POLS 208 Democracy Videos and Links

Video Documentaries

• Titanic - 'I'm Flying!'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPoMFB0FjYg

• Blade Runner - Director's Cut Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIstljYkwjg

• Matrix Trailer HD (1999)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8e-FF8MsqU

• Snowpiercer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX5PwfEMBM0
• Dystopian Futures- A Compilation of Dystopic Sci Fi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJxkI4vPXlE

• The Edge of Tomorrow (Live, Die, Repeat)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLe_qO4AE-M

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Athenian Democracy: Videos and Links

• An excellent animated map that outlines the key features of the Athenian democracy in around 4 minutes.
http://www.the-map-as-history.com/demos/tome09/3c_athenian_democracy_demo.php

• A two minute introduction to Athenian democracy that correctly emphasizes that it was a direct participatory form of democracy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J315e03RkOA

• A useful and informative introduction to the revolutionary creation and central features of Athenian democracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6KjOTABL3Y

• A brief introduction to the central features of Athenian democracy.
Less interesting than the videos listed above but still worth watching. A brief introduction to the central features of Athenian democracy by
Professor Jeffrey Rusten from Cornell University in the United States.
http://www.cornell.edu/video/ancient-athens-5-the-heart-of-athenian-democracy-the-agora-and-the-pnyx

• The Expansion of the Roman Empire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiIXC1U8HNo

• The English Civil Wars
Although produced way back in 1992 this is a better video documentary than anything I've seen that has been uploaded to the internet. It is available in VHS format in the AV section of the university library.

Location:Dn: Central Library: AV Services: Videocassettes
Call Number: O98998

• Causes of the English Civil Wars, The Trial of Charles 1st.
These short videos are worth looking at for the background and the trial of the King.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BuWiwph1xk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ngatYkLARA

• English left-wing comedian - Mark Steel - providing an account of Oliver Cromwell and his role in the English Revolution in a BBC production.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhjLHcpsvkc

• Short useful overview by an American history teacher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAo0rljTTwU

• Longer video doc from the BBC on the last pahse of the English Revolution
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1mtl57

• The French Revolution
- This video is not entirely accurate but it is mildy amusing and contains some useful visual material.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvSod16wfgg

- A music video by Jeffrey Lewis that outlines the timeline of the French Revolution in 2 and a half minutes!
http://www.history.com/topics/french-revolution/videos/the-french-revolution

- A much better video documentary (around 30 minutes in length), is presented by the middle-of-the road academic historian Gwynne Lewis. Unfortunately it is not available online, but it can be consulted in the AV section of the library or purchsed as a DVD.

The title is: The French Revolution.
The call number is O95138
The Otago library link is:
http://otago.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=OTAGO_ALMA21130226340001891&displayMode=full&vid=DUNEDIN&group=GUEST&onCampus=true&lang=eng

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• US Constitution and Bill of Rights – 097616 (two videos, the first is on the Constitution and system of government; the second focuses on the Bill of Rights). 50 minutes each. Both boring but very useful provide useful descriptions of the US system of government by conservative American political science academics.

The title is:
The United States Constitution The United States Bill of Rights and Constitutional Amendments The call number is O97616
The Otago library link is:
http://otago.lconz.ac.nz/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=10084&recCount=25&recPointer=0&bibId=504523

• Milton Friedman - Redistribution of Wealth
Chicago and monetarist economist, Milton Friedman, providing a neoliberal justification of the unequal distribution of wealth in advanced capitalist societies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRpEV2tmYz4

• Hayek on Socialism
Friedrich von Hayek providing a brief critique of socialism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbYdbf3EEc

• David Harvey on the Global Financial Crisis and Crises of Capitalism.
Animation of David Harvey providing a 10 minute oral outline of the Marxist analysis of capitalist economic crises.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0

• Marx in Soho performed by Brian Jones
This play provides both a genuinely amusing and accurate account of Marx's life and central ideas. Well worth watching. Learn stuff and have a good laugh while doing so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2baw7stI6U

• Climate Change and Capitalism

• In October 2018, the IPCC released a special report - Global Warming of 1.5 degrees. It can be downloaded from: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/

• To access the 2014 major assessment report (AR5) by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), go to: http://www.ipcc.ch/

If you want to download the most important graphs and figures then go to: http://www.climatechange2013.org/report/reports-graphic/ch2-graphics/

• To access the 2007 major assessment report (AR4) by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
go to: http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_synthesis_report.htm

• Video showing thinning of Greenland polar ice based on international study using satellite data and photographs from the University of Leeds website.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GAhA8NBHZIo

• See also the British channel 4 news report on the study (2012) at:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/3336/

• "2012 Record Low Artic Ice Sheet". The Arctic ice cap is melting at a rapid rate and may shrink to its lowest-ever level within weeks as temperatures continue to rise. Al Jazeera's Nick Clark joined an expedition travelling deep into the Arctic Circle to Qaanaaq, in Greenland. Three minute report on the melting of the Arctic ice caps. Well worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwwBcdmT8tc

• Very interesting report on the 'carbon bubble' on the Guardian website. Highlights which stock exchange listed companies have the greatest carbon assets and the financial risks that they face if these assets become unburnable due to the introduction of more effective environmental policies addressing the causes of climate change. This also indicates just how powerfully motivated these companies are to lobby governments to prevent them introducting more effective environmental policies to counter global warming.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2013/apr/19/countries-exposed-carbon-bubble-map

• Really interesting article in The Guardian: "The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-change

• The Guardian provides an interesting update on this in 2019:
"The Guardian today reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era.

