POLS 206 10th Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 9 Lecture 10 is a partial lecture so the notes will be added up but are not included in the exam review because the review is being posted sooner than lecture 10 Lecture 1 August 27 What are some of the challenges confronting America Growing national debt Partisan bickering Political scandals National security Private emails Unemployment rates Foreclosures Ongoing military obligations and Environmental concerns How can the government be perceived negatively Through the media and how it poorly portrays odd events Pushes buttons to create a big impact There are also unrealistically high expectations of the government there is a huge gap between expectation and reality Separation of powers creates gridlock and the maintenance of the status quo How can the government be perceived positively There are a lot of things that the government can do to shine positive light on it We have a strong common defense with armed forces free education system and subsidized college education centers for disease control bacteria health and vaccines social services and social security and orphanages Lecture 2 August 29 What is Politics As Harold Laswell describes it it is a process by which you decide who gets what when and how Politics is all about resolving conflict in a peaceful way It involves negotiation bargaining and compromise What is the Rational Choice Theory The rational choice theory weighs costs benefits and probabilities It discusses how even though as a group people would have done well together there is always that one person who produces more and devalues the production of others This also illustrates the idea of a Hobbesian world where without government life would be brutal and short and that people are self interested What is Collective action This is the phenomena that talks about how individual rationality leads to collective irrationality It is difficult for individuals to organize for the betterment of the group due to selfish interests Need a central authority to step in occasionally like the president of the united states Lecture 3 September 3 What is the current state of affairs as of September 3rd The President postpones the Syrian strike and asked for congressional authorization for the use of force Is he required to do this No technically he has 60 days to put troops on the ground before congressional approval needs to be granted However he does have to notify them At the end of the day congress does not want to look dis unified form the president After this what happened next Some members of congress do not know if an air strike is the best idea or if it is even necessary Also some do not think that an air strike is enough What are some implications of collective action Even when people agree with the goal it is often difficult to achieve The government exists to reduce collective action problems where individuals will rarely cooperate unless compelled of punished to do so Ask yourself What is best for the collectivity Explain the Housing Crisis and how it was a collective action failure A lot of people wonder how we even got to this point There is plenty of blame to go around due to multiple administrations In general the logic of collective action is the common thread where every homeowner was doing the best thing for themselves After 9 11 hit the Federal Reserve Bank lowered interest rates to stimulate economic recovery they kept the rates too low for too long and this is what caused an interest crash in 2008 On top of that lenders and Wall street and ratings agencies were irresponsible with risk and bad payments and sold off bad bonds eventually culminating in the crash Lecture 4 September 5 What are goods Goods are commodities things or assets that we all get even if we didn t help in its creation Not everyone pays taxes Positive goods are things like roads bridges damns security and police Negative goods are things like pollution crime terrorism war and economic recession There is also an entity known as private goods where the consumption of the good costs the individual something Something like eating out at restaurants private education cell phones and laptops Explain the early colonial experience and how it shaped this country Initially each colony had a charter working with England Provide for direct rule by king but allowed for self governing Property owning males were elected as representatives and Governors were appointed by the King However there became a need for a confederacy by 18th century after the French and Indian War high British taxation causing the Colonists to revolt and eventually led to the declaration of independence and the articles of confederation Lecture 5 September 10 What was inherent in the Articles of Confederation The basic ideals instilled in the articles was that all national power was placed in congress and super majorities with unanimous consent created change in policy It was based upon a weak national government However the number of collective action problems became evident because the government could raise armies and navy and enter into treaties yet they could not regulate interstate commerce or raise taxes The lack of a national currency made it difficult to have transactions take place between the states What happened at and what caused the Philadelphia Convention Economic trouble motivated delegates to be sent to a meeting to avoid civil war or revolution It is here where they agreed to amend the articles but not completely change them which is what eventually really what ended up happening Rules were changed so that ratifications would take place with 9 13 states approval Who was James Madison And why is he important today At the convention Madison emerged as the leader and the father of the constitution His philosophy as well as that of the founding fathers about human nature is what set a precedent for the governmental structure People are selfinterested and they created ways to channel that selfish interest into something productive Lecture 6 September 12 What is described in Federalist 51 The underlying theme is that ambition must be made to check ambition Checks and balances are necessary and we need institutions keeping an eye on each other We want a slow process without swift change and institutional differences between each branch What are some of the important things to know about each branch of the government The House should be larger than the senate more