Important Names Flashcards
Nigerian military ruler from 1976 to 1979 and two-time elected president from 1999-2007. He held respect for the rule of law while in power, advocated for the restoration of civilian rule, and created the Second Republic.
Olusegun Obasanjo
Former military leader in Nigeria and current democratically elected leader of Nigeria since 2015. “Corrupt democracy is worse than no democracy”
Muhammedu Buhari
oppressive Nigerian military dictator from 1993-1996 who came to power in a military coup. Violence as a means of public control.
Sani Abacha
Military ruler of Nigeria from 1985-1993 who sought to establish the failed Third Republic. Implemented a neoliberal structural-adjustment program that made cuts in public spending and worsened life quality.
Ibrahim Babangida
Noted Nigerian playwright and environmentalist that was executed in 1995 for his defense of the land and peoples of the Niger Delta by Abacha.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
president of Nigeria from 2010-2015. His reelection angered many Nigerians, who viewed it as violation of the zoning system because a president from the north should have gotten two terms, and Jonathan is from the south.
Goodluck Jonathan
Monarch of Iran from 1925-1941. Thought of as a British puppet dictator. He centralized the military and limited British and Soviet interference. He was interested in Westernization and state building.
Reza Khan/Rezah Shah Pahlavi
Rezah Shah Pahlavi’s son, and the monarch of Iran from 1941-1979. He mostly supported his father’s policies and enacted the White Revolution in 1963 to modernize and Westernize Iran (privatization of enterprises, land reform, literacy)
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Prime minister of Iran from 1951-1953, deposed in 1953 by operation ajax. Represented a republican party called the National Front, who were interested in reducing the power of the monarchy or eliminating it altogether. Worked towards modernization and national sovereignty
Mohammad Mosaddeq
an ayatollah who openly opposed the shah and gained support and became a figurehead for criticism of Pahlavi. He became the first supreme leader because of his book outlining velayat-e faqih.
Ayatollah KhOmeini
Iraq’s authoritarian leader who started the Iran-Iraq war.
Saddam Hussein
supreme leader of Iran from 1989-current.
Ayatollah KhAmenei
conservative president of Iran elected in 2005. Tried to improve relations with the West.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
president of iran since 2013, promised to improve relations with the West and advance social reforms.
Hassan Rouhani
Mexico’s president from 2012-2018. First president from the PRI to be elected since the fall of the PRI. He further opened Mexico’s economy, reformed the oil sector, and broke apart monopolies. He failed to improve transparency, empower the judiciary, and reduce corruption.
Enrique Peña Nieto
Took power after Peña Nieto in 2018. He was a controversial, leftist president.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Mexico’s first great caudillo, who dominated its politics for three decades during the nineteenth century
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
Mexican dictator who ruled from 1876-1910. He was deposed by the Mexican revolution. He initially backed liberalist reforms, but then embraced conservative ideals of elitist support.
Porfirio Diaz
Southern Mexican peasant leader of the revolution most associated with major land reform
Emiliano Zapata
Northern Mexican peasant leader of the revolution who, together with Emiliano Zapata, advocated a more radical socioeconomic approach
Pancho Villa
Mexico’s president from 2000-2006 and the first non-PRI president in more than seven decades
Vicente Fox
One of the first democratically elected presidents. More pluralistic and competitive regime. Focused a lot on getting rid of drug cartels.
Felipe Calderon
1934-1940. He advocated for economic nationalism and implemented land reform called for in the Constitution of 1917.
Strengthened the state by nationalizing the oil industry
President Lázaro Cárdenas
Russian revolutionary who led the 1917 Russian revolution and headed the Soviet Union from 1917-1924
Lenin
Succeeded Lenin as head of the soviet union until his death in 1953. Established totalitarian rule + mass famine ensued. His power was solidified with a cult of personality.
Stalin
took office in 1953 after Stalin’s death. He tried to reform but was forced from his position by the Politburo.
Khrushchev
After Krushchev. He supported the nomenklatura and rejected reform. Economic growth slowed and corruption was prominent.
Brezhnev
became general security in 1985 with his reform ideas called glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring). Yeltsin led a coup d’etat against him, but it collapsed, but Gorbachev’s political authority was ruined and his party got banned, so it lowkey worked anyway.
Gorbachev
president of russia from 1991-1999. He led a failed coup d’etat against Gorbachev and banned the Communist party, effectively destroying Gorbachev’s political base and the USSR. He named Putin president in 1999.
Yeltsin
current president (dictator) of russia as of 2012, also president of russia from 1999-2008 and prime minister from 2008-2012.
Putin
political activist who has been detained repeatedly for his opposition to Putin and United Russia
Alexei Navalny
Oligarch arrested and imprisoned for his opposition to Putin
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
China’s current paramount leader serving simultaneously as the head of the party (congress of the communist party), head of state (people’s republic of china), and head of military (central military commission).
Xi Jiping
Founder of the People’s Republic of China and leader of the Chinese communist revolution, dominating politics in China from the start of the PRC until his death in 1979. He built an army for the revolution out of the peasant class.
Mao Zedong
China’s paramount leader that came after Mao Zedong. He introduced “reform and opening” that grew the economy and boosted the wellbeing of the population. He also kept the authoritarian regime in place and maintained the one-party rule of the CCP
Deng Xiaoping
leader of the Labour party 2015-2020. He is a left wing socialist who is loved by party loyalists but disliked by MPs in his own party.
Jeremy Corbin
Scottish national party (SNP) leader who brought a lot of publicity and popular support to the party. He also launched the Brexit Party in 2019. Both of these capitalized on “Europhobia” or “Euroscepticism”
Nigel Farage
conservative prime minister from 1979-1990. She was the first leader to experiment with neoliberal economic policies in an attempt to stem economic decline. Pledged to diminish government’s role in the economy. Lowered taxes, cut govt spending. Laissez-faire policies.
Margaret Thatcher
Labor Party prime minister from 1997-2007. Sought to soften some of the harder edges of Thatcher’s neoliberalism through the Third Way, but still embraced her policies. Balanced popular progressive reforms with policies of devolution and continued limits on social expenditures
Tony Blair
conservative prime minister from 2010-2016, resigned following Brexit, which he stood against. The conservatives formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, calling for fairness, freedom, and responsibility. Devolution of state sovereignty
David Cameron
conservative prime minister who was instrumental in the UK’s departure from the EU. He was the “Brexiteer”
Boris Johnson
