Midterm Study Guide & Presentation Guidelines

MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE

 

During the midterm, you will respond to 5 short answer questions. You will have more than 5 to choose from. You will have as much time as you need to take the exam. You will be able to use handwritten or typed and printed notes on paper, but you will NOT be able to use your book, internet or any other electronic source. You will take the exam at home and will be on your honor to abide by these requirements. If you can answer the following study questions following these guidelines, you will do well on the midterm.

 

1) Discuss why and how people participate, or do not participate, in their democracy. Why is participation desirable? In what ways is it essential? Please ensure your answer reflects the ideas set forth in our textbook and/or class handouts.

 

2) Choose one of the people you’ve met through your community partner project – it should be someone who inspires you in some way. Discuss the subtle and obvious ways in which this person participates. What does the person inspire in you in terms of your aspirations for your own future life and work?

 

3) In what ways is your community partner an active or passive participant in the community in which it operates? Use the criteria outlined in Figure 4.1 on page 71 of your textbook to guide your answer. Remember, you may use notes during the exam, but you may not use your book.

 

4) Do you agree that political parties are in “decline, decay,and demise” (Bowman 93) in the US? Why or why not? Cite specific examples.

 

5) Define the term “capacity” as it relates to state and local governments and the agencies or organizations that help fill in the gaps left by state and local governments. Apply this term to the ability of your community partner, or aborted community partner, to meet its goals.

 

6) What are the roles of interest groups, lobbyists and PACs within our democracy? Are these roles generally positive or negative?

 

7) Define “subsidiarity” as you understand it thus far in the semester. How might the process of “devolution” be related to subsidiarity?

 

8) Reflect on the term “charity” and how it differs from “service.” Which of these terms best reflects the call to “honor the dignity and sacredness of each person” (Hallmarks)?

 

9) Reflect on the term “community” and the way it is used in the Hallmarks. In what ways does your community partner organization attempt to develop community with and for the people it serves? What are the unique needs of the people served by your CP?

 

 

MIDTERM PRESENTATIONS

 

Please give a 5-10-minute presentation introducing your CP, addressing the areas outlined below. Record your presentation and post it on the internet. Provide a link to the presentation on your blog. 

 

Complying with time limits and other guidelines is an important skill that will serve you well in your future professional life. Please time your presentation and ensure that it is between 5 and 10 minutes. Points will be deducted for each minute the presentation in greater than or less than these amounts. 

 

* How does its work fulfill or supplement the goals of a state or local government, etc.?

* What is the work involved? 

* What has been enjoyable about it so far? 

* What problems or challenges have arisen so far? 

* Choose 2-3 Hallmarks that seem most relevant to this organization and explain why.

* What do you most look forward to for the remainder of your service time?

Module 7

Week 7 / Week of February 22

 

State Constitutions. This week, please read and reflect on Chapter 3, State Constitutions. Find and summarize an example of an effort to update or challenge a state constitution… it can be any state in the US and any time, recent or not. Your summary must demonstrate that you have read the chapter in your textbook and are applying that text’s concepts as you learn about the example you are summarizing. You can most effectively do this by making direct references to the concepts and information found in your textbook and relating them to the details about the real life example you summarize.

 

Please note that next week we are already at midterm time. You will be making a presentation about your community partner project and we will have a midterm exam. The midterm will include key concepts from the reading… if you’ve been doing your reading in the textbook, you should do just fine. There will be a study guide. Both the study guide and details about the presentation format and contents will be provided by the end of this week.

Module 6

Week 6 / Week of February 15

 

Impeachment, acquittal, condemnations, declarations… this past week has challenged Republicans to think deeply. One could argue that it was the Tea Party, with its origin more than 10 years ago as an interest group, a faction, a movement… that set in motion the themes that have either invigorated the Republican party or torn it apart, depending on where you stand. What was the Tea Party, and what has it become? This week, after you read Chapter 5 of your textbook, please also read this additional article from 2011, titled “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.” A link is below and I can also send you a PDF file if you prefer.

 

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/williamson/files/tea_party_pop_0.pdf

 

Much has happened since this article was published. Having just learned the differences between political parties and interest groups, please reflect on how you would categorize the Tea Party both at its origin, as described in the article, and as it has evolved until today. It’s a great example of how interest groups can morph into political parties over time.

 

Blog entry #9 should be at least one full page of writing and should specifically respond to the questions and comments in this Module.

Module 5

Week 5 / Week of February 8

 

Subsidiarity. Devolution. Group meet by Zoom Thursday, 7pm / make-up meeting with individuals as needed.

