Mariama Diallo
Pol 166
Homework 11
12/19/15

“institutions no longer represent voters. Instead, they have been short-circuited, steadily corrupted by an institutionalized system of bribery that renders them responsive to powerful interest groups whose constituencies are the major corporations and wealthiest Americans. The courts, in turn, when they are not increasingly handmaidens of corporate power, are consistently deferential to the claims of national security. Elections have become heavily subsidized non-events that typically attract at best merely half of an electorate whose information about foreign and domestic politics is filtered through corporate-dominated media. Citizens are manipulated into a nervous state by the media’s reports of rampant crime and terrorist networks, by thinly veiled threats of the Attorney General and by their own fears about unemployment. What is crucially important here is not only the expansion of governmental power but the inevitable discrediting of constitutional limitations and institutional processes that discourages the citizenry and leaves them politically apathetic.”

I chose this passage because I can understand how the media can put fear in citizens heart.  I believe citizens need to stand up for their rights and ask for political correctness without feeling powerless or as if there will always be a repercussion if they make their voice be heard or if they fight for what is correct. Citizens should never be uninterested in what they have a right to speak up about.

Free Ride

Mariama Diallo
Pol 166
Homework 10
December 12, 2015

"There is a logic to social movements, which brings up the same problems of collective action, namely the free-rider problem. People have an incentive to free-ride as well, if civil rights legislation is passed it will benefit all minority groups affected, but there is still a tendency not to contribute assistance and to allow someone else to do the work of providing this benefit."

This passage from the reading by Olsen is describing the average American. Most people have an opinion on who their political representative should be, but they believe that their voice does not count. As mentioned by Olsen, people tend to "free-ride."  In other words, they sit back and relax while others contribute to an action that's going to benefit the whole group. I chose this passage because as part of a minority group and a Muslim I have been in situations where I find myself trying to persuade my fellow minority group to make their voices count and it is their opinions that whatever is going to happen politically will happen whether or not they take a part in fighting for that benefit.