TaK – Politics

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3. TaK – Politics “If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.” Winston Churchill What does he mean?

4. TaK – Politics • Political Action • Amnesty International calls for an end to human rights abuses in a particular country • The government increases income tax to fund an expansion in education • The United Nations condemns armed aggression by one country against another • Teachers go on strike for more pay • The unemployed stage a demonstration in the capital to protest against their plight

5. TaK – Politics Some students would like free education; some Universities would like to charge … Why?

6. TaK – Politics • Politics: • The processes by which different groups pursue their interests • The means by which societies regulate conflicts between the groups (often called ‘government’)

7. TaK – Politics Politics and ToK We are not looking at what we should think about politics, but how we should think about politics ________________ The roles of Reason, Language, Sense Perception and Emotion and the connection to Ethics

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9. TaK – Politics Sometimes political debate can look like this Why?

10. TaK – Politics Politics: The Art of the Possible

11. TaK – Politics • Politics is a branch of Sociology • It has two aspects: • The Descriptive– collecting facts, making models and predictions (as in all human sciences) • The Normative*– deciding how society should work: how to apply moral principles to group decision making; the extent to which we have the right or duty to force some groups to do things against their will *Normative: of, relating to, or determining norms or standards

12. TaK – Politics Protest

13. TaK – Politics Debate

14. TaK – Politics Persuasion

15. TaK – Politics Propaganda What characterises Propaganda?

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20. TaK – Politics What are the forces that bind societies together? What are the forces that tear them apart?

21. TaK – Politics Everybody wants to retain the best of the past and everyone wants a fair society Debate begins when we acknowledge there is a problem deciding what ‘best’ and ‘fair’ mean, and how to go about achieving these ideals

22. TaK – Politics Why do we need government? What would we be like without government?

23. TaK – Politics • TheHobbesian Social Contract • We give up certain things to the state in return for specified benefits • The Lockean Social Contract • The people submit to the government in return for the protection of their innate inalienable human rights

24. TaK – Politics What are the options? Hereditary Monarchy Representative Democracy Direct Democracy Oligarchy Plutocracy Dictatorship Aristocracy Etc….

25. TaK – Politics How would you feel if RCN were to become a fully-functioning direct democracy? All teachers, students and support staff would have one vote, and all major decisions would be taken on the basis of a vote. Would this result in a better school?

26. TaK – Politics • How much should governments do? • Should they be able to… • tell citizens how to behave? • tell citizens where they can, and cannot, go? • tell citizens how fast they can drive? • tell citizens what they can say? • tell citizens what they can wear?

27. TaK – Politics • How much should governments do? • Historically, and in some parts of the world today, people resist the imposition of rules they do not like, or do not feel are just, and try to overthrow a government and replace it with one that is ‘better’… • But how do they know what is ‘better’?

28. TaK – Politics • Designing the perfect society… • A group of people is about to arrive at an uninhabited island • They are to form a society and set up a government • We can decide for them all the details of their society: • the forms of government • the laws • the economic structure • etc • You are going to live in this society, but you have no idea of the role you will have – maybe President, maybe homeless… • What kind of society and government should they have? • How do we decide what is fair?