In this 6-8 page paper (double spaced) you will compare two nation-states on a matter of your choice. You will set up your comparison as a most similar systems, or most different systems, design.
For example, perhaps you are interested in exploring rates of political participation. What variables may impact rates of political participation? There are many possibilities, including different electoral systems and rules. Then, you choose your cases as either similar or different on each of these variables. You could select countries with very different rates of political participation (if you choose to measure political participation as voter turn out, then perhaps you would pick a country with very high rates of turnout and another with low rates of turnout), or different electoral system rules. You are not designing a study that will be able to make any credible claims about causation – that is impossible with only two case comparison. But you should have a justification for the exploration that you engage in.
This comparison will not compare everything about these two countries, but only those things that are relevant to the study that you have designed. What aspects of political institutions are relevant, and how to they compare between these two countries?
Sample Solution