News Jeb Bush wants to push back the retirement age for Social Security by as many as five years, The Hill reports. Said Bush: “I think it needs to be phased in over an extended period of time. We need to look over the horizon and begin to phase in, over an extended period of time, going from 65 to 68 or 70. And that, by itself, will help sustain the retirement system for anybody under the age of 40.” “At the same time, Bush said that he would be open to cutting back benefits for wealthy people and their beneficiaries, a reform proposal known as means testing.” “The Rand Paul pile-on session began a few hours before sunset Sunday evening,” Politico reports. “Behind closed doors in the Senate’s Strom Thurmond Room, Republican senators lashed out at the junior Kentucky Republican’s defiant stance to force the expiration of key sections of the PATRIOT Act, a law virtually all of them support. Indiana Sen. Dan Coats’ criticism was perhaps the most biting: He accused the senator of ‘lying’ about the matter in order to raise money for his presidential campaign, according to three people who attended the meeting.” “The message may have gotten through to Paul except for one thing: The libertarian-minded senator skipped the hour-long meeting. That only infuriated his colleagues more.” Introduction to American Government Income inequality, by many measures, is now greater than it has been since the 1920s. Linz and Stepan suggest that we need to look to comparative politics rather POLS 1101 than Americanist political science in order to understand the sources of American inequality. To bolster this broad argument, they argue that the unusually large The University of Georgia number of veto players in the US political system is a major cause of inequality. Linz and Stepan argue that high numbers of electoral veto players are highly Prof. Anthony Madonna correlated with inequality, and that studies of other systems (Australia, [email protected] Switzerland) suggests that more veto players create greater lags in introducing welfare systems and block reform.

News The Logic of American Politics Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, defending proposed budget cuts for higher education, took a swipe at university professors who he said could be “teaching more classes and doing more work.” “Maybe it’s time for faculty and staff to start thinking about teaching more classes and doing more work and this authority frees up the [University of Wisconsin] • Politics - the process through which individuals and groups reach administration to make those sorts of requests,” Walker (R) said Wednesday on Milwaukee radio station WTMJ. Walker’s comments came agreement on a course of common, or collective, action – even as they may as he spoke about his proposed budget, which would cut $300 million over continue to disagree on the goals that action in intended to achieve the next two years from the University of Wisconsin system. He added the school would still receive block grants. • Institutions - a set of rules proscribing a process for reaching and December 20, 2012 -- It was the second time this month that former Sen. enforcing collective agreements has visited his old haunt. Earlier in December, the 89-year-old Kansas Republican came to the Senate floor in a wheelchair to implore his colleagues to vote for a United Nations disability rights treaty. On Thursday • Constitution - establishes a nations governing institutions and the set of afternoon, he walked half the length of the Rotunda and back to say goodbye rules and procedures these institutions must (and must not) follow to reach to an old friend. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HA), the second-longest-serving and enforce collective agreements. senator in history, died Monday at the age of 88. He will lie in state at the center of the Rotunda, his casket draped with the American flag, until Friday morning, when he will be transported for another service at the National Cathedral. His storied relationship with Dole is well-known. The two men met in a Michigan army hospital, where they were both recovering from injuries sustained during World War II, and they went on to serve side by side in Congress for just less than three decades. Dole was assisted to Inouye’s casket as the late senators’ body lied in state in the Capitol, saying “I wouldn’t want Danny to see me in a wheelchair.”

1 Constitutions and Governments Institutional Durability

(1) Authority is generally assigned to the institution. Thus, it should exist long after a office holder retires.

(2) People make plans contingent on the expectation that the institution will persist.

(3) Hard to agree on an alternative.

Authority - the acknowledged right to Power - the actual influence with make a particular decision other officeholders

Free Riders and Agency Loss Transaction/Conformity Costs

Free rider problems arise when citizens recognize that their Transaction Costs - the time, small contribution to the collective enterprise will not affect effort and resources its success or failure. required to make collective decisions.

Conformity costs –The difference between what any A tragedy of the commons can occur when a community one party prefers and what has a collective good that is in danger of being squandered the collective body requires. unless members cooperate to preserve it.

