EU Membership Criteria Evaluation Dissertation

EU Membership Criteria Evaluation Dissertation Abstract The purpose of this thesis is establishing a new membership mechanism for the European Union (EU). As the EU struggles with different kind of issues those showed up lately due to its membership mechanism, the demand for a new membership system arises. The thesis follows five steps to come up with a new solution. First step covers information of the current membership system. Second step refers particular problems closely related with membership system. In third phase the framework of the recommended system is built up considering the problems. Within the fourth step, the new system applied on mentioned problems to see how it effects current situation in theory. Finally, the self-criticism on the recommended system and the comparison between recommended and current membership mechanism is done in the fifth part. To understand the necessity of a new membership system at least the existent structure with its historical background shall be known. As much as knowing well the source of problems, analyzing problems separately is also required to create a solution. In the same way to come up with a solution, the establishment of the system shall be based on arguments those pointed out during the examination of the current membership system. While settling the new system, required elements were inspired from different disciplines of the social science. To check the functionality of the new system, it is applied to related problems. More specific explanations about the system are held during this checking process. Even if it sounds well functioning in theory, there might be some points to criticize in the new system since the perfection of a system is hard to achieve in social topics. The last thing to decide about whether choosing the recommended system or not is comparing the system with the curren t one according to their advantages and disadvantages. All in all, the thesis claims that the European Union is going to have a dynamic membership mechanism which provides more efficiency in membership activities. As a result, the EU can solve its problems and increase its structural solidity. In other words, the unification of member states may process faster than before. INTRODUCTION The Assumption â€Å"The European Union is NOT a religiously formed structure; unlike it is suspected and conspired as a Christianity Union by some political scientists.† 1.2 The EU and necessity of a new membership system Europe has achieved a very stunning progress in unification so far. However the mind bending question â€Å"Does the unification make anything better for all of the EU countries?† still doesn`t have a clear answer. From 1952 Paris Treaty until 2007 the last enlargement, the European Union (EU) enlarged fifth times and each enlargement separately came with some pros and cons. It has been arguing that how come a positive and beneficial action could create drawbacks and be harmful rather than helpful. Even though the ideology behind the establishment of the European Union is basically covers mutual beneficial agreement, somehow enlargements make some members` current social and economic situation worse. Besides, there are also some debates on whether enlargements should continue or not. After considering long-term cost-benefit analysis of enlargement attempts some doubts justifiably aroused about necessity of enlargement. The answer of these kinds of questions and results of thes e arguments will be also provided if the dilemma of enlargement is solved. It is easy to point out the problems and backwards of enlargement observing the social and economic fluctuation in the EU countries. However, marking the first cause and fundamental reason of these problems and to find exact solutions, as much as the source of problems are different and varied and cannot be solved without major regulations, the enlargement structure should be examined per se. Thus, to see the main stream of enlargement problems, essentially focusing on the enlargement progress is necessary. As the question aroused about the enlargement progress, the membership process that the skeleton of enlargement is so important to analyze and observe the basic reason of problems in the EU with cost-benefit perspective. It can be said that the membership process may actually the origin of the problems which can be monitored in the EU. To see how membership process affects the Union badly, a comparison of social and economic indicators between current and previous situations is truly required. In other words, analyzing from â€Å"the big bang† of the EU till current situation by looking at enlargement results gives some clues to understand how problematic the membership process is. Additionally, the current social and economic situation of the EU members and the EU`s relations with other states are also helpful indicators to recognize the problem in membership process. Furthermore, during the analysis it can be observed that in some cases the legal and written rules of the EU come short to cover the legal loophole at the current membership process. After reaching the conclusion of analysis about the membership process, the system can be regulated and may be renewed according to the results those show us whether the system should be changed. Although if the results objectively refer the moderate performance of membership process, a new prospectively designed system will still be suggested to optimize the system and increase efficiency. Because by having a flashback to the establishment of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) it can be seen that the main scheme of the EU was created to improve and support efficiency among countries. Thus if there is a more efficient and beneficial system which helps the EU to get rid of its problems particularly, it should be preferred to current membership process due to ideological background of the EU, even though the current system works with difficulties. Besides, the recommended system will compromise with the current system by adapting most of its features. Mostly, membership