Mancini S Absolute Monarchs Project

Election 2016

Your Task: As the election of 2016 starts to peek over the horizon, political parties begin the process of vetting potential candidates. This means they will evaluate the different aspects of the candidate’s background and use their past actions to predict whether or not they would be a candidate who could win an election in the United States.

You must get your candidate nominated for the 2016 election. However, your candidate is going to be one of the absolute monarchs from the first half of our European history course. Using the information about their life and reign, you must convince the class that your monarch could win the U.S. Presidential election in two years. You will examine their foreign and domestic policies, wars, economic policies, and personalities/personal lives in order to build their case as a great candidate. Based on their time in power, you need to predict the effects a similar course of action may have if attempted in the twenty-first century United States.

I understand that some of their actions would be impossible today; however, this is where speculation and analysis come into play. For instance, if your leader brutally repressed religion, he or she may not have the domestic policy necessary to succeed in America given our freedom of religion. On the other hand, if your leader had a very strong military record, or was a brilliant general, he/she would probably do well with such American issues as the War on Terror.

1) Research  I will assign you a leader from the National History Day 100 Leaders site (www.100leaders.org).  Your group will research that leader today and part of tomorrow, ultimately deciding if he or she would be a worthy candidate for president. Consider these categories to help your research:

Foreign Policy: How did your leader handle relations with other countries? Under this leader, would America be a leader in the world, or take a back seat to others? Would it be an aggressive military policy, or one based on diplomacy?

Domestic Policy: What policies did your leader make/enforce in his/her country? Would those decisions impress Americans? Disgust them?

Economic Policy: America’s economy is one of the strongest in the history of the world. Did this leader demonstrate the kind of economic prowess that could hand that responsibility?

Personal Life: Think about it – every politician is under scrutiny 24/7. Did this leader do anything that would cause concern for your campaign team? What fires would you have to put out if he or she was being followed by cameras around the clock? What do contemporaries think?: Find two primary sources from the time period that could help you decide how effective this leader will be. These could be sources directly from your leader or about them.

In total, you will need four secondary sources and two primary sources to earn full credit. Make a bibliography so that I know what sources you used. Use academic sources, not answer farms.

Spin Doctor: Odds are good that your candidate did something unsavory while in power. You need to find a way to justify their actions based on the time. (If a leader wiped out thousands of innocent people from a neighboring country, does it become acceptable if it was to save his own country? If the leader was a bigot, does it soften the blow if his views were acceptable for the time? Think about context and perspective here.)

2) Presentation  During the second half of tomorrow’s class, your group will present your case for why this leader would or would not be a good selection as a candidate. o Your presentation should be three to five minutes in length.  While your classmates are presenting, you will be using the Vetting Rubric below to rank the candidate based on their argument while simultaneously evaluating your classmates’ presentations.

VETTING RUBRIC As your classmates present, rank their leader based on the argument your classmates make? 1 = Not Qualified 5 = Very Qualified Foreign Policy: 1 2 3 4 5 Domestic Policy: 1 2 3 4 5 Economic Policy: 1 2 3 4 5 Personal Life: 1 2 3 4 5 Contemporary Accounts: 1 2 3 4 5

Total Ranking: ______/25

Overall, do you think they made a good case for their candidate?

What was your classmates’ most effective argument?

Which point needed a little more work or explanation?