Class on Tuesday, January 31

On Tuesday we will finish up the viewing of Persepolis and discuss some of the themes (ethnicity, ideology, theocracy, fundamentalism, etc.) that apply to chapter 3 in O'neil .  Also, there will be a brief lecture on ideology and political economy with some activities setup to help you determine where you land on the ideological spectrum.  We will then continue on with Chapters 6 and 7, covering democracies and advanced democracies, with a practice FRQ at the end of class (time permitting).  I hope you enjoyed your Freedom Friday (even though it was a very lopsided election) and have a good weekend!!

Today we will be going over chapters 1 and 2 in O'neil.  Please post any questions or comments about the material we reviewed.  Also if you have any articles that apply to some of the concepts we learned about today please post them with a comment on the relevance of the story.

Welcome!

Over the last year or so a LOT has been happening in the field of comparative politics.  The Arab Spring, the global financial crisis, rising tensions in the Middle East, ongoing concerns in Israel,  global protests on income inequality, international humanitarian crises, and the rising economic power of China (among many other headlines) have all been changing the face of international politics as we know it.  You might think that these faraway developments don't concern you, but the fact is, with the rise of globalization and unprecedented advances in social communications technology, a grisly, suicidal protest by a young fruit-cart owner in a remote land can have monumental implications on the political landscape of the entire world.  

In one half of the course we will examine many broad concepts with which you might be familiar (sovereignty, power, freedom, equality, legitimacy, globalization, etc.), but we will also delve into many concepts that you might not have seen before (devolution, corporatism, clientelism, cosmopolitanism, etc.).  The other half of the course deals with six countries (Great Britain, Mexico, Russia, China, Iran and Nigeria) that all provide different perspectives on how political systems across the world work.  We will be conducting in-depth examinations of each countries history, people, and culture. 

I genuinely look forward to your participation and successful completion of this course.  This is the subject matter I studied in college, so I find it supremely fascinating and I hope you will too!

One more thing!!!  If there are any current, relevant political issues/events that you would like to talk about in class please comment on this post with whatever it is that peaks your interest!