A Reflection and Evaluation to Personal and Organizational Business Research Paper

A Reflection and Evaluation to Personal and Organizational Business Ethics - Research Paper Example Corporate organizations, or any professional organization for that matter, will always have to reach a point when improvement is needed or that the need for change should be addressed. Such scenarios happen within an organization, whether minor adjustments in policies or complete organization structure overhauls, are usually necessary so that operations or activities can progress accordingly. However, the central issue really of organizational development is all about the welfare of the individuals working within the organization, and the manner which their abilities and performance in reaching the organization’s objectives are achieved. Also taken into great consideration are the effects of the business activities to the public constituents. Many relevant issues are put into inquiry. This matter would be called as business ethics. The definition of business ethics varies greatly, but it is perhaps best described by Velazquez as â€Å"a specialized study of moral right and wrong. It concentrates on moral standards as they apply to business policies, institutions and behavior†. As changes in the economic and social environment, how should an organization’s culture and practices deal with the nature of change? If being given the mantle of leadership the head manager of a corporate organization, how would I set the standards, vision, mission and methods needed to develop a business entity that is fair, just, and balanced between profit and principles, and also maintaining integrity? This would be elaborated further on. Before everything, I must understand what are my personal ethics and standards, and try to form them as the organization’s mission and vision as well. My personal code of ethics for this company revolves around the concept care. The concept of care is usually taken into a typically altruistic point of view. The concept of care ethics tells that â€Å"we have an obligation to exercise special care toward particular persons with whom we have valuable close relationships, particularly relations of dependency† (Velazquez, 2006, p.125). Hence, my personal principle with regard to business ethics, in both the personal and organizational aspect, is that the treatment given and practiced between everyone involved in the organization is compassion and kindness. My personal mission statement encapsulates this ideal in the form of â€Å"care and share.† As a manager, I would consider developing a mission and vision statement that would encapsulate the principled ideals that I have for the company. In having a clear mission and vision, as well as having room for flexible and achievable room to adapt along the way, individuals who are part of the company will also have a clear understanding of their purpose within the organization. Mikush and Philbin (1999) point this out precisely: In effective organizations, the vision, values and mission derive from the convictions of

The Home Depot SWOT Analysis Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Home Depot SWOT Analysis - Article Example This paper seeks to do a SWOT analysis of this giant specialty retailer by evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to make suggestions on how to keep the company growing and profitable. Home Depot has ensured continued success and lead in the home improvement industry due to various strengths which include: The home depot’s continued growth is as a result of continuously renewing and working on its culture aimed at producing good products, sustaining its employees and customers thus effectively maintaining its competitive edge in the retail industry. The Home Depot culture is focused on taking care of its employees by paying those modest wages and benefits, providing them with excellent and superior training and granting them opportunities for advancement. The employees are regarded as the most important people after the customers due to their role in interfacing with the customers (Marcus and Blank, 271) Home depot also provides their customers with value, loyalty and low pricing. Through the company’s focus in customer satisfaction, the company’s NPS, (Net Promoter Scores) has improved significantly allowing it to wrest a further market share from rival companies. Home Depot’s success is also attributed to its ability to form alliances with strategic partners. Through its partnerships with the industry’s leading manufactures it is able to deliver exclusive and innovative assortments such as to do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors alike, with combination of other brands like LG appliances. Home depot’s continued upgrading of its computerized systems and implementation of satellite communication increased its operational efficiency. This was evident as significant reduction in operational costs were realized thus supporting the overall growth of the company and better

The Importance Of Storytelling

The Importance Of Storytelling In her insightful essay on the tradition of Pueblo Indian storytelling Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective Leslie Silko displays the huge role that stories play in the life of the ethnic group she originates from, she reveals the importance of storytelling for her family, ancestors, neighbors, closest friends and personally herself. In spite of the title that draws our attention to the concepts of language and literature, the main and central issue of her essay, which first appeared as a speech for delivering before the audience, is story proper. Story is not a thing to be told at certain moments in certain circumstances, if we deal with the lifestyle of Pueblo Indians. The whole life of those people is saturated with the multitude of stories and stories-within-stories. A Pueblo Indian, from his/her very birth on, hears and listens to the stories, then, growing up, begins narrating them him/herself, and in such a way all his/her life is accompanied by this vivid tradition. Thus, storytelling may be thought of as a texture of their life, for, on the one hand, the entire world and reality are perceived in the light of stories, and, on the other hand, all the collective and individual experience of the Pueblos is transformed into stories and then orally passed on to the following generations. This custom is more than just an equivalent of folklore in European or Asian traditions. Leslie Silko emphasizes that a written speech or statement is highly suspect among