POL 201 (Ash) Read, Lead, Succeed/Uophelpdotcom

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POL 201 (Ash) Read, Lead, Succeed/Uophelpdotcom

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POL 201 Entire Course (Ash Course)

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• POL 201 Week 1 DQ 1 Separation of Powers Checks
  and Balances
• POL 201 Week 1 DQ 2 Amending the U.S.
  Constitution
• POL 201 Week 2 DQ 1 Policy-making in the Federal
  System
• POL 201 Week 2 DQ 2 Meet Your Rep
• POL 201 Week 2 Short Essay - Policy-making in the
  Federal System
• POL 201 Week 3 DQ 1 Presidential Leadership and
  the Electoral College
• POL 201 Week 3 DQ 2 Defense Spending and the
  Military-Industrial Complex
• POL 201 Week 4 DQ 1 The Supreme Court and
  Judicial Review
• POL 201 Week 4 DQ 2 Habeas Corpus and the War on
  Terror
• POL 201 Week 5 DQ 1 Party Platforms and Winning
  Elections
• POL 201 Week 5 DQ 2 Voting and Turnout
• POL 201 Week 5 Final Paper Civil Liberties,
  Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror

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POL 201 Week 1 DQ 1 Separation of Powers Checks
and Balances (Ash Course)

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• Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances. For
  much of 2011 and 2012, public dissatisfaction
  with Congress rose to all time highs, with 70-80
  expressing disapproval with how Congress does its
  job. Many commentators note that Americans are
  fed up with Washington "grid-lock" that makes
  government apparently unable to address important
  problems. Other observers believe that the
  national government is acting according to its
  design, based on separation of powers and checks
  and balances.
• In your initial post of at least 200-250 words,
  analyze how the U.S. Constitution implements
  separation of powers and checks and balances.
  Briefly explain why the constitutional framers
  based the new government on these ideas. Evaluate
  how separation of powers and checks and balances
  are working out in practice, today, justifying
  your assessment with persuasive reasoning and
  examples.

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POL 201 Week 1 DQ 2 Amending the U.S.
Constitution (Ash Course)

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• Amending the U.S. Constitution. The formal
  process of amending the Constitution is
  cumbersome and slow. While this fact explains why
  relatively few amendments have been adopted, it
  does not discourage advocates of constitutional
  change from proposing them. Four amendment
  proposals that have gained considerable attention
  are the Balanced Budget Amendment, the Birthright
  Citizenship Amendment, the Equal Rights
  Amendment, and the Overturn Citizens United
  Amendment. Select one of these proposals as the
  topic of your initial post and use the assigned
  resources to inform yourself about its purpose
  and the arguments of its supporters and critics.

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POL 201 Week 2 DQ 1 Policy-making in the Federal
System (Ash Course)

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• Policy-making in the Federal System. The U.S.
  government's expansive role in public policy is
  caught in a swirl of conflicting cross-currents.
  On the one hand, popular expectations about
  government's responsibility to solve problems
  often exceed the capacity of state and local
  authorities to respond effectively. On the other
  hand, policies developed at the national level
  may not sufficiently reflect the great diversity
  of interests across the U.S. to be effective at
  the local level. Moreover, the search for
  effective policy is further complicated by
  theoretical debates about the constitutional
  framework of federalism, e.g., what limits on
  national power can be derived from the Tenth
  Amendment?

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POL 201 Week 2 DQ 2 Meet Your Rep (Ash Course)

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• Meet Your Rep. The Constitution states, "The
  House of Representatives shall be composed of
  Members chosen every second Year by the People of
  the several States..." (Art. I, Sec. 2). Contrast
  this with the original constitutional language
  for the other house of Congress, "The Senate of
  the United States shall be composed of two
  Senators from each State, chosen by the
  Legislature thereof for six Years..." (Art. I,
  Sec. 3). The phrase "chosen by the Legislature"
  was changed to "elected by the people" by the
  17th Amendment, but not until 1912. In other
  words, from the beginning the House of
  Representatives was intended to be exactly what
  its name suggests representative of the people.
  (Note that in 2010 the Tea Party, and some
  Republican politicians, called for repeal of the
  17th Amendment, eliminating the popular vote for
  Senators. While most Republican politicians have
  backed away from that view, many Tea Party
  chapters continue to demand its repeal.)

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POL 201 Week 2 Short Essay - Policy-making in the
Federal System (Ash Course)

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• Short Essay Policy-making in the Federal
  System. The U.S. government's expansive role in
  public policy is caught in a swirl of conflicting
  cross-currents. On the one hand, popular
  expectations about government's responsibility to
  solve problems often exceed the capacity of state
  and local authorities to respond effectively. On
  the other hand, policies developed at the
  national level may not sufficiently reflect the
  great diversity of interests across the U.S. to
  be effective at the local level. Moreover, the
  search for effective policy is further
  complicated by theoretical debates about the
  constitutional framework of federalism, e.g.,
  what limits on national power can be derived from
  the 10th Amendment?

