RI 3 - quiz generation

• Democracy: Greek for “common people” and “rule”

• Will of the people: doing what the people want

Complexities of liberal democracies

• differing opinions & ideologies

  • how is it delivered/achieved?

• how can the will of the people be influenced?

• how are people educated to form cohesive opinions?

• how vulnerable is it to attacks and populism

• voter apathy and fatigue

• tyranny of the majority

Types of democracy

• Direct democracy: referenda, plebiscites; all citizens have a direct vote

  • Issues include time & cost; voter knowledge & voter apathy

• Representative democracy: Westminster system; US Presidential System

  • In Canada: 338 seats in the House of Commons through representation by population

  • Minority government: no political party holds 50% + 1 of the seats.

    • Confidence vote: if a government loses a vote of confidence, we go to an election.

  • Majority government: one political party has 50% +1 of the seats.

  • Party solidarity: you vote with your party.

Voting Systems

• First past the post: whoever has the most votes wins; distorts the will of the people.

• Proportional Representation: 40% of the vote translates to 40% of the seats

US Representative System

• Direct from Montesqieu’s theory of Separation of Powers.

• 2 part “bi-cameral” legislative chamber

• Parts of government:

  • Legislative: drafts and passes laws

    • The President is capable of vetoing a law; however cannot veto if it is passed by a 2/3rds “supermajority” in both houses

  • Executive: signs and enacts laws

  • Judicial: on matters of constitutionality

    • Roe v. Wade: throwing out restrictions upon abortion.

    • The President proposes Supreme Court justices and Congress approves their appointments.

Contrasting Westminster & American Systems

• Separation of powers: executives formed

  • Executive has no capability to draft legislation

• Ability to express confidence in government with confidence motions

• Both legislatures are bicameral

• Broad system inefficiency in the US system

• Electoral college & first past the post

• Little party solidarity in America

Skewing the Will of the People

Interest & Lobbying Groups

• Special interest groups exist to sway government policy.

  • e.g. oil and gas lobby; grocers; lumber

  • They also exist to sway public opinion upon impressionable people.

• Lobby groups pay for congressional races and political action committees.

  • Citizens United Lawsuit case said that political spending cannot be eliminated; nor do they have to declare their spending.

    • Donations as expressions of free speech.

• Government subsidies are lobbied for by lobby groups: money from the government

• Lobbying enables special interest groups to influence government policy beyond the capability of normal individuals.

Gerrymandering

• States alter the electoral constituency boundary map to produce skewed results based on geography.

  • e.g. US representative districts

  • The goal is to concentrate votes for the opponent; spreading them out for the rest of the constituency.

Representative Liberal Democracy

• John Locke: government governs well, otherwise they’re thrown out.

• Will of the people → citizens → accountability

• Collectivist ideals → distorted by FPTP

• Representatives: MPs & congressmen

• Rule of Law: Charter of Rights & Freedoms; US Constitution

• Lobbyists & interest groups

• Separation of powers leads to inefficiency

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

How far do we go to promote individual rights & freedoms.

• Section 1: laws have the ability to restrict individual rights & freedoms in defiance of the Charter within reasonable limitations to maintain a free and democratic society.

The Supreme Court

• 9 justices; the highest court in Canada that deals with constitutionality. Mandate is provided by the 1982 Constitution Act.

• Prior to 1982, the idea of Parliamentary Supremacy was upheld.

Guaranteed under the Charter

• Free & fair elections require individual rights & democratic rights.

• Legal rights: prevents despotic abuse of prosecution

• Charter within the Constitution: the rulebook which provides separation of powers.

• Previously, there was an unwritten constitution: court precedent, Acts of Parliament and Tradition.

Notwithstanding Clause

• Provincial governments can ignore sections of the Charter for 5+ years.

  • Must be invoked in writing within the law and invokes parliamentary supremacy.

