Assignments for this course take the form of written summaries, research, and analysis. They are designed to help us work through the course objectives, while keeping a focus on our spiritual growth through conceptual learning.

For each assignment, please develop a document and submit it to me in either Microsoft Word or HTML format (your word processing software should permit you to do a "save as" and choose either of those formats).

Each assignment can be completed by consulting Web-based materials listed on the course Resource page.

 Introduction: 

American politics includes the formal institutions of our government, such as Congress, the Supreme Court, and the various departments that compose the executive branch, and also the process by which various bodies of citizens (often called interest groups) compete for influence or control over these institutions.  This competition gives rise to many terms that routinely appear in the mass media, usually without definitions. Examples include lobby, pork-barrel legislation, and machine politics. The principal vehicles by which Americans traditionally have sought to influence their government are political parties, notably the Republican and Democratic parties.  These two parties, which have long dominated American politics, are themselves loose coalitions of interest groups.  These interest groups are bound together by their desire to win elections, an objective that induces them to formulate platforms that will appeal to as many voters as possible.

The goals of interest groups within a particular party often come into conflict.  Try as they will, party platforms cannot always minimize the differences.  As a result, interest groups sometimes shift allegiance from one party to another.  For example, from 1865 until the 1930s, African-Americans overwhelmingly voted Republican, whereas southern whites gave such unflinching support to the Democratic party that their region was known as the Solid South.  Today, these allegiances have been reversed.  African-Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic, whereas southern whites increasingly vote Republican.  No matter how disenchanted an interest group becomes with a particular party, however, it nearly always prefers transferring to the rival party rather than forming a third party.  Most interest groups recognize that their only chance for enduring influence lies in riding one of the major parties to victory.

The two-party system helps to distinguish American politics from the politics of some European democracies, which have a large number of parties.  Another distinguishing feature of American politics is federalism, not only in the sense that power is divided between the federal government and the states, but also in the sense that the system of checks and balances ensures a division of power within the federal government itself. Federalism plays all sorts of tricks on the two-party system.  For example, Republican presidents have often been forced to cut deals with Democratic congressional majorities. Regardless of the platform of the victorious candidate in a presidential election, the actual laws passed usually reflect compromises between the two parties.

 Compared to other nations, the United States is also distinguished by the large role its courts play in its political system.  Americans almost universally agree that the Constitution is a document to be venerated.  As interpreters of the Constitution, federal courts have often defined and redefined social and civil relations that in other nations are set by custom and tradition.  Within the last thirty years, for example, the federal courts played a critical role in breaking down racial segregation.  Our list of entries necessarily includes a large number of terms related to the legal interpretation of civil rights.

J.F.K. 

Quoted from The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

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 Reading Assignment #1: 

This week you will be researching the origin and context of the constitution of the United States.

 Your first assignment is to read the following article on the origins of the constitution:

http://www.thisnation.com/constitution.html

 Secondly, you will read the contents of the constitution itself:

http://www.thisnation.com/library/constitution.html

 Thirdly, you will read the American Government fact sheet:

http://www.zusas.uni-halle.de/docs/zusas_berg_USPOLSYSTEM_06_08_2004.pdf

 Other helpful materials on the articles themselves can be found at:

http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/constitution/

As a Christian you will find the first amendment very interesting.

http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/constitution/amendment01/index.html

 Week #1 Work Assignment:

 This weeks assignment will be to write a 6-8 page paper on the origin and history of the creation of the constitution of the United States.  In your own words, please describe the effect a constitution has in the daily life of citizens in America.  You are encouraged to utilize other online resources and the resources page for this course has many political science links available.

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 Reading Assignment #2:

This week we will be examining the election process for the United States government. Your reading assignment this week will be:  

Go to the links below and become familiar with the electoral college and the election process;

 1.  http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/faq.html

 2.  http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/certificates.html 

3.  http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/america_and_elections.htm 

4.  http://www.gallup.com/help/FAQs/poll1.asp

 Week #2 Work Assignment:

 This weeks assignment will be to write a 6-8 page paper on the election process in the United States.  You are encouraged to utilize other online resources and the resources page for this course has many political science links available. 

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 Reading Assignment #3: 

In this assignment you will be examining the process of creating laws in the United States.  The following 3 links explain the process in full:

 1.  http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html

 2.  http://www.house.gov/house/Tying_it_all.shtml

 3.  A great Illustration of the steps to creating Laws:  http://www.mpp.org/how.html

 Week #3 Work Assignment: 

This weeks assignment will be to write a 6-8 page paper on creation of laws in the United States.  You are encouraged to utilize other online resources and the resources page for this course has many political science links available.

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 Reading Assignment #4: 

What is Federalism?

A useful definition of federalism was given by John Kincaid, Professor at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and director of the College’s Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government:

Federalism is essentially a system of voluntary self-rule and shared rule. This is implied in the derivation of the word federal, which comes from the Latin foedus, meaning covenant. A covenant signifies a binding partnership among co-equals in which the parties to the covenant retain their individual identity and integrity while creating a new entity, such as a family or a body politic, that has its own identity and integrity as well. A covenant also signifies a morally binding commitment in which the partners behave toward each other in accord with the spirit of the law rather than merely the letter of the law

 In this assignment you will be examining federalism.  Please read the following 4 links on federalism:

 1.  http://www.forumfed.org/federalism/Watts.asp?lang=en

 2.  http://www.forumfed.org/federalism/Kincaid.asp?lang=en

 3.  http://www.libertyhaven.com/politicsandcurrentevents/governmentreformitsrealrole/ federalism.html

 4.  http://www.umt.edu/polsci/greene/federalismhistory.htm

 Week #4 Work Assignment: 

This weeks assignment will be to write a 6-8 page paper on Federalism.  You are encouraged to utilize other online resources and the resources page for this course has many political science links available.

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 Reading Assignment #5: 

This week you will examine local government and how it works with the federal government. Please look at the links of the week and research 3 different states examine the local branches and depts In each state. Other online recourses can be used. 

1.  http://www.loc.gov/global/state/stategov.html

 2.  http://www.govengine.com/ 

Week #5 Work Assignment: 

This weeks assignment will be to write a 6-8 page paper on the workings of local law within the federal government.  You have examined 3 different states and how their local government works within the federal government.  You are encouraged to utilize other online resources and the resources page for this course has many political science links available.

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 Week #6:  FINAL PAPER

Final Paper:  The American Political System

Objective:  Develop a paper on your personal views of The American Political System

Assignment:  Please choose one of the below themes from this course's assignments, one that especially appeals to you, and develop a paper on your views.  What would you change or expand upon if you had the opportunity?  Our laws and the Constitution were based upon a Christian belief system.  How has that changed over the years?  

Themes include (please choose 1):

The Constitution of the United States

Federalism

Local Government

The Election Process

Format:
Your paper should be 10-15 pages in length and your strategy documentation should be developed in good report form, using either MLA or APA style for all external resources.