Rhode Island Government Analysis Project - Essay Example

Rhode Island Government Analysis Project Our group dealt with the analysis of government of Rhode Island. We divided ourselves into four groups; legislative history team, best practices team, the Raimondo administration team and the compiling/writing team. We did so in order to cover more ground in all areas and also to avoid bias to one topic. We learnt of the Rhode Island government Appointments pledge (RI-GAP) that was launched by the women’s fund in 2010. It aimed at increasing the number of women in politics.

Governor Gina Raimondo whom we also learnt was the first female governor championed for this and her administration has continued to incorporate more women into politics. We followed up her activities to see if she had kept her promise on more women appointments to government. She had indeed done so. Moreover, she committed herself to this promise on paper when she and her opposing candidates Fung and Healey for the gubernatorial race signed the RI-GAP. In fact, since RI-GAP was launched the number of women in government has increased to 34% as at 2013.

Moreover, states like Colorado, Vermont, California and Washington have increased the number of women in state agencies and boards through the establishment of more women organizations and training camps. This is partly as a result of the positive influence Rhode Island has, although on the other hand it is also because of women are becoming more empowered. This was among some of the findings by the best practices team. Among other things we learnt was the process of appointments to Rhode Island state boards.

This is stipulated in Title 28, labor and labor Relations, section 28-5.1-3.1. The section indicates that whoever is responsible for appointment s of people to the board shall ensure that the people serving on the board and commission reflect the diversity of the population of Rhode Island. Section 28-5.1-17 on the other hand deals with equal opportunity and Affirmative action. In summary it talks of ensuring that when one is considering employing people they must always factor in minorities such as blacks and Hispanics to give fair opportunity to all (State of Rhode Island General Assembly).

The research was conducted mainly through semi-structured interviews, reading on the Rode Island government as well as questionnaires where possible. These methods yielded good results. The research process was however, not without some challenges. Some, of our teammates were ignored by the Rhode Island agencies and thus some questions went unanswered. In addition, these agencies were always busy hence it was a difficult to find enough respondents to get conclusive data. Moreover, it was the general feeling of the teams that we had not adequately prepared for the presentation due to disruptive procedures during preparation as well as lack of enough time to prepare.

All in all the teams did their best given, the prevailing conditions. The findings of this research could further be improved through allocation of more time to the research. In addition, the school may also get involved and arrange for the students and the Rhode Island agencies to meet. This will eliminate the challenge of students being turned away. The question we were researching is relevant, the reason being that government systems play a major role in all other aspects of a state or a country.

It also provides a basis of comparison for other states as mentioned above. Finally, it helps us analyze impacts that a certain government system has on the state. Works Cited State of Rhode Island General Assembly. State of Rhode Island General Laws, 2014. Web. 7 May 2015. < http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/ >.