Australian Elections Essay Example for Free

Australian Elections Essay Institutional factors: Institutional factors relate to the type of the electoral system used in an election. Institutional factors that can influence the election include compulsory voting, the type of ballot, gerrymanders and malapportionment. Compulsory voting ensures 95 per cent of Western Australians participate in elections. However, it has been echoed by some academics that compulsory voting favors major parties. This is due to few people doing their own research into political parties and voting for parties they recognize through the media. The type of ballot used in an election has the most influence on the outcome. In a preferential ballot a seat has to be won by an absolute majority. Which gives an advantage to major political parties. However, in proportional voting a candidate has to get a derived quota to be elected. This means that a small party or independent can get elected with as little as 20% of the vote. Gerrymanders are also another major factor that can influence an election. Gerrymanders allow governments to redistribute electoral boundaries. Governments are then able to win more seats by reducing vote wastage in safe seats and shifting the wasted votes into marginal seats therefore giving them a better chance to win the marginal seats. This tends to favor the government because they have majority support to change electoral boundaries. Malapportionment is another institutional factor which may affect the election outcome. Malapportionment is a calculation used to even out an uneven distribution of population. This is done by increasing the power of votes in smaller districts. The problem with malapportionment is that it tends to favor the party or independent who exploits the weakness in the electoral system. Sociological factors: Sociological factors relate to the values and attitudes voters believe in. When voters are attracted to a particular party this is because they tend to support relatively the same values and attitudes. This will often lead the voter to vote for the party they are attracted to. The values and attitudes people obtain are often related to experiences the voters life. The biggest influence on values and attitudes of voters is their family. The fundamental sociological factors include socioeconomic profile, ethnic background, religion, geographical location, age and gender. Socioeconomic factors relate to a person social class. Social class structures of persons are generally divided by education achieved, employment category and income. Due to the recent blurring of policy in major political parities, voters have not been significantly polarized by the above three particulars. Therefore, socioeconomic factors dont greatly affect election outcomes. Ethnic background relates to migrant origins. Origins of ethnic groups tend to reflect in political opinion. Trends suggest that ethnic communities that come from oppressive regimes vote on the left wing -Labor-. However, ethnic communities that migrate from democratic countries tend to vote right wing -Liberal-. Religion has become less of a factor in the outcome of an election. In the past religion has played a major role in Australian elections. This is due to mainly European migrants being either protestant or catholic. This division of religion ended in the 1940s possibly due to World War Two. However, religious people generally cast a stronger conservative vote, relative to people with limited or no assimilation with religion. Geographic location in Western Australia has caused strong political divides. These strong political divides exist between the rural areas and the city. This division is due to different political and economic requirements needed by rural and city Western Australia. These different requirements have been around since foundation so the political division has always been prevalent. Age is an important aspect of the sociological factors. Mature age voters often support conservative right wing political parties. Where as, younger voters tend towards voting for left wing political parties. This trend for younger voters to elect left wing parties has been around since the 1970s. Some of the early young voters stay loyal to left wing political parties. Gender in the last 30 years has played a prevalent role in Australias politics. This is due to the social revolution of the role of women. Womens votes tend to be for a conservative party. Some psychologists believe this is because women reject change more then men. However, history has seen that womens votes seen to have been arbitrary and lacking in trends. Political factors: Political factors fundamentally relate to the ability of political parties to make successful decisions. Political factors that may affect the election include the governments record, opposition performance, economic management, leadership, the electoral campaign and media. The governments record is an integral part of the party being re-elected. This is because re-election is a test to see if governments have avoided great controversy and delivered on performance. The examiners for the test are the voters. Great controversy can cause a government to lose an election. This is especially true when the controversy relate to money. This is because voters are scrupulous about were the money is being spent in the community. Performance of a government can be measured by how much they have delivered on pre election policy. If voters are disappointed about how much the government has delivered on policy they often wont trust the government for another term. Opposition performance relates to how weak or strongly the opposition party has performed. In order for an opposition party to gain votes and possibly win an election. The opposition party must successfully identify a policy weakness of the existing government. The opposition party must then develop alternative policy options for the voters. However, if an existing  government is clearly going to be defeated in the next election. The best tactic for an opposition would be to make few policy commitments. Economic management is possibly the greatest factor in elections. Economic stability and profitability in a government is fundamentally one of the most important issues. Profitability is more than just a government being in an account surplus. It also includes the ability of a government to provide successful funding to public systems. Stability refers to no great economic fluctuations. Voters lose confidence in governments if economic conditions are always changing. Leadership is important for a party. This is because often people look at the figurehead of the party, rather then the party as whole. Spin doctors or image consultants work on many factors of a leaders profile. This is to make them as appealing to the public as possible. Leadership also includes how well the leader can hold the party together. This demonstrates a sign of strength to the voters. Strength alludes to the factors of authority and power. The electoral campaign decisions a party has to make include timing to start the campaign, advertising campaigns and areas to target. Timing to start an electoral campaign is important. If a campaign is to close to the election date key policy may not be heard by voters. If the campaign is announced too quickly it will give the opposition time to criticize the policy of the governments. Advertising is expensive and if it is done wrong it can be costly, however, if it is done correctly it can win an election. In recent times Mass media is a great way to advertise this is due to its impact and coverage. However, mass media advertising has to be carefully constructed, this is to minimize any chance of a mistake. Where to target advertising can also be an important decision. Parties often tend to heavily advertise in marginal seats, however, this policy has been costly. This is because other seats have lost support for the party and swung to another party. Media is seen as one of the greatest influences on modern politics. Due to the introduction of television and radio news about politics is always being  articulated. This is because people use media as the main medium to decide on political parties. However, recent pools suggest that media being so influential is overrated. This is due to free to air media needing to gain ratings to sell advertising. Thus, if a political party is unpopular it would not be in the medias best interest to support the party. As the media could potentially lose ratings. It is echoed by John Willmott that media doesnt set political opinion it just merely enforces it.