her people as it does not allow sharing the feelings appropriately. Mere graphical symbols are not able to express all the copiousness of human experience, but an oral word is. At first sight, it seems somewhat odd for a person reared in European tradition, but if we look back at such ancient celebrities as Socrates who also rejected the written word as contributing to the deterioration of our memory, it becomes not so alien for us as well, although the following epochs established the importance and even the preferable credibility of what is written or typed. The same may be said about the Jewish tradition, its pre-Talmudic period when Torah she be-al-pe  [1]  was prohibited from being put down; the same is about early Christian tradition when Gospels were merely told by one person to another; the Vedic period of the Hindus when their sacred texts were recited orally and were not fixed in written form. There could be found much more parallels to the phenomenon of Pueblo story telling in the history of other ethnic groups and civilization. Leslie Silko goes on and says that, for the Pueblos, language is story (Silko 49). It is most clearly illustrated by the fact that many words in the Pueblo Indian language have their own stories. When a story is told, the teller often goes into the stories of words, and thusly a phenomenon of stories-within-stories emerges. The story becomes a web that is woven in all directions, which is contrary to the convention of linear step by step narrating in European tradition. Language is story, story is language that dialectic unity of Pueblo weltanschauung determines the structure and content of their stories and the essay devoted to them in particular. The basis of any nations, ethnicitys mentality lies in their cosmogonic and theogonic myths, which constitute their collective unconscious, the latter predetermines the style of thinking, living, and interacting of a certain nation. The Pueblo Indians are not an exception here, and the author introduces the Creation story for us to understand the peculiarities of Pueblo perception of the universe. The story is significant both for its parallels and discrepancies with the Biblical creation story; moreover, the latter are more numerous and are worth being mentioned first. The world was created by Thought Woman Tseitsinako thinking of her sisters and, together with her sisters, she thought of everything that is and there appeared the world. Thus, everything that is immanent in our world is a part of the whole; every element, every constituent of the reality belongs to this whole. The humans are also an inseparable element of the universe and belong to this universal entity. Contrary to the Bible where the world emerges as a result of Gods word, or Logos (Genesis 1, 3; John 1, 1-3), the universe appeared through the thought of the goddess and her sisters, the tight link of humans to the nature are also more apparent in Pueblo Creation story. In the Bible, people are created and let in the Garden of Eden directly by God, in the Pueblo tradition they come into the world due to th e hard efforts of the animals Antelope and Badger. Such a world outlook determines the monistic perception of the reality, it influences both the language and the storytelling of the Pueblo people. Stories are the part of their everyday life, they are multidimensional, web-like, organized in a complex structure that stretches far beyond chronological or formal logical framework. There are many repetitions, characteristic of the oral speech, digressions, stories-within-stories etc that make their stories a multilayer texture. There are no separate stories in Pueblo folklore each story is a part of some more general or fundamental story, and the latter in turn constitutes larger stories, so that the whole Pueblo traditional and even modern everyday discourse is one big story with a huge number of smaller and infinitesimal subdivisions. The stories are always bringing us together, keeping this whole together, keeping this family together, keeping this clan together tells us Leslie Silko. The destination of story is thus to preserve the wholeness of the universe. The author gives us three illustrations, three stories that are still being told and re-told until nowadays. The first one relates about a young man who lost his new Volkswagen and felt very bad about it. The structure of the story may be defined as the threefold one: 1) the guy earns money, purchases the car and drives it; then 2) it falls into the ravine and is broken to pieces; 3) there come his friends and relatives trying to offer him consolation. What do they do in particular? They tell stories about the people who also lost their cars in the ravine, moreover, many of them lost their children and parents when their cars were going down into the arroyo. The third part of the story is an essential element of Pueblo storytelling. Those stories join the guys life experience to those of the other people, and when put into that context, his loss is (or seems) not so great, he turns out to be relatively lucky, because he shunned the danger of losing his own and his relatives lives. The stories of the friends and neighbors turn grief into consolation, desperation into hope, loneliness into amiable support. Finally, that guys experience joins the common discourse of people whose cars fell into the arroyo, that guy consequently joins those people, he is not alone and that is the greatest consolation possible in such circumstances. The second story about a girl who drowned herself in Kawaik Lake is more dramatic. There can be also distinguished three parts: 1) girls request to her mother to cook her yashtoah, the conditions her mother announces; 2) girls decision to get drowned; 3) carrying out her decision and her mothers return home. The core part of the story seems to be the second one, for it shows the transformations in the girls decisions and intentions. There are also stories-within-stories here, and certain periods and details are highly repetitive, they are yashtoah, Im going to Kawaik and jump into the lake there and similar phrases. The girl tells the old man about her quarrel with her mother and her suicidal decision, the man, in turn, goes to her mother and tells her what her daughter is about to do. These stories are so intertwined and interwoven, so organically situated in the context, that it is problematic to take them out of there. The story is more or less organized in a chronological order, the sequence of events is not interrupted but attention should be paid to the fact that this