Beware the headlines
The headlines about the European elections are misleading, says Doug Sanders writing in the Toronto
Globe and Mail.
That far-right victory in Europe? It's not quite what it seems
It sounds like an old story: Battered by economic collapse and fraying political bonds, Europeans turn against one another and elect angry far-right political parties in droves.
Is that what happened Sunday night? The headline outcome, after almost 180 million people cast their ballots in the European Parliament election, was a big surge in support for anti-immigrant, anti-Europe and sometimes outright racist parties of the angry right-wing fringe. France and Britain, respectively, elected their largest batches of parliamentarians from the National Front – which has opposed French citizens of Jewish, Muslim and Roma backgrounds – and the anti-Europe, anti-immigrant UK Independence Party (UKIP). A quarter of all French, British and Danish voters cast their ballots for right-wing fringe parties.
Viewed from Europe’s western flank, it looked like an alarming tide of hate and intolerance. But the far right remained a minority unconnected to any governing parties – and it became more fragmented. A larger story might be the failure of extremists to gain traction beyond their core constituency of disenfranchised “outsider” voters, despite tough economic conditions.
“In the end, France is the only large EU member state with a credible and popular far right, which will probably account for almost 50 per cent of all far-right seats in the next European Parliament,” concluded Cas Mudde, an analyst of far-right politics at the University of Georgia, in an analysis before the election.
Ukraine’s outcome was the most dramatic… The ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic Svoboda party and the fascist-leaning Pravy Sektor, both described as looming threats by Russian media, each attracted only about 1 per cent of the vote. That election was a huge victory for moderation and national unity…
The European Parliament remains a place largely given over to bland moderation. Once the votes were fully counted Monday, the largest winners were the parties of the moderate centre-right, which attracted 213 of 751 seats. They were followed by parties of the moderate centre-left, with 190 seats; liberals, with 64; and Greens, with 53.
The anti-Europe and far-right parties together collected about 130 seats; almost half of these were from Britain and France. In other words, these parties will play no part in the governing of Europe, as no mainstream parties will work with them…
Still, the French outcome remains alarming: In a country whose citizens include half of Europe’s Jews and its largest population of Muslims, it is distressing to see a quarter of voters cast ballots for the National Front, a virtually single-issue party devoted to opposition to Jews, Muslims and Roma…
The votes for angry fringe parties, analysts say, represent an alienated minority – the elderly, uneducated, as well as some perpetually unemployed youth – who are cast out of the mainstream political system, seemingly for good…
The bad news is that those voters aren’t going away. The only consolation is that they are, by definition, on the margins.
Teaching Comparative blog
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Labels: elections, EU, parties, politics
Campaigning for the Queen's government
It's not the first time that US political operatives have campaigned in the UK. I have to wonder whose choices were more difficult, the candidates' or the consultants'?
Once Allies, Ex-Obama Aides Face Off in British Campaign
David Axelrod stood on a stage in the Buckingham Room of the Labour Party headquarters this month, rallying British progressives who are hoping, and paying, for Barack Obama’s message maven to help lead them back into power…
A week earlier, Jim Messina, Mr. Obama’s lanky 2012 campaign manager, met at Downing Street with his client, Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party, who argues that years of austerity have corrected the profligate years of Labour rule and that tough immigration laws are protecting British values and jobs…
Mr. Messina [said]… “Look, I feel very comfortable with my decision to go to work for David Cameron… ” He said he found Mr. Cameron’s support of same-sex marriage in the face of his party’s opposition “heroic,” and called him a “real leader” on health care and climate change.
“English politics is not analogous to U.S. in their political positions,” Mr. Messina argued, adding, “The conservatives are not Republicans in the United States.”
Mr. Messina’s defenders point out that Mr. Miliband’s politics are considerably further left than those of American Democrats and his Labour predecessor Tony Blair, for whom several Clinton strategists worked…
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Labels: elections, parties, politics, UK
No wonder they didn't want help
The Nigerian army waited for three weeks before asking the USA, the UK, and other countries for help in finding and freeing schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. One of the first things that comes from the helpers is a devastating critique of the Nigerian army and government.
Nigeria’s Army Holding Up Hunt for Taken Girls
Intelligence agents from all over the globe have poured into this city, Nigeria’s capital, to help find the nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram more than a month ago — but there has been little or no progress in bringing the young women home.
