Notes

Question 1

Oligopolies & Game Theory

Answer 1

Perfect competition
Monopolies

Oligopolies (high barrier - advertise
Monolplisric competition ? (Low barrier) - as reuse ant
BOTH USE GAME THOWT
Non-price competition = most obvious type is advertising

Prisoners Dilemma - dominant strategy

If u understand game theory u know thee is no point lowering prices but DIFFERENTIATING ur product which is why prices in oligopolies remain stagnant and a lot more focus on non price competition

Careful - when two people COLLUDE to raise prices at the detriment of the consumer - ILLEGAL but price leadership isn’t - hard to tell the difference

OPEC - cartel - 80% oil reserves - 12 countries

Payoff Matrix

Collusion / cartel is unreliable - only trustworthy if monitored because both have an incentive to lower prices & gain more customers

Question 2

personal identity

Answer 2

Dr who - personal identity
Essential properties?
- Body theory
- Ship of Theseus
- Bernard Williams thought experiment - mental content transfer
- John Locke - consciousness BUT h don’t maintain same consciousness - MEMORY THEORY BUT if personal identity requires memory that none of us became who we were before our first memory AND what if u lose ur memory? And what about false memory?
- Do u have obligations to anybody? We built pit society on the assumption that we are the same person = philosophy explores assumptions

Question 3

Morality

Answer 3

Batman is quite Kantian in his ethics!
Kantian is absolute - moral rule book
Utilitarianism - hedonistic or intuitive? Agree with Kant that it should be equal for everyone
Act utilitarianism is immoral, so rule utilitarians think larger

Question 4

Philosophy of economics

Answer 4

Economics relies on epistemically, metaphysical & ethical assumptions in order to do its work. Normative component makes it a bit different from philosophy of science.

Assumptions about rationality, causation, ethics or value.

Rationality: what makes someone rational? What is the best / correct definition of rationality? What is it to be rational and how can we apply it to economic models? Are we irrational to dislike loss? Is the economists definition of rationality flawed?

Specific definition of rationality by economists:

Causation:
- offshoot from philosophy of science
- Economists claim to be able to show causation to varying degrees of certainly
- Can we ever

Morality:
- Economics can be reframed as an attempt to operationalise utilitarian philosophy
- We can’t directly measure utility thus economists come up with ways of approximating it
- The normative justification for enacting policies based on these approximations must be underlined by an ethical theory
- Deals with how to value things, for example climate destruction, the value of a life
- Economists can produce a mythological framework BUT this framework is morally unjustified without an ethical theory behind it, particularly a policy decision framework like a cost benefit analysis

Economics is an outgrowth from philosophy : Adam smith was a logic professor and moral philosopher. The connection to axiomatic logic can still be seen in assumptions today in economics.

Hugely influenced by Mill and thus philosophy of economics can be seen as the disciples which links it back to its roots and to the moral and logical arguments which justify or fail to justify its assumptions

Fallacy if affirming the consequent:
Q is true; If O then Q; therefore P is true

Question 5

Great Man History Theory

Question 6

To what extent does social media affect politics?

Question 7

To what extent do individuals have power over events?

Question 8

WaterGate, PizzaGate, PartyGate, etc…

Question 9

Negative vs Positive freedom

Question 10

What kind of Labour Party is it as a result of Corbyn and Kier

Question 11

Should we care about the gender pay gap

Question 12

Distributive justice Dwinger, Rawls

Question 13

Assisted Dying

Question 14

2 MPs per Constituency

Question 15

Israel

Question 16

Ukraine

Question 17

Syria

Question 18

Flaws of British politics system

Question 19

UN

Question 20

Norway

Answer 20

20% immigration, housing prices EVEN with wealth trust fund and equality
Over half of 19-27 year old men in Norway would have voted for trump - Rught wing COMPARED TO only 20% of whole country
We get 1/3 our energy from Norway
- kier starker going to Norway after no pms since thatcher

Question 21

COP29

Answer 21

Canada - climate number one issue
BUT NOW ITS GONe
Cost of living drowned it out

Question 22

Conscience vs constituency?

