Dec 5th - Dec 13th
**Economic globalization and economic liberalization have positively and negatively affected political policies and behaviors.**
TOPIC 5.1 Impact of Global Economic & Technological Forces
Explain how global economic and technological forces influence political policies, behaviors, and culture.
Explain how global economic and technological forces influence political policies, behaviors, and culture.
- Economic globalization—including economic networks that are growing more interconnected, a worldwide market with actors unconstrained by political borders, and a reduction in state control over economies—has deepened cross-national connections among workers, goods, and capital and has caused challenges for regime and cultural stability.
- State membership in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) has promoted economic liberalization policies.
- a. China and Nigeria have enacted economic liberalization policies and a majority of respondents in recent studies have said that they expect children in their countries to be better off than their parents.
- b. In Mexico, in part as a result of these policies, the number of people in the middle class has grown.
- Multinational corporations (MNCs) increasingly dominate global markets and pose challenges to, and sometimes conflict with, domestic economic policies regarding labor, the environment, land rights, taxation, and the budget.
- Globalization and neoliberalism can provoke conflicts within states, including:
- a. Increased demands being placed on governments by civil society groups
- b. Protests by students and disenfranchised groups
- c. Arrests of protesters and imposition of social media restrictions d. Empowerment of once-marginal, nationalist, and populist groups that blame the government for changes in culture and economic conditions
- a. Increased demands being placed on governments by civil society groups
TOPIC 5.2 Political Responses to Global Market Forces
Compare political responses to global market forces.
Compare political responses to global market forces.
- In response to market forces, course countries continue to experiment with policies regarding private ownership of industry and capital, including:
- a. Special economic zones along the coast of China
- b. Privatization and increased competition in Mexico’s oil industry (Pemex)
- c. Nigeria’s state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) collaborating with foreign companies in joint ventures to extract and produce oil
- d. Putin’s re-nationalization of oil/natural gas industries and imposition of foreign investment limitations
- Course countries allow varying degrees of private control of natural resources, with the United Kingdom allowing the most private control of natural resources and China allowing the least.
- Governments respond to global market forces in order to:
- a. Improve domestic economic conditions
- b. Respond to domestic demands
- c. Control or influence domestic political debates to maintain or increase their own power d. Extend national influence regionally and internationally
- a. Improve domestic economic conditions
TOPIC 5.3 Challenges from Globalization
Explain how globalization creates challenges to regime sovereignty.
Explain how globalization creates challenges to regime sovereignty.
- Many aspects of globalization can challenge regime sovereignty, including:
- a. Foreign direct investment and multinational corporations from originating regimes can pose a challenge to a government’s foundational economic and political ideas and principles.
- b. Cultural influences (often Western) that accompany investment and trade with a given regime can provoke a domestic backlash.
- c. Increased economic development can cause environmental degradation and accompanying health issues that alienate citizens.
- d. Foreign governments can bring political and economic pressures (including treaty reversals, public condemnation at intergovernmental organizations like the United Nations, and economic sanctions) to bear on countries whose actions (including human rights violations) offend them.
- In response to global market forces, governments frequently strive to respond to internal demands for domestic reform. Governments also work to control domestic policy debates and attempt to extend their influence regionally to deflect criticism and improve economic conditions.
TOPIC 5.4 Policies and Economic Liberalization
Describe economic and political liberalization policies.
Describe economic and political liberalization policies.
- Economic liberalization occurs when a state reduces its economic role and embraces free market mechanisms such as eliminating subsidies and tariffs, privatizing governmentowned industries, and opening the economy to foreign direct investment.
Explain the adoption of and consequences associated with economic liberalization policies.
- Political-economic systems in the course countries can be compared by measuring levels of economic development, economic growth, human development, wealth, and inequality.
- Course countries of all regime types adopt economic liberalization policies with the goals of remedying undesirable domestic circumstances, such as rising unemployment and reduced productivity, and undesirable external situations, such as trade deficits with other states and decreasing demand for raw materials like petroleum, natural gas, and rare-earth metal.
- Neoliberal economic policies (referring to the removal of barriers and restrictions on what internal/external economic actors can do) have had mixed effects, including reduction in inflation and increases in national income, as well as growing inequality in wealth distribution, persistent political corruption, and the exacerbation of existing social tensions as governments attempt to balance economic freedom with policies that promote economic and political equality.
- Economic prosperity tied to liberalization policies has affected the power of ruling political parties among course country political systems.
- While often stimulating growth, economic liberalization has contributed to environmental pollution, urban sprawl, and uneven economic development in course countries, as a result of:
- a. Increased consumption and use of automobiles and other engines using fossil fuels
- b. Poor infrastructure and lack of government regulation
- c. Regional migration patterns (including east/west in China; north/south in Mexico; rural/urban in both)
- a. Increased consumption and use of automobiles and other engines using fossil fuels
**A government bolsters regime stability by adapting its policies to environmental, political, economic, and cultural conditions.**
TOPIC 5.5 International & Supranational Organizations
Explain how international and supranational organizations influence domestic policymakers and national sovereignty.
Explain how international and supranational organizations influence domestic policymakers and national sovereignty.
- International organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank exert great influence through preconditions for financial assistance; countries that receive IMF assistance often must agree to structural adjustment programs requiring privatization of state-owned companies, reduced tariffs, and reduced governmental subsidies of domestic industries.
- To bolster their own developing industries, some countries pass import substitution industrialization (ISI) policies aimed at reducing foreign dependency by raising tariffs and encouraging local production of industrialized products.
- Supranational organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union (EU), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have sovereign powers over the national governments that are member states and can apply pressure on policymakers to reduce tariffs and otherwise liberalize trade.
