Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional Essay Example

Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional? Essay Is Plea Bargain Unconstitutional The goal of this research paper is to analyze plea bargain and discuss whether it complies with Constitution of United States. In order to accomplish this goal, conception of plea is explained in details, as well as its advantages and disadvantages for some of the participants and the system as a whole. Also Constitution is analyzed in terms of plea bargaining case in order to find out how it correlates with principal law. Besides cases of using plea bargaining and their results are explained in this research paper. Before going into further discussion I would like to briefly explain the basic conception. Judicial system is designed to punish those people that committed crimes through the system of jury trials where criminal defendant is considered as guilty or not guilty. So, at first glance it looks unavoidable that all criminals are punished according and in proportion to their crimes. In fact, there is another way of judging and punishing criminals that does not include jury trials and fair judicial process that finds defendant guilty or not guilty. This system is called plea bargaining. A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with recommendation of a lighter than maximum sentence. Plea bargains have its advantages and disadvantages. First of all, plea bargain has benefits for criminals that really did the crime. It allows them to avoid the risk of conviction at trial and receive full term of punishment for their crimes. We will write a custom essay sample on Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer For example, they could be offered to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge instead of felony charge. No wonder that this practice became very popular in United States. Also most of the involved parties benefit from plea bargaining. Criminals receive lesser punishment and therefore they tend to plead guilty. The cases finish earlier with predicted results so prosecutors also enjoy less workload as well as clerks that work with documentations. Money of taxpayers is also spent less both on the trial process and imprisonment. The most obvious disadvantage of plea bargaining is that it does not protect innocent people and leave no chance for them to be free after the court. Plea bargain presumes minimization of imprisonment term, not its full abolition. So, innocent people may choose plea bargain option because they fear to receive even stronger punishment. And that is indeed the most serious problem of this agreement. Plea bargain minimizes punishment for criminals with serious record, but punishes innocent people that were not able to prove their innocent to the prosecutor and therefore they go to prison for the same period of time as people that did accomplish the crime. Also this is another problem of plea bargain. It presumes that defendant is guilty without proving this with evidence and reasoning, while according to legislation nobody can be called guilty without proving. As well plea bargain becomes popular choice for people that do not their rights and legislation system and do not have money to afford a lawyer to defend their rights in court. So, besides unfairness and infringement of rights, this agreement uses weak position of the defendant to punish him or her without guilt and therefore is not democratic process, but creates groundless advantages for those who know judicial system very good or have enough money to hire a lawyer to defend them in court. So, in general plea bargaining proves to be unclear practice that creates benefits for criminals that know and infringe laws and puts innocent people in unstable position where they should choose between taking short term punishment without being guilty or receive even higher term after trial. But what is even more impressive is that statistically 9 out of 10 such criminal cases finish with plea bargain. Such proportion becomes clear after we go deeper into this system. In fact, judicial system does not only encourage criminal defendants to use plea bargain to receive less severe punishment, but it also retaliates those who dared to request trial by jury in order to defend their right for liberty. The most well-known case of such situation is so-called watershed precedent of Paul Lewis Hayes, which was indicted for attempting to pass forged check to the amount of $88. Such kind of crime is punishable by prison term of two to 10 years. So the prosecutor offered Hayes five years if he would plead guilty and waive this right to trial. Also the prosecutor made it clear that if Hayes rejects the offer, the state would seek a new indictment from a grand jury under Kentucky’s Habitual Criminal Act. Under this Hayes would receive life sentence taking into consideration his previous criminal record. Despite all these circumstances and high pressure, Hayes decided to insist on his right to jury trial. But in spite of his expectations, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Thus, plea bargaining has another advantage over jury trial – it allows criminal defendants not only to avoid full punishment, but also protects them from additional convictions. But as this case proves, it is possible to receive even higher punishment if one tries to defend his or her rights in trial. In order to prove or disapprove unconstitutional character of the plea bargain practice one should refer to the source. First of all, Bill or Rights guarantees the following rights: †¢the right to be informed of the charges, †¢the right not to be compelled to incriminate oneself, the right to a speedy and public trial, †¢the right to an impartial jury trial in the state and district where the offense took place, †¢the right to cross-examine the state’s witnesses, †¢the right to call witnesses on one’s own behalf, †¢the right to the assistance of counsel. So, Fifth Amendment prohibits self-incrimination while Sixth Amendment guarantees impartial juries. Thus, Bill of Rights limits powers of police and prosecutors in order to safeguard our freedom. Thus, all this basically confirms that plea bargaining limited rights of U. S. itizen in many aspects: †¢it limits the right to be informed of the charges because defendant prepares a waiver that enable the prosecutor to set punishment as he or she pleases and offers, †¢it limits the right not to be compelled to incriminate oneself because the person actually incriminates oneself and plead guilty, †¢it limits the right to a speedy and public trial because no trial is conducted in case of plea bargaining, †¢it limits the right to an impartial jury trial in the state and district where the offense took place, †¢it limits the right to cross-examine the state’s witnesses because no witnesses are used in this case, †¢as well it limits the right to call witness es on one’s own behalf and the right to the assistance of counsel. So, Constitution gives a citizen the right to defend oneself and guarantees his or her liberty before it was proven by the court that he or she is guilty. According to Justice Hugo Black, defendant â€Å"has an absolute, unqualified right to compel the State to investigate its own case, find its own witnesses, prove its own facts, and convince the jury through its own resources. Throughout the process, the defendant has a fundamental right to remain silent, in effect challenging the State at every point to ‘Prove it! ’† Thus, in spite of providing such extended rights by Bill of Rights, efendants lose all of them because they are forced into practice of plea bargain that offers them to plead guilty without any trial and abandon all their rights given by Constitution. Therefore, by formal evidence we see that plea bargain is unconstitutional. It does not only takes the citizen rights, which are guaranteed by Constitution of United States, but also punishes those who dared to object against this and want to realize their right to jury trial. The problem is that it is impossible to convince the court that by offering plea bargain, the prosecutor violates the Constitution by threatening to punish the defendant or simply invoking