Political Science 2041
Paper Assignment (Due Date: see syllabus)
Your paper should be original work, with a minimal use of quotes longer that 3 lines, and it should reflect you as a person in some way. Revealing your thoughts on a topic anyway.
We started the course with the assertion that maintaining order is one of the two principal reasons why human societies create governments. When people are asked to comment on the pluses and minuses of our government, they tend to raise points that are examples of the government maintaining order and regulating someone's behavior (seat-belt laws, environmental protection laws, beach use regulations, marriage laws, etc.).
During the twentieth century, governments at all levels significantly increased their regulatory activities. As societies have become more crowded and more complex, societies have asked their governments to do more to protect us from each other.
Is there now too much government regulation? Are there places where regulation is intruding unnecessarily? Are we being deprived of liberties we should enjoy? Alternately, if you would like to propose and new regulation, can you justify it?
To help you reflect about government regulation and maintaining order, you should propose one area of government (national, state, local) that should either noticeably relax or completely eliminate one of its regulations. Alternately, you can choose to strengthen existing regulations or add new ones. You should then give your reasons (at least two) justifying this change (argument) and note who would be helped and who would be harmed. Every change of law helps some group but hurts some other group. Write one paragraph about those who might be harmed and thus object to your proposed change: what would they say? (counter-argument). Then, provide what rationale or explanation you would give to lessen their concern (rebuttal).
The paper's minimum length should be 2 ½ pages (typed, double-spaced, standard margins, font size 12, Times New Roman). Make sure you address all the points listed in the previous paragraph. References in the text and a works cited page required
