Chapter 19: Canada
I. Thinking about Canada
A. Canada and the US share the world’s longest history of peace and longest peaceful border.
B. Few Americans know much about Canada
C. Canada is sparsely populated.
D. Canada is officially bi-lingual. They speak French and English.
II. The Evolution of the Canadian State
A. 1867 British North America Act
a. Levels of economic and finical control
b. Gave the federal government the upper hand over the providences
c. The BNA act contained important religious guarantees for the British minority in Quebec.
B. Decentralization of Federalism in the Modern Era
C. The Constitutional Problem- From the 1970s to the 1990s Canadians main issue was the constitution.
a. There was a lack of an amending formula
III. Political Culture
A. Canadians are usually quieter and more tolerant and more progressive on social issues than the US.
B. Canadians are probably to the left of Americans on most social issues.
C. Have liberal and tolerant cultures
D. A shift in political values towards a “post-materialist” perspective; peace, environment, and human rights
IV. Political Participation
A. The Canadian party and electors systems are very different from those in the US and tend to have more in common with those in Europe.
B. Broken Parties
C. Progressive Party- Representing the interests of small farmers
D. Liberal Party
E. Third parties have played a major role in Canadian federal politics
F. Canada uses first-past-the post electoral systems. The candidate with the most votes wins.
G. Religion has also been an important factor in voting behavior in Canada.
V. The Canadian State
A. Canada was closely modeled on British intuitions
B. The queen of England remains the titular head of state
C. The governor is usually advised by a group of advisors know as the Privy Council.
D. The cabinet must retain the support of the house of commons to stay in power.
E. The role of the House of Commons in the political system is to provide representation to individual citizens, to pass laws, and to provide the recruitment training of political leaders.
F. The Senate, or upper house of Parliament, has law-making authority; all bills must be passed by the Senate giving it an absolute veto over legislation.
G. The Courts-They have the power of judicial review through which they decide on the constitutionality of provincial and federal systems.
H. Supreme Court-highest court
VI. Public Policy: Moving to the Right?
A. Created a more extensive social service system
B. Canada has been less willing to follow international trends in foreign policy
C. Canada has converted its military into one whose primary mission is peacekeeping.
3 Questions:
1. We talked about in class how the Canadians do not like Americans, I was just wondered about how its public known that they don't like us, but we don't hear much about Americans not liking Canadians.
2. I thought it was interesting how Canada was apart of our original 13 colonies, i though it was interesting that we are not taught this in school.
3. I thought it was interesting how Canadians have more of the mind set of being peaceful with their military and we are more aggressive with ours.
Chapter 4: Great Britain
I. Thinking About Britain
A. Key Questions – 4 themes that set the UK apart from other democracies
1. Gradualism- has suffered less unrest and had more consensual history
2. Britain has had the best troubles of any of the major liberal democracies since the height of the collectivist period in the 1960s.
3. The 1980s and 1990s redefined British political life and spurred the renewal of support for free-market economics that has taken hold.
4. The impact of Blair and the “New Labour.”
B. The Basics:
1. The Good Friday Agreement
2. The UK has over sixty million people.
3. Racial issues have become politically significant over the past thirty years
C. The Evolutions of the British State:
1. Building a nation-state
2. Defining the relationship between the church and state
3. Establishing liberal democracy
4. Dealing with the industrial revolution
D. The Broad Sweet of British History:
1. Magna Carta- king not absolute monarch
2. Two houses of Parliament set up after kings request
3. England experienced two revolutions in the seventh century
4. Great Reform Act-1832
E. The Collectivist Consensus:
1. Beveridge Report- called for a social insurance program in which every citizen would be eligible for health, unemployment, pension, and other benefits.
F. The British Political Culture
1. Before the 1970s the British were remarkably tolerant of each other and the people who lead them
2. After the 1970s people began to express their concerns about the collectivist consensus
3. Protests began to illustrate people’s dissatisfactions with the British political culture. There protests were dangers because they proved rather fleeting; in large people the Thatcher government met them head-on. They were also dangerous because the analysts who predicted the end of the civic culture overstated the dangers the protest movements posed.
4. Identification with Britain as a whole is declining, especially among the Scots and Welsh.
5. No one thinks the UK will fall apart but many of the symbols and institutions that have held British culture together are losing their influence.
