Assignments

The students will develop a semester long research project that will be divided into different tasks throughout the semester. Students can work on the project individually or in pairs.

Goal

You will pretend to be the international political consultant for a presidential political campaign in a Latin American country of your choice. The goal of the project is to design a plausible campaign strategy for the political context you have chosen. The last week of class you will present your results to the rest of the class.

Grading Criteria

Your work will be graded according to the following criteria:

  • Clarity – Your work will be well written, well explained and well argued.
  • Organization – Your work will be organized in a coherent manner. Your reader or listener will be able to follow your thought process.
  • Thoroughness – Your work will be well researched; you will find and contrast different sources.
  • Presentation – Your work will be visually appealing and neat.

Tasks

Task 1: Written report – Knowing the rules (PDF)

Task 2: Written report – Political histories (PDF)

Task 3: Written report – Media platforms and political attitudes (PDF)

 

Task 4: Campaign strategy report and presentations (PDF)

Task 5: Final reports (PDF)

Student Examples

Task 4: A eleição presidencial brasileira. "Brazilian Presidential Election" 2014 (PDF)

Task 5: Campaign Strategy for Brazilian 2014 Presidential elections - Campos/Silva ticket (PDF)

The examples above appear courtesy of a MIT student and appear anonymously upon request.