Weaknesses of modern democracy Essay Example for Free

Weaknesses of modern democracy Essay â€Å"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried from time to time.† These are the words used by Sir Winston Churchill while he was expressing his resolve with democracy. Democracy is the dominant form of government in the world with the exception of a few countries. In Sir Winston’s statement, the phrase, â€Å"except all those others that have been tried from time to time† however, shows that despite being a weak form of government, it’s relatively the best form of governance in history1. Weaknesses of modern democracy span from the fundamental to contemporary ones as this paper illustrates. The biggest problem with modern democratically elected governments is the sluggish manner in which they conduct their business2. This is detrimental to any government’s role in deliberating on key policies. Any policy making exercise by any government should be marked by strong decisiveness. Modern democratic governments have adopted compromise in the place of decisiveness2. In circumstances where long term solutions are needed, short term solutions are made leaving problems unsolved and very sensitive to future discussions. On part of the governed, unfulfilled promises lead to disillusionment eventually resulting to numerous and sporadic government changes thus overhauls and patching of critical government programs and key policies1. A good example of sluggishness in government policing is the destitute nature of the United States economy2. Slowness in dealing with the huge public debt and recession, have drastically reduced the strength of the economy. With the congress locked in ideological partisan politics, important decisions on the economy have been unforthcoming. On the other hand, China (without democracy and very decisive) has a strong economy growing with an above average growth rate2. The original definition of democracy is; a government whereby people determine on the way they are governed mostly through elected representatives1. Democracy is guided by the core principle of majority rule2. However, today the minority as well might have their way provided there is enough money to bribe the electorate. Such governments end up spending extravagantly so as to achieve all campaign promises1. Excessive spending leads to accumulation of huge public debts, as seen in the European Union and in the USA. To settle these debts, governments end up borrowing more money and imposing huge taxes. These end up reducing an economy’s competitiveness and reducing critical investment within a country2. Another weakness in democracy is the accession of incompetent leaders to office. Most citizens in countries with modern democracy belong to a gullible bourgeois class1. An intelligent charismatic leader with self interests can easily deceive such masses to get into office. Once in office such leaders end up forgetting their promises in pursuit of personal gains2. In modern democracy, most voters do not vote due to an obligatory purpose as required in democracy but due to persuasion by candidates1. Due to the equality principle applied in democracy, this phenomenon is dangerous since not all people are intelligent enough to understand all proposed promises by candidates2. Another demerit of modern democracy is the huge cost incurred. A lot of resources and time are used and foregone in electing governments and formulating laws democratically1. Elections waste a lot of money that could instead be used for economic constructive purposes. Elected politicians also waste a lot of public money in seminars and unnecessary retreats2. It is important to note that, despite democracy having a lot of demerits; it has a lot of benefits compared to all other forms of governance ever tried so far. Only in democracy can citizens be assured of essential human rights and freedoms. It is also the only form of government that citizens can determine how and by how much to be ruled. Bibliography 1. Gupta, Tusha. â€Å"What are the advantages and disadvantages of democracy?† Preserve articles, May 16, 2012, http://www.preservearticles.com/2012051632245/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-democracy.html. 2. Hearnes, James. â€Å"The weaknesses of Democracy† WordPress, July 18, 2012, http://jameshearne.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/the-weaknesses-of-democracy/ View as multi-pages

