POL110 Week 6 Scenario Script: Political Participation Slide # Scene/Interaction Narration Slide 1 Introductory screen, containing the environment (an outside view of a government office building) and a title showing the scenario topic. There will be a “begin” button on the screen allowing students to begin the scenario. Slide 2 Slide 3 Slide 4 Scene 1 Amanda and Dr. Ryan standing in Dr. Ryan’s office. Scene 2 Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a visual tour of a museum or historical exhibit in Capitol Hill that showcases the material that is covered. This is sort of a visual tour of Washington D.C. as well as a visual component to the conversation. Dr. Ryan: Hello Amanda. Good to see you. Last week we examined American political parties and how interest groups affect their behavior. This week we’re going to cover political participation, focusing on the campaign process and the elections they lead to. Before we get started, what are your thoughts about these concepts, Amanda? Amanda: I think it’s important that only in a democratic society would you see campaigns free of violence and elections based on the principle of a one man-one vote system. That’s not to say that we didn’t arrive at this stage without violence, because there are plenty of examples in our history. But we’re there now. Dr. Ryan: Alright then, can you provide some examples? Amanda: Easily. Women didn’t have the right to vote until 1920 and they had to agitate heavily for that against some pretty strong opposition. And blacks were discriminated against at polls throughout the South until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. Campaigns and elections are now very civilized affairs. But until the early twentieth century, voter fraud and the intimidation of black voters were common at polling stations, mostly in the South. And telling out lies about one’s opponent was commonplace in campaigns at every level. Dr. Ryan: So what do you think changed? Amanda: I think we became a more sophisticated democracy in the twentieth century. That, and libel laws were more strictly enforced by the courts. Dr. Ryan: Excellent observations. In fact, voters were tired of the free-for-alls that marked the political process up to that point. They demanded more accountability from their elected officials. This made them start promising less and delivering more on the promises they did make. Even now, candidates don’t always fulfill these promises. But at least the voter has made them become more realistic. Amanda: This is why it is so ironic that, as politics has cleaned itself up, voter participation has dropped. Dr. Ryan: Indeed it has. During elections in the nineteenth century and up through the middle of the twentieth century, it was not uncommon to see voter turnouts of seventy to eighty percent. But now that figure has fallen below seventy percent and in some presidential elections, we’re lucky if half of all eligible voters make an appearance. That’s by far .

1. POL110 Week 6 Scenario Script: Political Participation
Slide #
Scene/Interaction
Narration
Slide 1
Introductory screen, containing the environment (an outside
view of a government office building) and a title showing the
scenario topic. There will be a “begin” button on the screen
allowing students to begin the scenario.
Slide 2
Slide 3
Slide 4
Scene 1
Amanda and Dr. Ryan standing in Dr. Ryan’s office.
Scene 2
Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a visual tour of a museum or historical
exhibit in Capitol Hill that showcases the material that is
covered. This is sort of a visual tour of Washington D.C. as
well as a visual component to the conversation.
Dr. Ryan: Hello Amanda. Good to see you.
Last week we examined American political parties and how
interest groups affect their behavior.
This week we’re going to cover political participation, focusing
on the campaign process and the elections they lead to.
Before we get started, what are your thoughts about these

2. concepts, Amanda?
Amanda: I think it’s important that only in a democratic society
would you see campaigns free of violence and elections based
on the principle of a one man-one vote system.
That’s not to say that we didn’t arrive at this stage without
violence, because there are plenty of examples in our history.
But we’re there now.
Dr. Ryan: Alright then, can you provide some examples?
Amanda: Easily. Women didn’t have the right to vote until 1920
and they had to agitate heavily for that against some pretty
strong opposition. And blacks were discriminated against at
polls throughout the South until the Voting Rights Act was
passed in 1965.
Campaigns and elections are now very civilized affairs. But
until the early twentieth century, voter fraud and the
intimidation of black voters were common at polling stations,
mostly in the South. And telling out lies about one’s opponent
was commonplace in campaigns at every level.
Dr. Ryan: So what do you think changed?
Amanda: I think we became a more sophisticated democracy in
the twentieth century. That, and libel laws were more strictly
enforced by the courts.
Dr. Ryan: Excellent observations.
In fact, voters were tired of the free-for-alls that marked the
political process up to that point. They demanded more
accountability from their elected officials. This made them
start promising less and delivering more on the promises they
did make.
Even now, candidates don’t always fulfill these promises. But at
least the voter has made them become more realistic.
Amanda: This is why it is so ironic that, as politics has cleaned
itself up, voter participation has dropped.
Dr. Ryan: Indeed it has. During elections in the nineteenth
century and up through the middle of the twentieth century, it

