Elections - Public Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Elections - Public Law - Essay Example Encyclpoedia Britannica defines an election as a formal process of making decision in which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Since the 17th century, elections have been widely exploited in modern representative democracy. Elections are used in filing various offices ranging from legislative offices, executive offices and even in private and business organizations. As such, election integrity has been formulated to ensure free and fair elections. Election integrity is basically a set of standards that are built on democratic principals and a legal system that spearheads and protects free, fair and equitable elections. This paper will analyze these principles and policies that would ensure the elections meet these standards, within the typology reviewed by Kornblith and Jawahar (124-137). Respect for Principles of Electoral Democracy This principle gives all citizens equal opportunities to not only participate in an election as voters but also as candidates. Eq ual voting powers must be given to all citizens during an election. Besides, the voters must be assured their right of privacy during the voting process. The political information must be accessible to the voters as well. The elections must also be held regularly during which the free casted votes of the majority remains the sole deciding factor The principles of electoral democracy highly value the free and fair elections. An election is free when it depends on freedom from fear, freedom of assembly, speech, movement and association. An election is fair when all participants are given equal opportunities, when it is transparent, when it is free from intimidation, when there is equitable electoral legislation and system, when it is conducted by an independent and impartial commission, when a proper procedure is followed, and when there is the acceptance of the electoral results. Election integrity is based on the commitment to stick to the democratic system of government as well as the rule of law. It also depends on the channels for participation and complaints and the willingness to accept change if and when there is need. Acceptance of the official results is also very important for election integrity. The system should put in place both institutional and legal framework that ensures the free and fair election. Ethical Conduct This principle requires administrators, the officers conducting the election; the candidates in the election, the parties and anybody participate in the electoral process to conduct them selves with a high degree of ethics. This is to say that all participants must carry out themselves in a way that works towards a free and fair election, and that ensures that the integrity of the process is upheld. It is necessary for all the participants to play their parts in a transparent professional and impartial manner. It would be wrong for public officials to use their offices for their personal gains. At the same time, lobbyists should not use any incentives to inappropriately influence the electoral or public officials; in fact, the law requires that they reveal all their funding and spending. Respect for other people’s political rights and their activity is an important part of the principle of ethical conduct. Both the electoral administrators and the voters must accept the fact that everyone has the right to debate political matters and hold different political views. They must also understand that nobody reserves the right to interfere with the efforts of polit ical parties to spread their message or even the political activities of the other citizens. Accuracy Accuracy is another very vital principle in election. In as much as dishonesty and fraudulent practices are the major drawbacks to integrity in elections, honest mistakes or human error may also take place during the process. Professionalism and accuracy on the part of the election administration is therefore very necessary. The integrity and

Alphonsus Church Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Alphonsus Church - Research Paper Example The historical back ground of St. Alphonsus Catholic Church dates back to 1861 when Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick made an invitation to the Redemptorists to construct a permanent home in St. Louis. Following the invitation, the Redemptorists bought three and one-half acres of land at Grand and Cook Avenues, and Father Francis Xavier Seelos paid a visit to the construction site of the future of St. Alphonsus â€Å"Rock† Church who was still in St. Louis in a parish mission preaching. On May 1st 1867, ground was broken for the church and on November 3rd the same year the cornerstone was put up in and blessed by the Rev. Joseph Melchers who was then the vicar general of the archdiocese. In 1887 the 22nd date of November, Rev. Augustus Tolton – the first African-American Roman Catholic priest – visited the St. Alphonsus â€Å"Rock† Church and met the Redemptorist Community then offered a mass which was meant for the School of Sisters on Notre Dame in their convent chapel within the church compound. Between the years 1887 to 2006 several invents that included the expansion of the activities of the church and alteration of the priests, clergy, deacons and pastors occurred. On 16th of August 2007, lightning struck the roof of the church resulting into a five alarm fire forcing the parish to celebrate their mass in the gym thereafter. This same year ( 2007) it was recommended that the church be closed to the fear of its structural deficiencies that in other words risked the lives of those who worshiped in it. This move was due to the concerns of human rights and need for worshippers safety that were considered as very important. Since then, worries have on people as if the church could be restored. Among the individuals who crucially expressed their concerns were the former parishioners of the church such as Terry Pittman, veteran harbor pilot and the current chairperson of the Sydney Ports Corporation who also had a better understanding of the historical building materials that had been used in the construction of the church.

Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe | An Analysis

Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe | An Analysis This paper discusses Degas’ representation of his circle of friends in reference to heroes and hero worship. For the purposes of the paper, ‘hero’ will be taken to mean ‘characters, that, in the face of adversity, and perhaps from a position of weakness display courage and the will for self-sacrifice’, with hero worship following the generally understood meaning ‘intense admiration for a hero’. The paper will show that Degas viewed his friends as heroes, in that they sacrificed themselves for their work, and that, through his collecting of various works, especially by those of close friends, and his portraits of his close friends, he exhibited ‘hero-worshipping’ towards these friends. The book Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe, based on a 2005/6 exhibition of the same name at the RISD Museum, looks in detail at Degas’ relationships with his close circle of friends, as portrayed in Degas’ 1885 pastel portrait of the same name. In this work, Degas presents Ludovic Halevy, Daniel Halevy, Jacques-Emil Blanch, Henri Gervex, Walter Sickert, and Albert Boulanger-Cave. The complex, often highly volatile, but always extremely loyal, friendships between these men, and with Degas, are narrated in Degas’ portrait. This is discussed in more detail in the book Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe, which concludes that Degas had an extremely complex relationship with his friends, and that once he had formed a friendship, Degas was at pains to let this friendship go, whatever the cost. He valued his friendships extremely highly, particularly, it seems, because he saw them as a means of releasing himself to the world, for his own timidity was often restrictive, and it was his relationships with close friends that allowed him to flourish (see Meyers, 2005). Degas formed many strong friendships throughout his life, as we have seen, with Ludovic Halevy ranking amongst the most dear, with loyal friendships with other artists (such as Emile Zola) informing his work, in terms of developing ideas about realism, and the role of painting, for example. Degas’ friendship with Sickert, for example, withstood the test of time, as relayed by Sickert himself in his 1917 article about his friendship with Degas (see Sickert, 1917), which portrays a profound affection for his friend Degas. This friendship is also explored in Robins (1988), which shows that Degas had a deep respect for Sickert, so much so that he introduced Sickert to mutual friends and to his own dealers. Degas’ friendship with Sickert was, however, only one of his many close friendships: he also had deep, and well-documented, friendships with Manet, with Toulouse-Lautrec, and with Emile Zola amongst others. Indeed, it is within the context of these friendships that he cam e to see ‘realism’ in art as the true path that his work should take, as documented in his many letters and through his various works (see, for example, Degas, 2000). Degas’ friendship with Manet is legendary, based on a comradely rivalry, with many ups and downs, forged together through strong artistic bonds, described as ‘(they) used the same models, shared an iconography and indulged in reciprocal quotations’ (see Baumann et al., 1995). The two artists, thus, informed each others works, and, indeed, an explicit connection between Degas’ pastel works and Manet’s Chez le Pere Lathuille has been made (see Meyers, 2005), perhaps suggestive of some form of reciprocal hero worship towards Degas on the part of Manet. However tumultuous their friendship, however, it is perhaps indicative of the depth of Degas’ respect for Manet that Manet’s Ham and Pear were opposite Degas’ bed, so they were the first things he saw in the morning when he awoke (Meyers, 2005). Degas’ portraits of Manet, such as his 1968/9 Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Edouard Manet, often raised trouble between the friends, and indeed, Manet cut Suzanne’s face off of this portrait, in disgust, although it is thought, through analyses of Degas’ writings, that no harm was actually intended, and, indeed, the portrait seemed to have been intended as a genuine compliment to the couple, leading to a temporary split in the friendship (see Baumann et al., 1995). Other portraits, such as the etching Portrait of Edouard Manet completed in 1862/5 shows Degas’ utmost respect for Manet, showing Manet as alert and attentive, reinforcing Degas’ tendency to reveal how he felt about his friends, as artistic heroes, and even perhaps, as personal heroes who saved Degas from the darker sides of his own personality, and from his own personal demons[1]. Degas, the complex artist, with complex interpretations, can thus be argued to have exhibited ‘hero worshipping’ towards his friends, as we have seen, through spending time with them, discussing realism with them, and by taking his time to paint portraits of them. In addition to this, Degas was an avid collector of art, and he avidly collected the work of old masters and contemporaries, with the aim of founding a Museum to house his extensive collection, although his loss of faith in the idea of a Museum, his suicide and the subsequent war-time sale of the collection did not allow for the construction of a Museum to house his collection. As Dumas (2000) and Ives et al. (1998) document, Degas’ personal art collection numbered over 5000 works at the time of his death, including works by masters such as Delacroix and Ingres, but mostly works by his contemporaries, including Manet, Cassatt, Van Gogh and Gauguin. This represents a form of appreciation of their work, an d, indeed, Degas is known to have only collected the best works of each artist, often, as was the case with Cezanne, collecting their work before the artists had attracted a dealer, or had sold their work widely. His dedication to his work as a collector constitutes, in some form, hero worship, as one artist appreciating the heroic efforts of another artists to produce worthy art. Understanding representations of friends of Degas as heroes is therefore a valid way in which to understand Degas’ intense admiration for the work of his contemporaries. Under this understanding, for Degas, collecting and portrait painting was a form of hero worship. References Baumann, F.A. et al., 1995. Degas Portraits: Portraits. Merrell Holberton. Dumas, A., 2000. The Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Yale University Press. Degas, E., 2000. Degas by himself: Drawings, paintings and writings. Little, Brown. Ives, C., Stein, S.A. and Steiner, J.A. (eds.), 1998. The Private Collection of Edgar Degas: a summary catalogue. Harry N. Abrams Inc. Julius, M., 1996. Edgar Degas – obsessive artist, obsessive collector. Contemporary Review August, pp.13-14. Lipton, E., 1988. Looking into Degas: Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life. Meyers, J., 2005. Impressionist Quartet: the intimate genius of Manet and Morisot, Degas and Cassatt. Harcourt. O’Brien, M. et al., 2005. Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Robins, A.G., 1988. Degas and Sickert: notes on their friendship. The Burlington Magazine 130(1020), pp.198+210-211+225-229. Robins, A.G. and Thomas, R., 2005. Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris, 1870-1910. Tate Publishing. Sickert, W., 1917. Degas. The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 31(176), pp.183-187+190-191. Vollard, A., 1986. Degas: an intimate portrait. Dover Publications. Footnotes [1] Nowhere is this better illustrated than in his extremely close relationship with Cassatt. He owned more than ninety of Cassatt’s prints, and aside from painting Cassatt’s portrait, he also produced a series of etchings entitled Mary Cassatt at the Louvre (see Julius, 1996).

