All assignments should be written in Word and uploaded as attachments within the Assignments section of the classroom. Use Times 12 pt. font, double-space, and use standard one-inch margins. The research paper should be 10-16 pages in length (cover page and references do not count toward page length). Citations will conform to the Chicago/Turabian format and citations should be in-text parenthetical citations (Author, date, page). Be sure to put your name and class information on the document and put your name on the file. Insert page numbers on all graduate-level work.
Read all instructions below carefully! Do not proceed with the assignment until you understand the scenario presented concerning your role as a consultant for the company Replais.
We give you the research question and a scenario to use in answering it.
The research question is:
Given Replais’s interests, which two states [X and Y] in Latin America, Africa, and/or Asia are viable alternatives with least possible political risk for raw materials and manufacturing of compostable resin?
Scenario to be used in designing your project:
Imagine this: You are six credit hours away from your MA degree and are actively seeking a position in which to use the skills youve acquired while in the graduate program at APUS. Recently you went out with friends and met two people who own a consulting firm that provides companies in the US and abroad with country risk analysis profiles. Upon meeting you and learning about your interest in international relations, the owners of the consulting firm presented you with a dilemma.
Recently the consultants were approached by a US-based firm, Replais (pronounce: RE-play – NASDAQ: RPLS, market cap 70.2M), for a political risk analysis. The client firm Replais is an innovation-driven bioscience company focused on delivering sustainable solutions for plastics, chemicals, and energy.
In 2007 the firm was poised to manufacture heat shrink film made of compostable plastic resin in Europe. The product replaces non-compostable polyethylene films and is used to wrap bulky, non-edible consumer and commercial items such as boxed goods for bulk shipments. The firms compostable plastic resin meets current European standards for compostability.
See http://www.european-bioplastics.org/bioplastics/standards/labels/
To enter the European market, the firm purchased a large Spanish manufacturing facility near the Pyrenees and developed a relationship with a distributor in Germany to produce plastic shopping bags made of compostable resin. Compostable resin is produced from crops such as switchgrass and the Spanish center could provide both the manufacturing facility and raw materials.
How the compostable process works: In a municipal facility, products made of compostable resin are heated to 130°F and sprayed with natural micro-organic matter where they break down into garden-ready compost after six weeks. Municipalities then sell the compost. States in Europe have outlawed plastic shopping bags and the European Commission is researching whether the ban should be EU-wide.
Because of this it is imperative that the company find a location outside of Europe. The consultants youve met have asked if you would be interested in providing the political risk analysis. In fact, they are offering you an internship for six weeks to come up with the best two locations for producing the compostable plastic resin remembering that the locations must be in Latin America, Africa, or Asia. You need to look at major political risk factors such as corruption and political stability, quality of infrastructure, demographic pressures, the regulatory environment, financial risk and opportunity, quality of a countrys assets and institutions, and social risk factors.
Given Replaiss interests, which two states [X and Y] in Latin America, Africa, and/or Asia] are viable alternatives with the least political risk for raw materials and manufacturing of compostable resin? (Were giving you the research question on this one you just need to decide which two states you will examine for political risk.)
Objective: The objective of this research paper is to undertake a political risk analysis involving two countries of your choosing in Latin America, Asia, or Africa. The goal is to research areas of risk within each country, and then apply the comparative method to analyze and systematically compare risk between your two countries. Based on your analysis, you will select one country as your recommendation to the company Replais.
How to Structure Your Paper:
1. Introduction and presentation of research question
2. Literature review
A literature review is a highly specialized exercise in which you review of relevant literature organized by theme. A literature review is not an article-by-article overview, nor is it an annotated bibliography. If you are unfamiliar with how to write a literature review, please consult the following links or ask me. Annotated bibliographies will not be accepted in place of a literature review.
Literature Reviews
Guidelines for Writing a Literature Review
You will need at least six sources for the literature review two of which are peer-reviewed. Focus on macro risk factors for the two states in question, finding the best peer-reviewed source/s for each state that includes what you consider the essential political risk factors. Remember that all your work should show your facility with comparative political systems analysis, its theories and concepts. Other sources may be journalistic or factual primary sources (not peer-reviewed). For a paper this size, you will eventually have around 15-20 sources at a minimum.
3. Analysis, and findings implementation of your comparative political risk assessment for the two states, and a recommendation for which state to base the operation in. Make sure to create tables that summarize the scores on the various indicators of political risk, and present them in this section, taking the reader through the results. You can either use quantitative data for this (e.g., World Bank, Transparency International, and a wide range of data resources listed at the end of this assignment), or qualitatively through the analysis of country studies (but avoid repeating what you have already written in your literature review). Either way, please present tables of findings.
Quantitative approach: If you use quantitative data, you can report the scores for the different countries. You can use pre-existing data to compile scores on various indicators. Many of the data sets listed below will be very useful for this.
Qualitative approach: If you take a qualitative approach, you will need to use some criteria to translate the qualitative information into scores for specific indicators. A good way to do this is through the use of Truth Tables (see Lesson 1). Make sure to specify the criteria you have used to create your scores.
4. Conclusions
5. References List
Datasets: Political, Economic, and Social Measures (and more)
http://data.worldbank.org/. The World Bank provides economic data by country, by indicator, and more.
http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx. The United Nations has country profiles and data on specific indicators, including economic, social, and environmental.
www.freedomhouse.org. Freedom House is a non-profit, non-partisan organization publishing the annual Freedom in the World surveys and the Freedom House Index of Political Rights and Civil Liberties.
http://www.transparency.org/research/cpi/overview. Transparency International produces the yearly Corruption Perceptions Index and produces country profiles.
https://www.v-dem.net/en/. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) provides indicators of democracy by country. Scroll down to the middle of the webpage and click on Online Analysis.
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistics/. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) provides crime statistics by country.
www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm. The Polity IV project web site contains information on, and access to, the most recent update of the Polity data series.
http://www.prio.no/Data/Governance/Vanhanens-index-of-democracy/. Tatu Vanhanens index of democracy and Polyarchy dataset.
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Data/Data.htm. Pippa Norris website provides an integrated dataset merging four democracy measures.
http://www.idea.int/resources/databases.cfm. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance has collected a number of information databases on different areas of democracy and elections worldwide.
www.worldvaluessurvey.org. This is the homepage of the World Values Survey Association. It presents and offers for download survey data from some 80 societies covering a period from 1981 to 2014.
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/. The International Consortium for Political and Social Research offers access to all kinds of social science data.
www.ipu.org. The IPU Parline Database archives data on womens representation in parliaments and on the most recent parliamentary elections in most countries.
www.cses.org. The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems data project has data available for download.
www.europeansocialsurvey.org. The European Social Survey offers public opinion data for download.
www.broadleft.org. Leftist Parties of the World contains summary information on leftist parties and organizations.
www.politicsresources.net/. This website has many resources relevant to the study of politics and government, including most constitutions. http://psephos.adam-carr.net. Adam Carrs Election Archive contains election statistics from 182 countries.
http://www.afrobarometer.org/. An African-led series of national public attitude surveys on democracy and governance in Africa.
