AHS Comparative Government

A thoughtful piece in this week's issue of The Economist examines the likely future of the UK's Liberal Democrats, and of their coalition agreement with the Conservatives:

http://www.economist.com/node/21530109

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Mexico is one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters. While the Mexican government does not interfere with the freedom of the press, Mexico's drug cartels target reporters who write articles about organized crime or that document the violence perpetrated by narco-traffickers. As a result, reporters are increasingly unwilling to write such stories, and newspapers are increasingly unwilling to run them. In September 2010, a special CPJ report stated that, "[a]s vast self-censorship takes hold, Mexico’s future as a free and democratic society is at risk." Lauría, Carlos and Mike O'Connor. "Silence or Death in Mexico's Press." Committee to Protect Journalists. 8 Sept. 2010. Web. 25 Sept. 2011. (NB: This report is linked here for your convenience but is not assigned reading).

More recently, the drug cartels have been targeting theoretically anonymous bloggers who write about Mexico's drug war:

http://www.economist.com/node/21530146

The Economist has published a fascinating (if disturbing) interactive map detailing the location and number of drug-related homicides in Mexico, the geographic areas controlled by particular drug gangs and the major trafficking routes of different drugs supplied by the cartels:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/02/daily_chart_drugs_mexico%20

Former Russian President, and current Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin announced today that he would be a candidate in the Russian presidential election to be held next March. Putin made his announcement at the annual congress of the United Russia Party -- a party that has long backed his political career. Earlier at the congress, current Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced that he had accepted United Russia's invitation to lead its list of candidates in this December's election for the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia (the Russian Parliament). In his remarks, Putin suggested that Medvedev would become Prime Minister of Russia following the parliamentary elections -- a post that Medvedev held at the end of Putin's last term as president.

Russia's constitution prohibits any person from serving more than two consecutive terms as President, but does not prohibit a person who has served two terms as president from running again after having been out of the presidency for a term. Putin, who served as Russia's president from 1999 to 2008, is thus eligible to run for two more successive terms. Russia's constitution was amended a few years ago to increase the length of the term of the presidency to six years; the change goes into effect with the inauguration of the new president next year. Putin may thus serve as many as 12 more years as Russia's president. (Putin will be 59 next month, and appears to be in excellent health; he could well be in office another dozen years).

The announcements electrified the United Russia congress but surprised no one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15045816

Mass protests have once again forced the closure of a Chinese industrial facility. Demonstrators in Zhejiang province, alarmed by evidence that a solar panel factory had dumped toxic chemicals into the local water supply, succeeded in prompting the plant's owners to shutter the facility, at least until "corrective measures" can be taken:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14968605

In 1999, the British Parliament established a parliament for Scotland, and devolved many of its powers to the new body. Among other things, the Scottish Parliament -- and the Government chosen by that Parliament -- is responsible for health, education and law enforcement in Scotland. In elections for the Scottish Parliament held in May 2011, the independence-minded Scottish National Party (SNP) won a majority of the seats; Alex Salmond, the leader of the SNP, promptly announced that he would call a referendum on Scottish independence during the four-year term of the parliament. At first, the leaders of the Scottish Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties (all of which oppose Scottish independence) were undaunted by the prospect of such a referendum: they were confident that Scottish voters would vote against independence. But the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government in Westminster is unpopular in Scotland, the Scottish Labour Party is not as popular as it once was, and the SNP Government in Edinburgh is well-liked. As a result, support for independence appears to be growing:

http://www.economist.com/node/21529066

Earlier this year, former Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji gave a speech at Tsinghua University that was remarkably critical of China's current economic policy. Now Zhu has published a collection of his speeches and letters; they are blunt in their unflattering assessment of Chinese government:

http://www.economist.com/node/21529108

Last June, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov established Right Cause, a liberal (pro-free enterprise, pro-democracy) political party, but was careful to make clear that his party would not aggressively oppose Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's continued exercise of power. At the time, observers of Russia debated whether Right Cause was another in a series of parties started by Putin supporters to gain votes for Putin (and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev) from Russians frustrated by the cronyism of United Russia, the main party supporting the prime minister and the president. (See blog post of 13 July 2011).

So long as Right Cause appeared to a means of channeling the energies of Russian liberals into support for a political party that would not challenge the regime, it enjoyed Kremlin tolerance and even support. But once Prokhorov began to take a more assertive line, the authorities took steps to ensure that Right Cause would not become a real opposition party:

http://www.economist.com/node/21529105

In an in-depth analysis published this week, The Economist argues that Russia is economically and politically stagnant; the windfall it has received over the past decade from increased oil and natural gas prices has been spent on a consumption boom and on propping-up inefficient Soviet-era enterprises, and not on the sort of investments in education, infrastructure and industry that might lead to sustainable long-term growth. The Economist also argues that well-educated Russian professionals increasingly see no future for themselves in Russia.

In recent years, The Economist's coverage of Russia has been characterized by a tendency to draw parallels between the Putin regime and the late Soviet era. In this respect, The Economist may be letting its dislike of that regime cloud its judgment; most Western observers, while critical of the authoritarianism and corruption of the Putin regime, do not think that Russia's political system is going to change significantly any time soon. Then again, practically no one foresaw the collapse of Soviet communism, or the implosion of the USSR, in 1991:

http://www.economist.com/node/21528596

The Tata Group, a multi-national conglomerate based in India, is now the UK's biggest manufacturer. Tata produces such familiar British goods as Jaguar automobiles, Land Rover vehicles and Tetley tea; it also manufactures high-strength steel and operates high-end hotels. This week, The Economist examines the significance of Tata's position at the top of British manufacturing:

http://www.economist.com/node/21528653

As many as two hundred million people have migrated from the Chinese countryside to China's cities over the past 25 years. Most of the migrants have moved illegally; moving to a Chinese city, whether from the countryside or from another city, requires hard-to-obtain official permission. While Chinese cities are economically dependent on illegal migrant labor, many do their best to encourage migrants to leave their children behind in the countryside:

http://www.economist.com/node/21528301