Use the phrases in the box to answer the questions. vote in favour of / against a tied vote a casting vote a vote of (no) confidence abstain a) What do you do if you don’t agree with a motion or a bill? b) What is there if someone wants to bring down the government? c) What do you do if you don’t want to agree and you don’t want to disagree? d) What happens if the Yes and No votes are equal? 5. <...> Whatever George advised them to vote in favour of, she c) _____. <...> Finally, some weeks later, at the end of a long discussion, there was a d) _____ vote with half the members voting one way and half voting the other. <...> Ten days later Maureen tabled a vote of f) _____ and in the wake of his g) _____ defeat George had no alternative but to resign. <...> A social system is, in effect, a sub system of a larger political system. 3. <...> A regime is a ‘system of rule’ that endures despite the fact that governments come and go. 4. <...> First, what is ‘government’, and how do governments differ from ‘political systems’ or ‘regimes’? ‘Government’ refers to the institutional processes through which collective and usually binding decisions are made. <...> A political system or regime, on the other hand, is a broader term that encompasses not only the mechanisms of government and the institutions of the state, but also the structures and processes through which these interact with the larger society. <...> A political system is, in effect, a subsystem of the larger social system. <...> It is a ‘system’ in that there are interrelationships within a complex whole, and ‘political’ in that these interrelationships relate to the distribution of power, wealth and resources in society. <...> A regime is therefore a ‘system of rule’ that endures despite the fact that governments come and go. <...> For instance, in Japan and throughout East Asia, ‘the state’ may be different in kind and significance from ‘the state’ as generally understood in the context of the West classification process. <...> Is a regime open and competitive, or is it monolithic? 5. <...> Government refers to the institutional processes through which collective and usually binding decisions are made. <...> Match these words with their dictionary definitions. 1) democracy a) government by a small group of people, often for their own interests <...>
Regimes_of_the_Modern_World.pdf
МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ РФ
ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ
БЮДЖЕТНОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ
ВЫСШЕГО ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ
«ВОРОНЕЖСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ
УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»
REGIMES OF THE MODERN WORLD
Учебно-методическое пособие
Составители:
И.В. Домбровская,
О.А. Петрова
Издательско-полиграфический центр
Воронежского государственного университета
2012
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UNIT 1
Lead-in
Comment on the quotations:
1. “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that
it bears a very close resemblance to the first” (Ronald Reagan).
2. “A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next
week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it
didn't happen” (Sir Winston Churchill).
3. “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there
is no river” (Nikita Khrushchev).
4. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).
5. “Politics is too serious a matter to be left to politicians” (Charles de Gaulle).
6. “I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office” (Thomas
Jefferson).
7. “Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within
society” (Niccolo Machiavelli).
8. “Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation”
(Henry Kissinger).
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4. Use the phrases in the box to answer the questions.
vote in favour of / against
a tied vote a casting vote a vote of (no) confidence abstain
a) What do you do if you don’t agree with a motion or a bill?
b) What is there if someone wants to bring down the government?
c) What do you do if you don’t want to agree and you don’t want to disagree?
d) What happens if the Yes and No votes are equal?
5. Which of the words go together? Tick the boxes.
victory
sensational
landslide
crushing
humiliating
slim
small
unassailable
large
overwhelming
6. Use words from exercises 4 and 5 to fill in the blanks in the text.
The Downfall of Chairman George
George was very confident. He thought that he had an a) _____ majority on the
committee and so he was not worried when Jack resigned. But to his horror Maureen
Washington stood for election and, with her radical politics, won a b) _____ victory,
completely defeating her main rival. As soon as she arrived on the committee she
began to cause trouble; votes on this, votes on that. Whatever George advised them to
vote in favour of, she c) _____. And as the weeks went by others began to support
her. Finally, some weeks later, at the end of a long discussion, there was a d) _____
vote with half the members voting one way and half voting the other. Of course
George saved it by using his e) _____, but it was the beginning of the end. Ten days
later Maureen tabled a vote of f) _____ and in the wake of his g) _____ defeat
George had no alternative but to resign. He felt bitter and betrayed and went off to
live in his luxury villa in Santa Lucia. But the rest of us felt saved.
7. Invent a scenario to fit the facts in this story. What was the committee for?
Why did the narrator feel relieved when George resigned?
defeat
majority
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8. Here are some newspaper headlines. Explain each of them in everyday
language.
e.g. Premier backs peace moves in docks → The Prime Minister has announced that
(s)he supports the attempts to reconcile both sides in the port workers’ dispute.
1. Tories set to win poll.
2. Key MP held on bribes charge.
3. Government majority wins the day.
4. Election humiliation for disgraced minister.
5. From councilor to cabinet minister in just five years.
9. Tell the stories behind these headlines.
UNIT 2
Lead-in
Comment on the quotations:
1. “Man is by nature a political animal” (Aristotle).
2. "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't
take an interest in you" (Pericles).
3. “The method of political science is the interpretation of life; its instrument is
insight, a nice understanding of subtle, unformulated conditions” (Woodrow Wilson).
4. “It is always easy to find fault with a classification. There are a hundred ways of
arranging any set of objects, and something may almost always be said against the
best, and in favour of the worst of them. But the merits of a classification depend on
the purposes to which it is instrumental” (John Stuart Mill).
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Pre-reading
Work in pairs. Do you think the following statements are true or false?
1. Before examining how different systems have been classified, it is necessary to
reflect on both what is being classified and why such classifications have been
undertaken.
2. A social system is, in effect, a sub system of a larger political system.
3. A regime is a ‘system of rule’ that endures despite the fact that governments
come and go.
4. All systems of classification have their drawbacks.
5. The political contours of the new world are quite unclear.
6. Different systems of classification have tended to prioritize different sets of
criteria.
Look the text through to find the answers to the true / false statements.
Traditional Systems of Classification
A. Before examining how different systems have been classified, it is
necessary to reflect on both - what is being classified, and why such classifications
have been undertaken. First, what is ‘government’, and how do governments differ
from ‘political systems’ or ‘regimes’? ‘Government’ refers to the institutional
processes through which collective and usually binding decisions are made. A
political system or regime, on the other hand, is a broader term that encompasses not
only the mechanisms of government and the institutions of the state, but also the
structures and processes through which these interact with the larger society.
A political system is, in effect, a subsystem of the larger social system. It is a
‘system’ in that there are interrelationships within a complex whole, and ‘political’ in
that these interrelationships relate to the distribution of power, wealth and resources
in society.
A regime is therefore a ‘system of rule’ that endures despite the fact that
governments come and go. Whereas governments can be changed by elections,
through dynastic succession, as a result of coup d’etats and so on, regimes can only
be changed by military intervention from without or by some kind of revolutionary
upheaval from within.
B. Why classify political systems? The interest in classifying political
systems stems from two sources. First, classification is an essential aid to the
understanding of politics and government. The second purpose of classification is to
facilitate evaluation rather than analysis. In other words, understanding is closely tied
up with normative judgements: questions about ‘what is’ are linked to questions
about ‘what should be’.
All systems of classification have their drawbacks, however. As with all
analytical devices, there is a danger of simplification. The classification of regimes
under the same heading draws attention to the similarities that they share, but there is
a risk that the differences that divide them will be ignored or disguised. A related
problem is a possible failure to see that a phenomenon may have different meanings
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