Pols 350 Group and Minority Politics

Essay Questions

Take Home Mid-Term Essay Question
Due by 9:30 a.m. Thursday, October 26, 2000

As a twenty-two year old recent graduate of one of the top public universities in the midwest (ranked 3^rd by U.S. News & World Report), you have decided to bring your massive knowledge and many skills to the nation’s capital in pursuit of a satisfying and lucrative career influencing public policy. Rather than starting as a White House intern (too many trips to the grand jury) or a congressional staffer (too many nagging constituents), you look to the interest groups on K Street for your opportunity. Your run of good fortune continues as the group you would most like to work for is interested in hiring you to help staff their Washington office. But first they want you to demonstrate a sufficient understanding of groups in the American political system. The group’s executive director has submitted a series of questions for you to address in an informed, thoughtful, and coherent essay of five pages. Good luck!

• Why are interest groups so powerful in the American political system?

• Which of the roles typically played by interest groups do we do well? Which role could we do better?

• What advantages do we have over groups that might oppose us on key issues? What challenges do we face against our opponents in winning policy fights?
  

Take Home Final Essay Question
Due by 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 19, 2000

Congratulations! After just two short years (I know it seems more like two months) working on K Street you have received a well-deserved promotion. Your new responsibilities are to help map and oversee the group’s strategic and tactical plan for influencing public policies. The executive director has assigned you the initial task of completing a five-page blueprint for action on the issue of greatest importance to your interest group. The action plan must propose the most appropriate and potentially successful lobbying methods for your group and contrast those with the preferred tactics of groups opposed or sympathetic to your group in the policy fight.

Professor Rodd Freitag Schneider 200E Phone: (715) 836-5044                                    Fax: (715) 836-2944 Updated: September 4, 2000