Subsidiarity principle

This is the short video to understand the subsidiarity principle, which means a distribution of tasks between the different administrations, so that the services that can be provided by one institution don't have to be provided by the others.

Left or right?

Here you have some schemes to understand the differences between left  and right wing parties:

Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kgpgcM-6ulg/UXNISCxS3II/AAAAAAAAGMk/_JEcTcxwCZA/s1600/left+right+politics.jpg

Source: http://mrvcle.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/7/0/17701093/2182463_orig.png

Project: Create your political party

Source: http://flavorsofindia.us/Participate

If you look around, you will discover that political decisions affect every aspect of our lives, whether we like it or not. That's why it's important that you learn how it works and start thinking what kind of society you would like to live in.

The purpose of this project is that you think of how you would like the main challenges of our society to be solved. You will have to create a political party and write your political program. You will have to think about how you would face the main problems the country or the town has. You can also prepare a logo, a slogan, brochures, posters, merchandising objects for the political campaign..., but the political program is the main thing.

Here you have some items to think about:

- UNEMPLOYMENT: How could you create more jobs?

- PEOPLE'S RIGHTS: Would you  enlarge or restrict people's rights? Which ones?

- TAXES: Would you increase or reduce taxes? Who should pay more? What percentage of people's income should everybody pay? How would you punish tax evaders?

- ENVIRONMENT: How would you protect the fauna and the flora?

- POLLUTION: How would you reduce pollution?

- SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: How would you combine economic development with respect to the environment?

- TRANSPORT: What means of transport would you promote?

- HOUSING: What would you do to ensure decent housing?

- EDUCATION: How would you improve the education system?

- HEALTHCARE: How would you improve the healthcare system?

- ENERGY SOURCES: What energy sources would you promote and how?

- CRIME: How would you reduce crime? Would you change the laws that punish criminals? Would  you promote reintegration of criminals?

- SECURITY: How would you make the country safer?

- YOUTH: What would you do for young people?

- RETIRED PEOPLE: What would you do for retired people?

- DEPENDENT POPULATION: What would you do to improve their life quatity?

- SCIENCE: How would you encourage scientific research?

- SOCIAL SERVICES: What social services would you provide? Would you enlarge them or reduce them?

- REDUCTION OF POVERTY: What would you do to reduce poverty?

- RELIGION: Would you change anything in this sense?

- LEISURE TIME: Would you subsidize leisure time activities?Which ones?

- DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS: How would you solve the demographic problems we have?

- IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM: What would be your policy about this topic?

- ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE: Would you change the levels of organization of the State?

- DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION: How would you promote citizen political participation


These are only suggestions of topics you can include in your program. You can include everything you consider important for the country or the town.

Presentations about political organization of societies

These are the three presentations we are going to use to learn the contents of Unit 3:

 

Friday 29th May 2015

I have liked the lesson of Social Sciences today. We have continued with  the relief to farmers and workers. We have finished that and we started with the Social legislation(we have written four points of this) and the economic legislation(the banking reform and the creation of the SEC) Paqui has explained us the process to improve the production:

More workers ->more demand -> more consumption -> more production

But economy didn`t recovery completely until the World War II.

Also in class we have talked about politics. Last Sunday were the municipals elections, and my mother was in the list of UPyD, so we have talked about that and the deciosion of UPyD about the party they are going to support to form the town. I like politics so I have paid attention.

But today we have copied few words on the glossary:

-Subsidy: Subsidio

-Food stamps: Cupones de comida
-Mortage: Hipoteca

                                                     Image of google images

A very good video to understand the division of powers in the USA

As we have studied today, the USA were the first country to write a Constitution and include the division of powers to prevent abuse. On the following video you can learn about the three institutions that hold power in the USA through a rap. Enjoy!

