The kingdom of charlemagne

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There was relatively little commerce in Western Europe. Roads, bridges, and the infrastructure were generally non-existent. Furthermore, the countryside was unsafe for travel due to a lack of organized law enforcement. Small villages had to take care of themselves; therefore, goods were manufactured to supply local needs only. Among the Franks, all sons were entitled to a share. Therefore, when a King died, each son became a King over his own little kingdom. This created many small political units with no uniform laws or policies. This lack of unity made them vulnerable to enemies as well as conflict from within. During this time, loyalty of a warrior or subject to his chosen leader and to the homeland or institution was not a light matter. Charlemagne provided unity and stability during his time.

Political authority played a significant role in the rise of the Frankish Empire. Charlemagne's role as the political leader of the empire is one of the key factors contributing to its rise. The basis for Charlemagne's power was his dual authority - King of the Frankish Empire and Emperor of Rome. Before Charlemagne and his father, Pepin's, reigns, the basis of political authority did not lie with the king. Einhard writes, It had really lost all power years before and it no longer possessed anything at all of importance beyond the empty title of king. The wealth and the power of the kingdom were held tight in the hands of certain leading officials of the court, who were called the mayors of the palace . The king possesses nothing at all of his own, except a single estate with extremely small revenue". It was Pepin, who set the precedent for the shift in political authority. He started out as a Mayor of the Palace, which was a title granted by the people to someone based on their wealth and family distinction. Pepin later inherited from his father Charles [Martel 715-41] the title of King which he later passed on to his children, Charlemagne and Carloman.

The Frankish people had a lot to do with decisions relating to political authority. In 768, King Pepin died and a general assembly was called to determine who should be King Charlemagne or Carloman. The people decided that Pepin's kingdom should be divided between his two sons. This joint rulership illustrated the importance of the role of councils and general assemblies in deciding political authority . Their support would determine whose will would prevail between the two equal ruling brothers.

Though there were many outside factors influencing political authority, transfer of power was still based on hereditary. Family and relationships still largely determined the position a person could obtain. It was very rare that a person who was not of noble class could achieve greatness, although Charlemagne did support meritocracy in his court. In the case of Charlemagne, family was of great importance, since it was his father, Pepin who, as King, was able to pave the way for Charlemagne to come to power. Charlemagne and his brother, Carloman became kings because of Divine right.Order College Papers on the kingdom of charlemagne

There was tension between the brothers until Carloman died at the end of 771 . When Carloman died, Charlemagne could not take control of Carloman's empire without first calling another general assembly and obtaining the consent of all Franks. At the assembly, a number of prominent people in his kingdom offered allegiance to Charlemagne. As a result, Charlemagne gained control of his late brother's empire, united it with his own empire and became sole ruler of the Frankish empire. With a monarchy, the empire was stronger, more united.

Although family position did have its benefits, many family relationships also created friction as well. For example, Carloman and Charlemagne jointly ruled the Frankish Empire and this created tension between them. And later, when it came to his own heirs,

some of Charlemagne's children were indeed threats to the empire. Einhard writes, "Pepin who was born to Charlemagne by a concubine conspired with certain of the Frankish leaders who had won him over to their cause by pretending to offer him the kingship. The plot was discovered and the conspirators were duly punished. Pepin was tortured ."

To prevent this from happening again, Charlemagne kept his children very close to him. He devoted as much time to the upbringing of his daughters as he did to his sons. Marriage was another way by which family relations were formed. Often times, marriages were arranged to benefit families politically. In the case of Charlemagne's first wife, at the bidding of his mother, he married the daughter of one of his rivals -Desiderius, the King of the Longobards . Marriage was a way to forge many political as well as diplomatic connections. Women were valuable political pawns, which is perhaps why none of Charlemagne's daughters got married. He felt that, if they married, their husbands would pose a threat to the throne.

Sometimes, disagreements between the King and his councils would cause rifts. And, on occasion, the King was able to manage without the support of the council. In spite of these disagreements, the councils played an important role in political authority. The people were always consulted about matters of importance.

The warrior spirit was considered to be one of the most esteemed attributes of a Frank.

Fighting was endemic those who monopolized the wars also controlled society. Franks were plagued with war after war.

When Charlemagne was of the right age, it is recorded that he worked eagerly at riding and hunting. It was the custom of the Franks to ride and be practiced in the use of arms and ways of hunting. We may reasonably infer that acquiring these skills formed a major part of his early education.

Charlemagne was not a "man of letters" and literacy was considered unimportant at that time for anyone other than the clergy. Charlemagne didn't become interested in "letters" until later in life . Charlemagne gained a number of experiences in public duties and responsibilities, which were assigned to him by his father, thus, giving him an apprenticeship to rule the kingdom. Although Charlemagne was not literate, he seems to have placed value in education. We can credit him with the revival of learning.

Charlemagne saw that education was in serious decline. So he assembled at his court some of the finest minds of his day. He also sponsored monasteries where ancient books were preserved and copied. He reformed the palace school and ensured that monastic schools were set up throughout the realm. The idea of learning was given a time and a place to flourish .

The "Carolingian Renaissance" was an isolated phenomenon. Learning did not catch fire throughout Europe. Only in the royal court and monasteries was there any real focus on education. Yet, because of Charlemagne's interest in preserving and reviving knowledge, a wealth of ancient manuscripts was copied for future generations . Just as important, a tradition of learning was established in European monastic communities. These monasteries helped to overcome the threat of the extinction of Latin culture.

Charlemagne created a political hierarchy in which the Counts would report to the Dukes, and the Dukes to Charlemagne himself. Charlemagne gained the loyalty and respect of his Barons by leading them on numerous successful military campaigns. He also insisted that his nobles be educated, and formed at his palace, a school under the direction of the scholar, Alcuin . With Alcuin as the "Minister of Education", the palace school began what is known as the "Carolingian Renaissance". This characterization is supported by the desire of the Emperor to rebuild the Roman Empire and rule in the same manner as the Roman Emperors. It is this renaissance that impacts the Western world today, more than any of Charlemagne's military conquests.

In Charlemagne's palace school at Aachen, one finds the ideals and aims of the Carolingian renaissance most definitively.

The Merovingians established a school to train young nobles to fight, and how to conduct themselves at court. At the time, however, no academic knowledge was being imparted . The only schools that taught academics were located at monasteries and cathedrals.

Charlemagne altered the palace school into a center of learning and knowledge . He hired scholars to teach under the direction of Alcuin, Minister of Education. Charlemagne required Alcuin himself to instruct the royal family in reading and writing.

In addition to the palace school, Charlemagne made many decrees concerning the education of his people

(1). His "Charter of Modern Thought" required that the monasteries be concerned with "the study of letters" .

() Charlemagne ordered that teachers "who are both willing and able to learn" be hired and "let them apply themselves to this work with a zeal equal to the earnestness with which we recommend it to them" .

The Carolingian handwriting that evolved during Charlemagne's reign was developed to increase the legibility of the numerous manuscripts the monks turned out at this time. These small letters, known as "Carolingian Miniscule" became the basis of the lower case letters we use today. Ninety percent of the works of ancient Rome now in existence, are preserved in the form of manuscripts copied in a Carolingian Monastery.

While Charlemagne attempted to rekindle an interest in learning and unite various groups into one nation, he never addressed the economic difficulties that Europe faced, now that Rome no longer furnished order. Although Charlemagne did devise the system of pounds, shillings and pence used throughout Europe during the middle ages and in Britain until recently, other segments of the infrastructure continued to decline. Roads and bridges fell into decay, trade was fractured, and manufacturing was by necessity a localized craft, instead of a widespread and profitable industry .

The political and cultural life of Europe collapsed with the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. Three hundred years later, Charlemagne, who became sole king of the Franks in 771, led a cultural revival that lifted Western Europe from darkness. Charlemagnes reign also was marked by brutal military campaigns designed to expand his empire. For more than 0 years, Charlemagne waged a bitter war against the Saxons, finally forcing their conversion to Christianity . This campaign included the mass execution of 4,500 Saxons on a single day. Although Charlemagne ultimately controlled practically all of the Christian lands of Western Europe, his empire quickly crumbled following his death in 814. The cultural revival sparked by Charlemagne nonetheless had a permanent influence on Europe and overshadowed his ruthless military measures.

