Direct Democracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Direct Democracy - Essay Example Direct Democracy is a form of government in which all citizens can directly participate in the decision-making process. (Direct Democracy Campaign, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Daniel B. Jeffs, founder, The Direct Democracy Center, states that the problems are due to the Government being too large and too dangerously powerful. He firmly believes that elected representatives are corrupted by a deeply flawed system that seduces them with money and power to gain and remain in office, or seek higher office and that in this process it has disenfranchised the overall electorate. Finally, he states that this system needs to be altered in such a way that it will override the practice of selective democracy by factions and vested interests. The solution according to him lies in nonpartisan elections and government with more democracy. In this age of communications and information technology, the Constitution should be amended so as to establish direct democracy by means of secure voting networks connected to voter's homes. All elections would be conducted over the voting networks. In this proposed system the elected representatives would be nonpartisan, highly qualified professional government managers. To keep it honest, with no more government than we need, well-informed voters should decide matters of taxation and public policy. And the collective judgment of our fellow citizens (which could be trusted because the direct democracy voting networks would require voters to be truthfully informed) would know what is best for all of us. (Daniel B. Jeffs, The Direct Democracy Center). The advantages of Direct Democracy are that first, it would remove the barrier between the electorate and the government. Secondly, in Representative Democracy the voter has to vote for one party or the other with no guarantee of either party addressing the issues facing the voter, on the other hand in Direct Democracy the voter will be voting on each issue separately. Thirdly, decisions will always be that of the people rather than that of a few politicians. Fourthly, it encourages people to be more proactive in the political process, this results in a more deterministic future for the voter. Fifthly, it curbs the power of the elite. Sixthly, the practice of elected representatives following the diktats of party leaders and civil servants to the detriment of the voter will cease. Seventhly, quid - pro - quo transactions between the elected representatives and the rich and powerful pressure groups will cease altogether. Eighthly, thorny and uncomfortable issues which elected represen tatives would do anything to avoid, will be addressed by this system. Ninthly, there would be control on governmental tendencies running towards the dictatorial. And finally, the system of Direct Democracy is more democratic. (Direct Democracy Campaign). The disadvantages of Direct Democracy are that: first, all citizens must be actively involved on all issues all of the time. For very large population groups, it might become well nigh impossible to do so. Secondly, the public generally gives only superficial attention to political issues and is thus susceptible to charismatic arguments. Thirdly, the decision of all or most matters

Korean And Vietnam Wars Essay -- essays research papers fc

The Korean War would be a radical step in fighting wars, as well as the feelings people had toward the war. All wars in American History fought before the Korean War were based on either national survival or the gain of territory. A strong conflict was created between the Soviet Union and the United States. From this conflict, tension was so strong that wars were fougt in the midst of this Cold War. The Korean War was the first America ever waged that was not fought for national survival, for territory, for manifest destiny or for hegemony. Korea was the first ideological war;" (Coppel, 505). For example the American revolution was based on national survival. The people of the thirteen colonies wanted a nation in which they were free of Britain's tyranny. They wanted to live as an independent nation and survive as one. The American Civil War was another example of national survival. President Lincoln had the point that if the war was unsuccessful or was pushed in the right direction then the nation would be divided into the north and south. World War One was fought as a result of both the gain of territory and national survival. Austria-Hungary was expandingt into western parts of Russia and northern Italy. It was also conquering the nations to the east and taking control of their governments. The Allied powers sought to stop this expansion and war broke out in Europe. The United States then sent of troops to assist France and Great Britain in the conflict. At the end of World War One, Austria-Hungary was divided up, its territory formed many new nations as well as r estored land to already existing nations. In World War Two, much of the same circumstances were present with events that contributed to the escalation of the war, and the involvement of the United States. Germany, under the rule of Hitler was expanding very slowly across Europe. It took land to the east and west of them, took over many of the new nations created by the Versailles treaty, as well as disregarding many laws passed during the Versailles treaty. As the war continued, France was taken over, and Stalin gave Germany a large area of land that belonged to Russia when the country withdrew from the war. These countries needed to be restored and Germany needed to be pushed back to its original boarders. Japan which was also ... ...ietnam Veterans say that they are glad they served , and seventy four percent say that they would serve again even knowing the outcome. Those men Bibliography Benvin, Alexander. Korea: The First War We Lost New York: Hippocrene Books Inc., 1986. Jones, James. Viet Journal New York: New York Times Magazine Hapers and Oui, 1974. Knox, Donald; Alfred Coppel. The Korean War: Pusan to Chosin Orlando, Florida: Harcourt and Brace Javanovich Publishers, 1985. Knox, Donald. The Korean War: Uncertain Victory Orlando, Florida: Harcourt and Brace Javanovich Publishers, 1988. Patti, Archemedes. Why Vietnam? Berkly and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1980. Zagora, Donald S. Vietnam Triangle Western Publishing Company, 1967. "Vietnam War." Groliers Multimedia Encyclopedia. 1995. "Korean War." Groliers Multimedia Encyclopedia. 1995. "The Vietnam War." The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. 1996. Kovencz, John. Personal Interview. Roush, Gary. Statistics About the Vietnam War http://www.vhfcn.org/stats.htm, 2000. Yue, Dongxiao. Korean War Faq http://centurychina.com/history/krwarfaq.html, 1998.

