Homework
I would like you to pick two contemporary countries in the following manner, and this part is important so make sure you read it carefully. One country must come from Table 7.1 on page 179/180 of the textbook and it cannot be either the United States or the United Kingdom. The other country must come from Table 10.1 on page 485/486 of the textbook and it cannot be China or Nigeria. You are then going to summarize, compare and contrast the government and politics of those two countries.
Paper Structure
You should structure your paper in the following way:
Introduction
The introduction should tell the reader what the paper is going to be about, including a mention of which two countries are going to be compared. The best papers will have a central thesis, argument or overarching theme about the two countries being compared, but this is not strictly necessary to receive a good grade on the paper.
Body paragraphs
Your first job is to summarize the government and politics of each country. Is it a democracy or an authoritarian government? Where does power reside in the country? How many political parties are there? How long has the current regime been in place? If there are elections, are they free and fair? How is the government structured? Is it a federal or unitary system? What are the major political issues dominating the country right now? How strong is the economy? What kind of economic system do they use?
DO NOT merely summarize information available elsewhere - anyone can check out Wikipedia - but try to go beyond to explain why the government and politics of your country function like they do. Is there a distinctive history that shapes current politics? Are there geographic considerations that are important? Ethnic, religious, or cultural divisions?
Once you have discussed each of the countries separately, you should compare the two. How are they different and how are they similar? What seems to explain the differences? Is it history? Geography? Political culture? Governance? Try and go beyond just saying "country X has this type of government, country Y has this type". Your goal should be to think of reasons why your two countries might differ. This is the hardest, and most speculative, part of the paper.
Conclusion
A brief conclusion should summarize the main points of the paper and indicate what you learned from the homework about comparative politics.
Format your homework according to the give formatting requirements:
• The answer must be using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, typed, with one-inch margins on all sides.
• The response also includes a cover page containing the student's name, the title of the homework, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
• Also include a reference page. The references and Citations should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.