Talks on Ted. Clay Shirky: How the Internet will (one day) transform government

The open-source world has learned to deal with a flood of new, oftentimes divergent, ideas using hosting services like GitHub — so why can’t governments? In this rousing talk Clay Shirky shows how democracies can take a lesson from the Internet, to be not just transparent but also to draw on the knowledge of all their citizens.He starts with a very simple example, showing a girl who became popular in the web by rating her school lunches everyday. During the talk, he goes into more complicated examples, followed by funny comments. 

The idea is that all the technological progress was made for one very reason - to achieve peace on Earth. But instead they've for tools for arguing and pointless debates. Latest invention - internet - may make debates and communication from pointless into something useful. He offers to combine this global tool with democratic ideas which could help the society. He says that law is chaotic as well as people communicating with each other, but they still can make an impact on society. He thinks that Internet may help people to see the government better 

- "There's no democracy worth the name that doesn't have a transparency move, but transparency is openness in only one direction, and being given a dashboard without a steering wheel has never been the core promise a democracy makes to its citizens."

The girl's website became well-known because of the internet and because it was politically oriented. Internet is a cheap, worldwide and pretty free tool anyone could use not only to argue, but also to help citizens improve any sphere in their life they think needs to be improved. 

Talks on Ted. Rory Stewart: Why democracy matters

 http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_stewart_how_to_rebuild_democracy

 This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxHousesofParliament 2012, an independent event. Rory Stewart — a perpetual pedestrian, a diplomat, an adventurer and an author — is the member of British Parliament for Penrith and the Border.
With his spech  Stewart sounds a call to action to rebuild democracy, starting with recognizing why democracy is important — not as a tool, but as an ideal

In his opinion, it is hard to reveal a true nature of a politician. He says it is something between a snake, a monkey and iguana. 400 years of democracy but something is going wrong. Population is disappointed. 10 years ago however the promise of democracy seemed to bee extraordinary. Jorge W. Bush said that democracy is a force. Democratic government respect it’s people and neighbors, freedom will bring peace. Democracy has a wide range of benefits- prosperity and security. However, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan has shown none of those benefits. But we should not give up on the idea of democracy. People want to participate due to their interests, they want to vote, they want democracy and he gives examples and arguments for that. So, despite a horrible statistics of democracy, despite that 84% of population thinks that politics is broken democracy is a value for which we should be fighting. But we need to understand that the point of democracy is not instrumental, it is not about the things it brings. It should not guarantee peace with neighbors. Democracy matters because it reflects an idea of equality, liberty, the dignity of individual. Democracy is a state of mind, it is an activity. And a part of this activity is honesty.  But it is also important what the people can do, not only the politicians. If people want politicians to be honest, they need to allow them to be honest. Government can flourish only with the energy and activity of the people. He wants to say that if democracy wants to be rebuilt it is necessary not just for the public to learn to trust their politicians but for the politicians to learn to trust the public.  

Coursera - How to change the world?

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD?
How can we use the things we share in common to address some of the most challenging problems facing the world? This course examines issues concerning poverty, the environment, technology, health care, gender, education and activism to helps us understand better how to initiate positive change


About the course

How to Change the World has its origins in the Social Good Summit held at the 92nd Street Y in New York. The summit brought together some of the world's most creative entrepreneurs, writers, academics and political leaders to discuss ways innovative thinking and technology can address pressing global challenges.  Beginning from talks, panels and conversations from the summit, we will add lectures, on-line discussion groups, hangouts and readings to explore the issues in politics, technology and the environment in broader academic and historical contexts. We will then discover together what actions we can take to make a difference.    

https://www.coursera.org/course/changetheworld

Syllabus 

How to Change the World examines how we can develop “social goods” and use them to create networks of progressive change. Classes will explore the meaning of “social goods” and then address the following topics: Poverty and Philanthropy; Climate Change and Sustainability; Women, Education and Social Change; Social Networks, Education and Activism. Each week will be structured along the following questions: 1. What do we know?  2. Why should we care? 3. What can we do?

At the end of the class students should have a clearer understanding of these global issues, and they should develop strategies for working with others to begin to address them. Our aim is simple and bold: to put together the facts, the energy and the actions to make a real difference in addressing some of the major problems confronting the world today.

Course Syllabus

Week 1: What are Social Goods? What is the Commons?

