Electoral College System Essay

The President and the Vice President of the United States are elected indirectly by an institution known as the Electoral College. The U. S. Constitution provides the broad framework through which electors are appointed and by which they cast votes for the President and Vice President. In evaluating the contingent election process, some commentators have suggested that any threshold inquiry requires assessing how often contingent election occurs. If the results of a general election are frequently inconclusive, they increase the likelihood of contingent election. The democratic criteria require implementing reforms that bring the people into the contingency process. Critics of the Electoral College system argue that the presence of viable and well-funded third-party or independent presidential candidates, who may be able to garner electoral votes by carrying a plurality of the votes in statewide elections, increases the likelihood of contingent election. Analysis of criticism of the Electoral College system There are several shortcomings of the Electoral College as cited by the proponents of the presidential election reform. These shortcomings have raised justifications for reform or abolition of the current system. One of the criticism is on the Electoral College is the Electoral College deadlock of the contingent election. In this one, the 12th amendment provide that the House of Representatives should choose a president and the senate chooses the vice president by contingent election if the presidential and the vice presidential candidates votes have not reached a simple majority of the Electoral College votes. The election of the president by the House of Representatives happened only once on the February 9th, 1825 where John Quincy Adams was elected as President over Andrew Jackson. This election was criticized by some commentators saying that it brought about a constitutional crisis since the president was selected as part of a political corrupt bargain because some of the presidential candidates were disqualified from the contingent election. Critics claim that this election removes the choice of president and vice president voters (Whitaker & Neale, 2004). Another criticism is on the minority president which was expressed in the Electoral College misfire. In this one, the current electoral college system can result in the election of a minority president which states that the president can be one who wins the majority of the electoral votes even though he has lost the popular votes. This was experienced in the 1800s where three minority presidents namely, John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, and Benjamin Harrison in1888. The other criticisms are on the current methods of allocating electoral votes, the decennial census problem, and the faithless elector, presidential succession between nomination and inauguration, independent and the third party versus major party candidates. These criticisms have caused so many controversies that have made many people believe that the current Electoral College system is not a good system and therefore it needs amendment (Whitaker & Neale, 2004). Advantages of various reform proposals. The electoral college reform proposals include (1)the district plan, awarding each state two at large electoral votes to the state-wide popular vote winners, and one electoral vote to the winning candidate in each congressional district; (2) the proportional plan, awarding electoral votes in states in direct proportion to the popular vote gained in the state by each candidate; and (3) the automatic plan, awarding each state’s electoral votes directly on a winner-take- all basis to the statewide vote winners (Amar, 1995). The advantages to the electoral-vote system include its tendency to produce a clear winner. The constitution is however subject to change, allowing for the second vote in case of depressed voter turnout. Great leverage is also given to third party candidates by requiring the winner to have a majority and by this it calls for fair and just elections. A National Election Agency is incorporated in the system to run the vote. However, the government also comes in to help, where the National Election Agency has fewer powers under the government (Amar, 1995). Despite the fact that the president alone is elected by the people, doesn’t mean he can legitimately defy the law. It is good to know that the elections are fair in that a presidential candidate who stands in his campaign and wins with a substantial majority of votes from the American people does of course gain the mandate. The candidate who emerges with the most electoral votes has a fully legitimate claim to the office for the next four years (Amar, 1995). Disadvantages of various reform proposals. In the U. S there is a rule that, a candidate chosen on the Election Day may not be the president. Therefore if it happens that a candidate has failed to win the national popular vote, he might be sworn in as the president by the virtue of claiming more electoral votes on than his opponents. Therefore the main disadvantage of such kind of proposal, is that if the sitting president who lost in the popular vote is returned again to power after his rejection, then there will be a wide condemnation on the Electoral college as a wacky anachronism which will lead to extensive demands for the amendments of the constitution in order for the replacement of the electoral