3. was not uncommon to see voter turnouts of seventy to eighty
percent. But now that figure has fallen below seventy percent
and in some presidential elections, we’re lucky if half of all
eligible voters make an appearance.
That’s by far the lowest among all European democracies except
Switzerland. What hasn’t changed, however, is that many
people still tend to vote for candidates on the basis of their
stand on just one issue. These single-issue groups have been
around for well over two hundred years.
Regardless of what else you stand for ideologically, if you
support their narrow agenda, then you will almost certainly
have their vote.
Amanda: Another trend is that the percentage of eligible black
voters participating in general elections has dropped off
considerably. This has been since Franklin Roosevelt’s
landslide victory in 1932, when they deserted the Republican
Party, Lincoln’sparty.
They began moving to urban areas in the North because they
saw New Deal Democrats offering them better employment
opportunities. Ninety-five percent of them are still Democrats.
But they usually don’t vote in large numbers because, as is the
case with many other Americans, political apathy has set in.
Dr. Ryan: And one of the most significant reasons for this is
because presidential campaigns usually begin over a year ahead
of an election. By the time the election takes place, voter
fatigue has set in because people are sick of hearing about
politics.
Amanda: What else accounts for low voter turnout?
Dr. Ryan: Well, differences in states’ registration processes
would have to lead the list. This is why Congress passed the
Motor-Voter Law in 1993. This law made it easier for voters to
register at state offices when they are obtaining or renewing a
driver’s license.

4. Alright, now let’s talk a bit about campaign strategy.
Amanda: Okay.
Dr. Ryan: First of all, if you were a candidate running for
public office, what are the two most fundamental strategies you
would use?
Amanda: I guess one would be to select a positive, issues-only
platform. And the other would be to take a negative approach
and attack my opponent’s record.
Dr. Ryan: Good, but what do you notice usually happens?
Amanda: Candidates end up combining the two and they can’t
help themselves.
Of course, it can get messy if your opponent digs up something
really damaging about you. Then you have to spend precious
resources defending yourself rather than spreading your
message to the voters, isn’t it?
Dr. Ryan: This is what happened to George McGovern in the
1972 election when it was discovered that his running mate,
Senator Thomas Eagleton, had once been treated for a
psychiatric disorder.
It threw his entire campaign on the defensive, and in the end he
had to drop his running mate and pick someone else. It was a
public relations catastrophe for a campaign that was seen as
incompetent and indecisive by the press and the public. He
never recovered.
Nixon went on to win every state in the country except South
Dakota, where McGovern was from, and Washington, DC.
Amanda: That’s an interesting example, Dr. Ryan!
And then there’s the critical question of where does a candidate
spend his money?
Dr. Ryan: Regardless of how much money one raises, it never
seems to be enough. So where to spend it becomes important.
Does the campaign tend to advertise heavily in what’s known as
battleground states that are up for grabs and ignore those that it
knows it cannot possibly win? Or does it hit the battleground

5. states but also make a stab at a state known to be favoring an
opponent, in the off chance that lightening may strike and it
begins looking like the state might swing in his favor?
It can be a tough call for a campaign manager to make.
Slide 5
Scene 3
Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a visual tour of a museum or historical
exhibit in Capitol Hill that showcases the material that is
covered. This is sort of a visual tour of Washington D.C. as
well as a visual component to the conversation.
Amanda: On another note, at the House, Senate and Presidential
levels, incumbents are usually re-elected. But what can upset
this model?
Dr. Ryan: The advantage that an incumbent has is that he can
run on his record. The disadvantage that an incumbent has is
that he must run on his record.
Amanda: That’s an interesting approach…
Dr. Ryan: What I mean is that, if an incumbent has a decent
record that voters like then he has a tremendous reelection
advantage over a challenger.
This means that he sponsored important legislation or his
administration helped do something like lower unemployment
and inflation and provide the country with a surplus, like Bill
Clinton did. Name recognition helps a lot, too.
If however, he was like Jimmy Carter and got bogged down by
the economy and an embarrassing event like the Iranian hostage
crisis, then a challenger such as Ronald Reagan has a better
chance of winning against a weak-looking president.
This is also what happened with Hoover and Roosevelt in 1932.

