AP Government
AP COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Topics and Reading Assignments
WEEKS TOPICS READINGS:
ALMOND & POWELL
1 & 2 Problems
of Politics: Issues, Themes and
Comparisons. pp. 3-8, 13-26, 30-32
Making
Political Comparisons. 34-43
Problems
of Politics: What is Democracy? 51-53, 57-63
What is
Accountability? Why does Scarcity 68-69, 75-78
Matter? Using the U.S. as a Model. 87-92
U.S. Politics: Participation, Accountability, Equality. 107-114, 127-132
Creating Constitutional Systems. 136-137, 142, 161-162
Choosing a
Political System: Concepts & Choices. 744-760, 763-769, 777-780
UNIT I TEST
"Democratic" Models
3 & 4 Britain:
Parliamentary, Democratic, Capitalist? pp. 167-216
QUIZ
Problems: Immigration, Welfare, State-Market
Relations. Integration into the EU
UNIT II TEST
5 & 6 France:
Presidential, Democratic, Capitalist? pp. 221-271
Problems: Ethnicity, Farmers, Welfare.
Integrating
into the EU
QUIZ
7 The European Union pp. 88 –
100 in
Annual Editions
UNIT
III TEST
Transitional Models and Reform Communism
8, 9 & 10 Communism, the Command Economy, and
Change
Russia
/ the former Soviet Union: Communist, Socialist, pp. 377 - 420
Capitalist?
QUIZ
Problems: State and Market, Nationalism
UNIT IV TEST
11 & 12 China: Where is the Power? pp. 425 - 465
QUIZ
Problems: State and Market, Decentralization
Transitioning
from Communism: Potentials
for
Success.
UNIT V TEST
Transitional
Models and Development
13 & 14 Development Toward What? Handout from
Newly
Industrialized Countries, the Market, Hauss Textbook
and
Political Democracy.
Nigeria: Structural Adjustment, Democracy, pp. 687 - 734
Ethnicity.
QUIZ
Are
Development and Democracy Possible?
The
Threats Continue.
UNIT VI TEST
15 Oral Presentations on Countries
16 Review for National Exam