rank brazil china france germany japan mexico nigeria russia south africa united kingdom & north ireland according to the Dahl/Polity/Vanhanen scores of most democratic to least democratic

Hi all,
Here is already some additional information about the upcoming term paper. As always, let me know if you have questions!
What: 8 to 10 page termpaper (Times New Roman, font 12, double-spaced)
I am not super strict about the length of the paper. However, I think that a paper shorter than 8 pages cannot address the topic correctly but I also do not want you to write a work of 25 pages because that is not necessary either.
When: Friday August 1st, 11.30 PM Pacific Time
Where: Course space on Angel – Assignments – Term Paper: please submit a short post with the title of your paper and your name and then attach your paper as a Word document thought ‘attachments’. Make sure that your name is in the Word document as well (preferably in the file name for instance: [your first and last name]_Termpaper_PolS 102_summer 2014.doc)
How:
Chapters 16 through 23 are case studies of countries:
•       The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
•       France
•       Germany
•       Japan
•       Russia
•       China
•       Mexico
•       Brazil
•       Nigeria
•       South-Africa
You have to rank all of these countries on these three measures:
•       Dahl’s measure of polyarchy
•       The Polity project rankings
•       Vanhanen’s Index of Democracy
Please see the other instructor notes in this forum for full explanation of these measures.
I do not expect you to come up with perfect scores, but what I do expect you to be able to do is to read the text information carefully, and to imagine how each of these authors/projects would classify the different countries.
As far as I am concerned, you are welcome to include additional information that can be gleaned from such sources as: the New York Times, the Economist Magazine, the online CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/), and others.
Also feel free to browse other websites as well such as http://www.democracybarometer.org/links_en.html http://www.prio.no/Data/Governance/Vanhanens-index-of-democracy/ http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htmhttp://www3.nd.edu/~mcoppedg/crd/datacrd.htm
As long as you make clear where you received your information from, I am fine with you using these sources. I also recommend you to think about discussing it with others in the course online, through email or through the ‘questions for instructor’ discussion board in which I will open a topic.
I will be grading you according to how well you explain and justify the rankings that you assign each country. Thus it is not sufficient just to produce a set of rankings, but you must include a written articulation of why you decided upon those rankings.
Your paper should be neatly presented, well-written, and checked for errors of syntax and grammar. The standard that I always use is that you should not send in your paper until it is something that you are proud of. If it does not reflect the best of which you are capable, then you should probably think about spending a bit more time on it.
The paper is worth 50 points.
Note that the deadline of this paper is beyond the course timeframe (see course schedule for due date). Since this last week requires a lot of reading and writing I want to make sure that you have enough time to finish your paper. You are of course always welcome to hand in your paper early.

Writing tips:
Write an outline for your paper before you start. A good paper should at least have the following structure and components:
Title
Abstract
Introduction (1 page)
Main text (7-8 pages)
Conclusion (& discussion) (2-3 pages))
We can expand on this:

Title page
Include a title for your paper, perhaps a subtitle, your name and student and class information

Abstract
Here you write a (very) short summary of your paper (this should not be more than 150 words!)

Introduction
Here you write what the paper is about, why you used these measures and countries (don’t say that you had to, but explain briefly what is interesting about each case/country and explain briefly why these three methods are important). You also explain how the paper is going on beyond this point, what you will discuss and show what the reader can expect). This all can be in 1 page.

Main text

Countries
Here you tell about the countries in more detail (make sure that these details are relevant to the paper).You can even provide a table with some important variables (this table won’t be included in the page total so do not worry about space). If you decide to include a table, please remember to describe the contents of it in the text! You cannot just show a table without any references to it or without any explanation of it.

Measurements
Here you tell about the measurements in more detail perhaps include advantages and disadvantages of each measurement and their limitations

Analyses
Here you show your rankings and write per ranking why the order of the countries is this way. You may rank the countries in a table (this table won’t be included in the page total so do not worry about space here!)
Results
Here you say something about potential difference in the rankings (e.g. China is # 5 on one scale but # 8 on the other, you explain why this is). Or explain why all your rankings are the same if that is the case. (This, the analyses and the results) are the most important parts of the paper! Devote time and space to these parts!).

Conclusion
Here you sum up your findings (‘this is what I did in this paper for this reason and I found so and so’). Here you also provide your analysis, which one (ranks or measurement) is the best and why, or should we use all three together to get a full picture, or perhaps you propose something different altogether. Perhaps you think of situations/countries for which these three measurements do not apply at all.
This is also the section where you make the paper ‘round’. This means that you do not come up with new facts about your cases but you link the conclusion to the introduction and you really finish the paper. You are allowed to show that this paper is not perfect, I mean, there are always limitations and it is good to show that you are aware of this (this is not seen as a new fact).
Throughout the whole paper, try to write in a scholarly way. Avoid the following sentences: “I believe that, I think that, in my opinion.” But try to make claims and statements, and if you do so, provide a reason or fact for that as well, and show where you received your information.