Comments
Welcome Draft 3/29/2012 by Paul Burke
CIVICS
CURRICULUM
People
lament the lack of Civics education. What would a full course look like?
What
do people need to know about government?
A. Know roles and
relationships involved in government
B. Know internal dynamics
of each group
D. Learn how other groups
and people have successfully affected government
E. How and why was the
current structure established?
F.
Examples of Issues and Sources
G. Other Lesson Plans
A. Know roles and
relationships involved in government:
What do legislators,
executives, judges, appointed boards, and government employees (civilian &
uniformed) do, and how do they interact? Not just separation of powers, but
cooperation, embarrassment, information, persistence, non-compliance, creative
interpretation.
Identifying issues, drafting laws, responding to voter requests, improving how laws are carried out, drafting and improving regulations, making decisions
Officials get (incomplete) information from other officials, employees, outside experts and lobbyists. President Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex "The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government."
There are many appointed boards, especially at local level (zoning, health, parks, environment, etc.). Tracking and affecting them requires many citizens to work together, or a well-funded effort.
Laws, after they are passed, are limited by the difficulty of enforcing them.
People can re-interpret even the clearest words. Interpretation has been a major concern for the supreme court, but it happens in every court and every bureaucracy after laws are passed.
Corruption by government officials is often investigated and prosecuted by local, state and federal agencies. The FBI says government corruption is one of their top criminal priorities (1,600 convictions in 2008-2009). Federal prosecutors average 1,000 people charged and convicted each year (Table 2, p.53), ranging from 1 per year in Western Arkansas, Northern Iowa, and Northern West Virginia to over 30 per year in Central California, DC, Southern Florida, Northern Illinois, New Jersey, Northern Ohio, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Eastern Virginia (Table 3 p.54).
Even when actions are entirely legal, officials dislike public criticism and embarrassment, since voters may remember.
Levels of government
States, Counties, cities, towns, tribes, school boards
How do political parties and political campaigns work and
what effect do they have?
Parties raise and distribute money.
Many voters use party labels to decide between lesser known candidates.
Campaigns mobilize volunteers, ads and news stories.
Long term issues: Incumbency, gerrymandering, fundraising, primaries dominated by narrow interests
80% of elected officials do not follow through on the major issues which they ran on, They retreat and support old policies they ran against. Groups report Congressional voting records, but rarely state or local lawmakers' voting records. Challengers often do not have voting records.
How do contributors, lobbyists, experts, lawsuits, grass
roots movements and foreigners affect government?
Contributors determine who can run for office, then lobby or run grassroots campaigns. The best funded do not always win, but they lobby well, and the unfunded generally lose. Candidates, lobbyists and movements can raise money from the few with a lot of money, the many with a little money, or both:
43% of the world's assets are controlled by 1% of adults (50,000,000 adults, half of whom are millionaires, and 1,000 are billionaires)
83% of the world's assets are controlled by 10% of adults (Economist 1/20/2011 Global Leaders: "This suggests a huge disparity of influence." "The tea parties and Avaaz show that you do not need to spend a lot of money to be influential... The main danger of money in politics is not that the rich will buy an election, but that they will lobby the victor for favours. A tax break here, a subsidy there and soon you are talking about real money. In America, lobbying by hospitals and drug firms soared as Congress debated Mr Obama’s health reforms..." Heritage Foundation "fingerprints can be found on the fine detail of legislation since 1977... When a bill is being mooted, Heritage supplies ideas. During drafting, Heritage scholars suggest revisions. And when a vote is near, Heritage gives every lawmaker an easily digestible two-page document explaining what the bill contains and what its effects might be.")
Lobbyists and experts provide the (often biased and trendy) "facts" which affect decisions.
Government officials who regulate companies are usually "captured" by common attitudes and assumptions with those they regulate, and lose touch with public needs, whether or not they later take jobs with these companies.
