part one

Discussion - 05 Current Events

Prompt

Every day, news is being made, reported, and reacted to by individuals, communities, societies, and countries.

News in the year 2000 was reported differently than news in 2010. And now, as we approach the second decade of the second millennium, the reporting of news by 2020 will have drastically evolved.

When it comes to politics and public policy, gone are the days of the 3 major news channels, the nightly news, or the Sunday morning talk shows.

We live in a world where current events aren’t a weekly or daily occurrence, but an hourly or minute occurrence.

Instructions

Post

Your Post should include the following elements:

1. Link to a news article or news clip.
2. A 5-sentence summary of the news article or news clip.

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.part two

SIM - 04 Country Economy

About

SIM – Country Economy is an Assignment where you unpack the term economy and compare the economies of three countries.

Estimated Time

An estimated 90 minutes is needed to complete this activity.

What is economy?

Typically, when we hear “economy” we think of jobs and the stock market. While these terms are relevant, they only scratch the surface of what economy is.

Economy are the micro-level transactions between individuals and firms, and the macro-levels activities and actions of the market and government.

The CIA World Factbook defines economy as including “the entries dealing with the size, development, and management of productive resources, i.e., land, labor, and capital.” Below is a list of 35 features that help define, measure, and explain an economy:

1. Economic overview
2. GDP real growth rate
3. Inflation rate (consumer prices)
4. Credit ratings
5. GDP (purchasing power parity) – real
6. GDP (official exchange rate)
7. GDP – per capita (PPP)
8. Gross national saving
9. GDP – composition, by sector of origin
10. GDP – composition, by end use
11. Ease of Doing Business Index scores
12. Agriculture – products
13. Industries
14. Industrial production growth rate
15. Labor force
16. Labor force – by occupation
17. Unemployment rate
18. Population below poverty line
19. Household income or consumption by percentage share
20. Budget
21. Taxes and other revenues
22. Budget surplus or deficit
23. Public debt
24. Fiscal year
25. Current account balance
26. Exports
27. Exports – partners
28. Exports – commodities
29. Imports
30. Imports – commodities
31. Imports – partners
32. Reserves of foreign exchange and gold
33. Debt – external
34. Exchange rates

Why is economy important in Comparative Politics?

Economy is important to comparative politics for at least two reasons.

First, the economy is intertwined with government and political geography. What micro-transactions occurs between individuals and firms within a country depend on its raw materials, natural resources, and baseline demand for things like water, food, and shelter. The macro-level activities of the market and government can promote or inhibit economic activities in some sectors compared to others.

For example, if a country is rich in a natural resource, say oil, then it is likely to adopt public policies that support the extraction, refinement, and distribution of oil and its derivative products, like user-end oils and fuels. Countries with an absence of this same natural resource will adopt public policies, such as strategic investments and trade agreements with oil-producing countries to ensure its economy has the fuel it needs to power its residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.

Second, the economy offers comparativists another dimension to work with. If we compared countries by just looking at government, or just looking at geography, we can learn a lot, but these dimensions have their limits. However, the economy provides another, and arguably more complex, dimension by which to compare countries. When trying to explain why some countries “succeed” and other countries “fail”, looking to the current state of both countries’ economies can help us explain these outcomes.

Instructions

Step 1: Select two countries, which are different from the prior “Government” and “Political Geography” assignments, to learn about their “economy”

• Go to One Page Summaries — The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency (cia.gov)Links to an external site.
• Select two new and different countries that you want to learn more about

Step 2: Review the One Page Summary for the United StatesLinks to an external site.

Step 3: Explain each of the following comparisons in 3 or more sentences

• Compare economy of country 1 to the United States
• Compare economy of country 2 to the United States
• Compare economy of country 1 to country 2

Step 4: Make a list of the four different countries you have compared so far

• At this point, your list should have 6 countries total: 2 from Government, 2 from Political Geography, and 2 from this Economy assignment