This assessment is designed to test your understanding of the theoretical
approaches to the study of democratisation, regime change and regime classification
in political science, and of the applied dimension of empirical studies on the subject
(analysis of case studies, individual or a set of countries in a comparative
perspective). This assessment invites you to move between these dimensions and
draw material from the key theories and thinkers engaged and/or relevant case
studies.
In order to fulfil the basic requirements of this assessment, you must:
Address the question
This can either mean answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or ‘yes, but’ or ‘no, but’, and giving a full
and cogently argued explanation, or it can mean ‘questioning the question’, i.e.,
problematizing the assumptions that the question contains. All of these options
address the question, and can act as the overarching framework of a good essay.
Taking time to contextualise the question in your preparation and to identify the
debates from which it originates is a good preparatory work to ensure you
understand the question correctly.
Put forward an argument
You must have one clear line of argument that is (a) stated in the introduction, (b)
supported throughout the essay, (c) restated in the conclusion and (d) written in clear
and technically proficient English. You should then use the main body of the essay to
back up your claims, and end by summing up how the points you have made back
up what you have tried to show in your essay.
Compare thinkers/theories and draw conclusions
In this essay, you are being asked to evaluate the arguments of different authors
and/or theories that define the study of regime transition and regime typology – or
characteristics of specific types of regime and their evolution.
Use primary and secondary literature
Dahl, R. A. (2008), On Democracy, London: Yale University Press.
Held, D. (2006), Models of Democracy, Redwood City: Stanford University Press.
Brooker, P. (2013). Non-Democratic Regimes. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Linz, J. J., Linz, J. J., & Stepan, A. (1996), Problems of Democratic Transition and
Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe,
Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Dahl, R. A. (1973), Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, London: Yale
University Press.
Huntington, S. P. (2006), Political Order in Changing Societies, London: Yale
University Press.
Przeworski, A., Alvarez, R. M., Alvarez, M. E., Cheibub, J. A., & Limongi, F.
(2000), Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the
World, 1950-1990, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bobbio, N. (1989), Democracy and Dictatorship: The Nature and Limits of State
Power, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Huntington, S. P. (1993), The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth
Century, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
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