Legalized Killing Should Be Abolished Essay -- Capital Punishment

Capital punishment, also called death penalty, is the punishment by death for a crime, and the only form of legalized killing. It may be carried out by electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, gas chamber, and firing squad. The death penalty has been banished in over one hundred and thirty countries, and it has been abolished in every industrialized nation except for the United States of America. In the United States, capital punishment has been an extremely controversial issue that divides the country and leads to disharmony. The death penalty abolition movement is growing, and some progress is being made, but there is a lot of work yet to be done. There are various organizations using different avenues to abolish the death penalty. They have been successful in New Mexico, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. These are organizations like Amnesty International, The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), and The People of Faith against the Death Penalty (PFADP). Amnesty international is an eloquent and a well-known organization that is established in different parts of the world and active in the defense of human rights since 1961. It is one of the largest and best-known international nongovernmental organizations that is dedicated to humanitarian treatment of all people. Amnesty means a general pardon for offenses or an act of forgiveness for past offenses. They serve several purposes on the bringing about of equality, peace and social justice. However, one of their main goals is to abolish the death penalty. The organization has been quite successful in many countries and some states in the United States. Amnesty International stands out, because it has good governmental contacts all around the world, so â€Å"Amnest... ... 2012. . Draper, Thomas. Capital Punishment. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1985. Print. Gottfried, Ted. The Death Penalty: Justice or Legalized Murder? Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2002. Print. Illustrated Oxford Dictionary. London [etc.: Dorling Kindersley, 2003. Print. Kennedy Cuomo. â€Å"Abolish Capital Punishment† in Blot, David (Ed.) Supplementary Readings on Peace and Nonviolence. Bronx, New York: self-Published, 2008. Kronenwetter, Michael. Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Print. McCarthy, Colman. "The World's Only True False Quiz on Legalized Killing." The Center for Teaching Peace. Newsletter, 2011. Weisberg, Roger and Vanessa Roth. â€Å"No Tomorrow (DVD).† Docuramafilms. A Production of Public Policy Productions, 2010.

