State and Local
Politics
Research Project
Guidelines
The purpose of this paper is to do an intensive
case study of a policy issue in a single state or locality or do comparative
case study of a policy issue in several states. You should apply the methodology
from Nicholson-Crotty and Meier, “Size Doesn’t Matter" to do a qualitative
analysis of an important theory from the political science literature on state
or local politics.
The first step
is to find a policy area or political event that you think is interesting. There are all sorts of bizarre and
interesting things going on in the states.
The diversity will constantly amaze and surprise you. The best place to start is the web. Here are some links to web sites with tons
of news stories about state and local politics. I would encourage you to flip about and follow links to find
something you think is interesting.
- State
and Local News
- Greater
overall state news www.stateline.org
and their
exhaustive list of state issue and politics blogs
- Governing
Magazine, the www.governing.com
- Council
of State Governments http://www.statesnews.org/index.asp
- Each
year, the National Council
of State Legislatures looks at the upcoming legislative sessions and
highlights trends and likely issues state legislatures across the nation
will be considering. The National Governors
Association is also good as is the National
League of Cities for urban politics.
- Check
out state political blogs- Governing's
13th floor is excellent http://governing.typepad.com/13thfloor/regionalism/index.html
Second Step:
After you have found a topic you think is interesting, set up an appointment
to meet with me to discuss the issue so I can help provide some guidance about
framing the question and researching the topic. This is important for the
literature review section of the paper. How have other scholars studied the
issue?
Third Step: Researching the topic. The joy of the internet is that we can get
all kinds of first hand information on obscure topics (read state
politics).
a.
periodical search: Go
to the Washington Post web site to identify the main newspapers in the state or
city. Do a Lexus nexus search in those
newspapers on your topic to find related articles. Using these, you can identify all the key players and
institutions and do additional magazine and internet searches.
b.
Government web sites:
state government web sites may have lots of information on your topic.
c.
First hand research:
Call the relevant actors to find out what happened. The earlier the better.
Fourth Step: Write the Paper- your paper should have
4 sections
a. Literature Review- why is this an important theoretical
question; how have other scholars studied the issue; what are the big unknowns
b. Research design- how are you studying the issue;
why did you select this/these cases; what is your data
c. Evidence and data analysis- explain the case and
events; review the data that support and oppose your argument in light of
the theoretical questions rasied in your literature review
d. Conclusion - what are the broad empirical and normative
answers and questions raised by your study. How do they relate to the larger
body of scholarly research on the issue.
Your grade is a function of:
- the
caliber of your research. There
is lots of data out there on states. Primary research is a big bonus.
- The
quality of your theoretical argument;
- Organization-
is your argument and data logically presented
- clarity of writing and thought.
Take to heart the advice of William Zinsser:
- "Very few sentences come out right
the first time, or even the third time.
Remember this as a consolation in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's
because it is hard. It's one of
the hardest things that people do.”
- “Look
for clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Be grateful for everything you can
throw away. Reexamine each
sentence that you put on paper.
Is every word doing new work?
Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think
it's beautiful?"
Administrative Details
Length 14-16 pages
Double-sided, stapled, with page numbers
papers are not accepted.