The papacy was an essential element of political authority in Frankish society. Pepin forged a relationship with the papacy by coming to the aid of the Pope of Rome. In return, Pepin is made King. Charlemagne's relationship with the papacy is an extension of his father's relationship. He continues Pepin's efforts to protect the papacy. In return, Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor . As emperor of Rome, Charlemagne's realm of political authority doubles. Charlemagne's political authority not only lies in the secular world, but in the ecclesiastical world. He takes on the role of the protector of the church. His new position allows him to do many things, including reforms in the church and reforms in the legal system of Frankish society. Einhard writes He made careful reforms in the way in which the psalms were chanted and the lessons read." Now that he was Emperor, he discovered that there were many defects in the legal system of his own people. The Franks had two separate codes of law which differ from each other on many points. He committed himself to writing and unifying the laws of all the nations under his jurisdiction which had at that point still remained unrecorded .

Charlemagne was profusely generous to the Church. At the same time, he made himself the church's master, and used its doctrines and personnel as instruments of education and government. Much of his correspondence was about religion. He hurled scriptural quotations at corrupt officials or worldly clerics and the intensity of his utterances precluded suspicion that his piety was a political pose. He sent money to distressed Christians in foreign lands, and in his negotiations with Muslim rulers, he insisted on fair treatment of their Christian population .

Bishops played a leading part in his councils, assemblies, and administration. But, he looked upon them, however reverently, as his agents under God and he did not hesitate to command them, even in matters of doctrine or morals. He denounced image worship while the popes were defending it. From every priest, he required a written description of how baptism was administered in their parish. Popes received as many directives from him as they did gifts. He suppressed insubordination in monasteries and ordered a strict watch on convents to prevent "whoring, drunkenness, and covetousness" among the nuns.

In his quest to become Emperor of Rome, Charlemagne faced many difficulties. The Greek monarch already had the title of Roman emperor and full historic right to that title. The Church had no recognized authority to convey or transfer the title, let alone give it to a rival of the Greek Monarchy. Byzantium might precipitate a gigantic war of Christian East against Christian West, leaving a ruined Europe to a conquering Islam .

On December 6, 75, Leo III was chosen Pope. The Roman populace did not like him. They accused him of various misdeeds such as simony, perjury, and adultery. And on April 5, 7, they attacked the Pope, maltreated him, and imprisoned him in a monastery. He escaped, and fled to Charlemagne at Paderborn for protection.

The King received him kindly and sent him back to Rome under armed escort. In the following year, he ordered the Pope and his accusers to appear before him. On December 1, 800, an assembly of Franks and Romans agreed to drop the charges against Pope Leo III if he denied the charges under oath. Pope Leo III denied the charges and the way was cleared for a magnificent celebration of the Nativity .

On Christmas Day, as Charlemagne, in the chlamys and sandals of a patricius Romanus, knelt before St. Peter's altar in prayer, Pope Leo III produced a jeweled crown, and set it upon the King's head. This gave Charlemagne the "Devine Right to Rule" according to the Roman Church.

Having conquered an empire and established the "Devine Right to Rule", Charlemagne then began to establish some uniformity within the empire. The ancient concept of public order had not been entirely destroyed by the invasion of barbarians. But, as law and order weakened, its place was partly taken by the Churchmen's Nations of peace and right order. Charlemagne established a system of courts to provide justice to all free disputants.

In conclusion Charlemagne was a Frankish Warrior King with the background and traditions of Germanic peoples. It seems that Charlemagne united an empire by conquest and ruled by the authority of the Pope. Charlemagne also treated his empire as his personal property and divided his realm among his sons. Either he failed to realize that only with unity could the empire become a true power, or he placed his own wishes, and those of his sons, above the decisions that would best serve the empire in the future.

Duckett, Eleanor S. Alcuin, Friend of Charlemagne. Connecticut Archon, 165.

Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, trans. Lewis Thorpe, (Harmondsworth and Baltimore, 16).

Lauret, Rene. France and Germany The Legacy of Charlemagne. Chicago Henry Regnery Company, 164.

TURNER, WILLIAM. "Carolingian Schools." "The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume III." (http//www.newadvent.org/cathen/04c.htm). 1

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The Fall of Enron

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Not so long ago, Enron's name was amid a lexicon of corporate and political power. However in a matter of months Enron transformed from one of the greatest corporate success stories in US history to the centre of perhaps the largest corporate scandal the business community has ever seen, engulfing company executives, one of the worlds largest accounting firms, politicians and Wall street traders. This paper analysis's the amazing journey of Enron form an organisation held in the highest of esteem by the community and envied by competitors, to its shocking demise leaving its name a disgrace and sparking a long line of investigations and criminal and civil charges laid upon its officers and accountants from burned investors and former trading partners.

In the early eighties when takeovers were the business strategy of choice, Kenneth Lay successfully fended off a hostile takeover of his pipeline company, Houston Natural Gas. It was then that Lay realised that the key to the company's survival was, 'to make itself to big to devour' (Henriques 00). So in 185 Lay orchestrated the merger of his company with the largest pipeline company in the world, Internorth of Nebraska. The merged company changed its name and Lay was put in charge. Enron was born.

Initially the company was faced with enormous challenges. Beyond being saddled with debt from the merger, Enron was submerged into a rough, deregulated marketplace. Lay was not satisfied with Enron simply being a mover and seller of gas. Lay saw wide spread opportunities in the industry and moved the company into the commodities trading world of electricity, gas, wood pulp, steel, advertising time on television, insurance against credit default and later moved into the world of e-commerce adding high speed data and internet capacity to it lengthening list of company resources.

Business boomed and Enron was thriving. By 15, Enron had become the biggest participant in the natural gas industry, controlling one fifth of North Americas market (Eichenwald 00). Enron was ranked number seven by Fortune magazine in April 001 in Fortunes ranking by market capitalization of the five hundred largest corporations in the United States (Gomez 00). At its peak Enron had annual revenues of more than $100 billion, employed more than 0,000 people and was widely recognised as the biggest e-commerce company in the world carrying a bubble era inflated stock price to match.

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Kenneth Lay, Enron's CEO created strong relationships with many of the nations politicians, including president George W Bush as well as making large contributions to many political campaigns. By the time Mr Bush was inaugurated in 001, Enron and its executives were the largest contributors over Mr Bushes career with an amount exceeding $750 000 (Eichenwald 00), It was through these relationships in which Enron became a pioneer in deregulating Energy markets in the US. According to Mr Hebert, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, conversations with Mr Lay carried a clear message, 'Enron, a generous contributor to the Bush campaign, would use its White House access to advance its interests' (Henriques 00).

All told, Enron represented a collective investment of $10 million, however in reality it was producing minimal returns (Schultz 00). From the outside looking in few of Enron's problems were evident.

18 saw Enron earn its highest ever annual profit. Earnings continued to rise and Enron's stocks climbed to $0 a share, showing a promising future for the company. However, what none knew was that this success was not only unsustainable, but also was to be short lived. In mid 1, Enron executives began the manoeuvres that set the thriving company on its doomed path.

Enron was in desperate need of additional capital to continue its growth, despite the substantial debt it already held. Funding new investments by issuing additional debt or raising capital was unappealing as it diluted earnings per share and was unattractive on financial statements. Andrew Fastow, Enron's chief financial officer was able to solve the company's problem, or so they thought. Fastow set up several partnerships which allowed Enron to move debt off its balance sheets and provide an influx of cash flows from outside investors such as banks. The partnerships set up were defined as Special Purpose Entities (SPE). The use of SPE's are common among US corporations. They provide that as long as at least % of capital comes from outsiders, an SPE can be left off the consolidated financial statements of the parent company (Reinstein & Weirich). This enabled Enron to raise cash flows through debt under SPE's without it being recorded as a debt on financial statements or disclosed to shareholders. On the surface, this arrangement represented a common financing technique decreasing the company's risk by moving it debts to separate partnerships that were not included on the parent companies financial statements (Schultz 00). However, later it was revealed that these partnerships were used by Enron as a tool for making the company appear far more profitable than it really was. At least a dozen of these partnerships were set up.

Enron's stock prices were the key link which enabled Enron to keep hundreds of millions of dollars of potential losses off its books. The contracts between Enron and the partnerships had provisions, called triggers, that required Enron stock prices to remain above a specific level. When Enron's stock was trading as high as $0, the stock prices attached to these triggers were - $57.78 in one case, $47 a share in another and $8 in third. At a time when the stock prices were so high, the triggers seemed absurdly low and none though the stock would ever reach such lows (Cameron 00).

As the Nasdaq boom in technology stocks fizzled, Enron stock began to fall. Stocks hovered around $70 a share, however this was still far from the trigger prices and so alarms weren't being raised just yet. Under accounting standards, Enron was able to keep roughly $504 million of red ink off its books as long as the SPE's remained financially healthy enough to fulfil their obligations. However the SPE's were deteriorating. In March 001, accountants found ways to refinance then using a series of complex and fragile transactions, however they were merely putting off the inevitable. This allowed Enron, in April, to present first quarter results for 001, boasting $45 million in earnings, while huge losses were shuffled away in "off balance sheet" partnerships. Enron may have seemingly won the battle but it was about to loose the war.

