The Strategy To Raise Standards In British Prisons

The Strategy To Raise Standards In British Prisons Political and Academic interest in the privatization of British Prisons has steadily risen since its sudden revival during the 1980s and 1990s. This interest has been precipitated by a rapid rise in the prison population and the directly related escalation of running costs and difficulties of running a consistently efficient service. Privatization was seen by many policy-makers as providing an important step forward towards improving conditions, bringing about change and innovation, and improving the overall quality of the British prison system. The private sector was believed to be capable of delivering a better standard of service with greater efficiency and a higher degree of accountability. Subsequently, the last decade has seen a steady growth of private sector involvement in the British prison system. This essay will examine the argument that privatization offers an important strategy to raise standards within Britains prisons and consider any problems associated with this appr oach. The privatisation of corrections is now understood to mean some form of the ownership or management of prisons by private corporations. The role of the private sector in contemporary corrections is, however, much broader than this narrow definition. Savas (1987) points out that the private sector is involved in corrections in five distinct ways. It may: (1) finance and construct prisons; (2) operate facilities for juveniles; (3) operate facilities for adults; (4) provide work for prisoners, and (5) provide specific contractual services, such as health care and vocational education for inmates and staff. The recent move towards the privatization of British prisons has been largely based on the substantial increase of the prison population. Between 1993 and 1996 the UK prison population increased from 43,000 to 54,000, a rate of about 100 per 100,000 of the entire population. This rapid rise has led to widespread overcrowding and a decrease in standards, making living conditions for many prisoners highly unpleasant. Prisoners overall health has deteriorated and suicide and self-mutilation rates have climbed rapidly. Added to this, staff morale has also fallen and widespread scepticism of the value and objective of prisoner programmes has grown. It has been clear for some time that widespread changes and new strategies are needed in order to tackle the problems within the prison system. The main priorities for improving the system have included; increasing prison capacity, introducing working practices that are more accommodating and flexible for prison and probation staff and the need for greater accountability from those responsible for running prison services. The claim that all this could be achieved at substantially reduced costs simply by encouraging greater private sector involvement in the delivery of penal policy has been increasingly seen by some as a quick fix solution to many of the penal systems most pressing problems (Cavadino Dignan, 2002: 227) It is important to now look at how it is proposed that privatizing Britains prisons will lead to such improvements in standards. Supporters of the privatization of Britains prisons argue that there are a number of potential benefits directly associated with the commercial competition that privatization would produce. For example, through the creation of a market force private organisations would be encouraged to maintain and indeed improve upon high standards of cost effectiveness and efficiency in order to achieve the successful renewal of current government contracts and to compete for new service contracts. Logan Rausch (1985) suggest that due to the way they are financed public sector organisations are inefficient and ineffective. As the private sector is motivated by competition and profit it is dedicated to providing maximum satisfaction to its clients and customers at a minimum cost. Alternatively, in the public sector; bureaucrats are rewarded not according to the performanc e of their organization but according to the size and budget of their agencies, thus they are more interested in empire building than in increasing their efficiency. Beyens Snacken also examine this point, arguing that; Proponents claim that privatization is the best way to decrease costs and construct new, better designed prisons more quickly. By introducing the element of competition and new management techniques, better quality for less money can be achieved. It is stated that private correctional services can operate more efficiently, because of less bureaucratic red tape and a higher motivation to control costs. Privatization, many claim leads to heightened accountability within the prison system. It is argued that the government is in an ideal position to impose strict guidelines and include detailed service standards within contracts, making companies readily accountable and putting them at risk of financial penalties for failure to fulfil them. As the government no longer have to defend its own shortcomings it can be more active in challenging private companies for failing to meet contractual obligations. Most private contractors accept and appreciate the value of full time independent monitors who are present within private prisons acting as an additional guarantee of contract