G. Political Participation
1. The Conservatives:
a. Natural Party of Government
b. Proportional representation
c. 3 reasons successful-
1. Leaders were pragmatic politicians who were flexible enough to change their polices when circumstances warranted.
2. The conservatives had a rather elitist but effective organization.
3. Their roots lay in nobility
2. The Labour:
a. Has had many criticism for being too extreme and out of touch with the
electorate.
b. In 1979 they were defeated because of a shift leftward
c. The most dramatic shift in the Labour politics came after Smith’s
sudden death in 1994.
H. The Liberal Democrats:
1. The newest major party
2. Is a merger of the Liberals and the Social Democrats
I. Minor Parties:
1. After 1974, the labour party tried to give Scotland and Wales self government.
J. The British Electorate: Shaped by the issue of Social Class.
K. Interest Groups: The TUC with the Labour and the Confederation of British
Industry with the Conservatives.
L. Structure: The Queen has no official power, she is more of a figure.
1. House of Commons- body that determines who governs and which laws
should be passed.
2. The key to the Brish state is the parliamentary part.
3. The head of the largest minority party becomes the leader of the opposition and appoints the shadow cabinet.
M. The Thatcher and Blair Revolutions:
1. Demoestic Politics
2. Foreign Policy
a. Europe- debate over Britain’s role in Europe
b. Iraq- decisions made by Blair to support American-led invasion of Iraq that drove him from office
1. Unlike the United States, the UK does not have a separation of church and state and i wonder why they chose not to have them separate?
2. I would have liked it if Hauss would have expanded on why Scotland, Wales, etc. have talked about becoming separate from England.
3.I think in general its interesting how the Queen is such an important figure, but she has no political power.
News Articles:
USA Today 3/16/10
Last Big airline drops free food
Continental Airlines is the last airline to stop supplying food and snacks for its coach passengers. This is significant because it marks the end of an era where a meal was included in an airline ticket. These changes have been made to reflect the market and economy.
USA Today 3/16/10
Study: doctors need tools to help patients slim down
A survey showed that many physicians don’t believe they have the tools needed to help people succeed at loosing weight. Many smaller practices don’t have staff trained especially in obesity treatment. 36% of patients who were told they needed to loose weight claim that their doctor never discussed how to go about dropping the weight with them.
USA Today 3/17/10
Pepsi is dropping out of schools
Pepsi announced that they are going to remove their high-calorie drinks from schools for kids ages 18 and under in more than 200 countries. They are doing this to help prevent childhood obesity.
USA Today 3/17/10
Poll: Worries about environment hit low
American’s level of worry about the environment has hit its lowest point in 20 years. Experts believe this is partly due to the fact that most Americans are worried about the economy instead of the environment.
USA Today 3/18/10
Claims for damaged, lost bags down 50%
There has been almost a 50% decrease in complaints about airport workers damaging or loosing bags. This success is partly contributed to the fact that the agencies have installed surveillance cameras in rooms wehre luggage is screen.
USA Today 3/9/10
Slowly, limits on pot are fading
A lawyer in California is concerned because he has concluded that the ban on marijuana is making is more accessible to kids, instead of less. He claims that kids say that its easier to get a hold of marijuana than alcohol because marijuana isn’t controlled by the government. He is beginning to think that if the government were to regulate marijuana then it would be harder for kids to get a hold of it.
USA Today 3/9/10
Gas heads back up to $3 a gallon this spring
Experts say that with the bad economy it could help gas prices from increasing. Factors that will help gas prices from going up are unemployment and refining capacity. Experts say that is the unemployment rate drops below 8.7% then Americans could see a rise in gas prices
USA Today 3/9/10
More urbanites have their pick of fresh fruit.
Many larger cities are putting in community green spaces where citizens can come and pick free fruit. This is benefiting those who live in the urban community not only because they get fresh produce from it, but because it gives them an opportunity to get outside and be in nature.
USA Today 3/11/10
Is the Global warming movement Cooling?
The efforts to stop global warming have been decreasing these last few months with the extreme cold weather. Not only are communities beginning to dought but also some scientists. One scientist is worried that other scientists are beginning to dought because he doesn’t want the public to also dought global warming.
USA Today 3/11/10
Box Office has 3-D to thank for record year
The box offices had a all time high record last year of $29.9 billion. This is increase is due to the increase in 3-D screens and the increase of ticket prices. This is important because in a society that is concerned about the economy people are still spending money on going out to the movies.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Comparative Politics Charles Hauss Chapter 2 Outline
I. Four Elections
a. Two common denominators to recent electoral history in the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany.
