The Building Blocks of a Functioning Democracy

This week, we are going to look at the very building blocks of what makes up a democracy - what do you need to have to be considered a democracy. What that will include is a look at the principles of liberalism and how they affected Enlightenment thinkers, whose ideas are the cornerstone of many modern democracies. However, in North America, there were already thriving democracies in existence when European philosophers were still spreading their ideas. As such, we need to look at both aspects that affected the creating of our democracies in North America. Part of that discussion will revolve around the political ideologies that were influenced by the principles of individualism (aka: liberalism), as well as looking at Indigenous democracies and how they affected our political structure. By looking at the basics of our political beliefs it will help to determine whether the system we have in place really is the most effective or not. 

When we think of democracy, the thing that most people think about is having elections and voting. But there are many different things that make up a democracy and knowing those helps to make you a more informed and contributing member of society. Like Montesquieu said, "The Tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so  dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy."

As citizens in a democracy, we have a lot of rights and freedoms. However, there is the obligation of being a contributing member of society, but not all people know what that looks like. So this week, we will look at what our roles are in liberal society, what values come with democracy, how North American democracies were created and compare the political structures of the United States vs Canada, as we have two different types of democracies. Hopefully, we can look at electoral systems this week as well, which will make next week an opportunity to look at the downfalls of democracy.

What are we up to this week?

Monday:

• 15 minutes to finish your "title page" for characteristics of Individualism and Collectivism
• Go through the pages and the notes on Individualism and Collectivism
• Notes on creating of Liberalism
• Renaissance, Reformation and Revolution

Tuesday: 

• 20 minutes to finish the Ideologies Worksheet you started Week 1 - categorizing as Individual or Collective in nature

• Characteristics of Democracies
• Notes
• Activity that will require Glue and Scissors
• Go through the answers to the activity

Wednesday: 

• What influenced North American Democracies?

Watch this video about the formation of American Democracy

• Look at the Handout: Who is Canada Modelled After. Use the following websites to help fill in the following information in the chart. This is to be done ON YOUR OWN.
• Enlightenment Democracy
• Influence of the Enlightenment on American Democracy
• Canada's System of Government
• Iroquois Confederacy
• Influence of the Iroquois Confederacy on American Democracy
• Next use BK, ?, I to interpret the two sources attached to the handout
• Debate: Which do you think had more of an influence on North American Democracy - the Iroquois or the Enlightenment? 

Thursday: 

• Rants by Emma and Harmony 
• Article Reading activity - Why is liberalism necessary for democracy?
• You will need different colours of highlighters or pens for this
• Different Types of Democracy - All the terms you need to know (notes)

Friday: 

• YOU NEED YOUR DEVICES SO YOU CAN WRITE YOUR WEEKLY PARAGRAPH
• Electoral Systems Compared - FIRST HALF OF CLASS ONLY
• US Electoral College
• Canada First Past the Post

• Google Classroom Writing Assignment - Paragraph 3, due midnight Friday, but you really should be aiming to write one paragraph in the 40 minutes given