Category: Political Science

I included a PDF with detailed intructions.
<
<
This is the podcast I picked.
<
Republican rumble: Did the debate or Trump’s mugshot affect Nevada voters’ picks?
<
https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s127/audio/2023/08/repub-rumble-web.mp3?sc=siteplayer&aw_0_1st.playerid=siteplayer

Choose a Group
You can choose from the following groups (or if there’s another group you’re interested in, get in touch):
Group Name Primary Location Total Attacks
Taliban Afghanistan 8,727
Shining Path Peru 4,562
Al-Shabaab Somalia 3,774
Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) El Salvador 3,351
New People’s Army (NPA) Philippines 3,054
Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) UK 2,669
FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) Colombia 2,490
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Turkey 2,427
Basque Fatherland and Freedom (ETA) Spain 2,024
LTTE (Tamil Tigers) Sri Lanka 1,606
I recommend choosing a group that you’re not very familiar with. All of these groups were very active and may have some level of name recognition. I included the total number of attacks recorded for each group in the Global Terrorism Database (through 2018) so you can get a feel for their level of activity. Please note that ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram (our case studies for the week plus ISIS) are purposefully excluded.
Paper Overview
There will be three main parts to the assignment (there is also a rubric available in the assignments folder):
I. Group Background
Give a general background on the group that focuses on their origins, area of operation, and general trajectory of the group. The goal of this section is to give enough background information to understand why and how the group carries out terror attacks. Research who founded the group; what its ideology is; where the group is active; major events over time; and the group’s status today. This should be about 500 words.
II. The Use of Terrorism: How and Why
For this section, you will first describe the preconditions and precipitants framework. This will be followed by an application of this framework to your terror group. Make sure to have the following parts:
Describe the preconditions and precipitants framework, and in particular, break apart preconditions and discuss the role of motivations and permissive conditions. This section should cite class readings and the lectures where possible. (Think of this like the take-home exam section. I want to know that you fully understand this topic.)
Motivations:
What is the ultimate goal of your group? Do they seek territorial control, control of the central government, a policy change, social control?
What are the grievances that led your group to adopt that as their central goal? Give examples where possible. For example, if your group was discriminated against, can you find information on laws against these groups? Are there statistics about relative employment rates or representation in governance?
Permissive Conditions:
What permissive conditions have allowed your group to be active? Do they operate in a democracy or in a fragile state? How has that helped your group operate day-to-day (stay active, train, plan, etc.) as well as carry out attacks?
Provide at least one visual in this section that ties into permissive conditions. This could be a map of where the group is active, where you consider questions like whether the attacks are carried out close to where the group formed, or if this area is a fragile state or a democracy, or if there are other relevant permissive conditions that explain the patterns. If your group acts transnationally, think about why they are attacking the foreign countries that they are.
This section should be around 750 words or more.
III. Analyzing Attacks
For this section, you will choose two attacks that your group carried out. Try to find variety. For example, one might be domestic and the other transnational. One might be a major attack, generating significant casualties, and the other a fairly typical attack. This section should include the following:
First, give the definition of terrorism. (This is another take-home exam section. Tie in readings/lectures as possible.) Why is terrorism hard to define? What are the basic criteria that we discussed?
Next, for each attack, do the following:
Describe the attack. Give the date, location, type of attack, and write a short paragraph describing what happened. If you can find information on the impact of the attack, such as government reactions, changes in public opinion, etc., note that as well.
Apply the definition of terrorism that we discussed in class. Explain why we should consider these terror attacks. Make sure to go through each criteria that we discussed in class.
Finally, provide analysis on questions like why the attack was carried out, why a specific target was chosen, and how the attack relates back to your group’s original goals. This should tie back into our discussion about rationality and the idea that attacks are designed to achieve a goal.
This section should be around 500 words or more.
Works Cited
Include a works cited list at the end of your paper. This should include properly formatted citations for all of the sources you cited in your analysis.