1. Elections determine who governs in all democracies.
2. Even though election stakes are high none of them have all critical
issues up for debate.
b. Differences- No two democracies are alike.
1. Not all democracies run their elections in the same way.
2. In the U.S. has a presidential system with a separation and divisions of
power.
II. Thinking About Democracy
a. The Basics
1. Rights- basic rights: freedom of press, religion, associations, and speech.
2. Competitive Elections- all elections are free, regular, and fair in which people can choose between two or more candidates.
3. Civil Society and Civic Culture- stable democracies have a civic culture in which people accept not just the rules of the political game but the elites who lead them.
4. Capitalism and Affluence- democracy can only exist alongside an affluent economy based in large part of private ownership of the means of production.
III. The Origins of the Democratic State
a. Domestic concerns matter more than international ones.
b. It is impossible to disentangle the history of democracy from that of Europe and North America.
c. Democracy in these countries has taken along time to develop.
d. Thomas Hobbes- If people were left to their own devices, the competition among them would be so intense that it would lead to the “war of all against all.”
e. John Locke- the state’s role was to protect “life, liberty, and property.”
f. The way democracy is created has to do with 4 transformations:
1. The creation of the nation and state
2. The role of religion in society and government
3. The development of pressures for democracy
4. The industrial revolution
IV. Political Culture and Participation.
a. The Civic Culture?
i. reasons for the collapse of democracy and the rise of fascism- political culture
ii. In successful Democracy- people have a sense of legitimacy and accept the “rules of the game.”
iii. The feeling of legitimacy has remained despite a drastic drop in most forms of political participation and trust in politicians.
iv. Consider more than just the values and assumptions of a political culture.
b. Political Parties and Elections
i. Political parties: the organizations responsible for contesting elections and forming governments afterward.
ii. Left- remains of the communist’s party.
iii. Social Democratic- traditionally supported the nationalization of industry, extensive social welfare programs, and greater equality.
iv. Liberals or Radicals- fundamental change; separation of church and state, a market economy, and democracy.
v. Christian Democratic- relationship between church and state
vi. Right- secular conservatives.
c. Catch-All Parties
i. attempt to appeal to all voters and literally catch them all.
d. New Divisions
i. women are beginning to have an increased role in political life.
e. Realignment?
i. Two parts
1. Dealignment always precedes realignment.
2. the right has gone a long way towards redefining itself. Conservatives has kept some of their traditional voters in the fold while appealing to new right wing materialists.
f. Interest Groups
i. They seek to promote the ideas of the interest groups.
ii. Since there are so many interest groups it is hard to reach a firm conclusion about them.
g. Political Protest
i. Two trends in protest
1. The angriest and loudest protest come from groups that feel they are least well represented.
2. Virtually none of it involves people who question the legitimacy of their regimes.
V. The Democratic State
a. Presidential and Parliamentary Systems
i. both are based on critical democratic principle that free and completive elections determine who governs.
ii. the American president often has to compromise, but in a parliamentary system the prime minister usually does not have to compromise because of a secure majority party.
iii. Parliamentary systems have cabinet responsibility- requires a prime minister and government to retain the support of a parliamentary majority.
VI. Public Policy
a. The Interventionist State
i. interventionist state- offer a variety of social services including…
1. Basic health care and education
2. Subsidized and/or free education at all levels including
universities.
3. Unemployment compensation
4. Pensions and other programs for seniors
b. Industrialized democracies all have capitalist economies because most
businesses are privately owned.
c.Foreign Policy
i. “political space” has changed so now it is easier for any of the
industrialized democracies to criticize and even reject Washington’s
initiatives on issues of national security.
d. Feedback
i. it is getting easier and more confusing to find out about politics at home
and abroad.
ii. average citizens view the world in their own terms, which may be
different from those of either the politicians or the media moguls.
e. Conclusions: The Worst Form of Government Expect For All the Others?
i. democratic regimes achieve a series of balances better than any other types of government:
1. Between the governors and the governed
2. Between the political world and the rest of the society
3. Between unbridled capitalism and the interests of those who do
not benefit from it.