Nutrition Case Studies :: Health Nutrition Pyramid Diet

Please read the following case studies and answer the questions which follow them. The questions may have several right answers; I am looking to see if you have put some thought into the assignment and that you give accurate information in your responses. Please email your answers to me by June 24. If you have any questions about this assignment, please email me before June 24. Case Study 1 Randy, age 36, and his whole family love football. They love to play football and to watch football. Randy played football in college, but now that he has a job at a law firm working many hours, he just plays every once in a while on a Saturday. In college he was in great shape and could eat anything he wanted. Now he just doesn’t make it to the gym that often and has lost muscle and has been gaining some weight. He is about 6 feet and weighs 250. Randy and his family also love â€Å"meat and potatoes† type food. On the weekend they often barbeque ribs and burgers that are washed down with several beers. During the week, Randy gets coffee and a donut on the way to work and goes to lunch with clients at various restaurants. His wife usually cooks dinner—just like his mom used to. He knows that he has been gaining some weight but he still feels pretty good. A few years ago his cousin was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Recently Randy’s father was also diagnosed with colorectal cancer. This makes Randy a little nervous and he wonders if there is anything that he can do to prevent or lower his chances of getting cancer as well. 1. Do you think that Randy is at risk for colorectal cancer? Why or why not?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Randy is at rish for colorectal cancer. While it estimates that the contribution of the enviornment in people with colon cancer is 65%, the other 35% is genetic factors, and Randy's cousin, and father have been diagnosed. 2. What dietary advice would you give Randy?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most types of cancers are related to factors such as high fat and alcohol intakes, Randy displays both of these attributes. His meat and potatoes type food is high in fat, as well as the donut he has every day on his way to work. The lunches out everyday at resturants I'm sure are not the most healthy choices he could be making as well.

Academic development Essay

Continuing education is always a means of empowering oneself towards being able to offer more as a professional and as an individual sincere in making a difference in this world. In this era of technology and modernization many young people become immediately satisfied with the monetary benefits of a college or a master’s degree and only few see the value in aiming for a doctor’s degree. Personally, I believe that many of these young people are correct in saying that even with a college and master’s degree economic benefits can already tide one over the laps of luxury because the world is in need of technology experts and specialists. However, I also consider pursuing a doctor’s degree in the spirit of paying it forward. While I already have a masters degree and can easily enrich myself economically, I am at the point in my life where I am more concerned with what I can give to society and the world, and not with what I can take from it. I am a dynamic and detail-oriented young professional aiming for more opportunities to be able to change and make the world a better place for all of us. I used to work at the Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Humanitarian City where I was recognized by the management as a professional and dedicated employee. See more:  Manifest Destiny essay I earned my bachelor’s degree in Computer and Information Sciences from the King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2007 after which I immediately proceeded to earn my Masters Degree in the Science in Management Information Systems from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. This particular master’s degree had special focus on Business Process Management based on the SAP System, Strategic Information Management, Information Systems Development, and Financial Management. My dedication and diligence in my academics paid off as I graduated from my master’s degree with Merit. Now, I seek to proceed and earn my doctors degree to finally seal my educational journey and become more capable of making significant contributions to the field of information technology. My experience in the field is varied. I personally handled and conducted demonstrations on a new ERP project for automating HR processes in a 400-bed rehabilitation hospital & medical center. This particular project helped the beneficiaries of the project a lot and it made me feel contented with being able to extend my technical knowledge in the service of others. In terms of knowledge transference, I was also involved in presentations on Tesco electronic channels as well as electronic commerce and ERP systems. I always feel like I am doing something important when I am able to share knowledge with other people and enable beneficiaries to appreciate the importance of technology. I am also an advocate of improved government systems as well as the enhancement of basic services. In the past years, I have completed a dissertation on E-Government, titled, â€Å"Evaluating User Acceptance of Electronic Government in Saudi Arabia†. In keeping with my advocacies, I have also written critical analyses on business comparisons for Dell and EasyJet Airlines and BMW’s recession strategy. To add to these, I have composed reports on the use of SAP in the ERP system of Porsche as well as on artificial intelligence and operating system security. All these I did in the spirit of making basic services more efficient and more user-friendly. I have also collected requirements during strategic meetings with HR and finance senior managers, built plans to improve business processes with automation, facilitated re-engineering business processes for a new ERP system implementation for finance and human resources, and created an education institute website with a team; wrote an evaluation report. On the outset, I do not consider what I have done as academic, professional, or personal achievements because I am more concerned with the changes that I am able to effect. In all these things, I had in tow my acquired excellent communication and human relations skills which I found very useful especially in explaining technological innovations to my clients and beneficiaries in very simple and understandable terms. Apart from being diligent in trying to improve myself my true passion is in seeing the changes that I effect significantly influence the organizations that I have worked for and with. My doctor’s degree will therefore help me do more of what I had already been doing and build my capacities more in my advocacy of seeing better governments and improved basic services. The ultimate beneficiaries of all these are of course the public at large who are at the end of the receiving chain. So, while pursuing a doctor’s degree is in fact a means of academic development, I view it as an opportunity for each of us to improve ourselves with the focus of improving the lives of others. At a time when technology is almost everywhere and when technology seems to be the basis for many of our daily activities, it is very important that each individual acquire a deeper and richer appreciation for technological innovations and advancements which are instrumental not only in making our lives convenient but also in raising the standard of living for society. It would be my great pride to be part of the wave of technology that is currently sweeping all over the globe. I am confident that with a doctor’s degree I would be able to leave behind a legacy of difference with all the people who have benefitted from my tutelage as well as with all those who enjoy the conveniences of technology in areas where technology was previously unheard of. My desire to pursue my doctor’s degree is done in the sincere dedication to the welfare of all and to the advancement of technology in the service of man.