The problem, many involved in the rescue effort say, is the failings of the Nigerian military.
There is a view among diplomats here and with their governments at home that the military is so poorly trained and armed, and so riddled with corruption, that not only is it incapable of finding the girls, it is also losing the broader fight against Boko Haram…
Boko Haram’s fighters have continued to strike with impunity this week, killing dozens of people in three villages in its regional stronghold, but also hitting far outside its base in the central region. Car bombs have killed well over 100, according to local press reports…
[D]iplomats’ worry… that officials in Mr. Jonathan’s administration are dangerously out of touch with the realities of a vicious insurgency that for years had been minimized in the distant capital, until the abductions made that impossible…
Mr. Jonathan’s aides were looking to the group to simply free the young women.
“I have reason to believe Boko Haram will see reason and let these girls go,” said Oronto Douglas, special adviser on strategy to Mr. Jonathan, in an interview this week. “I think they will have a conscience to let these girls go.”
Other officials here, stung by Washington’s criticism of the military, have looked to place blame elsewhere. They defensively point to the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that Nigeria is not the only country that has had difficulty with an Islamist insurgency. Terrorism is a global scourge, and “No one person, agency, or country can stamp out terror,” said Sarkin-Yaki Bello, a retired major general and one of the country’s leading counterterrorism officials.
Yet few outside the president’s close circle accept such explanations. Daily antigovernment demonstrations and increasingly critical news media coverage point to widespread anger at the government…
Teaching Comparative blog
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Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
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Labels: corruption, military, Nigeria, politics
in·ter·mit·tent
Pronunciation: \-ˈmi-tənt\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin intermittent-, intermittens, present participle of intermittere
Date: 1601
: coming and going at intervals : not continuous
; also : occasional
— in·ter·mit·tent·ly adverb
Source: Mirriam-Webster Online Dictionary
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Intermittent
Retrieved 2 December 2010
The last time I suggested that blog entries might be less than regular, big ideas kept falling in my lap and my postings were pretty regular.
This time, spring has finally arrived I'm pretty sure I'll be distracted and otherwise engaged in things non-academic.
If you find a bit of information that might be useful for teaching comparative politics, post it at
Sharing Comparative or send me a note with the information.
Remember, nearly all the 3,200 entries here are indexed at
the delicio.us index. There are 78 categories and you can use more than one category at a time to find something appropriate to your needs.
And, if your web browser allows it, there's a search box at the top of the blog that will sort through key words. The search box shows up on my Safari and Netscape browsers on my desktop computer but not on my laptop.
The first edition of Just the Facts! is now available.
Both Editions of What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools are available
.
The SIXTH Edition of What You Need to Know is COMING SOON.
Unified leadership
When the Supreme Leader and the head of the military voice support for the Iranian president, there's little room for dissent.
General Hassan Firouzabadi is, according to
Wikipedia, very close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and was a supporter of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran’s top general urges media to back president
Iran’s army chief of staff has asked media outlets to support the policies of President Hassan Rowhani and to refrain from “spreading rumours” against his administration, reports said Tuesday.
Ultra-conservative media in Iran have frequently criticised Rowhani’s moderate views on talks with world powers over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, as well as other foreign and domestic policies.
“Some news is worthless and creates discord, some is rumours and baseless accusations,” General Hassan Firouzabadi was quoted as saying by Sharq newspaper on Tuesday…
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he said, had asked all political factions to support Rowhani’s administration and avoid “destructive criticism (which would) create tension in the society.”
Rowhani, a reputed moderate, has revived long-stalled nuclear negotiations with six world powers since being elected in June last year…
Teaching Comparative blog
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Labels: Iran, leadership, politics
Profile of Iran on 60 Minutes
Rebecca Small, who teaches in Virginia, pointed out Steve Kroft's 15-minute video profile of Iranian politics that was shown on
60 Minutes last Sunday. I missed it. Kroft was allowed and took the chance to interview people on the streets in both north and south Tehran, something most journalists do not do. (Your students should know why that is significant.) There are several additional videos as well.
Thanks, Rebecca. (And thanks to CBS for putting the video online.)
