Reinventing Something Essays - In Search Of Excellence,

Reinventing Something This book is about Reinventing Something as you understand from its caption. I could not surprize much when I finished to read this very popular book because ; 1 The cases included in book to support theory were chosen selectively. I can show a lot of examples in contrary to the framework proposed in Osbornes book but none of negative examples were included. The book is very one-handed and does not project the facts correctly. 2 A distinction were not made in this book between public and private sector organizations and behaved as if both of them have the same principles and context. The relation of Public Management with democratic principles were ignored. Basically, this book is a public version of the book of Peters and Waterman - In Search of Excellence -. 3 The principles propesed in this book are accepted universal and thought as time and location-free. Cultural differences among countries were underestimated. Generalizations pervades the book. 4 This book is not based on a decent scientific research and so does not have an academic-quality. Overall, if you want to read this book because of its popularity, you should read it with other strong resources in the field of public administration and management. Some reference materials are indicated below... Mark Moore, Creating Public Value ; Norman Flynn, Public Sector Management ; Guy Peters, The Future of Governing Mythology

Definition of Gadsden Purchase

Definition of Gadsden Purchase The Gadsden Purchase was a strip of territory the United States purchased from Mexico following negotiations in 1853. The land  was purchased because it was considered to be a good route for a railroad across the Southwest to California. The land comprising the Gadsden Purchase is in southern Arizona and the southwestern part of New Mexico. The Gadsden Purchase represented the last parcel of land acquired by the United States to complete the 48 mainland states. The transaction with Mexico was controversial, and it intensified the simmering conflict over slavery and helped to inflame the regional differences that eventually led to the Civil War. Background of the Gadsden Purchase Following the Mexican War, the boundary between Mexico and the United States set by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ran along the Gila River. Land to the south of the river would be Mexican territory. When Franklin Pierce became president of the United States in 1853, he backed the idea of a railroad that would run from the American South to the West Coast. And it became apparent that the best route for such a railroad would run through northern Mexico. The land to the north of the Gila River, in United States territory, was too mountainous. President Pierce instructed the American minister to Mexico, James Gadsden, to purchase as much territory in northern Mexico as possible. Pierces secretary of war, Jefferson Davis, who would later be the president of the Confederate States of America, was a strong supporter of a southern rail route to the West Coast. Gadsden, who had worked as a railroad executive in South Carolina, was encouraged to spend up to $50 million to buy as much as 250,000 square miles. Senators from the North suspected that Pierce and his allies had motives beyond simply building a railroad. There were suspicions that the real reason for the land purchase was to add territory in which slavery could be legal. Consequences of the Gadsden Purchase Because of objections of suspicious northern legislators, the Gadsden Purchase was scaled back from the original vision of President Pierce. This was an unusual circumstance where the United States could have obtained more territory but chose not to. Ultimately, Gadsden reached an agreement with Mexico to purchase about 30,000 square miles for $10 million. The treaty between the United States and Mexico was signed by James Gadsden on December 30, 1853, in Mexico City. And the treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate in June 1854. The controversy over the Gadsden Purchase prevented the Pierce administration from adding any more territory to the United States. So the land acquired in 1854 essentially completed the 48 states of the mainland. Incidentally, the proposed southern rail route through the rough territory of the Gadsden Purchase was partly the inspiration for the U.S. Army to experiment by using camels. The secretary of war and proponent of the southern railway, Jefferson Davis, arranged for the military to obtain camels in the Middle East and ship them to Texas. It was believed the camels would eventually be used to map and explore the region of the newly acquired territory. Following the Gadsden Purchase, the powerful senator from Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, wanted to organize territories through which a more northern railroad could run to the West Coast. And the political maneuvering of Douglas eventually led to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which further intensified tensions over slavery. As for the railroad across the Southwest, that was not completed until 1883, nearly three decades after the Gadsden Purchase.

Plato, St.Thomas, Descartes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Plato, St.Thomas, Descartes - Essay Example The aim of this paper is to critically differentiate between the concepts of human person by Plato, St. Thomas and Rene Descartes. Plato believed that human person is basically a soul because it’s the most strongest of all and remains immortal. This clearly creates the relationship of mind and body to be of significance of hindrance. The human person is only able to reach to its core excellence within a group setting. According to Plato, body is the reason why the soul of a person will be distracted. Herein, it should be noted that the highest power that can be gained by the human person is none other than knowledge. Ultimately, Plato gave his viewpoint determining that the highest peak of knowledge i.e. power which can be gained by a human person is apprehension of the ideas. However, as noted above, soul is constantly distracted by the body in meeting the highest peak of knowledge. It should be noted that Plato has merely considered body to be the cage in which the soul gets locked. Plato has justified the comment of soul to gain eternal knowledge. At the point where one finds out that soul is the sole player of the power then knowledge is gained likewise. However, the fact remains that souls are merely imprisoned by the body that makes soul to undertake learning in a customized manner. Soul imprisoned within the body tends to create possibilities of learning other things as well. It is evident from the following quotation as well, â€Å"The lovers of learning know that when philosophy gets hold of their soul, it is imprisoned in and clinging to the body, and that it is forced to examine other things through it as through a cage and not by itself, and that it wallows in every kind of ignorance1†. The question arises that at what point can the soul be free from the body where the answer is clear, at death. Body becomes dead but soul remains for which it can fulfill the tasks that it need to do during the life course. In order to fully practice th e power, it is much significant for the soul to get freedom from being caged in the body. The most famous saying of Plato inhibited that those who practice philosophy and self-learning are basically yearning and practicing to become dead. This is in context of the previous statement where soul is to get powerful at the time of death because it is free from body. It will not be incorrect to state that Plato was basically a dualist. His viewpoints about human person, power inhibiting and knowledge etc. are quiet extreme for its own kind. Considering the appetites that are among the parts of soul, Plato marked that appetite is a power that sorts the need and desires of a human person differently. This makes evident that soul is basically searching its way to fulfill appetites. For some, it can be the intellect while for others it is the shelter that keeps them under an entitlement. This also interweaves the ideal of scientific knowledge i.e. in order to meet the appetite; a person may fulfill the chronology of societal bounding based upon science2. Another dimension to look at human person and everything in its concerned pattern is the view of St. Thomas. It should be noted here that St. Thomas also considered human person to be a soul. However, he did not consider body to be utterly invaluable. He has used a comparison method to discuss human person with animals. He noted that body in which the human soul is embodied is basically a way to differentiate humans from animals. At the