What IS a Democracy?

We have all grown up being part of a well established democracy and everybody in our classroom doesn't know a Canada where the Charter of Rights and Freedoms didn't exist. Since we have all grown up with having individual rights and freedoms protected for all people, sometimes it is hard for us to remember or think that hasn't always been the case in Canada. And, I hear it every year, how boring it is to learn about Canada, its history and the government. BUT despite having learned a lot about our country for 12 years of education, it is surprising the number of people who know very little about our political system and how it works. If they did know more, you wouldn't have people saying that it's okay for Kevin O'Leary to run for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada because "it's not like he's running for Prime Minister." I don't want you to be that person and that's why this second half of the course is so important. 

Let's rewind a little bit to philosophers from the beginning of the semester. One of the most important things that Montesquieu said was that for a democracy to truly function, the people need to participate and be active citizens; having an apathetic democracy is worse than having a dictatorship. So all that information that you learned about Canada is culminating in this year: you've learned about your country for the past 11 years so that you can be a proud, educated and active participant in it. And if you didn't learn things from then, it's even more important to learn them now 😁. 

But we are going to start with baby steps and make sure that we all understand the foundations of democracy. This should take about a week or two to get through the information. Here is a quick introduction:

So what will we be doing this week?

Monday: 

• Review: What do you know about Canada's democratic system?
• Key factors of democracy - you will need scissors and glue for this part of the class

Tuesday: 

• Notes: What does political liberalism mean and what are its values?
• Implementation of political liberalism: The French and American Revolution

French Revolution Video and impact of the Enlightenment

American Revolution Video and impact of the Enlightenment

Wednesday: 

• Article and Focused Reading: Democracy and Liberal Values
• Democracy - What is it and what are the different types?
• Electoral Systems: What's Your Vote Worth??

Thursday: 

• Rants by  McKinley and  Joey 
• Practice Writing:
• 30-1: Practice Writing Assignment 2 - work on thesis and writing an argument/evidence paragraph
• 30-2: Practice Writing Assignment 3 - work on either analyzing the issue/interpreting perspectives OR write your defense paragraph
• REMEMBER: YOU WILL BE DOING ESSAYS FOR MARKS NEXT WEEK, ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY!!!!

Friday: 

• Economics Exam - strictly Multiple Choice. Please don't wait until Thursday to study

The Evolution of Modern Economic Liberalism

Before spring break, we looked at both the pros and cons of capitalism and communism. But, like I said in class, there is no country that has used either one of these ideologies exactly the way in which the theory  said it should be used and the circumstances that it should be used in. Because of that, most economic systems and ideologies are actually a mixture (hence the term mixed economies) of aspects of capitalism and communism. A more right-wing economic system will have more aspects of capitalism - lower taxes, less government services, mostly if not all private property and a greater focus on self-reliance while following a free market. A more left-wing economic system will have more aspects that lead towards communism - higher taxes that are used to provide greater government services to give people a social safety net, public ownership of major industries and corporations, a focus on cooperation to ensure economic equality. As significant events happen in the economy affecting production of goods and service, as well as job security, governments make decisions on what is the course of action to take to solve the problem. Often, the decisions will be a departure from the current economic philosophy to something different only to find the shift back to the original view years later. The point is, as the economy changes, so do economic philosophies; this is why we call it the evolution of modern economic thought :)

One of the first steps in this evolution was the implementation of Welfare Capitalism and the Square Deal. This week, we will look at several other huge economic events and how they helped our economic theories evolve in North America.

So what will we be learning this week?

Monday:

• Shift from Welfare Capitalism to the Welfare State

How it started: The Roaring Twenties

• Notes: The Great Depression in the US

Tuesday: 

• Keynesian Economics - New Economic Theory

• Implementation of Keynesian Economics: FDR's New Deal

The New Deal

Wednesday:

• Expansion of Modern Liberalism - Social Awareness
• As economic liberalism evolved, so did people's desire to help those less fortunate than them
• This evolution spread into society in the hopes of protecting as many rights as possible
• Practice interpreting sources

Thursday: 

• Rants by Cheyenne and McKinley
• Practice writing paragraphs
• 30-1 - Assignment I - You choose to write 2 paragraphs. You can either write to interpretation paragraphs OR an interpretation and relationship paragraph
• 30-2 - Assignment I - One paragraph explaining one of the characteristics for the topic

Friday: 

• Changes that occurred after the Great Depression - Notes

• Canada's Economic System

• Social Programs
• Progressive Taxation

What's wrong with the Left?

