Government Expenditure Causes the Revenue Generation by Government Taxation

Government Expenditure Causes the Revenue Generation by Government Taxation INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview The relationship between government revenue and expenditure is a very important topic and has been an essential issue for many economists and policy makers as it represents budget deficit, government expenditure Plans and taxation structure of a country. Since the main objective of every government is to improve economic growth with low debt levels, better education system, development of infrastructure and job opportunities better fiscal policy is needed to achieve these goals. From a short term perspective fiscal policy is said to be expansionary when government expenditures exceeds the total revenue and the resulting deficit is then financed by the government, However if these expenditures contributes in economic growth then there is a long term relationship exist between government expenditure and economic growth. In addition different studies indicate that the determination of Economic growth is depended on tax levels. Whereas many believe that the most significant factor that c ontributes in economic growth is tax level as the collection for development purposes of most developed and developing countries depend on tax revenue. 1.2 Research Problem In Pakistan the level of budget deficits have consistently increasing from 2005 which is then financed by the government through external and domestic borrowing resulting in a higher debt levels due to high interest cost associated with it and leads to more future tax expectations. Thus the financing by the government for the compensation of deficit is an important variable, several studies have put light on the outcome of fiscal deficit but very few have tried to find the reasons and causes of these deficits which is why the nexus between government revenue and expenditure is still an unsolved issue. Therefore the main purpose of this research is to study the causal relationship between government revenue and expenditure. 1.3 Hypotheses : Tax Revenue causes Government Expenditure. : Government Expenditure causes Tax Revenue. : Tax Revenue and Government Expenditure Bilaterally cause to each other. 1.4 Outline of the Study The research studies the causal relationship between government expenditure and tax revenue to see the reasons for the consistent budget deficits in Pakistan from many years. In addition time series analyses have been done to forecast the trend of government expenditure and revenue based on the leading variable. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Loganathan, Nanthakumar, Taha, and Roshaiza. (2007) have found a stable relationship between spending and revenue. Furthermore there is a long-term impact exist expenditures that enter as input into the production function and those that enter as inputs in investment technologies. Koch, Schoeman and Tonder (2005) found that there is an association between burden of taxes and economic growth according to the findings based on the data of 1960-2002 if tax burden decreases economic growth increases significantly. Friedman (1982) explains expenditure of the government depends on total revenue because as taxes increases expenditure increases by which deficit remains at the same level, he believes that the level of fiscal deficit cannot be reduced by increasing taxes. Buchanan and Wagner (1977) on the other hand have presented an alternative hypothesis that increase in taxes does not lead towards low expenditures because taxes creates higher price of goods for the public due to high interest cost associated with it Buchanan and Wagner suggest that in order to restore deficit government should limit its financing ability. Sobhee and Sanjeev (2004) tested the causality from tax to expenditure and from expenditure to taxes by using the data of public finance and founded that in a small economy government first accommodate the necessary funds then use them for public expenditure, therefore to avoid the situation of fiscal deficit the government must carefully monitor and control its spending programs. Fasano and Wang (2002) in a research on GCC countries founded that the primary Source of revenue is oil and due to the economic fluctuations medium-term expenditure strategy should be adopted according to which expenditure should not exceed the non-oil revenue so that in recessions to compensate expenditures oil revenues can be injected by short-term accommodations. Second hypothesis where causality runs from expenditure to revenue the government first spend and then to accommodate the required level of expenditure adjusts tax policy. Peacock and Wiseman (1979) Argues that due to economic crises government expenditure increases and they also remain at the same level when the crises is over. In their view government expenditure in driven by strong economic crises which