Citizenship Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Citizenship - Article Example Philosophers and political theorists including Kant, Hobbes, Marx, Machiavelli and Locke etc have presented different views and articulated various theories to define the manners, rights and obligations of citizenship. Their works indicate directly and indirectly the factors supportive in maintaining peaceful atmosphere within a social set up. They have also indicated the basic causes and circumstances leading the nations towards the path of conflict and destruction. The term citizenship simply refers to the membership of a country, a state, a tribe, a community or an authority, which creates rights and duties between citizens and the state. The individuals are bound to abide by the norms, values, mores, taboos and laws determined by the authorities to keep peace and solidarity in its fold. Citizenship not only implements wide range of obligations on citizens, but also offers them many opportunities to grow, make progress, involve into social, political, cultural, religious, economic and other peaceful activities on the one hand, and assures the individuals peaceful environment, security of life, honour and belongings, legal remedies, justice and equality within its platform on the other. Looking into the history of the world from the most primitive societies of Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras to the most modern ones of contemporary technological age, it becomes evident that social inequality and injustices always existed in all human societies give birth to stratification and conflict. Philosophers and thinkers have defined the causes and consequences of conflict between different groups and remedies for it in order to escape anarchical situation in the society. Sociological researches too reveal the very fact that even during the ancient times different classes existed in every culture and civilization.Kant emphatically submits that the state of peace among the people living side by side and remaining in constant interaction with one another cannot be remained peaceful, as it is in the nature of man to contain differences with other fellow-beings. It is therefore it is war rather than peace which could be stated as the natural one. The same is the case with nations and states which are at warring positions in the one way or the other. Many wars took place between the Greeks and the Persians time and again sabotaging the peace and harmony of the countries. Absence of any regularity authority to check the advances of the c onflicting states kept them in constant war position. The Athenians declared these wars as the golden chapter of their history, though it cost hundreds of lives as well as pushed the economy to a sorry state. "In Ionia (the modern Aegean coast of Turkey) the Greek cities, which included great centres such as Miletus and Halicarnassus, were unable to maintain their independence and came under the rule of the Persian Empire in the mid 6th century B.C. In 499 BC the Greeks rose in the Ionian Revolt, and Athens and some other Greek cities went to their aid." (Quoted in http://www.crystalinks.com/greeksocial.html) The Persians invaded

Canada Supreme Court Judge Selection

Canada Supreme Court Judge Selection Essay The issue of judges’ appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada has come to the foreground of Canadian politics in recent years. The Supreme Court is afforded great power within Canada, including the ability to strike down law produced by democratically elected legislatures. Therefore, the method of selection for the Supreme Court is absolutely critical to Canadian democracy. Scholars have suggested reforming Canadian Supreme Court appointments. This paper will analyse alternative ways of selecting Canada’s Supreme Court judges and make an argument in favour of retaining current practice with a few modifications. Key Principle In order to establish the best method, one must have a way of identifying it. There are few greater principles in Canadian politics than judicial independence. The Constitutionally guaranteed principle â€Å"ensures that the courts guard our Constitution, the Rule of Law, equality and the democratic process† (Johnson, Remarks to the Committee). Judicial independence is divided into two categories: institutional independence and decisional independence. In order to have an effective top level court, judicial independence in both its forms must be enforced. Alternative appointment processes have been heavily scrutinised for their potential to politicise the selection process, thereby dissolving judicial independence. Scholars argue that US-style confirmation hearings will lead to qualified candidates excluding themselves from consideration (Peach, 2005). Canada at Present Judges of the Supreme Court of Canada are appointed by the Governor General upon recommendation by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, in turn, consults with her Cabinet. The Prime Minister’s selection is made based upon a shortlist provided to her by the Minister of Justice with input from the relevant law society. By the Supreme Court Act, candidates must have been a member of a provincial or territorial law society