...Compulsory Voting? Not so Fast A critical review of political scholarship regarding compulsory voting Word Count: 1644 Compulsory voting has been a hotly debated topic in the political realm over the past few decades, with supporters on both sides bringing up a wide variety of arguments and beliefs for support. The proposed idea of compulsory voting is the idea that would make voting in a democratic parliamentary election mandatory for all citizens who meet the age requirement; failure to do so will result in a form of minor punishment such as a small fine. The theory behind compulsory voting is that it will increase participation in parliamentary election, thus creating a more legitimate representative democratic system. Current major democratic countries that currently employ an enforced compulsory voting system include Australia, Argentina, and Brazil. This paper will argue that voting should not be made compulsory in Canada, on the principles that there is no proof that increasing voter turnout will legitimize our representational democracy, and that we have the right to abstention. I will prove this argument by examining the political scholarship produced by Sara Birch, Justine Lacroix, and Annabelle Lever. The first academic journal I will be examining will be that of Sara Birch in her 2009 paper The Case for Compulsory Voting. In this paper, Birch is advocating that all democratic countries should implement a compulsory voting system. Birch’s primary point...
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...Should Drug Testing be Mandatory to Receive Welfare Benefits? BCOM/275 Should Drug Testing be Mandatory to Receive Welfare Benefits? Thanks to our ancestors, America is a country built from a foundation of hard work and perseverance. This pioneering spirit has paved the way for many opportunities, as well as rules to be set along the way. This includes mandating laws and acts starting with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. With these guidelines America humbly started as a nation where every citizen was entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These laws stressed the simplest of privileges which included freedom of religion, freedom of speech, protection against enemies, and restriction against monopolies (America's Freedom Documents, 1996-2011). These were all expressions of the American mindset long ago. Fast forward to current America and we find problems we must confront now that are more complicated. These problems have evolved through history that has now made our present day precedence in relation to laws and rules. We now have the freedom to vote, be active in our government, and have an opinion. Our opinions are shaped by the physical world around us and the controversy we have created as a people. However, The United States as an ideal presents a uniquely contradictory set of principles that is generally not openly discussed. This includes the tendency to accept government officials, network...
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...statue. For this purpose elections are held all over the country and people are asked to cast their votes for or against certain measure. The existing popular assemblies are dissolved, and they are re-constituted on the basis of a general election. Usually people vote on party lines. Where there is only one party, as it was in the former Soviet Union and in the present-day communist China, votes are cast for or against the party candidate. Policies are decided or the basis of such voting. In our country, a general election is held normally after five years. But if a Prime Minister contemplate a new line of policy, he or she may seek mandate from the people even before the expiry of five years, as Mrs. Indira Gandhi did in 1971. For the purpose of elections, the country is divided into a large number of constituencies. These constituencies are asked to elect their representatives. Each party puts its own candidates for election. When the candidates have submitted their nomination papers by the prescribed date, after the scrutiny of nomination papers are finished, dates for election are announced and the electoral machinery begins to function. The candidates or their agents go from house to house, canvassing votes. The party bosses are active and hold public meetings to explain to the people what they stand for. Each party uses every argument and influence to convince the electorate that it alone is right and can deliver the goods. At one time voters...
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...* Controversy- etymology (word origin) From Latin: “against” (contra) and “versus” (verse) Contra = against or in comparison with Implies difference of opinion or contrast Verse = line of writing Implies opinions expressed in some type of public arena Controversy- definition A prolonged public dispute or debate. Disputation concerning a matter of opinion. “Prolonged” - matters are unsettled over time, lasting “Public” – not private, concerning people as a whole “Dispute / debate” – challenge, taking exception to “Opinion” – personal belief or judgment Synonyms of controversy- disagreement, difference ALSO- contention, strife, argument, dissonance, lack of harmony, heated conflict Controversy- Denotation v. connotation Denotation = meaning The most direct, exact, specific meaning of a work or expression Literal meaning- meaning without interpretation, embellishment, or exaggeration A dictionary definition. Subjective and “cold” Connotation = suggestion Emotional coloration Suggested or implied meaning in addition to what is explicit, objected, denoted Impression that goes beyond a defined meaning Emotional association with a word, phrase, idea Subjective and emotively “loaded” September 17 Democracy- people, common people. People’s rule. Types of democracy Direct- when all members of a community (polity, group) gather together and individuals cast a vote or make decisions=each person is given a chance to influence the policymaking process Representative-...
