Political science

Read any party platform online.  It can be the Democrat, Republican, Green, Workers, Libertarian, Communist, Conservative, any party, totally up to you.  After you read the platform please explain some of the things you may like or dislike about the platform in a one page essay.

Describe the different techniques of influence used by organized interests. When is one technique preferable to another? With the rise of the New Politics movement, different techniques are now used more frequently. Which ones? Why, do you think, are these techniques so well suite to New Politics?

The assignment for this week: Watch the talk by Jason Brennan: Is Democracy Just? (Before answering the following questions, students should watch Brennan’s talk in its entirety.) In light of Brennan’s claims and arguments, answer the following questions: Provide a normative definition of ‘justice’. (A normative definition is prescriptive rather than descriptive: tell me how the term should be defined.) Expand upon your definition of ‘justice’ by sharing what the foundations of justice ought to be. (Answering this question will allow you to define the term ‘Justice’ more fully; so that I will understand what you mean when you say, “justice” or “just” in the questions that follow.) (Be specific: provide a detailed explanation.) (This assignment requires that you take a stance: i.e. answering that ‘justice’ “…can mean many things…” will not earn credit for this assignment. Provide a specific answer and explore that answer. Your answer does not have to be simple or singular, but it does need to be specific.) Is the political system in the United States Just? Explain. Apply your articulation of ‘justice’ from parts 2 and 3 to this question. Depending on your answer to number four, answer either 5 or 6 [below]. If the system is just, how should we defend it? (i.e. what facts would help to demonstrate this for someone that might not agree?) If the system is unjust, how should we refine it to make it to better approximate a just system? Finally: Offer your opinion(s) on the ideas expressed by Jason Brennan. (For the purposes of the question above, an opinion is defined as follows: an opinion is a belief which is explicitly supported by verifiable or falsifiable facts. An opinion is not a collection of preferences. Any claim supported by only inclination, preference, or hearsay will not be considered an “opinion”.)   (If you are feeling lost when considering what might count as a foundation of justice, please take some time to reflect upon the material of this course: intrinsic vs instrumental value, hedonism, egoism, altruism, utilitarianism, deontology, teleology and virtue, social contract theory, etcetera.)   Parameters: Length: between 350 and 650 words. No quotations or paraphrasing of any source material. Express everything in your own words. Any sources reviewed as a part of this assignment should be included in a bibliography. (A “bibliography” is a Book-Map. I want to see where you’ve been and what you have considered. Include links to any youtube videos watched, any articles or blogs read, and any other source of information that you encountered while preparing for or completing this assignment. Hint* every student should include [at least] the assigned video and our assigned text-books in their bibliography.)

Submission Criteria: Using the course text, additional resources, and questions below, you will engage in an online discussion with your professor and class peers.  Students are required to respond to the questions in at least 250 words by Saturday Students are required to engage with at least 2 or more different class peers by Monday.  Each peer response should be at least 100 words. Your word count should be placed at the bottom of your initial response and your peer responses. A complete assignment submission included both the initial response and a minimum of 2 peer responses. Incomplete submissions may not be reviewed for credit consideration. Submissions that are submitted after the deadlines posted or without the required parts may not be graded. Do not include the questions with your response.    Instructions: 1- Before starting this Discussion Forum be sure to: Read Chapter 05 Watch the Pearson video Legislators and Lobbyists: What’s the Problem When Legislators Become Lobbyists? which can be found at the bottom of this assignment. Review the Chapter 05 PowerPoint presentation, which can be found under Modules.   2- This assignment will focus on your ability to analyze the text content and subsequent information provided.  Your responses should rely on facts and real-world examples. While opinion is fine, your responses should rely on facts and real-world examples. It is your understanding of the factual content that I am looking for versus your opinion. There will be times when you will be asked for your opinion, but our collective goal is to have a better understanding of how our government works.    3- Submit your response by replying below. You must post your complete answer before you will gain access to the responses made by your peers.  Respond to each question in a separate paragraph. Do not include the questions. Please see the  Submission Criteria section above before responding.   In 2006, seventy former Texas legislators registered as lobbyists, the highest number among all states that year. Critics believe it is unethical and a conflict of interest for legislators to immediately shift to high-paying lobbyist positions after completing their terms. Legislators-turned-lobbyists argue that it’s not an unreasonable or unnatural transition and that they are putting their knowledge to good use.   Is lobbying inherently bad? Are lobbyists, or political influencers, comparable to social media influencers, as the video suggests? Compare and contrast the two roles. What factors might predict which members of the Texas Legislature become lobbyists after they leave office? What reforms would you suggest to the Texas Ethics Commission for mitigating incentives that may push legislators who become lobbyists to behave unethically.   4- Respond to at least 2 of your class peers and respectfully engage in a discussion based on their responses.  Where possible try to select peers without a response from anyone. The goal is to analyze responses and support or respectfully counter.