is able to change public perception about the size of the government. Gounder, Narayan, Prasad (2007) find compatibility with the second hypothesis that the increase in taxes for the accommodation of government spending affects on the capital investment by investors due to the fear of paying higher taxes in future. The third hypothesis is fiscal synchronization according to which expenditure and revenue decisions are independent and bilaterally cause to each other. Reflecting the traditional theories for the demand for public goods. Meltzer and Richard (1981), according to him the demand of public expenditures and taxes need to compensate these expenditures are compared with many alternative spending programs for cost benefit analysis, therefore the practical implication of this hypothesis is bidirectional causality. Narayan and Narayan (2006) suggest three reasons regarding the importance of nexus between government revenue and expenditure first if proper implementation on policies is taken into consideration regarding government revenue fiscal deficit can be avoided, second if causality runs from expenditure to revenue outflow increases due to the fear that government will spend first and pay for it later by increasing taxes. Third in case of bidirectional causality expenditure can rise faster than revenue which can create huge budget deficits because revenue and expenditure decisions are independent of each other. Baharumshah and Lau (2007) Find two sets of different results where the fiscal policy of Korea, Singapore and Thailand is driven by expenditures where the government finances revenue for the planned expenditures according to the limit of the balanced budget which facilitate the long term sustainable budget position. However the taxation system should be implemented by taking care of the overall smooth fiscal policy. Whereas in case of Malaysia and Philippines expenditures and revenues are independent of each other and the level of government expenditures and revenues is determined through fiscal policy based on marginal cost and revenue. Furthermore the findings indicate that in order to achieve long-term economic growth fiscal consolidation is necessary to reduce deficits and debt levels which lead a country to fulfill expenditure priorities better and provide funds to more productive sectors. Griffin and McKinley (1992) believes that the expenditure policies of the government should be directed towards long-term future growth and for the well being of the people, Therefore activities that contribute more on socio economic development should be increased instead of using resources and funds to military defense projects. King and Rebelo (1990) taxation has a very important role in the long run growth process of a country where growth is not affected by indirect taxation, however direct taxation is harmful for growth. Roshaiza, Taha, Nanthakumar and Loganathan (2008) found in an analysis of Malaysia that the major part of taxes is direct taxes and reducing direct and indirect taxes will lead to reduce in government expenditures, In addition non-tax revenue does not contribute much in economys growth. Hondroyiannis and Papapetrou (1996) find unidirectional causality running from government expenditure to revenues in Greece where the reason of fiscal deficit from a long period of time was government spending decisions. The government spending to GDP is very high in Greece which results an operating inefficiency for the economy. Furthermore the results indicated that reducing fiscal deficit without reducing the government expenditure will leads to failure. Ahiakpor and Amirkhalkhali (1989) Based on the analysis of Canada found that to show the relevant results of fiscal policy government increase taxes which is a temporary and incomplete act in order to fully take control over fiscal deficit the government must reduce or limit its expenditures instead of finding ways to increase tax revenue burden on public. Baghestani and McNown (2004) in a study of Egypt and Jordan claim that to promote domestic savings and private investment it is necessary to eliminate budget deficit for both the counties. Baghestani supported the causality from tax revenue to expenditure in case of Egypt and bi-lateral causality in case Jordan. Furthermore promoted the process of privatization because it facilitate high domestic saving and investment and at the same time helps to reduce fiscal deficit. Neyapti (2008) studied the influence of fiscal decentralization on government revenue and expenditure and indicated that decentralization improves quality of governance which leads to decrease in budget deficit and stable economic condition. However the efficiency of fiscal decentralization increases in case of large population. Keho (2010) Study the data fo 1660 to 2005 to analyses the causal relationship between government expenditure and tax revenue to see which expenditure and revenue items plays a part