AHS Comparative Government

On Friday, the Hojjat-al-Islam Hassan Rouhani was easily reelected president of Iran. Rouhani, a moderate by Iranian standards, won reelection with 57% of the vote. The Hojjat al-Islam Ebrahim Raeisi, widely viewed in Iran as the preferred candidate of Iran's supreme religious and political Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came in second with 38.5% of the vote. Turnout for the election was high, at 70%; in Tehran, which is more likely than the rest of the country to support moderate and reformist candidates, twice as many people voted in this election than voted four years ago, when Rouhani was first elected:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39987338

The Economist reported last week on the difficulties faced by the Chinese government in establishing a health care system that provides basic services to all 1.39 billion of the country's citizens:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21721948-memories-barefoot-ones-put-some-people-seeing-them-china-needs-many-more-primary-care

The Mexican government declared war on the country's drug traffickers in 2006. The homicide rate soon rose, as government forces battled traffickers, as rival gangs fought each other for turf, and as internal struggles for control broke out in gangs whose leaders had been arrested or killed. More than 80,000 Mexicans have died since 2006 in violent incidents related to organized crime.

In recent years, the killing appeared to ebb. But the murder rate has climbed this year; in the first quarter of 2017, more people were killed in Mexico than in the first quarter of 2011, the bloodiest previous year of Mexico's war against organized crime. The violence, moreover is spreading into parts of the country previously unscathed by the war. The gangs, too, are changing. They are branching out into kidnapping, extortion and crude oil theft:

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21721973-gangs-get-smaller-and-diversify-why-murder-mexico-rising-again

One casualty of Mexico's war against organized crime has been the freedom of the press. The country's gangs routinely murder journalists who cover their activities; four Mexican journalists have been murdered since January. (According to The Economist, 66 Mexican journalists have been killed since 2007). As a result, many Mexican journalists will no longer cover the country's war against organized crime; others have fled the country and sought refuge in the United States.

Here is a brief summary of developments in several of the AP Comparative Government countries:

Jehovah's Witnesses are members of a Christian denomination founded in the United States in the 19th century. Among other things, Jehovah's Witnesses are pacifists who refuse to swear allegiance to any country's government or political leader; to Jehovah's Witnesses, only God is sovereign. As a result of these beliefs, Jehovah's Witnesses have faced persecution by totalitarian and authoritarian governments: Jehovah's Witnesses were imprisoned in concentration camps and murdered by the Nazis, and were deported en masse to Siberia by Joseph Stalin.

On 20 April, the Russian Supreme Court declared the Jehovah's Witnesses an "extremist" organization and banned the sect's activities in Russia. This means that Jehovah's Witnesses face confiscation of congregational property, and fines and imprisonment if they continue to proselytize or conduct other religious activities. The Court's decision was sought by the Russian Ministry of Justice.

The Jehovah's Witnesses face increased persecution in Russia in part because the Russian Orthodox Church resents any attempt by other Christian groups to seek adherents in Russia. The Orthodox Church strongly supports the Putin regime, which in turn is eager to help the Orthodox Church retain its preeminent role in the country's religious life. The anti-nationalist teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses are a second source of trouble for the sect. The Russian government is hostile to any group in Russia that challenges the legitimacy of state authority:

https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21721395-russian-orthodox-church-does-not-competition-russia-bans-jehovahs-witnesses-just

Family planning is controversial in Northern Nigeria; many residents believe that "pills and condoms are part of a Western plot to stop Muslims from multiplying." Nonetheless, contraception is slowly gaining greater acceptance in the region. In part, this reflects increasing female literacy rates in northern Nigeria. The greater acceptance of birth control is also prompted by government campaigns that present contraception not as a means of having fewer children but as a means of better spacing them out:

"The Problems of Family Planning in Nigeria." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, Ltd., 29 April 2017, https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21721325-faith-and-tradition-favour-high-fertility-education-pulls-other-way. Accessed 1 May 2017.