Essential Questions Write these down
and leave space for answers
1. What are the 6 countries we will be studying?
2. What are Freedom House, Transparency International,
and the Failed / Fragile State Index?
3. What is a state?
4. Compare democratic v. authoritarian systems
5. What are the 7 characteristics of Democracy
6. What are the different types of democracy?
7. What are the different types of authoritarianism?
Unit 1
1.1 The Practice of Political
Scientists
1.2 Defining Political Institutions
1.3 Democracy vs. Authoritarianism
Do you love data?
Then this is the unit for you!
•For this topic, you'll need to understand how political scientists gather data, and how they
use that data to explain the behavior of individuals and groups in a society More
specifically, you will need to apply what you learn about being a comparative scientist to
the course countries
•Let me take a second to remind you of the 6 course countries (UK 🇬🇧, Russia 🇷🇺, Iran 🇮🇷,
China 🇨🇳, Mexico 🇲🇽, and Nigeria 🇳🇬) that AP Comparative Government will expect that you
to:
1.Be able to describe their structure, function, and
political systems of the course countries.
2.Be able to analyze data in the form of charts, graphs,
real life examples from the course countries.
3.Be able to compare the course countries and explain the
reasons for similarities and differences between the
course countries using provided data.
Data collection resources that you
should know:
It is important to have a knowledge on how to use these
global measurements to compare the political state of
nations across the world. You could use these resources to
investigate patterns and write your own analyses.
• Freedom House
• Transparency International
• Failed / Fragile State Index
Freedom House
A non-governmental organization that conducts research
on the levels of "freedom" across the world and reports it
annually. Their research takes into consideration a number
of factors, such as the extent of political rights, freedom of
the press and the strength of the rule of law to determine
on a scale of 1 (most free) - 7 (least free) the level of
freedom of each country.
Transparency International
A non-governmental organization that is engaged in
fighting corruption and promoting integrity and
accountability across the world. The most important data
they provide is the annual Corruption Perception Index.
This organization investigates corruption in the public
sector, in the private sector, and in the political process.
Failed (or Fragile) States Index
This measurement provides an annual ranking of
countries based on their perceived levels of social,
economic and political stability. The FSI measure is
important to indicate which countries are at risk of
collapsing due to myriad of factors. The factors taken into
consideration are poverty, corruption, inequality, weak
governance, natural disasters, among others. The scale
ranges from 0 (countries that are least at risk) to 120
(countries that are most at risk).
1.1
Institution Examples
Term UK - Examples Russia - Examples China - Examples Iran - Examples Mexico - Examples Nigeria-Examples
Theocracy and/
Political Constitution CCP and/or Constitutional Constitutional
Democracy or
System Authoritarian Authoritarian Democracy Democracy
Authoritarian
State UK Russia China Iran Mexico Nigeria
Emerging Emerging
Regime Democratic Authoritarian Authoritarian Authoritarian
Democracy Democracy
Unitary, but
turning Federal but
Gov’t Unitary Unitary Federal Federal
more asymmetric
federal
Scottish, Russian, Han Chinese,
Nation Persians, Azeris Mestizo Hausa, Yoruba
Irish Chechan Tibetans
Important
•This topic is all about providing you with a way to define political
institutions. The rest of the unit will have you break each of these down in
more detail and begin to examine each in the course countries.
•For the AP Exam you will have to know the difference between all these
institutions very clearly. A good way to approach it is to think about what
each institution does in terms of power. For instance, political systems
determine who has the authority to rule. A nation, on the other hand,
does not necessarily have power implications since it exists through
a commonality between people, including but not limited to language,
aspirations, ethnicity, etc.
Essential connections
A state consists of the combination of a population,
territory, sovereignty and the governmental system of
a nation
A government's authority derives from
the state's legitimacy to exercise power
A regime does not change after a transition
of government. Regimes are supposed to be enduring.
1.2
1.3 Democracy vs. Authoritarianism
In this topic we will explore how we can define political
regimes. As a reminder, political regimes defines the set of
rules and norms that determine the political system.
