Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Teaching Ideas

Some people have been asking about teaching plans.


Ten years ago I wrote 40 teaching plans for The Center for Learning. I was paid for the work back then and I do not earn royalties from sales.

All the lessons require student activity, there are no lecture notes. But, following the Center for Leaning's outline, each lesson includes objectives, "Notes to the Teacher," procedural instructions, and a rubric.

Lessons include handouts that can be duplicated (or you can buy a separate volume of handouts). Some things are undoubtedly outdated (especially statistics), but most of those can be pretty easily updated (even by your students).

You can purchase this book directly from The Center for Learning or from Social Studies School Service.  

Now, somebody out there is ambitious and creative enough to redo, revise and/or update this collection of teaching plans. Maybe you can organize a team of readers from your table in June to share the work. The Center for Learning concentrates these days on producing on-line lessons. 

If you're a classroom teacher and interested in this project, contact The Center for Learning.  E-mail to  access@centerforlearning.org

Table of Contents
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











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Friday, January 29, 2016

Losing legitimacy

When citizens lose faith in the government, the government loses legitimacy. When that happens, anarchy and/or revolution can result.

As Frustrations With Mexico’s Government Rise, So Do Lynchings
The lynching began around 7:20 p.m., not long after the brothers had finished conducting their final interviews on tortilla consumption.

Residents confronted them, mistaking the pair for kidnappers. The police confirmed that the men were, in fact, pollsters for a marketing company and whisked them to safety. Irate residents rang the church bells in the town square anyway, summoning hundreds.

The mob then stormed the arched doorways of the government center, set fire to its library and snatched the brothers from the police…

Tired of government corruption and indifference, the mob fashioned its own justice, part of a longstanding problem that Mexican officials say is on the rise.

The killings raise difficult questions for Mexico, highlighting an alarming development: By some accounts, there were more public lynchings this past year than at any other time in more than a quarter-century…

The mob actions were born of a sense of hopelessness and impotence shared by many in Mexico, where 98 percent of murders go unsolved and the state is virtually absent in some areas…

Interviews with dozens of residents about the lynching of the brothers… revealed little remorse. In the end, the fear that two suspects might be escaping with the help of the police outweighed concerns over spilling innocent blood…

In the borough of Iztapalapa, residents have raised banners warning thieves that they will not be turned over to the police. Instead, vengeance will be taken on their mothers…

Such frustration has long been an issue, along with the tendency for people to take the law into their own hands. In the last few years, self-defense groups have popped up to fight organized crime, filling the void left by government forces either incapable of combating criminal gangs, unwilling to do so or actively working alongside them.

But for all the government’s flaws, vigilantism rarely seems to do much better.

The initial gains of some self-defense groups give way to predatory behavior, creating a new order of bandit…

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Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











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Thursday, January 28, 2016

Appeal is public. Is that a good sign?

Iran's president has publicly appealed for reconsideration of Majlis candidates. Could this be the beginning of more public politics? Is that good for Iranian politics?

Rouhani criticises ban on reformist candidates
Iran's president has called on the committee vetting candidates for next month's parliamentary elections to allow more reformists to stand…

Elections would be pointless if there were "no competitors", he warned.

His comments came a day after nine factions said the Guardian Council had approved only 1% of the reformist candidates who had registered to run…

Almost 12,000 people applied to stand in the elections on 26 February for Iran's 290-seat parliament and 88-member Assembly of Experts, the body that will pick the country's next supreme leader.

But reformist factions, who favour more political and economic freedom, said they were overwhelmingly targeted, with only 30 of their 3,000 candidates approved…

"This is the biggest number of disqualifications in [Iran's] history," said prominent reformist Hossein Marashi on Wednesday.

But he added that reformists did not plan to boycott the elections, vowing: "We will stay to fight because we don't want extremists to grow." …

Mr Rouhani said that he had assigned Vice-President Eshagh Jahangiri to discuss the disqualifications with the Guardian Council.

The head of the committee, Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, has said its members "will not be influenced by pressure".

But his deputy has also noted that up to 15% of those disqualified from running are likely to be reinstated during the reviewing process.