vote with popular election (Longley, 2008). Due to this kind of proposals, there is a possibility of not telling the exact winner since the constitution is the main source of authenticity. The main disadvantage here is that there might be a possibility of both candidates having different fundamental campaigns which give different issues of emphasis and making frequent appearances in different states. Another disadvantage for this proposal is the argument on which candidate to take office and who was chosen by an archaic and wholly irrational system. If the electoral system is replaced, by the popular vote election, since it is not irrational there is a possibility of embarrassment on the president opting to be chosen by this process (Dellinger, 2004). Another greatest disadvantage of the present system of voting in U. S is that there is a possibility that the candidate who receives the most votes from the nation (people) may not take office. Therefore the present president in office may face many challenges and offsetting values since he or she was not put in by the majority. The disadvantage of the constitutional system for choosing a president in the U. S is not perfect and needs to be changed and therefore the candidate who emerges with most electoral votes has full justified claim to the office for four years (Dellinger, 2004). Conclusion It is clear that once the candidate chosen by the people of the United States on the Election Day may not become president. The candidate must choose the constitutional rules currently in place. In the voting parties, the party that receives more total votes nationally wins the parliament while the one with fewer total votes chooses the Nation’s prime minister. The constitution however, is subject to change (Longley & Dana, 1992). Amending the Constitution to alter it would present a series of difficult questions: Will we give great leverage to third party candidates by requiring the winner to have a majority? Will we have a runoff, which might lead to depressed turnout for the second vote? Will we create a National Election Agency to run the vote and or leave it with the 51 governments who now run it? If those states report raw votes, will they somehow artificially increase the number of voters in the state or pad the totals—a temptation now avoided by having a set number of electoral votes for each state? These are not insurmountable objections to constitutional change, but they should certainly give pause (Longley & Dana, 1992). References Amar, A. R. (1995). Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Death: Closing the Constitution’s Succession Gap Dellinger, W. (2004). Popularity contest in defense of the Electoral College, Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC. Retrieved October 26th, 2008, from http://www. slate. com/id/2108991/ Longley R. (2008). The Electoral College System, who really elects the president of the united states, About . com Longley, L. D. & Dana, J. D. , Jr. (1992). The Biases of the Electoral College in the 1990s Whitaker, L. P. & Neale, T. H. (2004, November 5). The Electoral College: An Overview and Analysis of Reform Proposals. CRS Report for Congress. Retrieved October 26th, 2008, from http://italy. usembassy. gov/pdf/other/RL30804. pdf.

Case Study Essay Essay

Speed Racer. Like millions of other kids, he couldn’t wait to watch the hero’s slick Mach 5 take on villainous rivals in equally enticing race cars. The show came on at 3:30 p.m. If he was late, he missed it. Back then, there were no VCRs or DVRs to record the show for later viewing. There was no Internet. Like everyone else at the time, Kilar had to watch TV on the schedule dictated by the networks. Perhaps that’s why when Kilar grew up, he set out to change that antiquated model of television watching. By the time Kilar had reached the ripe old age of 36, home-recording devices had been household fixtures for well over two decades. But as far as Kilar was concerned, having to think ahead and set a device to record a show was still too much work. That’s why accepted the task of running Hulu, a joint venture by media giants NBC Universal and News Corporation that serves up TV shows and movies through a slick Web interface, when and  wherever you want to view them. As Hulu began to take shape, speculation quickly turned to skepticism.  What’s a Hulu? In August 2007, this question ricocheted  through the blogosphere to a chorus of derisive laughter. NBC and Fox [News Corps’ TV broadcasting subsidiary] were going to make the Internet safe for television! They were building a â€Å"YouTube killer†! And they were calling it Hulu! It was almost too perfect—an absurdist topper to the idea that two major broadcast networks could devise an Internet video service people would actually use.The name was even more delicious than the venture’s placeholder moniker, NewCo, which the online world had changed to ClownCo.And now Hulu? It means â€Å"snoring† in Chinese, one blogger declared. â€Å"‘Cease’ and ‘desist’ in Swahili,† Michael Arrington reported on TechCrunch. â€Å"Perhaps they should have just stuck with ClownCo,† he added. In Mandarin, hulu actually means â€Å"bottle gourd,† or â€Å"holder of precious things.† But the word’s meaning doesn’t really matter much. What does matter is that since Hulu aired its first television program in March 2008, it has become the third  most-viewed online video site, and it’s still rapidly growing. Entertainment Weekly called Hulu â€Å"some kind of TV addict’s fever dream.