Teens Must be Educated About the Consequences of Drinking :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

As binge drinking continues to increase every year so does the fatalities caused by car accidents, teen pregnancy, rape, and homicides. Obviously there is no way to completely stop binge drinking but if we could decrease the occurrence then we could make a difference. I strongly believe that in order to do this we need to make the consequences more severe. Teens get off too easily and that’s why they continue to drink irresponsibly. I also think that if teens knew about it before hand they would think twice about binge drinking. Billboards are a good way of sending out this message. If they appear on major highways with a catchy phrase or maybe even a picture of what could happen it would get people’s attention. I know that if I was to see what a fatal accident caused by alcohol can do to a person it would definitely affect me. There are always numbers under the billboard signs that you can call so you can make your own billboard and you can also look in the phone book. Many have already taken action on the subject by covering our highways with warnings about the consequences of drinking and with the holidays approaching the issue of teens drinking illegal is bound to increase. Billboards are seen by many people everyday and I think that one about a serious issue would make a huge difference. I believe that kids need to be informed about binge and underage drinking before hand. I would suggest that they be required to take a class about it in junior high and in high school. This way they are more educated on the outcomes of it and not that it’s just an adrenaline rush. The way I could spread the idea would be through flyers. Flyers are a real easy to make and with shocking information and real life stories and pictures I think the word will definitely get out. I could hand them out almost anywhere, such as the mall, a sporting event, at school, etc. the more that agree with my opinion the better the chances are of passing the law. And even if it doesn’t get passed it would at least get people thinking about it and maybe parents can inform their children about it before they get in a situation that is encouraging them to drink. There was recently a commercial on TV about a girl that got hit by a drunk driver.

