Police violence:

The topic is Police violence: focusing on a single country or state/province/municipality since summer 2020, have there been changes in policies or laws thought to reduce police violence/increase police accountability? Alternatively, have there been changes in the public discourse about defunding or abolishing the police, as represented in news media and the prominence of various advocacy groups and social movements?

There is a fair amount of flexibility in the topic: you can base your paper on one of the prompts below or your own interpretation of the theme. However, all papers should respond to the theme of change over time. How has one aspect of politics or policy changed or remained stable over the past two years, and what is the significance of that change or stability?

It should expand from the outline, adding detail to your description of change/stability and your argument about why this instance of change or stability is significant. It should support both these elements with evidence, drawn from news media, academic articles and other course readings, public opinion polls, and/or government documents. Where the outline included your impression of why the instance of change or stability is important/surprising/significant, the final paper should draw connections between your reasons for selecting the topic and concepts from the course. In other words, can you explain the significance with reference to ideas from political science?

The first task of the paper is to describe the change or stability you observe. For example, if you think election campaigns in Canada are different during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic, describe what you see as the most important differences, and use evidence to support this description. The second task is to explain the significance of the change or stability you observe. For example, if pandemic election campaigns are different, why does this matter? Does it potentially affect the way people participate in politics, the way different groups and ideas are represented in politics, or the way we make collective decisions (govern)? You might have other reasons to explain the significance of the change/stability you observe, but the goal is to relate these reasons to some course concept or concepts we discuss this term.

All sources should be cited using a standard style, and you should aim for at least six different sources, at least one of which is an academic article or book chapter.

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