AP American History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

AP American History - Essay Example The emphasis on the candidate’s winnability loses the significance of the party because choice of candidate is no longer based on the party either by nomination or by vote of the electorate. In a candidate-centered politics, political parties lost their power because it is being transferred to the candidate. b. Primary elections   Primary election is the process by which political parties chose their candidates. In this process, politicking and horse trade occurs and the end result does not necessarily give the best candidate possible but rather who does the politicking and horse trading best. The result would be a disappointing candidate that voters no longer rely on party nominations to provide them the best possible candidate. Thus, political parties lost their credibility in the eyes of their voters thereby eroding their power because voters are the source of any political party’s power without which, political parties becomes insignificant. c. Interest group and media influence over politics Lobby groups pose a strong influence not only in terms of the policy created in the Executive and laws passed in Congress but also among party members that could influence the selection of a candidate of a party. Interest groups that has significant base in terms of voters and/or resources hold sway on the candidates that will be running as well as the programs that they will carry making sure that it will reflect their interest. Media at this day and age has a huge influence over its audience and these audiences are also voters. This can be either good or bad for a politician. It can be good if the media portrayal is positive and it can also be bad if the reputation of the politician is smeared in the media and both can affect the result of election. Having this influence over the voters, parties are considering candidates who are more â€Å"media friendly† or have more media mileage over program of government or integrity and thus, deteriorates the kind of politician who are running to the dismay of thinking voters. Thus, political parties their power as their party criteria, programs and platform is no longer important in the choice of candidate but rather base it on the popularity of a candidate. Fareed Zakaria, CNN host and political analyst elaborated â€Å"recent technological and organizational changes have accelerated the shift, making it easier for outsiders to raise funds, get access to free media and establish direct connections with voters† This in effect weakens the power base of political parties that instead of candidates adapting and to party platforms and programs, it is now political parties who has to align themselves to the candidate effectively abdicating its power. d. Campaign financing   One of the realities in election is the high cost of running a campaign. No matter how qualified or experienced or honest a candidate is, but if he or his party does not have the necessary resources to mount a campaign, he or she will not have a chance of winning. Most candidates however do not have enough money to finance an election campaign because it is very expensive. Their parties in turn solicits and accepts campaign financing and this is when financiers comes in to influence the candidate that will be running and the program of government that they will be adopting. It is important to note that most significant campaign contributors do put money in a

Justification and Crisis of Modern Science Essay

Justification and Crisis of Modern Science - Essay Example He clearly understood the Deists and was greatly influenced by the brilliant Unitarians in social concepts. Rene Descartes on the other hand was known to be the vicar of modern science. He initiated a new clear means of thinking about science and philosophy through ignoring all notions centered on supposition or emotional conviction and concurring with the ideas proved by direct observation (Dunn, 1999). The ultimate aim of this paper is to examine how John Locke attempted to justify modern science in terms of bringing in his own ideas and views as a way to bridge the gap between Descarte’s res cogitans and res extensa. It also examines the way he was opposed by several other scholars Locke’s Justification of Modern Science John Locke was one of the most influential especially in An Essay about Human Understanding (1690), fundamentally rejected the Cartesian theory of the continuation of innate notions – like that of God, or time without end – and upholded that the infant during birth has no any form of knowledge and he compared it to a blank page, and in severe terms, it does not stay alive yet. It is important to note that when he selects the subject of his title, Locke never used the term â€Å"mind† which could propose a notion of something really stays alive like an object or a permanent structure (Dunn, 1999). In opposition to that, he chose the term â€Å"understanding† which proposes the idea of a continous process. What he meant here is that a child is never born with any knowledge and he only gets to understand things once hegrows up. This is because Locke believed that knowledge is mainly based on learning from â€Å"expereince†. According to him, a newly born baby has no form of expereince therefore has no type of knowledge. Although Locke understood that expereince depicts two forms – one centered on â€Å"reflection† or reasoning and the other on â€Å"sensation†, he openly impl ied that all automated expereinces are secondary derived from those obtained through the senses (Dunn, 1999). This happens even if the mind may generate completely new forms of automated expereince. This means that reflection is not only the meager copy of sensation, although its natural fabricis developed from it. It is clear from the theory of Human Understanding that Locke supported Modern science which suggests similar notions about human beings. Modern science assumes a child to be of little knowledge who does what he does not understand. For example, a baby can relieve himself and still eat the same waste because he doe not understand what he is doing. At the same time, a child can dare touch fire or hot substance and until it burns him is when he realizes that that is dangerous. Therefore, modern science and Jonk Locke’s theory of Human Understanding are more less the same because they contain same notions about human being. Although Locke was sometimes depicted as a c hristian due to his attendance and knowledge about church, he evidently attempted to justify modern science. Moreover, his other influential theory is that of availability of simple and complicated ideas. According to him, both of them belong to fields of expereince (Dunn, 1999). While simple notions are basically data that is received by the mind meaning that it is non-reducible to more basic ones. Complicated notions on the other hand are made up of a combination of basic ones. This theory was very instrumental during the aristotle