his or her right to trial. And therefore the defendant will receive the most hard punishment possible in case of trial after offering plea bargaining. In case of Hayes, he was not able to defend his right to trial because the court admitted that a new indictment was filed against him that deterred him from exercising this right. Also the Court declined to overturn his sentence because he could have avoided life imprisonment risk if he admitted his guilt and accepted five years of prison. Still, there are viewpoints that find this decision improper and unlawful. Indeed detailed analysis of Hayes case shows that the idea of plea bargaining cannot withstand any serious scrutiny. First of all, the choice that was offered was not within constitutional rationale. The defendant should choose between two evils: going to prison for five years or for a lifetime. Actually it has nothing to do with freedom of choice, but with forcing to agree with proposed punishment. The same principle can be applied to false imprisonment action from one female to a male acquaintance that forced her to travel by car instead of going by train. Actually he gave her choice – to go without her purse by train after he took the purse out of train. And when he dragged her out of train he gave her another opportunity to leave or to go by car. So as we see offering limited choices has nothing to do with fair conduct. Another fiction of plea bargaining that is used by its followers is that government does not retaliate against individuals that wish to execute their right to jury trial. When, in fact, these people are punished very severely like in the case of Hayes. Also plea bargaining is used in cases when legislation of different states is opposite like strict laws against handgun possession in Washington D. C. Tourists from other states are often taken by the local police that takes their guns and offers them to plead guilty is possession of illegal arms. In case if the tourists disagree with this offer, they can receive worse accusations – for example, for each bullet. So most of the tourists decide to agree that they are guilty and give their handgun to the police. Thus, in spite of the fact that Constitution of United States provides its citizens with rights to defend themselves against accusations, in reality there are numerous practices of ignoring these rights and offering propositions that do not comply with Act of Rights but can lead to much worse situations if they are to be rejected and if defendant decides to defend his or her rights at court. Moreover, there are viewpoints that there is nothing wrong with such practices. There are many followers among prosecutors and civilians that argue that Constitution defended citizens in old times when court practices were different. Nowadays we have courts without jury so in some cases it should be beneficial for the defendant to reduce his or her punishment by pleading guilty. Such people argue that right to trial is not inalienable because most of the rights are beneficial due to their abilities to be sold and purchased. So, they offer to view plea bargaining as a deal – to waive the right for trial and receive less punishment instead of it. It should be emphasized that there was no single opinion about this topic. For example, in 1858 New York court decided in case Cancemi v. People that defendant should not be able to waive a jury trial because â€Å"the law does recognize the doctrine of waiver to a great extent even to the deprivation of constitutional private rights†. Still in 1879 Iowa Supreme Court took the opposite decision in case State v. Kaufman. According to the Court, â€Å"Reasons other than the fact that he is guilty may induce a defendant to so plead et the state never actively interferes in such case, and the right of the defendant to so plead has never been doubted. He must be permitted to judge for himself in this respect. Why should he not be permitted to do so? Why hamper him in this respect? Why restrain his liberty or right to do as he believed to be for his interests? Whatever rule is adopted affects not only the defendant, but all others similarly situated, no matter how much they desire to avail themselves of the right to do what the defendant desires to repudiate. We are unwilling to establish such a rule. † In several years after this case, Iowa Supreme Court changed his mind in State v. Carman case and then one more time in 1980 in case State v. Henderson. Connecticut Court disallowed ury waivers in 1878 while Louisiana allowed them in 1881. Nowadays it is well-known that jury trial right is alienable and nothing in the Constitution said the opposite. Thus, defendant can sell this right in order to receive some benefits. And in case of guilty people this enables them to improve their situation. From this point of view case of Hayes becomes more complicated. If defendant has a right to w aive his or her rights to get benefits, then Hayes should take his opportunity and agree to plead guilty in order to receive shorter term of imprisonment. And indeed he should not complain that after trial his punishment increased significantly – from up to 10 years to lifetime in prison. Another argument against plea bargaining states that in case of several people that committed the same crime, these people will receive different punishment on the basis of their decisions to agree that they are guilty without trial or go to trial that can decide about different terms for each of them. Also someone who is not guilty may be so afraid that he or she decides to plead guilty in order to avoid trial. These arguments can be opposed with the same reasoning that people choose their future on the basis of their decisions and plea bargaining is one of them. Thus, there are a lot of discussions about plea bargaining and actually no single opinion about the agreement. There are viewpoints that it is not constitutional because it does not comply with Act of Rights and Fifth and Six Amendments. Therefore it should not be practiced. Also there are opinions that there is no direct objection against it in Constitution so there is no reason to argue about unconstitutional character of plea bargaining. In my opinion, plea bargaining should be an additional option for the defendant, not the main one and obviously not the best possible. Nowadays it is an instrument of pressure of prosecutors on defendants in order to win the case. The only defendants that benefit from this agreement are criminals that decided to confirm their guilt in order to reduce the punishment, while innocent people are threaten by severe punishment might decide to agree with plea bargaining to avoid risk of longer terms of imprisonment. Therefore, in my opinion, the accents should be shifted and court should not make pressure on defendants to take this decision and obviously not to retaliate against them if they express wish to defend their rights in court. References: 1. Colquitt J. , (2001), Ad Hoc Plea Bargaining. Tulane Law Review, Vol. 75 . 2. Cooley Th. , (1868), A Treatise on Constitutional Limitations on the Police Power of the States, Boston, Mass. : Little, Brown. 3. Fine R. A. , (1987), Escape of the Guilty. New York. 4. Fisher G. , (2003), Plea Bargaining’s Triumph, Stanford, Calif. , 5. Stanford University Press. 6. Guidorizzi D. , (1998), Should We Really â€Å"Ban† Plea Bargaining? The Core Concerns of Plea Bargaining Critics, Emory Law Journal, Vol. 47. 7. Langbein J. H. (1980) Torture and Plea Bargaining, The Public Interest. 8. Lynch T. , (2002), An Eerie Efficiency, Cato Supreme Court Review, Vol. 1. 9. Lynch T. , (1994), Rethinking the Petty Offense Doctrine, Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 4. 10. Mazzone J. , (2003), The Waiver Paradox, Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 97. 11. Roberts P. C. , Stratton L. M. , (2000), The Tyranny of Good Intentions, New York. 12. Ramsey C. , (2002) , The Discretionary Power of ‘Public’ Prosecutors in 13. Historical Perspective, American Criminal Law Review, Vol. 39. 14. Towne S. , (1982), The Historical Origins of Bench Trial for Serious Crime, American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 26. Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional Essay Example Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional? Essay Is Plea Bargain Unconstitutional The goal of this research paper is to analyze plea bargain and discuss whether it complies with Constitution of United States. In order to accomplish this goal, conception of plea is explained in details, as well as its advantages and disadvantages for some of the participants and the system as a whole. Also Constitution is analyzed in terms of plea bargaining case in order to find out how it correlates with principal law. Besides cases of using plea bargaining and their results are explained in this research paper. Before going into further discussion I would like to briefly explain the basic conception. Judicial system is designed to punish those people that committed crimes through the system of jury trials where criminal defendant is considered as guilty or not guilty. So, at first glance it looks unavoidable that all criminals are punished according and in proportion to their crimes. In fact, there is another way of judging and punishing criminals that does not include jury trials and fair judicial process that finds defendant guilty or not guilty. This system is called plea bargaining. A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with recommendation of a lighter than maximum sentence. Plea bargains have its advantages and disadvantages. First of all, plea bargain has benefits for criminals that really did the crime. It allows them to avoid the risk of conviction at trial and receive full term of punishment for their crimes. We will write a custom essay sample on Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Is Plea Bargaining Unconstitutional? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer For example, they could be offered to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge instead of felony charge. No wonder that this practice became very popular in United States. Also most of the involved parties benefit from plea bargaining. Criminals receive lesser punishment and therefore they tend to plead guilty. The cases finish earlier with predicted results so prosecutors also enjoy less workload as well as clerks that work with documentations. Money of taxpayers is also spent less both on the trial process and imprisonment. The most obvious disadvantage of plea bargaining is that it does not protect innocent people and leave no chance for them to be free after the court. Plea bargain presumes minimization of imprisonment term, not its full abolition. So, innocent people may choose plea bargain option because they fear to receive even stronger punishment. And that is indeed the most serious problem of this agreement. Plea bargain minimizes punishment for criminals with serious record, but punishes innocent people that were not able to prove their innocent to the prosecutor and therefore they go to prison for the same period of time as people that did accomplish the crime. Also this is another problem of plea bargain. It presumes that defendant is guilty without proving this with evidence and reasoning, while according to legislation nobody can be called guilty without proving. As well plea bargain becomes popular choice for people that do not their rights and legislation system and do not have money to afford a lawyer to defend their rights in court. So, besides unfairness and infringement of rights, this agreement uses weak position of the defendant to punish him or her without guilt and therefore is not democratic process, but creates groundless advantages for those who know judicial system very good or have enough money to hire a lawyer to defend them in court. So, in general plea bargaining proves to be unclear practice that creates benefits for criminals that know and infringe laws and puts innocent people in unstable position where they should choose between taking short term punishment without being guilty or receive even higher term after trial. But what is even more impressive is that statistically 9 out of 10 such criminal cases finish with plea bargain. Such proportion becomes clear after we go deeper into this system. In fact, judicial system does not only encourage criminal defendants to use plea bargain to receive less severe punishment, but it also retaliates those who dared to request trial by jury in order to defend their right for liberty. The most well-known case of such situation is so-called watershed precedent of Paul Lewis Hayes, which was indicted for attempting to pass forged check to the amount of $88. Such kind of crime is punishable by prison term of two to 10 years. So the prosecutor offered Hayes five years if he would plead guilty and waive this right to trial. Also the prosecutor made it clear that if Hayes rejects the offer, the state would seek a new indictment from a grand jury under Kentucky’s Habitual Criminal Act. Under this Hayes would receive life sentence taking into consideration his previous criminal record. Despite all these circumstances and high pressure, Hayes decided to insist on his right to jury trial. But in spite of his expectations, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Thus, plea bargaining has another advantage over jury trial – it allows criminal defendants not only to avoid full punishment, but also protects them from additional convictions. But as this case proves, it is possible to receive even higher punishment if one tries to defend his or her rights in trial. In order to prove or disapprove unconstitutional character of the plea bargain practice one should refer to the source. First of all, Bill or Rights guarantees the following rights: †¢the right to be informed of the charges, †¢the right not to be compelled to incriminate oneself, the right to a speedy and public trial, †¢the right to an impartial jury trial in the state and district where the offense took place, †¢the right to cross-examine the state’s witnesses, †¢the right to call witnesses on one’s own behalf, †¢the right to the assistance of counsel. So, Fifth Amendment prohibits self-incrimination while Sixth Amendment guarantees impartial juries. Thus, Bill of Rights limits powers of police and prosecutors in order to safeguard our freedom. Thus, all this basically confirms that plea bargaining limited rights of U. S. itizen in many aspects: †¢it limits the right to be informed of the charges because defendant prepares a waiver that enable the prosecutor to set punishment as he or she pleases and offers, †¢it limits the right not to be compelled to incriminate oneself because the person actually incriminates oneself and plead guilty, †¢it limits the right to a speedy and public trial because no trial is conducted in case of plea bargaining, †¢it limits the right to an impartial jury trial in the state and district where the offense took place, †¢it limits the right to cross-examine the state’s witnesses because no witnesses are used in this case, †¢as well it limits the right to call witness es on one’s own behalf and the right to the assistance of counsel. So, Constitution gives a citizen the right to defend oneself and guarantees his or her liberty before it was proven by the court that he or she is guilty. According to Justice Hugo Black, defendant â€Å"has an absolute, unqualified right to compel the State to investigate its own case, find its own witnesses, prove its own facts, and convince the jury through its own resources. Throughout the process, the defendant has a fundamental right to remain silent, in effect challenging the State at every point to ‘Prove it! ’† Thus, in spite of providing such extended rights by Bill of Rights, efendants lose all of them because they are forced into practice of plea bargain that offers them to plead guilty without any trial and abandon all their rights given by Constitution. Therefore, by formal evidence we see that plea bargain is unconstitutional. It does not only takes the citizen rights, which are guaranteed by Constitution of United States, but also punishes those who dared to object against this and want to realize their right to jury trial. The problem is that it is impossible to convince the court that by offering plea bargain, the prosecutor violates the Constitution by threatening