story was heard by the author of the essay in a modernized version from her aunt. It is a vivid argument that traditions, and Pueblo storytelling in particular, possess a dichotomic nature on the one hand, they pass the ancient experience of the ancestors on to modern generation, on the other hand, they include the present experience of the people and add them to the common stock of Pueblo history. So, the previous, present and future generations are not separated, they are connected by a strong link of storytelling, which preserves the past and provides space for the future. What is more, this story explains why the butterflies are so beautiful and multicolored. The story of a girl is tightly connected to the biological diversity in the animal world. The third story happens in modern time, but it is nevertheless organized according to the existing pattern of Pueblo storytelling tradition numerous repetitions, associations, reminiscences, stories-within-story etc. The woman goes into details of the troubles of her life loss of husband and mother, hardships of employment etc but it ends with a glimmer of hope, she meets with her aunt and grandfather, the latter gives her a very dear present a silver 1907 dollar, which shocks every member of their family. Later, as she writes, I kept it for a long time because I guess I wanted to have it to remember when I left my home country. The silver dollar presented by her poor grandfather became a material token of her warm memory of her family, childhood and homeland. Thus, the storytelling does not appear to be something that is done at bedtime in the life of Pueblo Indians, it is the essence of their life. Detaching oneself from the mentioned stories, and having a look at the essay as the whole, it becomes evident that the essay itself is a Pueblo story, although told to the non-Pueblo people. It incorporates the analyzed stories, it is originally oral, it is saturated with the monistic worldview and it has a fair chance to be incorporated into a larger piece of storytelling and is already the constituent of the Pueblo Indian discourse. The essay is also peculiar for being addressed to the two worlds the traditional world of the Pueblos and the modern globalized world. This essay intends to initiate and hold a dialogue between these worlds, to deepen the mutual understanding that may result in mutual enriching of the two distinct cultures. The author herself and the people she tells the stories of are inspiring examples of the success on this way of reciprocal understanding. She and the characters of the stories are integrated into modern American society, but they did not lose touch with their cultural and ancestral legacy either. Although this view is not in full accord with Paul Lorenz who states that the values of American Indian cultures have been forced to confront the alien values of European American culture (Lorenz 59). One more important aspect of the storytelling should be paid due attention to as well the unity of teller and listener. Leslie Silko emphasizes the importance of the latter a great deal of the story is believed to be inside the listener; the storytellers role is to draw the story out of the listeners (Silko 51). Ib Johansen, however, views this issue from a bit another perspective In traditional societies storyteller plays an important role; he/she is placed at the very center of the community, and his/her activities are considered as essential to the very self-awareness or sense of identity of the community (Johansen) it is the teller whom Ib Johansen places as the key figure in storytelling. Here we see a classic example of the European approach. As it occurs to me, there is not the notion of central or key role / importance in Pueblo Indian world outlook. Important are all the inhabitants and objects of the world despite their role, size, destination; all of them are of equal relevance, all are necessary, all indispensable, all divine. The monistic and pantheistic approach to life, people, phenomena and objects determines the reverent attitude towards them, on the one hand, and creates difficulties in establishing the hierarchy of values, on the other hand. It is indeed problematic to define what passage is most important in a certain story, or what relations are more preferable either personal, or tribal, or clan ones. Paul Lorenz recognizes that the fiction of Leslie Silko is the product of American Indian, rather than Western, cultural values (Lorenz 59). Indeed, the very style of her essay shares many common features with the traditional Pueblo Indian narratives. It is evident in her reference to ethnologists and anthropologists who tend to differentiate the types of stories the pueblos tell she says that the people of her ethnic group never divide the stories into classes, family stories are given equal recognition (Silko 51). A distinctive characteristic of the storytelling among this tribal group of Indians is that they attach more importance to what is said than how something is said, the content is more important than the form according to Pueblo weltanschauung. The particular language spoken isnt as important as what a speaker is trying to say, writes the author of the essay. That peculiarity is also marked by Ib Jansen when he retells case of an Eskimo woman accused of killing a storeman. Thus, the notions of myth, legend, parable, tale and the like are not quite applicable to the tradition of Pueblo storytelling, they are difficult or, even impossible, to differentiate in the context of their culture. The Creation story, Home Country story, the story of the young mans Volkswagen and the speech of Ms Silko are of equal relevance and credibility in the eyes of Native American. They do not abandon negative stories of their own families and clans; they are always trying to convey the content, essence of the story so that the expressive means retreat to the background. The cosmogonic and sacred myths are as plausible as their own experience in the context of Pueblo Indian Culture. Summing up, it is reasonable to point out that Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective and the other works mentioned in this paper focus on the essential characteristics of Pueblo peoples storytelling tradition, they emphasize its monistic worldview, illustrate how several stories may unite into one; their language and the whole life are tightly linked to the stories and cannot be imagined without each other. Pueblo Indian storytelling tradition cannot but be recognized as a truly valuable constituent of the American and world culture.

