Q The introductory statement should include (1) a clear statement of your research question and (2) your thesis statement (which should be underlined). Your thesis statement should present the specific, precise, and debatable claim that your research paper will defend, and it should briefly describe the reasoning that supports your argument. An example follows: During the 1980s, Senegal was often hailed by international observers and by political scientists as one of Africa’s few political success stories. In March 1976, the Senegalese national assembly adopted a number of constitutional revisions that laid the groundwork for a gradual process of political liberalization. When, in April 1981, President Abdou Diouf authorized the legalization of unlimited pluralism, Senegal was hailed for having “transformed its authoritarian one-party state into a full-fledged bourgeois liberal democracy” (Fatton 1987: 1). However, a series of events that began with the fraudulent February 28, 1988, presidential election have since cast an ominous shadow over the Diouf regime. Engulfed by political, social, and economic malaise, Senegal rapidly lost its reputation as a model of successful democratization in Africa. With observers now describing the Diouf regime as a semi-democracy (Beck 1994), the time is ripe to reconsider the true significance of the institutional changes that were enacted during the five-year period of political transformation that began in 1976. Based on an examination of political activity in Senegal from 1872 (when Senegal sent its first representative to the French Chamber of Deputies) through 1988, I argue that the political transformation that began in 1976 amounted to nothing more than a superficial change to the political structure of Senegalese society because these reforms had little impact on long-established patterns of political competition. Even after the introduction of unlimited pluralism in 1981, Senegalese political competition was still controlled by catch-all political coalitions dominated by the coastal elite, who ally themselves with powerful external actors (particularly French capitalists and international financial institutions) and maintains strong patron-client ties with the rural Islamic aristocracy.