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 15 Exam II module, by December 17, Thursday, 11:59pm.

Question 1:

Compare and contrast the origin and characteristics of the regime types of Iran and Russia (democracy or autocracy; the types of democracy or autocracy). In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:

– Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei)

– The Guardian Council

– The Expediency Council

– The Assembly of Experts

– The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

– Vladimir Putin

– State Duma

– Federation Council

– Democracy

– Autocracy

– The 1979 Iranian Revolution

– Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

– The Shah regime

– Post-Soviet Russia

Question 2:

Compare and contrast the political development paths of Russia and China 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:

– Vladimir Lenin

– The Bolshevik Revolution

– Joseph Stalin- Stalinism

– Nikita Khrushchev- De-Stalinization

– Gorbachev- (Perestroika: Glastnost, democratization and new thinking)

– Legacies of the communist rule

– Boris Yeltsin- Shock therapy

– Vladimir Putin

– Republic of China

– The Kuomintang

– Mao Zedong

– The Chinese civil war

– Great Leap Forward

– Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

– Deng Xiaoping

– Tiananmen pro-democracy movement

– Jiang Zemin

– Hu Jintao

– Xi Jinping

Question 3:

Compare and contrast the historical origin, organization and power of the executive branches of government (the head of state and head of government) in Japan and Mexico. In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:

– Parliamentary democracy

– Presidential democracy

– Yoshihide Suga

– Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

– Emperor Naruhito

– Constitutional monarchy

– The Meiji Restoration

– The Allied occupation

– The Mexican Revolution

– Porfirio Diaz

– Lazaro Cardenas

– Established democracy

– Democratic consolidation

Question 4:

Compare and contrast the historical roots, organization and relative power of the legislative branches of government (parliament) in Mexico and South Africa. In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:

– Strong bicameralism

– Weak bicameralism

– The Mexican revolution

– Apartheid

– Post-Apartheid

– The Chamber of Deputies

– The Chamber of Senators

– The National Assembly

– The National Council of Provinces

Question 5:

Compare and contrast the origin and characteristics of party systems of Japan and Russia, with clear references to the prominent political parties in those countries (their relative ideological positioning and political significance), and discuss why they would be similar or different. In constructing your answer, make sure to use the following terms and phrases in a meaningful way:

– Liberal Democratic Party

– Democratic Party

– Dominant party system

– Multi-party system

– United Russia

– Communist party

– Liberal Democratic Party of Russia

– Vladimir Putin

– Post-Soviet Russia

Question 6:

Compare and contrast the electoral systems of Japan, Mexico and South Africa, and discuss why they could be similar or different.

– Mixed Electoral system

– Proportional representation system

– Single-member district plurality system

– House of Representatives

– House of Councilors

– Presidential elections

– The Chamber of Deputies

– The Chamber of Senators

– The National Assembly