Home

Final Exam
Please read the excerpt from the article below published by The Economist, and answer questions # 1 and # 2: 1. (1 paragraph min.) Do the concerns put forward about democracy in the article below reflect the factors identified by Mainwaring & Pérez-Liñán in their article ‘Lessons from Latin America: Democratic Breakdown and Survival’? (Explain with three points of reasoning.)
2. (1 paragraph min.) Which model of democracy would Juan Linz argue is most effective to address these issues within democratic states today, and why? (Explain with three points of reasoning, which directly engage with the concerns expressed in this article.)
What′s gone wrong with democracy. (2014). The Economist, 410 (8876)
Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. Why has it run into trouble, and what can be done to revive it?
…Faith in democracy flares up in moments of triumph, such as the overthrow of unpopular regimes in Cairo or Kiev, only to sputter out once again. Outside the West, democracy often advances only to collapse. And within the West, democracy has too often become associated with debt and dysfunction at home and overreach abroad. Democracy has always had its critics, but now old doubts are being treated with renewed respect as the weaknesses of democracy in its Western strongholds, and the fragility of its influence elsewhere, have become increasingly apparent. Why has democracy lost its forward momentum?
…THE two main reasons are the financial crisis of 2007-08 and the rise of China. The damage the crisis did was psychological as well as financial. It revealed fundamental weaknesses in the West′s political systems, undermining the self-confidence that had been one of their great assets. Governments had steadily extended entitlements over decades, allowing dangerous levels of debt to develop, and politicians came to believe that they had abolished boom-bust cycles and tamed risk. Many people became disillusioned with the workings of their political systems-particularly when governments bailed out bankers with taxpayers′ money and then stood by impotently as financiers continued to pay themselves huge bonuses. The crisis turned the Washington consensus into a term of reproach across the emerging world.
…in recent years the very institutions that are meant to provide models for new democracies have come to seem outdated and dysfunctional in established ones. The United States has become a byword for gridlock, so obsessed with partisan point-scoring that it has come to the verge of defaulting on its debts twice in the past two years. Its democracy is also corrupted by gerrymandering, the practice of drawing constituency boundaries to entrench the power of incumbents. This encourages extremism, because politicians have to appeal only to the party faithful, and in effect disenfranchises large numbers of voters. And money talks louder than ever in American politics. Thousands of lobbyists (more than 20 for every member of Congress) add to the length and complexity of legislation, the better to smuggle in special privileges. All this creates the impression that American democracy is for sale and that the rich have more power than the poor, even as lobbyists and donors insist that political expenditure is an exercise in free speech. The result is that America′s image-and by extension that of democracy itself-has taken a terrible battering.
3. (1 paragraph min.) Should autocratic elections, based upon the argument put forward by Knutsen, Nygård & Wig (in the article Autocratic Elections: Stabilizing Tool or Force for Change?) be understood as another form of political control? (Explain with three points of reasoning)
4. (1 paragraph min.) Based on the following excerpt below, please answer the following question:
Would a scholar rooted in realism advise the Swedish legislature to support this new defense bill? If so, what would be the argument made in support of this new defense bill? If not, what would be the argument made in opposition to this new defense bill? (Please identify and explain three key points)
Sweden embarks on its largest military build-up for decades: The threat from Russia prompts a bill to raise defense spending by 40% in five years
The Economist, October 19, 2020
“AN ARMED ATTACK against Sweden cannot be ruled out,” warned Peter Hultqvist, Sweden’s defense minister, shortly after he introduced a new defense bill on October 14th. It promises the country’s largest military expansion for 70 years. The reason is not hard to discern. Russia’s assertive behaviour across Europe, from invasion to assassination, has alarmed Swedes.
In recent years, Sweden has accused Russia of violating its airspace and waters several times, most recently with a pair of warships south-west of Gothenburg in September. Sweden has accordingly deepened military ties with NATO (though it is not a member of the alliance), America and its Nordic neighbours. If the new bill is passed, as is likely, the defense budget is set to rise by SKr27.5bn ($3.1bn) between 2021 and 2025, a 40% boost that will bring expenditure to around 1.5% of GDP—the highest level for 17 years.
The new cash will pay for a 50% increase in the armed forces to 90,000 people, a figure that includes regular soldiers, consсrіpts and local reservists in the Home Guard (no longer the Dad’s Army of yesteryear). The army will grow from two mechanised brigades to three, each of around 5,000 soldiers, with a smaller additional brigade for the Stockholm area. The draft, abolished a decade ago and reintroduced for both genders in 2017, will double in size to 8,000 consсrіpts a year, and five new local-defense battalions will be established around the country, tasked with protecting supply lines from the Norwegian ports of Oslo and Trondheim. An amphibious unit will be re-established in Gothenburg, Scandinavia’s largest port. Civil defense is also getting attention, with funding for cybersecurity, the electricity grid and healthcare. “We’ve begun to rebuild a newer version of what we had during the cold war”, says Niklas Granholm of FOI, Sweden’s defense research agency. A big exercise to test national resilience was held this year. The aim is to enable Sweden to hold out in a crisis or war for at least three months, until help arrives (assuming that it does).
It is a dramatic expansion, but much of it is to patch up a creaking force. “The armed forces were in a state of crisis for the last 20 years,” says Henrik Paulsson of the Swedish Defense University. In 2013 Sweden’s top general admitted that his forces could only defend part of the country, and only for one week…Under the new plans, the army will have a more respectable 72 artillery pieces. “We are finally getting our house in order,” says Mr. Granholm. But he warns that “new budgetary black holes” could open up from 2026. “The debate about the bill after this one has already begun”.

Please read the instructions thoroughly if any questions please do not hesitate to ask. 
I would like to pick option #2 for my essay question. What is economic inequality? How do severe inequalities and disparities in wealth and income harm individuals, countries, and the global economy? What solutions are viable?
Read the rubric and answer in detailed to every question the final is asking you.