† One of the same bloggers who had earlier ridiculed Hulu soon pronounced it â€Å"brilliant.† And Mr. Arrington, coeditor of the famed blog TechCrunch and one of Hulu’s  harshest early critics, ultimately declared, â€Å"Game over. Hulu wins.† The big question is this: Of all the world’s Web startups and video sites, what has made Hulu such an instant and unquestioned success? Focus On the Customer When Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal, and Peter Chernin,  president of News Corporation’s Fox network, hired Jason Kilar, they handed him a relatively empty canvas in an industry mired with complexities. Kilar could have set any of a thousand different priorities in creating Hulu. But Kilar focused first on one primary priority that would guide the entire venture: the viewer. He insisted that Hulu be â€Å"obsessed with users.† If Hulu didn’t work for viewers, they simply wouldn’t tune in. Kilar wanted to capture the best parts of watching television the oldfashioned way and combine them with the best that modern technology could offer. He and his Hulu team considered all the barriers to watching television and movie programming via the existing options and then set out to squash them. Hulu is Web based, so it overcomes two of the most common  inconveniences to watching regular TV It’s available 24/7, and .  it doesn’t require that viewers set a device for recording. But all Web video sites offer those advantages. Beyond these basics, to ultimately draw people away from their TV sets to watch their favorite shows online, Hulu had to offer more. So Kilar and his team focused on some very specific benefits. User-friendly The top Internet services—Google, Flickr,  YouTube—earned their top spots because they’re simple. Hulu needed to do more than just claim user-friendliness—its site needed to be clean, clutter-free, and have high-quality video. The site needed intuitive controls and navigation tools. And it needed to work seamlessly with all the popular Web browsers, without requiring additional downloads or special players.That obstacle had limited the success of many online video services. Kilar’s test for simplicity? His 62-year-old mom, Maureen, had to be able to cue up any video on the site within 15 seconds. As a result, Hulu emerged as the sleekest, easiest-to-use, and most professional video site on the Internet. According to Will Richmond, president of research firm Broadband Directions, Hulu â€Å"set the gold standard† for a TV-watching experience. â€Å"It has optimized all of the ingredients—quality of video, navigation, and controls.† Videos stream almost instantly in high resolution on a large or even full screen, instead of a â€Å"postage-stamp-size screen with grainy video,† as Kilar puts it. What does Kilar’s mom think? â€Å"She talks a big game, but she’s not technical,† said Kilar. But when Maureen discovered how easy it was to pull up episodes of the old TV classic Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Hulu, she was hooked. A Ton of Content Kilar also knew that slick and easy  wouldn’t be enough without having programming that people  wanted to see. When given the initial list of programs that  would be available on Hulu, Kilar was very disappointed. â€Å"It was one piece of paper,† he said. â€Å"I wished it was a phone book.† CC1 CC2 Company Cases Kilar informed the gurus at NBC and Fox that for Hulu to work, the two companies needed to provide access to every movie  they had ever made and every show they had ever aired. The  network chiefs explained that existing contracts and legal  complexities made that virtually impossible. But Kilar held his ground, and NBC and Fox quickly came around, digging deep  to gain legal clearance for everything that they could.  To give viewers even more content, Kilar suggested a strategy to Fox and NBC executives verged on heresy. He wanted to show programming from competing networks and production  companies—to sell the competition’s products. In fact, he wanted Hulu to be perceived as its own entity, not tied to any existing network. â€Å"Hulu is about the shows, not the networks,† Kilar argued.â€Å"The shows are the brands that users care about.† Once the idea settled in, Chernin and Zucker agreed. As a result, when Hulu went live, it boasted more than 250 TV shows and 100 movies from Fox, NBC, Universal, their affiliated cable channels, and more than 50 content partners such as Warner Brothers and indie film studio Lionsgate. In  addition to hosting content on its own Web site, Hulu links  seamlessly to video content on other video sites, even those of competing networks. In the time since Hulu began airing programs, the number of content partners has swelled to 130 and its library has grown exponentially. That library includes full episodes and even full seasons of television programs, clips from shows (clips of NBC’s Saturday Night Live are among the most viewed on the Internet), movies, and even instructional Web videos such as â€Å"How to Make Stuffed Crust Pizza.† Cost (as in Free!) Kilar also knew that for Hulu to succeed, it had to be free. After all, that’s how people had been watching broadcast television for decades. And on the Internet, people have come to expect â€Å"free.