Building on your research and analysis of the immigration policy or same-sex marriage debates, this assessment asks you to more closely examine the connection between power and policy, and law making by comparing and contrasting how two states have handled these issues.
In order to understand the link between power and political and legal decision making, you will place this process in each state in the appropriate context. That means that you need to assess the historical, demographic, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that have influenced each state’s different approach to immigration policy or same-sex marriage. You will also reflect on the consequences of state-to-state discrepancies in policies and laws regarding controversial social and political issues like these.
This assessment combines the key components of studying cultural diversity from a sociological perspective: placing current social issues in historical context, understanding how demographic and cultural trends influence public opinion, and applying sociological theories to determine the role of power in shaping policy-making decisions.
Deliverable
Write an essay addressing each of the following parts:
Part 1 – Complete the following:
Discuss one of the following for each of the two states you have chosen as it relates to your chosen topic:
Law (rules and standards enforced by a particular institution).
Politics (the key political players in the policy-making and law-making processes).
Policy (principles or methods used to achieve a particular goal or make decisions about political or social issues).
Discuss theories of power that might explain the differences between how each state has handled your issue.
Examples of theories of power include power elite theory, the four networks theory of power, pluralism, Marxist theory, and state autonomy theory.
Discuss other possible explanations for the differences in how each state’s government has approached your topic. Address at least three of the following potential factors, and come up with another of your own that might explain the divergent approaches you have identified:
Demographics of the state population, including age, race/ethnicity, gender, and percentage of the population in urban versus rural areas.
Geography.
Religion.
History.
Socioeconomic standing, including median or average income and education levels of the population, as well as the overall economic well-being of each state.
Part 2 – Answer the following, incorporating data to support your answers:
To what extent have these states’ existing policies and laws affected past migration patterns of the groups affected (immigrants or those seeking same-sex marriage rights)?
How might future migration patterns be affected?
Part 3 – Complete the following:
Reflect on a historical precedent in which a state has had to alter its laws as a result of inconsistencies with federal law.
Why and how did the state change its laws?
What lessons might be learned from this precedent, and how can those lessons be applied to your topic?
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