Essay Instructions: Germany Country Research paper project. Study of Germany's domestic politics. Write 15 page paper in which you address one of the following topics. COUNTRY RESEARCH PAPER PROJECT
? Regime Type. Would you classify your country as a liberal democracy, illiberal democracy, or authoritarian regime? Why? Is it democratizing? If so, in what ways? If it is an authoritarian regime, do you expect it will become a democracy at some point? If it is a democracy, is it becoming more or less democratic?
? Legislature and Executive. Describe how the executive and legislature work in your country (i.e., is the country presidential or parliamentary? How are the president and legislature elected? What are their respective roles?). You may also want to describe how this system has evolved over time, and if power has shifted between the executive and the legislature over time. Most importantly, is the institutional arrangement effective in your country? That is, are the executive and legislature able to govern effectively and pass legislation? If not, would you suggest modifications to the institutional arrangements?
? Judicial. How is the judiciary configured in your country? To what extent would you say that it is independent of the executive and legislature? You should discuss particular court cases as examples. Also, discuss how the executive and legislature influence the court (for instance, through appointments). And has the court affected politics in your country? Do you believe that the court should become more or less independent?
? Constitution. Describe your country?s constitution and discuss how it has evolved over time. Would you classify it as liberal, social, authoritarian, or something else? Provide examples of constitutional provisions that would lead you to classify your country?s constitution in this way. What are the procedures for amendment? Most importantly, do you believe the constitution is effective? Do you believe citizens and politicians should consider modifying it or developing a new constitution altogether?
? Social Movements/Political Culture. Describe important social movements, either currently or historically. In particular, focus on movements that have pushed for democratization, if such movements exist or have existed. If not, focus on social movements advocating major political changes. How do/did these movements mobilize and recruit participants? (You may want to discuss collective action problems.) Have they been effective? How so?
? Political Participation. Describe the extent of voting and other forms of political participation in your country. Is political participation high or low in your country, relative to other countries? What are the factors that you believe contribute to your country having high or low levels of political participation?
? Mass Media. Describe the most important media sources in your country. Are some media sources aligned with political groups? What level of control does the government exercise over the media? Most importantly, to what extent and in what ways do the media influence public opinion?
This is a research paper. The analysis should be your own, but it should be informed by what other critics and experts have written on the policy issue. You must have a minimum of twelve (12) outside resources. The outside sources must include at least one of the following: 1) an academic or scholarly book on the issue; 2) an academic or scholarly journal article on the issue; 3) a primary source on the issue; 4) a government source on the issue; 5) a major newspaper source on the issue; 6) a proponent of the issue; and 7) an opponent of the issue.
The length of your paper should be no less than fifteen (15) pages double-spaced typed pages (excluding title and reference page), one-inch margins, and a Times-Roman font size of 12. Please include a title page with your name, course title, section, topic, and date. You must turn in your paper in the Country Research Paper Dropbox in the Florida Online Course Shell by December 5th at 11:59 pm. Paper will only be accepted through the Dropbox in Florida Online. Papers not submitted on time will receive a grade zero (?0?). There no exceptions to the paper requirements or the late policy.
I do not want to see any clipart or pictures of any nature in the paper or on the cover page (graphs and charts are acceptable) . . . once again, this is college not high school and your artwork will not impress me. You obviously will need to do research and use references for this paper. You must use APA (American Psychological Association) style for your references. I will not accept MLA or any other style format under any circumstances. I will not accept MLA or any other style format under any circumstances. If you choose to employ MLA or any other style format instead of APA you will receive a grade of ?0? for the assignment. Keep an eye on the content section of the course shell in Florida Online as I will try to post other sites and documents that can provide guidance and valuable information as you write your paper. The paper is worth 130 points.
PLEASE NOTE: I will not read rough drafts. Rough drafts get a ?rough? reading and, as a result, I may give a false impression that the paper is fine only to find problems during my more careful ?official? reading. However, I will be happy to talk through your paper in as much detail as you wish.