2 Delegation Representative Government

Delegation - assigns authority to United States – Separation of Powers… make and implement decisions to some smaller number of persons who are expected to at in behalf of the larger groups of interest

– Preferred solution to controlling transaction costs

Principle - individual or group authorized to delegate

Agent - individual or group who receive the delegated power Higher transaction costs…

The Road to Independence The Articles of Confederation

Confederation – a highly decentralized governmental system in which the national government derives limited authority from the state rather than directly (1) Geography. from citizens.

Distance limited Britain’s capacity to govern the America now declared an independent nation, the delegates to the Second colonies. It also made war costly and difficult. Continental Congress proceeded to create a new government. Over the next several weeks, they drafted the nation’s first Constitution – the Articles of Confederation, which was ratified five years later. (2) Home rule. Created a new, permanent Congress in which each state received one vote. The British had ceded to Americans responsibility for Major laws – such as those dealing with taxes and constitutional change – managing their own domestic affairs, including taxation. required the endorsement of nine of thirteen states. More fundamental change, For more than a century colonists elected their own such as amending the Constitution, required unanimous agreement. leaders and held them accountable for local policies and taxes. National authority was so circumscribed that the delegates saw little purpose for an executive or a judiciary.

3 The Confederation At War/Peace Drafting The Constitution

The states chiefly responsible for recruiting troops and outfitting The fifty-five delegates meeting in Philadelphia in 1787 were them for battle. able to draw from their Revolutionary War experience.

Congress attempted to coordinate Youngish (average age of 42), well-educated, white, and the state regiments into a single fighting force. male.

Could borrow money, but could They were also highly conversant in the ideas and theories not tax. that abounded during the Age of Reason. A war-torn economy. No administrative branch; so Congress had to do all the work, Trade barriers at home and abroad. “Few gatherings in the history of this or any other country including requisitioning the army. could boast such a concentration of talent.” – Melvin I. Popular discontent (Shays Rebellion). Urofsky Many difficulties during the war. Annapolis convention.

Philosophical Influence Great Compromise

Item Virginia Plan New Jersey Plan Constitution

Legislature Two Houses One House Two Houses

Legislative Both houses Equal for each state One house based on representation based on population; one with population two votes from each state Legislative Veto authority Authority to levy Authority to levy taxes Locke (1632-1704) – popular sovereignty. power over state taxes and regulate and regulate commerce; Citizen’s delegation of authority to their agents in legislation commerce authority to compel government with the ability to rescind that state compliance authority. Executive Single; elected by Plural; removable by Single; chosen by legislature for a majority of state electoral college; Newton (1642-1727) – force and balance. single term legislatures removal by national Montesquieu (1689-1755) – superiority of small legislature republics. Courts National No provision Supreme Court judiciary elected appointed by executive, Hume (1711-1776) – Competition of competing by legislature confirmed by Senate interests.

4 Ratification Ratification

Antifederalists argued that only local democracy could approach true democracy. A country so large and diverse could not be ruled by a single The responses mustered to counter the Antifederalist arguments against set of laws. the Constitution collectively make up eighty-five essays. Stronger national government must come with safeguards against tyranny. Written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay Madison made a strategic move and announced that he would introduce Were directed primarily at New York, which had not yet voted in 1788, the constitutional amendments that would protect individual rights. although by this point the Constitution was technically ratified. For this reason, the Bill of Rights was included almost immediately after They provide insight into the “genuine” meaning of the Constitution. ratification.

Ratification Federalism

Two of the Federalist Papers (Nos. 10 and 51) focus on the fundamental problem of self-governance. McCulloch v. Maryland, Gibbons v. We are not “angels,” as Madison writes, so how do we get a government Ogdens  examples. of non-angels not only to govern the governed, but to “govern” itself as well? Bottom line: Power is shifting from the states to the federal Fed. 10 responds to the strongest argument of the Antifederalists -- that a government. “large Republic” cannot long survive. The 10th Amendment usually loses at Discusses the negatives of faction defined as “a number of citizens, the Supreme Court level. whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse It’s kind of like the Ohio State of to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests Constitutional Amendments. of the community.”

5 The Paths to Nationalization Congress – An Unpopular Institution

The logic of collective action has assumed several forms: Why does the public dislike Congress? First, Americans have at times decided collectively to adopt policies of such • General aversion to politics magnitude and scope that they outstripped the resources of states. • Polarized political parties

Second, states have solicited federal • Ineffective at legislating intervention when they could not solve their problems by working • Negative in substance and tone together individually. • Members and campaigns have Finally, political considerations inspired played into this dislike and sought national majorities to insist on to “run against Congress.” federal involvement in what were formally state and local matters.

