The Problems with Westphalian Nation-State System

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We all associate ourselves with various identities such as Indians, Chinese, Pakistani, Americans, Canadians, French, British and much more. Why do you think we all associate with all these more? Are there any other identities which people associate with?  The identities which I mentioned before are relatively new compared to other identities such as religion, language, caste, and various other identities. It is not to say that people never had such feelings towards nations or the state. But the idea of loyalty and love for the motherland was very important which offset various other identities. The question we are arriving at is what is the motherland, who made and how it formed.  What we refer to today as a Nation or Country refers to what we know in political science as a Nation-State. Today almost all the countries we know are categorised Nation-States and some even as State-Nations. International Relations and Political Science suggest that states are the most important a...
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Analysis of US elections-A Podcast

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Greetings to all listeners!!

All major news outlets in the United States has called the Presidential race in favour of Joseph R Biden Jr of the Democratic party aka Joe Biden. The respective state governments are yet to authorise the election results, but it is pretty much reliable and obvious for us to accept the media projections as of now. American elections are closely watched not only in the US but also worldwide due to its consequences and effects. The US Presidency is considered to be the Most Powerful Post in the world and the US President is the world's most powerful man. 

Amidst the pandemic and despite the US being the most affected by the coronavirus, it looks now like that election itself was a festival of its kind and everyone enjoyed their part. The outcome of the elections will not only affect the domestic politics of the United States but also affect its foreign policy, defence policy, trade policy, diplomacy etc. It will also determine the level of US involvement in International Politics and affects the world order. 

If you don't know the anything regarding the US Electoral System, please read our previous post regarding the same. 

Alongside presidential elections, you also have elections to the US Congress happening right now. Elections to the House of Representatives which is the lower house and the Senate which is the upper house. They have 435 and 100 seats respectively. 

Coming to presidential elections the total electoral college votes mount to 538, ie 435+100+ 3. That 3 comes from the District of Columbia which is the capital of the USA. So, any President will require 270 electoral college votes, that too, it is state dependant and 48 states follow the system of Winner takes all. Two states Nebraska and Maine follow the proportional system. Majority states always vote in the same way at all times, while the contest comes down to just a few states also called swing states or battleground states. These few states almost have the same probability of going with either of the candidates and play the biggest role in deciding the winner. 

About Podcast 

If you are a person who doesn't like to read those long elections-related articles, or even watch long youtube videos which require full attention, then we have made this podcast just for you so that you need not read anything much, or watch but you can just listen to it, while you are doing something else, or even casually browsing social media. 

About the Guests 

We have esteemed guests for the podcast- 
  1. Roshan Antony from Kochi, Kerala India. Follow him on Twitter. Read his article on MUNner's Daily blog. 

  2. Ashwin Shaji George from Trivandrum, Kerala, India. Follow him on Instagram. Read his article on MUNner's Daily blog.
Both the panellists have been closely following the elections and really have a lot of their views and insights to share with you all, so please do check out the podcast. Also, I cannot stop mentioning Aswin Shanil for his editing work and aesthetics especially the poster and cover photo. 

Summary of the podcast

Generally, cluttered topics like these aren't much available in the mainstream media, because these are believed to have required some expertise. But, through our podcasts and blogs, we disprove this misconception and these cannot be understood by common people. We explain in simple terms regarding various subtopics under this vast topic in the form of conversational and Q&A style. 

We cover in detail regarding the following-

  1. The exit polls and blue wave
  2. Trump's voter base and his successes in keeping his voter base intact
  3. The contest in battleground states
  4. Mail-in ballots 
  5. Legal challenges and Trump's allegations and lawsuits 
  6. US congressional elections
  7. Prospectus of this election, post-Trump era, future policymaking and challenges for Biden presidency, his foreign policy
We started by looking into the previous podcast, on Geopolitics during the pandemic and Trump's Foreign policy which you can listen from here. With a brief introduction, Jairam explains in detail how he believes the mandate has been decisive and moves into the question about, how and what was the main reason behind Joe Biden's victory. Both panellists have agreed that Covid-19 continues to be the main reason for the victory but at the same time, Trump has damaged himself so much through his deeds. Ashwin in particular points out into Trump's rhetorics which has divided the nation and how they needed a real matured President. 

Coming to the questions of Is there a blue wave or narrow contest? Both of them denied those claims regarding blue wave, saying that the contest appear narrow but while comparing to 2016, Democrats have gained back their hope. 

Who votes for Trump was important to understand the dynamics of this election. Trump has a strong voter base of Whites, Conservatives and Evangelical Christians. His appeal on issues like immigration, border wall, Make America Great Again has helped him consolidate a strong base as per both Roshan and Ashwin. His refusal to condemn White supremacists and calling out Democrats as socialists have emboldened and polarised his base. 

Ashwin has presented statistical data regarding key battle states in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. He believes that despite victory in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan wasn't decisive but could have been better if he had adopted Sanders' idea of labour reforms. Roshan highlighted in detail about Florida and how Trump has stuck on it despite Media reports citing a blue victory. Both of them agree upon the fact that victory in Arizona and Georgia is indeed a sign of demographical change as well as a credible achievement of the Biden Camp. 

Trump's allegations were rubbished altogether as there are no concrete proofs presented by Trump in the courts. Although, they agree that since the margin is low in some states, he can ask for a recount of votes. The US congressional elections seemed the exact opposite of what was seen in the Presidential election. 

Both panellists do suggest Biden has a lot of responsibility in undoing Trump's mistakes as conclusive remarks.

This summary is just a small glimpse of the podcast, for the detailed information, do listen to the full podcast from your favourite platform, that too at your convenient speed. Also, feel free to listen to previous episodes as well. 

Links to the podcast- (Just click on the link to your preferred  platform)


Thank you so much for listening and giving your support.

Do read all posts on this blog by clicking on Info Daily.

Follow me on Medium and Facebook too... Keep following the blog for more interesting, informative and useful Stories. 

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