8 days in Tehran
For the past 35 years the United States and Iran have been locked in a hostile relationship marked by diplomatic isolation, military threats, and deep mutual mistrust. Then last November, something happened. Amid rising tensions in the Middle East, and the possibility of a military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities, the two sides stepped back and signed what amounted to a temporary truce…
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Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
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Labels: demographics, Iran, politics
Issues in EU elections
Beverly Clinch, who teaches in Managua until the end of the semester and who will be teaching in North Carolina next semester, sent this link about big issues for many voters in the EU elections over the next several days.
Thanks, Beverly, these are great.
In graphics: Big issues in European election
On 22-25 May voters in the EU's 28 member states will elect their representatives in Europe. Their choices will affect 500 million EU citizens.
The European Parliament has greater powers than ever before, including influence over the EU budget, banking reform, agriculture and energy policy.
What does an examination of data reveal about key issues for Europe's voters?
Jobs: Reducing mass unemployment is one of the biggest challenges facing the EU…
Sovereignty: Opinion polls suggest a growth in Euroscepticis across Europe…
Migrants: The chart below shows the rise in migration, since 2007, from debt-ridden eurozone countries to industrialised countries where jobs are easier to find…
Energy: The cost of fuel is a big concern for many voters…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
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Labels: elections, EU, politics
Awkward
Parsing the meaning of things can be difficult when you're not politically correct.(Ask Donald Sterling.)
British Candidate Clarifies Just Which Immigrants Disturb Him
 |
| Nigel Farage |
In a contentious radio interview that sounded at moments like Absurdist theater, the leader of the anti-immigrant U.K. Independence Party, Nigel Farage, denied on Friday that his attacks on foreign-born migrants were racist.
Mr. Farage… was asked about comments he made in February, when he said he was uncomfortable during a recent train journey in London when he could hear only foreign languages being spoken by fellow passengers…
Moments later, Mr. Farage… was asked to explain why another statement, that he would be disturbed if a group of Romanians moved next door to his home, was not racist.
“What about if a group of German children did, what’s the difference?” Mr. O’Brien asked.
“You know what the difference is,” Mr. Farage replied. “We want an immigration policy based on controlling not just quantity but quality as well,” he added…
In a BBC News interview last month, Mr. Farage was asked to explain how his party could be so concerned about the supposed threat of foreigners coming to take jobs from Britons while he employed his German wife, at taxpayer expense, as his official secretary. He argued that his wife was the sort of highly skilled migrant worker his party welcomed…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
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Labels: cleavages, parties, politics, UK
Happy not allowed in Iran
The video is a wonderful celebration. Those in power in Iran don't think so.
Young Iranians Arrested for Being Too ‘Happy in Tehran’
 |
| Formerly Happy Iranians |
Just days after Iran’s president denounced Internet censorship as “cowardly,” six young Iranians were arrested and forced to repent on state television Tuesday for the grievous offense of proclaiming themselves to be “Happy in Tehran,” in a homemade music video they posted on YouTube last month.
By uploading their video, recorded on an iPhone and promoted on Facebook and Instagram, the group was taking part in a global online phenomenon, which has resulted, so far, in hundreds of cover versions of the Pharrell Williams song “Happy” recorded in more than 140 countries.
“Happy in Tehran” was viewed more than 165,000 times on YouTube before it attracted the attention of the police and was made private.
In a speech over the weekend, President Hassan Rouhani argued that Iran should embrace the Internet rather than view it as a threat…
The arrest of the young dancers, and their televised public humiliation, angered Iranians at home and abroad, and seemed to support President Rouhani’s case that such crackdowns served only to make the Islamic Republic of Iran look weak in the culture war being waged online…
During their appearance on state television, the six said that they had no idea the footage would be broadcast. The report also included a warning from Tehran’s police chief to the youth of Iran not to be seduced by the filmmakers behind viral videos. The officer, who referred to the exuberant video as “a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity,” also claimed that it had taken the authorities only a matter of hours to identify and arrest the participants, even though the video was uploaded a month ago…
In an interview with the news site IranWire last month, one of the dancers said that the women in the video had “covered our hair with wigs” in an attempt to conform to Islamic dress codes. She also said that the aim of the participants was in part promotional, “to tell the world that Iran is a better place than what they think it is.”…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
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Labels: Iran, politics
So much corruption that inflation is muted
If a Chinese official gets a big bribe, what does he do with the money? One official piled it up at home.