compliance. Public sector prisons do not have similar fully independent monitors. Also, healthy competition between private sector rivals would also have a regulatory effect as agencies are inclined to monitor each others performance for weaknesses and failings in order to gain a commercial advantage. It is clear that the primary rationale for passing the management of prisons into private hands is that they are expected to operate at lower running costs than those controlled by the Home Office. If success is to be measured on effective cost-cutting and meeting required standards of service, supporters of privatization are convinced that a sustained push in this direction will produce positive results. It has been estimated that the running costs of private prisons are 15-25 per cent below those of state prisons (Tilt, 1995). A prison review in 1997, stated that privately run prisons on average, offered an operational cost saving of 8-15 per cent. A Parliamentary Select Committee in 1996-97 looked at the management of offenders in the public and private sectors. It reported that an expansion of the private sector would lead to an increase in efficiency in the public sector. It concluded that private prisons were operating well in terms of quality of performance, and that their ove rall performance was as good as, and in some cases better than, publicly administered prisons. However, critics argue that recent improvements in the efficiency of public sector prisons have led to a continuous narrowing in the operating cost saving offered by privately operated prisons so that by 1998 the differential had been reduced to 2-11 per cent (Woodbridge, 1999). Those against privatization also argue that any reduced running costs comes at a high price; to the detriment of the number of staff employed, staff wages, conditions of employment and working conditions (Joyce, 2001:221). For example, it has been reported that contracted-out prisons, often favouring high technology security measures, have on average 16 per cent fewer staff per prisoner than public sector prisons. Also pay and conditions for staff at private sector prisons are often poor in comparison with the public sector. Salaries are 14 per cent lower and members of staff deliver on average 10 per cent more working hours per week. These factors may account to some degree for the high levels of staff turno ver at private prisons, reported to be approximately 30 per cent. The usefulness of privatization and indeed its principles have been widely criticised and numerous problems that it potentially produces have been identified. Firstly, many critics focus the emphasis on the traditional notion of privatization a concept already partially discredited in the western world because of its association with inflated profiteering and the abandonment of the public interest (Harding, 1997: 1). It is heavily argued that the running of Britains prisons for profit has very negative consequences. This serious criticism of privatization is that the profit motive is entirely incompatible with successful prison administration. In order to make profit, private organisations are dependent on receiving a continually high supply of inmates into their institutions. There are numerous examples of how this may affect the treatment of offenders and prisoners. Early release times for prisoners may potentially be discouraged or ignored when prison numbers are relatively low. Also, government and other leading political policy-makers may be inclined to put pressure on legislators to create directives and pass acts that are both decisively custody based and increasingly punitive. Another factor that must be taken into account due to the reliance of private contractors on prisoner numbers for profit is the issue of overcrowding. One of the key ideas promoting privatization is the improvement of standards and living conditions for prisoners, private prisons may develop a tendency towards increasing prisoner numbers in order to raise profits leading to overcrowding and its inherent problems This argument clearly reveals how the underlying commercial motivation of private organisations can have serious repercussions for the manner in which private prisons are run, posing serious and seemingly unanswerable questions to those who absolutely support privatization. Another major concern with privatization is that there will be an increased emphasis on security, to the detriment of attempts to reform or rehabilitate prisoners. The contract between the Home Office and a private company does not require the contractor to help inmates lead good and useful lives (Joyce, 2001: 221). Most criminologists agree that the rehabilitation and education of prisoners is a crucial function of the penal system. It is hard to disagree with both Durham (1989) and Shichor (1995) who maintain that the changing penal trend away from rehabilitation and training towards containment, incapacitation and deterrence has hastened the acceptance of privatization as a viable policy option. From a financial perspective, more prisons means more outlay. Prisons are expensive capital items with high running costs. Thus, there is considerable attraction in any policy designed to reduce those costs. In addition, the incapacitation or protection of the public function is an easier administrative task to hand over to private companies and their