Government_Ch12_info

=**Political and Economic Systems Background Information**=

**__Political Systems in Today's World__:**
Democratic style governments have fair elections, competing political parties, and individual rights. In democratic governments there are two different styles in which the executive (law enforcing body) and legislative (law making body) interact. A parliamentary system is one in which the executive and legislative functions reside in an elected assembly, the Parliament. Britain is one with an elected House of Commons and a hereditary House of Lords. The leader of the majority party in the House of Commons is the Prime Minister, officially the executive. In a parliamentary system, the executive is chosen out of the legislative body. Japan has a two house parliament called the National Diet. Members of cabinet departments in a parliamentary system preside over their respective ministries and have more power than simply being an advisor like we're use to in the U.S. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are the government or the administration.

The United States has a presidential system, which means the executive (law enforcing) and legislative (law making) functions are separate and not with the same body like the parliamentary system. Our president is separated from the Congress whereas the British Prime Minister is a member of Parliament. France also has a similar system in that their president is elected directly by the people and the French president appoints a premier who appoints a cabinet.

Democracies have been emerging in the world and have increased since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Poland had led the way when trade unions formed from their movement called Solidarity, an underground resistance movement led by Lech Walesa who was elected Poland's first president. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela helped to end Apartheid, or strict segregation of races, which was the first step towards democracy. Mexico also has a president and is more of a democracies than in its past.

Authoritarian governments also exist in the world. Examples include communist and theocratic governments. Communist governments are ones in which the government controls business and property. Theocracies are nations ruled by religious leaders, such as the Islamic clerics in the Middle East.
 * __China__: This nation lacks most civil rights yet reforms are reducing government's tight grip on the people in economics. In 1949, Mao Tse-tung and the communists defeated the nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek. Mao took control of all major industries, assigned jobs to workers, and took all farmland forcing peasants to work on collective farms supervised by the government. The CCP is the top governing body and the General Secretary is the leader. There is little toleration for disagreement in China as seen in the Tiananmen Square event in which pro-democracy protests were put down by the Chinese military in 1989 and the Falun Gong was a spiritual movement that was put down. The U.S. and China have an odd relationship as there is numerous trade between the two but China is also more supportive of Iran and Russia.
 * __Cuba__: Fidel Castro set up communism in 1959. There was a failed attempt by CIA-trained Cuban exiles to overthrow him in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The Cuban Missile Crisis hardened relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Trade embargoes still exist but some sanctions have been listed. Raul Castro (Fidel's brother) is now in charge and is maintaining the oppressive communist dictatorship.
 * __North Korea__: This nation became communist after WWII and the Korean War. Kim Jong Il was the dictator recently who oppressively controlled the people of North Korea. Today, Kim Jung Un is the leader and is maintaining North Korea's oppressive control and a closed society.
 * __Islamic Governments__: The teachings of Muhammad's messages from Allah in the Quran (Koran) is the basis for Islamic theocracies. Followers are called Muslims, or "one who submits." Islamic faith believes rulers should use Islamic tenets and Allah is inherent in politics. Two views have emerged: (1) moderates believe that religious doctrine and secular law can and should be separate and that Islam is strictly a religion and (2) militants or fundamentalists feel the nation should base legal systems on the Quran (Koran) in what is called Shari'ah law and led by religious leaders, or mullahs. They view the western culture as a threat to Islam. Iran is among the most Islamic fascist nations, which supports terror groups and wants to eliminate Israel. Today, ISIS has become the growing terror threat (***write in about ISIS on in the space on your Internet guide).

International organizations are ones that encompass more than one nation. Nongovernmental organizations are made of individuals and groups outside the scope of government such as the Red Cross. Intergovernmental organizations are composed of members of national governments, such as the United Nations and the European Union. The United Nations is an organization of the nations of the world that allows nations to settle disputes peaceful. The U.N. has three major goals - (1) world peace, (2) encourage nations to deal fairly, and cooperate to solve social and economic problems. The main headquarters of the U.N. is in New York City. The General Assembly discusses, debates, and recommends solutions for international problems. The Security Council is an executive board with 15 member nations - 5 permanent nations (U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China - the 5 winners of WWII) and 10 rotating nations. The Secretariat takes care of day-to-day U.N. functions. The World Court settles disputes over international law. Humanitarian agencies include WHO (World Health Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund). The European Union is made up of member nations in Europe. Some decisions of the EU apply to all members. The original motivation for integration was economic and a common trading market. Nations began to yield power to the EU in the Maastricht Treaty. There is a Council of the European Union and a European Parliament. Currently, economic problems in Europe is seeing a decline of the EU and its common currency, the Euro.