A final list of approved candidates will be published on 4 February.

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Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.







The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











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And the qualified candidates are…

Here is the first report on approving candidates for next month's Majlis elections.

'Reality is even worse': reformist hopefuls banned from Iran's parliamentary poll
Iran’s Guardian Council, which vets candidates for elections, has failed to qualify 40% of more than 12,000 candidates for parliamentary elections on 26 February, ILNA news agency has reported.

Reformists told Tehran Bureau that those blocked included the vast majority of their hopefuls. “I predicted that the Guardian Council would massively disqualify the reformists,” said Sadegh Zibakalam, professor of political science at Tehran University. “But the reality is even worse.”

According to Hossein Marashi, a member of the Reformists’ Policy Council, which was set up in October to coordinate efforts for the parliamentary poll, out of the total 3,000 reformist candidates, only 30, or 1%, have been qualified…

Two of Rafsanjani’s children, Mehdi and Fatemeh, are among those not qualified, as is Morteza Eshraghi, grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini…

After gathering information on each candidate from four bodies; the intelligence ministry, the police, the justice ministry and the Interior Ministry, The Guardian Council’s Central Board of Supervision announced on 17 January that it had disqualified 25% of would-be candidates…

The council, consisting of six theologians appointed by the supreme leader and six Islamic jurists, has often been strict on vetting candidates. For the last parliamentary election, held in March 2012, 40% out of nearly 5,500 would-be candidates were not qualified…

The extent of disqualifications has surprised some officials, including… [President] Rouhani…

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Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.







The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Corrupt anti-corruption camgaign?

Nigerian President Buhari's PDP opponents contend that corruption is only prosecuted when it's done by PDP supporters. Can such a campaign work? Can it reduce the government's legitimacy? Can it increase the political importance of existing cleavages?

Buhari's Corruption Drive Lays Bare Nigeria's Political Tensions
Buhari
When Muhammadu Buhari took over as Nigeria’s president less than a year ago, he vowed to wipe out the corruption he said threatened the very existence of Africa’s largest economy.

But as he investigates former ministers and high-ranking officials, members of the opposition People’s Democratic Party accuse him of carrying out a vendetta against them. Buhari ousted the PDP following March elections, ending the party’s monopoly on power that it held since the end of military rule in 1999.

The PDP called for Buhari to be impeached last week for “various constitutional” breaches, including the arrest this month of its national spokesman, Olisa Metuh. He was detained as part a probe into whether the previous government stole as much as $5.5 billion meant for fighting Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency in the north. Sambo Dasuki, the national security adviser under the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, was also arrested as part of the same investigation…

The arrests have heightened regional and ethnic tensions in Nigeria, a country of 170 million split between a mostly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south. Buhari, a 73-year-old northerner and former general, got the bulk of his votes from his home region and the religiously mixed southwest through his All Progressives Congress coalition…

Corruption has blighted Nigeria since independence from the U.K. in 1960. Africa’s largest oil producer came 136th out of 175 countries in Transparency International’s latest global ranking, the same level as Russia. Buhari has blamed graft for keeping most Nigerians in poverty and for the dire state of the country’s roads, schools and hospitals.

While Buhari promised his government would be impartial in its investigations, he has accused the previous administration of looting billions of dollars and said that he inherited a “virtually empty treasury”.

Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, said it was logical for authorities to go after those who handled Nigeria’s finances in previous years…

Rising political tensions could threaten Buhari’s ability to carry out the widespread reforms he promised. Those include boosting Nigeria’s poor electricity supply and improving its dilapidated infrastructure…

While last year’s elections dealt a blow to the PDP, it still has almost half the seats in the Senate and over a third in the House of Representatives…

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What You Need to Know 7th edition is ready to help.


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Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.







The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Iran's outreach program

Most sanctions have been lifted, and Iran seeks more external and internal legitimacy.

Hassan Rouhani in first Europe visit by Iranian president in 16 years
Hassan Rouhani is to make the first state visit to Europe by an Iranian president in almost two decades this week, following the lifting of sanctions against his country.

