Hauss Chapter 4- The United Kingdom

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.