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...to direct democracy. Although they excluded women, slaves and foreigners, the democratic system required all citizens to vote on all major issues in a general assembly. The boule consisted of 500 citizens commissioned to carry out these decisions and run the city. Even the verdict of every court case was decided by a vote of the Assembly. With this system, all citizens were actively and constantly involved in the running of all political life. Since the French Revolution, representative democracy has spread throughout most of the world. These governments consist of complex structures, in which the legislature is carried out by a parliament. With the influence of media and the overall advancement of technology, such as the Internet, the voting behaviour of citizens in contemporary democracies has caused many transnational bodies, such as the EU, to question the sovereignty of each country and its chosen representatives. As a result, one could ask what structures of direct democracies can exist in such a time where the conditions have changed drastically since old Athens? Furthermore, do they constitute meaningful alternatives to representative democracy? For this investigation, a line needs to be drawn between the different types of instruments used by direct democracies. In the first part, I will focus on instruments of direct democracies that influence the executive branch. In the second part, I will focus on instruments of direct democracies that influence the legislative...
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...AN OVERVIEW OF THE NEW CLAUSE 49 OF THE LISTING AGREEMENT AN OVERVIEW OF THE NEW CLAUSE 49 OF THE LISTING AGREEMENT Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) has overhauled the existing Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement and replaced it with a revised Clause 49 (the “New Clause” or the “Clause”)[2]. The New Clause, which will be effective from 1 October 2014, serves the following objectives: align the provisions of Listing Agreement with the provisions of the newly enacted Companies Act, 2013 and also provide additional requirements to strengthen the corporate governance framework for listed companies in India. Most of the requirements under the New Clause are in line with the changes brought about in corporate governance by the Companies Act 2013. However, certain requirement under the New Clause goes a step further and imposes more stringent requirements of corporate governance to listed companies. The New Clause is based on the principle of ensuring equitable treatment to all shareholders and recognising the rights of all stakeholders in the company. The New Clause is attempting to achieve this object by setting up an effective corporate governance frame work within the company and providing for timely and accurate disclosures. The key aspects of the New Clause are discussed below: Independent Directors The New Clause confers greater power and responsibility on the independent directors to on matters relating to corporate governance. The Clause incorporates methods...
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...MUMBAI S I L IC O N VA L L E Y B A N G A LO R E S IN G A PO R E M U M B A I- B KC NEW DELHI M U N IC H Public M&As in India: Takeover Code Dissected A detailed analysis of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 August 2013 © Copyright 2013 Nishith Desai Associates www.nishithdesai.com M&A Lab Takeover Code Dissected About NDA Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) is a research based international law firm with offices in Mumbai, Silicon Valley, Bangalore, Singapore, New Delhi and Munich. We specialize in strategic legal, regulatory and tax advice coupled with industry expertise in an integrated manner. We focus on niche areas in which we provide significant value and are invariably involved in select highly complex, innovative transactions. Our key clients include marquee repeat Fortune 500 clientele. Our experience with legal, regulatory and tax advice coupled with industry expertise in an integrated manner allows us to provide the complete strategy from the onset through to the full set up of the business and until the exits. We focus on niche areas in which we provide significant value add and are involved in select highly complex, innovative transactions. Core practice areas include Mergers & Acquisitions, International Tax, International Tax Litigation, Fund Formation, Fund Investments, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Capital Markets, Employment and HR, Intellectual...
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...Mark Scheme (Results) January 2012 GCE Government & Politics (6GP01) Paper 01 PEOPLE AND POLITICS Edexcel and BTEC Qualifications Edexcel and BTEC qualifications come from Pearson, the world’s leading learning company. We provide a wide range of qualifications including academic, vocational, occupational and specific programmes for employers. For further information, please call our GCE line on 0844 576 0025, our GCSE team on 0844 576 0027, or visit our qualifications website at www.edexcel.com. For information about our BTEC qualifications, please call 0844 576 0026, or visit our website at www.btec.co.uk. If you have any subject specific questions about this specification that require the help of a subject specialist, you may find our Ask The Expert email service helpful. Ask The Expert can be accessed online at the following link: http://www.edexcel.com/Aboutus/contact-us/ Pearson: helping people progress, everywhere Our aim is to help everyone progress in their lives through education. We believe in every kind of learning, for all kinds of people, wherever they are in the world. We’ve been involved in education for over 150 years, and by working across 70 countries, in 100 languages, we have built an international reputation for raising achievement through innovation in education. Find out more about how we can help you and your students at: www.pearson.com/uk January 2012 Publications Code US030541 All the material in this publication is copyright © Pearson Education...
