Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Mexico FRQs

Conceptual Analysis: We suggest that you spend approximately 30 minutes on question 1

1. Legislatures are important institutions in both authoritarian and democratic regimes.
            (a) Identify a function of a legislature that is common to both democratic and             
                  authoritarian regimes.                                                                                                 
            (b) Explain how a function of a legislature can strengthen democracy.
            (c) Describe two ways a legislature can be controlled in an authoritarian regime.
            (d) Explain why authoritarian regimes maintain legislatures.

Conceptual Analysis: We suggest that you spend approximately 30 minutes on question 2

2. Political economy involves the study of the relationship between states and markets.
1.     (a)  Define economic liberalization.
2.     (b)  Describe the actions governments take in pursuing a policy of economic liberalization regarding TWO of the following:
Subsidies
Tariffs
Ownership of companies and firms                                                                  
 Foreign direct investment
3.     (c)  Identify one international organization that promotes economic liberalization.
4.     (d)  Explain one reason for pursuing economic liberalization.

5.     (e)  Explain one reason for resisting economic liberalization.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Drug War and It's Effects On Democracy in Mexico

Read the following Article: Massacred Democracy in Mexico


How has recent drug-related violence affected the country’s politics? Does such violence fundamentally threaten the ongoing democratic transition?

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Mexico Vocabulary (concepts)

Amerindians
Calderon, Filipe
camarillas
Camber of Deputies
Chiapas Rebellion
corporatism
co-optation
debt crises
Diaz, Porfirio
ejidos (ejidotarios)
election reform
Federal Election Institute (IFE)
Federal Election Commission
Fox, Vicente
GATT
"Mexican Miracle"
PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party)
maquiladoras
mestizos
multiparty system
Neoliberalism
PAN (National Action Party)
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
Obrador, Andres Manuel
parastatals
Mixed election systems (FPTP & SPTP, PR)
one party-dominant system
PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution)
patron-client politics (system)
PEMEX
Sexenio
Principle of non-reelection
ISI (Import substitution Industtrialization)
SAP (Structural Adjustment Programs)
Zapatistas


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Parastatals

Create a list of parastals / industries the text mentions by name.  When were they nationalized, when were they privatized, when were they popular(growing), when were they in decline, how many and which ones remain?


Read the following article on Mexico's oil parastatal
PEMEX

Mexico and the Global Economy

Check your notes on page 213 or re-read the section

1.What is the importance of GATT (when, why, legacy)
2. What were the negatives of NAFTA for Mexico? (3rd paragraph)
     Be clear on why sovereignty is an issue
3. What were the risks for the USA?
4. How is Globalization affecting Mexico's sovereignty?

Clientelism

Go to the following website and read the 1st 3 pages of the article

Clientelism

1.  Why are Clientelistic networks difficult to remove?
2. What are the dangers of these networks? positives?
3. How are formal systems of governance manifest?
4. How are informal systems of government manifest?
5. Describe the relationship between clients and patrons
6. What is a Cacique? (how does it work and at what level)

Monday, December 8, 2014

Mexico's Presidents

Use the following link to complete your chart on Mexico's Presidents, their policies, and the direction they took the country.

Britannica on-line

These are very brief summaries of Mexico's Presidents and their legacies.  You will need to supplement what you write down on your chart with information from your text.

Create a T-chart with one side labeled reformist and the other conservative. The left side of your paper should look like a descending timeline from Calles through Pena Nieto.  Record the policies/activities of each president in descending/chronological order in the appropriate columns.  Identify which policies were neoliberal in nature and which led to greater democracy.

In class Monday

Elias Calles
Lazaro Cardenas
Jose Lopez Portillo
Miguel de la Madrid
Carlos Salinas
Ernesto Zedillo
Vicente Fox
Filipe Calderon

Mexico Reading Schedule

We lost a day last Thursday to snow (yeah!) You need to have section 3 read by Tuesday and section 4 read by Friday.  We will have a Chapter test on Wednesday and Thursday before the break (17th and 18th)



Monday, December 1, 2014

Mexico Briefing Paper

Read the Mexico Briefing Paper by Friday 12/6

Pay close attention to everything from the Porfiriato foreword

Mexico Unit

The first country we will look at is Mexico.  We'll begin by looking at Mexico's history and development of Mexico's political institutions and culture.  Students need to complete the following for Tuesday:

Read pages 199-206

Answer the following questions:
1.  What was the impact of the revolution of 1910 on the creation of the Mexican constitution in 1917?
            A.  What did the constitution formally establish?
            B.  What were the (5) clear results of the 1910 revolution and Calle's consolidation of power?

