Essays on Public Office

Question 1 Response: Creating a new Constitution was vital to the unity of the United States of America since the Articles of Confederation weren’t sufficient for good government. If there was any evidence of this, it was that the United States was clearly bankrupt and now needed to be organized in such a manner that both the States and the Federal government had to share power in such a manner that everyone’s interests were kept in mind. A centralized approach was key to putting the country back on track. Hence, a meeting was held in the Pennsylvania ...

Assignment 1: Charter of Privileges Granted by William Penn

What did the first article guarantee for the inhabitants of the province? What did it accomplish? The first article guaranteed to the inhabitants of the province the freedom of faith, freedom to choose whichever denomination, one preferred as well as entitled representatives of any such denomination to be equally eligible for occupying offices, both executive and legislative. However, the very wording of the Charter is a little bit tricky in relation to religion, because having in mind the condition of believing in the Only Almighty God that was stipulated by Penn in the Charter one can conclude that diversification ...

Introduction

The website presents several clip from the Bureau of Land Management provide information on expected behaviour from public sector employees. There are several examples given about unethical behaviour from public sector employees. This will paper will discuss two stories of Outside business and Bribes.

A Story of Outside Business

The video presents a government official using government facilities and official time for outside business. It is clear that the government employee has an outside business of real estate agent and she uses government property and official time to perform her outside business. The employee shown in the clip uses official time of lunchtime to ...

Abstract

The United States’ criminal justice system is all about truth. Therefore, law enforcement professionals are expected to act and behave in such a way that mirrors this public commitment. While it is human nature to lie, the kind of job police officers have requires truth and reliability at all times from the law enforcer. People place high level of trust on them, thus, it is only right that police officers remain truthful at all times. Otherwise, it weakens the criminal justice system and only breeds distrust. The justice system is based on truth and police officers, including those who ...

1. The Georgia Open Records Act also known as the Georgia Sunshine Law is the statute of the State of Georgia which gives a definition of what is considered to be a public record and which should be made available to the public upon request. The statute defines public records to be documents that are generated by individuals or groups in public office in the course of public service. Public records also constitute items that are received and maintained by a private person or any other legal entity on behalf of a public office or agency.

2. The pre-World War I opinion by ...

“Bribery and corruption in the public sector, is endemic and unavoidable in all societies.”

Introduction In 2012, the biggest stories of corruption were the allegation against Wal-Mart regarding the payment of bribes amounting to US$24 million in its Mexican operations (Barstow, 2012). A year before, in 2011, a survey was carried out by the Transparency International in 30 countries for their views on corruption. “The results found that 27 percent, or more than one in four businesspeople surveyed, think that they had lost business in the last 12 months due to bribery” (Hardoon, 2012). Corruption is a multifaceted event that involves a wide variety of actions taken by individuals. A simple definition of ...

“Bribery and corruption in the public sector, is endemic and unavoidable in all societies.”

Introduction

In 2012, the biggest stories of corruption were the allegation against Wal-Mart regarding the payment of bribes amounting to US$24 million in its Mexican operations. A year before, in 2011, a survey was carried out by the Transparency International in 30 countries for their views on corruption. “The results found that 27 percent, or more than one in four businesspeople surveyed, think that they had lost business in the last 12 months due to bribery” (Barstow, 2013). Corruption is a highly complex phenomenon; which ...

Scenario One

Sebastian commits this offense when he dishonestly buys business class tickets with the intention to sell them. Evidence of further dishonesty is illustrated by his travelling in economy class while the company records indicate that he travelled in the business class. Though no harm results to the company, the case of Attorney General’s Reference (No.3 of 2003) held that the key determinant in the offense is the conduct, not the results. Accordingly, Sebastian has committed the offense regardless of the outcome of his conduct. However, it may be difficult to prosecute Sebastian; because his official capacity at ...

Scenario One

Sebastian commits this offense when he dishonestly buys business class tickets with the intention to sell them. Evidence of further dishonesty is illustrated by his travelling in economy class while the company records indicate that he travelled in the business class. Even though no harm results to the company from his actions, the case of Attorney General’s Reference (No. 3 of 2003) held that the key determinant in the offense is the conduct, not the results. Accordingly, Sebastian has committed the offense regardless of the outcome of his conduct. It is however imperative to note that it ...

The term administrative policy has different meanings as it applies to the field of public administration depending on the person using the term. Conventionally, administrative responsibility involves both the behavior of public servant, and certain expectations people have with respect to that behavior. If the behavior closely matches the expectations, public servant is to be responsible. On the other hand, if the said the behavior of the public servant does not conform to set standards, the public servant is to be irresponsible. Additionally, an individual, legal entity, or group can strive towards achieving greater responsibility from others by using ...

Recent findings indicate that many Americans have increasingly become distrustful of their government. In fact, only a quarter of all citizens have anything positive to say about the government (Volgy 27). The president’s office is usually held in high esteem but currently, it is facing increasing criticism, and this has been the trend for the last few decades. For instance, President Dwight D. Eisenhower who was an American darling when he first ascended to power found his approval ratings dwindle five years into his presidency. Things were even worse for President Clinton whose honeymoon with the American public ended ...

Introduction

The right to suffrage is accorded to every citizen of a nation given some of the limits dictated in the constitution. When limits are discussed, these pertain to restrictions awarded to an individual that deters their free participation in the process of appointing the rightful individuals who would take office a seat in a public office. This makes the right to vote one of the supreme and basic rights of individuals. However, as mentioned earlier, this can be suspended as deemed necessary by law or as previously decided by the drafters of the constitution or legislation warranting sufficient basis for the decision. ...

