PSCI 2012

Assignments

• My Mental Map (2 points) – now due Monday, 5/11 

  • When you think about the world, what does your mental map look like? What countries, regions, communities, and settings are your natural points of reference? How does your background influence your worldview? Prepare a slide or image illustrating your mental map and write 1-2 paragraphs explaining your mental map. What have you chosen to include, and why? How does your mental map shape your understanding of politics in the US and around the world? Save your assignment as a PDF or Word document, and email it to me. NOTE: DO NOT copy and paste text or images from AI.

• Current affairs article (3 points) – now due Monday, 5/11

  • Find an article about a current event that interests you. Read the article, write a 2-3 sentence summary of the story, and answer the following questions in 1-2 paragraphs:

    1. Why did you choose this article? What interests you about the story?

    2. How might you use the discipline of comparative politics to analyze this article? Who or what could you compare this to in order to understand the issue/s more deeply?

    3. If you had to develop a hypothesis that explained why this problem or issue occurred, what would you point to as the cause? Why?

  • Include a link to the article, save as a PDF or Word document , and upload it to Canvas. NOTE: You may NOT use an article from your home country. For most of you, that means something outside of the U.S.!

• Discussion Question 1 (1 point) – now due Thursday, May 14th

  • Reflecting upon what you have learned this week, what is one thing you would like to clarify and/or learn more about? Post your question to the Canvas "Discussion Question 1" thread by 11:59 pm on the due date. NOTE: Ask an open-ended question that generates interest and discussion. Yes/No questions will NOT receive credit. Be mindful of sensitive issues/topics for your peers, and include a trigger warning if you think it is merited.

• Quiz 1 (12 points) – CANCELLED (everybody receives 12/12 points)

• Country report (5 points) – due Friday, 5/15 

  • Pick a country other than your home country and do some basic research on its history, current form of government, economy, population, and demographics.

  • Create a presentation that answers the following questions:

    1. Why did you pick this country?

    2. Is this country a democracy or a non-democracy?

    3. What is this country's score on the Polity scale?

    4. What type of democracy or non-democracy is it, and how do you know?

    5. What is one recent event/newsworthy story that occurred in this country?

    6. Evaluate the performance of the government and its institutions. How well are these performing, in your opinion? What is your evidence for this? What is going well, and what can be/needs to be improved? How?

  • For full credit, include a title page with your name and a References page with your citations (a minimum of 3 is required). The presentation should be recorded, and your face and your slides should both be visible for the entire presentation (see instructions below to do this in Canvas). Include visuals, graphs, charts, etc. to increase the quality of the presentation. *NOTE* You can use Zoom, Canva, or another program of your choice to record yourself; Canvas is not required. As long as you meet the grading guidelines, you can earn full credit.

  • See the rubric for grading guidelines.

  • Here are some great sources for you to use to find info: the World Bank, the World Factbook, GeoGnos, and Our World in Data. Be sure to cite these if you use them!

  • Need help picking a country? Use THIS LINK and spin the wheel!

• Region report (5 points) -- due Friday, 5/15

  • Pick a region of the world and do some basic research on its variety in state incomes, economies, populations, demographics, and regime types. It does not need to be the same region as the country from your country report (but you might find this more interesting).

  • Different sources classify world regions differently. I'm using the classification used by the World Bank. Here are the ones to choose from: 

    1. East Asia and Pacific

    2. Europe and Central Asia

    3. Latin America and Caribbean

    4. Middle East and North Africa

    5. North America

    6. South Asia

    7. Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Create a presentation that answers the following questions:

    1. Why did you pick this region?

    2. What is the breakdown of democracies and non-democracies?

    3. What are this region's mean and median scores on the Polity scale?

    4. What is one recent event/newsworthy story that occurred in/affected this region?

    5. Evaluate the variation in government performance in this region. Who's doing well? Who's not? Why do you think this is?

  • For full credit, include a title page with your name and a References page with your citations (a minimum of 2 is required). The presentation should be recorded, and your face and your slides should both be visible for the entire presentation (see instructions below to do this in Canvas). Include visuals, graphs, charts, etc. to increase the quality of the presentation. *NOTE* You can use Zoom, Canva, or another program of your choice to record yourself; Canvas is not required. As long as you meet the grading guidelines, you can earn full credit.

  • See the rubric for grading guidelines.

  • Here are some great sources for you to use to find info: the World Bank, the World Factbook, GeoGnos, and Our World in Data. Be sure to cite these if you use them!

  • Need help picking a region? Use THIS LINK and spin the wheel!

• Discussion Response 1 (1 point) -- due Friday, 5/15

  • Read and respond thoughtfully to a peer’s question in the Canvas discussion 1 post. I won’t police how long this needs to be and what it needs to include; be respectful, be curious, and think about how engaging in perspectives other than your own enriches the learning experience for us all!

  • No need to submit anything; I'll go through after Thursday and add a point for your response to the original discussion thread!

• Discussion Question 2 (1 point) -- due Monday, 5/18

  • Reflecting upon what you have learned this week, what is one thing you would like to clarify and/or learn more about? Post your question on the Canvas "Discussion Question 2" thread by 11:59 pm on Monday, 5/18. NOTE: Ask an open-ended question that generates interest and discussion. Yes/No questions will NOT receive credit. Be mindful of sensitive issues/topics for your peers, and include a trigger warning if you think it is merited.