Software Piracy beyond the Street Corner Essay -- Technology Lawsuits

Software Piracy beyond the Street Corner On January 23, 2003, the world’s leading computer networking equipment maker Cisco Systems, headquartered in San Jose California, filed a lawsuit against China-based Huawei Technologies and its United States subsidiaries Huawei America and FutureWei Technologies. In the lawsuit, Cisco alleged that Huawei stole intellectual property by copying its Internet Operating System (IOS) software and its copyrighted user manuals. Cisco also claimed that Huawei infringed on its patents. After numerous failed attempts to resolve these complaints directly with Huawei, which included a cease and desist letter to one of Huawei’s United Kingdom distributors, Cisco decided that a lawsuit was necessary to protect the company and its shareholder’s interests. The lawsuit was processed through United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. This paper will provide an overview of this landmark case and discuss whether each company had a different view of ethics that or iginated from differing cultural perspectives. I. Case Background Cisco Systems’ 77 page complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Easter District of Texas demanded a trial by jury in response to Huawei’s misappropriation and intellectual property infringement in the development of its competing Quidway routers. One of Huawei’s United States based wholly-owned subsidiary, FutureWei, is located in Plano, Texas; the other subsidiary Huawei America is located in California’s Silicon Valley, nearby Cisco Systems’ headquarters. The China-based parent company is a multi-billion dollar corporation that has manufactured network and telecommunications equipment since 1988. Huawei marketed its Quidway router... ... â€Å"Huawei: Cisco Code is Gone,† April 15, 2003, http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=31253 [3] â€Å"Cisco Wins Huawei Injunction,† June 9, 2003, http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=35058 [4] â€Å"Managing in the Multicultural Environment†, Charis Intercultural Training Corporation, 2004. [5] â€Å"Differences of Opinion: The Cisco-Huawei Lawsuit†, The Hoffman Agency, China High Tech PR Newsletter, http://www.chinahightechpr.com/fullArticle.cfm?code=284 [6] â€Å"WTO Ministerial Conference Approves China’s Accession†, November 10, 2001 Press Release, http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres01_e/pr252_e.htm [7] The United States and China: Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Protection, http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/ea/iprcn/ [8] Baase, S.; A Gift of Fire, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 2003. Flags obtained from http://www.enchantedlearning.com

Branches of Government

Branches of Government Paper Brandy N. Serrano HIS 301 May 28, 2012 Bruce Franklin Branches of Government Paper This paper will discuss the three branches of government Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. This paper will first cover the history of the three branches how did it start and what each branch controls. The second piece will cover how the branches interact with each other and the success and balance of each of the three branches. The last two parts of the paper will cover conflict between state and federal power then and now and how the branches could be more efficient.History of the 3 Branches of Government The reason our founding father created the three Branches of Government was not to allow one person or one group of people to have too much power or control by having a series of â€Å"checks and balances†. The framers wrote the Constitution to provide a separation of powers, or three separate branches of government. Each branch has its own responsibilities whi le at the same time work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored (Ben's Guide to U.S. Government, August 2011). In 1789 the forefathers ratified the constitution that outline the three Branches of Government in Articles I, II, and III. Article I of the constitution covers the Legislative Branch, Article II gives details of the Executive Branch, and Article III covers the Judicial Branch. The articles define in detail the authority, the compilation, the rules of engagement, the interaction, and various other aspects of how these three specific branches of government should be divided (Hub Pages, 2012).The Executive Branch consists of the president, vice president and 15 Cabinet- level departments such as State, Defense, Interior, Transportation and Education (Trethan, 2012). The president controls the Executive Branch and chooses the vice president and the cabinet members who lead their departments. A crucial function of the executive branch is to ensure that laws are carried out and enforced to facilitate such day-to-day responsibilities of the federal government as collecting taxes, safeguarding the homeland and representing the United States' political and economic interests around the world (Trethan, 2012).The Legislative Branch consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives that is known as the Congress. There are 100 Senators and 435 members of the House, each state has two Senators and House members are determined based on the population of the state. The legislative branch, as a whole, is charged with passing the nation's laws and allocating funds for the running of the federal government and providing assistance to the 50 U. S. states (Trethan, 2012). The Judicial Branch is the United States Supreme Court and lower federal courts.The Supreme Court has nine justices that are appointed by the president and is confirmed by the Senate and once appointed they hold the position for a lifeti me and are replaced when the person dies or retires. The primary function is to hear cases that challenge legislation or require interpretation of that legislation (Trethan, 2012). Interaction of the Branches As previously discussed