Unit Overview

Decision making involves deciding what is important and worthwhile and what is not. This can only be done when there is some basis for making these judgments. Over time people develop patterns of basic beliefs about a variety of issues. These patterns of beliefs are ideologies, and they become the basis for deciding what is important and worthwhile in decision making.

Students will examine the ideologies of conservatism, liberalism, and socialism using material and issues from Saskatchewan and Canadian society. They use the concepts of ideology, politics, and power to understand how democracies make and carry out decisions as they evolve and change.

The emphasis in unit one was on the organization and mechanics (the what) of decision making in a parliamentary democracy. This unit emphasizes the process or the how of political decision making. Students will be challenged to understand and then play a role as participants (citizens) in the democratic decision making process.