Comparative Politics Blog

   In an election year, faced with the choice between two candidates that seem equally out of touch, many American citizens feel that the government is no longer capable of representing the interests of the citizens. The situation is so dire that many have decided to opt out of the vote entirely and simply let the chips fall where they may. This is, in my opinion, the worst possible attitude to have toward the democratic process, but it is far from unrelatable. Years of ineffectual governance have left the voting population feeling disillusioned with the sanctity and efficacy of the vote. However, abstaining entirely is an ineffective strategy to effect any real change. Not voting is not the protest many think it is, it simply ensures things stay the way they are. Entrenched power will stay entrenched if the opposition is too disillusioned to vote for change. The participation of citizens is vital to the functioning of any liberal democracy.   In the United States, i...

The video we watched depicts a republican politician discussing the reduction of social safety nets in the United States. The video itself operates on two distinct levels as there is the original video intercut with a reaction to that video. The main point of the reactor is a part of the video in which the conservative admits that their policies would initially cause suffering if implemented. The video wishes to highlight the hypocrisy in conservative merit-based assessment of social inequality. Certainly the conservative movement in the United States operates on a fairly confused platform. Many of their fiscal policies run contradictory to what years of economic research has disproved. Clinging to the idea that de-valuing workers in favor of the corporations that employ them will somehow lead to a rise in wages. This has been proved untrue as even those corporations given massive tax breaks, like the massive US-based fast-food chains, still by and large stick to the federal minimum wa...