Notes for Teachers
The following are suggested questions and activities that can be given to your students after they read the materials of each section. The questions are meant to be asked as a review exercise, but also as critical thinking exercises. The activities, which may require additional research, can be presented as classroom exercises or as individual assignments for essays or class presentations (see also Resources for suggested research materials). Some activities call for students to have debates that would engage the entire class but all of the questions and activities can be used in this way. These are only suggested questions and activities. Teachers should rewrite or develop their own as they feel necessary.
Essential Principles and History
Study Questions
Question
How does John Stuart Mill characterize the two broad approaches of political parties in electoral democracies? Do these approaches always achieve a “healthy state of political life?” When have they? When have they not?
Question
What are three basic elements of a multiparty system listed in Essential Principles?
Question
Have any modern democracies functioned without a multiparty system?
Question
What are alternatives to a multiparty system? Are any of these democratic? Why is the multiparty system so essential to democracy?
Question
How did political parties act to confront the most fundamental problems in U.S. history (such as ending the system of slavery; the Great Depression; systematic disenfranchisement)? What role have parties of stability played? What role have parties of change played?
Question
How did political parties act to confront fundamental problems elsewhere? Provide some examples from past and recent history.
Question
What has Freedom House identified as a major contributor to declines in its Survey of Freedom? What countries have experienced “backsliding”? How have leaders and ruling parties attempted to restrict the multiparty system to ensure their continuation in power?
Activities and Study Topics
Activity
Assign James Madison’s “Letter to Unknown Re Majority Governments” (see Resources). Have students answer (in essay or class discussion): What does Madison argue are the basic virtues of representative government? Why is majority rule essential within representative government? Reviewing Madison’s arguments, how do his arguments stand the test of time? Are they relevant today? What is different in today’s political conditions and what is not?
Activity
A country's political parties are usually a reflection of its recent history. Examine a study of a country ranked “free” by Freedom House’s Survey of Freedom from this or another section in Democracy Web. Using additional online sources (newspapers, political party web sites, et al.), find out the platforms of the major political parties represented in its parliament. What do the platforms tell an observer about the country's history and democratic development? Present your findings to the class, and compare them with other students' observations for their assigned countries.
Activity
Many political theorists, such as Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, have observed that in the United States one of the two dominant parties is acting contrary to some democratic principles and asserting dominant majoritarian power when achieved. Have students examine (in discussion or essay) actions in individual states that might fall in this category.
Activity
Organize a student debate: Dominant Two-Party Systems Are Preferred: Yes or No.” Have students research different electoral systems in Freedom House’s Survey of Freedom (“first past the post,” run-off, ranked-choice and proportional) and how they are practiced in different representative systems (parliamentary, presidential, and mixed). Have them develop arguments for and against dominant two-party systems that have evolved within “first past the post” and mixed presidential systems. Have them develop the arguments based on a chosen framework (e.g., which system is better for stability or reform.).
Israel
Study Questions
Question
What are the characteristics of Israel’s multi-party system? How many parties are regularly represented in parliament? What are the types of parties and what roles do smaller parties play?
Question
How does Israel's parliamentary system compare to the Netherlands, another country with multiple parties in parliament? What are similarities and differences in the results of these two systems with lower parliamentary thresholds? Has increasing the threshold in Israel benefitted or impaired the democratic process?
Question
What are the challenges that Israel’s democracy faces? How are they similar to other democracies that have experienced lower scores in recent years in Freedom House’s Survey of Freedom (such as Hungary, Poland and the United States)? How are they different?
Activities and Study Topics
Activity
Assign an essay or class discussion on the resent elections in Israel. Using the online resources (The New York Times, Economist, and others), research the 2021 and 2022 elections for the Israeli Knesset and the formations of the two governments that followed. How did the higher 3.5 percent threshold for parliament affect the elections? Were there substantially different results? What explains the difference of the 2021 and 2022 elections? Was there an increase or decrease in representation of diverse interests in each election? How do these diverse interests explain election results?
Activity
The current Israeli government has adopted policies to expand settlements in the occupied territory of the West Bank. Have students read the Foreign Affairs article and/or the Dissent article in Resources) on whether a two-state solution is possible and the future of Israeli democracy. Without asking for judgments of the student/s, assign an essay or discuss in class: What are the arguments made in relation to the future of a two-state solution? In relation to the future of Israeli democracy? What are their merits? What are their weaknesses?
Activity
Assign the article by Bret Stephens in The New York Times on “The Unfinished Exodus of Ethiopia’s Remaining Jews” by Bret Stephens. Discuss in class (or assign an essay to summarize): Who are Ethiopia’s Jews? When, why and how did Israel decide to assist them in emigrating? Why is the story “unfinished”? What does the exodus and experience of Ethiopian Jews in Israel relate about its democracy?
Malaysia
Study Questions
Question
Why do ethnic parties play such an important role in Malaysia? What is the justification for ethnically based policies such as affirmative action for bumiputera (indigenous Malay)?
Question
What was the dominant one-party system in Malaysia? How long did it last?
Question
Why did the 2018 elections result in an opposition victory? What issues were most important? What actors were important?
Question
Why did the 2018 elections not result in a stable government? What factors led to its break-up?
Question
What was the result of the 2022 elections? Will these result in a stable multi-party system?
Activities and Study Topics
Activity
Examine the Survey of Freedom in the World Reports for Malaysia and Botswana and the Country Study for Botswana in Accountability and Transparency. Compare the two former colonial countries’ electoral systems and outcomes. In each country, the ruling coalition has won every election since independence. What are the differences between these two cases? What are the similarities? What roles do corruption and repression play in each country? What considerations did Freedom House make in determining Botswana as Free and Malaysia Partly Free? [A similar exercise may be conducted using Country Studies of Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore.]
Activity
Examine the history of elections in Malaysia using the Country Study and other Resources (like The New York Times and previous Freedom House reports). Assign an essay or have class discussion on: What factors prevented free and fair elections previously? How did the opposition break through to win elections in 2018? What factors played a role in the split elections of 2022? Has Malaysia become a democracy with a multiparty system? If so, why? If not, why not? What should Malaysia’s standing be in Freedom House’s current rankings? Should they be improved to Free?
Syria
Study Questions
Question
How was Syria’s political system adopted under the Ba’ath party similar to that in the Soviet Union or the People’s Republic of China? What role did the Syrian Ba’ath party play similar to the Soviet or Chinese Communist Parties?
Question
In addition to establishing a one-party state, Hafez al-Assad established a personal dictatorship. What means did he use to establish control? When he passed on power to his son, Bashar al Assad, was there any real change?
Question
In the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolts, a civil war broke out that has lasted 12 years. What have been the consequences? What is the current situation in the country? Why are some countries deciding to normalize relations with the Syrian government?
Activities and Study Topics
Activity
Have students compare the descriptions of the Arab Spring protest movement in Tunisia and Syria in the Country Studies (and in other online and news sources) to examine the period of the protests in 2010-11 and afterwards. Both countries were one-party dictatorships. Assign an essay or have class discussion on what contributed to one country moving towards democracy and the other country reconsolidating one-party rule?
Activity
Freedom House has consistently categorized Malaysia as Partly Free and Syria as Not Free. Have students examine the elections in Malaysia and Syria since their independence and especially since 1999. Malaysia had a one-party dominant system with authoritarian features. What allowed it to “break through” to become a multi-party system? Syria has a one-party dominant system with authoritarian features. What difference was there in Syria that prevented movement towards a multi-party system in 2011? Assign an essay or have class discussion on the topic.
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