Term Paper

General Instructions:

You will be required to write and submit a term paper on the topic “liberty and a functioning democracy”. The main objective for this course activity is to evaluate your ability to integrate your knowledge from Modules 2 through 12 and, most importantly, to use this knowledge to critically examine the importance of the concepts “liberty” and “positive freedom” in liberal representative democratic governments.

Specific Instructions:

1. A good term paper must be argumentative. As such, a perspective or reasoned opinion is required. Moreover, your paper must have the following parts: introduction, body, conclusion, and references. The introduction puts forth the issue and your thesis statement. A thesis statement is your “main point” or “main reason” which is basically your main position or stance on the issue – liberty and its critical importance in a healthy democracy against the backdrop of the notion of “positive freedom”. It serves as your overall argument. In other words, you must form an opinion by making positive or negative comments about the concepts and/or issue. To help you form an opinion, a general guide question is being provided: Does “big government” (one that helps ensure its peoples’ well-being by providing the means to live a life of dignity, such as education and health) opens the door for government to abuse its power, which leads to the erosion of personal and economic liberty, and, in turn, democracy? Why or why not? Your answer to the question(s) will be your thesis statement.

2. Writing the paper involves critical thinking skills and the ability to organize your arguments and evidence logically. An argumentative paper must have a body that includes two important parts – your point(s) or reason(s) and the evidence. Your “points” or “reasons” are sometimes called the