May 1

Social 30-1

I went through some key concepts for Unit 3 today (theocracy, plutocracy, oligarchy, autocracy, republic, etc.) and we started looking at types of democratic systems. Our two case studies for Unit 3 will be Canada (parliamentary democracy) and the United States (presidential democracy). Please remember that you have your Unit 2 Final Exam tomorrow. You can find the study guide for this exam below. I also did a homework check on the results of your political compass survey and 10 Questions About Democracy film study booklet.

Social 30-1 Unit 2 Final Exam Study Guide:

The Unit 2 Final Exam is on Thursday, May 2nd. It will be a 70-75 multiple choice question test. In your textbook, this is material from Chapters 3-8. Please look at the review hints below:

• study "The Development of Classical Liberalism" (ppt)
• study "Responding to Classical Liberalism" (ppt)
• study "The Evolution of Modern Liberalism" (ppt)
• study "The Techniques of Dictatorship" (ppt)
• study "20th Century Rejections of Modern Liberalism" (ppt)
• study "The Origins of the Cold War" (ppt)

• study the key concepts from the Chapters 3-8 worksheets
• please see the summary notes from the Ideologies textbook: Chapter 7 (Private Enterprise)
• supply-side economics
• boom and bust cycle/business cycle
• laws of supply and demand, Adam Smith, invisible hand, market forces
  self-interest, consumer sovereignty, competition, private ownership, profit motive
• basic economic problems/questions
• advantages/disadvantages of the market economy
• causes of the Great Depression
• FDR and the New Deal
• please see summary notes from the Ideologies textbook on the Mixed Economy Case Studies #14 (Sweden) and #15 (Canada), #16 (Japan), #17 (Fascism and Nazism)
• also see the Democratic Socialism booklet on Sweden (indicative planning, "cradle to the grave" economics)
• characteristics of a mixed economy
• nationalization
• privatization
• democratic socialism
• welfare capitalism
• Keynesian economics
• the business cycle and fiscal and monetary policies (study all of the notes I gave you and the booklet that I gave you)
• demand-side economics
• neo-conservatives
• monetarism
• trickle down economics
• supply-side economics
• Thatcherism and Reaganomics
• Milton Friedman
• Friedrich Hayek
• how Keynesian economics deals with a recession (remember "the percolator": increase circulation of money reducing taxes, increase government spending on "make work" projects, and reduce interest rates, which according to Keynesian economics is going increase demand for goods and services and lead to more money circulating in the economy)
• how supply-side economics deals with a recession (remember "trickle down coffee maker": government should stimulate the goods and services sector of the economy by reducing corporate and personal taxes, eventually benefits will "trickle down" to the middle class and working class, make connections between supply-side economics and laissez faire economics/classical liberalism)
• advantages and disadvantages of a mixed economy
• neo-conservative criticism of government intervention
• characteristics of a centrally planned economy
• advantages and disadvantages of a centrally planned economy
• Marx notes (sent by e-mail)
• Lenin notes (sent by e-mail)
• establishment of the Soviet Union
• Soviet economic system (top-down decision-making process)
• Lenin's War Communism and the New Economic Policy
• "Stalin and the Modernization of Russia" (see film notes)
• Stalin notes (sent by e-mail)
• "Changes to Soviet Society After Stalin" notes (this bridges the gap between Stalin and Gorbachev)
• Gorbachev to Collapse Notes
• Economic Planning in the USSR booklet
• techniques of dictatorships (USSR and Nazi Germany case studies)
• modern liberalism
• features of the Nazi state
• Hitler's rise to power
• Characteristics of Democracy
• Characteristics of Dictatorship
• Democratic Systems notes
• Non-Democratic Systems notes
• Types of Dictatorships notes (includes Techniques of Dictatorships as well)
• A Comparison of Communism and Fascism notes
• Totalitarianism notes
• Fascism/Nazism booklet (has techniques of dictatorship in Nazi Germany and USSR)
• do a brief review of the political spectrum and economic spectrum and the quadrant model

Social 20-1

We watched a brief CBC News in Review on Kosovo declaring its independence from Serbia. One of the key issues in this short video was countries that did not recognize Kosovo's independence from Serbia due to a prominent nationalist independence movement within their own borders. By recognizing the independence of a former province of Serbia as being an independent nation-state a international precedence has been set, hence, countries such as Russia, China and Spain did not recognize Kosovo as being independent. Canada took its time in recognizing Kosovo as well, in part because about setting a precedence for Quebec's potential separation from Canada. Remember, Kosovo issued its declaration of independence unilaterally.

We also started to discuss writing position papers by going through an exercise that should have helped you distinguish between arguments and evidence. We'll continue preparing for your Unit 2 WRA II Essay in the days to come. Please remember that you are writing a Unit 2 WRA I three source analysis assignment tomorrow in class.

 

Don't forget that your Chapter 7-8 Test is on Monday, May 6th. You can find the study guide for this test here (scroll down to find it). Your Unit 2 Research Project is also due on Monday as well.