Japan's Democratic Transition

The term paper concentrates on one aspect of regime change – democratization. You are expected to select a country that underwent democratic transition in the recent past which is commonly referred to as the third and fourth waves of democracy. The notion of waves of democracy was introduced by Samuel P. Huntington’s in his historical analysis of the global democratic process. According to Huntington, the adoption of democracy happened in three waves:

· The first wave began in the early 19th century across North America and Western Europe in the aftermath of the American and French revolutions.

· The second wave began after World War II.

· The third wave began in the mid-1970s starting in Portugal and Spain before spreading across Asia, Africa Central Europe and Latin America.

· The fourth wave has recently been added by some scholars and refers to the Arab spring that spread in the Middle East after 2011.

Your essay MUST include descriptive and explanatory analyses.

· In the descriptive portion, you must answer questions such as: briefly, what is the political history of the country? What type of political system does it have?

· Then, you move on to an analysis of democratic transition and consolidation by addressing questions such as: when and how did the transition to democracy transpire? Who were/are the major actors? What were their interests and how did they reach consensus? What were the institutional changes in the pre and post-transition period? What can be said about the success and/or failure of the democratic transition? Use indicators of democracy and governance such as Polity IV, Freedom House Report, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reports and so on.

· The explanatory analyses of your essay deal with questions like: what factors explain the outbreak, successful transition or failure of democracy to take hold in that specific country?

It takes the form of a traditional research paper and should reflect serious engagement with the material and demonstrate significant effort on your part by crafting a country report on the status of democracy in that country, including a brief history of and potential for effective democracy, explanation of the democratic transition - comprising a discussion of relevant actors, causal factors, and institutions - and an analysis of democratic consolidation or challenges to consolidation. The essay should comprise a well-written analysis with an argument, a body of the essay that develops the argument and a conclusion. It should include references and, when appropriate, quotations from text material.

You will be evaluated based on your understanding of the main points and arguments of the readings and your ability to make simple but meaningful connections between the authors’ (or theoretical approaches) main arguments and your case country. More specifically, the following three criteria will be applied for grading the assignments.

· Critical evaluation: your essay should demonstrate good grasp of the theme of the course and its readings. You should be able to synthesize and integrate the assigned literature to the case study.

· Organization: your essay should have clear logical structure with an introduction, main body, and conclusion. There should be logical flow and transition from one idea to the next, regularly developing or building on the previous one.

· Style and Presentation: your essay should have minimal spelling or grammatical errors and it should meet the guidelines for word length and, when necessary, proper citation of sources. Avoid complicated words and expressions; keep your sentences simple and expressive. You should be able to say more with less words.

The paper should be between 3000 - 3500 words long (roughly 12 pages in double line spacing). Your paper should follow proper research procedures and make sure to indicate your sources for all citations and quotations (author, publication date and, when appropriate page number), and should have a separate references section at the end. Paraphrase and cite at least 4-5 sources, User generated/edited websites such as Wikipedia are not reliable scholarly sources and therefore are not permitted for use.

Reminder: be specific when talking about events that led to democratization and make sure your paper does not contain any “fluff”.

Essay Scoring Rubrics: The following rubrics will be used for grading your essays.

	Poor	Good	Excellent
Critical understanding of theories and link to case country 65%	Shows little understanding of the material. Barely addresses relevant background material, no effort to draw connections among chapters.	Shows general grasp of the material, but part of paper may not address the question. Covers most of the relevant or assigned materials. Makes some effort to synthesize.	Shows mastery of the material. Synthesizes and integrates the relevant literature. Makes interesting and insightful connections and contrasts. Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of the subject.
Organization 25%	Lacks coherence, few or no transitional mechanisms. Information presented in unrelated bits and pieces.	Shows a logical progression of ideas and uses fairly sophisticated transitional devices. Some problems with clarity of topic. While the question is addressed, there may be digressions or unclear connections.	Clear logical structure with an introduction, body, and conclusion. Sophisticated transitional devices. Often develops one idea from the previous one or identifies their logical relations.
Style and presentation 10%	Fails generally to follow directions, sloppy. Odd or no pagination and formatting. Little or no sections or subheadings. Contains numerous grammatical errors and typos, or poor grammar. Fails to follow guidelines for word length and proper citation of sources.	Generally, follows directions, but one or two problems with formatting or pagination. Some poorly placed or obscure headings and subheadings. Well written but may contain very few spelling and grammatical errors. Meets some guidelines and does not meet others.	Headings or subheadings present and logically placed; all directions followed exactly. Minimum spelling or grammatical errors. Meets all guidelines for word length, and accurate citation of sources.