Political science

Concerning the fragmentation of the New York metropolitan area (length: 1 page.): – In the New York State Constitution, what is the legal basis for the creation of new local governments? – List the categories of local governments in New York State and the number for each category? – What are the different forms of local government that are present in the neighborhood where you are living (from general purpose government to special district government)?

Respond to each of the four questions (or prompts) below (each worth 25 points). Your answer to each question should not exceed 600 words (or roughly 2-3 paragraphs). This does not mean that you should write exactly 600 words and stop, expecting an “A” for the answer. It means that you will need to be pithy. Pithiness often requires revisions and rewrites. Shorter answers are welcomed. Your answer will be evaluated on a proper use and understanding of political economy concepts, use of citations, paragraph/sentences structure, and grammar. Please use a standard 12-point font (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond, Arial). Do not “lock” your file and use that as an excuse for being tardy. Locked files that the teaching associates cannot access will be considered late and assessed the penalties above. In order to test who has done the reading and viewed the lectures, and to incentivize future reading and viewing, each answer must have at least two citations to either the reading material, the pre-recorded lectures, other videos, and/or podcasts (unless otherwise noted). Question 1= QUESTION 1: EVERYONE KNOWS ITS WINDY (25 POINTS) A giant windstorm has just ripped through the Pacific Northwest, cutting power to nearly 500,000 Puget Sound residences and commercial businesses. Given the extent of the damage, repairs will take up to a week to complete (and more in some places).2 Fortunately, many households have backup generators that run on gasoline. However, roughly half of the gas stations cannot run their pumps because of the power outage, and it is difficult to get shipments of gasoline in due to damage to roads in the area. Clearing the roads will be the first priority of recovery workers and most vehicle access will be restored within two days. With reference to at least two readings, podcasts, or lectures, discuss two ways in which gasoline can be rationed to those who need it. Your answer should include a discussion of how the price mechanism operates in a market and what the effect price controls will have on behavior (including the possibility of secondary [black/gray] markets). If price controls are put into place, how might gasoline be rationed?  Question 2= QUESTION 2: THE GREAT ROCK N ROLL WHODUNNIT (25 POINTS) Evaluate the following scenario using at least one political economy concept introduced in the first five weeks of class. Your answer must include at least two references (citations) to the readings, assigned videos, and/or lectures. It is Sunday evening at 10 p.m. and you are feverishly working to complete your POL S 270 midterm essay exam. At 10:05 p.m. the neighbors in the neighboring apartment begin playing their stereo very loud, rocking out to the latest release of AC/DC while you are trying hard to concentrate. You can clearly hear the music through the walls connecting the two units and it is difficult to work. You ask the landlord to tell the neighbors to turn down their stereo, but he refuses to do so. You then call the police to report a disturbance. Although there are no known laws in the area regarding noise, the police talk to the neighbors and get them to turn the stereo down. In evaluating this scenario, your response should address the following: What important political economy concept is at work here? Who is causing this “problem”? What other solutions could have been used to mitigate the problem? Briefly provide one additional example of the central concept at play in this scenario that is not discussed in any of the course readings or lectures. [WARNING: The answer to this question is not as easy as it seems. An “A” answer will shed sunshine (and not throw shadows) on to the deep lesson at work in this scenario.]  question 3= QUESTION 3: MORBID OPTIMALITY (25 POINTS) A political economist friend of Prof. Gill’s recently said, “The optimal number of deaths from the flu is not zero.” (This statement recognizes that illnesses occur exogenously in nature and are not released into the environment by intentional human action.) Evaluate this statement with reference to at least two different readings, lectures, or podcasts in class. Note that you are not required to agree with the above statement. Rather, you are to use the concepts introduced in class to understand why a political economist would say this. Question 4= QUESTION 4: WRITER’S CHOICE (25 POINTS) Choose one of the following concepts below and write a brief essay explaining it to a person who has not taken POL S 270. Use at least two (2) examples to illustrate the concept, one of which may come from the readings, lectures, videos, or podcasts. The other example should not be drawn from the readings, lectures, videos, or podcasts, but rather one that you think to which the concept applies. For this question, you need only cite one (1) reading, lecture, or podcast source from the class. • Moral hazard. • Pooling and separating equilibrium. • Principal-agent problem. • Unintended consequences. • Asymmetric information. • Thick and thin rationality  SOURCES (all books, should be able to find pdf forms)=  1. Winter, H. 2005. “Trade offs: An introduction to Economic Reasoning and Social Issues”. 2nd Edition Chicago: University Press. Chicago Press.  2. Leeson, P. 2009. “The invisible Hook: The hidden Economics of Pirates 3. Anderson,T.L and P.J Hill. 2004. The Not so Wild. Wild west: Property Rights on the Frontier 4. Hirschman, A.O. 1970. Exit. Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Declines in Firms. Organizations and States

