Fundamentals of social and political thought study guide DEMOCRACY TOPIC ONE: Arrangement is politics daily conversation between

people in society and the leader, the discussion on politics and its regimes. At first, there was one leader i.e. a king who made all the decisions to be sure he will be in power for the benefit of himself and the society. In the last 200/300 years there s been a change in the world. People have become more aware and willing to change the system for example. The revolution in France. Changes were slow yet persistent eventually reaching the phase of DEMOCRACY, most states are not 100% democratic. Looking at different systems (non democracy states) there are different regimes throughout the world, they are the same but in ways they differ. Example. Africa king exists, who controls everything can t go against him = no democracy, the kings behave this way as they re afraid their power will be taken away from them by someone else. Totalitarian (kind of system) work on one belief that the troop should follow i.e. a religious way of life. Example soviet union (absolute regime) general word, no democracy and super control. The loyalty to your nation, the leaders trying to be in power all the time, but it s not a kingdom anybody who wants to can try get into government and succeed doesn t have to son of king. Difference in kingdoms: 1. In some places it s the son of the leader, or somebody from a party 2. In totalitarian the king leader will push his power as he s afraid someone will take it away from him. 3. Authoritarian: family controls the state, no negotiations you must accept it or you lose your life. . for example : this happened in Africa somebody took on power from a president as the president was murdered , from that point on he became the ruling power, and used the state to his own benefit. Election has no influence here e.g. Cuba, Jordan, Egypt. 4. No democracy = when king has sole power, however there are states that have a king and keep the tradition of a royal family but this family has no power so it s still a democracy it s just for tradition. Singapore is one of the best places to live, father gave son control, they have smart rules and regulations they let their people have a good life, but they still have the power. In Iraq on the other hand, the leader decides who will be chief, judges, and religious leaders. Even the president can t decide these things. There are revolution guards = small private army of government who control the revolution to succeed. CHANGE CAN BE MADE ONLY BY REVOLUTION: the Soviet Union moved from communism to democracy by one man who said the communism is over the change came from within.

Turkey: there was a type of revolution, during the years there was a constitution by the law in cases of crisis the national Security Council can intervene when this occurs they take full power and force an election. A quiet revolution occurred changed the constitution, the council could only advise and not order what to do ( 6 years back ) now the prime minister for the first time in years had more power than the council. Turkey now has a democracy, Europe and Israel don t like when the system is very democratic. Israel would like its neighbors to be a democratic society, in Egypt you have so many people who are extreme and want democracy but the leader is non democratic and won let it happen, so he puts those who try away. In a real democracy, the very extreme Muslims control the country so it s not at a countries best interest for their neighboring countries to be a democracy because once you have a democracy, you will have those extreme cases who will try and control. What is politics? Politics exists everywhere all over in most situations it s the controlling together of a group, the group is united through a nation and they form discussions. A state is full of power, full of institutions the one who runs these decisions is = POLITICS = negotiations, different ways of thinking, with the goal to reach one common decision. When society has discussions about within itself in agriculture, economical life, etc. this is a free discussion and is also considered politics. POLITICS DEFINITION: negotiations between different ways of thinking with one agreed solution that will be enforced as the agreed system. A policy never ends, its continuous discussions, politics is the way in which issues within a state will function. I.e. the budget. The media today can influence these discussions; they can alter beliefs of what people may think, the society never sleeps. CHANGES IN ISRAEL PAST 10 YEARS: y Borders constantly changing y Decisions always changing y Discussions constantly being made y Nation changing as a whole y Society is changing as new people are coming i.e. from soviet union y Institutions are changing y 1996 changed the system and gave direct vote to prime minister to give him more power but then we changed the system because we saw that parties became very weak the point is we changed, the entire system, its laws, and the people are changing with it.