employees than the treatment and training of offenders (Genders, 2002). By failing to provide any rehabilitation and training to offenders, private prisons become institutions with the sole function of punishing prisoners through incapacitation for profit. Another potentially serious pitfall of widespread privatization is that the government may become reliant on the services of a handful of powerful companies; this could result in the government to some extent being held to ransom and thus be forced to pay higher prices in order to continually increase the profits of the private sector organisations. This potential problem is magnified where private prison operators are contracted to take over the entire running of an institution, including initially building it, owning it and managing it, as is now to be the case for all future tendered contracts in England and Wales. A key question that remains unanswered is whether, in remaining paymaster but delegating service delivery, the state truly does retain control over standards whether in fact there still is present that degree of public accountability and control that must always be requisite when the state exercises its ultimate power of restraint and punishment over the citizen ( Hard ing, 1997: 2)? A final criticism of privatization is based on the limited indicators of how private prisons have performed up to now. Despite the previously discussed increased emphasis on a security focused approach within private prisons, it seems that there are serious control issues within them. Virtually all privately-managed prisons have experienced serious control problems, at least during the initial period after opening. In most cases the problems appear to have been more severe, and more intractable, than would normally be expected in the case of a comparably newly-commissioned public sector prison (Cavadino Dignan, 2002: 247) In conclusion, the involvement of the private sector in Britains prison system has so far been limited to the delivery of particular services; the government has retained responsibility for producing and implementing changes in policy and for monitoring the performance and standards of private prisons. Proponents of privatization claim that it has and can continue to improve standards of service and efficiency, whilst also cutting running costs. As Tabarrok (2003: 10) argues We now know that private prisons can be built more quickly, operated at lower cost, and maintained at a quality level at least as high as government-run prisons. However, many writers dispute such claims and believe that a continued government policy towards privatization as a method of improving the British prison service is deeply flawed and may become a barrier to developing a programme of fundamental change aimed at improving the standards of the whole of the prison system. Privatization as an ideology and as a practice is not only unlikely to provide a remedy for the malaise affecting the prison system; it could easily become a major part of the problem (Cavadino Dignan, 2002: 255). Despite serious criticisms; the future of private prisons is not clear. We do not know whether it will become a viable alternative to government run prisons or remain a small segment of the correctional system as it is today, or if it will be only a temporary phenomenon (Schihor, 1995: 18). Overall, whether private sector involvement in running Britains prisons increases or decreases in the long-term remains to be seen. It is clear, however, that the debate surrounding the subject will continue to flourish at least until clear indicators of the performance of private prisons are revealed. Evidence, so far, provides few answers. As Liebling Sparks, (2002: 283) conclude; Some former doubters and critics have been converted. Some predicted disasters have not transpired; and many privately managed institution s appear on available indicators to have operated at least as well (or put another way no worse than) their directly managed counterparts. References Beyens, K. Snacken, S. (1996) Prison Privatization: An International Perspective in Matthews, R. Francis, P. (eds.) (1996) Prisons 2000: An International Perspective on the Current State and Future of Imprisonment, Basingstoke: MacMillan Press Ltd. Cavadino, M. Dignan, J. (2002) The Penal System: An Introduction (3rd edition), London: Sage Publications Ltd. Genders, E. (2002) Legitimacy, Accountability and Private Prisons in Punishment and Society: The International Journal of Penology (2002) Vol. 4 (3): 285-303. Harding, R. W. (1997) Private Prisons and Public Accountability, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. James, A. L. et al. (1997) Privatizing Prisons: Rhetoric and Reality, London: Sage Publications Ltd. Joyce, P. (2001) Crime and the Criminal Justice System, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Liebling, A. and Sparks, R. (2002) Editors Preface, in Punishment and Society: The International Journal of Penology (2002) Vol. 4 (3): 283-284. Lilly, R. J. Knepper, P. (1992) An International Perspective on the Privatisation of Corrections, in The Howard Journal (1992) Vol. 31 (3): 174-191. Schihor, D. (1995) Punishment for Profit: Private Prisons/Public Concerns, London: Sage Publications. Tabarrok, T. (ed) (2003) Changing the Guard: Private Prisons and the Control of Crime, California: The Independent Institute.