for at least ten years, or have served as a judge in a superior court. Additionally, at least three of the nine Supreme Court judges must come from Quebec. This is often justified due to Quebec’s unique utilisation of civil law, unlike the other provinces, which utilise common law instead. Interestingly, though representing one-third of the Supreme Court, Quebec represents only 23% of the Canadian population (Statistics Canada, 2013). By convention, the remaining six appointments are split between Ontario (three), Western Canada (two) and Atlantic Canada (one). In Canada the judicial branch is independent of the executive and legislative branch – that is, it has institutional independence. The justice system also enjoys decisional independence, most notably in the Supreme Court. Judges are appointed until the mandatory appointment age of 75, and their remuneration is controlled by the Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission. Through this process the legislative and executive branches cannot influence judges’ decision making through threats of reduced salary or termination. Canada’s system has been criticised for essentially three reasons. First, there is much confusion in the Canadian public as to how the appointment process works, with even a fair number suspecting that there is political interference. Secondly, due to the geographic considerations in the process, many worry about the effect of Provincial politics on the shortlisting of candidates. Thirdly, there has been a history of inconsistent consultation of Prime Minister (Johnson, Remarks to the Committee). Other countries Amongst developed countries, there is great variation on the selection of judges for the highest court. In the US, their Senate holds the final decision making power in confirming or denying the President’s candidate. While legislative approval is generally a formality, there have been recent notable cases of Senate confirmations going awry in the cases of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. In the age of mass media, candidates may be subject to an avalanche of questions concerning their personal life. The US-style senate confirmation mechanism is criticised for giving qualified candidates a reason to withdraw their candidacy. However, even if all the best candidates made themselves available, the President does not select the best candidate. They select the best Senate-confirmable candidate. If the Senate and candidate have strongly opposing political views, then the confirmation can degenerate into a virtual inquisition, and quite literally means that the judiciary answers to the legislature. This severely undermines the judicial independence in the selection process as the President must make a political calculation of who the best candidate is that will also pass Senate confirmation, and also reduces independence from the legislature. In Switzerland, Austria, and Germany the national assemblies vote to nominate members of their constitutional courts. For Germany, this practice means that the states are involved in the appointment process because the members of Germany’s upper house the state governments. While there have been calls for greater Provincial involvement in Canadian Supreme Court appointments, Carl Baar warns, Experiences in other federal systems thus do not impel Canada to the kind of provincial role in selection of Supreme Court justices that was embodied in draft provisions of the Meech Lake Accord. While the Accord provisions did not provide as widespread and continuing participation for the provinces as the provisions in West Germany’s Basic Law provide for its state governments, they did authorize a much more substantial provincial roles (both in its constitutional status and in the range of activities it involved) than is characteristic of any of the world’s other federal systems. And unlike the West German provisions, the Meech Lake Accord kept judicial selection completely outside parliament (1991). In 2009, the United Kingdom implemented their Supreme Court that had been established by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. Here, judge candidates are selected by an independent selection commission of several judicial committees. Once the selection commission has arrived at a consensus for one candidate, it then provides the name to the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor is then required to consult with all the politicians and judges that the commission consulted in their selection of the candidate. The Lord Chancellor is given three rounds in which to accept a candidate. If the Lord Chancellor rejects a candidate, then the selection commission will bring a new name forward in the next round. If the Lord Chancellor asks the commission to reconsider, then the commission may present the same person again, or provide a new name. The Lord Chancellor must accept the name put forth in the third round, if they have not already accepted a candidate in a previous round. The Lord Chancello r then forwards this recommendation to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is then required by law to recommend this name to the Queen for appointment, and may not nominate anyone else. The plethora of international