systems are thought so strictly binding with members and rules of membership are not dynamic to adopt with a new unknown situation. But the recommended membership system which will be designed and tested can bring dynamism into the EU structure. The structure of membership process is bases on the framework of dynamic systems. As the ideology and motto of the new system, it can be said the whole world changes and differs every second to form adaptation with each items in it, systems also should be so dynamic that adopt with every sort of situation. In other words, the life is dynamic by itself. Therefore, a dynamic system for the EU membership mechanism is more realistic than a static membership model. Even in social sciences such as economics a dynamic analysis of economy is more explanatory than a static analysis and it also has more correct results. This thesis follows on five steps those will give us an understanding of change and the difference of new membership system. First of all, the current membership system and enlargement activities will be mentioned to observe the current situation. Secondly, the international, social and economical problems caused by current membership system will be mentioned particularly. The current problems and the lack of solution method against them will be shown in this part. Thirdly, the difference and requirements of new recommended membership system will be introduced. Furthermore, the application of the new membership system will be tried out with problems which would have been mentioned on the second step. Lastly, the conclusion to make an overall analysis and self-criticism of nominated membership system emphasizing advantages and disadvantages of both membership systems will be pointed out. At the beginning of the thesis, the assumption is placed in the middle of the first page without a ny additional script to emphasize it very strongly. Because the whole thesis is bases on the assumption that the European Union is just a union tries to increase common benefits of all countries in Europe without any discrimination. Otherwise, if it was not said so and the European Union was a religiously established union, there would be no need to improve efficiency of the membership process because the only one membership criterion that would have been looked for would be the Christianity of the applicant countries. Hence, the thesis would be meaningless, the current application of non-Christian countries as well. The assumption also helps to set the border of this thesis. During the thesis, the focus will just be on objective materials without referring any speculative comments. The dynamic system will be recommended for the EU can also be used as a conflict resolution method on the other unions` problem. With beliefs of the EU wants to have a more efficient and beneficial system, and also the EU defends that the unification of economic system and the harmonization of social structures shall be carried forward, a dynamic system will solve most of the problems in the union without getting in any other political debates such as religion. As an introduction for drawbacks of the current system, slowdown in economic indicators, rising of nationalist ideology and parties, rejection of the EU constitution, domestic moral problems in member states such as in Italy, Budget deficit problems in member states like Greece and Spain, lack of common foreign and security policy, and loosing beliefs of candidate states on the EU can be referred among dozens of problems. Nowadays, the EU is not in a comparable position with its former strength but the comparison of situations after and before enlargement activities will show that how the current system affects the strength of the union negatively. Thus, it will also explain how a membership system can diminish the power of a union. As simple as in the metaphor about flywheels of a machine, if there is any flywheel that works reversely, it should be gotten out from the mechanism before it blocks the working system. Even if a member state doesn`t work simultaneously with the union, the Union may be able to ban the state or hold its membership for a while. Otherwise the whole legal structure doesn`t help the system to work properly, this illustrates that the membership mechanism needs to be restored with an efficient one. PART I THE CURRENT MEMBERSHIP SYSTEM AND ENLARGEMENT ACTIVITIES 2.1 The current membership System The current membership system bases on three different documents which are The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht (Article 49),The declaration of the June 1993 European Council in Copenhagen, i.e. Copenhagen criteria, and a document is decided after negotiations about adaptation to acquis communautaire between European Union and candidate state. Lately, all of the membership requirements and its legal structure were combined into the Treaty of Lisbon. This means that all of those three documents are included into the treaty of Lisbon with a couple of updates. Especially, the Copenhagen Criteria are the rules that decide whether a country is eligible to join the European Union and they are also known as the main detailed source for the membership prerequisites. Firstly, the idea of preparing a legal content for membership carried out with the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht (Article O). In Article 49 (formerly Article O), the geographical criteria and slightly general policy criteria were settled do wn. Then, with the 1993 Copenhagen Criteria, the general policy criteria of membership were described in more details considering three aspects; Political, Economic and Legislative. After all those criteria, as a homestretch, measures and regulations decided by negotiations between the European Union and candidate states fulfill the scheme of membership requirement for the EU. Most of these criteria have been confirmed over the last decade by legislation of the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament, as well as by the case law of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. The mentioned documents provide all requisites