The origins of representative democracy Essay Example for Free

The origins of representative democracy Essay Who benefited from the Magna Carta? The English NobilityThe English nobility gained the most benefits from the Magna Carta, which established limitations on the power of the king. Which of the following was guaranteed in the English Bill of Rights? Freedom from taxation without representation. Whose ideas about government greatly influenced the men who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? John Locke The writings of John Locke, a British philosopher of the Enlightenment period, had a profound influence on the Founding Fathers. What was the colonists’ primary complaint about the rule of the British Crown? The American colonists’ primary complaint was that they were subject to heavy taxes from the British Crown. Which of the following was a component of the Coercive Acts? Establishment of martial law, the requirement for the colonists to quarter British soldiers, the closure of the port of Boston, and the dissolution of the Massachusetts legislature were all components of the Coercive Acts. Which event directly resulted from the Coercive Acts? the First Continental Congress directly resulted from the Coercive Acts. Which section of the Declaration of Independence contains arguments on the right to revolution? Arguments on the right to revolution, based on the philosophy of John Locke, are found in the second section of the Declaration of Independence. Who was given the primary responsibility for drafting the Declaration of Independence? Thomas Jefferson was given the primary responsibility for drafting the Declaration of Independence. What were the main ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence? The main ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence were individual rights and liberties and the duty of the government to protect them. The Articles of Confederation specified that the United States would be which form of government? The Articles of Confederation specified that the United States would be a republic. What concerned the Founders in drafting the Articles of Confederation? Mob rule, arbitrary monarchical power, large territory size, and the ability of the people to check government power were all taken into account by the Founders when they drafted the Articles of Confederation. Which of the following was NOT a component of the Articles of Confederation? A bicameral legislature was not a component of the Articles of Confederation (Congress had a single chamber). What led the Founders to realize that the Articles of Confederation needed to be reconfigured? Crises like Shays Rebellion, the inability of the national government to control financial concerns and raise taxes, the disproportionate power held by the states, and the vulnerability of the new nation due to the lack of an executive all contributed to the movement to reconfigure the Articles of Confederation. As the Constitution was being drafted, who was most in support of equal representation in the national legislature? Small states such as Rhode Island most strongly supported equal representation in the legislature. Which of the following plans for representation was incorporated into the Connecticut Compromise? The Connecticut Compromise incorporated a plan calling for each state to be proportionally represented in one house of a bicameral legislature (the House of Representatives). What was Shays Rebellion? Farmers in western Massachusetts, angry that their lands were being foreclosed upon for debts, shut down the courts and stormed an arsenal. The Constitution was ratified in the year? The Constitution was ratified in 1788. The Bill of Rights was ratified in the year?1791 How many terms did George Washington serve as president before leaving office? George Washington served two terms. Marbury v. Madison confirmed the Supreme Courts power to declare laws passed by Congress unconstitutional. What did the case involve? Marbury v. Madison concerned a dispute over William Marburys appointment to a government post. Debates at the Constitutional Convention surrounding the executive branch included which of the following? Debates surrounding the executive branch included both how many executives should serve and how to elect the executive. The Constitution differed from the Articles of Confederation in that itThe Constitution differed from the Articles of Confederation in that it gave Congress the power to establish a national court system. What did it take for Virginia and New York to finally agree to ratify the Constitution? New York and Virginia agreed to ratify the Constitution only after the Federalists promised to include amendments clarifying the limits on government power (the Bill of Rights). Chapter 1. The Founding Constitution Study Questions: Key Terms: Great Compromise (or Connecticut Compromise) The Great Compromise was an agreement made among the delegates to the Constitutional Convention that the American government