Topic: Most Americans point to circumstances, not work ethic, for why people are rich or poor.  What kinds of policies should Congress enact to address the growing gap of inequality in this land of wealth and opportunity?  Explain your analysis, why you believe your recommended policies would best serve the majority of those negatively impacted by such inequality.  Your analysis should include an examination of current domestic policies and what they may or may not provide to balance the distribution of wealth in the U. S Students will write a minimum 5-page public policy memo based on the statements found in the prompt above. Your paper must be your original thought and not taken from the thoughts/words of others. Failure to meet the minimum required page count will automatically result in a loss of 50 percent of the point value.  Your paper must be a minimum of five (5) FULL pages of critical thinking content. Format:  Academic English, 12-point font, Times-New Roman, double-spaced, APA style (in-text citations are required), one-inch margins, top, bottom, and sides, page numbers, Reference page, and Cover page.  Neither the Reference page nor the Cover Page is counted in the minimum 5-page count.  The Cover Page is not page 1.  Format Page 1 as the first page after the Cover Page. Cover page: Your Last name, First Name, Policy Paper, Date

Please use only the file I have uploaded to site and answer the question. The orthodox/traditional perspective to suburban development suggests that factors such as transportation technology, population increases, and the distribution of income influenced suburban development. Discuss two examples from the course material to challenge the orthodox/traditional view of suburban development.

Using only the sources above, our class discussions, and your own reasoning and logic, please write an essay in which you wrestle with the question of how people’s voting and party identification are related to their policy attitudes and beliefs, and how this has changed over time. A central question of this essay is the question of realignment: when, how, and why did people change their patterns of voting and party identification, and what did this have to do with their issue attitudes or beliefs? Explain in detail in your own words what the authors claim, including the causal mechanisms they say were at work, explain the evidence they bring to support their claims, compare their positions to each other, and weigh in with your own evaluations of the logic and evidence their adherents bring to support their claims. In the process or at the end, give your evaluation of which of these descriptions and explanations are compatible with each other and which are not. Throughout, please be sure that when you use the authors’ terms, you always explain them thoroughly in your own words so as to demonstrate your own complete understanding. Note that this will require you to wrestle with the question of what the racial resentment scale is really measuring.

It’s not every semester we get an election like this in the middle of our government class! This week, there’s no chapter to read. There’s no quiz to take. All I want you to do is pay attention to the election results on Tuesday. write four numbered well-written paragraphs – one on each of these four topics, with your thoughts: 1. What happened in the national Presidential election and why do you think that happened? Be sure to give the national popular vote (numbers and percentages) and electoral vote for each candidate. 2. What was the popular vote in the Presidential election in Texas? (numbers and percentages) Who received Texas’ 38 electoral votes, and to what do you attribute this? 3. What was the (unofficial) voter turnout (number and percentage) in Harris County for this election, and how does that compare to the primary election turnout you studied for your political participation assignment? What do you think explains the huge difference? (The precinct-by-precinct canvass report won’t be available yet, so don’t worry about that part) 4. What was the result of the Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 4, race? Do you think your virtual client pursued a strategy similar to the one you outlined for him? Did it work? Submit in Word. Cite your sources. (Note: A lot of the numbers you’re using will be preliminary numbers as mail-in ballots drift in and various election irregularities are settled. Don’t worry about that. Use what you can get and do the best you can.) Additional Resources https://www.270towin.com/ (Links to an external site.) is a great place to compare what’s happening election night to what the polls predicted. https://harrisvotes.com/ (Links to an external site.) will have all the election night returns for Harris County, including the results of the Precinct 3 Commissioner race. The Texas Secretary of State will have statewide election results as they come in from Texas’ 254 counties: https://www.sos.texas.gov/elections

Should the Electoral College be abolished and replaced with a direct national vote?