Enrons stocks continued to fall. By mid June 001, Enron stocks were floating alarmingly close to the trigger prices that had once seemed so ludicrously remote. "On Monday, July 001, Enron's stocks closed at $46.66. It would never rise above $47 again" (Henriques 000).

August 14th saw the world inside Enron take another twist. Jeff Skilling, who had been made CEO just six months prior, after Lay stepped down, announced that he was resigning. Citing undisclosed personal reasons as the grounds for his decision, he left assuring investors that the finances of Enron had never been better.

By late September, Enron was essentially doomed, although it would be weeks before that reality sank in. The problems at Enron went by unnoticed by the public as the nation focused on the horror and aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Another blow for Enron came when auditors from Anderson discovered a mistake they had made more than a year earlier. They way they accounted for Enron's shares that had been used to finance the partnerships had incorrectly added $1 billion to the assets on Enron's balance sheet. Correcting this mistake would reduce Enron's assets by $1 billion. On the 16th of October Enron announced it was deducting $1 billion from its third quarter earnings, producing its first loss in more than 4 years. A loss amounting to $5 million. As a result October saw Enron stocks fall to around $0 a share and continued to decline heavily.

In late October another bomb was dropped. It appeared that Chewco, one of Enron's SPE's which had been treated as an independent entity which housed millions of dollars of debt, did not meet the accounting requirements of such. This meant that all Enron's prior transactions with Chewco had essentially been transactions with itself, constituting a criminal act.

Lay, who had stepped back as CEO after the resignation of Skilling, realised Enron was in over its head and began looking for options to save the troubled company. After exhausting almost all options there appeared a light at the end of the tunnel for Enron. After talks with one of Enron's long time rivals, Dynergy Inc, it appeared that a merger between the two companies was the answer.

On the surface, the Dynergy deal seemed to be Enron's salvation. Boards of the two companies tentatively agreed to the merger on November 7th 001. Enron shortly after was forced to announce that its financial performance since 1 had been an illusion, largely created by Fastows partnerships and the manipulation of SPE's. Correcting the improper accounting for its dealings with these partnerships meant that $600 million in previously reported profits were wiped out (Reinstein & Weririch 00).

The downward spiral for Enron was beginning to reach the end of the road. The company was hemorraging cash. A week after signing the merger agreement Enron burnt through $ billion and was not able to account for a large portion of where the money had gone. Payment on many debts were accelerated due to the troubles Enron was experiencing. Enron owed $60 million, payable within days. On November 0th Enron's shares closed at $6. a share. As a result of the recent events Dynergy terminated the merger. It appeared Enron's had reached the end of its downhill slide.

At 4.8 am December nd Enron officially filed the petition for bankruptcy. The game had ended. Enron's audacious climb to Success ended in a dizzying plunge.

001 had seen Enron take on a new mission to become "the worlds greatest company" (Eichenwald 00). Today Enron is renoun as the world's greatest story as the biggest, fastest corporate collapse in American history.

The demise of Enron can be largely attributed to its relationship and dealings with the partnerships it created. A weakened economy in the wake of the Nasdaq tech stock burst and September 11th also assisted in the company's deterioration. However other issues inside the company also played a key role. Corporate culture inside Enron has been speculated as a major contributor to Enron's brutal collapse. It was a culture of greed and arrogance which breed excessive secrecy. An insider described Enron's culture as " an adrenaline driven culture, with an obsession of 15% a year or better growth" (Fox 00). Enron also had a rank or yank policy anyone not ranking well was subject to be yanked. "Employees who were yanked sometimes had just 0 minutes to get their things together and leave" (Packer 00).

The controversy surrounding Enron has seen the formation of many jokes which circulate the industry. "What is business school morality? It is the ethic that says the purpose of every living creature on Earth is to increase shareholders value. It says that conduct is acceptable if it passes an audit and pleases Wall Street analysts." (Packer 00). "What is tooth-fairy economics? It is a body of knowledge that ignores the implications of expecting endless growth. If a company isn't growing at a rate of 0% compounded annually, management is deemed to be incompetent" (Packer 00). While it is of a satirical nature, Packer does successfully reflect on the culture which existed inside Enron.

At the centre of the Enron storm is the accounting firm Arthur Anderson. Anderson was both, Enron's external auditor as well as their internal accountant and advisor. Enron was Anderson's second biggest client. Last year alone it collected $5 million in audit fees, and even more for it's accounting and advisory work (Grey 00). This remains one of the most highly debated issues in the US today, should a public firm serve both as an auditor and a consultant? Anderson failed to raise the alarms regarding a number of accounting scandals which inevitably bought the company to its knees. Whilst Anderson denies any wrong doing, including the shredding of documents relating to Enron, is has admitted to "an error in judgement" in its treatment of Enron's 'off balance sheet' vehicles which led to an overstatement of profits by more than $600 million between 17 and 000 (Reinstein & Weirich 00).

In the tragic demise of America's seventh largest corporation there is no one person can be held accountable. Auditors who had multiple and conflicting roles did not raise alarms about improper financial statements. Directors failed in their duty to closely question management and accountants, and thus failed to ferret out the accounting irregularities. Lawyers and company officers set up partnerships that concealed the true financial plight of the company. Rating agencies yielded to the entreaties of management and only slightly downgraded credit ratings at a time when the company was failing. While Wall Street analysts from companies such as Goldman Sachs continually recommended Enron stock, even as it plummeted. As those on the outside wonder in disarray how a company boasting such power and success could collapse in just 11 months, many on the inside are still amazed that the troubled empire remained as long as it did. In essence the collapse was the result of a highly flawed vision; the consequences essentially inevitable.

Bibliography

1. Davis, J (00), "The Enron Factor", ABA Journal, Chicago, April.

. Eichenwald, K (00), "Web of Detaild Did Enron In as Warnings Went Unheeded", New York Times, Feb 10th.

. Eichenwald, K (00), "Audatious Climb to Success Ended in a Dizzying Plunge", New York Times, Jan 1th.

4. Fox, L (00) "Enron The Rise and Fall", Harper Collins Publishers, NY.

5. Goldstein, J (001), "What Was Enron", Wall Street Journal, New York, Dec 1th.

6. Gomez, L (00), "Enron a case for better understanding cash flows", Business Credit, New York, Jul/Aug

7. Henriques, D (00), "Seeking a quick fix; Struggling to avoid posting huge losses, Newsweek, Jan 4th.

8. Holman, W & Jenkins, J (00), "Enron for Beginners", Wall Street Journal, New York, Jan rd.

. Kaufman, H (00), "The Fall Out From Enron; Lessons and Consequences", Vital Speeches of the Day, New York, May 15th.

10. Packer, A (00), "Enron the movie", Machine Design, Cleveland, May th.

11. Reinstein, A & Weirich, T (00) "Accounting Issues at Enron", CPA Journal, New York, Dec.

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Factors that impede the tight integration between business strategy and Human Resource strategies in the hospitality industry.

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Factors that impede the tight integration between business strategy and Human Resource strategies in the hospitality industry.

The integration of corporate and human resource strategy is one of the much-debated topics within the concept of strategic human resource management.

Truss and Gratton (14) describe strategic human resource management as the linking of HRM (Human Resource Management) with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational cultures that foster innovation and flexibility. Thus, Strategic HR means integrating the HR function of an organisation with the companys strategy through HR activities such as recruitment, selection, training and rewards and any other HR activities specific to the hospitality organisation.

The necessity of this integration is demonstrated by Miles and Snow (14) who suggest that, without human resource strategies and policies linked into strategic business objectives, high levels of organisational performance are not likely.

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There are, however a number of problems that arise in the process of this integration both within the concepts demonstrated by Hoque (1) as internal fit and external fit.External fit being the HR strategy meshed with the business strategy such that there should be a consistency between the values and aims within each. Internal fit therefore refering to

the introduction of HRM as an institutionally supported package of practices that cohere with and mutually reinforce each other i.e. employee policies, commitment, flexibility and quality of work.

It is to be argued that one of the main barriers to the successful integration of business and human resource strategy is the lack of commitment and understanding of management (both corporate and line management) to the cause of HRM integration.

Dyer and Holder (188) adopt the stance that top management is probably the most powerful force that can work against the adoption of HRM iniatives.

Whilst Kane (1) takes the view that, top management take a short-termist perspective on HRM because they believe that evidence of HRM having a long-term and positive impact on individual or organisation level performance is sketchy.

