Comparative Government & Politics Current Events Assignment

AP COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
2013-2014 SCHOOL YEAR
MS. PACHNIK

SUMMER ASSIGNMENT and ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE FIRST FEW WEEKS

The AP exam explores themes in the factual context of six states: Britain, China, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, and Russia. All
students, therefore, need to know the facts about the government, political, and economic systems of all six states.

Over the course of the semester, each student, individually, will compile a scrapbook of news articles about each state.
You will begin compiling your scrapbook over the summer. The minimum requirement for summer is two articles per
country for a total of 12. The articles need to be turned in on the first day of class.

Summer Assignment:

a. During the summer collect a minimum of two news articles per country. The articles should provide you with

information about the political, economic, and/or foreign policy issues, which confront each nation. Articles may

come from newspapers, periodicals, magazines, and/or the Internet. Sources must be cited. Possible sources

include but are not limited to:  The Economist
 Al-Jazeera
 New York Times  CNN
 Time Magazine
 BBC

b. Highlight the material in each article, which makes reference to the political structures and practices of the nation
under discussion. Look closely for information about GROUPS and PEOPLE as well as the six themes of the
Comparative Government course:

1. The Comparative Method – (Empirical data versus normative issues)
2. Sovereignty, Authority, and Power
3. Political and Economic Change
4. Citizens, Society and the State
5. Political Institutions
6. Public Policy

c. Label each highlighted comment in each article with the applicable theme of the course.

d. Comment in the margins, sharing your thoughts about what you have read. When commenting in the margins of
articles please comment on the following concepts or terms. Definitions for these terms may be found on-line.

Decision-making Bureaucracy
Industrialized democracy Cleavage
Globalization Coalition
Newly Industrialized Countries Fascism
Political Culture Interest Group
Democratization Legitimacy
International Political Economy Nationalization
Imperialism

e. You should respond to the following questions for your article in written format (handwritten only):

1. What is the author's thesis regarding the article in question?
2. List at least 3 supporting facts the author states in reference to the thesis.
3. What variables, if any, is the author trying to examine in the article? Which important variables are

left out by the author?
4. What is your overall impression of the article? Is it an accurate assessment of the situation?

On the first day of school, turn in: 12 articles marked in the manner listed above and answers
to the four questions above for each article. I anticipate this assignment taking 3 – 4 hours

in total. This small amount of work will enable us to begin working on the first day of school.

Course Outline per College Board:

I. Sovereignty, Authority, and Power J. Interest groups and interest group systems
A. Political culture, communication, and K. Bureaucracies

socialization L. Military and other coercive institutions

B. Nations and states M. Judiciaries
C. Supranational governance (e.g., European 1. Degrees of autonomy
Union) 2. Judicial review (including EU in
D. Sources of power relation to states, citizens)
E. Constitutions (forms, purposes, application) 3. Types of law
F. Regime types
G. Types of economic systems III. Citizens, Society, and the State
H. State building, legitimacy, and stability A. Cleavages and politics (ethnic, racial, class,
I. Belief systems as sources of legitimacy gender, religious, regional)
B. Civil society
1. Religion C. Media roles
2. Ideology (liberalism, communism, D. Political participation (forms/modes/trends)

socialism, conservatism, fascism) including political violence

J. Governance and accountability E. Social movements
II. Political Institutions F. Citizenship and social representation
IV. Political and Economic Change
A. Levels of government A. Revolution, coups, and war
1. Supranational/national/regional/loca B. Trends and types of political change
l (including democratization)
2. Unitary/federal
3. Centralization/decentralization 1. Components
2. Promoting or inhibiting factors
B. Executives (head of state, head of 3. Consequences
government, cabinets) C. Trends and types of economic change

1. Single or dual

2. President (including privatization)

3. Prime minister 1. Components

C. Legislatures 2. Promoting or inhibiting factors
1. Unicameral/bicameral 3. Consequences
(symmetric/asymmetric) D. Relationship between political and economic
2. Organization change
3. Membership (representation) E. Globalization and fragmentation:
interlinked economies, global culture, reactions
D. Parliamentary and presidential systems against globalization, regionalism
1. Institutional relations V. Public Policy
A. Common policy issues
E. Elections 1. Economic performance
1. Presidential
2. Parliamentary

3. Referendums 2. Social welfare (e.g., education,

4. Noncompetitive health, poverty)

F. Electoral systems 3. Civil liberties
1. Proportional representation 4. Environment
2. Single member district (plurality, 5. Population and migration
majority runoff) 6. Economic development
B. Factors influencing public policymaking and
G. Political parties (organization, membership, implementation
institutionalization, ideological position) 1. Domestic
H. Party systems 2. International
I. Leadership and elite recruitment

End Summer Assignment

Quarter 1 Charting

(Not part of the Summer Assignment):

This assignment will be called for before progress reports of the first quarter. I
am giving it to you during the summer in case you would like to get a jump start

on it while you have less homework requirements.

