Federal Government 2305 Critical Thinking Paper Writing
Assignment
Political Party Policymaking Assignment – Overview
Federal policies include laws produced through the
legislative process, regulations produced
through the rulemaking process, case law developed through
the federal courts. The policies
produced by the federal government affect many aspects of
life for all groups of people within
in the United States. The behaviors of individuals,
institutions, state/local government, interest
groups, foreign governments, and multinational corporations
are affected in varying degree by
federal law, regulations, and court rulings. Thus,
stakeholders in federal policy include an
extremely diverse population of people who belong to many
different communities, cultures,
interest groups (formal and informal), political parties,
career fields, religions, and ideological
groups.
Policymaking is intended to solve problems and resolve
conflicts between competing interest
groups through social responsibility. Social responsibility
toward the public good is shared by
policymakers and citizens alike in the democratic proces of
governance and policymaking. This
process is largely organized into—and carried out
by—political parties, which are responsible
for informing their members of issues, problems, and
policies as well as working to ensure
candidate who support the parties’ causes are elected to
public office. In part this assignment
will address connections between students’ social
responsibility and aspects of federal
policymaking through the formation of political parties.
Assignment Instructions
In this Critical Thought Writing Assignment you will write a
five-page essay detailing the
following hypothetical situation:
You have the opportunity to form a new American political
party that will compete with the
two established American political parties (the Democratic
Party and the Republican Party) to
implement new federal policies. In essay format, please
describe a newly founded hypothetical
political party of your own design. Through answering the
series of objective-based questions
below, you will describe your new political party’s
identity, policy positions, voter base, and
political strategies. The questions do not have to be
answered in the order that they are listed,
but please answer all of the questions in the course of your
paper. Finally, be sure to include
the name of your new political party as well as a brief
description of your party’s mascot/logo
(e.g., the elephant is the mascot of the Republican Party).
In your five-page essay, you will answer the following
questions in the process of describing
your newly founded political party:
(a) What are the two currently dominant political parties in
the U.S. and which groups
of people form their party coalitions?
(b) What appear to be the main policy issues on which each
of the two dominant parties
focus and what are their positions on those policy issues
(top-three for each party)?
(c) What will be the top-three policy issues of your newly
founded political party and
how will your party’s positions on those policy issues
affect communities at the local
level, the national levels, and internationally?
(d) Although political parties generally seek members/voters
from all groups in the U.S.,
which specific group(s) of voters would your newly founded
political party
strategically seek support/donation funding/votes from to
form your party’s voter
coalition and why?
(e) What group(s) of people outside of your new party’s
voter coalition will your party
seek to convince of the virtues of your party in order to
gain their support and
votes?
(f) What campaigning, messaging, and/or marketing strategies
will your newly founded
political party use to grow support from people outside of
its membership
(g) If your newly founded political party were to be come
real, how would its policies
affect you as an individual member of the community?
(h) What steps could you take as an individual today to work
toward growing support
for the policies proposed by the hypothetical political
party you have designed for
this assignment?
Assignment Objectives – Through answering the above-listed
questions, your Critical Thinking
Writing assignment will be evaluated on the following
general criteria:
1. [Application of Knowledge] – This assignment requires
students to apply what they learn
from the discipline of Political Science centered on the
American federal government.
2. [Diversity of Communities and Cultures] – This assignment
requires students to
theoretically interact with diverse communities to reflect
on attitudes and beliefs in
respect to the effects of public policies.
3. This assignment requires students to reflect on what they
have learned through their
study of American federal government in terms of:
(A) [Civic Identity and Commitment] – The connections
between theoretical civic
engagement (with interest groups and communities) and
strengthening student self-
knowledge contributing to an enhanced sense of civic
identity.
(B) [Civic Action and Reflection] – The connections between
theoretical civic engagement
and strengthening students’ awareness of how civic activity
might benefit individuals
and communities.
(C) [Regional, National, and Global Communities] – Students’
understanding of their roles as
individuals in regional, national, and global communities as
it relates to the study of
American federal government.