Comp GoPo 3.5 & 3.6

all right.

We didn't finish everything in class.

So here is just a 10 minute recap of what

we needed to get through.

So nature of political participation can be voluntary or coerced

by the government.

Um, it can involve an individual, or it can involve

groups, and it can be supportive of a regime or

the opposition that seeks change.

Um, some examples of political participation in the A P

six include things like voting.

Um, In democratic regimes, voting is an individual thing.

Um, freedom to not vote sends a message that you're

unhappy with.

The candidates are the process, but not every country has

that option in some countries that they require you to

vote. So we see an authoritarian regimes, for example, that

they can't have compulsory voting.

We know that in Mexico and Nigeria, voting is not

optional. You can be fined if you don't vote.

And while they don't usually do that, it is an

option that the government has, um, voting is another, um,

or in in authoritarian regimes, voting is also a way

that, um, the the government seeks legitimacy.

And so, um, whether that is through coerced compulsory voting

or through free votes.

Um, that is a thing.

And that's why in democratic regimes you may have boycotts

of elections because the people don't consider the elections to

be free and fair.

And so they're going to boycott it because the elections

are being used to, um, kind of create legitimacy where

the people don't believe it really exists.

All right, um, protests are another thing.

And so when we look at protests, we have to

know that protests shape policy and create awareness.

And they can also be used as kind of a

media thing in order to get more attention and hopefully

some interest groups or NGOs, specifically international NGOs or non

governmental organizations like Amnesty International or, um, the U.

N Human Rights Council.

Those kinds of things.

They can get foreign help from allies by by shedding

light. Hey, you need to see that this is happening

in our country.

Um, when it comes to protest, all of the 86

governments have rules for protests in order to maintain safety

and order.

Um, democratic rules, democratic government governments or regimes.

Excuse me, are going to be, um, have fewer restrictions

on who can protest when, where how many people, That

sort of thing.

Whereas authoritarian regimes are more likely to you to use

coercion? Um, specifically, in some authoritarian regimes, they government will

mandate that people attend mass demonstrations in order to build

legitimacy. And we see this in China specifically with the

protests going on in Hong Kong right now.

Um so protests have been, um, not such a great

thing in China since the Tiananmen Square debacle back in

1989. Um, and we're seeing a lot of protests now

that are happening in Hong Kong as a result of

China trying to, um, exercise more rules.

So those of you not familiar with the history of

Hong Kong really quickly in 15 seconds, Hong Kong was

a British, um, colony.

It was agreed after the Chinese revolution that Hong Kong

would remain a British protectorate for 50 years, and that

started in 1949.

And in 1999 Hong Kong switched hands from British protectorate

to Chinese protectorate.

And so for the last 22 years, China has been

slowly trying to, um, take China under mainland China, um,

and or Hong Kong under mainland china, and they have

been trying to make Hong Kong more Chinese, make Hong

Kong, um communist get rid of a lot of the

freedoms and the protections that the Hong Kong people enjoyed

under British rule.

And, um, as they pass more and more laws and

there were some that were just passed in the last

couple of months or so.

The Chinese government has had to, uh they've had a

lot of protests against them.

And so the government has actually, um sent people out

and coerce them and told them, You have to go

be counter protesters against the demonstrators so that the whole

world so that they can put on the news in

China like there are pro China protesters in Hong Kong.

And look at these horrible people in Hong Kong that

are fighting against communism because they're trampling on the rights

of the people who want to be communist.

Obviously, in the West, we're going to see those kind

of news reversed.

It's going to be looked at all the Chinese protesters

that are out there counter pro testing, all of the

people who want Hong Kong to be free.

Another government that is known for doing this is Russia.

So all of those Navalny demonstrations, for example, where people

were pro navalny and they were out in the streets,

the Russian government was going and rounding up supporters and

making them go out into the street, Um, and say,

Hey, no, no, no.

We love Putin.

Putin is our guy we love, you know, we love

the Russian government.

Putin would never do something terrible.

Navalny is the bad guy.

All right, Um, so other forms of political participation.

Participation? We're going to talk about violence for a minute

when these protests become, um, not so kind and civil.

So we see this, for example, with separatist movements, um,

groups claiming the government has ignored peaceful means of redress.

So, for example, this would be the IRA if we're

talking about the UK.

The Irish Republican Army, um, started back in the 19

twenties, is a Sinn Fein party, and they fought against,

um, colonial British rule and they wanted to separate from

the UK and create the country of Ireland.

And they use terrorism to do that.

They said, Look, you're not listening to us.

We have been under virtual for 400 years.

We've tried every other means of protest, and you're not

doing what we want.

So, um, they became, in a sense, a terrorist organization.

Um, a lot of regimes view elections as kind of

a safety valve for public discontent, and I think that

will prevent violence.

This goes back to that idea of coerced elections and

whether or not, um, your country is having a free

and fair election if they're trying to, um, force in

elections to show you a lot of power and legitimacy.

So here I've got an example.

We've got Putin winning 63% of the votes.

And, of course, he ran against people that were not,

um, not a threat at all.

But the idea is that that gives them greater legitimacy.

Um, rather than everybody out in the streets arguing against

Putin. Um, and then you also, of course, have the

use of the devolution of power to regions.

Um, in democratic regimes, this is more likely to defuse

tensions in authoritarian regimes.

However, this is less likely because you have issues where,

um, in authoritarian regimes, if you give them too much

power, then they will use it to rise up against,

um against the government.

Um, so when you look at things like Tibet and

Xinjiang, um, provinces of China as autonomous regions with unique

land and language rights, um, China's government does not allow

local leaders to vary from policies approved by China's Communist

Party, and they will use coercive tactics and military or

the police presence to keep order and prevent them from

actually creating a revolution to split away from China.