2.  Define Clientelism, Corporatist state, and civil society.
             A.  How does Clientelism and a Corporatist state strengthen state power?
             B.  One of the chief criticisms of corporatism is that it
    1. Encourages labor unrest
    2. Creates too many groups
    3. Often limits representative processes
    4. Involves too little government participation
    5. Involves too little interest group participation

Mexico Political Map

Use the following websites to complete the map that was handed out in class.
(handed out in class Thursday before break)

2006 Presidential Election

        Scroll down to the bottom of the page and use the chart Titled North-South Divide.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Scoring the FRQs

Use these rubrics to score the FRQs

Link to Googledoc Rubric

Link to samples and scoring summary for question #1

Link to samples and scoring summary for question #2

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

US FRQs

US Comp FRQs

1.  Interest groups seek to influence political processes in ways that benefit their members. In doing so, however, they may not act in the overall public interest.
(a) Describe two techniques interest groups use to influence elections.
(b) Explain how interest groups use each of the following to influence government decision making.
  • Issue networks (also known as iron triangles)
  • Amicus curiae briefs
(c) Explain how each of the following serves to limit interest group influence.
• The media
• Pluralism


2.  The framers of the Constitution created a political system based on limited government. The original Constitution and the Bill of Rights were intended to restrict the powers of the national government. Later constitutional developments also limited the powers of state governments.
(a) Explain how each of the following limits the powers of the national executive.
             Federalism
            Checks and balances

(b) Explain how each of the following two provisions in the Bill of Rights limits the powers of the national government.

·       Establishment clause
·       Guarantee of a public trial
(c) Choose one of the following and explain how it limits the power of state governments.
·       Citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

·       Selective incorporation

Complete these (2) FRQs for Wednesday's class.  You must be ready to share and discuss your findings in small groups and willing to accept advice as well as give it.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

US TEST Review

1. Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation
2. Purpose of the Bill of Rights
3. Virginia, New Jersey, and Connecticut plans
4. Federalism (defined) – Powers designated to National government vs the states
5. Effects of the Civil War on sovereignty (states rights were limited)
6. Divided government (what scenario is most efficient/ inefficient?)
7. Presidential systems and separation of powers – differ from unitary fusion
8. Economic principles – laissez faire – liberalism
9. State economic powers – national
10. subsidies –government intervention in the economy
11. Checks and balances – limits on executive power to enter treaties (senate role)
12. Gini index in the US – distribution of wealth
13. Role of US in the Global economy
14. Process of amending the constitution
15. Increases in Presidential powers
16. The cabinet (appointed, approved, heads of departments, beaurcrats)
17. Iron triangles – pluralism vs corporatism
18. Post 911 policies (military, intelligence, court vs executive)
19. Marbury v. Madison
20. Political party support base
21. 2 party system – FPTP system, heterogeneous populace, regional differences
22. States are responsible for elections, federalism
23. civic involvement – stronger than other democracies but declining, less of a
       focus, demographics (older persons more involved)
24. Social policies (distributive vs redistributive)

25. Fiscal vs Monetary policy

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Gapminder / Food Security Index

Is there a link between Democracy and development?

Rank the (6) core countries from least to most democratic
Rank the (6) core countries from least to most economically developed

Go the following website: Gapminder

For each chart, record the results and describe the correlation between variables

1.  Plot democracy (extension of society tab) on vertical axis
     Time on Horizontal axis (the scale is 1 (undemocratic) -10 (democratic)

2.  Plot GDP per capita ( GDP divided by population) on vertical axis (income tab)
     Time on horizontal axis

3.  Keep the vertical GDP per capita axis and change the horizontal axis to Democracy score

4.  Lastly change the horizontal axis to HDI (Human Development Index)

Answer the following question and provide a basis fro your decision

True or False: All democracies are highly developed economically

Link: Food Security Index

Vocab Test On Thursday Nov. 20 YEEESSSSS!


  1. Authoritarian
  2. Bicameral
  3. Causation
  4. Charismatic legitimacy
  5. Civil Liberties
  6. Civil Rights
  7. Civil Society
  8. Cleavages
  9. Coinciding (cleavages)
  10. Crosscutting (cleavages)
  11. Code Law
  12. Command Economy
  13. Common Law
  14. Cooptation
  15. Corporatism
  16. Correlation
  17. Country
  18. Conservatism
  19. Democratization
  20. Dependency Theory
  21. Developed countries
  22. Developing countries
  23. Devolution
  24. Federalism
  25. First-past-the-post, SMD
  26. GDP
  27. Gini Index
  28. Globalization
  29. Government
  30. Grassroots Movement
  31. HDI
  32. Illiberal democracy
  33. Institutions
  34. Judicial Review
  35. Legitimacy
  36. Liberal (as an ideology)
  37. Liberal democracy
  38. Libertarian
  39. Market Economy
  40. Marxism/Communism
  41. Nation
  42. Nationalism
  43. Neoliberal economics
  44. Per capita GDP
  45. Political culture
  46. Political economy
  47. Political Ideology
  48. Political Recruitment
  49. Political Socialization
  50. Politics
  51. Post Materialist
  52. Proportional representation
  53. Radical
  54. Rational-legal legitimacy
  55. Reactionaries
  56. Referendum
  57. Regime
  58. Rentier State
  59. Revolution
  60. Socialist
  61. Sovereignty
  62. State
  63. Structural Adjustment Program
  64. Theocracy
  65. Traditional legitimacy
  66. Transparency
  67. Under-developed countries
  68. Unitary
Link to Quizlet 68 terms