Unanswered [6] | Urgent [0]
  

Home / Essays   % width   Posts: 6


Political Science Essay Question - formulating a thesis



thescoot 1 / 1  
Sep 23, 2009   #1
Hello,

I have to write a term paper for my Political Science seminar and I need help formulating a thesis. I am doing it on the recent housing bubble and I am looking at it from a political theory stand point. The main thing I want to focus is on is how greed overcame the goal of helping the public good but I am having trouble articulating a good hypothesis from that. If anyone could help me that'd be great.

EF_Simone 2 / 1975  
Sep 23, 2009   #2
how greed overcame the goal of helping the public good

The problem I see with this thesis is that there is no evidence that those whose greed was responsible ever had the goal of helping the public good. These were for-profit corporations with the aim of making profits, not benefiting the public. Their officers had a fiduciary responsibility to serve the interests of the corporations, which -- again -- was making a profit, not serving the public. You can argue that they made unwise decisions in pursuit of profit, favoring short-term over long-term growth, etc. But you can't argue that "the goal of helping the public good" was overcome when there is no evidence that such a goal ever existed in the hearts or minds of those responsible.
OP thescoot 1 / 1  
Sep 24, 2009   #3
Thanks for the response.. I should have clarified it more. I was thinking of focusing on the government role in the situtation as a main goal of Bill Clinton was to create affordable housing for the lower class. So I would chronicle how it went from that goal and led to future policies that were passed that were influenced by Wall Street's lobby in Washington. I just need a good focus and clear hypothesis so I can begin the paper. It would be easy if it was just about pure policy but my professor wants it about "public policy theory." Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

If you or any of your colleagues have any insight about public policy theory that would help too. I've never really come into contact with it before.
EF_Sean 6 / 3460  
Sep 24, 2009   #4
a main goal of Bill Clinton was to create affordable housing for the lower class.

Was it? Or was it to allow people to become homeowners whether they could afford it or not? And how was this injustice (the giving of something unearned) supposed to be in the public good? And wasn't one of the main methods used to achieve this goal the forcing of lending institutions to give out mortgages to people who would normally not qualify for them? And wasn't a high rate of defaults and the eventual crisis that it precipitated predictable enough that the goal was probably ideological rather than pragmatic, i.e. one that didn't really considered what the public good is at all?

Your problem here seems to be that you want to reduce a very complex phenomenon to a single cause -- "it was greed in the kitchen with the knife," or "it was government in the living room with the candlestick." Any such analysis is likely to provoke the sorts of criticisms you have been getting so far. You need to acknowledge the complexity of the situation, and look at how every party involved managed to screw up in some way.

The government, under both Democrats and Republican leadership, pressured banks in making bad loans. Democrats believed that banks not lending to bad credit risks was discriminatory (because minorities were disproportionately affected). Republicans believed that increasing rates of home-ownership would validate the notion of America as a land of opportunity, while allowing the party to shed it cold-hearted image.

The banks, having been forced into folly, compounded the situation by slapping ridiculously high interest rates on the mortgages, essentially squeezing poor people for money they didn't have and making sure that the defaults the rates were supposed to compensate for would in fact happen.

Said poor people didn't let that stop them from taking on the mortgages, though.

And Wall Street got in on the deal by playing financial games that let the mortgages in question be transferred en masse from one institution to another. People were eager to acquire them, because the rate of return was so high thanks to the high interest rates. The risk wasn't recognized, or was overlooked, or was expected to only kick in after someone else had acquired the package.

The tendency now is for people to place most of the blame wherever doing so is most ideologically comfortable. So, if you're a big fan of capitalism, it was the government's fault for interfering in the free markets. If you're a socialist, it was the banks fault for trying to rip off the poor. And so on.

Perhaps you have put the cart before the horse. Mayhap you should do your research first, then come up with a thesis, rather than coming up with a thesis and picking sources that support it.
Jimd14 - / 1  
Oct 29, 2010   #5
Thesis for help on a political or social issuse

Need help to make a thesis on political issue.
EF_Susan - / 2310  
Nov 5, 2010   #6
To make a strong thesis statement, say something interesting. To say something interesting, say something that some people would disagree with. That is the key. You have to write a thesis statement in the first paragraph, and make is a statement that is the sort of thing that you need to spend a few sentences explaining.

For example, state an opinion about censorship that not everyone would agree with.

:-)


Home / Essays / Political Science Essay Question - formulating a thesis
Need Writing or Editing Help?
Fill out one of these forms:

Graduate Writing / Editing:
GraduateWriter form ◳

Best Essay Service:
CustomPapers form ◳

Excellence in Editing:
Rose Editing ◳

AI-Paper Rewriting:
Robot Rewrite ◳

Academic AI Writer:
Custom AI Writer ◳