 

Some of you are behind. This week’s assignment will be relatively light so you can have time to catch up. Please use that time wisely to get caught up by reviewing previous module assignments from Weeks 1-4 and getting those tasks done. If you are still not paired up with a community partner organization, this should be a huge priority. 

Are you having trouble with the reading from last week because it's in images? Easy fix: print them out, do your highlighting and annotation, then take a picture and embed that picture in your blog post.

 

I’d also like to have a class zoom gathering. Evenings seem to work best for most of you, so I’m proposing this Thursday, February 11, at 7pm. I will send a zoom invite link. Please do your best to attend, and if you can’t attend, please send me some alternate days/times that would work better for you.

 

Blog entry #8: 

Part 1: Re-read the section on subsidiarity from last week’s powerpoint slide handout. Also do some research online to learn more about this concept. Define “subsidiarity” in your own words. How is the concept of subsidiarity as discussed in this passage related to “devolution” as described in your textbook? 

Part 2: Google “devolution in Kenya” for an ambitious example of how governments might use devolution to achieve a desirable level of subsidiarity. Can you think of some examples of devolution from the US? Any time you hear the Federal government say (paraphrasing) “leave it up to the states,” that might be an example of devolution. Similarly, a state government saying “leave it up to the counties,” or a county government saying “leave it up to the individual cities.”

NB: Reflect on these readings and questions in your blog entry. Your blog entry should be several paragraphs in length and show evidence of having done the assignments referenced in this paragraph.

Week 4

Week 4 / Week of February 1

 

Participation, Solidarity & Elections. If there’s one thing we can say about our 2020 elections, it’s that people participated. We may not like the way they did it, but participation, measured by voting, blogging, and the general “noise” level, was high. (As I write this, I am aware of recent stories in the news about non-participation as well… some argue that notvoting is a valid form of participation in a democracy – are they right? Why or why not?) 

 

This week’s chapter explores citizen participation. For many, that means voting in elections, but participation can take many, many more forms than just voting. The fact that state and local governments, and the organizations that support them, operate in such close proximity to us, means that we have opportunities to participate in numerous everyday ways. Petitioning for a speed bump on your street is a form of participation, but so is a well-intended conversation with a neighbor who you know is one of the speeders. A skilled community activist who really knows her community might spend a year having such conversations every time the opportunity arises, and at the end of the year, find that speed bumps are no longer needed. She has succeeded in raising awareness of the issue, meeting people where they are, and bringing real change to their behavior. Speeding is no longer a problem on the street. Without ever attending a formal meeting or filing a piece of paperwork, she has participated deeply in her local government by solving a problem that previously resulted in injuries to people and animals, required additional policing of the street, and divided neighbors against each other. 

 

Blog #6

Your Community Partner organization is probably, on some level, solving a perceived problem that exists at a state or local level. Service delivery relating to homelessness, food insecurity, academic progress, childcare, discrimination, job training, interview preparation, day worker safety, environmental problems, and so much more are all examples of functions that state or local governments might attempt to address, and community organizations are often the means by which they address them. What problem(s) is your CP trying to address? How can members of the community in which it operates help through their participation? In what ways does this serve an end of a local government entity? Use conversations with your CP if you can, along with the concepts outlined in your textbook to answer these questions. This will be the focus of your Blog entry #6.

 

Blog #7

To take a different view of participation, we turn to “Solidarity, Common Good and Participation” from a book called Living Justice. This chapter examines participation from the tradition of Catholic social thought. You don’t need to be Catholic to appreciate its nuanced discussion – do you agree with the author? Do you disagree? Why? How is the discussion of participation in this passage different from the one in your textbook? Do a close reading of the chapter, which I have forwarded by email and posted to the class website. “Close reading” means read the short passage at least 3 times and highlight / annotate in a different color each time. Each reading should be done on a different day. You can do this with highlighters on paper, or using a highlight feature in a viewer. Please snap an image of one highlighted and annotated page and embed it in this Blog #7 entry.

 

Extra Credit points for Blog #7: Add a reflection on the “close reading” method of reading the chapter 3 times with 3 different highlighters / annotation colors. How was it different to read the passage the second time? The third time? Did you notice different details or have different insights each time?

 

Finally, this is a special week on our campus – Foundresses Week – commemorating the formation of the order of nuns who founded our university, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, on February 2, 1804 in Amiens, France. From a core pair of just two women, Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Bourdon, the order grew into the multi-national order of Sisters that it is today. Although NDNU is experiencing trouble, Notre Dame schools elsewhere are still thriving. In Africa, the order of SND de Namur is growing, even as becoming a nun holds less appeal to young women in the US and Europe. These Sisters spend their entire lives dedicated to community and participation.

 

 

Solidarity, Common Good & Participation