Great Britain

Lehgislative:

• funstiomnm establish political reputation, listen to backbenchers' concerns, compromise and amend bills, criticize Whitefall making issues publicized for MP's constituencies

Executive-Legislative

Iran

• High Infant Mortality Rate, this means healthcare is crap

The Accidental President

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad election
• Iranian politics more nuanced than the view supported by casual observation of poltical rhetoric
• "We're also standing against the forces of extremism embodied by the regime in Tehran"-George W. Bush
• "Iran's rulers oppress a good and talented people. And wherever freedom advances in the Middle East, it seems the Iranian regime is there to oppose it."-George W. Bush People of Iran are very educated, they have been aroiund for many centuries and perhaps helped save the knowledge we have today from being lost.
• Iran wants to have nuclear capabilities because they can jpoin the Nuke club and become first world, has much uranium

Islam is the Solution

• or perhaps it is part of the problem......
• perhaps Iran is a theocracy. a government ruled strictly by religion, however the country is leaning towartd secularization ( belief that government and religion should be sepatrate)
• Iran has 2 parallel and sometimes competing governments-the more competition it can be argued makes it a more liberal democracy because it provides acheck to the other side, assuming onee side can actually say "no" to the other side
• nominally secular government led by the president (President may just be ribbon-cutter)
• the ther is a hierarchy of religious conservatives
• Religious conservtives led by Ayatollah All Khamenei
• Secular governmt led by president
• Muhammed Khatami, a reformist, served as president from 1997 to 2005, acting as a counterwieght to the power fo the clergy, HOWEVER, not so his conservatives, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
• Between 199 and 2001 the reformist won election with big margins, but their attempts to make Iran more democratic were repeatedly prevented, Dahai, which has led to much social unrest

Executive

Structure

• 1st Supreme Leader (highest autority) - velayat faqth (doctrine of guardisnship of the jurisconsull); his power comes from appointments, he apponts those who will follow him and if he has abilityh to appoint he has ability to kick someone out, appioints half of the Guardian Council; 31 members to the Expediency Council; director of Voice and Vision *media)' commander of military; commander fo law-enforcement
• 2nd President (elected for 4 years, max: 2 consecutive terms; confirmed by Supreme Leader; must be Shi'ite; you MUST be male) - head of the Executive branch; signs bills into law approved by Legislature; presen tpolicy into government; power of appontment-cabnet members (his advisors), provisional governors
• 3rd Assembly of Experts (elected for 8 years, 86 members) - chooses the Supreme Leader from the ulema (The Islamic Community)
• 4th Cabinet (Council of Ministers) (chosen by President, approved and can be impeached by Parliament) - advice President

Legislative

• 1st Parliament Majies (unicameral with 290 members elected for 4 years, all Muslims except 3 Christians and ! Jewish member) - law'making power, but the laws can;t go agains the Constitution or against Islam, investigate affairs of state (oversight)
• 2nd Council of Guardians (12 members, 6 ulema appointed by Supreme Leader, 6 lawyers appointed by Head of Judiciary) - ensures the conformity of legislation with Islam & constitution, "supervises" elections to the Assembly of Experts, the presidency, and parliament
• Sharia's Law, interpreted by Supreme Leader and ensured by Council of Guardians
• head if Judiciary appointed by Supreme Leader
• the Iranian judiciary has never been independent of political influence
• the hardliners have used the Judiciary system to undermine reforms
• by imprisoning reformist personnel and journalists and closing down reformist papers

Untary State -

• Local: everything subordinate to the tgop-down decisions, local leaders have to be approved by Guardian Council, can tax but tend not to, Leaders are selected for 4-year terms, decision-making and administrative organs oif the State

Political Parties

• political parties are religious -based rather than ideologically-based
• reformist political parties are now questioning the valididty of the interpretations of the Sharis' Law
• there are also conservatives (agree with strict implementation of Islam)
• Supreme Leader basically appoints most the political leaders
• problem
• controlled by a few people, does not give much efficacy to people
• lot of importance and power is given to unelected structures

Iran

• is a Shi'ite Theocratic Republic
• is in the Arab world-but not an Arab nation
• everyone speaks Farsi, not Arabic
• has a great history - Persia - other nation in the area are post-colonial construction
• 2nd largest oil producer in the East
• 4th largest in the world
• should these resources be controlled by Clerics/
• Should economic matters require expertise outside the Islam realm?
• Is Iran a NIC or LDC?

