The Third Sector Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Third Sector - Essay Example Environmental advocates, civil rights groups, and public awareness promoters all fall into the Third Sector. Some groups work on a very local level while others are national and international in scope, and everyone will, at some point, take advantage of the services they provide. While the number of organizations is large, and their missions widely different, they all share the common goal of serving the public by mobilizing donors and volunteers in a belief that individuals coming together for a shared purpose can make a difference in the world we live in. The Third Sector is grouped together according to the services they provide. The organizations within the group often serve similar if not identical functions such as within education. With education as a common denominator, the institutions will work together to promote the value of their services and work to provide greater availability and access. Groups will form coalitions to lobby for effective legislation that will allow them to function more effectively. Often times, groups such as the Red Cross and hospitals will share resources in an effort to deal with a natural disaster.

Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 18

Paper - Essay Example The methods proposed in this research apply a somewhat unique group of security technology primitives, involving system management primitives, monitoring, access control, authentication, data-aging protection, integrity checking, and encryption. These algorithms will be employed to develop the cyber security walls between cyber sites at critical infrastructures. This research concludes that the evidence-based model adequately sheds light on the ambiguity or insecurity in the user feedback to the CPS evaluation, and thus in the provisional risk assessments for the whole physical and cyber protection scheme. The actions required to improve the effectiveness and security of critical infrastructures are primarily in the model of defense against malevolent attacks. Critical infrastructure protection requires foreseeing measures that go above simple material protection of infrastructures or resources against attacks. Involving all concerned actors for the tasks of planning, regulating, and operating various infrastructures that provide essential services to different communities are an indispensable

