportunity to expose A-Level and equivalent students to university-style writing assignments in a relevant and engaging way, having recognised the desire for this during our own time at school. In addition, this presents an ideal piece of experience and name recognition for students wishing to apply to university to include within their UCAS personal statements. Exact details of the competition including how to apply can be found at the link below. Prizes are as follows: 1st Place Prize: £100 Amazon Voucher Certificate signed by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, Head of the LSE Department of Government Essay published in the LSE Undergraduate Political Review blog The opportunity to attend and to present your essay at the LSEUPR Annual Conference 2nd Place Prize: £50 Amazon Voucher Certificate signed by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, Head of the LSE Department of Government Essay published in the LSEUPR blog 3rd Place Prize: £25 Amazon Voucher Certificate signed by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, Head of the LSE Department of Government Essay published in the LSEUPR blog

Other Criteria

Each year we hold an essay competition for students who are yet to complete their A-Levels, IB or equivalent, i.e. those entering years 12 and 13, or equivalent. Do not apply if you do not fit into this age threshold.

Contact Information

You must be logged in to view contact information.

Register now to view contact information for this scholarship, or login

More Award Details

LSEUPR Annual Essay Competition

Description.

Each year we hold an essay competition for students who are yet to complete their A-Levels, IB or equivalent, i.e. those entering years 12 and 13, or equivalent. This year the essay question is “What is the most important lesson governments can learn from the Covid-19 epidemic?” and the deadline is 1 October. The essay should be no more than 1,000 words long, in order to not detract from the students’ studies, but could also be completed over the summer break. This essay competition was created to act as an outreach effort by the LSEUPR and as an opportunity to expose A-Level and equivalent students to university-style writing assignments in a relevant and engaging way, having recognised the desire for this during our own time at school. In addition, this presents an ideal piece of experience and name recognition for students wishing to apply to university to include within their UCAS personal statements. Exact details of the competition including how to apply can be found at the link below. Prizes are as follows: 1st Place Prize: £100 Amazon Voucher Certificate signed by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, Head of the LSE Department of Government Essay published in the LSE Undergraduate Political Review blog The opportunity to attend and to present your essay at the LSEUPR Annual Conference 2nd Place Prize: £50 Amazon Voucher Certificate signed by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, Head of the LSE Department of Government Essay published in the LSEUPR blog 3rd Place Prize: £25 Amazon Voucher Certificate signed by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, Head of the LSE Department of Government Essay published in the LSEUPR blog

Other Criteria

Each year we hold an essay competition for students who are yet to complete their A-Levels, IB or equivalent, i.e. those entering years 12 and 13, or equivalent. Do not apply if you do not fit into this age threshold.

Contact Information

You must be logged in to view contact information.

Register Now To View Contact Information For This Scholarship

Registered users login here .

Find My Student Loan

Please fix the following errors:

Newsletter Sign Up

LSESU Economics Society

The Essay Competition 2023

Welcome to the lsesu economics society’s essay competition 2023. we are so excited to release this year’s questions, our questions range from the impact of artificial intelligence to explaining variations in happiness. we can’t wait to read your entries, prizes range from signed certifications by nobel prize-winning economists and include £100 amazon gift cards..

Latah County Human Rights Task Force

Strengthening the bonds of community to embrace diversity and reject bigotry..

Welcome to the Latah County Human Rights Task Force webpage!

Congratulations to the 2023-2024 MLK Art and Essay Contest winners!

This year’s theme was FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND OUR LIBRARIES

The winners for the Art Contest were Cece Rose Ristene (St. Mary’s), Eduarda Gurge (Moscow Charter), Quinten Rowley (Moscow Charter), Hayley Cohee (Moscow Charter),

The winners for the Essay Contest included Cordelia Haley (Lena Whitmore), Leo Johnson (St. Mary’s), Fern Newlan (St. Mary’s), Catherine Apt (McDonald), Amy Zhou (Moscow Charter School), Naya Lee (Lena Whitmore), Emily Scout Heward (Lena Whitmore), Nora Algarni (Moscow Middle School), Lillian Camin, (Moscow Middle School), and Morgan Apt (Moscow High School).

A little about us and ways to become involved!

Our 2023 Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast on January 21st was a great success with an excellent presentation by Dr. Scott Finnie. A video of the Breakfast, including the Rosa Parks Awards and Dr. Finnie’s speech is now available here: 2023 Breakfast and Friends of Human Rights .

