Leadership paper(what's the culture and leadership difference between Research Paper

Leadership (what's the culture and leadership difference between Asia and U.S.A) - Research Paper Example In his opinion, variables like language, environmental and technological considerations, contexting, authority conception, nonverbal communication behavior, time conception etc can affect the communication and leadership styles of a person (Victor, 2009). English is the major language of the Americans whereas Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic etc are some of the languages in Asia. English is an international language and hence the Americans always keep a dominating mentality in their leadership styles. Even Chinese and Indians forced to use the American language English as the medium in their communication with the Americans. Asia and America have different environmental characteristics. Asia is a heavily populated region with different political and legal systems. Communists control the administration in China whereas democracy is prevailing in countries like India, Japan etc. In some other Asian countries Islamic administration is implemented. But in most of the American countries democracy is prevailing. These political differences in Asia and America often reflect in the leadership styles also. Most of the American leaders try to lead their people in a democratic manner whereas in Asia, except in democratic countries, totalitarian approaches are prominent. For example, in China and Saudi Arabia like countries, leaders have the supreme authorities and the followers should blindly accept the instructions of the leaders. But in America, leaders try to hear the opinions of the followers before asking the followers to do something. If the level of knowledge (Contexting) possessed by the leader and the follower are different, it can affect the leadership styles. If the follower has more knowledge than the leader, it is difficult for the leader to instruct the follower. The leader should always possess better knowledge than the follower in order to lead the followers successfully.

History Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

History - Assignment Example To what degree do you find his arguments persuasive? (see the box on pg 793) Brezhnev believed that if a country was shifting from Communism to capitalism, it was the duty of those who support Communism to step in and try to stop the shift. He clearly saw it as a good versus evil issue. When Czechoslovakia appeared to be switching to capitalism in 1968, Brezhnev ordered troops to prevent the uprising, and crush the Prague Spring. His arguments are ridiculous. He refused to listen to the will of the people in Czechoslovakia, preferring to kill them instead. The Prague Spring was not the imposition of an invading force; it was the people making a choice for themselves. His policy was also retroactive. This doctrine, espoused by President Harry Truman, suggested that the U.S. would help subjugated people try to free themselves from domination by Communists. At the time it focused on Greece and Turkey, where Communists were trying to take over, but it eventually extended to many other countries. Truman wanted to prevent the Soviet Union from dominating the Third World and he was willing to use American force to do this. Both of these groups were Cold War military alliances. The West had NATO—the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—that included America, Canada, Western Europe, and a few other countries. The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Union and its allies. Those who foresaw the Cold War turning into a hot war, believed these alliances would fight one another. In each alliance, the countries had mutual assistance pacts. NATO, for example, considered an attack on any NATO country an attack on all of them. This was a crisis that involved the Soviet Union, America, and Cuba. In the early 1960s, the Americans learned that the Russians were putting nuclear missiles on Cuba and point them at the U.S. This led to a serious standoff and a blockade of Cuba. Many believe this was the

Week one questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Week one questions - Essay Example â€Å"Though Nokia invested a large amount on its new version called "Nokia Lumia 920", it did not meet the expectations of Nokia’s customers†(Giri, 2012). Nokia promised much and delivered less whereas its competitors like Samsung and Apple promised less and delivered more. Apple is using its own iOS operating system in iPhones whereas Samsung is using Google’s Android OS in its smartphones. Even though Windows is the leading OS in the computer world, it is not so in the mobile phone world. Moreover, the features and designs of Lumia are comparatively inferior to that of iPhone or Galaxy S3. All these factors contributed heavily to Lumia’s failure in the market despite the fact that smartphone market is growing rapidly. Google trends and marketresearch.com are the two websites I would like to use for market research. Present trends in the market with respect to any product are displayed in Google trends. It provides graphical illustrations also about the present trends in the market. Market research.com is another website which helps entrepreneurs to check the current trends in the market. It provides market intelligence required to make sound business decisions. I would like to search these websites to know the demand and supply of the product or service which I am going to offer to the consumers. Moreover, I will look for the competition and price factors also. Market research is a costly act. It is often done with the help of primary as well as secondary research. Modern technologies like computers and internet helps even small scale industries to conduct effective and less costly market research. Survey and focus groups are the two cheapest options available for small scale industries to learn the market trends. Surveys are primary market research method aimed to collect primary data from specific group of people or consumers. It can be administered easily with the help of email or

