Dec 18 – Comp Gov – Introduction Agenda: Questions to consider Intro to Comp Theory Pretest/ Check out Books Terms and Themes Take out: Notebook Pencil Homework: Read Section 1 of O’Neill (Page 1-30) and create a working vocab definition list (time Friday to work as well)

Some Questions to Consider Can democracy be “imposed” upon other countries, or does it need to “come from within” to be successful? What are the causes of political violence? Is anyone capable of political violence, or is it a product of a particular type of society or culture? How can we effectively understand and explain the ideas behind these questions?

Why COMPARATIVE? In order to UNDERSTAND and EXPLAIN, you must TEST Experimental Method OR Comparative Method Which of these works for politics? Comparative Politics A SUBJECT and a METHOD of study So what is the purpose of Comparative Politics? When we make claims about society, economics and governments, we use the comparative method to… TEST EXPLAIN UNDERSTAND

Why COMPARATIVE? Not a new idea – comparing and contrasting Hamlet vs. Claudius Athens vs. Sparta COMPARATIVE asks you to go beyond similarities and differences to understand factors that influence: The formation of governments How governments respond to challenges The implications for future challenges and concerns We will learn about countries in context, but in doing so we will be observing and attempting to understand the connected patterns and processes

This Course This course focuses on government and politics in other countries and provides a theoretical framework to compare political systems around the world. We will examine six countries in detail: Great Britain, Russia, China, Mexico, Nigeria, and Iran. We will be examining each country in regards to five major themes of government. Sovereignty, Authority and Power Political Institutions Citizens, Society and the State Political and Economic Change Public Policy

This Course I. Unit 1--Introduction to Comparative Politics II. Unit 2--Democratic v. Authoritarian Regimes A. Great Britain B. Iran III. Unit 3--Communist and Post-Communist Countries A. Russia B. China IV. Unit 4--Emerging Economies A. Mexico B. Nigeria

Critical Thinking in CompGov In order to UNDERSTAND, we need to… Define Use the specialized vocabulary of CompGov Describe Categorize and consider the systems of study So that we can… Explain Cause and effect In order to use that knowledge to… Predict Consider worldwide trends and patterns Prescribe Suggest remedies and ideas based on understandings

Pretest Complete the pretest to the best of your ability as I check out your texts. Don’t help others, I just want to see what you know!