to become a member state of the EU. Thus, criteria can be sorted with sub-categories to understand what the EU demands from candidates particularly regarding to the general policy, geographic, political, economic, and legislative criteria. As a main frame the general policy criteria can be summarized as in the Article O (Maastricht Treaty): â€Å"Any European State may apply to become a Member of the Union. It shall address its application to the Council, which shall act unanimously after consulting the Commission and after receiving the assent of the European Parliament, which shall act by an absolute majority of its component members. The conditions of admission and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the Union is founded which such admission entails shall be the subject of an agreement between the 16 Member States and the applicant state. This agreement shall be submitted for ratification by all the contracting States in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements.† (European Commission, 1992a) In addition to the article it can be extensively illustrated by an excerpt from the Copenhagen Presidency conclusions: â€Å"Membership requires that candidate country has achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, respect for and protection of minorities, the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. Membership presupposes the candidates ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union. †(Copenhagen European Council, 1993: 1) Regarding its acquis and actions, the EU doesn`t have certain steady geographic criteria for candidates. The EU refused Morocco`s applications a couple of decades ago, in 1987 due to territorial and geographical difference. Besides, even though Turkey has small part of its territory on the European continent and Turkey is on â€Å"negotiation† phase of membership process now, the membership of Turkey is still a huge debate. On the other hand, the speculations about the membership of Israel is considerably spread because of close economic and politic relations between Israel and the EU (Europa, 2007) and recently some Prime Ministers of member states individually declared that they would be happy to see Israel as a member state of the EU soon (Rettman, 2010). Hence, in the legal documents, the geographic criteria briefly demands that the candidate country shall have territory on the European continent and economical, cultural, historical and political ties with other European s tates as well. On the other hand, in practice, it can be seen so questionable. There is no clear answer for this dilemma. It can be easily illustrated by the fact that, before the rejection of Morocco, the EU accepted French Guiana to join the union despite the reality that it is in South Africa. Both countries mentioned in this case have similar background within France. The only difference is unlike French Guiana, Morocco is independent right now. However, instead of both countries, only French Guiana is in the EU. As a result, it can be claimed that the geographical criteria are not necessarily applicable within the current membership mechanism. Until 1993 the decision-making process of membership doesn`t have clear references. The clear expression of prerequisites is declared with the Copenhagen Criteria. However, when member states agreed on criteria in 1993, there was no mechanism for ensuring that any member state was in compliance with these criteria. Nevertheless some legal arrangements and sanctions have been imposed to monitor compliance with these criteria. The first victim of this action was the Austrian government of Wolfgang Schà ¼ssel in early 2000. They have been come across with sanctions of the other 14 Member States governments because of not compensating the membership requisites. These legal arrangements came into effect under the provisions of the Treaty of Nice on the first of February 2003. With Copenhagen Criteria three more aspects were added into membership mechanism; Political, Legislative and Economic criteria. These criteria are going to be explained particularly as follows; As a crucial part of political criteria the EU ask for a consolidated democracy from candidate states. According to most political science scholars, the definition of consolidated democracy contains these three steps; Competitive elections, Liberties such as freedom of expression, freedom of press and freedom of association, and Consolidation of democracy in society. Consolidated democratic governance requires that all citizens of the country shall be able to participate equally in the political decision making process at every single governing level. Consolidated democracy also means free and fair elections with a secret ballot, freedom of press, the right to establish political parties without any obstacle from the state rulers, freedom of association, freedom of expression, rule of laws and freedom of standing trial through unbiased free judges. The second political criteria for candidate states is the rule of law which expresses government authority may only be exercised in accor dance with documented and written laws. They should be adopted through an established procedure. In case of arbitrary rulings towards individuals, the principle is supposed to be a safeguard. The third political criterion to join the European Union is respecting the Human rights in every kind of situation. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is considered the most authoritative formulation of human rights and the EU is also admitted its legitimacy. According to the declaration human rights which every person holds because of their quality as a human being should be protected against all threats. Besides, those rights are inalienable and belonging to all humans. Briefly, if a right is inalienable, that means it cannot be limited, granted, bestowed, bartered away, or sold away. These include the right to life, the right to be prosecuted only according to the rule of laws, the right to be free from slavery, and the right to be free from torture.