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The Mandate of Heaven The Chinese concept of the "Mandate of Heaven," was based on the teachings of Confucius and further enhanced a century later by a man named Mencius. Mencius added to the Confucian teachings by addressing human nature and the right to govern. Previously, China had been ruled by two divergent schools of thought. One was "selfish" religion in how you could obtain happiness in an unsettled world by living a simple life in harmony with nature. Confucius taught that the improvement of society was the responsibility of the rules, and that the quality of government depended on the ruler's moral character. Confucius based his teachings on the "Golden Rule." Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When Mencius came along, he added new dimensions to Confucian thoughts. He believed that man was immediately good, and would lean towards the good just as water runs downhill. Man could become corrupt if he did not follow the path of goodness and picked up bad practices. Mencius, and the "Mandate of Heaven," promoted the idea that good rulers in China's past had been those who treated the people with respect and kindness. Good rulers had based their dynasties on good ethical principles. Thus, the citizens had been well cared for. Mencius went father than Confucius by adding a new thought to the" Mandate of Heaven." He believed that if a ruler
Reserved & Devolved Powers in Scotland
Politics Study Theme 1A Reserved/Devolved Powers The distribution of reserved and devolved powers means the most important decisions continue to be made at Westminster. Discuss. Since the Scottish Parliament was formed the issue of which Government should decide what has always been contentious. Many believe that the Scottish Parliament do not have the necessary powers to make the most important decisions whereas many feel they are doing a sufficient job with the powers they have at the moment. The election of an SNP government in 2007 has reignited the debate over reserved and devolved powers. The Scottish legal system differs greatly from the English system and has always done so. Prisoners that are arrested under Scottish law remain under Scottish, not British, jurisdiction. A recent example of this was when al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, was offered in a deal with the Libyans to return home from the British Government. This deal was promptly blocked by the Scottish Government and al-Megrahi remains a Scottish prisoner. This shows how Holyrood has the power to overrule Westminster over certain issues. An issue that, on the other hand, shows how little control Scotland had over certain issues is the reserved power of negotiations with the EU. This issue, particularly over fishing, is very important to Scotland but less so to England - however, a UK Minister makes
The Government's Aim to begin a severe crackdown on knife related crime
Citizenship Coursework India Rose 10X3 Due to the significant increase in the amount of knife related crimes, the government are planning a serious crack-down and are doing all they can to alert people of the scale of severity. With 26 knife-related teenage deaths over the last year alone, it is become clear that the government need to act now by whichever means possible. In our last citizenship lesson we were presented with a photograph which the government were planning to blow up into posters and display them all around the UK on billboards to raise awareness of issues surrounding knife crime. The picture is quite disgusting and quite hard to look at if you are of a squeamish disposition. It's of a human hand with the wrist slashed into by a knife, you can see the cut is extremely deep and it appears to be a very brutal stab-wound. This poster certainly demonstrated the shocking results of a knife attack but I believe it may be slightly too graphic to be posted up all over the country. Imagine having to take a walk down the street or go into town and seeing that picture staring you in the face. It could be especially distressing for the older generation. A constant reminder of what seems to be happening to our society. Another point to make, anti the campaign, would take into consideration the fact that many young people are used to seeing graphic images and
The Successes and Failures of Charles Stuart Parnell!
The Successes and Failures of Charles Stuart Parnell! Charles Stuart Parnell was born in Avondale, County Wicklow on the twenty seventh of June 1846 to a well off Protestant family. Parnell attended Cambridge University and was a very wealthy and highly regarded landowner. During Parnell's lifetime, Parnell had a number of successes and failures. In this essay I will examine all of these before asking myself was Parnells life a success of a failure? Parnells dream was to obtain Home Rule for Ireland. When the Home Rule party was firstly established it was a small party in comparison to the other parties in west Minster. This meant that it was frequently ignored. In order to attract some attention to then selves the Home Rule party came up with the tactic of parliamentary obstruction. This was when Home Rule M.Ps made long irrelevant speeches on a variety of topics to disrupt the parliament and stop new laws from being made. This tactic was very successful. Many Irish peasants knew only vaguely about the issue of Home Rule and to put it bluntly they didn't really care about "who controlled them". Irish peasants had a more Important issue on their minds. This issue was Land! Parnell knew this all too well and realised that if he wanted Home Rule for Ireland he would need to find away to gain the support of the Irish peasants. In 1879, Parnell was invited by Michael Davitt,
Why were there two revolutions in 1917?
Carla Searle Why were there two revolutions in 1917? The revolution during February 1917 was instigated the Tsar's loss of military support and the failure of the First World War. Also, the growing protests on the streets of Petrograd, fuelled by the demands of Russian women who joined the strikes on International Women's Day (February 23rd) played a part in the downfall of the Tsar. The February revolution lasted from the 18th of February to the 14th of March and it was during this period that Russia saw the greatest political changes for generations. It is however, also important to ascertain the reasons why, having put an end to an unpopular autocratic system, there was another revolution several months later. The key events of the February revolution were the large-scale strikes initiated by employees at Putilov steel works from the 18th of February onwards. As well as this, by the 26th of February, all but a minimal number of garrison troops had deserted the army. Also, Nicholas was advised by Rodzyanko that only a major concession by the government could offer any hope of preserving an Imperial power, this led to the abdication of Nicholas as tsar and, therefore, the end of an autocratic rule in Russia. It was on the 3rd of March that the Provisional Government, a group of Duma members who had continued to debate political matters after the dissolution of the Duma on
Why were the conservatives so dominant in the period 1895-1905?
