AHS Comparative Government

Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who represented foreign investors in Russia, was arrested in November 2008 and held in prison without being charged. He died a year later, having been denied medical treatment while in prison. His former client, Bill Browder of Hermitage Capital Management, claims that Magnitsky was told that he would not receive medical care unless he confessed to baseless accusations of tax evasion and implicated Browder.

Earlier this month, the US repealed a Cold War-era law imposing trade restrictions on Russia. (Repeal of those restrictions was necessitated by Russian entry into the World Trade Organization). Part of the law signed by President Obama , however, imposes sanctions (such as denial or revocation of a visa authorizing entry into the US) on Russian citizens involved in Magnitsky's death. The Russian government has retaliated for the "Magnitsky Act" by adopting a law prohibiting American citizens from adopting Russian orphans. (The practical effect of this law is tragic, since it leaves dozens of Russian orphans without parents; Americans are relatively unique in their willingness to adopt older children, pairs of siblings and children with serious medical conditions). The new Russian law also allows the Russian government to close Russian NGOs that receive funds from the US if their activities are "political." (Under restrictions adopted earlier this year, any Russian NGO that receives funds from outside the country is subject to increased tax scrutiny and must identify itself as a "foreign agent" in public forums). Russian civil society leaders are concerned that the new measure will effectively permit the Kremlin to shut down any NGO critical of the Putin regime:

http://www.sfgate.com/world/article/Russia-law-bans-adoptions-by-Americans-4153290.php

The Chinese government has long sought to control internet use in China. The Chinese government cut off access to Facebook in 2009 following unrest in Xinjiang; the Chinese government cut off access to Google when Google stopped censoring its search results. (Google stopped censoring its Chinese search results after the gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents were hacked by "unknown" hackers operating from China). The Chinese government is believed to employ more than 50,000 people to censor the country's internet.

Yesterday, the Chinese government announced strict new regulations on internet use in China. Internet users, for example, must now give their true names to internet service providers and cellphone companies that provide mobile internet service. The Chinese government, moreover, is taking aggressive measures to block the virtual private networks (VPNs) used by Chinese citizens to evade internet censorship:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/world/asia/china-toughens-restrictions-on-internet-use.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Earlier today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, the country's health minister. Ms. Vahid-Dastjerdi, who had been in her post since 2009, was the only woman to have served as an Iranian cabinet officer since the 1979 revolution.  Ms. Vahid-Dastjerdi publicly criticized Iranian government policy last month, when she noted that Iran's scarce foreign currency earnings are being used to import luxury cars at a time when imported medicines are growing increasingly expensive and scarce:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/world/middleeast/irans-only-female-cabinet-minister-dismissed.html?_r=0

In 2009, China announced that it would build 8000 miles of high-speed rail line by 2012. In July 2011, two Chinese bullet trains collided, killing 40 passengers. This raised questions about the safety of Chinese high-speed trains. (Japan, for example, has operated a high-speed rail network for 48 years with only one passenger death). While the rail accident slowed the expansion of China's high-speed network, and led to the adoption of regulations reducing the top speed of Chinese trains, China's high-speed rail network has continued to expand: China now has more miles of high speed rail than the rest of the world combined. Yesterday, China introduced high-speed service from Beijing to Guangzhou along the world's longest high-speed rail line; the 1428 mile journey takes eight hours:

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/China-begins-longest-bullet-train-line-4147869.php#photo-3947526

In 2008, California voters approved construction of a single, 800-mile high-speed rail line. Completion of all segments of the project is currently scheduled for 2029.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has begun his sexenio by securing adoption of a law that dramatically reforms Mexican law enforcement.  The legislation "centralises responsibility for public security in a much-strengthened interior ministry" and establishes a new national paramilitary force modeled on Italy's Carabineri and Spain's Guardia Civil.  (Mexico's existing federal police will be used to investigate crime).  Peña Nieto has also taken on Mexico's powerful teachers' union, proposing legislation that would take the responsibility for hiring teachers, setting teacher pay and assessing teacher performance away from the teachers' union and place it in the Education Ministry:

"Coming Out Swinging."  The Economist.  The Economist Newspaper Ltd., 22 Dec. 2010: n.pag. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.

The proportion of Russians who say they trust President Vladimir Putin has fallen to 34% -- a drop of 10% in just eight months.  To combat this decline in his popularity, Putin has launched an anti-corruption campaign inside the Russian government; according to The Economist, Putin has also begun to justify his presidency in ideological terms:

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21568431-vladimir-putins-state-nation-address-new-ideology-political-ends

The 2011 census of England and Wales revealed that 19% of the people in the two nations were born outside the UK or are members of ethnic minority groups.  (This 19% is quite diverse, ranging from recent Polish immigrants to Britons whose great-grandparents immigrated from Jamaica).  The census showed a substantial increase in this population over 2001, when 12% of the residents of England and Wales reported that they were either born outside the UK or were members of ethnic minority groups.  The survey also found that an increasing proportion of foreign-born and ethnic minority residents of England and Wales were living in suburbs and small towns, away from the center cities where these groups have traditionally been concentrated:

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21568396-britain-becoming-more-its-capital-city-london-effect

The mother of Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was freed by her captors five days after being kidnapped from her home. The kidnappers reportedly had demanded that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala resign her position in return for her mother's release; they cited the Finance Minister's opposition to fuel subsidies as the reason for their demand. Scams linked to fuel subsidy payments have cost the Nigerian government billions of dollars:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20762630