The Rosa Parks Award winners are available here: 2023 Rosa Parks Award Winners | Latah County Human Rights Task Force (humanrightslatah.org)

The Art and Essay Contest winners are available here: 2023 Art and Essay Contest Winners | Latah County Human Rights Task Force (humanrightslatah.org)

Dr. Scott Finnie’s Keynote address at the 2023 MLK Jr. Breakfast:

AREA RESPONSE TO ANTISEMITISM

Check out the recent Palouse Pride Day under Recent Events here: Palouse Pride Day 2021

Our mission:  To work for social justice for all people by supporting diversity, respect, and inclusiveness, while opposing bigotry, harassment, and discrimination.

Please click our Announcements tab for current or upcoming events. (For upcoming events visit: Upcoming Events )

These are annual events that the Task Force currently sponsors:

• Martin Luther King Art and Essay Contest – January
• Presentation of Rosa Parks Human Rights Achievement Awards – January
• Human Rights Day at the Moscow Farmer’s Market – September (Visit: HR Day )
• Great Moscow Food Drive – August
• Human Rights Education Programs for Area Schools – throughout the school year

and we encourage you to attend or support us in these events.

Meetings of the Latah County Human Rights Task Force are generally held the second Thursday of each month, and you are welcome to attend.

Please visit our Facebook page: Facebook

If you are interested in joining, volunteering, or attending a meeting, please see our Contact Us page: Contact Us

Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow

• Reflective Essay
• Published: 10 September 2019
• Volume 1 , pages 233–247, ( 2019 )

Cite this article

• Brian Mark Evans   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1420-1682 1  

978 Accesses

2 Citations

Explore all metrics

The twenty-first century is the era when populations of cities will exceed rural communities for the first time in human history. The population growth of cities in many countries, including those in transition from planned to market economies, is putting considerable strain on ecological and natural resources. This paper examines four central issues: (a) the challenges and opportunities presented through working in jurisdictions where there are no official or established methods in place to guide regional, ecological and landscape planning and design; (b) the experience of the author’s practice—Gillespies LLP—in addressing these challenges using techniques and methods inspired by McHarg in Design with Nature in the Russian Federation in the first decade of the twenty-first century; (c) the augmentation of methods derived from Design with Nature in reference to innovations in technology since its publication and the contribution that the art of landscape painters can make to landscape analysis and interpretation; and (d) the application of this experience to the international competition and colloquium for the expansion of Moscow. The text concludes with a comment on how the application of this learning and methodological development to landscape and ecological planning and design was judged to be a central tenant of the winning design. Finally, a concluding section reflects on lessons learned and conclusions drawn.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

The politics of designing with nature: reflections from New Orleans and Dhaka

Acknowledgements

The landscape team from Gillespies Glasgow Studio (Steve Nelson, Graeme Pert, Joanne Walker, Rory Wilson and Chris Swan) led by the author and all our collaborators in the Capital Cities Planning Group.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Mackintosh School of Architecture, The Glasgow School of Art, 167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G3 6BY, UK

Brian Mark Evans

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian Mark Evans .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Evans, B.M. Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow. Socio Ecol Pract Res 1 , 233–247 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00031-5

Download citation

Received : 17 March 2019

Accepted : 13 August 2019

Published : 10 September 2019

Issue Date : October 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00031-5

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Design With Nature
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

LSE Undergraduate Political Review

Essay competition 2018 winner: “The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate” – Thomas Jefferson

“The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate”. With the rise of fake news, historically low voter turnouts, and populist angst, to what extent is Thomas Jefferson correct regarding democracy in the twenty-first century?

This article was written by Gabriel Brown, year 12 student at Charterhouse school.

Recent years have seen many of the most contentious and highly debated elections in the history of modern democracy. With majorities of often less than a few percent, elections seem to reflect the state of divided nations more than the collective will of the people. Dating back to modern democracy’s founding father, Thomas Jefferson remarked on education’s role in our democratic system, stating “an educated electorate is the cornerstone of democracy”, and the value of education in all nations still takes centre stage as an important part of national development today. In this essay, I will consider how, and if, an “educated” portion of an electorate exists and contributes to democracy, and how; antagonistically, ignorance serves to affect it.

As a conceptual model, in his essay The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies , Caplan (2007) proposes that solely an educated subset of electorate decides the outcome of democratic referenda. Caplan suggests that if members of the electorate are given a choice between voting for candidate “X” or “Y”, of which policy they know nothing about, the vote share will be roughly evenly split. In order to break this negation, a subset of an electorate, which is informed enough to cast a meaningful vote, is needed. This theory states that, if 99% of an electorate does not hold a sufficient level of political education or knowledge to cast a meaningful vote, only the remaining, knowledgeable 1% of the electorate will vote in an impactful way, effectively deciding the result of an election or referendum.