Hillary Clinton Quotes on Politics, Women, Life

Attorney Hillary Rodham Clinton was born in Chicago and educated at Vassar College and Yale Law School. She served in 1974 as counsel on the staff of the House Judiciary Committee which was considering impeachment of then-President Richard Nixon for his behavior during the Watergate scandal. She married William Jefferson Clinton. She used her name Hillary Rodham through Clintons first term as governor of Arkansas, then changed it to Hillary Rodham Clinton when he ran for reelection. She was First Lady during Bill Clintons presidency (1993-2001). Hillary Clinton managed the failed effort to seriously reform health care, she was the target of investigators and rumors for her involvement in the Whitewater scandal, and she defended and stood by her husband when he was accused and impeached during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Near the end of her husbands term as President, Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate from New York, taking office in 2001 and winning reelection in 2006. She unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, and when her strongest primary opponent, Barack Obama, won the general election, Hillary Clinton was appointed Secretary of State in 2009, serving until 2013. In 2015, she announced her candidacy once again for the Democratic presidential nomination, which she won in 2016. She lost in the November election, winning the popular vote by 3 million but losing the Electoral College vote. Select Hillary Rodham Clinton Quotations There cannot be true democracy unless womens voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives. There cannot be true democracy unless all citizens are able to participate fully in the lives of their country. We all owe so much to those who came before and tonight belongs to all of you.  [July 11, 1997]  Tonights victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.  [June 7, 2016]People can judge me for what Ive done. And I think when somebodys out in the public eye, thats what they do. So Im fully comfortable with who I am, what I stand for, and what Ive always stood for.I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life.If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.Th e challenges of change are always hard. It is important that we begin to unpack those challenges that confront this nation and realize that we each have a role that requires us to change and become more responsible for shaping our own future.The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible.If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.The failure was principally political and policy driven, there were many interests that werent at all happy about losing their financial stake in a way that the system currently operates, but I think I became a lightning rod for some of that criticism. [about her role, as First Lady, in attempting to win reforms in health care coverage]In the Bible, it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said 70 times 7. Well, I want you all to know that Im keeping a chart.I have gone from a Barry Goldwater Republican to a New Democrat, but I think my underlyin g values have remained pretty constant; individual responsibility and community. I do not see those as being mutually inconsistent.Im not some Tammy Wynette standing by my man.I have met thousands and thousands of pro-choice men and women. I have never met anyone who is pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is not being pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is trusting the individual to make the right decision for herself and her family, and not entrusting that decision to anyone wearing the authority of government in any regard.You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion.When does life start? When does it end? Who makes these decisions?... Every day, in hospitals and homes and hospices... people are struggling with those profound issues.Eleanor Roosevelt understood that every one of us every day has choices to make about the kind of person we are and what we wish to become. You can decide to be someone who brings people together, or you can fall prey to those who wish to divide us. You can be someone who educates yourself, or you can believe that being negative is clever and being cynical is fashionable. You have a choice.When I am talking about It Takes a Village, Im obviously not talking just about or even primarily about geographical villages any longer, but about the network of relationships and values that do connect us and binds us together.No government can love a child, and no policy can substitute for a familys care. But at the same time, government can either support or undermine families as they cope with moral, social and economic stresses of caring for children.If a country doesnt recognize minority rights and human rights, including womens rights, you will not have the kind of stability and prosperity that is possible.Im sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow youre not patriotic. We need to stand up and say were Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.We are Americans, We have the right to participate and debate any administration.Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is . . . For me, that balance is family, work, and service.I wasnt born a first lady or a senator. I wasnt born a Democrat. I wasnt born a lawyer or an advocate for womens rights and human rights. I wasnt born a wife or a mother.I will fight against the division politics of revenge and retribution. If you put me to work for you, I will work to lift people up, not put them down.I am particularly horrified by the use of propaganda and the manipulation of the truth and the revision of history.Would you tell your parents something for me? Ask them, if they have a gun in their house, please lock it or take it out of their house. Will you do that as good citizens? [to a group of schoolch ildren]I think it does once again urge us to think hard about what we can do to make sure that we keep guns out of the hands of children and criminals and mentally unbalanced people. I hope we will come together as a nation and do whatever it takes to keep guns away from people who have no business with them.We need to be as well prepared to defend ourselves against public health dangers as we should be to defend ourselves against any foreign danger.Dignity does not come from avenging insults, especially from violence that can never be justified. It comes from taking responsibility and advancing our common humanity.God bless the America we are trying to create.I have to confess that its crossed my mind that you could not be a Republican and a Christian.Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.In too many instances, the march to globalization has also meant the marginalization of women and girls. And that must change.Voting is the most precious right of every c itizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process. From Hillary Clintons Nomination Acceptance Speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention If fighting for affordable child care and paid family leave is playing the woman card, then deal me in!Our country’s motto is e Pluribus Unum: out of many, we are one.  Will we stay true to that motto?So don’t let anyone tell you that our country is weak.  We’re not.  Don’t let anyone tell you we don’t have what it takes.  We do.  And most of all, don’t believe anyone who says: â€Å"I alone can fix it.†None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community or lift a country totally alone.  America needs every one of us to lend our energy, our talents, our ambition to making our nation better and stronger.Standing here as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother, I’m so happy this day has come.  Happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between.  Happy for boys and men, too – because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit.  So let’s keep going until every one of the 161 million women and girls across America has the opportunity she deserves.  Because even more important than the history we make tonight is the history we will write together in the years ahead.But none of us can be satisfied with the status quo. Not by a long shot.My primary mission as President will be to create more opportunity and more good jobs with rising wages right here in the United States, from my first day in office to my last!I believe America thrives when the middle class thrives.I believe that our economy isn’t working the way it should because our democracy isn’t working the way it should.It’s wrong to take tax breaks with one hand and give out pink slips with the other.I believe in science. I believe that climate change is real and that we can save our planet while creating millions of good-paying clean energy jobs.He spoke for 70-odd minutes – and I do mean odd.In America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it.Ask yourself: Does Donald Trump have the temperament to be Commander-in-Chief?  Donald Trump can’t even handle the rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign.  He loses his cool at the slightest provocation. When he’s gotten a tough question from a reporter. When he’s challenged in a debate. When he sees a protestor at a rally.  Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.I can’t put it any better than Jackie Kennedy did after the Cuban Missile Crisis. She said that what worried President Kennedy during that very dangerous time was that a war might be started – not by big men with self-control and restraint, but by little men – the ones moved by fear and pride.Strength relies on smarts, judgment, cool resolve, and the precise and strategic application of power.I’m not here to repeal the 2nd Amendment.  I’m not here to take away your guns.  I just don’t want you to be shot by someone who shouldn’t have a gun in the first place.So let’s put ourselves in the shoes of young black and Latino men and women who face the effects of systemic racism, and are made to feel like their lives are disposable.  Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of police officers, kissing their kids and spouses goodbye every day and heading off to do a dangerous and necessary job.  We will reform our criminal justice system from end-to-end, and rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.Every generation of Americans has come together to make our country freer, fairer, and stronger.  None of us can do it alone.  I know that at a time when so much seems to be pulling us apart, it can be hard to imagine how we’ll ever pull together again.  But I’m here to tell you tonight – progress is possible.