Please answer FOUR of the following questions, CLEARLY indicating which questions you are answering using the number next to the question. Each question is worth 25 points for 100 points total. Your answers should be typed up in a WORD doc (or equivalent) in 12-point Garamond font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins. You should write at least 1 page double-spaced for each of your four answers, and as a whole should be a maximum of 5 pages long. You DO NOT need to have a bibliography listing course lectures and readings. If you include one anyway we will ignore it.
In terms of content, we want you to answer the question directly using relevant material from lecture, discussion section, and the readings. Given the length of the assignment, you cannot possibly give a comprehensive answer to the question, instead, you need to pick out what you think the key points are and then give an answer. There is no single right answer! Thats not the point of the assignment, and most of these issues are too complicated for that. Make sure you answer the question asked, rather than simply telling us about the topic in general.
Please answer FOUR of the following questions, CLEARLY indicating which questions you are answering using the number next to the question. You do not have to write the question out again: just use the relevant number. Each question is worth 25 points for 100 points total.
1. We have discussed different sorts of collective action problems, such as co-ordination problems, the free-rider problem, the tragedy of the commons, and the prisoners dilemma. Pick one of the problems listed above, and explain how it works. Then give an example of this problem at work in the US system, and illustrate how political actors in the US system have tried to solve it.
2. The first reconstruction (directly after the Civil War) largely failed to secure civil rights for African Americans, but the second reconstruction (the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s) largely succeeded. In your view, what are the two most important reasons for the success of the Civil Rights movement? Why do you think these reasons are the most important?
3. Although voters tend to like the individual members of Congress from their own district/state, the institution as a whole has very low approval ratings. Why is this?
4. In what ways are the members of SCOTUS political actors as well as judges?
5. Are bureaucracies designed to fail? Why or why not?
6. In Federalist 10, Madison argues that a large republic is well equipped to deal with the mischief of faction. Looking at the modern US, do you agree? Discuss with reference to the behavior of political parties or interest groups in the contemporary US.