in the reduction of budget deficit and found that GDP has significant effect on government expenditure. Furthermore the findings of granger causality test indicate unidirectional causality from government revenue to expenditure based on the findings Keho et al. concluded that the implementation for the elimination of fiscal deficit should not me made by just increasing revenues. Thus without spending cuts the results will not be beneficial. In other words tax system should be made with proper spending control system. Brennan and Buchanan (1980) suggest that in order to reduce fiscal deficit constitutional limits should be imposed on post-constitutional governments, so that revenue collection by latter governments can be reduced otherwise the level of goods demand by public to be financed will be minimum whereas revenue collection will be higher. Baffes and Anwar (1990) conducted the research for the countries Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Pakistan to determine the behavior of government towards revenue and expenditures for the alignment of fiscal deficit. The results found to be positive for Mexico, Brazil and Pakistan while the similar findings havent been found for Argentina and Chile. For Brazil, Mexico and Pakistan causality runs in both ways in other words bidirectional causality where decisions for the government spending and revenue are taken simultaneously. However in case of Argentina and Chile causality runs from expenditure to revenue. The results indicates that to control budget deficit the government should increase revenue collection and restrain expenditure whereas public expenditures should be reduced in Argentina and Chile. Stoian (2008) founded in case of Romania by applying Johansen cointegration and Error Correction model that the long run relationship between government revenue and expenditure do not affect major fiscal imbalances. CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS 3.1 Method of Data Collection Data of the two variables Government Expenditure and Total Revenue is taken from secondary sources with the help of multiple sources which includes (Ministry of Finance), (State bank of Pakistan) and (Hand book of Statistics on Pakistan Economy). 3.2 Sample Size Sample of 31 observations have been used by using the data of public finance from the year 1979-2010. Where the variable (Total Tax Revenue) has been created by adding indirect-tax, direct-tax, Non-tax revenue and surcharges and (Total Expenditure) has been calculated by adding Development and Non-Development Expenditures. 3.3 Research Model Granger model is used to study the causality where TR is the total revenue and TE is total government expenditure. The above two equation represents the hypothesis where the causality running from total expenditure to revenue in equation one and from revenue to expenditure in equation two. Therefore incase of rejection of any hypothesis we conclude unidirectional causality between government expenditure to revenue. However, if both the hypothesis is rejected we concluded bidirectional causality in other words fiscal synchronization exists between government revenue and expenditure. 3.4 Statistical Technique In this research granger causality test by granger (1969) has been applied to study the causal relationship by comparing one time series with another (Government Expenditure with Government revenue) where one variable becomes the cause of the other variable to predict it significantly. In addition cross-correlation has been applied to assess the correlation between both time series variables. CHAPTER 4: RESULTS 4.1 Findings and Interpretation of the results Table 4.1 Pairwise Granger Causality Tests Date: 01/27/11 Time: 17:32 Sample: 1 32 Lags: 2   Null Hypothesis: Obs F-Statistic Prob.     TOTAL_EX does not Granger Cause TOTAL_RE   30   0.84135 0.4430   TOTAL_RE does not Granger Cause TOTAL_EX   14.2132 8.E-05 With the help of the summary given in the table above we find that there is a unidirectional causality exist between total government expenditure and total revenue, as the value of F-Statistic is 3.5 we will reject the null hypothesis (TOTAL_RE does not Granger Cause TOTAL_EX). Table 4.1.2 Cross Correlations Series Pair:Total_Revenue with Total_Expenditure Lag Cross Correlation Std. Errora -16 -.177 .250 -15 -.143 .243 -14 -.099 .236 -13 -.056 .229 -12 -.010 .224 -11 .044 .218 -10 .097 .213 -9 .137 .209 -8 .210 .204 -7 .255 .200 -6 .299 .196 -5 .353 .192 -4 .427 .189 -3 .513 .186 -2 .663 .183 -1 .796 .180 0 .994 .177 1 .810 .180 2 .662 .183 3 .544 .186 4 .431 .189 5 .344 .192 6 .271 .196 7 .208 .200 8 .148 .204 9 .094 .209 10 .053 .213 11 .005 .218 12 -.036 .224 13 -.078 .229 14 -.114 .236 15 -.153 .243 16 -.188 .250 a. Based on the assumption that the series are not cross correlated and that one of the series is white noise. Figure 4.1.1 The results of cross-correlation indicates total revenue as a leading time series variabler