Us Voter Participation Essays - Elections, Voter Turnout

Us Voter Participation In a pluralist country such as America, there are numerous opinions over what society's goals should be, and the best method of achieving them. In theory, every American citizen has an equal say in the political affairs of this county. By participating in politics, people air their voices and thereby contribute to nation through representatives, hence the term representative democracy. It may seem to be beyond argument that political participation is a key objective in all democratic institutions. However, there is room for legitimate disagreement about the health of our democracy, in regards to the extent of civic participation. This raises the important question of how much participation there actually is in the United States. How many Americans take part in activities such as voting, attending political meetings, joining political parties, or even discussing politics with their neighbors? The answer is surprisingly few for a country that prides itself on democracy. However, is thi s low level of participation hurting our nation? In some respects, Americans are as ambivalent about political participation as they are about democratic values. On the one hand, large numbers of Americans believe that the ordinary citizen should play a part in public affairs. On the other hand, relatively few Americans actually take the initiative do so. Americans often hypocritically express the view that they are obligated as citizens to engage in politics, even though they are not involved in any real form of political activity. This view suggests that Americans tend to be more passive than active political participants. Active participation includes attending political rallies, meetings, and fundraisers, trying to influence government, joining interest groups, and of course voting. And this brings us to the controversial topic of voter turn out in the United States. According to one common view, the quality of democracy depends upon the extent to which voters use their rights to vote and to take part in public life. It is healthy if memberships of political parties are large and active, and if attendance at political rallies is high, and so on. Some nations believe that it is essential to take part in political life, and that the state should encourage, and even oblige them to do so. For example, some countries consider that it is vital to ensure that a high proportion of eligible voters cast their ballots. Accordingly, they make voting compulsory, as in Australia. An alternative view suggests that it does not matter whether citizens actually participate in politics, but it is vital that they should have the right to do so, irrespective of whether they choose to use it. This is perhaps the case in the United States, where voter turnout hovers around an astounding fifty percent, which is lowest among all industrialized democracies (Roskin 113.) In a democracy, a high priority is typically associated with voting (on a national scale), as a way for people to influence policy makers. By electing officials to represent their opinions, citizens are actively partaking in policy making. Citizens choose between candidates competing for the authority to make public policy. Because of Americas democratic government, people declare their preferences for and against officials and policies through elections, and the distribution of their votes is a representation of their conflicts on selected political matters. And with such important political matters affecting the every day lives of Americans, why is political participation so low in our country? If voting is the fundamental method of political expression in our representative democracy, why do so many Americans take their democratic right for granted? While nearly half of the voting population does not engage in civic participation, there is concrete evidence on who is actually participating. And these numbers are heavily accounted for, and studied by scientists. Voter percentages of various groups are often evaluated by scientists to determine trends in the election process. This in turn may help determine some of the causes of such a low turnout. Political scientists have observed a number of trends within different voting groups. They have come to a conclusion that the percentages of voting groups can be directly related to the social economic status of citizens. In hopes of uncovering clues behind the mysterious participation rates, voter turnout can be