Minor Characters With Major Influence Essay Example for Free

Minor Characters With Major Influence Essay Addie Bundren was a strong but mysterious woman. She had many children that loved her dearly that would do bizarre things for her. She was a minor character in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying but she played a major role in that she affected the actions of the characters of the Bundren family. Jewel is Addie’s third child but not Anse’s child. Jewel is the product of an affair that Addie had with Whitfield, the town minister. Addie spoiled Jewel because he was a symbol of her happiness with Whitfield. Jewel constantly pushes his luck with Addie, getting into all the trouble he can possibly think of, but he loves his mother. Jewel just wants Addie to be able to die in peace and quiet without Cash sawing away at her coffin where she can see and Dewey constantly fanning the air away from Addie’s face (Faulkner 15). Jewel’s love for his mother is more openly expressed when he runs into the barn to save her coffin from the burning barn (Faulkner 222). Anse is so determined to carry out Addie’s final wish and bury her with her relatives in Jefferson. It takes the Bundren family nine days to deliver Addie’s dead body to her final resting place. During the journey Darl tries to destroy the coffin in a barn fire (Faulkner 219). Darl loves Addie just like Jewel and can not bear to see her memory desecrated by this long journey so he tries to burn the body. By this time Darl seems to have started to go insane. Really Darl is the only sane person on that whole trip. He tried to get rid of the putrid corpse and let his mother be remembered with her name still intact. Cash labors day and night over his mother’s coffin, cutting each board carefully and showing them to Addie basically saying ‘Look at the wonderful job I’m doing for you’. Cash even continues on the journey after he broke his leg while saving Addie’s coffin. Even after his leg begins to fester and swell, he never complains about it paining him. Cash’s selflessness is unwavering as he makes this journey for Addie and his family to lay Addie to rest. Cash even refused medical attention until there journey was complete because of his devotion to Addie and her wishes. All in all Addie Bundren is a very important in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying even though she is rarely heard throughout the novel. She is a major influence on her family. She had the most influence on Darl, Jewel, and Cash, her older sons. Her influence causes her family to do bizarre and dangerous things for her to honor her memory. Works Cited Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. New York: Random House Inc., 1990. Print.

Development Of Modern Capitalism History Essay

Development Of Modern Capitalism History Essay Weber viewed that the protestant ethic spawned encouraged the spirit of capitalism. He was it more than simply a capitalistic activity. According to him it was the essence which underlies the economic system. During the sixteenth century, this spirit embodied in the societies of the Europe provided the impetus for capitalism to emerge as the dominant economic system of the world. He saw capitalism more than simply an accumulation of wealth. It had its roots in rationality. He insisted that the capitalism was the triumph of rationality over tradition .Explicit in his views of capitalism was a disciplined labour force and the regularized investment of capital. He asserted that this combination took place only in Europe most strongly in protestant nations such as England, Holland Germany To specify the distinctive characteristics of modern capitalism in the protestant ethic, weber first of all separation off capitalistic enterprise from the pursuit of gain such as.The desire for wealth has existed desire in most times nations in itself nothing to do with capitalistic action, which involves a regular orientation to the achievement of profit through economic exchange. Capitalism thus defined in the mercantilist operations for instance has existed in various forms of society; in Babylon Ancient Egypt, China, India Europe. But only in the west capitalistic activity become associated with the rational organisation of formally free labour. By rational organisation of free labour means its routinized calculated administration with in continuously functioning enterprises. A rationalised capitalistic enterprise implies two things-a disciplined labour force the regulated investment of capital. Each contrasts profoundly with traditional types of economic activity. It is associated with an outlook of very specific kind-the continual accumulation of wealth for its own sake, rather than for the material rewards than it can serve to bring. Man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of his life. Economic acquisition is no longer subordinate to man as the means of stratification of his material needs. This according to weber was the essence of the spirit of modern capitalism. The notion of calling accords to weber did not existed either in Antiquity or in Catholic theology; it was introduced by the Reformation. It refers basically to the idea that the highest form of moral obligation of the individual is to fulfil his duty in worldly affairs. This project religious behaviour