Agreements that were made during World War I

Think about the importance of the various (secret) agreements that were made during World War I relating to the Middle East.  Which agreement was most interesting to you? Why? Please be specific, including the agreements themselves. Include a reference to the podcast by Shuster (MUST USE IN TEXT CITATION).

What are the strengths of the stages model of the policy process?

What are the strengths of the stages model of the policy process? What are its weaknesses? How would you propose we improve on this model?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of any systems model of a political or social process? How might you overcome the weaknesses you have identified?

The trends shown in this chapter are national trends in the United States. How does where you live to compare with the national trends outlined here? For example, is your state, county, or metropolitan area experiencing a higher or lower rate of unemployment? What is economic growth (defined as growth in the state’s domestic product) compared with the national trend? Various economic development and budget offices should have these data.

Please comment on the concept of whether inputs or outputs have a greater role within the policy framework. How does this relate to the D.A.R.E. Was a Bigger Failure Than Most People Realized case?

 

 

 

The socioeconomic and political environment

What characteristics do you think voters look for when choosing a president? Do you think voters choose the characteristics they are looking for depending on the socioeconomic and political environment – lack of jobs, riots, COVID-19, environmental concerns, and other issues, etc.? Explain your answer.

The El Salvador case studies

From the El Salvador case studies, can you identify several examples in which the Operational (Joint) Function of Information was used by U.S. forces and/or the U.S. country team and/or the ESAF and/or the GOES (i.e. they engaged in some act that generated information that influenced the progress of the counter-insurgency operation in a significantly positive or negative way

Critical problem facing your community

For the memo, you should imagine that you are a state or city government policy advisor. Your governor or city mayor needs your boss to brief them on a critical problem facing your community. You need to develop a memo that will help your boss “get smart” on the problem and come up with some potential solutions. It is important to select a topic that is very specific. As an example, selecting “education reform” is too general. However, looking at whether your community should expand charter schools or accept new testing standards is better scoped. This specificity will help with your research too.

Please be as detailed as possible by giving the Mayor or Governor a set of options and a recommendation.

Solution to cooperative dilemmas

Explain how the insights from Hume’s Draining the swamp game could be used to understand the following situations: (1) two politicians competing for the same office must decide whether or not to use negative campaigning; (2) two opposing interest groups consider whether or not to contribute to a senator’s reelection campaign; and (3) the largest industrialized powers decide the extent to which they should reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

This chapter proposes replication as a solution to cooperative dilemmas. Explain the intuition behind this proposal and point out some features of a cooperation game (e.g., specific payoffs, number of iterations, and value of present versus future payoffs) that lead, in your view, to cooperation. Is cooperation always achieved in contexts of iteration in theory, and in practice?

Hume’s swamp-draining game involved a cooperation problem, whereas the following game is generally considered to involve a coordination problem. The approach is as follows: two friends are unable to agree on whether they should go to the movies or play basketball, although neither wants to be alone, even if they do so. movies or play basketball, although neither wants to be alone, even if they do their favorite activity:

Analysis of the El Salvador counterinsurgency

Can you provide a general analysis of the El Salvador counterinsurgency (COIN) effort and assess how well the U.S. forces, U.S. country team, ESAF, and GOES did in relation to the tenants of COIN: Understanding the operational environment, develop a COIN narrative, Primacy of politics, and population security?

What is the problem with modern civilization, according to Gandhi?

What is the problem with modern civilization, according to Gandhi? Why does he consider morality and passive resistance the ways to achieve self-rule? How could Marx’s historical materialism critique Gandhi’s diagnosis and solution? Which perspective do you find more persuasive and why?

How music has helped people overcome oppressive systems of governance

South Africa presents a powerful example of how music has helped people overcome oppressive systems of governance.  Why do you think the people of South Africa turned to music during their darkest moments, and in their times of joy?  How do you think music propelled the struggle against apartheid?

Methods of constructing a government

For your final assignment, you will be rewriting a part of the U.S. Constitution using what you have learned in this class about the US Constitution, how it differs from other constitutions, and alternative methods of constructing a government. You are free to start with what is already in the US Constitution and then add to or modify what is already there.

There will be several parts to this assignment.  First, pick one of the Articles in the US Constitution and describe what you think its weaknesses are.  You may also select the Bill of Rights instead of one of the Articles.  For example, you might pick Article II and point out that, among other deficiencies, the president’s powers are very vague (compared to Article I at least) and that the president is not directly elected.  Or, you might select the Bill of Rights and describe the rights and liberties that are not found in it.

The second part will be your proposed replacement Article.  This will make up the bulk of your paper.  Please be specific about what you would like to see in this Article.  In the final section, you should describe how your proposed replacement will correct the deficiencies you described in the first part of the paper.