Write an approximately five page paper1 answering the following question; this paper is
worth 25% of your final grade. Late papers will lose a +/- letter grade each 24 hour
period that the paper is overdue.
You are more than welcome to discuss this assignment with your classmates. However,
the actual writing of the paper turned in must be your own. No sources other than the
textbook, assigned articles, and class notes may be used. The Honor Code governs this
assignment and the title page to your paper must bear the following signed statement:
I pledge that this work is my own and that I have abided by the conventions of
the University of Miami Honor Code.
Question:
Saharia, France’s last remaining colony, will receive its independence on July 1, 2012.
You are currently the provisional Prime Minister of this nation and the head of its
Constitutional Council. Your job is to recommend an appropriate form of government for
the newly independent country as well as the economic policies it should pursue. Below
is a more detailed description of the country as well as specific instructions for the
Constitutional Council.
Saharia lies along the Mediterranean Sea along the northwestern coast of Africa. It is
over a million square kilometers of mostly desert and has a population of approximately
100 million people. Members of the Berber ethnic group who speak Arabic and practice
Islam make up 90% of the population; the Berbers are divided into many different tribes.
The remaining ten percent of the population are French-speaking Catholics of European
descent most of whom live in the capital city of Sahir. Formal education in your country
has always been in French so educated Berbers can speak it and French has been the
official language of government since the French colonized. Before it became a colony,
your country was governed by the Hadalmo dynasty. Ibrahim Hadalmo, an eighty-year
old descendant of the last pre-colonial leader, still lives in the capital city.
Most citizens make their living farming or herding camels; the annual GDP per capita is
$2000 (similar to Nigeria’s). This means there is not much of a tax base for the
government and very few people with the resources to be entrepreneurial on a grand
scale; no one in your country is a petroleum engineer. Most people do not attend school
beyond the elementary grades and 60% of the population (especially women) is
illiterate; extreme poverty is widespread. Families are large, with an average of 7
children, and infant mortality rates are high.
In 2010 oil was discovered in the center of the country and currently Entier, a French oil
company, has laid claim to the oilfields and is beginning drilling operations. Experts
1 Pages should be computer generated using double-spacing, 12 point font, and 1 inch margins. Please
number the pages and staple them together.
Page 2 of 3
expect oil to begin flowing by the end of this year. Most top jobs in Entier are held by
Europeans and any profits from the oil will go to Paris Stock Exchange investors who
have bought shares of Entier. In 2011 oil prices were at record highs, but experts
predict a slowdown in demand and fluctuations in oil prices for 2012. There is only a
weak tradition of meritocracy in the civil service; Saharia has no industry or unions.
You are a French-speaking Catholic from the capital city of Sahir and you stem from an
elite family. You were educated in France and you hope your three sons will follow in
your footsteps. Before becoming a full-time politician, you were a bureaucrat in the
colonial administration. Now you are the head of the Freedom Party; the party has
members all across the country and it won 90% of the vote in the last election,
conducted using a plurality electoral system. The country’s provisional government is a
parliamentary system with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France as the Head of State.
You are the Prime Minster and have a single-party cabinet.
The Freedom Party’s main platform is independence from France, but beyond that, its
members don’t agree what should happen next. There are rumors that French
environmental activists are encouraging Ali Malek, a charismatic Berber leader from the
center of the country, to start his own party to oppose you and the oil drilling operations.
Given these facts, your Constitutional Council needs to make recommendations for the
future of Saharia:
What system of executive-legislative relations should the country have
(presidential, semi-presidential, or parliamentary)? If you select the Parliamentary
system who will be the Head of State? What territorial arrangements (unitary or
federal) would you select? What electoral system should be used (PR, plurality,
majority, or mixed)?
Would you recommend that the country remain agricultural or pursue
industrialization? Explain your choice. If you prefer to do the latter how would
you go about it? What type of economic development strategy should be
followed to develop the economy – communism, ISI, a combination of
nationalist/liberal policies like contemporary Russia, or a very liberal strategy? Or
would you prefer to become a kleptocrat along the lines of Nigeria’s General Sani
Abacha?
Entier can only take Saharian oil with the government’s permission. Will you
continue to allow them to continue to drill for oil or not? If so, will you try to
impose any conditions on their activities? (Remember that countries like Nigeria
allow resource extraction with few strings attached so you have international
competitors!)
Would you impose any restrictions on civil society groups such as unions,
environmental associations, news organizations, or competing political parties?
This is not a research paper – Saharia does not actually exist – instead use your
knowledge of the political institutions and economic development strategies pursued in
the UK, Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, and Nigeria to develop a plan for Saharia.
Page 3 of 3
The best papers will explain why the author is choosing certain institutions for the
country and ruling others out. Furthermore, good papers will be clearly organized and
well-written. You are welcome to use “I” when writing.
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