• Bill 101: English language minority rights reduced in Quebec. (later replaced with Bill 96)

• Ontario: Notwithstanding clause invoked to clear homeless encampments.

Quebec Charter of Human Rights & Freedoms: includes positive rights, e.g. that to food, clothing & housing.

Collective Rights in Canada

• Anglophone/francophone/aboriginal peoples all have collective rights.

  • where the group is a minority.

  • Aboriginal treaty rights enshrined in the Constitution Act: e.g. that to out of season hunting

  • Language education rights provided to minorities who speak our Official Languages.

Civil Rights Movements

• Contemporary movements:

  • LGBTQ+ rights

  • Self-governance

  • Terrorism

  • Abortion

• 1950s - 1960s: the American Civil Rights movement campaigned for the end to discrimination against African Americans.

• First Amendment Rights: in 1865, the 13th Amendment abolishes slavery. The Reconstruction of America begins.

  • Former slave owners take over the south.

  • Plessy v. Fergusson: a Supreme Court ruling that enables segregation, as long as they both have equal access.

  • Harry Truman ends military segregation, in-part motivated by ideological conflict.

• Jim Crow Laws: that enable segregation in the United States.

  • e.g. Buses: all bus stations shall have separate waiting spaces and separate ticket areas.

• De-facto discrimination: “white neighbourhoods” in Canada and the U.S.

• De-jure discrimination: legal discrimination in the U.S., e.g. Jim Crow Laws

Little Rock 9: integration revisited

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954): schools in all states shall be de-segregated or integrated.

• In Arkansas, the 101st Airborne Division has to be sent to protect black kids who go to school. → as a result of the Arkansas governor disobeying the Supreme Court ruling.

• Massive Resistance: against integrated schools → districts shut down; private schools are opened with vouchers for white kids.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Rosa Parks was asked to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

  • Parks was arrested, who was a member of the Civil Rights Association.

• A boycott of transit occurred; year-long boycott ended segregation on buses.

Sit-Ins

• an arrest in protest; designed to generate photographs → a form of Civil Disobedience

• walk-ins cause outrage amongst white peoples at pools and churches.

Voting Rights Act

• Voter Suppression Literacy Test in Louisiana: grandfather clause.

• Signed by LBJ in 1965

  • removal of legal barriers that prevented African Americans from voting

  • widened the franchise → the furthest reaching civil rights legislation.

  • Increased black voter turnout

• Yet, in black communities, there are still fewer polling stations, no food/water to people in line and voter ID laws make it difficult to vote.

Civil Rights Organizations

• NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples (Parks)

• SCLC: Southern Christian Leadership Conference (MLK)

Economic Systems & Spectra

What will be produced?

Production of Goods & Services

Distribution of Goods & Services

Who makes the decisions?

Government promoting economic equality

• opens a discussion of who should have wealth within a society.

• Wealth redistribution → incentives to work? progressive taxation? who? what about those who don’t work? homelessness & crime?

  • Means test: socioeconomic status determines ability to access welfare programs, e.g. Medicaid

Social Safety Net

• Public healthcare

• Pensions / CPP / OAS

• Employment Insurance

• Education

• Maternity/Paternity Leave

• Canada Child Benefit

• Workers Compensation

• AISH

• Pharmacare

• Canadian Dental Care Plan

Tax dollars

• Fiscal & social policy on the Canadian welfare state are where our tax dollars go.

  • 40% on healthcare; 20% on education etc.

Healthcare

• Canada spends less of GDP on healthcare vs. the United States.

  • Broadly, Canadians experience better healthcare though.

• Red tape: regulation & bureaucracy

• Canadian healthcare: publicly funded model with private delivery. Canadian government decides coverage versus insurance agencies in the US.

• Canadian healthcare is not without issue: wait times are up.

• In the US, privately, individuals & insurance pay; publicly, Medicare is for those 65+ while Medicaid is for the poor (which is means tested)

• Healthcare is expensive in the US because there’s less preventative medicine. Medicare can negotiate prices now; which means greater competition and power in negotiating for medication.

