Who Has the Power? (unless other topic has been approved)

For the written assignment, you will explain how the constitutional structure that shapes American politics. Write a 3-4 page paper on the relative power of the president, Congress, and the federal judiciary in which you complete the following:

• Of the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court, rank which you think has the most power, which has the second most, and which has the least. Support your position with specific examples.

• If you think that two or all three have equal amounts of power, explain why.Discuss limitations on the power of each branch of government. Be sure to consider Articles I, II & III of the US Constitution. Does it make a difference if powers are implied or enumerated? Do current events make a difference in a branch's level of power? Please provide examples to strengthen your arguments.

Draw extensively on information from all relevant chapters of textbook (which may count as one of you sources) and relevant presentations.

Use well-constructed paragraphs and sentences.

Requirements

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.

• Length: 3-4 pages (This does not include the title page or the bibliography).

• Resources: Use at least three scholarly sources from the library or Internet. All may be online and one must be your book. Wikipedia, about.com, ehow.com, etc are prohibited. Instead, you might utilize the textbook and start at http://whitehouse.gov.

• APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to APA (6th edition) style and formatting. Examples are available through the library link found to the left in the Canvas courseroom or at www.citationmachine.net

• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

• Doublespace

Note: For Social Sciences, one of the primary learning objectives is critical assessment. For the political science department in particular, critical assessment of patterns and relations of power is a primary goal. This is, in fact, required to maintain state course accreditation. Indeed, the final essay is broad and covers an enormous amount of materials, and this is purposefully so. Nearly every topic we have covered has entire textbooks written on it. The goal for your course capstone paper is to research and assess complex information and communicate their impacts on the topic(s) at hand. The topic for your essay this quarter was purposely chosen to incorporate many American Government-specific learning outcome goals (See syllabus link for a list of those) and to allow you some creativity in choosing how you approach the topic. I am happy to work with you and read drafts if the drafts are emailed to me 7 days prior to the final due date.. It is at the discretion of each instructor to accept other pre-approved topics which I personally do allow each quarter so that students may always have input. If you wish to write on a different topic, I must receive an email from you by July 20, 2014.