Organizing Congress Party Organization

The majority party in the House is led by the Speaker of the House, whose chief assistants are the majority leader and the majority whip.

The minority party has a minority leader and party whips to lead them. The Rules Committee is, in effect, also a tool of the majority party.

Party members give House party The two most crucial institutional structures created to exercise leaders resources for inducing Congress’s constitutional powers are: members to cooperate when they are tempted to go their own way as free The parties. riders.

The committee system. These resources take the form of favors they may grant or withhold Without them it would be difficult to overcome the barriers to (committee assignments, direction of effective collective action. the legislative agenda).

6 Making Laws The Committee Systems If the subcommittee decides to act on a bill, it marks it up -- drafts it line by The standing committees of the line -- and reports it to the full committee. House and Senate -- those that exist from one Congress to the The full committee then accepts, rejects, or amends the bill (usually in next unless disbanded -- embody deference to the subcommittee). Congress’s division of legislative labor. If accepted, it is reported out of committee. The written report that accompanies it is the most important source of information on legislation for members of Congress not on the committee as well as other people interested in the legislation. Assignments to committees are made by party committees under the firm control of senior party leaders and are ratified by the party When a committee agrees to report a bill to the floor, the bill is put on the membership. House or Senate calendar.

Then the bill goes to the Rules Committee to receive a rule that specifies Members pursue committee assignments that allow them to serve when and how long a bill will be debated and under what procedures. The special constituent interests as well as their own policy and power Senate does not have a Rules Committee. Thus the leaders of both parties goals. routinely negotiate unanimous consent agreements (UCA’s) to arrange for the orderly consideration of legislation.

Making Laws Making Laws

In the House the time for debate is divided equally between the proponents and opponents of a bill. Each side’s time is controlled by a floor manager.

If amendments to a bill are allowed under the rule, they must be germane (pertinent) to the bill.

Riders (extraneous matters) are not allowed.

Floor debates do not change many minds because politicians are There is no limit on how long senators can talk or how many rarely swayed by words. amendments they can offer. These activities are for the public. Why? Individuals or small groups can even filibuster. In the Senate, floor action does more to shape legislation. And bills The Senate requires three-fifths of the Senate (sixty votes) to invoke can change on the Senate floor more than they can in the House. cloture, which allows an additional thirty hours of debate on a bill before a vote is finally taken. Here amendments need not be germane

7 News The President Rick Hasen: “It is not your imagination. Supreme Court Justices are in the news more than ever, whether they are selling books, testifying before Congress, Upon receiving a bill from Congress, the president has the choice of addressing a Federalist Society, or American Constitution Society event, or just signing the bill into law; ignoring the bill, with the result that it talking to a Muppet on Sesame Street. The number of books about the Court and becomes law in ten days (not counting Sundays); or vetoing the bill. particular Justices continues to grow. Websites are now devoted to tracking the Justices’ movements as they crisscross the country (and the world) speaking to various audiences. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is even promoted on T-shirts as the If Congress adjourns before the ten days are up, the bill fails (“pocket “Notorious R.B.G.,” a riff on the name of famous rap artist Notorious B.I.G. She veto”). will soon be the topic of a biopic staring Natalie Portman.” “That Supreme Court Justices have become celebrities is not news. Indeed, Justices’ public statements about same-sex marriage or Bush v. Gore often get extensive coverage, and When presidents veto a bill, they usually extrajudicial comments on issues in pending cases sometimes lead to (ignored) calls send a message to Congress, and for judicial recusal. However, until now no one has quantified the increase in the therefore to all Americans, that explains number of publicly reported events and interviews done by Justices overall and which Justices engage most reported extrajudicial speech.” why they took such action. Jay Rosen is tired of reading post-election news reports that state, “Republicans must show they can govern.” “These are false statements. I don’t know how they got past Congressional override of a presidential the editors. You can’t simply assert, like it’s some sort of natural fact, that Republicans veto requires a two-thirds vote in each ‘must show they can govern’ when an alternative course is available. Not only is it not chamber. If the override succeeds, the a secret — this other direction — but it’s being strongly urged upon the party by bill becomes law. This rarely occurs. people who are a key part of its coalition.” “The alternative to ‘show you can govern’ is to keep President Obama from governing. Right? Keep him from accomplishing what he wants to get done in his final two years and then ‘go to the country,’ as Karl Rove used to say, with a simple message: time for a change! This is not only a valid way to proceed, it’s a pretty likely outcome.”

