Teaching Comparative Government

What has the government in Iran done to deal with protest and dissatisfaction there? Iran Is Changing, but Not in Ways Trump Thinks President Trump says his decision to leave the nuclear agreement is already having a huge impact on Iran. He is right, Iranians say, but for the wrong reasons… [A]nalysts say there has been little or no change in Iran’s regional posture. The real impact to date has been on internal politics, with a repression on the slightest hints of dissent, and the economy, after the reimposition of sanctions. “A good economic and political process was underway in Iran,” said Mirzababa Motaharinezhad, a spokesman for Mardomsalary, a moderate political group. “Unfortunately, after Trump pulled out from the deal openness ended here and a crackdown on activists resumed.”… [I]n the small alleyways of Tehran’s bazaars and the luxury car dealerships in the affluent northern parts of the city, Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement has definitely added to economi...

This is a great article that identifies cleavages and causes of conflict. Where are the conflicts happening? What are the causes? What factors limiting the government? Nigeria’s Farmers and Herders Fight a Deadly Battle for Scarce Resources Clashes between armed herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria are escalating to increasingly violent episodes as a battle for scarce resources stirs long-held tensions over religion and ethnicity… On Friday and Saturday night dozens of suspected armed herders, who are Muslim and of the Fulani ethnicity, descended from surrounding hills into several villages, opening fire, burning homes and shooting to death some people, most of them Christian and of the Berom ethnicity, as they slept. The killings immediately triggered reprisals as young people from the villages set up road blocks and killed anyone suspected of being Muslim and Fulani. One police commissioner in the area said at least five people died at checkpoints. Conflict between herders and farmers ov...

Maybe it's about the power of judges. This is an opinion piece. Look for confirmation or contradictions to these ideas. Opinion: The Tragedy That Changed Mexico Forever The disappearance of 43 college students on the night of Sept. 26, 2014, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero marked a turning point for President Enrique Peña Nieto. When he won the presidency in 2012, Mr. Peña Nieto was hailed as a modern reformer promising a more democratic and transparent government. But the disappearance of the students from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in the small city of Iguala shocked Mexico and the world, and plunged the Peña Nieto government into an ever-deepening murk of corruption and cover-ups… A ruling by a federal court on June 4 against the attorney general’s office may mark a new era of independence for Mexico’s justice system. In a unanimous 712-page opinion, the judges concluded that the government’s investigation into the attack on the students was faulty and irregula...

Nigeria has a budget (appropriations bill) for the current year. Buhari signs 2018 budget President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the 2018 appropriation bill containing the year’s federal spending details as approved by the National Assembly… Buhari signs the budget The total budget is N9.1 trillion, up from the N8.6 trillion estimates he submitted to the Assembly on November 7, 2017. The two chambers of the National Assembly passed the budget on May 16, six months after it was presented by the president… Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry. Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam. Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE . Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.

Have you heard about "free votes?" Labour has decided to give MPs a free vote on a proposed new runway at London's Heathrow airport. And "Tory MPs will be whipped to vote in favour of the new runway…" What does that mean? Labour giving MPs free vote on Heathrow runway plan Labour will not ask its MPs to vote against Heathrow expansion even though its leadership is opposed to a new runway, a senior figure has confirmed. The party is giving its MPs a free vote when the issue is decided on Monday, meaning shadow ministers will not be disciplined for supporting the move. Its transport spokesman Andy McDonald said the runway did not meet Labour's economic and environmental tests. But he said MPs had "strong" personal views and Labour had to be "pragmatic". Scores of Labour MPs are expected to back the government when Parliament votes on whether to give the go ahead for detailed planning on a third runway at the UK's largest airport. With t...

It was only 16 years ago that Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History and the Last Man , a best selling book that celebrated the "victory" of democracy. Things look different in this part of the 21st century. What accounts for the changes? After decades of triumph, democracy is losing ground The world has grown far more democratic since the second world war. In 1941 there were only a dozen democracies; by 2000 only eight states had never held a serious election. But since the financial crisis of 2007-08, democracy has regressed. Most watchdogs concur. The latest survey by Freedom House, an American think-tank, is called “Democracy in Crisis”. In 2017, for the 12th consecutive year, countries that suffered democratic setbacks outnumbered those that registered gains… According to the Democracy Index from The Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of The Economist, 89 countries regressed in 2017; only 27 improved… What these indices measure is not simply democracy (ie...

When public protests become visible to outsiders, I'd assume that we're just seeing the surface of the situation. Chinese truck drivers, activists warn of more protests over fuel, fines and cutthroat rates Thousands of truck drivers are believed to have taken part in protests in a dozen places – including Shanghai and Chongqing… Footage and photos posted online showed drivers honking horns, driving slowly, chanting slogans and holding up banners. As well as complaining about high fuel costs and random traffic fines, the drivers were protesting over changes to an Uber-like online truck logistics platform that pairs owner-drivers with freight shippers. Long-distance truck drivers have protested before but the action this time is significant for breaking through the heavy censorship of China’s media to show the impact of internet companies on Chinese workers… “We are struggling just to survive,” one driver based in Yantai, Shandong province, said, refusing to rule out similar a...