Kane goes on to report on the possible reason for senior and middle managers negative perspective on the value of HRM could also be attributed to their inability to establish tangible elements and positive outcomes directly linked to HRM therefore their commitment deviates or becomes non-existent.

Hoque, Ks (1) research into UK hotels indicates poor practice and a lack of interest in HRM among managers in the hotel industry.

Whilst, Tyson (17) portrays the attitude of line managers towards human resource activities as one of the key organisational features for successful HRM.

Due to management at a "floor" level being at the source of HRM in terms of its implementation at an operational level, line managers can been viewed as a major barrier to impede the integration of corporate and HR strategies.

It is therefore suggested that if the integration is to be achieved to its utmost potential, management on all levels must realise the effectiveness of HRM policies and procedures and how to sucessfully immplement them into the organisation.

Taking all this information into account, the research undertaken by Hoque (1) into Human Resource Management and Performance in the UK Hotel Industry, takes a different stance suggesting that for corporate management to impede the integration of strategies, it is done so indirectly through taking a focus [within the business strategy] on cost reduction or on price factors [which] leads to sup-optimal performance within the industry.

Thus illustrating that corporate management should ideally emphasise an opposite quality- enhancer method with regard to service and the product in question.

Schuler and Jackson (187) reinforce this issue by arguing organisations that have a quality enhancement or innovation approach within its business strategy will make effective use of HRM. Thus leading to suggest that if the organisation has to priortise cost reduction within its strategy, the logical approach to deal with the issue would be to emphasise numerical flexibility and cost control.

However, this deviation does not fully resolve the situation as, if cost reduction is priortised within the business strategy, it could potentially upset policies and procedures that have been instilled by the HR Department.

These policies and procedures will be discussed later in the essay.

Hoque (1) also puts forward the view that HRM practices implemented in a seemingly piecemeal and uncoordinated fashion have fewer benefits, which is true of practices in any hospitality department.

In order for said practices to be otherwise strategically implemented in a fashion relevant to the firm, a functioning, effective, well supported Human Resource Department must be in place. This point being relevant to any organisation which wishes to advance its performance through the aims and objectives outlined in its business strategy.

The level at which HR staff are proactive/reactive to their role within their department can also be foreseen as a major contributing factor to the integration of the aformentioned strategies.

The view that staff within HR departments, are lacking knowledge in their field, are poorly trained and most importantly have an overall ineffective presence in terms of tangible results, is one held widely throughout not only the hospitality industry, but across many other industries. As Kane, Crawford and Grants (1) research shows, there is a general agreement that they [HR managers] lack the knowledge, skills, influence, credibility and perspective on their roles to implement a strategic approach to HRM.(MORE THAN ONE QUOTE!!!)

It is therefore vital that the Human Resource department takes a proactive approach to their roles within strategic plans and subsequent activities undertaken, as Tyson, S (DATE) suggests, strategic HRM will not occur unless the human resource professional takes steps to make it happen.

In terms of HRM the HR department is the first point of contact in a hospitality establishment for employees and line managers. If the knowledge of the staff in the HR department is sub-standard, the information, policies and procedures that are passed onto managers/employees could be of comparable relevance. This potentially may lead to the integration between the two strategies being even further impeded.

Therefore the HR department must not only possess the basic skills of Human Resource management, but also realise the individual features of the business strategy the company is adopting, how the strategies support each other and their role to support the fit between the two. Through this, the department can then adopt its policies and procedures to suit, but can also recruit, select, train and reward employees according to a set strategy.

HR staff therefore need to be able to realise the importance of their actions and how it impacts on the integration of the business and HR strategy.

If their signifiance to the strategy is realised and the support given from management is forth-coming and effective, the "fit" between strategies potentially can be achieved to a greater degree.

The previous factors of management commitment to the integration between business and HR strategies and the relevance of HR staff have both been shown to be of significant importance when integrating strategies.

However, the current state and perception of HR as a concept and its relevance to the hospitality industry, is a factor that if not shown to demonstrate its relevance, may have further detramential effects on the aforementioned elements.

Price (14) enforces this statement by arguing that practices in the hotel industry were so far removed from both the personnel and industrial relations and the human resource management ideal types, that neither model should be used to inform research on the [hotel] industry.

Whilst this representing one end of the spectrum, the relevance of Human Resources to the hospitality industry is a widely debated and much critisised one.

This factor is of significant importance when linking back to the previous areas of management and the HR department. Management have already been shown by Kane and Crawford (1) to need tangible and positive outcomes to comprehend and support the incorporation of a HR strategy whilst also realising the potential it has to work positively and help make strategic, informed decisions for the organisation.

Kane and Crawford (1) state that, there is considerable agreement about the lack of proven knowledge and the difficulty in quantifying the results of HRM, thus not supplying the essential tangible results.

The acknowledgement of opinions by managers/employees in hospitalitycould lead to possible cynicism from managers/employees in hospitality when required to adhere to policies and/or procedures set by the HR department.

Sisson (1) reports findings of only fragments of HRM being found in his study of UK hotels, this in uxtaposition with Lucass (15) view there is sparse evidence to be found of any UK hotels that have taken HR "seriously onboard", lead the reader to a fairly poor outlook on the current state of HRM in the hospitality industry.

It is therefore made all the more clear that in order for HR departments to effectively integrate with businesss strategy, they need to have clearly defined policies and procedures to lead tothe tangible results when dealing with an organisations personnel. Legge (15) suggests the soft approach involving encouraging motivation, development and commitment. This methods main emphasis is on developing a workforce that is innovative and of a valued resource to the company therefore emphasising self-development.

Hoteliers such as Malmaison and the Hilton (REFs www) group can be used as examples of companies that employ a variety of soft models when dealing with policies and procedures, due to their detailed training methods, appraisals and procedures that encourage employee feedback.

The hard method on the other hand is more closely tied with the business strategy and is suggested to be used by companies with a stress on cost control due to its strict reliance on policies and procedures. The outcome of this being that it leaves minimal room for employee innovation and development.

Schuler (18) has undertaken research into cost reduction and quality enhancement strategies, even though the context is aimed more towards the manufacturing and industrial sectors, the basic principles are demonstrated to have hospitality relevance.

His evidence takes the skeptical view that as predictable as the outcomes of the hard model are, the relevance and existence of a HR department comes under question as reliance on this model means power rests in the hands of the top executives and designers of the workflow processes.

The negative aspects of the "hard" model being the effect on staff morale and motivation as there is little room left for deviation from the policies and procedures potentially leading to increased employee turnover.

However, the positive aspects of employing this system being the low level of un-certaintity due to the predictability of competition and customer behaviour.

The obvious examples of hospitality firms that employ this system being major standardised fast food chains and quick service restaurants.

The logical approach when considering the application of hard and soft HR models would be to integrate models that compliment each other. As previously discussed the concept of fit is all important when discussing the integration between the two strategies in question, however this concept of close fit may contradict the elements of the soft model. Due to the hospitality industry being renowned for cutting costs/corners through minimum wages, low quality service and products, this may be the reason why HR strategies have failed to have a positive impact.

Therefore; it is essential that HRM practices are consistent with what the organisation is trying to achieve otherwise, as Schuler (18) reports, role conflict and ambiguity may result in poor individual employee performance and affect the organisational performance of the organisation.A point argued by Tyson, S is that without human resource strategies and policies linked into strategic business objectives high levels of organisational performance are not likely. If this resource is successfully employed, the concept of HRM depends on how it is applied in a work situation and the tangible outcomes of integrating HR into a business strategy.

The evidence illustrated therefore demonstrates that the concept of fit between strategies lacks specific concepts and empirically elusive

The research conducted and points highlighted have shown that the aligning of business and HR strategies complex whilst there being a multitude of research conducted on the subject, the amount of research specific to hospitality is minimal.

Therefore the validity of HRM within the context of this essay depends on the extent to which human resources are used for the achievement of competitive benefit and added value to the firm and therefore should be treated one of the organisations decisive strategic resources.

