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Chapter 16: Core Democratic Principles and Public Policy

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Flash Cards

Practice Quiz

Critical Thinking and Learning Exercises

  1. Conduct research on the Israeli–Arab conflict, and based on your research provide a brief summary that includes both sides of the conflict. Do you think that the United States has taken a side? If so, which side? In conducting your research, describe the term settlers as it relates to the conflict. Investigate the amount of land-loss by Palestinians before 1948 and compare it to current conditions.
  2. There has been quite a bit of discussion centered around corporate welfare and social welfare. Research the two concepts and provide brief summaries of each. See the following web link for background information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy.  Investigate farm subsidies that are provided to farmers in the United States. What are your thoughts regarding this program? Should it be continued or should it be eliminated?
  3. According to Martin Gilen in his book Why Americans Hate Welfare, many Americans possess negative attitudes toward welfare. In your research, estimate the amount of money that the United States spends on two social welfare programs—Medicare and Medicaid. What are some of the differences between these two programs? Provide the percentages of groups who receive Medicare and Medicaid by race. Are your findings consistent with your prior beliefs about the amount of welfare received by each group?

Links to further Resources

The Policy Agendas Project

http://www.policyagendas.org/

Housed at the University of Texas at Austin, the Policy Agendas Project is a massive storehouse of data on policy agendas in the United States since World War II. The data stored here allow researchers to track and study changes in the policy agenda across all of the institutions of government and also the media.

Policy Almanac Listings of Major Public Policy Organizations

http://www.policyalmanac.org/directory/General-Organizations.shtml

The Policy Almanac provides a listing of organizations and “think tanks” that study public policy problems and offer analysis and recommendations to policymakers. These organizations cover a wide range of ideological ground, which reflects the pluralist values of our free democratic society.