Animal Farm †Man Farm Essay

What if we were all animals instead of humans? The Animal Farm by George Orwell is about animals overthrowing humans so they can live a better life. On the farm the pigs are the smartest. They teach the other animals how to read and write. The pigs also came up with ways to make the animals’ jobs easier. Since the pigs were the smartest they decided to be in charge. Over time the pigs start to adapt to human life. They start wearing clothes and have conversations with humans. Once the farmer is gone the animals have to adapt to human society. To survive the pigs have to adapt to a more human life. The pigs are smart. â€Å"They explained that by their studies of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of animalism into seven commandments.† (p. 24 Orwell) just like the animals humans have the Ten Commandments. These commandments lead to law and order for the land. Further more they have their own national anthem. â€Å"It is called Beast Of England.† (p. 12 Orwell) The Star Spangled Banner is the national anthem for the humans. The animals are able to come up with many things that are thought of as human things. There are more common ground between animals and humans. Besides written things the animals have also come up with new inventions. They want to make a windmill to save energy. â€Å"Snowball’s plans for the windmill were fully worked out. The mechanical details came from mostly three books which had belonged to Mr. Jones.† (p. 49 Orwell) The pigs could read very well that how they got so many crazy ideas like the windmill. They got into many â€Å"battles† with the other farmer, hence their new system of awards. â€Å"’Animal Hero, First Class,’ which was conferred there and then to Snowball and Boxer. It consisted of a brass medal† (p. 44 Orwell) Award ceremonies like these are like ceremonies for the people who serve in the army. Just when you think there are not any more similarities there are more. The pigs began looking through Mr. Jone’s house and they found some of his old stuff. â€Å"have the privilege of wearing green ribbons on their tails on Sundays.† (p. 114 Orwell) The pigs are breaking on of the commandments. They are never to wear clothes. They didn’t just break one rule; they broke many. â€Å"And the news leaked out that every pig was receiving a ration of a pint of beer daily,† (p. 115 Orwell) The animals aren’t suppose to drink beer, but Napolean has been changing the rules himself. Napolean changes the rules every time he breaks them. The Animal Farm is a fable. It is a satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism. The animals chase away the farmer because they want a better life. Later, they realize that life ruled by the pigs is worse. They pigs start to treat the other animals like slaves.

Acoustic Design in Architecture

IntroductionThe intent of this study is to bring forth a design strategy for the transition of a big room to a multi usage theater. The study will show the necessary things that need to be considered to guarantee a satisfactory acoustic environment by mensurating the jobs encountered with acoustic design and how to undertake them. The study will look at the jobs related to this infinite and present possible solutions and recommendations based on the information available. Initial programAs in every instance, this room presents it ‘s ain alone set of jobs, which involve really common factors such as the form and size of the room, the intended usage of the infinite, the budget and the basic Torahs of acoustics. The phase will be best positioned at the Centre of the E wall, as shown in Fig.1 The audience deepness will be shallow and broad so that the best can be appreciated from a presentation or public presentation both visually and acoustically. More significantly, the sound making the audience will be equally distributed.With the phase positioned on the E wall, the obvious measure is to put the commixture desks and equipment storage in the boxed country opposite the phase. The walls are made of gypsum board. The room measures 15.176m broad and 12.176 long with an excess ‘pocket ‘ on the side mensurating 5m by 3.396m. The seating capacity will be about 80-100. Problems Although this is the logical manner to place the phase and seating, there is a large job with the design that needs to be ironed out ; the roof is high and airy on one side of the room yet low and dense on the other. As symmetricalness is critical in acoustic design, this is a large job. However, troubles would besides originate if the phase were positioned at one of the narrower sides of the room because the audience would still non acquire even sound distribution. The Windowss pose another large job for the proposal of the design. If they were a coveted characteristic a sound-reducing window could be fitted, but these are expensive and normally favoured in entering studios or topographic points where ocular presentation is non involved. For the intents of this undertaking, which must suit controlled lighting and projectors, daytime and the alterations in daytime would be unacceptable. The demand for Windowss in this instance is excess. The undertaking support can non justify electrical devices to command echo but sufficient committedness demands to be made towards sound support. For the intent of leasing the infinite to administrations outside of the university, it needs to be classed as a music locale, which brings with it it ‘s ain set of demands in footings of equipment and care every bit good as in the acoustic design.Trials with sound inside the infinite demand to be conducted before the talker agreement can be determined.Solutions and recommendationsWalls The wall opposite the phase will necessitate diffusors to administer or absorb the sound and modulate echo clip. Curtains along the dorsum of the phase country will give more options once the locale is up and running and could besides be extended to the North and South walls, in add-on to the absorbers and diffusors. Rigid Rocksil walling is first-class, but expensive. There are many fiberboard solutions on the market, which would be a cheaper option. These can be screwed to the bing wall. Floor A inexpensive and effectual option for the floor is heavy felt carpet carpet pad with a tight rug on the top. An attractive, but more expensive option would be to put wooden flooring over the top of the thick carpet pad ; the difficult surface of the wood could heighten the sound quality ; excessively much soft trappings may ‘deaden ‘ the sound. Ceiling The best solution to the job with the ceiling is to happen a balance between the sound generated under the high ceiling, with that being generated under the low side. As the country on one side of the room will hold a different sound quality to the other side, absorbers need to be fitted to the high ceiling to antagonize echo and a set of diffusors to the low ceiling to maximize the quality of the sound, ( see figure 2 ) . An aesthetic characteristic can be made of the high subdivision of the ceiling utilizing the reflectors and absorbers. Windows & A ; doors The solid fire doors will non leak much sound. Vibration leaked through the doorcase can be greatly decreased utilizing doorcase sound gaskets. The Windowss would be best removed or blocked with absorbers. An air conditioning system will necessitate to be installed, even if the Windowss remain, air conditioning is still perfectly necessary with so much insularity. Free standing absorbers Another ideal manner to add flexibleness to the working design of the studio is to include freestanding sound absorbers, deflectors and diffusors. These can be moved around to suit with the nature of public presentation or presentation and the size of the audience. They can besides be usage made without excessively much disbursal. Decision The initial job facing this undertaking faces is the multi intent usage for which it has been designated and the flexibleness that is required from the finished design. Live music and address require different methods of application in acoustic design. Address and play public presentations depend mostly on design made with good intelligibility in head, where as acoustic design for music locales needs to take other factors into consideration that may non work out best for address and frailty versa. In add-on to this, The University has limited financess for the undertaking. The of import factor here is that the design must be finished to a competitory criterion and the locale must be able to run swimmingly if The University is to do the theater a commercial success.More research needs to be carried out inside the room to find how, precisely, the issue with the ceiling can be decently resolved. The acoustics of the infinite will necessitate to be tested before work is carried out, utilizing a little sound system that can set up the extent of alteration in sound from one side of the room to the other. BibliographyMakrinenko, L. , Ed, Bradley, J.S.,1986. Acousticss of Auditoriums in Public Buildings, New York: Acoustic Society of America.Elsea P, 1996. ACOUSTIC TREATMENT FOR HOME STUDIOS, California: University of California Santa Cruz.Ed. Wallace Clement Sabine, 1921. Collected Documents on Acousticss, New York: 5 Acoustical Society of AmericaAcoustic Absorbers and Diffusers: Theory, Design, and Applicationby Trevor J. Cox, Peter D’Antonio, Spon Press ( April 1, 2004 )

Barriers to Effective Communication Essay Example for Free (#3)

Barriers to Effective Communication Essay Most important amongst the ever-recurring and constant troubles in the field of police administration is that concerned with creating and sustaining a successful method of communication. Communication is the most important medium for concerning agreement between all the personnel of a department as to the police goals. It is the foundation for a regular and ongoing understanding of problems and accomplishments practiced on a continuing basis to reach their final objectives. The process of successful communications in a department starts with the leadership establishing clear guidelines how its personnel should interact with each other, whether it is by memo, emails, forms, daily briefings or training. Leadership in any organization must identify and mandate the objectives of the organization. Pfiffner (1951) stated â€Å"In all management situations, communication consists of organizational relationships and mechanics on the one hand, and the human factor on the other, in actuality both existing together. † Communication is the method of transmitting cues, mostly written and oral, in order to adjust human behavior. The communication process works in three steps, initiate, transmit, and impact. In a police department, initiate and transmit could be where the desk sergeant, issues the daily tasking that he receives from his leadership to his patrol officers beginning a shift. Impact takes place when the officers going out on patrol implement the tasking given and could be discussing the tasking amongst each other as well to gain feedback. Hearing is a passive occurrence that requires no effort. Listening, on the other hand, is a conscious choice that demands your attention and concentration† (Livestrong, 2001). The differences between hearing and listening is that when someone is speaking and you are hearing when you just hear the words coming out, not really paying attention to all of what is said. When listening, you are collecting thought on what is being said, but if you think you already know what the person is talking about, a person could just disregard the words that were just passed. There are generally four basic levels of hearing and listening, according to Toast Masters. org. You can easily fall into one or these more categories in different conversations. A non-listener is totally preoccupied with his personal thoughts and though he hears words, he doesn’t listen to what is being said. Passive listeners hear the words but don’t fully absorb or understand them. Listeners pay attention to the speaker, but grasp only some of the intended message. Active listeners are completely focused on the speaker and understand the meaning of the words without distortion† (Livestrong, 2011). Communications are vital in law enforcement. Police personnel have to comprehend the importance of tone of voice, pitch, and variation, the variances of hearing and listening. Facial expressions, body movements and posture are also significant for effective communications. Cultural and ethnic dynamics are essential factors of a police officer’s communication skills. The formal and informal channels of communication in criminal justice organizations are two distinct processes. Formal relations, occupation explanations, duties and processes are found in formal communication channels. These channels match the formal chains of command, and accountability recognized in organizational charts, standard operating procedures, and policy manuals. For many police departments and organizations, formal communication channels are the primary standard and rarely differentiate. Informal channels are considered a â€Å"grapevine or rumor mill† type construct. Police officers discussing an incident in the locker room can be considered informal, and if the district attorney and a defense lawyer are chatting about a case at lunch or a washroom are prime examples for informal channels of communications. In an informal channel of communication, the original words that were spoken could be altered, invalid, and misconstrued so much in a department, that the information can provide inefficiency in any organization. â€Å"Barriers to communication often arise when one party is concerned about personal or professional status. The four basic categories, or types, of obstacles to effective communication are as follows: (1) emotional barriers, (2) physical barriers, (3) semantic barriers, and (4) ineffective listening. Each of these barriers can cause either the sender or the receiver to fail to communicate effectively† (Wallace and Roberson, 2009). Emotional barriers can exist in the receiver or the sender. Individuals base their translating of information on respective occurrences and beliefs. If a person believes they will be not taken seriously or made fun of when making a idea, then they will not participate in discussions or send their message. When a police officer has a case of low esteem, it could affect their duties on the street, believing that they might not be able to make a difference, stop certain criminals, and that barrier can cost the lives of innocent people or even peers. Physical barriers are the properties of an atmosphere that can cause communications to be challenging. Examples of physical barriers include equipment that does not work properly, having one officer on patrol instead of a team of two officers patrolling together in a bad neighborhood. Semantic barriers can cause differences between individuals, when one person might say one thing, and another forms an entirely different conclusion to that was said. This form of barrier can exist in a department where communication is very poor from the leadership down to the most junior personnel. Ineffective listening will occur if law enforcement personnel fail to pay attention to what others are communicating. The subject of discussion might bore or be irrelevant to certain persons, or just be to complicate to comprehend, and that transmission will be useless. Effective communication is fundamental in any chain of command. Leadership must be able to communicate its orders and direction to subordinates in a clear, concise manner, and with a positive message, so subordinate’s can perform to the best of their ability and listen to the message that is spoken, instead of just hearing what they want to hear. For an organization to communicate effectively, a person must be able to overcome the barriers that exist, and change one’s thoughts or feelings with another coworker. Taking personal responsibility ensures their workplace operates smoothly, and can rid the barriers that may plaque the organization. Barriers to Effective Communication. (2017, Feb 03).