  • In Canada, the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance exists to bargain for drugs on behalf of Canadian provinces.

  • Lobbying exists regarding preserving the status quo for healthcare.

• In Canada, doctors are private businesses that are paid publicly.

Economic Theory

Keynesian Economics (demand side)

• Government spending should reduce during periods of high inflation, high employment and economic growth.

• Government spending should increase during periods of low inflation, low employment and low economic growth.

  • The broad goal is stable, steady economic growth.

• Significantly used from 1945 - 1970.

Recession

• more government spending

• reduced taxes

• lower interest rates

• more spending → increased demand

• run a deficit

Inflation

• reduce spending

• increase taxes

• raise interest rates

• less spending → decreased demand

• run a surplus

Fiscal Policy

• tax and spend policy → to raise/lower taxes and spending.

• Government is usually the biggest spender within an economy.

Monetary Policy

• money supply: action taken by the central bank of a country to control the supply of money.

• Raises and lowers interest rates

• Prints or reduces the money that is in circulation.

Stagflation

• In the 1970s, a period of stagflation occurred.

  • Stagnant economy

  • High inflation

• In the 1970s, the Arab Oil Embargo saw Israel vs. the Arab world, which created a crisis together with inflation.

• In the UK, inflation was 25% in 1976. Traditionally, the inflation cure was to raise interest rates — but this would stagnant the economy further.

• Stagflation was responded to with high spending, wage & price controls: which did not end inflation.

  • Milton Friedman: economic philosopher who was an advisor to Nixon, who responded by advising a dramatic cut in government spending.

Reaganomics

• Reduce income taxes for the rich and for businesses; then wealth would trickle down to the masses.

  • Large levels of deregulation, anti-union sentiment and increased military spending.

  • The wealth gap increased and the deficit increased.

Margaret Thatcher

• Conservative PM from 1979 - 1990.

  • Lots of deregulation, privatization, anti-union and pro-economic freedom sentiment.

  • Public housing was sold off to former tenants.

  • Under Labour, nationalization was rampant: shipyards, coal mines, steel fabrication → protection of national industry.

2008 Financial Crisis

• Insurance & bank bailouts: stimulus package passed to keep banks afloat.

  • Caused primarily by the deregulation of banks & the financial sector.

  • Highly risky financial products sold: money to US housing markets, mortgage shares enabled by poor financial regulation → leading to predatory lending.

  • The housing bubble bursts & $700bn of bailouts has to be passed. In return, regulations were strengthened.

• COVID response: low 0.25% interest rates; increased child benefit; GST credit introduced; CERB paid $2000/mo. plus other programs were increased.t

• Are there any circumstances under which the government should suspend civil rights in the name of national security?

  • Pandemics/proliferation/terrorism/war/natural disasters: which causes examination of public safety acts.

October / FLQ Crisis - 1970

• FLQ: Federation de Liberation du Quebec

  • destruction of Canadian symbols

  • mail bombs

  • kidnapping

• In October 1970, James Cross, a British Diplomat; and Pierre Laporte, the Quebec Labour Minister; were kidnapped.

  • Cross was rescued.

  • LaPorte was murdered.

• The army was deployed to protect politicians & buildings

• Insurrection & the War Measures Act

  • enabled Warrantless arrests without lawyers and charges being laid

  • Invoked by Pierre Trudeau

  • Suspended civil rights in Canada

• 440 were arrested and released without charges.

Emergencies Act - 1980

Scope

• Public welfare emergencies (natural disasters)

• Public order emergencies (national security)

• International emergencies (sovereignty & security)

• War emergencies

  The repeal and replacement of the War Measures Act

9/11 & liberal democracies

• Concerns issues of mobility, legal rights & the freedoms of speech and religion. Freedom vs. security.

Patriot Act & the Anti-Terrorism Act

• Passed in the wake of 9/11: public security legislation.