Why were the conservatives so dominant in the period 1895-1905? During the history of the British political system we have seen many changes in the parties and their structures and patterns of power. The Tory party were hugely successful during the first 30 years of the 19th century, the Whigs in 1846-85. What this essay focuses on is the period between 1895-1905 when the conservatives rose up and dominated the political scene. In the 1895 election the conservatives won the election with a landslide victory, winning in the region of 300 seats. Some people have said that the mixture of the parties throughout history has been like the swing of a pendulum where the leadership has switched from one party to another regularly. It is more realistic to say that the parties would dominate until another party replaced them with superior domination. At this time many different social and economical reforms had been passed and the people voting were greatly influenced by reforms that directly affected them. There are many reasons why the conservatives came to power at this time some people say it is because they were very strong as a party and some people say it was only due to the weakness of the other parties at the time. In this essay I am going try and conclude which of these is the case. Throughout their history the conservative party had many leaders, five in total. Of all of
With the end of World War One came to an end of emphasising on social reform at a federal level. The Bruce-Page nationalist-country party government was seen to have increased its concerns with the economic value of Australia.
With the end of World War One came to an end of emphasising on social reform at a federal level. The Bruce-Page nationalist-country party government was seen to have increased its concerns with the economic value of Australia. This was to be a changing economic circumstance compared to that of the Hughes regime in the years before. This changing factor was heard in an enthusiastic speech delivered by Prime Minister Bruce, that if Australia's great natural resources were brought into full development this 'would solve most of the economic problems that face the world'. This new imperial policy was known as 'Men, Money, Market'. The nationalist-Country Party erected such a proposal of economic plans to deal with immigration, markets, both primary and secondary, financial reforms and foreign affairs. The commonwealth now had a new role with dealing with immigration. Once left to the states was now a federal role. From excluding migrants, pre World War One, the states were now prepared to allow the federal government to intervene and to promote immigration to Australia. When the Bruce-Page government came into power in 1923 it was decided that the federal government would have a greater role than in the past. Under the Empire Settlement Act of 1922, which Britain agreed to lend £3million a year for 15 years to assist in the settlement of British migrants. In 1925 the British
Weimar Germany 1918-23: Was the Weimar Republic Doomed to Failure?
Weimar Germany 1918-23: Was the Weimar Republic Doomed to Failure? On the 9th of November 1918, the new democratic German Republic was initiated in order for the Allies to agree to an armistice of the First World War. It is argued by many historians that the years of the first German democratic regime were numbered from the outset due to the many limitations that worked against the Weimar Government and the various obstacles in the form of political hostility from both the left and right wing idealists and the inherited socio-economic problems. This essay will examine if and how factors into which the Weimar constitution was born would almost certainly not allow democracy to prosper. The reasons for the creation of the Republic alone would not act as the steadiest of foundations for the building of political success. The Emperor of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last ruler of the terminated Second Reich, was convinced to abdicate by General Ludendorff in accordance with the wishes of the allies. The militarists including General Ludendorff and Field-Marshal Hindenburg, who held considerable political power, agreed that Germany would receive a better peace deal if it were a democratic, de-militarised state. Those who conceived this idea rather more acrimoniously anticipated the blame of the new government for Germany's defeat in the war, masking the generals for this
Should political parties be state funded?
Should political parties be state funded? The Home Secretary David Blunkett said that political parties will eventually be financed by the state. He said that democracy depended on the proper accountability of political parties. But why the change, what is wrong with the current system and how with this effect the people of this country? The current way in which a political party gets funding is predominantly by donations, either from wealthy individuals or big business. In the case of Labour, around 8% of its costs are paid for by party members' subscriptions, with affiliation fees from unions contributing only around 27%. Donations make up the remaining two-thirds. For the Conservatives, the ratio is much higher, with around 90% of their funding coming from political donations. Even the Liberal Democrats find donations outnumber subscriptions by about two to one. The disadvantage of this current system is that it leaves the political party in power in a venerable position to sleaze even John Prescott has admitted that allegations of sleaze relating to large business donations are a problem for the government. Sleaze in fact has been a major problem for the Labour party when it comes to donations being given for favours. One such occurrence was when Bernie Ecclestone donated one million pounds to labour, and then week's later formula 1 was announced as the only sport to be
Using All the Information In This Section and the Results In the Table Attempt To Give a Well Balanced Explaination of the Conservative Success
USING ALL THE INFORMATION IN THIS SECTION AND THE RESULTS IN THE TABLE ATTEMPT TO GIVE A WELL BALANCED EXPLAINATION OF THE CONSERVATIVE SUCCESS Lord Salisbury William Gladstone In the period of late 19th century and early 20th century the Conservative Party of Britain was a very strong organisation and it had the support of all classes of people in the UK. Its opposing parties Labour and Liberal could not cope up with the popularity of the Conservatives. Liberals also had some splits within them and organisational weaknesses whereas Labour was a nascent party and was yet to be seen as a major party on the big stage. There were various aspects at which one might look to find out the reasons behind Conservative success in that period. Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister of England and the main Conservative leader persuaded the queen to call a general election soon after the British forces won against the main Boer armies in South Africa. This would lead to a widespread Conservative support because the conservatives would claim the credit for the English victory in the war due to their strategies. This type of election based on patriotic appeal is called a 'khaki' election and the Conservatives used this method to supreme success in the election of 1900. Leading conservatives appealed to the people on the basis of patriotism. But the historians are divided