Bibliography

In search of HRM Sission K British Journal of Industrial Relations 1

Strategic Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations R.S.Schuler

Human Relations Volume 41 Number 18 pp157-184

Human Resource Management and Performance in the UK Hotel Industry Hoque,K

British Journal of Industrial Relations September 1 pp41-44

The Practice of Human Resource Strategy, Tyson S, Pitman Publishing

Barriers to effective HRM Kane, B and Crawford, J International Journal of Manpower Volume 0 No8 1 pp44-515

Linking Competitive Strategy with Human Resource Management Practices Schuler R.S and Jackson, S.E The Academy of Management Executive 187 Volume 1 No pp07-1

HRM in Hotels a Focus on Commitment, Guinngle P.J and Jameson S, Employee Relations Volume No 4 00 pp40-4

Human Resource Management a strategic approach to employment Hendry C Butterworth Heinemann 000

Introducing Human Resource Management nd Edition Foot, M and Hook, C, Longman, 1

Lucas, R. (16) Industrial Relations in hotels and cateringneglect or paradox?, British Journal of Industrial Relations Vol. 4 No pp. 67-86

Price, L. (14) Poor personnel practice in the hotel and catering industry does it matter? Human Resource Management Journal Vol 4 No 4 pp.44-6

Sission, K.(10) Introduction Human Resource Management Journal Vol.1 No.1

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Marketing permission

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Godin (1) has proposed a new idea- permission marketing. Here, consumers provide marketers with the permission to send them certain types of promotional messages. This is seen as reducing clutter and search costs for the consumer while improving targeting precision for marketers. This paper makes three contributions First, a critical analysis of the concept and its relationship to existing ideas in the marketing literature is discussed. Second, a taxonomy of four models used to implement permission marketing today, direct relationship maintenance, permission partnership, ad market and permission pool, is presented. Permission intensity is seen as a key differentiator among models. Finally, a comprehensive conceptual cost-benefit framework is presented that captures the consumer experience in permission marketing programs. Consumer interest is seen as the key dependent variable that influences the degree of participation. Consumer interest is positively affected by message relevance and monetary benefit and negatively affected by information entry/modification costs, message processing costs and privacy costs. Based on this framework, several empirically testable propositions are identified.

Introduction

Permission marketing (also called invitational marketing) envisions every customer shaping the targeting behavior of marketers (Godin, 1). Consumers empower a marketer to send them promotional messages in certain interest categories. Typically, this is done by asking the consumer to fill out a survey indicating interests when registering for a service. The marketer then matches advertising messages with the interests of consumers.

This is a new idea. Even though targeting appropriate customers has been recognized early on as a core marketing principle (Smith, 156), most targeting today can best be described as "targeting on averages." The advertiser obtains the average profile of the consumer (e.g., a marketer may identify the proportion of a show that meets a certain pre-specified demographic or behavioral category using Simmons data) and chooses, say, a TV show that matches the target consumer profile most accurately1. This leads to low targeting precision since not all consumers match the profile.

Theoretically, direct marketing holds the promise of improving targeting. One-on-one marketing proposes thinking about a segment of size one (Peppers & Rogers, 1, Pine, Victor & Boynton, 1). Given the new capabilities of addressing each individual (Blattberg & Deighton, 11) the goal is to customize the marketing mix in accordance with the needs of a consumer. Relationship marketing takes a long-term orientation in targeting as opposed to a short-term transactional orientation (Dwyer, Schurr & Oh, 187; McKenna, 11, Sheth & Parvatiyar, 15). The idea is to understand the lifetime value of the customer and allocate resources in accordance with these values (Day, 000). The emphasis is on retaining existing customers rather than on obtaining new ones (McGahan & Ghemawat, 14).

However, since one-on-one marketing and relationship marketing both propose marketer-initiated targeting, several problems arise. For example, consumers receive an excessive volume of proposals for relationships with firms, they do not perceive control over the terms of the relationship and do not perceive much value addition from such relationships. As a result, these techniques breed consumer cynicism (Fournier, Dobscha & Mick, 18). This is especially a problem with the Internet because the marginal cost of sending an additional promotional message is nearly zero for the firm (Shiman, 16).

Our goal in this paper is threefold. First, a critical analysis of the concept of permission marketing and its relationship to existing ideas in the marketing literature is provided. Second, a taxonomy of business models implementing permission marketing today is presented. Finally, a comprehensive conceptual cost-benefit framework that captures the consumer experience in permission marketing programs is presented. Based on this framework, several empirically testable propositions are identified that might serve to guide future theory-building and empirical research in this area.

Permission Marketing and the Internet

Clutter is a big problem on the World Wide Web ("Web" hereafter). The increased size of the Web- "an estimated lower bound on the size of the Web is 0 million pages" (Lawrence & Giles, 18, p. 8)- has led to increased search costs. More recent estimates put this number much higher. For example, the "bow tie" research study by IBM, Compaq and Alta Vista reports sampling over 600 million pages ( http//research.compaq.com/news/map/www%0paper.htm) and the search engine, Google, claims to index over a billion pages. Debris on the Internet (e.g., pages that are no longer updated) further exacerbates search costs.

Search engines (e.g., www.google.com) and Internet portals (e.g., http//www.yahoo.com/) were attempts at helping consumers navigate through this clutter. But when individuals search for information at these places, they are presented with hundreds of selections. Consumers will not go through all selections and are most likely to focus on the first few results. Hence, search-engine optimization has become an important research area (Bradlow & Schmittlein, 1). However, due to heterogeneity in the algorithms used by search engines, it is not always possible for one's site to be featured in the top few.

Therefore, it is clear that search engines alone will not help consumers find sites relevant to their needs. Increasingly, search engines tap into smaller and smaller fractions of the overall Web (Lawrence & Giles, 18) with no engine capturing more than 16% of the Web content (Lawrence & Giles, 1).

Individuals may cope with the increased search costs by focusing on firm reputation (Choi, Stahl & Whinston, 17, Chapter 6). For example, recently The Economist reported that 75% of all business to consumer e-commerce originates from five sites- Amazon.com, Buy.com, eBay, Yahoo and America Online (AOL). Hence, it is clear that these sites have established a reputation that is better than others . However, that does not necessarily ensure the delivery of relevant information since each of these sites contain a lot of information (For example, as of August 000, Yahoo! had links to at least 1.5 million pages on its site- http//searchenginewatch.com/reports/directories.html) - not all of which is relevant to any single consumer. Moreover, consumers may be interested in newer sites whose reputation may not be fully established.

Banner advertising and sponsorships were tools that were considered to have the potential to provide consumers with relevant information. However, despite the early promise detailed in pioneering research (Hoffman & Novak, 17), the click-through rates have not improved4. Average rates are in the 0.5% range. Banner advertising is also plagued with measurement problems. Getting a reliable estimate of the number of consumers who viewed a banner is a big challenge (Dreze & Zufryden, 18) and so is reliably identifying the top websites globally. Moreover, a recent eye-tracking study presents troublesome evidence that Internet users may "actually avoid looking at banner ads during their online activities" (Dreze & Hussherr, 1, p. ). If this is true, then placing banners around web content may be a poor way of delivering the message.

Permission marketing offers the promise of improving targeting by helping consumers interface with marketers most likely to provide relevant promotional messages. Many permission-marketing firms (e.g. yesmail.com- now part of the business incubator, CMGI) claim customer response rates in the region of 5-0% and since most use e-mail, they are not affected by the measurement problems of banner advertising. Since the ads arrive in the mailbox of the individual, it is likely that more attention would be paid to them in comparison to banners.

Even though permission marketing can be implemented in any direct medium, it has emerged as a serious idea only with the advent of the Internet. The two reasons for this are (1) on the Internet, the cost of marketer-to-consumer communication is low (Hoffman & Novak, 16; Shiman, 16); () the Internet has enabled rapid feedback mechanisms due to instantaneous two-way communication (Hoffman & Novak, 16).

Another motivation for permission marketing on the Web has been the failure of the direct mail approach of sending unsolicited promotional messages. The prime example of this is unsolicited commercial e-mail or "Spam" (Cranor & LaMacchia, 18). Senders of spam realize three things- the cost of obtaining a new e-mail address is minimal, the marginal cost of contacting an additional customer is nearly zero (Shiman, 16) and it is easy to deceive the consumer. Spammers can easily obtain new e-mail addresses from websites and Usenet groups using software programs that "troll" the Internet. Individuals provide their addresses at these places for other purposes and hence, this violates their privacy rights (Bloom, Milne & Adler, 14). In addition, marketers incur similar costs if they send out 1 million or 10 million e-mails. Moreover, there are now programs that enable the large-scale use of deceptive practices (e.g. forged e-mail headers). Due to these problems, Spam cannot be a legitimate form of marketing communication5. Using it would lead to an excessive message volume for consumers, weakening of brand reputation and a slowing of the entire network. Hence, permission marketing is seen as a feasible alternative for Internet marketing communication.

Permission marketing is now a large-scale activity on the Internet. A leading Internet business periodical recently noted that, "permission marketing was once a niche business. Now, everybody is doing it." (Business .0, April, 000, p. 176). In addition, permission marketing has been incorporated in leading texts on marketing management, e.g., Kotler's millennium edition.

