The Politics of Protectionism: Why Economically Ineffective Policies Still Win Votes

OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS:

You should develop an argument based on the literature relating to your topic and assess the extent to which that literature offers solutions to the problem you are considering. This may lead you, amongst other outcomes, to identify particularly fruitful solutions to the problem or to identify a need for further research. If you conclude that further research is needed, then it is advisable to specify what the focus of that research should be.

Your blog post should be written with a public audience in mind, meaning that you should summarise the literature that you draw on in clear and accessible language. You should avoid academic terminology and acronyms wherever possible. If you need to use a particular academic term, for instance if it is a key concept, then make sure to explain what it means. Remember, someone who has no familiarity with the topic or with political behaviour research should be able to understand your blog post. You should also avoid using images in the post unless you created them, they are open source (and you include a credit), or you have permission to do so (and, again, you include a credit).

As is standard on prominent academic blogs, your post should not exceed 1,000 words, and should include references to relevant sources. Whether the references are to academic articles, news articles, or other blog posts, they should use hyperlinks to the relevant web page (like the ones in the next sentence) rather than footnotes or in-text citations (in parentheses). If you wish to read some high-quality academic blog posts to get a sense for how they are written, you can look at The Conversation or British Politics and Policy at LSE. Examples of good posts on these blogs include:

Carole Concha Bell, ‘Chile’s progressive new constitution rejected by voters after campaign marred by misinformation’, The Conversation, September 13, 2022
Matthew Paterson, ‘What Liz Truss’s government means for climate action’, The Conversation, September 9, 2022
Paul Willner, Todd Hartman and Richard Bentall, ‘New research shows freedom of movement is not toxic to Leavers, who are almost as positive about it as Remainers’, British Politics and Policy at LSE, September 5, 2022

Anna Sanders and Dave Richard, ‘The gendered dynamics of “partygate”: leadership and hypermasculinity at the centre of Johnson’s administration’, British Politics and Policy at LSE, May 30, 2022
As with the each of the above examples, a good blog post should open with a paragraph that succinctly summarises the overarching argument. It should then proceed to develop the argument with specific points relating to key theoretical and empirical literature. Each paragraph can be relatively short, developing one key point in a few sentences. As you will see in the examples, the concluding paragraph should then succinctly summarise and restate the argument that has been developed in the preceding paragraphs. A reader should come away from your blog with a clear understanding and memory of what your overarching argument is.

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