into the day-day world stands in contrast to the catholic ideal of the monastic life, whose object is to transcend the demands of mundane existence.Moreover,the moral responsibility of the Protestant was cumulative i.e. the cycle of sin, repentance forgiveness, renewed throughout the life of the Catholicism was absent in Protestantism. The idea of calling was already present in Luthers doctrine but it became more rigorously developed in the various sects; Calvinism, Methodism, Pietism and Baptism .The weber was mostly concentrated on the Calvinism. Calvinism was the faith over which the great political cultural struggles of the sixteenth seventeenth centuries were fought in the most highly developed countries, the Netherland, England France. The four tenets of Calvinism were (a) God is all powerful and transcendent. One can never reach or understand God. (b)Doctrine of pre-destination: God has already preselected who will be saved and who shall be condemned. (c)Disworldly Asceticism: Do worldly things but in a balanced manner. Accumulated wealth but not to spend luxuriously. In fact re-invest. (d)The notion of calling: that all people have a calling. And to pursue this calling means doing God will. It views grace as irresistible, has a rigid doctrine of predestination, and originally had a theocratic view of the state. Calvinist doctrines look on Gods will as sovereign, and church should not be subject to the state (although it did not frown on a church dominated society). The doctrine of predestination was of utmost important, stressing the absolute sovereignty of Gods will, held that only those whom God specifically elects are saved, that this election is irresistible, and that man can do nothing to effect this salvation. Weber noted that Calvins interest was solely in God, and people existed only for the sake of God. Only a few are chosen and the rest are damned. Human merit or guilt plays no role in whether or not one is elect. This doctrine produced unprecedented inner loneliness of the single individual. (Protestant, p. 104). The individual Calvinists connection with God was carried on in deep spiritual isolation. (Protestant, p. 107) e.g. Pilgrim in Pilgrims Progress. Weber viewed this as pessimistically disillusioned type of individualism rather than the spirit of enlightenment. No one could save the individual, no priest, not the Church, no sacraments. This, the complete elimination of salvation through the Church and the sacraments was what formed the absolutely decisive difference from Catholicism. (Protestant, p. 105). Weber regards this as the logical conclusion of the elimination of magic, that is, a rational development in religion. For Calvin, people are on earth only to glorify God. The duty of the Christian was to show Gods glory in a calling. This meant doing ones daily tasks, and this often means fulfilling the job in a rational organization. The elected Christian is in the world only to increase this glory of God by fulfilling His commandments to the best of his ability. Brotherly love is expressed in the first place in the fulfilment of the daily tasks given. This makes labour in the service of impersonal social usefulness appear to promote the glory of God and hence to be willed by him. (Protestant, pp. 108-9). The Calvinist Christian was concerned with the question of whether he or she was one of the elect. Since this caused suffering on the part of the individual, two forms of pastoral advice were given. See quote 12 on predestination. First, it was an absolute duty to consider oneself chosen, and to combat all doubts as temptations of the devil, since lack of self-confidence is the result of insufficient faith, hence of imperfect grace. a duty to attain certainty of ones own election and justification in the daily struggle of life. (Protestant, p. 111). Second, in order to attain that self-confidence intense worldly activity is recommended as the most suitable means. It and it alone disperses religious doubts and gives the certainty of grace. (Protestant, p. 112). This contrasts with Lutheranism, whereby God promises grace to those who trust in God. Faith was thus identified with the type of Christian conduct which glorifies God. Works were not a means of purchasing salvation, but of getting rid of the fear of damnation. In practice this means that God helps those who help themselves. (Protestant, p. 115). But this is not done through occasional good works, or a gradual accumulation of points toward salvation, but rather in a systematic self-control which at every moment stands before the inexorable alternative, chosen or damned. (Protestant, p. 115). This means that the Christian must have a life of good works; there is no room for the very human Catholic cycle of sin, repentance, atonement, release. Of the elements in Calvinism that which seeks special attention was the doctrine of predestination-that only some human beings are chosen to be saved from damnation, the choice being predetermined by god. In its extreme inhumanity, he comments this doctrine must above all have had one consequence for the life of a generation which surrendered to its magnificent consistencyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a feeling of unprecedent loneliness. From this torment, weber holds that the capitalistic spirit was born .He talked about the two developments at the pastoral level-it became obligatory to regard oneself as chosen, lack of certainty being indicative of insufficient faith; the performance of good works in worldly activity became accepted as the medium whereby such surety could be demonstrated. Success in a calling eventually came to be regarded as a sign never a means of being one of the elect. The accumulation of wealth was morally sanctioned in so far as it was combined with a sober, industrious career; wealth was condemned only if employed to support a life of idle luxury or self-indulgence. Calvinism supplied the moral energy drive of the capitalistic entrepreneur.weber speaks of its doctrine as having an iron consistency in the bleak discipline which it demands of its adherent. The elements of ascetic self-control in worldly affairs was certainly there in the other puritan sects but they lack the dynamism of calvanism.Their impact was mainly upon the formation of moral outlook enhancing labour discipline with n the lower middle levels of capitalistic economic organisation. Such as the virtues favoured by pietism were those of the faithful official, clerk, labourer or domestic worker. The protestant ethic acc. To weber traces only one side of the casual chain i.e.