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 Lesson 2
 Public Policy Makers - Who Are They,
What Makes them Tick?
Introduction:
Magnifying glass image
 		image from the King and IIn the musical "The King and I" there is a great Oscar and Hammerstein song "Getting to Know You." One of the verses says "Getting to know you, getting to know all about you."  When one works with elected public policy makers, it is imporant that one gets to know the policy maker. If you know what motivates the policy makers and how they think, then you are more likely to exert an influence.

image of Dale Carnegie's bookThis idea is futher reinforced in the Dale Carnegie classic book "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Section 2 of this book has 6 chapters and they all focus on the importance of understanding the other person. Here are the chapter titles from Section 2 of the book:
      1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
      2. Smile.
      3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
      4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
      5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
      6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.
It has been my experience in working with public policy makers that these 6 principals work with them admirably (and if you have not read this book-you should. When I was teaching high school, all my seniors had to read this book. It is a quick read).

In this lesson we will focus on getting to understand policy makers better. Although this country is a government 'For the People, and By the People' it is a representative democracy.  That means the public elects individuals who represent our interests and those elected officials make the actual decisions, pass the laws, and fund the projects that take place in the United States. Who are these people?  How did they get elected, how much power do they really have, and how do they make the decisions that are made on our behalf?

Learning Objectives:
Icon of a signpost 		bullet Describe how one becomes an elected offical.
 bullet Explore some of the influences on elected officials in decision-making.
bullet What are the similarities and differences among elected officials.
bullet Examine how these similarities and differences may affect public policy.
bullet Define the Seven Position Drivers
bullet Discuss qualities helpful for public policy makers to possess.

Instructional
Activities:
Icon of a computer 		bullet Take the Public Policy Makers pretest to see how much you know about our elected officials.

bullet What is the composition of the North Carolina General Assembly? You might be surprised with some of the data.

bullet Why do people run for public office? Watch the video "Running for Office" from Washington Public TV.

bullet In An Engineer's Guide to Influencing Public Policy read the section titled "Why Public Policy Makers are Different from You and Me" (pages 7-12). While I don't agree with everything the author says, he might just have a valid point or two.

bullet Read Chapter 3 "Position Drivers: Forces that Shape Legislation" in the course text.

bullet View two videos from the Center on Congress.
  • Under the Evaluationg Congress tab watch "Thinking Long Term." What does Grassley of Iowa say constitutes the long term thinking of many elected officials?
  • Under the Understanding Congress tab watch the "New Members" video. What is the predominate background of the new members of Congress?
bullet What is a major concern for one who is running for political office? Watch this video to see what some political candidates spend a good bit of their time doing. While we don't want to think about this, it is a reality of political life.

bullet Does money affect politicians? Read what elected officials say.

bullet Is party affiliation that important in elected officials? If you are not sure about the difference between Democrats and Republics you might want to read "How Do You Tell a Democrat from a Republican?" from Microsoft Encarta.

bullet Tips on Understanding Your Elected Officials contains some links that might be useful for you in learning more about your elected officials.

bullet Even though it is a few years out-of-date, a study of voting behavior in North Carolina provides some food for thought. This research is from the North Carolina Center for Voter Education. There is even a PowerPoint on the poll results that is interesting.

bullet The representative government means our elected officials enact the policies we want right?  And how do they know what we want? Public opinion polls seem like a good barometer, but are they? 

bullet This site might learn toward the conspiratorial, but many believe elected officials should be more transparent in their dealing and influences.  How could information on this or sites like it be used for public policy advocacy? Be and sure to click on some of the links on the left side of the page.

bullet Regardless of what you think of this organization, this page does a great job outlining the influences of elected officials with regard to policy decisions.

bullet In order to understand the public policy makers, you need to know more about them.  Go to the Biographical Information section of Project Vote Smart and examine biographical information for our elected officials.  How does their history influence their decisions?  How might it influence your approach when addressing them?

bullet What are the similarities of differences among the legislators?   Are most a certain age, are there more men then women?  Examine these next two websites of demographics for the federal legislators.
And from congress.org 

bullet Advocacy is about affecting the change or action you want, which members of the legislature have the most power to implement their plans.  This website ranks elected officials on multiple criteria.  Where do NC’s politicians place?
Lagniappe:
Icon of a wrapped gift 		The JibJab web site has numerous funny videos that poke fun at politicians. When you are ready for a laugh, check them them out.
Assignments:Icon of note pad Your assignment for this week is to interview an elected official.  This could be a school board member, county commissioner, the mayor, the sheriff, a  state representative or senator or even a US representative or senator. This could be a good excuse to get to meet an elected official. Set up and appointment and tell them it is a class assignment.  Your interview shoud help you understand "Who this person is" & "What makes them tick."

You may ask whatever question you choose, but be sure to include these:
1- How long have you been in office?
2- What is the most challenging aspect of running for elected office?
3- Why do you think you were elected?
4- What is the process you use for making policy decisions?
5- What influences those policy decisions?
6- If someone wanted to affect those decision how should they get your attention and interest?
7- What is your hot button issue?
8- How should someone go about getting involved in policy advocacy?
9- Do individuals or organizations exert more influence on your role?

And finally tell what you learned or that surprised you from doing this assignment.

Send this assignment as an e-mail attachment to gary_moore@ncsu.edu. Because it may time some time to arrange and set up this assignemt it will not be due until July 17.


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