would have two houses in Congress: the Senate where each state has two Senators, and the House of Representatives where each state has a number of Representatives based on population. The Great Compromise ended one of the most serious disagreements among the new states. Small states felt that all states were equal in stature and that if Congressional representation were based upon population, they would be outvoted on everything. Large states felt that populations should determine how many representatives a state should have, because they were afraid that they would be outvoted by the small states. This disagreement was preventing the Constitution from being adopted. In order to move forward on the Constitution, the states compromised and made Congress as a bicameral legislative body. Without the Great Compromise, there might not be the Constitution or US Government as we know it today. Background: Two plans were put forth during the Constitutional Convention to create the new branches of government. The Virginia Plan wanted a strong national government with three branches. The legislature would have two houses. One would be directly elected by the people and the second would selected by the first house from people nominated by the state legislatures. Further, the president and national judiciary would be chosen by the national legislature. On the other hand, the New Jersey Plan wanted a more decentralized plan amending the old Articles yet allowing for a somewhat stronger government. Each state would have one vote in Congress. The Great Compromise combined these two plans creating our current legislature with two houses, one based on population and elected by the people and the other house allowing two senators per state being appointed by state legislatures. (Direct election of Senators began after the 17th amendment was ratified in 1913.) Bicameralism a legislative body having two branches, houses, or chambers 3/5ths Compromise Three-Fifths Compromise: slaves would not be counted as whole persons for the purposes of representation, but they would not be excluded from the population count either. Instead, a slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person. In this way, large Southern slave states would not be overly advantaged in representation in the lower house of Congress, but they would be recognized for their population size. However, besides allowing greater representation for states with large slave populations, the Constitution did not address the institution of slavery in any other way. It would take 80 years and the bloody Civil War for the nation to fully eradicate slavery and recognize African Americans as free persons with rights to citizenship. Even then, it would be another century before African Americans in the South would enjoy equal access to voting and be allowed to serve as members of a jury. Separation of Powers Separation of powers, therefore, refers to the division of government responsibilities into distinct branches to limit any one branch from exercising the core functions of another. The intent is to prevent the concentration of power and provide for checks and balances. The traditional characterizations of the powers of the branches of American government are: * The legislative branch is responsible for enacting the laws of the state and appropriating the money necessary to operate the government. * The executive branch is responsible for implementing and administering the public policy enacted and funded by the legislative branch. * The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting the constitution and laws and applying their interpretations to controversies brought before it. Forty state constitutions specify that government be divided into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. California illustrates this approach; The powers of state government are legislative, executive, and judicial. Persons charged with the exercise of one power may not exercise either of the others except as permitted by this Constitution. While separation of powers is key to the workings of American government, no democratic system exists with an absolute separation of powers or an absolute lack of separation of powers. Governmental powers and responsibilities intentionally overlap; they are too complex and interrelated to be neatly compartmentalized. As a result, there is an inherent measure of competition and conflict among the branches of government. Throughout American history, there also has been an ebb and flow of preeminence among the governmental branches. Such experiences suggest that where power resides is part of an evolutionary process. This Web page provides resources for legislators and staff to use in addressing separation of powers issues. It organizes them into broad categories and links to a diverse set of resources to illustrate how the doctrine applies to specific issues under each category. The resources include law review articles, court cases and legislative reports.