Modern and Postmodern Traditions in Power and Law

Modern and Postmodern Traditions in Power and Law The Law and Power Relations in Society:  A Brief Review of Modern and Postmodern Traditions To achieve an understanding of how, at the beginning of the 21st century, law has come to be understood as a manifestation of social power, it is necessary to place the question within the framework of the dominant intellectual paradigms of the past one hundred years. Such a consideration is relevant because the two major paradigms namely, modernism and postmodernism have operated according to contrary assumptions about reality in general and social reality in particular. Modernism, which dominated Western society throughout the 20th century until the 1960s, assumed that all human enterprises should be conducted according to the principles of universal rationality, with a strongly centralizing tendency emphasized in all social institutions. Postmodernism, on the other hand, assumes that human beings are mainly motivated, not by rationality, but by a virtually endless diversity of individual and cultural values. Thus, any overarching theory about how people do, or should, live in so ciety is bound to be inadequate, and social institutions must allow for the full range of human diversity. In the discipline of sociology Functionalist Theory dominated the modern period, but during the past few decades Critical Theory has come to dominate the postmodern period. To put it simply, Functionalism assumes that society works, because of its inherent harmony, while Critical Theory assumes that society does not work, because of its inherent conflicts. As far as law is concerned, during the modern period a rationally independent and fair distribution of justice was supposed to characterize the legal system. But during the postmodern period the legal system has come to be regarded by many of its critics as the source of often inequitable i.e. distributions of power, specifically motivated by, and ultimately working for, the interests of the state in general and the cultural elite in particular. The writings of Max Weber (1864-1920), one of the founding spirits of sociology, illustrate the modern conception of law perfectly. According to Mathieu Deflem (2009: 45-46), Weber argues that the law, like all modern social institutions, including politics and the economy, is dominated by purposive rationalization, posited as the standard for both jurisprudence (legal theorizing or lawmaking) and adjudication (law-finding) in the courts. Rationalization leads to the establishment of the principle of the rule of law. This means that all social conflicts are to be settled in the courts according to established laws that are written down and codified. The rule of law is intended to be impersonal and objective, giving rise to a adage Justice is blind, a central value of Western democracies, sometimes phrased as the sayings All are equal before the law and No one is above the law. According to Joyce Sterling and Wilbert Moore (1987: 68-69), Weber accepts law as creating its own sphere of autonomous social reality, but its influence is relative, not absolute. The more a legal system looks to itself rather than to external social, political, and ethical systems in making and applying law, the greater the degree of relative autonomy. In the United States legal system The Exclusionary Rule and The Miranda Rule are examples of the law defining itself and acting independently of other social concerns. A second characteristic of legal autonomy is the principle of equal competencies whereby counsel is provided for those who cannot afford it. Weber distinguishes between subjective rationality, in which values influence individual decisions, and objective rationality, in which principles determine social decisions. He also distinguishes between formal or purely legal law, and substantive or extra-legal law. Similarly, Weber distinguishes between rational law, determined by general principles, and irrational law, determined by individual and contextual considerations. Formal rational law is called positive law, while formal irrational law is called charismatic or revealed law. Substantive rational law is called natural law, while substantive irrational law is called traditional law. In the words of Sterling and Moore (1987: 75), Although Weber denied that he was posing a unilineal process of rationalization, he did tend to view legal systems as moving from irrational to rational, and from substantive to formal rationality. Moreover, Weber links his typology of law to his typology of politics. He identified three types of po litical legitimization: traditional, charismatic, and legal. Once again, according to Sterling and Moore (1987: 76), As law becomes rationalized, it becomes its own legitimizing principle in other words, the rule of law, what Weber calls formal legal rationality. This is aided by bureaucracy and professionalization, ensuring calculability or predictability in legal matters and making the system self-contained and seamless, almost totally isolated from moral, economic, political, and cultural interests. Webers modern rationalistic conception of law has suffered a severe critical attack on various fronts since the 1960s. Austin Turk (1976: 276) sums up the critical legal position perfectly: Contrary to the rational model, law is actually a set of resources whose control and mobilization can in many ways . . . generate and exacerbate conflicts rather than resolving or softening them. In short, power is the control of resources and law is power (280). The mere mention of power in relat ion to law is bound to evoke the spirit of Karl Marx (1818-1883). According to Alan Hunt (1985: 12, 20-22), the content, principles, and forms of law are all matters of ideology that is the reflective distortion of reality in any human claim to knowledge, making Webers political legitimation by rule of law nothing more than one opinion among many (sometimes irrational) competing opinions about the proper relation of law and power. Moreover, as Elizabeth Armstrong and Mary Bernstein (2008: 75-76) point out, the modified Marxist argument whereby governments are the only rule makers and social reformers define themselves solely in relation to the state has now become obsolete. According to these authors, culture itself is constitutive of power. If this is true, then law has already lost much of its supposed power merely by definition. Kim Lane Scheppele (1994: 390-400) provides an excellent overview of critical jurisprudence theory, all of it based on the foundational belief that rational jurisprudence theory masks the fact that political interests or power relationships are what really drives the legal systems of Western democracies. An attack on liberal legalism argues that rights, neutrality, and procedural justice are all fictions designed to maintain social inequalities. The indeterminacy thesis argues that contradictions and inconsistencies within the law make purely rational adjudication impossible. There are many particular manifestations of critical jurisprudence theory. Feminist jurisprudence, for example, contends that the way gender is defined socially often makes the law patriarchal and oppressive to women, especially in regard to such issues as abortion, rape, domestic violence, pregnancy, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, child custody, and pornography. Feminists are divided on how to ri ght the wrongs of rational jurisprudence. Some advocate treating women exactly the same as men, while others argue that women should be treated differently. In either case, the objective is to achieve equality with men through the law. Similarly, critical race theory argues that people of color have been oppressed by the law by being silenced or having others speak for them, and they have pleaded vigorously for the opportunity to tell their stories, so their culture and their lives can be treated fairly by the law. In fact, the theme of the relationship of power to the law has been most compelling addressed in terms of the indeterminacy of language itself an argument expressed by Jacques Derrida in his theory of deconstruction. If the rational rule of law is enshrined as a written code, but language itself is open to a diversity of interpretation, how can the rule of law be trusted not to be abused by the judges and lawyers representing a powerful political à ©lite? Critics would argue that such an abuse is inevitable. References Armstrong, E. A., Bernstein, M. (2008). Culture, power, nad institution: A approach to social movements. Sociological Theory, 26 (1), 74-99. Deflem, M. (2008). Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholarly Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hunt, A. (1985). The ideology of law: Advances and problems in recent applications of the concept of ideology to the analysis of law. Law Society Review, 19 (1), 11-38. Scheppele, K. L. (1994). Legal theory and social theory. Annual Review of Sociology, 20, 383-406. Sterling, J. S., Moore, W. E. (1987). Webers analysis of legal rationalization: A critique and constructive modification. Sociological Forum, 2 (1), 67-89. Turk, A. T. (1976). Law as a weapon in social conflict. Social Problems, 23 (3), 276-291.