(Wikipedia, 2010a) T he last but not the least political criteria for EU membership are respect for minorities and protecting their rights. At the beginning there was no clarity in definition of minorities in member states. But in 1995 with the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (COE) the EU declared minorities in member states and defined their rights with consensus. However, minorities in member states are defined by a consensus commission which was formed by member states therefore not all minorities could be regarded and defined within the concept. The consensus commission (the Venice Commission) reached the conclusion of the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities which protects minorities by defining them as â€Å"a group which is smaller in number than the rest of the population of a State, whose members, who are nationals of that State, have ethnical, religious or linguistic features different from those of the rest of the population, and are guided by the will to safeguard their culture, traditions, religion or language† (Venice Commision, 2004: 1). According to the definition of national minorities, unlike others, recent minorities such as immigrant populations have not been listed by signatory countries in the convention. This can be seen by checking the list of national minorities published by Council of Europe (Council of Europe, 2007). Another issue of the EU membership mechanism which can also be considered as a membership requirement is the economic criteria. As it is obviously known that the free market economy is the main characteristic of the EU. Speaking generally about free market economy, candidate countries shall have a functioning free market economy and the system should not be interfered by government as little as it is possible. Besides, their producers shall have the capability to deal with competitive pressure of free market and market forces within the Union. Nowadays, all economic requirements for membership are carried out with The European Exchange Rate Mechanism to take candidates into the Eurozone. While debating economic criteria for EU membership, one of the most popular misbelieves is the acceptance of economic criteria which were defined by the Maastricht Treaty as prerequisites for membership. Because the way it is interpreted in the Maastricht Treaty concerns about member states. They men tion about neither the necessity of abiding by the treaty for candidates nor obligations on candidate states. However, in practice, fulfilling those criteria is also expected from candidate states. The economic criteria defined by the Maastricht Treaty became more concrete with the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure and the Protocol on the Convergence Criteria Referred to in Article 109j annexed to this Treaty. In the Protocols the desired ratios and rate were announced to member states, regarding to the practical aspect of the Treaty, it is binding for candidate states as well. The economic requisites for membership are sorted with articles in the protocol as follows; â€Å"The reference values referred to in Article 104c(2) of this Treaty are: 3% for the ratio of the planned or actual government deficit to gross domestic product at market prices; 60% for the ratio of government debt to gross domestic product at market prices.†(European Commission, 1992c) â€Å"The criterion on price stability referred to in the first indent of Article 109j (l) of this Treaty shall mean that a Member State has a price performance that is sustainable and an average rate of inflation, observed over a period of one year before the examination, that does not exceed by more than 1 ½ percentage points that of, at most, the three best performing Member States in terms of price stability. Inflation shall be measured by 30 means of the consumer price index on a comparable basis, taking into account differences in national definitions.†(European Commission, 1992b) Lastly, all candidates should regulate and enact their constitutions and judicial systems to consolidate them according to European law which built up over the history of the Union and also known as the acquis communautaire. After all criteria, the negotiations phase is the last step towards membership. During the negotiations with each candidate country, progress towards meeting the Copenhagen criteria is regularly monitored. On the basis of this, decisions are made as to whether and when a particular country should join, or what actions need to be taken before its access become possible. However, even though a country successfully fulfilled the whole bunch of criteria, it is declared that the new member cannot take its place in the Union until it is considered that the EU per se shall have enough absorption capacity for this enlargement. This situation were announced with the excepts in Presidency Conclusions (Copenhagen European Council, 1993) as follows; â€Å"The Unions capacity to absorb new members, while maintaining the momentum of European integration, is also an important consideration in the general interest of both the Union and the candidate countries.†(Copenhagen European Council, 1993: 1) To see the officially declared requirements and explanations it can be better to quote some excerpts from official web-sites of the European Union, thus the criteria can be compared and understood with and without interpretation; Accession criteria In 1993, at the Copenhagen European Council, the Union took a decisive step towards the fifth enlargement, agreeing that â€Å"the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe that so desire shall become members of the European Union.† Thus, enlargement was no longer a question of ‘if, but ‘when. Concerning the timing, the European Council states: â€Å"Accession will take place as soon as an associated country is able to assume the obligations of membership by satisfying the economic and political conditions required.