Archive for the 'AP Introductory Materials' Category
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
In the 1990s and early 2000s, nations around the world witnessed the sweep of globalization–the growing integration of economies, societies, and political systems–and the democratization of trade, migration, technology, and information. In many developing nations, governments threw their countries’ agriculture, resources, and services open to global competition and slashed subsidies for their domestic producers to force them to compete in global markets. Many countries provided incentives for the poor to migrate from farms to cities, where they began to manufacture goods for export to the West.
Many economists believed this global integration had become so deeply rooted it could never be undone. They were wrong. As the global financial crisis deepens, the world is undergoing exactly the reverse of the 1990s–a wrenching period of deglobalization in which governments throw up new walls and the ties binding nations together rapidly unravel. Nations like the United States, Japan, and Germany may suffer, but they will survive, as will powerful developing nations like China or Brazil that have large cash reserves, diversified economies, and enough political clout to protect their industries. On the other hand, poor and trade-dependent countries that remade their whole economies to take advantage of globalization will be devastated. Having opened up, these nations are now highly vulnerable to global financial currents, without the cash on hand to weather the storm. Perhaps even worse, these financial shifts are likely to spark massive social unrest and could take down one government after the next. If you thought globalization was destabilizing, just wait to see what deglobalization will do.
More from the New Republic
Posted in AP Introductory Materials, AP Post AP Seminar, World Civ-Imperialism, World Civ-Modern Global Dilemmas | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Please read the official explanation of the AP Syllabus from the AP College Board.
Posted in AP Introductory Materials | No Comments »
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Although parties and elections are thought of as defining features of democracy, most authoritarian governments also rely on political parties and hold elections. Theories of democratic politics see elections as the means by which citizens hold politicians accountable for the quality of governance. Citizens may have insufficient information to monitor politicians closely and, in any event, must choose on infrequent occasions among packages of policy promises (parties) that may not reflect their own views or interests very well, but they can at a minimum oust incompetent, unsuccessful, or simply unpopular leaders in routine low-cost ways. Citizens in authoritarian regimes only rarely have this option. Authoritarian elections do not choose government leaders or the set of policies that the government will follow. Generally speaking, citizens cannot throw the bums out.Changes in leadership and policy choices are decided upon by elite actors such as military officers and high-level party officials, not citizens. Nevertheless, a substantial majority of authoritarian governments holds elections, devotes substantial resources to its support party, and spends heavily on pre-election political campaigns.
These observations raise several questions. If party formation is not motivated by the need to compete effectively in order to win elections, as standard democratic theories of parties claim, why are they created and maintained If elections do not choose leaders and, indirectly, policies, what function do they perform?
Read more
Since I cannot rightfully ask you to read all 30 pages of this analysis, your task is to read the first five pages, carefully skim the rest and analyze the tables at the end. Then you must type a one page essay, single-spaced essay which responds to Geddes’ research question (in bold above). Post your essay in the comments link below.
As always, you are encouraged to read the posts of your classmates and make comments accordingly.
Posted in AP Introductory Materials, Dictatorship | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
Consider the following news headlines from across the globe:
- The Russian president proclaims that he will appoint hundreds of political officials who until then had been elected by the people, and no one in the country seems to object.
- The Chinese government sends troops to arrest farmers who refuse to give up their land to state-sponsored developers as China continues to bolster its market economy.
- The citizens of Mexico vote the one-party system out of its 75-year rule by selecting a president from a party on the right in 2000, but now seem to be leaning toward a leftist president candidate for 2006.
- Almost every week, the British prime minister faces the opposition party leader toe to toe in a “question hour” that encourages even members of his own party to hurl insults at him.
How do we make sense of the actions that we read about in the news? Start by reading this
Posted in AP Introductory Materials, US GOV: Pol Culture | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
We know that although women don’t come from Venus, and men aren’t from Mars, men and women do experience and participate in politics in very different ways. If we could line up all the leaders of the nations around the world, we would see few women. If we could put all the world’s legislators in the same auditorium, we would see more women, but it certainly would not be half (or rather 52%) of the legislative population. And if we counted up all the references to women, girls and females in comparative politics textbooks, we wouldn’t need many fingers to do the counting either.
So why study how gender operates in politics? One reason is that more women are to be found at various levels of governance, and more and more women are participating in politics through voting and political action at local and regional levels. We might also want to know whether an increase in women’s participation has any effect on policies. Or we might want to discover the relation between political and social change and greater gender equality in a society.
Print, read, respond, bring to class
Posted in AP Introductory Materials | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
The field of comparative politics starts with the assumption that knowledge in the social sciences must proceed by way of the search for comparisons, or what has been called “suggestive contrasts.” Scholars of comparative politics compare in order to discover similarities and explain differences. As infrequent and highly complex events, revolutions have attracted a great deal of attention from comparativists.
In this article we will address the following topics:
- The Concept of Revolution
- Why Revolutions Happen?
- Can Revolutions be Predicted?
- What Do Revolutions Accomplish?
- What Are some of the Failures of Revolutions?
- Comparing Characteristics and Outcomes of Some Revolutions
- Questions
Posted in AP Introductory Materials, AP Russia | No Comments »