6. It was because the Republican Party was rightly blamed for
bringing on the Great Depression. Americans wanted a new face
with new ideas in the White House. Thus was born the New
Deal.
Amanda: Speaking of Roosevelt and Reagan, wasn’t it
impressive how cleverly they used radio and television to
communicate with the voter?
These two presidents looked extremely comfortable before a
bank of microphones or a camera. They were so skillful in
attacking their opponents’ records through the media that they
swung a number of undecided voters their way.
Dr. Ryan: That, after all, is the whole point of a campaign. To
remind voters of what you stand for in a language they can
understand. Roosevelt and Reagan were masters at that.
Amanda: So what other factors help sway the voter?
Dr. Ryan: Easy enough. Those factors would be the candidate’s
party affiliation, his character and the state of the economy.
If the voter sees a serious flaw in any one of these components
of a campaign, the candidate can pretty much write his chances
off. It was the economy that killed off Hoover’s, Carter’s and
George H. W. Bush’s reelection chances.
It’s a very dangerous enemy for an incumbent to have to deal
with if things like new housing start-ups, inflation,
unemployment and the deficit aren’t going his way.
Amanda: Building strong coalitions would be a good idea at a
time like this, too.
Dr. Ryan: Indeed it would be. I’ll use Reagan as an example
again. Up to 1980, Southern Democrats tended to vote for
Democratic candidates because Republicans had no viable
candidates in that region. But Reagan was a conservative who
drew huge numbers from this demographic, later called Reagan
Democrats. It helped him virtually sweep the South and win two
general elections.
Barak Obama is another good example of someone who had

7. voters crossing party lines. In 2012, he came across as a
moderate Democrat who captured independents, women,
Hispanics, Blacks, and a number of moderate Republicans.
These Republicans didn’t trust Mitt Romney’s tendency to flip-
flop on almost every major issue he supported as governor of
Massachusetts.
Slide 6
Scene 4
Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a visual tour of a museum or historical
exhibit in Capitol Hill that showcases the material that is
covered. This is sort of a visual tour of Washington D.C. as
well as a visual component to the conversation.
Dr. Ryan: Now let’s touch briefly on the media and the voter.
Let me ask you this…do you think American voters are
manipulated in any way by the media?
Amanda: I suppose people who can’t think for themselves are.
But the average voter know what they want in a candidate and
are not going to be guided towards someone if they don’t want
to be.
He or she may disagree with the particular media outlet as being
too liberal or too conservative, but no amount of invective in
the form of newspaper editorials or TV spots are going to
change his or her mind.
Dr. Ryan: I will say this, though. There are undecided voters
out there who could be looking for more information about a
candidate. No one knows how large this segment is in American
politics and so it’s difficult to tell if media stories help them
make up their minds.
I’m sure they play a part, but we have precious little data on
this demographic. As such, I don’t think these people are being
manipulated as much as they are being informed.
Slide 7
Scene 5
Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a visual tour of a museum or historical

8. exhibit in Capitol Hill that showcases the material that is
covered. This is sort of a visual tour of Washington D.C. as
well as a visual component to the conversation.
Dr. Ryan: All of this electioneering takes a tremendous amount
of money, of course, so where do you think it comes from?
Amanda: Most of it comes from political action committees and
small donations. Other amounts come courtesy of corporations
and unions.
And we’re talking about tens of millions of dollars here. This
is because the federal government will match funds for
presidential candidates from primaries onward if their campaign
first raises a certain amount themselves.
They must win the primaries or they’re out of the running. Once
they receive their party’s nomination, they can receive a block
grant of sixty or seventy million dollars or more from the
government.
Slide 8
Scene 6
Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a visual tour of a museum or historical
exhibit in Capitol Hill that showcases the material that is
covered. This is sort of a visual tour of Washington D.C. as
well as a visual component to the conversation.
Dr. Ryan: Alright, one more point and I think we can call it a
day. Is it really worth it to spend all of this money running for
public office when nothing ever seems to get done? Put another
way, do elections really change public policy?
Amanda: I will say that, with so many elected officials in our
system, it is difficult to get them united behind one policy. So it
may seem as though little gets accomplished, but the wheels of
government turn slowly. A president who is able to work with
Congress can have a lasting effect on public policy.

