Teaching Comparative

Who is the government?

Monday is the first day of a new semester for many people and that means the beginning of a new course.

Sunday morning as I was reading the business section of the my newspaper, I read an article titled, "A tax credit for the working poor." It was about the earned income tax credit and the fact that perhaps 5 million eligible taxpayers didn't claim it last year. (This article might be in your newspaper. It is by Kathy Kristof who writes the Personal Finance column for the Los Angeles Times.)

But it was the sub-head that suggested to me that I clip the article (or scan it) and take it to the first (or an early) day of comparative government class. The bulleted sentence below the headline was, "The government is hoping that it can make the earned income tax credit available to more working Americans."

I suggest showing this line to students and asking them, "What's wrong with this sentence?" What's wrong, of course, is that in the context of the US government, there's no way you can say, "The government is hoping..." and know what that means. Is it the president? Congress? a senator? a representative? a Supreme Court justice? a bureaucrat? a governor? Who is "The government..."? (In this article, it turns out, "the government" is Anna Escobedo Cabral, Treasurer of the United States.)

I'd then ask why such uncertainty exists in the USA. The answer I'd expect from students is separation of powers, and the additional answer I'd hope for would be federalism, and the additional answer I'd be grateful to hear would be about the size and complexity of "the government."

The follow up to this is to ask why the line, "The government is hoping..." makes perfect sense in the context of the British political system. How many of the students would know about the fusion of powers and unitary government? How could they find out?

In fact, you could send them off with an assignment for the next day to find out for which of the countries they're going to be studying that statement is appropriate.

Good luck, all.

Labels: pedagogy

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:25 AM