Please use only the file I have uploaded to site and answer the question. The orthodox/traditional perspective to suburban development suggests that factors such as transportation technology, population increases, and the distribution of income influenced suburban development. Discuss two examples from the course material to challenge the orthodox/traditional view of suburban development.

Critical Response on Weber For this critical response, you’ll be asked to answer the following questions: What are the two main components of the state? What are the three types of legitimate rule, and which of them do you see in our own state system? (This part of the answer could be accompanied by an example / outside source from the news) You will also briefly think your way through the following two questions: Can politics and ethics co-exist? Think particularly about the “ethic of ultimate ends” and the “ethic of responsibility”. Provide an example / argument that shows politics and ethics either co-existing, or clashing. Why don’t we care about politics? Should we care? What should we care about? The second part of the prompt is obviously sort of broad, and I’m just interested in whatever strong critique / argument you want to make (though of course your argument will need some kind of evidence or support). As always, remember: Write in your own voice! Don’t try to imitate Weber’s complicated style of writing – that won’t be fun for any of us. Focus on clarity. What that means is that even someone who isn’t in this course should be able to easily to understand what you’re writing about. If you need help with technical things (grammar, formatting, etc.), talk to me or visit the writing center. You should quote Weber directly at least once. Since we’re all using the same texts, your citation for that can be embedded in the text and should look something like this: (Weber, Politics as a Vocation, 70). You should quote and/or cite an outside news article from a reputable source. The citation should look like this: (Author’s name, “Name of Article”, News Source Title, date. URL. Date Accessed). You can embed the citations in the text parenthetically, or you can cite them in footnotes. You can have a “Works Cited” segment at the end of your paper, as well, but since there are very few sources, this is not necessary. Footnotes or parenthetical citations make more sense. Don’t cite any outside sources (like Wikipedia or other online encyclopedias). Just trust your own definitions. Try to format this as a regular essay: intro / argument / conclusion. It’s just good practice. Please, don’t plagiarize. It’s very easy to see if someone pulls a line from Britannica or Wikipedia or any other online site, and any little amount of plagiarism will mean that you’ll either a) get a zero on this, or b) schedule a meeting with me to discuss Weber’s theories for a possible 50% on this. Just avoid it so that we don’t have to go through that! It should be a 12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1-in margins, double-spaced

Just before the Soviet Union fell apart,  Gorbach introduced policies of , Demokratizatsiya, Glasnost and Perestoika?  The West looked on these as a move toward democritzaton and away form the authoritairanism of the Soviet Regimes.  Yet the last twenty years or so has shown a stealy retreat from these ideals under Putin. What happened? Is Russia retreating back to authoritarianism. Is the Soviet Empire being resurrected.  How has Putin reshaped Gorbachev’s ideals?  You must, in your essay, describe Gorbachev’s ideals and where they have gone.   What would you say are the “lessons” for other countries going through a transition from state owned/ authoritarian systems to more capitalist/democratic mode? Shoot for 500 well chosen words. Be sure to read the question carefully and answer directly.

Would Jim Stimson agree or disagree with the commentator regarding the public’s trust in government? Why? What does Stimson say is the reason behind the public’s trust in government?

When it comes to equality, explain why Texans are more interested in equality of opportunity?

Political Science 21A: Question Set #2. Civil Liberties, Civil Rights  and American Political Parties.   Please respond to each of the five short response questions posted below.  Your answers should be short, focused, and complete, ranging from one to three paragraphs.  Please make sure to answer each specific part of every question.  Successful answers will provide details and context that support your arguments and explain your position to the readers. You may also want to provide real world examples taken from the readings, lectures, group discussions, or your own independent thinking. These illustrations can be from the course materials or your own ideas.  Providing this context and being able to apply the material to YOUR OWN understanding of politics really shows us that you have mastered the material.   Each answer will be worth 20 points, for 100 points total.  The Question Set is due on Canvas at 11:59 pm on Monday April 27th.  You should write plan on uploading your response as a docx file or PDF to this Question Set #1 assignment tab.   Baron v Baltimore established a concept of dual citizenship. How did this view of dual citizenship shape civil liberties/civil rights protections for early citizens of state governments?  Why and how did so many of the civil liberties protections come to be nationalized or incorporated? What are the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating civil liberties protections to extend to citizens of United States regardless of their state of residence?   What were Jim Crow laws, and what were their two primary goals? How were these largely remedied in the 1960s, and what are the Constitutional justifications for these remedies? Make sure and note the difference between de facto and de jure segregation in considering the effectiveness of these remedies.   How/why did federalism delay the extension of civil rights to various groups throughout American history? Despite these delays, how/why were these rights eventually extended? Make sure and note the role the federal government, social movements, and individual state governments have played in doing so.   Why do we have parties? What roles do they play in a representative democracy? How can these roles be beneficial? How can they be harmful?   Why does the US have only two major political parties? Make sure and describe Duverger’s law and strategic behavior on the part of voters, politicians, and parties. Explain why it would be hard for a third party to be electorally successful.

The Question Part 1: “Research question: The Humanitarian Crises & the Humanitarian Action Operations in South Sudan:  Critically examine and analyze the humanitarian action operation on the ground. Present at least 3 challenges and dilemmas phased (Operational, strategic, programmatic, ethical). How were they addressed? What would you have done differently? Relate to the following points:  – Main characteristics of the crisis, the settings and wider context in which it evolved.  – Local needs, vulnerabilities & capacities. – Main actors, roles, collaboration & coordination, their efficiency.  – Challenges & dilemmas faced in different phases and levels.  – Potential Long-term impacts of the humanitarian program in different aspects.  – Lessons learned. Think of 3 recommendations for the future. Part 2  Shortly reflect on 2 of the following cross-cutting most burning issues of the humanitarian space:  1. The Humanitarian Principles’ role in modern humanitarian settings and action.  2. Localization (Capacity & resilience building)  3. Leadership & Civil-Military-Humanitarian Interaction  4. ‘Do No Harm’- Protection & Gender Mainstreaming  5. Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Humanitarian settings (Incl. ‘Cash-based programming’)  6. The Triple Nexus: Humanitarian-Development-Peace Building Nexus. Relate to the following guiding points: What role/significance do they play in humanitarian action of today? How can they impact people, programs, power dynamics? Can they improve/harm efforts to achieve some common goals? What possible challenges/risks do they bring along? Have we seen progress (failure/success) in this regard so far? Think out of the box. Analyze and present ideas in support/against, pros/cons- based on relevant examples and publications. IMPORTANT: Word limit 2000-3000 (excluding cover, reference list, appendices); Font size 11pt; Line spacing 1.5. Use at least 2-3 peer-reviewed publications. You may choose your preferred citation method to be used throughout

Should the Electoral College be abolished and replaced with a direct national vote?