to punish the defendant or simply invoking his or her right to trial. And therefore the defendant will receive the most hard punishment possible in case of trial after offering plea bargaining. In case of Hayes, he was not able to defend his right to trial because the court admitted that a new indictment was filed against him that deterred him from exercising this right. Also the Court declined to overturn his sentence because he could have avoided life imprisonment risk if he admitted his guilt and accepted five years of prison. Still, there are viewpoints that find this decision improper and unlawful. Indeed detailed analysis of Hayes case shows that the idea of plea bargaining cannot withstand any serious scrutiny. First of all, the choice that was offered was not within constitutional rationale. The defendant should choose between two evils: going to prison for five years or for a lifetime. Actually it has nothing to do with freedom of choice, but with forcing to agree with proposed punishment. The same principle can be applied to false imprisonment action from one female to a male acquaintance that forced her to travel by car instead of going by train. Actually he gave her choice – to go without her purse by train after he took the purse out of train. And when he dragged her out of train he gave her another opportunity to leave or to go by car. So as we see offering limited choices has nothing to do with fair conduct. Another fiction of plea bargaining that is used by its followers is that government does not retaliate against individuals that wish to execute their right to jury trial. When, in fact, these people are punished very severely like in the case of Hayes. Also plea bargaining is used in cases when legislation of different states is opposite like strict laws against handgun possession in Washington D. C. Tourists from other states are often taken by the local police that takes their guns and offers them to plead guilty is possession of illegal arms. In case if the tourists disagree with this offer, they can receive worse accusations – for example, for each bullet. So most of the tourists decide to agree that they are guilty and give their handgun to the police. Thus, in spite of the fact that Constitution of United States provides its citizens with rights to defend themselves against accusations, in reality there are numerous practices of ignoring these rights and offering propositions that do not comply with Act of Rights but can lead to much worse situations if they are to be rejected and if defendant decides to defend his or her rights at court. Moreover, there are viewpoints that there is nothing wrong with such practices. There are many followers among prosecutors and civilians that argue that Constitution defended citizens in old times when court practices were different. Nowadays we have courts without jury so in some cases it should be beneficial for the defendant to reduce his or her punishment by pleading guilty. Such people argue that right to trial is not inalienable because most of the rights are beneficial due to their abilities to be sold and purchased. So, they offer to view plea bargaining as a deal – to waive the right for trial and receive less punishment instead of it. It should be emphasized that there was no single opinion about this topic. For example, in 1858 New York court decided in case Cancemi v. People that defendant should not be able to waive a jury trial because â€Å"the law does recognize the doctrine of waiver to a great extent even to the deprivation of constitutional private rights†. Still in 1879 Iowa Supreme Court took the opposite decision in case State v. Kaufman. According to the Court, â€Å"Reasons other than the fact that he is guilty may induce a defendant to so plead et the state never actively interferes in such case, and the right of the defendant to so plead has never been doubted. He must be permitted to judge for himself in this respect. Why should he not be permitted to do so? Why hamper him in this respect? Why restrain his liberty or right to do as he believed to be for his interests? Whatever rule is adopted affects not only the defendant, but all others similarly situated, no matter how much they desire to avail themselves of the right to do what the defendant desires to repudiate. We are unwilling to establish such a rule. † In several years after this case, Iowa Supreme Court changed his mind in State v. Carman case and then one more time in 1980 in case State v. Henderson. Connecticut Court disallowed ury waivers in 1878 while Louisiana allowed them in 1881. Nowadays it is well-known that jury trial right is alienable and nothing in the Constitution said the opposite. Thus, defendant can sell this right in order to receive some benefits. And in case of guilty people this enables them to improve their situation. From this point of view case of Hayes becomes more complicated. If defendant has a right to w aive his or her rights to get benefits, then Hayes should take his opportunity and agree to plead guilty in order to receive shorter term of imprisonment. And indeed he should not complain that after trial his punishment increased significantly – from up to 10 years to lifetime in prison. Another argument against plea bargaining states that in case of several people that committed the same crime, these people will receive different punishment on the basis of their decisions to agree that they are guilty without trial or go to trial that can decide about different terms for each of them. Also someone who is not guilty may be so afraid that he or she decides to plead guilty in order to avoid trial. These arguments can be opposed with the same reasoning that people choose their future on the basis of their decisions and plea bargaining is one of them. Thus, there are a lot of discussions about plea bargaining and actually no single opinion about the agreement. There are viewpoints that it is not constitutional because it does not comply with Act of Rights and Fifth and Six Amendments. Therefore it should not be practiced. Also there are opinions that there is no direct objection against it in Constitution so there is no reason to argue about unconstitutional character of plea bargaining. In my opinion, plea bargaining should be an additional option for the defendant, not the main one and obviously not the best possible. Nowadays it is an instrument of pressure of prosecutors on defendants in order to win the case. The only defendants that benefit from this agreement are criminals that decided to confirm their guilt in order to reduce the punishment, while innocent people are threaten by severe punishment might decide to agree with plea bargaining to avoid risk of longer terms of imprisonment. Therefore, in my opinion, the accents should be shifted and court should not make pressure on defendants to take this decision and obviously not to retaliate against them if they express wish to defend their rights in court. References: 1. Colquitt J. , (2001), Ad Hoc Plea Bargaining. Tulane Law Review, Vol. 75 . 2. Cooley Th. , (1868), A Treatise on Constitutional Limitations on the Police Power of the States, Boston, Mass. : Little, Brown. 3. Fine R. A. , (1987), Escape of the Guilty. New York. 4. Fisher G. , (2003), Plea Bargaining’s Triumph, Stanford, Calif. , 5. Stanford University Press. 6. Guidorizzi D. , (1998), Should We Really â€Å"Ban† Plea Bargaining? The Core Concerns of Plea Bargaining Critics, Emory Law Journal, Vol. 47. 7. Langbein J. H. (1980) Torture and Plea Bargaining, The Public Interest. 8. Lynch T. , (2002), An Eerie Efficiency, Cato Supreme Court Review, Vol. 1. 9. Lynch T. , (1994), Rethinking the Petty Offense Doctrine, Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 4. 10. Mazzone J. , (2003), The Waiver Paradox, Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 97. 11. Roberts P. C. , Stratton L. M. , (2000), The Tyranny of Good Intentions, New York. 12. Ramsey C. , (2002) , The Discretionary Power of ‘Public’ Prosecutors in 13. Historical Perspective, American Criminal Law Review, Vol. 39. 14. Towne S. , (1982), The Historical Origins of Bench Trial for Serious Crime, American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 26.

