I’ve attached some readings you can use if you’d like. YOU MUST FIND 5 MORE OUTSIDE SOURCES TO WRITE ABOUT IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW THAT RELATES TO THIS TOPIC.
Introduction
- A description of the research puzzle: in this case that Kuwait has usually ranked so much higher than other states in the Gulf in terms of democratic standards, despite sharing so much in terms of language, culture, history etc. They are also of similar sizes, monarchies, resource rich etc. So why is it that the others remain highly autocratic and Kuwait developed a semi-constitutional monarchy?
- Pose the RQ
- Briefly lay out what will happen in the dissertation
Literature review
- Survey the main literature that will be useful in answering the RQ, looking at the major trends.
- In here I would expect to see…
- Literature on democratization- what are the key theories around why some countries democratize and others don’t (e.g. modernization theory, institutional approaches)
- Literature specifically on the political systems of the Gulf monarchies.
- Literature on semi-constitutional monarchies
- Identify a gap in the literature- perhaps there has been little literature on the extent of democracies within monarchies, rather than just democracies v autocracies.
Theory
- Develop some hypotheses based in the literature or your observations- present them as statements and then explain why you think they will be correct.
- So you might suggest Kuwait is more democratic because of differences in its society, it’s history or its economy, or something about the process of constitution creation.
- If you can have like 3 hypotheses then you’ve got a good structure for later on (e.g. a chapter on the economy which compares the gulf states).
Methodology
- Lay out how you will carry out your research- in this case we are doing a comparative case study- this could also involve the use of process tracing.
- Defend why you have chosen this method.
- Lay out which cases you are looking at and why- in this case they make an ideal Most Similar Systems Design.
Analysis
- After this the structure is a bit more flexible- it’s good to base it around hypotheses so that you’re clearly testing each one and establishing if it’s accurate or not.
- What you need to be doing in each chapter is explicitly comparing the cases so we can see immediately what the differences in the Kuwaiti case might be to cause it’s greater levels of democratisation.
Conclusion
- Tie the findings of the analysis chapters together.