Rights vs. Security

Last week, we had been talking about the difference between classical liberalism and modern liberalism and I heard a really good podcast on the radio this weekend explaining the importance of using these terms correctly, it doesn't take long and reviewed a lot of main ideas we have covered in our class so far. To listen, click on the link below:

"The USA was founded in the name of democracy, equality and individual freedom, but is failing to deliver the fundamental promise of protecting rights for all."

It is our human nature to want to feel safe and secure. It is only when you feel safe and secure that you can live your life in freedom. However, in a liberal society, that values rights and freedoms, creating that feeling of security can be a little tricky. The government must make a difficult decision about whether or not to limit rights and freedoms of individuals in the hopes of preserving the democracy long term. The issue with this is whether or not those rights will be reinstated. It is also ironic that the government that is sworn to uphold rights of individuals compromises one of its core values to "save" the democracy. But, the danger is that if the government doesn't take this action, you risk the democracy being taken over by an outside threat and disappearing altogether. So which is the worse threat?

When a democracy actively limits your rights, or any other aspect of liberalism, then it is acting ILLIBERALLY. This is what we will be looking at this week: should our rights and freedoms ever be limited to keep our democracy safe? Are there some situations that are more feasible than others? There are no easy answers to these questions. But it is up to you to decide what role you really think our government should take to reach these goals.

If you haven't watched the 9/11, Patriot Act or Omar Khadr videos from last week, please make sure that you watch them at some point this week.

What are we doing this week?

Monday: 

• Finish going through Collective Rights
• Be sure to bring the booklet of questions/articles that I handed out to you on Friday morning (had the human rights questions on the first page). You will need these for the class

Tuesday: 

• What are illiberal democracies?
• Read the article about illiberalism in the world (Google Classroom)

This video is an example of the issue of illiberal actions in the name of the greater good

• Go through the notes on illiberal actions
• Censorship
• Hate Crimes
• Is this justifiable?

Wednesday: 

• Go through Canada's illiberal past
• The War Measures Act - YOU NEED YOUR TEXTBOOKS FOR THIS CLASS. You can click on the link for the War Measures Act as well for more information

• Compare the WMA to the US Patriot Act

Thursday: 

• Rant by Katelyn 
• Finish WMA and Patriot Act
• Individual Case Studies - YOU WILL NEED YOUR LAPTOP OR DEVICE FOR CLASS FOR SURE TODAY

Friday: 

• Look at dissent 

dis·sent

dəˈsent/

verb

1. 1.

   hold or express opinions that are at variance with those previously, commonly, or officially expressed.

   "two members dissented from the majority"

noun

1. 1.

   the expression or holding of opinions at variance with those previously, commonly, or officially held.

   "there was no dissent from this view"

   synonyms:

   disagreement, difference of opinion, argument, dispute; More

• Assignment: Justification of Illiberalism Spectrum

Do we need rights all the time in a democracy?

Last week in class, we analyzed what some of the drawbacks were to a democracy. A large setback to having an efficient democracy is to have EDUCATED citizens. One of the things that John Locke really focused on was the accountability of your government. If people are not active participants who are informed and engaged in the democratic process, it becomes extremely easy for the government to do things that are not always what the people want; hence, they are not accountable. 

This video highlights the issues that occurred in Ukraine 2 years ago that led to protests for months in Kiev

When people think of democracy, the cornerstones that most frequently come to mind are voting and rights and freedoms. We've looked at voting. Now, we will be looking at rights and freedoms. This brings us (sort of) back to Mill's ideas of balancing rights and freedoms for the good of society. Democracies limit individual freedoms in the name of the greater good. But WHAT IF that limitation is unjustifiable? Is preserving that democracy in a time of crisis more important than preserving the ideals of that society? What if you are in a time of crisis? Does that change anything? 

Look at 9/11:

The US has legislation that was passed after 9/11, following the terrorist attacks, that allowed the government to have increased power of surveillance and gave authorities more power to determine if Americans or others were threats to the security of the nation. To preserve the democracy, rights need to be limited, which makes sense. If you can't protect the very institution that will preserve your rights and freedoms, then you risk losing it. But is that right? Or is there limitation?

This week will start with looking what our rights actually are in a democracy to better understand what can be limited and taken away. Remember what we were talking about at the end of last week (and will be finishing on Monday) - are there times when our government maybe knows a better course of action that we are not aware of? Or are our rights and freedoms something that should never be toyed with? Who knows best?

