Chapter 7 Democracy and Human Rights: Having Our Say
NOTE: I often complain that the great difficulty/challenge of SOCY2000 is that every chapter is usually the subject of an entire sociology course, which I get to condense into 150 minutes. This chapter is a condensation of several history courses, maybe two or more core political science courses, and a philosophy course or two, as well as snippets of several typical undergraduate sociology courses (political sociology, modernization, minority groups, and social theory). For you seniors, the chapter should strike many familiar chords relating to the broad core education Auburn tries to provide. Those still working on the core courses can see some of where the core leads.
Define:
Desmond Tutu 179 lu
Truth and reconciliation (in S. Africa) 179
Nationalism 180
Nation-state 180
Pastoralism 181
Han Chinese 182
European Union 184
The euro 185
Monarchy 187
Oligarchy 189
Periclean age 188 lu
Philosopher-king 189 lu
Meritocracy 189
Natural law 189
Proletariat 191
Fascism 192
One-party system 193
Coup d'état 194
Nuremberg trials 196 lu
Truth and reconciliation commission 196-7 lu [IMPORTANT]
Civil rights 197
Amnesty International 200
Questions
1. What name does the country once called Burma prefer to use today? 176
2. What is the dominant ethnic group in China called? 182
3. T F Until about 500 to 1000 years ago, empires tended to be conglomerates of tribes and people from many cultures. 182-3
4. What pressures against unity exist today in the UK? 183
5. What problem does the text note with the "new" countries based on nationalist ideologies such as Georgia, Alabama -- oops, Armenia --, Estonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia? 183-4
6. T F The European Union has chosen to scatter power, if only symbolically, by headquartering its executive, parliamentary, and judicial branches in different countries. [Note that Luxembourg and Belgium are neighbors, and Strasbourg ain't so far away, neither.]
7. Ho Chi Minh (he of Ho Chi Minh City) inspired the Vietnamese largely through what kind of message? 185
8. What do Gamal Abdel Nasser, Simón Bolívar, and Kwame Nkrumah have in common? 185-6
9. In Zakaria's analysis, how many democracies were there in the world in 1900, if by democracy we mean a government created by elections in which every adult citizen could vote? 187 Are a majority of national governments today democratic?
10. Why did the United States not meet Zakaria's criterion for a democracy in 1900? [Figure it out.] [IMPORTANT]
11. What kind of standardized testing helped keep the ideas of Confucius in the minds of government officials in China long after his death? 188
12. The thinker who stressed loyalty to "leaders," starting with loyalty from children to their parents on up through loyalty of all to the king, and who stressed the responsibility of leaders to lead firmly but with kindness, moderation, and good judgment was
a. Hammurabi b. Aristotle c. Plato d.Confucius e. Hobbes f. Locke g. Rousseau
[Note that when Sernau (the text) says that Greek democracy died with Alexander (the Great), he probably means that Alexander killed it, not that it died when Alexander died. As for the connection between Alexander and his tutor Aristotle, all the conclusions I'm familiar with argue that Ari had very little impact on Al.]
[Note that sociologists tend to be skeptical about the idea of natural law even as we tend personally (if not professionally) to promote ideas such as Human Rights (see p. 198), which are sometimes presented in ways similar to Aristotle's natural law.]
13. When English nobles forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215, they were doing what? 190 [Conflict theory lives!]
14. What was the essence of the debate in the early days of the US between Jefferson's "democratic republicans" and Hamilton's "federalists?" 191 What does the 10th amendment have to do with this debate? (see lecture) Is this debate still on-going? [A: yes]
15. The features of fascist dictatorships highlighted by the text are …? 192
16. What governmental system did Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco share. That is, what kinds of dictators were they? 192
17. T F Hitler came to power in Germany in a democratic process. Then he turned Germany into a dictatorship. 192, 195
18. What was Winston Churchill's famous evaluation of democracy as a system of government in comparison with other systems? 193
19. When was the last time the U.S. Congress exercised its constitutional authority to declare war? 193 [IMPORTANT]
20. T F Presidential systems give more power to one individual than do parliamentary systems. 193
21. Where in the world do we tend to find parliamentary systems and where do we tend to find presidential systems? 193
22. What is the largest country governed today by a one-party system? What is the name of the party? 193
23. T F The United States, Canada, the UK (Great Britain), and France are all countries that in recent years have been dominated by two-party systems. 194
24. Which continent has had a particularly notable experience with a series of presidents who never quit? 194
25. What does the number $9,000 per capita seem to imply for democracies? 196
26. Having gone through South Africa's truth and reconciliation process, does Desmond Tutu seem to think it was something that other countries could find useful? 196-7 [Tutu was interviewed last week on npr.]
27. What two large countries does the text identify as resisting attempts to develop more encompassing international law on human rights? 197-8
28. State the gist of each of five of the first seven articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 198 IMPORTANT