• Patriot Act Scope:

  • enabled wire tapping

  • searches without probable cause

  • monitored library records

  • 7 day incarceration without charge

    • indefinite detention if charged

No Fly Lists

• National security & privacy risks → the redress list.

COINTELPRO → late 50s - 1971

• The FBI and other security agencies spy on suspected threats.

  • e.g. monitoring Socialist congressman Church & Martin Luther King

  • A program led by J. Edgar Hoover: his “secret files”

    • Leads to the introduction of oversight over the FBI.

Case Study: Maher Arar

• What can go wrong with intense surveillance and restricted liberties?

  • FBI/CIA/NSA → intelligence agencies in the USA

  • GHQ/MI5/MI6 in Britain

  • CSIS/CSE in Canada

  • USA/UK/CAN/AUS/NZ → the Five Eyes alliance of intelligence sharing

• Maher Arar is travelling to Montreal; disappears in JFK and is tortured and incarcerated because he was on a US terror watchlist.

  • He is arrested and detained per the provisions set by the Patriot Act.

  • He is renditioned and sent to Syria.

  • Canadian officials say that Maher Arar’s arrest was completely inaccurate and that he should not have been on a government watchlist.

• Guantanamo Bay: an off-shore prison in Cuba, which means the U.S. can keep terrorist suspects off-shore and not have an obligation to follow the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights.

Mass Surveillance

• Edward Snowden → exercises to privacy and speech

  • hacking ISPs and websites with subpoenas

  • analysis of metadata like needles and haystacks

  • Are we entitled to privacy on the internet? Are we willing to relinquish the right to privacy to stop terrorists?

• Freedom of the press is threatened by this idea of mass surveillance.

• FISA Court: a secret appeals court established by the PATRIOT ACT that ended up approving everything.

• Coal mountaintop removal: collective rights at risk?

  • factors & pieces: regulation, town survival, relocation of schools, economic equality and lobbying

• Climate change: mitigating the emission of greenhouse gases; adapting to the already changing climate.

• Paris Climate Accord: limit the global change in temperature to under 2 degrees; ideally 1.5.

• Issues pertaining to the modern viability of liberalism:

  • environmental concerns

  • resource use & development

  • debt & poverty

  • racism

  • pandemics

  • terrorism

  • censorship → restriction on military info

• Manipulation of information

  • Denial

  • Koch Industries

  • Exxon

• Ideal world: Science → media → public (will of people) → new laws

  • False studies become a climate denial haven → creates an echo chamber of think tanks

• DDT and the Silent Spring: Rachel Carlson being the scientist that found out DDT was bad.

• Tobacco: cancer & disease → doubt, delay and confuse to the point where the first tobacco law is passed in the 1990s.

Feminism

• Adherence to collective norms contributes to societal issues.

• Feminism advocates for the equal status of women in cultural, political, social and economic spheres.

First Wave Feminism

• Suffragettes: advocating for women’s rights to vote

• Ability to own property

• People’s Case → the Famous Five and the right for women to be interpreted as persons by law.

Second Wave Feminism (1950s - 1980s)

• Equal opportunity & pay

• Reproductive rights & abortion

Issues of Disparity

• $0.77 for every $1 made by men

• 3x more house spend domestically

• 35% of women have experienced violence.

• Gender equality from legislation with legal penalties

  • Maternity/paternity leave → illustrating the evolution of social norms.

• Violence and the #MeToo movement

• Affirmative action to bring women into the workplace

• ~286 years necessary to remove discriminatory laws

Post-modernism

Modernism

• science, knowledge, freedom expressed as obedience to laws, reason & rational thinking

Postmodernism

• No set of ideas can dominate cultural and gender differences → sees modernism as imposition.

• Skeptics of progress

• “Grand governing nature” which causes concern for race, gender and other parts of cultures.

  • objectively against grand governance

• Can be critiqued as a rejection of common sense & common ground