† At the same time, it defined the membership criteria, which are often referred to as the ‘Copenhagen criteria. Copenhagen European Council Membership criteria require that the candidate country must have achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities; the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union; the ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic monetary union. Madrid European Council Membership criteria also require that the candidate country must have created the conditions for its integration through the adjustment of its administrative structures, as underlined by the Madrid European Council in December 1995. While it is important that European Community legislation is transposed into national legislation, it is even more important that the legislation is implemented effectively through appropriate administrative and judicial structures. This is a prerequisite of the mutual trust required by EU membership.† (European Commision, 2010) As opposed to the membership criteria and the EU`s Acquis Communautaire, general criticisms are the lack of certainty and elaboration in membership criteria, not mentioning in Acquis Communautaire about cancelling membership in the case of refusing to carry out sanctions and penalties opted by the EU and the slightly existence of flexibility towards extreme case such as a desire of a member state to quit from the Union. In other words, there are sometimes conflicting interpretations in current member states about membership criteria and cancelling membership of an idle member state. On the other hand, the right of quitting form the union is recently added to the EU acquis with the Treaty of Lisbon. â€Å"Before the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force on 1 December 2009 no provision in the treaties or law of the European Union outlined the ability of a state to voluntary withdraw from EU. The European Constitution did propose such a provision and, after the failure to ratify the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, that provision was then included in the Lisbon Treaty. The treaty introduces an exit clause for members who wish to withdraw from the Union. This formalizes the procedure by stating that a member state may notify the European Council that it wishes to withdraw, upon which withdrawal negotiations begin; if no other agreement is reached the treaty ceases to apply to the withdrawing state two years after such notification.†(Wikipedia, 2010b) â€Å"Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.†(European Comission, 2007: Article 50) 2.2 Enlargement Activities The European Union enlarged fifth times so far and enlargements with greater amount of candidates mostly occurred through eastern European countries after the definition of the criteria mentioned above. This enlargement process started in 1952 when the European Union was still called as the European Coal and Steel Community. Since then, the EU has achieved to have twenty-seven member states with the most recent expansion to Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. Table 1. The EU`s enlargements and its approved members Accession Applicant Issued Enlargements 23 July 1952 France N/A Founding Members 23 July 1952 (West) Germany N/A 23 July 1952 Belgium N/A 23 July 1952 Italy N/A 23 July 1952 Netherlands N/A 23 July 1952 Luxembourg N/A 1 January 1973 United Kingdom 10 August 1961 First Enlargement 10 May 1967 1 January 1973 Denmark 10 August 1961 11 May 1967 1 January 1973 Ireland 10 August 1961 11 May 1967 1 January 1981 Greece 12 June 1975 Second Enlargement 1 January 1986 Spain 28 June 1977 Third Enlargement 1 January 1986 Portugal 28 March 1977 1 January 1995 Austria 17 July 1989 Fourth Enlargement 1 January 1995 Sweden 1 July 1991 1 January 1995 Finland 18 March 1992 1 May 2004 Cyprus 3 July 1990 Fifth Enlargement 1 May 2004 Malta 3 July 1990 1 May 2004 Hungary 31 March 1994 1 May 2004 Poland 5 April 1994 1 May 2004 Slovakia 27 June 1995 1 May 2004 Latvia 13 September 1995 1 May 2004 Estonia 24 November 1995 1 May 2004 Lithuania 8 December 1995 1 May 2004 Czech Republic 17 January 1996 1 May 2004 Slovenia 10 June 1996 1 January 2007 Romania 22 June 1995 1 January 2007 Bulgaria 14 December 1995 Within the table above the enlargements and candidate countries are sorted according to historical antecedence. On the other side, there are also countries which could not join the EU because of particular reasons. The United Kingdom is vetoed by the French Government in 1961 and Denmark and Ireland

Origin of Judaism :: essays research papers fc

The origins of Judaism are written in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Pentateuch. Genesis is divided into several major parts. The creation of the world (first part) and the story of Abraham (second part) are respectively the parts that are dedicated mostly to the origins of Judaism.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  God created heaven and Earth. Then he created man. Man disobeyed God, building a partition between them, and went on his own. God promised redemption on man for being tempted and corrupted by Satan.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Later, God chose Abraham as the father of a long line of people that he would deal with throughout time in order to keep his promise of redemption, and to define a certain people as his. Abraham had two sons: Ishmael and Isaac. God chose Isaac to receive the birthright promises. As a result, the line of God’s people came through Isaac. After what happened the first time with man’s betrayal, God put Abraham and Isaac to a test. God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to him. Abraham was confused and hurt by this command, but both he and Isaac agreed. As he was about to kill his son, God stopped him. God informed Abraham that this was a test to see how loyal he was to him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Generations later God made a pact with the chosen people. They agreed to live a life of strict obedience to the law that he gave them, and in return, they would have the promised messiah come as one of them, who would deliver them from evil to God. He provided them prophets to make his presence and desires known to them and to predict future events so they would know what to expect from God in future times, and how to recognize the Messiah when he arrived.

