While interning at the U.N I've been getting all sorts of ideas that have good potential to become a Master's or Doctoral Thesis and I even got a few people who agreed. I wondered for a briefly if I should start selling them because it seems many graduate students hit a mental barrier in coming up with and choosing a thesis to write about. Here is just one idea- A detailed study of the tansfer of power from royalty to society.
This idea would basically look at the differences in countries that transformed themselves from a Monarchy to a Democracy. Obviuously some countries have done this far more effectively which tend to correlate with a happier and more empowered people. Assuming the role of governments is to help provide some order and benefit to the populace this would look at general quality of life indicators before and after in countries like Spain, the Ukraine, Canada or others. It would at macroeconomic indicators of growth compared to disimilar parts of the world.
The idea could be huge (ie a long book) and you could also cross-analyze dictatorships with theocracies, socialist societies with more capatilistic natured countries. You could even do a comparitive analyses within the country's demographics and geographic regions to unlock what types of governments are seen as more favorable to different peoples. Fascinating- and hopefully not too boring.