Week 2: Poverty and Development

Week 3: Climate Change and Sustainability

Week 4: Disease and Global Health Care

Week 5: Women, Education and Social Change

Week 6: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Political Participation and Interest Groups. Simulation Task

Environmental Group Activism Simulation

You are the head of a large, national environmental group with a long history of activism in favor of environmental causes. Now, you are eager to prove that your group can be influential and capable of producing policy. Your membership is spread across the country. Currently, there is a Republican in the White House, and the Democrats have a slim majority in both the House and Senate. The next presidential election is two years away. Your organization is in favor of environmental policy that would impose tighter pollution restrictions against polluting the nation’s rivers, lakes, and oceans. There is a general agreement for this policy within Congress, yet the president has announced his opposition to the policy. You must develop a strategy for your group in hopes of getting something passed into law. Do you choose to:

1.      Advocate a sweeping environmental bill that would impose stiff penalties on polluters and that finds support among most of your group's members.

2.      Push for a more modest bill that allows for some pollution to continue while further cleaning up the nation’s water. This bill might be attractive to the president

Group-Government Linkages TEST

Before taking the test read chapter 7 on Interest Groups from “The Challenge of Democracy”

1. 6: Lobbyists are paid their salary by
1. Their Constituents
2. Interest Groups
3. Members of Congress
4. Government agencies

 

2. 6: Protectionism refers to
1. the movement to create a series of protective tariffs in the U.S.
2. the notion that women must be sheltered from life's harsh realities
3. the idea that the Constitution should protect all citizens equally
4. the concept that affirmative action exists to protect minorities

 

3. 6: The idea that each person is guaranteed the same chance to succeed in life is
1. freedom of opportunity
2. freedom of outcome
3. equality of opportunity
4. equality of outcome

 

4. 6: What is the Free-Rider Problem?
1. A situation where people who don't contribute to an organization or activity can still benefit from the organization or activity
2. A situation where an amendment which the majority of Congress opposes is placed on a bill the majority of Congress favors
3. Low voter turn out
4. How much freedom should citizens give up for order?

 

5. 6: All of the following are part of tactics lobbyist use to influence the government except for:
1. Personal contact with the policymakers.
2. letter-writing campaigns and protests pushing an interest group's rank-and-file members.
3. Providing the legislators with financial assistance to influence their vote.
4. banding several organizations together in coalition building.

 

6. 6: Grassroots lobbying does NOT include which of the following
1. letter-writing campaigns
2. periodic lunches with policy makers
3. boycotts
4. public demonstration

 

7. 6: An example of direct lobbying is:
1. meeting with a policy maker to deal with an issue
2. staging a letter writing campaign
3. funding a Television campaign to inform the public of your agenda
4. protesting a bill directly in front of the Capitol

 

8. 6: Interest groups can be characterized by all of the following except:
1. people in a particular interest group share political goals
2. interest groups influence public policy decisions
3. interest groups nominate candidates
4. the strength of an interest group depends largely on its resources

 

9. 6: The roles of lobbying groups include all the following except:
1. representing political interests
2. nominating candidates
3. endorsing candidates
4. forming political action committees

 

10. 6: PACs (political action committees) generally give more money to the political campaigns of
1. incumbents.
2. challengers.
3. Incumbents and challengers are usually given the same amount of money.
4. the candidate that best represents the ideals of the PAC.

 

11. 6: The most common method of grassroots lobbying is
1. protests
2. letter writing campaigns
3. direct lobbying
4. legal advocacy

 

12. 6: Which of the following is NOT a function of interest groups?
1. political agenda building
2. testifying in Congressional hearings
3. introducing legislation to Congress
4. monitoring government programs

 

13. 6: Which of the following does NOT support the majoritarian model of democracy?
1. a referendum
2. an amicus curiae brief
3. a centralized government system
4. an initiative

 

14. 6: In what way are interest groups and political parties similar?
1. They both influence policy decisions.
2. They both back candidates for the sake of winning an election.
3. They both have a narrow policy focus.
4. They both nominate candidates.

 

Презентация по теоретической части исследования: план - цель и задачи, предмет, объект, гипотеза исследования, проанализированные источники по теме, представление теоретической модели (theoretical framework) исследования, попытка формулировки теоретической  значимости работы
 

Course Paper Topics

You should have published your future course paper topics last week. Where are they???