States: Strong-Weak-Failed-Collapsed

What makes a state is the ability to provide security to it's people - security in the form of basic safety, basic services and the ability to prosper.  But there is much more to a state's responsibilities and each state around the globe can be ranked at a different level of strength.  What factors cause a state to be considered weak or failed and waht does a collapsed state look like?  These are a few of the questions we are considering during our unit 1 study in comparative politics. 

http://www.economist.com/node/18396240

http://www.cfr.org/africa/failed-states-world-terror/p4733#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xON22c7pZ6c

Power of the State

Your assignment:

• Go to http://www.cnn.com/
• Find one story of your choice
• Read it
• Determine which country is the focus of the story
• Analyze this country in the following terms:
• What type of legitimacy does the leadership of this country represent?  Explain.
• Is this state considered a stong state or a weak state?  Why?
• Is the power in this state centralized or decentralized?  Why?
• What type of capacity does this state have?  Explain your answer.

These key terms are found in your textbook on pages 34-38.  Additional help can be found at www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook  

Please link the article you are using from CNN. You should post your responses on your blog (along with at least two pictures that relate to your chosen topic.)

Free Trade vs Protectionism

Your subject has been assigned.  You've begun the research.  Next week we will have our debate.  Wrap up your argument by researching real-world examples that show why your side is a better policy.  You should spend classtime today researching and finding examples in the news that help to build your argument, print them and have them ready for class on Monday.

How reliable are the GDP statistics?

After what factors go into figuring the GDP for a country your assignment was to build a table of the most recent statistics available for the GDP of five countries of your choice.  Now, read a little further in your book to determine some of the problems or difficulties encountered in determining a country's GDP.  Using the countries you chose for your table, briefly explain how the factors outlined in your book could affect the statisitcs of these countries.  Which countries are likely to have which factors affect their reporting?

Print out your findings and your table to bring with you to class on Tuesday for discussion.

Economics Article

Using the online economics magazines linked on my class blog (upper left corner), find an article relating to any aspect of ecnomics that interests you.  Read the article, understand what it is saying and write a blog entry explaining the topic, the details of the article and why you found this particular article of interest.  You should include the link to the article as well as one picture relating to the topic.

Weekly report of stock trading

Write a detailed report outlining what stocks you now hold, what they have done, why you have made any purchases or sales and what are you thinking of purchasing this week.  Explain what the market is doing and what has been the important news surrounding the price of your companies.

What drives the price of goods? Supply and demand in real life.

The video we viewed in class demonstrates the relationship between the demand and supply of goods and how these factors establish the price of goods.  While watching the video you should take notes on how you see these factors working.  Upon completion of the video, you will complete two brief blog entries detailing the examples of water and oil discussed in the video, relating them to the subjects discussed in class.
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