Political+&+Social+Systems

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In our presentation, we talked about how the Medici Family and other merchant families took power in Florence. Do you think Calgary leaders will do anything possible for power?

- You talked about Niccolò Machiavelli's "The Prince" and how he essentially said that a ruler should do whatever it takes to retain his power, even if it was putting certain things before ethics. There's also a point where the so-called prince should not do certain things to the point where he/she is hated. Many look at city aldermen and the mayor with caution because much of their contributions come from developers and that may have an undue influence when they are elected. As well, if you remember when Plan It was being finalized, the mayor held a closed-door discussion with some of the developers to make a compromise on Plan It. Plan It was the city's 50-60 year plan for the city's development in the future. Many groups accused the mayor/council of making a so-called backdoor deal that would dilute the goals of Plan It. These are very subtle things that you could view as Calgary leaders 'doing anything' for power. There was a big blow to democracy in 2004 when Margot Aftergood (who was elected to Ward 10), had to resign when hundreds of mysterious mail-in ballots were brought in from a PO box belonging to her campaign. Here is a real example of where a politician decided that winning was more important that ethics. - **Jeremy Z**

Do you think Calgary’s government is the same as Florence? Is there any similarity?

- You mentioned that Florence prospered via trade. In many Calgary has also prospered thanks to the oil and gas industry, and with that the land development industry also flourished during the boom period of 2007-2008. While local politics is not discussed a lot, there's certainly an undue advantage by certain industries that dictate how city council drafts plans. The structure of Florence's government has some of the same structures as Calgary's. Both have a council who have elected council members that represent different districts. In Calgary, they are wards. - **Jeremy Z.**

Do you think the past government in Florence influence our government system?

- In my own opinion, perhaps the past govenment's mistakes in Florence has not been able to influence our government system because our current system still depends heavily on the land development industry, home builders, and developers. We have identified that urban sprawl is a problem, yet we are still expanding because we need to fuel that growth not by growing upwards (denser communities), but by annexing more land and allowing developers to profit off of that land. However, to balance the argument, many people are hired by these industries and it's part of our economy, and to do away with their opinions would not make this city very democratic. - **Jeremy Z.**

In the Renaissance, Florence started as a Republic government but later failed due to struggles of power. Do you think a republic government structure would be an effective system for our city?

- A pure republican government structure revolves around an elected head of state rather than a hereditary one. Although Florence succumbed to Medici's influence, a pure republic government structure could be effective in our city. We essentially have an elected mayor that represents the head of state as a city. However, his voting power is limited by the aldermen since aldermen have the same weight in votes as the mayor does. The mayor has the persuasive city wide electoral support though to sway how the budget is determined. - **Jeremy Z.**


 * __//Responding to the question does Calgary posse similar governing system to become a Renaissance City. Zak Pashak believe that there are similarities with our governing system today. Further more, he believes that our city government Dave bronconary is being helped to rule the city.The time of the renaissance ,the ruling family the medici’s had help from people in florence. He had said that” Once he’s(Dave bronconyay)in power. He’s gonna listen to the menics. He is saying that medici family and Dave bornconyay are being helped governing a city.

Zak Pashack -//__** **__//Running for alderman//__**
 * __//Responding to Calgary possessing the wealth to become a Renaissance city, Rob Anders says that we do have to wealth to become a Renaissance city. He believes with the wealth we can have more opportunities such as building more building’s that other cities can’t. He also said” we do have wealth from the oil and gas industries” He is say that we do have to money and how we had received the money.

Rob Alder - MP Calgary West

by Christine//__**

Rob Anderson is a MP for calgary west. We asked him some questions, one of such was 'In our presentation, we talked about how the Medici Family and other merchant families took power in Florence. Do you think Calgary leaders will do anything possible for power?'

Rob Andersons responded by saying that he has seen some politicians doing anything for money and that they would either let themselves be bribed for money, or use the money from a fundraiser to fund something else than a campaign, because the money from the fundraiser goes directly into the politicians pocket, and they can do whatever they want with it.

He concludes saying that the majority of the politicians are honest and would not do anything like that but he has seen things like that happen.


 * by Michael**


 * Rob Anders MP Calgary west

By Natalie 8.3 Question: In the past government in Florence has influences our government today? In response to the whether Calgary possess influence from the Italy's government to todays government to make it a Renaissance city, Rob Anders believes that yes Renaissance government as influence Calgary's government today. He mentioned that it doesn't just influences the present but also the future.

In this sense, he means that the flow of power is still being dictated by economic influences in our world. For example, in China, even though it is run by a communist government, there is an increasing flow of economic power from the communist government to the business owners in China. So, the trends seen in the Italian Renaissance government can be seen today where power flows from a centralised presence to a decentralised base dictated by entrepreneurs. ** He states, “ Your concept of time is dictated by the world of antiquity"

By this he means that the people back then had formed ways how to do certain things and now today we follow them because people back then had formed it in that way.