General Citation Guidelines
Bearing in mind the problems that can be posed by plagiarism and the potentially serious consequences, here are a few general guidelines to help students cite their sources correctly:
? "Every assignment should be the original work of the student who turns it in, and appropriate credit should be given to all sources used"--Mitch Sanders, Plagiarism and Academic Honesty
? "Always, Always, Always Give Credit Where Credit Is Due!"
--Janice Walker, Intellectual Property in the Information Age
? It doesn't have to be intentional to be plagiarism. Omitting citations for other peoples' ideas or work is always considered plagiarism; whether this results from an intentional attempt to steal somebody else's credit or from not knowing that you were supposed to cite your sources. I suspect (or at least hope) that most students are not intentionally trying to fool their professors into giving them credit for somebody else's ideas. Nonetheless, you need to be careful to cite all of your sources, because not knowing or not spending the time to cite still has the same effect and is still considered plagiarism.
? Any fact, idea, or opinion that is not originally yours (and that is not common knowledge) must be cited. (note that this is true even where you don't use a direct quotation from the author -- it is plagiarism to steal ideas without proper attribution, even if you do not re-type the ideas word for word from the original)
? Rule of thumb: every paragraph of ideas that are not your own (and that are not common knowledge) should have at least one citation.
? "Common knowledge": a good rule of thumb is that you do not need to cite something that a typical high school student can reasonably be expected to know. For example, there is no need to cite the facts that George Washington was the first U.S. president, George Bush was president during the Gulf War, or Canada and Mexico both border the United States. A similar rule of thumb is that anything you need to look up is not common knowledge.
? Direct quotes must be enclosed in quotation marks and accompanied by citations of the source and page number. It is usually a good idea to avoid direct quotation wherever possible, though, limiting direct quotes to material that is absolutely necessary to understanding the point or especially memorable or well-written points.
? Excessively close paraphrasing is wrong, even if you cite the original source. I had a student once who took an entire class paper directly from a CD-ROM encyclopedia, who thought she was avoiding plagiarism because she changed one word per sentence. (needless to say, she was wrong).
? When in doubt, cite your source; it is always better to over document your research than to risk plagiarism by under documenting or assuming that something is common knowledge.
Sources
Your outside references can come from the following:
1. Books
2. Academic Journals (articles from political science or public policy journals are likely to be most relevant)
3. Newspapers (it is suggested that you stick to major national papers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal)
4. Magazines (again, use major magazines, such as Newsweek or The Economist)
5. Primary sources: Government documents, IGO/NGO documents, etc.
6. Do not use Wikipedia under any circumstances.
Scholarly Journals and Web Sites
? Country studies - The Library of Congress' online version of books previously published in hard copy by the Federal Research Division under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army.
? Electoral Calendar - From Electoral Web Sites includes upcoming, previous elections, and country specific information
? Comparative Study of Electoral Systems - Results of an ongoing cross-national research program involving election studies in over 50 consolidated and emerging democracies
? World Factbook - Annual publication of the CIA with basic information on the countries of the world
? CIA Publications - In addition to the above, various publications such as roster of heads of state and cabinet members provided by the Central Intelligence Agency
? International Data Base -U.S. Census Bureau source of statistical tables for 227 countries and areas of the world
? International Statistics Agencies - Supported by the United Nations/Economic Commission for Europe, Statistical Division this site provides online access to a large number of other statistical resources
? Vanderbilt University: Foreign Countries/Comparative Politics
? African Affairs
? African Studies Review
? Journal of African and Asian Studies
? The Journal of Comparative Politics
? British Journal of Political Science
? British Politics
? Comparative European Politics
? Comparative Political Studies
? Comparative Strategy
? Democracy & Society
? Democratization
? Electoral Studies
? European Journal of Political Research
? French Politics
? International Journal of Middle East Studies
? Israel Affairs
? Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Studies
? Journal of Democracy
? Journal of Modern African Studies
? Latin American Politics and Society
? Middle Eastern Studies
? Politica y Gobierno
? Politeia
? The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies
? Review of African Political Economy
? Studies in Comparative International Development
? West European Politics