Women in the Workforce

Group: 6 Janelle Maskulka, Hannah Reifer, Laura Welker, Andrea McNett Group Leader: Hannah Reifer Scribe: Janelle Maskulka Topic: Women in the Workforce from the 1800- current Outline and Student Responsibilities Introduction: Our group will discuss how women in the past had limited working rights but over time laws and bills were passed that allowed women to grow in the workplace. However still today women are not treated as equals to their male counterparts. 1. 1800’s – Andrea McNett Before/ Early 1800s little to no rights and strictly housewives †¢ Industrial Revolution o Unmarried women worked in factories and moved to city o Caused women to delay marriage/ less children †¢ Women’s Rights o More Independent o Fought for equal wages ? Female Labor Reform Association in New England (1844) o Fought for education o Fought for voting †¢ The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) o Founded in 1840 o Mainly focused on women’s righ t to vote Branched into two subdivisions ? National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) ? American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) †¢ Susan B. Anothony 2. 1900-1950 – Hannah Reifer †¢ Employment in 1900 o Women only had 5% gainful employment outside of the household ? Woman self-imagine began to change †¢ Went from only wanting children and a husband to wanting to be employed o By 1910 this employment rate had increased to 11% †¢ Women in politics (voting rights) Also by 1910, only four states had equal women rights. ? These failures were partly due to people who believe that politics was no place for women †¢ Women’s Suffrage Amendment (1920) (NAWSA) o 19th amendment o Can’t base the write to vote off of sex †¢ The Great Depression (1930’s) o Prohibited married women to work ? Legislature passed in 26 states †¢ World War II (1939-1945) o Brought major change to women in the workforce o Men went to war o 6 million more w omen entered into the workforce o Some women didn’t want to work Rosie the Riveter â€Å"We Can Do It† was used as motivation o As soon as the war was over men returned to jobs women were laid off †¢ By 1947 women began to once again enter the workforce †¢ By 1950 31% of women in the United States were employed and working 3. 1950- 2000 – Laura Welker †¢ â€Å"Roots of the Revolution† (1950-1970’s) o Warning signs of a revolution, change in women’s expectations of employment †¢ Women began to see themselves as going to college and perhaps even graduate school o Working mothers and wives was slowly becoming more common †¢ â€Å"Quiet Revolution† (1970-2000’s) Woman enrollment in colleges and grad schools increased dramatically o Women began to studying fields men were typically professionalized in such as medicine, law and dentistry †¢ More women were now expected to go to college and join the workf orce by age 35, where in the past women were supposed to be in the home and raise the children 4. 2000’s – Janelle Maskulka †¢ Almost half of the workforce today is made up of women (46%) †¢ Major women in the workforce today o Oprah o Condoleezza Rice o Hillary Clinton †¢ Major changes since 1900’s o Bypassing men in management positions Staying with employers longer than men †¢ However, men still continue to make more money o . 76% higher wages than women Conclusion: (Group collaboration/ Input of tying up loose ends) Over time and history women have worked hard to gain rights in and out of the workforce. If we continue to work in the same direction and gain more and more rights we will see more results such as equal pay compared to men, more women in the management and CEO positions, in turn breaking the glass ceiling and the barrier between men and women in the workforce, which is the overall goal.

