Instructions
Briefly reflect on:
1. What you have learned this week, and what material you feel will be valuable for you.
2. How did the Midterm go for you?
How about the week in general? Was the reading pretty easy to get through and understand, or not so much? Was there something you found especially interesting? Did you struggle with any concepts, or have a hard time wrapping your brain around something?
Discussion 460
Part I:
A. Legislative Development Steps:
Visualize the architects of the building designing their upcoming project. In the first stage, they collect data from the stakeholders, the client, urban planners, engineers, and other actors involved in designing the communities. The ideas must be generated via the ideas stage, equivalent to what the interest groups propose.
After that, the architects develop tangible concepts and sketches, mince them, and reengineer them according to comments. Also, laws are made through the process in which legislators, committees, and public hearings are the ones who provide their input for the bill drafting, revising, and amending processes. It is a work in which two or more people have to cooperate.
Ultimately, the architects review the final version of the blueprint, and if it satisfies all the requirements, it gets approved. Equally, a bill must also gain passage and vote in Congress to become law. Off the course, it will be the dialogue, the moments when loudspeakers send words through which we, like architects, adjust and redesign because wishes have to comply with reality. Legislation focuses on creating a win-win situation by correctly finding an equilibrium of interests and priorities.
Similarly, a building gets modified when there is the collection and lenient use of feedback; for example, a law gets amended when feedback is gathered after enactment.
B. Give an Example of A “Perfect Storm” Scenario Where the Political Climate Was Just Suitable for A Problem and Solution to Open a Window of Opportunity:
The “perfect storm” for same-gender marriage legalization in the U.S. in the early 2000s was constructed by the trends that ran parallel at that time (Livesay, 2022).
Additionally, with this clear trend toward efforts in support of the humanization of the LGBTQ+ community in our society, public acceptance grows, and celebrities are getting more comfortable revealing their sexual orientation.
The other part is seeding the state courts with situations similar to the Massachusetts case in 2003 when the state court was the first to recognize same-sex marriages legally. Moreover, the pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy group has created a hospitable political environment with Obama’s election and the increased support for LGBTQ+ rights (Livesay 2022). In a final blow, the Supreme Court in 2013 and 2015, respectively, declares nullified critical parts of the Defense of Marriage Act and paves the way for same-sex marriage across the country. These cultural, legal, and political facilitators together imply a moment of triumph for the LGBTQ+ fight for legal equality.
Part II:
An employer’s point is the influence of interest groups on the legislation. To explore critically, I would ask: How can we make an interest group credible and representative of different people’s reactions and not cause the domination of a few wealthy or powerful forces? Only allowing gigabytes over machine-based decision-making can raise issues concerned with transparency and accountability and increase the participation of those with relatively fewer resources and access to power structures.
Reference
Livesay, Jacob. 2022. “When Was Same-Sex Marriage Legalized? A Quick History of an LGBTQ Rights Battle in the U.S.” USA Today. June 21, 2022. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/21/when-same-sex-marriage-legalized/7628967001/.