Mrs. Knapp
AP US & Comparative Gov’t & Politics
Development Project
(130 Points)
Due: Thursday, October 6th
Directions:
1. For each of the topics and websites below perform the following tasks:
a. Follow the directions to access the information on the referenced website.
b. Record the necessary information in the attached chart.
c. Answer any additional questions on a separate sheet. Be sure to label each question that you
are answering.
d. Upon competing the topics, answer the assessing questions also on a separate sheet.
e. Finally, answer the attached free response question.
2. You are completed all of the assigned questions and information for ALL of the following countries:
A. China
B. Iran
C. Mexico
D. Nigeria
E. Russia
F. United Kingdom
G. United States
Political Development - www.freedomhouse.org
(7 points for data and 15 points total for questions; 3 points each)
1. Go to the first website (Freedom House).
a. What is Freedom House?
b. Click on “analysis.”
c. Click on “comparative scores.”
2. Answer the following information for each country:
a. Describe the measurements of freedom applied to the countries.
b. What is each country’s score on political rights? Civil Rights? (Complete in chart)
c. Why do you think the countries were given each of these scores?
d. What do the scores tell you about the level of development in each country?
Social and Economic Development - www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/Index.html
(31.5 points for data)
1. Go to the second website (CIA World Fact Book).
a. Click on “select a country or location.”
b. Write down the following information for each country in the chart:
i. GDP
1. per capita
2. Agriculture
3. Industry
4. Service
ii. Life expectancy
iii. Death rate
iv. Infant mortality
v. Literacy
1. Male
2. Female
Women’s Rights - www.humanrightsdata.org
(10.5 points for data)
1. Go to the third website (CIRI Human Rights Data Project).
a. This website contains research-based information on a variety of countries. According to the
site, “It is designed for use by scholars and students who seek to test theories about the causes
and consequences of human rights violations.”
b. You will have to create an account, which will take a few minutes.
i. Click “register here.”
ii. When you are done, click “create a dataset.”
iii. Check the boxes for the countries, women’s economic, political, and social rights, and
click “next.”
iv. Select the region where your country is located, and click “next.”
v. Select “2009” and click “Next.”
vi. Name your dataset, then review your data.
c. The coding given is as follows:
i. (0) – There are no rights for women.
ii. (1) – There are some rights for women under the law but the government does not
enforce the laws consistently.
iii. (2) – There are some rights for women under the law, and the government enforces
some of the laws but tolerates a low level of discrimination against women.
iv. (3) – All or nearly all of women’s rights are guaranteed by law, and the government
enforces these rights and tolerates almost no discrimination against women.
v. (99) – No data.
d. Answer the following questions by placing the information in your chart: (you may find no
information in some of these categories)
i. What is the level of women’s economic rights?
ii. What is the level of women’s political rights?
iii. What is the level of women’s social rights?
Human Development - www.undp.org
(7 points for data and 15 points for questions total; 3 points each)
1. Go to the fourth website (UN Human Development Index).
a. Answer the following questions:
i. What does the index measure?
ii. What is a “high” score and what does a high score mean?
iii. What is a “low” score and what does a low score mean?
iv. Click on “statistics,” “get data.”
v. Click on “data by country.” Choose data for each country.
vi. What is the relationship between geographic location and HDI? How do you account for
this?
vii. What does the education index measure?
viii. What is the education index for each country (the highest score is 99)? Place the
information in your chart.
Corruption - www.transparency.org/cpi
(3.5 points for data and 12 points for questions total; 3 points each)
1. Go to the fifth website (Transparency International Data on Corruption).
a. Click on “policy and research.”
b. Click on “Corruption Perceptions Index.”
c. Click on the most recent year.
2. Answer the following questions:
a. What does the corruption index measure?
b. What is a high score and what does that mean?
c. What is a low score and what does that mean?
d. What is the corruption index for each country? Place the information in your chart.
e. What is the relationship between corruption and poverty?
Gini Index- data.worldbank.org
(7 points for data and 5 points for questions total)
1. The Gini Coefficient (or Gini Index) measures the relative degree of socioeconomic inequality within a
country.
a. Perfect Equality equal zero: All individuals (or households0 receive the same annual income;
there is zero inequality
b. Maximum inequality equals 100: Only one individual (or household) monopolizes all (100
percent) of society’s income and everybody else gets nothing.
c. Any number between 0 and 100 represents the degree to which society’s income distribution
pattern deviates from perfect equality.
2. Go to the sixth and final website (The World Bank’s World Development Report).
a. Type “Gini index” in the search box and click search.
b. Choose the first result “GINI Index” and a smaller window will pop up.
c. Type each country into the box under “Country Name.” Data for the last 10 years will appear.
Scroll until you see the most recent data for the country. Record the Gini Coefficient and the
year in your chart.
d. Which country has the highest Gini index?
e. Which country has the lowest?
f. Which country’s Gini index surprises you the most and why?
Assessing Development
(5 points each question)
Now that you have completed your chart, answer the following two questions:
a. Which two countries appear to be the least developed overall? Identify 2-3 variables that
caused you to choose these two countries.
b. What is the relationship between development and democracy? Identify the two developmentrelated factors that are most important in causing a country to democratize.
Free Response Question
(6 points)
Use the following information to complete the tasks below.
SELECTED NATIONAL INDICATORS FOR TWO COUNTRIES
Country X
Country Y
Population
75 million
150 million
HDI ranking
43
88
GDP per capita
$27,000
$2,500
Percent of workforce in agriculture
4%
37%
a. Identify which country is more economically developed, Country X or Country Y.
b. Select one of the indicators listed in the table and explain how that indicator can be used to support
your answer in (a).
c. Select another indicator listed in the table and explain how that indicator can be used to support your
answer in (a).
Mrs. Knapp
AP US & Comparative Gov’t & Politics
Development Project Data Collection Charts
Name ___________________________________
Freedom House Data
Political Rights Score
Civil Rights Score
China
Iran
Mexico
Nigeria
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
CIA World Fact Book Data
GDP
(per capita)
GDP
(Agriculture)
GDP
(Industry)
GDP
(Service)
Life
Expectancy
Death
Rate
Infant
Mortality
Literacy:
Male
Literacy:
Female
China
Iran
Mexico
Nigeria
Russia
United
Kingdom
United
States
CIRI Human Rights Data Project
Women’s Economic Rights Women’s Political Rights
Women’s Social Rights
China
Iran
Mexico
Nigeria
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
Human Development Index
HDI Index
China
Iran
Mexico
Nigeria
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
Education Index
Corruption Data
Corruption Index
China
Iran
Mexico
Nigeria
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
Gini Index Data
Gini Coefficient
China
Iran
Mexico
Nigeria
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
Year Data Collected