Unit 11 Public Policy and Foreign Policy

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1 Unit 11 Public Policy and Foreign Policy Assignment 1: Due: Friday, 4.6 Outline for notes 1. Please read textbook, Chapter 16, pages , Poverty in America, and The Politics and Policies of Social Welfare. 1. Poverty in America ~Poverty line what it is today, not when textbook as written, what it means, cost of living, sizes of families, geographic dispersion (Please read blue box on page 444 and include in your notes the states with the highest percentages of people living in poverty. Why? Why are the voters in those states usually conservative?) ~ Minimum wage today? How far is that wage below the poverty line? Why? ~ What are reasons given for people living in poverty today? How does that match with the mistaken opinions of Americans about who lives in poverty, how long, and for what reasons? ~ Go beyond textbook to Pew Research Center and find and learn about the data they have on poverty. Be ready to share with class. 2. The Politics and Policies of Social Welfare ~ Differences between negative government views and positive government views, both historically and today go beyond different political parties ~ In your notes you need to know each specific program (i.e. individual benefits, transfer payments, entitlement programs, social insurance, unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, public assistance programs, SSI, TANF, Head Start, EITC, in-kind benefit, food stamps, voucher programs) and the specific qualifications of each one, as well as how and why they receive government benefits. Don t group them all together under welfare ; the FRQs ask specific questions about specific policies and you need to be able to discuss each with some expertise and evidence. ~ Think about creating a linear graph so that you would be able to compare and contrast the qualifications and benefits and purposes and changes in policies. ~ Go beyond the textbook so that you have a deeper understand of the policies, how they are funded, and how they relate to previous knowledge, such as linkage institutions, democratic principles, differences between the U.S. model and the European model. 3. Culture and Social Welfare ~ Specifics about 1996 Welfare Reform Act know what it was designed to fix, if it has worked, and if it is still funded today ~ Review your notes on bureaucracy as you take notes on the inefficiency of the U.S. system how many federal employees work in this system? How many Americans do they serve? How is this system impacted by grants-in-aid? Fiscal federalism? What changes have been made to the system under devolution? (Specific information needed) In cooperative federalism, what changes were made to the funding, distribution, and success of social welfare? What changes occurred with categorical grants? Block grants? Web site to use or start with: 2017 Poverty Guidelines. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Assignment 2: Due: Thursday, 4.12 Outline for notes 1. Please read Chapter 16, pages , and keep in mind: 1

2 A prevailing principle in the U.S. is equality of opportunity, which in terms of policy is most evident in the area of public education. 1. Education of Equality of Opportunity ~ Definition of term with examples, types of equality, who actually receives those opportunities and why Take notes on the following: ~1964 Higher Education Act, Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, federal loans, federally subsidized college work-study programs, 1964 Elementary and Secondary Education Act ~ How are these programs funded? Entitlement? Where do you find them in the federal budget? ~ Impacted by what under Presidents Bush and Obama? Look at recent news what is the size of student loan debt in America today? Why would all those Americans have so much debt? How does each of them pay it off? Why do young people think today that the federal government has to subsidize their education? What is the difference between this funding and funding for social welfare programs? ~ Please take notes including the specific legislation passed and WHY it was developed and adopted: 1. School choice how is it funded? Why is it controversial? 2. School vouchers How are they funded? Who supports vouchers and why? 3. Mandatory High-Stakes Testing Why? When did these standardized tests become part of public education? Purpose? Controversies? What kinds of tests are students given in California and New York State? 4. NCLB Why? Source? Purpose? Controversy? Funding comes from where? 5. President Obama s education reform programs? Race to the top, Why? Source? Purpose? Controversy? Funding comes from where? If the federal government does not provide funding for public education reform, then how are these reforms funded? What happens to states if they do not fund these programs? ~Please read summary with purpose great way to review what you have just read and reviewed. Think about and come to class with your observations: What are the effects of privatizing the implementation of public policy? Make a list of the priorities of the implementation of education policy. These might include: educating students, doing so effectively, maintaining order in the schools, appeasing political offices, and so forth. How might these goals and their prioritization change if education policy was administered by private companies? Remake the list of priorities if the policy was to be implemented under a policy of privatization. What goals do those implementing policy seek to achieve when private actors rather than public actors perform the implementation? Some and other terms to know: Contributory programs Social Security Indexing Medicare Noncontributory programs Race to the Top Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) Means testing Medicaid Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Food stamps In-kind benefits Entitlement Grants-in-aid Block grants Fiscal federalism Poverty line Effective tax rate Transfer payment Public assistance Equality of opportunity School vouchers NCLB act of

