The Good Society

Civics and citizenship education is a vital part of the Australian curriculum, as it prepares students to become active and informed citizens in the community (ACARA, 2012). The term “civics and citizenship” covers a range of topics that relate to both the geography and history syllabuses. This includes government and democracy, citizenship, diversity and identity and laws and citizens. For students to be able to develop the necessary skills, attitudes and values to become active and informed citizens, civics and citizenship must be incorporated throughout the curriculum (ACARA, 2012). To understand the importance of civics and citizenship in primary education, both terms need to be understood and comprehended

The fact that, in the United Kingdom, we have multiple political parties, with a variety of view points and policies, is exemplary of the fact that political parties enhance democracy. The existence of various political parties gives the public voting options, and provides them with a choice of who governs their country, which is arguably a democratic approach, and encourages public participation. The idea that the public are not only voting for the party and its leaders, but also its policies show that they have an influence in how the country is run. For example the Conservative party (under David Cameron) believes in traditional institutions and values, protecting the rights and interests of property owners, and support the idea that the wealthy do have a responsibility to improve the conditions of the disadvantaged. However modern Labour (under Ed Miliband), emphasises that education is the main driver of social justice and social mobility, agrees that there should generally greater stress on environmental protection, and the party now favors more active state

In order to be a leader one must be a strategic planner. Whether you are looking as far back as the 1950s when Martin Luther King Lead the Bus Boycott or in more recent times. All of the most influential leaders in history have been able to get their ideas out of their head and into the real world, so their ideas can come to life. Not only are plans carefully

Traditional conservatives adopt an organic view of society. This implies that society works like a living thing, an organism, which is sustained by a fragile set of relationships between and amongst its parts. The whole is therefore more than just its individual parts. This implies that the individual cannot be separated from society, but is part of the social groups that nurture him or her, reflecting the dependent and security-seeking tendencies within human nature. Organic societies are fashioned ultimately by natural necessity, and therefore cannot be ‘improved’ by reform or revolution. Indeed, reform or revolution is likely to destroy the

A voter can be defined as an individual who votes, or has the right to vote, in elections. Voting behaviour is explained using the concepts of expressive voting and strategic voting. A rational voter would act more strategically, that is, the voter would vote to produce an election outcome which is as close as possible to his or her own policy preferences, rather than voting on the basis of party attachment, ideology, or social group membership (expressive voting). Strategic voting has become more important than voting on the basis of political cleavages (expressive voting), so voters have become more rational in their approach, however there is always an element of expressiveness in their behaviour. Political parties were initially formed to represent the interests of particular groups in society however, as these parties became more universal in the appeal of their policy programmes, voting behaviour shifted from expressive to strategic. This essay explores the reasons behind the declining importance of political cleavages, and the rise of strategic voting.

What does it mean to form a more just society for the common good? I will be examining Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” as well as Gustavo Gutierrez’s essay, “The Option for the Poor Arises from Love of Christ.” Dr. King examines the facets of social injustice through a letter that he wrote while imprisoned for a nonviolent public protest. King’s letter is in response to a letter from eight fellow clergymen. In the letter from the clergymen they criticize King’s due process in seeking justice and his social injustice movement, so King responds with what I believe to be one of the greatest examples of a man who personifies what it means to form a more just society for the common good. He does not only speak on his behalf, but he speaks out all of humanity. Likewise, Gustavo Gutierrez examines specifically the poor in a similar manner, but believes that these “poor” people have found the ultimate meaning in life and we should all seek to have that same spiritual connection to God, for it would make our society a better place. The preferential option for the poor is seeking a deeper connection to God by bringing justice to light. Gutierrez and Dr. King both exemplify men who have truly set an example on how to form a more just society for the common good of humanity.

This article is part of my series on Considerations and Ideas for Improving Government and Civil Society, and constitutes its second article.

