...vital to foreign policy decisions (p. 556). Bureaucracies are not powerful unless they are backed by Congress and the president’s support. They seek their legitimacy through the acceptance of their recommendations by both the Congress and the president. In part, their effectiveness arises from whether the small group surrounding the president approves of them. Small group dynamics approach is more likely to occur in groups that are cohesive aka exhibit a high level of amiability among each other. Group Cohesiveness is an essential element of small group dynamics. It is stronger when there is a sense of loyalty between everyone. For e.g. in the decision to go to Iraq in the first Gulf War, President Bush picked people who he was very close to, like Cheney, Gates and Scowcroft. They worked together since the Ford administration (about 14 years). The second important element is Group Insulation which means the lack of other parties involved in the process of decision-making. There’s little to no outside sources of information or opinion, the inner group gets to decide without intervention from the outside....
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...Interest group systems are entities that define the nature of connections between interest groups and the government policy making system. The study of interest groups can be categorized into three prominent schools of thought, pluralist, neocorporarist, and controlled. These three interest group systems differ from each other by their group to societal interest ratio, type of membership and member commitment, organizational structure, and connection/relationship with the government. The pluralist interest group system defines how interests are organized and how they participate in the process. Democracy is viewed as a marketplace where individuals, political parties, and interest group have primary influence over public domains. Further,...
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...Interest groups are used throughout American politics and can be used to influence American politics. Franklin D. Roosevelt states, “We must especially beware of that small groups of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests” (Whye). Interest groups are groups of people who come together to increase their common interest or to change the minds of people in politics. Additionally, interest groups are also called lobbyist. The majority of interest groups represent corporations or businesses and other types of interest groups represent labor unions, occupations or social groups. There are special interests groups such as the American Bar Association (the associations of lawyers) and the American...
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...Each sub-group is affected differently. Dependents and parents of military members may not come directly in contact with combat but they too suffer from deployments. Military children are placed in some very unique challenges. They have a significant amount of stressors including; parental separation due to deployment, family reunification, frequent moves causing educational and friendship disruption. Most military children are resilient but those who have pre-existing issues may have some difficulty recovering from stressful events. Veterans deal with a great amount of stress when discharged from the military. Whether it is honorable or dishonorable, veterans suffer a great deal reintegrating back into civilian life. They have...
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...To What Extent do Pressure Groups Undermine Democracy A pressure group in a group that doesn’t hold candidates for election into parliament but still aim to influence legislation passed by government that takes their aims and objectives into consideration. It can be argued that Pressure groups are undemocratic due to the leaders and all members being unelected. However pressure groups have higher and ever increasing participation levels than political parties, meaning that membership to a pressure group may be the contemporary method of being involved in politics. It can be argued that Pressure Groups are a positive thing for democracy because of the extent to which they inform the public on important issues through their campaigning for members or signatures, having the public more informed and knowledgeable on issues such as climate change or immigration is beneficial due to the fact that they will understand parties policies better and be more confident in who they vote for. On the other hand Pressure Groups can be criticised due to them only informing the public of their biased, one-sided opinion which could be viewed as misinformation. Cause/promotional groups that are involved in issues such as climate change or wildlife preservation can be viewed as democratic because their objective aren’t solely for the benefit of its own members but also the wider community. Though this is democratic, some pressure groups such as financial groups would be better funded and have...
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...To what extent do pressure groups undermine democracy? Pressure groups can play an important part in the way policies and proposals are brought into action in the UK government. As well as providing a vehicle for the peoples’ views they also have the potential to undermine the democracy of a government. Firstly, to clarify the definition of a pressure group, it is a formal or informal association whose purpose is to put forward the views and interests of a specific part of society, typically operating on a small range of issues. They aim to influence the decisions made by government. Secondly, democracy (from dēmos kratos - Greek for rule by the people) can take many different forms and is harder to define. Full democracy is understood as the fair representation in government of all citizens. In a democratic government the people vote in order to represent their views on an issue. Pressure groups have been seen to undermine this system of government in many ways but the also can enhance democracy in many ways. Some aspects of pressure groups are considered to undermine the nature of democracy. Disproportionate influence is an issue that many argue subverts democracy. This is where some pressure groups have more political influence than their issue may warrant. Some sectional groups appear to have a larger influence in government than others with a larger demographic. This is considered to be undemocratic, as it is not fair in the way it represents the people disproportionately...
