Since, July 4th, 1776 politicians have been a
necessity in the inter-workings of the United States.
Within politics there has been a major shift in who is running for
office and how many terms these individuals seek re-election for. The rise of career politicians, an individual
who has makes all their money in politics, has completely changed the government
of the United States, by expanding it, and making its representatives
susceptible to lobbyist influence.
Thesis: In the last
60 years there has been a steady rise in the number of career politicians, causing a
fundamental shift in the relationship between the government and its
constituents.
Topics: (Just to show
some of my early topics to support my thesis)
-What constitutes a politician that is not a career politician
-Who the first politicians were, what jobs they held, what they believed.
-Examine early examples of career politicians
-Who the first politicians were, what jobs they held, what they believed.
-Examine early examples of career politicians
a. How
their purpose for going to work is skewed
b. How they
can be influenced by SuperPacs/Donators?
c. How the
current political system encourages career politicians
-How have career politicians changed the government in the
last 20 years?
a. Positive
b. Negative
-Contemporary views of the constituents
a. They are
becoming aware of this problem
b. Example
Presidential Election Primarys
Reflection:
This topic will have a lot of information to go through, I
have already found many good sources detailing this shift. The one problem is the nature of politics is
that it is vary biased. In the two party
system there is always two polar sides to a topic, especially one as charged as
this. I think a difficulty in this paper
will be to shift through all the opinionated articles, and synthesize my own
opinion on the topic. Of course I have
some thoughts and beliefs I already hold, but as is sadly common in the United
States I have not done any real research to come to these opinions.
Max, this is a great undertaking and I definitely think you have your work cut out for you. Even though this is going to be a difficult topic to research, I think it is a fantastic idea. I am very interested in how this turns out because like you I have strong beliefs about politics, but they have little basis in research.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you chose this topic! I think it has real potential. I know you were concerned on doing it since the shift away from career politicians is just occurring now. However, you seem to have found a good way to make it work and have clearly thought it through. I can't wait to see what you come up with.
ReplyDeleteThis looks really good! I like how you actually outlined your paper a little. And yes shifting through all the biased information will be difficult, but I think if you get a good amount of information from both sides you'll be ok. Also I'd be curious to see the impacts these career politicians had in the past on the politics they were in. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteMax, first off, I really appreciate your honesty when you noted that your opinions, while strong, aren't essentially rooted in what you've researched.
ReplyDeleteYour thesis looks solid, but it might be useful to articulate what that "fundamental shift" in the relationship between politicians and constituents actually is. (This doesn't need to be drawn out, necessarily, but it would be good to pinpoint what the shift actually is so your major claim is as specific as possible from the onset. Obviously, the rest of the essay will go on to support and explain it.)
Hope this helps! Certainly let me know if you have any questions!