there are three branches of government that were designed for a balance of â€Å"checks and balances†. The bases for the three branches of government in the U.S. are the, legislative, judicial, and executive, that will interact in a way that if one branch were to go outside the boundary set by the constitution the other branches would step in and pronounce the act unconstitutional (Vera, 2012). The Executive power which is the President has the power to approve or vetoes federal bills, carries out federal laws, appoints judges and other high officials, and makes foreign treaties, grant pardons and reprieves to federal offenders and acts as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.Checks that are done on Executive powers are; Congress can override ve toes by a two-thirds vote, the Senate can refuse to confirm appointments or ratify treaties and Congress can impeach and remove the President. The Congress can also declare war; while the Supreme Court can declare executive acts unconstitutional. The Legislative Powers also known as Congress have the authority to; pass federal laws, establishes lower federal courts and the number of federal judges.The following checks are in place for the Legislative powers; the Presidential veto of federal bills, Supreme Court can rule laws unconstitutional, and both houses of Congress must vote to pass laws by checking power within the Legislature. The checks on the Judicial power are; Congress can propose constitutional amendments to overturn judicial decisions (These require two-thirds majority in both houses, and ratifications by three-quarters of states. ) Congress can impeach and remove federal judges, and the President appoints judges (who must be confirmed by the Senate) (Hawk, 2008).Succes sful and Balanced When asking if the three Branches of Government are successful the question can have mixed answers. In one way yes it is successful because the system has lasted for over 200 years and continues on to this day. A better question to ask is does the current system continue to exhibit the characteristics and goals the founding fathers had envisioned. The answer to this question is not as clear in one hand the system seems to work as designed by our founding fathers laws are being passed, carried out, and enforced.On the other hand the level of involvement of the public is not what our founding fathers hoped it would be. The Anti-Federalists envisaged representatives returning home frequently to districts small enough to enable them to instruct constituents about the events taking place at the national capital and to receive instruction about how best to represent their constituents (Hub Pages, 2012). Even though this concept is alive today it is rare or even non-exist ing that a representative returns back to their state to ask their constituents for their instructions on events at the capital.Citizens due have tools in place that allow them to share their ideas and thoughts with their representatives such as phone, email, and the internet. The reality is many representatives are voting on issues that influence their special interest groups and party affiliations. We are also seeing a grid lock in Congress right now that is causing the Supreme Court to interfere more on issues that should be settled between Congress and the President. This is causing an imbalance between the three branches of the government.This is causing people to question if their representatives are fighting for their freedom, liberty, and property and this is showing in how people are voting. So for the question of success and balance the answer will always be different for everyone. Federal and State Right’s The Articles of Confederation were week and had no money or way of getting money through taxation. Under the Articles the States had more power than the nation government. For this reason our forefathers brought forth the idea of federalism, a division of sovereignty between a national government and regional government (Trethan, 2012).The federal powers under the constitution include the right to collect taxes, declare war, and regulate interstate and foreign trade. The federal government also has implied powers enable the government to respond to the changing needs of the nation. The states powers under the constitution include the right to legislate on divorce, marriage, and public schools. Powers reserved for the people include the right to own property and to be tried by a jury (Almanac of Policy Issues, 2004).Even though the Constitution had been made there were still several struggles between political struggles and between advocates of strong state powers versus proponents of federal supremacy ensued. In today’s modern world there are still arguments between states and federal government for example the U. S. federal government is sue the state of Arizona for their new immigration law saying that the law is unconstitutional. It comes down to having a balance of power between states and federal government this was the vision of our founding fathers. EfficientlyOur founding fathers had great ideas on how to make this one nation and how to have a fair balance of state and federal governance. Their ideas have lasted for several years and as times change there are changes that are made to the three branches but for the most part it is still what the founding fathers had originally started. Some changes that could be made to the Legislative Branch is the removal of lobbyist and special interest groups this would help to get representatives to listen to the citizens they represent instead of the most influential or financially sound group.Also there needs to be a better balance between the numbers of represent atives in the house that each state has, there should be a limit of 2 per state. This could help prevent the grid lock that we are seeing in Congress today and create a better balance. In the Judicial Branch a change would be to have term limits on how long a justices could