Instructions for Your Research Project

Instructions for Your Research Project

In a new book titled The Future of Political Science: 100 Perspectives (2009), noted Harvard scholar Joseph Nye joins an eclectic group of colleagues to implore those involved in the study of politics to “devote more attention to unanswered questions about how our work relates to the policy world in which we live” (p. 252). Given the tendency of academics to withdraw “behind the curtains of theory and modeling” on college campuses, even as battles over war, health care, and the economy rage elsewhere, there is, he says, a “question of relevance” that must be addressed.

With that in mind, your task in this assignment is to explore the public role of political science, in depth, on an issue of your choice. The end result will be a 10-15 page research paper, as well as a 15-minute oral presentation to the class (allowing sufficient time for discussion).

To start, you will need to select the following:

1. A current and newsworthy topic that interests you

In choosing an article to inspire your work, think creatively and play to your subfield strengths. There is no need to limit yourself to the topics we discuss collectively in class.

For the purpose of illustration, here are excerpts from a few recent news stories to consider:

A Republican Comeback?

by DAN BALZ
The Washington Post

Are Republicans at a low ebb or making a comeback?

The question is prompted by the new release from the Gallup organization, which showed that the gap in party identification is now the smallest it has been since 2005. Democrats are still in the lead, but not by the double-digit margins they often enjoyed the past two years.

The report was the second in a month from Gallup to suggest that, eight months into the Obama administration, Democrats are losing favor with at least a portion of the electorate. Republicans are cheering the findings as a sign of a potentially important change in the political landscape. Democratic strategists offer cautionary notes about what is actually happening.

The Virtual Mosque

by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
The New York Times

Watching events unfolding in Tehran raises three intriguing questions for me: Is Facebook to Iran’s Moderate Revolution what the mosque was to Iran’s Islamic Revolution? Is Twitter to Iranian moderates what muezzins were to Iranian mullahs? And, finally, is any of this good for the Jews — particularly Israel’s prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu?

Here is why I ask. During the past eight years, in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and, to a lesser extent, Egypt, spaces were opened for more democratic elections. Good news. Unfortunately, the groups that had the most grass-roots support and mobilization capabilities — and the most energized supporters — to take advantage of this new space were the Islamists. That is, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, the various Sunni and Shiite Islamist parties in Iraq and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The centrist mainstream was nowhere.

One of the most important reasons that the Islamists were able to covertly organize and mobilize, and be prepared when the lids in their societies were loosened a bit, was because they had the mosque — a place to gather, educate and inspire their followers — outside the total control of the state… What is fascinating to me is the degree to which in Iran today — and in Lebanon — the more secular forces of moderation have used technologies like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, blogging and text-messaging as their virtual mosque, as the place they can now gather, mobilize, plan, inform and energize their supporters, outside the grip of the state.

High Court's Conservatives Skeptical of Election Law

by ROBERT BARNES
The Washington Post

Conservative members of the Supreme Court indicated Wednesday that they could not reconcile government restrictions on corporate spending in elections with constitutional protections of free speech and may rule broadly to strike what has been a long-standing fixture of campaign finance law.

A majority of the court seemed impatient with an increasingly complicated federal scheme intended to curb the role of corporations, unions and special interest groups in elections. The laws, former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson told the court, instead "smothered" First Amendment rights and "criminalized" free speech.

The question is whether the court is willing to strike two of its precedents and defy Congress on corporate restrictions that date to the beginning of the 20th century.

Protesters Hope to Highlight Issues at G-20 Summit

by RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI and DAN NEPHIN

The Associated Press

PITTSBURGH -- An anti-war group plans to set up a tent city during the Group of Twenty economic summit this week to focus attention on the plight of women and children made refugees by war.

The group, Code Pink, will be among many groups and thousands of activists aiming to use the G-20 summit to spotlight causes including the environment and social injustice.

In short, your first step is to find an interesting article of your own, which you will describe in your oral presentation and attach to your paper at the end of term.

2. An appropriate body of academic literature

How might a trained political scientist approach the stories excerpted above?

The Supreme Court’s recent session on campaign finance rules might be placed into a context of First Amendment rights or judicial activism.
Protests at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh last month might be paired with work on social movements, international environmental policy, or trade and globalization.
Headlines touting a “Republican comeback” might fit nicely with work on partisan identification or midterm congressional elections.
And finally, the use of technology and social networking sites in Iran might tie into research on social capital, or even democratization and democracy-promotion.

Using the resources available to you at the Bailey-Howe library, your second task is to identify a body of academic work that speaks—both theoretically and empirically—to the topic you have personally selected. You should search the library catalog thoroughly, as well as electronic databases, such as JSTOR and Expanded Academic ASAP. It might also be useful to draw upon the expertise of other faculty members in the political science department.

3. An audience for your work

Finally, consider the implications of your project. To whom does it speak? Is it a political party, the U.S. president and his foreign policy advisors, a candidate seeking elective office, or the public at large?

Your paper need not be a memo written directly to your intended audience, but thinking in those terms should help you to identify and discuss the “relevance” of political science on the subject at hand.

In sum, the paper you write should demonstrate three things:

A solid understanding of current events;
A creative and appropriate use of academic material; and
An ability to communicate, explain, and defend, the value of existing scholarship to a broader audience.

Basic Parameters

1. Your written work should be 10-15 typewritten pages, double spaced, with one inch margins on all sides. Your grade will not depend on the exact length of your paper, but it should not be much longer. One mark of good writing is the ability to communicate complex ideas in a relatively small space.

2. In addition to demonstrating an understanding of current events, you must discuss at least 5 (but no more than 10) academic sources. Books from a university press, or articles published in journals such as the American Political Science Review or the Comparative Politics are, of course, appropriate. Articles appearing in The New York Times or Newsweek magazine are not. Please see me if you have any doubt about the sources you intend to cite.

3. In preparing your work, you may make use of the materials already assigned in class, but your paper must go significantly beyond it.

4. Be sure to proofread your work carefully for typographical and grammatical errors. Papers with an unacceptable number of mistakes will be penalized.

5. Since this is a research project, it requires a full bibliography. In addition, I will expect you to reference the work of others liberally within the text, citing by last name and date parenthetically (e.g., Smith 2007: 32), or in a series of footnotes or endnotes. The choice is yours, but please be consistent and attentive to style conventions (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago Style, etc.). For help, visit the UVM library’s website, which provides a list of resources under the heading “Tutorials & Tips.”

Deadlines

Oral presentations will be scheduled in 15-minute increments beginning Monday, November 16 and ending Monday, December 7. A sign-up sheet will be provided shortly. I expect you to support your colleagues fully by attending every session, and by asking questions and offering advice.

Your research paper is due no later than Friday, December 11 at 3:00 P.M. No extensions will be given and no file attachments will be accepted. Hard copies only, please! Grades on late papers will be reduced by one increment per day.