Free Will and Schopenhauer Essays

Free Will and Schopenhauer Essays Free Will and Schopenhauer Essay Free Will and Schopenhauer Essay Free will is considered as holding the ability to take a class of action entirely based on one’s character. Immanuel Kant argues that worlds have free will and move consequently. while Arthur Shopenhauer suggests that worlds are delusional and desire to hold free will. yet they are lead by Torahs of nature and motives merely. Perceiving ourselves as moving with free will is merely to fulfill the metaphysical demand on being responsible for one’s action. Free will is a phenomenon that does non be ; what is perceived to be free will is causes that we act upon and motivations that drive us to make so. Every individual action needs a cause to move upon. . Kant connects free will with morality and implies that morality lies within ground. He does non truly explicate free will but merely refutes expostulations against it by saying that we are free by cognizing we have responsibilities. His statement suggests that even though we have ethical motives we can ever move amorally. by holding the ability to move otherwise we have free will. Shopenhauer’s H2O illustration proves otherwise. This is precisely as if H2O spoke to itself: I can do high moving ridges ( yes in the sea during a storm ) . I can hotfoot down hill ( yes! : in the river bed ) . I can immerse down foaming and gushing ( yes! In the waterfall ) . I can lift freely as a watercourse of H2O in the air ( yes! In the fountain ) I can. eventually. boil off and disappear ( yes! At a certain temperature ) ; but I am voluntarily staying quiet and clear in the reflecting pool. This illustration is deterministic and proves that in order for the H2O to make all those things. it needs a cause to move upon. Just as a adult male must hold a cause that pushes him frontward in order to move consequently. The adult male needs a motivation that will move as a cause. The causal determinism proposes that all future events are necessitated by past and present events combined by Torahs of nature. It is non a man’s free will that makes him move morally. but instead. it is the motivations that make him move in any peculiar manner. Kant would reason that moving morally has absolute worth because by moving morally. we engage in a higher order of being. Schopenhauer gives the illustration of a adult male who gets out from work and evaluates his options which he thinks he can freely take from. That adult male decides to travel place to his married woman. He thinks he made this pick freely but really it is because the motivation of traveling place was greater than the other options. If Schopenhauer was to dispute him to state that was expected of you being the drilling adult male that you are’ . and he went to the theatre with him alternatively. this would still non intend he has free will. It merely means that his motivations have changed because there is a different cause. Schopenhauer’s remark causes him to move withstanding mode. If this adult male had a more inactive character. he might hold still gone place to his married woman. Causes would hold affected him in different ways and he would hold had different motivations. Bing responsible of our actions is demanded from us by the society ; when we act consequently it is because the society’s outlooks cause us to move responsibly. Kant argues that as rational existences. we should consciously and freely take the responsible thing to make because it is the Torahs we choose to obey that make us free. Schopenhauer would reason that the lone ground we obey regulations and act responsibly is because our motivations drive us to that way. If our motivations were to conflict with the regulations. we would halt being responsible. If work forces really had free will that leads them to move responsibly. we would non be able to explicate slaying. larceny or any illegal action that harms the society. When the liquidator. the stealer or the condemnable execute their actions. it is because their motivations are conflicting with the regulations society set. Worlds are capable to jurisprudence of nature. without a cause. there is no consequence ; therefore we have no free will. Harmonizing to Kant. one should move as if the axiom of one’s action were to go. a cosmopolitan jurisprudence of nature through one’s will. By saying that. Kant is really doing the jurisprudence of nature topic to human free will. seting the consequence before the cause. Schopenhauer presents an statement which explains why adult male are capable to jurisprudence of nature: For adult male. like all objects of experience. is a phenomenon in clip and infinite. and since the jurisprudence of causality holds for all such a priori and accordingly without exclusion. he excessively must be a topic to it. This suggests that we are sing the same causalities as every other being does. yet we are unsighted to see what is obvious. There are excessively many causes that affect work forces. which is why we get delusional while acknowledging the causes. Both Kant and Schopenhauer use the billiard balls illustration to exemplify the relation between cause and consequence. Kant provinces that we are non like billiard balls because we have the ability to do our ain picks as rational existences. Whereas Schopenhauer suggests that we are like the more complex version of the billiard balls: we will merely travel if we are hit. We differ from billiard balls non because we have ground. but because we are so invariably hit that we stop comprehending the causes. Every individual constituent in life cause our motivations to determine in certain ways which is why it is so difficult to acknowledge the causes we act upon. All our actions can be reduced to motivations we have in order to fulfill our ultimate intent: to populate and to make life. Finally we are ranned by simple motivations such as keeping our consecutive continuity of being. reproduction or protection. Even a adult male who is about to perpetrate self-destruction will draw his manus off if he by chance touches a hot Fe. His physiological reaction will direct faster signals to his encephalon before he can even admit it. He would hold no free will over that action ; it would strictly be him obeying the jurisprudence of nature without even believing about it. As topics to jurisprudence of nature. the determinations we make in our day-to-day lives are largely caused by the motivations to happen the best mate possible to make the best off spring. We do non needfully acknowledge it. but even the most fiddling picks we make. like the desire to drive a fancy auto over a cheaper 1. is non an act of free will. By making so. merely like a Inachis io demoing his plumes. we are unconsciously lead by motivations that push us into a certain way which will do us more desirable as a mate. We want to be accepted by the society for the same grounds. being a portion of a community provides a protection and chance to reproduce. The ground why a rich adult male would assist the hapless. or fall in a state nine is non because he has free will that makes him morally responsible. or that he enjoys playing golf. but it is because that will do him more well-thought-of and better accepted by the society which he wants to belong. Our physiological reactions. endocrines. nerve cells. our Deoxyribonucleic acid and the causes that act on us condition the determinations we make. We choose to believe that we have free will because it makes us experience as if we have control on our life. As the life scientist Lynn Margulis defines Life is the unusual fruit of persons evolved by mutualism. Swiming. conjugating. bargaining and dominating. bacteriums populating in intimate associations during the Proterozoic gave rise to myriad Chimeras. assorted existences. of which we represent a bantam fraction of an spread outing offspring. Through corporeal amalgamations disparate existences invented meiotic sex. programmed decease. and complex multicellularity. Life is an extension of being into the following coevals. the following species. Nothing makes us any different than the bacteriums. other than being more complex. that entirely acted on their inherent aptitudes. The lone difference is the equation that determines our actions have many variables. whereas it was much fewer in procaryotes. If we are able to understand that the simplest signifiers of life were moving upon the basic motivations and no free will. we should be able to comprehend that our actions are non different. The chemical distribution of our DNA will do us to hold an kernel. which will find our motivations and actions under different fortunes. As the being gets more complex. the cause and consequence relation will be harder to detect but still. at that place will non be free will.