† But offering free content created a problem. Such programming had to be supported with ads, and  viewers don’t like those either. So Hulu created a very  reasonable compromise. The standard for broadcast television is eight minutes of ads per half-hour of programming. Hulu  inserts only two minutes of ads per half hour. Given all that they get, viewers don’t seem to mind the brief interruptions. Great Quality, User-based Programming, and Embed  Codes A great video player and lots of free programs are  things that viewers want most. But in his relentless pursuit to please viewers, Kilar went even further. He went for first-class quality, in both selection and viewing. Hulu relies on a small army of film students to screen every minute of footage,  looking for video and audio glitches. And instead of having  Hulu executives set programming priorities, Hulu lets users do it. Popularity alone moves a show up in the ratings. As a result, some rather odd shows have risen to the top. One of most  highly rated shows on Hulu is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, an FX series starring Danny DeVito. Another is Arrested Development, a cult favorite that won Emmys and  critical acclaim but was canceled by Fox because of poor  ratings. In yet another â€Å"Is this guy crazy?† move, Kilar decided that Hulu should provide embed codes so that users could post  content on their own sites. Not only does Hulu feature content from the competition, it gives its own content away! Users  love this because they can share programming with others. It works for Hulu because it doesn’t really give the content away. It enables its videos to go viral, bringing more viewers to  sponsors’ ads. Embracing the Future Hulu’s focus on pleasing viewers is certainly showing results. In only a few months, Hulu ranked among the Web’s top-ten  video sites, besting even ESPN.com. The month following  Hulu’s airing of a very clever ad featuring 30 Rock’s Alex Baldwin on Super Bowl XLIII, the site’s viewership increased by 55 percent to 7.8 million with 332 million streams. This catapulted Hulu past Microsoft and Viacom,  putting it at the heels of number-three Yahoo! (with 353 million streams) and number two MySpace (with 462 million streams). A few months later, Hulu passed Yahoo! In the world of online video sites, YouTube still dominates with 5.3 billion streams every month. But the market offerings of YouTube and MySpace are very  different from Hulu’s, so Hulu lays claim to being the market leader for TV-oriented sites.   Despite its success in such a short time, Hulu ‘s future is hardly guaranteed. Consumers are fickle, especially in a world of constantly changing technologies where what’s hot today may be old news next year. NBC and News Corp recently  added Disney and it’s ABC library to the partnership. But numerous other user-friendly, TV-style sites lurk in the shadows, including CBS’s TV.com and Viacom’s Joost.  And don’t forget one of the biggest competitors of all: viewers themselves.A major reason that NBC and Fox created Hulu in the first place was to combat video piracy. They were constantly having to intervene to pull clips of their shows off of YouTube and other video sites. And peer-to-peer BitTorrent  networks were threatening to inflict the same damage on the  television industry that the likes of Napster inflicted on the music industry.  Shortly after their initial plans leaked out, Chernin addressed the piracy problem head on. â€Å"You can’t protect old business models artificially,† he proclaimed. Unlike music industry executives who held back far too long, Chernin and Zucker realized that if they didn’t put their shows online, someone else would. â€Å"The best way to combat piracy is to make your content available,† said Zucker. â€Å"We want to make sure consumers know they don’t need to steal our content. That’s what Hulu is all about.† But while the minds at Hulu feel that their product will do  a great deal to combat piracy, they are more concerned about a bigger issue: Giving the consumer everything they want may not always be the best thing for the business. From a profitability standpoint, the impact of making  content available with minimal commercials could have adverse effects on the  business models that have worked for decades. As viewership  Company Cases  turns from the TV to the Web, can the revenue generated  through the new media replace that which will undoubtedly be lost through the old?  Jason Kilar himself best captures the opportunities and  threats presented by the volatility of the industry. â€Å"The world has turned completely upside down. I find that very inspiring. Others might be scared out of their wits. But to me, this is the way media always should have been.† Questions for Discussion 1. Describe Hulu’s market offering in detail. What value is Hulu really offering to users? 2. Is Hulu customer-driven? Why or why not? 3. Think about the three considerations underlying the societal marketing concept. Is Hulu sustainable? Support your conclusions for each consideration. 4. What recommendations would you make for Hulu’s  future? Sources: Jessi Hempel, â€Å"Hulu’s Hurdles: Internet Video Sharing Site Tries to Serve Fans and Networks Alike,† Fortune, February 24, 2009, accessed online at www.money.cnn.com; Frank Rose, â€Å"Free, Legal, and Online: Why Hulu is the New Way to Watch TV,† Wired, September 22, 2008, accessed online at www.wired.com; Chuck Salter, â€Å"The Fast Company 50: #3 Hulu,† Fast Company, March, 2009, p. 59; Lynne d’Johnson, â€Å"In Only One Year, Hulu Becomes Fourth-Largest Video Site in U.S.,† Fast Company, March 23, 2009, accessed online at www.fastcompany .com.