A Ton of Cash Reported in Official’s Home
The tempo of corruption investigations in China is so rapid that the cases begin to blur…
Investigations against high-ranking officials, the “tigers,” are generally announced on weekends, which the party mouthpiece speculated was to allow citizens more time to digest the news…
Sometimes the details bring home the staggering gains that can be ill-gotten. That appears to be the case with Wei Pengyuan, a deputy chief of the National Energy Administration’s coal bureau. Caixin, the respected financial news magazine, reported on Thursday that… [in] his house investigators uncovered a trove of renminbi [Chinese currency] so massive that it took 16 mechanical bill counters to tabulate it — and four of the machines burned out in the process.
The total amount in cash was more than 100 million renminbi, or $16 million, the magazine said, citing unnamed investigators.
 |
| China's largest denomination, the 100-renminbi note |
China’s largest bill is a 100-renminbi note. That creates enormous headaches in an economy where cash is preferred… That problem multiplies when one is trying to conceal a stash of millions. Several Chinese newspapers published estimates on Friday that 100 million renminbi in cash would weigh more than a ton.
The author Yu Hua wrote last Sunday in an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times that the hoarding of cash by corrupt officials might even be a factor in keeping price inflation under control in China, as vast amounts disappear from circulation…
Teaching Comparative blog
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Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Labels: China, corruption
Details on Nigerian vigilantes
Dr. Laura Seay, an Assistant Professor of Government at Colby College, offers some details on vigilantes in Nigeria.
How people in northeast Nigeria protect themselves
Faced with a government that cannot protect their property or lives, some Nigerians in the northeast are creating vigilante groups to do so themselves. Though they lack the same kind of formal accountability a police force would ideally have, vigilantes in Nigeria are not lawless mobs, but rather function as community-based police forces with varying levels of official and unofficial sanction from community members, leaders and the government.
Variation among vigilante groups operating in Nigeria is high on almost every metric. Some are officially registered with local police… Many vigilante groups operate under some form of accountability to local customary authorities, and as the membership in the vigilante groups are usually known to communities, they will be held accountable for any abuses by their fellow citizens as well. Other vigilantes operate on subscription-based models; if you have a problem with a crime committed against you and are a subscriber, you can call the vigilantes for help.
Vigilantism in Nigeria is an example of what scholars term hybrid forms of governance in weak states. These forms of governance are not fully undertaken by the state, but neither is the state completely uninvolved in regulating, overseeing or even partially providing the public services it cannot independently provide. The process of hybrid governance is seen in widely varying sectors around the world, from public trash collection by community organizations to public education systems run by religious actors…
[F]or communities that cannot count on the state to protect or provide for them, hybrid governance can be, as scholars… note, a “process through which state and non-state institutions coalesce around stable forms of order and authority.”
Hybrid governance’s contribution to stability both appeals to communities and poses challenges to the long-term process of state-building in places such as Nigeria…. Nigerian vigilantes at once cooperate with the state and customary authorities while demonstrating the state’s weakness in delivering a service the state is unable to provide… As both challengers, co-opters and necessary substitutes for or partners of the state, vigilante groups raise questions about what it means when we speak of Nigeria’s state, what states are normatively “supposed” to do, and what forms of governance might emerge in places where reality rarely works according to Western norms and ideals…
Nigerian vigilantes’ existence is a reminder that people the world over are not passive victims of their state’s weakness. The people of northeastern Nigeria will pool what resources and talents they have to protect themselves and their communities. There’s no predicting what forms of social organization might ultimately arise as a result.
Teaching Comparative blog
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Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Labels: Nigeria, rule of law, state capacity
Think well and express those thoughts
Best wishes for success to everyone who is taking the AP exam today.
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Following an example from Mexico
These reports from Nigeria, if accurate, suggests that people there, like some in Mexico, have lost patience with a weak government.
Nigeria villagers kill dozens of suspected Boko Haram members
Vigilante villagers in northern Nigeria have killed and detained scores of people they suspected to be Boko Haram fighters planning a fresh attack, residents and a security official said, after the radical group kidnapped more than 300 schoolgirls last month and is believed to be holding more than 250 of them captive in a remote forest.