The Roman and the U.S. Empire: A Close Comparison

Introduction

Both of these empires characterized a certain centrality (p. 3). During the Roman Empire, Rome was the capital of the empire. The flows of tribute and taxes from the Roman provinces were directed there and to the primary armies. The empire, although, was not circular. It was an east-west extension, as required by the differences in the communications links provided by the Mediterranean and the boundaries of the Sahara and the Alpine ranges (p. 3). The Roman Empire began the Roman Republic when Julius and Augustus Caesar changed it from a ...

Abstract

This paper is on the topic of Interest group and political parties. The first section of this paper will discuss the how interest groups and political parties influence the American political process. The second section will discuss the positive and negative influences they have on the democratic process. The third section of this paper will discuss the impact of interest groups and political parties on democratic elections and government operations. The fourth section will discuss if the interest groups are growing or if they are in decline. The fifth section will discuss the impact of fundraising and money on ...

What are the Types of Ethical Predicaments Encountered in Public Personnel Administration?

Types of Ethical Predicaments Encountered in Public Personnel Administration 3 Common Ethical Dilemmas 3 The Context of Ethics 4 Administrative Discretion 5 Constitutional Prerequisite 6 Ethical Predicaments in Administrative Discretion 6 Corruption 7 Ethical Predicaments in Corruption 8 Other Types of Ethical Predicaments 9 Nepotism 9 Information Leaks 10 Public Accountability 10 Policy Dilemmas 10 Discussion 11 Conclusion 12

References 13

Types of Ethical Predicaments Encountered in Public Personnel Administration The success and reputation of governance depends upon the functionalities and conduct of the public administrators. ...

Ethics in the public sector is usually the moral justification for the various decisions that lead to the actions made in the daily completion of duties performed, when working in the government and nonprofit organizations. It is a standard which the public use to scrutinize work performed by the members in such organizations. The principles are supposed to hold ground when subjected to public and therefore, they ensure that no internal set of principles are set. The way they conduct their personal lives is also scrutinized, therefore it is an added burden to these officers (Stillman, R. J. (2010. The ...

Abstract

A knowledge about the public law is a crucial aspect for an effective public administration. Public administrators these days are beginning to realize that there is a growing demand for them to become skilled and learned leaders whose skill in public management heavily relies on their knowledge about the law. The field of administrative law demands from the public leaders to have the ability, knowledge and skills to apply the law for an efficient decision making process that is called upon to promote the interests of the public and the local affairs of their public office. The complexities of running a public ...

For centuries, calling someone an atheist has been intended as an insult. Only a few centuries ago, admitting to being an atheist was to open oneself to severe consequences. For example, one of the greatest British poets, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was expelled from Oxford University after he and a fellow student published the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism in 1811 (Jager). In 2013, a student stating publicly that he or she is an atheist is unlikely to be expelled from a university, unless the university is a private religious institution. Yet there are still some serious consequences to a public declaration of atheism. One only ...

The main points from the cooper reading

The cooper reading addresses many issues concerning responsible conduct within the public administration. The main points addressed by Cooper (2012) include the internal and external forces impacting on responsible behavior within the public domain, ethical dilemmas and ethics in situational contexts. These three main points address the extent to which legislation and other factors affect responsible conduct in public offices. According to chapter six of the cooper reading, legislation, media and codes of ethics are the main external forces affecting responsible behavior.

Summary of the article

The article Leadership, Ethics Focus of New UA Center concerns itself with moral conduct in a public sector ...

Ethics are the principles that guide one in distinguishing right from wrong. Ethics has three main branches that form its foundation namely applied ethics, meta-ethics and normative ethics. Meta-ethics is the branch deals with understanding the nature of statements, judgement and attitudes of ethics. Normative ethics is a branch that deals with the action to take when one encounters a situation that requires them to take action and the rightness or wrongness of the action. Applied ethics deals with the approaches to issues from a moral standpoint (Miller 70). Every business must consider both the legal and ethical environment.

In the United ...

Introduction

The United States of America is perhaps one of the most successful nations in the world that enjoys great liberty and prosperity. Today, the system of governance used in the United States has been adopted by other nations in modeling their own kind of leadership structures. The nations’ leadership is based on a constitution that defines the operation of public administration and guides the operation within the public forum. However as the world is under constant changes a new challenge arises every other time. The present worldwide re-examination of the function of the State and of public officials and civil servants ...

INTRODUCTION

According to the amended version of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), corporations and unions are banned from “electioneering communication.” This implies that corporations and unions are prohibited by federal laws from using their financial muscle to advocate for or against the election of specific candidates in terms of speech. BCRA defines electioneering communication as “any broadcast, cable, or satellite communication” that “refers to a clearly identified candidate for Federal office” and is made within 30 days of a primary election and that is “publicly distributed.” It must however be mentioned that BCRA upholds the right of corporations to ...

Introduction

The media is quite a powerful entity which in the recent times has been viewed with skepticism and also suspicion depending on the context. The media has a right to provide information even on individuals but questions have been raised on how far they can go when it comes to invasion of privacy. On the other hand, in some nations such as Egypt, the media has provided a much needed tool for expression with insights from different parts of the world. This is important given the years of a repressive that the Egyptian people have had to endure. In the recent uprising against ...