The Renaissance era of literature

The Renaissance era of literature The Renaissance era embraces the period between 14th and 16th centuries. The term Renaissance itself meaner the rebirth what in some respect is referred to the rebirth from the obscurity of middle Ages and is originated from a French word. This period has influenced all of branches of human life including religion, philosophy, politics, music, science and literature. Taking into consideration the Renaissance literature it is to be mentioned that there are generally three periods of its development.These are Early Renaissance (14th century), High Renaissance (1 5th 16th century) and Late Renaissance (16th century). The Renaissance era in literature begun from the well-known Dante Aligner's The Divine Comedy. The more important writers of the Renaissance were William Shakespeare, Thomas More, Florentine Vacation, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Miguel De Cervantes, Francesco Patriarch and Niccole Machiavelli. In theirs works the authors referred to t he ideals reflected in ancient civilizations like Roman or Greek. They incorporated the classical style into their own works.Religious works, lyric poetry, and drama were here major types of literature in the Renaissance era. This period is characterized by the emergence of new genre of short story. During the Renaissance great changes in world literature have occurred. The first and the most considerable one was the break with the Latin language in the literature. The writers started to write in national languages. The introduction of movable-type printing press in the 1 5th century stimulated great development of literature as well as eliminated the use of manuscripts.Comparing with previous era, books became cheaper and people in order to read a book did not have to know Latin anymore; thus, the books became more affordable in the Renaissance. The Renaissance generally and its literature particularly not only gave the brilliant group of outstanding authors to the world, but actua lly altered the course of the history as well as the literature. References Britton , J. (2006). The Renaissance: A very short introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Lewis C. (1980). Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. United Kingdom, I-J: Cambridge University Press. (Lewis, 1980)

Political Cartoon Analysis Essay

World War II was a time of great social turmoil in the United States, not only because of its active role in the war, but also because of the radical changes taking place in society. As an effect of the Jim Crow laws, people were beginning to speak up against segregation and demand equal rights. During this time, many activists and political reformists used different forms of social media in order to present their ideas regarding racism. In 1942, Dr. Seuss published this political cartoon in the New York PM newspaper as a way to address the issue of racial discrimination by urging change in the war industry. Because the war industry did not value the use of black labor in the war effort, the main idea presented in this cartoon is that both white and black labor are required to achieve real peace and equality in society. Seuss uses symbolism, his characters, and text in order to effectively portray his message to his audience, the people of the United States. Seuss uses Uncle Sam and the satirical character â€Å"War Industry† in order to represent the two conflicting viewpoints on the issue of racism. While Uncle Sam represents the democratic American ideals of equality, â€Å"War Industry† symbolizes the group of people, companies, and racial mindsets that support racial segregation. In this cartoon, Uncle Sam represents the goal of the American labor force: to incorporate the use of all men, regardless of race, in order to fight for the nation. However, the War Industry representative symbolizes a more prejudiced, racist mindset. His top hat and cigar reveal that he is of a wealthy class, which separates him from the common laborers and working class. He is seen to be playing only the white keys on the piano, which demonstrates the use of only white labor in the war efforts. His short hands represent his reluctance to incorporate black labor into the industry because of bigotry and racial stereotypes. Although Uncle Sam is not violent or imposing in this cartoon, his expression reflects sternness and forcefulness, showing his urgency to incorporate black labor into the war industry with a non-violent, practical approach. In addition to the use of his characters, Seuss uses text in order to convince his audience of his ideals regarding racism in the war efforts. The quote near the top of the cartoon states that â€Å"real harmony† can only be achieved by using both white and black labor in the war efforts. Not only does Uncle Sam advocate for equality, but he also wants to see the success of the war industry. He uses this appeal in order to address the desires of the wealthy class. By using the word â€Å"harmony†, he means both racial equality in society, as well as improvements in the war industry. The white keys on the piano are labelled â€Å"White Labor† which far outnumber the black keys. This represents the idea that black labor is seldom used in the war industry. Seuss wants to show his audience that, using both black and white labor force will improve the condition of society. Lastly, Seuss’s use of symbolism further demonstrates his message of racial equality in the war effort. The piano itself is a symbol for the distribution of work in the labor force amongst whites and blacks. In addition, the cobwebs on the black keys symbolize the rare use, or no use at all, of black labor during World War II. In addition, there is a uneven distribution of smoke coming out of the pipes of the piano. This shows that the instrument, or labor force, is not being used to its full extent. While some parts of the piano are stressed, others are seldom used and are neglected. This applies to the labor force in America. By not allowing blacks to work in the war industry, the full potential of America’s working class is not being used. In conclusion, Dr. Suess’s political cartoon addresses the issues of racial segregation within the American society. This political cartoon was widely controversial in its time because of its political stance and radical ideas that oppose the Jim Crow laws and the upper class of society. Although this cartoon did not directly cause a dramatic change in society, it advocated for a very important idea in American history, the issue of equality of all people.