serve this could help prevent corruption and the â€Å"social class† like system that there is today. In the Executive Branch the president should have more control over the LegislativeBranch with the creation of laws. The Congress should not be allowed to pass a law without the president’s approval and if there is a disagreement then a compromise should try to be reached and if still blocked then it should go to the Supreme Court. Conclusion Our forefathers created a system to have a balance of power between state and federal government this system is the three branches of government. They did not know that 200 years later that system would still be in place and working much like they created it.Th e three branches help to keep balance between state and federal government and work to up hold the U. S. Constitution. Each branch was design to control different powers of government this keeps one group from having total control or power over another group. For the most part the branches are successful and balanced in power and control. State and federal government work together for the most part but there are still some conflict that arise between the two. Overall the developments of the three branches have been successful and like all good things there is room for improvements and change.We will have to wait and see what the next 200 years bring for the Government. References Almanac of Policy Issues. (2004). The Constitution of The United States of America. Retrieved from http://www. policyalmanac. org/government/archive/constitution. shtml Ben's Guide to U. S. Government. (August 2011). Branches of Government. Retrieved from http://bensguide. gpo. gov/3-5/government/branches. html Hawk, R. (2008). Checks and Balances in the Three Branches of Government. Retrieved from http://socyberty. om/government/checks-and-balances-in-the-three-branches-of-government Hub Pages. (2012). A Look at the Three Branches of the United States Government 79. Retrieved from http://scsiv. hubpages. com/hub/A-Look-at-the-Branches=of-the-United-States-Government Trethan, P. (2012). The Branches of Government. Retrieved from http://usgovinfo. about. com/od/usconstituton/a/branches. htm Vera, L. (2012). Why Three Branches of Government. Retrieved from http://lovera13. hubpages. com/hub/Why-Thre-Branches-of-Government Branches of Government Branches of Government Paper Brandy N. Serrano HIS 301 May 28, 2012 Bruce Franklin Branches of Government Paper This paper will discuss the three branches of government Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. This paper will first cover the history of the three branches how did it start and what each branch controls. The second piece will cover how the branches interact with each other and the success and balance of each of the three branches. The last two parts of the paper will cover conflict between state and federal power then and now and how the branches could be more efficient.History of the 3 Branches of Government The reason our founding father created the three Branches of Government was not to allow one person or one group of people to have too much power or control by having a series of â€Å"checks and balances†. The framers wrote the Constitution to provide a separation of powers, or three separate branches of government. Each branch has its own responsibilities whi le at the same time work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored (Ben's Guide to U.S. Government, August 2011). In 1789 the forefathers ratified the constitution that outline the three Branches of Government in Articles I, II, and III. Article I of the constitution covers the Legislative Branch, Article II gives details of the Executive Branch, and Article III covers the Judicial Branch. The articles define in detail the authority, the compilation, the rules of engagement, the interaction, and various other aspects of how these three specific branches of government should be divided (Hub Pages, 2012).The Executive Branch consists of the president, vice president and 15 Cabinet- level departments such as State, Defense, Interior, Transportation and Education (Trethan, 2012). The president controls the Executive Branch and chooses the vice president and the cabinet members who lead their departments. A crucial function of the executive branch is to ensure that laws are carried out and enforced to facilitate such day-to-day responsibilities of the federal government as collecting taxes, safeguarding the homeland and representing the United States' political and economic interests around the world (Trethan, 2012).The Legislative Branch consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives that is known as the Congress. There are 100 Senators and 435 members of the House, each state has two Senators and House members are determined based on the population of the state. The legislative branch, as a whole, is charged with passing the nation's laws and allocating funds for the running of the federal government and providing assistance to the 50 U. S. states (Trethan, 2012). The Judicial Branch is the United States Supreme Court and lower federal courts.The Supreme Court has nine justices that are appointed by the president and is confirmed by the Senate and once appointed they hold the position for a lifeti me and are replaced when the person dies or retires. The primary function is to hear cases that challenge legislation or require interpretation of that legislation (Trethan, 2012). Interaction of the Branches As previously discussed there are three branches of government that were designed for a balance of â€Å"checks and balances†. The bases for the three branches of government in the U.S. are the, legislative, judicial, and executive, that will interact in a way that if one branch were to go outside the boundary set by the constitution the other branches would step in and pronounce the act unconstitutional (Vera, 2012). The Executive power which is the President has the power to approve or vetoes