African Literature Essay

Despite the ignorance of most so called â€Å"literati† to the domain of African literature, African literature in fact is one of the main currents of world literature, stretching continuously and directly back to ancient history. Achebe did not â€Å"invent† African Literature, because he himself was inundated with it as an African. He simply made more people aware of it. The Beginnings of African Literature The first African literature is circa 2300-2100, when ancient Egyptians begin using burial texts to accompany their dead. These include the first written accounts of creation – the Memphite Declaration of Deities. Not only that, but ‘papyrus’, from which we originate our word for paper, was invented by the Egyptians, and writing flourished. In contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa feature a vibrant and varied oral culture. To take into account written literary culture without considering literary culture is definitely a mistake, because they two interplay heavily with each other. African oral arts are â€Å"art’s for life’s sake† (Mukere) not European â€Å"art’s for art’s sake†, and so may be considered foreign and strange by European readers. However, they provide useful knowledge, historical knowledge, ethical wisdom, and creative stimuli in a direct fashion. Oral culture takes many forms: proverbs and riddles, epic narratives, oration and personal testimony, praise poetry and songs, chants and rituals, stories, legends and folk tales. This is present in the many proverbs told in Things Fall Apart, and the rich cultural emphasis of that book also is typically African. The earliest written Sub-Saharan Literature (1520) is heavily influenced by Islamic literature. The earliest example of this is the anonymous history of the city-state of Kilwa Kisiwani. The first African history, History of the Sudan, is written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi in Arabic style. Traveling performers, called griots, kept the oral tradition alive, especially the legends of the Empire of Mali. In 1728 the earliest written Swahili work,Utendi wa Tambuka borrows heavily from Muslim tradition. However, there are little to no Islamic presence in Things Fall Apart. The Period of Colonization With the period of Colonization, African oral traditions and written works came under a serious outside threat. Europeans, justifying themselves with the Christian ethics, tried to destroy the â€Å"pagan† and â€Å"primitive† culture of the Africans, to make them more pliable slaves. However, African Literature survived this concerted attack. In 1789, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustava Vassa was the first slave narrative to be published. Kidnapped from Nigeria, this Ibo man wrote his autobiography in Great Britain in English, and like Achebe used his narrative as a platform to attack the injustices of slavery and cultural destruction. Back in Africa, Swahili poetry threw off the dominating influence of Islam and reverted back to native Bantu forms. One exemplar of this was Utendi wa Inkishafi (Soul’s Awakening), a poem detailing the vanity of earthly life. The Europeans, by bringing journalism and government schools to Africa, helped further the development of literature. Local newspapers abounded, and often they featured sections of local African poetry and short stories. While originally these fell close to the European form, slowly they broke away and became more and more African in nature. One of these writers was Oliver Schreiner, whose novel Story of an African Farm (1883) is considered the first African classic analysis of racial and sexual issues. Other notable writers, such as Samuel Mqhayi and Thomas Mofolo begin portraying Africans as complex and human characters. Achebe was highly influenced by these writers in their human portrayal of both sides of colonization. Emerging from Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, the negritude movement established itself as one of the premiere literary movements of its time. It was a French-speaking African search for identity, which ofcourse took them back to their roots in Africa. Africa was made into a metaphorical antipode to Europe, a golden age utopia, and was often represented allegorically as a woman. In a 1967 interview, Cesaire explained: â€Å"We lived in an atmosphere of rejection, and we developed an inferiority complex. † The desire to establish an identity begins with â€Å"a concrete consciousness of what we are–†¦that we are black . . . and have a history. . . [that] there have been beautiful and important black civilizations†¦that its values were values that could still make an important contribution to the world. † Leopold Sedar Senghor, one of the prime thinkers of this movement, eventually became president of the country of Senegal, creating a tradition of African writers becoming active political figures. Achebe was doubtless familiar with the negritude movement, although he preferred to less surrealistic and more realistic writing. In 1948, African literature came to the forefront of the world stage with Alan Paton’s publishing of Cry the Beloved Country. However, this book was a somewhat paternalistic and sentimental portrayal of Africa. Another African writer, Fraz Fanon, also a psychiatrist, becomes famous in 1967 through a powerful analysis of racism from the African viewpoint – Black Skin, White Masks. Camara Laye explored the deep psychological ramification of being African in his masterpiece, The Dark Child (1953), and African satire is popularized by Mongo Beti and Ferdinand Oyono. Respected African literary critic Kofi Awoonor systematically collects and translates into English much of African oral culture and art forms, preserving native African culture. Chinua Achebe then presents this native African culture in his stunning work, Things Fall Apart. This is probably the most read work of African Literature ever written, and provides a level of deep cultural detail rarely found in European literature. Achebe’s psychological insight combined with his stark realism make his novel a classic. Post-Achebe African Literature Achebe simply opened the door for many other African literati to attain international recognition. East Africans produce important autobiographical works, such as Kenyans Josiah Kariuki’s Mau Mau Detainee (1963), and R. Mugo Gatheru’s Child of Two Worlds (1964). African women begin to let their voice be heard. Writers such as Flora Nwapa give the feminine African perspective on colonization and other African issues. Wole Soyinka writes her satire of the conflict between modern Nigeria and its traditional culture in her book The Interpreters (1965). A prolific writer, she later produces famous plays such as Death and The King’s Horseman. Later, in 1986, she is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. African Literature gains more and more momentum, and Professor James Ngugi even calls for the abolition of the English Department in the University of Nairobi, to be replaced by a Department of African Literature and Languages. African writers J. M. Coetzee, in his Life and Times of Michael K. written in both Afrikaans and English for his South African audience, confronts in literature the oppressive regime of apartheid. Chinua Achebe helps reunite African Literature as a whole by publishing in 1985 African Short Stories, a collection of African short stories from all over the continent. Another African writer, Naguib Mahfouz, wins the Nobel Prize in literature in 1988. In 1990 African poetry experiences a vital comeback through the work I is a Long-Memoried Woman by Frances Anne Soloman. African Literature is only gaining momentum as time marches onwards.

