1. Understand the main political and economic systems of the world.
- Monarchy (Absolute and Constitutional)
Monarchy: when one person is the head of the state.
Absolute Monarchy: that person has complete and total authority over the
government & his/her people. Makes all major decisions.
Constitutional Monarchy: that person shares the power with a house of representatives or congress.
- Communism (Practice and Theory)
Practice:
-All people hold all land and factories
-Everything is shared & equal.
-No poverty & no upper class.
Theory:
1st step: Rich get richer, poor get poorer.
2nd step: Poor get angry at rich & would revolt.
*Government would then slowly disappear.*
Last step: Poor would run the country & everyone would end up being equal.
- Democracy (Direct and Representative)
Democracy: a government held by the people.
Direct Democracy: Citizens making decisions in person - everyone who wants to participate, participates.
Representatives Democracy: elected individuals represent the people. People elect someone to go on and try to get what they all agree on to happen.
- Dictatorship and Anarchy
Dictatorship: the government is ruled by an individual - no consent of the people was given. The power was taken by force in most cases.
Anarchy: there is no government to speak of - lots of disorder in the country - usually anarchy becomes because the failure of the earlier government.
- Capitalism
an economic system that is based on privately owned companies / private ownership of capital.
- Socialism
an economic & political theory that thinks the making, distributing and exchanging of an object should all be done by the community as a whole - everyone needs a part.
2. Students need to understand the differences between the major political parties in the United States.
- Republicans
- They are Conservative (more traditional - caution with change)
- More opposed to gay marriage.
- ProLife
- Want Reagan as their “center point.”
- Taxes shouldn’t be increased - wages should reflect free market.
- Higher minimum wages.
- “Individual Rights based”
- Democrats
- They are Liberal (more open to new behavior - willing to get rid of traditional)
- More open to gay marriage.
- ProChoice
- Have Obama as their “center point.”
- Want to increase taxes on wealthy.
- Favor minimum wages.
- “Community based”
3. Understand the causes and effects of global warming.
- Causes
Argument over this:
-Greenhouse gases being released by humans.
-Carbon Dioxide is the biggest one mentioned, that humans are releasing.
-Just weather patterns - mother nature doing its thing.
-Deforestation
- Effects
Some effects of global warming are:
-Worsening Droughts
-Stronger Hurricanes
-Water shortage
-Rising sea levels
-Agriculture isn’t getting what it needs
-Heat Waves
-Islands disappearing, etc.
4. Understand the causes and effects of overpopulation.
- Causes
-increased number in births.
-Decrease in the death rate, because of advance medicines.
-Increase in immigration.
-Not enough resources being avaliable.
- Effects
-Animals becoming extinct - forced to live in places they aren’t used to because humans have taken their homes over.
-More cars = more pollution.
-Resources are dwindling!
-Higher rate of unemployment.
-High crime rate.
5. Understand the impact of globalization.
- Impact
The positive “impact” is people are able to communicate, in seconds, when they can be thousands of miles away from each other. You can now communicate with anyone, anywhere. A negative “impact” is that now that we can communicate all over the world, a company can be based in one country, or state and have their employees be anywhere besides where that company is. The negative about that, is we now have to fight even harder for a job because anyone in the world can be competition to you.
7. Explain understanding of recent
current events (Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Darfur, Rwanda, Somalia, North/South Korea).
- Iraq:
Recently, Obama pulled all United States combat troops out of Iraq. There are 50,000 troops left there, assisting the Iraqi army & helping the Iraqi government, also. We invaded because we thought they had weapons of mass destruction.
- Afghanistan:
Obama sent in 17,000 more combat troops to Afghanistan (first action as prez.) to help for the fight against the Taliban and secure the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. We are also there to help stabilize the Afghan government.
- Iran:
Well, the U.S. is pretty much forced to deal with Iran too, because they have military in Iraq. We used to be really good allies with Iran until after the Iran Rev., because that is when Iran started changing. We then broke relations with them, and now we keep our eye on them, because of nuclear weapons.
- Darfur:
Darfur is in Sudan (which is Africa) Since 2003, Darfur has been in a “genocide.” Around 400,000 people have died from this conflict. Since this has started, people have fled to neighboring cities so they wouldn’t have to live in fear. The conflict started because of people in Darfur not liking the black Africans. A group called Janjaweed, went out and started killing these people, and anyone else who was in their path. They would burn down villages, rape women and kill their children and families.
- Rwanda:
The Rwanda Genocide, was like a mass murder, of about 800,000, which happened in 1994. It kind of began when Belgium was accused for favoring the Tutsi group, because they had more of the “white” look (more elegant). The Hutus then had enough and decided they were not going to put up with anymore. They set out to kill the Tutsis and the Hutus that were against the killing. The civil war lasted around 100 days!
- Somalia:
Somalia is a failed state (very weak government, pure coas in the country.) A lot of piracy (pirates) and terrorism is happening in the country...Al-Shabaab is the main terrorist group in this country you hear about. They have most of Somalia taken over. The Somalian government controls very little. Most of Somalia refuses to leave, but some have fled to neighboring countries.
- North/South Korea:
North Korea bombed South Korea November 22nd. The are “technically” in war right now anyway, because they never signed a peace treaty after they were done fighting ;). North Korea did it, because South Korea was doing something suspicious on the coast.
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