4. Between personal freedoms and the need to maintain order and forge coherent public policy.
3 Questions:
1. The chapter talks about how democracies need to have an affluent economic base and I just wonder why democracy seems to require capitalism to be successful.
2. Under the Origins of the Democratic State section the author knows that democracy in these countries took a long time to develop. This just makes me wonder what exactly it is about democracy that makes it such a long process.
3. This isn’t really a question, but I though it was interesting how the chapter talks about how it is important for people to feel a sense of legitimacy in the government and even if voter turn out is low democracies are successful because the people still feel they are important, even if they don’t vote.
Comparative Politics Charles Hauss Chapter 3 Outline
I. Covering (or Not) The Uninsured
a. The U.S is the only industrialized democracy that does not even guarantee basic health care coverage to everybody.
b. The government does provide Medicaid and Medicare to the elderly and poor.
c. Thinking about the United States
i. The U.S. has a federal, where the government shares power with states, cities, counties, and other jurisdictions.
ii. The U.S. has a strong system of checks and balances.
iii. The way the U.S. is set up it requires politicians to compromise on almost every issue.
iv. The U.S. shares a decline in civic engagement with other industrialized democracies.
d. The Making of the American State
i. The Constitutional Order
1. According to Seymour Martin Lipset the most important even in the creation of the first nation was the adoption of the Constitution in 1787.
2. The founding fathers decided to concentrate power in larger jurisdictions such as the national government
ii. Since the Founders
1. The biggest crisis the US has ever faced was the civil war.
2. Even though American politics change the basic institutions and principles remain intact.
e. The American People and Politics
i. The American Political Culture
1. No more than a tiny minority of Americans have questioned the regime based on the Constitution of 1787.
2. Almost all Americans accept the idea of a weak state
3. Individualism remains one of the most widely held beliefs among Americans.
ii. Parties and Elections
1. The most common form of political participation in the US is voting in national elections.
2. Americans have a two party system
3. The Democratic part traditionally represents the “little man”
4. The Republican party traditionally represents the upper and middle class.
5. Democrats traditionally do best in the industrial Northeast and Middle West and West coasts and Republicans do better in the south, agricultural Midwest, and Rocky Mountain States.
iii. Social movements
1. New Left- added new issues, promotion of the civil rights and opposition of the Vietnam War.
2. New Right- More diverse than its left-wing equivalent.
iv. The Weak American State
1. The US has one of the weakest states of any of the industrialized democracies.
2. The US generally takes more time and is generally less effective than other governments.
3. The house and senate almost never pass identical versions of a bill.
4. 5 main factors that shape the way members vote
1. The President
2. The Party
3. The Member Peers
4. the Members constituents want
5. The Members own views
5. The American state usually cannot act either quickly or coherently
6. 3 factors to contribute to making the US a weak state
1. bureaucracy
2. The US is rare in giving its courts wide-ranging powers of judicial review.
3. federal system
II. Feedback
a. people rely primarily on network TV for their political information
3 Questions:
1. I did not realize that the US was the only industrialized nation that did not provide basic health care for everybody. This made me wonder why not until more recent years has the US not had to push to provide health care to everyone?
2. The US is considered a weak state because it takes a longer period of time to make actions, but I would not necessarily consider this completely negative because since the US takes longer to get legislation through by the time the legislation passes it is hopefully a compromise of what both parties want.
3. According to the table on page 58 the gap between the percentage of popular vote for republican and democrats has been decreasing; I wonder what reasons for this are?
News Articles:
USA Today 02/23/10
Obama unveils restart on health
President Obama proposed having a 10 year $950 billion plan that is opposed by the Republicans and is not yet endorsed by the Democrats. It is unclear whether or not the Democrats will be able to pass the bill on an election year. Even if Obama won 51 votes in the senate it is uncertain if the house would pass the bill.
USA Today 02/23/10
Americans back behind the wheel
Driving has started to increase in the past few months as the economy is slowly improving. Another way that they know that driving is up is that toll collections have increased. From 2007 to 2009 the dramatic drop in driving road deaths dropped and even with the increasing in driving lately road deaths are not expected to rise.
USA Today 02/23/10
Dogs help provide support in courtrooms
Courts have begun to use dogs to help calm victims and witnesses of violent attacks when they are testifying. This began in Seattle but is gaining popularity across the country. This works especially well with children because they may be afraid to talk to adults but are not afraid to talk to the dogs.