To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee :: To Kill a Mocking Bird Essays

To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is the youngest of four children, which is why she says she has a knack for writing. She devoted her life to writing and even gave up other jobs that she loved like working for the airline company and going to college. Her first attempt at writing â€Å"To Kill a Mocking Bird† was declined by every publisher, because she only wrote a series of short stories. Upon revising the book, she made it into one of the best selling novels around. She was even congratulated by those publishers that said she would never be able to write books well enough. That was all the motivation that she needed. Harper Lee’s purpose for writing this book was to show her audience moral values, the difference of right versus wrong. She does this very effectively by making Scout, the main girl in the story, and Jem, her brother, seemingly innocent, because they have not seen evil this early in their lives. The evil comes later when Mr. Ewell attempts to kill both Jem and Scout. Once the two children see and experience this evil, it changes their lives forever. They begin to see how the world can be different from their views. The morals for Scout and Jem to live by come from their father, Atticus Finch. He has experienced evils in his life, like the death of his wife, but he never lost faith in the good of people. He taught Scout and Jem right from wrong when they were young, because their mother was no longer around to teach them. Atticus understands that people have good and bad inside of them, but he feels that the good side can always overcome the bad side. This is true when he backed Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping Mr. Ewell’s daughter. Even though no one else helped Atticus out, he never gave up on Tom Robinson no matter how hard things got. Another important theme that this book stresses is how prejudice and ignorance is viewed by the innocent. For Scout, the thought of Boo Radley, the seemingly ignorant person who lived down the road, was changed throughout the story drastically. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee :: To Kill a Mocking Bird Essays To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is the youngest of four children, which is why she says she has a knack for writing. She devoted her life to writing and even gave up other jobs that she loved like working for the airline company and going to college. Her first attempt at writing â€Å"To Kill a Mocking Bird† was declined by every publisher, because she only wrote a series of short stories. Upon revising the book, she made it into one of the best selling novels around. She was even congratulated by those publishers that said she would never be able to write books well enough. That was all the motivation that she needed. Harper Lee’s purpose for writing this book was to show her audience moral values, the difference of right versus wrong. She does this very effectively by making Scout, the main girl in the story, and Jem, her brother, seemingly innocent, because they have not seen evil this early in their lives. The evil comes later when Mr. Ewell attempts to kill both Jem and Scout. Once the two children see and experience this evil, it changes their lives forever. They begin to see how the world can be different from their views. The morals for Scout and Jem to live by come from their father, Atticus Finch. He has experienced evils in his life, like the death of his wife, but he never lost faith in the good of people. He taught Scout and Jem right from wrong when they were young, because their mother was no longer around to teach them. Atticus understands that people have good and bad inside of them, but he feels that the good side can always overcome the bad side. This is true when he backed Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping Mr. Ewell’s daughter. Even though no one else helped Atticus out, he never gave up on Tom Robinson no matter how hard things got. Another important theme that this book stresses is how prejudice and ignorance is viewed by the innocent. For Scout, the thought of Boo Radley, the seemingly ignorant person who lived down the road, was changed throughout the story drastically.