federal bills, carries out federal laws, appoints judges and other high officials, and makes foreign treaties, grant pardons and reprieves to federal offenders and acts as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.Checks that are done on Executive powers are; Congress can override ve toes by a two-thirds vote, the Senate can refuse to confirm appointments or ratify treaties and Congress can impeach and remove the President. The Congress can also declare war; while the Supreme Court can declare executive acts unconstitutional. The Legislative Powers also known as Congress have the authority to; pass federal laws, establishes lower federal courts and the number of federal judges.The following checks are in place for the Legislative powers; the Presidential veto of federal bills, Supreme Court can rule laws unconstitutional, and both houses of Congress must vote to pass laws by checking power within the Legislature. The checks on the Judicial power are; Congress can propose constitutional amendments to overturn judicial decisions (These require two-thirds majority in both houses, and ratifications by three-quarters of states. ) Congress can impeach and remove federal judges, and the President appoints judges (who must be confirmed by the Senate) (Hawk, 2008).Succes sful and Balanced When asking if the three Branches of Government are successful the question can have mixed answers. In one way yes it is successful because the system has lasted for over 200 years and continues on to this day. A better question to ask is does the current system continue to exhibit the characteristics and goals the founding fathers had envisioned. The answer to this question is not as clear in one hand the system seems to work as designed by our founding fathers laws are being passed, carried out, and enforced.On the other hand the level of involvement of the public is not what our founding fathers hoped it would be. The Anti-Federalists envisaged representatives returning home frequently to districts small enough to enable them to instruct constituents about the events taking place at the national capital and to receive instruction about how best to represent their constituents (Hub Pages, 2012). Even though this concept is alive today it is rare or even non-exist ing that a representative returns back to their state to ask their constituents for their instructions on events at the capital.Citizens due have tools in place that allow them to share their ideas and thoughts with their representatives such as phone, email, and the internet. The reality is many representatives are voting on issues that influence their special interest groups and party affiliations. We are also seeing a grid lock in Congress right now that is causing the Supreme Court to interfere more on issues that should be settled between Congress and the President. This is causing an imbalance between the three branches of the government.This is causing people to question if their representatives are fighting for their freedom, liberty, and property and this is showing in how people are voting. So for the question of success and balance the answer will always be different for everyone. Federal and State Right’s The Articles of Confederation were week and had no money or way of getting money through taxation. Under the Articles the States had more power than the nation government. For this reason our forefathers brought forth the idea of federalism, a division of sovereignty between a national government and regional government (Trethan, 2012).The federal powers under the constitution include the right to collect taxes, declare war, and regulate interstate and foreign trade. The federal government also has implied powers enable the government to respond to the changing needs of the nation. The states powers under the constitution include the right to legislate on divorce, marriage, and public schools. Powers reserved for the people include the right to own property and to be tried by a jury (Almanac of Policy Issues, 2004).Even though the Constitution had been made there were still several struggles between political struggles and between advocates of strong state powers versus proponents of federal supremacy ensued. In today’s modern world there are still arguments between states and federal government for example the U. S. federal government is sue the state of Arizona for their new immigration law saying that the law is unconstitutional. It comes down to having a balance of power between states and federal government this was the vision of our founding fathers. EfficientlyOur founding fathers had great ideas on how to make this one nation and how to have a fair balance of state and federal governance. Their ideas have lasted for several years and as times change there are changes that are made to the three branches but for the most part it is still what the founding fathers had originally started. Some changes that could be made to the Legislative Branch is the removal of lobbyist and special interest groups this would help to get representatives to listen to the citizens they represent instead of the most influential or financially sound group.Also there needs to be a better balance between the numbers of represent atives in the house that each state has, there should be a limit of 2 per state. This could help prevent the grid lock that we are seeing in Congress today and create a better balance. In the Judicial Branch a change would be to have term limits on how long a justices could serve this could help prevent corruption and the â€Å"social class† like system that there is today. In the Executive Branch the president should have more control over the LegislativeBranch with the creation of laws. The Congress should not be allowed to pass a law without the president’s approval and if there is a disagreement then a compromise should try to be reached and if still blocked then it should go to the Supreme Court. Conclusion Our forefathers created a