Um, all right, so then we're going to look at

ways that the government encourages political participation, and they're going

to do this in multiple ways.

First of all, they want to do this because it

creates greater legitimacy.

Um, it allows them to gather input, lets them know

What is it that the people want?

Um, And like we talked before, elections can act as

safety um, safety valves.

Um, that's the Democratic regimes.

Think that voting and protests apply a check on the

government's policies.

Let the government know if we don't like what they're

doing. Um, and it can give people an illusion that

they can affect policy even when they can't, um, let's

see. And then we're going to talk about referendum for

just a second.

So if you don't know we have referendums here in

Utah. It's a huge thing.

Um, I think I talked about this a little bit

during us, but they allow citizens to vote directly on

policy questions, and they can be used to pass legislation

especially unpopular.

I just legislation, for example, if we think about Brexit,

right, that's what these pictures are from.

If we think about Brexit and whether or not the

UK should split from the European Union and, uh, the

government didn't want to make the choice, it was too

difficult. They had to me, people forward and too many

people against it was too controversial.

So they put it out as a referendum, and they

used an election parliamentary election to, uh, as a referendum

for whether or not to do Brexit.

And this is where we talk about that Brexit hang

over and whether or not um, they should split.

All right, The last thing that we need to talk

about is we need to talk about, um, forces that

impact political participation.

So this could deal with governmental support or, um, not,

like, not support right of things and, um, part of

that has to do with how much impact political participation

actually has in any given regime.

So, for example, in an authoritarian government with an election

if there are few opposition candidates that are allowed to

run and the government intervenes in elections.

So we've lost Russia and Iran, which hold regularly scheduled

elections, which you would think would make them more legitimate.

However, um, Iran's Guardian Council, that's the candidates and restricts

who can run.

Um, and in 2000 and nine, this led to massive

protests because the election of 2009 was viewed as a

fraudulent election in Iran.

Um, and there were people that took to the streets

and they used, um, and the government of Iran used

military and police violence to suppress the protests against the

election results.

And so, while they were trying to use an election

to create legitimacy, it actually delegitimized the government.

To some degree.

Um, in Russia, you have the Central Election Commission, which

approves which candidates can run for president, um, and this

tux and this leads us to navalny right navalny.

They wouldn't approve.

They said, No, you can't run for president because he

had way too much of a chance of actually winning,

or, um, or Aaron Putin started laundry, and they did

not want that.

Um And so now you have people that are protesting

the streets about Navalny because they're saying, um, he should

be allowed to run right then, um, in democratizing countries.

So these are Mexico and Nigeria, right?

They are holding competitive elections.

Um, since 2000, both Mexico and Nigeria have tried to

move towards that.

Before that, they both had dominant party systems.

Remember, we have the p.

R. I in Mexico and we had the military constant

military regime changes in Nigeria.

They both moved to an electoral rule that enforced independent

regulatory organizations to prevent election fraud.

And they both created voter I D.

Laws. But what happens is that they provide all voters

with a tamper proof voter ID card to reduce fraud

to make sure that their elections are legitimate.

So kind of the opposite of Iran.

Um, and that's because they're democratizing countries.

Um, we also need to talk about the Internet and

what role the Internet plays in political participation.

We're going to talk about this next time when we

talk about, um, civil rights and civil liberties and the

access to media.

Um, so Internet freedoms in China they use surveillance for

anybody that criticizes the government.

The publishers in China for the Internet need to have

a permit in order to publish online.

If they don't have a permit, they can be fined

and, um, gotten rid of.

And they have the of course, the great fighter.

All that we know about in Iran.

Um, when there are protests going on the country, the

government slows the Internet speeds so that people can't access

as much information, and the government has a better way

of seeing where people are going.

Um, they have also placed demands on the providers of

the Internet for data about their users so they can

see what users are googling what sites users are going

to so they can try to quash rebellion, Um, in

its infancy.

And they block websites.

If websites getting too popular, getting too much traction, um,

too critical of the government, they will block it, Um,

and that specifically, if it's an anti religious website, okay,

and then in Russia, we see the Russian government demands

that publishers reduce an anonymity, meaning that if you're going

to post on Facebook or you're going to post on

instagram, they don't have those.

But if you're going to post on social media, if

you're going to post a blog, um, you can't be

anonymous because, um, then the government can't go after you

and punish you, right?

Um, and they will allow certain organizations, certain civil societies

to register to to post things on the Internet.

But they must register as foreign agents, and this means

by classifying them as foreign agents.

Uh, then they are agreeing to be surveilled by the

government to be spied on.

Um, and Russia does block platforms as we are aware

to try to keep certain information out.

All right, the last thing we're gonna talk about is

demonstrations. So, um, you look at China that does not

have direct elections.

Um, and so they manage and limit their demonstrations.

Um, because their demonstrations, the protests in China are against

local corruption, local environmental conditions, um, labor disputes at all

of these things.

And so they just don't have elections, and they don't

have to listen to the people.

Um, the government does offer some small compensation to a

peach. Large groups of protesters.

Um, but they, uh the organizers of these protest movements

are often punished severely for their descent.

Um, we already talked a little bit about Tiananmen Square,

Um, and the protests going on currently in Hong Kong.

Um, in Iran, the Constitution mandates holding elections for the

public to choose government officials.

Um, and if you saw the news just yesterday, Iran

is going to allow women for the first time to

run for government building government office.

They won't get elected, but now they are, at least

on paper allowed to run.

And that is again, an example of trying to create

legitimacy. Um, they don't They can make it a law

that women can run because they know that it would

ever be taken seriously and so they don't have to

worry about it.

Um, Iran's government uses coercion and violence to suppress widespread

protests, um, and to restrict organisation of mass protests against

the government

Comp GoPo 3.5 & 3.6

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