Choose a Group
You can choose from the following groups (or if there’s another group you’re interested in, get in touch):
Group Name Primary Location Total Attacks
Taliban Afghanistan 8,727
Shining Path Peru 4,562
Al-Shabaab Somalia 3,774
Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) El Salvador 3,351
New People’s Army (NPA) Philippines 3,054
Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) UK 2,669
FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) Colombia 2,490
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Turkey 2,427
Basque Fatherland and Freedom (ETA) Spain 2,024
LTTE (Tamil Tigers) Sri Lanka 1,606
I recommend choosing a group that you’re not very familiar with. All of these groups were very active and may have some level of name recognition. I included the total number of attacks recorded for each group in the Global Terrorism Database (through 2018) so you can get a feel for their level of activity. Please note that ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram (our case studies for the week plus ISIS) are purposefully excluded.
Paper Overview
There will be three main parts to the assignment (there is also a rubric available in the assignments folder):
I. Group Background
Give a general background on the group that focuses on their origins, area of operation, and general trajectory of the group. The goal of this section is to give enough background information to understand why and how the group carries out terror attacks. Research who founded the group; what its ideology is; where the group is active; major events over time; and the group’s status today. This should be about 500 words.
II. The Use of Terrorism: How and Why
For this section, you will first describe the preconditions and precipitants framework. This will be followed by an application of this framework to your terror group. Make sure to have the following parts:
Describe the preconditions and precipitants framework, and in particular, break apart preconditions and discuss the role of motivations and permissive conditions. This section should cite class readings and the lectures where possible. (Think of this like the take-home exam section. I want to know that you fully understand this topic.)
Motivations:
What is the ultimate goal of your group? Do they seek territorial control, control of the central government, a policy change, social control?
What are the grievances that led your group to adopt that as their central goal? Give examples where possible. For example, if your group was discriminated against, can you find information on laws against these groups? Are there statistics about relative employment rates or representation in governance?
Permissive Conditions:
What permissive conditions have allowed your group to be active? Do they operate in a democracy or in a fragile state? How has that helped your group operate day-to-day (stay active, train, plan, etc.) as well as carry out attacks?
Provide at least one visual in this section that ties into permissive conditions. This could be a map of where the group is active, where you consider questions like whether the attacks are carried out close to where the group formed, or if this area is a fragile state or a democracy, or if there are other relevant permissive conditions that explain the patterns. If your group acts transnationally, think about why they are attacking the foreign countries that they are.
This section should be around 750 words or more.
III. Analyzing Attacks
For this section, you will choose two attacks that your group carried out. Try to find variety. For example, one might be domestic and the other transnational. One might be a major attack, generating significant casualties, and the other a fairly typical attack. This section should include the following:
First, give the definition of terrorism. (This is another take-home exam section. Tie in readings/lectures as possible.) Why is terrorism hard to define? What are the basic criteria that we discussed?
Next, for each attack, do the following:
Describe the attack. Give the date, location, type of attack, and write a short paragraph describing what happened. If you can find information on the impact of the attack, such as government reactions, changes in public opinion, etc., note that as well.
Apply the definition of terrorism that we discussed in class. Explain why we should consider these terror attacks. Make sure to go through each criteria that we discussed in class.
Finally, provide analysis on questions like why the attack was carried out, why a specific target was chosen, and how the attack relates back to your group’s original goals. This should tie back into our discussion about rationality and the idea that attacks are designed to achieve a goal.
This section should be around 500 words or more.
Works Cited
Include a works cited list at the end of your paper. This should include properly formatted citations for all of the sources you cited in your analysis.

Classical Political Economy is often said to begin with Adam Smith and the publication and of his book The Wealth of Nations in 1776. Smith’s goal was to understand the newly emerging capitalist economy. He wanted to describe it accurately, and figure out what government policies would help it function best. In this new capitalist world, what policies should governments follow in order to serve their national interest?
When you read, pay particular attention to:
-the story about the pin-maker and the pin factory in the first few paragaphs
-when you read Smith talking about a “commodity”, check Hunt and Lautsenheiser for an explanation of what exactly a commodity is
Some parts of the reading may be difficult due to the old fashioned language, but stick with it, and if you get stuck on a section, move on to the next one. For now, just try to get a sense of how Smith understands capitalism, and what he thinks the goal of Political Economy should be.
-what does Smith think makes one commodity more or less valuable than another? Notice his distinction between “natural” price and “market” price on page 163.
INSTRUCTIONS ** The kinds of thing you can write about include, but are not limited to: a summary or overview of some aspect of the reading, disagreement with some aspect of the reading, your opinion on some aspect of the reading, anything that stuck out to you as interesting, relevant, or confusing, anything you think relates to current events, saying what aspect of the reading was new to you and what was stuff you already knew about, etc. **

