Outline should include (Example: Why do different states have stronger Covid-19 lockdown policies?) Introduction What is your topic? Why is it important? Which theories will you be using to understand your topic? Literature review What have others said about this topic (what does the existing literature in political science, public health, or public choice say about the adoption of lockdown policies?) Your argument What theory do you want to use to explain this? Why is it a better theory than the ones put forward in the literature review? (Bootleggers and Baptists theory explains lockdown policies). Evidence What evidence do you have to support your theory? (Interest groups push for lockdown policies to benefit their own industry or eliminate competition, citizens provide moral cover for the policy by insisting that “we’re in this together” and we need to lockdown) Discussion/Implications/Conclusion What are the implications of your study? What policies or constitutional rules might be created or changed to obtain “better” outcomes or limit political opportunism? (Lockdown rules should be left to local governments and not to the discretion of state governors’ emergency powers).