New data from world-renowned researchers reveals how this cohort of state-owned and multinational firms are driving the climate emergency that threatens the future of humanity, and details how they have continued to expand their operations despite being aware of the industry’s devastating impact on the planet."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions

• John Bellamy Foster gives lecture on capitalism and climate change.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmhFc9kdTRU&list=PL432220236CB86FAB

• Climate Central - a US based research foundation - has an interactive 'Surging Seas' map that allows you to see the degree of encroachment on land of sea level rises.
http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/

• Loss of Biodiversity Crisis
• Very useful set of articles on the loss of biodiversity from The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/03/stop-biodiversity-loss-or-we-could-face-our-own-extinction-warns-un

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/10/frightening-number-of-plant-extinctions-found-in-global-survey

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/24/survival-of-natural-world-is-in-balance-says-wildlife-chief

• The Russian Revolution

The most accurate short (20 minutes long) video documentary on the Russian Revolution that I have been able to find currently (2016) available on Youtube is:

Timeline: The Russian Revolution - by British socialist John Rees - produced as part of a historical 'timeline' series of historical documentaries produced by Islam TV in the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VldXUyCaeQ

Lenin - What is Soviet Power?

Five minute speech by Lenin with English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l53FPENoAU

Another interesting short speech by Lenin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_EcpFLmUaU

• Comparative Data on Democratisation- Polity IV and Freedom House

These are US research institutes sponsored by the US Government, including the C.I.A, and accordingly some of the assessments are biased, for example, South Korea is designated as being 'free' while Venezuela is only 'partly free'. Nonetheless, the data provided by Polity IV and Freedom House does give an indication of the growing global spread of representative democracy.
http://www.systemicpeace.org/polityproject.html
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/freedom-world

• The Centre for Reponsive Politics provides lots of interesting and useful data on the American political system, especially on how business exerts disproportionate influence.
http://www.opensecrets.org/elections/

Comparative Statistics on Gender Inequality
• UN Women provides lots of interesting and useful comparative data on gender inequality and women's participation in government.
http://www.unwomen.org/

The most recent (2011) Progress of Women report can be downloaded from:
http://www.unwomen.org/resources/progress-of-the-worlds-women/

The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics can be downloaded from: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/Worldswomen/WW2010pub.htm

The World's Women 2015: Trends and Statistics can be downloaded from: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/worldswomen.html

• Statistics New Zeland bar graphs describing female representation in parliament and local government from 1996 to 2014 can be found at:
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Trust%20and%20participation%20in%20government/female-rep-parl-local-govt.aspx

David Held interviewed on globalisation, democracy, and the need for reform of the global order during the 21st century
Very interesting eight minute interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Y4f1c6VSI

Videos on the Global Justice and Occupy Movements

• Showdown in Seattle- 'This is what democracy looks like'. Part V of the Indy Media documentary on the global justice protests that successfully shutdown the millenium round of the WTO at the end of 1999. This sparked the dramatic growth of the global justice movement during the first half of the 2000s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYyCDE6dbDU&list=PLBA3384E63E9826B2&index=5

• Occupy Wall Street Video: Global Day of Action, 15OCT
Six minute video focusing on the protests of Occupy New York.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfXPCkXBqRE
• The Guardian: Occupy Protests Mapped Around The World
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/oct/18/occupy-protests-map-world

• The Guardian: Images of the World Social Forum 2013 in Tunis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/gallery/2013/mar/28/world-social-forum-alternative-world-in-pictures?INTCMP=SRCH#/?picture=406383884&index=0

• A Twenty Year Programme of Neoliberal Fiscal Austerity?
British Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, said in 2013 that the cuts pushed through by the Coalition did not go nearly far enough. He said that there was a “very long way to go” and added: “This is not a two-year project or a five-year project. This is a 10-year project, a 20-year generational battle to beef up the economy in ways that we have not seen for many, many decades.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10156170/Twenty-years-to-fix-economy.html

• 2019 Climate Strike/Justice Movement
• Eight minute video coverage of climate justice protests in London in September 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sPGKCzKYq8&feature=youtu.be

• Coverage from The Guardian of September 2019 climate justice protests.
"Six million people have taken to the streets over the past week, uniting across timezones, cultures and generations to demand urgent action on the escalating ecological emergency.

A fresh wave of climate strikes swept around the globe on Friday with an estimated 2 million people walking out of schools and workplaces.
Organisers say that during the week of protests – that began with a global climate strike last week – a total of 6 million people, from trade unionists to schoolchildren, have taken part in thousands of towns and cities."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/27/climate-crisis-6-million-people-join-latest-wave-of-worldwide-protests