The Tales From A Sausage Factory Analysis

To a common man on the street, laws are viewed as clear cut, explicit, and perfect. However, this is clearly not the case. In The Tales from a Sausage Factory, the authors, Daniel L. Feldman and Gerald Benjamin, both acknowledge that people who are not involved in state legislature "imagine a black or white legislative world; entirely corrupt, or entirely virtuous" (Feldman and Benjamin XIII). Law in New York City has many gray areas in respect to decisions reflecting ethical and moral values. State legislature does not work easily. There are times that are filled with "victory and defeat; anger, frustration, and satisfaction; friendship and betrayal" (Feldman and Benjamin XIII). In any legislature, there will be critics

The right to bare arms is the core of the constitution. On won't hand, gun advocates love this, and n the other, opposers do not see a reason to own a gun besides unnecessary violence. The manufacturing of guns, killing with guns, selling of guns, and the import and export of guns, are all related in the government. All of these increased at a great rate in the years of 1985 to 1994. Researchers were able to conclude that "total firearms violence" in 1992 alone costed the United States more that one hundred billion dollars in "counting direct medical costs, lost productivity, and lost quality of life" (Feldman and Benjamin 243). In 2014, more than twenty years later, it must be exponentially higher. So what should be done? Elizabeth Holtzman, the city comptroller from 1989 to 1993, sought to implement the liability law which would "settle disputes between private parties"(Feldman and Benjamin 245). However in 1991, she implemented the absolute liability, where the dealers and gun manufacturers would be charged even though they are not directly responsible for a shooting. This would ensure that sellers are not selling to criminals. Thankfully, the federal government put a ban on assault weapons. Feldman, with the help of Oliver Koppell (a state legislature), passed a bill in 1992 holding manufacturers and sellers financially responsible. However, this was not the core of the problem. Guns end up in criminal

In most cases, it takes much anger, frustration, and even failures to make progress. In the world of political science, there will always be debates on how best implement new laws and always strive to make laws better. There will always be critics and opposers of the law. However, people do not realize how intricate and complex lawmaking is and what type of processes various laws go through in order to be official. They fail to see the financial, campaigning, debating, and exhausting aspects of law making. Tales from a Sausage Factory was enjoyable because it taught the process of creating laws and furthermore, the results and statistical data as to whether or not the law was of purposeful or not. It is great for anyone who is interested to learn about how state legislature works because the reader can be placed directly in the place of both of the authors, Dan Feldman and Gerald Benjamin. However, I felt as though in some instances, that there was too much unnecessary historical background that simply served no purpose in the point that the author was trying to make. Ultimately, this book definitely describes how "manipulation of perceptions is at the core of politics" (Feldman and Benjamin