-the connection of the spirit of modern economic life with the rational ethics of ascetic puritanism. He specifies a number of fundamental socio-economic factors institutional bases which played major role distinguished the European experience that of India china. These included (a)The separation of productive enterprise from the household which, prior to the development of industrial capitalism was much more advanced in the west (b) the development of the Western city, with a trading structure independent of the surrounding rural areas(c) Western law, including the separation of corporate and personal property; (iv) the nation state, with a bureaucracy that could take care of necessary state activities; an organized territory under unified control of a single ruler or government, so that there was a unified framework within which commerce and capitalism could develop; (v) double entry book-keeping, al lowing business to keep track of all items and determine a balance; allowing rational calculation of all the inflows and outflows, leading to an analysis of where the profit or loss occurs, and what is the source of profit; (vi) the rational capitalistic organization of (formally) free labour. A lot of critique has been laid on the webers work said that webers characterisation of Protestantism was faulty. The major critique directed to webers treatment of the reformation, his interpretation of the puritan sects in general the Calvinism particularly. (a)It has been held that weber mistakenly supposed that Luther introduced the concept of calling which differ from anything previously available in scriptural exegesis; that Calvinistic ethics were anti-capitalistic rather than sanctioning the accumulation of wealth (b) Weber misinterpreted catholic doctrine. Critics have pointed out that weber apparently did not study Catholicism in any detail, although he talked about the difference between the Catholicism Protestantism in respect of economically relevant values. It has been held that post-medieval Catholicism involves elements positively favourable to the capitalist spirit that the Reformation was seen as a reaction against the latter rather than as a clearing ground fo r its subsequent emergence (c) The connectivity between puritanism modern capitalism was based upon unsatisfactory empirical materials. Fischer Rachfahl has echoed about this in several forms.Weber only study the numerical analysis of the economic studies of Catholics Protestants in baden,1895.They argued that webers source was mainly Anglo-Saxon claimed that research into economic development in the Rhineland, the Netherland Switzerland, in the sixteenth seventeenth centuries didnt reveal any close association between Calvinism capitalistic enterprise. One of the criticisms of Weber is that he misunderstood what Franklin was saying. In their article, In Search of the Spirit of Capitalism: Webers Misinterpretation of Franklin, Tony Dickson and Hugh McLachlan disagree with Weber that Franklin was talking about an ethic in the selection quoted above. Far from demonstrating a commitment to the spirit of capitalism and the accumulation of wealth as an end in itself and moral duty, Franklins writings is in fact evidence against the existence of such a spirit. Dickson and McLachlan point out that the title of the work from which Weber quoted is Necessary Hints to Those That Would Be Rich. They assert, This suggests that what Franklin is offering is prudential advice, rather than insisting on a moral imperative. The gist of Dicksons and McLachlans argument is that Weber misinterpreted Franklins writings as moral ends when they were simply virtues to be practiced because of the benefits they will bring to those who practice them. They deny that Franklin was preaching a Protestant work ethic and assert that all Franklin was saying was that if a person is interested in being successful in life and commerce, here are some virtues to follow. Dickson and McLachlan conclude with a clear statement of their criticism of Webers hypothesis: It seems clear that Weber misinterpreted Franklin and that the latter was not imbued with the ethos which Weber attributes to him. It is not in dispute that a methodological lifestyle is conducive to the accumulation of wealth. What is at issue concerning Webers Protestant Ethic thesis is the impetus for such a lifestyle. Webers misinterpretation of Franklin does not in itself invalidate his methodology or his Protestant Ethic thesis. Nonetheless, it does suggest a rather cavalier attitude towards evidence, particularly as the writings of Franklin are the only evidence that he presents in his original essays to demonstrate the existence of the spirit of capitalism. H. M. Robertson, in A Criticism of Max Weber and His School asserted that the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches stressed the same precepts in the 16th