Course Web pages:

Comparative Politics

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Dr. Andrew Clem
E-mail: e-mail
Telephone: 555-1234
Office: 999 Thornbuckle Hall


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Required textbook:

Mark Kesselman Joel Krieger, and William Joseph (gen. eds.), Introduction to Comparative Politics (Houghton-Mifflin, 2000).

In addition, all students are strongly urged to read the Washington Post or similar nationally-recognized newspaper to keep up with current events in foreign countries. First, it will help you understand the significance of the course material, and second, there will be a few current events questions on the quizzes and exams.


Political systems around the world

The map and table below cover all of the countries we will study in this course. By "political system" we are referring to the form of government (parliamentary, presidential, etc.) and to the form of state (monarchy vs. republic). There is NO need to memorize the numbers of legislative seats or terms of office in the various countries, but you should at least browse through the data long enough to get a rough idea about general patterns in terms of upper house vs. lower house, large countries vs. small countries, etc.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to decipher the color scheme on this map by making reference to the table below. Good luck!



World political map
Political systems and election cycles in selected countries
Upper legislative house Lower legislative house
CountryStructureGovernmentConstit.# seatsRepres.Term# seatsRepres.TermNational leader(since)Presid. term
Great BritainUnitaryParliamentary monarchy1688~1200peerslife651SMD5Tony Blair1998 
FranceUnitarySemi-presidential republic1959321local9577SMD5Jacques Chirac19955 (x2)*
GermanyFederal: 16Parliamentary republic194969states 669SMD/PR4Gerhard Schroeder19985 (x2)
JapanUnitaryParliamentary monarchy1952252mixed6500SMD4Junichiro Koizumi* 2001 
IndiaFederalParliamentary republic1948250states6?544SMD5Atal Bihari Vajpayee19995
United StatesFederal: 50Presidential republic1787100states6435SMD2George W. Bush*20014 (x2)
BrazilFederal: 27Presidential republic198881states8513PR (dist.)4Fernando H. Cardoso19956(x2)*
MexicoFederal: 32 Presidential republic1917128states6500SMD/PR3Vicente Fox20006
RussiaFederal Semi-presidential republic1994178republics4450SMD/PR4Vladimir Putin20004 (x2)
ChinaUnitary Dictatorship1982~29795Jiang Zemin19935
NigeriaFederal: 19 Presidential republic1979109states360SMDOlusegun Obasanjo20004
Iran Unitary Theocratic republic 1980?290MMD4Ayatollah Ali Khamenei19894
 
CanadaFederal: 10 Parliamentary 1982104until 75301PR (prov.)5Jean Chretien1994
ItalyUnitary Parliamentary republic1948320SMD/PR6630SMD/PR5Silvio Berlusconi*20017
AustriaFederal: 9 Parliamentary republic194564statesvaries183PR4Wolfgang Schluessel20006
South KoreaUnitary Semi-presidential republic19882734Kim Dae-Jung19985
PakistanFederal: 4Military regime(1973)87provinces62175Pervez Musharraf1999
ArgentinaFederal: 24 Presidential republic198372provinces6257PR (dist.)4Fernando de la Rua19994 (x2)*
PeruUnitarySemi-presidential republic1993120 PR5Alejandro Toledo20015 (x2)*
RomaniaUnitary Semi-presidential republic1991143PR4343PR4Ion Iliescu2000 4
TaiwanUnitaryPresidential republic1947225mixed3344Chen Shui-bian20004
South AfricaUnitaryPresidential republic199690provinces5400PR5Thabo Mbeki19995
IsraelUnitaryParliamentary republic1948 120PR4Ariel Sharon*20015

NOTES:
@ "National leader" is the executive official with the most power, either head of government (as in Britain) or head of state (as in France).
x Countries with no senate have "unicameral" (single chamber) legislatures.
* Recent change (since Jan. 1, 2001).
Legislative representation (the column labeled "Repres.") is usually in terms of which subnational constituencies choose members for the upper house, or in terms of voting tabulation procedures for the lower house.
SMD: Single member district
PR: Proportional representation (nationwide unless otherwise indicated)
SNTV: Single non-transferable vote (Japan only)


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