Free Essays on Effect Of Creatine on the Human Body

The combination of its popularity and the public's lack of knowledge about creatine has lead to several misunderstandings and misperceptions. Overshadowed by its dynamic strength gaining capabilities, creatine’s negative effects can hinder an athlete’s well being for life. Chevreul, a French scientist, discovered creatine in 1832. Since it’s unearthing, it has fascinated scientists with it’s integral role in skeletal muscle metabolism. A natural substance found in the body, creatine plays a very important part in energy production and muscle contractions (Lipsid N.P.). Recently, creatine supplementation has exploded onto the sports scene, attracting athletes with the amazing results that it has produced. Some of those results include: more powerful muscle contractions, increased explosiveness, faster muscle recovery, less fatigue, increased muscle size, and increased weight gain (Lipsid N.P.). These factors and more are the reasons why creatine has become the most researched supplement on the market today. Through various research methods, scientists have come to discover that creatine is an essential and natural substance required for energy metabolism and muscle movement. Deficiencies of the substance can lead to certain physical muscular disorders which can be fatal in humans and animals. The human body synthesizes creatine from three amino acids which include glycine, arganine, and methionine. These amino acids are components of protein. In humans, the enzymes involved in the synthesis of creatine are located in the liver, pancreas, and kidneys. Creatine is produced in any of these organs and then transported to the muscle through the bloodstream. Approximately 95% of the total creatine pool in your body is stored in the skeletal muscle tissue. The other five percent can be found in the heart, brain, and testes (Gutfield 90). The total creatine pool refers to the amount of creatine... Free Essays on Effect Of Creatine on the Human Body Free Essays on Effect Of Creatine on the Human Body The combination of its popularity and the public's lack of knowledge about creatine has lead to several misunderstandings and misperceptions. Overshadowed by its dynamic strength gaining capabilities, creatine’s negative effects can hinder an athlete’s well being for life. Chevreul, a French scientist, discovered creatine in 1832. Since it’s unearthing, it has fascinated scientists with it’s integral role in skeletal muscle metabolism. A natural substance found in the body, creatine plays a very important part in energy production and muscle contractions (Lipsid N.P.). Recently, creatine supplementation has exploded onto the sports scene, attracting athletes with the amazing results that it has produced. Some of those results include: more powerful muscle contractions, increased explosiveness, faster muscle recovery, less fatigue, increased muscle size, and increased weight gain (Lipsid N.P.). These factors and more are the reasons why creatine has become the most researched supplement on the market today. Through various research methods, scientists have come to discover that creatine is an essential and natural substance required for energy metabolism and muscle movement. Deficiencies of the substance can lead to certain physical muscular disorders which can be fatal in humans and animals. The human body synthesizes creatine from three amino acids which include glycine, arganine, and methionine. These amino acids are components of protein. In humans, the enzymes involved in the synthesis of creatine are located in the liver, pancreas, and kidneys. Creatine is produced in any of these organs and then transported to the muscle through the bloodstream. Approximately 95% of the total creatine pool in your body is stored in the skeletal muscle tissue. The other five percent can be found in the heart, brain, and testes (Gutfield 90). The total creatine pool refers to the amount of creatine...

Individual project involving the evaluation of a website Essay

Individual project involving the evaluation of a website - Essay Example y finding of the evaluation. In the first part of the report, I have explained an e-Commerce enabled website named â€Å"Grainger† having the URL (http://www.grainger.com/), the main features of the website design or user interface of the website, the pros and cons of the Grainger business, the technical features of the website, an evaluation of the website design to assess its effectiveness, usability, security, accessibility and the report includes several suggestions and recommendations for improvement of the website. Moreover, the second part explains the transaction process of the e-commerce from customer’s initiation till completion of the operation. 1.1 Website Grainger was founded in 1927 by William W. (Bill) Grainger – started business as a wholesale electric motor sales and distribution business in Chicago, United States. In June 1995, the Grainger launched its transactional website to do business online. The Grainger is serving two (2) million of e-cus tomers, businesses and institutions in 157 countries and continuing to give their best for their customers. The Grainger has more than 21,446 employees in different countries, the employees work closely with customers to better understand their challenges and provide cost-saving solutions (Grainger, 2012). It is required to review and explain the technical information on the web development environment on the website. In order to do so, one of the ways is to access the source code of the web pages of the website, after reviewing the source code, it was noticed that the interface of the website has been developed in HTML 4.01, menus and cookies are developed in JavaScript, validation of forms in JavaScript, moreover, it appears that the ‘iframe’ is used in certain parts of the website to avoid reloading, hence, saving page loading time. As you type the URL:†www.grainger.com† it always converts into â€Å"http://www.grainger.com/ -Grainger/wwg/start.shtmlâ₠¬ , the extension of the home page file is ‘shtml’ instead of ‘html’ or ‘htm’, it means that the file contains some information that would be added during execution by the server before it is sent to the user (Rouse, 2005). 1.2 Purpose of the Website The aim of the website is to cater online orders and improving customer as well as vendor services. The website maintains details of the customer’s personal as well as payment information, order processing, and the addition of new customer, updating and adding new products through a content management system. All the information has to be stored in a database that can be a relational database management system on the server side. There has to be a front end (also known as Buy Module) and a back end (database module) of the website. The initial module is used for the interaction of the e-customers to search the products and place orders, whereas, the back end is used not only to store / save the data of the customer but also utilized to process