Financial Analysis of Tesco Supermarket Research Paper

Financial Analysis of Tesco Supermarket - Research Paper Example For a potential investor, the stock of Tesco Plc is strongly recommended as better investment than its rival because it provides higher gains in the long-run. The performance of a business organization is quantitatively reflected in its financial statements. Ascertaining the financial health of a company has become important to different decision makers like managers, stockholders, potential investors and creditors. As such, it becomes important to evaluate the financial situation of any business organization to identify their relative strengths and weaknesses. In order to accomplish this task, this report will utilize financial ratio analysis. From its humble beginning as a one-man business in 1919, Tesco is now highly regarded for its size and strength in the global retailing industry. Tesco is engaged in international grocery and general merchandising retail chain. It is named as the largest retailer in Britain in terms of global sales and domestic market share. During 2006, it is estimated that in every 8 spent is UK retail sales, 1 is spent on Tesco indicating its strong foothold of the market (Tesco Plc 2007). The success of Tesco is based on a fourfold long term growth strategy: "to grow the core UK business; to become a successful international retailer; to be as strong in food as in non-food; and to develop retailing services such as Tesco personal finance, Telecoms; and Tesco.com" (Tesco Plc). With this, Tesco has established presence in international markets such as Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, and China and has complemented its core business with retailer service business such as online shopping, personal finance, and telecoms. In order to comply with regulatory requirements, Tesco has adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in preparing its financial statements in the fiscal year 2005 (from UK GAAP). The adoption of IFRS is expected to lower the reported turnover and net income and increase debt. As with any other business organization, the company also recognizes the presence of risks and uncertainties in its operations. Financially, Tesco is facing challenges in "the availability of fund to meet business needs, the risk of default by counter-parties to financial transactions, and fluctuations in interest and foreign exchange rates" (Tesco Plc 2007). In order to ensure fund availability, Tesco employs policy which includes smoothing the debt maturity profile, arranging funding ahead of requirements and

Electric Vehicles Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Electric Vehicles - Term Paper Example Such finite supplies necessitate current technology and development to be concentric upon finding alternate means of locomotion that service the needs of current and future human populations. One of the most relevant alternatives that currently exists within the field of transportation science is of course the prospect of the electric vehicle. Although the technology to produce such vehicles dates back to prior to the Second World War, it is only recently that the forces of environmental preservation, global warming, and the rising cost and ultimate limitations to fossil fuels have brought this technology to the forefront yet again. Yet although electric vehicles offer a great deal of promise, the fundamental scientific proof of thermodynamics must be applied in order for the researcher/reader to understand why electric vehicles have not caught on to a more profound and/or successful degree. As such, the following analysis will consider the second law of thermodynamics as it relates to electric vehicles as well as elucidating a level of discussion as to several other drawbacks that electric vehicles currently exhibit (Tai-Hoon et al. 59). Naturally, such shortcomings should not be seen as a fatal blow to electric vehicles now and in the future; rather, it will only help to delineate why the current technology is not sufficient to provide a fundamental shift in the market and remedy to the transportation pressures that currently force the system to rely upon fossil fuels. As a matter of clarity, the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease. This is due to the fact that isolated systems continual move towards a level of thermodynamic equilibrium; also known as a state of maximum entropy. This has also been used to express why perpetual motion machines of any type are impossible (Zhang et al. 517). Many of the current design strategies and business plans surrounding the production and development of electric vehicles i s of the false belief that the creation of an effective fuel cell will herald the beginning of the end for the concept of entropy. However, rather than this being taken seriously as a legitimate and proven scientific theory, this is in fact merely a sound bite that many investors and producers of electric vehicles have latched onto; devoid of any grounding in the reality of science (Gonzalez-Romera et al. 9317). Due to the fact that the second law of thermodynamics does not allow for any self contained system to perpetuate itself indefinitely without the consumption of resources to continue such a process as it was designed, no matter how efficient a fuel cell or alternative technology is released with relation to the electronic vehicle, it is ultimately impossible to meet the expectations of many individuals within the market (Abu-Siada et al. 17). Another problematic issue that exists with regards to the laws of thermodynamics and the electric car is the lack of understanding that many within society integrate with regards to where the energy comes from that powers these aforementioned electric vehicles. Although the emphasis upon being â€Å"green† and environmentally responsible is a step in a positive direction for all those within society that seek to