Goals: Problem Solving and Population Reference Bureau

Abstract â€Å"To prepare for solving a problem, we must first acknowledge that the problem exists. Then, we must accept it, and clearly define or identify it. Finally, we must commit to solving the problem. Without some degree of personal commitment, the problems that we acknowledge, accept, and identify might never be resolved. 1. using a current local or international newspaper, identify an important local, national, or international concern that needs to be solved.Use the Library and Information Resources Network (LIRN) link by clicking here to locate two or more credible articles that provide background information and an analysis of the problem. You can also access LIRN in your online course by clicking on Course Home tab, then the Online Resources link. Contact your Campus for your LIRN password. 3. Using the articles you found as a resource, explain the concern using the five â€Å"Problem Solving Methods† found on page 104 of your textbook. Use Microsoft Word to resp ond to your problem.Your response should consist of 1-2 pages. Cite your articles using APA guidelines. Visit the APA Guide for assistance with APA formatting. † Week Two Individual Work (1) Introduction Using the articles I found as a resource, I am going to explain the concern using the five â€Å"Problem Solving Methods†. This is a big issue and I think we should all be actively trying to solve this issue. Environmental Problems I am going to be discussing environmental problems. I will use the problem solving methods as they are outlined in our text.â€Å"Problem- Solving Method (Advanced) Step 1: What is the problem? a. What do I know about the situation? b. What results am I aiming for in this situation? c. How can I define the problem? Step 2: What are the alternatives? a. What are the boundaries of the problem situation? b. What alternatives are possible within these boundaries? Step 3: What are the advantages and/ or disadvantages of each alternative? a. What are the advantages of each alternative? b. What are the disadvantages of each alternative? c.What additional information do I need to evaluate each alternative? Step 4: What is the solution? a. Which alternative(s) will I pursue? b. What steps can I take to act on the alternative(s) chosen? Step 5: How well is the solution working? a. What is my evaluation? b. What adjustments are necessary? †(Chafee) The problem is environmental problems, such as we have been polluting our planet’s air, water, and land; depleting its resources; and accumulating a lot of waste for which we need to find places to store.I know this situation needs to be suppressed on some level; because if we continue at this rate, then our environment will not be fit to live in. We have 6. 8 billion people on Earth today (Population Reference Bureau, 2009) and all of these people need food, water, clothing, and shelter. In addition to these minimal needs to survive, millions of people in developed nation s have cars, large homes, air conditioning, heated houses, washers, dryers, heated water for bathing, refrigerators, stoves, and so on.Hence, having nearly 7 billion people on Earth, compared to 5.2 billion people just 20 years ago (Population Reference Bureau, 1990), and having many people with a high standard of living, means that we humans will pollute a lot, deplete a lot, and build up huge amounts of waste that need to be stored. A second major reason why we have a big problem of polluting, depleting, and storing of waste is that during the past 200 years, we have gone from an agricultural way of life to an industrial way of life. Instead of â€Å"living off the land,† â€Å"growing grain to eat, and tending to farm animals, we built  factories and machines and created a new status called the factory worker to produce all kinds of products to consume—as a stroll through a typical shopping mall will show.To create these products, we have used a lot of resources and polluted the air and rivers. One of the most dangerous consequences of our polluting the environment is that we add huge amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as the result of burning fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, by industries and automobiles.†The result is the warming of our planet and the possible change of Earth’s climate, which could wreak havoc for the growing seasons. What can we do about this? More and more people are coming to the realization that we must consider the long term, what is good for the global community, and what is good for future generations if we want to survive as a species. This will require us to think, plan, sacrifice, and change our ways of living. Many people in our country, and throughout the world, do not realize the seriousness of our environmental problem.Hence, part of the solution is to make Americans more aware of the problem and to educate them about the problem. We must find ways to give these Americans incentives s o that they want to address the environmental problem or at least accept the notion that we must address this problem, regardless of their vested interests. The environmental problem will not go away by denying its existence or by denying that it is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. The oceans and the air are common property that we all share.If air and water pollution stayed only in the country that produced it, the nation producing this pollution could take the initiative and responsibility to clean up the pollution it produced. But air and water pollution does not stop at state boundaries; rather it spreads throughout the world. We as citizens of this world, not just citizens of a nation, will need to work together to clean up our oceans and air. Probably, we will eventually need to agree on some worldwide goals for the planet. We have been moving in this direction by attempting to decrease carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbon emissions.We will probably need to make saving o ur environment one of the main goals of our world community. Within this goal, we will need to agree on more specific goals such as decreasing carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons; increasing the amount of rainforest; finding new, better, and safer ways of storing hazardous waste; and producing more energy without polluting more, depleting more, and creating more waste. Conclusion This is an issue we must all face together. We must realize that there is a problem and work on long term goals to correct this problem.Eventually, we may be able to turn this around. However, we must think long term, not only think about the here and now. Probably, a key factor, if not the key factor, in solving our environmental problem is time. Can we, as a world community, act soon enough to head off environmental trends that could be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse—for example, rising carbon dioxide emissions leading to rising temperatures, melting glaciers, rising s ea levels, and changing cli- mate patterns throughout the world? We must face this with a sense of urgency.

Origins of the Red Scare essays

Origins of the Red Scare essays In the first part of his book "American Anti-Communism", M. J. Heale writes "the fraternal egalitarianism of the American republican heritage with its insistence that rights and opportunities were available to all, enabled collectivist doctrines to be repudiated as un-American." What Heale means by this is that the American society was built upon the idea of equality of man, which at the time meant white male landowners. These wealthy landowners would become the middle and upper class of American society. They created their society on the basis of improving their own lives and did not really consider the ideas of those who could not vote, those that did not own land. These upper and middle class members of America became the ones who would later become fearful of the possibility of a revolution. To them, a revolution would undermine their efforts to advance their own lives and stature in society. Since most immigrants were poor and therefore entered the lower working class, any idea, which would elevate these workers to the same level as their employers at the employers' expense, was viewed as a threat. "In the nineteenth century there were men of Anglo-Saxon stock who came to regard the American mission as their particular inheritance and who feared the subversive effects of immigration and the alien political ideas that were thereby introduced." (Heale, p. 127) In the minds of the middle and upper class, the idea of revolution was associated less with liberty and more with the selfish demands of labor. No place was more evident of this than in Chicago in the mid-1800s. Chicago was the fastest growing major American city in the 1800s. This growth not only attracted immigrants, but also European radicals. In 1886, Chicago was the site of major labor tension over an eight-hour workday. On May 1st some 40,000 workers walked off the job and followed Albert P. Parsons through the center of the city. When police violence o...

