Reading Questions CP (Week Nine)

by | Mar 28, 2014 | Reading Questions (CP)

1. Larry Bartels argues in effect that ideology significantly explains the rise in support for the estate tax repeal. How would you use Baumgartner's model to explain the increase in support for estate tax repeal? How would Baumgartner's explanation differ? ...

Reading Questions UPP (Week Nine)

by | Mar 26, 2014 | Reading Questions (UPP)

1.  What was new about President Nixon's New Federalism?  Revenue Sharing and block grant programs represented efforts to redistribute public funds from the federal to state and local levels of government.  How might these mechanisms of fiscal federalism operate...

Reading Questions CP (Week Eight)

by | Mar 20, 2014 | Reading Questions (CP)

1. Gilens contrasts the idea of political parties as vote maximizers against the idea of political parties as policy-oriented activists and interest groups. How does the data presented by both Gilens and Bartels complicate/support the idea that parties act one way vs....

Diane Ravitch on Education UPP

by | Mar 12, 2014 | UPP Projects

I'm going to start being more diligent from here on out sharing pertinent information for both classes. Today Salon publishes an interview with Diane Ravitch, once a strong proponent of standardized testing and accountability and now probably the strongest...

Reading Questions CP (Week Seven)

by | Mar 9, 2014 | Reading Questions (CP)

1. Last week we read about public opinion. The research suggested that we have different attitudes about egalitarianism AND that our attitudes (and ability to get those attitudes translated into policy) differ by socio-economic status. This week's reading deals...