Political science two essay questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Political science two questions - Essay Example Congress is said to have become exemplary of a parliamentary system with parties either rooting for the president’s agenda or they are in the opposition, and the suppression of minority input is rampart. Mann and Ornstein draw attention to numerous illustrations of partisan excesses in the house with the speaker increasingly becoming an active partisan. They contrast this to the speaker’s stipulated role in the constitution as an officer of the whole house. This role is diminished when the speaker gets actively involved in lobbying for votes. Restrictions on floor amendments and debate are amongst the procedural constraints that are increasingly being employed to eliminate minority input in Congress’ legislation and deliberations (Uhr, 2009). Mann and Ornstein cite the disappearance of effective Congressional oversight in the event the president and the Congressional majorities are of the same party, which is a serious weakening of the checks and balances of the system. According to Mann and Ornstein, the current situation in the Congress is not nearly as bad as it was during the United States’ (US) first 75 years in which slavery tore the country apart. This though does justify what is happening in the US because back then it was during the 19th century, and the US did not play a large and significant role domestically and internationally as it does at the moment. It has been observed that Congress does not deliberate and legislate as much as it used to do before that is characterized by legislations being rushed through committees and subcommittees with little debate or deliberation. Lack of interest in the robust deliberative process of legislation is a symptom of broader maladies in the contemporary Congress (Ornstein, Mann & Malbin, 2009). Mann and Ornstein are of the opinion that there is a belief in Congress that deliberation, bipartisanship, fairness and debate are impediments towards the achievement of the larger goal of par ty and political success. This can be construed to echo the adage that states ‘the end justifies the means.’ Mann and Ornstein effectively demonstrate the broken nature of Congress by illustrating how it mishandled the vital issue of continuity in the event of a terrorist attack or other catastrophe (Sasada, 2008). These vital aspects that are nonpartisan are considered by the House like partisan issues. The Congress’ inability to appropriately address such vital and pertinent issues is proof of the House’s dysfunctional nature, which is agreeable in this context and the apparent failures in delivering their pre-election agendas and promises. A characteristic of this is the subordination of Congress as an independent arm of government through partisan endeavors. Mann and Ornstein promote a progressive reform movement for Congress through various measures like internal reforms, ethics and lobbying reform efforts, campaign finance reforms and the destruction of the seniority system in the House. Question #2 The powers and practices of the executive branch of the US government in the founding days were characterized by an escalating affront against checks and balances. The founding fathers claimed to have immunity from oversight by Congress and the courts, which can be interpreted to mean that their practices were a mere extension an established trend towards increasing executive power. There are recent claims to presidential authority through the contortion of a unitary executive, which is perceived

Difficulties in Managing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Case Study

Difficulties in Managing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems - Case Study Example The Company made approximately 6000 customizations on the SAP system, but later began experiencing challenges when Kennametal made intentions to upgrade the system. The Inflexibility occurred in the sense that; upgrading the SAP system would take too much time and efforts that supersede the benefits of the upgrade. The cost that would be incurred by the Kennametal Company to upgrade the SAP system was determined to be relatively higher as compared to the projected costs. The alignment of an organization’s processes with the Enterprise Resource Planning System enables an organization to comprehend its complicated operational processes. This enables the company to operate faster and efficiently hence improving its competitive advantage. In addition, the application of the Enterprise Resource Planning System by aligning the processes of an organization towards its procedures enables the organization to customize its activities with regard to the applications of the ERP Systems; hence creating efficiency in its operations. One of the challenges that may be faced by aligning the processes of the organization to the procedures of the ERP system is that: There may be increased costs that are incurred when the user intends to upgrade some aspects of the system. Upgrading the system may also involve consumption of high amounts of time as well as relatively higher amounts of efforts. On the other hand, there may also be high costs of maintenance associated with ERP system especially if there is a vendor involved to provide maintenance services to the ERP system. In contrast with the strategy applied by the Dana Company to maintain their Enterprise Resource System by using an external vendor, I would opt for the use of internally trained IT experts to provide maintenance services to the ERP Systems. Basically, this idea would facilitate the reduction of extra costs that may be incurred to hire an external vendor. The initial costs of training or recruiting