POLSC 221 - State and Local Government

Theory Hours: 45

Learning Outcomes:  

1. Identify/Recognize the basic structures of state and local government units operating within the United States.
2. Identify/Recognize the relationship between state and local government units to each other and to the national government.
3. Identify/Recognize the role of state constitutions in defining state and local government powers.
4. Identify/Recognize the role of political parties in local government.
5. Identify/Recognize and analyze and evaluate examples of local political or community power structures.
6. Identify/Recognize and analyze and evaluate examples of local policymaking such as, but not limited to, education, housing, and transportation.
7. Identify/Recognize and describe how the various roles and functions, executive, legislative, and judicial are carried out at various levels of local government.
8. Identify/Recognize and demonstrate an understanding of the role of fiscal and administrative activities in local policymaking.
9. Demonstrate/Practice in written or verbal form, compare, contrast and evaluate two or more local government units and their organization structures. (Example: compare a city with a Strong-Mayor form of government to a city with a City Manager form of government.)
10. Demonstrate/Practice in written or verbal form, describe a state, city or other local government unit’s policy in a major policy area, and critique that policy in regards to local political representation and public opinion.
11. Believe/Feel/Think or decide whether or not a federation is important for the diffusion of power under the U.S. Constitution.
12. Believe/Feel/Think or decide whether or not his/her level of political participation matters to the political process at the local level.