Comparative Politics is the study of various Political systems around the world.  We studied different regime types and aspects of political culture.  We looked at what makes a State, and how political instability can lead to the upheaval of an entire nation.  Some key characteristics are necessary for a country to become democratic, and numerous authors debated what these necessities are.  Throughout the selected readings, we were able to obtain information regarding the necessary governmental and individual ideologies which played a role in the development of a government.

We were asked many questions, throughout the semester, of what makes up a government. We began to answer these questions by analyzing and comparing different states, found on the World Values Survey, and seeing whether these states were strong and prospering or if they have failed.  We researched the political history, economic history and social history to find out what made them fail or what made them succeed.  This was our first analysis of “comparative politics”, gaining the ability to compare to states and their governments.  We then analyzed quotes from Huntington, regarding the Confucian Ideology and the Chinese Government, whether Iraq is the Islamic problem, and how God and Caesar play roles in the development of democracy.  Lastly, we focused and culminated much of our class discussion with a mock German Election.  By researching each party within the German government, and researching in depth our respective parties, we were able to understand how an election would undergo.  This tied together everything we’ve learned in comparative politics, with the comparisons and ideologies of political parties and how they correlate to form the strongest regime.  

Overall, we have learned  that comparative politics is not just a general study of a government and how it functions.  It is an in-depth analysis of how a government functions, why it functions this way, and what major factors influence it’s function.  

Stephen and Jackie