Voting for Classification Systems and Case Study Draft

You can vote on the classification systems now. Log in to Blackboard and look in the left-hand side menu for a link titled "Voting for classification systems". You can vote for one focus question and one classification system. Vote before 27 April at midnight. Make sure to look at the systems beforehand and to comment on them (see the post below). The winning group will have some opportunity to improve the system before the class uses it.

A link to submit the first draft of the case study is also ready. Log in to Blackboard and look in the menu on the left hand side for instructions. If you are submitting something in a non-traditional format, let me know in advance; you may need to bring your project to me on Friday. The draft is due at midnight on the 27th. Though the draft is not graded, it IS a course requirement (you DO need to submit something), and the fuller and more complete the draft, the more useful our comments will be when you are writing the final draft.

Some general instructions. Your draft should study a dictatorship or some other "non-democratic" regime in depth (any case is fine, as long as you can argue the regime is non-democratic; if you are unsure, let me know or select one of the cases we are studying in the course). The case study is NOT necessarily an essay (it can be  for example a video documentary, a radio programme, a series of well-thought out blog posts, or a page in the course wiki with pictures or multimedia components - some examples from previous years are posted on the wiki), though you may produce an essay if you wish. (If you have doubts about what formats are appropriate, please consult me). The best and most innovative case studies may be showcased on the course website if students agree.

For the first draft of the case study you should examine in some detail how the dictator or ruling group managed to maintain power. As you do this, you should try to make connections to one or more of the theoretical readings for the course; Bueno de Mesquita et al, Magaloni and Kricheli, Levitsky and Way, Pfaff, Wedeen, and so on are all useful. You may also discuss other aspects of the dictatorship (e.g., its relation to the culture of the country, or its effects on the economy) and/or compare your case to other cases (e.g., cases we have discussed in the course) but you should try to at least identify the coalition supporting the dictator and the means by which this coalition was kept loyal.