WHAT IS IDENTITY?

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-h_fJFQcds
 WHAT DOES POP CULTURE HAVE TO SAY
ABOUT BEING CANADIAN?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pASE_TgeVg8

• Complete the sheet while you watch the video to help guide our discussion about
Canadian identity
 WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT
GOVERNMENT DOES FOR US?
• Water treatment • Power rates and power
companies
• Public Transit • Agriculture -including
subsidies for farmers
• Roads
• Education of K-12 and post-
• Waste management (has secondary students
to deal with waste and
(including tuition rates)
follow regulations) • Labour/minimum wage
• Regulate sewage treatment
• Policing
• Manages health services
• Parks and recreation
• Regulates legal drinking
ages
• Libraries
• Rental regulations (tenant
• Garbage collection rights and rental rates)
• Chemicals included in products
(safety)
• Drug safety/access
• Food safety
• Agriculture -including subsidies for
farmers
• Regulate sewage treatment
• Passports (movement in and out of
country)
• Immigration
• Funds health services
• Tariffs on goods
• Armed forces and coast guard
• Foreign policy
• https://lop.parl.ca/About/
Parliament/SenatorEugen
eForsey/touchpoints/inde
x-e.html
 THREE LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT
• Municipal – local government
• In a town or city, the government leader is the mayor and other elected members are councilors
and make up the governing body called a council
• A municipal government create bylaws and collects property tax
• Provincial
• Is in charge of issues and areas of regulation that affect the people in that major geographic
region (ex. health care, child welfare, municipal government, labour, property and civil rights,
highways and education)
• Creates laws and collects taxes (income tax, sales tax, etc.)
• Federal – national government
• Is in charge of issues and areas of regulation that affect the whole nation (ex. citizenship, foreign
policy, currency and banking, national defence and postal service)
• Creates laws and collects taxes (tariffs, income tax, sales tax, etc.)

• There is some sharing of responsibilities between the federal and provincial governments,
especially with health care, agriculture, justice
 FORMS OF
GOVERNMENT
 ANARCHY
Anarchy is the type of
government where there is no
government at all.
• Every person is left to fend for
themselves. People must
continue to live through
farming on their own land,
find water, and build a home
on there own.
• No one tells you what to do
and there is no voting.
 ANARCHY
Advantages:
• Freedom – individuals
manage their own assets
without interference

Disadvantages:
• More potential for disorder
and inequality
• No guiding principles in
recognition of basic human
rights
EXTREME INDIVIDUALISM
 THEOCRACY
The religious leaders are also the
political leaders

The deity of the religion is recognized

as the ultimate source of authority
Political decisions reflect religious
dogma (beliefs)
 THEOCRACY
Advantages:
• Easier to create social reforms
• Easier to implement policy as control /compliance
is easier to attain)

Disadvantages:
• Intolerance is common and minorities may lack
legal status
• Innovation is constrained by dogma
• Fallible humans, not the deity, are in charge
 AUTOCRACY:
DICTATORSHIP
• One person or small group holds all
the power

• Constitutional limitations on power are

ineffective and leaders often resort to
force or fraud to gain power and use
intimidation, terror and suppression of
civil rights to maintain it
 AUTOCRACY:
DICTATORSHIP
Advantages:
• Provides organization, control
and efficiency.

Disadvantages:
• Individual rights are suppressed
(freedom of speech, of the
press, etc.)
• Transition of power is uncertain
and can lead to instability
 AUTOCRACY:
MONARCHY
• One person has all the power
• The sovereign, or ruler, comes to
power through being born into the
ruling family
• Power is held until death, abdication or
overthrow
 AUTOCRACY:
MONARCHY
Advantages:
• Provides stability, tradition and is a
unifying force

Disadvantages:
• Is expensive, there are no criteria for
becoming leader except birthright,
can be remote from populace
 CONSTITUTIONAL
MONARCHY
• The queen or king acts as head of state while
the actual ability to make and pass legislation
is held by the elected Parliament
• The monarch is bound by the constitution – the
rules – and not free will
• Formally appoints prime ministers, approves
legislation and bestows honours
• Safeguards democracy – can call elections
 DEMOCRACY
• Citizens hold the power
• In Direct Democracy all eligible citizens are
involved in decision making and voting

• In Representational Democracy citizens

relinquish decision making powers to
elected representatives
 DEMOCRACY
Advantages:
• Protects individual rights and freedoms
• Promotes equality
• Decisions are made from input from multiple sources
• Allows and promotes change

Disadvantages:
• Coming to consensus on key issues can be difficult and
lengthy
• Can lead to wasted resources (time and money)
• No guarantee that leaders are competent
IDEOLOGIES
 AN IDEOLOGY IS…

• An ideology is a system of beliefs or theories reflecting the social

needs and aspirations of an individual, a group, a class, or a culture.
The ideal way of social organization.