9. Where the process stops in its tracks, however, is when these
two branches are controlled by different parties and then remain
in opposition.
Dr. Ryan: Good response. Now, I have a couple of questions
for you on this week’s material?
Slide 9
Interaction
What would best describe our electoral process today?
A. dominated by corporations and unions
B. run by political machines
C. made ineffective by extensive corruption
D. X representative of the majority’s wishes
E. manipulated by the media
Answer: D. The whole point of this week’s discussion was that
Americans function in a democracy where they have the right to
choose whom they want in an election.
Slide 10
Interaction
Of the following, which is the most likely to occur with a
presidential candidate?
The candidate:
A. X must win primaries to get the nomination

10. B. can be nominated without winning primaries
C. will definitely be able to affect public policy
D. need not worry about forming coalitions
E. needs corporate and union support in order to win
Answer: A. Primaries are the gateway to the nomination
becausetheir purpose is to weed out the weakest candidates.
Slide 11
Scene 7
Amanda and Dr. Ryan back in Dr. Ryan’s office.
Dr. Ryan: So that takes us to the end of our examination of the
relationship between campaigns and elections. Next week we
can analyze how Congress functions.
Make sure to participate in this week’s discussions on political
participation.
Good job once again, Amanda. I’ll see you again next week.
Homework #4 – Database Design (Total 50 points)
Read all questions and instructions carefully.
On-the-Vine Vineyard
On-the-Vine Vineyard, Inc., is a small, family-owned winery,
one of California’s largest in Sonoma Valley, specializing in
limited production of premium quality wine.

11. The Employees: On-the-Vine currently employs over 12 full-
time employees, with positions ranging from administrative
assistant to winemaker. Each employee is assigned a unique
identification number. In addition to the employee’s name,
position, and identification number, the company also records
each employee’s Social Security number, address, phone
number, and emergency contact.
The Vineyards: On-the-Vine owns several vineyards, each in
separate locations. Each vineyard is managed by a single
employee and represented by unique number, name, address,
and size. No employee manages more than one vineyard.
The Wine: Each bottle of wine produced is given a unique
identification number in addition to its name. Other information
recorded for each wine includes its vintage year, category (e.g.,
dry red, dessert, etc.), vineyard where the wine is produced,
price, and percent alcohol. Also recorded is the winemaker
(employee) in charge of making that bottle of wine. A
winemaker may be responsible for producing more than one
bottle of wine.
The Customers: On-the-Vine sells its wine to individuals via the
Internet. All customers are assigned a unique customer
identification number, and this number is recorded along with
their first name, last name, address, phone number, and date of
birth.
The Orders: All customers obtain their products by placing
orders directly with On-the-Vine. A customer can purchase
more than one bottle of wine at one order. Each order is
assigned a unique order number, and the date of order, the date
of shipping, and the shipping status are recorded as well.
Q1. Carefully read the above business description and draw an

12. Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) for the database that
manages information on employees, customers, and so on.
· Your ERD should include all necessary entities, attributes, and
relationships.
· You need to specify relationship names and types (1:1, 1:M, or
M:N) as well.
· A relationship should have a name with a verb.
Grading Rubrics
· One missing entity: -10 points
· One redundant entity: -4 points
· One missing attribute: -4 points
· One redundant attribute: -3 points
· An entity identifier is not specified in an entity: -2 points
· One missing relationship: -8 points
· One missing relationship name: -2 points
· One missing relationship type (1:1, 1:M, or M:N): -3 points
· One incorrect relationship type: -2 points
Submission Instruction
· Submit your homework as a Word or PowerPoint file into
Blackboard.
· Late submission is allowed, but there will be 10% penalty per
each 12 hours.