Construct an argument either agreeing or disagreeing with the following statement: Public opinion polls are an alternative form of direct democracy. Be sure to state your thesis clearly and support your claims with evidence and reasoning.

1. Explain whether policy decisions should be based on polls, considering issues of public attention, the public’s knowledge of politics, and so on.
2. Assess the advantages and disadvantages of public opinion polls, in the context of policy decisions being made, or not being made, based on polls. Keep in mind the control or power such polls might offer particular groups (based on age, religion, region, and more) within the citizenry.
3. Provide examples and a compelling and thoughtful conclusion.
   

GENERAL RULES for Response Assignment (RA):

1. Your RA must be substantive. Students should use proper sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and spelling.
2. The length of the RA must be between 500-600 words.
3. All sources must be referenced. DO NOT FORGET to provide bibliography, or web addresses for your sources.
4. In case of a direct citation use quotation marks and reference the author, year, and the exact page (e.g., Diestler 2012, 93).
5. Paraphrase a paragraph without quotation marks and reference the author and year (e.g., Diestler, 2012) in case of an indirect references.
6. Remember, deadlines will be strictly enforced.

FORMAT ASSESSMENT NOTE: 4 (FOUR) points will be deducted automatically if RA do not adhere to correct grammatical and format requirements outlined above.GRADING RUBRIC: Each RA has been assigned a maximum of 20 points, (total 300 points for 15 RAs). The Grading Rubric below will be used to assess your work: