Questions
Follow the instructions for the Assignment One Essay Questions.
1. Describe the different functions of political parties in our system. Contrast the two major parties in the US today - you should go to their respective websites to get this information.
2. Explain the direct and indirect techniques used by interest groups.
3. Explain the different incentives Americans have for joining interest groups. What are the types of interest groups that people join? Think about your future career goals or interests and research and find an interest group that you believe that you would to join after college. Go to their website and summarize what you found out about that interest group.
4. Explain how the Electoral College works, the situations in which it has produced controversial results, and the criticisms leveled against it.
5. Given that there are over 200,000 public school teachers and administrators in Texas, discuss the failure of groups representing teachers to have a greater impact on the major issues affecting education. Explain how teachers might gain greater influence on the political process in Texas in the future.
6. The Texas legislature is meeting right now and by the time you are ready to work on this assignment, many bills will be introduced. Go to the Texas legislature website and choose a bill in either the House of Representatives or the Senate that deals with either public education or higher education and research the bill. Find out the basic premise of the bill and what has happened with the bill. Summarize your findings, i.e. who introduced the bill? What is the wording of the bill? Has it been to committee? Which committee? Has it been to the floor for a vote? Has it been to the other house?