User talk:Shannontimmins/sandbox

Peer Review by Sophie Noel
Hi Shannon,

Here are a few things I noticed/would suggest for you to change. Keep up the good work!

Lead: In the lead it seems as though the paragraphs are a bit underdeveloped. To address this I would elaborate on a few topics that you bring up. For example, I would further discuss the situation in central Asian countries that led to the term 'state capture'. I do not think the third or fourth paragraphs about oligarchs and specific cases are even necessary and I would delete them from the introduction.

I really like your alternative introduction and would just include where the term state capture comes from.

Defining state capture: What do you mean by saying that the captured state itself determines if state capture is illegal? I think you should rephrase this sentence or explain it a little more.

You've mentioned regulatory capture a few times and I think you should define it to clarify things.

Is state capture always used to better profits? Couldn't it also be used for policy changes, etc.

Forms of state capture: I think you should elaborate on the forms and possibly give examples of each. Explain the differences and similarities between state capture at local levels and state levels. Prevention: I think it would be beneficial to discuss some states that have attempted to prevent state capture and whether their methods were successful or not. State Capture examples: I would definitely develop these examples. I think the South Africa case is detailed and long but necessary to provide a solid example of state capture. You should try and explore the cases of Bulgaria, Germany, South Korea, and Latin America in this way. You could also discuss cases in the US.

Other recs: Add a section that discusses the consequences of state capture. Add a section that discusses the causes of state capture.

Overall, you article is unbiased and you've used reliable and credible sources. I think you should continue to research, though, especially on the specific cases. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.229.100.97 (talk) 03:25, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Justine's Peer Review
Hi, Shannon. I was surprised that such a foundational concept in corruption had such a short article. I think it's really great that you're editing a concept that will be linked by so many different articles for its definitions. Below are my comments. Overall, I can tell you're approaching this in a really objective perspective which I think is very important, but the organization of your draft was a bit hard to follow :P. I like how you were able to engage critically with the existing article and ask yourself where you can improve it. The next step is to start writing!

1. First, what does the article do well? Is there anything from your review that impressed you? Any turn of phrase that described the subject in a clear way?
 * You've done a good job in defining state capture, forms of state capture, etc in your edits, which is an important improvement from the current article


 * You write in an objective manner, which is excellent for this kind of project! The coverage is neutral and you are approaching this subject in a very unbiased manner.


 * The two links you have work and they come from reliable sources, but in general, you could add more citations to this article

2. What changes would you suggest the author apply to the article? Why would those changes be an improvement?


 * the 'forms of state capture' paragraph should link to external wiki pages to vote buying, illegal contributions to campaigns, etc, when you state, "These methods [of state capture] include, though are not limited to, vote buying, illegal contributions to campaigns, illegal lobbying and bribery."


 * For the 'Prevention' paragraph - do you think it would be possible to find a successful case study of prevention of state capture? If so, I think it would be a good addition


 * In the 'Case Studies' section, I think it might help the article to add some context to the case studies. For ex/ what are "chaebols" in South Korea? What is the GERB party in Bulgaria?
 * I think you made note of this, but you should expand on state capture in Latin America. Why are all the other case studies country specific, but the entirety of L.A. gets a few sentences? Anyway, I think you could contribute by adding to this.

3. What's the most important thing the author could do to improve the article?
 * better structure of the article should be implemented. This was a bit hard to follow. I'm sure it's a draft that you made out of your own mind, so it makes sense to you, but just make sure that the final draft has a clear organization. This could be combated by fixing up the intro section and then adding the lead section (i.e the table of contents).

4. General notes
 * You made a self-note that, "Allegations of state capture have led to protests against the government in Bulgaria in 2013-2014 and Romania in 2017, and have caused an ongoing controversy in South Africa beginning in 2016" was not relevant to be in the intro paragraph. However, the wiki training sessions mentioned that the leading section should have an overview of what the article contains - so perhaps there is a reason to keep the reference to the case studies in the intro? That's just my opinion.


 * I like the alt intro that was from the talk page. If you can add citations, I think it's a a more robust definition that the current wikipedia article's definition


 * should the following sentence: "The influence may be manifest in Legislative, Executive, Ministerial, or Judicial branches so captured; or by a corrupt electoral process." - be re-worded to say, "The influence may manifest in a corrupt electoral process, or the Legislative, Executive, Ministerial, or Judicial branches also being captured by outside interests..." If not, this sentence needs a bit of work.. because I wasn't exactly sure of what it meant


 * I think adding a section on the 'Significance of State Capture' would be beneficial in helping the reader understand the importance of this topic. Why should we care about state capture? What are the consequences? Is there a World Bank study that estimates the amount of money lost per year due to state capture? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jtupe (talk • contribs) 04:13, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Manuel Balan Review
I think you may be spreading yourself a bit too thin. I understand the article is significantly underdeveloped, so there's a lot of room for improvements, but you may want to focus your energies on a smaller subsection of issues, so you can cover them more in depth. I agree with the comments provided by both Sophie and Justine. Article draft is missing sources, please focus more on academic sources when you start adding them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Manuelbalan (talk • contribs) 14:23, 26 March 2018 (UTC)