As shared with you in the Announcement on April 28, the essay topic I want you to cover will be shorter than the ones I usually request of my students in this course, but far more current, while still remaining firmly in the area of Comparative Politics. It is the kind of brief you might be expected to come up with if you were in charge of a country desk at the State Department (which is one of the large employers of Comparative Politics specialists at present.) So here goes: I would like you to choose any one (1) country from among those covered in our textbook, excluding the United States of America, and in an essay of three to five (3-5) pages, explain how that chosen country has dealt with, planned to or prepared to deal with, or been affected by (economically, socially, politically) the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Few countries have been as seriously affected as the USA, but almost no country has been completely immune from the effects of the pandemic, and some have actually gone far further in effectively addressing the issue than, for example, our own fractured federal government led by our more or less democratically elected president.
As is the case in all my essays, certain vital formatting rules apply. Please pay attention to these, as they are generally required for essays deemed acceptable in most political science departments in U.S. four-year colleges.
The papers are expected to be of a length of 3- 5 pages double spaced, and should not exceed the length of 7 pages double spaced (anything exceeding this specified length might simply not be read.) Use the information provided by books and/or periodicals, valid web sources, and your own reasoned understanding and gained knowledge (but perhaps not too much imagination, as this is not sci-fi) to answer the question.
I will be expecting you to provide proper foot-/end-notes, and a bibliography. By proper, I mean that your foot-/end-notes will be individually and sequentially numbered, and will follow the format known as Chicago/Turabian style. This is the style to be used for both foot-, end-notes and also for the separate bibliography. If this style is not clear to you, type one or more of the following URLs, which cover the topic quite exhaustively into your browser:
Please note that Chicago/Turabian style allows for two citation systems: notes and bibliography and in-text author/date citations and reference list. The system I require and the only one I will accept as correct in this essay is notes and bibliography.