Spanish Influenza Outbreak, 1918 :: American America History

Spanish Influenza Outbreak, 1918 In the midst of perfect health, in a circumscribed community... the first case of influenza would occur, and then within the next few hours or days a large proportion- and occasionally every single individual of that community- would be stricken down with the same type of febrile illness, the rate of spread from one to another being remarkable... Barrack rooms which the day before had been full of bustle and life, would now converted wholesale into one great sick room, the number of sick developing so rapidly that hospitals were within a day or two so overfull that fresh admissions were impossible. -Dr. Herbert French to the British Ministry of Health (Hoehling,18)    Between the months of August and November of 1918, Spanish influenza spread quickly across the United States and around the world in epidemic proportions. The disease was thought to have been brought from country to country by sea-faring vessels passing through major port cities around the world, with illness striking men of French troops, the British Royal Navy, civilians in America, and more. The Public Health Service sanitation officer and member of the First Navy District, Dr. William M. Bryan, was aware of the conditions in Boston and was worried by them, where hot, dusty, and dry conditions exacerbated the problem, forcing sailors and soldiers into crowded conditions in Boston, where the close conditions and poor housing aided in the quick spread of influenza from person to person (23). Although influenza itself did not cause the deaths, but caused the pneumonia which did cause deaths, the number of deaths were still striking and rising. The deaths of three men in one afternoon in Quincy, Massachusetts caused the public to take notice. Bostonà ­s church closed on September 22 to keep the public separated from each other (33). The disease proceeded to cause death in large numbers throughout the country. At one point, Philadelphia was stricken with 289 deaths within 24 hours(71). If the problems involving the quick spread of the disease could have been foreseen, it would have been wise to take precautions concerning the close quarters in the major port town of Boston. There may have been a way to separate people to a greater degree and not allow them to be on such close terms that they could have passed the virus so quickly from one to another. A larger number of available places to board, though impractical, would have been helpful because the disease would have had more difficulty spreading than in the close confines that existed. Spanish Influenza Outbreak, 1918 :: American America History Spanish Influenza Outbreak, 1918 In the midst of perfect health, in a circumscribed community... the first case of influenza would occur, and then within the next few hours or days a large proportion- and occasionally every single individual of that community- would be stricken down with the same type of febrile illness, the rate of spread from one to another being remarkable... Barrack rooms which the day before had been full of bustle and life, would now converted wholesale into one great sick room, the number of sick developing so rapidly that hospitals were within a day or two so overfull that fresh admissions were impossible. -Dr. Herbert French to the British Ministry of Health (Hoehling,18)    Between the months of August and November of 1918, Spanish influenza spread quickly across the United States and around the world in epidemic proportions. The disease was thought to have been brought from country to country by sea-faring vessels passing through major port cities around the world, with illness striking men of French troops, the British Royal Navy, civilians in America, and more. The Public Health Service sanitation officer and member of the First Navy District, Dr. William M. Bryan, was aware of the conditions in Boston and was worried by them, where hot, dusty, and dry conditions exacerbated the problem, forcing sailors and soldiers into crowded conditions in Boston, where the close conditions and poor housing aided in the quick spread of influenza from person to person (23). Although influenza itself did not cause the deaths, but caused the pneumonia which did cause deaths, the number of deaths were still striking and rising. The deaths of three men in one afternoon in Quincy, Massachusetts caused the public to take notice. Bostonà ­s church closed on September 22 to keep the public separated from each other (33). The disease proceeded to cause death in large numbers throughout the country. At one point, Philadelphia was stricken with 289 deaths within 24 hours(71). If the problems involving the quick spread of the disease could have been foreseen, it would have been wise to take precautions concerning the close quarters in the major port town of Boston. There may have been a way to separate people to a greater degree and not allow them to be on such close terms that they could have passed the virus so quickly from one to another. A larger number of available places to board, though impractical, would have been helpful because the disease would have had more difficulty spreading than in the close confines that existed.

