Danes as the happiest people in the world

1. What characteristic/trait distinguishes the Danes from others in consistently being the happiest people in the world?
2. What is your assessment of the consequences of crowdsourcing in Iceland?
3. Did Professor Willerton characterize the U.S. government as having a positive or negative role in safeguarding liberty? Explain.
4. Explain an infrastructural impediment to toilet access in India.
5. According to Dr. Michael Slobodchikoff, the Founding Fathers feared democracy. Name a political institution that was established to limit democracy in the U.S.
6. According to Drs. Slobodchikoff and Cyr, what is the minimalist definition of democracy?
7. According to Dr. Slobodchikoff, many people like to include the rights of the individual in their definition of democracy. Why is this problematic to democratic theory?
8. According to Professor Jennifer Cyr, in what ways might Hugo Chavez’s reign be more democratic than under the Punto Fijo?
9. According to Professor Cyr, how does Venezuela’s oil wealth affect Chavez’s presidency?
10. According to Professor Willerton, a polity can be maintained through what two major ways? Define the terms as you give them.
11. As Professor Spike Peterson surveyed changing global population growth patterns, what developing country did she emphasize as having an especially fast-growing and large middle class in proportion to its total population?
12. According to our textbook, how are most of the largest and most populous states institutionally structured?
13. Identify two of the three contemporary states that our textbook indicates do not have a formal, written constitution.
14. According to the textbook, what major historical event led to the creation of the modern European nation-state system?
15. Relying on our textbook, name one of two countries in the world that have the highest percentage of women in their national legislature.
16. According to the text, at the turn of the twentieth century, socialism divided into two camps. What are they?
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17. Given Professor Willerton’s presentations, why do Europeans use the term social justice when Americans use the term welfare state?
18. According to Dr. Brint Milward, why is A. Q. Khan, who is known as the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, referred to as the Merchant of Menace?
19. According to Dr. Milward, what two characteristics make a network a dark network?
20. According to Professor Faten Ghosn, what is the unique aspect that made Israeli citizens so happy with the 1994 treaty Israel signed with Jordanian King Hussein?
21. Dr. Ghosn commented in class that European students with whom she worked in Greece last summer felt that their (European) countries were more democratic than the U.S. because of what one factor? Be explicit in identifying that one factor.
22. According to the Hinnebusch article, there are two paths towards democracy in the Middle East. One path is a top-down approach instituted by leaders in the various Middle Eastern countries, while the second path is bottom-up, where the people demand democratic change. However, both of these paths rely on factors which are out of the control of Middle Eastern states. According to this article, what is the main factor that would limit democratic change in both of the paths to democracy?

Part 2. Answer the following question, limiting your essay response to one single-spaced, typed page (with double-spacing between paragraphs), again using reasonable fonts and reasonable margins.
Reflecting over the arguments set out by all lecturers who have met with us to date (i.e., Drs. Slobodchikoff, Cyr, Peterson, Milward, Halawi-Ghosn, and Willerton), identify two pressing problems confronting the global community and what steps are being taken to address them. Look for commonalities across our lecturers and readings; do not base your response on just one lecturer or on one reading. Rely on your notes from these presenters’ lectures, our textbook (which does have relevant information), the BBC Country Reports you may have consulted, and your own judgments, as you craft your response. Only rely on other sources after you have cited our course sources (i.e., lecturers, textbook, and BBC Country Reports [as applicable]