It is, however, expected that an election would not actually result in an outcome such as this. Caplan’s conceptual model does not account for multiple variables, such as the varying levels in political education, with individuals of an electorate rarely or never being completely ignorant or entirely knowledgeable. In addition, seemingly with the rise of embellished and falsified articles of media, dubbed “fake news”, designed to influence voting and electoral knowledge (Kurtzleban, 2018), it is not surprising that, in reality, results of elections look very different from the theoretical model.

In an attempt to investigate this theory, figures are used from the United States’ Congressional Election of 2016. In total, six Congressional Districts are used, reflecting both the three most, and least, educated areas of the United States, based on the percentage of adults with university degrees, or using the U.S. Education Index.

Figure 1. See Appendix.

In juxtaposition with the theoretical model, the actual results of the 2016 Congressional Election seems to present a different story of electoral voting traits, in which both educationally polar districts are equally decisive.

To understand these voting patterns in a more practical manner, the parameters of “education” and “ignorance” should first be defined. It is impossibly hard to provide a universal definition of political “education” and “ignorance”, when the terms themselves are subject to political culture, policy, subjection and an infinite number of determining variables. With this in mind, I will consider the following axioms for the next portion of this essay:

• An “educated electorate” is defined as a group of people who vote in elections and hold sufficient knowledge in its concerns, based on a decision formed by an analytical understanding of the major, or both, sides of the election’s motion or choice. We will assume that an “educated electorate” is a subset of the general electorate.
• The primary objective of a democratic political party is to win and maintain public office through the collection of a high number of votes cast in their favour.
• In order to achieve a political party’s objective, it will try to appeal to a large portion of the electorate.
• Historically, political parties and other entities have exploited the truth in order to serve the common special interests of an electorate, in order to gain votes from its constituents. This may be known as “fake news”
• “The cornerstone of democracy” is defined, in the context of this essay, as the small number of cast votes, and their human counterparts, required to ensure a majority outcome in an election.
• Ignorance is defined as the lack of sufficient knowledge to make an informed, analytical decision in an election. An ignorant electorate is antithetically opposed to an educated electorate.

The United States’ Congressional Election was inextricably linked with the General Election, being one of the most contentious in recent years. As Kabaservice (2017) analysed shortly before Donald Trump’s inauguration, both Trump and the Republican party had placed belief in a “hidden majority”, composed of individuals disgruntled by seemingly being “ignored and even despised” by the political elite, to vote against Hillary Clinton, who for many epitomised the old-age political elite, whilst Donald Trump, the populist saviour. As Kabaservice (2017) put it best, “Trump is not in any meaningful sense a conservative; he is rather, a populist”.

This awe-inspiring break from traditional politics was combined with immensely low turnouts of citizens voting. In the States comprising the three lowest educated districts, turnout is at some of the United States’ lowest figures (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Source: United States Census Bureau., 2017

States that typically voted for populist candidates had turnouts well below the national figure. This evidently shows that Trump’s belief in a “hidden majority” is well-founded and that the populist subset had been successfully mobilised and enthused, replacing themselves as the cornerstone of democracy. Education (and ignorance) are being replaced by populism, and candidates who inspire and excite their supporters the most will most likely succeed.

A discourse, The Macroeconomics of Populism (Dornbusch and Edwards, 1991), reports that historically populist measures are economically dangerous , yet, due to the barrage of well-timed fake news designed to influence voters – the economic and political ramifications are often forgotten and buried beneath untruths. The term “irrational voters” is generally used to describe individuals who do not vote according to a well-rounded analytical decision, but increasingly it seems to be befitting of the current political climate, in which swathes of the electorate are coerced to vote for a candidate, without the ability to analyse and balance their opinions.

Since Thomas Jefferson remarked on the place of education in a free, democratic world some two hundred years ago, its central issues seem to have changed dramatically. Whilst education will remain a core issue for freedom and democracy for all nations, the question over whether education is the cornerstone of democracy has altered dramatically and whether democracy relies on an “educated electorate” seems to have been made irrelevant. Quality of policy and proposal seems to have been replaced by the most awe-inspiring candidate, with the highest reactionary-message, who are able to excite their base of supporters most. I believe the question has evolved into its dangerous counterpart, whether in fact, democracy rests in the hands of those who shout loudest.