Global issues viewed as important by the U.N. include worldwide terrorism, nuclear weapons, human rights, and environmental issues. Terrorism is the use of violence by non-governmental groups against civilians to achieve a political goal. Most terror acts in recent years have been carried out by Muslim extremists. In the 1970s, several Middle Eastern nations saw they could fight the U.S. by providing money and supplies to terror groups, called state-sponsored terrorism. Terror network al Qaeda was led by Osama bin Laden (killed in May 2011) committed itself in the 1990s to killing Americans. Terrorism has had a major impact on American foreign policy. Nuclear proliferation refers to the spread of nuclear weapons. Major nuclear nations signed a treaty to not provide nuclear weapons to other nations. The biggest issue in this area is Iran - if they get a nuclear weapon they would be willing to either use that nuclear weapon on Israel or allow it to get in the hands of a terror network. Pakistan and India are two nuclear nations who are enemies and not too long ago had nuclear weapons pointed at each other. Human rights are basic freedoms and rights that all people should enjoy. In 1948, the U.N. adopted the Declaration on Human Rights. The U.N. has a Commission on Human Rights and the Security Council has established several interantional criminal tribunals for violations of human rights. Protecting the environment has been a cause of the U.N. as nations try to promote economic growth and at the same time be environmentally friendly. There are large global groups who want to see more of a global government as well as global redistribution of wealth and use environmentalism as a way to go about it.

**__Development of Economic Systems__:**
Capitalist economic systems have seen nations thrive more than any other economic system. Other systems either exist or have existed in history. A traditional economy is one that habit and custom dictate the rules for all economic activity. Tribal areas have this type of economic system. A command economy is one in which the government makes the economic decisions. A market economy is one in which buyers and sellers act in their own interests. In economics, the factors of production are important for an economy. The factors of production are resources necessary. One is land, which includes all natural resources such as soil, water, air, and minerals. Second is capital, which is the means of production - money, factories, and heavy machinery. Third is labor, which is the human resources a.k.a workers. Fourth are entrepreneurs who are the risk takers who organize and direct the factors of production to produce goods and/or services.

Communism is a command system in which the central government directs all economic decisions. Socialism is a command system, which government controls economic decisions, but can still have people with power. For example, Democratic Socialist nations exist in Europe such as Denmark, Sweden, and Greece in which the people vote for leaders but those leaders, or the government control the business and property. Capitalism is a free market system that has consumers and private owners making economic decisions. Capitalism is often called free enterprise having private ownership and everyone having the chance to earn wealth. There are several characteristics of capitalism such as (1) private ownership (even though the U.S. has some government regulation, which is why we're called a mixed economy), (2) individual initiative, which means anyone can have success, (3) competition, (4) freedom of choice in which buyers, sellers, and workers all have the freedom of choice, (5) profit or loss with profit being the difference between the amount of money used to operate a business and the amount taken in. The U.S. has seen more government regulation making it more of a mixed economy. Europe is much more regulated than the U.S.

Some nations are industrialized and others are developing. Developing nations are those with little or no industry and newly developing nations are ones that have had industrial growth in recent years. Economic choices are important for all nations. Some developing nations choose capitalism and others choose socialism. Some nations are democratic socialist nations in which voters choose those in power (in communism there is one party and people have no control). Modern socialist nations provide "cradle-to-grave" benefits, which have bankrupted (or coming close) the nation since it is unsustainable to be a welfare state - one that makes people overly dependent on government. Nationalization is the government selecting important industries and taking them over, which took place in Latin America. Many of these nations set up agricultural communes where the government controls the land but people can work on the land. Today, there are many economies in transition. In the former USSR (when Russia was communist), state farms were government owned and collective farms were rented to families. There was little incentive to work hard. Mikhail Gorbachev put in reforms and communism eventually collapsed. Russia has been slow to reform and is run much in the same way as the old Soviet Union. There are even many in Russia who don't want reforms (some who want to keep the old communist structure). China as been changing since the 1970s encouraging more private enterprise. China's large population has made China a location for low-cost production. The Chinese government promotes business by giving foreign businesses tax breaks and cheap land to relocate their business to China. China is changing economically toward capitalism, but not politically as the communist leadership is still in power.

In terms of the global economy investments, banking, finances, and trade are all part. With international trade, the purposes are to get goods and services. Comparative advantage is what each country can produce more efficiently than others - each country should produce goods it can make more efficiently and purchase those that other nations produce efficiently. There can be barriers to trade such as tariffs (tax on imports), embargoes (banning trade), and quotas (limits on foreign goods). There are many trade agreements in the world. The WTO - World Trade Organization - regulates international trade. NAFTA - North American Free Trade Agreement - is an agreement to not impose any tariffs between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Free trade promotes trade with other nations and can therefore help American businesses, but also governments look for ways to protect their own businesses from too much foreign competition.

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