USA Today 02/25/10
‘Gaps’ found in lactose intolerance
At a National Institutes of Health conference it was discussed how many Americans believe they are lactose intolerant when they are really not. One should not completely eliminate dairy products from their diet unless confirmed by a doctor that one is lactose intolerant because doing so could harm ones bones, heart, blood pressure, and colon.
USA Today 02/25/10
Trainer killed in show at Sea World
An experienced animal trainer was killed at sea world. They believe that that trainer slipped and fell into the tank with the killer whale. This whale is also linked to two previous deaths.
USA Today 03/01/10
In Chilean quake, a warning for U.S.
An earthquake in Chile with a magnitude of 8.8 has sent tsunami fears across the pacific. As of Sunday the death toll from the earth quake is 700. Much of the west cost of California is at risk for having an earthquake, so the government is taking notice in how Chile is responding to the earthquake and how affective their methods of prevention were.
USA Today 03/01/10
For most places, this winter was a seasonal switcheroo
This winter has caused lots of snow in places where it does not normally snow much and little in areas that it normally does. In mid-February snow covered over two thirds of the country compared to normally only half the country is covered. Meteorologists believe that the strange winter weather can be attributed to El Nino, because the ocean temperatures are slightly warmer than normal.
USA Today 03/01/10
Crosby denies USA another miracle
The Americans received the silver metal at the Olympics after the Canadians scoring another goal in overtime. The NHL has sent it players four times to the Olympics, and Canada has won the gold twice.
USA Today 03/02/10
Postal service Seeks 5-day delivery
The U.S. Postal service is moving towards switching from delivery six days a week to five days a week. This week they will submit a request to the Postal Regulatory Commission and if they approve it, then it will have to be approved by congress. The suggestion for this decrease in days is because since more Americans can make payments online the postal service has continued to decrease the amount of mail it delivers.
USA Today 03/02/10
Weedkiller upsets frogs’ hormones
A herbicide used to kill weeds has been found to chemically castrate frogs, producing gender-bending effects. The effects of this are that it is causing many of these frogs to be unable to reproduce. About 75% or stream water samples done by the U.S. Geological Survey contain atrazine, a herbicide. Discussion of this chemical use being discontinued is being talked about as a precaution.
I. Four Elections
a. Two common denominators to recent electoral history in the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany.
1. Elections determine who governs in all democracies.
2. Even though election stakes are high none of them have all critical
issues up for debate.
b. Differences- No two democracies are alike.
1. Not all democracies run their elections in the same way.
2. In the U.S. has a presidential system with a separation and divisions of
power.
II. Thinking About Democracy
a. The Basics
1. Rights- basic rights: freedom of press, religion, associations, and speech.
2. Competitive Elections- all elections are free, regular, and fair in which people can choose between two or more candidates.
3. Civil Society and Civic Culture- stable democracies have a civic culture in which people accept not just the rules of the political game but the elites who lead them.
4. Capitalism and Affluence- democracy can only exist alongside an affluent economy based in large part of private ownership of the means of production.
III. The Origins of the Democratic State
a. Domestic concerns matter more than international ones.
b. It is impossible to disentangle the history of democracy from that of Europe and North America.
c. Democracy in these countries has taken along time to develop.
d. Thomas Hobbes- If people were left to their own devices, the competition among them would be so intense that it would lead to the “war of all against all.”
e. John Locke- the state’s role was to protect “life, liberty, and property.”
f. The way democracy is created has to do with 4 transformations:
1. The creation of the nation and state
2. The role of religion in society and government
3. The development of pressures for democracy
4. The industrial revolution
IV. Political Culture and Participation.
a. The Civic Culture?
i. reasons for the collapse of democracy and the rise of fascism- political culture
ii. In successful Democracy- people have a sense of legitimacy and accept the “rules of the game.”
iii. The feeling of legitimacy has remained despite a drastic drop in most forms of political participation and trust in politicians.
iv. Consider more than just the values and assumptions of a political culture.
b. Political Parties and Elections
i. Political parties: the organizations responsible for contesting elections and forming governments afterward.
ii. Left- remains of the communist’s party.
iii. Social Democratic- traditionally supported the nationalization of industry, extensive social welfare programs, and greater equality.
iv. Liberals or Radicals- fundamental change; separation of church and state, a market economy, and democracy.