3 Foreign policy Assignment 3: Due: Tuesday, 4.24 Note-taking, reading, and thinking 1. Please read Chapter 17, pages and the excerpts from the 2002 Bush Doctrine, and the Table of Contents from the 2010 National Security Papers. For more information: National Committee on American Foreign Policy. As you read take notes using the bolded headings in your textbook, as well as the following questions for your understanding. 1. What is national interest? In what ways is it related to the different instruments of foreign policy? Take notes on each one and be sure to write questions down for clarification. 2. What is the intelligence community? List the federal agencies provided in the textbook and make note of their creation under the 1947 National Security Act. 3. What is the economic exchange? Review the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement and the three bodies that were created to support and promote U.S. economic goals since WWII. 4. How does Congress get involved in this process? 5. What are the roots of the U.S. foreign and defense policy? Be sure to take notes and learn the different views of foreign policy both during the bipolar Cold War and the unipolar power structure. 6. What is multilateralism? Examples of this policy under Bush 41 and the Clinton Administrations? 7. The Bush Doctrine: While Candidate Bush advocated multilateralism, he followed a unilateral preemptive strike doctrine be sure to read the excerpts from the doctrine. 8. In what ways does the Bush Doctrine reflect the war on terror? What part did Congress play in President Bush s preemptive war doctrine? 9. What changes were made to the National Security community under Bush 43? Why? The creation of the DHS was the largest expansion of the federal government in our history. 10. How much does the U.S. spend today on the defense budget? Why? Go to the White House website, then the Foreign Policy link under Issues, and note the regional breakdown of the world and U.S. intervention in those regions. 11. What is American exceptionalism and how does it manifest itself in defense budget spending? 12. Explain the significance of the military-industrial complex in the politics of national defense. Assignment 4: Due: Thursday, 4.26 Please read Chapter 17, pages , and reading on the Obama Doctrine by Noam Chomsky Please visit this site and read up about this key foreign policy issue Nuclear Threat Initiative: Building a Safer World - As you peruse the web site, be sure to look at the people involved in this initiative; are any of them former federal government employees or elected officials? Who? Why? As you read take notes using the bolded headings in your textbook, as well as the following questions for your understanding. 1. What is the military industrial complex? Refer back to an assignment on military contractors that we had when we studied the executive branch. Think of linkage institutions, iron triangles what would be the SPECIFIC groups in iron triangles when it relates to the DoD and military defense contracts? 2. What cuts were made in the defense budget in 2013? Visit this web site, Stars and Stripes, and take note on the number of states that benefit from defense contracts TAKE NOTES as well Another linkage institution is the think tank do a quick lookup if you do not know what one is. As you read the article, 3

4 Think Tank Letter to Secretary Hagel and Senate Armed Services Committee: "Consensus on Defense Reforms," Published June 3, 2013, and understand this document as just one source, and not the all-encompassing source on this topic, use your notes from number 2, and think about all the factors that influence U.S. foreign policy decisions. This information could be used in a response to a FRQ, so please think of it as that in your organization and use of specific information and understanding of limited sources on this topic. 4. Be sure to write down definitions and examples of global trade and how foreign policy decisions promote this. What is NAFTA? (You need to know what it stands for and what it is, countries involved, products covered, impact of, and does it support free trade or not?) 5. What are transnational corporations? Name a few, as well as their significance in influencing foreign policy decisions. Where are the headquarters of Halliburton? Why? 6. U.S. foreign policy and access to oil: What nations and what foreign policy directives are influenced by oil? What wars has the U.S. been involved in due to our national security and need for oil? Why? Who was president during those wars? Years? In what ways does access to oil impact foreign policy directives concerning Russia? 7. Read about the Bretton Woods Agreement (1944). What is the World Bank? The WTO? The IMF? In what ways does U.S. membership and leadership in these international organizations impact foreign policy decisions? Check out this web sites and include information in your notes. International Monetary Fund - World Trade Organization - The End of the Bretton Woods Agreement ( ) - Foreign Policy Learning Objectives: What you need to know: Understand the different instruments of modern foreign policy: diplomacy, the United Nations, the international monetary structure, economic aid, collective security, and military deterrence, with examples. Define four worldviews: isolationism, containment, disengagement, and human rights Understand objectives, goals, and actions of the U.S. in its role of world leader after WWII. What is meant by rally round the flag? Explain how a bipolar and a unipolar world differ. Explain the structure of the defense decision- making process, including all linkage institutions. Explain the constitutional and legal context of foreign policy. Define kinds of foreign policy decisions: majoritarian, interest group or client politics Explain shifting patterns of leadership in foreign policy. Understand the limitations on the president s ability to give military or economic aid to other countries. Understand that organizational conflicts shape the details of foreign policy, but its broad outlines are shaped by public 4

5 and elite opinion. Understand when and why military intervention has been used in foreign policy decisions. Explain the significance of the military-industrial complex in the politics of national defense. Describe the structure of defense decision-making: Terms: National Security Act (1947) Joint Chiefs of Staff Bipolar world Unipolar world Bush Doctrine Obama Doctrine Executive agreement Client state Unilateralism Multilateralism Containment Majoritarian politics Joint Chiefs of Staff Polarization in American politics and impact on foreign policy decision-making today Human rights War Powers Act (1973) Military-industrial complex and foreign policy decisions Defense budget What do we get for our money? Military readiness Paradoxes of fighting insurgents today Deterrence Diplomacy Bretton Woods Agreement (1944) the IMF, the World Bank, the GATT, and the WTO Collective security Multilateral treaties Bilateral treaties And terms in textbook 5

CHAPTER 14: MAKING FOREIGN POLICY

CHAPTER 14: MAKING FOREIGN POLICY 1 Section 1: Foreign Policy Choices in a Complex World Section 2: How Domestic Actors Affect Foreign Policy Section 3: Foreign Policy and International Institution Section