Healthcare Finance in The United States of America

In United States the Congress had passed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 or MMA and with this imposed a stoppage for 18 months on the starting of new physician owned specialty hospitals. At the same time, they also wanted to know the position regarding certain matters of physician owned heart, orthopedic and surgical specialty hospitals through MedPAC. The team visited sites, made legal analysis and met the share owners in these hospitals and finally presented a report to the Congress. It had also gone through the cost reports received from Medicare and inpatient claims of 2002, which was the most recent at that time. This will naturally form the basis of such hospitals being permitted or not. (Physician-owned specialty hospitals) The findings of this committee showed that:- Physician owned hospitals generally treated patients who had less severe problems and concentrated on specific diagnosis related groups and the reason for both of this was that these were expected to be more profitable than other patients. These hospitals do not treat as many Medicaid patients as community hospitals. Regarding the costs of patients in these hospitals for the patients, the Medicare patients did not get benefits of lower costs though the inpatients had shorter periods of stay. There was no appreciable impact of physician owned specialty hospitals on the community hospitals as seen in 2002, and there was also no impact on the financial performance of the community hospitals. Most of the differences in profitability can be rectified by improving the prospective patient system for inpatients that are made by Medicare. Thus according to the findings there are not major differences between the community hospitals and physician owned specialty hospitals in terms of costs or capability for services. (Physician-owned specialty hospitals) Differences among types of hospitals: We shall make comparison of the hospitals in India and USA. In India, apart from the government hospitals, there are a number of large hospitals run by trusts or large corporations. In the city of Bombay or Mumbai, the hospitals named Jaslok or Hinduja are run by trusts and Wockhardt Heart Hospital is run by a major pharmaceutical company. Even when the hospital has been promoted by a physician, still the hospital is run like a corporation as is seen in the case of Apollo Hospitals. There is now a new hospital named as Asian Heart Hospital in Bombay which has been promoted by a physician team and they have a large stake in the hospital. The team of physician is led by one Mr. Panda who is now the CEO of the hospital. These physicians have all invested their own funds, and to get more funds, they have even asked for more contributions from other physicians who are now not resident in India. The hospital is the result of a plan by these physicians in 1993-94. The hospital took about 10 years to complete. Thus one should realize that a hospital takes a long time to take shape up. (Doctors in arms) The biggest problems in the management of hospitals come from physicians and renowned physicians are sought for empanelment by hospitals. The physicians then continually force the hospitals to upgrade their infrastructure and also charge heavy fees from the patients. At the end of the services by the physicians, it is they who get the biggest returns. It is also difficult to retain the physicians as they leave at the earliest opportunity, and this statement is from one of the promoters of the hospital, GW Capital. They are now investing money in the concept of physician managed private hospitals. This resulted in its investment of Rs 150 million or about 3 million dollars in buying a 26 percent stake in another hospital group in Hyderabad, in 2000 called the Care Group. That group has expanded very fast and now has over a 1000 beds in its operations in six centers. (Doctors in arms) Thus the costs of the hospitals will require about 12 million dollars for a 1000 bed operation. At the same time, not all hospitals are made with money in mind and there are hospitals in Chennai or Madras in India which have 150 physicians, 500 nurses and 371 Para-medical staff. The entire team works within a budget of Rs 120 million or 2.4 million dollars. (Healing Ministry of the Madras Diocesan Medical Board) This hospital is run by a religious mission and its objective is to provide service to the people and this hospital does not want to make money, but run at break even costs. In United States, during 2002 there were 48 hospitals found to be physician owned hospitals. Of them 12 were heart hospitals, 25 were orthopedic hospitals and 11 were surgical hospitals. These hospitals are generally very small with average capacities of orthopedic hospitals being 16 beds, the surgical specialty hospitals being 14 beds and heart hospitals are the largest with average capacity being 52 beds. The general conditions of these hospitals are not full fledged as they do not have emergency departments, whereas 93 percent of the community hospitals have emergency departments. The reason for existence of these hospitals is the physician control over the hospitals. (Physician-owned specialty hospitals) At the same time, one of these hospitals has been named as one of country's top 100 heart hospitals. (Parkwest Medical Center) Financial position of private hospitals: According to available reports, the private hospitals are in a position to take on patients who are capable of paying for them, and not take on patients who have to depend on managed care organizations. This increases the incomes of the hospitals by 20 to 50 percent. This reduces the cost of a bypass surgery at one of the hospitals in India, Care to about Rs 80,000 or $1,700. The cost in India is higher by about 30 to 40 percent in corporate hospitals. Even the new hospital, Asian Heart has predicted a cash break even during the second year of operations, and by the end of the second year it expects to pay a 15 percent dividend to the investor. Thus on an investment of $50 million, the returns would be $7.5 million from the second year. (Doctors in arms) The position in United States is the same, and in spite of some private specialty hospitals not having made any distributions to stockholders, the study showed that the margin in these hospitals was about 13 percent in 2002 as compared to 3 to 6 percent that was seen for community hospitals. (Physician-owned specialty hospitals) The advantages of physician owned specialty hospitals: To find this aspect out, there were discussions with the physicians who were investing in these hospitals. The cardiologists and surgeons want to admit their patients, perform the required procedures and have the patients recover with minimum disturbance. They believe that community hospitals cannot match their services as those hospitals have a variety of services and missions that they have to undertake. The direct control by the physicians help to increase productivity through less disturbances to the schedules in operating room which come from the emergency cases that come about, decreasing the down time between operations between two different surgeries and this is due to cleaning the operating room more efficiently, increased ability to work between two operating rooms even when the operating rooms are blocked due to some other work and better efficiencies through direct control of operating room staff. As mentioned earlier, they also like to form specialty hospitals as they have increases in income. There is some increase due to productivity, but they are able to collect a share of the profits from the facility for themselves and other associated physicians. They concentrate on providing services that are profitable, on treating patients who are less sick and thus more profitable. (Physician-owned specialty hospitals) Even in India the same situation exists and most of the physicians who have now started developing hospitals have been working together earlier, and one of the main aims is to remove the pressure from managed health care systems that they have to face otherwise. There is now a distinct change in the formation of hospitals and new hospitals are being formed by physicians. The total costs have been discussed to some extent, but without the participation of physicians, the hospitals are unlikely to be successful.