People living in the country’s northern states have been forming militia groups in various areas to resist advances by Boko Haram, an armed group that wants to establish a state in northeastern Nigeria ruled by conservative Islamic law.
 |
| Kala-Balge (N'Djamena is capital of Chad) |
In Kalabalge, a village about 155 miles from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, residents said they were taking matters into their own hands because the Nigerian military was not doing enough to stem Boko Haram attacks.
After allegedly learning about an impending attack Tuesday morning, villagers ambushed two trucks believed to be carrying members of Boko Haram, a Nigerian security official told The Associated Press.
The vigilantes detained at least 10 people and killed scores of others, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give interviews to journalists. An Al Jazeera source said that at least 41 alleged Boko Haram fighters were killed. It was not immediately clear where the detainees were being held…
Borno is where more than 300 girls were abducted last month, and is one of three Nigerian states where President Goodluck Jonathan has imposed a state of emergency, giving the military special powers to fight Boko Haram, whose stronghold is in the northeast…
200 Insurgents Killed in Kala Balge By Villagers
Almost 200 suspected members of the Boko Haram were killed today by residents of Rann, the headquarters of Kala-Balge local government area in north eastern part of Borno State, officials and locals from the area said.
Sources said the insurgents, numbering over 300 stormed Rann and adjoining villages around 4am today but met resistance from the people who had knowledge of the impending attack…
"The people in Rann and environs used traditional fighting equipment and charms to repel the attacks...they really confronted the attackers who were equally ready for fight," a source said.
A state legislator from Central Borno, who does not want his name mentioned, confirmed the attack, pointing out that the locals had successfully repelled.
"The villagers succeeded in protecting their dwellings from the attackers. They killed about 200 members of the sect and many others escaped with serious wounds.
"Our people also recovered over 70 motorcycles that the attackers came with. They also collected 2 Hilux vehicles and an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) while some of the attackers were captured alive," he said…
Borno State police commissioner, Lawan Tanko said he was not aware of the attack…
Teaching Comparative blog
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Labels: Nigeria, state capacity, terrorism
Hints for the big exam
Four years ago, Mr. Frank Franz, who teaches in Virginia offered a list of great suggestions that will help you write better responses to FRQs.
I posted them then, three years ago, two years ago, last year, and here they are once again.
I think these ideas are excellent. The only thing I’d add to the list would be to paraphrase the question as an introduction. In the last few years some rubrics have insisted that responses have introductions that label what is being discussed.
Here's what Mr. Franz wrote:
Here's the strategy I place on every FRQ I give my students. I believe it helps them focus on the questions and will help them earn as high of a score as possible. Some of these ideas are my own and some are from colleagues who have served as readers and table leaders.
Free Response Strategy
- Mark-up the question.
- Count up how many points you are trying to earn. (Look for number references, count the verbs)
- Write as many sentences as there are points.
- Write simple, declarative sentences.
- Answer the question asked. Nothing else.
- Answer every part of the question.
- Look for time references, patterns, and passage of time.
- Do not argue with the premise of the prompt.
- Skip a line between parts, but do not label.
Go ahead and thank Mr. Franz.
Teaching Comparative blog
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Labels: exams
Hint for success
Want a hint for doing well on the FRQs on the exam on Friday?
I have said it since early in this century. I've been told by students that it was the best advice I offered.
READ THE VERBS!
Teaching Comparative blog
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Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
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Labels: exams
More political irony
What is the most unlikely arena in which to advocate nationalism and anti-Semitism?
European Candidates See Opportunity on Extreme Edge
The campaign advertisement in the Czech Republic begins with a snake slithering out of a red European Union flag and a montage of pictures of supposed threats to Czech identity, including a 500-euro note, an Israeli flag and a gathering of Orthodox Jews.
“The European Union is an evil which produces more evil — it is our duty to confront it,” the voice-over says. “Let’s kill the snake!”
 |
| Bartos |
The advertisement is the work of Adam B. Bartos, a 34-year-old Czech journalist who is running in May elections for the European Parliament. He is campaigning with an anti-Semitic appeal, and regularly updates a list of 220 prominent Jews he accuses of dominating Czech life. He has called for the country to leave the European Union, which he portrays as a malign “superstate” undermining Czech sovereignty…
[T]he ad, which circulated on social media… [is] a symbol of the increasing boldness of the far right in the country and across the region, fueled by dissatisfaction with the post-1989 political and economic order.