POLITICAL CULTURE TOPIC TWO: To study how people view their countries politics is to investigate political culture the notion of political culture doesn t refer to attitudes to specific actors such as a current president, rather it denotes how people view the political system as a whole. (From the reading) y To change a culture takes generations, this is the basic behavior of the population, people live in a country, and are used to certain things it s not easy to change things and take things away from them all of a sudden. Process is slow because it s the basic element of the society; we are different groups within one society religious, secular, immigrants, and old, young. The culture in general for each state is political culture the understanding and acceptance of leaders. Political culture is a huge element as it s not easy to change, due to stability and stability is found deep within the culture. Political socialization: the means through which political culture is transmitted across generations. In some societies you can t mention certain issues i.e. holocaust in Israel and the European Jewish struggle. A basic element in every society is religion. Religion and political culture : as a source of basic values, religion is an important component of political culture in many countries this is due to religious power to either legitimize / delegitimize secular authority. Religious leaders have the right to say as they think, they re in a position to judge and remark, this is changing as we see the change we see the power shift. POLITICAL CULTURE ANALYSIS - ELEMENTS: 1. Limits of politics where politics can intervene 2. The regimes principle 3. The use of force 4. Between obedience and isolationism 5. Tolerance accepting changes 6. Ceremonies and rituals 7. Political language and humor.

y y y y

y y

Limits of politics: Israel s three basketball teams: hapoel, Be tar, maccabi. We have politics in sport due to the history of the state; we had the parties before the state to support the state. E.g. Kupat Cholim clallit labor. People chose their medical insurance in accordance with what they believed, politics intervenes in our lives, and the leaders of parties intervene as to what is taught in schools, to not allow the ideological schools to create a society. The regimes principles: what the government is allowed to do, and what is left to politics and society.

The use of force: used in dialogue in society, is the state allowed to kill i.e. death penalty, what are the limits, is there ambition for people within the society to kill leaders, violence in pol life. Example: parliament of Taiwan from time to time you can see that they have a debate, then they begin to fight one another- this is according to what s allowed to be done, kicking and shouting is an acceptable way to show an expression. This illustrates the way people demonstrate in accordance with their culture. Between obedience and isolationism: One obeys as a citizen or does not, learn in school to follow or to learn, in certain societies people learn, accept and follow what the leader says, other places people learn to criticize and participate and think for themselves. Example: Western Europe where people are taught to think. Tolerance, accepting changes: A society that constantly tries to correct itself and move forward as opposed to those who remain the same. Ceremonies and rituals Examples: NY 5th ave streets by numbers, order, flags of state, within own state. The US is very patriotic hang flags outside their homes. In Israel don t see this as much, pictures of leaders are found in countries less democratic. Political, language, humor Stability or change? Whether a country is looking for change or not. Unity or cleavage. Past or future The power of the political system Society living in either the future or the past. Not asking where you came from, rather where you re going. Democracy: the power of the state, the centre and different communities, the power of government, is not as strong as it should be where gov. failed to obtain stability, let the systems run.

ELECTIONS Many states that have elections but aren t democratic. E.g. vote in an election personally do so little feel so good. Israel s functioning of the Knesset: The basic law: the Knesset article 1+4 --- the Knesset shall be elected by general, national, direct, equal, secret, and proportional elections (definitions of Knesset) in accordance with the Knesset elections law. This section shall not be varied; it s kept by majority of members at the Knesset. Secret: so many countries are afraid; don t know who voted and what their choice was. The voting has to be anonymous. Equal: every vote = effect, one vote per person, same opportunity to every candidate. Direct: direct and non direct vote according to electorates. US = non direct vote. General elections: differs from country to country. Age (18), woman, citizen vs. residents, citizens abroad, one polling system, prisoners. US: 1920 woman can now vote. Shazar after the 6 day war said we realized the dream, asked the Jews of NY to come lead the country. Demographic problem: may change the voting law in Israel to allow all Jews around the world to vote. Good pol. Culture include countries such as: Italy 79% , Netherlands 77.4% , spain 77.2 %, France 76.8%, Austria 75%, Germany 72%, US 60% = low, Israel 68% - low due to numerous elections in past decade. Pakistan 38%, Switzerland 39%, Canada 53%, England 58.3%, India 60%. Elections parties: 100 years ago, before 1948 we had a state before a state, the error of the yeshuv ppl have settled but not functioning in a real estate. Ppl involved were young e.g. Ben Gurion had to experience, saw it as an opportunity, the second aliyah a new way of life was established a political life. They were known as the poel hatzair they looked for the socialistic solution for pol. Problems, they were Jewish not an international way of thinking, they created the first party. Parties were first before everything, no parliament no state, these people began t create the state, they started kupat cholim. y y y y y y y Created new way of life Developed Israel sport life Sport was now associated with politics All names in Israel come from socialistic opinions e.g. bank hapoalim They were tzioni clalli They formed mapai where all workers of all parties get together This is why they were considered strong (the workers) they had lots of power.

