State and Local Politics

Research Project Guidelines

 

The purpose of this paper is to carefully explore political patterns in one or several states and try to explain how different policy choices are made, and how political conditions and processes affect choices.  You can either do an intensive case study of a policy issue in a single state or locality or do comparative case study of a policy issue in several states.   For example, you could either analyze how Florida is approaching voting reforms in the wake of the 2000 debacle or exam what two or three states are doing to reform voting procedures. 

 

The first step is to find a policy area or political event that you think is interesting.  There are all sorts of bizarre and interesting things going on in the states.  The diversity will constantly amaze and surprise you.  The best place to start is the web.  Here are some links to web sites with tons of news stories about state and local politics.  I would encourage you to flip about and follow links to find something you think is interesting. 

  1. State and Local News
    1. Greater overall state news www.stateline.org
    2. State and Local Government on the Net  www.piperinfo.com/state/states.html
    3. Washington Post's "News from the States" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/50states/front.htm   this page also has links to the main newspapers in each state. 
    4. Governing Magazine, the   www.governing.com
    5. Council of State Governments http://www.statesnews.org/index.asp
  2. Each year, the National Council of State Legislatures looks at the upcoming legislative sessions and highlights trends and likely issues state legislatures across the nation will be considering. Their 2002 forecast is at http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2002/pr020103.htm
  3. Check out web pages of state think tanks at http://www.statesnews.org/other_resources/thinktanks.html
  4. State web sites.  This site has a state map which has links to state web sites, all of differing usefulness.  http://college.hmco.com/polisci/essentials/inter.html

 

Second Step:  After you have found a topic you think is interesting, set up an appointment to meet with me to discuss the issue so I can help provide some guidance about framing the question and researching the topic.

 

Third Step:  Researching the topic.  The joy of the internet is that we can get all kinds of first hand information on obscure topics (read state politics). 

a.                          periodical search:  Go to the Washington Post web site to identify the main newspapers in the state or city.  Do a Lexus nexus search in those newspapers on your topic to find related articles.  Using these, you can identify all the key players and institutions and do additional magazine and internet searches.

b.                          Government web sites:  state government web sites may have lots of information on your topic.

c.                          First hand research:  Call the relevant actors to find out what happened.  The earlier the better. 

 

Fourth Step:  Paper guidelines.  Your paper should address what has happened in the state and why.  The paper should assess the following issues, although you do not have to present them in this specific order:

  1. policy analysis.  What conflict precipitated the issue?  Did a specific problem suddenly emerge, or has the problem been building up gradually?  What evidence do we have about the size, significance, impact, and importance of the policy issue?  Why is it on the political agenda now?
  2. What policy or legislation did the state choose?  What did the legislation propose to do to resolve the conflict?
  3. Who is in favor of the policy and why? Who is opposed to the policy and why? Did the issue become a  party issue and why or why not? Who are the main political actors involved in the debate?  What role is the governor/legislature/judiciary, parties, and interest groups playing?
  4. How political conditions and processes affect choices?  What theories are valid?  We are examining a number of theories about state politics (socioeconomic diversity, interest group systems, party competition, legislative professionalization, gubernatorial power to name a few) in this class.  How does the way state government and political organizations are set up and operate affect public policy?
  5. How have other states have addressed similar problems?  Most policy issues are rarely addressed by a single state.  How successful will your state’s approach be?  What does other research suggest about the consequences of your states and different state approaches to the problem?

 

Your grade is a function of

  1. the caliber of your research.  There is lots of data out there on states.
  2. the quality of your theoretical argument in explaining how the political institutions of the state produced the policy outcomes
  3. clarity of writing and thought.  Take to heart the advice of William Zinsser:
    1.  "Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time.  Remember this as a consolation in moments of despair.  If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard.  It's one of the hardest things that people do.”
    2. “Look for clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly.  Be grateful for everything you can throw away.  Reexamine each sentence that you put on paper.  Is every word doing new work?  Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it's beautiful?"

 

Administrative Details

February 15, paper topic due

March 22 bibliography due (a list of 20 newspaper or magazine articles, reports or primary sources regarding your topic)

April 15, rough draft of research paper due

April 22, peer review of research paper due

May 1, final paper due

Late [CS1] papers are not accepted. 

 [CS1]Pluralism versus elite

 

Paper Topics

Is there a culture war in America

Should there be hate speech codes

Should their be pornography codes

What constitutional amendments are necessary. 

Will devolving federal welfare programs to the state work?

What gun control measures would pass the second amendment test?

Campaign finance reform

Abortion

Federal reserve

How representative is your member of congress (senate and house)

Should the President have the line item veto?

Should president Clinton have been impeached?

Would electronic voting improve democracy in America?

Would the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform proposal improve our electoral system?

How successful has Vice-President Gore’s plan to reinvent government been.

 

Theoretical Issues The paper should be conceptualized around three general questions. 

1.      What controversies surround the issue you have chosen to analyze? (These should be drawn from readings and class lectures.) 

2.      How do the articles collected illustrate the issue at hand?  

3.      What is your opinion of the issue — that is, on what side do you stand and why?