SO how will we look at that this week?

Monday: 

• Finishing last week's Notes - the balance between public opinion and practicality
• If you didn't watch at least one of the videos last week about public opinion, it would be good to watch at least one of them
• Discussion: Revisiting Churchill's quote from day 1 of this lesson - was he right?

Tuesday: 

• Rights
• Individual Rights
• Universal declaration of Human Rights

• Should there be limitations in Canada?
• Discussion Question: Should human rights trump a country's sovereignty to run itself the way it wants to? Should democracies take a stand against countries that have a poor human rights record?

Wednesday:

• Collective Rights
• History behind them - Imposition of Liberalism 
• Do we still need them?
• Are they unfair?

• Are collective rights against the ideas of democracy?

Thursday: 

• Rants by Joule and Jessica 
• Safety and security vs. Rights and freedoms - which is more important?
• A look at the life of Omar Khadr

• Look at our legislation - what can our government do?
• Look at Bill C-51 and where it came from
• Start watching video on Patriot Act rights restrictions

Friday

• Finish watching the video
• Practice Paragraph #6
• This is the LAST practice that you will be doing before your "mini diploma"
• Social 30-1 - You will be doing another argument/evidence paragraph. You will be given a source, as for Assignment II, and you will need to develop a thesis and write ONE paragraph that contains ONE argument with sufficient evidence to back it up
• Social 30-2 - You will be writing the defense of position for Assignment 3 - you will be giv ing your own answer the question in the assignment, backing up that answer with reasons/arguments and sufficient evidence, both from the sources provided but also from class as well.

Finishing the Failings of Democracy and Starting to Look at Rights and Freedoms

Last week, we started to analyze the downfalls of democracy. One of the first things that we looked at is the idea of VOTER APATHY, a danger that Montesquieu warned against in his theories - there is nothing worse than a democracy where voters are apathetic; you might as well have a dictatorship. The issues that voter apathy brings up is that while it is your right to vote, is it truly a representative government if almost half of the population chooses not to vote? As well as not being representative, when you are given the freedom to vote and you choose not to, you are letting somebody else make decision for you - is that really democracy? Another issue we talked about in class was the fact that many people are disengaged from the whole process because of not really knowing anything about the elections or a feeling that their voice doesn't matter. This then becomes an issue for democracies to tackle - how do you change this mindset, as it is dangerous to the foundations of a democracy?

We looked at two possible solutions. The first was mandatory voting, which the majority of the class saw as an even worse problem in a democracy than not voting. Most of you believed that this would lead to an even more skewed democracy because people would be making uninformed choices. Furthermore, if the very premise of a democracy is choice and freedom, then it is counter intuitive to force people to vote. The second solution that we started looking at was the idea of an Elite Democracy. In this solution, only a certain part of the population would be allowed to vote. This could become something along getting a "license" to vote - only those who know what is going on and understand the system are allowed to exercise their right to vote. In countries where voting rates are 60% lower, is this an issue or not? Do you want the uninformed to make decisions that affect your life just because they have the right to, but don't care about the impact of their decisions? However, limiting rights that are constitutionally protected also goes against the values of liberalism. How do you take away the right that everybody associates with democracy? Click on the link below to see some of the basics of what an elite democracy can lead to.

This week, will finish looking at the Elite Theory of Democracy and then finish up with the downfalls of democracies. We will have a recap of the pros and cons of democracies and then, if we get a chance, we will start looking at rights and freedoms and how and if they should be limited.

What's the Week Looking Like?

Tuesday:

• Finish going through slides on Elite Theory of Democracy
• Political cartoon interpretation 2
• Self-Assessments of last two paragraphs - they were returned Monday morning if they were submitted on Google Classroom

Wednesday:

• Influence of Lobby Groups and Special Interest Groups

Start watching around the 3 minute mark for interest groups specifically

• Canada's Top 10 Lobbying Groups (as of 2012)

Thursday:

• Rants by  Kayla and Nolan
• Public Opinion vs. Practicality
• Who is more qualified to make the decision for the country if it is a democracy?

Friday:

• Consensus Building and the influence of public opinion
• Questions from textbook (2 questions)
• In-class writing assignment for second 40 minutes - you will need a device or do a paper copy
• 30-1 - You will be writing the relationship paragraph from Assignment 1
• 30-2 - You will be writing the opinion part from Assignment 2
• There will only be 2 more weeks of rough draft paragraphs before you will complete a writing assignment for marks - your fake "mini" diploma