Each student is assigned to a country and asked to represent that country's views in a simulated debate to represent the War Guilt Clause negotiations at Versailles.
This debate about whether judicial review is compatible with democracy is meant to get students thinking about what sort of ideal democracy is, and to see both its procedural and substantive components.
Assigned debates work well for weeks where several competing theoretical approaches are covered. This debate involves competing theories on approaches to explaining political attitudes.
How do policy reforms impact different social and economic groups differently? In this role play exercise, students learn that policy-making involves winners and losers.
This role play debate has participants take on the perspective of leftist Chilean university students in the late 1960s, just before Socialist Salvador Allende won the presidency and shortly thereafter was toppled by the military.
