Government Growth in an Age of Improvement Essay

Democratic accountability is supposed to be alive and well in any political system rather than a government ran on â€Å"auto-pilot† at the expense of neglected and so expected taxpayers and rightful citizens. Introduction It should sound ironical that the president should continue to choose cabinet and sub cabinet officers and both the president and the congress continue to remain accountable to the American people through elections and exercise the power of the purse unlike in other democratic countries a great lack of interest in political administration is evident in the United Nations, resulting to deeper strains in American Society at large. The US has never created a high level, government-wide-civil service or a highly skilled and experienced top executive political manpower. The control of government policies is vested in an informal enduring series of â€Å"iron triangles† who are a link between particular program proposed to the relevant executive bureau, congressional committees and interest groups clientele the iron triangles are disastrously incomplete since they hardly understand changes in politics and administration but rather look for the powerful actors with whom to do business (P. 88). The job of presidential appointees in controlling their own actions and managing the bureaucracy are ultimately complicated. The problem arises where politicians, officials and their fellow travelers fail to meet what the public can understand and accept; thus registering large strains of American politics and society. Organized politics are dissolved and organizational life throughout the nation is politicized. Government Growth in an Age of Improvement The late 1950s and entire 1960s witnessed a wave of federal initiatives in health, civil rights, education, housing, manpower, income maintenance, transportation and urban affairs all associated with low government expenditure. Newer types of welfare concerns such as consumer protection, the environment, cancer prevention, energy, etc. have characterized an ambitious, reform minded period and a big government. However, there has been astonishingly little increase in the overall size of the federal executive establishment. Federal employment never grew either in comparison with spending and regulations (P. 89). Higher costs of existing policies are just one explanation of expanding government and stable bureaucracy and has been important in income maintenance programs. Another explanation is lack of administering programs directly to general population but rather act through intermediary organizations such as state governments, city halls, third party payers, consultants, contractors etc. making the contract between the ordinary citizen and a federal bureaucrat quite rare. This promotes the idea of government by remote control. This in essence is advantageous to the federal government builds support for policies, translating otherwise indivisible collective goods into terms suitable for distributive politics (P. 91). Sidestepping the tremendously difficult task of creating a broad national consensus for the governments administered activities is another advantage. This method of policies has led to mushrooming of federal regulations much in common with federal spending – the government can use regulations and tell the public and private bureaucracies what to do. The federal policy makers are left to distribute funds and bear blames when things go wrong. The style of retailing promises of improved policies and wholesaling the administrative headaches connected with delivery has left the people to expect the government to solve problems but not to get in anyone’s way in the process (P. 93). These results to policy pile up. Washington has in the end been put to the worst of both world-blamed for poor delivery by its public customers and besieged with bills from its middlemen. The possibility of both politicizing organizational life and depoliticizing democratic leadership is an area of concern. Since 1950s greatest policy growth was advocated – programs seeking social betterment in terms of civil rights, income, housing, environment, consumer protection etc. otherwise known as welfare policies. The idea of compensation is a theme in the clamor of group politics meaning that the federal government should put things right fits well for the groups that are disadvantaged and special treatment is required for truly equal opportunity to prevail and for those representing the disadvantaged. The government action is required to redress the impact of the selfish private interests. The prevalent feeling in the US that â€Å"there oughtta be policy† and the connotation of getting in on society’s compensations is decidedly positive. New initiatives in federal funding and regulation have infused old and new organizations with public policy dimensions, especially when such groups are used as administrative middlemen (P. 96-97). Expanding welfare policies on indirect administration have encouraged the development of specialized subcultures composed of highly knowledgeable policy makers some of whom have advanced professional degrees and commonly shared detailed understanding of specialized issues (P. 100-101). Employees in the field and in Washington who perform the routine chores associated with direct administration have become less prominent whereas those with necessary technical and supervisory skills have become more important. This in essence, results to expansion of the upper and middle levels of officialdom rather than increase the overall size of the bureaucracy. More technical skills and higher supervisory levels have become a requirement. Stable sets of clear goals in all modern organizations, even non profit oriented are the causes of increasing complexities and specializations affecting leaders. The pressure for more expert staff assistance have become immense for decision makers in governments where policy goals have been neither stable nor clear in the last twenty years and this applies to legislators and public executives (P. 101). Weakness in executive leadership below the level of the president have never really been due to interest groups, party politics or congress, rather the problem lies on the lack of any democratically based power political executives yet their popular mandate to act in the bureaucracy secondhand, from either an elected chief executive in congress political democrats further weaken the scenario. As much as political administrators become close to specialized policy networks the gap between them and the ordinary citizen widens a typical presidential appointee hardly gets time to see or listen to an ordinary member of the public. Only a minority of citizens gets a chance to be moralized in the various networks while those who are not policy activists depend on the ability of the government institutions to work on their behalf (P. 118). Conclusion More communication may need to be involved incase the gap between the policy networks and the bulk of the population is created by information. Policy forensics among the networks yield more experts making more sophisticated claims and counter claims that non-specialists becomes inclined to concede everything and believe nothing that he hears. Many factors and events are linked to these changing public attitudes. The prominence of issue networks is bound to aggravate problems of legitimacy and public disenchantment. The influential systems for knowledgeable policy making tend to make democratic politics difficult (P. 118-119). References Hugo Heclo, 2007 â€Å"Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment. †

Servise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Servise - Essay Example The discipline of service thinking involves an understanding of various disciplines way of handling customer service issues with a blend of different interdisciplinary methods and tools. This involves tools and methods from the traditional service thinking, the current thinking and going beyond. Service thinking offers organization with new ways of thinking apart from depending solely on the academic disciplines. Instead, service thinking integrates both the necessary academic and professional together with the application of set service design and thinking (Moote, 2008). The main objective of this approach to service provision is to ensure the best customer experience that provides mutual benefit to both the service providers and the end users of the services offered. Service thinking appreciates the interdisciplinary relationship that aims at integrating the customers and the producers throughout the service process (Bettencoat, 2011). For an effective and efficient service provisi on, some chronological steps of service delivery have to be observed. The steps include; first understanding who the customers are, make visualizations about the service and what it can deliver, understand how the service will flow, design the project including all the relevant resources, and lastly deploy the service. According to the article, one of the major motivators for organizations and firms to adopt the service thinking in their marketing strategies is the speed and the scale of labor migrations. Service thinking and design have the ability to expand revenues fetched by a firm. Service thinking has also proven to be one of the economic fuels by ensuring production of quality services and putting up high levels of productivity. Services are one of the fundamentals in the worldwide business competition dome. Through good service provision that enhances high customer satisfaction, organizations are able to build competitive advantage over their competitors. However, the author of the article acknowledges some of the challenges of building a systematic service innovation as the nature of services being multidisciplinary, the incorporation across technology, social, business and customer innovations. It is evident how services have raised the revenues for companies due to service provision and revenues of the organization in general. Services are more paying if well rendered to the customers. Giving an example of two competing hotels adjacent to each other, with the same products, at the same price in the same quantity, and of the same quality, customers may be observed to prefer one to the other despite of the similarities. The question is what makes a customer prefer one hotel to the other, yet they have similar products at similar prices. The most possible answer to this question is the service difference in the two hotels. One hotel may have friendly waiters than the other, may be it may be serving its meals in a more appealing designing compared to th e other hotel, and may be one hotel has more attractive seat arrangement compared to its competitor. Such service provision has made organizations gain more competitive advantage over their competitors not necessarily as a result of the products produced but how customers are served, and the services customers can get apart from the product itself. The economy worldwide is

Is a justified war ethical Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is a justified war ethical - Essay Example historians and theologians depict them as holy wars fought to oust Muslim domination and regain control of Christian Holy Lands, while others portray the wars as a series of ruthless and intentional attacks by religious extremists (Guibert). The stance of the Church is that the Crusades were ethically justified. They heavily base their arguments on the ‘Just War Theory’ that was proclaimed by two of the Church’s most celebrated theologians – St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. The former was a renowned Catholic Bishop and theologian who lived in the 5th Century, author of many books of which ‘City of God’ and ‘Confessions’ are the most famous. He is looked upon as the creator of the Just War Theory. His effect on Christian theology is so immense that his influence persisted from the time of the middle ages up to the current period (Crusade-Encyclopedia). St. Thomas Aquinas was a renowned Catholic priest, philosopher and theologian who lived in the 13th Century. He totally agreed with his 5th Century counterpart’s Just War Theory principles, adding that religious and philosophical truths do not oppose each other, but in fact each one complements the other, as they are nothing but two different sides of the same truth. St. Aquinas went on to add that perception power and thought were required to comprehend the many facets and workings of the Universe (Bbc.co.uk). St. Augustine’s Just War Theory states that in case of defending oneself solely and personally in matters related to life or material possessions, one does not have the right to take the life of another human being. This train of thought follows the abstract idea of Christian charity which proclaims that if struck on the cheek, one should not retaliate likewise but instead exercise restraint and meekly ‘turn the other cheek’ to receive additional punishment. However, when it involved the good and safety of others the above principle ceases to hold relevance and one faces the moral

Fiscal Policy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fiscal Policy - Assignment Example The fiscal policy has been instituted to see the government earn more revenue which is to be used to reduce the government debt which has been rising over the years especially following the release of stimulus packages to revive the economy after the financial crisis began. The fiscal policy currently in place disfavours the rich as it would see them pay more taxes. The middle class are also disfavoured by the fact that they have to pay 2% higher payroll tax than they have previously been paying. If not for the easy monetary policy that the country has adopted, many sectors of the economy would have been grossly affected by the financial policy and the unemployment levels would remain high. Generally, the fiscal policy will benefit those to whom the government is indebted. The Taiwan Government on has adopted an expansionary fiscal policy for the last seven years (Liu, 2013; weebly.com 2014). The policy includes raising spending on defence each year by 7.8%. The policy is aimed at stimulating domestic demand (weebly.com 2014). This measure has been taken in response to volatile exports. The government intends to invest in infrastructure and hopes that the economic growth will be more impressive. The policy favours local businesses and the general population although the government’s level of debt will keep rising. Mutikani, L. (March 22, 2013). Easy Fed softens fiscal policy punch on economy. Chicago Tribute. Retrieved March 14, 2014 from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-22/business/sns-rt-us-usa-economy-growthbre92l03o-20130321_1_easy-policy-monetary-policy-monetary-stimulus Liu, F. (2013).Taiwan Fiscal Policy to Stay Expansionary in 2014, With More for Infrastructure: Outstanding Public Debt Likely to Rise Close to the Statutory Limit. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 14, 2014

A paper proposal on the the Rhetoric of Sugar Sweetened Beverages Assignment

A paper proposal on the the Rhetoric of Sugar Sweetened Beverages - Assignment Example In this literature review, I intend to analytically review a variety of literature on Sugar Sweetened Beverages. Thus, I will put emphasis on a wide range of SSBs. These include, but not limited to soft drinks (soda), flavoured waters, sweetened teas, ready to drink coffees, sports drinks, and juices. Babey, Wolstein & Goldstein(2013) contend that the increase in consumption if drink that have added caloric sweeteners is attributed to less healthy diets as well as health concerns such as overweight and obesity. What is the problem addressed in the literature review? The problem addressed is that there is the increased consummation of SSBs and consequently increased rates of obesity and overweight. Overwhelming research as presented in a wide range of literature has specifically cited increased consumption of SSBs as the main cause of the increased rates of obesity. Over the last four decades for instance, the rates of obesity and weight gains have tripled. Statistics of study carried out by Ogden & Carrrol (2010) between 2007 and 2008 established that one in every six children and adolescents aged between 2 and 9 is obese. These statistics are worrying. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (1998), obesity increases the risk of coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, type 2 diabetes, various cancers, and many other chronic diseases. As such, the increased rates of consuming SSBs have the risk of escalating the already increased cases of obesity. This will consequently case a major strain to the public health care system. Currently, the U.S government spends more than $174 billion annually in treating obesity. It also spends more than $147 billion annually in treating health problems related to obesity and overweight. According to Wang et al. (2012), this accounts for more than 9.1 percent of the government’s health care expenditure. This has led to widespread concerns over the need to control the major causes of diabetes and ove rweight. What are the questions addressed in the literature review? The questions addressed in my literature review are: 1. What can be done to reduce the rate of SSBs consumption? 2. What role can the media play in reducing the rate of SSBs consumption? What gaps have you discovered in the literature? An analytical review of the literature on SSBs consumption reveals that there exists a large gap between the increasing rate of SSBs consumption and the measures that can be used to reduce these rates. There is also a large gap in regard to the role played by the media and the increased rates of SSBs consumption. There also exists a gap on the approaches to be used on reducing SSBs consumption. Generally, the approaches to reducing intake have varied. Some literature proposes a tax on sugar sweetened beverages, while other literature advocates an extreme tax on SSBs. On the other hand, some literature argues that a tax will not suffice at all. Most literature argues that there is stro ng link between the high levels of consumption of sugar sweetened beverages and obesity and adverse effects on the public health care system. Babey ,Wolstein & Goldstein H (2013) claim that soda and other SSBs, such as energy and sports drinks, are the largest source of added sugar in the diets of both children and adults in the U.S. It is argued that liquid calories do not satisfy as well as solids, and SSBs add calories instead of replacing them. It is suggested

