PaperFormat
•18–20double spaced pages (not including the cover page, abstract,and references), 12–pont font, 1 inch margins. This is approximately 6,000–7,000 words
•The paper should be written in APA format, including the cover page, formatting, abstract, and references.
Topic
•The paper should advance an original theoretical argumentregarding one aspect of democratization process or quality of democracy and should testthatargument in one or two countries of your choice.
•Possible topics include democratization process, prospectfor a successful transition, prospectfor a successful consolidation, quality of democracy, one aspect of democratic systems such as elections, form of government, the rule of law, human rights, and similar. These are just potential topics; you can choose any topic that addresses the issue ofdemocratization.
•In developing your argument, consider some of the following questions (please keep in mind that these questions are simply suggestionsand not all will be relevant to your topic)
o What is the likelihood countries will become stable democracies?
o Which factors contribute to successful transition?
o What are some obstacles to successful transition and consolidation?
o Which conditions might create different prospects for democracy?
o How canany similar/different traits explain similar/different paths toward democracy?
o In which waydocountries’ economic systems contribute to or hinder their transition?
o What affects/determines the quality of democratic institutions?
Cases
•In choosing case studies, select one or two countries that are either
o attempting to transition to democracy,
o potentially transitioning in the near future, or
o is/are new democracies
•If you are selecting two countries, they must be from the same region
o You may NOT write about the United States, Canada, or Western European countries.
•In general, your paper should include the following components:
1.an introduction,
2.a problem statement,
3.discussion of methodology,
4.literature review,
5.description and evaluation of your research findings, and
6.summary of your findingsand conclusions.
You must use a minimum of 10peer–reviewedsources(peer–reviewed journal articlesand/orbooks), in addition to the assigned class readings.
Content
•Remember, you are writingan academic research paper.
•You are writing for the general research community, and the paper should use language appropriate for scholarly journals, have an original argument, be free from bias, be well–substantiated by empirical evidence, and should conform to the standards of academic community.
oMake sure your paper has a clear thesis—your paper must have an argument
▪The paper should focus on analyzing and critically evaluatingthe issues in question, not on summarizing current events or historical trends
▪While it is possible that your argument will be influenced by one or more already existing theoretical arguments, please keep in mindthat you are still expected to develop your own original argument.
▪Simply stating that you “agree with another author” and writing a paper about that does not constitute an original argument.
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