• Often, ideology seems invisible - we simply think that our beliefs are
natural and obviously true.
FASCISM: BENITO MUSSOLINI’S GIFT TO
THE WORLD
• Fascism developed out of the
turmoil Italy experienced
following WWI and the Great
Depression
• Political and economic chaos!!!
 FASCISM

• Rights and freedoms of the individual are negligible

• It is the responsibility of people to serve the state – collective identity

• A Strong military is used to obtain and maintain power

• Political opposition is forbidden and met with harsh penalties (beatings and death)

• Nationalism and militarism are the foundation of government

• Tends towards racism to keep the nation strong
 CONSERVATISM

• Individualism
• The individual is responsible for financial needs
• Stability is highly valued
• Change must be made gradually
• Undermining stability is very dangerous because societies can easily fall into
chaos and violence
• Traditional values (social standards)
• Police/Military receive strong support
• Limited government regulation and intervention
• Fewer taxes as well as fewer social supports
• Laissez-faire economics – the market will take care of itself
 CLASSICAL LIBERALISM

• It’s all about the liberty and the individual

 CLASSICAL LIBERALISM
• Individualism
• Society is a collection of unconnected individuals – individual freedom is a priority
• Freedom and Equality
• Individuals have the right to make choices for themselves
• No person is morally or politically superior to others
• Progress
• New ideas lead to progress in social, cultural and economic progress
• The free market
• Individual gain is more important than the community
• Individuals should be guided by the invisible hand of the free market to maximize personal
and social fulfilment
• The role of the state is small – should only remove obstacles to entrepreneurship
 LIBERALISM

• Development of liberalism
• Part way through the 19th century liberals realized they
had to appeal to a wider section of society and working
class men did not own property
• Governments can help regulate but not direct the
economy

• The focus became civil rights

• Governments should intervene to maintain basic rights of
individuals and groups
EARLY SOCIALISM
• Thomas Paine was a key figure in the
emergence of claims for the state's
responsibilities for welfare and educational
provision

• Robert Owen – a 19th century social reformer

who created cotton mills with the specific
intention of providing social and industrial
welfare programs to his workers
(children/education was a particular interest)
 SOCIALISM
• Based on ideas of collectivism
• Human beings are social by nature, and society should respect this.

• Economic equality
• Wealth is distributed equitably among populace - everyone who contributes to
production is entitled to benefit

• Public ownership
• Society, not individuals, should own major industries

• Central economic planning

• The government plays a role in managing the economy – not a completely free market
KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS
Communism grew out of the massive inequalities and is in
essence a political and economic doctrine that aims to replace
private property and a profit-based economy with public
ownership and communal control
 COMMUNISM

• Marx and Engels considered revolution the inevitable result of class conflict (1848)
• In theory, communism is a revolutionary approach to achieving complete equality.
• Workers would toss off the shackles of false beliefs and rise up and overthrow the elite.
• Classless society in which all members jointly share the means and output of production.
• The state controls and directs the economy and property

• In reality, authoritarian and violent measures are often required to create and maintain a
communist state and the worker’s utopia does not exist
THE WORKING CLASS WILL OVERTHROW
THE RULING CLASS
 LIBERTARIAN VS AUTHORITARIAN

• In authoritarianism, the collective (or state) is more important than the individual.
Authority should be obeyed by the individual.

• In libertarianism, it is the individual and their rights that matters most. Protection
of individual rights to freedom and autonomy is the primary role of the state.
 TOTALITARIANISM

• Theoretically permits no individual freedom and is a form that seeks to control

and direct all aspects of the individual’s life under the authority of the
government.

Communism (on the left)

Fascism (on the right)
 WORKING WITH IDEOLOGIES
Task: Create a mnemonic that will solidify the essentials of the
political spectrum for yourself
• Create an infographic that clearly differentiates between and
describes the characteristics of the main ideologies
• Contrast five ideologies and include yourself in the appropriate
panel
• Include an explanation of why you belong to that ideology – what
attracts you to it and what repels you from other ideologies?

• This is image based with text – see the example

• Use pages 297 to 300 and your notes to guide you.
 COMPLETE THE TWO POLITICAL QUIZZES

• Politicalcompass.org/test
• https://canada.isidewith.com/political-quiz