2018 Politics I Infopack

RI GP Y6 2018 / Politics and Governance I Copyrighted: Knowledge Skills Department, for internal circulation only 1 RAFFLES INSTITUTION YEAR 6 GENERAL PAPER 2018 STUDENTS’ INFORMATION PACKAGE Unit: Politics and Governance I 1. Introduction 2 2. Enduring Understandings And Essential Questions 3 3. For Further Reading/Watching 4 4. Related Past Year Examination Questions: Cambridge and RI 5 PRIMER 5. A Glossary of Basic Political Terms 9 ARTICLES 6. Governance and the State a. Definitions and Philosophical Ideas a(i). Politics and the State 11 a(ii). Classic Notions of ‘Citizens’, ‘State’ and ‘Politics’ 12 b. Goals of Government (Mind Map) 14 c. Personal Freedom and the Harm Principle 16 7. Contemporary Challenges of Governance: Democracy a. Central Concepts of Democracy 18 b. Challenges with Democracy: b(i). The Problem of Majority Rule 22 b(ii). The Ignorant Voter 24 8. Tension between Managing Resources for the Long Term and Short Term a. What Norway did with its oil and we didn’t 26 b. Pensioners prosper, the young suffer; Britain’s social contract is breaking 29 9. Tension between Individual Freedom and Social Stability a. As France and Belgium Strengthen Security, A Classic Debate Arises 32 b. Lessons from Apple vs FBI 33 10. Tension between Individual Freedom and The Power of the State a. Are Dictators Worse Than Anarchy? 37 b. Singapore’s Authoritarian Prosperity is Here to Stay 39 11. Tension between Domestic Interests and