Main Political and Economic Systems:Anarchy is when there is complete chaos and there really isn’t any form of government in place. Direct Democracy is when the people have the power and they vote for what goes on in the country. Representative Democracy is when the people vote for representatives to make the decisions. Absolute Monarchy is when a king or a queen has all of the power. Constitutional Monarchy is when the king or queen really doesn’t have very much power at all. Dictatorship is kind of like absolute monarchy. One person has all of the power. Communism theory is where the poor people would rise up and everyone would be equal. The actual practice of communism is where the government has control of everything. Socialism is kind of like a less hardcore version of communism. It’s where the governments control most of the businesses but not all of them. Capitalism is the opposite of these two. It’s where people own and run their own businesses. Most if not all countries have mixed economic systems.Difference in Political Parties:Republicans are conservative. They believe in laissez-faire, which means “let the people do as they please”. It pretty much just means that the government should stay out of people’s business. They believe in the “trickle-down” theory, which is where the taxes for the rich are lowered and it will trickle down and help out the middle class and poor people.Democrats are liberal. They believe in an active role of the government in society and they favor a change in society. Democrats want to raise taxes.Abortion: Republicans are against it. Democrats believe it should be the woman’s choice.Flag Burning: Republicans think it should be illegal. Democrats think it fits into free speech.Gun Control: Republicans think people should be able to own guns (2nd Amendment). Democrats think there should be more restrictions.Environmental Laws: Republicans think it harms the economy. Democrats are tree-huggers.Affirmative Action Laws: Republicans think that businesses can be trusted not to be racist. Democrats think they are needed.Minimum Wage: Republicans don’t think it should be raised and Democrats want it to be raised.Death Penalty: Republicans think it is necessary. Democrats are against it.Gay Rights: Republicans are against gay rights. Democrats think people should be able to choose.Prayer in School: Republicans think it’s ok. Democrats are against it, saying church and state should be separate.Health Care: Republicans favor privately owned insurance companies. Democrats want a government-run system.Taxes: Republicans want to lower taxes for everyone. Democrats want to raise taxes for the wealthy.Military: Republicans want to increase military spending and cut veteran benefits. Democrats want to cut military spending and raise veteran benefits.War in Iraq: Republicans want to finish what we started. Democrats want to focus on Afghanistan.Causes/Effects Global Warming:Causes- There is a lot of debate on what is causing global warming. Some say humans are to blame. Some say it’s all natural, and some think it’s a mixture of the two. Anyway here are some things that are causing it: pollution from factory emission, exhaust from vehicles, burning fossil fuels, cutting down trees so less carbon dioxide is being changed back into oxygen, and natural things like volcanoes erupting.Effects- Droughts, water rising because the ice caps are melting, extreme weather, arctic habitats being ruined- endangering the animals that live there, and floods.Causes and Effects of Overpopulation:Causes- Death rate is lower because of advances in medicine and a better quality of life. Birth rate is higher because women can take medicine to be more fertile. In third world countries, women are not very educated about birth control or they don’t have enough money to pay for it. Also, they really don’t have much of a choice because their husbands are pretty much in charge and they have to do what they want. They also need their children to help them with things like getting food and stuff like that.Effects- There isn’t enough resources to make up for the people that are here so a lot of people are dying of malnutrition. With more people there is a lot more waste and it pollutes the earth because we don’t have anywhere to put it.Impact of Globalization:Today people can communicate with pretty much anyone they want. The world now has a level playing field for all people. People can really do things themselves and they can educate themselves and learn things in seconds with the internet and things like that. My generation should be aware of all of this because there is going to be a lot more competition for jobs and the people from other countries are more likely to get the jobs because they are willing to work for lower wages.Recent Current Events:Iraq-We invaded Iraq because we believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We had a war with Iraq before this to try to free Kuwait from Iraqi control because Iraq had invaded Kuwait. After we did this Iraq had a few restrictions. One of them was that they had to allow for weapons inspectors to come and check to see if they had any weapons of mass destruction. After awhile Saddam didn’t allow the inspectors to come in and so we a put a deadline on when he had to let them check and her never did so we invaded. We captured Saddam and he was put to death. We never found any weapons of mass destruction. A Democratic government was formed but there are still issues because there are a lot of different religious groups that hate each other.Afghanistan-It started after the attacks on 9/11. We found out that the terrorist group Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks and the government of Afghanistan at the time (The Taliban) supported the Al-Qaeda. So we invaded Afghanistan and put the Taliban out of power and formed a Democratic government. We still haven’t found Bin Laden, who was pretty much the leader of the Al-Qaeda.Iran-We think that Iran is making nuclear weapons even though they told us they were just using the uranium rich plants for energy, but we know better. So we have to keep an eye on that. They already have two nuclear plants and we think they have another secret one. Obama wants to negotiate with them but they won’t. We are getting information that tells us that they are making nuclear weapons.Darfur-There is a war going on between the Sudanese military and a militia group made up of Arabs and the African rebel groups. There have been many people who have been displaced and they are dying of malnutrition because they don’t have anything. The UN is not considering this as genocide even though the US thinks it is. There recently has been a warrant for the arrest of the Sudan president but the government won’t hand him over because they say that the UN has no jurisdiction in Darfur.Rwanda:What happened in Rwanda was that Hutus were slaughtering the Tutsis because when the Europeans came to Rwanda they favored the Tutsis and the Hutus felt neglected. When the Europeans left the Rwandan government was run by the Hutus because they made up the majority of the population. They didn’t like the Tutsis and when their presidents plane was shot down they blamed it on the Tutsis, even though it was them who did it. So they started killing the Tutsis. About a million people died.Somalia:Somalia is a failed state. There is a lot of destruction and killing going on there because there is absolutely no government or any laws of any kind. Pirates sail the oceans around Somalia stealing from people and kidnapping.
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