Last week, we looked at the downfalls of capitalism and also started to look at the opposite of capitalism: Communism. To start with, we looked at the less extreme version of that, which was democratic socialism. The case study that we looked at to show these values were of Robert Owen and New Lanark in Scotland, which was generally seen as a successful social experiment.

Some of the main ideas incorporate that people are looking out for one another and, in general, are helping the group achieve success and prosperity, as opposed to being individually responsible for that. We will finish up with our discussion of the pros of communism but also look to criticize the idea as well. As with any ideology, there are both good and bad parts of the idea, and like we discussed last week, a large part of that comes with how people interpret those different ideas and how much they actually stick to it.

So what will we cover this week?

Monday: 

• Finish the notes on the pros of communism

Click to see the history behind the development of the board game monopoly

• Practice interpreting sources

Tuesday: 

• Start with the cons of communism
• Case Study: the first communist nation - the USSR
• To go through the cons, we will be doing a quick history of how and why communism was implemented in Russia (which then became the USSR) and how the system actually was run
• History of Communism - Link to history of how communism developed

Wednesday:

• The Cons of Communism - Life in the USSR
• Jigsaw with the case studies
• Discussion: Why were there so many inefficiencies?
• Generalizations - what happens when capitalism is not so great? What happens when communism is not so great?

Thursday: 

• Rants by Tiffany and Danny
• Practice Writing Paragraphs
• 30-1 - adding evidence to last week's paragraphs
• 30-2 - writing your opinion in Assignment 3

Friday: 

• Maybe another pop quiz??
• How the theories of capitalism and communism/socialism were implemented in history
• Stage 1: Fixing the problems of the Industrial Revolution
• Classical Conservatism

• Societal Changes - the government gets involved

Capitalism vs Communism - The Age Old Debate for What's Better

Last week, we started analyzing capitalism and were looking at the benefits of it, mostly through looking at the positive outcomes of the Industrial Revolution. Click on the factory to see a generalized description of the Industrial Revolution and its positive and negative impacts.







Here is a quick re-cap of those positives:

This week, we will be analyzing the negatives of capitalism. There is no way that any idea will not have the good and bad parts to it. Remember, ideologies are the ideal society and it is humans that interpret how to use these ideologies. It is through this interpretation and implementation by individuals that you see the good and bad of an ideology emerge. So, while the Industrial Revolution had some really good things come about because of it, there were also some major downfalls as well.

Here is what our week will look like - the first FULL week of the semester 

Monday

• Finish the notes from last week about the downfalls of capitalism

• Pick case studies for research: Capitalists - Good or Bad??
• You will need to have a device, tablet or laptop today AND tomorrow

Tuesday

• Finish case studies and post them - Half the class
• Start on the positives of Communism - yes, there are positives to the IDEA of communism

The Positives of Communism

• Notes and case studies

Wednesday

• Assignment for first half the class: Case Studies of Capitalism worksheet. Due on FRIDAY
• Finish with the positives of communism notes and case studies

Thursday

• Rants by Ryan Shapka and Tiffany
• Practice Writing Paragraphs due on Saturday:
• Social 30-1: The Arguments for Assignment 2
• Social 30-2: Assignment 3 - analyzing the issue and the individuals

Friday

• The drawbacks of communism - Notes and examples
• Case Study: inefficiencies of the Soviet Union

Capitalism - The Good and the Ugly

This week, we will start looking at the pros and cons of capitalism. To start with, we will look at the ideology and what it means. Key things to think of when you hear capitalism:

• Adam Smith
• Free market
• Invisible Hand
• Laissez-Faire
• Profit Motive

To begin with, we will look at how capitalism was first implemented in the Industrial Revolution and then the good and bad effects of it. Then, we will look at the opposite of capitalism, which is communism. 