• Discussion Response 2 (1 point) -- due Tuesday, 5/19

  • Read and respond thoughtfully to a peer’s question in the Canvas discussion 2 post. I won’t police how long this needs to be and what it needs to include; be respectful, be curious, and think about how engaging in perspectives other than your own enriches the learning experience for us all!

  • No need to submit anything; I'll go through after Thursday and add a point for your response to the original discussion thread!

• Quiz 2 (12 points) -- due Monday, 5/18

  • This is a timed, open-note, open book quiz that you can only take on Canvas and can only submit once. To gain access, you must watch Lecture 5 and enter the access code. Good luck!

• Topic Report (5 points) -- due Thursday, 5/21

  • Pick a topic that we have discussed in the course that can be compared between states or within a state. The topic should be an outcome that comparativists would be interested in analyzing. For example, population would not count, but average population growth would. I've included a list of topics below. It will make your presentation more interesting and informative to choose a topic that matters to you.

  • Create a presentation that answers the following questions:

    1. How would you define the topic of interest?

    2. How is this measured?

    3. Why did you pick this topic?

    4. What does the variation in outcomes of this topic look like around the world? What does it look like regionally?

    5. What is one recent event/newsworthy story that concerns this same topic?

    6. Hypothesize why we see the variation we see on this topic around the world and/or regionally? What is your evidence for this? 

    7. What can be done, if anything, to address this? How?

  • For full credit, include a title page with your name and a References page with your citations (a minimum of 2 is required). The presentation should be recorded, should be at least 4 minutes and no longer than 7 minutes long, and your face and your slides should both be visible for the entire presentation (see instructions below to do this in Canvas). Include visuals, graphs, charts, etc. to increase the quality of the presentation. *NOTE* You can use Zoom, Canva, or another program of your choice to record yourself; Canvas is not required. As long as you meet the grading guidelines, you can earn full credit.

  • See the rubric for grading guidelines.

  • Here are some great sources for you to use to find info: the World Bank, the World Factbook, GeoGnos, and Our World in Data. Be sure to cite these if you use them!

  • Need help picking a topic? Here are just a few of many that you can choose from:

    1. Democracy or non-democracy

    2. Regime type

    3. Voter turnout

    4. Social Capital

    5. GDP per capita

    6. Trade as a percentage of GDP

    7. Military spending as a percentage of GDP

    8. Marriage equality

    9. Legal abortion access

    10. Voting rights

    11. Ethnic fragmentation

    12. Political violence

    13. Education access and attainment

    14. Public health outcomes

    15. The Human Development Index

    16. Religious affiliation

    17. Sustainable Development Index

    18. and many, many more!

• Final Presentation (30 points) -- now due Monday, 5/25: DO Comparative Politics!*

  • This presentation combines what you've done with your previous 3 reports. In this assignment, however, you will look at 2 countries.

  • You are not required to pick a country, region, or topic that you already examined in your reports; however, doing so may lead to better presentations because a) you've got some background knowledge and interest on these, and b) it'll save you time. But feel free to start from scratch!

  • Pick 2 countries that have variation in a topic/outcome that matters to political scientists and matters to you. They can be in the same region or different regions of the world.

  • Do a comparative analysis of the two countries, hypothesize why they have different outcomes, and provide evidence for your claims.

    1. THIS should be the bulk of the work. Rather than "coming up with" ideas yourself, you should consult the literature -- use Google Scholar or JSTOR to find expert sources written by political scientists on the topic, summarize their theories, and cite them. 

    2. High-quality presentations receiving full marks in this category will have solid, relevant, recent citations on their topic from more than one source, and will use the evidence scholars present in their papers/books. Please email me if you need help with your searches!

  • Include maps, history, some basic demographics, charts and/or graphs, and political science sources (other than me and the textbook!) to support your analysis and argument.

  • Just like the previous reports, you must be on screen to get full points, and you should include a title page with your name and the names of the countries you'll be analyzing, a references page with at least 5 high-quality sources cited, and you must stay within the time limits (minimum of 6 minutes and no longer than 10 minutes in length).

  • The presentation should answer all of the following:

    1. Topic: How would you define the topic or outcome that you're exploring? Why is this important, and how is it measured? (6 points)

    2. Background: What's similar and what's different regarding the history, development, regime types, current forms of government, economy, population, and other demographics of your two countries? (8 points)

    3. Hypothesis: What is one reason for the variation in outcomes in the topic you've chosen? Why do you think this? What evidence do you have to support this? (8 points)

    4. Quality: Have you included visual aids (maps, charts, graphs, pictures, etc.) that enhance the quality of the presentation? Do you speak clearly, make eye contact with the camera, and succinctly deliver information? Is your project insightful, interesting, and professional? (4 points)

    5.  Required Elements: Have you met all of the required elements? Title page with your name and the names of the two countries you are comparing, your face is visible throughout the presentation, inclusion of a references page with at least 5 high-quality sources cited, and within the time limits (minimum 6 min. and maximum 10 min.)? (4 points)

  • You can use Zoom, Canva, or another program of your choice to record yourself; Canvas is notrequired. As long as you meet the grading guidelines, you can earn full credit.

  • Here are some great sources for you to use to find info: the World Bank, the World Factbook, GeoGnos, and Our World in Data. Be sure to cite these if you use them!

*NOTE: I've extended the deadline, so I cannot accept submissions of the final presentation after 11:59 pm Monday, May 25th.