The trip will aim at rebuilding economic ties…

Rouhani is expected in Rome… where he will meet the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi. He will also meet Pope Francis at the Vatican. He will then travel to Paris on Wednesday and is scheduled to be welcomed by the French president, François Hollande, at the Elysée palace…

“The Rouhani administration is counting on sanctions relief resulting in economic improvements, and if possible, before next month’s parliamentary elections,” said Timothy Stafford, a research analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)…


There was no Renaissance in Iran

In fact, the portrayal of living things is frowned upon by most Muslims. It is thought to be a step toward idolatry. So when the Iranian president visited Rome, a center of Renaissance nudity, what were the Italians to do?

Rome spares Iranian president's blushes by covering nude statues
Covered nude
Italian officials keen to spare the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, any possible offence on his visit to Rome covered up nude statues at the city’s Capitoline Museum, where Rouhani met Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister…

In another placatory gesture by Italian officials, alcohol was not served at an official dinner held in Rouhani’s honour…

Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.

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Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.







The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











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Can a nation state just claim sovereignty?

Since the UK is one of the few states with a sovereign, it makes sense that sovereignty is a big deal.

David Cameron: There's 'a good case' for new UK sovereignty law
A new law reasserting the power of UK Parliament law over the EU could be passed, David Cameron has said, once his reform talks are concluded…

The prime minister has said he wants the UK to stay in a reformed European Union, but he has not ruled out campaigning to leave if he cannot secure the changes he wants…

It has been reported that the UK government will amend domestic law to make clear that Parliament is sovereign and that Britain's courts are not bound by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights - a legally binding charter which set out a range of civil, political and social rights enjoyed by the bloc's citizens.

Mr Cameron said Parliament's sovereignty was "already asserted" in the Referendum Act - the legislation paving the way for the in-out vote - which prevents "significant" powers being passed to Brussels without UK voters being consulted in a referendum.

But he added: "If it's necessary to do that again, in more detail, to make it even clearer to people that our Parliament is sovereign... I think there's a good case for it and so we'll look very carefully at it."

Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.

What You Need to Know 7th edition is ready to help.


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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

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Monday, January 25, 2016

Reforming the Chinese military

The Peoples Liberation Army is made up of all the military forces of China. And it's the Communist Party army, not the country's. What happens next?

Xi’s new model army
CHINA’S biggest military shake-up in a generation began with a deliberate echo of Mao Zedong. Late in 2014 President Xi Jinping went to Gutian, a small town in the south where, 85 years before, Mao had first laid down the doctrine that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is the armed force not of the government or the country but of the Communist Party. Mr Xi stressed the same law to the assembled brass: the PLA is still the party’s army; it must uphold its “revolutionary traditions” and maintain absolute loyalty to its political masters…

The aim of these changes is twofold—to strengthen Mr Xi’s grip on the 2.3m-strong armed forces, which are embarrassingly corrupt at the highest level, and to make the PLA a more effective fighting force…

PLA soldiers
The reforms therefore begin with the main instrument of party control, the Central Military Commission (CMC), which is chaired by Mr Xi. On January 11th the CMC announced that the PLA’s four headquarters—the organisations responsible for recruiting troops, procuring weapons, providing logistics and ensuring political supervision—had been split up, slimmed down and absorbed into the commission. Once these were among the most powerful organisations in the PLA, operating almost as separate fiefs. Now they have become CMC departments…

The [CMC's] 15 new departments will include not only departments for politics but also for logistics, personnel management and fighting corruption. Mr Xi has already turned his guns on graft, imprisoning dozens of generals…

The second reform has been to put the various services on a more equal footing. The land forces have hitherto reigned supreme. That may have been fine when the PLA’s main job was to defend the country against an invasion… But now China has military ambitions in the South China Sea and beyond, and wants the ability to challenge American naval and air power in the western Pacific…

In addition to those for the navy and air force, a separate command has now been created for the army, which had previously run everything. On December 31st the CMC also announced the formation of a command responsible for space and cyberwarfare, as well as one for ballistic and cruise missiles (previously known as the Second Artillery Force, part of the army)…

The recent reforms are more extensive than most Western observers had expected after the Gutian conference. But even so, they are incomplete. The army still holds sway over some appointments (all five chiefs of the new regional commands are army generals, for instance). The PLA has traditionally given higher status to combat units than to those providing communications, logistics, transport and the like, a misplaced emphasis in an age when information and communications are crucial in warfare. The reforms do little to correct that bias…

Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.

