Need Help Picking A Research Topic...AM. Federal Govt. ugh:(

[Lbelle]

Alright, so I need help picking a research topic for this class. The paper is worth 40% of my entire grade, and is supposed to be about 8-10 pages in length. Oh, and the class is American Federal Government, (POS2041 if that helps, lewl).

Here's some structure shit about it:

The first step of this assignment is to identify a research question that interests you. There are several criteria that you should consider when selecting a question.

A good research question should lead you to seek an explanation for political phenomena.

Political scientists attempt to explain, not simply to describe politics—though you cannot explain anything without describing it accurately in the first place.

Some questions can be answered through description alone e.g. how did Congressional procedures change after the GOP victories in the 1994 election?

This question is better:

Why was the GOP able to achieve control of Congress in the 1994 elections?


Basically I need to write a paper on something I'm interested in, and then the theory behind that. But, I have no idea about something I'm interested in that has a theory behind it...So ANY help would be really amazing, since I'm totally stumped.

Thanks~

[Talus]

Well, the federal government has potential for any number of topics, is there a particular phenomenon, department or agency you're interested in?

[Lbelle]

Nope, I just need something interesting enough to devote 8-10 pages on it, and be able to find research on it. Those are my only requests.

[Shuemue]

Well you like the internet, would the banning of online gambling be a potential topic? I'm from the UK so I don't really know how relevant it is, but it might be interesting.

[Treacherous]

I googled political phenomenon and this was the 2nd result lol

http://www.ipdi.org/UploadedFiles/Will% ... litics.pdf

[Xajii]

A very vague but extremely easy topic focus would be the power of the president and how it was allowed to increase over time. Blah blah imperialism blah blah war powers act etc etc. It's actually a good topic to write about since it's probably one of the most important things to look at with our current presidency.

[Joran]

Well you could always talk about the love-hate relationship between the persident/goverment officials and the general people. How to they affect our ideas and judgements, and how do we affect theirs? Could easily get a novel out of that, and many former politicians have.

[Lbelle]

I really like some of the ideas already posted, but would enjoy toying around with some other ones if any of you have any more ideas. So, little bumpage. :wink:

[Ace-o-fire]

how political campaigning is less about politics and more about

"The Other man running has a big mole on his face. Do you want a man with a mole to run your government?"

or you could do the series of tubes topic

[Sigi]

How about how some of the laws passed in recent years are direct violations of the Bill of Rights and how that applies to future legislation issues

[Aerin]

Another thing is the integration of various agencies into one broad one recently - DHS (Department of Homeland Security)

The Department was supposed to make talk between agencies easier if i'm not mistaken, but the result so far hasn't been that. People were complaining the integration of all the agencies was too much too fast and people were stepping on each others toes.

[evilbau]

gerrymandering and the effect on partisan politics

[Quicklet]

You suck at life.

Some possible ideas:

- Why has the size of the federal government (in particular, taxes + the federal budget) grown so much since the early 1900s? (Biggest details might be the changes that occurred due to the Civil War and The Great Depression / FDR's influence.)

A slightly more narrow topic related to that:
- Why is Social Security such an untouchable program? Most people understand that demographcially it is unsustainable in its current form, yet very few politicians are willing to address the issue because it might be unpopular with constituents (or perhaps for other reasons).

- Why have attempts at campaign finance reform / fairness been limited in their effectiveness, and to what extent does money supply affect a political candidate's chances to be elected at the national level?

There are some more I could probably think of too, just trying to think of the ones that would be doable in 8-10 pages and wouldn't be too difficult to examine.

But really, you suck at life.

[aurik]

Should rename this forum the "help me do my schoolwork" forum.

[Po]

A favorite thing of mine is the popular vote vs. the electoral college, and if you wanted, you could tie that into gore and florida, etc. ^^

Yes I agree.
I think you could find lots on this, as it is a very heated debate imo, and needs a good discussion.
Maybe talk about the pros and cons of each, and how the electoral college deters people to vote (myself included even though i do vote) as it makes the popular vote look like a front.
I could write 8-10 pages on that prob.

[Po]

I totally agree, I hate the electoral college, I think it directly insults the Americans intelligence in making them think they have a direct role in the choice of the current President. Gore and Kerry both won the last 2 elections imo, but the college was like nope, we are gonna put who we want kthx.
Probably will never happen though, and it is sad, it is a big takeaway from the democracy that we have.

[evilbau]

getting rid of the electoral college just won't happen. there are too many arguments against it. it takes a lot of state's power away. most states will be a near wash and once you abolish it, candidates will only campaign in the most populated places that still have undecideds. Rural areas will get frozen out of it.

you can create a sort of half measure like maine or nebraska but that encourages gerrymandering (back to my choice of topic lol)

[Sigi]

Even now, the argument about how state's power and the candidates would ignore the rural states is invalid. Why would a candidate campaign in Alaska... when California or Texas nets more electoral votes? The issues are a lack of involvement at the community level expanding to the outrageous amount of voter apathy. Even then, there are concerns that electronic voting (as it exists today) could EASILY be subverted.

[evilbau]

Even now, the argument about how state's power and the candidates would ignore the rural states is invalid. Why would a candidate campaign in Alaska... when California or Texas nets more electoral votes? The issues are a lack of involvement at the community level expanding to the outrageous amount of voter apathy. Even then, there are concerns that electronic voting (as it exists today) could EASILY be subverted.

it isn't a question of states power in comparison to other states, the higher electoral vote to population ratio means that relative to more populous states, they have a lot of power per capita, way more than california or texas. The point i'm making is that while smaller states have electoral votes disproportionate to their population means they have some power. If it was simply a popular vote, you would never go to alaska or some of the smaller new england states; going to a suburb of los angeles or new york will get you more votes. 2 or 4 electoral votes is still more significant than being counted as part of the popular vote.

The big states certainly get the most money, but in a popular vote contest (or weighted electoral college), they would get it all. Swing states will no longer have the power that they have.

I'm not saying that it is GOOD for the country, these are just reasons why it won't change. Ultimately it is a state's right on how its delegates vote. Federal legislators could change that but the smaller states would never vote for it (and with their disproportionately higher number of reps to population, they will have the 1/3 necessary to block such an amendment).

This really is a fascinating topic and think it would make a good paper but probably too deep. You would only be able to touch upon half a dozen points of a single facet of the issue in 8-10 pages.

[Epical]

Should rename this forum the "help me do my schoolwork" forum.

In her defense, she isn't asking to do it FOR her, she's asking us to help pick a topic for her to write on. :D