The Role of Cultural Brokers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Role of Cultural Brokers - Research Paper Example The investigator interviewed nurses, doctors, community members, and pharmacy personnel in one of the public healthcare facilities and a neighboring community. Analysis of the results indicated that it is vital to incorporate healthcare brokers into the healthcare systems. Healthcare negotiators review interviews that occurred between clients and healthcare providers. They also analyze the clinical reports and case conferences to infer meaning and refer clients accordingly. Additionally, brokers in the healthcare system mediate the varied viewpoints held by the clients and healthcare providers. Further, they help to bring about the clients’ cultural experiences, values, and expectations. In understanding the impacts of the cultural aspect, many organizations and healthcare personnel can offer the best services to their esteemed clients. Despite the challenges facing the cultural brokers, it is of utmost importance to find the means to involve cultural brokers in the delivery o f the healthcare services. It is conclusively paramount to have the healthcare cultural brokers to ensure achievement of goals and missions of the healthcare systems. Cultural brokering refers to the process through which an individual act as an advocate or a link between persons of divergent cultural backgrounds. An active agent displays the acquaintance, sensitivity, and skills of being aware of the cultural influences that affect people’s lives. Further, the broker has the appropriate training to act within the profession as an informed go-between (Major & Gooden, 2012). Understanding the concept of cultural brokerage entails a critical look at culture, co-culture, mediation of culture, health culture, and culture broker. For instance, the role of a cultural broker links with aims of cultural competence.  Ã‚  

Wireless and Mobile Technologies Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Wireless and Mobile Technologies - Case Study Example One of the ways that organizations use wireless technologies to improve business efficiencies is by the development of mobile and computer applications that allow customers to access their services. The technologies are also used in e-commerce where customers can order for goods and services online and give their feedback (Smyth & Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2004. At the same time, mobile and wireless technologies improve business efficiency when used to send important information to the customers regarding the company’s products and services. In other words, it improves communication and, therefore, enhances business communications. Many businesses use wireless and mobile technologies to interact with their domestic and international customers, especially in the modern era of globalization. Delta implemented a number of wireless and mobile technologies. It installed an in-flight Wi-Fi on the domestic flights as well as smartphone apps with smart features such as trac king of baggage and customer check-in (News.delta.com, 2015). The mobile and wireless technology also include the customer care service via Twitter that runs for 24 hours. Customers also have the ability to book tickets directly from Facebook. The wireless and mobile technologies utilized by Delta help to improve business efficiency. Through the Twitter customer care, customers can be served quickly from the comfort of their homes. The online booking service also helps to reduce transportation costs for the customers to the booking offices. Likewise, the mobile tracking system helps to recover lost and stolen goods. This improves the reliability of the organization to the customer. The technologies also help to ensure that many customers can be served within a short duration. This is unlike the case where all the customers are required to visit distinguished offices to get the services.

Next Plc of UK Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Next Plc of UK - Case Study Example "A competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and service that justifies higher prices." (Strategy - Competitive Advantage: Competitive Advantage - Definition. 2008). This has high relevance in the context of the increased competition the company is facing from newly industrialized nations like India, China, Taiwan and Vietnam. The report is also intended to provide required recommendations for Next to solve the issues faced by it in the present market. Next Plc is a retail cloth major that is headquartered in England. The company belongs to the clothing market of UK, which is the second biggest textile and clothing market in European Union. The major share of clothing market in UK accounts for the apparels for women, girls and children. "Womenswear is the largest sector within the market in general, clothing for women and children is worth double the market for men and boyswear." (Clothing Retailers Market Assessment: Largest Sector. 2000). Considering the higher boom in the industry the clothing retailers are at a higher growth pace in the market. The clothing market of UK can be split into everyday wear, high street fashion and top end ready to wear. The market players include right mix of departmental stores and fashion retailers. The major player in the industry is Marks and Spencer whose market share is 15% of the overall market. The most influencing governmental regulation for the industry has been the minimum wage. Due to t his regulation that added more on the costing structure, many companies had moved out of UK. The company that is been mentioned in the assignment is Next Plc which is one of the leading cloth retailer in UK. The company was formed in the year 1982 as a new meaning for the fashion industry. "Next plc designs, manufactures, and distributes clothing and home furnishing and accessory items to nearly 330 Next retail stores and through the company's Next Directory mail order sales catalog." (Next Plc: Company Perspectives: Company History. 2008). The company was able to capture a good share of market in a short period of time with their good branding and marketing strategies. The products of Next are characterized by style, quality and value for money. Currently Next has 460 stores in UK and over 100 franchisees outside the country. The company gives higher priority for customer service as a strategy to capture more and more market. Based on the analysis of Next on the basis of Porter's Five Force model, three areas of concern can be identified for the company. The three areas of concern for the company are market penetration, consolidation and product and market development. Market penetration is a cause of concern for the company especially in the present situation of increased competition. The threat of new entrants is higher in the case of cloth industry. And also the increased bargaining power of buyers will contribute to the competition. The strategy to be adopted by the company is increased product promotion. The product range of the company can also be improved on the

Aldis Marketing Strategy

