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Political Reform Op-Ed Assignment
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by Susan Ikenberry
Georgetown Day School
Washington, District of Columbia
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and David Lublin
Georgetown Day School
Washington, District of Columbia
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Note to Teachers
This assignment is a good example of the sort of assignment that can be used in nonelection years. In fact, this format can be used over and over again by pulling individual topics out. There could be an op-ed on Electoral College reform, one on congressional reform, campaign finance reform, and so on.
For teachers who want their students to write, this is an ideal format. It also reminds us of how much students often like to take sides and debate. If students wrote on a particular aspect of reform, the teacher could easily stage an impromptu debate, which would work even without a more elaborate preparation. If the topic were narrowly prescribed, a classic timed debate would work well. If students wrote on various aspects of one issue, a "fishbowl" format might allow for a more nuanced discussion.
It's worth remembering too that letters to the editor on these sorts of topics are another useful way of getting students to write on issues, and that occasionally a paper will publish one, and that is always thrilling for the student (and to the teacher!). If the topic is at all current, another variation is to consider a letter to the student's Congressperson, which would work particularly well if the students as a whole took a range of approaches to the issue. It would be easy to take a few paragraphs from the papers to send, and getting the Congressperson's letter in response is always interesting to students. This is an assignment that can keep on giving in one way or another.
Student Assignment: Op-Ed Writing
For this paper, you will write a brief opinion piece (2.5-3 pages double-spaced), either advocating or opposing a political reform, of the type that would appear on the editorial page of a major newspaper like the New York Times, Washington Post, or Wall Street Journal. Your opinion piece may either advocate for a reform or explain why a proposed reform is unwise. Examples of acceptable topics include but are not limited to:
Electoral college reform
- Switch to national popular vote
- Adopt the Maine-Nebraska system nationwide
- Keep the current system
Redistricting reform
- Replace partisan redistricting with nonpartisan or bipartisan commission
- Abolish racial redistricting
- Limit equal population requirement
Reforming congressional elections
- Adopt proportional representation for Congress
- Adopt cumulative voting for Congress
- Lengthen House terms to four years
- Make terms coincide with presidential election
- Adopt term limits
- Keep the current system
Reform the legislative process
- Abolish cloture in the U.S. Senate
- Give president line-item veto
Campaign finance reform
- Free TV time for candidates
- More public financing of campaigns
- Abolish all donation limits
- Reduce donation limits
- Limit candidate expenditures
Reform of the presidential nomination process
- National primary
- Rotate which states go first
- Series of regional primaries
- Weeding out first by elected officials
Initiative and referendum
- California and other states should abolish it
- States without it should adopt it
Balancing the budget
- Balanced budget amendment for the U.S. Constitution
- Require 2/3 vote to raise taxes in state or federal legislatures
- Require public vote before raising taxes
Reforming voting procedures
- Switch to vote by mail like Oregon
- Allow everyone to vote early
- Change from paper to electronic ballots
Organization
In order to receive full marks, I encourage you to adopt the following format:
First, your paper should outline the problem. What is the current problem with our political system? Why is it a problem? Why do many believe that the problem requires reform? Has the problem been getting worse? Is it likely to go away on its own?
Second, explain the proposed solution. Outline how the solution would operate and how it is intended to address the problem identified in the first part of your essay.
The organization of the remaining sections of your paper depends upon whether you favor or oppose the idea discussed in the paper.
- If you favor the idea, you should further argue for it and explain why it is a solution to a critical problem. You should think of possible criticisms of your idea and then write a section preempting these criticisms. In other words, outline potential objections to your plan, but then explain why these criticisms are misguided or outweighed by the benefits of the idea.
- If you oppose the idea, you should argue against it and explain why it does not solve the problem that it is intended to address or causes even more problems. You should seriously consider potential benefits of the idea, but explain why the costs outweigh the benefits.
Sources
All sources must be cited in footnotes. It is not necessary to have a separate bibliography or list of references if your footnotes contain the equivalent information. Remember that any text taken from another source needs to be placed in quotation marks in addition to being cited appropriately.
You must cite at least five different sources for this paper. At least three of these sources must be non-Web sources. (Note that you can count a Web source as a non-Web source if it is published in print and you can properly cite the print version.)
I strongly encourage you to go to the library to find books on the topic. You may also want to consult the supplementary reading list for book ideas. You may find the following sources especially helpful:
- CQ Researcher and CQ Weekly (Congressional Quarterly does an excellent job of tracking legislation and politics in a nonpartisan fashion)
- National Journal's Policy Central Web site (a competitor of CQ)
- JSTOR is a database of scholarly articles. You need to select which journals you want to search, and the database will then bring up copies of the articles in .pdf.
- Social Sciences Citation Index
- LexisNexis
Remember to be an informed researcher. Don't just always take the first source on the topic that pops up. Consider the quality of the source. Is the source very old? Is the source biased? Is the source an expert on the topic?
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