NGO's Gender Empowerment in Africa the case of women in Democratic Essay

NGO's Gender Empowerment in Africa the case of women in Democratic Republic of Congo - Essay Example To quote, the reasons are: The paper stated the facts that women play a very crucial role in the development of the country. It has specifically stated that women are taking part in the peace building and even on the country’s reconstruction initiatives. Thus, it is reinforced in the paper that having this roles, women’s involvement in the major decision making process of the country will somehow ensure the improvement of the country. The paper has provided evidence that the democratic Republic of Congo is a member of those countries which have included provisions for gender equality in the constitution. This paper focused on the fact that this constitution – the political will – should now be put into action – into reality. Equal Access of women and men to electoral mandates and electoral offices will improve governance and at the same time bring sustainable solutions to development of the country; women are not seeking to govern against men, but to govern with men to maximize development potential in the DRC. (UNDF 2005) The statement above concluded the entire paper. It is reinforcing the fact that men and women should be treated equally particularly if it concerns a major decision process that will benefit and will affect the entire nation. This paper basically talks about just one right that every women should be given – and that is the right to vote and the right to acquire a position in the government. The men are enjoying this basic human right, but the Congolese women are still fighting for it. This makes this press very important in my research. With this press release, it is now clear that there are many NGO’s who have been supporting Congolese women and their quest for equal rights. This paper also answers how most NGO’s such as the UNDF views Congolese women in particular. The very attributes of Congolese women that are included

Critical Discussion of Two Urban Dark Tourism Sites Based On Death and Essay

Critical Discussion of Two Urban Dark Tourism Sites Based On Death and Disaster - Essay Example Memories about war, disasters, and battle sites have produced interests, curiosity, and adventurism among many tourists. Urban dark tourism therefore constitutes a field that is emerging powerfully, involving people around the world traveling towards sites, attractions, and events that have association in one way or the other with death, suffering, violence, or disaster (Stone, 2005). Wight (2006) notes that interpretation, marketing, and production of dark tourism products in the modern world is huge. However, inevitability of debate concerning political and ethical issues of the concept remains live and unavoidable (Sharpley, 2009, p.5). Due to this observation, this research paper aims to critically discuss ethical and political issues of two urban dark tourism products/sites that emerge as a result of interpreting, marketing, and producing the two dark tourism products or sites. ... Examples of key areas explored by authors that can be categorized as dark tourist sites include; cemeteries, battlegrounds, sites of deaths of celebrities, places disasters have taken place, prisons, chambers where torture has taken place, genocide sites, and memorials (Bigley, Lee, Chon, and Yoon, 2010). Dark tourism has grown and its implications exhibit interplay between various structures of; political, social, and cultural conditions of the society (Stone and Sharpley, 2008) and today bountiful potential exists in dark tourism as a result of media and communication technologies (Sharpley, 2009). Emergence of dark tourism is associated with emergence of post-modernism concept, together with its elements of communication and globalization (Huggan, 2009). What this means is that, dark tourism is regarded to be a product of post-modern culture that has been conceived and reared by global communications networks, anxieties about modernity and the general emphasis on commoditization. Presence of global communication technologies has been effective in creating the basic interest among tourist to visit these areas (Lennon and Foley, 2000). Apart from the role communication technologies play, it also appears that dark tourism sites possess ability to introduce anxiety and doubt about the project of modernity (Smith, MacLeod, and Robertson, 2009). Lastly, in consuming dark tourism products, post-modernism culture combines education with elements of commoditization and commercial ethic where visiting dark sites is perceived to constitute an opportunity to achieve mediated goals of tourism consumption. Dark tourism does not enjoy rosy ride, rather, there has been tendency among some

Password Cracker Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Password Cracker - Research Paper Example All the possible combinations of characters are tested against the encrypted passwords that are obtained in the brute-force dialog, in most of the tools that use brute force technique. We can understand this as a thief cracking a locked cupboard and trying different combinations of numbers. The key space of all possible combinations of passwords is calculated using the following formula: KS = L^(m) + L^(m+1) + L^(m+2) + ........ + L^(M) Let’s say that we want to crack LanManager passwords (LM) using the character set "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" of 26 letters. In this case, the brute-force cracker will try the above formula in this way: KS = 26^1 + 26^2 + 26^3 + ...... + 26^7 = 8353082582 8353082582 is the number of different keys that the brute force cracker tool will try. Now let’s suppose that we want to crack the same password but this time the character set is â€Å"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789!@#$%^&*()-_+=~`[]{}|\:;"',.?/". Then, using the same formula i n this case, the number of different keys to try rises to 6823331935124. An extensive key search cracking is a very time consuming task. However, if we are using the right character set, password cracking becomes a relatively easy process. Figure 1 shows a dialogue that asks the user to either put in a character set which is predefined or put in a customized character set. The initial password can also be altered to begin a previous attack again. There is another option of â€Å"key rate† that shows the number of keys that the attack attempts every second against all encrypted passwords that are loaded. â€Å"Time left† is the time remaining to complete the key space. "Current password" is the real key which is tested by the program. In the... The findings of this research will provide insight of Brute-force as one of the most powerful techniques to break plain authentications. TechTarget on the web defines brute-force technique as: â€Å"Brute force (also known as brute force cracking) is a trial and error method used by application programs to decode encrypted data such as passwords or Data Encryption Standard (DES) keys, through exhaustive effort (using brute force) rather than employing intellectual strategies.† A brute-force attack is the process of deciphering or decrypting an encrypted text by trying each possible key. The key length of the code and the attacker’s computational power is very important in every brute-force attack. The major shortcoming of brute force technique is that it requires too much time to try username and password combinations. Also, brute force attacks are very noisy meaning that they generate too much of traffic along with leaving some evidence of the attack. All the possible combinations of characters are tested against the encrypted passwords that are obtained in the brute-force dialog, in most of the tools that use brute force technique. We can understand this as a thief cracking a locked cupboard and trying different combinations of numbers. Social engineering technique is the oldest method of cracking a password and is done through simple, rogue manipulation of trusting persons. The need of the hour is to spread user awareness and train the employees so that they are able to protect their networks and critical passwords.

Article Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Article Analysis - Essay Example Targeting the investors and potential investors in the Canadian stock exchange, the article warns them of the imminent crisis that has already started taking shape on the economy of Canada. It also targets the policymakers who are supposed to take into account the pitfalls and offer solutions of how the situation can be improved. According to them, an investor who opts to hold their investments in the Canadian BMO Capital Market Authority or any investment banks in the country risk making losses from their investments. They provide evidence supporting their hypothesis which indicates a losing trend that the Loonie has been facing in the recent years. Basically, the subject of their argument is the contribution of the oil crisis to the poor performance of the Canadian dollar in relation to other currencies and the U.S. dollar. Other contributing factors to soring the situation have been discussed, which include low buying of the government bonds and the decreasing demand for Canadaâ⠂¬â„¢s triple-A-rated sovereign debt. The poor performance of the loonie against other currencies prompted Walter & Karen to write this article. Most importantly however, it was the poor sale of the country’s crude oil that made the issue more serious warranting their reference to the poor performance of the currency. The fact that Canada’s oil prices have been performing poorly in reference to other oil producing states is evidence to this. Trading at about $ 65 a barrel, the Canadian oil poorly performs against international oil prices. In the article, 'Loonie' Slips on Oil Patch Walter & Karen explores the influence of Canada’s oil reserves on the performance of the Canadian dollar. While the global crude oil prices have remained competitively high, the poor price of the Canadian oil proves to be a liability to the country’s economy and exchange rate. The major contributing factor of this trend is the boom in the U.S. oil in the Northern American regio n. A barrel of the Canadian oil trades at only $65 dollars, while the international market prices stand at $115 per barrel. Contrary to other currencies that move along with the changes in the oil prices, the loonie has been facing a downward performance against the dollar, shedding off 0.5% this year. The biggest disadvantage of the Canadian currency, points out experts is over reliance on petrol exports. The weak currency is expected to remain weak so long as the oil prices remain low. Effects of the poor prices of the oil have not only negatively influenced on the currency performance, notes Walter & Karen. The shocks of this have been felt by the economy, negatively affecting the annual economic growth which the central bank forecasted to drop from 2.3% to 2%. Moreover, the prices have also contributed to a widening trade deficit, reaching up to C$2 billion. As experts continue loosing hope in the recovery of the dollar, more investors keep pulling out of the market. Data indica tes so, as bonds have been facing a decreasing trend since June of last year, hitting the lowest point in November. As more people shy from bond buying that was the biggest source of income for the country’s funds, the face value of the currency seems to be overvalued. The oil

Crime trend Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Crime trend - Essay Example This system of punishment has evolved over the centuries from barbaric methods to correctional ones that would help the offender to get rid of his anti-social tendencies and get rehabilitated into the society where he was earlier a misfit. Public attitudes towards an offender have changed but are not altogether different from what it was, that of a sinner, in earlier times. This is important as it would help one chart the course of the changes in the criminal justice system. One also needs to take into account the changes that have taken place in the society while examining the criminal justice system. These may include the pervasiveness of technology in every aspect of the modern life. Courts and the police too have begun to take into account the evidence and assistance offered by technology to the extent that it is a part of modern life in every respect at this point of time in history. The scaffold in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter represents what the Puritan syst em of justice in America was at a certain point of time in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The criminal justice system has come a long way from accusing a person without having a proper legal framework. It has also enshrined in this framework the notion of equality that should be the basis of justice in any civilized country. This has been compounded by the expectations of the public in recent years from the criminal justice system where it has become an electoral in almost every country in the world. The nation state has thus been instrumental in creating an environment where everybody would be judged through a secular and modern code of law and order that enables equality in justice and punishment. Equality is however, not always the case when it comes to the distribution of justice. Racial profiling is one of the most important obstacles in the process of criminal justice. This involves the process whereby people of color are discriminated against while the process of just ice is carried out. This may happen on a road where a person of color is stopped just because of their race. This represents deep rooted attitudes of racial superiority that is a part of certain sections of the police (Three faces of Racial Profiling, n.d.). This is an example of how race impinges on the institution of justice in everyday life. This may then extend to include proceedings at courts where a person of color is discriminated against when it comes to credibility, especially when pitted against people who are of White races. This can then be extended to the situation of poor people, those who are often not able to afford lawyers for themselves. The trend of racial profiling has decreased in the past few decades; however, the situation of poor people has not radically improved. This can then also be connected to the situation of people who are doubly deprived or dispossessed. This refers to the condition of poor people of color in the United States of America. They are the n at the receiving end of both their race and class position as a result of prejudices. The failures of the criminal justice system in several cases can be attributed to the rising frustration and helplessness that is felt by these communities in relation to the attitudes of the American middle classes and legal system. This can be seen in the rising number of people who feel that joining a gang may be their only way out of a system