and 17th centuries. He states that Webers assertion that the concept of the calling was novel to Luther and Protestantism was not established in Webers writings. He supported his thesis by quoting Aquinas: There seems to be no essential difference between the doctrine of the Catholics and the Puritans on the point of the calling. Amintore Fanfani, an economic historian, shared Robertson criticism of Weber but from a different aspect. In his article Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism, Fanfani disagrees with Weber concerning the role that Protestantism played in the development of a capitalist spirit in Europe. In the first paragraph, he states his argument: . . . that Europe was acquainted with capitalism before the Protestant revolt. For at least century capitalism had been an ever growing collective force. Not only isolated individuals, but whole social groups, inspired with the new spirit, struggled with a society that was not yet permeated with it. Once we have ruled out that Protestantism could have produced a phenomenon that already existed, it still remains for us to enquire whether capitalism was encouraged or opposed by Protestantism. Fanfani argued that it was not the Protestant Ethic which encouraged the growth of capitalism but the fact was that many Protestants were forced to leave Catholic countries to escape persecution which fosters in the emigrants an internationalism that is no small element in capitalist mentality. He further says that many early Protestant leaders opposed capitalism, including Luther and Calvin: Luthers conservatism in economic matters, to which his patriarchal ideas on trade and his decided aversion to interest bear witness. Even Calvin . . . condemns as unlawful all gain obtained at a neighbours expense, and the amassing of wealth. The Huguenots and Dutch Reformers also preached against various aspects of capitalism: . . . through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a continual repetition of the prohibitions of usury were issued by the synods of the Huguenots and by those of the Dutch Reformers, whose ethical code also condemned even excessive labour, as robbing time and energy fr om the service of God, and held action born of desire for gain to be a sign of madness. Fanfani agrees with Weber that capitalism flourished after the Reformation, but he parts ways with Weber as to the causes. Fanfani argues that capitalism as we know it today was born in the Italian merchant states under the religious umbrella of Catholicism, but he discounts the effect that religion of any kind had on the growth of capitalism as the major world economic system. He concludes his article by stating, The creation of a new mentality in the economic field cannot therefore be considered as the work of Protestantism, or rather of any one religion, but it is a manifestation of that general revolution of thought that characterizes the period of the Renaissance and the Reformation, by which in art, philosophy, morals, and economy, the individual emancipates . . . himself from the bonds imposed on him during the Middle Ages. Malcolm H. MacKinnon, bases his disagreements with Weber on the idea that Weber misinterpreted what the Calvinists were saying about the concept of the calling and good works. He states early on in his article, There are two fundamental theological flaws in Webers line of reasoning, flaws that mean that Calvinism did not give a divine stamp of approval to earthly toil: (1) There is no crisis of proof in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the dogmatic culmination of seventeenth-century Calvinism upon which Weber so heavily relies, and (2) in Christianity generally and Calvinism in particular, works have nothing to do with mundane activities. As soteriologically conceived in relation to salvation, works are spiritual activities that call for obedience to the Law. MacKinnon goes on to explain that Webers major failure is his misunderstanding of the Calvinist meaning of the calling. Using the Westminster Confession as his primary source, MacKinnon explains what the term calling meant to the Calvinists: There is a heavenly calling and an earthly calling or callings, the latter disqualified from making a positive contribution to our deliver ance. . . Above all else, the devout must ensure that their mundane callings in no way impede the prosecution of the greatest good of all: their heavenly calling. Believers are sanctioned to choose that employment or calling in which you may be most serviceable to God. Choose not that in which you may be most honorable in the world; but that which you may do most good and best escape sinning. MacKinnon concludes by stating that it was Webers misfortune to choose part of the Calvinist philosophy which, upon close examination, not only fails to support Webers thesis but in fact undermines it. Again, the significant point here is that temporal obligations are at best indifferent and at worst sinful; they cannot make a contribution to the realization of celestial paradise. It is a grim twist of irony that Weber would choose such a spiritually worthless vehicle to realize his causal ambitions. R. H. Tawney, Webers most famous critic, agreed with Weber that capitalism and Protestantism were connected. However, Tawney saw the connection going in the opposite direction from that which Weber postulated. Tawney, in his 1926 work, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, states that Protestantism adopted the risk-taking, profit-making ethic of capitalism, not the other way around. Tawney claims, with some good measure: There was plenty of capitalist spirit in fifteenth century Venice and Florence, or in south Germany and Flanders, for the simple reason