selection processes in use appears to provide Canada with ample reform options. One must be cognisant, however, of countries’ political cultures and their effect on shaping the process. In order to maximise the quality of the ultimate appointee, and legitimise the process in the eyes of the public, one must be careful to fine tune the process based upon the particular country’s political climate. Canada is a parliamentary democracy There is a great consensus amongst scholars that judicial independence is superior in an appointments process than an election process (Geyh 2003; Tarr 2003). Bibliography Baar, C. (1991). Comparitive Perspectives on Judicial Selection Process. Toronto: The Ontario Law Reform Commission. Canadian Bar Association. (2004). Supreme Court of Canada Appointment Process. Canadian Bar Association. Freund, P. (1988). Appointment of Justices: Some Historical Perspectives. Harvard Law Review, 1146-1163. Geyh, C. (2003). Why Judicial Elections Stink. Ohio State Law Journal, 43-80. Johnson, W. (2004). Ensuring Supreme Confidence in Judicial Appointments. Policy Options, 41-45. Johnson, W. (n.d.). Remarks to the Committee. Retrieved from The Canadian Bar Association: http://www.cba.org/cba/news/pdf/scc_johnsonremarks.pdf Peach. (2005). Legitimacy on Trial: A Process for Appointing Justices to the Supreme Court of Canada. Regina: University of Regina. Ref re Independence and Impartiality of Judges of the Prov. Court of P.E.I., 24778 (The Supreme Court of Canada September 18, 1997). Ref re Remuneration of Judges of the Prov. Court of P.E.I., 24508 (The Supreme Court of Canada September 18, 1997). Statistics Canada. (2013, November 25). Population by year, by province and territory. Retrieved from Government of Canada: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo02a-eng.htm Supreme Court Act, Revised Statutes of Canada (1985, c. S-26). Retrieved from Department of Justice Canada: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/s-26/ Tarr, A. (2003). Rethinking the Selection of State Supreme Court Justices. Williamette Law Review, 1445-1470. Yahya, M., Stribopoulos, J. (2007). Does a Judges Party of Appointment or Gender Matter to Case Outcomes?: An Empirical Study of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 315-363. Ziegel, J. (2006). A New Era in the Selection of Supreme Court Judges? Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 547-555.

The Virtue of Men and Women in The Canterbury Tales :: Canterbury Tales Essays

The Virtue of Men and Women in The Canterbury Tales People never change. In every town you will always be able to find the "rich guy," the "smart guy," the "thief," and the "chief." It has been that way since the first man was swindled out of his lunch. Throughout his life, Geoffrey Chaucer encountered every kind of person and brought them to life for us in "The Canterbury Tales," a collection of short stories written in the 1300's. There are tales of saints, tales of promiscuity, tales of fraud, and tales of love. While reading, one has no choice but to come to the simple realization that nothing has really changed from Chaucer's time to ours. In "The Canterbury Tales" Chaucer depicted people from all walks of life. Society then had three basic classes of virtue that most people fell under: the Revered, the Commonfolk, and the Despicable. In the days of Chaucer, these people could be found in any village or town, just as they can be found today in our towns. Times were different then, but the people haven't changed a bit. Chaucer wrote of only three people who are deserving of the title "The Revered." These are the people who are always admired for their altruism, honesty, and kindness. They are proud and courageous with unalterable beliefs and unbreakable morals. Each of them may have a few harmless quirks, but are nevertheless revered. The most known of "The Revered" is the Knight. The Knight served in the Crusades where he fought for his king and the preservation of his beliefs in Christianity. Honor and virtue were reflected in everything he did. The Knight represents one of the most admirable characters in literature and is revered because of what he stands for. Though the Parson did not fight in the Crusades like the Knight, he also served God. The Parson was a man of the church whose beliefs in Christianity were unyielding. Decent and principled, he was a man devoted completely to his congregation. The Parson fully accepted the responsibility bestowed upon him to guard his people from sin. He said, "If gold rusts, what will iron do?" By this he meant that if the priest became corrupt, what would the parishioners do? As a parishioner and a brother of the Parson, the Plowman was a prime example of how well this philosophy worked. The Plowman is considered to reside in society's lowest class. The Virtue of Men and Women in The Canterbury Tales :: Canterbury Tales Essays The Virtue of Men and Women in The Canterbury Tales People never change. In every town you will always be able to find the "rich guy," the "smart guy," the "thief," and the "chief." It has been that way since the first man was swindled out of his lunch. Throughout his life, Geoffrey Chaucer encountered every kind of person and brought them to