Category: Political Science

Use empirical issue that deals with budgets, expenses.
taxation user fees.
cash management. municipal bonds.
produce an hypothesis that has a theoretical foundation

is exercise requires students to calculate personnel compensation costs for an
agency of local government. It is a simplified example, but should illustrate the
more complex tasks that real-world budgeters do on a regular basis. Please
examine the Excel spreadsheet for this exercise. The basic data are included for
the calculation of the compensation costs for a fire department. More figures can
be derived to complete the spreadsheet.
First of all, calculate the wages and salaries for the members of the fire department.
That will require multiplying the wages or salary by the number of employees in
each pay grade. Then calculate the Social Security tax contribution, the pension
contribution, and the health insurance contribution. The Social Security,
Medicare, and pension contributions are percentages of the wages. The tax base
for the Social Security is capped at $118,500. The health insurance contribution is
a fixed dollar amount per employee per month. The part-time employees do not
receive health insurance benefits. Calculate the annual expenses for uniforms,
remembering that the clerical workers do not have a uniform allowance. Derive
the total compensation costs, the salary and wage costs, and the non-wage fringe
benefit costs for the fire department.

Explain the function of protest music. What is it intended to do? Does it reinforce or subvert the extant power structures? How does music fit into protest activity? Do we see it associated with particular movements? If so, which ones? Can pop music ever function as protest music? Does the concept of celebrity add to the efficacy of the artist as a vehicle for protest? Does it detract?

select one song and respond to the prompt attached below in paragraph form. You may use the prompt itself, insert your response

Song for the week:

– “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” (1971)
– Sam Cooke – “A Change is Gonna Come” (1954)
– Billie Holiday – “Strange Fruit” (1939)
– Arlo Guthrie – “1913 Massacre” (1972)
– Dolly Parton – “9 to 5” (1980)
– Joni Mitchell – “Big Yellow Taxi” (1970)
– Midnight Oil – “Beds Are Burning” (1987)
– Pearl Jam – “Do The Evolution” (1998)
– U2 – “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (1983)
– The Cranberries – “Zombie” (1994)
– Phil Ochs – “Here’s to the state of Mississippi”; Eddie Vedder – “Here’s to the state of George W.”
– Bob Dylan – “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1962)
– Grandmaster Flash – “The Message”
– Public Enemy – “Fight the Power”
– Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
– Eminem – “Darkness”
– Childish Gambino – “This is America”
– Daveed Diggs – final scene from “Blindspotting”

Philosophers (and their concepts) discussed:

– Verta Taylor and Nella Van Dyke: typology of protest
– Serge Denisoff: functions of a protest song

Debate whether the Supreme Court made the correct decision in this case or whether the concerns that Breyer raised in his dissent should have been the ruling of the court.
* Address relevant precedents
*Don’t just summarize the Brown decision. Rather, use details of the Brown decision, and especially the range of views expressed by the justices in the opinion of the court and the concurring and dissenting opinions, as the basis of your discussion.
Brown v. Entertainment Merchant’s Association draws together several issues about the conditions under which the government may be able to impose limitations on freedom of expression. A California statute prohibited the sale of violent video games to children and required them to be labeled. The statute relied upon social science research and was designed to prevent violent, aggressive and anti-social behavior. The Federal district court declared law unconstitutional and on appeal the court of appeals affirmed the district court ruling.
Writing for the Supreme Court (7-2), Justice Scalia argued that, like movies, video games qualify for First Amendment protection. He pointed out that many court decisions have emphasized that the government can’t regulate expression based on content. In fact, only a few categories of unprotected speech/expression exist as was already made clear in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, a case reprinted in the Epstein and Walker book. Furthermore, as the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Stevens, legislatures on their own can’t create new categories of unprotected speech, such as the depictions of animal cruelty raised in the Stevens case. Using language that will become more important during the semester, Scalia argued that, for the California law to be valid, it had to pass the “strict scrutiny” test, show a compelling state interest being advanced and prove “a direct causal link between violent video games and harm to minors.” Using these standards, the Supreme Court found the California statute to be unconstitutional.
Breyer’s dissent raises some thoughtful issues about the public policy disconnect between the sale of obscene materials as opposed to sale of extreme violence to minors. He points out that the Supreme Court had already ruled in Ginsberg v. New York (1968), a case discussed in the assigned reading, that a state could prohibit the sale of depictions of nudity to minors, even though the same materials would not be considered obscene for adults under the Court’s decisions defining obscenity and the Court had justified this distinction based on the compelling need identified by the state legislature to protect children. He wrote in the Brown case: “But what sense does it make to forbid selling to a 13-year-old boy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting a sale to that 13-year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her? What kind of First Amendment would permit the government to protect children by restricting sales of that extremely violent video game only when the woman—bound, gagged, tortured, and killed—is also topless?”
Required Text: Epstein, McGuire and Walker, Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties and Justice. Eleventh Edition. 2022. Sage/CQ Press. ISBN: 978-1-5443-9125-0

