Active Learning Through Classroom Role-Play in Comparative Politics

Active Learning Through Classroom Role-Play
Simulation of National Elections for Upper-Year Comparative (Industrialized) Courses

Laure Paquette, Ph.D.

Role play simulations are extensively established in the literature.[1] In recent years, classroom role-play simulations have been used for Cabinet and budget processes in courses on Canadian Politics at University of Toronto, for processes determining foreign policy at Dalhousie University, for determination of future Canadian policy in Afghanistan by the Senlis Council, and in single class simulations in Comparative Politics at University of Delaware. The goal of this article is to propose a classroom exercise for an upper year university course in the Comparative Politics of industrialized states: the role-play simulation of a national election in a liberal democratic state. A simulation like this is extremely effective in teaching students about the domestic politics of foreign countries.

The theory and practice of comparative politics are often covered by a combination of lectures delivery and long form written work – essays, examinations, etc. A simulation exercise, on the other hand, presents all the advantages of active pedagogy, as well as covering some of the basic themes typically present in upper year courses in Comparative Politics. This article describes the simulation itself, outlines the content and concepts covered, explains how the simulation can be integrated into a twelve- or fourteen-week course, and specifies requirements to maximize student learning.

General Requirements

In the format proposed, the instructor can select countries to be studied, or students can choose based on certain geographical restrictions. Most industrialized countries have ample news and scholarly coverage, especially since the explosion of electronic resources. While the students do not need to speak the language of the country chosen, information about the politics of that country needs to be available in a language that students understand.

To establish a threshold of basic knowledge, at the start of the simulation, students should be able to write a take home test covering the basics such as the main parties, their main platforms, the structure of the electoral system, and current and recurring political issues in the country. It is useful to have a professional librarian conduct a research workshop tailored to the assignment or test about two weeks before the deadline.

Teams of students are formed at random or on their own choices to represent the parties which hold seats in the legislature of the country, with individual students role-playing different party officials, including candidate, campaign manager, director of communications/media relations, director of finance/fundraiser, research cell member (including development of attacks on other parties, as well as tracking of attacks by other parties), and speechwriter.

During the simulation, students are encouraged to be as realistic as possible. If the class is large enough, it is possible to have students appointed as journalists, whose job is to write news reports using the tone and editorial bias of a media outlet of their choice for each class. Media or other role-players cannot invent incidents. The mock journalists would also be expected to produce other material as required from other students.

Simulation Details

The students are required to prepare for, and conduct, the major events of an election campaign such as has occurred or is occurring in the country under study, with each student playing the role of a different actor in the process: leader of a party, campaign manager, fundraiser, speechwriter, etc. The simulation includes the following tasks, which can be covered in eight classes over four weeks, assuming 1.5 hour classes:

a campaign managers’ meeting to set timetables and parameters;
an election call or campaign launch;
one campaign speech;
writing and/or production of two television/internet commercials, one less than one minute and one less than two minutes;
one news conference;
a one-on-one media interview; and
an all-candidates’ debate.

Each of these tasks is designed to cover themes common in upper-year courses in Comparative (industrialized) courses. Team formation and selection of the party to represent familiarizes students with political parties. The campaign launch by the parties familiarizes students with the party platform. The planning of the mock election campaign familiarizes students with electoral systems, the legislative and executive branches of government, and any election laws or regulations. Media reports or interviews, if they occur, familiarize students with the role of the media in the politics of the country under study, as well as journalist, media consumer and voter behavior. Campaign speeches will ensure students are familiar with the most important political issues in the given election campaign or cycle. The leaders’ debate, which occurs in almost all liberal democratic countries, will show the brand of leadership for that country, as well as confirming students’ understanding of platform elements and extemporaneous speaking skills. Finally, the holding of the mock election itself reveals how the social cleavages and stratification will occur as represent by voting behavior. The instructor may devote entire classes to teamwork if required or possible, or the instructor may choose to intersperse lectures with the mock-election classes, providing information that the students can use in the next scheduled event. Another option is to use the simulation for that part of term where students are usually the least motivated, say in the latter half of a term.

Students can choose their roles within the political party apparatus of each party, or they can be assigned. The election campaign is usually a national one, so there has to be a party leader, as well as a campaign manager, someone responsible for election fundraising, spending and reporting, at least one speechwriter, a researcher who may be researching other parties’ flaws or embarrassing moments, a strategist, and a media relations specialist if there are media.
If there is media, then each class during the campaign starts with media reports. These take the form of brief written articles written in the style and tone of newspapers of the country under study. Next are the campaign events scheduled for that class, followed by some time for the professor to give feedback to students on the accuracy and realism of their performance, to highlight any particular characteristic of the politics of the particular country, and to assign tasks to particular teams to improve their performance. The teams are assessed either on their performance in class, evaluated in the same way a participation grade would be assessed. They can also be assigned analytical assignments that helps them put their learning into context, which would be marked like more traditional short-answer or longer form written assignments..
A sample campaign/classroom work schedule could be as follows. Class 1 is Campaign Launch Day and consists of a short presentation by each group to introduce their party to the class. Class 2 is devoted to campaign speeches: the parties outline their positions on major issues and unveil their election platform. During class 3, students present a short (less than one minute long) political commercial. They may introduce themselves to the public or make pitch for a particular group of voters’ support. Each party leader faces the press during class 4. If there are no reporters appointed, the instructor asks the questions. Each party also has five minutes at the start to make a speech, show a commercial or otherwise add information to their platform. Class 5 is dedicated to one on one interviews between each of the party leaders and a member of the media. If there are no students acting as journalists, the instructor prepares and asks the questions. Class 6 is the time when the parties show their second, longer commercial. The leaders’ debate takes place during class 7, with the format being negotiated in advance by the campaign managers and the media or instructor. Finally, the vote is held on class 8, with the victory speech from the winning party. The instructor is free to remove an event or to change the order to suit the class schedule or to more closely follow events in the country being studied.