The Supreme Court in Politics Marbury v. Madison (1803)

The Supreme Court is largely insulated from American politics.

-Lifetime tenure. The Judiciary Act of 1789: -Court of last resort. -Establishes federal court structure. 6 Supreme Court Justices. 13 District -Restricted interest group activity. Courts. 3 Circuit Courts.

-Chooses it’s own docket. -Specified jurisdiction: Gives the Supreme Court “original jurisdiction in some areas. Court decisions are largely political decisions that are greatly influenced by individual policy values. Further, all questions can be legal questions – so the Court can influence an extremely wide range of policy.

What constitutes an “activist” judge?

8 Marbury v. Madison (1803) Marbury v. Madison (1803)

The Holding: Marshall -> Marbury is in the The Facts: Marbury is appointed a justice of right. The commission is complete when the the peace by Adams – one of the “midnight seal has been affixed. Withholding the judges.” His commission was supposed to be commission is illegal. delivered by Secretary of State John Marshall, but Marshall was unable to complete all the Further, this is a government of laws – so there necessary delivers. Madison – the new is surely a remedy. Secretary of State – refuses to deliver the commission. As proscribed by the Judiciary Finally, the Secretary of State is a federal Act of 1789 – Marbury petitions the court to employee and thus should be someone the issue a writ of mandamus. Court could issue a writ to under the judiciary act. However, according to the Constitution, The Question(s): Who is in the right here? Is the court has appellate jurisdiction. Mandamus there a remedy to Marbury’s problem? Can the writs are not specified as original. Hence, that Supreme Court issue a writ of mandamus? portion of the judiciary act is “repugnant to the Constitution” and it is void. 4-0 decision.

Civil Rights and Liberties Three Eras of the Court

Nation v. State Authority

Government Regulation of the Economy. Mapp v. Ohio (1961) - protects against "unreasonable Civil Rights and Liberties searches and seizures." Evidence found during said searches should be excluded from Court.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) – Requires states to appoint counsel for indigent defendants.

Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) - criminal suspects have a right to counsel during police interrogations . Escobedo’s lawyer was in the police station but he was refused access to him

9 Framers and the Presidency The Nineteenth Century President Framers rejected a plural executive: The executive would thus contain none During the republic’s first century, of the internal checks provided by competition for influence among its presidents typically assumed a members. small role, thus in step with the Instead, they gave the executive Framers’ expectations. enough resources for coordinating national responses during emergencies but insufficient They did not play a leadership role authority to usurp the Constitution. in domestic policy formulation.

Two presidencies: Leadership Thus their accomplishments were gravitates toward the office during moments of national urgency. limited to their responses to wars, rebellions, or other national crises. But it does not involve suspension of the constitutional prerogatives that A clerk and a commander…. belong to the other institutions, and it dissipates as the crisis recedes.

A Unilateral President? A Unilateral President?

What does this mean?

President – moves first, forces Congress and the Courts to react. Utilizes ambiguities in the Constitution.

Executive Orders Positives – Can be beneficial for Negatives – Power can be abused and is very Congress (ex: military base closings). difficult to get back. Executive Agreements President can move faster, work more It becomes difficult to get out of wars, to Vetoes efficiently due to the lower transaction respond to executive orders or agreements or to costs. reign in the usage of recess appointments or Signing Statements signing statements. Say one needed to end the corrupt trade Recess Appointments federation’s embargo of their home planet In short, one day you’re giving the and was frustrated by bureaucratic delays. administration the ability to respond to the A unilateral executive could deal with struggling economy and the next thing you such a situation quickly and efficiently. know, they’re blowing up Alderaan.