that these areas were the greatest commercial and financial centers of the age. The development of capitalism in Holland and England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were due, not to the fact that they were Protestant powers but to large economic movements, in particular the Discoveries and the results which flowed from them. The strongest connection that Tawney saw between capitalism and Protestantism was rationality. Protestantism was a revolt against traditionalism and as such advocated rationality as an approach to life and business. Tawney proposed that the rationality inherent in capitalism became a tenet of Protestantism because rationality was diametrically opposed to the traditionalism of Catholicism. Early Protestant leaders recognized that hard work and rational organization of time were capitalist virtues which fit very nicely into the concept of living ones life in the service of God. Tawney saw the capitalist concepts of division of labor and planned accumulation as being reflected in the dogma of Protestantism which urged its followers to use ones calling on earth for the greater glory of God. According to Tawney, capitalist precepts and Protestant dogma fit hand in glove. As an historian, Tawney did not see a linear relationship between capitalism and Protestantism. He thought that Webers thesis a little too simplistic to explain historical events. History tends to be non-linear, and attempts to draw straight casual lines between events are shaky at best. As Tawney put it, The Protestant ethic, with its insistence on hard work, thrift, etc., had contributed to the rise of capitalism, but at the same time Protestantism itself was being influenced by an increasingly capitalistic society. The last critic I will cite in this paper is an economic historian, Jacob Viner, who used pre-eighteenth century Scotland as a case study to demonstrate that where Calvinism was a state religion, it tended to have a restraining rather than a freeing effect on economic development. He quotes a letter from John Keats in support of his thesis: . . . the ecclesiastical supervision of the life of the individual, which, as it was practised in the Calvinistic State Churches almost amounted to an inquisition, might even retard that liberation of individual powers which was conditioned by the rational ascetic pursuit of salvation, and in some cases actually did so. Viner points out that until well into the eighteenth century, Scotland was a desperately poor country. Contemporary commentators often remarked on the lack of economic initiative and ambition and on the general lack of enterprise and economic discipline of the population. Several of these reporters attributed Scotlands economic backwardness in large part to the deadening effect of Calvinist doctrine as forcibly applied by both Church and State. Viner quotes Henry T. Buckle who, in his 1857 treatise Introduction to the History of Civilization in England, wrote concerning the economic teachings of Scottish Calvinists in the seventeenth century as follows: To wish for more than was necessary to keep oneself alive was a sin as well as a folly and was a violation of the subjection we owe to God. That it was contrary to His desire was moreover evident from the fact that He bestowed wealth liberally upon misers and covetous men; a remarkable circumstance, which, in the opinion of Scotch divines, proved that He was no lover of riches, otherwise He would not give them to such base and sordid persons. To be poor, dirty, and hungry, to pass through life in misery, and to leave it with fear, to be plagued with boils, and sores, and diseases of every kind, to be always sighing and groaning, . . . in a word [sic], to suffer constant affliction, and to be tormented in all possible ways; to undergo these things was deemed proof of good ness, just as the contrary was a proof of evil. The opposition of Scottish Calvinism to capitalism was so well known in Europe that some English commentators such as Roger LEstrange urged English businessmen to look at the record of the Scottish Presbyterians in interfering with commerce and industry for religious reasons before supporting Cromwells cause. In conclusion, the critics of Webers Protestantism/capitalism theory have reasonable and logical criticisms. As a historian, I find the Tawney non-linear argument to be very compelling. There is no doubt that capitalism in various forms existed in Europe prior to the Reformation. The Italian merchants and the Dutch clothiers operated under a rational economic system. Double-entry bookkeeping was invented in Italy and adopted by other merchants throughout Europe. I think it is obvious that several factors were at work in Europe during the long sixteenth century, which led to the growth and dominance of capitalism. All of this taken into consideration, Webers thesis still stands. His thesis is not perfect; it has all the flaws pointed out by the above critics. However, none of the critics I have read managed to destroy the basic premise by which Weber sought to explain the growth of capitalism. Something happened in the long sixteenth century which saw an explosion of capitalist economic activity, free thought, and religious rebellion. Whether the relationship among these is causal or coincidental will be grounds for conjecture for years to come. History shows us that in fact those nations which were predominantly Protestant showed economic growth much greater than those which were predominantly Catholic. Even Jacob Viners argument that the repressive nature of Scottish Calvinism does not damage Weber, since he acknowledged that once a religion becomes a creature of the state it then tends to oppress people rather than free them.