Bibliography

Caplan B., 2007.  The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies . Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Cohn N., 2016. ‘The 15 Best-Educated Congressional Districts in the US’.  The New York Times.  [Online] < https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/upshot/this-list-of-well-educated-districts-explains-why-georgias-election-is-close.html > [Accessed 24 th  August 2018]

Dornbusch R. and Edwards S. 1991.  The Macroeconomics of Populism.  Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.

Downs. A, 1957.  An Economic Theory of Political Action in Democracy . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Kabaservice G., 2017. ‘Wild populism has a long history in US politics, but Trump is surely unique’.  The Guardian.  < https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/15/wild-populism-long-history-us-politics-trump-surely-unique > [Accessed 31 st  August 2018]

Kurtzleben D., 2018. ‘Did Fake News On Facebook Help Elect Trump? Here’s What We Know’.  National Public Radio . [Online] < https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601323233/6-facts-we-know-about-fake-news-in-the-2016-election?t=1535728477480 > [Accessed 31 st  August 2018]

Measure of America, n.d. ‘Congressional Districts Maps-at-a-Glance’ .  Measure of America . [Online] < https://measureofamerica.org/file/Congressional_District_Maps-At-A-Glance.pdf > [Accessed 24 th  August 2018]

The New York Times, 2016. ‘House Election Results: G.O.P. Keeps Control’.  The New York Times. [Online] < https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/house > [Accessed 24 th  August 2018]

United States Census Bureau. 2017. ‘Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2016’.   [Online] <https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/voting-and-registration/p20-580.html> [Accessed 31th August 2018]

Data sources:

Congressional Election 2016: The New York Times, 2016.

12 New York, 33 California and 18 California: Cohn N. 2016.  The New York Times. 

29 Texas, 4 Arizona, 20 California: Measure of America. n.d.  Congressional Districts Maps-at-a-Glance. 

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Leave A Comment

Click here to cancel reply.

Find us on Facebook

• Get Involved
• Editorial Division
• Research Division
• Academic Division
• Marketing Division

Japanwala,ZA (ug)

November 6th, 2021, lseupr annual essay competition second place essay.

0 comments | 1 shares

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Evie Bowden 

Lady Eleanor Holles School, United Kingdom 

To what extent have emerging social movements caused politicians to respond with  effective social change?  

‘Effective social change’ is difficult to define. Should social change be measured in  statues toppled, in flags changed, in buildings renamed? Should social change be  measured in diversity officers appointed, in hours of equality training undertaken, in  progressive leaders celebrated? Or should social change be measured in reviews  commissioned, power granted, funding generated? There is little agreement on this  debate, which was reignited by the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, in the  wake of the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Yet almost everything  mentioned above has happened: protestors in Bristol toppled a statue of Edward  Colston, a 17th century merchant with strong ties to the Atlantic slave trade2, the  number of diversity officers appointed at major companies has exploded,3 and Boris  Johnson commissioned a report into ‘Race and Ethnic Disparities’ in the United  Kingdom. Yet politicians themselves have done very little, and while the Black Lives  Matter movement has received unparalleled exposure, catapulting race relations to  the top of the political agenda, little concrete change has occurred.

An obvious question to ask is ‘what are politicians supposed to do?’. While almost  every politician in Western democracies has, when asked directly, affirmed a  commitment against racism, many have found their hands tied. Politicians are  fundamentally representative. In democracies with regular election cycles politicians  are bound to act in accordance with the will of voters, or face being removed the next  time their seat is up for election. In fragmented societies with two dominant parties and  clear political divides, such as the USA and to a lesser extend the UK, this discourages  politicians from making radical social changes in response to emerging movements. If  politicians go too far in any direction, they risk alienating swing, and even core, voters,  and thus harming their own political careers. The rate of change is constrained and  can only be accelerated through the election of politicians on a strong mandate to  affect this change. Change must therefore be incremental and come from people  rather than legislators. In his article ‘Is There a Culture War?’4 William Jacoby terms  political culture as “the general framework of values that characterizes the orientations  of a nation’s citizens” Attempts by legislators to enforce social progress beyond what  the culture currently accepts– “top-down change” – is ineffective and risky,

their political changes electoral issues and succeeded in getting politicians elected,  such movements can hardly still be called ‘emerging’.