Classical Political Economy is often said to begin with Adam Smith and the publication and of his book The Wealth of Nations in 1776. Smith’s goal was to understand the newly emerging capitalist economy. He wanted to describe it accurately, and figure out what government policies would help it function best. In this new capitalist world, what policies should governments follow in order to serve their national interest?
When you read, pay particular attention to:
-the story about the pin-maker and the pin factory in the first few paragaphs
-when you read Smith talking about a “commodity”, check Hunt and Lautsenheiser for an explanation of what exactly a commodity is
Some parts of the reading may be difficult due to the old fashioned language, but stick with it, and if you get stuck on a section, move on to the next one. For now, just try to get a sense of how Smith understands capitalism, and what he thinks the goal of Political Economy should be.
-what does Smith think makes one commodity more or less valuable than another? Notice his distinction between “natural” price and “market” price on page 163.
INSTRUCTIONS ** The kinds of thing you can write about include, but are not limited to: a summary or overview of some aspect of the reading, disagreement with some aspect of the reading, your opinion on some aspect of the reading, anything that stuck out to you as interesting, relevant, or confusing, anything you think relates to current events, saying what aspect of the reading was new to you and what was stuff you already knew about, etc. **

Perhaps no congressional issue has been debated as much in the public as the Senate’s use of the filibuster. Do research on the issues (I have given you several CRS reports to start), and pick a side: should the Senate break its rules to change how the filibuster operates? Why or why not? Be specific, and note what the costs of your choice are (ie: not changing the rules makes the public feel like the Senate isn’t doing its job.)

Policy Paper #1
Imagine you are a City Manager in the era of COVID-19, you need to write a policy paper outlining whether you will or will not be mandating COVID-19 vaccines for City staff. You must clearly explain “the why” for your course of action.
Consider the following factors when writing your paper:
Your City has over 100 employees, therefore you meet the employee threshold requirement in the Federal mandate.
Most Local Governments have labor contracts in place with various unions, what are some potential ramifications?
Your City employee vaccination rate is 50%. You literally have half of your employees who believe the vaccine mandate is a good thing and half of your employees that hate it. Think about what the impacts of your policy position will have on City staff in terms of:Services: If the majority of your unvaccinated employees work in critical service areas i.e. police/fire/public works/electric, what are the potential impacts a vaccine mandate would have? What if the opposite is true and your vaccinated employees are those who work in critical service areas?
What would a vaccine mandate, or not having one, do to recruitment and retention?
What are some other pros and cons of having and not having a vaccine mandate? i.e. a high percentage of unvaccinated City employees could have a negative impact on City health insurance costs?
Will your policy have an end date? Or is it effective in perpetuity?
Keep in mind, there are certain positions in City Government that have vaccine mandates due to their work environment and the things they are exposed to. For example: waste water treatment plant employees typically need to have hepatitis vaccines, building maintenance mechanics who work on HVAC systems typically need to be vaccinated to guard against legionnaires disease.
If you decide to mandate a COVID-19 vaccine, will you consider mandates for other things? i.e. flu vaccine mandate
Please note: Some of you mentioned the desire for a grading rubric for these assignments. I can tell you from personal experience, rubrics do not really exist for stuff like this. Policy is often communicated to staff via e-mail (more often than not the draft of that e-mail took a few days) or in memo form. So for this assignment, pretend you are drafting a memo to your City council explaining your positions as City manager on the subject above.
You will write three, 2 pages. (double spaced, Arial 11 pt. font) papers summarizing, analyzing, and dealing with an issue. Please write an answer about this question.
Thanks.

You will write a term paper analyzing an International Organization, what works, what doesn’t, and why. The first part of this process is a 1000-word proposal, which must include an annotated bibliography (references)
The International organization that I picked is: the International Labour Organization (ILO)
outline of the paper can be in this form:
Introduction
Achievements of the ILO
Limitations and Challenges
Factors Influencing ILO’s Performance
Future Prospects and Recommendations
Conclusion

Do a book response paper on beyond racial division by George Yancey and summarize the authors argument and identify the books strengths and weaknesses and detail my overall response to the book in a critical way

Review the Bill of Rights for the U.S. Constitution (the first 10 amendments) to understand what rights are listed. There are numerous online sources to find the Bill of Rights.
Next, go online and look up your state’s constitution. Find three state sections that are similar to or align with the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution). Examples include religious freedom, freedom of speech or association, etc. Compare and contrast these three state sections from your state’s constitution with their comparable sections in the Bill of Rights found in the U.S. Constitution and discuss the guidelines for each.
Requirements
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
Please note that my state is Pennsylvania, USA.