Pick a developing country to focus your response paper on.
Critically analyze the macro-level political and economic development of that country. Remember to focus on macro-level theories, and how countries develop as a whole and why they might struggle with overcoming poverty. Use the material from Weeks 3-6 to draw on the theories.
Critically analyze the macro-level solutions and apply them to your chosen country. Discuss a policy solution that would work for that country by drawing on class materials.
Your response should be about 7 double-spaced pages with 1-inch margins (excluding the title page and references) and be submitted as a Word or PDF document via Canvas. The details below provide a general recommendation for how much space you should give to each section – this is just a recommendationand you are free to reallocate space as you see fit.
Your response paper should contain the following elements:
Introduction (about half a page)
Provide a brief introduction and a high-level summary of the paper.
Outline the development challenge you would like to address as well as the specific policy recommendations you are proposing.
Context & Background (about one page)
Introduce the country you are analyzing. Explain where your country is located and why this country is an interesting case to analyze.
Present your country’s current development status. How does the country fare according to the indices we have covered? E.g.where does your country fall under the MPI and HDI? What about other indices, such as the Gini Index?
Present your country’s political situation. Briefly outline your country’s recent history: Who has historically been in power in this country, who are the current political leaders?
Development Issue (about one page)
Apply the theory of development:
Thinking about what you have learned about your country’s economic and political situation, discuss the development theories and evaluate whether these theories are helpful in explaining your country’s current development status.
First describe the traps (e.g. what is the natural resource trap or the bad governance trap?) and then critically assess whether they are helpful to understand the situation in your country.
Make sure to answer the following questions: Does thinking about your country through this theoretical lens help you to better understand the economic and political situation? If yes, why? If not, why not?
Policy Options (about one page)
Outline the different instruments or solutions, which could be used to address the development challenge you are focusing on.
Draw on the course material on macro solutions and weigh the pros and cons of the different approaches.
Discuss their effectiveness and use examples of implementation in comparable countries.
Policy Recommendation (about one page)
Recommend the solution which you think is the most appropriate with regards to the challenge you addressed.
Explain why you think that this specific approach is the most effective.
Make sure that the solution you are listing is relevant to the country and the issue.
Discuss its implementation and any potential challenges, as well as how to address those challenges
Conclusion (half a page)
Provide a brief conclusion of the paper. Briefly highlight the issues and solutions that you discussed. Summarize the policy recommendation and your justification for this country. The conclusion should not include any new information that hasn’t already been discussed in the paper.
References:
In-text citations and a complete reference list at the end.