Political Institutions

What this unit covers

The topics below follow the published Comp Gov course framework for Unit 2. This unit is worth 22–33% of the exam, so budget your time against that rather than against how long the unit takes to teach.

Lessons in this unit

• Executives: Presidents, Prime Ministers & Supreme Leaders15 min · 3 objectivesDistinguish parliamentary, presidential, and semi-presidential systems · Separate the head of state from the head of government across the core countries · Explain how executives are selected and removed in the six countries
• Legislatures14 min · 3 objectivesCompare unicameral and bicameral legislatures across the core countries · Explain the functions of legislatures and how their real power varies · Distinguish genuine lawmaking bodies from rubber-stamp legislatures
• Judiciaries & Bureaucracies13 min · 3 objectivesExplain judicial independence and judicial review across the core countries · Compare bureaucracies and the role of the party-state in China · Analyze how courts and bureaucracies either check or serve executive power

Every term in Unit 2

All 27 terms we publish for Political Institutions, with definitions. Reading them through is the fastest way to find the ones you cannot define — then drill those in cram mode until you can produce them without the prompt.

Head of state vs head of government

The head of state embodies the nation; the head of government runs it. Separate in the UK (monarch and prime minister) and in Iran (Supreme Leader and president); fused in Mexico and Nigeria.

UK Prime Minister

Leader of the majority party in the Commons, appointed by the monarch. Holds no fixed term and can be removed by the party at any time, which is why several have left mid-parliament.

Vote of no confidence

A parliamentary vote that can bring down a government. The fusion of executive and legislature is what makes this possible and what most distinguishes parliamentary from presidential systems.

UK House of Commons

650 members elected in single-member districts. The dominant chamber: it controls money bills and can override the Lords under the Parliament Acts.

UK House of Lords

Unelected, made up of life peers, 92 hereditary peers and bishops. It can delay and revise but cannot ultimately block legislation.

UK Supreme Court

Created in 2009, taking the judicial role from the Law Lords. It cannot strike down an Act of Parliament, which is the practical meaning of parliamentary sovereignty.

Parliamentary sovereignty

Parliament can make or unmake any law and no body can override it. Constrains judicial review and is why the 2019 prorogation ruling was constitutionally striking.

Russian President and the power vertical

Directly elected, appoints the prime minister, dominates security and foreign policy. Constitutional amendments in 2020 reset term limits, allowing Putin to run again.

Russian Federal Assembly

Bicameral: the State Duma has 450 seats, the Federation Council has two members per federal subject. The Duma has not blocked significant presidential legislation in many years.

Russia's siloviki

Officials drawn from the security and military services who hold major political and economic positions. Explains why the security apparatus is a political actor rather than an instrument.

Chinese Communist Party structures

The Politburo Standing Committee is the apex, the Politburo sits above the Central Committee, and the Party Congress meets every five years. Party bodies outrank state ones at every level.

China's National People's Congress

Nearly 3,000 delegates meeting annually, constitutionally the highest state organ. In practice it ratifies decisions made in the Party, which is why it is described as a rubber stamp.

China's dual party-state

Every government office is shadowed by a party committee, and the party secretary usually outranks the official. Nomenklatura control of appointments is the mechanism.

Xi Jinping and the 2018 term limits

The removal of presidential term limits in 2018 reversed a norm dating from the post-Mao reforms. The clearest recent case of deinstitutionalization on the syllabus.

Mexican President

Six-year term called the sexenio, with no re-election ever. The single-term rule was designed to prevent the personalism that produced the Mexican Revolution.

Mexican Congress

Chamber of Deputies with 500 seats — 300 single-member districts plus 200 by proportional representation — and a 128-seat Senate. The mixed system is a standard comparison point.

Mexico's electoral institute

An autonomous body that administers elections, created in the 1990s to take election management away from the ruling party. A concrete institutional cause of democratization.

Nigerian President and the federal character principle

Directly elected to a four-year term, maximum two. The constitution requires appointments to reflect Nigeria's regional and ethnic diversity, an explicit institutional response to cleavage.

Nigeria's National Assembly

A 109-seat Senate with three per state plus one for the Federal Capital Territory, and a 360-seat House of Representatives.

Nigeria's presidential distribution requirement

To win outright a candidate needs a plurality nationally AND at least 25 percent in two-thirds of the states. Designed to prevent a purely regional president.

Iran's Supreme Leader

Head of state, commander of the armed forces, appoints the judiciary head and half the Guardian Council. Selected by and nominally accountable to the Assembly of Experts.

Iran's Guardian Council

Twelve members — six clerics named by the Supreme Leader, six jurists proposed by the judiciary and confirmed by parliament. Vets all candidates and can veto legislation, which is how elections are constrained without being canceled.

Iran's Majlis

The 290-seat elected parliament. It legislates and questions ministers, but every bill and every candidate passes through the Guardian Council.

Iran's Assembly of Experts and Expediency Council

The Assembly of Experts is elected and selects the Supreme Leader; the Expediency Council resolves disputes between the Majlis and the Guardian Council and advises the Leader.

Judicial independence, compared

The UK judiciary is independent but cannot void statute; Mexico and Nigeria have formal review with uneven enforcement; Russian, Chinese and Iranian courts are subordinate to the executive or the party.

Bureaucratic recruitment

Merit examination in China with party loyalty required alongside; civil service tradition in the UK; patronage pressures in Nigeria and Russia. Recruitment method predicts how policy is implemented.

Military and politics

Nigeria had repeated coups until 1999; Iran's Revolutionary Guard holds economic and political power; China's PLA reports to the Party, not the state. Civilian control is the variable to compare.

What examiners penalize here

• For every executive question, ask two things: (1) Is the executive accountable to the legislature (parliamentary) or elected separately for a fixed term (presidential)? (2) Are the head-of-state and head-of-government roles combined or split? These two axes classify all six countries.
• Watch for bicameralism tracking federalism: federal states (**Russia, Mexico, Nigeria**) tend to have a second chamber representing regions, while the unitary authoritarian systems (**China, Iran**) are unicameral. The UK is unitary but bicameral — a useful exception to remember.
• The UK’s historic principle of **parliamentary sovereignty** means Parliament’s statutes were traditionally supreme and not subject to being struck down by courts — a sharp contrast with strong judicial review. Note the 2009 UK Supreme Court can review *government actions* but this legislative-supremacy tradition still shapes the system.

Practice Comp Gov

Our practice bank is drawn from across the whole course rather than filtered to one unit, which is closer to how the exam asks anyway — it will not tell you which unit a question is testing.

Questions about this unit

All 5 units of AP Comparative Government & Politics

1. Unit 1 · Political Systems, Regimes & Governments
2. Unit 2 · Political Institutions
3. Unit 3 · Political Culture & Participation
4. Unit 4 · Party & Electoral Systems
5. Unit 5 · Political & Economic Changes