Universities whose Senators are on the Senate Appropriations Committee receive an average of $11-$17 in extra grants per dollar spent lobbying. Universities whose Representatives are on the House Appropriations Committee "obtain $20-$36 for each dollar spent" on lobbying. (full study)
In local government, builders lobby about zoning and historic preservation. Businesses lobby about parking, roads, industrial parks, and tax breaks. Sports teams lobby about parks and arenas.
Professional lobbyists focus only on bills with a good chance of passage, estimated by the Congressional Bills Legislative Forecast - Current Congress database by StateNet (available on Lexis (LEGIS;BLCAST)), CQ's Bill Analysis and Westlaw's Bill Cast
Lawsuits can force compliance with laws at the margins, but when powerful interests lose too many lawsuits they work on changing the laws or interpretations
Grass roots movements sometimes add items or viewpoints to the discussion, but can make decisions only where referendums are allowed. Grass roots movements also need contributors, experts and lobbyists.
Roles of letters, flyers, mailings, ads, petitions, phone calls, marches, rallies, protests, demonstrations, civil disobedience
People in
other countries, with their own government systems, act, negotiate, and create
pressures in order to advance their own goals.
Getting what we want in a democracy requires that we know who
the actors are and how we can influence them.
Information. Public awareness. Public pressure. Recruiting
candidates.
B. Know internal dynamics
of each group:
Elected officials: Legislatures, President, Governors,
Mayors, Councils, other (school boards, some judges, separately elected
administrators)
Appointed members of committees and boards: volunteer or
paid, constituencies, expert or not, time available
Appointed staff: motives, knowledge, resources. How are
they are hired, evaluated and promoted?
Lobbyists: motives, knowledge, methods, resources, mass
campaigns, information, writing laws and regulations
Media: concept of a "story," constraints, budgets
of time, space, money, competition, supervision, independence, ownership
Public: attention span, viral campaigns, range of
knowledge, commitment, persistence
C. Practice on one issue
(Examples on next page may interest students without being too controversial
for class work. Adults can use these or any other issues.)
Learn
Research online and on paper
Interview people with knowledge
Identify problem areas & reasons they have not been
solved before
Discuss with supporters and opponents
Act
Write your position and arguments
Set up and publicize a web page
Join an existing group which will help you lobby, or set up
and publicize a new group
Identify people with authority or influence and lobby them
Consider when to use: ads, posters, flyers, meetings,
events, canvassing, letters, petitions, studies, controversy, consensus,
emotions, facts, idealism, self-interest
Consider when to seek changes in laws, regulations,
administrative policies & decisions, exceptions, enforcement, penalties,
social norms & habits
Continue what works; change what fails
The Congressional Management Foundation has a graph comparing effectiveness of letters, lobbyists and phone calls in influencing Congress. They also have advice They say individualized letters and emails are more effective with Congress than phone calls, probably because most phone calls to Congress are limited to a brief message taken by a receptionist. Calls to local officials will be longer and maybe more effective. Research on local and state government would be useful.
A survey by Fortune said that lobbying is more effective than campaign contributions.
Congress.org
shows the wide variety of messages being sent to Congress, and the challenges
in making an impression there ("soapbox
alerts" from individuals and "action
alerts" from groups). They provide a meter to help keep
emails under 1,500 characters (not words).
D. Learn how other groups and people
have successfully affected government. Pick your own examples
Elected officials
Non-elected individuals, like Clara Barton, Rachel Carson,
Martin Luther King Jr., Karl Rove
Organizations, like AARP, Chamber of Commerce, NRA
What did they accomplish?
How did they approach the task?
How long did it take?
Who were their allies & opponents?
How did they motivate the public? the media?
How did they motivate the government?
Divide a class to study at least two local people or groups
who have affected the local government recently.