The new government of Spain

Here you have some information about the new Spanish government. After the general elections in November 2011, PP was the winning party. They got more deputies in the Congress and two weeks ago, after the investiture session, Mariano Rajoy was elected president of the government by the majority of representatives chosen by the citizens. Some days later Rajoy announced the number and names of the new ministers. Some of them were ministers of the last PP governments, such as Ana Pastor, Cristóbal Montoro or Miguel Arias Cañete, but the rest are new. Soraya Sáez de Santamaría is the new vice-president and spokeswoman and she accumulates a lot of power in her hands, because she is going to control the intelligence service (CNI) as well. Here you have the new faces:

Source: http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/mediateca/fototeca/23-diciembre-2011-13-16-00-gobierno-de-mariano-rajoy

And here you have a link to get more information about the new ministries and ministers. You can also read their biographies: 

http://www.cuartopoder.es/laespumadeldia/2011/12/22/rajoy-forma-su-primer-gobierno-en-clave-economica-y-de-amistad-personal/

Update: Reform of the Constitution

Source: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/mora010911.html

Last Friday a majority of  deputies of the Congress voted for the reform of the Spanish Constitution. The majority parties (PSOE and PP) reached an agreement to reform Article 135. This article referred to the debt and loans the State can get. The new writing of the article includes a limit to the possibility of the State and Autonomous Communities of getting into debt and obtaining loans. The limit (debt ceiling) will be established in a  subsequent Organic Law. The majority parties have decided that the deficit of the Spanish administrations can´t be more than 0.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This loans and public debt limit tries to satisfy the demands of austerity and deficit control of the EU and to appease the so-called markets (investors for some, speculators for others). 

This reform has been very controversial, because limiting the possibility of getting debts can mean the restriction of public investments and social expenses. The way the reform has been made has also caused a lot of protests. Two deputies of the PSOE voted against the reform and the minority parties consider that the constitutional consent has been broken, because the majority parties have decided the reform by themselves and very urgently. These parties criticize that there won´t be a referendum to ask the population for their opinion about the reform. 

Here you have the text of article in English before the reform:

http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/sp00000_.html#A135_

And this is the new article in Spanish: 

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2011/08/26/actualidad/1314314619_582841.html

The reform has to pass in the Senate as well. 

Update: recent changes in Spain´s politics

There have been some changes of faces in Spain´s politics recently. After the last local and autonomous elections, there have been some changes in the presidency of some Autonomous Communities in Spain. Except for the new  president of Navarre, who is a member of UPN, all the new presidents belong to the Popular Party (PP) or were former members of this party. This is the case of the new president of Asturias, who created a new party called Foro Asturias, because he was not designated as candidate for the presidency of the Principality by his former party. Here you have the new faces:

ARAGÓN

LUISA FERNANDA RUDI

Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luisa_Fernanda_Rudi

ASTURIAS

FRANCISCO ÁLVAREZ CASCOS

Source: http://www.estrelladigital.es/espana/Cascos-Asturias-Francisco-Alvarez-Estrella-Digital_0_991701488.html

BALEARIC ISLANDS

JOSÉ RAMÓN BAUZÀ

Source: http://www.eduardriudavets.cat/2010/10/08/a-menorca-deim-got-sr-bauza/

CANTABRIA

JUAN IGNACIO DIEGO

Source: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_31171.shtml

CASTILLA-LA MANCHA

MARÍA DOLORES DE COSPEDAL

Source: http://es.globedia.com/publicado-real-decreto-nombra-cospedal-presidenta-castilla-mancha

EXTREMADURA

JOSÉ ANTONIO MONAGO

Source: http://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pkid=365281

NAVARRE

YOLANDA BARCINA

Source: http://www.que.es/sevilla/201107211257-presidenta-navarra-espera-salida-bolsa-epi.html

VALENCIAN COMMUNITY

The last change happened yesterday and it was not motivated by the result of the past elections. Francisco Camps, who was elected president some weeks ago, resigned due to his involvement in a corruption scandal,  uncovered by the investigations of Gürtel case. The new president will be Alberto Fabra, who held the post of mayor in Castellón until yesterday. 

ALBERTO FABRA

Source: http://www.ppdigital.es/es/alberto-fabra/

And there has been a remodelation of the government as well. The exit of Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the PSOE candidate for the next general elections, has provoked some changes in the configuration of the ministries and the appointment of a new minister of the Interior, Antonio Camacho.

ANTONIO CAMACHO

Source: http://www.heraldo.es/noticias/antonio_camacho_ministro_interior_jose_blanco_portavoz.html

The new spokesman will be José Blanco (he keeps his post in the Ministry of Public Works) and there will only be two vice-presidents, Elena Salgado and Manuel Chaves. 