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 31

Essay Example who are familiar with Douglass narrative and as a writer, for Harriet, who would have read the same, the shaping and meaning of â€Å"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl† would be specially filtered by their knowledge of the Douglass narrative. The incidents, motifs, themes, and symbols would possibly allude to or be influenced by Douglass narrative. This is intertexuality and it offers a rich meaning to the discursive features of the text either to heighten the contrast or to emphasize the similarities. Harriet Jacobs’ reference to the hypocrisy of the Christianity in the South as she witnessed alludes to the irony with respect to Christianity and slavery Douglass Narrative. Harriet exclaims â€Å"O, the hypocrisy of slaveholders!† when she talks about Mrs.Flint as a hypocrite as she turns brutal and insensitive to her slaves when she is suspicious of a sexual relationship between Linda and Dr. Flint and in turn is vicious towards Linda. She shows how the slave system changes the moral character of southern women. She tells of a minister who, shortly after Nat Turner’s rebellion, preaches to slaves about their Christian ethical obligation to be obedient, hardworking, servants to their masters. Harriet remarks, â€Å"There is a great difference between Christianity and religion at the south.† (p. 82); She describes how slaves are taught to obey their slaves as part of their Christian morals, and this alludes to Douglass’ reference to the hypocritical Christianity of the Slave owners when they â€Å"strongly believe that they have ‘god-given right to hold and sell and ill-treat slaves’. In addition, Harriet points out at the moral degrading effect of slavery as an institution on the slave owners and this is parallel to Douglass narrative. The editor Richard D. Webb, writes: "This book shows as forcibly as any story we have ever read the moral pollution and perversion inevitable in a community where slavery is a recognized institution†. â€Å"Yet few

Good Marriage Essay Example for Free

Good Marriage Essay Jim went down to the kitchen where the smell of good food beckons him. He smiled to himself, pleased to note that his wife is cooking his favorite food. Theyve been together for twenty-five years, their kids are all grown up. Yet Ana hasnt forgotten that he likes Thai cooking, slightly spicy and rich with seasoning. He saw his wife adding cut green pepper on the diced meat that is frying on the stove. Ana turned around and saw him standing in the doorway. She bade him sit down while she finishes her cooking. Instead of sitting down, Jim went to the cupboard to get plates and utensils for their meal. The couple has always find ways to please and help each other, a practice they have kept over the years. 2. A good marriage is characterized by husband and wifes delight in a give and take relationship. There is mutual respect for each other. Husband and wife helps each other in decision-makings, the raising of children, and doing tasks. They both take care of each other and notes what are the likes and dislikes of each party. In a good marriage, the man and wife are both happy in their decision to be with each other for the rest of their lives. That commitment is reaffirmed time and again despite difficulties and trials. In a good marriage, there is laughter and conversation. Both husband and wife will always find things to talk about, and have the time to listen to each other. 3. Looking at Jim and Anas lives, their twenty-five years of marriage has not always been a bed of roses. Ana is scrupulously neat, while Jim is a little scatter-brained. Ana keeps a list of things that needs to be done and does them in an organized and timely manner. She likes getting an early start, eating breakfast and finishing work ahead of time. Jim has a tendency to oversleep in the morning, getting up really late on weekends, and spending half of the day sleeping during 2 vacations. He hates putting anything on his stomach before eleven in the morning and likes to work late at night. Ana would sometimes find Jim deeply asleep after she had her bath and breakfast on a day when theyre supposed to go to the dentist. At a time when Ana likes to get an early start, while Jim wasnt complying, shed often get bad-tempered and a little quarrel would ensue. These little quarrels didnt get out of hand because both of them are capable of stepping back and releasing anger. More importantly, Jim and Ana avoid bringing up past issues during arguments. They stick to whats at hand and settle them without resorting to foul language and by properly expressing their sentiments and criticisms in a constructive manner. 4. A good marriage is not just about seeing the good side of a person. Its about knowing his or her little habits that may or may not turn out to be annoying. Each party has to accept the totality of the other person and learn to adjust and adapt. In a good marriage, the couple must not try to change each other. Instead, they must try to meet in the middle and compromise. In a good marriage, the couple dont start running away when things become a little complicated and difficult. 5. A good marriage, simply defined, is comprised of the good and bad things. There are times to laugh, to talk, to argue, and to make up. It is characterized by a lasting friendship where trust and responsibility go hand and hand. Meeting halfway and speaking up are necessary elements to make the relationship endure. Both parties must work hard and stick it out with one another through thick and thin. Husband and wife must selflessly think of each others welfare particularly when there are major issues to face and settle. Its very important to do things together and to go away on vacations to recapture the moments when you both fall in love with each other.