Respond to each of the four questions (or prompts) below (each worth 25 points). Your answer to each question should not exceed 600 words (or roughly 2-3 paragraphs). This does not mean that you should write exactly 600 words and stop, expecting an “A” for the answer. It means that you will need to be pithy. Pithiness often requires revisions and rewrites. Shorter answers are welcomed. Your answer will be evaluated on a proper use and understanding of political economy concepts, use of citations, paragraph/sentences structure, and grammar. Please use a standard 12-point font (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond, Arial). Do not “lock” your file and use that as an excuse for being tardy. Locked files that the teaching associates cannot access will be considered late and assessed the penalties above. In order to test who has done the reading and viewed the lectures, and to incentivize future reading and viewing, each answer must have at least two citations to either the reading material, the pre-recorded lectures, other videos, and/or podcasts (unless otherwise noted). Question 1= QUESTION 1: EVERYONE KNOWS ITS WINDY (25 POINTS) A giant windstorm has just ripped through the Pacific Northwest, cutting power to nearly 500,000 Puget Sound residences and commercial businesses. Given the extent of the damage, repairs will take up to a week to complete (and more in some places).2 Fortunately, many households have backup generators that run on gasoline. However, roughly half of the gas stations cannot run their pumps because of the power outage, and it is difficult to get shipments of gasoline in due to damage to roads in the area. Clearing the roads will be the first priority of recovery workers and most vehicle access will be restored within two days. With reference to at least two readings, podcasts, or lectures, discuss two ways in which gasoline can be rationed to those who need it. Your answer should include a discussion of how the price mechanism operates in a market and what the effect price controls will have on behavior (including the possibility of secondary [black/gray] markets). If price controls are put into place, how might gasoline be rationed?  Question 2= QUESTION 2: THE GREAT ROCK N ROLL WHODUNNIT (25 POINTS) Evaluate the following scenario using at least one political economy concept introduced in the first five weeks of class. Your answer must include at least two references (citations) to the readings, assigned videos, and/or lectures. It is Sunday evening at 10 p.m. and you are feverishly working to complete your POL S 270 midterm essay exam. At 10:05 p.m. the neighbors in the neighboring apartment begin playing their stereo very loud, rocking out to the latest release of AC/DC while you are trying hard to concentrate. You can clearly hear the music through the walls connecting the two units and it is difficult to work. You ask the landlord to tell the neighbors to turn down their stereo, but he refuses to do so. You then call the police to report a disturbance. Although there are no known laws in the area regarding noise, the police talk to the neighbors and get them to turn the stereo down. In evaluating this scenario, your response should address the following: What important political economy concept is at work here? Who is causing this “problem”? What other solutions could have been used to mitigate the problem? Briefly provide one additional example of the central concept at play in this scenario that is not discussed in any of the course readings or lectures. [WARNING: The answer to this question is not as easy as it seems. An “A” answer will shed sunshine (and not throw shadows) on to the deep lesson at work in this scenario.]  question 3= QUESTION 3: MORBID OPTIMALITY (25 POINTS) A political economist friend of Prof. Gill’s recently said, “The optimal number of deaths from the flu is not zero.” (This statement recognizes that illnesses occur exogenously in nature and are not released into the environment by intentional human action.) Evaluate this statement with reference to at least two different readings, lectures, or podcasts in class. Note that you are not required to agree with the above statement. Rather, you are to use the concepts introduced in class to understand why a political economist would say this. Question 4= QUESTION 4: WRITER’S CHOICE (25 POINTS) Choose one of the following concepts below and write a brief essay explaining it to a person who has not taken POL S 270. Use at least two (2) examples to illustrate the concept, one of which may come from the readings, lectures, videos, or podcasts. The other example should not be drawn from the readings, lectures, videos, or podcasts, but rather one that you think to which the concept applies. For this question, you need only cite one (1) reading, lecture, or podcast source from the class. • Moral hazard. • Pooling and separating equilibrium. • Principal-agent problem. • Unintended consequences. • Asymmetric information. • Thick and thin rationality  SOURCES (all books, should be able to find pdf forms)=  1. Winter, H. 2005. “Trade offs: An introduction to Economic Reasoning and Social Issues”. 2nd Edition Chicago: University Press. Chicago Press.  2. Leeson, P. 2009. “The invisible Hook: The hidden Economics of Pirates 3. Anderson,T.L and P.J Hill. 2004. The Not so Wild. Wild west: Property Rights on the Frontier 4. Hirschman, A.O. 1970. Exit. Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Declines in Firms. Organizations and States