Do China and Myanmar exemplify the decline of global democracy?”

 ESSAY-1 ASSIGNMENT:  

“Do China and Myanmar exemplify the decline of global democracy?”

BACKDROP AND CONTEXT:

When the Cold War ended, hopes were riding high for liberal capitalist democracy to serve as model for other nations to imitate. But since that time, optimism that democracy would enable open societies, bring about freedoms, and prosperity and peace for nations around the world waned, and prospects for its success continues to sputter, dependent upon uncertain and contingent developments in each nation’s geopolitical and internal affairs.  

The observation has been made that “Public faith in democracy is plummeting and long-established political parties are disintegrating or being crowded out by amorphous political movements and populist strongmen, putting into question the willingness of organized political forces to fight for democracy’s survival in times of crisis.”  

The aim of this assignment is to provide students with a space to explore and demonstrate the ability to extract plausible insights as to how consequential internal domestic actions and events in China and Myanmar translate in a world where pro-democracy tendencies are struggling to remain viable.  What happened?  Why did what happen, happen?  What is the projected outcome going forward for democratic principles to actually manifest in global practices among nations, rather than exist as sentiments of Western world leaders?

TO DO: 

Write an Expository Essay  

What is an expository essay?

In plain English, an expository essay explains a topic. You are just stating facts and providing information that is written in 3rd person.  Such essays are not about what you think about a topic. You inform readers, explaining it through investigation and argumentation in a logical manner.

Strategies to develop the essay: 

• Cause/effect - Explains the cause of something and how things affect each other within the concept. Here you identify the relations between two subjects, focus on what happened between them, and tell about the effect of that interaction.

• Compare/contrast - Describes the similarities and differences between two or more concepts, places, people, etc.

Include in your Essay: 

• When, and if, you encounter terms/vocabulary such as the following, make sure your essay makes clear what they mean:  terms such as democracy, legitimate/legitimacy, accountability, socialist democracy, authoritarianism, autocratic, rule of law, human rights, trust and confidence, organizations and institutions coup d’etat, good governance, domestic terrorism, and other terms.

Essay Theme/ topic: 

Do China and Myanmar exemplify the decline of global democracy?

(This should be the title of your essay)

Essay length:  

750 – 1000 words; 3-4 pages; 1.5 line spacing)

SOURCES: 

a. Read the article, “Myanmar coup: China blocks UN condemnation as protest grows,” from the BBC World News, Feb 3,2021. Viewable on the web HERE.

b. Read the article, “The West Turned a Blind Eye to China’s Threat to Democracy ,” from Foreign Policy, Feb 17. Viewable on the web HERE 

c. Read the article, “In Geopolitical Struggle Over Myanmar, China Has an Edge.”  From New York Times, Feb 05, 2021.  Viewable on the web HERE.

ESSAY RUBRIC

Ideas

• Does the student answer the assignment given?

• Does the student understand the reading materials?

• Do the student’s explanations of concepts, ideas and examples demonstrate an ability to gather the main points, paraphrase them and apply them?

• Does the student have original interpretations?

• Does the writing demonstrate an understanding of the subject, or does it wander from one subject to the next offering only superficial remarks?

Argumentation

• Can the reader easily see what the writer’s main point is?

• Does the essay provide a series of points that add up to an argumentation supporting the main point?

• Does the essay continue logically from point to point?

• Does the writer give examples and explanations to support his/her generalizations?

• Does the essay contain contradictions?

Structure and style

• Is the paragraph structure logical?

• Is the writer’s point of view clear?

• Do the citations and the bibliography follow the scientific standards?

Layout of the essay

• On the top of the cover page of your essay you should mark:

o name of the author

o title of the essay

o name and code of the course

o date

• Use font size 12 and spacing 1.5.

• On the last page there should be a List of References including all the references you used (books, articles, statistics, on-line material etc., also unpublished material should be listed).