Significance of Departmental Accounting

Significance of Departmental Accounting This report has done on wide research of financial accounting. This report has five parts. First part includes departmental accounting and its significance. Second part shows a calculation for a given question. Third part includes four fundamental accounting concepts such as going concern, matching concept, prudence and consistency with examples. Forth part includes users and uses of financial accounting and statements. Finally fifth part shows a significance of local community for businesses and corporate social governance, how it began and its importance. 1.0 Departmental Accounts Departmental accounts may be stated as a procedure of book-keeping and accounting, the reason of which is to find how much profit (or loss) is made by each section or department of a business. In this context the term department means an income making department, as dealing outcomes will not be obtained for non-revenue making department for example maintenance, trading or management, etc. (Pendlebury Groves, 2004). If an enterprise comprise of five independent activities, or is divided into five departments, for carrying on separate functions, its management is generally involved in finding out the working outcomes of each department to ascertain their relative efficiencies. This can be made likely only if departmental accounts are prepared. Departmental accounts are of great help and assistance to the managements as information for commanding the enterprise more intelligently and effectively, since thereby all kinds of waste either of material or of cash are readily detected; furthermore attention is drawn to inadequacies or inefficiencies in the working of departments or units into which the enterprise may be divided (Pendlebury Groves, 2004). Significance of Departmental Accounts Preparation of Departmental accounts is helpful to the business in the following respects: Easy to comparing the performance of each departments Departmental accounts enable the businesses to compare the performance of one department with another department. It also helps an organisation to rank departments using their earning values. The overall profit on sales, namely RM 490,000 on a turnover of RM 2,730,000 is probably quite satisfactory; yet in the absence of departmental accounting the loss incurred by Department C and D would not be revealed. Easy to evaluate departmental growth Departmental accounting helps an organisation to evaluate each departmental growth separately on the basis of trading results over period of time. An endeavour may be made to push up the sales of the department which is earning maximum profit. To explain it further here is an illustration: The above table shows an individual product growth of ABC organisation for three years. Product D is a continuous loss making product whereas other products such as profit for product C is continuously decreasing over a period of time. Using departmental accounting for this organisation became easier for management to evaluate the performance of these products. Decision making Departmental accounting makes it simplier for management to make conclusions if they are having more than one product, they can actually forecast the future performance of a product. Most of the time decision includes some questions such as whether a product is profitable or not, if the product is not profitable whether they should continue to produce that product or just eliminate it, what would be consequences of eliminating a product. Here is a further interpretation using illustration 2. Management can actually decide whether they should continue to produce these five products based on their growth over a period of time. Let say product D as this product is continuously making loss since 2009, it became easier for management to decide whether they should produce product D or they should eliminate this product. Furthermore they can rank the product based on their profits. For example Product B is the most profitable product. Easy to prepare departmental budget Departmental budgeting assists an organisation to prepare budgets for each department. A budget ensures that an organisation can pay for costs for all products and dont have risk of going into debt to keep business running. To construct a complete budget, an enterprise must understand how to set aside finances for each department and understand how each department works simultaneously to make up the full-scale plan. ABC organisation can actually evaluate whether they can afford these departments or not. If we compare Department B and Department C, then B is a profitable department whereas C is loss making department. Now the management have to decide whether they can afford expenses for Department C in next year or not because they are not sure whether it can generate profit or not in next. 3.0 Four Fundamental Accounting Concepts 3.1 Going Concern Concept The going concern concept assumes that business will persist with its business activities in the foreseeable future; thus the accountant will not suppose that there is a desire to cut back on business operations or an intention to liquidate. The significance of this concept is that items should be valued not at their break-up value but at their net book value, based on the estimation of the cost of the depreciation provision. Without this assumption, preparation of the balance sheet would be much more difficult (Pizzey, 2001). Examples of going concern concept The RM 2.6 billion inventory for Sara Ltd in 2012 is reported at the cost originally paid to purchase the inventory. This is a reasonable figure because, in the normal course of business, Sara Ltd can expect to sell the inventory for this amount, plus some profit. But if it were assumed that Sara Ltd would go out of business tomorrow, the inventory would suddenly be worth a lot less. The going concern concept allows the accountant to record assets at what they are worth to a company in normal use rather than what they would sell for in a liquidation sale (Pizzey, 2001). Another example is fixed assets, we show fixed asset at cost less depreciation to rather their current value in the second-hand market, because they are held by the firm not for immediate resale, but to be used by the business until their working life is over. This is clearly an assumption on which the balance sheet is based (Pizzey, 2001). Before the accounts are certified as showing a true and fair view, the auditor must be satisfied that the company is a going concern and that it will continue to function successful in the future (Pizzey, 2001). This the profit measurement calculation is insulated from fluctuations in the value of fixed assets, and the spread of the capital cost of an asset over the years of its useful life, by depreciation, is supported by this principle (Pizzey, 2001). 3.2 Matching concept This is sometimes called the accruals principle. Its purpose is to match effort to accomplishment by setting the cost of resources used up by a certain activity against the revenue or benefits received from that activity. When a profit statement is compiled, the cost of the goods sold should be set against the revenue from the sale of those goods, even though cash has not yet been received. Expense and revenue must be matched up so that they concern the same goods and time period, if a true profit is to be computed. Costs concerning a future period must be carried forward as a prepayment and charged in that period, and not charged in the current profit and loss account. Expenses of the current period not yet entered in the books must be estimated and inserted accruals (Pizzey, 2001). Example of matching concept Jason pays rent for his guest house of 1000 RM per year, in a lump sum at the end of the year. If he did not use the accruals concept, accounts would show zero rent expenses for the first eleven months of operation and then a heavy rent expense at the end of the 12th month. In order to show more realistic and accurate monthly profit and loss accounts, he should accrue the sum of RM 1000/12 and then adjust for any differences at the end of the year. 3.3 Prudence Concept The prudence concept is often referred to as the conservatism concept. The preparation of accounts requires judgements to be made about the future and because of the uncertainties associated with this a prudent or cautious approach is required profit determination. Under this concept all expected losses should be taken into account immediately they are known about, whereas expected gains are not recognised until actually realized. An example of the widespread use of the prudence concept is closing stock valuation. The normal rules is that closing stock should be valued at cost but if the market value of the stock falls below cost then the market value should be used. This is the lower of cost or net realizable value that is generally applied to stock valuations (Pendlebury Groves, 2004). The prudence concept is clearly useful in terms of preventing over-optimistic calculations of profit to be reported. Overstatement of profit might lead excessive dividend payments being made or to incorrect investment decision being taken. However, the concept of prudence should not be taken to excess because the understatement of profit which would result might be just as misleading as overstatement and might discourage investment unnecessarily (Pendlebury Groves, 2004). 3.4 Consistency Concept In accounting there are often several acceptable ways of determining asset values and the proportion of the cost of assets that should be borne by each accounting period. The consistency concept requires there to be consistency if treatment of like items within each accounting period and from one period to the next. In other words once one of the generally accepted methods is chosen then the method should usually be used consistently from year to year (Pendlebury Groves, 2004). However, if there are compelling and justifiable reasons for changing the method of valuing a particular item. E.g. closing stock, then this is permitted under the consistency concept, but the impact of the change on current year profit and the impact the change would have had on accounts of the previous year should be reported to provide comparability (Pendlebury Groves, 2004). 4.0 Users and Uses of financial statements and accounting information There are different kinds of users of financial statements. The users of financial statements may be inside or outside the business. They use financial statements for a large variety of business purposes and their ability to understand and analyse financial statements helps them to succeed in the business world. 4.1 Classification of Users of Financial accounting Information The five users of financial statements are classified and explained as follows: Investors Investors are concerned about risk and return in relation to their investments. They require information to decide whether they should continue to invest in a business. They also need to be able to assess whether a business will be able to pay dividends, and to measure the overall performance of the business management (Riley, 2012). Customers Customers require information about the ability of the business to survive and prosper. As customers of the companys products, they have a long-term interest in the companys range of products and services. They may even be dependent on the business for certain products or services (Riley, 2012). Employees Employees are seeking security of employment and a return for the work they do. Employees would therefore be looking for indications that the company is doing well enough to continue to trade into the future and is doing well enough to continue to employ them and is able to meet the salary and wages bill each month. If there is any profit or performance related component to the remuneration they will also be interested in the company performance and how close it is to triggering the bonus payments (Riley, 2012). Government There are many government agencies and departments that are interested in accounting information. For example, the IRCE needs information on business profitability in order to levy and collect Corporation Tax. For example: Various regulatory agencies (e.g. the Competition Commission and the Environment Agency) need information to support decisions about takeovers and grants (Riley, 2012). Bankers The banks are a common source of short term funds for an organisation, and the place where cash is deposited as it is received. If the bank gives loan to the company then they will be interested in the ability of the company to pay its interest and the loan amount back on the due dates. How profitable the company is and how good it is being managed will be important areas they will look at. In the case of small businesses this will revolve around the faith they have in the owner/manager (Riley, 2012). 4.2 Classification of uses of financial accounting information Accounting provides companies with various pieces of information regarding business operations. It is often conducted by a companys internal accounting department and reviewed by a public accounting firm. Small businesses often have significantly less financial information recorded during the accounting process. However, business owners often review this financial information to determine how well their business is operating. Accounting information can also provide insight on growing or expanding current business operations (Vitez, 2012). Performance Management A common use of accounting information is measuring the performance of various business operations. While financial statements are the classic accounting information tool used to assess business operations, business owners may conduct a more thorough analysis of this information when reviewing business operations. Financial ratios use the accounting information reported on financial statements and break it down into leading indicators. These indicators can be compared to other companies in the business environment or an industry standard. This helps business owners understand how well their companies operate compared to other established businesses (Vitez, 2012). Create Budgets Business owners often use accounting information to create budgets for their companies. Historical financial accounting information provides business owners with a detailed analysis of how their companies have spent money on certain business functions. Business owners often take this accounting information and develop future budgets to ensure they have a financial road map for their businesses. These budgets can also be adjusted based on current accounting information to ensure a business owner does not restrict spending on critical economic resources (Vitez, 2012). Business Decisions Accounting information is commonly used to make business decisions. Decisions may include expanding current operations, using different economic resources, purchasing new equipment or facilities, estimating future sales or reviewing new business opportunities. Accounting information usually provides business owners information about the cost of various resources or business operations. These costs can be compared to the potential income of new opportunities during the financial analysis process. This process helps business owners understand how current business operations will be affected when expanding or growing their businesses. Opportunities with low income potential and high costs are often rejected by business owners (Vitez, 2012). Investment Decisions External business stakeholders often use accounting information to make investment decisions. Banks, lenders, venture capitalists or private investors often review a companys accounting information to review its financial health and operational profitability. This provides information about whether or not a small business is a wise investment decision. Many small businesses need external financing to start up or grow. The inability to provide outside lenders or investors with accounting information can severely limit financing opportunities for a small business (Vitez, 2012). 5.0 Why community is important for an organisation A local community is a group of interacting people sharing an environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness (Post, Lawrence, Weber, 1999). Business activity occurs within a community, and it is important that the community is considered in major business decisions. Businesses face community in different roles such as they could be potential employees and customers who can help the organisation be successfully. Without the community there would be no business. Community can influence business in different manners such as (Post, Lawrence, Weber, 1999) Customers as a community Community can decrease demand for an organisations product because customers are also a part of community. If businesses affect community in a negative manner such as providing low quality product, harming environment by pollution and so on, then customers as a part of community will start reducing their demand for that particular businesses product. If demand for their product will decrease then the company would be making a serious loss and without making profit, an organisation cannot survive (Taylorr, 2010). Employees as a community Employees are also a part of community and they also have a power to influence an organisation. If an organisation does not play a good role in community, then employees can actually strike or stop working in that organisation. Labour strike is a serious problem for an organisation because it can reduce the production. Reduction in production can also be a loss making situation for an organisation (Taylorr, 2010). Investors as a community Investors also play a role as a community for an organisation. By having a bad image in community, it stops investors to invest in particular businesses because investors are concern with their return on investments. If an organisation has a bad image on community, chances are high for decrease in stock value of an enterprise, which will effect investors decision of investing in a particular organisation (Taylorr, 2010). There are many other reasons which create a value of a local community for an organisation while making decisions. The best idea for survival of an entity is to have a good relationship with local community. 5.1 Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate social responsibility means that a corporation should be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment; it implies that negative business impacts on people and society should be acknowledged and corrected if at all possible. It may require a company to forgo some profits if its social impacts are seriously harmful to some of its stakeholders or if its funds can be used to promote a positive social good (Post, Lawrence, Weber, 1999). 5.1.1 How corporate social responsibility began In the United States, the idea of corporate social responsibility appeared around the turn of the twentieth century. Corporation at that time came under attack for being too big, too powerful, and guilty of antisocial and anticompetitive practices. Critics tried to curb corporate power through antitrust laws, banking regulations, and consumer-protection laws. Faced with this kind of social protest, a few farsighted business executives advised corporations to use their power and influence voluntarily for broad social purposes rather than for profit alone. Some of the wealthier businesses leaders for example steelmaker Andrew Carnegie became great philanthropists who gave much of their wealth to educational and charitable institutions. Other like, automaker Henry Ford, developed paternalistic programs to support the recreational and health needs of their employees. The point to emphasize is that these business leaders believed that business had a responsibility to social that went beyond or worked in parallel with their efforts to make profits (Post, Lawrence, Weber, 1999). As a result of these early ideas about businesss expanded role in society, two broad principles emerged which are: The Charity Principle and The Stewardship Principle. These principles have shaped business thinking about social responsibility during the twentieth century and are the foundation stones for the modern ideas of corporate social responsibility (Post, Lawrence, Weber, 1999). 5.1.2 Importance of Social Governance in businesses An easy way to build its brand, reputation and public profile Being socially responsible creates goodwill and a positive image for an organisation. Trust and a good reputation are some of companys most valuable assets. In fact, without these, one wouldnt even have a business. One can nurture these important assets by being socially responsible (Taylorr, 2010). It is however, crucial that an organisation devise the right socially responsible program for their business. When used properly, it will open up a myriad of new relationships and opportunities. Not only will an association success grow, but so will companys culture. It will become a culture which an entity, its staff and the wider community genuinely believe in (Taylorr, 2010). It attracts and retains staff Socially responsible companies report increased employee commitment, performance and job satisfaction. By attracting, retaining and engaging staff, doing well for others reduces an organisations recruitment costs and improves work productivity (Taylorr, 2010). It attracts more customers Branding business as socially responsible differentiates it from competitors. The Body Shop and Westpac are companies who have used this to their advantage. Developing innovative products that are environmentally or socially responsible add values and gives people a good reason to buy from that organisation (Taylorr, 2010). It attracts more investors Investors and financiers are attracted to companies who are socially responsible. These decision-makers know this reflects good management and a positive reputation. Businesses should not underestimate this influence; it can be just as important as a companys financial performance. In fact, it may be the deciding factor in choosing to support company (Taylorr, 2010). It encourages professional and personal growth Employee can develop their leadership and project management skills through a well-designed corporate social responsibility program. This may be as simple as team building exercises, encouraging employees to form relationships with people they would not normally meet (Taylorr, 2010). It helps to cut business costs Environmental initiatives such as recycling and conserving energy increase in-house efficiency and cut costs. Introducing a corporate social responsibility program gives an organisation a good reason to examine and improve on its spending (Taylorr, 2010). 6.0 Conclusion After conducting this report we have learn that departmental accounting is compulsory for an organisation with more than one department because it make business activities more effective. Another thing we have learn is it very important for a survival in a local community to perform corporate social responsibilities, without doing right for community its hard for an organisation to survive in long term. Furthermore we have learnt that it is compulsory for businesses to apply fundamental concepts while preparing financial statements.

The Death Penalty in Canada Essay -- Capital Punishment, canadian stud

The most severe of all sentences: death. Also known as capital punishment, this is the most severe form of punishment in the courts as it is requires law enforcement officers to kill the offender. Our past has left us thinking that if someone steals from us, we should steal from them, or if someone yells at us, we should yell at them. But does there ever come a point where if someone kills somebody, we should kill them? Today, there is a large controversy over the death penalty, whether it helps society or not, and if it is morally right. When we find someone guilty of murder and sentence them to death; does that not make murderers out of us? Is the death penalty an unnecessary punishment, or is it now a necessity in the battles of crime? With the increase in crime and violence in our society, how does the death penalty affect a North American family? Canada’s history with this punishment has been stable for several years. In the late 1800’s until the 1960’s, all murders in Canada were promised a death of hanging. Between these dates, there were 710 Canadians murdered. Many of them were found to be innocent years after their death. The last execution in Canada was on December 11, 1962 when 2 men were hanged in Toronto, Ontario. It wasn’t until July 14, 1976 that the House of Commons passed a Bill that was to abolish capital punishment from the Canadian Criminal Code, and replacing it with a mandatory life sentence for all murderers. Since then, the Canadian government has seen the murder rate increase, and has struggled in the decision to bring back capital punishment, although recent studies suggest that there are four major issues that should make governments stay away from that decisi... ...iety understands the price, so why do we keep doing it? Like anything else in this world, it’s a form of insurance that the criminal will never commit another crime again. (Capital Punishment) As children, we grow up and learn that murder is wrong, but it is still done every day. Dealing with capital punishment, leads to many questions that many citizens even in Canada cannot find an answer to. Is killing somebody for committing a crime right? I personally believe that a victim on death row should be there if they actually deserve to be. Depending on the situation and the crime they committed, the death penalty eliminates evil in our countries. But can people make mistakes, can people be forgiven and change? Using the death penalty is breaking one of the Ten Commandments, so at the end of the day is it right? Does one life deserve another?