The eNotes Blog Lets Get Political 5 Relevant Reads on AmericanPolitics

Lets Get Political 5 Relevant Reads on AmericanPolitics 1.  Evicted:  Poverty and Profit in the American City 6:30 a.m.: Wake up. 6:31 a.m.: Hit snooze. 6:37 a.m.: Wake up for real. 6:37:30 a.m.: Rollover. Check Twitter, news articles, Twitter again, news commentsWHY?! 6:40 a.m.:  Allow the ennui to take over as you shuffle off to brush your teeth. If this sounds like you for the past few months, we get it, and were here for you (but, for goodness sake, put the phone down in the morning). In times of strife, one of our favorite and most effective coping strategies is to march Onward! to the bookshelf. Pouring oneself into a read, be it socially relevant or for the purpose of distraction, can have countless positive impacts- escapism, comfort, or a better understanding of complex topics. Today were dipping into the latter: seeking a  better understanding of complex, relevant topics- in other words, issues that require  way more than 140 characters or a catchy hashtag. We selected books that are, for better or worse, relevant today to give readers different perspectives and more in-depth knowledge on important topics, such as racial inequality, money in political  campaigns, and the bedrocks of American politics.   Lets dive in (and make America read again). 1.  Evicted:  Poverty and Profit in the American City Author:  Matthew Desmond Why you should read this:  To better understand the inner-city housing market in America- a market increasingly controlled by a small number of landlords who monopolize rental properties. Summary:  Matthew Desmonds  Evicted  tells the story of eight families caught in the affordable housing crisis. It relates actual events that took place  in  Milwaukees South Side between 2008 and 2009 while Desmond was a  PhD  candidate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Continue reading  Evicted  summary. → 2. Hillbilly Elegy:  A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Author:  J. D. Vance Why you should read this: To learn more about a large swath of American voters who might be misrepresented or not given enough nuanced attention in the media. Summary: Hillbilly Elegy  is J. D. Vances illuminating memoir of life in Appalachia, a region of the Eastern United States stretching from Alabama in the South to New York in the North. Appalachia used to be an industrial haven, home to the coal and steel industries, but the decline in manufacturing has resulted in widespread economic hardship. Continue reading  Hillbilly Elegy  summary.  Ã¢â€ â€™ 3. The New Jim Crow Author:  Michelle Alexander Why you should read this:  Its required reading if youre interested in criminal justice reform or conquering racial inequality. In light of the recent debate surrounding Confederate statues in public spaces, its more important than ever to understand our countrys racial history- a past that has great bearing on the racial politics of the present. This book powerfully connects past to present, detailing a civil rights crisis that has long been hidden within our own criminal justice system. Summary:  In  The New Jim Crow, civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander makes the case that the system of Jim Crow never died. It just took a new form in the shape of mass incarceration. Today, African American men are  labelled  Ã¢â‚¬Å"criminals† and stripped of their freedom, their voting rights, and their access to government programs.  Continue reading  The New Jim Crow  summary.  Ã¢â€ â€™ 4. Dark Money Author: Jane Mayer Why you should read this: Mayer knows her stuff- shes been an investigative journalist with the New Yorker for more than two decades. Its a chilling but important read about billionaire-funded politics and how a few well-financed individuals can dramatically change the course of the American political system. Summary:  In  Dark Money, journalist Jane Mayer tells the story of how billionaires like the Koch brothers have financed the rise of the radical right. Mayer focuses primarily on Charles and David Koch, but she also talks about billionaires John M. Olin and Richard Mellon Scaife, who funded the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Continue reading Dark Money  summary.  Ã¢â€ â€™ 5. A Peoples History of the United States Author: Howard Zinn Why you should read this: Remove those rose-colored glasses, put on some truth goggles, and dive into the historical stories that dont normally make it into high school civics and history classes.  Beginning with Christopher Columbus and going right up until the present, this book will show you an untold side of American history- one that includes hidden class struggles, racist agendas, and the fight to replace a broken political system. Summary: Howard Zinns  A Peoples History of the United States  has been highly influential since its initial publication in 1980. It spawned adaptations for young readers (a two-volume adaptation by Rebecca Stefoff:  A Young Peoples History of the United States) and  The People Speak, a History Channel documentary based on Zinns work. Zinn himself remains a heroic figure to many, especially for this book and for his ongoing teaching and social activism, which were directly related. Continue reading  A Peoples History of the United States  summary.  Ã¢â€ â€™ *Bonus: The Constitution of the United States of America Why you should read this: Because duh. Do yourself a favor and read a primary document of immense relevance and importance. An annotate-able copy of The Constitution is available on Owl Eyes.