Literature Review

Although the term "permission marketing" was coined by Godin (1)6, the general idea of customer permission in direct marketing had surfaced earlier in the marketing literature, mainly in the context of privacy issues in direct marketing. For example, Milne and Gordon (1) discuss the role of customer permission along with volume, targeting and compensation in the context of direct mail. However, their reference is to an individuals providing a direct marketer the permission to share his or her personal information with others. In other words, they see permission as a tool to establish privacy rights rather than to enhance targeting. Moreover, the privacy issue is different now since an infomediary (Hagel & Singer, 1) retains all the personal information and supplies ads based on that information; the advertisers never see the information.

Recently, Sheth, Sisodia and Sharma (000) have proposed the concept of customer-centric marketing, which includes what they call co-creation marketing. Co-creation marketing envisions a system where marketers and consumers participate in shaping the marketing mix. In the authors' own words, "Co-creation marketing enables and empowers customers to aid in product creation (e.g., Gateway computers), pricing (e.g., priceline.com), distribution and fulfillment (e.g., GAP store or GAP online delivered to the house), and communication (e-mail systems)"(Sheth, Sisodia & Sharma 000, p. 6). Hence, permission marketing can be viewed as focusing on the communication aspect of a larger concept called co-creation marketing. Gilmore and Pine II (17) had also earlier identified collaboration between marketers and consumers as one form of one-on-one marketing.

The direct marketing literature has also pointed out the importance of consumers controlling the terms of their relationship with marketers. Phelps, Nowak and Ferrell (000) point out that individuals like to control "how personal information about them is used by marketers, the kinds of advertising mail and catalogs that they receive and the volume of advertising mail they receive"(p. ). In this literature, direct mail is viewed as a social contract between the consumer and the marketer (Milne & Gordon, 1). Moreover, there is recognition that what is necessary to improve direct marketing relationships is not just a reduction of privacy concerns of individuals, but rather an improvement in the consumer's trust of the marketer (Milne & Boza, forthcoming).

Marketing scholars have long been disenchanted with the marketer-initiated approach to direct marketing. For example, in a critique on database marketing, Schultz (14) noted

If the database works for the consumer and not just the marketer, duplicate mailings should never exist. For the database to have value for customers, it should simplify and improve their personal lives, not just complicate them with unwanted offers or ridiculous solicitations. Also, if the database was really working for the consumer - and not just the marketer - privacy would not be the issue it is. Perhaps the greatest concern about the value of the database is the one-way marketing systems that are being developed- systems that favor the marketer and are disincentives to the consumer (emphasis added).(p. 4)

Hence, it is not surprising that several marketing scholars have begun to indicate their acceptance of permission marketing as a viable concept. For example, Petty (000) proposes "shift(ing) property rights for soliciting and selling information about consumers to the consumers themselves thereby reducing the marketing costs imposed upon consumers without their consent"(p. 5). Further, he argues that "by bearing the costs of identifying disinterested customers, marketers get an audience interested in their message. Consumers get fewer messages and only ones that they are interested in receiving "(Petty 000, p. 5). Similarly, Sheehan and Hoy (000) also suggest that permission marketing may be a technique to reduce privacy concerns of individuals. Even though they do not use the term permission marketing, Milne, Boza and Rohm (1) propose that "opt-in methods (can act) as a trust-building alternative to more effective information control".

Permission Marketing Business Models on the Web

In order to understand how permission marketing is currently being practiced on the Web, we define a key construct permission intensity.

Consumers define the boundaries of their relationship with firms in such businesses. In some cases, they give the business tremendous leeway and in others the firms are held on a tight leash. Formally, permission intensity is defined as the degree to which a consumer empowers a marketer in the context of a communicative relationship7.

Compare two scenarios.

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Britain and Europe

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Does membership of the European Union pose a significant threat to British democracy?

"Many years after Britain joined the community in 17.

We still have our Queen, we continue to eat sliced bread, warm beer, our police are unarmed, we drive on the left of the road, we are not forced to carry identity cards, we vote on Thursdays, milk is delivered in pines to our doorsteps, which is threatened, not by Brussels, but because we drink less every year and because British dairies have chosen to sell milk through supermarkets. Our public houses are opened d at the restricted times that we have chosen, we have our own civil and criminal law, we have Greenwich Mean Time, we play cricket and snooker, the pop has not interfered with our national churches, imported animals are subject to quarantine to keep out rabies, and so on." (Dunn,185; p.6)

This essay will firstly analyze the system within which European Union works; it will look at the different institutions role, for example the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, European Parliament, … in contrast of this, it will look at Britain's main decision-making institutions, for example House of Commons, the British Parliament, etc…I will look at both pro and anti EU views. Following the institutions' analysis, I will try to see in what ways does the European Union pose a significant threat to the British democracy. Thirdly, I will talk about the democracy within the European Union, and how far Britain has been advanced by joining the European Union. To conclude, I would summarize Britain's democratic control and will answer whether or not European Union membership has threatened British democracy.

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Democratic control of decisions made in the European Community. There are two executive bodies in the Community to take the decisions and to carry out them out. They are the Council of Ministers and the Commission. Both hold their meetings in secret. Neither is fully accountable to the public for their decisions.

The commission is run by "Commissioners" who are simultaneously appointed every four years by the heads of each national governments.

The public has no way to express its views about the choice of the Commissioners. Even their elected representatives in the national parliament cannot alter the appointments, which are the gift or party leaders. Not can the public vote directly for the appointment of a Commissioner as the American public can when it elects a President.

However the Commission, as a body, is sensitive to these criticisms. It makes a deliberate effort to consult and to listen to the elected European Parliament although it has the right (from the treaty of Rome) to ignore the Parliament's views. The European Parliament has the formal power to vote to dismiss all the Commissioners together. It does not yet have a formal power to approve their appointment, although in 185 it took upon itself to vote approval of them in any case. (Labour Party, p.6)

As for the council of Ministers, according to the British view is a far more serious problem. It meets in secret. Neither the press, nor the public, nor members of the European Parliament can attend its meetings. In their secret meetings the national ministers or their civil servants habitually abuse the confidence of the public by awarding secret vetoes to each other. These secret vetoes, for the most part, have no legal basis. Nor are the secret vetoes justified to the public afterwards. (Fakuda; 17, p.1)

National parliaments are not able to control the activities of the Council of Ministers. This is accepted by the House of Commons, where only a small proportion of Community matters are debated. The few debates are usually held late at night, this timing being deliberately chosen by the ministers. The final motion after each debate is only to take note of the Community's decision because no national parliament has any power to alter even a single comma of most decisions by the Council decisions are taken in secret, have immediate effect, and are not subject to parliamentary control.

An essential safeguard for stable democracy is that there should be adequate democratic control and proper separation of the powers of government.

In other words, the different powers of government should be kept separate instead of being concentrated in too few hands. Each separate power should be subject to full democratic control.

Curiously, the Unites Kingdom do not enjoy these safeguards. In Westminster both the executive and the legislative arms of government are controlled by the same person, the Prime Minister. (Britain in Europe, webpage)

The leader becomes in effect a short-term dictator between elections because they control both the decision-making machinery and the people's representatives.

Why should we worry about the inadequate democratic control of Community decision-making. We should definitely be concerned the fundamental principle of separate democratic control of each of the powers does not exist in the European Community. The commission and the council of Ministers have executive powers; but the public's representatives in the elected Parliament have only the right to be consulted for an opinion rather than being able to withhold powers from the executive if that is necessary in the public interest. (Wall, 180; p.57)

Therefore, the European Parliament does not need to take any powers away from the national parliaments of the member states in order to correct this situation. It simply needs an increase in its responsibilities in order that the executive decisions of the council of Ministers and of the Commission shall be made subject to separate and full democratic control.

Why are certain national leaders in the Community including Britain's leader opposed to this increase in responsibility for the European Parliament, the answer is simple, it is because their own personal power would become more subject to control, which is something they would not enjoy.

