Category: Political science

Directions
To complete this assignment, first review the Project Resources Document and select a category (e.g., higher education, business and finance, innovative technologies). Skim the articles in that category and pick an article to read in depth. Then identify topics within that article that you might want to work with for this course. The information under each prompt will guide you through this process.
For this assignment, you will also write a research question and state the purpose of your research. Feel free to use the research question template in the Supporting Materials section as a starting place; however, if you want to craft your research question without the template, you are welcome to do so.
Specifically, you must address the following:
Select a category in the Project Resources Document.
Review the categories in the Project Resources Document linked in the Supporting Materials section.
After selecting a category that interests you, note in your submission your category choice.
Then, review the articles related to your category.
Select one of the articles listed under your category.
Carefully read your chosen article.
As you read, consider some possible topic ideas related to your article that are debatable and could be used for a persuasive essay.
Cut and paste into your paper the corresponding citation in either MLA or APA format for the source you chose. You may choose if you would like to use MLA or APA documentation style this term. You will need to use the format you choose for this assignment for the duration of the course, including all assignments and the project. 
Identify a debatable topic related to your chosen source. Consider the following in your response:
State the specific topic that you identified within your chosen source. This will become your focus for your persuasive essay.
State two perspectives on your topic and who would be interested in this topic.
Write a research question about your topic. These steps will help you write your research question:
Review the templates and/or the exemplar to help you draft your research question. While you may choose to formulate your research question without using the templates, your research question needs to aim to solve a problem and lead to a complex discussion.
Explain how your research question identifies a specific aspect of your issue.
Explain how your research question aims to solve a problem.
Identify the complex arguments and counterarguments that are potential answers to your research question. If you cannot find complex arguments and counterarguments, then you may need to reconsider your research question. If you are stuck, reach out to your instructor.
State the purpose of your research. Consider the following in your response:
Explain what you want to learn more about regarding your topic.
Discuss how research will help you understand the multiple voices within your debatable topic.
What to Submit
Submit your assignment as a 1-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins.
Please do this on the prompt:   How should the federal government address the problem of student loan debt?

According to the texts I will provide follow the instructions provided in the word document. I will also provide you with Machiavelli’s book “the prince” shortly as well as class notes. Using all these resources you will have to write a thoughtful essay responding to the prompt in the word document

Students will write a research proposal outline that includes an annotated bibliography about any issue related to world politics. I encourage students to choose a very narrow research topic. The outline and annotated bibliography should be between 600 and 800 words.
The outline must be written in full paragraphs, not point form.
The outline will include the following:
•Research question
(a thesis statement is not needed in the outline)
•
A background of the topic (one paragraph)
•
Two to four key arguments
•
A description of the theoretical framework which you will be using to write your paper and why you have chosen this framework (i.e. Liberalism, Realism, Marxism, Feminism etc.) (one paragraph)
•An annotated bibliography of eight
academic sources that you have gathered from the Carleton library (APA format)
Students must submit an outline and receive approval for their topic from the teaching assistant or
myself before submitting their final research paper.
Research paper outlines must be submitted on
Brightspace
on Wednesday, May 15th,
before noon
. Late
assignments will be penalized one
–
third of a letter grade per day
(e.g., a B paper handed in two days late
would be reduced to a C+)
.

The United States Senate employs a full-time chaplain. In describing the chaplain’s duties, the Senate’s official website (https://www.senate.gov) used to contain the following statement “Throughout the years, the United States Senate has honored the historic separation of Church and State, but not the separation of God and State. The first Senate, meeting in New York City on April 25, 1789, elected the Right Reverend Samuel Provost, the Episcopal Bishop of New York, as its first chaplain. Since then, all sessions of the Senate have been opened with prayer, strongly affirming the Senate’s faith in God as Sovereign Lord of our Nation.”  Does this statement violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment? The paper should be 6-7 typed, double-spaced pages in length. Please use Times New Roman or a font of similar size, no larger than 12 pt.  You may wish to use outside source material, but you do not have to do so. In writing about cases we have studied this semester, you may find it helpful to read the full opinion, including the full concurring and dissenting opinions, if any. You can find these at several sources, including www.findlaw.com and the NexisUni database, which is available through Cook library. The best way to make sure you are finding the right opinion is to use the case citation, rather than the case name. 
Your essays are to be position or opinion papers.  You are highly encouraged to formulate your own ideas and to come to some conclusions about the role and function of the courts, especially the Supreme Court, in political ideology, policy making, judicial activism vs. judicial restraint, or anything else you might wish to analyze.  Your opinions must be fully documented by facts from the texts.