Results of local and autonomous elections

Source: http://www.vootar.com/a/Elecciones-2011

Here you have the link of the Ministry of the Interior to the information about the local elections. You can follow the evolution of the votes count in every municipality of Spain. If you want to know how the results are evolving in a specific municipality, click on the left side of the website, choose the province and then the city or town you´re interested in: 

http://resultados2011.mir.es/99MU/DMU99000PR_L1.htm

And this is the link to the Castile- La Mancha autonomous elections website: 

http://e2011.jccm.es/07AU/DAU07000CI_L1.htm

More about the reform of the Spanish electoral system

Source: http://cowell.ucsc.edu/votes/home/

There have been different attempts of reforming the LOREG (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General). The last one was based on a report the State Council prepared for the Government. The State Council concluded that the electoral system is disproportioned and benefits the biggest parties and the least populated provinces, because it assures every province a minimum of two deputies in the Congress. The State Council proposed to enlarge the number of deputies from the present 350 to 400 and to assign only one deputy per province. 

Source: http://www.publico.es/detalle-imagen/214149/?c=http://www.publico.es/espana/214149/la-ley-electoral-que-propone-el-consejo-de-estado-prima-al-pp

Here you have a more detailed explanation of this proposition: 

http://www.publico.es/espana/214149/la-ley-electoral-que-propone-el-consejo-de-estado-prima-al-pp

This proposition was debated in the Congress last year and it was refused. The biggest parties and the nationalist and autonomous parties voted against this reform: 

http://www.publico.es/espana/302023/el-congreso-cierra-el-debate-de-la-reforma-electoral

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/PSOE/PP/bloquean/reforma/sistema/electoral/elpepuesp/20100317elpepunac_26/Tes

And this is complete text of the LOREG:

http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/lo5-1985.html

Corrections to the charts of the Spanish electoral system

I´ve revised the charts included on the book and there were some mistakes. Here you have the corrections: 

On the first chart I coloured 8 boxes in yellow, instead of 7 and one of them was wrong. The most voted party gets 3 seats, the second party gets 3 seats and the third one gets only 1 seat. If there were 8 seats to be assigned, party number 1 would get the eighth seat with 85,000 votes. This is the right chart:

	PARTY 1	PARTY 2	PARTY 3	PARTY 4	PARTY 5
SEAT 1	340,000  (1st seat)	280,000  (2nd seat)	160,000  (4th seat)	60,000	15,000
SEAT 2	170,000  (3rd seat )	140,000  (5th seat)	80,000	30,000	7,500
SEAT 3	113,333  (6th seat)	93,333  (7th seat)	53,333	20,000	5,000
SEAT 4	85,000	70,000	40,000	15,000	3,750
SEAT 5	68,000	56,000	32,000	12,000	3,000
SEAT 6	56,667	46,667	26,667	10,000	2,500
SEAT 7	48,571	40,000	22,857	8,571	2,143

And here you have the corrections to the second chart, about the percentage of votes and the percentage of seats obtained. When I wrote this, I rounded the numbers up. This is why it didn´t make 100.

	PARTY 1	PARTY 2	PARTY 3	PARTY 4	PARTY 5
PERCENTAGE OF VOTES RECEIVED	39.76%	32.74%	18.71%	7.01%	1.75%
PERCENTAGE OF SEATS WON	43%	43%	14%	0%	0%

Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistema_D'Hondt

And finally, here you have three flash animations of past elections that will help you to understand better the assignment of seats: 

http://www.elecciones.mir.es/generales2008/i_visita8.html

http://www.elmundo.es/elecciones2000/cifras/graficodhont.html

http://terranoticias.terra.es/elecciones-2004/ley-dhont/

How much do public servants earn in Spain?

Here you have some data about the salaries the people who hold the most important posts in Spain receive for their services: 

- The Royal family receives 8.43 million € in 2011. According to the Constitution, they don´t have to explain their expenses. 

http://www.casareal.es/laCasa/laCasa-ides-idweb.html

- The President of the Government earns 6,515.42 € per month (78,185 € per year). The Vicepresidents earn 6,123.86 € per month and the Ministers 5,748.49 € (68,981 € annually).


http://www.cincodias.com/articulo/economia/Zapatero-mantendra-2011-sueldo-mensual-651542-euros/20100930cdscdseco_17/

- The President of the Congress earns 11,934.9 € monhtly and a normal deputy, without any specific responsibility, earns 2,813.87 € per month. But they also receive subsistence and travelling allowances if they are representatives of provinces outside Madrid and they receive complements if they belong to panels as well.


http://www.congreso.es/portal/page/portal/Congreso/Congreso/Diputados/RegEcoyProtSoc/regimen_economico_diputados.pdf


