Week 5 Discussion: The Roles of Congress and
The Presidency

Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
• Textbook: Chapters 4 and 10
• Lesson: Read this Week’s Lesson which is located in the Modules tab
• Initial Post: minimum of 2 scholarly sources (must include your textbook for one of the sources). Follow-Up

Post: minimum of 1 scholarly source for your Follow-Up Post.
• Your Initial Post and your Follow-Up Post must be based on the same Option that you chose in order to receive credit for both posts.

Initial Post Instructions
For the initial post, respond to one of the following options, and label the beginning of your post indicating either Option 1 or Option 2:
• Option 1: Political scientists disagree on the exact causes of low representation of women in Congress. Why do you think there are so few women in Congress in comparison to men? How likely is it that these patterns of representation will dramatically change over your lifetime? For this discussion question, you will have to do some research online.
• Option 2: What characteristics do you think voters look for when choosing a president?
Do you think voters choose the characteristics they are looking for depending on the socioeconomic and political environment – lack of jobs, riots, COVID-19, environmental concerns and other issues etc.? Explain your answer.
Be sure to make connections between your ideas and conclusions and the research, concepts, terms, and theory we are discussing this week.

Follow-Up Post Instructions
Respond to the same Option you chose for your Initial Post (i.e., if you chose Option 1 for your Initial Post, your Follow-Up Pst should also be for Option 1). Respond to at least one peer.
Further the dialogue by providing more information and clarification. Minimum of 1 scholarly source which can include your textbook or assigned readings or may be from your additional scholarly research.

Writing Requirements
• Minimum of 2 posts (1 initial & 1 follow-up)
• Minimum of 2 sources cited (assigned readings/online lessons and an outside source) for your Initial Post, and 1 scholarly source for your Follow-Up Post.
• APA format for in-text citations and list of references