v. Christian Democratic- relationship between church and state
vi. Right- secular conservatives.
c. Catch-All Parties
i. attempt to appeal to all voters and literally catch them all.
d. New Divisions
i. women are beginning to have an increased role in political life.
e. Realignment?
i. Two parts
1. Dealignment always precedes realignment.
2. the right has gone a long way towards redefining itself. Conservatives has kept some of their traditional voters in the fold while appealing to new right wing materialists.
f. Interest Groups
i. They seek to promote the ideas of the interest groups.
ii. Since there are so many interest groups it is hard to reach a firm conclusion about them.
g. Political Protest
i. Two trends in protest
1. The angriest and loudest protest come from groups that feel they are least well represented.
2. Virtually none of it involves people who question the legitimacy of their regimes.
V. The Democratic State
a. Presidential and Parliamentary Systems
i. both are based on critical democratic principle that free and completive elections determine who governs.
ii. the American president often has to compromise, but in a parliamentary system the prime minister usually does not have to compromise because of a secure majority party.
iii. Parliamentary systems have cabinet responsibility- requires a prime minister and government to retain the support of a parliamentary majority.
VI. Public Policy
a. The Interventionist State
i. interventionist state- offer a variety of social services including…
1. Basic health care and education
2. Subsidized and/or free education at all levels including
universities.
3. Unemployment compensation
4. Pensions and other programs for seniors
b. Industrialized democracies all have capitalist economies because most
businesses are privately owned.
c.Foreign Policy
i. “political space” has changed so now it is easier for any of the
industrialized democracies to criticize and even reject Washington’s
initiatives on issues of national security.
d. Feedback
i. it is getting easier and more confusing to find out about politics at home
and abroad.
ii. average citizens view the world in their own terms, which may be
different from those of either the politicians or the media moguls.
e. Conclusions: The Worst Form of Government Expect For All the Others?
i. democratic regimes achieve a series of balances better than any other types of government:
1. Between the governors and the governed
2. Between the political world and the rest of the society
3. Between unbridled capitalism and the interests of those who do
not benefit from it.
4. Between personal freedoms and the need to maintain order and forge coherent public policy.
3 Questions:
1. The chapter talks about how democracies need to have an affluent economic base and I just wonder why democracy seems to require capitalism to be successful.
2. Under the Origins of the Democratic State section the author knows that democracy in these countries took a long time to develop. This just makes me wonder what exactly it is about democracy that makes it such a long process.
3. This isn’t really a question, but I though it was interesting how the chapter talks about how it is important for people to feel a sense of legitimacy in the government and even if voter turn out is low democracies are successful because the people still feel they are important, even if they don’t vote.
Comparative Politics Charles Hauss Chapter 3 Outline
I. Covering (or Not) The Uninsured
a. The U.S is the only industrialized democracy that does not even guarantee basic health care coverage to everybody.
b. The government does provide Medicaid and Medicare to the elderly and poor.
c. Thinking about the United States
i. The U.S. has a federal, where the government shares power with states, cities, counties, and other jurisdictions.
ii. The U.S. has a strong system of checks and balances.
iii. The way the U.S. is set up it requires politicians to compromise on almost every issue.
iv. The U.S. shares a decline in civic engagement with other industrialized democracies.
d. The Making of the American State
i. The Constitutional Order
1. According to Seymour Martin Lipset the most important even in the creation of the first nation was the adoption of the Constitution in 1787.
2. The founding fathers decided to concentrate power in larger jurisdictions such as the national government
ii. Since the Founders
1. The biggest crisis the US has ever faced was the civil war.
2. Even though American politics change the basic institutions and principles remain intact.
e. The American People and Politics
i. The American Political Culture
1. No more than a tiny minority of Americans have questioned the regime based on the Constitution of 1787.
2. Almost all Americans accept the idea of a weak state
3. Individualism remains one of the most widely held beliefs among Americans.
ii. Parties and Elections
1. The most common form of political participation in the US is voting in national elections.
2. Americans have a two party system
3. The Democratic part traditionally represents the “little man”
4. The Republican party traditionally represents the upper and middle class.
5. Democrats traditionally do best in the industrial Northeast and Middle West and West coasts and Republicans do better in the south, agricultural Midwest, and Rocky Mountain States.