Books beyond paper

The technological developments in the field of computers and internet have brought in far reaching changes in both at home and the office. Communication through letters has changed over to exchange of e-mails. The vast storage space available in the computer is being utilized for storing text, music, pictures and video in electronic format. Once inside the computer hard disk, they are all digital files consisting of bits of ‘ones’ and ‘zeroes’. Office automation has improved efficiency and has provided cost reduction to survive in a competitive environment. Modern technology is known to have had its impact on every part of our life.It can’t leave the world of books untouched. e-book We are living in the age of information and the internet. This is the period of the knowledge economy. There are several changes that have taken place in the work area. Most of the work is being done using the computer, intranet and the internet. Modern offices have become paperless offices. Faster microprocessors and higher disk space available in the computer has made storage and retrieval of data faster and convenient and this has helped Project Gutenberg to convert texts of classical literature into the digital format (History and philosophy of Project Gutenberg, 1992).The idea was to make books and other information to be made available to the general public. The World Wide Web can be considered as a vast library where all sorts of information is stored and is accessible to anybody from any corner of the world. The websites which form the World Wide Web can be considered as the books or magazines of the virtual library. The websites have different applications such as games, on line shopping, networking, music and video sharing. But there are many websites such as online dictionaries and encyclopedias which have been organized similar to books or printed matter.Some of these websites and the databases can be considered as electronic books (Bradl ey F. James). HTML coding is the standard followed by all websites to accommodate text as well as pictures. A server is a host where the WebPages are uploaded. Hundreds of such WebPages are put together in a common server with a domain name so that they can be accessed easily. The WebPages are interconnected using hypertext links. This has resulted in a network consisting of WebPages full of information on all sorts of topics.Massive work is in progress in adding content to the websites and they are being periodically updated. There are any number of online libraries which host books that can be read on the net. The HTML coded text can be read using the web browsers. In addition there are books that can be downloaded which are generally in pdf format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is the software that is required for reading text in pdf format. Reading a book from a computer screen is not same as reading from the printed book. It is basically the comfort level of the reader.To make the conce pt of the e-book more acceptable and also to provide the reader the flexibility of reading the book as per his requirement, several manufacturers have come up with paperback size portable electronic gadgets that work on batteries. The e-books come in two broad categories; the personal digital assistant (PDA) and electronic reading device (ERD). While PDA is for multi-function use and it is considered as a hand held computer, ERD is specially designed and marketed for reading pleasure. ERD has the provision to download and store the e-book files from a computer hard disk and display text on a screen.For music files mp3 compression became a standard but there is no such standard for e-books. There are as many as 25 different formats which are being promoted by different manufacturers. In addition, the e-books that are commercially made available are with digital rights management (DRM), a form of security to prevent people from sharing without authorization (Rosso Sara, 2009). The ded icated e-book readers use E Ink technology to simulate text printed on paper and ink particles are displayed electronically. There is no need of backlighting of the display. It can be read even in broad day light.Amazon kindle is a product developed by Amazon. com and the second generation model became available in March 2009. There is provision to deliver content directly to the e-book within a wireless coverage area hence a computer is not required to download content. It has features such as choosing text size; the text can be read out either through speakers or headphones while the screen continues to show the text being read; choice of voice can be male or female; dictionary look up for a particular word without disturbing the content; notes made are saved and backed up on Amazon servers.It has capacity to hold thousand digital books, and other text from magazines and blogs. Whatever books purchased from Amazon. com are in a store for the customer and he can download them as an d when he wants through the wireless access provided. All other text files belonging to the user which are in different formats can be uploaded to Amazon where they get converted to kindle format and are available for downloading and reading on the device (Kindle User’s Guide).PRS-700 is the third generation Reader available from Sony and has additional features such as touch screen, on screen key board, and side lighting for reading in poor light. The addition of touch screen is supposed to have affected the display contrast. A portable mp3 player is integrated within the Reader to listen to music in the background. The internal storage capacity may be limited to 350 books but it has memory stick and SDHC SD card slot to store thousands of books and tunes (Gade Lisa, 2008). It uses Sony software to synchronize with desk top computer to transfer books to the Reader.It supports different text formats such as text, RTF, MS Word, PDF and ePub. The iLiad book from iRex Technologi es is an e-book with 8. 