State of Israel: Begin and Ben-Gurion met inside his home, Begin informed of the Sinai war, they had good relations during this war. Debates at this time whether to take money compensations from Germany. Begin s people were anti this, others believed it was the Jews money and they should take it. Begin succeeded to get Zionist and liberal to unite, the parties got that they couldn t succeed alone. Changes are very important: this is a countries most nb aspect, changes. Big changes and war two important factors. For Israel most nb was 1948, another nb date that changed reality is 1967 control over west bank, 1977 big change Begin becomes prime minister, the big change in elections was after Yom Kippur war. Change in politics: Begin and Likud were weak, labor party took control over country, and 1977 Begin took full control and took presidency. Until 77 it was the era of the socialists/workers. Left people: nationalistic, socialists. People of Israel were looking for variety of democratic life, they desired for a change, didn t see labor party as left, not afraid of begins way of thinking, parties in Israel were all similar, like today Netanyahu and Barak work well together. The big change is due to: desire for change begin convinced ppl that he wants peace with Arabs with Egypt he succeeded something the labor party failed to do for many years, begin built settlements and made peace with Arabs. The biggest changed is 1977. (tie)

NATIONLASIM: why can t we live together? How can we live together? Nationalistic problem: new phenomena, before this there were kingdoms, there was no real nation, and there was no need for a match between king and people. Today it s very clear, one belongs to a nation, its apart of you, people don t just leave their nation and if so it s a big deal. Today there s lots of immigration. Basic elements that hold us together: Religion, language, culture, history, we are a nation of our own, which makes us different to another, we think we should live in our own territory = territory declares itself, not so may religions in the world yet many nations. Examples: Serbia + Kosovo (Christian and Islam) difference between them is religion, history, different nation belonging, language. The bottom line is its one territory. Yugoslavia problem: very cold, caused people to move, Czechs went south; it was open no Hungarian ppl from there. 2 elements divide east from west the east belongs to Greek orthodox, west is catholic, they still could gather being together, but political force came between them. End result was Serbia became an independent state. The Turkish wanted to control the problematic region so offered them to convert to Muslim. The Serb s that those who did this were the weak ones of the nation. The bottom line difference between west and east, they needed to create the states after ww1, the Europeans claimed they should all have been together due to their common love for the south. After ww2 they agreed to live together due to worldly decisions, they agreed as long as they had separate territories. Post ww1 there was a bad 20 years of the nation, murder of the king, after ww2 they agreed they couldn t live together but should do so. The decision was to divide into different nations and states. The Hungarians having some kind of autonomy. This remained stable in Yugoslavia due to strong leadership e.g. in Bosnia is very stable as someone governs the ppl. Croatia was first to declare independence = was worldly recognized, Slovenia too, problem was Bosnia it didn t know who it belonged to. History of map of Bosnia: the problem was in the place that wasn t purely nationalistic, one side s curbs and other Croatian mixed territory in war who controls? The ones who converted to Islam are the weak of the nation, people became Muslims but they actually Serbs they gave up their faith. Belgrade was bombed 78 times until they were convinced to stop the war, during this time in US Clinton was busy lying about Lewinsky, people of Cosvo now say they re on their way to being a state of their own. Here we see they re not the same from their cultural or religious point of view, and they began to live separately. CYPRUS Greek king, empire of Turkish people, went into Europe, very strong, also came into island which became Greek and Turkish. Here the two live together. Another example as to why they can t live together is some ppl say Cyprus was the solution, due to a war of 74 that caused an end to living

