Exam One Essay Constitutional Amendment

Transcription

1 Exam One Essay Constitutional Amendment Due Dates: (MW 9:30 a.m.) Sunday, September (TR 8:00 a.m.) Wednesday, September (TR 11:00 a.m.) Wednesday, September 26 Purpose: the purpose of this assignment includes the following: To craft a constitutional amendment that furthers an important value crucial to a representative republic and demonstrate understanding of how a constitution differs from a law/policy. To determine and explain how the three political cultures would view such a proposal considering each culture s values. To determine what compromise constitutional amendment might fnd common ground between at fewest two of the three political Your Constitutional Amendment/Social Responsibility Assignment will require you to submit a typed essay proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. For this exercise, you will be creating a proposed constitutional amendment from the perspective of, and consistent with, one the three competing political cultures of the United States, where each culture desires the following public good: Individualists seek liberty Traditionalists favor order Moralists promote equality After a brief introduction stating your goals, begin your essay by articulating the wording of your proposed amendment. As the Constitution is a document designed to fulfll ideals, you must be able to put in concrete words the change that will achieve a better governmental system. Isolate your proposed amendment as its own paragraph and be very clear. Keep this in mind about our constitution or any other: Elements of a constitution either grant a power to government, prohibit it, or some combination of the two; you are not merely expressing a desire of government to do something good, you are seeking to change the powers of Poorly-worded example: People should be free to fy around in balloons. A better example: Congress is prohibited from employing any of its powers, constitutional or statutory, to apply restrictions on the creation, commerce or use of lighter-than-air fying vehicles.

2 Two rules for the content of your amendment: 1. You may not deny any state its equal representation in the U.S. Senate, as dictated in Article V. 2. Your amendment may not declare as a right some tangible beneft for which government would be obligated to appropriate funds to provide (e.g. free health care, college education, etc.) There is outside help available for this assignment: Library staff have created a guide to assist you in this process. You can access the guide specifc to my GOVT 2305 assignments here: GOVT 2305 LibGuide If you wish to fnd guides for other courses, click here: Directory of Course LibGuides Scoring elements of Northeast Lakeview s Social Responsibility Rubric are listed before the topical questions below. Your score will be determined by how well you address these elements. The Social Responsibility Rubric is attached to give you clear descriptions of what constitutes addressing each element to earn ratings of poor, fair, good and excellent. To construct a well-organized essay, follow the steps below in order. Make sure to address each question directly and specifcally. The structure and mechanics of your paper are of less importance than your ability to address the issues presented below. Each step includes an (overly brief) example to help get you started in the right direction. Step One: Ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities: Describe what you goal you hope to obtain by changing the Constitution, and why the document in its current form prevents this goal; you are not merely writing a law or advocating government provide some beneft. Be specifc and consistent with the political culture to which you subscribe. How does your amendment further liberty (individualism), order (traditionalism) or equality (moralism)? What are the possible processes for adopting the amendment formally, and whom would you need to convince for this to be successfully proposed and ratifed? Example: This amendment is consistent with [political culture] s goal of, and it furthers this by... The formal constitutional amendment process can begin in one of two ways Step Two: Knowledge of civic responsibility: What would the successful ratifcation of your amendment mean for the powers of government? What expectation would you have for changes in law would likely follow? What are the implications for the citizenry? What are you as a citizen likely to lose or gain, and what would be your civic responsibilities be to comply with the new reality? Example: This amendment would bring noticeable change to society by. The effects on the lives of citizens would be to...

3 Step Three: Intercultural competence: Research the arguments that the rival political cultures might make in opposition to your proposed amendment. Identify one argument each from the two rival political cultures that you should expect to hear against your proposal and why. What compromise on the proposed amendment might exist between your position and those of its critics that might make its passage more likely? What alteration to your ideal amendment would you be most willing to make if it would guarantee its ratifcation? Consider this: if you can convince one of the two other cultures to sign on to your proposal, you would have the support necessary to succeed. Example: A point moralists would likely make against this amendment would be that... A compromise that might fnd common ground between we individualists and the moralists would be to modify my proposed amendment to Regarding format, your work is to be typed, double-spaced in 12-point font with 1 margins, left aligned and indent the frst line of each paragraph one-half inch. Include your Banner ID number and name in the upper-left corner of the frst page, and indicate the degree (not your major) you are seeking in the upper-right (this will be AA, AS, or AAT). If you do not know what degree you are pursuing, I can look that up in ACES for you. I expect that you can complete this assignment in 3-5 pages of typed work. Write in a manner that is appropriate for an academic paper in the subject of political science and follow a widely-accepted format for citing sources properly. Below are two helpful guides: APA Formatting and Style Guide MLA Formatting and Style Guide

4 You will be submitting a digital copy of your paper online via an assignment link in Canvas, to be checked by turnitin.com; papers with high likelihood of plagiarism may receive a grade of zero. Download an originality report when you submit to ensure your paper is unlike others work. Submit your work no later than 11:59 p.m. on your section s due date: (MW 9:30 a.m.) Sunday, September (TR 8:00 a.m.) Wednesday, September (TR 11:00 a.m.) Wednesday, September 26 On the following page is the NLC Social Responsibility Rubric. This is how Northeast Lakeview College defnes the various elements of Social Responsibility core competency, and it is applicable to assignments from any subject taught at NLC. Numerically I will assign you points (from 0 to 4) for each of the three elements to determine your essay score, where 12 is the highest total rubric points available: Essay score = * Ability to Engage Effectively in Regional, National, and Global Communities + 3.5*Knowledge of Civic Responsibility + 3.5* Intercultural Competence Expressed more simply: Essay score = *Total Rubric Points (0-12)

5 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ASSESSMENT RUBRIC Social responsibility includes intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities. Evaluators are encouraged to assign a zero to any work sample or collection of work that does not meet poor (cell one) level performance. Ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities Excellent 4 Demonstrates ability and commitment to collaboratively work across and within community Good 3 Demonstrates ability and commitment to work actively within community Fair 2 Demonstrates experience identifying intentional ways to participate in civic Poor 1 Experiments with civic Knowledge of civic responsibility Connects and extends knowledge (facts, theories, etc.) from one's own academic study/ feld/ discipline to civic engagement and to one's own participation in civic life, politics, and Analyzes knowledge (facts, theories, etc.) from one's own academic study/ feld/ discipline making relevant connections to civic engagement and to one's own participation in civic life, politics, and Begins to connect knowledge (facts, theories, etc.) from one's own academic study/ feld/ discipline to civic engagement and to tone's own participation in civic life, politics, and Begins to identify knowledge (facts, theories, etc.) from one's own academic study/ feld/ discipline that is relevant to civic engagement and to one's own participation in civic life, politics, and Intercultural competence Demonstrates evidence of adjustment in own attitudes and beliefs because of working within and learning from diversity of communities and Promotes others' engagement with diversity. Refects on how own attitudes and beliefs are different from those of other cultures and communities. Exhibits curiosity about Has awareness that own attitudes and beliefs are different from those of other cultures and communities. Exhibits little curiosity about Expresses attitudes and beliefs as an individual, from a one-sided view. Is indifferent or resistant to