Characterization in Harriet Beecher Stowes Minister without a Pulpit :: Harriet Beecher Stowe Minister Pulpit Essays

Characterization in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Minister without a Pulpit Harriet Beecher Stowe uses characterization and a tragic situation to portray the contrast of the bourgeois and the proletariat classes and the social movements within the class structure. The first character appearing in the story is a little girl whose mother has just died. The descriptions of her are vague, and the name of this child is not revealed until late in the story. Throughout the story, the little girl is referred to as â€Å" ‘ere,† â€Å"beautiful little girl of seven years,† â€Å"little girl,† â€Å"little one,† and â€Å"child.† Only when she is asked for her name do the readers learn that it is Eglantine Percival. Even after her name has been revealed, none of the characters use her name. This absence of a name indirectly reflects Eglantine’s position in society after her mother’s death. Stowe uses vague words like â€Å"child† to show the subordination of Eglantine as a result of Miss Asphyxia’s demands. Before Eglantine is taken in, she held a high status with her mother and brother Harry. Her mother dies, and her brother is taken away from her along with â€Å"money enough† to pay for her mother’s funeral. The loss of these material possessions must coincide with a loss of high status according to Karl Marx. Dropping from bourgeois, Eglantine falls into the proletariat status. She does not submit entirely to the social structure at first. In fact, she resents the work Miss Asphyxia demands of her saying that she â€Å"wants to play.† Eglantine still dreams of her previous leisurely lifestyle where she had no responsibilities, where flowers were beautiful, and where her mother â€Å"always brushed them [her curls] out everyday.† She refuses Miss Asphyxia’s authority on a few occasions, but her efforts end with her own tears and eventual obedience. As her possessions escape her, Eglantine becomes more and more submissive to Miss Asphyxia and more proletariat status-like. Contrasting Eglantine is her benefactor Miss Asphyxia. She is a working woman, older and stronger. Miss Asphyxia is a â€Å"working machine, always wound up and going.† She understood that â€Å"nature had made her†¦entirely for use.† She described herself having nothing but bone and muscle, purely with practical and efficient uses. The use of Miss Asphyxia’s name is quite interesting. The short story is unexpectedly named after her although it seems that Eglantine is the main character of the story. Characterization in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Minister without a Pulpit :: Harriet Beecher Stowe Minister Pulpit Essays Characterization in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Minister without a Pulpit Harriet Beecher Stowe uses characterization and a tragic situation to portray the contrast of the bourgeois and the proletariat classes and the social movements within the class structure. The first character appearing in the story is a little girl whose mother has just died. The descriptions of her are vague, and the name of this child is not revealed until late in the story. Throughout the story, the little girl is referred to as â€Å" ‘ere,† â€Å"beautiful little girl of seven years,† â€Å"little girl,† â€Å"little one,† and â€Å"child.† Only when she is asked for her name do the readers learn that it is Eglantine Percival. Even after her name has been revealed, none of the characters use her name. This absence of a name indirectly reflects Eglantine’s position in society after her mother’s death. Stowe uses vague words like â€Å"child† to show the subordination of Eglantine as a result of Miss Asphyxia’s demands. Before Eglantine is taken in, she held a high status with her mother and brother Harry. Her mother dies, and her brother is taken away from her along with â€Å"money enough† to pay for her mother’s funeral. The loss of these material possessions must coincide with a loss of high status according to Karl Marx. Dropping from bourgeois, Eglantine falls into the proletariat status. She does not submit entirely to the social structure at first. In fact, she resents the work Miss Asphyxia demands of her saying that she â€Å"wants to play.† Eglantine still dreams of her previous leisurely lifestyle where she had no responsibilities, where flowers were beautiful, and where her mother â€Å"always brushed them [her curls] out everyday.† She refuses Miss Asphyxia’s authority on a few occasions, but her efforts end with her own tears and eventual obedience. As her possessions escape her, Eglantine becomes more and more submissive to Miss Asphyxia and more proletariat status-like. Contrasting Eglantine is her benefactor Miss Asphyxia. She is a working woman, older and stronger. Miss Asphyxia is a â€Å"working machine, always wound up and going.† She understood that â€Å"nature had made her†¦entirely for use.† She described herself having nothing but bone and muscle, purely with practical and efficient uses. The use of Miss Asphyxia’s name is quite interesting. The short story is unexpectedly named after her although it seems that Eglantine is the main character of the story.

English Term paper -- essays research papers

1984 is a novel of great influence. The novel illustrates many concepts of life in the future through the knowledge of the past. The descriptive theories within the novel are familiar in basic context when we look into the society of today. The author George Orwell has projected an image of the future through the knowledge of his lifetime, which is not far off reality. The novel talks about the social movement to a world of unbearable proportions, which takes the idea of security to the limit. A feeling of helplessness is bestowed upon the people as the government scrutinizes their every move. The government has created a society of fear, and people automatically fall into line for they cannot escape the eyes of Big Brother who is watching them. Many of the major concepts outlined in detail in the novel are applicable to life in the twenty-first century. The author has defined concepts for several areas, which he perceived the world would progress towards. Orwell’s prophecies as illustrated in the novel 1984 are fulfilled in today’s society. One of the major prophecies that Orwell outlines in his novel is the idea of the telescreen which can watch anyone at any time this is a reality in today’s society. One of the major connections that Orwell makes about the telescreen of 1984 and today’s society is that you could spy on people. The telescreen might be the most closely compared to microphones and cameras, but there are also many other devices that can be easily used for spying. Within the area of the telescreen anyone could be watched as well as heard, which closely links to the surveillance of today, except people are a little more naive. â€Å"Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so as long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.†(Orwell, 6) The notion that â€Å"Big broth er is watching you† from the novel is not that far off. In fact cameras are being installed all over the place for security reasons, but you do not know who is watching you and what kind of personal information you are giving away. â€Å"No matter how far our contemporary world may seem to 1984’s Oceania, any suggestion of government surveillance of its citizens--from the thre... ...clearly outlines several theories of his within the novel, which have come true in modern day. George Orwell’s first prophecy is about a piece of technology, which we can quite easily relate to modern day because it is quite like a television or a communication device such as a camera or microphone. This was important since it was one of the main ideas of his novel, relating to spying, and it has become quite prominent within our society as well as in the novel. Next the author outlines the type of government, which is quite overpowering, which again in co-ordinance with the telescreen presents one of the main ideas in the plot of the novel and is quite emphasized. The type of governance described is in effect in some countries around the world today. Finally the author has described in detail the use of a new language that has become useful for brainwashing, and government propaganda. This language can be related to today as we have created a new language of our own for s pecial purposes and there are places that deal with a double languages, just as in the novel. The concepts that this novel introduces are so realistic that it has influenced many around the world for many years.

Colleges Exploit of College Athletes Essay

It is common issue in our country that students neglect their studies seeking sports fame and they end up their career with incomplete degree, even while their institution themselves earn millions revenues. It is seen that as sports became very commercializing, college sport department exploit students for their own means of earning. A sign that hangs in the men’s basketball locker room at Duke Reads: â€Å"Practice times are as follows†¦. Please schedule class consequently. † (Sarah E. Gohl, 2001) This sign expresses in no indecisive terms the message that basketball, not school, is the top priority. The academic schedule should accommodate the athletic schedule, not vice versa. Duke’s basketball coaches are not unaided in making this demand. Division I coaches normally require athletes to subordinate their academic lives to their athletic lives. Damion Davis, a track and field athlete at Baylor University, told the Chronicle of Higher Education: â€Å"They [coaches] always say its academics [first], then athletics. They’re lying. Its athletics and then academics. You don’t carry out, you’re not here† (Alex P. Kellogg, 2001, pp. A33-A34). Baylor football player Bobby Darnell agreed. Referring to his coaches, he said: â€Å"They don’t want you thinking about the test you have on Monday, just the ‘test’ you have Saturday night,† explicitly, the next football game (Alex P. Kellogg, 2001, pp. A33-A34). In this environment, according to sociologists Patricia and Peter Adler, athletes might become â€Å"engulfed† in their athletic role, giving it priority, and may â€Å"abandon† their academic role, casting aside the non-athletic goals to which they formerly aspired (Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler, 1991). Wherever role engulfment exists, academic fraud is certain to follow. Academic fraud not just takes place when a student cheats on an examination or submits a plagiarized paper, or while a high school or college coach or administrator falsifies an athlete’s transcription, but also takes place whenever a college authorizes athletes to be something other than fall-time college students who are joined in degree programs and who pursue their degrees at a rational pace. It surely occurs when coaches arrange course schedules to make sure those athletes will be available for daily practice and that they will earn the grades essential to stay eligible to compete. Coaches did just that at the Division I college where the Adlers studied the men’s basketball team throughout the late 1980s. One player described his â€Å"choice† of a major in the following way: â€Å"They never even asked me what major I wanted. They just assumed that I would be a rec [recreation-physical education] major. They’re perhaps right, but you get a certain message when they don’t even ask you. † (Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler, 1991, 67) The message, of course, is that one’s sport comes first and schoolwork is a slight irritant to which one require only pay enough attention to stay eligible to compete. At fall registration some years ago, former Drake University provost Jon Ericson witnessed an incident linking a freshman men’s basketball player who had received this message. The athlete sat impassively while a envoy of the athletic department chose his classes and got him registered. At the same time Ericson observed, in stark contrast to the athlete, a young woman student who moved from line to line and negotiated with the registrar as she chose her classes, â€Å"engulfed† suitably in the role of undergraduate (Katie Funk, 2000). Athletes also accept the message that their sport comes first while coaches force them to subordinate their academic targets to their athletic responsibilities. One of the Adlers’ interviewees recalled the following conversation with a coach, which illustrates this dilemma vividly. The player said: One time I had a paper that was really hard that was due. So I say to Coach Mickey [the â€Å"academic† coach], â€Å"I’m goanna be a little late to practice because I have to go to the library to do some work on my paper. † But he told me, â€Å"You’d better be in the gym by three o’clock. † I think if they were serious about academics, they would cut you some slack on that (Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler, 1991, p 150). Ironically, athlete exploitation sometimes occurs even while a college does not stand to earn considerable revenues from sports. A case in point is Marcus LoVett, formerly the star point guard for Oklahoma City University (OCU), a perennial basketball powerhouse in the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), where visibility is low and profits are unusual. LoVett enrolled at OCU in the fall of 1995, following spending his first two years of college at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas and the College of Southern Idaho, respectively (Alexander Wolff, 1997, pp. 60-66). He remained entitled for basketball at OCU in 1995-96 by taking courses in fishing/angling, beginning volleyball, beginning golf, intramural recreation programs, walking/jogging, varsity sports, and the basics of coaching basketball, and postponed until his senior year the more hard courses that he would need to pass in order to graduate with a degree in physical education. This strategy backfired in December of 1996, when LoVett failed three courses and took an unfinished in two others, causing his GPA to fall below the 2. 0 necessary for athletic eligibility under NAIA rules. OCU declared him disqualified to play basketball during the spring semester, where he filed suit in state court in January of 1997, claiming that OCU had (1) broken its promise to have him tested quickly for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD); (2) failed to provide him with the academic assistance it had promised him, (3) destitute him of a chance to showcase his basketball talents for NBA scouts, and (4) inflicted emotional distress on him (Cohen Greta, 1993. ). The presence of the poor athlete in American schools, his wish to secure the advantages of a college education, and his incapability or unwillingness to distinguish between proper and improper assistance have combined to turn out a fertile field in which to sow the tares of commercialized exploitation and subsidies. Basically, sports always have been attraction to students in their campuses that influenced the commercialization of college sports. Indeed, without the pressure on colleges to raise enrollments and to generate revenue, it is unlikely that college sports would have become a commercial enterprise. In more positive financial circumstances, colleges would not have felt a need to make the monetary commitments and the ethical compromises that commercial success in sports essential to athletes. Colleges in aspiring to win also initiated unethical practices. Chief among these is the enrollment of athletes with little or no regard for their academic qualifications. Some colleges usually hired â€Å"tramp athletes† to represent them on the football field, knowing full well that these athletes had no aim of matriculating as students, or even of playing a full season. An egregious instance occurred in 1896 and featured Fielding H. Yost, who later became famous as the football coach at the University of Michigan. Yost, a â€Å"hefty, six-foot tall, 195-pound tackle for West Virginia University, † â€Å"transferred† to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1896, just eventually to play in the most important football game in Lafayette’s history, against the University of Pennsylvania. Penn brought a 36-game winning streak into its game with Lafayette, but Lafayette ended the streak with a 6-4 win, aided by Yost. Soon after the game, Yost transferred back to West Virginia University, where he completed work for a law degree six months later (Hart-Nibbrig Nand, and Clement Cottingham, 1986). Moreover, it is usually said that â€Å"every athlete is a needy athlete. † That football players, and, other athletes, come from families whose means do not allow them to pay all of the expenses of a college course is usually accepted as fact and, indeed, is broadly true. To the wide-ranging rule that many college athletes are either wholly or partially self-supporting, there are, certainly, exceptions. But when such instances are distributed among the 800-odd colleges and universities reporting to the United States Bureau of Education, almost all of which retain football teams, the well-to-do athlete becomes something of a rarity. Assistance extended to athletes who otherwise would not have thought of going to college, though it increases the disproportion; only emphasizes a condition that is grounded in much deeper causes. Athletic scholarships are in fact important for college athletes. The benefit is not often paid in cash. The partial or complete lessening of tuition through athletic scholarships generally entailed and often takes place in the offices of the institution, which devise methods of award to suit local conditions and the requirements of athletes. Values of athletic scholarships range from part or full tuition at the lower end of the scale, to allotments graduated in amount according to the number of teams for which the recipient is chosen.