Parties outside the political mainstream are expected to win as many as a quarter of the 750 seats in the European Parliament in European elections that start on May 22, according to recent polls, as far-right leaders, from France to the Czech Republic, portray the European Union as a gateway for illegal immigrants, an emblem of unrestrained markets and a threat to national sovereignty…
Jaroslav Plesl, editor of Tyden, a leading Czech political magazine… said by phone from Prague that while Mr. Bartos was unlikely to win many votes, his overtly racist message reflected how some politicians were lurching toward ultranationalism to attract disaffected voters…
In Eastern and Central Europe, a feeling that the revolutions that overthrew communism have not lived up to their promises have helped fuel the rise of the extreme right among the so-called losers of the post-1989 transition. They blame the European Union, immigrants and globalization for their failures, said Jiri Pehe, who worked as an adviser for former Czech President Vaclav Havel and is now the director of New York University in Prague…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Labels: cleavages, EU, International Organizations, politics
Party politics
The LibDems are slipping in the polls. They even come in behind UKIP sometimes. Elections are a year off, but if they're going to stay in government they have to distinguish themselves from the Tories, who also see declining popularity. They aren't ready to break up the coalition yet, but what to do?
One thing to do is offer alternatives to Conservative Party policies. This time the subject is education and "free schools" which are like charter schools in the US.
Coalition row over school places funding
A row has broken out in the coalition over school places funding in England, with allies of Lib Dem Deputy PM Nick Clegg accusing Conservative Education Secretary Michael Gove of "lunacy".
 |
| Gove |
Lib Dem sources say 30,000 local authority places are being lost as money is diverted to new free schools…
Asked about the issue on BBC… David Cameron said free schools were "an excellent innovation" and he would "get on with delivering what matters, which is good schools for our children".
The Liberal Democrat's deputy leader, Malcolm Bruce, said the budget for free schools was "completely out of control"…
He told the BBC: "He [Mr Gove] is basically raiding money that should be going to the vast majority of schools that have real needs for a small number of free schools, many of which are in places where there isn't a pressure or a need."…
The row is not the first within the coalition government over education policy.
But BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said the "striking" language used was evidence that both parts of the coalition were becoming more willing to air their disagreements and grievances in public a year ahead of the general election…
Analysis
Alex Forsyth, BBC Political Correspondent
With less than two weeks to go before the local and European elections, increasing tensions between political parties are no surprise. The coalition parties in particular are trying to put clear water between them, and this isn't their first public disagreement.
But on this occasion both sides have bandied round strong language - calling the other 'pathetic' or 'laughable' and describing funding decisions as 'lunacy'.
Those involved may see it as an opportunity to promote their party's policy and convince voters of what they stand for - in the strongest possible terms.
To others it might be viewed as two political parties, both in government, attacking each other and policies they've officially both agreed. They may view this as good tactics. The public may view it differently.
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Labels: elections, parties, politics, UK
Political irony
What is the most successful party in the UK? SNP? Labour? Lib Dem? Tory? How about UKIP?
British View of Europe Faces a Test
Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, recently unveiled a campaign poster he hopes will help his anti-European message win the European elections later this month…
[P]olls… [suggest] that UKIP, which wants Britain to leave the European Union, could beat both Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party and the opposition Labour Party in elections for the European Parliament.
 |
| UKIP campaign poster |
European elections tend to have a low turnout and little impact on domestic politics here. But with a possible referendum on European Union membership in 2017… this year’s result matters…
How did it come to this?
A popular answer is that as an island and former empire, Britain has always had fewer physical and psychological links to the Continent…
But as Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies at the University of Oxford, points out, you don’t have to go back very far to find a pro-European Britain — and a pro-European Conservative Party.
Winston Churchill spoke of a “European dream” as early as 1948. It was a Conservative government that eventually took Britain into the European Union…
In the three decades since then, Britain has become only more European. Britons take advantage of Europe’s low-cost airlines and high-speed trains. Many study, work, marry and retire across European borders…
The irony, says Ulrich Beck, a German sociologist affiliated with the London School of Economics, is that as Britain has become more Europeanized, it has also become more euroskeptic…
But the arguments Mrs. Thatcher once put forward for staying inside the Union are even more relevant in the 21st century, Mr. Garton Ash said: A united Europe brings economic benefits and greater political say on the world stage from climate change to Russian aggression…
Teaching Comparative blog
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Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
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Labels: politics, UK
Transparency in China
Transparency in governing China has rarely been a priority. Things might be changing.