10 Green Lantern Theory The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance Vox -- Presidents consistently overpromise and underdeliver. What they need to say to get elected far outpaces what they can actually do in office. President Obama is a perfect example. His 2008 campaign didn't just promise health-care reform, a stimulus bill, and financial regulation. It – Hierarchy: bureaucracies are also promised a cap-and-trade bill to limit carbon emissions, strictly hierarchical, each comprehensive immigration reform, gun control, and much more. His person should have only one presidency, he said, would be change American could believe in. But it's immediate supervisor, and clear now that much of the change he promised isn't going to happen — in large part because he doesn't have the power to make it happen. each supervisor should have You would think voters in general and professional media pundits in particular would, by now, be wise to only a limited number of this pattern. But they're not. Each disappointment wounds anew. Each unchecked item on the to-do list is subordinates. a surprise. Belief in the presidency seems to be entirely robust to the inability of any particular president to make good on their promises. And so the criticism is always the same: why can't the president be more like the Green Lantern? – Professionals: Most Peter: And here's something else, Bob I have eight different bosses right now. According to Brendan Nyhan, the Dartmouth political scientist who coined the term, the Green Lantern importantly, the selection of Bob: I beg your pardon? Theory of the Presidency is "the belief that the president can achieve any political or policy objective if persons to fill roles within the Peter: Eight bosses. only he tries hard enough or uses the right tactics." In other words, the American president is functionally bureaucracy, must be done on Bob: Eight? all-powerful, and whenever he can't get something done, it's because he's not trying hard enough, or not Peter: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a trying smart enough. the basis of merit. mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell Nyhan further separates it into two variants: "the Reagan version of the Green Lantern Theory and the me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be LBJ version of the Green Lantern Theory." The Reagan version, he says, holds that "if you only hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, communicate well enough the public will rally to your side." The LBJ version says that "if the president Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough only tried harder to win over congress they would vote through his legislative agenda." In both cases, not to get fired. Nyhan argues, "we've been sold a false bill of goods.”

The Iron Triangle What is Public Opinion? One definition that has endured for three decades states that public opinion consists of “those opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed.” -- V. O. Key

Constitutional guarantees.

– Regular elections, broad suffrage, freedom of speech and press, freedom to form and join • The same electoral dynamics expected to encourage responsiveness to the political organizations. public create an imbalance of interests in the activities of the bureaucracies. • This leads to agencies being “captured” by small interests group that are Allow citizens to express their views freely and compel government leaders to pay attention. often those the bureaucracy is directed to regulate • The executive and legislature typically have little interest in bureaucratic oversight. In contrast, the interest groups directly affected by the bureaucracy have a great deal of interest in it.

11 Public Opinion 2014 Polling Nate Silver: For much of this election cycle, Democrats complained the polls were biased against them. They said the polls were failing to represent enough minority voters and applying overly restrictive likely- Basic techniques of scientific polling (20th voter screens. They claimed early-voting data was proving the polls wrong. They cited the fact that polls Century): were biased against Democrats in 2012. The Democrats’ complaints may have been more sophisticated- seeming than the ”skewed polls” arguments made by Republicans in 2012. But in the end, they were just as – select a random sample of the wrong. The polls did have a strong bias this year — but it was toward Democrats and not against them. population Based on results as reported through early Wednesday morning — I’ll detail our method for calculating – ask the people in the sample some this in a moment — the average Senate poll conducted in the final three weeks of this year’s campaign overestimated the Democrat’s performance by 4 percentage points. The average gubernatorial poll was appropriate question about their nearly as bad, overestimating the Democrat’s performance by 3.4 points. views Nate Silver: “As the election season wore on, new polls hewed somewhat – count up their answers more closely to the polling averages. But the change was marginal until the final week or two of the campaign, when they started to track it much more closely. By the eve of the election, new polls came within about 1.7 percentage points of the polling average.” “Perhaps you could construct - the larger the sample, the more closely the sample’s answers will reflect some rationale, apart from herding, for why the polls behaved this way. Maybe it became easier to predict who was going to vote and that made the answers the pollster would get if everybody in the population could be methodological differences between polling firms matter less… But there asked are two dead giveaways that herding happened. One is the unusual shape of the curve. Rather than abiding by a linear progression, it suddenly veers toward zero in the final week or so of the campaign.” “The other giveaway is… By the end of the campaign, new polls diverged from the polling averages by less than they plausibly could if they were taking random samples and not tinkering with them.”

Is Public Opinion Meaningful? A Vital Component of American Politics

• If large segments of the public: – Are politically ignorant? – Hold inconsistent views? – Can be manipulated by varying the words or context of questions?