TOPIC 5.6 Adaption of Social Policies
Explain how governments adapt social policies to address political, cultural, and economic changes.
Explain how governments adapt social policies to address political, cultural, and economic changes.
- In response to political, cultural, and economic changes, governments create new social policies, including gender equity, health care, and education policies, as represented by:
- a. Gender equity rules in Iran with voting, the election of Majles, and appointment to cabinet positions
- b. Disputes in Iran about female access to certain university degree programs and attendance at and participation in sporting events
- c. Varied abortion policies in Mexico’s local and state governments
- d. Gender quotas in Mexico e. Unequal gender access to education in the north and south of Nigeria
- Governments implement social welfare policies to reduce poverty, increase literacy, and improve public health, both to improve citizens’ lives and to maintain or bolster political legitimacy.
TOPIC 5.7 Impact of Industrialization & Economic Development
Explain how rapid industrialization and economic development have produced radical changes in governmental policies.
Explain how rapid industrialization and economic development have produced radical changes in governmental policies.
- Rapid industrialization and increasing dependence on energy from fossil fuels have created a variety of environmental and political problems that governments must address to protect citizens. Such government solutions include:
- a. Physically moving factories, implementing green technologies with subsidies for industry compliance, and engaging in increased infrastructure development and environmental regulation
- b. Passing laws that require nationwide conversion to hybrid and battery-powered autos to address air pollution problems in major cities from auto and industrial emissions
- c. Developing infrastructure and other mechanisms to respond to health crises related to systemic pollution
- Trade liberalization affects the growth of domestic and foreign business, the amount of direct foreign investment, foreign exchange rates, population movement, and often the quality of the environment. Reducing tariffs may lower consumer costs at the expense of domestic industry, while increasing tariffs may protect domestic industry against foreign imports but at the expense of higher consumer prices.
- Governments concerned with budget deficits resulting from world market fluctuations often must adopt austerity measures, which result in funding cuts to state programs.
**Demographic changes have political causes & consequences, and they can present challenges to a government's legitimacy.**
TOPIC 5.8 Causes & Effects of Demographic Change
Explain political causes and consequences of demographic changes.
Explain political causes and consequences of demographic changes.
- Growing populations, changing land use and values, and economic opportunities motivate internal and external population movements (including when populations shift from rural to urban areas or when net migration rates change) and the corresponding demographic changes pose significant challenges to governmental resources.
- Government policies and employment opportunities can draw workers to different geographic regions or influence positive or negative migration rates, often deepening preexisting class and regional differences and taxing government resources:
- a. China’s shifting emphasis from agriculture to industry, the creation of special economic zones, the encouragement of foreign direct investment, and fewer government restrictions and regulations of the economy have led to migration from rural to urban areas and west to east (interior to coast), creating a growing population whose rising incomes allow them to pursue work and educational opportunities abroad.
- b. Highly skilled or well-educated individuals have left home countries such as Iran and Nigeria to escape government policies or practices that are perceived as limiting, corrupt, or repressive.
- c. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other economic liberalization policies (such as removing agricultural subsidies), maquiladora zones, and foreign direct investment patterns prompted migration from rural to urban areas and from southern to northern Mexico, and contributed to greater economic development in the north than in the south, as well as other regional disparities.
- d. A positive net migration of immigrants into countries like the United Kingdom has resulted in social and political tensions.
- Shifting migration patterns have political and social consequences, including:
- a. Increased crime stemming from higher population density
- b. The concentration of highly skilled individuals in certain areas and their absence in other areas
- c. Increased use of existing infrastructure and housing and demands for new and expanded infrastructure and housing
- d. The growth of new political parties that stand against immigration and supranational organizations that challenge the government’s legitimacy
- a. Increased crime stemming from higher population density
- The political leadership of the United Kingdom is facing increasing constituent demands to reduce the rising costs of health care, exacerbated by an aging population and a declining working-age population faced with increased tax burdens to fund the universal health care system.
- States respond to demographic pressures with different actions or policies that influence citizen behavior, including policies encouraging or discouraging the birth of children or actions promoting or discouraging discrimination against religious minorities.
**Natural resource endowments can have positive and negative effects on political stability & economic development.**
TOPIC 5.9 Impact of Natural Resources
Explain how natural resources affect political and economic development.
Explain how natural resources affect political and economic development.
- Rentier states (including Iran, Nigeria, and Russia) that obtain a sizable percentage of total government revenue from the export of oil and gas or from leasing the resource to foreign countries, have been able to raise standards of living and fund governmental programs based on their huge reserves.
- Political and economic outcomes related to rentier state status, often referred to as the “resource curse” when petroleum is involved, include:
- a. Lack of economic diversification
- b. Concentration of governmental resources on developing the one profitable export industry to the exclusion of other types of industries
- c. Severe revenue fluctuations based on world market pricing
- d. The overvaluation of currency and trade imbalances
- e. The increasing disparity between rich and poor
- f. A lack of incentive to modernize the economy or cooperate with international judicial bodies
- g. Increased governmental corruption
- h. A lack of governmental accountability to citizens when not relying on citizens for taxes
- i. The absence of democracy
- Resources are nationalized in China, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, and Russia to provide government revenue, consolidate government control, and reduce political influence of foreign governments and multinational corporations (MNCs), all of which can reinforce political legitimacy. The degree of central government control in these states differs, as represented by:
- a. The Mexican government’s decision to allow private investment in Pemex
- b. The political control exercised by foreign MNCs that underwrite Nigeria’s oil production
- c. The high degree of centralized control over natural resource companies under Russian President Putin that has resulted in wealth concentration
- a. The Mexican government’s decision to allow private investment in Pemex
- Privatized ownership of natural resources decreases government control, increases wealth inequality, and results in the potential loss of sovereignty.