Energy policy in Germany

Energy policy in Germany

POL 190 Introduction to Comparative Politics
Department of Political Science
University of Michigan- Flint
Winter 2015
Current Affairs Major Paper: GUIDELINES
This Project is worth 10% of the total course grade. There are two objectives: a) give students opportunities to use available electronic resources at the UM-Flint library, b) provide students an opportunity to connect on of the concepts introduced in the course to recent developments in a specific country.
Completed Projects are due by MONDAY APRIL 27 by 5.00pm at the POL Department office, 220 French Hall.
1. Requirements
The core activity for this paper is to identify relevant articles from news sources, and write a brief report on a specific issue/conflict.
a) Essays must make use of (and refer to) at least four (5) news articles. These articles may be from newspapers, news magazines, or academic journals. These sources must be published: online webpages do not qualify. Class texts and articles (e.g. Drogus/Orvis) may be used as background sources, but do not qualify as one of the four cited sources and should not be used as a source for substantial sections of the paper.
b) Use concepts/processes from class to discuss the political dimensions of the issue. Students may refer to and draw from Drogus/Orvis text (although this will not be adequate as a source). Comparison of the country/case with other countries described in Drogus/Orvis is recommended.
c) Should point out why/how the issue has recent significant for the politics of the country being studied. Papers on broad historical topics or past events, on non-political issues will not qualify as having met core requirements for this project.
d) While the paper is about a current/contemporary political issue, general information from unofficial websites, ‘blogs’ or special interest groups will not be accepted as valid sources. ‘Google’ searches are strongly discouraged. Acceptable news sources include: newspapers, news wire services.
e) Format:
? Completed papers should be no less than 6 pages
? 1-inch margins, Double spaced, 12 pt. font
? Organize the paper into sections (with subheadings) including an ‘Introduction’ section and a ‘Conclusion/discussion’ section
? The paper should use the APA, MLA or Chicago citation format
2
2. Country Assignment
The Current Affairs Major paper must be written on one of the following topics (choices are arranged by student last names):
Paper Topic Choices
(choose one topic from these options)
Last Name
Political economy and Globalization
Elections
A-H
? Social Policy and Brazil’s economy
? Energy policy in Germany
? Economic policy in Greece
? Parties and Elections in Chile 2014
? Parties and Elections in Israel 2015
? Parties and Elections in India 2014
I-S
? Health care policy in South Korea
? Economic policy in South Africa
? Energy Policy in China
? Parties and Elections in Brazil 2014
? Parties and Elections in Nigeria, 2015
? Parties and Elections in Greece, 2015
Please feel free to see me to discuss your topic/ideas at any time for feedback and advice.
3. Access to Sources (UM-Flint Library Resources for Country-specific News)
This project must be based on news articles that are available through one or more of the UM-Flint library’s database search engines.
? The UM Flint library website is at: http://www.umflint.edu/library/. Select “Databases: Indexes and Full Text Articles” from the main page.
? Select one of the available databases (Proquest or Lexis-Nexis are recommended)
? Searching the databases: Type in a few of the terms/descriptors for the topic. This will require trial and error as well as good judgment. Typing the words “India” and “Pakistan” for instance will generate a list of all the articles that include those terms in the title or text. This broad search will result in many (too many) citations: narrow the search by date, kind of source (only newspapers, for example), or by adding additional search terms.
? Select and read/scan the best (most useful) article for the paper. Give preference to content-rich articles (usually longer ones). Use these articles as the sources for the paper