Campaign Launch

10 minute maximum time for presentation for each party; presentations are open to whatever the party wants, i.e. pamphlet, overheads, slide shows; no personal attacks on the other parties; restricted to their own parties political history and possible initiatives; there are no money restrictions for the presentation

Campaign Speeches

10 minute maximum time for speeches by each candidate. Speeches are restricted to platform issues with no personal attacks. -There are no monetary restrictions for the speeches. There is a 10-minute question period for media. -media questions are restricted to the platform.

Commercial 1

Commercial must not exceed 1 minute at the most. There are no topic restrictions on the content of the commercial.

Press Conference

There are no topic restrictions. Following the press release, each media representation may ask one question each.

One-on-one media interviews

There will be one media representative with one candidate. The media will supply a list of topics one class before hand to prepare. The candidate may pass on any question they deem as inappropriate.

Commercial # 2
T
he commercials shall not exceed 3 minutes. There are no topic restrictions on the content.

All candidates debates

Two minutes are allocated for the opening and closing statements. Candidates speak in order starting from audience’s left going to right. Media must take turns asking questions. One minute is the maximum time limit for answers. Any question deflections to other party will allow a 1 minute rebuttal. There is only 1 rebuttal for each topic allowed.

Victory speech.

Maximum 5 minutes is allowed for the speech.

Press

Press Releases will be ongoing throughout the campaign. Submission will be ongoing as needed to accomplish related tasks, i.e. Press/ Media submissions on questions will be completed before the Press conference, one-on-one interviews, and leaders’ debate. Parties are free to try and develop good working relationships with the press.

Electoral Coalitions

Negotiations for electoral coalitions or coalition governments are permitted if they occur in the country being studied. These agreements can be public or private; if private and discovered by reporters, they can be published.

For each of these events, some rules of behavior to direct students’ behavior toward better learning, are provided. An alternative would be for the professor to assign the task of developing such rules to the campaign managers, or the class as a whole, depending on the class’ experience with active pedagogy. Rules for an all-party debate could also be developed this way. For example, here are some rules worked out by campaign managers for a simulated election in Germany. The instructor needs to approve all the rules outlined above, since students may reach agreements that take the pressure off their candidates.

Themes and Concepts Covered

The content of the simulation familiarizes the students with the domestic political systems of two liberal democratic countries with industrialized economies, while the simulation itself provides an active pedagogy increasing the odds of students learning in a way that allows better retention of material. Themes covered by the classroom simulation described below include elections, political culture, economic, social, and other domestic policies, political issues, political parties, media, electoral law and reform, some legislative and administrative processes, political structure, voting behaviour, and political cleavages. The role play simulation has the advantage of also expecting leadership roles from students in specific areas; of requiring reflection on students’ part for their classroom participation; of fostering independent critical thinking through the analytical assignments that accompany the simulation. It also presents the advantage of making fraud using the internet much more difficult. Not covered by the role play are theories and models, methodology, or debates in the field. These need to be covered in the classes not taken up with the role play simulation.

Assessment and Facilitation

The main effort is in the design of the simulation and the enforcement of its rules. Once preparatory material is ready and the role play is launched, however, the instructor can focus on the proceedings themselves. While teaching, management and assessment strategies are up to individual instructors, I recommend the instructor use analytical assignments on the content of the simulation on an ongoing basis, and not assign more than 20% of the final grade for participation. I also recommend that students be graded by their performance as a group, so that the peer pressure and solidarity natural in this setting helps improve the performance. Students learn a great deal, driven in part by the desire to perform well in front of their peers, but also to win the election. There is also extensive learning from each other. While simulation is suitable for the classroom, it may be possible to adapt it to distributed learning. That said, the valuable face-to-face interactions that facilitate student understanding and retention would be greatly restricted using distributed or distance learning.

My experience over several years of using this approach has been that I too learn a good deal about the domestic politics of foreign countries from the students, because the collective research capacity of the students exceeds my own. I do have to keep up on the most recent political developments in the country under study, since those issues tend to come up in the simulation. That is even more true if there are no students playing the role of journalists. On the other hand, not only are these simulations fun, students develop skills as well as knowledge, and motivation to work is never a problem. Those, however, are the usual benefits of active pedagogy.

[1] Camelot, A Role Playing Simulation For Political Decision Making, James R. Woodworth, W. Robert Gump; Homewood, Ill. : Dorsey Press, 1982; Simple Simulations : A Guide To The Design And Use Of Simulation/Games In Teaching Political Science / By Charles Walcott (Washington : American Political Science Association, C1976); Scenario, Canada And The United European Community : A Simulation Exercise, Lawrence V. Gould, Jr. (Halifax, N.S. : Centre For Foreign Policy Studies, Dept. Of Political Science, Dalhousie University, 1979).