If you are still working on demonstrating skills of
connecting the past with the present, read the text below, and consider the
question:
How can the economic and/or political policies of the Cold
War be connected to Europe today?
-
For an E, you present one example of
how historical developments of the past can be understood to be connected to
today, and you provide a logical possible development for the future.
-
For a C, you present two examples of how historical
developments of the past can be understood to be connected today, and you
provide one logical possible development for the future
-
For an A, you present two examples of how historical
developments of the past can be understood to be connected today, and you
provide two logical possible developments for the future.
Please provide some specific
example to illustrate your point – so that you are not merely copying what I
have written below.
Bring in relevant terms into your discussion, for example: capitalism, market economy, communism,
planned/command economy, liberal democracy (democratic political systems), free
trade, NATO, Cold War, Iron Curtain.
****
During this year, you have
- built up the ability to select and use different sources,
- understand basic historical time periods
- use different historical terms
- see different perspectives
- discuss different processes of change
- discuss and explain causes and consequences connected to
processes of change.
With these skills, you want to now be able to understand how
events of the past are connected to the world today (the present). That is, you
want to see that history is relevant to creating the world you live in today.
At a basic level, this is fairly easy to do with the Cold
War material you are currently working with. Because we have seen the outcomes
of the different economic and trade policies of East and West since the late
1940s, we can see how eastern and western Europe developed differently during
the Cold War.
The economic developments of the West led to enormous
prosperity. States in western Europe participated in the Marshall Plan, but
probably more importantly, they adopted various degrees of free market
strategies (capitalism) and they freely traded with one another and encouraged
private businesses. They also developed democratic systems.
These countries that traded with each other and embraced
democratic systems eventually built up the EU.
The wealth that developed in the West during the Cold War is
still in many ways seen in the economic strength of western states today. And
those countries that were behind the Iron Curtain have been able to make new
economic and political decisions since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991
and the end of the Cold War. But even 26 years later, these countries are still
catching up with the West economically.
Some of the key problems for the countries that were behind
the Iron Curtain were
-corruption
-lack of free institutions
-no free elections
Today most of the former communist countries have free
markets, although they don’t necessarily function quite the same as free
markets in western European countries because of high levels of corruption. And
democratic institutions, such as a free press and free of speech, don’t
necessarily work as well as in countries such as Sweden and France and Great
Britain.
So you can see connections between the past and the present.
But what about the future? For example, based on what you know about the past,
do you think that eastern Europe will continue to embrace capitalism and democratic
systems?
Places such as Russia, which experienced freedom of
information and free (or at least freer) elections after 1991, have seen in the
past fifteen years greater and greater restrictions on democratic institutions.
Freedom of the press is becoming more and more limited. Free elections do not
exist because political candidates are frequently imprisoned or killed.
Russia is not in the EU and is not in NATO. But most of the other
European countries that used to be behind the Iron Curtain are now in the EU
and NATO (or are trying to get into to both). (Belarus and Ukraine are clear
exceptions.) On the other hand, Great Britain is in the process of leaving the
EU (but not NATO). What sort of arguments can you make about where Europe will
develop in the future – based on what you know about the past and the
present?
*****
The table below is for those who feel that they would like to better understand issues connected to free trade. I'll remind you that there is no country where there are no taxes on imports and exports. Every country has tariffs on goods imported into their country. But some have lower tariffs and regulations, thus encouraging trade. Today, the U.S. has some of the lowest import taxes -- but it still has tariffs and laws regulating imports.
