Assignment - Comparing Nation-States

Your assignment is to compare 2 nation-states, both of these must be our case countries (U.K, Germany, China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Iran). Your paper should be 8-12 pages long and NO LONGER THAN 12 PAGES. A good answer must include materials from class readings and lectures; you are required to include 2 outside sources as well. The outside sources must be peer reviewed sources. You must properly cite this material using Chicago style (this means including parenthetical references and a bibliography). Failure to properly cite your sources is plagiarism, please use a writing guide for citing sources and your bibliography.

Good grammar and spelling will impact your grade. Likewise, the organization and clarity of your writing will impact your grade significantly. For each nation-state you should include the following information:

1) Political Culture: What kinds of political cultures do your nation-states have? Briefly explain the reasons behind these facts. Are the citizens participants, subjects or parochials? Do they adhere to any particular ideology more than another?

2) Managing Political Conflict: What kind of party and electoral systems do your countries have? How many, and what kind of parties? How are people able to organize and express their opinions?

3) Political Structures: Is there a presidential or parliamentary system? Is the political structure federal or unitary, how does this impact the citizenry?

4) Legitimacy: What kinds of cleavages and conflict exist in the nation-states? Are there problems with legitimacy as a result of any of these cleavages?

Once you have outlined the basic information about your states you should begin to make some comparisons.

5) Comparison: What kinds of similarities or differences have you noticed by examining these two nation-states? Do these similarities or differences speak to any of the major issues we have outlined in the course, including the relationship between legitimacy and force as well as level of democracy? How is the comparison between these two countries useful or illuminating?