Description
Pick and answer four of the questions listed below. As part of each question, you will find listed a set of terms and phrases. Make sure that you use those terms and phrases in answering that question. A significant part of your grade for that answer will be based on how intelligently or meaningfully you use those terms and phrases in constructing your answer for that question. When typing your answers, please highlight those terms and phrases in bold and italic so that it is easy for me to locate them in your answers.
Each of the answer has to be a minimum of 250 words and a maximum of 500 words (please specify the word count for each answer at the end of that answer). Answers are to be double-spaced, Times New Roman; 12-point font size; 1” on left, right, top and bottom. You are required to upload your answer as a word file or a PDF file under Week 7 Exam I module, by October 21, Wednesday 11:59pm.
Question 1:
There is significant variation in states’ environmental policies, with some states having more environmental regulation than others. Discuss how the identity-based, interest-based and institution-based approaches to comparative analysis would explain this pattern. In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:
- Values and attitudes
- Authoritative norms
- Cost-benefit calculation
- Political actor
- Political behavior
- Interest groups
- Identity groups
- Democracy versus autocracy
Question 2:
Compare and contrast the political development paths of Germany and Great Britain in broad terms. Specifically, discuss the ways in which the two countries’ development paths are similar and different. In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:
- Stable political order
- Effective government
- Comparative politics feedback
- International relations feedback
- Global context
- Magna Carta
- The Glorious Revolution
- The Westminster model
- Political unification
- The Weimer Republic
- National Socialist German Workers, Party (Nazi Party)
- Two Germanys (Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic)
Question 3:
Compare and contrast the organization and power of the executive branches of government (the head of state and head of government) in Great Britain and France. In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:
- Parliamentary system
- Semi-presidential system
- Diffusion versus separation of executive and legislative power
- Constitutional monarchy
- Head of the government
- Head of the state
- Vote of confidence
- Cohabitation
- Emmanuel Macron
- Boris Johnson
Question 4:
Compare and contrast the organization and relative power of the legislative branches of government (parliament) in Germany and France. In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:
- (Weak or Strong) bicameralism
- Bundestag
- Bundesrat
- National Assembly
- Senate
- Federalism
- Relations with the executive branch
Question 5:
Compare and contrast the party systems of Great Britain and Germany, with clear references to the prominent political parties in those countries (their relative ideological positioning and political significance). In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:
- Two party system
- Multi party system
- Effective number of parties
- The Republicans
- The Union for French Democracy (UDF)
- The National Rally
- The Socialist Party
- The Conservative party
- The Labour Party
- The Liberal Democrats
Question 6:
Democracies and autocracies can take multiple different forms. Discuss first what separate a democracy from autocracy in general and then what separates different forms of democracies and different forms of autocracies.
- Competitive, multiparty elections
- Freedom of speech and assembly
- The rule of law
- Parliamentarism
- Presidentialism
- Semi-presidentalism
- Militaristic autocracy
- Monarchical autocracy
- Single-party autocracy
- Personal autocracy
- Fascism
- Communism
- Theocracy
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Political Organization, Outline
Qn. 3: Organization and power of the executive branches of government in Great Britain
and France
•
Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy. In this system, the reigning king or queen
serves as the head of state but not the head of government, even though he/she doesn’t
make political decisions (Watts, 2012).
•
France's politics exist within the framework of the semi-presidential system where there
are a president and the Prime Minister (Elgie, Grossman, and Mazur, 2016). The president
of the republic and the government exercises executive power in France. In the current
government, the president is Emmanuel Macron.
Qn. 4: Organization and relative power of the legislative branches of government in
Germany and France
•
The main legislative organ in Germany is called the Bundestag (Johnson, 2014). The word
Bundestag means parliament. The parliament in Germany is bicameral with two houses,
the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
•
France has a bicameral legislature because it consists of the national assembly and the
senate (Elgie, Grossman, and Mazur, 2016). The two assemblies conduct their legislative
functions at different chambers in Paris.
Qn. 5: The party systems of Great Britain and Germany
•
Great Britain has a multi-party system. The parties with the most dominance in Great
Britain are the Labour Party and the Conservative Party (Watts, 2012). Britain can be
called a two-party system because only the two parties mentioned above dominate its
politics. The two are the effective number of parties in Great Britain.
•
Germany has a plural multi-party system. The most dominant parties in Germany include
the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDP),
and the Christian Social Union (CSU) (Johnson, 2014).
Qn. 6: Democracies and autocracies
•
A democracy is a form of government where the people can directly choose their
government through elected representatives (Mauk, 2020). In such governments, the
supreme power is held by the people who exercise it through free elections.
•
Democracy has got different forms. A parliamentarism is a democratic form of governance
where the executive derives its legitimacy from parliament (Mauk, 2020). The executive is
accountable to its p...
Review
Review