Right to know: Leaders discover that some transparency can help make society more stable
IN THE summer of 2013 Wu Youshui sent an open government information (OGI) request to every provincial-level government in China. Mr Wu, a lawyer based in the eastern city of Hangzhou, wanted to know about the fines imposed on violators of the one-child policy. Each year provincial governments collect billions of yuan from couples who have too many children, but how this money is spent is not public knowledge. That leaves the system vulnerable to corruption, says Mr Wu. To expose misconduct and spur public debate, he used the legal mechanism of the OGI regulations, China’s version of a freedom of information act…
The OGI regulations set up two ways of accessing government information. Government offices at local and central level had to issue findings of interest, such as plans for land requisitions or house demolition. The information was to be published on official websites and community bulletin boards and in government journals. Departments also became answerable to citizens. A response to a public request had to come within 15 days…
In an important case in 2012 the All-China Environment Federation, a non-profit organisation with links to the government, took an environment-protection bureau in Guizhou province to court. The bureau had twice failed to give a good answer to an OGI request about a dairy farm that was discharging waste. The court ordered the release of the information within ten days. Such rulings against government departments, once rare, are becoming more common. In 2010 the chance of a citizen winning an OGI-related lawsuit in Beijing was 5%, according to research from Peking and Yale Universities. In 2012 courts ruled with the plaintiff in 18% of cases…
Inevitably, plenty of information remains off limits. Article Eight of the regulations says disclosure must not endanger state, public or economic security or social stability, an open-ended list that prompts utmost caution from compliers. State and commercial secrets—however vaguely defined—are out-of-bounds…
Government departments, at all levels, still do not release everything they should. But Mr Wu, the lawyer, found they are less able to opt out without a good reason. Guangdong province’s Health and Family Planning Commission initially rebuffed his OGI request, saying “internal management issues” prevented compliance. Mr Wu tried again. On April 1st Guangzhou Intermediate Court ruled in his favour. The commission was ordered to reprocess his request. He awaits word of its decision.
Teaching Comparative blog
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Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Labels: China, rule of law, transparency
Economies of scale in Communist agriculture
Long before the concept of
economies of scale were described by Adam Smith, farmers and landlords knew that up to a certain point, agriculture could be more efficient. In China landlords and their relatively large farms were the players and the revolution came in part because the landlords misused their power and wealth.
After the revolution's initial land redistribution, the Communist government created large state farms and communes which offered economies of scale. The Communists promised that peasant workers would no longer be exploited. With the beginning of the Four Modernizations and the Responsibility System, families were allowed to meet quotas using small plots of public land. In the 1980s, farmers were allowed to rent land.
Now, the economies of scale and the successes of some farmers who rent lots of land (relative to the average Chinese family plot of just over an acre), means the Party and the government are reexamining agricultural policies.
Bring back the landlords
CHINA’S Communist Party has always had a problem with big landowners. In Communist culture, they are synonymous with evil… Yet when it comes to letting individual families control large tracts of farmland, Communist Party leaders are beginning to have a change of heart.
Since January last year the term “family farm” has come into vogue in the party’s vocabulary…. [A] Communist Party directive known as “document number one”… said the consolidation of household plots into family farms should be given “encouragement and support”.
As is often the case whenever party policy appears to shift in the countryside, reality on the ground had long been changing before official rhetoric began to catch up. (Peasants started dismantling Mao’s disastrous “people’s communes” before the party began formally doing so in 1982.) The exodus from the countryside has allowed entrepreneurial farmers to build up their holdings by renting land from neighbours who no longer need it…
Officials have long spoken of the virtues of scale farming, but of all the ways of achieving this—including renting land to agri-businesses or to farmers from other areas—the idea of family farms run by locals has a particularly strong appeal…
Many ordinary Chinese see the irony of party officials rushing to help an emerging class of big-scale private farmers. “He’s a little landlord,” quips a Shijiazhuang resident on seeing the expanse of ripening wheat around the farmer’s office. “He’ll be struggled against”, he jokes, alluding to the fate of landlords when Mao took over in 1949. Some 2m of them were killed.
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Labels: China, economics, ideology