 - As for the President of the Senate, his salary is 10,352.12 € per month. Senators receive a basic salary of 2,813.91 €, but they also get similar subsistence and travelling allowances as the deputies and they receive different complements, depending on the panels they belong to. 


http://www.senado.es/legis9/senadores/regimen_economico.pdf


- The Spanish deputies in the European Parliament earn 6,200.72 monthly and they receive travelling and subsistence allowances in addition.


http://www.zfinanzas.es/cuanto-cobran-eurodiputados/

- Here you have the salaries of the Presidents of the Autonomous Communities and the mayors of the largest cities: 

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/859123/0/sueldo/politicos/espanoles/

- And the last links refer to the salaries the judges receive in Spain: 

http://www.diba.cat/cemical/es/actualidad/ficheros/salario_altos_magistrados5D01_12_10.pdf

http://www.publico.es/espana/316976/los-jueces-se-rebelan-contra-su-recorte-por-desproporcionado

http://www.larazon.es/noticia/5715-los-jueces-del-constitucional-se-bajan-el-sueldo-un-15

Political organization of Spain

 

Here you have the Powerpoint presentation we have used for to learn about the political organization of Spain. Remember that you have some exercises for homework. You can use the presentation to complete some of the exercises. 

Challenge number 13

With this challenge we will learn how some people came into power and about women who hold important posts in politics. These are the questions: 

QUESTION 1

Here you have some pictures of heads of State or politicians from different countries. You will have to explain the posts they hold (or held) and how they seized power in their countries. 

BENITO MUSSOLINI

ADOLF HITLER

MUHAMMAD VI

HUGO CHÁVEZ

BASHAR AL- ASSAD

QUESTION 2

The following women hold important posts in their countries Who are they? What are their posts? As a clue, you will have their first name. 

MARY...

JULIA ...

TARJA ...

HILLARY ...

Types of States

Here you have the Powerpoint presentation we have used today to review the different types of States. Have a look on it, especially to the last slides. We haven´t had time to finish it during the lesson. Enjoy your trip on Wednesday and don´t forget to study (the people who have to make the second term up) and to do the homework!

Types of States

More about participatory democracy

Source: http://www.thepolisblog.org/2010/02/participatory-budgeting.html

Direct democracy is the real basis of democracy, the real rule of people. In participatory democracy citizens meet, discuss, value the different options and finally make decisions based on consensus. Maybe the process is longer, but it´s more satisfactory for the citizens and it contributes to the development of  citizen´s political awareness.

Source: http://home.getinvolvedwa.org/participatory_democracy.html

There have been different experiences of participatory democracy, especially in local governments. The most famous case is the one of the city of Porto Alegre in Brazil. More than 100,000 inhabitants of this city got involved in the decision making and they could decide on where the municipal budget should be invested. On the following link you can read more about Porto Alegre´s achievements:

http://www.participedia.net/wiki/Participatory_Budgeting:_Porto_Alegre

Source: http://www.torontohousing.ca/key_initiatives/community_planning

Source: http://www.progressivestates.org/node/22080

Here you can read a short history of paticipatory budgeting: 

http://www.watsonblogs.org/participatorybudgeting/historypb.html

There have been some experiences about participatory budgeting in Spain, such as in Córdoba, Seville, Barcelona, Albacete or Getafe. On this link you can find more information about this topic: 

http://www.presupuestosparticipativos.com/

And this is the link to Córdoba´s  and Seville´s town halls, where they explain how to take part in the process of decision making: 

http://planparticipativo.cordoba.es/como-participar.html

http://www.sevilla.org/presupuestosparticipativos/init.do

Qwiki: another useful tool

Here you have a new discovery that you can use to improve your pronounciation at the same time you learn new concepts or review the old ones. It´s called Qwiki (a new word formed by "quick" and "wiki") and it provides the users with the basic information about a wide range of topics by using different resources (audio, video, pictures, maps, graphs, animations, text...). These small "bites" of information are around one minute long and allow the users to have a clear and quick idea about a concept or topic. The creators have called it "the information experience". As a Wiki (colaborative website), users can improve it and correct it. It can also be embedded on a blog. Here you have an example of the Qwiki information about the concept "Republic". 

View Republic and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.

You can test this tool with other concepts we have studied this week, such as "monarchy", "head of State", "Constitution", "parliamentary system", "presidential system","unicameralism", "Parliament"...