Balance Theory Essay

Introduction Good Evening ladies and gentlemen my name is xxxxx and today I shall enlighten you about a very interesting theory concerning consumer behaviour and Marketing. As practicing marketers, we are well aware of the impact that a celebrities endorsement can have on consumer behaviour but I am pretty sure most of you wouldn’t know the reasoning behind such a phenomenon. What is the Balance Theory? Ever wondered why firms use celebrities to endorse their products? Well wonder no further because Fritz Heider proposed with his Balance theory that people attempt to maintain a psychological balance and form relationships that balance out their likes and dislikes. For example if Person A likes a celebrity and the celebrity likes a product but Person A originally disliked the product, then Person A is likely to end up increasing his enjoyment of the product or decreasing his liking of the celebrity or both. All these options create equilibrium. As marketers, it is our goal to achieve market the product successfully to the target audience. For example if we were to use Michael Jordan to market golfing products, then the target consumer would most likely end up disliking the product. However, if we were to use Tiger Woods to market the golfing products, then consumers of golfing products would most likely end up liking the products. The Balance Theory Explained So the Balance Theory is made up of a Triangle that consists of 3 elements. The relationship between these 3 elements is known as sentiment relations. So the first element is PO, the second element is PX and the third element is OX. If the results of the multiplication of the positive or negative signs of any 2 elements yields a positive result, then the consistency in the triad is maintained and vice versa. This model may seem complicated but it is in essence very basic. So let me simplify this for you with an example. Positive Example Let us assume P is John a basketball fan, O is Michael Jordan a celebrity Basketball player and X is the product being marketed and in this case let’s assume it is a limited edition basketball. So if John is a fan of Michael Jordan, then the sentimental relation PO will be positive. Since Michael Jordan is approves of the product he endorsed, the relationship OX is positive too. Therefore, by default, PX would be positive too. Negative Example However, say if P were to remain John, O were to become Tiger Woods and X were to become a golf set, then PO would become negative since Tiger Woods is a golfer and hence John would not be able to relate to him, OX would remain positive since Tiger Woods loves the product he is endorsing and the eventual result of this would be a negative PX which would mean consistency in the Triad is not maintained and that the celebrity endorsement has not been successful in promoting this product to the consumer. Importance of this theory to us This theory is of interest to us as future marketers as it helps us understand consumer behaviour and psychology with regards to mascots used to endorse/market a product. It also educates us on the 3 way relationship that transpires between product, celebrity and consumer and in turn, we would be able to market our products using the correct celebrities for the correct product. The End And that ladies and gentlemen concludes my presentation on Fritz Heider’s Balance Theory. Thank you all for your kind attention. Bibliography 1. http://www.investorwords.com/15193/balance_theory.html 2. http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/balance_theory.htm 3. Roy, Subhadip, Gammoh, Bashar S., Koh Anthony C. (2012). Predicting the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements using the balance theory..Journal of Customer Behaviour. 11 (1), p33-52.

