Tuesday 9 February 2016


Week 14: Feb 1-Feb 5
Is Liberalism a viable ideology?
Lecture/Discussion
Viable:  Practical/ Reasonable/ Realistic/ Attainable.
(Principles of liberalism: Individual rights & freedoms; democracy; free market)
  • Recall what happens when liberalism is imposed onto others.
How does Government know what people want? 
→ Voting, economy, suggestions, protests.
  • Are societal issues such as : Freedom VS Security, police abuse of power, environmental issues; being properly attended to  by a Liberal society?  
  • Is the government serving or leading the people? ← (Important to consider when determining the viability of a liberal ideology.)
Parts of the essay. ASSIGNMENT
  • When analyzing the source for an essay you should include in your paragraph:
  • Identification of the source's main message
  • Context of the source (Who? What? Why? When?)
  • Discuss who would agree or disagree with the source Why? or why not?
LECTURE/ DISCUSSION
       Elements of a Democracy ⬅ Important to understand
  • A political system used for choosing or replacing the current  government through Free and Fair elections.
  • The active participation of the people as citizens in political and civic life
  • Important to recall democracies stand for the protection of all human rights and  rule of law (to which the laws apply equally to all citizens).
  • Rule of law: Precautions set to ensure there is not abuse of power by limiting everyone in society to well-defined and established laws.
How do democracies work in Canada?
EXECUTIVE (PRIME MINISTER)                  
                         ⬇
LEGISLATIVE(House of Commons)
                         ⬇    
JUDICIAL (Supreme court of Canada)
Canada's election process follows a strict code involving: All following under the Canadian Constitution and obeying Canadian rule of law.
-Independent election departments
-Secrets ballots
-Campaign spending laws
-Regular election policies (every 5 years)
-Representative government and the right for any citizen to vote.
Part of the essay. ASSIGNMENT
Part of the essay- Argumentation
When creating an argument in an essay you should include:
-Establishment of personal position (opinion)
-Development of 1+ arguments based on logic and reason  (main content)
-Creation of relationships between Positions, argumentative context and the ideological perspective identified in the source.  (connections to every idea in your essay, make sure not to include random, unimportant outliers!)
Introduction to Quiz Assignment:
‘’Men learn while they teach’’ -Lucius Seneca
Following the wisdom of Seneca, we created a quiz based on the information in Chapter 10. The quiz we created dealt with the following concepts:
Principles of Liberalism in Direct Democracy
  • Canada’s Parliamentary Democracy
  • United States Republican Democracy
  • Proportional Representation
  • Challenges to the will of the will of the people(voting apathy)
  • Voter Turnout
  • Elitism
  • Lobbying/Special Interest Groups

  • Referendum- A general vote by the electorate on a single political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision.
  • Most common in Canada
  • Always ruled by 50%+ 1 (Majority)

Additional Resources

No comments:

Post a Comment