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POL 201 Week 3 DQ 1 Presidential Leadership and
the Electoral College (Ash Course)

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• Presidential Leadership and the Electoral
  College. Americans expect their presidents to get
  things done, to solve problems, to govern
  effectively, and to be strong leaders. The
  framers of the Constitution did not envision such
  presidential leadership. A scholar of the
  presidency points out that Article II of the
  Constitution gives the president scant formal
  power to influence congressional policy-making
  (Simon, n.d.). He also notes that the framers
  intentionally designed a process for selecting
  presidents that would minimize their political
  power the Electoral College. They hoped this
  institution would insulate the chief executive
  from the public because they feared the power of
  presidents who might be elected by the people.

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POL 201 Week 3 DQ 2 Defense Spending and the
Military-Industrial Complex (Ash Course)

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• Defense Spending and the Military-Industrial
  Complex. Levin-Waldman (2012, pp. 186-89)
  analyzes how "iron triangles" link Congress, the
  bureaucracy, and interest groups in self-serving
  relationships that influence policy in ways that
  are contrary to the public interest. In 1961, at
  the end of President Eisenhower's second term, he
  gave a farewell address to the nation in which he
  warned of the dangers of a "military-industrial
  complex." Many commentators today see the
  military-industrial complex as an example of an
  iron triangle that bloats the defense budget and
  distorts national priorities. Not everyone would
  accept this analysis, however, especially defense
  "hawks" in Congress, the military bureaucracies,
  and defense industries.

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POL 201 Week 4 DQ 1 The Supreme Court and
Judicial Review (Ash Course)

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• The Supreme Court and Judicial Review. In a
  recent lecture at Yale University, Supreme Court
  Justice Stephen Breyer cautioned that while most
  citizens assume that judicial review is an
  enduring part of American government, judges
  should not take it for granted. He advises that
  if judges wish to preserve this undemocratic
  power they should follow a judicial philosophy
  that will "build confidence in the courts"
  (Breyer, 2011). Justice Breyer goes on to
  describe the kind of judicial philosophy he has
  in mind. However, some of his colleagues on the
  Supreme Court would reject his ideas about what
  philosophy should guide judges.

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POL 201 Week 4 DQ 2 Habeas Corpus and the War on
Terror (Ash Course)

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• Habeas Corpus and the War on Terror. Soon after
  the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the
  Bush administration developed a plan for holding
  and interrogating prisoners captured during the
  conflict. They were sent to a prison inside a
  U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay on land leased
  from the government of Cuba. Since 2002, over 700
  men have been detained at "GITMO." Most have been
  released without charges or turned over to other
  governments. In 2011, Congress specifically
  prohibited the expenditure of funds to transfer
  GITMO prisoners to detention facilities in the
  continental United States, making it virtually
  impossible to try them in civilian courts. As of
  April 2012, 169 remained in detention at GITMO
  (Sutton, 2012).

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POL 201 Week 5 DQ 1 Party Platforms and Winning
Elections (Ash Course)

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• Party Platforms and Winning Elections. Political
  parties mobilize voters to win elections and
  implement policy goals. Parties use their stated
  policy goals (i.e., their platforms) as a way to
  mobilize voter support. Generally, in order to be
  successful in a two-party system, parties must
  have policy goals across a broad range of issue
  areas to appeal to a broad range of voters.
• For this discussion, you will identify one issue
  area that you want investigate. Use the resources
  required for this discussion to gather
  information about the goals and proposals, in
  that issue area, of three political parties the
  Democratic and Republican parties and a third
  party.

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POL 201 Week 5 DQ 2 Voting and Turnout (Ash
Course)

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• Voting and Turnout. The U.S. has one of the
  lowest voter turnout rates among modern
  democratic political systems. One study ranks the
  U.S. 120th on a list of 169 nations compared on
  voter turnout (Pintor, Gratschew, Sullivan,
  2002). While during the last decade many
  initiatives have been undertaken to increase
  voter participation, concerns about the
  possibility of election fraud have also
  increased. Additionally, some political interests
  feel threatened by the increase in turnout among
  some traditionally low-turnout ethnic minorities.
• Several states have recently passed legislation
  imposing new registration and identification
  requirements. This has sparked debate about
  whether these are tactics intended to suppress
  turnout or to prevent fraud.
• Soon after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in
  2001, the Bush administration developed a plan
  for holding and interrogating captured prisoners.

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POL 201 Week 5 Final Paper Civil Liberties,
Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror (Ash Course)

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• The final assignment for this course is a Final
  Paper. The purpose of the Final Paper is to give
  you an opportunity to apply much of what you have
  learned about American national government to an
  examination of civil liberties in the context of
  the war on terror. The Final Paper represents 20
  of the overall course grade.
• Soon after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in
  2001, the Bush administration developed a plan
  for holding and interrogating captured prisoners.
  They were sent to a prison inside a U.S. naval
  base at Guantanamo Bay, on land leased from the
  government of Cuba. Since 2002, over 700 men have
  been detained at "GITMO." Most have been released
  without charges or turned over to other
  governments. In 2011, Congress specifically
  prohibited the expenditure of funds to transfer
  GITMO prisoners to detention facilities in the
  continental United States, making it virtually
  impossible to try them in civilian courts. As of
  April 2012, 169 remained in detention at GITMO
  (Sutton, 2012).
•  

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POL 201 (Ash) Read, Lead, Succeed/Uophelpdotcom

• For more course tutorials visit
• www.uophelp.com