select a country, and then a theme or topic. The second step is to write up a summary of the theme or topic of that country. And the third step is to compare the theme or topic to the US. The theme or topic can be any kind of political or socioeconomic or social institution, process, structure, policy. The key is t0 find a political angle. Thus, you can cover religion (a social institution), but you need to frame the religion theme politically. You can ask about the relationship between religion and politics, you can tie it to religious parties, religious mobilization, Church policy, but it needs to have a political dimension.
To complete this assignment successfully, you pick a country you are interested in, supply a brief summary of the background that is important to examine a particular institution/ governance structure/ legal framework/policy sector/ or process. And you should contrast/compare the structure, organization, details of the selected theme to the US.
Countries vary and your analysis will vary depending on whether you focus on an advanced industrialized country (EU countries, Canada, Australia, ROK), an emerging market (Argentina, Chile, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, PRC), or a developing countries (Botswana, Indonesia, Ghana, Egypt, Yemen, Thailand, Algeria, Kenya, Zambia, Senegal).
You can proceed twofold. You can first select a country that has always intrigued you. Once you have selected a country, think of a topic that would make for an interesting comparison with the US. Let’s say that you select Switzerland because you love Swiss chocolate and banking privacy. Once you have decided on Switzerland you can decide on an interesting theme. A good topic would be Swiss federalism, or Swiss health care system, or Swiss citizenship policies, or Swiss party system, or Swiss electoral system. However, let’s say for the moment that you select Swaziland – a pretty obscure country! Swaziland is not a federal system and it would also not make sense to compare its party system, its electoral system, or immigration policy. Rather, you can focus on the role of the King in the Swazi political system, and draw comparisons to the Presidency in the American political system.
In reality, as you can see from these two examples, to some extent, it makes more sense to compare two similar systems so that you can highlight the differences. Swaziland and the US are very different, and you will find that they are indeed very different. That is not a great surprise. Thus, you can take any country, but remember that you want to say something of substance about that country’s arrangements compared/contrasted to similar arrangement in existence in the US. For that, the best strategy is to find a country that shares certain key features with the US.
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If we stay with the theme of “similar countries, there are many different possibilities for selecting a particular focus. You can compare party system, interest groups, decision making, elections, social welfare state, taxation, agriculture, macro economic policy, women’s rights, gender equality, worker rights, media policy, immigration, national identity, citizenship, judicial system, parliament, presidency, internet privacy, biotechnology, industrial policy, pensions, local government, state-federal relations, auto industry bail outs, banking industry bail out, etc. The choices are endless. However, what is important is to remember that you want to link your discussion to the way in which this institution, actor, process is organized in the US. Therefore, certain topics are going to be a stretch.
You are free to select any country other than your native country and the US. You cannot choose one of the countries we already have surveyed in the course (Britain, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Indonesia, Mexico, Japan).
The assignment is divided into two parts. In the first part, you introduce the theme of your paper and provide background information on how, where, what of the selected focus. In this part, you lay out what you will be examining and how it relates to the political system or policy process or democratic institutions or anything else that has a political dimension.
The second part of your paper discusses the findings and you discuss your findings within the context of how such arrangements or institutions are organized in the US. You can assume that the reader will know something about the US. Thus, let’s say that you decide to look at the health care system in France. In the first part, you cover the rise of the French health care system, how it functions, how the state relates to the health care system, the influence or impact of private organized interests, any fights about health care legislation, etc. In the second part you highlight what is different in the French health care system by indirectly comparing it to the American system. You do not need to provide in-depth information on the US health care system. But you should highlight those aspect of the French health care system that seem most striking, remarkable, different, or discussion worthy. As we get closer to the due date, we will spend some additional time on explaining how to complete this assignment.
It seems important to stress, again, that you do not have to draw direct parallels between the American and your case study. You can assume that the reader knows the US case, and you highlight how your case study is DIFFERENT or surprisingly SIMILAR to the US case.
