The class is titled ‘Politics of Global Development*
The topic for this essay is How International Sanctions Have Contributed to Zimbabwe’s Economic Collapse Since 2001.
This is the assignment prompt: Final Essay (2000 words, 70%)
Your task in this essay is to take a development challenge in a single country (or region of a country) and explain how international politics/systems/dynamics/actors have influenced this challenge in this context. For this assessment, you need to choose a specific development challenge in a specific country. Rather than investigating “the role of the international community in exacerbating the conflict trap in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, it would be better to look at “the role of the international community in exacerbating the conflict trap in the Eastern DRC since 2003”. This is narrower in scope (not the whole country or all of the DRC’s conflicts) and thus more manageable. As another example, rather than “international aid has crippled Malawi’s ability to build a high-capacity state”, a more manageable essay topic would be “international aid has prevented Malawi from developing a capable tax agency, which has prevented it from effectively increasing the government’s homegrown income.” This thesis still thinks about the whole of Malawi but it narrows the scope in terms of the state capacity that we are focusing on (only the tax capacity rather than all of state capacity).
The more specific the context, the easier it will be to cover the topic in the word limit. A successful essay must engage with the literature in class and apply empirical findings and/or theories of development we have discussed in class. If you do not engage with the literature to a sufficient degree, you will be penalised. Importantly, you must explain how the international global system/actors/etc. has either helped address or exacerbated the development challenge. This will first require that you explain the challenge at hand and its roots causes. The goal is to illustrate what you have learned in the module by engaging with theoretical arguments from class and apply them to a real-world case. You do not need to make a policy recommendation but you can end the essay with a discussion of reasonable “ways forward” given the challenge, the international influences, and domestic realities.
Do make sure you tie your argument back to development: e.g. the international community has done X, so what is the impact on development? If we take the Malawi example from above, we could think about how aid has created a cycle where Malawi gets more aid, still doesn’t build tax capacity, which then makes it more aid dependent, which further dissuades it from building capacity. This then links the discussion about aid in Malawi to development (in terms of state capacity).
Further guidelines:
Please ensure the citations are correct and are in the right format (Chicago style)
Make sure the word count is under 2200 words
Make sure the essay fulfils all the assignment requirements
Ensure the coherence of the essay and argument/analysis|
You must use:
- 3 module readings: from required readings across any session (e.g. Dead Aid, Development as Freedom, Working with the Grain, etc.).
- 7+ external academic sources: think journal articles (JSTOR, Google Scholar), reports from the World Bank, IMF, UNDP, or peer-reviewed policy journals.
- Important Note: i have previously done a paper on a specific topic and the following is the professors comment, I’ll also attach my paper essay that i wrote for my previous paper just to show you how strict he is when it comes to grading as well as being precise.
- Important: My professor wrote on my previous paper the following comment: Professors comment to my first paper titled (The price of having Daughters: How Son Preference Shapes Rural India’s Economic and Social Landscape): Comment: “This is an interesting policy paper and I like the idea of financial incentives for supporting girl children when boys are seen as a financial investment. however, I would have liked to hear more about the cultural roots of these beliefs to really understand the problem. Also, you contrast it with the BBBP but you don’t explain what this other approach is; you say it is symbolic but I don’t understand what that means. And finally, you indicate a number of development impacts on pages 6-7 but I don’t see the connection to these outcomes; for your essay make sure you make such connections clear. And finally, the intervention feels a bit heavy handed: lots of check ins and documents people have to provide, I worry it might feel a bit like babysitting and incur some backlash.”
- Extra Note: I chose Chicago style citation, and I should cite three sources from my module class and 7 or more external sources but ten sources in total or more and 2000 is the word count, but citation and bibliography are not counted towards the word count. Som maximum is 2100 words only with the citations.
- also the paper will be submitted through turnitin and its 70% which means that my final grade will rely on this paper, my university is strict with plagiarism and they are strict and precise.
I have provided all information if there is anything unclear please do let me know my aim for this paper is to get an A cause its 70% of my overall grade. and my university is British so the grading differs, its a bit rougher and stricter. So please make sure to read everything cause everything I’ve sent is important. Thank you. and really don’t hesitate to ask if there is anything unclear, ill be more than happy to elaborate And thank you for helping me to achieve the A, i really do appreciate it.
Lastly what my Professor Values:
- Strong Ideas with Practical Relevance
- Clear Conceptual Definitions
- Depth in Cultural and Social Context
- Concrete Causal Links to Development Outcomes
- Feasibility & Political Sensitivity of Policy Design