2015-16 (worth 150 pts)
AP Comp Gov’t Resource Information and Summer Assignment
AP Comparative Government students should purchase the following texts and study
guides for the upcoming school year.
Text: (required for each student)
Additional AP Study Guides: (these resources will help with AP exam prep)
AP Comparative Government Summer Assignment
Your assignment consists of two parts - vocabulary and book review. Both assignments are
due 1st week of classes in September of the upcoming school year. Late assignments will be
penalized 15 pts each day it is late.
Part I – Vocabulary (50pts)
You can use “Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics: An Essential Course Book and
Study Guide” and the websites below to complete the vocabulary assignment. For each term, please
explain, define, provide an example and create a picture/graphic for each. A thorough
understanding of these vocab terms is tantamount to your success in this course.
All parts of the vocabulary assignment MUST be hand-written. Please be neat. There will be a
test on these terms the first week of class.
Websites for Political Science Terms
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/political_science
http://www.socialsciencedictionary.com/
Part II – Reading
The book is Ian Bremmer’s The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations
Rise and Fall (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006). The book is available from Amazon.com new
for $18.00 and as low as $1.53 for a used copy. It is, of course, available for KINDLE.
Things get worse before they get better. Economists noticed that a country's trade deficit follows
this pattern when the value of its currency falls. A weakened U.S. dollar, for example, tends to
increase the U.S. trade deficit in the short term because, while the price of imports increases
immediately, contracts remain constant. After demand shifts from imports to domestic goods, the
trade balance improves—often the goal of intentional currency devaluation. This pattern resembles
a "J" on graphs and is therefore called the J curve.
Ian Bremmer, a political scientist who built a business on understanding risk, noticed that countries
also follow a J curve when moving from a state of isolation to a state of openness. In this case, the
curve describes the relationship between a country's openness and its stability, which is detailed in
Bremmer's new book.
Bremmer's premise is that "as the energies of globalization open up the least politically and
economically developed areas of the world, as the citizens of closed states learn more about life
beyond their borders and discover that they don't have to live as they do, tyrants must expend
more and more effort to isolate their societies" (p. 265), a point echoed by Natan Sharansky in his
justification for democracy promotion. But Bremmer's point is that openness, not democracy,
should be the tool of change. The task of the most open countries should be to work with
international institutions to help the more closed countries through the rocky transition to
openness and more enduring political stability. In fact, one can argue it is an ethical imperative.
PART III: ESSAY (100 pts)
After reading the novel, write a well-developed essay that addresses the application of the JCurve’s basic economic model in expressing the stability of a nation.
Your essay should be typed in 12pt font double-spaced, 2-3 pages in length with 1”margins.
Internal citations are required. In the upper right hand corner of the first page please type:
AP Comparative Government Summer Assignment
School Year 2015-16
Mrs. Austin/Mr. McNamara /Mr. Gough
Your Name (student’s name)
You will be graded on the strength of your arguments as well as the quality of your writing. Please
be sure that your essay is concise – in other words, make your point and move on. It is not
necessary to paraphrase the text and there should not be any direct quotes from the book. This is
YOUR analysis and critique of Bremmer’s arguments. You are not writing about HOW he makes
the arguments – but the actual merit of his arguments.
EXTRA CHALLENGE (1st Day Warm-Up)
Head of State and Head of Government for each country in the AP Curriculum with some additional
information about each leader (this information can be found by reading the leaders’ profiles on the
country’s government webpage).
Senior Year will be so much fun…….. :)
1 Autocracy
2 Bicameral
3 Bureaucracy
4 Civil Society
4 Cleavage (as it relates
to Political Science!)
6 Confederation
7 Democratization
8 Devolution
9 Executive
10 Federalism
11 Head of Government
12 Head of State
13 Illiberal Democracy
14 Interest Groups
15 Judicial Review
16 Judiciary
17 Legislature
18 Legitimacy
19 Liberal Democracy
20 Mixed Electoral
System
21 Multi-Member
District
22 Nation
23 Nationalization
24 Nation-state
25 Non-Governmental
Organization (NGO)
26 Oligarchs (Especially
as they relate to Russia
& Mexico)
27 Parliamentary
System
28 Patronage
29 Pluralism
30 Plurality Electoral
System
31 Political Culture
32 Political Efficacy
33 Political Elites
34Political Ideology
35 Political Recruitment
36 Political Socialization
37 Presidential System
38Privatization
39 Proportional
Representation
40 Referendum
41 Regime
42 Republic
43 Rule of Law
44 Separation of Powers
45 Single-Member
District
46 Sovereignty
47State
48Theocracy
49 Transparency (as it
relates to government)
50 Unicameral