Today's West Ideals/Idols PDF

THE IDEALS/IDOLS OF TODAY’S WEST NBU CIVICS ACTIVITIES ON RIGHTS  Go to personal Moodle profiles  Activity #1-2: human rights today and long ago  Think of a human right that people enjoy today, but was unthinkable in the distant past  Think of a human right that pe...

THE IDEALS/IDOLS OF TODAY’S WEST NBU CIVICS ACTIVITIES ON RIGHTS  Go to personal Moodle profiles  Activity #1-2: human rights today and long ago  Think of a human right that people enjoy today, but was unthinkable in the distant past  Think of a human right that people enjoyed in the distant past and have lost today  Recap: rights/liberties are not a given, but were gradually won/accumulated along the pace of centuries; older societies = fewer rights, more modern societies = more rights?  Activity #2: country examples  Name one country where you think human rights are generally respected  Name one country where you think human rights are generally not respected  Recap: positive examples = predominantly ‘Western’ countries? DEMOCRACY INDEX  Activities ##1-3 aim to show that there is a widespread instinctive expectation/vision that ‘today’s global West is the best’...  Popular rankings such as Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index provide an extra confirmation of this vision  Over the past two decades, this index consistently shows that the ‘global West’ (= Europe + America/Australia) generally excels other parts of the world  See animated map here THE MEANING OF EIU’S MAP: COUNTRY GROUPS (2023)  Full democracies:  Flawed democracies:  Hybrid regimes:  Authoritarian regimes:  Sources: image, data THE MEANING OF EIU’S MAP: CRITERIA  FULL DEMOCRACIES: civil liberties and fundamental political freedoms are respected; have a valid system of governmental checks and balances, an independent judiciary, governments that function adequately, and diverse and independent media; limited problems in democratic functioning.  FLAWED DEMOCRACIES: elections are fair and free and basic civil liberties are honoured but may have issues (e.g. media freedom infringement and minor suppression of political opposition and critics); have significant faults in other democratic aspects, including underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance.  HYBRID REGIMES: regular electoral frauds, preventing them from being fair and free democracies; governments apply pressure on political opposition; non-independent judiciaries, widespread corruption, harassment and pressure on media, anaemic rule of law; more underdeveloped political culture, lower levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance than flawed democracies  AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES: political pluralism is non-existent or severely limited; often absolute monarchies or dictatorships, may have some conventional institutions of democracy but with meagre significance, infringements and abuses of civil liberties are commonplace, elections (if they take place) are not fair or free (including sham elections), the media is often state-owned or controlled by groups associated with the ruling regime, the judiciary is not independent, and censorship and suppression of governmental criticism are commonplace. EIU’S VISION  In sum:  Social/political values: respect for basic rights/liberties; governmental checks/balances; independent judiciary; independent media; pluralism; etc.  Social/political ills: rights/liberties severely limited; no free elections; corruption; non-independent judiciaries; pressure on media and censorship; etc.  Henceforth – further questions:  Do we agree on and accept these values? (>>> Moodle Activity #4)  How come Europe/America grew up to be different from/excel the rest of the world with respect to these values?  This course:  Will seek and encourage students’ own/independent/personal/honest responses to the first question  Will provide food for thought regarding the second question by turning to the longer story of how Europe/America came to be very different from the rest of the world  Methodology: to accomplish the latter task, until the end of the semester we shall dive into the longer stories behind some of EIU’s core social/political values/ideals and seek to reveal their origins