Completeness
Did you address all aspects of the prompt? If there are sub-questions contained
within the prompt, did you address those?
– Quality of arguments:
This includes 1) persuasiveness, 2) presenting multiple arguments, if appropriate
(e.g. from different viewpoints or competing arguments that address the same
issue) or arguments for or against an idea, 3) complete arguments that fully
address causal connections or related aspects, etc.
– Quality of evidence provided:
Each argument should be backed up by some form of evidence. This could be 1)
the use of examples that illustrate your point, 2) the inclusion of data (e.g. from
the textbook or another source you found, or 3) scholarly references … Please
note: It may not always be necessary to include data or scholarly references!
Often, the textbook and your notes as well as your interpretations of them may be
sufficient, but you should read the prompt carefully to be sure
3 references, 3 cite sources.

(POSC 325) 
The Politics of the
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Final Term Paper
Assessing Israeli-Palestinian
Politics after October 7
due Wednesday, May 15 by 11:59pm on Canvas
Write a 4-5 page essay
assessing possible approaches to addressing the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.  You should consider how Israel
and Palestinians might move towards a peaceful resolution of their conflict –
either temporary or more permanently – given the ongoing crisis that began with
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. 
Your paper should consider this terrorist attack, Israel’s military
response and ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza strip, the resulting humanitarian
crisis in the Gaza strip, and the broader international crisis this has
provoked.
Your proposal should be
based on course readings and lectures (including Professor Burstein’s and
Ghaith al-Omari’s guest talks).  You do not
need to do additional research.
Use your previous paper as a
starting point, and drawing on our course review of other wars, peace
agreements, and ongoing conflicts – identify the key opportunities and
obstacles to achieving a peace agreement. 
Once you identify these key opportunities and obstacles based on our
course review of the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, reflect on how they
might have changed or how they might have been reaffirmed by the current war
and resulting crises.
Your paper should
specifically address each of the following:
–      
Borders:  should there be a one-state or two-state
solution?  In either case, where should
the borders be drawn?  1967 green-line?  1949 armistice agreement?  Some other set of borders?  What should happen with Gaza?
–      
Security:  how should security be handled?  For a two state solution – for Israel and
Palestine each.  In a one state solution,
for Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, Palestinian Arabs, Christians.  In either case – for neighboring nations.   How might security be addressed with regards
to Gaza and Israel now? 
–      
Refugees:  how should the issue of Palestinian refugees
be handled – here focus on the “right of return” and UN Resolution 194.  In a one state solution, how should Jews,
Palestinians, Christians be treated in terms of making that country their
homeland?  In either a one-state or
two-state solution, how would those millions displaced by the Gaza war be
addressed?
–      
Jerusalem:  regardless of whether or not you propose a
one-state or two-state solution – how should Jerusalem be handled?  Should it be divided into Jewish and Arab
areas as it is now?  Should it be
internationalized?  Etc.
–      
Leadership:  considering the history of the conflict, how
would you assess the current leadership of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in
terms of their capacity to get to some resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict (temporary or long-term)?   What
kinds of leadership would be necessary to get to a resolution – think about
Israel’s politics, the future governance of Gaza, and the future of the
Palestinian Authority.
Finally, your paper should
highlight the differences in the Palestinian and Israeli narratives of their
past experiences with peace and conflict, and also consider contemporary
political realities for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Citations: Use the American Political Science Association (APSA) formatting.  For details on how to properly use APSA
ctation and reference formatting, see the following:
The online APSA style manual is at:
https://connect.apsanet.org/stylemanual/ 
Professor Burstein’s guest
talk: ( IMPORTANT SOURCE)

NOTE TO WRITER: Greeting’s Dylan please see attached below all course sources that should be considered for this paper, please review the youtube guest talk it is vey essential. This paper’s citation should be written in ( APSA formatting and you should use the recources you require. In addition I incorporated the paper your wrote for the Oslo Agreement for this course as well to become inspired as suggested in the assignment instructions by my proffesor. Please review all documents.

