Friday, March 28, 2008

Goals and Objectives for Quiz 5: 2301 and 2302 - 16 week

Here's what students should know following the next set of lectures in 2301 and 2302:

2301: Elections and Political Parties
AG: Chapters 10 and 11
PTP: Chapters 4 and 5

- understand the role elections play in a democracy
- know the nature of the electoral system created in the US Constitution
- understand the role states play in organizing elections
- know what a winner take all election is, and its consequences.
- understand the way that electoral design can manipulate outcomes
- be able to define what a political party does and how it does it
- understand the history of political parties in the US
- know the difference between the major parties and who their supporters are
- understand how and why the strength of parties ebbs and flows over time

2302: Public Policy and the Economy
Up and Down With Ecology The "Issue-Attention Cycle"
AG: Chapter 14
PTP: Chapter 11

- be able to define public policy
- know the stages in the public policy process
- be familiar with the concept of an issue attention cycle
- know how the Constitution shapes economic policy
- know the difference between fiscal and monetary policy
- be able to define terms related to taxation
- understand what a market economy is and what merits and deficiencies it has
- be able to define market failure, and its four major features
- know how the economy changed from the 19th to 20th century
- the Great Depression and its aftermath
- current issues associated with economic policymaking