(The case study I did was the Mexico Case Study!!) – Javin
Each of you completed two (2) shorter Case Study papers on your selected country, chosen from several possible topics.
EVERYONE WILL COMPLETE THIS FINAL CASE STUDY PAPER. What you’re going to do is apply what
you’ve learned from the shorter papers, as well as your general research about your Case Study Country, into a final analysis. If you use your own shorter Case Study papers, that you already wrote earlier in the class, you don’t
need to cite those. If you require additional information about your Individual Case Study country, you should include a list of sources at the bottom of this paper. For the CORE Case Studies that you’re going to compare to your Individual Country, you do need to list
the sources that you used at the bottom of the paper. You have three possibilities:
1. The eight (8) Core Case Studies that the class wrote in small groups. These have been compiled, and are stored in a Content folder on D2L. If you utilize something from one of these case studies, you should indicate, in your list of source, the country name and section number (ex “India Core Case Study – Section 3”)
2. The Mahler and/or O’Neil books on reserve in the Library. You can use the same eight (8)
countries that the class wrote on, plus the five additional cases that are found in most of the
O’Neil books (see below the break line for a list). If you use one of these, you should indicate the
author (Mahler or O’Neil), a short title abbreviation (e.g. “Cases and Concepts” or “Cases” for O’Neil and “Principles” or “Cross-National” for Mahler), the edition number, and the page(s) used (“O’Neil, Cases and Concepts, 2nd ed, pages 456, 458-460, 497”).
3. Internet resources, with the same caveats from the earlier papers (no Wikipedia or other
encyclopedic sources, preference for news sources, government websites, non-profits, IGOs,
NGOs, etc). Weblinks are fine at the end of the paper.
You and your classmates, along with other small groups, wrote eight (8) Core Case Studies throughout the semester (UK, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, India, Mexico, and Nigeria). The Mahler and/or O’Neil books include those eight, plus up to five (5) others, depending on the edition (US, China, Iran, South Africa, and Brazil). What I’d like you to do is to pick TWO (2) of those 13, and then compare them to YOUR Case Study Country. The two that you choose should be the two that YOU BELIEVE ARE MOST SIMILAR to your Case Study Country.
What you should do is explain AT LEAST THREE SIMILARITIES between YOUR Case Study Country and the textbook case that you believe is MOST similar to your country. Of course, you should focus on topics that were relevant in the course: similarities in types of regimes, party competition, electoral systems, the use (or lack thereof) of governing coalitions, and/or ethnic conflict (or lack thereof). You could also
compare powers of the Head of State and/or Head of Government, the role and powers of the Upper Chamber (if there is one), or the structure and power of the Judicial branch. You could also look at similarities related to economic and/or political development, as well as similar experiences with colonialism, authoritarianism, or post-Communist transitions. The key is to find three key points of similarity, and explain HOW and/or WHY you believe they’re similar. Then, do the same thing with the textbook case country that you believe is NEXT MOST similar to yours.
However, for this one, you only need to find and explain TWO areas of similarity. However, at LEAST
ONE of those commonalities must be a different topic than what you talked about in your first
comparison. For example, if you have a Parliamentary system with many political parties, please don’t
just pick two casebook countries that are also both Parliamentary systems with multiple parties, and just
use those two reasons as your explanations. Broaden your horizons a bit, please.
