Posted: December 2nd, 2015

Democracy and democratization: The relationships between political institutions and other social phenomena

Research question:
Political institutions are key factors which distinguish varieties of political regimes (democracies and non-democracies) as well as subvarieties of democratic and nondemocratic regimes. These regime varieties (and their transformations) are both affected by and have consequences for other political, socio-economic, international and cultural phenomena. Discuss a variety of key relationships between political institutions and these other social phenomena, both with respect to institutions as the dependent variable as well as with respect to institutions as the independent variable. In addition to course literature which emphasizes theory, a wide variety of course readings which present single- as well as comparative-country case studies must be utilized. The latter can provide real-world illustrations as well as serve as sources of historical and numerical data.

Information:
Please confer all of the uploaded documents before you start writing. It is extremely important that every theory is well documented and cited! It is absolutely crucial for the assignment that the text is based overwhelmingly upon the syllabus from this course and not upon readings or knowledge that you have garnered previously, however directly or indirectly relevant that information might be. So, please use references listed in the uploaded course curriculum. And, by all means, avoid citing works that haven’t been consulted! If you make something up along the way, please do not cite an author as if you have read it somewhere else. You can use as many references as you’d like. The word-limit is 6000 words, so I’m happy with anything over 5000 words.