• How can public opinion play its assigned role in democratic politics? • Public opinion is important in American politics. – But it is rarely simple and rarely unmediated. • Aggregate public opinion is meaningful. • While individual opinions are both shaped and expressed through – Stable and coherent. leaders and institutions, they are not controlled by them. • For most people, basic political orientations, whether reflections of ideologies, a few core values, or simple party preferences, are quite • In many cases, public opinion is very stable, resistant to change. exhibiting little change over the course of decades in some areas. • Most of the time those who wish to change opinions do so by framing the choice favorably rather than by changing minds.

12 The Logic of Elections How Do Voters Decide? Voters may take cues from opinion American democracy is representative leaders. democracy. Voters also make predictions based on the candidates’ personal characteristics: Madison emphasized the main differences between a democracy and a republic: – one set of personal considerations includes qualities such as “The two great points of difference … competence, experience, honesty, are: first, the delegation of the knowledge, and leadership skills government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, However, the most important information shortcut voters use to make predictions is party label. and greater sphere of the country, over The party label provides useful information for both: performance voting (voting for the party which the latter may be extended.” in control, or “in-party” when one thinks the government is performing well; voting for the outs when one thinks the government is performing poorly) and issue voting (the typical positions of Delegation of authority raises the possibility of Republicans and Democrats; the parties differ in predictable ways on many issues). agency loss: Most voters simplify their electoral evaluations and decisions by developing a consistent bias in one solution is to hold regular, free, favor of the candidates of one of the major parties, making the party label the most influential competitive elections “endorsement” of all.

Elections Revisited Nature of Parties Does money contributed to elections provide benefits to those who give? – Access: yes. – Policy favoritism: no indisputable evidence.

Suggested reforms: – Spending ceilings. – Limiting donations and eliminating PACs. – Public funding. Definitions of political party. – Two of the most prominent stand in contrast. Many have their own problems, trade-offs. Burke (eighteenth century) -- A body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest, upon some particular No consensus on what would be best reform. principle in which they are all agreed. Downs (twentieth century) -- a team of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election. Ultimate barrier: First Amendment. – Rhetorical references to principal. Campaign Finance system is very pluralistic today, however. – Consistent on appetite for public office.

13 The Development and Evolution of the Party Expediency Persists System Parties developed and continue to endure because they have proven so useful to politicians and First (1790–1824): creation voters. of national parties. Basic pattern of two party competition continues: (1824–1860): basic two broad, fractious coalitions persists organizational structures set. party coalitions remain fractious because party entrepreneurs pursuing majorities must Third party system (1860–1894): rise of combine diverse groups that are neither party machines. natural allies nor disposed to pay high conformity costs for the sake of the party. (1894–1932): fall of party machines. Despite disdain, voters still rely heavily on party cues.

Fifth party system (1932–?): pattern of Party entrepreneurs have simply redesigned party organizations to operate more coalitional nature of American parties effectively in today’s media-based, candidate-centered electoral arena. clearly illustrated.

POLS 1101: What to take away… Politics is Complicated…

Institutions that govern the American law- In short…Politics is complicated. making process are complex.

The historical motivations for choosing “Politics is more complicated than these institutions are muddled. physics.” – Albert Einstein

Modern issues these institutions govern I don’t know if it’s more complicated are multifaceted. than physics…

How people view these issues is highly variable.

14 Politics is Complicated… Politics is Complicated…

When people fail to recognize the complicated nature of politics, they do several things.

They withdraw from it and refuse to engage political issues.

They surround themselves with like- minded individuals, and protect themselves and their views for new/different perspectives. Simplifying issues and/or failing to engage drastically increases the likelihood politics will fail.

When politics fails, there are often dire consequences.

Conclusion But it is Accessible…

Living in age of cheap information: internet, cable television, newspapers. Information is available.

- And information is available to determine the reliability of other information. AGGREGATE SOURCES!!!

What do you need to successfully engage In sum: Politics is complicated, but accessible. American politics?

Engage it: volunteer for a campaign, get into a debate/discussion about an -time, enthusiasm, thick skin issue that’s important to you, watch a political program read a useful book.

– I’ll be around next year – come yell at me if you’re self-conscious.

15 Conclusion

Good luck and thanks for a semester!

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