Social Security: A Pending Crisis A Leadership and Politics Debate Open Access

Leadership is a social process that brings together the interests of multiple stakeholders for mutual benefit toward the common good (Burns, 1978; Rost, 1993). In an effort to engage individuals to understand the complexities of the leadership and public policy making processes the authors developed a simulation-debate exercise designed to target such learning outcomes as influence, ethical issues, empathy leadership, and critical thinking. The authors created an in-class simulation examining the issue of Social Security reform. This article explains the administration of the debate, describes the learning goals and assessment methods, and offers insights into the broader application of the simulation to other courses.