Using the required chart (sample below) and the resources listed research and provide basic information about
the political structure, level of economic and political development, and current policy issues facing each of the
six countries in the AP Comparative Government and Politics course. You will be required to turn in the chart.
The chart may be computer generated but the information MUST BE HANDWRITTEN

Beyond gathering the data, you need to be able to discuss how the relevant indicators were constructed, what
each means in context and their relevance to understanding the political system in each country.

Resources:

www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/Index www.humanrightsdata.org

www.data.worldbank.org http://www.internetworldstats.com

www.freedomhouse.org www.transparency.org

www.gapminder.org www.undp.org

https://members.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/report2009.pdf

http://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy_Index_2010_web.pdf

Required On Your Chart:
Type of government, Branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial), Source(s) of power/legitimacy,
Type of electoral, system, Major political parties, Major policy issues (domestic and international), Democracy
index (and subcategories I-V), Women in Parliament (rank, score), Digital access index, GDP per capita (plus
% breakdown in agriculture, industry, services), Gini index, Freedom House PR and CL scores, Transparency
International CPI score, Education index, HDI value, rank, Life expectancy, Literacy rate (male, female), Infant
mortality rate.

Sample Chart:

United Russia China Mexico Nigeria Iran
Kingdom

Type of electoral system
Major political parties
Major policy issues (domestic)
Major policy issues (international)
Democracy index (and subcategories I-V)
Women in Parliament(rank, score)
Digital access index
GDP per capita (plus % breakdown in
agriculture, industry, services)
Gini index
Freedom House PR and CL scores
Transparency International CPI score
Education index

HDI value, rank

Life expectancy
Literacy rate (male, female)
Infant mortality rate

Sample Chart Discussion Questions: (Be prepared to discuss these questions. You may choose to write
responses to these questions, but I will not collect.)
1. What does it mean to say that the British make use of a “first past the post” or “winner take all” electoral
system?
2. What does it mean to say that Iran is a unitary state? That Nigeria uses a federal system?
3. Is a Freedom House Political Rights score of 7 good or bad? Why? What does this score say about the level
of political development in each country?
4. How is Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index constructed? What is the range of possible
scores? How pervasive is corruption in Nigeria compared to the United Kingdom?
5. How does the level of women’s representation in politics compare across the six countries? What might
account for the similarities? The differences?
6. How do the six countries compare in terms of the overall democracy index? The subcategories? What factors
may explain these similarities? Differences?
7. Is high poverty/income inequality correlated with corruption? Do you think one causes the other?
8. Is a country’s level of economic development correlated with its level of democratization? Consider Mexico
and China. Does one cause the other?

This list of questions is illustrative, not exhaustive.

Bonus Assignment – Fareed Zakaria’s Future of Freedom.

Completion of this assignment prior to the end of the course will allow you to replace a test grade.

Obtain a copy of the Zakaria text (either the 2003 or 2007 edition) After reading the book, type a response of no
more than 250 words to each of the questions below (five total). Please be thorough yet concise in your
responses, drawing specific examples from the text each time.
1. What does Zakaria mean by “illiberal democracy”? Why does he think that the number of governments that
can be characterized as illiberal democracies is increasing?
2. According to Zakaria, what is the relationship between economic growth and democratization? Refer to two
contrasting examples from the text. Are you persuaded by his explanation? Why or why not?
3. How does Zakaria differentiate between “democracy” and “liberty”? Do you find this distinction useful?
Why or why not?
4. Why did liberal democracies flourish in Europe and North America earlier than in other countries? Do you
agree with Zakaria’s reasoning? Why or why not?
5. How does Zakaria account for the failure of liberal democracy to flourish in the Middle East? Why does he
think that Islamic fundamentalism has become increasingly influential?

In part, these assignments were adapted from the summer assignments provided by Mr. Vincent at Dunwoody
High School and Mr. Bodnar at Parkland High School.