POLITICAL ECONOMY
Why lobbying is such an important concept? What are the consequences of lobbying?
The practice of"lobbying" in economic and financial circles towards elected officials and public decision-makers is often exercised in a non-transparent and poorly regulated manner, at local, national, and international levels. Often, these actions involving significant financial and human resources, influence public and democratic debate.
What role does money play in today's society? Is that a problem?
Nowadays, people identify power with money. If you have a lot of money, your influence over people increases and so does your power. In fact, you can make important economic partnerships. People will tend to agree with your thinking in order to not lose those economic advantages. This poses an ethical and democratic problem.
Democracy is supposed to be independent and equal for everyone. However, we tend to see in our society that people with money hold the power in our democracy.
What is democracy?
Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States from 1860 to 1865, is known to have once declared that democracy was the "government of the people, by the people, and for the people". According to this principle, sovereignty, therefore, belongs to the people, who choose those who will govern them.
According to Plato, democracy is based on justice. Living in a democracy means that you are living in a good and just city.
Why filter bubbles are dangerous?
Filter bubbles are dangerous because it shows you what you want to see. This is a form of manipulation because it locks you into your cognitive biases and limits your view of the world.
How would you define fake news?
It designates false information, information that is often deliberately faked. Fake news is false news disseminated in order to manipulate or mislead the public.
The Fake news formula=intention to deceive+ news format+ Low facticity
What are the steps to conduct a political economy analysis?
First, collect background information on the company you choose: 10 K form, revenue, net income, board of directors.
Second, create a lobbying section for your political economy analysis for the company you chose and record their total lobbying expenditures.
Third, describe the political and economic power of your company in the U.S democracy. Look to connect the information you found in the first two sections. What conclusions can you draw?
How does the collection of personal data impacts and influence the democratic system?
The use of personal data is extremely powerful and questions several issues related to ethics. As we saw the use of personal data can influence people to vote for a certain person and consequently not allow them to choose freely. This is an anti-democratic act which is really problematic.
Secondly, in a democracy, we have the right to protect our private lives. Therefore, people should be able to say no to the exploration of their personal data.
What are the two types of democracy?
The two types of democracy are direct democracy and representative democracy.
Democracy is direct when citizens, meeting in assembly, directly exercise their power by taking, for example, decisions by a show of hands.
Democracy is representative, when citizens choose representatives to exercise power on their behalf
Mention one company responsible for the spread of misinformation. What events have been impacted?
Facebook is an example of a company responsible for the spread of misinformation. In fact, people (by a lack of education) were sharing and promoting the circulation of false information through the platform. Facebook didn't have rules and laws to regulate what type of information was circulating on its platform.
How do we stop the spread of fake news?
Nowadays we don’t have time to police the news. So how do we know what is true or false? It requires a personal level of investigation. You have to develop your critical way of thinking and don't trust everything you see at first without some personal research.
1. Check the source or the author
2. Don't share information before checking. This will avoid misinformation.