Surface Cleavage in Iran

• lack of unity
• -neither the mass society or the elite ar unified
• most poor - most of the population depends on the government
• ethnic conflict in the North
• conflict within the dominant ethnic and religious Entrepeneurs
• conflict between merchants, peasants, and entrepeneurs
• renter's economy that depends on globalization (ex: oil)

Civil Society

• can be measured by how much a government intrudes into the provide lives of the idividuals

The Shi'ite Elite

• have launched campaigns that sought to enforce values over the general population; resembles the Cultural Revolution in China
• University Professors favoring a more liberal society found themselves replaced
• other professionals found refuge in other nations

It is the young people that are the keepers of Civil Society; attach themsleves to pop culture:

• music
• dress
• cars

The Regime has tolerated the behavior of the youth

• particularly under Khatami

Political Participation

• despite CL and CR are written into the 1979 Constitution
• Regime has closed down newspaper, labor unions, private organization (NGO), political parties, demonstration

Breaking Down the Worlds

***Some notes on this subject are missing as I was gone the first two days of when he covered this topic.

Communist States

• China
• N. Korea
• Vietnam
• Cuba
• Laos

Post-Communist States

• Russian Federation
• Former Soviet States (Estonia, Lithuania, etc.)
• Communist Party as the main opposition

3rd World (developing world)

• newly developed Industrial Countries--Basket cases
• Nigeria/Mexico/Iran
• indicators:
• 1. Agriculture is the largest sector of the economy
• 2. NIC'S (Newly Industrial Countries) - the All Star 3rd world nations
• NIC'S
• A. export industrial goods
• B. Political Modernization is ongoing

-gov. is attemptinbg more services to its citizens
-infrastructure
-money/taxes

• C. Quality of Life

-Life expectancy-70s
-Literacy rates-80s

• 3-LDC- Less Developed Countries

-these are the counbtries that should be NIC

-however, barriers exist to prevent long term economic and political gain A. National/Ethnic- Nigeria is poster boy for this group with 350 rival nations

B. Political Integration - prime self-identities in their nationhood, religion gets in the way that leads to advancement ( "I will screw your tribe to advance mine"), 3 political efficacy--engagement of society, the ability to make a difference C. Islam State - religion/government entaglement with the Koran, theocracy (governed by religious leaders), Shari's law (Islamic code)

D. overemphasis of a single resource, exploiting a resource for a short term goal, not concerned with longer term interests (such as oil, education); 1st world nation looks at long term goal, not just concerned about survival, but a 3rd world nation is worried about survival

E. Education opportunity is poor, literacy rate is around 34%, and has finite resources and opportunity cost.

F. Poor quality of life indicators, preventive disease run rapid, high infant mortality rate, and low life expectancy.

Imperialism and its Legacy

1. Boundaries of important convenience
2. Commercial agriculture
3. Extractive industries
4. Exported profits
5. Indirect rule

Post-Colonial Problems: lack of legitimacy; heightened intolerance, mistrust, and dissatisfaction

Writing Comparatuve Essays and Globalization

MSDS

• When you look at two very different counties look at the SIMILARITIES (ex: Iran and Great Britain)
• Impuraical(usually multiple choice questions)- questions of fact or observations -answerws can be refuted, mathematical (ex: Do Iranians hold elections on a regular basis? Amount of voters?, etc.)l must be able to measure
• Normative (usually essay questions)-Issues that require4 some value judgement; may ask for comarisons or value judgemnets; don't buy assumpton of question, reject it sometimes; validity of these statements cannot be empirically tested since they are based on the value judgements.

• Nation-tribe or culture
• state-(accoring to Max aver) provides institutions, has many nations (any sub0culture is a nation); states is the hierarchy (ex: USA national gove3rnment is state but each state may be considered a nation). To be a state you need a population, a defined territory, sovereignty (n order to have sovereignty you need to be able to cede sovereignty),
• political system-set of institutions and agencie sthat implement goals of a scoiety
• governments-the policy-making arts of the such systems
• inputs from (domestic) environment to system-->outouts
• -domestic economy(Input) pol (output)

Globalization

• expands sovereignty of some countries in some ways and decreases that of the country being "invaded". ex: McDonald's, Disney
• process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, ad governments of different states
• a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology
• this process has effects on the environment, culture, political systems, economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world
• proponents of globalization argus that it allows poor countries and their citizenbs to develop economically and raise their standards of living
• opponents of globalization claim that unrestricted international free market has benefited multinational coorporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people takes away true meaning of Americans, Chinese, British, etc.
• economists agree that globalization is driven by two forces

1. developments in technology (ex: cargo containers on ships)
2. development in policy (must occur domestically, we have to open free trade and politicians must vote in every coutntry, taking away their own power by letting this happen)

• it is the government policy that has changed that has allowed globalization to cement in society. Ex: Nigeria should nationalize oil and kick Shell out of Nigeria and share the wealth and sell to U.S.
• protectionism, capital controls and barriers for human migration spread from country to country
• inputs-the way average citizens annd the group, organizations affect political life
• policies-regulatory, redistribute, assertive and symbolic actions by government
• feedback-the way in which peoples reaction to policy helps shape the next hase of political life
• all foprms of government have feedback
• from the people it just may occur through different method, through different time, and different results
• 
  

If you like this blog you might also want to look at my other blogs:

• singlepartystates.blogspot.com
• historyreadings.blogspot.com