Each student must complete a paper of no less than 4 pages and no more than 6 pages.
In The Federalist Number 1, Alexander Hamilton remarked:
“It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this
country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of
men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or
whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and
force.”
Using the information learned in this course regarding the history, philosophy, and function of
the US government and your original independent research, answer the following question: has
the United States established good government from reflection and choice, or are they as a nation forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force?
-Sources must be scholarly, appropriate, and factual. Students should not
use entertainment news sources like Fox News, Brietbart, or pseudo academics to prove
scholarly arguments. You will lose 5 points per citation if you violate this policy. Citations must
be noted in the text. You may use footnotes for citations. Your paper must be well organized,
with clear separation between sections. Organization and structure will account for 20 points of
your total content. Your paper must include a thesis statement which is worth 5 points. Your
paper must be written in formal academic style, do not use personal pronouns (using I, you, or
we). Your paper should be written in the 3rd person point of view. You may conduct personal
interviews for your paper but you must follow proper Chicago or MLA formatting for conducting
and citing interviews.
-You must use paragraphs of no less than 4 sentences. Your paper should be factual, present
complete arguments and avoid bias. Failure to present proper content in your paper will result in
a loss of points in relation to size of, or frequency of the mistakes.
-Citations must be in MLA or Chicago format. You will lose 1 point for
mistakes in citation format up to a maximum of 10 points.
-Your paper must be in 12 point, times new Roman or Liberation Serif
(for Linux users) font. 4-6 pages’ double spaced. This does not include your cover or citations
page. 1 inch margins are required.