Comparative Government!

Test Preparation
21

<p>Egalitarianism is the quality of being equal -- questions to ask for egalitarian states are: "What is the definition of equal? By what measure are you determining equality?"</p>

<p>For instance: Communist nations propose material egalitarianism. That is, the equal distribution of wealth. However, the United States has a different sort: one of a moral and legal egalitarianism. The "All men are created equal," etc., You also have gender egalitarianism (e.g. exhibited to some degree during the suffrage movements), etc.,</p>

22

<p>Not like this is going to help, especially because all of you are probably asleep by now, but:</p>

<p>** Mexico **
* Constitution provides for executive, legislative, and judicial. Clear delineation of separation of powers.
* Universal adult suffrage, Presidential term is only once.
* No vice president, provisional president elected by the Congress.</p>

<p>Congress is bicameral: Senate and Chamber of Deputies (upper and lower houses, respectively). No party has control of either House. If you remember, PRI had a 70+ year dominance of the Presidency, and current President Fox's coalition, the PAN (... Party of National Action, I know that's not the actual Spanish term for it.. but, hey..) took the Presidency.</p>

<p>Economically, Mexico's doing a tad better since the 1980s, however, Fox's failed to keep up with his promises as of late. There is major outsourcing of jobs that are originally supposed to be in Mexico, and despite Fox's election, corruption scandals that plague the government almost daily.</p>

<p>Let's not get into the Chiapas thing.</p>

<p>** India **
Democratic Republic.</p>

<p>Broad executive powers to the President. Elected by an Electoral college.</p>

<p>Real executive power, however, goes to the Prime Minister. (Remember, Gandhi [not M. Gandhi, the advocate of peace, but his niece? You know, the one that was living in Italy for a while but came back] -- tried to gain the position of PM but there was high hell about it, so the other guy took over. I'll remember names later on. LOL. It's late at night, cut me some slack. No one will probably read this anyway).</p>

<p>The Council of Ministers, similar to a Presidential Cabinet, assists the Prime Minister in effectively carrying out executive duties as required. When a Prime Minister is in power, the President is just a figurehead.</p>

<p>India has two "Sabhas" -- parliamentary houses, which is the State House (R. Sabha, that's how I memorized it) and the People's House (L. Sabha). Sort of like a Senate/HR thing. Except state territories elect the members of the upper house, while the People's House is by direct election. </p>

<p>Singh! There we go, that's the new Prime Minister's name. I'm still stuck on Vajpayee. Hahaha..</p>

<p>Economy.. tech boom, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that sorta stuff.</p>

23

<p>so who's still up? </p>

<p>I'm going throught aht websit eright now. it's good for solidifying trends and policies. I don't think it would be the best prepl for the multiple choice though. then again, I haven't read much of it, so what do I know? :-P</p>

<p>hey quick question. I read htat the french president has more powers than any other president in europe. what powers does he have and how are they different from presidents in other european countries and America?</p>

24

<p>If you remember the disputes between Jospin (the former French PM) and Chirac (a Gironist, Jospin was a Socialist), Chirac had major ideological differences with Jospin (who was an admitted Trotskiyst) and later ended up defeating him in the Presidential election. </p>

<p>Anyway, I digress.</p>

<p>The President names the Prime Minister (whereas in other nations, they are generally elected through indirect parliamentary .. well, whoever has the majority bloc gets the PM spot.. i.e. Britain) ... can't revoke him though.</p>

<p>The President also names the Cabinet. Ministers, Secretaries of State, etc., Technically, like Britain, however, he's supposed to appoint ministers that are reflective of the party majority.. and when the assembly is against his favour, that can actually hurt.</p>

<p>The President has comprehensive powers that he can take on during times of emergency. He can also dissolve the National Assembly.</p>

<p>The Prime Minister answers to the National Assembly, along with the cabinet.</p>

<p>You can thank DeGaulle for a strong executive President. :)</p>

25

<p>well, it's arguable that by now Putin has more power than Chirac.
then again, Duma is viewed by many as more powerful than National Assembly...</p>

26

<p>Well, yeah. But Chirac was placed into position with those powers available (thanks to DeGaulle). Putin is maneuvering himself into these executive powers.</p>

<p>And of course, we all know Duma > National Assembly in terms of legislative authority. That wasn't true for a while, but nowadays, it is. With Putin's executive consolidation, however, that might be in for a change.</p>

27

<p>I know we can't talk about it explicity, but what'd everyone think? I wasn't displeased at all.</p>

28

<p>not bad! (till i found out i totally swapped the things in question #2= not cool AT ALL)... is there any hope for me?</p>

29

<p>Does anyone know what they think the curve will be and the scaled scores?</p>

30

<p>that test was sooo easy...wow</p>

31

<p>That test blew me away... so easy. Wow.</p>

32

<p>I thought U.S. was much easier, because our teacher flew through comparative in a month. I bombed the last essay.</p>

33

<p>Our teacher did the same thing, jamminjb5! </p>

<p>I swear, what's the point of cramming all of that in within a matter of a month? I suppose it's possible (one of my friends was able to do it), but I had other AP classes to deal with and had no time to deal all of those messy notes that I had piled up. Heck, I didn't even have time to read the Britain and France chapters! So I simply relied on our crazy notes, which didn't go as in-depth as the book we had. In fact, our teacher decided to suddenly deviate from the text book she gave us, and decided to give us large
"packets" for Russia, China, and Mexico. </p>

<p>IN-SANE <em>fingertwirl</em></p>

<p>I have almost no clue as to how I did on the multiple choice. I'm guessing probably not good; I narrowed some down, but simply put, I was just not "trained" well enough for the type of questions that were asked. </p>

<p>The essay, however, I found to be much more relaxing. Except for number 3. Where the heck did that come from? Everyone was scratching their heads about that one after the exam was over. In fact, I had to resort to thinking back to "The Stranger," just to partially answer a). I gave up after that.</p>

<p>All I can say is: Thank Collegeboard for charts. <em>thanks collegeboard</em></p>

34

<p>My school only has comparative (I really wish we had US since I'm going to be a Polisci major next year with a concentration in American Politics) but I realized how little I knew in mid-April. There was a yellow book that was good for self-studying as well as a small one with brightly colored edges (I'm too lazy to go look at the titles now). </p>

<p>Anyway, I think it wasn't so bad. I'm hoping for at least a 4 even though my school gives me credit for a 3. Still no one has an idea for the curve and grading scale?</p>

35

<p>ldcubed, essay 3 came directly from headline news on CNN</p>

<p>did anybody else have serious trouble figuring out the directions to essay 1? i read it over and over and it didn't make any sense to me....i hope i answered what they wanted in the manner they wanted</p>

36

<p>it wasn't bad but it wasn't particularly 'great' either.
I know I missed at least 3 on mc, and got owned on the last part of the last essay.</p>

<p>who can give me the curves for the previous years ?</p>

37

<p>No one has ANY curve ideas?</p>

38

<p>Review book says:
88-120 for a 5
74-87 for a 4
54-73 for a 3
35-53 for a 2
0-34 for a 1
Caveat: Not a very good review book. They seem to think the curve is the same for Comparative and American gov. Dunno if that's true, I would tend to think not.</p>