The United States is described as a republic, a federation, and a constitutional democracy. So, what is it? Are those terms interchangeable? And, while we're at it, what's the difference between totalitarianism, despotism, and dictatorship? Political science professor Seth Masket digs into the 'isms, 'cracies, and 'archies for a brief primer on different forms of government.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
Presidential job approval. It seems we get a weekly report from news organizations on how citizen’s think the President is doing, so we're digging into how it gets calculated and how much that number really matters with Dan Cassino, Associate Professor of Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
When Congress imposed the first personal income tax on Americans in 1861, nothing happened – because there was no agency to collect it! The following year saw the creation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, or as you know it today, the Internal Revenue Service. Today, the IRS is a massive federal bureaucracy charged with collecting taxes, doling out credits, and capturing and jailing tax cheats. On this episode, Joe Thorndike, Director of the Tax History Project, walks us through the history and role of the IRS.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
George Washington received five letters a day, Theodore Roosevelt received so many letters it became a fire hazard at the White House, and Ronald Reagan loved reading mail from the country’s youngest citizens. In today’s super connected world, who’s in charge of handling all the correspondence addressed to the President? We look into the history of the Office of Presidential Correspondence and go behind the scenes of the Obama administration to see how mail of all kinds gets sorted.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
We're often urged to call our elected representatives to voice opinions on the issues, but what happens after that call is made? Where does the message go? And do those calls ever sway decisions? In this episode of Civics 101, we go into a congressional representative's office to find out.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
You've probably heard the term "comment period", but do you know what it means? What exactly happens when a government agency opens a proposed rule to public comment? And do these comments ever sway decision making? Today, a look into the notice and comment rule making procedure.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
