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.

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?

Please 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.

MAKE SURE TO USE IN-TEXT CITATIONS in your paper. I don’t particularly care what format they are (MLA vs APA vs Chicago) just so long as (a) you stay consistent in the paper and (b) I can figure out how to find each source myself if I so choose.