At least, Brexit is more complicated than it was in the referendum. Facing Defeat on Brexit, May Gives Ground to U.K.’s Parliament Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, on Tuesday promised greater control for Parliament over withdrawal from the European Union, after a threatened rebellion by lawmakers forced her into a new and potentially significant retreat in the country’s troubled exit from the bloc. Brexit protesters in London The day began on an ominous note with the resignation of one of Mrs. May’s ministers over her plans for withdrawal, known as Brexit, and got steadily worse for the prime minister when some of her rebel lawmakers combined with opposition parties, posing the threat of a damaging defeat. The vote concerned an amendment that had been added by the House of Lords to Mrs. May’s main Brexit legislation. The amendment would have given lawmakers more control over the process… Mrs. May had appealed to lawmakers not to support the amendment, arguing that it would weak...

Chinese leaders want people to forget about June 4. Many people in Nigeria want June 12 to be commemorated. Nigerians want June 12 general elections taught in schools Some Nigerians have called for the introduction of June 12, 1993 general election into the nation’s history curriculum for both secondary schools and tertiary institutions… The call is coming on the heels of the 20th anniversary of June 12 presidential election slated for Tuesday, which was presumed to have been won by the late business mogul, Chief Moshood Abiola. Mr Abdullahi Haruna, a Public affairs Analyst, said that in spite of the long period before the pronouncement, introducing it as part of the country`s historical study would help the youths to understand the history behind the event. He noted that the annulled presidential election and the attendant controversy must be taught in Nigerian schools to draw the needed lesson that would help the country in the future... Mrs Dorcas Joseph, a lawyer also called on ...

Some people in Mexico are serious about exposing online political manipulation. Mexico election: Concerns about election bots, trolls and fakes Political parties in Mexico are using bots and fake accounts in an attempt to influence voter behaviour and in some cases spread false stories ahead of the country's presidential elections on 1 July, according to researchers, journalists and activists… Samantha Bradshaw, a researcher with Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Project, has been tracking automated accounts, or bots, which attempt to manipulate public opinion by boosting the popularity of social media posts. But there are other tricks deployed in aid of politicians. "Troll farms"… are run by actual humans, each of which might control dozens or hundreds of accounts. And often accounts are semi-automated, pumping out messages with a mix of computer power and human know-how… In a paper published in 2017, Bradshaw along with researcher Philip Howard, conclud...

Strict laws about campaign financing don't mean much without enforcement. Mexican campaigns awash with dirty money, pre-election report finds For every peso spent by Mexican parties on campaigning and reported to electoral authorities, another 15 pesos goes unreported, according to a new study showing that the country’s political campaigns are awash in cash from dubious sources. The report, published… by the anti-graft group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, comes four week’s before the country’s presidential elections… Mexican political parties are showered with public funding and electoral laws impose strict spending limits in election campaigns. But individual campaigns regularly race past those limits while illegal money can also come from corrupt local governments, businessmen buying future concessions and contracts, and even drug cartels. Until 2000, the outcome of Mexican elections were never in doubt as the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled uninterrupt...

In political terms the events of May and June 1989 are more ancient than the Qing Dynasty. The massacre that took place in Tiananmen Square on June 4 has been hidden from or forgotten by most people, but the political elite remembers well. Should we? Portraits of persistence: the Hongkongers refusing to let memories of China’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown die Ahead of Monday’s anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters, the Post spoke to two of the few Hongkongers who witnessed the chaotic clearance operation. The pair shared how they narrowly escaped death amid the gunfire and tanks that ran across the city on the night of June 3 and early morning of June 4. Tiananmen Square, 1989 Kenneth Lam, then a student leader at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has since become a local human rights lawyer, fighting for the rights of grass-roots workers. He considers his work an extension of the spirit that drove the Tiananmen protest movement almost three decades ago. Taking a dif...

Fifty years ago, Nigeria nearly dissolved in war. Some people still wish for dissolution. Biafra shutdown cripples Nigerian cities A stay-at-home protest by Biafran separatists in Nigeria has crippled cities and towns in the south-east. Streets are empty and markets, banks and schools are closed to mark the abortive attempt in 1967 to gain independence for the region. It led to a bitter three-year civil war in which more than one million people were killed. The authorities have warned the secessionists against street protests and security forces are on patrol. South-eastern Nigeria is mainly inhabited by the ethnic Igbo community, who often complain of marginalisation - accusing successive governments of failing to develop their areas… The BBC Igbo service says there has been a total shutdown in the Igbo heartland of Enugu and Anambra states… People have been sending in photos to BBC Igbo of deserted streets, including one of the iconic Niger River Bridge in Onitsha, known as the ga...