iii. Social movements
1. New Left- added new issues, promotion of the civil rights and opposition of the Vietnam War.
2. New Right- More diverse than its left-wing equivalent.
iv. The Weak American State
1. The US has one of the weakest states of any of the industrialized democracies.
2. The US generally takes more time and is generally less effective than other governments.
3. The house and senate almost never pass identical versions of a bill.
4. 5 main factors that shape the way members vote
1. The President
2. The Party
3. The Member Peers
4. the Members constituents want
5. The Members own views
5. The American state usually cannot act either quickly or coherently
6. 3 factors to contribute to making the US a weak state
1. bureaucracy
2. The US is rare in giving its courts wide-ranging powers of judicial review.
3. federal system
II. Feedback
a. people rely primarily on network TV for their political information
3 Questions:
1. I did not realize that the US was the only industrialized nation that did not provide basic health care for everybody. This made me wonder why not until more recent years has the US not had to push to provide health care to everyone?
2. The US is considered a weak state because it takes a longer period of time to make actions, but I would not necessarily consider this completely negative because since the US takes longer to get legislation through by the time the legislation passes it is hopefully a compromise of what both parties want.
3. According to the table on page 58 the gap between the percentage of popular vote for republican and democrats has been decreasing; I wonder what reasons for this are?
News Articles:
USA Today 02/23/10
Obama unveils restart on health
President Obama proposed having a 10 year $950 billion plan that is opposed by the Republicans and is not yet endorsed by the Democrats. It is unclear whether or not the Democrats will be able to pass the bill on an election year. Even if Obama won 51 votes in the senate it is uncertain if the house would pass the bill.
USA Today 02/23/10
Americans back behind the wheel
Driving has started to increase in the past few months as the economy is slowly improving. Another way that they know that driving is up is that toll collections have increased. From 2007 to 2009 the dramatic drop in driving road deaths dropped and even with the increasing in driving lately road deaths are not expected to rise.
USA Today 02/23/10
Dogs help provide support in courtrooms
Courts have begun to use dogs to help calm victims and witnesses of violent attacks when they are testifying. This began in Seattle but is gaining popularity across the country. This works especially well with children because they may be afraid to talk to adults but are not afraid to talk to the dogs.
USA Today 02/25/10
‘Gaps’ found in lactose intolerance
At a National Institutes of Health conference it was discussed how many Americans believe they are lactose intolerant when they are really not. One should not completely eliminate dairy products from their diet unless confirmed by a doctor that one is lactose intolerant because doing so could harm ones bones, heart, blood pressure, and colon.
USA Today 02/25/10
Trainer killed in show at Sea World
An experienced animal trainer was killed at sea world. They believe that that trainer slipped and fell into the tank with the killer whale. This whale is also linked to two previous deaths.
USA Today 03/01/10
In Chilean quake, a warning for U.S.
An earthquake in Chile with a magnitude of 8.8 has sent tsunami fears across the pacific. As of Sunday the death toll from the earth quake is 700. Much of the west cost of California is at risk for having an earthquake, so the government is taking notice in how Chile is responding to the earthquake and how affective their methods of prevention were.
USA Today 03/01/10
For most places, this winter was a seasonal switcheroo
This winter has caused lots of snow in places where it does not normally snow much and little in areas that it normally does. In mid-February snow covered over two thirds of the country compared to normally only half the country is covered. Meteorologists believe that the strange winter weather can be attributed to El Nino, because the ocean temperatures are slightly warmer than normal.
USA Today 03/01/10
Crosby denies USA another miracle
The Americans received the silver metal at the Olympics after the Canadians scoring another goal in overtime. The NHL has sent it players four times to the Olympics, and Canada has won the gold twice.
USA Today 03/02/10
Postal service Seeks 5-day delivery
The U.S. Postal service is moving towards switching from delivery six days a week to five days a week. This week they will submit a request to the Postal Regulatory Commission and if they approve it, then it will have to be approved by congress. The suggestion for this decrease in days is because since more Americans can make payments online the postal service has continued to decrease the amount of mail it delivers.
USA Today 03/02/10
Weedkiller upsets frogs’ hormones
A herbicide used to kill weeds has been found to chemically castrate frogs, producing gender-bending effects. The effects of this are that it is causing many of these frogs to be unable to reproduce. About 75% or stream water samples done by the U.S. Geological Survey contain atrazine, a herbicide. Discussion of this chemical use being discontinued is being talked about as a precaution.
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