life for us in "The Canterbury Tales," a collection of short stories written in the 1300's. There are tales of saints, tales of promiscuity, tales of fraud, and tales of love. While reading, one has no choice but to come to the simple realization that nothing has really changed from Chaucer's time to ours. In "The Canterbury Tales" Chaucer depicted people from all walks of life. Society then had three basic classes of virtue that most people fell under: the Revered, the Commonfolk, and the Despicable. In the days of Chaucer, these people could be found in any village or town, just as they can be found today in our towns. Times were different then, but the people haven't changed a bit. Chaucer wrote of only three people who are deserving of the title "The Revered." These are the people who are always admired for their altruism, honesty, and kindness. They are proud and courageous with unalterable beliefs and unbreakable morals. Each of them may have a few harmless quirks, but are nevertheless revered. The most known of "The Revered" is the Knight. The Knight served in the Crusades where he fought for his king and the preservation of his beliefs in Christianity. Honor and virtue were reflected in everything he did. The Knight represents one of the most admirable characters in literature and is revered because of what he stands for. Though the Parson did not fight in the Crusades like the Knight, he also served God. The Parson was a man of the church whose beliefs in Christianity were unyielding. Decent and principled, he was a man devoted completely to his congregation. The Parson fully accepted the responsibility bestowed upon him to guard his people from sin. He said, "If gold rusts, what will iron do?" By this he meant that if the priest became corrupt, what would the parishioners do? As a parishioner and a brother of the Parson, the Plowman was a prime example of how well this philosophy worked. The Plowman is considered to reside in society's lowest class.

Conflict Identification and Resolution

Conflict Identification and Resolution BUS 610: Organizational Behavior Currently I am employed at Bank of America, they [Bank of America] established a new department called the Enterprise Estate Unit where deceased customers accounts are handled. When we the employees were notified that the Enterprise Estate Unit was being established everyone was excited because it was a chance to move into a different line of business.Bank of America associates are not allowed to â€Å"post out† or apply for different positions until they have been at their current position for at leas a year, however when associates were notified about the new department the advice given by human resources was all associates could apply with approval of their manager. With that new information associates (new hires and tenured associates) apply to be in the new department. The conflict arose when new hires were being hired to move to the new department over the tenured associates and the tenured associate s did not think that was fair.After complaints were issued to the site leader about new hires being picked over the tenured associates, the site leader had to investigate why new hires were being allowed to post out to different positions. After investigation the site leader found out the information given by the human resource department was incorrect, only associates that had been with the company for a year or more were allowed to apply for the position. Recruiters that interviewed associates for the position also knew that only associates that had been with the company for a year or more could apply for different positions.Poor communication was the cause of this conflict. There was a lack of external communication, the communication between â€Å"the company’s staff and clients, suppliers, and vendors (Kondrat, 2009). † Applications were sent to a third-party recruiting company that did not know the policy of only posting to positions after being with a company fo r a year. Because employees did not receive clear direction, the rule is that associates could only apply for positions after a year of being with the company, however the posting stated that with supervisor approval, anyone could post for the position.Consequently, employees self managed and created their own rules and priorities, which differed from the organization. Poor communication is a big problem that causes conflict in an organization. Chris Joseph said in his article that in a workplace setting lack of communication leads to conflict, which can harm an organization, and poor communication creates conflict in a number of ways, the types of conflict that could arise due to the lack of communication or the lack of communication are: creating uncertainty, lack of loyalty, and rumors and gossip, (Joseph, 2012).In the situation previously described the two biggest conflicts that arose because of the lack of and poor communication was the lack of loyalty and rumors and gossip, wi th rumors and gossip being the biggest problem. â€Å"If employees don’t know the intent of their co-workers or the company, they may resort to speculation. Whether rumors develop regarding a company merger or about favoritism toward a single employee, gossip creates a