This assignment will require watching: LIES, POLITICS AND DEMOCRACYLinks to an external site. This PBS Frontline documentary that is approximately 2 hours in length. Don’t wait until the last minute.  This assignment is an opportunity to demonstrate that you thoroughly understand key course concepts from our course well enough that you can apply and connect them to this documentary. Your responses should be original and do not try to answer these questions by doing Google searches, using Wikipedia, going to the documentary website and copying or paraphrasing someone else’s ideas. This is not a group project and you must submit your own individual responses to these questions. In short, be very mindful of the academic integrity policy found in the course syllabus and please consult with me if you have any questions.
1) Identify four specific definitions, concepts, or themes from our textbook or discussion board assignments that are evident in the film and then explain how they connected to the documentary. You should first define the definition, concept or theme and then fully explain how that concept, definition or theme was relevant to the video by providing specific examples from the film to support your claims. You should apply the most relevant four concepts, definitions, or themes as possible. Each one is worth 10 points each for 40 points total.
2) List examples from the video of norm violations, dangers to democracy, dangers to the Constitution, signs of authoritarian/strongman tendencies, (for example, signs that Trump challenges the results of election and claims the election was rigged or stolen). (5 points)
3) Political parties are the guardrail against demagogues and anti-democratic, anti-constitution, norm violating candidates. Did the republican party pressure Trump to change or did the majority of the party continue to support him? Consider the example from the video of Ted Cruz and whether he stood up to Donald Trump. (5 points)
4) This section is designed for you to provide a critical analysis of the film. You are free to analyze the film from  any perspective, but I have also  provided several suggestions for you to consider. What is your reaction to this documentary? For example, what did you learn, find interesting, surprising, what did you agree or disagree with and why? What do you think this film indicates about the future of American politics? Should the video have spent time examining the strengths and successes of the Trump presidency? Why or why not? (10 points)

A
bibliographic essay 8 Pages 10 sources including those included in these
instructions
To
help you think through the readings a list of typically important questions
follows:
a.     What is the research
question?
b.    Does the study address a
broader theme in the literature? How does it fit with other papers we have
read?
c.     What evidence is brought
to bear to answer the question? Is it convincing? If not, how can it be
improved?
d.    Most importantly, how does
the paper relate to the other papers we have read?
Polarization
1.    
Huber & Malhotra. 2017. “Political Homophily in Social Relationships:
Evidence from Online Dating Behavior.” Journal of Politics 79: 269-83.
2.   
Iyengar et al. 2019. “The Origins and Consequences of Affective
Polarization in the United States.” Annual Review of Political Science
22: 129-46.
3.   
Pierson & Schikler. 2020. “Madison’s Constitution Under Stress: A
Developmental Analysis of Political Polarization.” Annual Review of
Political Science 23: 37-58.
4.   
Leonard et al. 2021. “The Nonlinear Feedback Dynamics of Asymmetric Political
Polarization.” PNAS 118:  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2102149118.

1. Combine the information you have found and create a 250-300 word summary and analysis of how this case made it to the highest federal court of the land.
Choose a case that has either been decided or will be decided this term:
You can go to https://www.oyez.org/cases/2013  cases for a list of current cases.
Find out the following information about your case:
Has a decision been made in your case? If yes, what was that decision? How many Justices voted for/against the decision? (The page for the case you are researching on OYEZ.ORG ) will have this information – at the bottom of the page you can also see who voted for/against this as well as sort by ideology).
What is the issue being discussed? Summarize the main points.
What are the two sides of argument? Summarize those.
Why do you think this issue this issue is important? What impact could this have? 
Do you think ideology impacted this case? If so, how? 
Keep it simple and Brief. 
2. Define the rule of four, use an example of case law, and why it matters to the US Supreme Court’s agenda each year.

Watch the Al Jazeera interview with Kwame Anthony Appiah on cosmopolitanism. Do you agree with his argument for the idea? Is it likely to be achieved in the face of rising populism and nationalism?