Profile Instructions
First, choose three countries – these are entirely your choice. For your countries, please
develop a presentation (which will be posted to Moodle for the class to see) containing the
following information:
Demographic information:
– geographic size
– population size
– major religion(s)
– fertility rate
– adult literacy rates
Political information:
– current regime type (i.e., democracy, authoritarian state, monarchy, etc.) and current
government leader of country (keep in mind that in some countries, the Prime Minister is
the head of government, and the President is more of a figurehead)
– ratio of men to women in parliament
– Freedom House “Global Freedom Status” score (see freedomhouse.org)
– Transparency International “Corruption Perceptions Index” score (see transparency.org)
– whether or not the country has experienced a war within the last 10 years
Economic information:
– most recent GDP per capita (gross domestic product)
– unemployment rate
– population below poverty line
– population electricity access
– percent of population with Internet access
Comparison:
– Something interesting about each country that you think others should know
– Your assessment of how stable these countries are politically (i.e., Do you anticipate
these countries having episodes of conflict or presidents/prime ministers thrown out of
office in the near future?); economically (i.e., Do you think these countries in good
positions to grow their economies in the near future?); and socially (i.e., Do you feel
these countries are able to provide opportunities for their citizens to get an education and
a good job? Are the people “free” in these countries?).
– Which country of the three is most politically, economically, and socially-advanced,
given these considerations? Your answers may differ among these three categories. Make
sure that your positions on these issues are supported by the facts that you provide in your
presentation.
Format:
– PowerPoint, Prezi, or Google Slides (must be able to submit in Moodle)
– Minimum of 10 slides, maximum of 50
– If using quotes, cite your source for it in the slide where it is used and in a separate Works
Cited slide at the end of the presentation
– Even if not using quotes, all sources of information used in slides must be cited in a Works
Cited slide at the end of the presentation (Wikipedia is NOT an academic source!)
– You will need at least 5 sources, with direct links (URLs) to the sources in the Works
Cited slide
– Be creative! Keep in mind that the presentation does not have to follow the order of the
categories listed here (demographic, then political, then economic, etc.) – you can reorder the
information if you like. Use pictures, graphs, videos, etc. The more information that you provide
about your countries in a creative and accessible way, the better your grade will be. The bare
minimum will not earn you a good grade!
– If you took POLS 4045 (African Politics), you cannot choose a country that you did a profile
on for that course for this assignment.
– Presentation due by 11:59pm CST on Sunday, April 7. There will be a Moodle li