E. How and why was the current structure established?
National constitution, state constitutions, city charters
Federal and state rules on Press, Parties, Lobbying,
Campaign finance, Government workers, Lawsuits, Demonstrations, Petitions
See how hard it is to measure what Americans already know:
Quiz online (click "Results" on each question)
Oral quiz with 118 questions (and 500 answers), read over the telephone to a random sample of 2,508 US adults
http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx
Methodology: http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/2010/survey_methods.html
F. Examples of Issues and
Sources
School Civics curriculum needs to give students examples to work on, with minimum controversy. Possible topics, depending on local concerns, include:
|
TOPICS |
LEARN ABOUT AN ISSUE: |
ACT: |
SOME SITES: |
||
|
RESEARCH ONLINE AND ON PAPER |
INTERVIEW PEOPLE WITH KNOWLEDGE |
IDENTIFY PROBLEM AREAS & REASONS THEY HAVE NOT BEEN
SOLVED BEFORE |
IDENTIFY PEOPLE WITH AUTHORITY OR INFLUENCE AND LOBBY
THEM |
|
|
|
Corporate honesty |
BBB, groups,
news stories, books, whistleblower sites |
attorneys,
customers, competitors |
cost,
competitive pressure, cynicism |
BBB,
consumer review sites, law enforcement |
|
|
Data privacy, especially for
children |
laws,
groups |
parents, children,
webmasters, medical offices |
accidents,
theft, programming flaws |
parents,
children, webmasters, medical offices |
|
|
Election security |
researchers,
news stories, election machine websites |
election officials,
voters, building managers where voting equipment is used or stored |
convenience,
perception that huge money is not at stake in elections or that all
politicians are honest; programmers trust machines are locked up while
building managers trust machines are hard to infect; tamper-evident seals can
be tampered; few options when tampering is suspected (hard to re-run
election); officials do not anticipate well-funded expert criminals |
election
officials, voters, building managers |
|
|
Emergency preparedness |
emergency
advice, news stories |
local
emergency preparedness planners, businesses, families |
rare need,
lengthy advice, expensive supplies, need to rotate supplies, security risks
of offsite backups, difficulty of transporting recommended supplies in an emergency |
local
emergency preparedness planners, businesses, families |
|
|
Exercise |
exercise
reports, websites |
PE
teachers, health clubs, running & weight loss clubs |
discomfort,
time, benefits are months or decades away |
public |
|
|
Healthy eating |
health
reports, websites |
dieticians,
weight loss clubs |
hunger,
taste, complexity, changing research, alternative advice, time-consuming to
learn/shop/cook/eat/clean up, benefits are months or decades away |
public |
|
|
Potholes |
websites
on pothole repair, road budget |
road/highway
department, repair crews, asphalt plants |
cost,
traffic, heavy vehicles, freezing temperatures, brittle materials |
council,
legislature, homeowner associations, road department |
|
|
Reading |
groups |
readers,
non-readers |
time-consuming
to choose and read, inaccuracy, outdated |
|
|
|
Reduced bullying |
groups,
bullying policies, disciplinary policies and enforcement |
teachers,
bullies, popular & unpopular students |
non-reporting,
attitudes, difficulty of proof, few appropriate penalties |
teachers,
bullies, popular & unpopular students |
|
|
Reduced medical errors |
groups,
researchers, error statistics |
medical
offices, pharmacists, nursing homes, hospitals |
time, exhaustion,
number of people involved in patient care, complexity of drugs and procedures |
regulators,
medical offices, pharmacists, nursing homes, hospitals |
|
|
Safety practices: work, home,
public areas |
groups,
researchers, safety statistics |
businesses,
families, officials |
time,
convenience, worker and boss resistance, cost |
businesses,
families, officials |
|
|
Textbook improvements and cost
reductions |
groups, researchers |
Teachers
on and off textbook selection committees, publishers, authors, students |
lack of
measurement of effectiveness, preference for pictures and mentioning
everything, tradition of expensive free samples |
local
& state school boards, textbook selection committees, teachers |
|
|
Toy safety |
groups,
researchers, safety statistics |
toy
stores, parents, children |
constant
redesigns, widespread manufacturing, variety of risks |
regulators,
manufacturers, toy stores, parents, children |
|
G. Other Lesson Plans
http://www.citizenadvocacycenter.org/Lessons/Active%20Citizenship%209-12.pdf