Lecture Notes for the assignment :
(Boundaries of free expression)
This week’s assignment deals with a variety of issues about where, if at all, to draw constitutional boundaries around the freedom of expression.
New York Times v. Sullivan presents a fundamental problem about the role of the press in a democratic society, the dilemma about how the competing interests in a case like should be balanced and what the boundaries of this freedom should be. Make sure you understand the Sullivan Rule and how it differs from traditional libel standards. The Sullivan case concerns how to balance the interests of a free press with public officials that the press writes about. This is turn raises the issue of whether such protections should extend to public figures and whether all public figures are on the same ground as they seek protection against what they perceive to be an invasion of the right to privacy by a vigorous press. This is the issue raised in the Hustler Magazine case (Hustler Magazine v. Falwell). and whether the magazine went beyond the boundaries of what a free press should allow in what it wrote about Jerry Falwell. Given what Hustler Magazine wrote one might quickly side with Falwell but note that the Supreme Court’s decision against Falwell and in favor of Hustler Magazine was unanimous. In McKee v. Cosby (2019) Justice Thomas argued that the Sullivan Rule has been expanded too far and should be reconsidered. This article from the Communications Lawyer examines Thomas’ opinion in the context of New York Times v. Sullivan.
It is well understood that obscenity and pornography are not protected expression under the First Amendment. More problematic is how to define obscenity and pornography consistent with the constitutional standards designed to protect legitimate expression especially as it applies to literature, films and art. Roth v. U.S is in early and important Supreme Court decision that established a standard for assessing obscenity claims replacing the earlier Hicklin test that had been adopted by American courts from the English decision in Regina v. Hicklin. The reading assignment from the Epstein and Walker book explains the differences between the Roth and Hicklin tests.
Boxes 8.2 and 8.3 in the Epstein, McGuire and Walker book summarize the differing views on the constitutional definition of obscenity that were adopted by justices on the Supreme Court in the aftermath of Roth v. United States. Much of this apparent confusion was resolved in Miller v. California (1973). Miller established yet another test for obscenity and essentially put the problem about how to define obscenity to rest. After Miller, the court devoted more attention to special problems such as how to deal with child pornography, as it did in New York v. Ferber, a case found in your assigned reading.
Another issue is whether cruelty and violence, like obscenity and pornography, should be outside the protection of the First Amendment. Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011) raises a number of problems about violent video games and the First Amendment. The Brown case is the subject of this week’s discussion board.

The paper will include three components; the historical/legislative history of the law, an overview of the legislative components of the law and how these address the established need for the legislation, and finally how an evaluation mechanism is used to analyze the outcomes of the policy implementation.　

Prompts:
Are women’s rights a universal concept? Is feminism? Why or why not?
Do you agree or disagree with the inclusion in CEDAW of a requirement that states work to change cultural practices that undermine women’s equality? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this broad idea of equality, as opposed to a narrower focus on removing discriminatory laws?
Why are women who actively participate in revolutionary movements sidelined after the fact? Discuss with reference to Iran or other cases you know about.
Were the 2022 protests in Iran “revolutionary”? If so, in what sense?
sources to reference if needed:

https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/44500

and attached files too

Create a detailed annotated bibliography with 8 journal articles and 2 academic books. Create a clear research question that can be answered in the article with the reading as evidence. Write a detailed 2500-word literature review on women as a vulnerable population during war. Must have plagiarism report attached to article

Research the proportion of women, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and openly gay or lesbian members of Congress.
Reflect on what these patterns say about the nature of representation.
Why do some groups tend to be underrepresented in Congress?
Why do you see a trend in which more women and minorities are being represented?
Do you think the underrepresentation of women and minorities affect Congress’s business?
How might we as a people address this situation and strive towards equal representation? Make sure to cite sources used.
Length: 1.5-2 pages (not including title page or references page)
1-inch margins
Double spaced
12-point Times New Roman font
Title page
References page (minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to textbook if cited)

In one page, describe the benefits of the electoral college. Should it keep the “winner takes all” approach?
Use a minimum of 2 scholarly sources (one must include the text book below)
Greenberg, E. S., & Page, B. I. (2018). The Struggle for Democracy, 2018 Elections and Updates Edition (12th ed.). Pearson Education (US). https://online.vitalsource.com/books/9780135246849Links to an external site.

The goal is to actively engage with the readings and synthesize them into a coherent stream. It is not just a summary and an opinion. A good memo should demonstrate that you have a basic understanding of the scholarly readings, can evaluate them along a number of key dimensions, and can show how they relate to the relevant textbook chapter. At minimum, you should prepare your memos mindful of the readings’ moving parts: 1. Concepts: What is the main puzzle the author is addressing? Why does it matter? What are the key concepts and terms? 2. Agendas: What literature(s) does the author engage? What contribution is he/she making to the broader scholarship on this topic? 3. Arguments: What level/unit of analysis is the author using? What is the author’s central argument? What are the dependent and independent variables? 4. Methods and Data: What methodology does the author use? What evidence does the author use to support his/her argument? How did he/she obtain this data? All memos be 5-600 words. They must be typed, double-spaced typed, with regular 1” margins, 12 pt font, in Times New Roman, with page numbers, with a word count at the bottom.