Aldis Marketing Strategy Aldi have made great strides in entering the UK grocery market. Please analyse Aldis current marketing strategy and provide recommendations for how Aldi can enhance their marketing strategy to gain a greater share of the UK Grocery Market. Introduction Marketing in simple terms can be described as offering a right product at a right place at the right time and with a right price. The Management Gurus emphasise on the four Ps of marketing which are often called the marketing mix. These four Ps are Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Marketing mix is an important tool to make an efficient marketing plan for a successful product offering. These four Ps of marketing mix can help achieving the business targets of sales, profit and consumer satisfaction. The essay examines marketing strategies of a German supermarket chain named Aldi, in the UK. The paper is divided in to four sections. The first section gives a brief history about Aldi. The second section talks about its position in the UK market. The third section analyses the marketing strategy of Aldi on the basis of the four Ps. The last section gives recommendations on marketing strategies for the future growth of the company in UK market. A brief history of Aldi Aldi, one of the worlds largest privately owned companies, is a grocery supermarket chain with a base in Germany. The name Aldi has come from the abbreviation of Albrecht (family name) Discount. The business started in 1913 with a food store in the town called Essen in Germany. By 1960s this family business was expanded to 300 stores in Germany and that is when the business was separated into two groups Aldi Nord (North) with a headquarter in Essen and Aldi Sà ¼d (South) with a headquarter in Mà ¼lheim an der Ruhr (Emsell, 2011). The business was separated over a disagreement on whether to sell cigarettes in the stores or not (Ruddick, 2012). These two organisations now operate independent to each other. On international levels, Aldi Nord operates in Portugal, Denmark, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Spain, and Poland. Aldi Sà ¼d is functional in Ireland, United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland, Australia, Austria and Slovenia and United States of America with over 8000 stor es in total (Aldi UK website, 2015). Aldi in the United Kingdom Taylor and Lee (2007) have stressed the adverse effects on the international buyer behaviour due to cultural disparities. KPMG (2014) states that the shopping culture in UK is associated with the quality and not necessarily with price. It further mentions that higher level of customer services is one of the main attributes of this culture. That is the reason why in spite of the dominance of the big four -Tesco, Sainsburys, ASDA and Morrisons MS and Waitrose have done huge investments in the grocery industry. However Aldi has not only managed to attract the customers in the UK by overcoming the hurdles but also has acquired a significant market share. Table 1- Market share of Supermarkets in the UK in March, 2015 Supermarket Market Share (In %) Tesco 28.4 ASDA 17.1 Sainsburys 16.4 Morrisons 10.9 The Co-operative 6.0 Aldi 5.3 Waitrose 5.1 Lidl 3.7 Iceland 2.1 Source: BBC, 2015 According to Wallop (2008), Aldi pledged to open one store every week in the UK with a target of opening 1500 stores in the country. Currently there are 500 Aldi stores in the UK (Aldi UK Website, 2015). Aldi has made its position in the top nine superstores of the country among Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, ASDA, Waitrose, Lidl and Iceland. Aldi is now UKs sixth biggest grocery chain taking over Waitroses market share (BBC, 2015). The Marketing Strategies of Aldi Aldi is a discount supermarket chain and so cost control is in the culture of the business. The model of Aldis grocery retailing has remained unchanged since its initiation in Germany (Emsell, 2011). Price, Place and Product strategies The business philosophy of Aldi is to focus on indispensable investments and avoid the superfluous in order to give the customers maximum possible savings. According to Rudolph et al (2012, p-142), Aldis cost only add 13% to the procurement price, 2% each for logistics, rental, overheads and marketing plus about 5% for staff. Instead of extending its opening hours like other competitors in the UK, all Aldi stores function limited opening hours, which recently extended to 12 hours ( from 8am to 8pm). In contrast, many other competitor stores are available for shopping for 24 hours, 7 days and 365 days which seems an apparent strategic intention. One cannot see the add on services at any Aldi store, for example lottery terminals, childrens play area, photo booths, lavatory, dry cleaning services, currency exchanges, news agent, tobacco counters on entry and exit, a separate customer service counter or a coffee shop. The simple reason being that these facilities have its cost which wou ld add up to the end cost to the customer (Emsell, 2011). In a typical Aldi store, one can also observe three to seven employees to run the entire functioning of the store which is a different strategy to other supermarkets which have a high staffing level to provide high standards of customer service. The firm can achieve a low payroll to sales turnover ratio with such staffing level which can help the lower the prices. According to The Times 100 Business case studies (2010), the key idea that makes Aldis approach work is the concept of limited assortment. The Aldi store size is relatively small in comparison to the rival grocers with an average floor space of between 650 square meters to 1000 square meters. The usual Aldi store has a common layout with only four shopping aisles also the packaging and displaying products strategy at Aldi is cost effective. However the stores generally have a free parking space which attracts customers significantly. The case study further mentions that while selecting a location for store, Aldi takes in to consideration the population of the area which should be more then 30,000. Also the stores are always at the very good visibility from a main road and with good public transport connectivity. The sales philosophy of Aldi is very different to other leading grocers in the UK. As the branded products have less operating profit, Aldi has taken an approach to sell products which are equivalent to brands (Wood, 2011). A typical large Tesco or Sainsburys store stocks around 50,000 product lines, of which 50 per cent are their own brands (Voberda et al., 2011). The success key for any business is to attract the buyer which certainly depends largely on a competitive pricing. Being a discount retail chain, competitive pricing is at the core of Aldis philosophy. Aldi works on economies of scale. In simpler terms it means, buying products in large quantities so it gives leverage for bargaining for the best possible price which allows Aldi to sell at the most competitive prices. Currently every week Aldi comes with a different range of products on a Thursday for example bathroom accessories, garden furniture, kitchen and other household equipment. These products are different to the usual grocery items in the stores in terms of its availability. These products are limited in stock and not permanently available in the store. One can observe a great deal of excitement in the customers in the stores due to the scarcity and affordability of the products. To promote these product ranges, posters of the items are found in the stores for the upcoming week. Promotion Strategies According to the Times 100 Business Case studies (2010), one of the unique marketing strategies Aldi has adopted is the advertisements with brand comparisons. These adverts demonstrate that Aldi brands are of equal quality to well-established brands for example, Pampers diapers, Heinz tomato ketch up and Fairy Liquid. To prove this Aldi ran blind taste experiments amongst a section of shoppers. This experiment suggested that the majority of consumers that preferred the well-known brands also liked Aldi brands. These findings created the basis to Aldis most popular Like Brands campaign. The advertisements of the Like Brands provided the business with a stand to speak about its quality and most importantly its value for money. This campaign was effective in showing the customers how much more their money can fetch by shopping from Aldi with a slogan, Like brands. Only cheaper. The campaign provided a character to the Aldi products because the advertisements use humours which help to bu ild confidence and an emotional connection with target audiences. In addition, according to Times 100 Business Case studies (2010), Aldi prints around 1 million copies of brochures per week to distribute in the store as well as to customers living in surrounding areas. These brochures promote products with limited availability and seasonal and weekly offers available in stores. Another campaign of Aldi is swap and save. The newspaper adverts of Aldi promote the Aldi brands by showcasing the saving customers can have by swapping from the leading grocers to Aldi. This promotion is in the similar lines of Tescos big price drop campaign or Sainsburys brand match campaign. In this era of social media, it has become easy at the same time unavoidable to communicate directly with the targeted audience. One such online campaign of Aldi is Aldi Advocates. This particular