The pro-EU view explains the EU democracy rather differently. The nature of EU-level democracy must necessarily be judged on different criteria to that of states. Weiler et al suggest that three 'levels' within the EU are each characterised by different forms of democracy. The first is the intergovernmental level; conventional diplomacy and international politics. The second level is the supranational level. This revolves around the institutions of the Union, and the member states. The third level is that of Union itself, where it behaves in a similar fashion to a national assembly, replete with interest groups and technocrats. I find such a view unhelpful the interpretations of democracy offered at these different levels correspond only marginally with what citizens of Member-States experience. Such conceptualisations of democracy as 'pluralist' or 'neo-corporatist' attempt to side-step the real issue. This is defining democracy with reference to the EU, when the process should be reversed a single and coherent form of democracy should firstly be defined, and then applied to all levels of the EU. A formulation of democracy should respect the principles of the separation of powers, and of broadly reaching representation. This, however, would suggest a Euro-federalist agenda. (Dunn, 185; p.6-65)

The democratic nature and mandate of the EU institutions bears consideration. The Council, as representative of the elected governments of member states has a democratic mandate. The Parliament, constituted by direct election, has an even stronger claim to legitimacy. The problem arises when one considers the Commission. It exists as guardian of the treaties and to ensure the long-term goals of the EU, without being swayed by short-term national political interest, and as the major legislative initiator of the EU. These arguments sounded hollow when advanced for the preservation of an unreformed House of Lords in the United Kingdom. As Paine suggested, representation should be directly proportionate to power; an unrepresentative body should have no power at all. Yet in the Commission we see a body with broad legislative and executive powers. (UK membership of the EU, webpage)

There is also a positive side of Britain joining the EU. EEC membership has meant a constitutional revolution in the United Kingdom. Quite apart from a major changes like the cession of treaty-making powers to the Commission, and the acceptance of the European Court as the supreme court in the British hierarchy, membership has fundamentally altered the role and function of the house of Commons over matters of Community legislation.

Legislation is no longer exclusively prepared and drafted in Whitehall, and debated and voted upon in Westminster. Legislative proposals, in many important areas, not originate with the Commission, are considered by working parties comprising civil servants from the member countries, are discussed by the European Assembly and are finally agreed upon in the Council of Ministers. (Labour party,p.65-66)

The really revolutionary aspect of the change is however the fact the House of Commons is quite superfluous to the legislative process as far as the Community legislation is concerned. The conventional doctrine that all legislation requires Parliamentary assent no longer applies and the House of Commons has to that extent seen one of its main powers and one of the main instruments by which it exercised control over the executive disappear.

Community legislation is either directly applicable in the law of member countries or imposes an obligation on member countries to give effect through domestic legislation to chat has been agreed. Once a regulation has been agreed in Brussels, there is no way in which the House of Commons can intervene, as the ineffectiveness of the House of Commons resolution condemning the notorious skimmed milk powder regulations shows. In the case of directives, however, the house of Commons does sometimes have the chance to intervene and this will inevitably lead one day to a conflict between Community and domestic law.

To conclude I would say that the sovereignty of the British people is not at risk so long as they lived democratically.

The misunderstanding about sovereignty surely arises because it is the sovereignty of the British national parliament which is shrinking. This is born out if one observes who is voicing the fears about national sovereignty the fears are voiced by Westminster politicians who blame the European Community for their own decline. There is a danger that our national British politicians are putting their own interest at Westminster above their interest of the British people. For example, a senior conservative M.P told conservative M.E.P including the author at the start of March 18 that there would not, under any serious circumstances, be an increase in Britain's gross V.A.T payment to the European Community, whether or not that brought greater returns and benefits to the British people.

Why? because, it was specifically stated by the explainee, and increased gross V.A.T payment to Brussels would be a transfer of Westminster sovereignty.

It is true that our sharing in the greater European sovereignty will threaten some of our national British institutions. (Labour party, p.65-70)

Those threatened will included our British passport and customs officers. The public has been brain-washed by government into forgetting that these are devices for limiting their freedom. The European parliament looks forward to the day when all such restrictions on movements by British and other European citizens inside the community will have been abolished .

The major reason for founding the Common Market, which has developed into the European Union, was to build a political framework which would make it impossible to repeat the devastating wars which had torn Europe apart during the first half of the twentieth century. The irony is that it is not political structures which stop wars breaking out. It is democracy which fulfils that role. Functioning democracy allows tensions and conflicts of interest to be solved by compromise, in a civilised and generally acceptable way. It allows new ideas, new trends, and new people to come to the fore peacefully, without the use of force and coercion. The major failure of the EU is that it has tried to centralise power, without corresponding democratic control. This is why it is responding so inappropriately to the biggest dangers facing Europe. These are not nowadays the prospects of wars between Member States, although Yugoslavia, in Europes hinterland, is an awful reminder of how easy it is to slip backwards. The great threats to Europe are civic disorder and crime, racism and extremism, corruption and cronyism. Their causes always are a combination of economic failure on the one hand and on the other a breakdown in civic trust and confidence in the ability of the democratic process to respond. These are the dangers which the EU now faces as the safety valve provided by democracy is eroded away, and the EUs self serving elites foist on the EU a combination of economic prescriptions, social policies and political structures which do not work, and which are not what the people want. (Britain in Europe, webpage)

Another key point to mention is the increase of globalization, which is can threaten a country's democracy. Which is not only the case for Britain but other EU countries have kind of partly lost their control over decision-making ,therefore loss of democracy. And few argue, loss of sovereignty because of the introduction of the Single Currency, Euro.

The Labour party , 177; The EEC and Britain a socialist perspective, chap "Membership and Parliamen"t P.6

H.Fakuda, 17; Britain in Europe, chap. "Britain, the common Market" p. 51-56

H.Fakuda, 17; Britain in Europe, chap.4 "Association with the EEC" p.1-14

W.Wali, 180; Britain in Europe, chap. "The Balance of Payments and British Membership of the European Community" P.57-7

N.Dunn, 185; Greater in Europe, chap.5 "An alarming gap in Democratic Contro"l p.50-55

N.Dunn, 185; Greater in Europe, chap.7 "Sovereignty, the Misunderstood concept" p.6

N.Dunn, 185; Greater in Europe, chap. "Who is afraid of a United States of Europe?" p.8

Britain in Europe ,

URL http//www.northislington.freeserve.co.uk/party/peo/fws.htm ,consulted1-0-0

Britain in Europe,

URL http//www.britainineurope.org.uk/templ.phtml?id= ,consulted 14-0-0

Britain and Europe, URL http//www.liu.se/isk/eng/cs/cshome8.html , consulted-0-0

History of UK membership of the EU,

URL http//www.cec.org.uk/about/history.htm, consulted-0-0

David Lennon, Tony Blair's Britain,

URL http//www.eurunion.org/magazine/71/p08/p08-71.htm , consulted 6-0-0

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Violence in hockey

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Violence In Hockey

With the increase in society taking a stance against violence, the sport of hockey has become an area where some feel that violent acts such as checking, fighting, and overall body contact occur too frequently and should be eliminated. Lately, NHL officials have lowered toleration to these acts, by issuing heftier fines and suspensions, but not enough to make a huge difference. Many fear that this violence is negatively affecting the youth of America and is contradicting the teachings of good sportsmanship that is encouraged by today's amateur coaches. However, players, and most people close to the game, are in opposition of these feelings and believe that violence is a vital part of the sport and its history. So I pose the question Should violence in Hockey be banished? My feeling is NO.

Before thinking about the obvious pros and cons of violence in hockey, think about what it would be like to be in the skates of a fighter in hockey. The six-theory method designed by John Schneider, is designed help explain how a fighter might feel and what choices he has to make.

According to Mr. Schneider, the reasons that so much violence is occurring in sports is due to these six theories The violence in sport mirrors violence found in society, violence occurring as the result of economic incentives, the influence of crowd behavior on player violence, genetic causation for player aggression, and psychological stress and player violence (Lapchick 0). Of Schneider's six theories, I feel that three are important in explaining my research. They are the theories of sport mirroring society, violence as a result of economic incentive, and the influence of the crowd behavior.

Cheap Custom Essays on violence in hockey

The first theory, the theory of sport mirroring society, explains that the same reactions of everyday humans to certain situations is very similar to how a hockey player would react to a similar situation in a game. Most people when involved in a highly stressful situation where violence is around would probably resort to a fight to resolve their differences. In sport, why should we expect any different. In events such as hockey games, where people are expected to hit and make body contact all game long, sooner or later some type of altercation or disagreement is bound to take place. Like anything, if people are being pushed around and called names etc. it is only a matter of time before the opposition gets into their heads and retaliation is expected.

In hockey especially, economic incentive plays a big role in the violence level. There are some players whose only role on a team is to protect and enforce the unwritten rules of the game such as taking a cheap shot at a teams best player, or running into another teams goalie etc. When dirty acts by the other team take place, a "fighter" is immediately summoned by the coach to go out onto the ice and take care of business. If a fighter chooses not to fight, he will be unemployed. A fighter can also receive a bonus in pay if his teams star player stays injury free (Staudohar 116). In most cases though, fighters are often being bounced around the league, but if you are a known tough guy, you will always have a job in hockey.