Russian opposition leaders braved frigid temperatures and certain arrest yesterday to stage an unauthorized protest outside FSB headquarters in Moscow.  They face huge fines and lengthy prison terms.  Then again, many of the opposition figures are already the subjects of politically-motivated criminal investigations; they may have concluded that they had little to lose by being arrested for organizing an unsanctioned protest:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/world/europe/russia-moscow-protests.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has appointed a cabinet that includes members from the conservative Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) and the left-wing Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), as well as from his own centrist Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).  Peña Nieto has also announced a number of significant policy initiatives that are supported in principle by the leaders of the PAN and the PRD.  It remains to be seen whether Peña Nieto can develop detailed legislation in these policy areas that enjoys tripartisan support:

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21567941-new-president-believes-he-has-broad-political-agreement-change-his-country

According to Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, corruption among Party and government officials jeopardizes the Party's monopoly on political power; Party leaders, therefore, are considering a variety of ways of addressing corruption among public officials.  (They might start by asking Xi how his family came to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars).  One common proposal is to require Chinese officials to disclose their assets publicly.  Meanwhile, the country's microbloggers are proving increasingly effective at identifying and vexing corrupt public officials:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21567947-party-officials-are-urged-come-clean-about-their-wealth-life-and-death-struggle

The mother of Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been kidnapped from her home in the country's Delta State:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20660791

The structure of the Chinese political system is extraordinarily complex, and it is often difficult for Western scholars and government officials to determine who has authority over whom. For example, the foreign minister, defense minister and finance minister -- powerful positions in most political systems -- are not members of the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Chinese Communist Party, the 25 men and women who establish the policies carried out by the Chinese government. China's State Council (cabinet) cannot issue orders to the People's Liberation Army, China's armed forces. The leaders of some large state-owned enterprises outrank the CCP and government officials in the places where the enterprises operate, effectively exempting those enterprises from supervision by provincial and local officials:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21567427-who-really-holds-power-china-vertical-meets-horizontal

The complexity of the Chinese political system, and the bargaining among CCP and government officials at all levels of government required to develop and implement public policy, has been described by some scholars as "fragmented authoritarianism."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, faced with a decline in his popularity, is pursuing corruption cases against several senior government officials. Putin's aura of invincibility, however, is wearing thin: he is rumored to be suffering health problems, and the pace of Kremlin policy-making appears to have slowed down. According to The Economist, some of Putin's recent statements are so odd that they suggest that he may be isolated from what is actually happening in Russia:

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21567384-vladimir-putin-has-initiated-some-high-profile-battles-against-corruption-many-he-seems

Enrique Peña Nieto was sworn in yesterday as the president of Mexico. Peña Nieto's inauguration marks the return to power of Mexico's Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), which dominated Mexican politics for most of the 20th century. The PRI is the biggest party in both houses of Mexico's Congress (though it does not have a majority in either house), in addition to controlling Los Pinos (the official residence of the Mexican president).

Last week, The Economist marked Mexico's political transition with a 14-page special report on Mexico.  Several of the articles in the report are essential reading for anyone interested in the future of Mexico.

One article examines the Mexican economy. Mexico has fully recovered from the recession that followed the global financial meltdown of 2008. The manufacturing sector is booming; increased wages in Asia and increased trans-Pacific transportation costs have encouraged businesses that produce goods for the US market to move from Asia to Mexico. Mexico has also diversified its export markets: Mexico has free trade agreements with 44 countries. By 2020, Mexico will likely be one of the world's 10 largest economies:

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21566782-cheaper-china-and-credit-and-oil-about-start-flowing-mexico-becoming

Mexican demography is the subject of an excellent article in the special report. Mexico's birthrate has fallen dramatically over the past fifty years; by the end of the decade, Mexico's birthrate will be lower than that of the United States. This means that Mexico's dependency ratio (the ratio of Mexicans too young or too old to work to Mexicans of working age) will be unusually low; The Economist argues, however, that Mexico risks squandering this "demographic dividend" if it does not improve its schools. Moreover, in twenty years, Mexico will face the same problem that now confronts the United States, Europe, Japan and China: an increase in the dependency ratio resulting from a rapidly aging population:

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21566775-mexicos-demographic-dividend-will-be-short-lived-gain-pain

The aging of the population will increase demands on the Mexican government for health and pension services. Fortunately, Mexico's recent economic growth has allowed the Mexican government to establish more comprehensive social services. Mexico, for example, has created a health care system that covers 95% of the population -- an accomplishment that has eluded the United States, a much wealthier country that spends a much greater share of its GDP on health care. While the quality of Mexican health care is uneven -- health care is much better in urban areas than in rural ones -- Mexicans are much healthier as a result of low-cost universal health care. Moreover, the number of people forced into bankruptcy or poverty by health care costs has fallen dramatically:

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21566780-falling-ill-no-longer-economic-disaster-stretching-safety-net

A final article examines state and local government in Mexico. One reason for the mediocrity of state and local government in Mexico, according to The Economist, is that state and local officials may not run for re-election. This tends to make state and local officials more responsive to their party leaders (who often decide whether officials are nominated for higher office) than to the voters who elected them to their current positions:

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21566772-unreformed-government-could-hinder-mexicos-march-forward-31-banana-republics