Study Materials

Questions for Final Exam

Students should prepare these questions for the final exam. They will be asked to answer three of them the day of the in-class final, Session 25.

1. Describe the key elements of the basic contract you would want to sign with the parties before accepting a job as a public dispute mediator. Outline the basic elements of the contract. Discuss the responsibilities you would and would not accept as a mediator.
   
   
2. At the outset of the Westville case, the planner was viewed as non-partisan by the groups involved even though s/he had an agenda. What are the things neutrals can do to ensure their non-partisanship in situations like Westville? When is it appropriate for a mediator to pursue his or her own agenda?
   
   
3. What are the special features of "value-based disputes" that make them so difficult to resolve? What are the contributions that mediators can make to the resolution of such disputes?
   
   
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of gaming (the use of simulation) as a pedagogical device in a negotiation course? How would you recommend that such teaching tools be used to get the most out of them?
   
   
5. Please give two examples of current public disputes that should probably not be mediated. Please explain why. How should these conflicts be handled?
   
   
6. Describe a public dispute in which you consider the bargaining power of the parties to be unequal. What is the basis for your determination that power is unequally distributed? How and under what circumstances would you try to convince both the most powerful and the least powerful party that it would be in their interest to negotiate? How would you expect the power imbalance to affect the actual negotiations and the ultimate outcome of the negotiations?
   
   
7. If you were an advocate for the economically disadvantaged, what arguments would you give to your constituency regarding when, where, and how to participate in "assisted negotiations" proposed by city governments? What actions might you propose they undertake prior to participating in such a process?
   
   
8. Select three of the assigned readings in 11.255 with which you disagreed most strongly. Please specify and explain your disagreements.
   
   
9. If you were responsible for certifying professional public dispute resolvers, what would you require in a 30-hour curriculum? Please outline the topics you would want covered and describe the approach to teaching you would require.
   
   
10. Assume you are responsible for preparing a roster of public dispute resolvers for a state or federal agency. How would you go about preparing such a roster? What factors would you consider? Why?
    
    
11. In what ways do you think gender and/or culture correlates with negotiating or dispute resolving styles? What makes you think so? Please give two actual examples that substantiate your assertion. How do your examples relate to Debbie Kolb's arguments?
    
    
12. Select a public dispute. Prepare a brief memorandum to the head(s) of the public agencies involved outlining why they should consider participating in an "assisted" effort to resolve this conflict. Try to anticipate their concerns and respond to them.
    
    
13. Assume you are a mediator selected to assist in a public dispute in which race, ethnicity, and/or religion are relevant to the dispute and that your personal identity is the same as one of the groups in the conflict. How (if at all) would you modify your style or approach to intervention because of the similarities and differences in race, ethnicity or religion represented by you and the disputants? Do you think a mediator in the exact opposite situation from you, that is, a member of one of the other ethnic, racial, or religious groups represented in the dispute would answer the same way? Why?
    
    
14. Environmental groups have recently won major concessions from both the private and public sectors through unassisted negotiation precipitated by litigation or the threat of litigation. Write a short memo to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) or a similar environmental advocacy group aimed at convincing them to consider using mediation in future disputes, even given the success of litigation in the past.
    
    
15. What are your reactions to the main arguments in Dealing with an Angry Public? When and under what circumstances would you advise a corporation or agency not to meet with a group that is angry at them? Why?
    
    
16. In what ways do you think the ideas presented in 11.255 speak to both the strengths and weaknesses of representative democracy?
    
    
17. What do you see as the major obstacles to "exporting" the idea of public dispute mediation to other countries? Illustrate with reference to a particular country you know something about.