Life Span, Online Friends Essay examples - 655 Words

2.Online Friends What is the role of online friends in the social development of todays adolescents? In what way are online friendships the same as and different from conventional friendships? Can adolescents learn interpersonal skills, such as revealing oneself to others and respecting diverse viewpoints in the cyber environment? Write a one page (times new roman font double spaced) essay on the subject. Remember to cite the references. Social development refers to the development of social skills and emotional maturity that are needed to build relationships as well as relate to others. In order to develop socially, children and adolescents need to interact with their peers in an acceptable way. Yet in today’s society there is†¦show more content†¦Interpersonal skills are relevant to not only our personal relationships, but also to our social media relationships. Since the internet continues to expand we are now encountering many new forms of electronic communication. There are the common forms such as Facebook and Twitter in which you are able to upload information as well as photos of yourself and send and receive messages privately or publicly. This is where you are able to monitor what information you would like to reveal or not reveal about yourself to your ‘friends’ or ‘followers’. A lot of adolescents who are shy or lack self-confidence find it much easier to do so over the internet. They are able to share what they feel are their best qualities and leave out what they may potentially be bullied about in conventional relationships. As adolescents are within a cyber environment, they are able to monitor their communication in a different way. Since online communication demands you to use your keyboard as a way of transmitting your message, you are able to choose your words wisely. It allows you to clarify your point by providing you with a chance to read back what exactly you have typed. If it is involving a more stressful situation, it provides you with the time to relax, think, and then respond. Not everything has to be an immediate response since you aren’t face to face. This alsoShow MoreRelatedEffects Of Technology On Our Lives1065 Words   |  5 Pagesespecially social media, because the world never sleeps and is always producing something new. And what is the product of constantly desiring to be entertained? Little to no attention span. â€Å"Sure they have short attention spans,† (Prensky 14). The main problem today is smartphones and how they take away from real life and their experienc es. In the classrooms, teachers are becoming forced to take cell phones in order to be sure that their students will pay attention to the lecture. When people go onRead MoreHow Technology Affects Our Lives1249 Words   |  5 Pagesfocused on are the affected attention span, the need to multitask, and the distractions resulting in one’s divided focus. 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