The Liberal government introduced a series of reforms aimed at moving away from the Laissez-faire ideology and toward a more self help scheme aiming to move people away from poverty and to make Britain a better country both in health and prosperity; Churchill said “If we see a drowning man we do not drag him to the shore, instead we provide help to allow him to swim ashore”. To do this the Liberals aimed at giving aid to the young, the old, the sick, the unemployed and the workers; these groups will be discussed throughout the essay. These reforms were later regarded as the foundations for the welfare state.

Making or studying public policy looks like an ocean when being compared with other social sciences because it contains a combination of regulations and laws (Stanford University). Making public policy is very important because the rules and regulations should work for people’s benefits, otherwise, the policies will be considered old or insufficient to fulfill their aims or duties, but, in my opinion, not all public policies are beneficial to people because public policies do not reflect people’s or individual’s ideas, and they are initiated with maybe a sense of humor or feelings of persons, who would like to make that public policy. We study this because it focuses on how to analyze and know the ingredients of it, if it is useful to people, if it is still valid to use, and if people have got the benefits from it.

When I think about a political community, I usually associate it with elections, politicians, and advertisements that bad mouth candidates from the different political parties. Politicians try to persuade citizens to vote for them by making promises that they may never fulfill. But a political community is more than that. A comparison of Aristotle and John Locke’s nature and purpose of a political community has given me a new insight. I learned that, even though the political community is responsible to provide security, its main purpose is aimed for the highest good of all its citizens, which is virtue and happiness.

Is it viable to achieve social justice and economic efficiency? To explore the possibilities, we must first define the terms that will be used in this paper. Social justice is, for the purposes of this article, defined as equity among race, gender, and income. In an ideal world, this definition would extend to equity across all dividing factors, including but not limited to: able-bodiedness, sexual orientation, religion, and class. British sociologist and author of “Citizenship and Social Class” T.H. Marshall argues, citizenship should be broken down into three main titles: civic citizenship, political citizenship, and social citizenship. The definition of social justice, for this

Every economy has up and down cycles of greater and lesser prosperity, and it is difficult to completely guarantee employment are regardless of a person's environment and upbringing, and an economy with a hight percentage of unemployed citizens is not a sound one. Furthermore, as Christians and as Americans it is our responsibility to care for the less fortunate around us. Hence it is both a moral and economic responsibility for there to be a safety net put in place that aids the less fortunate in their times of need. When millions of people lose their jobs because of an economic recession or depression and not because of personal fault or poor performance, there needs to be financial help to prevent people from starving and becoming homeless.

This essay will explore three contemporary issues in relation to social policy, whilst supporting these issues with legislation and economic context for each issue.

Strategic leadership entails making decisions across different cultures, agencies, agendas, personalities, and desires. It requires the devising of plans that are feasible, desirable, and acceptable to one’s organization and partners whether joint, interagency, or multinational. Strategic leadership demands the ability to make sound, reasoned decisions specifically, consequential decisions with grave implications. Since the aim of strategy is to link ends, ways, and means, the aim of strategic leadership is to determine the ends, choose the best ways, and apply the most effective means. The strategy is the plan; strategic leadership is the thinking and decision making required to develop and effect the plan.

The search for a good society was of intense interest in the past and continues to be of interest to many researchers even now . Many philosophers in their own minds have coined a series of utopian views for which has been much debated in the pursuit of a good society. The major ideologies propounded by such philosophers include Liberalism, Conservatism, Socialism, Anarchism, Nationalism, Fascism, Feminism, Ecologism, Religious Fundamentalism and Multiculturalism. All of these ideologies have argued in one way or the other in support of or against either of the elements contained in James Otoole’s executive compass which includes equality, efficiency, community and liberty. In view of this, the first part of the paper seeks to highlight the many different views of the good society propounded by many political ideologies in relation to the executive compass. The second part answers why the invisible hand does not seem to be working and how the tensions between liberty and efficiency can be resolved under the invisible. Finally, the paper will analyze what I would do to contribute to the creation of a good society.