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Made up of governmental institutions, political
parties, and organizations that rulers and people
use to wield power
Each nation’s political culture reflects the
importance of the government and legal system.
Issues for foreign investors include the governing
party’s view on sovereignty, political risk, taxes,
equity dilution, and expropriation.
College Writing and Research
Chris Schrage
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Totalitarianism
Democracy
Constitutional guarantees are denied
Four majors forms:
Representative Democracy
Freedoms
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Expression, opinion, organization
Media
Regular elections with universal suffrage
Limited terms for elected representatives
Fair and independent court system
Non political bureaucracy, police force and armed service
Relatively free access to information
Communist
Theocratic
• Based on religious principles
Tribal
• Mostly African
Right wing
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Political impact on Economic
Transformation
Deregulation
The Napoleonic Code of 1804 drew
Removal of legal restrictions to free markets
on the Roman legal system and is
the basis for continental European
law today. Code law is also known as
civil law.
U.S. law is rooted in English
common law.
Privatization
Transfer of state ownership of property into
private hands.
Creation of legal systems to protect
property rights
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Civil law country
Common law
country
Disputes are decided by
reliance on the authority
of past judicial decisions
Companies are legally
incorporated by state
authority
Code law is used in few
areas; the U.S. Uniform
Commercial Code
Legal system in many Middle Eastern countries
Legal system reflects the
Sharia—a comprehensive code governing
structural concepts and
principles of the Roman
Empire
Companies are formed by
contract between two or
more parties who are fully
liable for the actions of the
company
Muslim conduct in all areas of life, including
business
Koran—holy book
Hadith
Based on life, sayings, and practices of
Muhammad
Identifies forbidden practices, “haram”
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Leads to exploitation or abuse?
Remit large amounts of money to families left at home
In Honduras about 1/5 of the capital inflow is from
Why is the undocumented workers have to live in fear
and are arrested?
Why not the corporate executives that knowingly
employ them?
Communities dependent on immigrants
Marshalltown caught in immigation squeeze
Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier September 3, 2007
Community rejuvenated by the influx of immigrants
Completed jobs no one else would perform but needed done
Meat packing
Iowa Center for Immigration Leadership and Integration
Tries to provide understanding of economic conditions that brought
immigrants to Marshalltown.
Families have now been established
New cultural dimensions to the community
Economic vibrance returning
family members working outside of Honduras
More money flows into the developing world through
remittances from immigrants than all the foreign aid by
the West.
What are basic human
rights?????
Universal Declaration
of Human Rights
1948 adopted by UN
30 articles
United States
Bill of Rights
http://www.un.org/rights/
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Today, poverty prevails as the gravest human rights
challenge in the world. Combating poverty, deprivation
and
exclusion is not a matter of charity, and it does not
depend
on how rich a country is.
By tackling poverty as a matter of human rights
obligation,
the world will have a better chance of abolishing this
scourge in our lifetime...
Poverty eradication is an achievable goal.
And poverty affects all human
rights: for example, low income can
prevent people from accessing
education -- an “economic and
social” right -- which in turn inhibits
their participation in public life -- a
“civil and political” right -- and their
ability to influence policies affecting
them.
Louise Arbour
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
International Observation
December 10th
Myramar (Burma)
Since 1950
Brick Factories in
Shanxi Province
UN declaration:
Digital literacy
Access and opportunity
Do the “right” thing.
Thomas Donaldson’s Three Principles:
Linguistic diversity on the Internet
Respect for core human values (human rights),
Ability to promote cultural products on
which determine the absolute moral threshold
for all business activities.
Respect for local tradition.
The belief that context matters when deciding
what is right and what is wrong.
the Internet
Is that the only aspect of cultural rights?
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