AHS Comparative Government

Earlier this week,

[m]ore than a dozen senators defected from Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, to join the [opposition] People’s Democratic Party. The defections may weaken the campaign of [Nigerian President] Muhammadu Buhari [of the APC] for a second term in office in next year’s ... election.

"Politics This Week." The Economist, 28 July 2018, p. 5.

In 1991, Argentina passed a law requiring each of the country's political parties to nominate a minimum fraction of female candidates. Since then, most Latin American countries have established quotas for women candidates. Although widely circumvented at first, the laws have been tightened over the years, with the result that the representation of women in legislative bodies in Latin America is quite high by international standards. In Mexico, for example, nearly half the candidates elected to Congress earlier this month were women. This week, The Economist examines the use of gender quotas for political candidates and asks whether the election of more women to legislative bodies has an effect on public policy:

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/07/26/latin-america-has-embraced-quotas-for-female-political-candidates

Earlier this week, the Russian government rescinded the accreditation of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, a private Social Science graduate school with close links to the United Kingdom's University of Manchester. The move follows the revocation last year of the accreditation of the European University at St. Petersburg, another private graduate school focused on the Social Sciences with ties to Western universities.

The loss of accreditation means, at a minimum, that students at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences will be ineligible for government-funded scholarships and exemptions from military service. But the loss could end all instruction at the School: the European University is no longer permitted to accept or educate students.

Given that both graduate programs had long met Western standards of instructional quality, the Russian government's withdrawal of accreditation of the schools is being interpreted as an effort to destroy institutions where students might hear statements of fact or analyses of events that are at odds with the official views of the Russian government:

https://apnews.com/d242f21a841d47df836754276595d3d6

Since 2013, China has been pursuing the “Belt and Road Initiative” -- a plan to increase trade between China and countries in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Europe by building a network of improved port facilities along the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and by building railroads and highways across the Eurasian land mass. To develop trade facilities in these regions, the Chinese Government (and Chinese state-owned banks) lend money to participating countries; those countries then hire Chinese companies (which mostly hire Chinese workers) to build new port, transportation and telecommunications infrastructure. The Chinese Government insists that the Initiative will benefit all of the countries involved. Critics of the Initiative, however, contend that it is a neo-imperialist ploy to gain privileged access to resources and markets in Southeast and Central Asia -- and to gain leverage over governments in those regions by lending them large sums of money.

In a marathon meeting at Chequers, the British Prime Minister’s country residence, the British Cabinet finally agreed upon a proposal it will make to the other current members of the European Union (EU) regarding Britain’s post-Brexit trade relationship with the EU. 

This summer marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Britain's National Health Service (NHS). The most popular and respected institution in the United Kingdom, the NHS was the world's first healthcare system to be available to all residents, financed by general taxation and "free at the point of delivery." The NHS, however, faces significant challenges. First, it has been chronically underfunded since the British government adopted fiscal austerity measures in 2010. Second, the British population is ageing and, therefore, has increasingly greater -- and more expensive -- medical needs. Finally, medical technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated and costly.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has promised a significant increase in the budget of the NHS. She has not yet explained how that increase will be funded:

https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/06/21/theresa-mays-lacklustre-plan-for-the-nhs

When Mao Zedong governed China, every urban neighborhood had a "neighborhood committee" that paid close attention to the activities and attitudes of neighborhood residents, and promptly informed the authorities if any resident seemed likely to cause trouble, or expressed counter-revolutionary attitudes. This system of social control largely disintegrated after 1978, as China modernized economically, and as China's cities grew dramatically with the arrival of hundreds of millions of migrants from the countryside.

In recent years, however, the Chinese government has reintroduced neighborhood-level social control in China's cities; the new system is generally known as "grid management." Grid management involves large numbers of local residents in keeping tabs on their neighbors; in one Beijing neighborhood, one in seven residents "plays some role in public-security work."

"China Wants Eyes and Ears on Every Street." The Economist, 28 June 2018, https://www.economist.com/china/2018/06/28/china-wants-eyes-and-ears-on-every-street. Accessed 20 July 2018.

The Russian government has announced plans to raise the ages at which it will pay pensions to the country's senior citizens. The retirement age for men will rise from 60 to 65 over the next ten years; the retirement age for women will rise from 55 to 63 over the next 16 years. The Russian government has also announced that the value added tax (a form of sales tax) will increase from 18% to 20%.

The proposed change in retirement ages has drawn significant opposition: millions of Russians have signed an online petition against the proposal. Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval rating, moreover, has fallen to 72%:

https://www.economist.com/europe/2018/06/30/russia-will-raise-pension-ages-that-date-back-to-stalin

Street protests broke out in Tehran in late June; demonstrators were angered by Iran's high rate of inflation. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate by Iranian standards, had hoped that the nuclear materials agreement he negotiated with the international community in 2015 would lead to improved economic conditions in the country by resulting in increased trade with and investment from other countries. (That agreement required Iran to end its enrichment of nuclear fuel and to surrender its existing stock of enriched fuel; in return, the international community relaxed many of the economic sanctions imposed on Iran for violating its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). But hardliners in the Iranian government insisted on continuing the country's ballistic missile tests, leading the Obama Administration to leave some American sanctions on Iran (not covered by the agreement) in place and, later, giving the Trump Administration an excuse to withdraw the United States from the agreement entirely. With tough American sanctions on Iran (and on banks and businesses anywhere in the world that do business in Iran) due to take effect once again, Iran is finding it difficult to make new trade agreements with other countries; few banks and businesses, moreover. are willing to invest in the country. This has precipitated a collapse in the value of Iran's currency, resulting in annual inflation rates as high as 200%:

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/06/30/irans-anaemic-economy-is-pushing-people-over-the-edge

Only weeks after another mass kidnapping of schoolgirls in northeastern Nigeria, The Economist has published an in-depth look at the Boko Harm insurgency in that region. The article examines the origins of Boko Haram and the reasons for its continued ability to carry out acts of terrorism; the article contends, among other things, that heavy-handed attempts by the Nigerian military to stamp out Boko Haram, which have entailed serious human rights abuses against local civilians, have helped the insurgents recruit new fighters. Finally, the article locates the Boko Harm insurgency within a worrying trend toward Islamist extremist violence in Africa. African jihadi insurgent groups, moreover, are being trained and supplied by Islamic State and al-Qaeda:

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/07/14/the-fight-against-islamic-state-is-moving-to-africa