Non-Democratic Regimes Assignment | Get Paper Help

Discussion 1
Prompt:
Discuss one method of political control discussed in Chapter 8 of our text (e.g., coercion; surveillance) and provide an example from this week’s materials (e.g., from North Korea or East Germany).
A reminder that you need to answer the prompt directly integrating the terminology from text, use support from materials. (Minimum 2 Paragraphs)

Text:
Cases and Concepts in Comparative Politics by Patrick H. O’Neil, Karl Fields & Don Share referred to in Calendar as “O’Neil”
2018

Respond separately to the following peer discussions (2 paragraphs each):

Discussion 2 (Minimum 2 Paragraphs)
Peer #1
The method of political control that I’ve chosen to discuss this week is personality. This method of political control venerates a leader on an individual level. It also demonstrates how a leader and a non-democratic regime creates a personality cult and uses instruments such as the media to reinforce it. One example of this is Vladimir Putin in Russia. In the New York Times article provided to us, it’s described how Putin uses the media to legitimize his mending of the Constitution to allow him to stay in office for two more presidential terms. As the article states, “The message in the pro-Kremlin news media Wednesday was that Mr. Putin had chosen a democratic path to preserving stability in Russia by keeping himself in power.” And who can forget the many articles referring to Putin as an able leader who is both physically and mentally strong in a time of great uncertainty in the world. Truly, the personality cult that he and the media arm of the Kremlin have created around him have enabled him to retain power in a sham democracy.
Works Cited
Troianovski, Anton. “A New ‘Emperor’: Russia Girds for 16 More Years of Putin”(Links to an external site.). New York Times, 11 March 2020.

Discussion 3 (Minimum 2 Paragraphs)
Peer #2
Political leaders using the coercion approach use threats and fear to gain political control. Threats can include torture, job loss, killings, imprisonment, poverty, and famine. In order to achieve this, the state needs to control, or surveil, every aspect everyone’s daily life (O’Neil).
Kim Jong-un is the perfect example of a political leader using this approach. Living conditions in North Korea are terrible, but he doesn’t let the outside world see this. In this week’s video Secret State of North Korea, young men risked their lives to film the living conditions of North Korea, so that people can see what truly goes on. Poverty is at an all-time high and experts believe that people living in North Korea are the verge of a food shortage. Kim Jong-un forces people to attend classes praising his political reign and if anyone doesn’t attend, they could be fined or imprisoned. The video mentions that Kim Jung-un has over 200,00 political prisoners who tried to oppose him. He controls what his people watch, eat, and hear from radios and news stations. People would rather die trying to escape this country than to live in North Korea.