My Antonia Important Quotes Essay

1. â€Å"During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago. More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, and the whole adventure of our childhood.† Explanation This passage from the Introduction is the first the reader hears of Antonia. The narrator of the Introduction, who grew up with Jim and Antonia in Nebraska, describes a train ride taken with Jim many years later and details their conversation about Antonia. They agreed that Antonia, more than any other person, seemed to represent the world they had grown up in, to the point that speaking her name evokes â€Å"people and places† and â€Å"a quiet drama . . . in one’s brain.† This quotation is important because it establishes that Antonia will both evoke and symbolize the vanished past of Jim’s childhood in Nebraska. It situates Antonia as the central character in Jim’s story and explains Jim’s preoccupation with her by connecting her to his memories of the past. Finally, it establishes Jim’s character with its implication that Jim shares the unnamed narrator’s romantic inclination to dwell on the past and to allow people and places to take on an extraordinarily emotional, nostalgic significance. 2. â€Å"Why aren’t you always nice like this, Tony?† â€Å"How nice?† â€Å"Why, just like this; like yourself. Why do you all the time try to be like Ambrosch?† She put her arms under her head and lay back, looking up at the sky. â€Å"If I live here, like you, that is different. Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us.† Explanation This dialogue from Chapter XIX occurs as Jim and Antonia sit on the roof of the chicken house, watching the electrical storm. The two have grown apart somewhat following Mr. Shimerda’s suicide, as Jim has begun to attend school and Antonia has been forced to spend her time working on the farm. Jim has found himself dismayed by Antonia’s increasing coarseness and her pride in her own strength. As they sit watching the lightning storm, Jim feels his old intimacy returning, and he brings himself to ask Antonia why she has changed. Antonia understands Jim’s question and, because she is four years older, understands better than he does why their lives have begun to move in separate directions. Jim has opportunities and a bright future ahead of him, but for Antonia, life now means simply helping her family get by. Antonia acknowledges this unalterable circumstance with her customarily wise simplicity: â€Å"Things will be easy for you. But they will be hard for us.† 3. â€Å"Presently we saw a curious thing: There were no clouds, the sun was going down in a limpid, gold-washed sky. Just as the lower edge of the red disc rested on the high fields against the horizon, a great black figure suddenly appeared on the face of the sun. We sprang to our feet, straining our eyes toward it. In a moment we realized what it was. On some upland farm, a plough had been left standing in the field. The sun was sinking just behind it. Magnified across the distance by the horizontal light, it stood out against the sun, was exactly contained within the circle of the disk; the handles, the tongue, the share—black against the molten red. There it was, heroic in size, picture writing on the sun.† â€Å"Even while we whispered about it, our vision disappeared; the ball dropped and dropped until the red tip went beneath the earth. The fields below us were dark, the sky was growing pale, and that forgotten plough had sunk back to its own littleness somewhere on the prairie.† Explanation This passage from Chapter XIV, recounts a sunset that Jim and Antonia watch  the summer after Jim graduates from high school. Gradually, the sun sinks behind a plow on the horizon, so the plow is superimposed on the red sun, â€Å"black against molten red.† The passage is an excellent example of Cather’s famous ability to evoke the landscape, creating a sensuous and poetic picture of a sunset on the Nebraska prairie. It also indicates the extraordinary psychological connection that Cather’s characters feel with their landscape, as the setting sun perfectly captures the quiet, somewhat bittersweet moment the characters are experiencing—they care for one another and have had a wonderful day together, but they are growing up and will soon go their separate ways. The image of the plow superimposed on the sun also suggests a symbolic connection between human culture (the plow) and the nature (the sun). As the plow fills up the disk of the sun, the two coexist in perfect harmony, just as Jim recalls the idyllic connection between the natural landscape and the settlements in Nebraska. But as the sun sinks beneath the horizon, the plow dwindles to insignificance (â€Å"its own littleness†), suggesting that, in the relationship between humankind and environment, environment is dominant. 4. â€Å"She lent herself to immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true. I had not been mistaken. She was a battered woman now, not a lovely girl; but she still had that something which fires the imagination, could still stop one’s breath for a moment by a look or gesture that somehow revealed the meaning in common things. She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last. All the strong things of her heart came out in her body, which had been so tireless in serving generous emotions. It was no wonder that her sons stood tall and straight. She was a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races.† Explanation This quotation is basically the conclusion. Where we find the adult Jim still contemplating the fascination he feels for Antonia. Here he attributes her  significance to her nurturing and generous presence, which suggests an enviable fullness of life. Antonia evokes â€Å"immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true† because she is full of love and loyalty. As Jim portrays it, Antonia is a â€Å"rich mine of life,† an inexhaustible source of love and will from which others draw strength and warmth. This portrayal explains why Antonia lingers so prominently in the minds of so many people from Jim’s childhood (Jim, Lena, the narrator of the introduction). In her presence they have been filled with the love and strength that she exudes, and they will never forget the way it made them feel. Apart from standing as the novel’s final important analysis of Antonia, this quote is important because it reveals the psychological changes that the passage of time has wrought in Jim. Whereas before he avoided Antonia for twenty years because he did not want to see the lovely girl he knew transformed into a hardened, overworked matron, he can now see beyond Antonia’s age to her essential inner quality, which he finds can still â€Å"stop one’s breath.† This newfound connection to the present indicates that Jim can finally move beyond his dreamlike preoccupation with his nostalgia for his youth and contemplate Antonio as more than a symbol of the past.