hostile work environment (Baldwin, 2012). Distributing correct information would reduce gossip and also ease employees mind and make them feel like they are valued. In an organization effective communication is an essential element, especially in a successful organization. Effective communication is needed to process and send information, ideas, thoughts and ideas between members of the organization. Lack of loyalty is also a result of lack of communication. A sense of employee identification fosters company loyalty [†¦] With a lack of communication, your employees may identify less with your organization. They may look elsewhere for a job in which they feel a vested interest (Baldwin, 2012). † The feeling of a lack of loyalty is another conflict that arose due to the lack of communication. Many of the associates that were looked over for the position left Bank of America and found positions with other companies because they felt the time that they invested with the company was not valued.Unfortunately the site leader had to play the role of the â€Å"Devils Advocate† but, the conflict was resolved and certain measures were taken to make sure that a situation like this would not happen again. The site leader did not revoke the position from the new hires that were offered the position in the Enterprise Estate Unit, however the new hires that had interviews scheduled for the position were unable to interview, and the tenured associates that did not get interviews offered to them because the interview quota was filled were able to get interviews and if qualified they were hired.The site leader gathered all of the associates together and made sure associates understood tha t no matter what postings say that if you [associates] had not been with the company at least a year they were not allowed to apply for positions. Also a new rule was applied, and that rule is that all applications are not allowed to go straight through to the recruiters; they had to go through human resources to make sure the employees are qualified. References Baldwin, A. (2012).Lack of communication as a weakness in organizations. Retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/info_8773766_lack-communication-weakness-organizations. html Joseph, C. (2012). How does a lack of communication cause conflict in the workplace?. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness. chron. com/lack-communication-cause-conflict-workplace-10470. html Kondrat, A. (2009, February 12). Effective communication in the workplace. Retrieved from http://suite101. com/article/effective-communication-at-workplace-a95815

The Sony Playstation 2

Game is one of the biggest markets in the world; most of people like to play game for relaxing, or at the spare time with friends. People of all ages are players. Report has pointed out the global spending on video games-games console hardware and associated games-exceeds that spent at cinema box offices and is double the video rental market. Many firm such like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony seize this opportunity and plan to enter this biggest market. The competition has been intensified among the game market, who will be the winner? The market leader for hand-held, portable consoles is Nintendo-its Game Boy, launched in 1990, has sold well and consistently. Games console which are coupled up to a domestic television screen comprise a larger section of the market , and this is where Sony has become dominate. In 1994, Sony was a ‘non-entity' in the video games market, however by 1996, it was the world leader of its fast growth market. At the end of 2003 Sony's accumulated sales of 12 million games consoles was well in excess of rivals Sega and Nintendo. The stronger financial support is definitely the reason of successful for Sony. However, those just one small part of reason for the success of the Playstation, the mainly reasons for the success of the Playstation are below: * Adequate knowledge form technology, which had been developed over many years. It was able to derive synergy from its competencies in both hardware and software. * Suitable timing to entered the market, to avoid some unnecessary competition with rivals. Sony timed the launch carefully and entered the market just one month after Sega launched its new Saturn console, the first 32-bit machine. This suggested that the real competition in this sector of the industry lay between Sony and Sega, rather than with Nintendo as well, although in 1997 Nintendo launched its 64-bit N64. * Its pricing strategy for consoles. Sony knew the real profits came from subsequent software sales and happy to cross-subsidize a relatively low-priced console. They also enjoying cost saving through the experience curve effect and happy to pass these on to consumers. * A number of attractive licensing deals, which helped it, build up a strong portfolio of games from the outset. A number of key games software companies were persuaded to switch their allegiance to Sony.