The Third Leg in the Strategy Tripod †Institutional Based View

THE THIRD LEG IN THE STRATEGY TRIPOD – Institutional Based View Introduction Strategy has come to play a significant role in international business (IB) in recent times. This is predicated on the fact of complexities associated with globalisation. The interplay of various factors of production in an environment could have been sufficient for MNEs in taking investment decisions. However, experience has shown otherwise. In this light, strategising in the international business arena has been dominated by industry and resource based views, somewhat ignoring the magnitude of institutional impact on investment decisions.EVALUATION OF ‘THE THIRD LEG IN THE STRATEGY â€Å"TRIPOD†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ According to Peng et al (2008), citing Porter(1980) Barney (1991) the industry-based view is rooted in the assumption that the strategy employed by MNEs is determined by the conditions within the industry of focus. Also, the resource based view tends to narrow performance and internation al business strategy to resources in specific firms. The aggregated views are functions of research findings carried out in environments whose institutions are seemingly standardised and stable.Meanwhile these views have not been able to deal with the nagging questions posed by strategy as regards investment locations. Recent research directions have established remarkable differences in the institutional frameworks of emerging economies relative to developed economies. This is largely due to long history of cultural, legal and political platforms that organise their businesses. According to Peng et al (2008), the effect of these formal and informal institutions are quite remarkable in shaping strategies and performance even in developed economies.This may not have come to the front burner without recent research on the relationship between institutions and organisational strategies in emerging economies. Peng et al (2008) are of the view that earlier approach to international IB st rategy did not offer institutions appropriate place in the strategy discourse. In furtherance to this, Peng et al (2008) argue that the institutions should actually be recognised as the third leg in the strategy tripod. The other legs being resource based and industry based views.Let us explore the institutions and how they impact IB strategies. In understanding an institution, the renowned Economist Searle (2005 pp. 21) defines an institution as ‘any collectively accepted system of rules (procedures, practices) that enable us to create institutional facts’. It follows that the institutions set the rules for doing business in any environment. As such an MNE is only going to be successful where it understands, assimilates and applies the rules of the environment for competitive advantage.Peng et al’s (2008) argument on the institutional view of strategy focuses on legal, social and political aspects as these have been found to change quite significantly in emergin g economies upon both internal and external impacts. EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FOUR CASES OFFERED IN SUPPORTING THE CENTRAL ARGUMENT Peng et al (2008) posit that in transacting business in a developed economy, the supporting institutions operate albeit silently at the background. This is in contrast to the situation in emerging economies where the weight of institutions plays visible roles in consummating transactions.These visible roles have tendencies to alter the business equation in favour of MNEs who have taken proactive steps in influencing the institutional outcomes. Place this fact side by side the growing importance of emerging economies, it becomes imperative that institutional view of strategy becomes as important as the traditional views. Emerging economies like China and India are great examples where institutions’ actions and inactions play great roles in balancing the IB strategy tripod. Growing The Firm In ChinaPeng et al (2008) note that it is puzzling to see Chin a growing economically in the midst of underdeveloped institutional framework. This growth could not have taken place on the strength of the industry and resource based views alone. Peering deeply, Peng et al (2008) Wong (2012) recognise the cultural influences that abound in Chinese business climate which border on social and family networks otherwise referred to as guanxi. This may have phenomenally replaced the formal institution, as such affects the success of businesses within the environment.Peng et al (2008) suggest that in economic environments where institutions are week, norms and cognition take over as game changers. This highlights the import of institution based view in IB strategies. Competing In And Out Of India The meteoric rise of India in the area of IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) was attributed to resource and industry based view of IB strategy (Peng et al 2008). These views are based on the opinion that cheap labour, excellent skills and virtuality are major factors responsible for their growth.Nonetheless, institutional considerations are found to be quite relevant in India’s context. Considerations in the areas of education subsidy to top Universities and various economic reforms including liberalisation by government institutions played crucial roles in making India a competitive environment for investments (Peng et al 2008). These institutional references can conveniently stand as the third tripod of the IB strategy. Antidumping As Entry Barriers Market-based variables as noted by Peng et al (2008) have been alleged as the basic entry barriers in IB.Meanwhile non market based institutional variables have been largely ignored in IB startegies.. Trade barriers have come to play important roles in IB strategies. Countries in protecting their local business players against foreign competition usually set up institutional policies aimed at stemming imports by foreign MNEs. These MNEs are alleged to compete unfavourably thro ugh the process of dumping. Davis (2009) citing the 1947 GATT agreement defines dumping as a situation where goods originating from a country are imported into another country at less than normal values.The use of anti-dumping laws by developed countries against MNEs from developing countries is a good example of how an institutional policy could be a tool of trade barrier in IB. Western countries have used this tool of protectionism against competition from Asia quite effectively. The issue here is that when market-based forces fail, antidumping laws could be deployed by local firms to ward off MNEs, thus firming the position of institutional based view as the third leg in the IB strategy tripod. Governing The Corporation In Emerging Economies Corporate governance is highly a determinant in firm performance in developed countries.This is due to the fact that the agency theory focuses on separation of ownership and control. These are exemplified by principal-manager conflicts (Peng et al 2008) quite unlike a lot of emerging economies where principal-principal conflict is the norm. The ability of an MNE to invest in such an environment would mean understanding the value and complexities of concentrated ownership and strategising accordingly. CONCLUSION It is evident from the work of Peng et al (2008) and other researchers that institution-based view has come to occupy the third leg of the IB strategy discourse.It is pertinent to note that the emergence of the institution based view does not in any way diminish the importance of the traditional based views in IB strategy. Instead it complements the traditional views, thus balancing the IB strategy in form of a tripod. It is my opinion that this tripod leverages on industry-based view, resource-based view and institutional-based view for balance. While Peng et al (2008) referenced most of their arguments on developing economies, the institutional effects are found to be applicable in developed countries as well. References Davis L. 2009) ‘Ten years of anti-dumping in the EU: economic and political targeting’. ECIPE Working Paper †¢ No. 02/2009 (Online) Available from: http://www. ecipe. org/media/publication_pdfs/ten-years-of-anti-dumping-in-the-eu-economic-and-political-targeting. pdf (Accessed September 26, 2012) Peng, M. W. , Wang, D. Y. L. & Jiang, Y. (2008) ‘An institution-based view of international business strategy: A focus on emerging economies’,Journal of International Business Studies,  39 (5), July/August, pp. 920–936. (Online) Available at: http://dx. doi. org. ezproxy. liv. ac. k/doi:10. 1057/palgrave. jibs. 8400377 (Accessed September 23) Searle J. (2005) ‘What is an institution? ’ Journal of Institutional Economics (2005), 1: 1, 1–22 (Online) Available from: http://www. laisumedu. org/DESIN_Ibarra/desin/pdf-seminario2006/seminario-2006-04d. pdf (Accessed September 24, 2012) Wong J. (2012) ‘The Guanxi Strategie s of Taiwanese Firms in China’s Economic Reforms’ The Journal of Global Business Management Volume 8 * Number 1 * February 2012. (Online) Available at: http://www. jgbm. org/page/15%20Jeng-Min%20Wong. pdf (Accessed September 24, 2012)

Two Peg Test

FIELD WORK TITLE FIELD WORK TITLE Two peg test INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Two Peg Test is a surveying operation carried out to determine whether the leveling bubble and telescope line of sight are parallel. OBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE Peg Test is a surveying operation carried out to determine if the leveling bubble (bubble axis) and telescope line-of-sight (line of collimation) are parallel. TOOLS TOOLS Dumpy levelTripod Staff Tape Bubble staff FIELD WORK PROCEDURE FIELD WORK PROCEDURE . Each group is required to perform a peg test to check the instrument. ii. Each person in the group is record the results of the Peg Test in their own field book. iii. Set out and mark on the ground (with wooden pegs driven into the ground) two point some 15 m apart. iv. Instrument is set up midway between two point A and B. v. Staff is read on each staff point A and point B and the height difference is calculated. Made sure the bubble staff is center vi. Next, instrument is moved about 5m behind the point B. nd staff at point A and point B is read. vii. Record the data. RESULT RESULT Point A1 – point B1 =1. 312 – 1. 310 =0. 002m Point A2 – point B2 =1. 239 – 1. 238 =0. 001m STN 1 – STN 2 = 0. 002 – 0. 001 =0. 001m =1mm ? <  ± 2mm ANALYSIS ANALYSIS The error is  ±2mm so it can be accepted. The instrument is in good condition and can used in field work. CONCLUSION CONCLUSION The instrument can be determined the leveling bubble (bubble axis) and telescope line-of-sight (line of collimation) are parallel.

