Democracy: the end of history?

• Maatschappijleer
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Term 3: the Game of Politics

v4e

Team 1: Tessa, Bouwe and Justin

Team 2: Birgit, Lorna and Julian

Team 3: Sanne, Anne and Evy

Team 4: Louise, Rani, Wessel and Romy

Team 5: Rick, Puck, Giel and Noelle

Term 3: the game of politics

v4d

Team 1: Jalmar, Jennifer, Sem and Aimée

Team 2: Chiara, Rutger, Jelmer and Kirsten

Team 3: Sanne, Emily, Carolina and Michiel

Team 4: Tom, Louise, Ivo

Team 5: Jelle, Mats, Marit

Team 6: Chris, Kim, Thomas and Tim

Come up with a creative team name (50 euros)

Come up with as many questions as possible about politics (200 euros)

Lesson objectives

• You can distinguish democratic practices from authoritarian practices in a given political system
  
• You can compare democratic systems based on how they solve the effectiveness versus participation dilemma

Has the world become 

more or less democratic during the past decade? (50 euros)

Democracy: the end of history?

Case study: 

Illiberal democracy in Hungary (200 euros)

• Go to https://goo.gl/8LrMeH

• Determine and write down 3 authoritarian practices and 3 democratic practices present in Hungarian politics

https:

The democratic dilemma 

System effectiveness versus citizen participation

Choice 1

Direct democracy or representative democracy?

Choice 2

Presidential or parliamentary system? 

Choice 3

Proportional representation or district system?

What's the difference between the political system in the US and that of the Netherlands? (100 euros)

Proportional representation electoral system

Seats in parliament are divided among the parties in proportion to the amount of votes each party received.

Current system in the Netherlands

District electoral system

= majority system, country is divided into several districts and every district gets 1 seat in parliament --> ''Winner takes it all''

In US, UK, France, etc. AND the Netherlands until 1917

The Netherlands should go back to having a district electoral system 

• Roles per team: 1 speaker, 1 devil's advocate, 1 time-keeper
• First ten minutes: skim articles in silence 
• Next 10 minutes: discuss your arguments with your team. 
• !Use the participation versus efficiency dilemma in your argumentation!
• Next 5 minutes: DEBATTLE!  One minute per team, 'In favor' starts.  
• Rest of class + teacher = jury. Winning teams get 500 euros.

Lesson objectives

• Can you distinguish democratic practices from authoritarian practices in a given political system?
  
• Can you compare democratic systems based on how they solve the effectiveness versus participation dilemma?
• Can you give two advantages and disadvantages of a district system compared to a proportional representation system?

Today: political ideologies

Lesson objectives:

• You can explain in your own words what the difference is between left-wing/socialist, right-wing/liberal, progressive, conservative, denominational, one-issue and populist parties and give examples of each.
• You can explain which political party best represents your personal views. 

Name the 13 political parties that are represented in the Second Chamber (130 euros) 

Which party represents your beliefs? 

Do the test at partijenwijzer.nl 

https:

What's the difference between a left-wing and a right-wing ideology? 

And between a progressive and conservative one?

(100 euros)

Left versus right: the socio-economic divide

Left: EQUALITY AND SOLITARITY! (main ideals behind socialism)

• Active government (redistribution)
• High taxes --> equal opportunities provided by the state

Right: FREEDOM! (main ideals behind liberalism)

• Passive government (free market)
• Low taxes --> personal responsibility and freedom

Progressive versus conservative: the moral/ethical divide

Progressive: forward-looking, change and freedom regarding ethical issues is positive and needed

• e.g. open towards gay marriage, ambitious climate regulations and abortion

Conservative: traditional values should be preserved, change is unwanted

• e.g. sceptical towards EU, refugees and legalisation of drugs
• Sometimes linked to religion: denominational parties based on Christian faith

The political compass

Single-issue parties

Populism

• More a style than an ideology (not left or right)
• Claim to be the voice of the people against the elite
• Often proposes simplistic solutions based on nationalism

Lesson objectives

• Can you explain in your own words what the difference is between left-wing/socialist, right-wing/liberal, progressive, conservative, denominational, one-issue and populist parties and give examples of each?
• Can you explain which political party best represents your personal views?

How will you divide the 1000 euros?

You cannot give everyone the same amount of money!

How are decisions taken in your family? In your friend group? In your sports club?

Representation versus representativeness

Representation = people who will act/speak for you in an official situation (e.g. elected members of parliament)

Representativeness = the degree to which those representatives accurately represent the opinions and interests of those they represent 

Name 3 reasons (€10 per reason) why the politicians in the second chamber are:

• a good representation of the Dutch population (= high level of representativeness) 
  
• not a good representation of the Dutch population

Can you come up with another way citizens can choose their representatives (besides elections) (€50)

Majority rule versus deliberative (discussion-based) decision making

 

Come up with an example that shows how majority rule ('the tyranny of the majority') can be problematic for democracy. (€50)