Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 4

Politics - Essay Example Swayed by the European lines of thought, these parties managed to grow in numbers since they appealed mostly to the oppressed people as well as the distressed workers in the country. They successfully managed to field candidates throughout the nation in numerous elected positions for the next several years. However, towards the beginning of the 1920’s, these socialist movements faced severe resistance and condemnation from the government and eventually broke off the movement. The parties ceased to attract numbers to support its cause in the beginning of the early 20th century, though the Socialist Labor Party remained alive until the end of the 20th century. Socialism refers to a system whereby the ownership and control of majority of assets in a given country is granted to the central government. The United States, unlike other countries such as Japan and Germany, has not employed this system of running the economy. Though the system has worked very well in the above mentioned countries, the United States continues to thrive well without its enforcement. Politically, socialist parties in the United States began fairing very poorly in the run up to the general elections. For instance, in the year 2008, socialist candidates and their parties received less than two of the three socialist candidates (Caramani pg. 201). This is way below what other socialist candidates in other nations receive. In Germany for example, socialist parties gathered close to 50% of the total votes cast in each successive election since the 1970’s. There are several theories, however, that explain this phenomena in United States politics or governance. The United States has never had a feudal system. Other nations have had hierarchical systems which was lead from the top by a supreme deity while at the bottom of the system lay the commoner. Such systems were discriminatory in nature since it gave too much power to the person at the top at the expense of the common man at the bottom.

Critically appraise the contribution of Michael Power's audit Essay

Critically appraise the contribution of Michael Power's audit explosion argument to our understanding of accountability - Essay Example However the arguments go further to claim that these assumed causes need further support and research to express that the audit expansion is not a UK phenomenon (Power, 2002:183). This paper will review the basic arguments of the of The Audit Society and reconsider the causes and consequences of the audit society. Introduction Financial auditing is a statistical practice which seeks to draw conclusions from a limited inspection of documents. These documents can be written representations or budgets. More so, the inspections can be on oral testimony and direct observation. Prior to the past traditional methods of auditing in the UK, auditing began to modify by acquiring a new broader context. This was the reason because, audit began to play a new task in both the political and the economic sector. From this point, auditing became broader and a more significant tool in the society (Reuchars, 2004:76). Causes of Audit Explosion During the 1980s, the public sector institutions were chara cterized by financial constraints. Due to this factor, auditing and inspection became highly valued and important tool of change. National Audit Office and The Audit Commission became outstanding forces in government by playing an evolving and intricate constitutional role in different ways. In the late 1990s, the pressure for change increased as well as the demand for inspection and monitoring finances (Power, 2002:183). In another word audit explosion was driven by political demands on behalf of the citizens, patients, taxpayers, students and others. The reason behind this force was to provide greater accountability and transparency of service by both the public a and the private sector. The other pressure that forced the explosion of auditing was the rise of quality assurance practices and related transformations in regulatory style. Consequences of Auditing The introduction of auditing as an agency of organizational change has no measured consideration of benefits as well as pos sible dysfunctional effects. Although cost compliance has been introduced, audit and related monitoring ideas continue to be understood critically. In this respect, it is reasonable to suggest that auditing is an ideology driven for disciplining and controlling both the public and the private sector, yet it is not because auditing is not an instrument of genuine accountability. Therefore, to analyze the consequences of auditing, it is important to focus on the development of understanding auditing deeply (Powe, 2004:27). This broader understanding of auditing is the performance measures and other forms of accounting which provide an auditable front stage of an organization. The first consequence of auditing is that many performance indicators are produced but are not edited. Such facts are evident, and the UK Audit Commission is actively shaping these performance measures to enable genuine audit and inspection. However, just because a performance measure is not audited does not mean that it was not designed with potential audibility in mind. Another consequence is the growing population of auditees. This fact brings out the evidence that shows how different games of compliance creativity are played around the audit