Should Class Attendance Be Optional to University...

Nowadays, universities are open place for all people. More and more educational chances have been created for those who want to acquire knowledge from colleges and universities. While registering for a college course seems to be no longer complicated, there still remains an obstacle that has been triggered so much controversy in academic environment: mandatory attendance policy. This policy, which is imposed by some schools or some professors, requires that college student must attend class regularly enough or their exam papers will be extracted some attendance points (that usually count for about 15 or 20 percent of the total grade evaluation). In my opinion, this policy is useless and burdensome to many people involved. University†¦show more content†¦Thats simply because they do not have good preparation at home. They just jot down what their teachers say without much understanding. Or they may not be interested in this subject and they want to stay at home and enjoy t hemselves. However, they have to come to class lest their grade would be decrease due to poor attendance. How can you put knowledge into the heads of these students. They sit in class, but they feel very distracted. They even disturb other students who are paying good attention to the lessons. Does it worsen the situation? If teachers let such students be optional whether to attend class or not, maybe the class environment will be better. Classroom is where students raise ideas, ask questions about what they are still unclear after reading assigned books or doing homework, etc. Its not the place where those who lack of interest be forced to listen to what they do not like. For this reason, students should be given right to decide whether to attend class or not. li value=2 Mandatory attendance policy discourages independent thinking, self-discipline, self-study. Students are adults. Of course they can decide which is better for them. With younger students this policy is necessary for many reasons (such as safety reason). However, you can not force an adult do whatever you like despite his unlikeness. That will form in him a habit of dependence on other persons wish and thinking. In other words, if we force students go toShow MoreRelatedRachel Osmans Essay : Should Class Attendance Be Mandatory?805 Words   |  4 Pagescollege students ponder the same question about their new classes. Will attendance be mandatory? Many college professors account class attendance as a reasonable portion of a student’s final grade, but opposing students acclaim that attendance should be a choice rather than a requirement. Because they are on the university level, scholars should hold the responsibility of deciding whether or not attendance is necessary . Rachel Osman’s argument â€Å"Should Class Attendance Be Mandatory? 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