These writing assignments are meant to help you think about the readings and to prepare you for class discussions. For that reason, when you write a response it is important that you give your opinions and that you relate your thoughts to the reading. Remember that these are exam questions and that they are graded as such. You ought to write them as though you are writing questions on a midterm or a final exam.

Respond to one of the following questions by writing a response on the class Discussion Board on Blackboard at least one hour before class on the date the question is listed. Put your name in the text of the question and give the question number as listed below. Without these I can't tell who wrote the question or what you are responding to. You then have until Midnight on the following Sunday of that week to revise your response if you wish to do so and to submit it for grading. To submit your responses, send them via email to milofsky@bucknell.edu.

Your final version of this question is due by midnight, Sunday, November 22.

24-1 In H&M Chapter Seven, there is discussion of the "three policy epochs" and of familiar social programs that originate in each of them. How are the characteristic styles of programs that originate in each era different?

24-2 Chapter Seven argues that morality must be an important part of social science analyses and that institutions provide settings in which "morality happens". The article we read by Belkin on Wednesday illustrates this point. Following the discussion of institutions, professions, and morality in Chapter Seven how would you describe moral action in the Belkin case?

24-3 Chapter Seven argues that central assumptions of "conventional social science" are no longer valid and that this sort of social science is "dead". What are those assumptions, what is wrong with them, and why is an institutional perspective more adequate?