Macroeconomics – institutions by Acemoglu

In Progress. Abstract: In this paper, we discuss how and why institutions— broadly, the economic and political organization of societies— affect economic incentives and outcomes. After briefly surveying a number of theories of institutional differences across countries, we focus on two questions: why societies may choose institutions that are not good for economic development, and why institutions, even bad Institutions, persist.In light of the Ideas we develop, we discuss three case studies of Institutions alluding and persistence: the united States, India and Guatemala. L. Introduction Institutions, defined broadly as the political and economic organization of societies, differ markedly across countries and over time. For example, until recently, a large number of societies were organized along socialist lines, with widespread collective ownership of the means of production and centrally planned resource allocation, while much of the rest of the world was capitalist, with predominantly private ownership and resources allocated Vela markets.For much of the 1 8th and 9th centuries, a number of societies, Including the Caribbean, much of Central and Latin America, and parts of Asia, were organized with political and economic power concentrated in the hands of a small elite, and relied on productive relationships based on slavery and forced labor. In contrast, economic and political power was more equally distributed in parts of Europe, North America and Australia, and the majority of laborers were free.Similarly, as emphasized by North and Thomas (1973), North and Whiniest (1989) and Till (1 990), there were Important differences In the organization of the European societies during the 17th century. While England and the Netherlands had developed limited governments, France and Spain had absolutist regimes.Economic theory and basic common sense suggest that differences in the organization of society should have an effect on economic outcomes: when institutions ensure that a potential investor has property rights over the proceeds from his Investments, he Is more likely to invest than when he expects the fruits of his efforts to be taken by other parties In the economy or by the government. An obvious hypothesis is then to link variations in economic performance across countries to their institutions. We refer to this point of view as the institutions hypothesis.According to one version of this hypothesis, what is crucial is whether the organization of the society ensures that a broad cross-section of the society have effective property rights, so that those with productive emphasis on â€Å"a broad cross-section of the society' is meant to capture the notion that it is not sufficient for the rights of a small elite, landowners, dictators or Politburo members, to be enforced. Citizens need to have effective property rights, and be involved in politics, at least some degree, to ensure the continuation of these repertory rights in the future.Do we see marked differences in the economic performance of societies with different institutions? The examples mentioned in the first paragraph suggest so: while West Germany prospered with a capitalist system, East Germany did much less well under socialism. While Western Europe, North America and Australia grew rapidly, the elite-dominated societies of the Caribbean, Central America and India stagnated throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. As emphasized by North and Thomas (1973), while England and the Netherlands prospered during the 17th century, Spain and France failed to do so.Also telling are cases where large changes in institutions are correlated with radically changed growth paths. Examples of this are Argentina in the sass's with the rise of populism and Person, South Korea during the early sass's with the transition from the Rhea to the Park regime, and Indonesia in 1965 with the transition between Saguaro and Short. In addition to these selective examp les, much empirical evidence suggests that institutional differences are a major source of the differences in economic performance across countries.For example, cross-country work by a number of economists and political scientists found a first-order effect of institutions on growth or the level of income (e. G. , Knack and Keeper, 1995, or Hall and Jones, 1999). More recently, in Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2000) we found that as much as % of the income gap between the top and bottom of the world income distribution may be due to differences in their institutions. 4 But these findings pose as many questions as they answer: 1 . If some institutions generate more income and growth, why do a large number of societies adopt institutions that are bad for economic development? . Why do institutions that are detrimental to economic performance persist rather than being overhauled at the first opportunity? Despite the importance of these questions for understanding differences in econ omic performance across countries, there is relatively little research on this topic. In this paper, we develop a number of conjectures related to these questions. Then, in light of these ideas, we discuss three case studies of institution building and persistence: the U. S. , India and Guatemala.In the process, we also provide a brief survey of a number of theories of comparative institutions. II. Institutions As emphasized in the introduction, our focus is on the set of institutions— the organization of society— that determine economic incentives. Why such institutions and social arrangements will affect economic outcomes is clear: economic actors will only undertake investments when they expect to be rewarded for their spending and effort. In a society where property rights are not well enforced, investment and output will be low.We therefore take the degree of enforcement of property rights to be a central feature of the institutions and the broad organization of a society. To of private property, which we take to correspond to a set of institutions ensuring that a broad cross-section of society have effective property rights. 2. Extractive institutions, which place political power in the hands of a small elite. With extractive institutions, the majority of the population does not have effective property rights, since the political power of the elite means that they can hold up the citizens after they undertake their investments.We expect institutions of private property to encourage investment and development, while extractive institutions are less likely to dead to high investment and successful economic outcomes. Notice that there is more to institutions than the legal code or the formal definition of property rights at a point in time; in particular, political institutions matter. This is for the simple reason that in a society where there are few constraints on political elites, these agents can change the legal code or manipulate the ex isting property rights to their advantage. Therefore, effective constraints on political elites are an essential ingredient of institutions of private property. In reality, there are many intermediate cases teens the extremes of institutions of private property and extractive institutions, and a complex interaction between the exact form of the political and economic institutions and whether they provide effective property rights protection to citizens. There is also a deep and difficult question of how the state commits to providing property rights to the citizens (see Whiniest, 1997, for a discussion of this problem).To limit the discussion, we do not focus on these issues. So what determines whether a society ends up with institutions of private property or extractive institutions? Let us distinguish four broad theories, which we call: 1. The efficient institutions view. 2. The incidental institutions view. 3. The rent-seeking view. 4. The inappropriate institutions view. We now discuss what we mean by these different views, and examine some selective examples of institutional theories falling within each category. . The Efficient Institutions View According to this view, societies will choose the institutions that maximize their total surplus. How this surplus will be distributed among different groups or agents does not affect the choice of institutions. The underlying reasoning of this view comes from the Cease Theorem. Ronald Cease (1960) argued that when different economic parties could negotiate costless, they will be able to bargain to internalize potential externalities.The farmer, who suffers from the pollution created by the nearby factory, can pay the factory owner to reduce pollution. The same reasoning can be applied to political situations. If the current laws or institutions benefit a certain group while creating a disproportionate cost for another, these two groups can negotiate to change the institutions. By doing so they will increase the size of the total surplus (â€Å"the pie† that they have to divide between themselves), and they can hen bargain over the distribution of this additional surplus.Many different versions of the efficient institutions view have been proposed. Demesne (1967) argued that private property emerged from common property when land become sufficiently scarce and valuable that it was efficient to privative it. Other famous examples are Case's (1936) earlier work and the more formal analysis by Grossman and Hart (1986), is more concerned with the governance of firms or markets than the political organization of societies, but his reasoning was guided by the same principle.North ND Thomas applied this reasoning to the nature of feudal institutions arguing that they were an efficient contract between serfs and Lords. While Williamson and North and Thomas do not specify how different parties will reach agreement to achieve efficient institutions, Becker (1960) and Whitman (1989) have invest igated how democracies can reach such agreements via competition among pressure groups and political parties.In their view, an inefficient institution cannot be stable because a political entrepreneur has an incentive to propose a better institution and with the extra surplus generated will be able to make him more attractive to voters. We believe that, despite correctly emphasizing certain forces that are likely to be at work, the efficient institutions view does not provide the right framework for an analysis of the differences in institutions across countries. Both historical and econometric evidence suggests that the economic costs to societies of extractive institutions have been substantial.For example, our estimates in Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2000) suggest that changing Insignia's or Sierra Lens's institutions to those of Chile loud lead, in the long run, to a more than 7-fold increase in these countries' income. It is difficult to argue that these institutions are t herefore efficient for Nigeria, Sierra Leone or many other less-developed countries in Africa or Latin America. In the rest of the paper, we therefore focus on theories of institutions where societies may end up with institutions that are not optimal for aggregate growth or income. 2.The Incidental Institutions View The efficient institutions view is explicitly based on economic reasoning: the costs and benefits of different institutions are weighed against each other to determine which institutions should prevail. Efficiency arises because individuals calculate according to the social costs and benefits. Institutions are therefore choices. A different approach, popular among many political scientists and sociologists, is to downplay choices over institutions, but think of institutions as the byproduct of other social interactions. Here, we discuss three such theories.The first is the theory developed by Barrington Moore (1966) in his Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, th e second is Till's (1990) and Herb's (2001) theory of state formation, hill the third is Burner's (1976) theory of the emergence of capitalism in England. Barrington Moore constructed his famous theory in an attempt to explain the different paths of political development in Britain, Germany and Russia. In particular, he investigated why Britain had evolved into a democracy, while Germany succumbed to fascism and Russia had a communist revolution.Moore stressed the extent of centralization of agriculture and resulting labor relations in the countryside, the strength of the ‘bourgeoisie,' and the nature of class coalitions. In his theory, democracy emerged when there was a strong, politically assertive, immemorial middle class, and when agriculture had commercialese so that there were no feudal labor relations in the countryside. Fascism arose when the middle classes were weak and entered into a political coalition with landowners.Finally, a agriculture was not commercialese and rural labor was repressed through feudal relationships. In Moor's theory, therefore, class coalitions and the way agriculture is organized determine which political institutions will emerge. Although Moore is not explicitly concerned with economic development, it is a direct implication of his analysis that societies may end up with institutions that do not maximize income or growth, for example, when they take the communist revolution path.While this theory is highly suggestive and clearly captures some of the potentially significant comparative facts there are clear problems with it. For instance, though Moor's remark â€Å"no bourgeoisie, no democracy' is famous, it is not clear from his analysis whether this is Just an empirical correlation or a causal theory. More generally, Moore does not clarify the connection between the formation of class coalitions and political outcomes. It is also not clear whether this theory is empirically successful.There are many examples of societ ies with relatively strong capitalist classes in Latin America, such as Argentina and Chile, which did not make the transition to a consolidated democracy until recently. In fact, in these societies capitalist classes appear to have supported the coups against democracy, suggesting that the role of the poor segments of the society (the working class) in inducing demagnification could be more important than that of the bourgeoisie (see Archduchesses, Stephens and Stephens, 1992, Guacamole and Robinson, Bibb).In a very different vein, Till (1990), building on the Hibernia tradition, proposed a theory of the formation of modern states. He argued extensively that modern state institutions such as fiscal systems, bureaucracy and parliaments are closely related to the need to raise resources to fight wars and thus arose in places with incessant inter-state competition. Herbs (2001) has recently provided a substantive extension of this line of research by applying it to the evolution of st ate institutions in Africa.He argues that the poor functioning of many modern African states is due to the fact that they caked the features–high population density and inter-state warfare— necessary for the emergence of the modern state. Although interesting and sweeping, this theory does not seem to accord well with a number of major facts. In Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2001 a), we documented that among the former colonies, it was the less densely settled places that became richer.In fact, North America, Australia and New Zealand were very sparsely settled in 1 500, especially when compared to West Africa around the same time. Despite this, they developed effective states and institutions of private property. This suggests that the issues stressed by Till and Herbs are not the major determinants of institutions, at least, in the context of the development of institutions among the former European colonies, including Africa. Burner's (1976) theory of the rise of capitalism in Europe can also be thought as an example of the incidental institutions view.Although Brenner subscribes to the Marxist view of feudalism as an extractive institution (see next subsection), he interprets the rise of capitalism as the byproduct of the collapse of existing social institutions after the Black Death. Brenner argues that the decline of feudalism resulted from the successful class struggle by the relatively powerful British peasantry. Brenner, however, believes that the peasantry's aim was not to build capitalism; capitalism just emerged like an incidental phoenix from the ashes of feudalism.Because, economic growth required this set of (extractive) institutions to be replaced by capitalist institutions. Therefore, Burner's work also gives us an incidental- institutions theory for why some societies grow faster. None of these theories provide a framework that is at the same time consistent tit the first-order facts of comparative development and useful for generating predictions. Therefore, it is difficult to apply these theories to understand why some countries develop extractive institutions.Moreover, being trained as economists, we find it to be a shortcoming of this group of theories that institutions and political outcomes arise as byproducts, not as the direct consequences of actions taken by rational agents. The fact that the key outcomes are byproducts of other interactions, not choices, leads to the additional problem that these theories often do not generate tight empirical predictions (I. E. Comparative static). But an analysis of comparative development, above all else, requires comparative static results regarding when institutions of private property will emerge.In the remainder of the paper, we therefore focus on the rent-seeking and inappropriate institutions views to build a simple framework for comparative development. 