Communism is viewed as a failure by most people because attempts to put it into practice seldom lived up to the lofty ideals set out by Marx and Engels. Some people level the same criticism at liberalism. Despite its obvious advantages, liberalism is not without its flaws as well.
In this unit, you will begin to explore some of the challenges faced by liberal democracies as they endeavour to live up to the high ideals of liberalism and challenges abound. Democratic governments are supposed to represent the people and respond to their wishes, yet many electoral systems and governmental structures do this imperfectly at best.
Periodically, liberal societies must contend with the chaos of war and terrorism (and pandemics?). In such circumstances, governments may choose to suspend rights to more adequately deal with perceived threats to national security. The suspension of rights in a democracy is seldom achieved without criticism, as we are well aware. There can be conflict over the interpretation of 'rights'. Whose rights?
Liberalism is a work in progress and many countries with even countries with a solid and long history of liberalist democratic values experience issues, flux, and change depending on who has been elected to govern and what the will of the people is (look at the USA under Trump). Therefore it makes sense that countries that have political and economic ideologies different than those we associate with liberalism are in flux as well as they attempt to find the best spot for themselves on the spectrum.
In this unit, students will :
To cover the outcomes, there will be 6 main lessons.
| Lesson | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Democracy's Limitations |
| 2 | Imposing Liberal Democracy in Canada - Illiberalism |
| 3 | Civil Emergencies and Rights |
| 4 | Dissent in Liberal Democracies |
| 5 | Viability of Liberalism |
| 6 | Tools for Citizens |
Graded work includes three discussions, a unit quiz, and an assignment. Graded work will appear on its own content page so you can clearly identify what to turn in and where. Due dates can be found in the course Checklist. If ever you cannot meet a course due date, let your teacher know through private discussions.
The vocabulary below will used and covered in this unit.