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...UNIT 3C: REPRESENTATIVE PROCESS IN THE USA SECTION 1: ELECTIONS & VOTING Primaries: * Election to select a parties candidacy for president * Open primary: A primary for any registered voter, democrat or republican. E.G. Texas * Closed: A primary for democrats and a primary for Republicans. (Separate one’s) * Invisible primary: candidates try to gain support and finance in the year before the primary * Proportional primary: awarded delegates in proportion to votes they get * Winner-takes-all: Win the most votes and you take all the states delegates Advantages: * Increased level of participation from ordinary votes (30% in 2008) * Increased interest from people * Increased choice of candidates (14 in 2008) * Removing power from party bosses Disadvantages: * Turnout is usually low * Voters are usually unrepresentative of normal voters (tend to be wealthier, old and better educated) * Process is far too long and expensive (Obama in 2008 announced his running 332 before the first primary * Fails to test presidential qualities Increased importance of primaries: * Really the only route to become a parties President Caucuses: * A meeting for the selection of a candidate * Usually held in states that are geographically large but thinly populated (Iowa, North Dakota, Nevada) * Turnout is usually pretty low, and usual favour ideological candidates National party conventions: Formal functions: ...
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...Manual Corporate Governance SCGOP Contents Foreword 3 1 The mission of the Foundation for Corporate Governance Research for Pension Funds and the purpose of this manual 5 2 Corporate governance in practice in the Netherlands 7 3 Basic principles of corporate governance 11 4 Corporate governance and performance 14 5 Institutional investors and corporate governance 16 6 Formulation of a voting policy 19 7 2 The exercise of voting rights 23 8 Reporting on the implementation of the voting policy and voting behaviour 26 9 Pension fund governance 27 10 Socially responsible investing 28 11 About SCGOP 30 Appendix: Recommendations on Executive Remuneration 32 Foreword Pension funds strive to protect the benefits of their members as effectively as possible from the consequences of inflation. They therefore invest part of their assets in shares. But the accounting scandals over the past few years have severely damaged investors’ confidence in shares. Rebuilding this trust is now a high priority everywhere. Pension funds and other institutional investors are expected to contribute to this rebuilding process. In the Dutch Corporate Governance Code presented by the Tabaksblat Committee on 9 December 2003, the role of the shareholders is described as follows: "The general meeting of shareholders should be able to exert such influence on the policy of the executive board and...
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...secretarial practices. International Federation of Company Secretaries (IFCS), formed with the efforts of ICSI, decided to form an International Secretarial Standards Board which will formulate international secretarial standards to spread good corporate governance discipline across national borders. ! Companies follow diverse secretarial practices and, therefore, there is a need to integrate, harmonize and standardize such practices so as to promote uniformity and consistency. The Standards were always recommendatory in nature. With the growing corporate scenario a need was felt to standardize the secretarial practices so the Standards were thereafter recommended to be made mandatory first somewhere in 2006. Many members of the Institute and big corporate houses were in favour of the SS being made mandatory. Many corporate houses had even started adopting such standards so it was therefore understood that all can therefore adopt and follow the same. Moreover, the members and council wanted the SS to be treated in lines with Accounting Standards (AS) issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). The Institute also was open to recommend the SS to National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS) to examine the Standards. ! ! Secretarial Standards are the policy documents relating to various aspects of secretarial practices in the corporate sector. These...
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...noncompetitive. So as not to create an extra burden on industrial productions, the government needs to remove duties and taxes from imported raw materials as in many Middle Eastern countries and Thailand. The government implicitly accepts the adverse effects of the improper taxes on our industrial growth and has tried partially to alleviate some of these impediments by creating Export Processing Zones and Bonded Ware Houses; this paper explores the benefits doing away with these high import duties altogether. It also looks at the paybacks to the economy from industrial growth. Finally, the expansion of the income tax umbrella is considered and in particular its effects on growing a greater sense of national civic duty and its impact on the voting patterns of the electorate. [1] to this, the average per-capita income of developed countries range around or exceed US$ 26,000 per year. While it is unthinkable to raise the income of a Bangladeshi to a level comparable to those of people in developed nations, one should make continued efforts towards attaining a minimum level of life sustenance that could be termed as economic solvency. Bangladesh covers an...
