PSCI 4783: Global Issues

Fall 2008: Governing Global Trade

Final Examination Guidelines & Assignment

**The final examination is due in my office by 1 p.m. on Monday, December 15th**

Goals

The aim of the take-home final examination, which is worth 20% of your course grade, is to give you a chance to engage the general theme of “governing global trade” through a focus on the institutional choices that governance entails.

Nuts and Bolts

Here are some of the nuts and bolts. Failure to respect these requirements will result in point deductions.

• You must have a title page (not included in your page total) which provides a descriptive title (something other than “take home final exam”) and your name. Your name should not appear anywhere else in the paper.
• Papers must be double-spaced, in 12-point font, with normal margins, paginated, and spell-checked.
• Papers must not exceed 10 pages in length, not including references and title page.
• Do not bind the papers other than with a staple at the top-left corner.
• Late papers will be penalized according to the following schedule:

Papers turned in after 1 p.m. but before 5 p.m. on the due date	2/3 grade (6 pts.)
Papers turned after 5 p.m. on the due date, but before noon on the following day	1 full grade (10 pts.)
Papers turned in after noon on the day after the due date	1 1/3grades (13 pts.)
Papers turned in anytime on the second day after the due date	2 full grades (20 pts.)
Papers turned in anytime on the third day after the due date	3 full grades (30 pts.)
Papers turned in anytime on the fourth day after the due date	4 full grades (40 pts.)
… and so forth	…

In terms of structure, the only requirements are as follows.

• You must have an introductory paragraph comprised of four elements: 1) mood music; 2) thesis/argument; 3) plan/outline; 4) implications. This should be very brief, certainly not more than a page.
• You must have a concluding section which summarizes the arguments and findings and identifies implications.
• You are otherwise free to structure your paper as you see fit, but let me emphasize that I strongly favor a logical and transparent structure (e.g., with subheadings).

Assignment

The class has tried to engage the problem of “global trade governance” by looking 1) at the dilemmas and tradeoffs posed by trade, and 2) at the multiple institutional levels and venues within which trade governance occurs. With respect to the first, for example, early on in the class we looked at the mixed motives inherent in trade liberalization, domestic distributional consequences, the collective action problem, and so forth. Later, we looked at perceived tradeoffs and tensions between trade and various environmental, social, political and other goals. With respect to the second, we have looked at the political economy of trade governance at the domestic, regional and global levels.

In this take-home final examination, I want you to engage the problem of “governing global trade” by looking at some aspect of the relationship between these two dimensions. How do dilemmas shape choices over the appropriate governance/institutional level? How do choices over the appropriate governance/institutional level ameliorate or exacerbate dilemmas and tradeoffs?

The following is a suggestive (i.e., not exhaustive) list of possible topics that you might examine, either singly or in combination:

• What is the correspondence between dilemmas and levels of governance?
• Are some dilemmas best addressed domestically, others regionally, and still others globally? What factors drive this correspondence?
• Do some levels tend to produce characteristic types of dilemmas/tradeoffs, as distinct from others? Are social issues best addressed at domestic level and worst addressed at global level, for example?
• In the aggregate, is one of these levels “better” than the others in ameliorating dilemmas? E.g., is the regional level “optimal” in the sense implied by the “goldilocks theory” of regionalism that we have discussed in class?
• Pick a dilemma/tradeoff that is of particular interest to you, and examine how it plays itself out at the different governance levels, e.g., in making an argument about which level is most appropriate in addressing that particular dilemma.
• How does institutional complexity (i.e., the layering of domestic, regional and global governance levels) affect the dilemmas and tradeoffs that are inherent in global trade?
• Etc.

• NB: you should not write substantially on any of the topics that you have already addressed in one of your topical papers without my prior approval.

You are free to define your own topic that will allow you to address these questions. I do not expect you to do a great deal of outside research, though of course you should cite whatever work you do draw from. Be sure to have a clear argument and a clear logical structure and to write as crisply and economically as possible. Be sure, too, to respect the structural requirements spelled out under “nuts and bolts”, above. Finally, be sure to draw out the broader implications of your analysis for the problem of “governing global trade.”

I will assess your take-home final along the same dimensions that I have used for your topical papers.

**The final examination is due in my office by 1 p.m. on Monday, December 15th**

Good luck and have a great winter break!