Unit 3 Summative Project

BY: Hunter Meadows

What are the ways people can participate in the political

process?
People can engage themselves in the voting process, they can start or join an
interest groups where they can donate money and fight for what they want with a group
of people who share their interests. They can email the congress, a person can even run
for local office, protests, seminars, and Announcements at schools. The public can do
more than just vote, the options are endless.

How does the electoral college encourage or discourage

citizen participation in presidential elections?
It does both, it encourages citizens to participate in presidential elections in
citizens in swing states where their votes truly do matter but it does discourage citizens
in a one-sided party states. There are popular votes and the electoral votes, a candidate
can lose votes from most states (popular vote) yet still win the election due to the
"important" states voting for them (electoral votes) This can both encourage and
discourage citizen participation, one can feel as though they don't have a place to vote,
and one can feel as though they are the difference and change the outcome of the votes.

Why do citizens choose to participate in or avoid the public

policy process?
It is their chance for the government to address their problems, it is their chance
for their voices to be heard, it is their chance to pressure the congress to try to solve the
problem they are trying to overcome. These normal people can make a change in their
environment by voting, by the media, by any forms of process they can gain access to.
Some may avoid to participate due to the misconception "money is the only way a
voice can be heard" true money is a bonus but it is not everything, people can be
intimidated by the excessive lobbying that they don't wish to associate themselves with.

What are the ways political parties play a role in politics?

Political parties basically are the ones who hold the place of president. What I
mean is that usually when voting, the one who is elected is from a political party, either
democrat or republican or by any chance a third party which is unlikely. Aside from
just the president, political parties shape the government and the people. In
government, there are people from all different types of political parties, the president
can be a democrat while the vice can be a republican.

How does the political party system in the US compare with

systems in other countries?
The US is unique with its diverse amount of political parties they have, there are a
lot of parties, there are democrats, republicans, and all the other third party. Citizens
have the constitutional rights to associate themselves with any party they wish to be
associated with. That is a major difference between the U.S. and other countries. People
can simply say they want to be a democrat and later on wish to be part of the green
party. A lot of countries do not give their citizens that kind of freedom. The U.S. has so
many different political party and each political party has the right to run for whatever
they please.

How do the major parties compare to the minor parties in

the US?
The major parties are the democrats and the republicans, these two parties put
more money and technically have more support than all the minor third parties.
Another point is that minor parties are less generalized and more specific than major
parties, major parties have their beliefs on almost every topic and issue and their beliefs
are out there in the public for everyone to see and judge whether they believe the same
or not. While minor groups are not so generalized, they usually have their small set of
topics and issues that not a lot of people even know about let alone even heard of the
minor party itself.

What are the ways interest groups play a role in politics?

Interest groups are basically just a group of regular people who share a common
interest and want their goals to be heard and their suggestions to be taken into
consideration. Interest groups can be donated to, they can hold public speeches, they
can advertise, they can even protest, anything they can do to get their voices heard.

Compare and contrast political parties and interest groups.

Political parties are more generalized than interest groups, interest groups are a
group of citizens united to enforce a certain topic! Interest groups represents what the
people want, while political parties are more of a national group that covers different
issues unlike an interest group who usually address one issue.

What are the different ways people can affect government

decisions?
The people can form interest groups to let their opinions be heard, people can hold
protests, they can email a government official, they can go on a talk show and use the
influence media has! They can go to schools and gain more people to protest. The
people can vote and petition.

What role does media play in shaping public opinion?

The media is a very influential source of information, people usually watch
channels that usually agree with what they are saying, and the people repeat what they
see on tv, it is easy access, and most of the information they have to tell are from the
media. The media molds what the public think and say, people usually only watch
channels that support their views and gain extra information on their beliefs.

How does media encourage or discourage civic

participation?
Media can both encourage and discourage. Media is a very scary thing to people,
and sometimes people wish not to associate themselves with the major political stuff
that goes on in media. Some people notice the flaws in the information the media is
portraying and those people will point them out and start protesting, take a stand, and
just express themselves on the issue.

How and what information can be obtained from public

records?
Public records are what they are, they are public records; not confidential. Anyone
can access public records and what they can gain is the high school they went to, where
they lived, what extra curricular activity, if they have gone to prison or not, the emails
they have sent during their job and all that. With this information, one can find out of
the source is truly credible or not and with this information they can just gain whatever
they need to totally end a persons career in the government business.

What are the factors in shaping and measuring public opinion?

There are elections that can take place to determine how the public feel, there
could be conferences where the people can state their feelings to a certain topic. There
can be votes to determine how the people feel, there is education involved, there can be
surveys done, there can be polls done, there can be "which political party do you
support?" type of thing, figuring out which political party they support can tell a lot
about the person and their political views and everything.

What role does public opinion play in the governmental

decision making process?
It will determine if the decision that the government is trying to do is truly in the
public's interest or not. If the government were to establish a law that the people
disagree with, it can cause an uproar, it will make the people think a dictatorship may
be taking place, and the people will want change. So the government must take public
opinion to consideration to continue federalism, to continue the relationship between
the government and the people.

Show how arguments supported by evidence and data are

stronger than those supported by only a belief system.
People like numbers, numbers will establish a person's credibility, bringing data
and evidence will move a person to a certain belief unlike just stating beliefs and "I
believe" and "I think" People have different beliefs so not everyone will side with that
topic. People are moved with numbers, with words, with passion. The belief system is a
system outdated in this day and age.

Explain how compromise and consensus building is used to

create public policy.

Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures,

courses of action, and funding priorities. Public policy are laws, measures, actions, and
priorities set by the government, and the government is filled with people from
different political parties and with different views on certain issues, so these people
must reach a compromise on a certain a certain issue to make a law on it, though this
compromise may not exactly or fully comply to their political parties beliefs, it satisfies
all the parties of the people who are establishing the law. So they compromise and
consensus on the law and execute it as public policy.

Prepare and support arguments that could be used to

persuade an audience on a specific topic or issue.
There are three terms all public speakers know and follow; Ethos, Logos, and
Pathos. Ethos is establishing credibility, they must bring information that is credible
and not just some lie that is so easily spot out, they must have statistics; numbers;
Logos, people are simple people who are moved by numbers, when the audience hears
numbers they just put their full attention on the topic, and passion; pathos, numbers and
credibility are just lifeless words and numbers without passion, they must play with the
audience heart strings in order to gain the audience's votes, or support. One can look at
the public records of the opposing candidate/team and get some dirt on them and just
hit the other team with flaws they have done that affect the debate.

Show an understanding of how to defend one side of an issue.

Though "repairing the holes that the other team or candidate made to your ship" is
something that should be done but that is not the only way to defend one side, prove
them wrong, proving them wrong will ultimately gain the audience attention, proving
the opposing team wrong will shut down the debate, why would anyone support a team
that has been proven wrong, so proving the other person wrong is key to defending and
winning one side of an issue.