The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.






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Friday, January 22, 2016

Hoping good news gives hope

Things have not been going well for Mexico's president. No wonder he trumpets a newsworthy success: for his country, his government, his party, and himself.

Mexico's beleaguered president seizes on El Chapo's arrest to lift gloom
Peña
Two days after fugitive cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was apprehended by Mexican marines, President Enrique Peña Nieto took to the airwaves to boast about the capture of a man whose two escapes from high-security prisons had come to symbolize institutional failure and corruption in the country.

“The detention of the world’s most wanted criminal confirms the coordination of our institutions in favor of the rule of law,” said Peña Nieto.

But a stream of news reports over recent days have offered a rough reminder that the rule of law – even a semblance of security – is absent from much of Mexico.

Over the weekend 17 people were abducted by gunmen as they travelled to a wedding; on Tuesday, five teachers were snatched from their school by kidnappers…

And a reminder of Mexico’s endemic political corruption came on Friday, when a former head of Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary party – and one-time ally of the president – was arrested in Spain as part of a money-laundering investigation…

Analysts say the response to the recapture and the president’s sudden propensity to speak on security issues reflects a shift in approach, but also a chilly economic climate, with a plunging peso and falling oil price…

Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.

The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.






What You Need to Know 7th edition is ready to help.


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Thursday, January 21, 2016

More on the cost of justice

Two years ago, Lord Thomas, the lord chief justice of the UK, suggested that inquisitorial proceedings might save money for a judicial system under great pressure to cut expenses.

Mexico and Russia use inquisitorial systems. Do you know the difference between them and adversarial systems?

Inquisitorial system may be better for family and civil cases, says top judge
A judge-led, inquisitorial system of justice may be a better way of conducting family and civil cases where litigants are unrepresented, the lord chief justice has suggested.

In a challenge to centuries of British legal tradition based on adversarial hearings, Lord Thomas has called for a radical rethink of the way justice is delivered in an era of austerity…

Reductions in legal aid have already resulted in a "significant increase" in the number of unrepresented litigants in person in family and civil cases. Thomas said: "Traditional procedures are not best suited to a dispute between a father and mother over a child when inevitably matters that have caused emotional stress are raised by them in court as adversaries in person rather than being raised by lawyers acting for them."

An inquisitorial system might be an improvement for litigants in person and "secure a fair trial for all whilst doing so within limited and reducing resources," he said. "The essence of the change would be a much greater degree of inquiry by the judge into the evidence being brought forward."

Some lawyers, he admitted, would see it as a "process alien to our adversarial tradition". Research would have to consider whether an inquisitorial procedure would require more judges or a "new cadre of junior judges"…

Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.

The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.






What You Need to Know 7th edition is ready to help.


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Unaffordable justice?

If citizens cannot afford court costs, what happens to justice and rule of law?

Top judge says justice system is now unaffordable to most
Civil justice is unaffordable for most people, more people are being forced to represent themselves, and judges… feel under-appreciated, according to the lord chief justice.

In his annual report to parliament, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd welcomed the government’s commitment to spending £780m on modernisation… but delivered a downbeat assessment of the courts in England and Wales.

“Our system of justice has become unaffordable to most,” Thomas said in the introduction to his report. “In consequence there has been a considerable increase of litigants in person for whom our current court system is not really designed…

More effort needs to be made in explaining “the importance of the judicial system in maintaining a just and fair society, accountable and democratic government and a strong economy”, he said. “No satisfactory means of funding the provision of our system of justice has yet been achieved.”

Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.

The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.



Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.

What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.











Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.


Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.

Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.






What You Need to Know 7th edition is ready to help.


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