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Comparitive Gov't examples (France (Gov't structure National…
Comparitive Gov't examples
Britain
Parties
2010 Britain had first coalition gov't, but after 2015 conservative gained back majority
Labor Party
Revived under tony blair (kind of like bill clinton w/ democrats) in 1997; he re-aligned party from left to left-center
Lost power after supporting Iraq war
Corbynism
A mentality based on the beliefs of Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Labour Party in Britain
Corbyn is a social democrat who supports abolishing tuition, raising social services spending, and higher taxes, as well as environmental protections.
Young people are a large part of the reason Corbyn is the leader of the Labor party
Policy Standings
Maximum wage
No air strikes
Conservative Party
The current party in power in Britain
Leader, Theresa May, is prime minister
Reacted to 2008 with a large cut in spending - called
Austerity
Liberal Democratic Party
A smaller party, but they continuously win seats
Recently not doing well, but in 2010 had a boost
Participation
65% voter turn out
35% discuss politics
27% signs petitions
2015 Election Major Issues
Should Britain remain member of EU?
Healthcare
Immigration (relates to brexit)
Minimum wage
Education
Britain and the EU Member w/out the currency
Brexit
national referendum on wether Britain should leave the EU held on June 23, 2016
Voted to leave 51.9% to 48.1% turnout 71.8%
Advantages of EU membership
Free trade among members, easier and cheaper for british exports
EU Britains largest trading partner
Freedom of movement for people - can live and work anywhere in EU
Disadvantages
Open borders and refugee crisis
tedious regulations forced upon member countries by EU
Partial loss of sovereignty
After Referendum
David Cameron steps down as party leader
Theresa May new leader
British currency slips
How to disentangle from EU
Article 50
Specifies how a country would leave the EU
Allows 2 years to agree to terms
France
Secularization
Mostly catholic, and strict separation of church and state called laicite conflicts with many people's religious expression
Demographic overview
3.6 million non-citizens
2 mil citizens foreign born
Urbanized slowly
One of the worlds richest companies
Electoral System
Majority System
Legislative
Called national assembly
Two rounds of voting
If no majority in first round, then all candidates with more than 12.5% of vote advance to the second round.
Plurality winner in the second round
Presidential
Two rounds, if no majority in first round then top two candidates face off in second round
Cohabitation
When Prime minister and president are of different parties
Gov't structure
National assembly and senate (more regional governance)
Unitary State
Divided into 100 counties with local government called general council
22 regions (called states)
-national policies implemented on a local level
Class based/role of social status
Strong feelings attatched to belonging to a particular class
Traditional social classes are reinforced by immigration and sense of racial/ethnic divides
Workers in france have a lot of power
Education system perpetuates separation of classes
Nationalization
State owns many industries
Large public sector
-government spending 53 percent of GDP
Parties
Germany
Gov't Structure
Federal System with 16 states
Political power divided by federal and state govt's
Parlaimentary system
Chancellor
Represents majority party or leader of coalition in power
Controls cabinet
Elected by the parlaiment
Angela Merkel
Current Chancellor
Support declined in recent years
Decided to take in many refugees
Electoral System
Mixed member system
Each voter has two votes: One for individual member and one for a party in proportional representation
Single Member
Half of Bundestag (parlaiment) is elected in single member district plurality vote
Proportional Rep
Half of Bundestag (parlaiment) is elected in proportional representation style with 5% vote threshhold to get seats
Citizen Participation
75% of germans talk about politics regularly
rising participation levels
Growth of citizen action groups
Highest levels of participation in Europe
More than voting
Petitions, protests, direct action are frequent among german citizens of all social classes
Citizen action groups are formed to influence a specific issue
Spectators have become participants
Recent Elections
2013
CDU/CSU: 311
SPD: 193
Die Linke: 64
Green Party: 63
2017 takeaways
Mainstream parties declining
Difficult to form stable gov't with current seat disruption levels
New elections coming soon
Merkel's popularity sinking
Party System
Right
Christian Democrats
CSU
Christians, middle class, business people
Current leader, Angela Merkel is Chancellor of Germany
FDP Free democratic party
Centrist socially and very free market
AFD
Far right, anti-immigration, newly created, includes some neo-nazis
Left
SPD Social Democratic Party
Used to be marxist but transitioned to centrism to gain popularity
Green Party
Environmental activist, womens rights, opposes nuclear energy, participatory democracy, legal marijuana, prohibit college tuition
Die Linke (the left)
Socialist and social justice, anti capitalist
Economy
After unification
East germany less developed than west germany
Economic gaps still remain today between east and west germany.
The unemployment and capitalistic economic
Welfare state
All parties in germany fundamentally agree on welfare state
Unemployment insurance, state-funded healthcare, pension, related costs are high for germany.
Companies forced to provide many benefits to employees, have moved out of country, difficult to compete in global marketplace
Welfare reform is needed, as the current welfare policies aren't sustainable
Japan
Mountainous country
Gov't Structure
Bicameral, Parliamentary, nonfederal
More power to cabinet and ministries
House of Reps (lower) and Councilors (higher)
Parliamentary System
Similar to Britains
Lower Chamber elect prime minister from among themselves with simple majority vote
Prime minister is usually leader of party with most seats
Legislature
Called the diet
Policymaking process
Both houses directly elected
Prime minister/Cabinet selected by lower house
Cabinet creates and proposes laws
Legislature deliberates on wether to accept/reject/change the policy
Executive Branch
Prime minister
Cabinet Members
Experts in their area
Bureaucracy
Career experts in their field
Create the majority of the policies
Technically trained
Electoral System Current
Mixed system
Half seats are single member districts, other half is proportional representation
2 votes for each citizen; one for individual candidate (SMD) and one for party (PR).
Encourage competition between parties
Eliminate internal competition in parties
Stopped the complete dominance of the LDP
Change in 1994
Before 1993, the system allowed candidates in same party to compete in election; resulted in candidates pandering to only their own district.
Multiparty System
-
Political Culture
emphasizes fitting in with group/conformity
Women are less of a part in Japanese workforce
Declining population/aging
Very little resources
Schools
Stellar, demanding education system
Emphasizes math and self-discipline
Single exam to find university
Historically Significant Factors
Very isolated up until 1900s
Cmmdre Perry Forced japan to trade and this caused revolution into unity and Meji Restoration (centralization to resist forced trade demands)
Not until after WWII that Japan has true democracy
Imperialist country after 1900s up until after WWII
After WWII, Japan rebuilt with huge American Influence
New Constitution
Instituted by Americans as part of defeating Japan in WWII
Called for defanging of military of Japan (Article 9, peace clause)
Renounced right to wage war/maintain military capability
Democratic governmental structure
Japan flourished under new democracy
Russia
questionable democracy
Largest country by land area with great variation among regions
Structure
Formed in constitutional order in 1993
President
Where all the power lies
Power of presidency comes from traditions not laws
Appoints all officials in gov't, both federal and local, judges.
6 year terms (changed from 4 by Putin)
names prime minister
can issue decrees
Commander in chief
Parliament
Judiciary
Federal constitutional republic
Challenges
Shortage of skilled workers/aging
Organized crime
Corrruption
Parties
united Russia
Party in power pro Putin party
only party really in power
Mevedev's party
no other parties have chance to run gov't
Brazil