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...Corporate Governance Blueprint 2011 Towards Excellence in Corporate Governance Suruhanjaya Sekuriti Malaysia 3 Persiaran Bukit Kiara Bukit Kiara 50490 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Tel: 603-6204 8000 Fax: 603-6201 5078 www.sc.com.my Copyright © July 2011 Securities Commission Malaysia All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (graphical, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, taping or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the Securities Commission Malaysia. Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Corporate governance blueprint 2011 : towards excellence in corporate governance Bibliography : p. 77 ISBN 978–983–9386–67–7 1. Corporate governance--Malaysia. 2. Industrial management. 1. Suruhanjaya Sekuriti Malaysia. 658.4009595 Cataloguing-in-Publication Data This book is printed using eco-friendly recyclable and bio-degradable paper CONTENTS FOREWORD BY MINISTER OF FINANCE II, MALAYSIA MESSAGE FROM CHAIRMAN OF THE SECURITIES COMMISSION MALAYSIA INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 v vii 1 5 SHAREHOLDER RIGHTS CHAPTER 2 13 ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS CHAPTER 3 21 THE BOARD’S ROLE IN GOVERNANCE – – – – ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES INDEPENDENCE OF THE BOARD COMPOSITION OF THE BOARD COMMITMENT OF BOARD MEMBERS 43 CHAPTER 4 DISCLOSURE AND TRANSPARENCY CHAPTER 5 53 ROLE OF GATEKEEPERS AND INFLUENCERS CHAPTER 6 61 PUBLIC AND...
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...M U M B AI SILICON VALLEY BANGA LORE SINGA P ORE MUMBA I BK C NE W DE L HI MUNICH Mergers & Acquisitions in India May 2015 © Copyright 2015 Nishith Desai Associates www.nishithdesai.com Mergers & Acquisitions in India About NDA Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) is a research based international law firm with offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, Silicon Valley, Singapore, New Delhi, Munich. We specialize in strategic legal, regulatory and tax advice coupled with industry expertise in an integrated manner. We focus on niche areas in which we provide significant value and are invariably involved in select highly complex, innovative transactions. Our key clients include marquee repeat Fortune 500 clientele. Core practice areas include International Tax, International Tax Litigation, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Fund Formation, Fund Investments, Capital Markets, Employment and HR, Intellectual Property, Corporate & Securities Law, Competition Law, Mergers & Acquisitions, JVs & Restructuring, General Commercial Law and Succession and Estate Planning. Our specialized industry niches include financial services, IT and telecom, education, pharma and life sciences, media and entertainment, real estate and infrastructure. Nishith Desai Associates has been ranked as the Most Innovative Indian Law Firm (2014) and the Second Most Innovative Asia - Pacific Law Firm (2014) at the Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Awards by the Financial Times - RSG Consulting...
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...Race and Ethnicity Should racial profiling be a legitimate law-enforcement policy in some areas? Should Affirmative Action for state university enrollment be continued? Should the primary method of public school funding--property taxes in individual school districts--be amended to create more fairness in schools? Should high-school history classes and social-studies curriculum be changed to reflect diversity and multicultural perspectives? Should Christmas, Easter, and other religious observances be considered national holidays? If a university offers "African-American Studies" or "Black Studies" as courses, should it also offer "European-American Studies" or "White Studies"? How do certain television programs perpetuate racial or ethnic stereotypes? Should Columbus Day be discontinued in favor of a new post-colonial perspective? Should schools only purchase textbooks that offer revised or alternative histories of historical events? What should be done about racial disparities in the sentencing of criminals? Should the American government pay reparations and return land to Native Americans? Should hate groups have the right to distribute literature on university campuses? If research shows that certain racial or ethnic groups receive poorer medical care on average, how should this problem be corrected? Should governmental organizations have staffs that accurately reflect the racial, ethnic, and gender balance in society? Gender and Sexuality What should be...
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