system to have a balance of power between state and federal government this system is the three branches of government. They did not know that 200 years later that system would still be in place and working much like they created it.Th e three branches help to keep balance between state and federal government and work to up hold the U. S. Constitution. Each branch was design to control different powers of government this keeps one group from having total control or power over another group. For the most part the branches are successful and balanced in power and control. State and federal government work together for the most part but there are still some conflict that arise between the two. Overall the developments of the three branches have been successful and like all good things there is room for improvements and change.We will have to wait and see what the next 200 years bring for the Government. References Almanac of Policy Issues. (2004). The Constitution of The United States of America. Retrieved from http://www. policyalmanac. org/government/archive/constitution. shtml Ben's Guide to U. S. Government. (August 2011). Branches of Government. Retrieved from http://bensguide. gpo. gov/3-5/government/branches. html Hawk, R. (2008). Checks and Balances in the Three Branches of Government. Retrieved from http://socyberty. om/government/checks-and-balances-in-the-three-branches-of-government Hub Pages. (2012). A Look at the Three Branches of the United States Government 79. Retrieved from http://scsiv. hubpages. com/hub/A-Look-at-the-Branches=of-the-United-States-Government Trethan, P. (2012). The Branches of Government. Retrieved from http://usgovinfo. about. com/od/usconstituton/a/branches. htm Vera, L. (2012). Why Three Branches of Government. Retrieved from http://lovera13. hubpages. com/hub/Why-Thre-Branches-of-Government

Early Childhood Research and Practice

From the heading I am able to see that the journal is going to be about â€Å"Learning Stories and Children’s Powerful Mathematics. † There are three authors in total who were part of the publishing of the journal, they are Bob Perry, Sue Dockett and Elspeth Harley. It is possible to find out a great deal of information about the authors, for example what university they attended, their current job roles and what they are interested in researching. The journal was published in the Early Childhood Research Practice, and it can only be found here. The journal has been peer reviewed. From reading the title and the abstract, I have learnt that â€Å"The approaches to teaching and learning mathematics in Australian preschools and schools can be quite different. † It is believed that different cultures are taught in different ways, however I would have to disagree with this statement, as schools today have multicultural classes, therefore every child has an equal opportunity and is taught the core subjects in the same way. The introduction made it clear that there is often conflict between this increase in formality and the play-based, child-centred philosophies of prior-to-school settings (Thomson, Rowe, Underwood, & Peck, 2005). They key to the research was to investigate young children’s mathematical experiences. The article was set out under numerous headings, separating key information into paragraphs. With-in the articles there are also tables showing how maths can be linked with play and whether it is a successful way of teaching the younger generation. Two of the authors of this paper worked with a small group of early childhood educators for two days in 2005 and two days in 2006. This paper reports how the powerful mathematical ideas and the developmental learning outcomes were brought together by a group of practicing early childhood educators into a numeracy matrix that encouraged the educators to plan, implement, and assess their practices. It also considers the use of learning stories by the early childhood educators to assess the mathematics learning of preschool children. Their list bears many similarities to other such lists (see, for example, Greenes, Ginsburg, & Balfanz, 2004; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). Learning Stories are qualitative snapshots, recorded as structured written narratives, often with accompanying photographs that document and communicate the context and complexity of children’s learning (Carr, 2001). Luke has been given the opportunity, through the provision of time, materials, and space, to â€Å"participate purposefully in spatial tasks† and to â€Å"demonstrate flexibility and to make choices. The article was easy to follow and fulfilled all of its set aims. Through their use of the numeracy matrix, the educators are now able to see how each of the powerful ideas contributes to the DLO. One of them was able to suggest that the work with the numeracy matrix had helped them see how the DLOs were the capstones to all that they were trying to do in all learning areas The purpose of this paper w as to introduce the numeracy matrix, which has been developed as part of the Southern Numeracy Initiative in South Australia. Subjective evidence from the participants in the Southern Numeracy Initiative suggest that the use of the numeracy matrix and the thinking behind it have had positive effects on the pedagogical practices of the early childhood educators involved. However some educators disagreed with this and the source can’t be trusted. The article gave a to the point review of what they were trying to achieve and also gave references so if you wanted to further your knowledge on the topic or similar reports then you could do so. Unlike previous articles, this one did not relate to anything that I have previously read. It interested me as I believe that maths is over looked and there is a great amount of ways in linking it in with everyday play and practice; however some educators do not do that. With Australia now putting this â€Å"matrix† into place others may follow suit and see the positive outcomes.