Public Policy Dialogues

In this book, the author’s primary task is to frame today’s controversial public policy issues, in question form, present the major stances on the issues, and allow the reader to form a personal opinion on each matter. Basically, there are four types of arguments originally identified by Professor Richard Weaver: argument from authority; argument from analogy; argument from cause and effect; and argument from definition or principle. Contents: PROLOGUE: Dialogue Learning; Power, Public Policy and the Public Good; Levels of Argumentation; Acknowledgements; War PowersoGoing to War: Who is in Charge of the Charge?; The President versus The Congress; The Electoral College: To Retain or To Abolish?; Congress: Up With Congress or Down With Congress? Yeah or Nay?; Judgement Day Battle: Judicial Activism v. Judicial Restraint; Fiscal Policy: Deficit + Debt = Doom or Boom?; Do We Need a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution?; Social Policy: Hearts and Heads, Welfare Reform and a Guaranteed Annual Income; National Health Service: The Proper Cure or a Remedy Worse than the Disease?; Obscenity and Pornography: Where Do We Draw the Line?; The First Amendment Right of Freedom of Expression; The Community’s Need to Protect Itself and Represent Norms; Legal Policy: The Legalization of Drugs? Right On or Just Say No? Fly High or Straighten Up?; Legal Policy: Capital Punishment: To Be or Not To Be?; The Course of Educational Reform: What’s Up Doc?; Is There a Treatment or Are We The People Getting The Treatment?; National Public Service: A Patriotic Commitment or Forced Labor?; Index.