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...To what extent do Pressure Groups promote pluralist democracy? A Pressure Group is an organised group that does not put up candidates for election, but seeks to influence government policy or legislation. The aim of all PGs is to influence the people who actually have the power to make decisions. There are many different types of PGs such as, Sectional which usually represent limited, specific interests. They usually aim to improve conditions for their members. Another type of PG is an Outsider group, these groups tend to be outside of policy making and government tends to regard these groups as less important. Pluralist democracy is a particular type of democracy, which operates with numerous organised groups who all have some political leverage in the decision making forum. Pressure groups improve the quality of government. Discussion with affected groups is the sensible way to make decisions in a free society. It makes government more efficient by enhancing the quality of the decision making process. The information and advice provided by groups helps to improve the quality of government policy and legislation. Pressure groups assist the scrutiny of the government by exposing information it would rather keep secret, thereby strengthening and complementing work of opposition through political parties. Pressure groups thereby improve the accountability of decision makers to voters. Although few people would deny that pressure groups play an important role in British...
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...Political Parties vs. Interest Groups In the United States we have two types of linkage institutions. A linkage institution is a group of people trying to connect the public and the government. One of the linkage institutions present in the U.S. are interest groups. Interest groups are groups of people who share common objectives. Their sole purpose is to influence the policymakers. The second linkage institution present in the U.S. is political parties. Political parties are an ongoing coalition of individuals who organize to win elections, operate the government, and determine policy. Their sole purpose is to become the policymakers. With these two linkage institutions come many advantages in both their favors. For one, interest groups...
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...------------------------------------------------- Mini Case he Nature Publishing Index ranks institutions according to the number of primary research articles they publish in Nature journals. Nature and its family of Nature-branded sister journals is world-renowned as the pre-eminent platform for publication of the very best international research, and it is fitting that this portfolio of high quality journals serve as a benchmark for research success and achievement. There are many ways to assess the research output of institutions, and the Nature Publishing Index is just one that should be used alongside many. Users can drill down to find the abstracts of individual papers that make up the Index allowing deep analysis of where some of the best research across a broad range of fields is coming from. However, there are caveats that must be applied in interpreting the Index. For instance, Nature journals, although covering a broad spectrum of basic research in the life sciences, physical and chemical sciences, provide relatively limited coverage of applied sciences, engineering and clinical medicine. The Index should therefore be viewed as primarily an index of high quality basic and not applied research (although there are exceptions such as the journal Nature Photonics, based in Tokyo, which covers both domains). Corrected count The corrected count is a score that takes into account the number of affiliated institutions per author and the percentage of authors per institution...
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...1.Non-state actors especially businesses are more vocal in the design of policies that impact on the global economics. Businesses have the power to influence policies adopted that relate to engaging in trading around the globe ( Fusch, p2). The discursive power enables businesses to exert influence both in the public and in private sectors. Businesses can tailor their discursive powers to achieve diverse objectives relating to policy formulation (Fusch, p26) There are enormous changes in the global intellectual property regime that give the businesses a leeway to actively engage in international economics negotiations. The liberalization of knowledge through relaxed protection of the intellectual property works to the advantage of the businesses (Morin p3). The economic and political changes taking place around the world occasioned changes in the political roles. There is an evident decline in the roles of states in the international policing. The business enterprises are increasing taking over from governments in participating in the international economic policing (Fusch, p5). 2. A classic instance of collaboration among businesses was the formation of Basel II. Several bankers from different countries came together to influence the policies formulated around that time. The bankers came from the states that formed G10 at the time (Young, 2012, p665) The rise of academic communities successfully managed to advocate for the scrapping of the monopoly initially exhibited...
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...to what extent are the biggest pressure groups the most successful Success in pressure groups is defined by how they affect government policy, their agenda-setting power and how well they can change people’s ideologies. There are many other factors that contribute to the success of a pressure group i.e.: the finances that have been gained, the widespread support of the pressure group, the cause of the group itself and the organisation of the group. But it is important that all of the aforementioned factors work collaboratively to produce a successful pressure group. the biggest pressure groups the most successful to some extent as I believe that size alone does not necessarily mean that the pressure group with the most members will ultimately be the most successful Some argue that the more members a pressure group has the more successful it is, because it can then be functionally representative of the public. The TUC has 7 million members supporting it's “cause” making very successful as the government can see that this group is representing a large public opinion. If a group such as the TUC were to support a political party for example, the party would notice a considerable difference in support with the TUC's backing than without. Pressure groups that have more members, leads to more donations, proving that size is necessary in order for pressure groups to be the most successful. Chequebook groups tend to get most of their finance from their members, for example Greenpeace...