†1 * Sony's advertising campaign was very specifically planned. Sony worked out exactly what they wanted the adverts to achieve. They also aimed to make people think of the Playstation as powerful and destructive, using the line, â€Å"Do not under-estimate the power of Playstation† in many of its adverts. Those intelligence ideas help Sony become a winner through this competition. So they are the strengths of Sony Playstation, which made Sony's market share grows in creditable rate. And helped Sony corporation build up a good reputation among the consumers that will become advantage for Sony's further competition. Late in 2000 Sony was unable to satisfy the early demand in both the US and Europe for its new Playstation 2. The problem has come. It was experiencing internal supply problems of critical components. This is a real fault for Sony in Christmas – the peak sales period. This could affect the profits of Sony Corporation. When Sony was struggling with the launch of Playstation 2, Microsoft and Nintendo realized this is a good opportunity to launch their new game console into the video games market. They believe there was a real chance that some customers would switch to the game console of Microsoft and Nintendo, if their intended first choice Playstation were no available. This is a real threat for Playstation's position in the video game market. As Nintendo and Microsoft launch their new game console into the video game market, something has been changed. Reports said that sales of Sony's PlayStation 2 console are down but sales of Nintendo's GameCube console seem to be on the rise. The holiday sales of Nintendo's GameCube rose over 70% from a year ago, while Sony's PlayStation 2 sales did not fall as sharply as expected. Nintendo also said that it would easily achieve a global sales target of six million GameCubes for the full business year. Its sales are directly being attributed to GameCube price cuts in Japan, Europe and North America in September and October of 20032. However, Sony Corporation is keeping finding many opportunities for them to keep their opposition in the video game market. They noticed that entered an established market have to offer some value, something clearly different. So they tried to add the new function, new technology into PlayStation 2. For example: the graphics on Playstation 2 are of ‘cinematic quality' and the console has a DVD reader, which can run movies. PlayStation's hard drive would later be able to accommodate and Internet connection and allow users to buy games over the Internet and download them directly on to their machine, they also could play game online. In addition, PlayStation 2 is a 128-bit machine now, but it was not the first 128-bit machine on the market. Another mainly opportunity for Playstation 2 is their software (games). They categorized their games into 5 main types: adventure/strategy games, driving/motoring games and simulations, sports, fighting game and platform games. By Sony's good reputation there are more and more software companies available for the Sony Playstation than are available for any of its rivals. In 1999 Sony had 90 companies developing games for Playstation 2 and was determined that 50 news games would be available for the launch. Playstation 2 also creating a unique opportunity for content providers and third party publishers from their biggest online community. In 2003, the massive Playstation community proved yet again the enviable advantage of strength-in-numbers as games for the number one selling platforms flew off the shelves in record amounts. Playstation 2 software led the industry with close to 3 billion in total video game sales for the year, nearly three times as much as its closest competitor. This is first online console community is also the most popular, with the Playstation 2 online base growing nearly three times as fast as that of Microsoft's Xbox live. Sony wants to hang on its leadership in the computer games industry. That appears to be Sony's thinking as the electronics giant moves ahead with development of the next version of its PlayStation video game console, which is well known as Playstation 3. Japanese media reported on May 6th that the PS3 console is in development. The goal is to make new processor technology, called â€Å"grid† about 200x faster than current console technology. This is almost achieving their original goal of making the PS3 1000 times faster than the PS2. This goal was publicly set by Mr Okamoto, the Senior VP and Chief Technical Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, at the 2002 Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. Playstation 3 may become a major threat to the other company in the game industry. So when Sony look for the future, one of the rivals review recent past, Pete Isensee, lead developer for Microsoft's Xbox Advanced Technology Group, used his GDC talk to deliver a mostly positive critique of the Xbox's journey to the market, lauding a product launch that happened on time and without major bugs, a departure from Microsoft history. â€Å"Microsoft has this stigma about not getting it right until version three,† he said. â€Å"We didn't have a choice with Xbox. If we didn't get it right with version one, Sony and Nintendo would eat us alive.†3 Nowadays, Playstation 2 will be outsold by rivals, but who knows what will be happen in the next. When the new game console-Playstation 3 launch to the market in Christmas 2004, maybe everything will have a big change.