Answer 22

• assisted dying
  
  • A lot of faith in beaurocratic system to judge
  • Improve palliative care - NEED TO NIT BE A BURDEN - social care can’t be crippling expensive
  • Letby MP put in a lot of safeguards tho - ??
• Representatives not delegates - otherwise u just do référendum
• See capital punishment - 70% public wanted it

Question 23

International courts and bodies - are they reducing in power?

Answer 23

Global vs political priorities
Voters usually care more domesticqlly
Kier streamer abroad too much?
International intervention?
Angela Merkel commented that Covid and leaders not meeting didn’t help out in in invading

King is useful because of long lasting serving - democractic vs autocratic leaders length of office
Victorauban is the longest serving men in Europe

Question 24

Individual vs community rights - government priority?

Question 25

Against / for democracy

Question 26

International intervention

Question 27

Globalisation & politics with no borders

Question 28

trends in growth, unemployment and inflation

Question 29

Views on fiscal policy

Question 30

2008 Financial crisis

Question 31

Rational choice theory

Question 32

Does our electoral system/democracy deliver effective Government?

Answer 32

• Governments work best when they have a smallish majority but not a massive majority as the former allows the opposition parties to have greater influence over policy and moderate more extreme proposals
• Democracy always has to be better than autocracy/ tyranny (see problems in Syria and yeserday’s fall of Assad dynasty which has dominated for decades and suppressed the population), but military takeover is by former Al Quaeda troops, so the future may not be preferable
• Churchill said on 11 November 1947 “many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…”
• Plato “Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal’s alike”
• There are always arguments about benefits of proportional representation, changing constituency borders but incumbent governments never institute changes which will harm their chances
• Proportional representation would see the smaller parties achieve more seats which might be a fairer reflection of voters intentions; set against that the difficulty of getting government proposals through a parliament of many broadly equal parties in numbers and the risk of never achieving anything (see recent results in France where Macron’s snap election in the summer resulted in his party losing and not gaining seats, with several parties having similar number of seats and now his government’s inability to get its Budget through and the prime minister being removed following vote of no confidence. No prime minister from any other of the parties he might pick will be in a better position due to factional conflicting positions
• Social media fuels the flames of discontent and blows minor issues out of all proportion risking triggering gut reactions to situations rather than a response based on proper analysis
• Politicians need to listen more to voters concerns, and not window dress their policies in order to secure votes illegitimately, eg, no tax increases on “working people”, defined by Labour too narrowly, but now introduced employers NI increase which is a tax on jobs so also on working people a reality which they of course deny
• Democracy allows electorate to remove a government they don’t like, see Tory loss recently for their shambolic time in government
• As democratic governments can change every 5 years, however, it leads to yo yoing in policy one winner to another and therefore no longterm planning

Question 33

EXAMPLE OF SERVICE SECTOR ECONOMY

Answer 33

The Maldives’ economy is based on services, with tourism and related activities being the primary source of service receipts:
Tourism
The Maldives’ largest economic sector, contributing over 30% of the country’s GDP. Tourism is also the main source of foreign exchange earnings and creates many jobs.
Fishing
The second-largest economic sector, with the Maldives known for its tuna fishing industry.
Services and transfers
Have shown a net surplus that has averaged around 34 percent of GDP in recent years.
Tertiary sector
Accounts for around 73.3% of total GDP and 67% of employment.
The Maldives’ economy has some challenges, including:
Climate change: Rising sea levels threaten the country’s low-lying islands.
Trade deficit: The Maldives has a narrow export base and is highly dependent on imports.
Services surplus decline: In 2023, the services surplus declined by USD 333.9 million, down from an estimated USD 3.1 billion in the previous year.