A Bottle of Tyme Essay -- UEC Economics Essays

A Bottle of Tyme The United European Countries was formed just before the collapse of the United States of America. The Survivors of the Clones’ â€Å"true human† purge sought refuge in the UEC, specifically England, where they were welcomed with open arms, as much of their work force had been destroyed by the Arab invaders. The UEC is lead by President Hartford, who was elected to her second term just before the conflict first began between the United States and the Arab Empire. She heads the executive branch of the UEC, while the Senate embodies the Legislative branch. The Upper Senate is comprised of 4 Senators from each representative country, regardless of size or population. The Lower Senate has membership based on population, and so, each country receives one Lower Senator for every three million people. Each European country is treated as a semi-independent state, much as the states of the United States were. Each country’s national language is maintained, as are their customs and lifestyles. The only real difference is that their governments are now working together under a solidified government, not the easily sidestepped UN, which failed to halt the Arab uprising in the first place. As it is a fairly new governmental body, the UEC doesn’t suffer from the internal sabotage most modern governments are faced with, although the individual governments of each representative country are still ripe with corruption, as they needn’t change much to be accepted into the UEC. As such, the various countries in the UEC get along extraordinarily well with each other, but enter the country, and one can easily see that society on its most basic levels has begun to break ... ...n of untied countries. Their conquered lands were then given to the peasants who suffered so horribly at their hands. Although the Empire has been crushed to a mere  ¼ of its original power, it still controls the oil fields of Saudi-Arabia and has many sleeper cells across the globe. Perhaps one day it will strike out again at all who would oppose them. Back in North America, Canada and Mexico were in the clutch of fear, fear of invasion by the clones running rampant across the former United States. Although they were assured by the clone leaders that no harm would come to them, they remain wary of the clones’ every move. As for the Clone Nation itself, through what surveillance is available, it seems that a form of forced socialism exists, with complete breakdown of social class structure and religious ideologies.

History and Methods of science Essay

Isotope, one or two or more species of atom having the same atomic number, hence constituting the same element, but differing on mass number. As atomic number is equivalent to the number of protons in the nucleus, and mass number is the sum total of the protons plus the neutrons in the nucleus, isotopes of the same element differ from one another only in the number of neutrons in their nuclei. Source: â€Å"Isotope,† Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD), Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation 2005. Atom, tiny basic building block of matter. All the material on earth is composed of various combinations of atoms. Atoms are the smallest particles of a chemical element that still exhibit all the chemical properties unique to that element. A row of 100 million atoms would be only about a centimeter long. Understanding atoms is key to understanding the physical world. More than 100 different elements exist in nature. Each with its own unique atomic makeup. The atoms of these elements react with one another and combine in different ways to form a virtually unlimited number of chemical compounds. When two or more atoms combine, they form a molecule. For example, two atoms of the element hydrogen (H) combine with one atom of the element oxygen (O) to form a molecule of water. Source: â€Å"Atom,† Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD), Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation 2005.