Research Proposal

COMP 2000 - Research Proposal (template)

Working Title: Patriotism: The growth and fall of American Nationalism

Submitted By: Sean Mooti

Research Question: Does American Nationalism affect a nations government?

Introduction

I will be researching the growth and fall of American nationalism throughout the years and finding chronological ties between the national sentiment and the efficiency of government. I am interested in better understanding how government reacts to it’s citizens and whether or not it does conform around it’s citizens or does it’s citizens conform around it. When I think of the USA I have always been proud of the country and it’s government since I was little. I may not agree with decisions that my government makes however I do support them as much as I can. I do believe that we are living in the greatest nation in the world, and I want to understand exactly why it is. I believe that doing this research topic will allow me to open my eyes to another side of the coin so to speak. In that I am what some would call a blind follower, which is absolutely false I am a educated supporter, of our nation and I would like to see how my fellow Americans do feel towards their government.

Research Method
In my research I will research surveys from the past ten years on citizens support of the government from the different polls such as Gallup and Rasmussen, and compare them to the political policies and issues of the time. Also I will interview fellow students in order to gain understanding as to how my peers feel towards the current administration and the previous one. I will then use this information along with research that has already been done in this area to try and find trends that I can then write about. Now the peers I will interview will be chosen from amongst my classes, acquaintances, and if necessary random students from around campus. I will ask them open ended questions about the current administration, past administration, their feelings toward government, and exactly how efficient they believe our government is. I will attempt to make the setting to be more of a casual conversation than an interview and the questions will not be asked in any order or even at the same time. In doing this I believe I can minimize the amount of data collection error. I feel that doing a sit down interview will possibly skew results, because the person will feel they have to answer concisely and immediately while in a conversation setting I feel they will be more open and then also in asking the questions at different times gives them time to think about the topic so that if they realized something that they didn’t say at the time or that they felt they were wrong bout they could comeback and mention it to me before being given another question to think about. Now after all my data is collected and I have compared to other research I will then begin researching the Rasmussen and Gallup polls and their chronological ties in governmental policies. I believe that I will be able to acquire the proper research and be able to enlighten not only myself but the class with how exactly there peers feel towards government.

Possible Resources:

Gallup Polls:

http://www.gallup.com/Home.aspx

Rasmussen Polls:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/

World Fact Book:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

Governmental Policies:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/

Journals on Government (list):

http://0-atoz.ebsco.com.novacat.nova.edu/titles.asp?txtKeyword=Government&SF=Titles&id=1507&sid=74737890&LH=&lang.subject=&lang.menu=&lang=&cmdSearchSubmit=Search