promotion is for consumers who recommend Aldi to others because of its low prices compared to other brands. For example, the I Love Aldi campaign asked fans of the Aldi Facebook page, to send a virtual Aldi Valentines card to a Facebook friend, completing the sentence I love Aldi because This was encouraged by providing rewards of  £10 vouchers and a box of Aldi chocolates for their Valentine (Aldi UK Facebook Page, 2015). Recommendations The UK grocery industry is one of the most established and competitive globally, however dynamics of such industry change rapidly (KPMG, 2014). In spite of Aldis great stride in entering the UK grocery market and taking over a significant market share, one cannot deny the fact that the dynamics of ever changing business world can hurdle this growth. One can also not deny the fact that the competitors are also working towards increasing their market share and exploiting the resources. Though Aldi has managed to reach in to the competition with Waitrose, Cooperative and Morrisons, the market share of Tesco, ASDA and Sainsburys is comparatively very high (Table -1). Also Lidl and Poundland have a similar market strategy of discounted products as Aldi. In such cut throat competition it is challenging to not only enhance the market share but also merely maintaining it. Morgan et al., (2004) in their study have emphasised on product quality as one of the most important determinants of mark et share. Thirkell and Dau, (1998) revealed that quality and add on services have positive and high correlation with business performance. Thinking on the similar lines, one can recommend the quality enhancement to give a tougher competition to the leading supermarkets. However there is a risk associated with that approach as frequent changes in the business strategy can lead to loss of grip on the monitoring and controlling of the business. Businesses with a lack of clear strategy often face difficulties in customer targeting (Lancaster et al, 2002). However Aldi has a great scope in providing value added services. Facility of online shopping is one such value added service. Home delivery of the shopping items as well as click and collect services can be easily implemented in todays internet era as the other leading supermarkets are also offering such services. With plenty of options available, even with good quality and low prices, loyalty can be great issue of concern for a grocery firm. Various loyalty cards and point based reward system can be introduced to ensure the market share to be somewhat stable. UK being a culturally diverse country, a wide range of products such as Indian, Chinese, Caribbean grocery items should be added to attract more customers. The campaign of swap and save can be taken a step further by upgrading the software system. Currently it is showing the price difference on the newspapers and advertisements which should be reflected on the receipt after the shopping to inform the customers personally how much they have saved by shopping in Aldi. References Aldi UK Website (2015)  https://www.aldi.co.uk/ Aldi UK Facebook page (2015). Available at  https://www.facebook.com/AldiUK BBC (2015) Aldi overtakes Waitroses market share. BBC News dated 8th April, 2015. . [Online] Available at  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32218170 Emsell, P. (2011) Aldi The No Frills Retailer. University of Huddersfield. [Online] Available at  http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/12404/1/Microsoft_Word_Aldi_case_study_for_Bus_Strategy.pdf KPMG (2014) The Future of the Grocery Sector in the UK. [Online] Available at  http://www.kpmg.com/uk/en/issuesandinsights/articlespublications/newsreleases/pages/the-future-of-the-grocery-sector-in-the-uk.aspx Lancaster, G., Massingham, L. and Ashford, R. (2002) Essentials of Marketing. Fourth edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Morgan, N., Kaleka, A., and Katsikeas, C. (2004). Antecedents of export venture performance: a theoretical model and empirical assessment. Journal of Marketing 68(1): 90- 108. Ruddick, G. (2012) Billionaire Aldi heir Berthold Albrecht dies at 58. The Telegraph, dated 7th December, 2012. [Online] Available at  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9729434/Billionaire-Aldi-heir-Berthold-Albrecht-dies-at-58.html Rudolph, T., Schlegelmilch, B., Bauer, A., Franch, J. and Meise, J. (eds.) (2012) Diversity in European Marketing: Text and Cases. Germany: Springer Gabler. Voberda, H., Morgan, R., Reinmoeller, P., Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D., Hoskisson, R. (2011) Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalisation, South Western: Cengage Learning. Taylor, C.R. and Lee, D. (2007) Cross-cultural Buyer Behavior. Amsterdam: Elsevier. The Times 100 Business Case Studies (2010). Creating Value through the Market Mix. [Online] Available at  http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/aldi/creating-value-through-the-marketing-mix/introduction.html#axzz3gTvS06RA Thirkell, P. C., and Dau, R. (1998). Export performance: Success Determinants for New Zealand Manufacturing Exporters. European Journal of Marketing, 32(9/10): 813- 829. Wallop, H. (2008) Aldi pledges to open a new store every week. The Telegraph , dated 30th June, 2008. [Online] Available at  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/2792467/Aldi-pledges-to-open-a-new-store-every-week.html Wood, Z (2011) Aldi effect is back: spending squeeze lifts discounter into profit. The Guardian , [Online] Available at  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/oct/04/aldi-effect-back-discounter-profit

Singapore Essay examples -- Philosophy, Neoliberal Ideology

In a sense, Singapore has always been driven by neoliberal ideology. In the 1960s and 1970s, Singapore’s economic competitiveness was based upon its ability to generate low-cost manufacturing assembly, its political stability, and geographical location (Yeung, 2000: 142). However, by the 1980s, Singapore was being outcompeted by other developing Asian countries, and met this ‘competitiveness crunch’ with national strategies promoting high-tech business services (Yeung, 2000: 142). Rigorous infocomm programmes were enacted as early as 1980, the IDA maintained sustained drives to promote and educate their citizens regarding ICTs. As a result of the National IT Plan (1986-1991), computer software and services industry increased its revenue 10-fold, the ICT workforce pool grew from 850 to 5,500, and the IT business and e-commerce continued to expand through subsequent programmes (iN2015 Steering Committee, 2006: 33). In 2006, Singapore boasted the highest ratio of infocomm-related patents to total patents in the world, and the iN2015 Steering Committee attributed this success to the national ICT programmes (2006: 36). More than ever, Singapore is a consumer-driven country with a prosperous economy. The infocomm initiatives purposefully drove the economy forward by encouraging business to enter the e-economy and by persuading consumers this was safe and convenient. With the specific aim of encouraging national and international companies to set up e-commerce trading centres in Singapore, the Singaporean government introduced the ‘Approved Cyber Traders’ scheme which entitled qualifying firms to pay less corporate tax (Teo, 2002: 259). A highly sophisticated electronic payment infrastructure encouraged both vendors and consumers t... ...d safeguard against fraud and theft if a strong e-commerce industry is to be fostered. Are ICTs in Singapore being used as instruments of control, and how much are they being utilised as facilitators of open democracy? Democracy relies heavily on a free press, but as Brown points out, this is compromised by neoliberalist corporate ownerships and laws shielding political officials from defamation (2006: 695). This is true of Singapore today. The state controls the broadcast media that is friendly to the government, and defamation suits dissuade journalists from publishing contentious political pieces (O’Hara, 2008: 10). In Singapore, the media coverage of political opposition has long been suppressed, primarily under the justification of ‘national interest’, an ideology of control that has driven the nation’s policy on media control (Lee and Willnat, 2006: 10).