Was Ford Ethically Right in Its Decision to Design Improvements and Th Assignment

Was Ford Ethically Right in Its Decision to Design Improvements and Thereby Risk the Lives of Its Consumers - Assignment Example Ford was ethically wrong in its decision to forego the improvements and thereby risk the lives of its consumers. In any case, it certainly appears that Ford was rushing against time to capture the market and overcome its competitors in the compact car industry. On ethical and moral judgments, a decision informed by material benefits at the expense of human lives is certainly wrong and misguided. Worse still, the cost-benefit analysis conducted by Ford amounted to involving its consumers in a deal of which they were totally oblivious. For such a decision to qualify on ethical grounds, the automaker would have made public its decisions on the faults of the vehicle and the subsequent cost-benefit analysis so as to inform the potential buyers of Pinto. In such a case, the company would be exonerated from the faults that came as a consequence of the defect in the vehicle. Moral conduct regards human lives as totally absolute and should never be quantified with other material products.Huma n beings are generally risk-averse and would not really partake into evitable instances where their lives are put to risk. The passing on of the $11 to the customers comes after the maintenance has been made and the vehicle is devoid of the risk. In this case, the rationality of the customer does not, therefore, come in. their decision to buy the car is therefore pegged upon another thing like cost and taste but not a risk. It is therefore certainly much different from the case of the airbags which are optional and the consumer has to make a decision.

Education and Public Policy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Education and Public Policy - Research Paper Example While the industrial educational policy regime emerged and spread fast at the start of the 20th century, the rights education period started with the emergence of civil rights movements and anti-poverty campaigns in the mid-20th century. The industrial education regime was characterized by policies, which supported vocational educational programs in the sectors of the economy. On the other hand, rights educational policies sought to address poverty and racial and socioeconomic segregation of the 19th and the 20th century. In addition, rights education movements fought for the creation and implementation of educational policies that promote human rights and equality. During the rights education regime, a rather detailed global framework was developed to promote human rights education and awareness where human rights violations were rampant. To achieve this objective, stakeholder partnership, especially by multilateral institutions was necessary.In particular,a vibrant and dispersed system of civil society activists and associations had to be created and involved in the human rights education policy development and implementation. In this partnership,the civil and human rights movements managed to achieve quite a lot. However,the institutionalization and implementation processes dragged on rather slowly and at different paces.Although reinforcement and implementation of suggestion courses of action remain relatively slow,the efforts of rights education have tremendously improved global responses to mass atrocities and other forms of human rights violations ... inforcement and implementation of suggestion courses of action remain relatively slow and inconsistent, the efforts of rights education have tremendously improved global responses to mass atrocities and other forms of human rights violations (Beitz, 2009). Rights education policies have made positive strides since its emergence in the mid 20th century. First, there has been an increase in the international community’s responsiveness to atrocities across the globe, especially in the Middle East (Beitz, 2009). Second, a lot of attention is currently directed at prevention of human rights abuse and accountability by governments. Furthermore, rights education has made citizens aware of their rights, making it rather difficult for great powers to block certain favorable courses of action at world bodies such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) (Beitz, 2009). Regarding industrial educational regime, a lot of positive strides have been made and success registered given its emphasis on industrial education that empowers the marginalized and the vulnerable. The regime was characterized by an approach to education that emphasized learning from an industrial perspective (Kincheloe, 1995). A core area in which industry-oriented education has been applied is in vocational education. Although in earlier time it was majorly offered to students with sub-degree education and in industrial setting training, it has been introduced and offered even for Bachelor’s and Master’s degree students since 2004. Based on one’s employment, industrial educational policies prepared learners for specific crafts or trades at different levels. One advantage of industrial educational regime policies is that they are relevant to professions such as nursing, medicine, architecture, trade,