Prison Health Care Essay

Health care is a major issue. The issue of health care, no matter who views, takes on many perspectives, however, the point of view of prison is a another world of its own. Federal and state laws in place states that correctional facilities and/or prisons must provide prisoners with medical facilities that would oversee their medical needs. This paper will identify a governmental agency that regulates prison health care, the impact on health care, the duties the agency carries out, this agency’s regulatory authority in relation to health care and the processes for accreditation, certification and authorization. The Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is an agency created on May 14, 1930. Its main headquarters is in Washington, D.C. The BOP is a subdivision of the United States Justice Department and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. Its sole purpose is to provide more open-minded and compassionate care to those who are federal inmates with the United States prison system. As time passed and laws were changed, The BOP’s responsibilities grew and by the end of 1930, the agency operated 14 facilities for well over 13,000 inmates (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015). By 1940s, the BOP grew to having 24 facilities with over 24,000 inmates. As a result of Federal law enforcement efforts and new legislation that altered sentencing in the Federal criminal justice system, the 1980s brought an  increase in the number of Federal inmates. According to the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, â€Å"established determinate sentencing, abolished parole, and reduced good time.† During the 1990s, the population doubled as efforts to combat illegal drugs and illegal immigration contributed to a significant increase in conviction rates. To present date, the population continues to increase with Federal prisons reach a current population of over 210,000. Impact on Health Care To control rising costs of health care, since the early 1990s the BOP implement initiatives aimed at providing more efficient and effective inmate health care (Efforts to Manage, 2008). These on-going initiatives included assigned most inmates to institutions based on the care level, installing an electronic medical records system that connects institutions, implementing tele-health to provide health care services through video conferencing, and implementing a bill adjudication process to avoid costly errors when validating health care related invoices (Efforts to Manage, 2008). Since the early 1990s, BOP has attempted to increase efficiency and economy of health care delivery to prisoners through various cost containment initiatives, such as restructuring medical staff, obtaining discounts through quantity or bulk purchases, leveraging resources through cooperative efforts and other governmental entities and even privatizing medical services at selected facilities (Containing Health Cost for Inmate Population, 2008). Duties of the Federal Bureau of Prisons The mission of the BOP is to protect society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community based facilities that are safe, humane, cost efficient and appropriately secure and that provide work and other self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in becoming law abiding citizens (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015). This agency is responsible for providing medically needed health care to inmates in agreement with federal and state laws. One of the most negative aspects of the BOP is it is responsible for carrying out all judicially mandated federal executions, including lethal injection of inmates who have been sentenced to death for a crime they have committed (Federal, 2015). This agency maintains the lethal injection chamber of a prison before, during,  and after an execution, making sure that the lethal injection is set up appropriately. The structure of the BOP is made of several divisions with board of directors. Inmates are confined in facilities spread out across the United States. Each facility reports to a regional office, which provides close oversight and support to that site. At the headquarters, national programs are developed and functional support is provided to the entire agency by division (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2015). Regulatory Authority: Accreditation, Certification and Authorization Accreditation is necessary for prisons as it contributes to making the prisons operations, policies and procedures clear as well as increase the accountability of those operating the prisons. Accreditation provides and verifies the standards that an organization is required to meet. The American Correctional Association (ACA) performs the function with regard to the general operational activities of the correctional facilities (Hamilton, 2015). The American Correctional Association developed national standards for safe, effective, and professional operation of the correctional facilities. These standards are essential guides to policies and processed that protect the health and safety of prisoners and facility staff. These standards are regularly revised by a 20 member committee. Revisions are based on court decisions, and governmental agency practices and experiences (Hamilton, 2015). Although participation in the accreditation process is voluntary, many correctional facilities ask to be accredited. As these agencies ask for accreditation the ACE sends the appropriate standards material, a manual policy and procedure, and compliance checklist. At this point, a regional manager is appointed to serve as an adviser. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care accredits all of the BOP’s and health service units and medical referral centers. Many correctional facilities are also guided by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) standard without seeking accreditation. The accreditation process is a difficult and challenging one, especially those seeking new accreditations. It is the mission of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to protect society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community  based facilities that are safe, cost efficient and secure. Each facility reports to a regional office and this agency is spear headed by a Board of Directors. Each region has functional support and provided the entire agency by each division.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Different Types of Investment Essay

