x-sender: governor.haley@sc.lmhostediq.com x-receiver: governor.haley@sc.lmhostediq.com Received: from mail pickup service by IQ12 with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Fri, 6 Mar 2015 01:12:53 -0500 thread-index: AdBX1JSEfq0BYUwNSuiEf1tq27lLxw== Thread-Topic: Ethics in policy making From: To: Subject: Ethics in policy making Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2015 01:12:53 -0500 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000 Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message Importance: normal Priority: normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.1.7601.17609 X-OriginalArrivalTime: 06 Mar 2015 06:12:53.0218 (UTC) FILETIME=[94A3A420:01D057D4] CUSTOM Miss Alex Williams 5633 Champions Drive Pace FL 32571 alexandria.kwilliams@yahoo.com ETHI Ethics in policy making Governor Haley, My name is Alex Williams. I am a sophomore at the University of West Florida studying Political Science and Pre-Law. Although I live in Pensacola now, I grew up in South Carolina. In fact, I spent my first year of college at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina, which is where I grew up. As a double major I have studied a great deal about both politics and law. While studying politics and learning the basic processes involved in law making, I could not help but wonder about one specific step in the policy making process: agenda setting. I am sure you are familiar with what happens during this step in policy making, so I will not insult your intelligence by laying out the basics. I did want to present to you one concern I have and ask some questions about your thoughts on the matter. As a college student I am constantly surrounded by politics. It feels as though when I turned eighteen I was placed on the map as "available" to politicians who knew I could now vote for them. Through all of the smiles and promises I'm left wondering who I can trust. It's no secret the American people feel the same way. A Gallup Poll study shows how much Americans trusted the government to do the "right thing" from 1993 to 2009. The poll shows what percent of Americans believe they can trust the government "Just about always/Most of the time" compared to the percent of Americans that say they can trust the government "Only some of the time/Never," posting the results on a graph together. The results show that Americans typically believe they can trust the government "Only some of the time/Never." I will post a link to where I found this information at the bottom of this letter. As a matter of fact, a prominent sociologist in the 1950s, C. Wright Mills, came up with the "iron triangle" method. This explained his theory that agenda setting was controlled by elites: political elites, military elites, and economic elites. Mr. Mills was concerned that alliances were completely controlling the institutional agenda. How does the public know that actors involved in today's lawmaking- like congressional committees or subcommittees-are not setting agendas to favor their own political party or for some sort of political gain? I am curious to know your thoughts on agenda setting today. I also wanted to ask how you would respond to someone (like me) who believes the same as C. Wright Mills? Finally, what can you tell Americans to ensure the public that our politicians are to be trusted? Thanks for all you do for the beautiful state of South Carolina and thank you so much for taking time to read this letter! I am excited to hear back from you! Here is the link to that Gallup Poll study: http://www.gallup.com/poll/5392/trust-government.aspx