American Political Ideology

You will write a minimum 4 page essay that answers EACH of the 4 following sections (you could do one section per page), making sure that you use 4 sources listed on an additional works cited page (4 pages PLUS 1 for works cited)  You will need to use in-text citations following APA guidelines each and every time you quote or paraphrase from the sources you use. You do not need a title page or abstract, and you don’t need to be concerned with transitioning from paragraph to paragraph or how the full essay narrates, just answer each section and make sure it fills out 4 pages. 1. Do you consider yourself to lean liberal or conservative, or are you more moderate? In the opening of this essay you will identify the ideology you feel you most align with, and briefly explain why you feel this is the case.  This will serve as a form of introduction or thesis.  You will then answer the following questions in separation sections. It can be necessary in this section to show you understand this ideology you align with by defining it, and the textbook can help you with that…..but you MUST in this first section refer to one online ideology “quiz” you can take online, meaning you would have to cite that quiz/site as one of your required sources. 

2. Pick a controversial ECONOMIC issue and explain your view on the government’s role in this issue.  It’s important to avoid any international/foreign policy issues, and if you were to say pick immigration you would have be specific as to how you are connecting it the economy as opposed to debates over border control.  Typically though students will write about taxes, the role of government in healthcare, socialism vs. capitalism, climate change and proposals to deal with and how that can impact the economy, the government’s response to Covid-19 and how that impacts the economy, minimum wage increase, student debt crisis, social security, Medicare, Medicare for All, government spending, military spending, and the like, but you can easily find examples all over the internet. 

3. Pick a controversial SOCIAL issue, and discuss your view on the government’s role in dealing with that issue. It’s important to avoid issues that would be considered more economical or that deal with international problems. Some may see education as being a social issue (along with immigration) so you could select those but of course that means you can’t write about those as your economic issue for section 2. (Make sure it doesn’t overlap with the economic issue you pick in section 2).  Feel free to use any opinion articles online to highlight any ideological view on this issue that you share.  Students tend to write about controversial social issues like abortion, gender roles & feminism, LGBT issues, the drug war, the death penalty, freedom of speech, gun control, religious issues, race relations, etc.

4. What are your views on Federalism?Make sure to define and show your understanding of Federalism, and then provide an argument in favor of stronger central government vs. more regional/state control.  To argue in favor of either of these positions you can refer to one or both of your controversial political issues from sections 2 & 3 as “examples” of how/where you stand, so you can refer to whether you feel the federal government or the states should deal with those issues. There are also various sources all over the internet on the federal vs state debate on such issues that you can use and cite.