battle Ship Potemkin essays

battle Ship Potemkin essays The silent film Battleship Potemkin started off on a high, the sailors refusing to eat the meat and soup they were served because it was covered with maggots, for some reasoned really captured my attention. The setting was on a large ship that showed us many areas, so it was not focused on one area, they showed the galley where the sailors eat, and they showed the sleeping quarters and the main deck. The also went off land which added a special touch to the film for there was actual When the oppression began it was strange, for it went from the sailors who didnt eat, getting there soup stolen to having towns people getting killed babies falling down stairs and solders shooting everything in It was interesting to see the towns people walk by the coffin of the dead sailor and pay their respects to a person they do The casting was well done as said in the notes, some of the actors were picked to look the part but a lot were just regular sailors and that added a special touch to it, you saw strong body instead of little It was nice to see tricks being done, meaning stunts. I enjoyed seeing the sailors jump off the ship to go rescue the other I must say that he movie was a little strange but in general I would recommend it for it technique, different settings and ...

The Arts and Royalty; Philosophers Debate Politics Case Study

The Arts and Royalty; Philosophers Debate Politics - Case Study Example This is a very clever way of personifying France, considering that a viewer who knows about French royalty would know that the lady is being welcomed to France, even without prior knowledge of the history of Marie de’ Medici. Ruben is also ingenious in the way he distorts the images of the goddesses to create movement and add theatrics to the painting. One of Nicolas Poussin’s most recognized paintings is â€Å"The Shepherds of Arcadia.† According to Sayre, the painting depicts three shepherds and a woman reading the inscriptions on a tomb (737).Poussin uses a unique sense of style to lure the viewer into what is happening in the painting. For example, one of the shepherds appears to be painting his own shadow while he is, in fact, touching the inscription on the tomb. The figures in the painting also appear to be in a melancholic mood and seem to be meditating on the meaning of life, as written on the inscription which according to Sayre means â€Å"I too once dwelled in Arcadia† (737). Poussin creates a sense of balance in the painting by depicting the figures in such a way that symmetry is attained in the painting. Personally, I find Ruben’s painting to be better than Poussin’s in that Ruben puts in a lot of work in order to make the viewer understand the context of the painting. For example, the magnificent house in the background, the expensive regalia worn by the women, and the vast ship all educate the viewer on the extravagance of the early French society. In contrast, it is not so easy for a viewer to understand the context of Poussin’s painting just by looking at

Cultural pluralism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cultural pluralism - Essay Example Wade thinks al-Qaeda forms due to rich as well as poor differences. For example, the leader Osama may be rich but fellow al-Qaeda may not be. The culture of America is much modernized, but for most uncivilized people especially from Africa, some of the things seem to mean as they view from televisions’ programs. They conclude that that’s how the American people. Another example is where the people in the Middle East believe America’s values are questionable. Carmel Abdul Nasser had a dream of a Pan-Arabic country that was westernized. Corruption, however, led to its failure (Wade, p248).A lot of people are removed from a certain type of past and usually put in the future which is unclear. In development circumstances for example, when the expectancy of life is raised then mortality of infants reduces. It is not clear, however, what happens to these children as they turn into young adults or thereafter leading to low leaving standards. In Kenya, most youths after getting some literacy end up unemployed and thus dwell in slums in Nairobi and some hate their ancestral lifestyles. Throughout the world, people forget the old and traditions but the fact is that they have to struggle to survive. According to anthropology, people and cultures that are under stress bring forth ideologies which are strange or weird and unexpected.A sociologist from Harvard Daniel Bell wrote that the state of the nation is too small compared to the world’s big problems yet too big for the world’s small problems.... They conclude that that’s how the American people. Another example is where the people in the Middle East believe America’s values are questionable. Carmel Abdul Nasser had a dream of a Pan-Arabic country that was westernized. Corruption however, led to its failure (Wade, p248). A lot of people are removed from a certain type of past and usually put in a future which is unclear. In development circumstances for example, when the expectancy of life is raised then mortality of infants reduces. It is not clear however, what happens to these children as they turn into young adults or thereafter leading to low leaving standards. In Kenya, most youths after getting some literacy end up unemployed and thus dwell in slums in Nairobi and some hate their ancestral lifestyles. Throughout the world, people forget the old and traditions but the fact is that they have to struggle to survive. According to anthropology, people and cultures that are under stress bring forth ideologies w hich are strange or weird and unexpected. For example, the case of Boxers of China who beheaded and murdered missionaries and displayed these heads as well (Wade, p249). Wade on page 250 also says al-Qaeda does not have full Muslim faith and so is partly Muslim, partly not. A sociologist from Harvard Daniel Bell wrote that the state of the nation is too small compared to the world’s big problems yet too big for the world’s small problems. Modernization has led to changing in the cultures; even languages are not taught to the children. He also thinks that the past may end up defining the future and its culture. He gives the example of Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination that took place in 1914. This incidence may turn out to define the fate of two