side by side, others say it wasn t a real solution as many ppl had to run away and they can t cross border and go back to where they used to live. THE MOMENT THERES A BORDER THERE IS STABILITY. EG IN ISRAEL MAKE A BORDER BETWEEN ISRALEIS AND PAL. THEN THE PPL CAN LIVE IN TERRITORY DIVIDED. RUSSIA EXAMPLE: came with own language, in Rega most people were Russians, one day the majority won t be Russian. Then they got independence and stated their democracy. The Russian population has no rights, only allow for one lang. the differences between them: not religious, no customs, no traditions, feeling of whom you belong to, the Latvian people feel different to Russians, in Latvia the Russians are 40% with no rights. Started as Latvian then Russians came and got citizenship, the states declared themselves, Russians took control, brought in Russians, and controlled the state. Once there was Independence they declared a rule saying that in order to live here one must know Latvian to be a part of their people. UNSTABILITY ----There is lots of instability, uncertainty, this is a given in government and we know and accept it. Conflicts in the society between the different groups religious and secular, rich and poor. These all lead to instability. E.g. Israel there is a big gap sees clearly the difference between all these people, the fights between them allow for the instability to society. Originally the Orthodox Jew took part in government, they had shared responsibility and they worked together, past immigration the labor party wanted the religious to become more secular normal they wanted woman to go to the army this caused instability and fought over it. There s instability in society due to nationalism problems, the religious groups are a problem for society, and they cause instability. The big change was when Begin came to power he needed the support of the Orthodox, addressed serving in the army of men and agreed to have more men than woman, gave orthodox privileges on terms of having their own money with no money from government. Big confrontation nowadays in Jerusalem, new leaders of secular who want to change things and make things secular brings the orthodox through to demonstrate due to the way he enforces/introduces his point. Arabs in Israeli society in the nationalism challenge:     not part of Israeli society like the orthodox Jews Arabs take part in Israeli political life, parties in Knesset live in own communities don t really mix like orthodox take part in societies events such as big brother e.g. futna

DIFFERENCES Between two groups;  Arabs want to be more western, taking part in Israeli phenomena  orthodox don t want to change at all , don t want to be Israelis

 The difference is that the Arabs will always be different no matter how much they change. Ex. Boils down to marriage most of the time one does not marry an Arab.  Israeli: society doesn t accept it on a whole, if it occurs its unique, marriage explains this in one word.  Nowadays with intermarriages, people know you can t. In order to keep a society strong and going you don t intermix through marriage, the result is the disappearance of an ethnic group.  In times if instability an ethnic group becomes a problem. ex. not belonging  ISRAELI ARABS: nowadays --- Netanyahu wants to find agreement with the Arabs living on west bank, Gaza, but Israeli Arabs will never have right to self determination, that the state that will be given in agreement will state that Arabs here have no state of their own. Today population of Arabs in Israel is 19% Netanyahu is afraid that Arabs will become a majority and form a state of their own.  With orthodox we don t face this problem; they are all Jews in the end, not a threat to a Jewish state --- wont wish for self determination.  Threat: Arabs will demand their own state, after becoming a majority in Israel.

RELIGION It s a primitive way of controlling people, provides answer to questions that we still have no answer to. I.e. distance, universe, life, death. Religion is the power to control people in the last centuries we became sophisticated, smart, better technology, the power of the church became weaker, yet we still have religion as a way to control people, millions of people in US, Israel, democratic societies this is something ppl accept follow and believe. Ex. Pope s arrival in a country is a huge event. On the news you see religion, the way people go about it. When we come to understand a society, the political life in modern societies, there is lots for the belief of the religion, to be an element by that we can understand the way ppl understand, follow it, and accept the leadership. At the same time there are ppl who are against it all. nowadays its fact that parts of society are made up of people acting by tradition, and want the politics to be more of this kind. Religion is very strong in democratic societies the way they need this leadership.  As it s a culture you can t change  It s an institution that know how to work with the people the beliefs  We living in modern times yet we don t have answers to many questions it s human nature to want to know more and be a part of a community that believes.  Statistical figures: religion state run 20% , state run 74%  As time goes by people are putting their children into religious schools.  The Israeli stats of ultra orthodox is 7%, this is a phenomena you can see in any democratic society, small minority of ultra religious.  The traditionalist is 27% very large follow most rules, keep Shabbat and kashrut.

 The group of ultra secular and anti religious is small 4%  Secular is largest at 29%  This table of figures shows we follow some traditions, traditions of the nation and not necessarily as a religion. Such as teffilin, bar mitzvah, marriage etc.  Its apart of the nation, this way people are more accepting of religious leaders to be a part of the state and have an effect on government coalitions.  Religion follows one everywhere, constantly there to remind you religion is where you came from its institution are strong and effective and exist everywhere.