I’ve been a bit quiet this week, as I’m reviewing for my exam on Monday. Oxford has very few evaluations throughout the year—just a three-hour exam where anything from the term is fair game. I’ve been tackling questions such as:
What are the main factors of democratic stability?
Do federal systems encourage or discourage majority representation?
What are the main causal effects of electoral law?
“There are no perfect ways to compare governments; just strategies that work better or worse under certain circumstances. Discuss.”
And much more. This is what I’ve been learning in class this year.
Earlier this week, I spent the day in London. I went in the morning to get my visa to travel to India, and I stayed the rest of the day. We’ve got our finals coming up in a bit, and London is a great place to get some work done, if you know where to go. I could walk around London without running into anyone I knew—a welcome distraction.
St.-Martins-in-the-Fields is a famous old church right by Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. It is home of some of London’s most historic moments, and served as one of the largest bomb shelters during the Blitz. In the basement, the crypt—with vaulted ceilings and tombstones—has a café with bottled Cokes and free wireless internet. Enough to make me happy!
And Wednesday, we had a fundraiser for the project I am working on now: Vote From Home (more on this in a bit). We raised over $1,000, so it was very exciting!
ERB