1 inch touchscreen display and has memory that can be expanded to 8 GB to accommodate up to 10,000 books in digital format. This needs to be connected to a PC using a USB cable to search and browse the net to download books or get it from mobipocket. com an online ebook-store. Mobipocket Reader is the software that works with this device. The handwritten notes can be converted to digital text. This device supports several formats (Stunningly paper-like).Cybook Gen3 is an e-book from the French manufacturer Bookeen, slightly smaller in size with a six inch screen and easily fits in the hand. There is no provision for taking notes and Wi-Fi connectivity for downloading data. It needs to be connected to the PC with a USB cable to transfer data. 64MB built in memory is provided and SD card can be used for additional storage. It supports several text formats including PDF. It has an mp3 player for listening to music and also for playing audio books. It is energy e fficient and the battery provides 8000 screen refreshes (Vogel Sandra, 2008).The present generation of student population is technology friendly and would love the text books in a digital format which provides a clear advantage of easy portability in a laptop. It is easier for the libraries to store them and many people can access them using the intranet or the internet. The content can be updated as required. The library can transform itself from a place of storing books to an information portal. There is a need to distinguish the reading content from the e-book as a medium for storage and reading.It is just like the difference between the music and the storage medium such as cassettes, CDs and mp3 digital files. The technological changes that were accepted in the music industry have helped in distributing music in different formats and now iPods and iTunes are the most popular form of the medium and the distribution channel for music. We are hopeful of a similar transformation to take place in text content and its medium and distribution provided the problem of DRM is settled and text content file is made available at a fractional price of its printed counterpart.A standard open file format will be helpful in expanding the market Conclusion The text in digital format has several advantages of small size, easy portability, searching capability, font type and size, and ready access to dictionary. In theses days where people are losing reading interest, the rigid attitude of publishers on DRM and high cost of text in digital format is coming in the way of generating customer interest in e-book as a useful reading of tool. Works cited Bradley F.James â€Å"The Electronic Book and PDA† retrieved on 2009-05-14 http://www. scinet. cc/articles/ebook/electronicbook. html Gade Lisa â€Å"Sony Reader PRS-700† Nov 11, 2008 Mobile Tech Review retrieved on 2009-05-15 http://www. mobiletechreview. com/gadgets/Sony-Reader-PRS-700. htm â€Å"History and philos ophy of Project Gutenberg† Aug 92 retrieved on 2009-05-14 http://www. promo. net/pg/history. html â€Å"Kindle User’s Guide† 3rd edition retrieved on 2009-05-15 https://kindle. s3. amazonaws. com/Kindle_Users_Guide_v3. pdfRosso Sara â€Å"How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and iPhone Applications† Mar 10, 2009 retrieved on 2009-05-14 http://www. whenihavetime. com/how-to-read-an-ebook-formats-devices-dedicated-readers-and-iphone-applications/? PHPSESSID=bb4854fd629733b5375a6a83a7f0d70d â€Å"Stunningly, Paper-like† The iLiad Book Edition retrieved on 2009-05-16 http://www. irextechnologies. com/products/bookedition/features Vogel Sandra â€Å"Bookeen Cybook Gen3 Review† Nov 9, 2008 Trusted Reviews retrieved on 2009-05-16 http://www. trustedreviews. com/mobile-devices/review/2008/01/09/Bookeen-Cybook-Gen3/p1

The Protest Between Ferguson s Residents And The City s...

The protest between Ferguson’s residents and the city’s government has really had a great impact on political views regarding whether racism between police officers and high officials still exist and its effects towards african americans. But conflict between white and black individuals did not began in todays society nor was it any better before. Racism and abuse towards blacks dates back up until the late 16th century, starting from slavery. Slavery first began in 1619, when a dutch ship introduced the first captured africans to the new world. The ship docked in the north colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The ships crew traded the kidnapped victims for food and supplies. This enslavement of africans became an advantage to the colonists, by utilizing them as free labor in the production of tobacco. African men and women of all ages and sizes were taken from their country and turned into slaves. Most slaves were abducted mainly from Angola and Ghana, in the western part of Africa. These victims were forced onto the bottom deck of the ship in which they would be crammed up into any available space to make room. Captives in these ships would often be chained up against the walls or floors. Conditions aboard the slave ships were wretched†¦ The atmosphere inhumane to say the least (â€Å"Aboard a slave ship, 1829,†Eyewitness to history 2000). Heat exhaustion, Hyperthermia, diseases, Strong odor of human waste were some of the many conditions theseShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Shooting Of Michael Brown Essay1302 Words   |  6 PagesRodney King. Trayvon Martin. Looking at where we are today after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, it can feel like nothing has changed in the way we police the police.Many things haven’t. Juries acquitted police. Cops got their jobs back. And brutality happened again.Some things have gotte n worse. 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