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RESEARCH PAPER
As part of the requirements for this course, you are to write a paper, 2000-2500 words in
length, on one of the topics below. Your papers are due at the beginning of class on
Tuesday, March 18th. Part of the exercise is learning to organize your time in order to
meet deadlines. Hence, no extensions will be granted.
Your first task is to select a topic framed as a question. The following are a few examples:
1. Why did the League of Nations not work?
2. What was wrong with the Treaty of Versailles?
3. What led to the rise of Fascism in Italy?
4. What led to the rise of Nazism in Germany?
5. Could the Weimar Republic have survived if it had operated in more favourable
circumstances?
6. What factors led to the demise of democracy in many of the eastern European
successor states created World War I?
7. Was Nazism similar to Communism?
8. Why did the UK try to appease Hitler?
9. Neither the rise of Fascism in Italy nor the rise of Nazism in Germany were
uniformly and roundly condemned at the time when Mussolini and Hitler came to
power. What factors explain this?
10. What led to the formation of post World War II welfare states?
11. What caused the Cold War?
12. Why did colonialism come to an end after World War II?
13. Why did Germany manage to rebuild itself as a liberal democracy?
14. Why were Communist parties strong in postwar France and Italy?
15. What caused the protests of May 1968 in France?
16. What explains the rise of Thatcherism?
17. Why did Communism collapse?
18. Why did Yugoslavia disintegrate?
If you choose, you may propose another topic and write on it, subject to the approval of
one of the two instructors.
Once you have selected the topic, you must identify two separate answers or explanations
offered by two different authors and report them accurately and clearly. Then, you are to
discuss and assess the answers they have given and the arguments which they make.
Your paper should be organized as follows:
• Introduction: indicate what your research question is, explain how your paper is
organized and what each section of the paper does.
• Section 1: The explanations. In this section you report the explanations offered
by the authors you have selected trying insofar as possible to frame them within
their larger research effort. When absolutely necessary use quotations but for the
most part restate their explanations in your own words, paying particular attention
to the variables or factors the authors identify as key. Direct quotations must be
clearly identified between “quotation marks” and their sources must be clearly
identified either in the footnotes or in the bibliographical reference section at the
end of the paper (depending on the bibliographical references you choose). For a
quick reference to bibliographic formats, see The Chicago Manual of Style
• Section 2: Discussion. In this section you should compare the explanations given by the two authors in terms of: o Their level of analysis: Do they explain the outcome by using variables at the level of the international system, characteristics of the state, social or economic factors, characteristics of individual leaders, or a combination thereof? o Their sources: What are the authors’ arguments based on? What kind of evidence do they provide and where does it come from? You should consider whether they are persuasive: Which explanations do you find more convincing and why?
• Conclusion
Sources:
The two explanations you choose should be advanced by separate authors in academic
books or academic journal articles. You may want to reinforce your argument by using
other academic books and journals articles, magazines and newspapers, and internet
sources where these are appropriate. See the European Studies website for some useful on-line sources.
Normal rules on plagiarism and academic misconduct will be in effect. Although you
will necessarily draw on the work of others in the process of discussing the explanations,
the arguments you make should reflect your own thinking and analysis. All sources which
you use should be documented using a consistent system of footnotes or in-text (i.e.
author, date) references. See both the Political Science Department website and the QEII
Library’s internet resource page for information on how to do references correctly.
Your papers should be written in your own words. Direct quotations should be used
sparingly and only for emphasis or because it is useful for your reader to know exactly
what the author you are quoting has said. A paper which consists of little more than direct
quotations will receive a zero. In addition, papers should be written according to the
standard conventions of the English language, using short, direct sentences. Papers which
are poorly written or substantially ungrammatical will receive a maximum grade of 60.