Indeed, in Britain, the report produced by the government’s Commission on Race and  Ethnic Disparities went further, arguing that it ultimately was not governments  responsibility to cause social change and shift attitudes. According to the report, the  Commissioners “increasingly felt that an unexplored approach to closing disparity  gaps was to examine the extent individuals and their communities could help  themselves through their own agency, rather than wait for invisible external forces to  assemble to do the job.”5 Such a statement calls into question the very premise of this  question: politicians may not have responded to emerging social movements with  effective social change, but they might not even need to do so. While such a report  might be seen as a government absolving itself of social responsibility, it raises  important questions about not only the government’s ability to create social change in  response to emerging social movements, but also its incentives and duty to do so.

Increased government involvement in rapid social progress risks alienating ordinary people, in a way that is both damaging to the government and the movements  themselves. Indeed, backlash groups already exist, for example Counterweight,  described in a recent Atlantic article6 as a “support group for the unwoke”: “a support  group for people who feel that they are being pressured to endorse what she calls  ‘critical social justice’ […] or [are] being forced to affirm beliefs that they don’t have  about race or about gender.” About two-thirds of Counterweight’s clients are  Americans, and the rest are a mix of Brits, Canadians, and Australians.” The existence  of such groups highlights the danger of rapid social change: in a world where some

people already feel pushed to endorse values that they do not fully subscribe to,  government intervention only exacerbates such issues. Returning to Jacoby’s idea of  political culture, there is a real risk of the government acting beyond what the culture  will allow if it responds forcefully in alignment with emerging social movements.

The socially effective emerging social movements are almost oxymorons: by the time  social movements have established themselves enough to create lasting social change, they can no longer be termed ‘emerging’. And attempts to rush this process  rarely create the broad cultural change they seek. Mature social movements cause  social change, emerging social movements do not.

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

About the author

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Related Posts

Why do we Vote?

February 2nd, 2022.

The Indian Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, Vis-à-vis The Assam Accord: A Political Legal Commentary

December 10th, 2021.

2020 Conference

February 10th, 2020.

Meet the LSEUPR Team

October 1st, 2015, top posts & pages.

• Orientalism: in review
• Globalisation and State Sovereignty: A Mixed Bag
• A Guide to Understanding Parasite & Politics: Motifs in The Desire for Social Mobility
• The Need for Absolute Sovereignty: How Peace is Envisaged in Hobbes’ Leviathan

Creative local students win historical essay and video contests

RIDGEFIELD – Three high school students from Vancouver and Ridgefield displayed their creativity in winning first place in the Fort Vancouver Sons of The American Revolution Chapter’s 2024 Eagle Scout Essay, Knight Essay and youth video contests. Each contest challenged the high school students to research and write about or produce a video featuring a compelling person from the American Revolution. Each winner received a $100 award and certificate for their achievement at the local level and advanced to the state level for further competition.

Josephine Abbott, a Seton High School junior, wrote a descriptive essay about Cherokee Nation War Chief Dragging Canoe and his many efforts to lead his people during the American Revolution. Abbott’s entry in the SAR Arthur M. and Berdena King Eagle Scout Essay Contest earned a first-place finish at the local level. Abbott had a special connection to her essay subject as she is the eighth great-granddaughter of Chief Dragging Canoe. In addition to writing her essay, Abbott was required to prepare a four-generation family lineage chart and document her many accomplishments as an Eagle Scout.

Elizabeth Swift, a Ridgefield High School senior, also choose a Native American as the subject for her George S. and Stella M. Knight Essay Contest entry. Nicholas Cusick was a member of the Tuscarora tribe, which supported the American patriots’ cause during the Revolution. He served with French Marquis de Lafayette as an interpreter and guide, and for his service he was granted a pension after the war. Swift’s essay on Cusick also earned her second place at state this year and a $500 award.

Lincoln Swift, a sophomore at Ridgefield High School, used video to tell the story of Patrick Carr, an Irish immigrant and leather worker, who was one of the victims of the Boston Massacre. Swift choreographed Carr’s tragic story with the use of stick puppets. Swift’s three-minute video not only won accolades at the local level, it earned him first place in the Washington State SAR Society Youth Video Contest. Swift received a $1,000 award and certificate for first place.

“These three contests challenge high school students to research and document important events and people from the American Revolution,” said Fort Vancouver SAR Chapter President Paul Winter. “In fact, we have programs designed for students at the elementary school level up through high school. Each program encourages the students to be creative, have some fun, and, as in the case of our Eagle Scout this year, find personal connections to the struggle for independence.”

Related Stories