Country Reports

Democracy, Development, and

Human Rights POLS490
• Optional assignment!
– Additional 10% towards the final grade
• Only for undergraduate students
• A report on a country of your choice other than
your own
– Choose a developing country (as classified by the
IMF)
• 3,200-3,500 word (13-15 pages) (excluding
graphs and references)
• Due on December 14 (Thursday)
– Electronically on the course Moodle page (no later
than at 13:00)
• No late submissions will be accepted
– Learning how to manage your time throughout the
semester is part of the assignment.
 The Purpose
• To develop skills in
– Data collection and presentation in a form of
graphs
– Data description, analysis, and interpretation in
light of the course materials and other sources
• Grades will be awarded for the thoroughness
of the report in addressing the issues specified
in the “Country Report Guidelines.”
 Some suggested data sources
• Basic information
– The CIA World Factbook
– The Encyclopedia Britannica
– NOT Wikipedia!

• For some political and economic indicators,

time-series data (post-1950) will be needed
Figure 1. GDP growth in the Dominican Republic, 1960-2014.
 Suggested Data Sources
• The Quality of Government data (by the
University of Gothenburg)
– various political, economic, and social indicators
available over time
• Democracy level
– Polity V data
• Choose “Polity5 Annual Time-Series, 1946-2018”
dataset (excel series format) and select “polity” variable
– Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) data
• Choose “Country-Year: V-Dem Core” dataset in CSV
format
• Electoral Systems
– Parline (the Interparliamentary Union)
• Voting turnout
– The Institute for Democracy and Electoral A
ssistance (IDEA)
• Economic indicators
– The World Bank Development Indicators
• Human Rights
– The Political Terror Scale
• physical integrity rights
– The Freedom House
• political and civil liberties
• Choose “Country and Territory Ratings and Statuses,
1973-2021 (Excel download)”
– The CIRI Human Rights data
• 15 types of internationally recognized human rights
• Use the “Citation Style Guide” available on
the course Moodle page to cite information
sources properly.