Chapter 1: The Political Landscape
Provide a list of five ways that the government has directly affected your life in the last 24 hours. Based on this list and the material in Chapter 1, prepare a one-page argument on whether government should become smaller, larger, or remain about the same.

Chapter 3: Federalism
Read the 2000 Budget Letter to President Clinton from the National Conference of State Legislatures. After reading the letter, write a one-page paper summarizing the states' concerns expressed to the President.

Chapter 5: Civil Liberties

1. Take an area of the law that interests you and see what the Supreme Court has said most recently about the issue. To do this, you might want to use a Web Search Engine to find the Web Sites for CNN or MSNBC or Washington Post, and then search those sites for recent information about Supreme Court decisions.
   
   
2. Find and analyze the most recent public opinion polls on physician-assisted suicide. In the 1998 general election, find what states had on their ballots proposals dealing with physician-assisted suicide. Identify the similarities and differences between the proposals. Provide a state-by-state brief summation of whether the proposals were defeated or approved, and describe what role, if any, did public opinion play in what happened to the proposal. (You could do the same type of assignment for gay marriage proposals or the legalization of the medicinal use of marijuana.)

Chapter 6: Civil Rights
By this time you should be able to navigate the Web with ease. Pick a civil rights issue covered in your text that is of concern to you. Then find places on the Web that deal with your issue. Most of the issues discussed in the chapter inspire strong beliefs on both sides. Please download information on both sides of your issue and come to class prepared to debate.

Chapter 7: Congress

1. Begin to familiarize yourself with the member of the House of Representatives who represents your home district. If you are not an U.S. citizen, then pick the member of the House who represents the district where your college or university is located. To do this, you may want to go to the CapWeb site. Begin to fill out the information for the member on the assignment sheet.
   
   Print and complete the attached sheet.

2. Go to The National Budget Simulation. Play the long version of the game. Familiarize yourself with items contained in your favorite programs in the budget. Come to class prepared to defend your budget to members of your caucus and party and then on the floor (or the House/class). Prepare your defense with your argument(s) about the proper size of government in mind that you prepared for the Chapter 1 assignment. You should also know where your member of Congress might stand on some of the items in the budget, as well as the budget as a whole. This assignment will also be used to discuss notions of congressional representation in class.
   
   Chapter 8: The Presidency
   The White House has an excellent web page. Go for a visit. What did you learn about the presidency that you didn't know from reading your text? Hopefully, no more than one typed page.
   Chapter 10: The Judiciary
   Read a recent Supreme Court case. You can find major cases at: www.law.cornell.edu/supct/supct.table.html
   Print and complete the attached sheet.
   Chapter 12: Political Parties
   
   1. The Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the Reform Party, the Green Party, and even the Natural Law Party have websites. Try the Republicans' Web Control at and the Democrats. Be prepared to discuss how the parties are organized, how they are competing in a technological age and how technology is changing political parties (or the need for them, witness the unnewsworthiness of the 1996 conventions). Also come prepared to discuss one third party--how it was founded, what are its goals, etc. Some third party sites: Green Party
      Reform Party

   2. Locate copies of the Republican, Democratic, and at least one third-party presidential platform. Think about and be ready to discuss what the platforms say about political parties. (Have copies of the platforms in your notebook; you will be using these later in the semester too.

   3. Explore the home pages of the Republican and Democratic parties as well as their respective pages in the U.S. Congress. Which party appears to be more in tune with new technologies? Why?

   Chapter 13: Voting and Elections and Chapter 14: The Campaign Process
   Would you like some fun recreational reading? Try All's Fair by Matalin and Carville or Primary Colors, Anonymous (better known as Joe Klein). Both provide interesting accounts of the 1992 presidential campaign.
   Chapter 16: Interest Groups
   Interest groups involve themselves in politics in all kinds of ways. Familiarize yourself with one group that engages in political campaign activity. That may mean it also has a PAC; it may not. Prepare a profile of an interest group that should contain the information requested in the assignment sheet.
   Print and complete the attached sheet.
   
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