The third theory, the influence of crowd behavior, plays a smaller role than the proceeding two theories, but nonetheless, is often a factor in violence promotion.

Like most people, when being applauding for a certain act, we will try to repeat it. In hockey the concept is no different. When the home team is taking a beating from the other team, the fans know what's coming. They cheer and chant for the fighter to be put into the game, and when he gets his job done, he is rewarded by the fans. One fighter said "the adrenaline rush you get from 0,000 screaming fans is unbelievable; you don't want to let them down" (Lapchick 47). This quote is a perfect example of how a crowd can be a huge factor in violence promotion on the ice.

All three of those theories relate closely to the role of the fighter in hockey and why it is that he does commit these acts of violence. They tend to take most of the blame off the fighter, as it almost seems as if he has only one route to choose; to fight.

When leagues such as the National Hockey League (NHL) are asked to try and remove the violence from their sport, they are hesitant because it is not what the fans want. Why should these leagues remove the violence that is occurring if they are making money and keeping most fans happy. "Bryant and Zillman report that television viewers enjoy NHL plays more when they are rough and violent. Two of the best-selling videos in parts of the Northeastern United States have been a collection of The Best Fights in the NHL and Hockey's Greatest Hits" (McPherson 4). The fans of the games love to see these situations and eliminating the fighting aspect would hurt the support. Even former NHL president Clarence Campbell felt that the violence taking place in his sport was called for and was reluctant to remove the fighting and the body contact because he knew that it is what the majority of hockey fans want. His feelings can be summed up in this quote "Not that fans don't enjoy scoring and good play, but fighting is a major part of hockey's entertainment. If violence ceases to exist, it will not be the same game. As long as fighting is part of the show we will certainly be able to continue selling it. As we also continue to not promote it. We tolerate it and we bring it under disciplinary control which we believe satisfies the public" (Snyder 01).

Also, its better that the violence takes place between two willing combatants as in hockey, rather than in other sports where bench clearing brawls, and hit batsmen take place. Allowing people not to be able vent their frustrations through sports in my mind would also increase the violence that is happening away from the playing field. It is a known fact that sports do keep kids off the street and away from gangs, which is why you see so many athletic and boxing clubs being run out of the inner city. It is allowing the youth to take their energy and hostility out on a willing opponent who is ready and consenting rather than against an innocent bystander.

Some individuals have gone as far as saying that sport in general is creating a deviant subculture where these athletes are becoming the opposite of what was intended for them. The emphasis in formalized sport on victory may, in fact, promote deviant behavior and poor sportsmanship (Snyder 101). This is a direct contradiction from the main argument of those opposed to hockey violence. While most feel that this violence is teaching the youth of today bad sportsmanship, they fail to recognize that the emphasis on winning is what is really corrupting the games. Too many kids these days aren't having fun in sports, as the emphasis on winning has become too serious.

The violence that is occurring today in Hockey is not occurring more than it was ten or twenty years ago like some people might suggest. It is only being highly publicized and talked about more by the mass media. If there is one group to blame for the increase in violence I feel that it would be the media, not the athletes themselves. If you turn on the television to watch a sports channel now a day, we have all these talk shows with violence as the topic. These channels host calls and hold rap-sessions on how violent sports has become, but when you watch the 1100 Sportscenter, it will always glorify an act of violence like a hockey hit of the night or repeat some clips from a good fight or a good hit. I can recall numerous occasions where the media has hyped up a hockey game involving two tough guys and creating hysteria between two teams based on what happened the last time they played. Isn't this wrong for the media to be trying to prevent violence, but at the same time encouraging and glorifying it? Look at sports like boxing for example, which rely on the media to increase the sports fans interest in an upcoming match. When you can only fit approximately 17,000 people into a Las Vegas boxing arena, the money is not made at the gate. Millions and millions of dollars are gathered from pay-per- view television where again millions of spectators are waiting to see the outcome of a match (McPherson 101). We as society, the fans, media, players etc. have to face the fact that majority of people are attracted to this sort of violence in sports and there is nothing we can do to change it.

Should we take steps to discourage the violence in hockey? Yes, but not by trying to do away with it. We must keep penalties and suspensions harsh, but at the same time, realize why fights sometimes have to take place. Its not every day when certain events like the University of Moncton-University of Prince Edward Island hockey game where a referee was assaulted on the ice after disallowing then allowing the same goal takes place (Lunney 1) . People have to realize that this is not a true representation of hockey, and that crazy acts like this happen in any league, or sport. This kind of violence occurs very little in the sport of hockey considering the amount of games that are played throughout the year and they are of course not the norm.

Violence in hockey is not having a negative effect on society, it is only allowing players to protect their teammates and fans to enjoy themselves while they are watching a particular sport. Yes there are instances where players and fans do go overboard and get carried away causing scuffles, but it is not very often. When it does happen, it is blown-up so that people think hockey is played by bozos and goons who can only fight. The violence that is in sport is here to stay and should be left that way so that the real fans and those who understand what is going on can enjoy the sport. The media and people opposed to this violence, should start looking for better ways to demote such actions and start realizing that the NHL is also. They should also stop worrying about the professionals and start teaching their own kids that sports are to have fun, and that winning isn't everything. That is the more important issue.

It would be hard to eliminate violence in hockey because it has been a popular and long-lasting part of the game. Players know that a good, solid hit or a bit fight can sometimes put momentum on their side, and giving them extra drive to turn a game around. Most importantly, Players, Fans and those close to the game do not want to see it be removed because not only is it entertaining and a momentum builder, but it has forever been a part of the games heroes, history and rich tradition. Hopefully, people will let go and wake up to realize that the players aren't responsible for any of the hoopla going on and that they are just making the issue much worse than it really is.

Annotated Bibliography

1) 17 Information Please Sports Almanac. Wilmington, MA. Inso Corp., 18

This book gives statistics and records for a whole year in sports; includes every sport. I used this for statistical knowledge and a grasp for the difference between home and away records for sports teams.

) Gongola, Eric. "Sports can turn dreams into nightmares". The Standard Times 0

Apr. 000 (http//www.s-t.com/projects/DomVio/sportsdreams.HTML)

This article tells speaks of how aggression in sports should stay at the games instead of on the streets. It gives a story supporting its opinion. I used it to show how violent aggression should be taken care of during games, because if not, it may result in a worse situation after games.

) Lapchick, Richard. Fractured focus. Lexington, MA. Lexington Books Ed. 186

This book talks about how sports are becoming more violent. It gives specific examples and theories on the subject matter. I used this in my paper to talk about the six theories of why violence is occurring in sports.

4) Lunney, Daniel. Refs on run Abuse of officials on rise in Manitoba. Winnipeg Sun,

pg. . March 6, 16.

This book talks about the abuse of officials and concentrates on an event that happened in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It also tells stories that were never released before to the public. I used this book to get an idea of some bad effects of on ice aggression in sports.

5) McPherson, Brian D., James E. Curtis & John W. Loy. The social significance of

sport. Champaign, IL. Human Kinetics Books. 18

This book argues that violence in sports is a part of history and the game. It gives examples from the past, reactions from people close to sports, and supports its opinions. I used this book as background for talking about how most people connected with a specific sport and its history feel about violence.

6) Snyder Eric E. & Earl A. Spreitzer. Social aspects of sport, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Prentice-Hall Inc. 18

Similar to the proceeding book, this book talks about the pressure to win and perform in a sport and how this brings out violence. It also gives examples. I used this book as background for people opposed to such violence in sports, and to show how those connected with a sport can sometimes be held responsible while they might not even be playing.

7) Staudohar, Paul D. Playing For Dollars. Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press 186

This book talks about the financial significance of sports and also how money plays a huge role in sports; it argues against the changing face of athletics, and is not for it. I used this book to gain background knowledge on how money can relate to violence, and to get a negative view on how athletics is changing.

Abstract

In this research paper, the main topic was to show that although there is an increase in society opposition to violence that in hockey, it should not be eliminated from the sport.

Although there has been a call by some to have violence such as fighting, checking and body contact eliminated from hockey, they have to realize that most of what's going on with violence in hockey has nothing to do with the players and a lot to do with the media and those opposed to it. The violence that is being displayed in hockey should stay in the game, and for those who believe that it should be eliminated should realize that it is a vital part of the game and its history.

While this is only my opinion, I have researched the pros, cons, theories, and the facts, and hope I have swayed your opinion on this issue.

Please note that this sample paper on violence in hockey is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on violence in hockey, we are here to assist you. Your cheap custom college paper on violence in hockey will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.

Order your authentic assignment from cheap essay writing service and you will be amazed at how easy it is to complete a quality custom paper within the shortest time possible!