DON'T FORGET YOUR PROJECT IS DUE THIS THURSDAY!!!! If you are gone to Texas, I need it BEFORE you leave!

What will the week look like?

Monday: 

• Ideology of capitalism

• Implementation of Capitalism: Industrial Revolution (click on the link to get more info on the Industrial Revolution cause and effects)
• Notes and Discussion

Tuesday: 

• Cons of Capitalism - what are the downfalls?

• Notes and Discussion
• Individual Case Studies
• Every person in class will be assigned two capitalists to research and post a short biography online about them
• If you have a laptop/iPad bring it as it is easier to post from that than from your phones

Wednesday: 

• Finish up with case studies
• Assignment
• Categorize 3 of the case studies from the class postings into one of three cases
• This assignment will be due on MONDAY

Thursday: 

• Rant by Brody 
• Watch videos from Projects
• Practice Writing Number 4
• 30-1  - Writing Assignment #2 Analysis of the Source
• 30-2 - Writing Assignment #2 - Defense of Position

The Beginning of Economics - How Should We Make and Spend our Money??

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/41/politics/political-cartoon-thread-521036/index6.html

 This week, we are going to be starting our first full unit, which will be based on different economic systems and particularly what it means to have a "liberal" economy. There are a couple things to remember:

1. The term LIBERAL does not always mean "change." The term liberalism came about during the Enlightenment to support a change to the society at the time. Since we have adopted those liberal/changing values of the Enlightenment, we have become a society based on those principles - which is why we call current society a liberal society.  You can "be a conservative" in a liberal society, you can "be a liberal" in a liberal society. 
2. When we talk about liberal societies, we are referring to ones that support human rights, democracy and capitalism. 

After Tuesday's class, this should be a little more clear as to what the ideology of liberalism actually means. This will lead us to specifically look at what it means to have economic liberalism - an economy that is based on predominantly around capitalism. This theory, which is the predominant economic theory around the world, is not the only economic theory and we will look at different systems to analyze the pros and cons of different systems. The goal will be to finish this unit before Spring Break. 

This week will look like....

Tuesday: 

• What is Liberalism? Notes and Videos
• Notes will be in Google Classroom on Tuesday morning

• The important revolutions:

AMERICAN

FRENCH

INDUSTRIAL

• Self-Assessment and Exemplars from last week's writing

Wednesday: 

• Activity - only need your pencil cases :)

Thursday:

• Rants by Destiny and Brody 
• Next Writing Practice
• 30-1 - second part of Assignment 1 = Relationship between sources
• 30-2 - first part of Assignment 2 = interpreting sources for a specific question

Friday: 

• Basics of the Economic Systems

• Notes 
• Capitalism
• Industrial Revolution
• Outcomes of it

Last little bit of General Stuff and then ECONOMICS!!

This week, we will be looking at the last few general ideas and then starting on to economics. We don't have much to finish in regards to general information and we will not be having a test on this section - it will be worked into your other exams 💀.  This week, we will be looking at how the values of individualism are seen in Classical Liberalism  and  how individualism and collectivism are seen in Modern Liberalism. 

 As we study our first unit in economics, we will see that the ideology that works with economic liberalism is CAPITALISM - remember Adam Smith from last week? Yeah, his ideas. He's pretty important to this section.

www.mrconservative.com/2012/02/2275-anti-liberal-monopoly-cartoon/

https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=dcrn429

So what will our week look like?

Monday 

• Finish philosopher matching - 30 minutes to complete
• Generalized Spectrum - Notes

• Spectrums

• Quiz 

Tuesday

• What is liberalism? 
• Classic vs modern
• Key events that changed things
• Review of Individualism and Collectivism
• Start on Economics

Wednesday

• We are playing a game. The ONLY thing needed is your pencil case. If you want. You don't even need a pen.

Thursday

• Rants by Hannah and Destiny
• Interpretation Paragraph #2 - if we don't have time in class, it will be in Google Classroom and will be due on Saturday at midnight (or paper copy at the end of the day Thursday since there is no school on Friday)