3. The Rent-seeking View According to this view, institutions are not always chosen by the whole so ciety (and not for the benefit of the whole society), but by the groups that control political power at the time (perhaps as a result of conflict with other groups demanding more rights). These groups will choose the institutions that maximize their own rents, and the institutions that result may not coincide with those that maximize total surplus.For example, institutions that enforce property rights by restricting state predation will not be in the interest of a ruler who wants to appropriate assets in the future. By establishing property rights, this ruler would be reducing his own future rents, so may well prefer extractive institutions to institutions of private property. Therefore, equilibrium institutions will not be those that maximize the size of the overall pie, but the slice of the pie taken by the powerful groups. Why doesn't a Cease theorem type reasoning apply?Although a large literature, especially in industrial organization, has emphasized how informational problems may limit the empirical applications of the Cease theorem, we believe that the main reason for the non-applicability of the Cease theorem in politics is commitment problems (see Guacamole, 2001, for a more detailed discussion of this issue). If a ruler has political power concentrated in his hands, he cannot commit not to expropriate assets or revenues in the future. Effective property rights require that he credibly relinquishes political power to some extent.But according to the Occasion bargain, he has to be compensated for what he could have received using this power. Herein lies the problem. When he relinquishes his power, then he has no guarantees that he will receive the promised payments in the future. Therefore, by their very nature, institutions that regulate political and social power create commitment problems, and prevent Occasion bargains that are necessary to reach efficient outcomes. As an application, consider the decision of a powerful rich elite to mount a coup in a populist redistributive regime, such as that of Salvador Allendale in Chile in 1973.By undertaking a coup, the rich will ensure that economically. Why wouldn't the elite enter into a Occasion bargain with Allendale who would wish to place future restrictions on taxes so as to remove the threat of the coup? The problem, as pointed out and analyzed in Guacamole and Robinson (2001 a), is that the democracy cannot promise not to increase taxes again once the threat of the coup disappears. By its very nature, taxes are set by the politically powerful agents, determined by the institutions at that time.Promises made at the past may be worthless when they are not backed by political power. The first systematic development of this point of view is the economics literature is North (1981), who argued in the chapter on â€Å"A Neoclassical Theory of the State† that agents who controlled the state should be modeled as self-interested. He then argued that the set of property rights wh ich they would choose for society would be those that maximized their payoff and because of transactions costs' these would not necessarily be the set which maximized social welfare.Though his analysis does not clarify what he meant by transactions costs, problems of commitment might be one mispronunciation for this. The notion that elites may opt for extractive institutions to increase their incomes is of course also present in much of the Marxist and dependency theory literature. For example, Dobb (1948), Brenner (1976) and Hilton (1981) saw feudalism, contrary to North and Thomas (1976)g's model, as a set of institutions designed to extract rents from the peasants at the expense of social welfare.Dependency theorists such as Wholesalers (1974-1982), Rodney (1972), Frank (1978) and Cards and Falsetto (1979) argued that the international trading system was designed to extract rents from developing countries to the benefit of developed Mounties. Perhaps, the earliest, and often igno red, contribution to this line of reasoning is in the book by Beard (1913). Anticipating many of the insights of rational choice political science literature, Beard argued that the U. S.Constitution was an institution designed to benefit those who wrote it (such as James Madison) at the expense of the rest of society. Another important example of inefficient institutions designed to extract rents from the society is the Spanish colonial system (Stein and Stein, 1970, Coauthors, 1978, Lockhart and Schwartz, 1983). Finally, the notion that leaver is an inefficient institution designed to extract rents from slaves is also widespread (for example, Williams, 1944, Geneses, 1963, Beckoned, 1972).More recent, and for our purposes more relevant, contributions in this tradition have sought to explain comparative development. For example, in the context of Africa, Bates (1981) formulated an influential and important theory based on rent-seeking by elites. Bates argued that when elites were no t invested in the productive sectors of the economy, mostly agriculture in the context of Africa, and had to rely on urban interests to remain in power, they were likely to distort prices, for example by using marketing boards to transfer resources from the rural areas to the cities.The implications of this for political stability and economic growth were disastrous. Anger and Soulful (1997, 2000) have used related ideas to analyze long-term development in the Americas. They argued that the different paths of development observed in North and Latin America in the last 300 years were due to institutional differences. In North America institutions promoted development, in Latin America they did not. Why did Latin America develop a set of institutions that impeded Caribbean, the factor endowments were suitable for growing crops such as sugarcane.Such crops had large technical scale economies and could be cultivated by slaves, factors that led to large concentrations of landownership an d repressive institutions designed to control labor. Therefore, despite their costs for economic development, extractive institutions were adopted by elites who benefited from the system. On the other hand, in North America, factor endowments were suitable for growing crops with limited scale economies such as wheat, and this led to an egalitarian distribution of land, income and political power.Their theory therefore emphasizes the impact of factor endowments and technology on inequality and institutions building, and ultimately economic development. In Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2000, 2001 a), we developed a complementary theory, emphasizing how European colonialists set up institutions of private property in areas where they settled in large numbers, since these institutions were directly affecting their own investments and well-being. This led us to emphasize how European settlements ere often conducive to the development of institutions of private property in the colonies .In contrast, European colonists introduced or took over existing extractive institutions in other colonies. They were more likely to do so when they did not settle, for example due to an adverse disease environment, and when extractive institutions were more profitable, for example, as in Central America where the densely settled large population could be forced to work for low wages in plantations or mines. These extractive institutions did not benefit the society as a whole, but they were inefficacy for the Europeans, who held the political power and were the extractors.We believe that the rent-seeking view provides the best framework for thinking about why certain countries ended up with extractive institutions, and provides a number of useful comparative static, which will be discussed in Section Ill. 4. The Inappropriate Institutions View According to this view, institutions may be efficient when they are introduced, but they are also costly to change (see below on this). Ther efore, institutions that are efficient for a set of circumstances may no longer be efficient once the environment hinges. Nevertheless, it may be difficult or too costly to change these institutions at this point.The idea here goes back to Crosschecking (1963). In the context of financial institutions, Crosschecking argued that certain arrangements, such as bank finance, might be more appropriate for backward countries trying to catch up. This is widely thought to be a good explanation for why banks are more prevalent in Germany, even today when Germany is no longer a backward country. So perhaps, social arrangements that were introduced at some point as an optimal response to the resistances may continue to prevail, even after they cease to be the optimal response.In the context of financial institutions, this point is developed in Guacamole, Action and Kilobit (2001). Another economic example is the QWERTY typewriter keyboard. David (1986) argued that this was appropriate at the t ime because it slowed down the speed of typing, when the rudimentary nature of typewriters meant that rapid typing would make them Jam. However, despite the fact that the QWERTY arrangement was inefficient once the basic technology improved soon after, it has similar thesis.Perhaps, extractive institutions were appropriate for certain resistances, but they continue to apply even after they cease to be the efficient institutional arrangement. Related ideas have been suggested in the literature. For example, Wittingly (1957) argued that centralized despotism, which may not have been very costly in terms of economic outcomes in China before the 1 5th century and arose as the result of providing desirable public goods such as irrigation, persisted almost to the present, creating a substantial economic and social burden.Given how long institutions persist (see Section ‘V) the view that institutions of a different age ay continue to apply even when they become costly to economic suc cess is highly plausible. Nevertheless, in the context of comparative development, it appears more useful to combine the inappropriate institutions view with the rent-seeking view, explicitly allowing for political elites to introduce inefficient institutions. In fact, in Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2001 a), we suggested a hypothesis combining the rent-seeking and inappropriate institutions views, and provided evidence in favor of this hypothesis.We argued and empirically demonstrated that extractive institutions, tit power concentrated in the hand of a small elite, were much less costly during the age of agriculture than during the age of industry. When agriculture is the main source of income, and the political elite owns the land, this elite will have, to a first approximation, adequate incentives to increase the productivity of the land. In contrast, in the age of industry, many different agents, not previously part of the ruling elite, need to undertake investments and be involved in productive activities.Without effective property rights, these agents are unlikely to invest, so extractive institutions become much more costly once industrialization opportunities arrive on the scene. This explains why the sugar colonies of Barbados, Haiti and Jamaica were amongst the richest places in the world in 1700 but rapidly fell behind when industrial technologies became available. Overall, we therefore conclude that to understand the significant differences in how countries are organized, we need to move away from the pure efficiency view.Moreover, existing series of institutional differences based on the incidental institutions view cannot provide a satisfactory tarring point, and make less sharp empirical predictions, since institutions are simply byproducts of other social actions. Instead, we believe that conflict over the distribution of rents matters, and the rent seeking view provides the best starting place for an analysis of institutional differences across countries.In addition, there may be an important element of the inappropriate institutions view, so that institutions that were introduced at a certain point in time may become less appropriate and more â€Å"harmful† in the future, but may still remain in place. Ill. Institutional Origins The rent-seeking and inappropriate institutions views do not immediately generate a theory of comparative institutions. They simply point out that inefficient institutions may be chosen by political elites, and the institutions in place may become more costly for growth over time.As discussed above, by the institutions hypothesis, we mean that differences in the development experiences of countries can be explained by differences in their institutions. To make this hypothesis operational, we need to choose institutions of private property. In other words, we need to develop comparative static on institution building. This is not an easy task. In fact, some of the pioneering theories of institutions, such as North (1981), give us few clues about when we should expect extractive institutions to prevail.Here, we highlight a few potential determinants of what type of institutions politically powerful groups will choose: 1. Economic Interests: A first determinant of whether institutions of private property will emerge is whether they will lead to outcomes that are in interests of the politically powerful agents. For example, institutions that restrict state predation will not be in the interest of a ruler ho wants to appropriate assets in the future.Yet this strategy may be in the interest of a ruler who recognizes that only such guarantees will encourage citizens to undertake substantial investments or lend him money, or will protect his own rents. They will also be in the interest of the major groups that can undertake investment in production activities in the future. Anger and Solidify explanation for why extractive institutions emerged in the Caribbean but not in North America falls within this category. In the Caribbean, the factor endowments made extractive institutions more profitable for the elite.In particular, sugar production, which could exploit economies of scale and profitably employ slave labor, was conducive to a society where a small elite would control both political and economic power. Our argument in Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2000) for why European settlement in the colonies led to institutions of private property is also based on the same reasoning. When a large number of Europeans settled in an area, they preferred institutions enforcing property rights, since these property rights would enable them to undertake investments.Our argument in Guacamole Johnson and Robinson (2001 a) is also related. There, we suggested that high population density and relative prosperity (I. E. , GAP per capita) of the colonized territory encouraged European colonialists to set up extractive institutions. The reasoning is that high po pulation density implied a large labor force that Europeans could force to work for low wages, and both high population density and the relative prosperity of the population provided Europeans with a greater resource base for extraction or taxation. Economic interests† therefore suggest that we should expect extractive institutions to develop when the powerful agents have little to gain from enforcing property sights because they have few investment opportunities themselves and are not linked to other productive agents in the society, and when there are resources, such as crops or abundant labor, that can be effectively exploited by extractive 2.Political Losers: Another important factor is whether institutional development will destabilize the system, making it less likely that elites will remain in power after reforms. An institutional setup encouraging investment and adoption of new technologies may be blocked by elites when they fear that this process of growth and social change will