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...What can Catholic Social Teaching Group do for families in Vietnam? I thought our group is very strong, but actually... Actually our group consists of a dozen guys, a few persons in Saigon, and some in Hanoi! You guys are not even considered a Catholic Association? No, we’re just a small group of laypeople. We go to the church on Sunday afternoon and gather in a parish room. We pray and then share news about the Church and society. There is “no father” at the beginning. Then arrives the father who gives some lecture on the social teaching. We attend Mass until dismissal! Do you learn about the family? Yes, we learn these vital points: 1. The family is the first natural society (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 211), the vital cell of society (211), and the sanctuary of life (231); 2. The family makes up the fundamental structure for human ecology, suited to teach and transmit cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious values (212 and 238); 3. The family must have priority over society and the State (214); 4. Divorce is a plague on society (225); 5. Homosexual persons are to be fully respected in their human dignity (228); 6. The family is an active participant in social life (246-251); and 7. Society is at the service of the family (252-256). When practicing the CST, do you participate in indirectly serving the family? Yes, we do. The Group’s members when living the values of Freedom, Love, Truth and Justice are already applying the...
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...Groups from 1881 were undoubtably a contributor toward the 1905 revolution but it can be argued on whether they were the main cause. The SRs were probably the biggest group fuelling the 1905 revolution. The social revolutionaries were radical in their ideology, they believed that all land should be taken from the rich and given to the peasants along with completely getting rid of the Tsar. The SR's took radical action to achieve their goals such as assassinating the Tsars uncle grand Duke sergei. The SRs would be one of the main causes of the 1905 revolution as they had such a broad appeal, which certainly made them attractive amongst the uneducated masses, whom are the peasants and the peasants were desperate for change. Peasants would want reform one way or another due to their poor standards of life. although Witte reforms seemed to be the best course of action for Russia, in the long term it was not. Witte increased tax on peasants to feel industrialisation which would have obviously increased peasants will for change since they had no money as it is. Workers in the cities will also feeling the aftermath of Wittes reforms, the economy started to slow down in the late 19th century which led to the workers real incomes falling by 20% which meant that imported goods or necessities couldn't be easily purchased when the price increased Since the workers had such bad living and working conditions on the 22nd of January a priest Father Gapon gathered 150,000 people for...
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...“Herzberg (1968) argues that pay is a “hygiene factor”. Critically evaluate his position drawing on your understanding of what motivates individuals and groups.” This assignment will look at the origin of Herzberg’s theory, those who agree with Herzberg’s two-factor theory and those that disagree with his two-factor theory. The assignment will look into what motivation means to individuals, and how motivation creates job satisfaction. It will then be possible to evaluate the relevance of Herzberg’s and how relevant it is to all individuals. Herzberg carried out a survey interviewing 200 Engineers and Accountants from Pittsburgh in the 1950’s. From his findings he came up with the two-factor motivation theory which consisted of motivational factors and hygiene factors. Both factors affect motivation in the workplace, but are very different and are completely unrelated. “Motivators refer to factors intrinsic within the work itself like the recognition of a task completed” (Tietjen & Myers, 1998) while “hygiene factors tend to include extrinsic entities which do not pertain to the worker’s actual job” (Tietjen & Myers, 1998). Motivators make the employee content and when they are present they increase job satisfaction. They were named intrinsic factors as they are factors that are related to the job itself. Hygiene factors do not make the employee happy when they are present but they do dis-satisfy when they are not present or are in shortfall, the hygiene factors...
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...Nowadays there are a lot of regulations that prohibit discrimination on grounds of age and ethnic group that potential worker can come from. The priority of social policy in European Union and developer and developing countries is fighting with discrimination of different social groups. Integrated strategy is helping to fight down discrimination of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, believes, disability, age and sexual orientation. Most of employers say that the most important thing are qualifications, and only them should matter when it comes to hiring, but still they are more willing to employ young person than experienced fifty years old worker. The same case is when it comes to choosing between people of the same nationality as country the company is operating in, and ethnic minority. Employing the older workers have advantages as disadvantages, but it is the same case with hiring young person just after graduation. For example among older employees there are much less accidents in work, since they are more experienced, have wider knowledge and simply know how things works. The older- the wiser, as the old saying says, that is why when there is older person in the team, there are less conflicts, and even when they will appear, using the experience, those workers can simply help with coping with them. It is also important that older workers have steady family life, they do not have small kids anymore, so they can focus on their career. They do not have to take free...
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