COU 3: Depicting Policy Polarization

Instructions

Draw three separate lines, each representing a policy space. On each line, draw the ideal points of ten persons, using the graphical conventions of this section – i.e. label each person with a number (1, 2, 3, and so on through 10) and indicate the location of each person’s ideal point by putting a small circle with that person’s number in the center just below the line at the location of that person’s ideal point. Drawing bars along each policy space to indicate the proportion of ideal points located within each of a set of segments of the space is not required for this COU.

Distribute the ten ideal points across each line in a way that depicts increasingly severe policy polarization as one moves from the first to the third policy space – i.e.:

  • The ideal points on the second line should be distributed in a way that depicts more severe policy polarization than on the first line;
  • The ideal points on the third line should be distributed in a way that depicts more severe policy polarization than on the second line.

To make it completely clear what you intend to convey with each of the three policy spaces, label them in a way that indicates the level of policy polarization each policy space is meant to depict. E.g. label the first line “little or no policy polarization”, the second line “some policy polarization” and the third line “severe policy polarization”.

Rubric

You can earn up to three points on this COU. Specifically:

You draw three policy spaces, each depicting the ideal points of ten persons, with each space depicting more severe levels of polarization than the previous space. Together, the three policy spaces depict polarization as occurring to the extent that there are concentrations of ideal points at two distinct locations in the space, with polarization more severe as the portions of ideal points concentrated at each of these two locations increases and as the two locations diverge towards the extremes and away from one another.

You follow all the instructions above. Overall, the three policy spaces you draw seem to depict increasing levels of severity of policy polarization. But the depiction is somewhat ambiguous, leaving it uncertain whether you fully and correctly understand how to depict different levels of severity of policy polarization using the spatial model.

You do not follow all the instructions above and/or your three policy spaces show a clear misunderstanding of how to depict different levels of severity of policy polarization using the spatial model.