Specifically, you should cover these things:

1.) Give an overview of the country’s overall trade profile. By overall trade profile, I mean you should discuss its overall tariff rates, what it exports, what it imports, what other countries it mostly trades with, and (if possible, and it might not be possible depending on the country you choose and what its government websites are like, so use your judgment here) whether there are any products that have especially high or especially low tariffs.

2) Explain what the theories of comparative advantage, factors model, and sectors model would predict for the trade patterns you described.

2.) Describe the country’s overall democracy level. You should cite some form of data for this, it should not be your opinion, even if it seems obvious. Data/websites to check for this include Freedom House and Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). Cite your source. Based on what you learned about democracy and trade, does the country’s overall trade profile match what you would expect from looking at its democracy?

3.) If the country’s democracy and comparative advantage do not explain all of what you observe of the country’s trade profile, propose an alternative theory that does explain it, and explain why you think this theory is appropriate.

Point breakdown:

3 points – accurate description of predictions of comparative advantage theory, factors model, and sectors model (1 per theory)

3 points – accurate description of democracy theories and predictions

3 points – analysis of whether each set of predictions explains your country’s patterns and if not, why not

1 point – readability and style (a motivation to try to write in a compelling, clear, and entertaining way)

Organization: If you are struggling to organize, I would suggest an outline that looks like this:

1. Introduce your country and describe its trade profile. In this section, also explain its democracy.

2. Explain the predictions of the theory of comparative advantage, the factors model, and the sectors model for your country. You can go less in-depth on factors and sectors in this paper than you did on the last paper.

3. Explain the predictions of the democracy theories for your country.

4. Apply each model to your “data” (what the country’s trade policy looks like). How does the reality deviate from the predictions?

5. A final analysis of which seems to be right, if either, and why. If neither, why not and what do you think is going on instead?

You absolutely do not need to use this outline, I am trying to assess your understanding of theory, not your ability to structure a paper, so if structuring papers is going to be a challenge for you, just use this outline.