Conference Day Knowledge Drop

Thanks, as George W. Bush would say, "the internets," and the Youdia of AP government blog sites, here are a few posts that caught my eye:

No Jedi's too? (From APgov.org)

The British Humanist Association is selling these ads that appeared on London's double-decker busses (click to embiggen).

Would this ad create wide-spread outrage in the UK, the US?

I wonder what it says on the Knight Bus?

 

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(From Teaching Comparative blog)

Unofficial religion in Russia

This topic is probably peripheral to the main themes of Comparative Government and Politics, but if your students are especially interested in Russia, Russian religion, or Russian history, this might be intriguing. The video is 25 minutes long and reminds me of reports on the CBS program "60 Minutes."

Orthodox corruption?

Less than three decades ago, it would have been unthinkable for a Russian premier to have exchanged public expressions of solidarity and goodwill with the head of the country's Orthodox Church.

For years under communism the institution had been suppressed, its priests harassed by the authorities, its churches closed or given over to communal secular pursuits, its devotees scorned for their 'superstitious' adherence to doctrines that the state and the party regarded with deep suspicion.

Indeed, the Soviet Union was the first nation to have elimination of religion as an ideological objective and tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of people paid very dearly for their beliefs as a consequence.

But things have changed...

From its foundation in the 10th century when the Orthodox Church broke from Roman Catholicism, its power and influence grew until it became central to the nation's very identity, synonymous with Holy Mother Russia. Now, its champions will tell you, after the barren wilderness years of Soviet hostility, the Church is merely reclaiming that rightful pre-eminence...

But there is more to this closeness than just mutual admiration. Physical signs of the Orthodox Church's resurgence can be found all over Moscow where a massive state-funded programme, worth billions of roubles, to restore hundreds of Orthodox churches is currently underway.

Though the initiative is undoubtedly returning some of the Russian capital's ancient architectural wonders to their full glittering glory, it has caused some to wonder whether the Church should be choosing its friends more wisely.

Some even talk darkly about corruption, about the less-than-transparent way publicly funded reconstruction projects have been contracted out, about the oddly commercial relationships of certain Church institutions and the controversial use of taxpayers' money for church related projects in what is still officially a secular country.

Orthodox Corruption? A film by Simon Ostrovsky and Veronika Dorman

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What's a Putin to do?

This analysis of Russian politics comes from Nick Hayes, a professor of history (especially Russian) who holds the university chair in critical thinking at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minn.

Putin’s cruel politics behind the ban on Russian adoptions

Despite Vladimir Putin’s victory in the presidential election last year, long-promised and delayed reforms of education, social welfare, health care, infrastructure investment and taxation have gone nowhere. Meanwhile, the Russian parliament is working on legislation that would ban blasphemy, the use of foreign words and phrases in the Russian language, and “homosexual propaganda” from the press.

It is the season of non-issues in Russian politics…

[Putin's] decision to embrace the ban on U.S. adoptions underscores his political vulnerability. Ever since his announcement in fall 2011 that he would run for a third presidential term and basically dump the erstwhile President Dmitry Medvedev and his liberal entourage, Putin has turned to the hard-line Russian right for his base of support…

The controversy over adoption plays out in the nationalist angst in Russia over its demographic decline. Life expectancy rates remain at Third World levels. Russia reached below-zero birth rates decades ago…

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The Pew Research Global Attitudes Project recently asked people in seven countries about their governmental preferences. The results might mean that Russian political values (and political culture) are changing. Compare these results with what your textbook has to say on the topic.

Democracy

Should we rely on a democratic form of government or a leader with a strong hand?

Which is more important, a good democracy or a strong economy?

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Trying to keep track of the methods by which Russian legislators are elected is as difficult as keeping track of how regional administrators are selected. In the early years of the Russian Federation, half of the Duma was elected proportionally and half from single-member districts. Then in 2003, the system was changed so that all members of the Duma were elected proportionally. Now, it seems, that for the next elections at the end of 2016, the original system of half proportional and half single-member districts will be used.

For those of us in the USA, these changes are baffling. After all, the last major change in elections was 1914, when U.S. Senators had to face voters directly. That change required a Constitutional amendment. For all the grousing about the Electoral College, no changes have been made. So, Russia changes its electoral system on whims or the exigencies of contemporary politics?

My questions center around "What changed?" What changed between 1999 and 2003 to make proportional elections more attractive to the ruling elite? What changed between 2003 and 2013 to make proportional elections less attractive?

Putin Orders Change in Election Rules

President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered a major change in the rules for parliamentary elections, a move that could help solidify his power and influence toward the end of his current term and insulate him from dwindling public support for United Russia, the party that nominated him and currently holds a majority in Parliament.

United Russia logo

At Mr. Putin’s direction, half of the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, would be filled using a proportional system based on votes for parties, with each party then filling its allotted seats. The other half would be filled by direct election of individual candidates, creating a potential opening for independent campaigns.

The new system, which the Central Election Commission is expected to unveil in the next several weeks, replaces a system of strict party-list voting. It would be the second major change to the parliamentary voting process in less than a decade and essentially amounts to a return to a system that had been in place through 2003…

But while the prospect of individual candidacies suggests a liberalizing of a political system often criticized as heavily tilted in favor of Mr. Putin and the governing authorities, history shows that they can actually have the opposite effect.

This is because individual candidates endorsed by the majority party tend to have a huge advantage in name recognition and resources in local races, and because candidates who run locally as independents can often be enticed to join the majority party when the new Parliament is formed, using perks offered by the presidential administration…

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(From APGov.org)

 

Meet Mr. Zhirinovsky

 

As the Russian parliament prepares to vote on a law that would restrict smoking in public places, the leader of the country's Liberal Democratic Party has called for additional regulations on excessive eating and sexual activity.

According to the The Moscow News, Zhirinovsky proposed the radical restrictions in a live interview with Business FM Radio. "We need a different formula," he said. "Smoking is to be banned everywhere but in your own car if you close all the windows and stay there alone as well as in your own apartment if there is nobody else there. Shut all the windows and get yourself poisoned."
"We need eating restrictions. Our people are overfed and too fat. Sex should also be restricted to one time per quarter through issuing licenses, quotas or coupons," Zhirinovsky added. "People have too much sex, they eat, smoke and drink too much and die 20 years earlier. Everywhere – in Europe, America or Japan - they live longer. Why should we perish?"

The anti-smoking law bans smoking in public places such as restaurants, schools, government buildings, stadiums, railway and bus stations and hospitals. Russia's lower house of Parliament approved the bill Tuesday and the upper house is expected to pass it within the next week.
Before Tuesday's vote, Zhirinovsky threatened to expel all smokers from the Liberal Democratic Party. "In the Liberal Democratic Party, no one smokes, and those who do — we'll throw them out," he said. "And nobody drinks alcohol and there's no sort of debauchery,"

 

Note: Russia's Liberal Democrat party is NOT similar to Britain's.
While Britain's a centrist party, Russia's Liberal Democrats are an ultranationalist and far-right.