Political & Economic Changes

What this unit covers

The topics below follow the published Comp Gov course framework for Unit 5. This unit is worth 16–24% of the exam, so budget your time against that rather than against how long the unit takes to teach.

Lessons in this unit

• Globalization & Its Political Effects14 min · 3 objectivesDefine globalization and its economic, cultural, and political dimensions · Explain how supranational organizations affect state sovereignty · Analyze responses to globalization in the core countries, including Brexit
• Economic Development & Policy14 min · 3 objectivesCompare command, market, and mixed economies across the core countries · Explain economic liberalization and China’s reform path · Analyze how development strategies and resource dependence shape politics
• Political Reform & Regime Change13 min · 3 objectivesDistinguish reform, revolution, and other paths of political change · Analyze causes of regime change and democratic backsliding · Evaluate how the core countries have changed or resisted change

Every term in Unit 5

All 27 terms we publish for Political & Economic Changes, 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.

Structural adjustment programs

IMF and World Bank loan conditions requiring privatization, subsidy cuts and currency devaluation. Nigeria and Mexico both underwent them, with severe short-term social costs.

Neoliberalism

Policy favoring markets, deregulation, privatization and free trade. Mexico from the 1980s and the UK under Thatcher are the syllabus cases.

Privatization

Transferring state assets to private owners. The UK sold utilities in the 1980s; Russia's 1990s privatization produced the oligarchs and is the standard example of process determining outcome.

Russia's oligarchs

Businessmen who acquired privatized state assets cheaply in the 1990s and became politically powerful. Their subsequent subordination to the Kremlin is a key illustration of state-business relations under Putin.

China's Reform and Opening (from 1978)

Deng Xiaoping's introduction of market mechanisms and foreign investment while retaining party control. The syllabus's central case of economic liberalization without political liberalization.

Special Economic Zones

Designated areas with liberalized rules to attract foreign investment, beginning with Shenzhen. Allowed China to experiment geographically before scaling nationally.

State-owned enterprises in China

Remain dominant in energy, banking, telecoms and rail, with party committees inside them. Why "market economy" is an incomplete description of the Chinese system.

The hukou system

Household registration tying access to services to a registered locality. Creates a large internal migrant population working in cities without full access to schooling and health care there.

China's one-child policy and its reversal

In force from 1979, relaxed to two children in 2016 and three in 2021. A case of a policy succeeding at its stated aim and creating a demographic problem the state then had to address.

NAFTA and USMCA

The 1994 agreement and its 2020 successor integrated Mexico with the United States and Canada. Manufacturing grew in the north while subsidized imports damaged southern smallholder agriculture.

Maquiladoras

Export-assembly plants along Mexico's northern border. Concrete evidence for both the employment gains and the regional inequality that integration produced.

The Zapatista uprising (1994)

An indigenous rising in Chiapas timed to NAFTA's entry into force. Links economic liberalization directly to a distributional and identity-based grievance.

Nigeria's oil dependence

Petroleum supplies the large majority of export earnings and a dominant share of government revenue, making the budget hostage to world prices and weakening incentives to tax.

The Niger Delta

Oil-producing region with severe environmental damage and long-running militancy over revenue distribution. The clearest link between resource extraction and internal conflict on the syllabus.

Nigeria's fuel subsidy

Long-standing subsidies that consumed a large share of revenue; attempts to remove them repeatedly triggered strikes and protest. Illustrates why economically rational reform is politically costly.

Russia's dependence on hydrocarbons

Oil and gas dominate exports and state revenue, so growth tracks world energy prices. Sanctions after 2014 and 2022 accelerated attempts at import substitution.

Iran's sanctions and the economy

International sanctions over the nuclear program restricted oil exports and banking access. Inflation and currency depreciation are the mechanism connecting external pressure to domestic protest.

The JCPOA

The 2015 nuclear agreement lifting some sanctions in exchange for constraints. The United States withdrew in 2018 and sanctions were reimposed, a case study in how external agreements affect domestic factional politics.

Thatcherism

Privatization, union restriction, and monetarist policy from 1979. Reshaped the British economy and reoriented the Labour Party in response.

Devolution in the UK

Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies established from 1998. Devolved power without federalizing, since Westminster retains the legal authority to reclaim it.

Brexit and its sequence

Referendum in June 2016, formal exit January 2020, transition ended December 2020. The clearest syllabus case of a sovereignty claim reversing supranational integration.

Belt and Road Initiative

China's infrastructure and lending program across Asia, Africa and Europe. Extends influence through economic instruments rather than alliances.

Corruption and its measurement

Perception indices are the usual measure and they measure perception, not incidence. Nigeria, Russia and Mexico score poorly; comparing changes over time is safer than comparing levels.

Environmental policy, compared

The UK has legislated binding emissions targets; China leads in renewable capacity while remaining the largest emitter; Nigeria faces gas flaring and delta pollution. Compare commitments against enforcement capacity.

Demographic pressures

Nigeria has one of the world's fastest-growing populations; Russia and China face aging and shrinking workforces. Demography sets the constraint within which policy operates.

Urbanization

China moved from majority rural to majority urban within a generation; Lagos is among the world's fastest-growing cities. Urbanization changes both service demands and protest potential.

Answering the comparative-analysis question

Define the concept, apply it to two named countries with a specific institution or policy in each, then explain the difference causally. Description of both countries without a stated basis of comparison caps the score.

What examiners penalize here

• Frame globalization questions around the **sovereignty tradeoff**: integration brings economic benefits but requires ceding policy control, and backlash (Brexit) reclaims sovereignty at economic cost. Naming both sides of the tradeoff earns fuller credit than describing only one.
• China’s reforms make a key comparative point: **economic liberalization does not require political liberalization**. Use China versus post-Soviet Russia to show that market reform can pair with authoritarian control (China) or with disruptive privatization and oligarchy (Russia).
• Always ask whether change alters the **regime** (revolution — Iran 1979) or only the **government/leaders** (a coup, or a normal election). And watch for **democratic backsliding**: an elected leader keeping democratic forms while gutting their substance is a frequent, high-value exam concept.

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