Requirement from your syllabus:

You will be expected to complete a research paper on some topic having to do with politics in the contemporary Third World. Your paper needs to be:

• An analytical/explanatory paper and not simply a descriptive or journalistic account of events or other phenomena
• Focused on some contemporary issues in Third World politics
• Based on a minimum of ten sources from scholarly journals

You are expected to prepare a detailed problem statement describing the puzzle that will be the subject of your research, the reasons this question is important to our understanding of Third World politics and the major theoretical issues that will have to be addressed.

Country Watch is a great place to start! It provides country specific data and intelligence written by social science scholars in comparative politics, cultural anthropology, economics, international affairs, political economy and public policy, and includes political, economic, social and environmental overviews of each country. Use the brown Select a Country button (circled in red below) to select the country you wish to view. While you will not be able to use this resource in your annotated bibliography, it is useful for background research and you would be able to cite it in your final draft. 

Here are some suggestions from your Political Science Librarian for writing a problem statement:

• Your one page problem statement should be specific, only cover what will be in your final draft, and can be supported by evidence in scholarly/peer reviewed articles.
• Keep your audience in mind. If your policy paper is going to be read by individuals who do not know much about your topic, you may need to spend more time describing the significance of your topic and defining terms that are uncommon outside of the field. If you are not sure of your audience, assume your readers are from different backgrounds.
• For this project, pick a topic that interests you since you have to live with it for 8 weeks! If you are not sure what you are interested in, browse your syllabus for ideas or look at news articles for background research.
  • For example, “South American countries with greater political participation among women have a higher female life expectancy and socioeconomic status.” 
• If you have questions on the appropriateness of your topic, ask your professor, Dr. Mason.
• If you have questions about browsing news articles for background research to decide on a topic, ask your librarian, Julie Leuzinger!

(tips adapted from Perdue Online Writing Lab Problem Statement PowerPoint)