Strategy Papers
Due in class April 5

On April 12, I will announce the results of a mock parliamentary election involving the seven political parties for which you wrote manifestos. In order to make things more interesting (and more realistic for politics in Europe outside of the UK) no party will have a majority of the seats in parliament. If you want your party's manifesto to be enacted into law, you will need to be able to cooperate with some of your competitors in a coalition government.

Between now and April 5, you should read the manifestos written by each of the other political parties and discuss them with your fellow party members. In order to make the manifestos available without photocopying each one 30 times, these documents have been be posted online at www.lsu.edu/faculty/lray2/teaching/4068/index.html.

On April 5, each group will hand in a typed strategy paper. This paper should cover the following topics:

1. For each of the five political issues, identify which of the other political parties your party agrees or disagrees with. Are some of these disagreements of greater importance than others?

2. On what issues is your party willing to compromise its position in order to join a coalition government? What compromises would you not make? (You will need to discuss this as a group in order to come to an agreement on compromises your party can support.)

3. Based on the previous sections, which parties do you think you may be able to cooperate with? Which parties do you think you could never work with?

-These papers will probably run around 4-5 pages in length.
-It is not to your advantage to show these papers to anyone outside of your party!