"How Russians see the West" video

Hi everyone,
I know you are all probably busy with revision now, but if you have 2 minutes to spare, here  you will find an interesting video from The Economist "How Russians see the West". It is from last year but still insightful.
Good luck with your revision and the exam!
Barbara

Last class

Hi everyone,

You will find the class for classes 9 and 10 here and here, respectively.
As it was our last class I just wanted to say that it was really nice to meet you and work with you and GOOD LUCK WITH THE FINAL.
While we won't have any more classes I am going to be around so if you want to arrange a meeting before the Germany quiz or before the final, please feel free to shoot me an email.

All best,
Barbara

Class presentation 3/25/2016

Hi everyone,
Please find the slides from the last class here.

Best,
Barbara

Class 3/18 Russia

Hi everyone,
You can find the slides from today's class here.

Other miscellaneous links:
-Putin's teenage fan club: the Russian president's young devotees – in pictures 
-PravdaReport - an English version of a pretty regime friendly Russian internet newspaper Pravda (The Truth). I often find it interesting to read it to see the other perspective and what some people get as their daily news.

Have a great weekend!
Best,
Barbara

Class 2/26

Hi everyone,

You can find the presentation slides from today here.
Good luck with your midterm!

Best,
Barbara

Class notes 2/19/2016

Hello everyone,

The class notes from yesterday can be found here .
Moreover, just to keep you up to date with the British referendum, David Cameron has negotiated a new membership deal with the EU and his cabinet has formally agreed to campaign to stay in (despite several minister openly supporting Brexit). The date of the referendum has been confirmed for June 23rd.

If you're interested in learning more, here is a video with Cameron's address of the nation from today. Moreover, if you wish even more details into the situation, this article is relatively insightful. 
Regarding the renegotiation:

"The agreement in Brussels was done after a marathon round of talks over two days, concluding shortly after 9pm on Friday.

After the summit, the prime minister insisted he had strengthened his key demands since the European council president, Donald Tusk, outlined his draft agreement on 2 February. The key changes will mean that:

• -A proposed “emergency brake” on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits will last for seven years. It will cover individuals for no more than four years, but the UK will be allowed to apply the overall restrictions for seven years.
• -Restrictions on child benefit for EU migrants will kick in at a reduced rate – indexed to the rate of a migrant’s home country – for new migrants with immediate effect. Existing EU migrants will be paid at the lower rate from 2020. Eastern European countries had hoped that existing migrants would be exempt.
• -Britain has a specific opt-out from the EU’s historic commitment to forge an “ever closer union among the peoples of Europe”.
• -One country – in effect Britain – will have the right to impose a handbrake to refer contentious financial regulation to a meeting of EU leaders in the European council."

Have a good weekend!

Class notes 2/12/2016

Hi everyone,

You will find the class presentation from today here. 
As I have mentioned in class, the last slide contains a midterm question from last year. Please prepare your answer for the next week's class such that we can start our discussion with the question. In case you cannot open the link, the question is:

Some of the factors that shape how voters make their choices vary in importance from election to election.  Why do the party ideological promises (left-right issues) vary in relative importance in shaping voter’s choices between different elections?  Why was this factor relatively less important in Britain in 2010 than in, for example, 1983?

Also, Maria mentioned in class the mechanism for petition submission in the UK. If your petition reaches 100,000 signatures it gets debated in the Parliament. For example, the "Block Donald J Trump from UK entry" got 578,893 and got debated. You can read the government response and watch the debate here.