Did the possession of nuclear weapons prevent war in Europe after 1945 Essay

Did the possession of nuclear weapons prevent war in Europe after 1945 - Essay Example There is no doubt that presence of nuclear programs and weapons enabled Europe to take wise decisions after 1945. The best example of European ‘wise decisions’ is no nuclear war has taken place since 1945. If we talk about the nuclear battlefield in the context of British Government, we would analyse the British Army of the Rhine spent much time and effort in trying to imagine what such a battlefield might look like and in preparing to cope with it. The main reason was that British Government was in debt to the USA, due to which it reduced its armed forced to one million soldiers. Beside this, all European countries were aware of the haphazard of nuclear war, since the bombing of ‘Hiroshima’. During the 1950s and 1960s these efforts were taken very seriously, which involved two steps: possessing advanced nuclear weapons and visualising war with and without them. Of course war cannot be fought without them, which means war fought with nuclear weapons. ‘ Hiroshima’ bombing is a sample view, which is still giving birth to the haphazard of a single nuclear bomb. In the context of war at the strategic level the first response was to emphasise ‘counterforce’. Soviet weapons were the strategic targets and senior commanders still talked as though a nuclear war could be ‘won’. Then the danger of this approach dawned with the development of Soviet Union the means of delivering a massive blow against the United States, so the notion of 'riding out' a first strike and then delivering a counter-blow on what could only be empty silos and deserted bomber bases became highly unattractive. The result was a shift back to 'city-busting', holding the people rather than the weapons as hostages; 400 one-megaton weapons able to hit area targets would suffice. This totally amoral doctrine was dressed up under the term Mutual Assured Destruction and its appropriate acronym (MAD). The tactical counterpart to this change of heart took a further five years to mature. It came to be realised that large-scale assault on NATO, while still a de adly danger, was by no means the only or even the most likely contingency. (Barnaby & Holdstock, 2003, p. 39) At that time the total nuclear stockpile of the United States, at its highest point, had an estimated explosive yield of some 9 billion tons of high explosive and the Soviet stockpile must have been much the same. In the 20 years from 1945 to 1965 nuclear warheads evolved to fill every possible ecological niche on the battlefield and in numbers far greater than any rational person could possibly have considered useful. (2003, p.

PepsiCo Inc. Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

PepsiCo Inc. Case Study - Essay Example Pepsi is popular as many people identify with it. Customer’s lifestyles change regularly, and the company should understand consumer characteristics to facilitate construction of integrative communication message(Fill, 2009). All beverage companies struggle to convince the same consumers to purchase their products. For instance, the Coke studio currently running has little to do with drinks but popularizing Coke brand. Again, associating with critical events, such as world cup, increased the brand value of Coke. Pepsi should come up with new ways of appraising its brand and popularize its products. In short, marketing communication tools and design are essential for brand appraisal. Pepsi faces Coca-Cola as its main rival in the beverage market since they both enjoy global presence. However, Coca-Cola is always ahead in sales and market share. Some of the critical challenges that Pepsi faces include stiff competition both locally and internationally, relatively low market penetration, and weak brand. Therefore, the company marketing strategies should aim at solving the above shortcomings to allow it gain new markets. Possible marketing strategies are identifying market differentiation points, applying effective marketing communication initiatives, and increasing its promotional activities. With sizable investment portfolio and relatively strong brand, Pepsi can shake beverage market remarkably. Above all, agility and diversity in marketing aspects are the best way to retain existing customers and gain others.