Description: This is a one semester elective course for students who wish to take a challenging course in Comparative Government and Politics. Five countries form the core of this investigation of governments outside the United States: Great Britain, France, China, Russia, and Mexico. These countries will be compared and analyzed in terms of their sources of political authority, the basis of social cleavages in society, citizen belief's, constitutional frameworks of their governments, the institutions of the national government, the role of political parties, interest groups in the political process, and the process of political change. A college text will be utilized and the emphasis will be on critical thinking skills.