– Write an 800-1000 word paper (about 3-4 pages).
– Please use quotes and citations from the readings to develop your argument.
– Your paper needs a clear thesis statement in the first paragraph.
* A good thesis is not a statement of your position. It is a statement of your
argument, explaining why you hold the position that you do.
– The paper must be double spaced with 1 inch margins.
– Proper in-text (parenthetical) ciations in APA format required.
* An APA formatted references page at the end of the paper.
* The references page does not count toward the paper minimum or maximum length.
Essav Prompt
In his Opinion piece titled “If America Had Six Parties, Which Would You Belong To” Lee
Drutman writes that “America’s two-party system is broken… There is no reasonable or
timely way to fix this broken system. But there is an alternative: more parties.”
In the article “The two-party system is killing our democracy,” Drutman argues that the
solution to our “zero-sum hyper partisan trench warfare” style of modern politics is to
“replace our current two-party system with.a multiparty system that’s more fluid and
responsive to American’s political preferences” through “a proportional representation
system.”
Read both of these articles. The ‘If America Had Six Parties” article begins with a set of
survey questions that will allow you to see which of the six theoretical parties you are closest
to and where your views sit in comparison to other Americans. Complete that and you will
see more of Drutman’s op-ed.
Write an essay explaining whether you agree or disagree with Drutman’s proposal and the
rationale for your argument.
In your essay, be sure to use information you learned from this course to improve and
enhance your argument. Good essays will discuss the history of the American political
parties, the coalitions of interest groups that make up each party, the role of party
identification and party in government (i.e. Congress and the Presidency).