The regime defines who has the power, and that has
significant implication in the lives of the citizens of a nation.
Regimes are either democratic or authoritarian.
One of the first things you need to be able to do is
understand those terms.
• Keep in mind that regimes are defined on a range of
authoritarian and democratic, as a spectrum. Which
means that there is a lot "in between" and several
variations of each. You will explore more of that when we
study each core country individually. There are several
factors such as history, culture and economic system,
which are individual to every nation, that define
their political regime.
• You need to understand the characteristics of
both democracy and authoritarianism
Democratic Regimes
This regime type involves the selection of government officials
through free and fair elections, a balance between the principle
of majority rule and the protection of minority interests, and
constitutional limitations on government actions.
Democratic characteristics
1. Free and fair elections
2. Competitive elections.
3. Government-developed policies and procedures that guarantee due
process, accountability, and transparency in decision making.
4. Political and civil rights are possessed by all.
5. Independent judiciary.
6. Elected government officials who exercise authority over the
government.
7. Rule of Law
Types of Democratic Regimes
Democracy does not constitute one single type of regime.
For a regime to qualify as a democracy it must follow all
the characteristics mentioned above. But countries have
developed different regimes that embrace the idea that
the people should be involved in the political processes.
These are some different types of democracy:
1. Parliamentary democracy is a regime in which the head of state is chosen
through the legislative branch (the parliament). The head of state and the
head of government are different officials.
2. A Presidential democracy is a regime in which the President is chosen
through the election process by the people. In this regime, the president is the
head of state and the head of government.
3. In Federal democracy the power is shared between central and regional
governments. Both the central and local governments have their own
responsibilities and rules and are also directly voted by the people.
4. Direct Democracies are s type of system that citizens are directly involved
in the decision-making process. This process usually occurs through , which is
when the government requires the population to vote an issue matter.
5.Representative democracy is a type of regime in which the people select
officials to represent their own interests. There are mechanisms for
accountability in representative democracies, such as and recall.
Authoritarianism
A regime type defined by the rule of single leader, a small
group of people, or a single political party or institution.
Authoritarian characteristics
1.Limited political participation.
2.Limited autonomy of society from state control.
3.Limitations placed upon political opposition.
4.Little political accountability or transparency.
Types of Authoritarian Regimes
Authoritarian regimes can include illiberal democracy
or hybrid regimes, one -party systems, theocracies,
totalitarian governments, and military regimes. You will
need to know the difference between these regimes.
1. Illiberal or hybrid is an authoritarian regime in which elections
are held, but elected officials often use the electoral process to
keep themselves in power. In other word’s it's an authoritarian
regime where elements of "democracy" are present
2. A one-party system only allows one party to run for
government office
3. Theocracies are governments in which religious leaders run the
government. There is no separation or church and state
4. Totalitarian governments are regimes that seek to control
nearly every aspect of public and private life
5. Military regimes are authoritarian governments in which a
military leader runs the government
So, what about our countries of
study?
Remember: the head of state is the ceremonial figure that
represents the entire nation and is involved in international
affairs. The head of government oversees the day-to-day tasks
of a government, and it holds executive powers.
UK 🇬🇧 = Consolidated
Russia 🇷🇺 = Illiberal or hybrid
Iran 🇮🇷 = theocracy
Nigeria 🇳🇬 = military and more recently hybrid
Mexico 🇲🇽 = hybrid
China 🇨🇳 = One-party system
1.3
Essential Questions Write down
and leave space for answers
1. What are the 6 countries we will be studying?
2. What are Freedom House, Transparency International,
and the Failed / Fragile State Index?
3. What is a state?
4. Compare democratic v. authoritarian
5. What are the 7 characteristics of Democracy
6. What are the different types of democracy?
7. What are the different types of authoritarianism?
Next Class
•See page XXV in your textbook for the Unit 1 readings.
You will be quizzed and tested on the readings.
• Creating your vocabulary Quizlet
• Continue working on Unit 1 Review
• AP Videos 1.1-3 on AP Classroom
• Page 26-27 +3 questions
• Page 56-57 +3 questions