Checking Account Basic – In this type of account, one is presented less services and low cost. The disadvantage of this type of account is that banks usually do not pay interests. Moreover, if used excessively, the owner of the basic checking account may pay additional charges (â€Å"Types of Accounts Typically Offered by Banks,† 2008). Interest Bearing – compared to the basic checking account, the interest bearing account is broader in terms of services and cost. Interest bearing accounts offer unlimited number of checks. Negotiable Order of Withdrawal (NOW), a type of interest bearing account, offers interest depending on how large the money a person has deposited in the bank   (â€Å"Types of Accounts Typically Offered by Banks,† 2008). Money Market Account The money market account is a savings account that is protected by the federal government. This is the most liquid and safe account, but it offers low interests. In this type of account, a person’s money is invested in a short-term debt. Examples of short-term debts are commercial paper and treasury bills. Commercial papers are unsecured commitment that is given by banks to back up their needs such as accounts receivable and inventory.   Money market accounts also give higher interests than interest bearing checking accounts (â€Å"Types of Accounts Typically Offered by Banks,† 2008). This type of account is given a number of checks. If an account of this type fails to maintain a minimum balance the bank will enforce a service charge (â€Å"Types of Accounts Typically Offered by Banks,† 2008). Savings Account The savings account is the most basic type of investment. In this type of investment, one is eligible to withdraw and deposit money in the bank but one cannot use checks to transact with the bank. Banks usually give higher interests in this type of account than checking account, but it is much lower than certificate of deposit and money market accounts. The bank also charges the depositor a certain amount if the balance falls from its required minimum. This type of investment usually uses passbooks to record each and every transaction (â€Å"Types of Accounts Typically Offered by Banks,† 2008). Certificate of Deposit Also known as Time deposit, the owner of a certificate of deposit agrees with the bank to hold his or her money for specified amount of time. The longer the duration specified in this type of account, the bigger the interest it will get. However, the owner of this type of account cannot withdraw the money until the end of the specified duration. Once he or she withdraws the money when the duration is still not finished, the bank will penalize him or her. If one cannot live without his or her money then it is best not to enter this type of account (â€Å"Types of Accounts Typically Offered by Banks,† 2008). Analysis of the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Various Types of Accounts In checking account, one disadvantage is that the interest given is very little compared to other accounts. Nevertheless, the advantage of this is that one can use check whenever he or she needs money. One disadvantage of a savings account is that one cannot use the money in his or her account whenever he or she needs money by accident. However, the advantage of this account is that the owners can monitor their money through their passbook. The advantage of the money market account is that it gives a higher rate of interest compared to checking account. However, the disadvantage of this is that it requires a high minimum balance. In the case of the certificate of deposit, its advantage is that it gives a higher interest rate compared to the three other types of account. However, the downside of this account is that one cannot withdraw his or her money until the specified time agreed by him or her and the bank. Considering the advantages and drawbacks of the aforementioned accounts, I can say that the certificate of deposit, otherwise known as the time deposit, is the best investment to choose. We invest our money to get big money. Hence, we should aim for the highest interest as it means higher profit for us. Given the formula for compounded interest, we can actually estimate the money that will be accumulated when we invest $1,000 dollars in a certificate of deposit: A = P(1 + r/m)mt Where A = accumulated amount at the end of conversion period, P is the principal amount, r is the normal interest rate per year, m number of conversion period per year, and t is the term or the number of years (â€Å"Exponents, Logarithms, and Applications to Compound Interest,† n.d.). Whatever the number of conversions per year, if the rate and the number of terms are increasing, then the accumulated amount will always be higher in certificate of deposit (CD). As we are only given a certain amount of money, the only thing that we have is the time. As long as the money stays in the bank and is accumulating interest, then it will still profit. That is why the CD is the best account to invest your money with.