Comparative Urban Politics
Literature Review Assignment
FALL 2013
Political Science 422
The written assignment explores the important topics dealt with in this class with special
emphasis on the work. Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil,
by James Holston. I have identified twenty general topics that illuminate how political functions
in the urban political systems Latin America and the United States. This assignment asks you to
take one of these topics (listed below) and formulate some aspect of it as a research question. If
you have never formulated a research question for a major written project in political science I
strongly urge you to read chapter 3 in the Galvan volume on Writing Literature Reviews. The
research question which each team chooses will be the subject of the written assignment
required for Pl.Sc. 422. This assignment is due on December 3, 2013. Its three components
constitute 35% of the total grade of each team member.
The class will be divided into eighteen teams for this exercise. In other words, the written
assignment for Pl. Sc. 422 will be a joint effort by two students. While there is some flexibility in
regard to length, I anticipate that each written project will run between twelve and fifteen pages
in length. For the purposes of this review your team should plan to review at least eight
scholarly articles (four each) and integrate them into a single literature review that relates to the
research topic that you have chosen. Scholarly articles are ones found in such professional
journals as Urban Affairs Quarterly, The American Political Science Review, Comparative Politics,
Comparative Political Studies and Latin American Politics and Society. Articles in popular
magazines (such as Time, the Weekly Standard, The Atlantic Monthly or the National Review) do
not qualify as scholarly articles for the purpose of this assignment. Seven examples of good
literature reviews appear on pp. 117 – 150 of the Galvan volume. During week 12 (see the
syllabus) each team will be asked to distribute to all members of the class two tables (see cp. 7
of Galvan) that synthesize the literature that they have reviewed up to this point. Teams will be
given 10 minutes to explain their tables. The tables, and team discussion of them, count for 5%
of the total written requirement grade, which is 35% of the total class grade.
Research teams will be assigned at random by the professor. Your team assignment is posted at
the location which can be reached by clicking on the home page hyperlink: Teams: Discussion
and Written Project. Each team, as indicated above, will select one of the twenty general area
topics listed below. The research question approval sheet, (attached to this assignment
material) must be returned to the professor 24 hours prior to the agreed upon meeting with
him. This research question will be discussed and refined at the required team conference with
the professor. Both members of the team must be present at this meeting in order for
members of the student teams to receive the 5% of the total grade associated with the team
conference. The meeting with Professor Myers must take place no later than 5:00pm on
Tuesday, September24, 2012. Students belonging to teams that fail to meet with the professor
for the required conference will be dropped from the course.
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General Topic Areas for Literature Review Term Papers
(literature reviews must examine findings from at least eight scholarly articles)
1) What factors are critical for the creation of metropolitan governments in
conurbations.?
2) To what kinds of political discrimination are shantytown residents subjected?
3) How are rights and privileges allocated to the city’s upper-middle & upper classes?
4) How has the arena of urban political participation in (pick any two cities) changed
since 1985?
5) In what ways does gender shape citizenship in urban areas?
6) In what ways does education shape citizenship in the slums or shantytowns?
7) What factors lead peasants and small town residents to migrate to large cities?
8) What are the political consequences of conditions that force most to Latin American
cities to live in squatter settlements?
9) How did the creation of peripheral shantytowns in Latin American cities shape
political participation at the local level
10) How did the creation of migrant-dominated slums in United States cities (in the 1950’s
and 1960’s) galvanize civic participation and the practice of rights?
11) How do gangs exercise influence in the shantytowns of Latin American cities?
12) How do gangs exercise influence in the marginal areas of cities in the United States?
13) How do central governments in Latin America attempt to control urban politics?
14) How does the urban built environment shape or reflect the structure of political
authority in the city?
15) What policing techniques are most successful in managing violence in the slums or
shantytowns?
16) Which policies/strategies are most successful in allowing political parties to gain
adherents among the urban poor?
17) What determines the success of non-governmental organizations (secular & religious)
in improving the quality of shantytown life?
18) How does control of the drug trade shape political order in the shantytowns of Latin
America (or in cities of the United States)?
19) What opinions held by voters most influence citizens to cast their vote for a candidate
for mayor in local elections
20) How, since the government of President Ronald Reagan, has the federal government
in the United States attempted to influence urban development?
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WRITTEN PROJECT APPROVAL FORM (Literature Review Term
Paper)
Pl.Sc. 422
(to be filled out and returned to Professor Myers 24 hours prior to the scheduled team
conference (last day for conference – 24 September (Tuesday)
Team Members:
Student's name: _____________________________________________________________
Student's name: _____________________________________________________________
Topic (from above list)
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________
Operational Research Question whose literature you will review:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________
Tentative Plans for Literature Review:
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Administrative Record: to be handed in on December 3 as the
cover page for the Literature Review Term Paper
(Required)
Team Members (1)__________________________________________________(type or print)
(2) _________________________________________________ (type or print)
Research Question to be addressed in this Literature Review:
______________________________________________________________________________
We, the undersigned, certify that this literature review term paper is a project in which we
worked together, contributing in more or less equal shares to the final product. Each of us
reviewed the entire document, from the first page to the last, and we affirm that the work
which we are presenting is truly collaborative.
Team Members (1)_________________________________________________________
(Signature)
(2)_________________________________________________________
(Signature)
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