with a strong correlation of .994 with government expenditures at lag 0, furthermore correlation a possitive correlation has been found from lag 1 to lag 11, However the correlation is dexreasing and from 12 to 16 lags correlation in negative predicting that with the increase in total revenue, total government expenditure will decrease in furture. CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH 5.1 Conclusion In this paper we have studied the causal link between total government expenditure and total revenue in Pakistan using granger causality test and the supportive cross correlation from 1979-2010. Our result from granger causality supports the hypothesis that tax revenue causes government expenditure in Pakistan. In addition cross correlation results have indicated long-term results that with the increase in revenue expenditures will increase. Therefore the major conclusion drawn from this research is that in order to eliminate the problem of fiscal deficit and sustainable economic growth government should focus on the policies which facilitate increasing revenue. 5.2 Discussion Various studies have analyzed the causal relationship between government expenditure and revenue. Some supported with unidirectional causality occurring from revenue to spending and from expenditure to revenue whereas some have indicated the result of bidirectional causality. However, both the variables have significant impact on budget deficit and economic growth. Fiscal deficit in Pakistan is a major issue as the findings of cross correlation indicates that the revenue and expenditures are correlated which means that as revenue increase expenditure increases and deficit remains at the same level and to compensate this deficit government increases its debt financing from domestic and foreign sources which leads towards inflation and high interest rates. 5.3 Implications and Recommendations The model and analysis of this study is very useful for economists and policy makers as it helps in enhancing revenue by tax reform programs. In addition for the determination of optimal spending expenditure reform assessment can be done through cost and benefit analysis which will help in setting objectives for tax collections and better utilization of taxes. 5.4 Future Research Future research possibilities could be as follows first variables like national income and debt financing could be included in the research. Second data sets of multiple countries would be interesting to analyze the causal relationship using the same model in comparison with this research. REFERENCES Ahiakpor, J.C.W., Amirkhalkhali S. (1989). On the Difficulty of Eliminating Deficits with Higher Taxes: Some Canadian Evidence. Southern Economic Journal, 56, pp. 24-31. Buchanan, J. M., Wagner, R. E. (1977). Democracy in Deficit, New York: Academic Press. Baharumshah, A. Z., Lau, E. (2007). Regime Changes And The Sustainability Of Fiscal Imbalance In East Asian Countries. Elsevier, 24 (6), pp. 878-894 Baghestani H., McNown R. (1994). Do Revenues or Expenditures Respond to Budgetary Disequilibria?. Southern Economic Journal, 61, pp. 311-322. Brennan, G., Buchanan, J. (1980). The Power to Tax: Analytical Foundations of the Fiscal Constitution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Baffes, J., Shah, A. (1990). Taxing choices in deficit reduction. Policy Research Working Paper Series 556, The World Bank. Friedman, M. (1982). Personal interview, The Washington Times, June, p. 2 Fasano, U., Wang, Q. (2002). Testing the Relationship between Government Spending and Revenue: Evidence from GCC Countries. IMF Working Papers 02/201. (Washington: International Monetary Fund) Gounder, N., Narayan, P. K., Prasad, A. (2007). An empirical investigation of the relationship between government revenue and expenditure: The case of the Fiji Islands. International Journal of Social Economics. 34, pp. 147-158. Griffin, K., McKinley, T. (1992). Towards a Human Development Strategy. Occasional Paper 6, December. Hondroyiannis, G., Papapetrou, E. (1996). An Examination of the Causal Relationship between Government Spending and Revenue: A Cointegration analysis. Public Choice, 89 pp. 363-374. Koch, S. F., Schoeman, N. J., Tonder, J. J. V. (2005). ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE STRUCTURE OF TAXES IN SOUTH AFRICA: 1960-2002. South African Journal of Economics, 73, 190-210. King, R. G., Rebelo, S. (1990). Public Policy and Economic Growth: Developing Neoclassical Implications. Journal of Political Economy, 98, pp. 126-150. Keho, Y., (2010). Budget balance through revenue or spending adjustments? An econometric analysis of the Ivorian budgetary process, 1960 2005. Journal of Economics and International Finance, 2(1), pp.001-011. Loganathan, Nanthakumar, Taha, Roshaiza. (2007). Have Taxes Led Government Expenditure in Malaysia? Journal of International Management Studies. Meltzer, A.H, Richard, S. F. (1981). A rational theory of the size of the government. Journal of Political Economy, 89, pp. 914-927. Narayan, P.K., Narayan, S. (2006). Government revenue and government expenditure nexus: evidence from developing countries. Applied Economics, 38, pp. 285-291. Neyapti, B., (2010). Fiscal decentralization and deficits: International evidence. European Journal of Political Economy, 26(2), pp. 155-166. Peacock, S.M., Wiseman, J. (1979). Approaches to the Analysis of Government Expenditures Growth. Public Finance Quarterly, 7, pp. 3-23. Roshaiza, Taha, Nanthakumar, Loganathan, (2008). Causality between tax revenue and government spending in Malaysia. The International Journal of Business and Finance, 2 pp. 63-73. SOBHEE, Sanjeev K. (2004). The causality between tax and spend of the public sector in maturities: A VECM approach. International Journal of Applied Econometrics and Quantitative Studies, 1-3, pp.115-130 Stoian, A., (2008). Analyzing Causality between Romanias Public Budget Expenditures and Revenues. Theoretical and Applied Economics. 11, No.528.

Examining Factors Influencing Police Decision Making Criminology Essay

Examining Factors Influencing Police Decision Making Criminology Essay Police decision-making relies on a myriad of factors to include the individual officers characteristics, the environment the officer works in, the characteristics of the offender, the situation the officer finds themselves in, and the organization that influences them. In an attempt to control officer behavior and discretion, some police agencies have encouraged and/or mandated the increased hiring of minorities, women, and college educated officers. The belief is that officer characteristics such as race, sex, and education have an effect on police decision making and these characteristics will have a moderating influence on egregious behaviors such as excessive force, police shootings, and violations of civil rights. However, there is no compelling evidence to suggest that officer characteristics have such a strong influence to counter the other factors of situation, organization, and environment in decision-making. Since officer characteristics are a minor part of the complex fact ors influencing police behavior, there is no harm in promoting increased hiring of minorities, women, and college educated officers. These hiring policies do need to be seen as an attempt by the police agency to hire officers that share characteristics of the constituency that they serve. More study is needed to verify the influences of officer characteristics on police behavior and then, if the studies verify a connection, this research can substantiate the increased hiring practices of minorities, women, and college educated officers. INTRODUCTION There is a dearth of quasi-experimental and experimental designs into the factors that influence a police officers decision-making. Questions remain on how influential certain characteristics such as officer sex, race, age, education, and attitude can be on officer behavior. Of the existing studies that investigate the influences of officer characteristics, the results are mixed on how influential these characteristics are. However, there are numerous studies, while not experimental, that can help explain police behaviors through factors other than officer characteristics (National Research Council, 2004, pp. 34-35). By using these studies of other than officer characteristics, we can validate how strong or weak these factors are on officer behavior. More studies of officer characteristics on police behavior are needed in order to justify the sanctioned hiring of more females, minorities, and college educated officers in an attempt to control officer behavior. Some police administrat ors and policy makers think that officers with more education and a diverse background will make better decisions when interacting with the public and reduce the incidents of excessive force and violations of civil rights (Walker, 1998, p. 232) and this is the reason for implementing affirmative action hiring programs at some police agencies. Some factors put forth as possible behavioral influences on police officers have included citizen behaviors and attitudes, ecological influences, environmental factors, legal restraints, organizational factors, politics, and situational factors. While all are capable of influencing behavior, none answers the entire question of determining and predicting police behavior (National Research Council, 2004, pp. 214-216). One of the biggest obstacles in determining police behavior is overcoming ingrained conventional wisdom on police matters. There is too much attention placed on certain behaviors such as racial profiling, police shootings, use of force, and corruption without trying to understand the causes and definitions of such behaviors. These high-profile incidents receive quick fixes from politicians and police administrators without addressing the underlying causes. Theory based studies would be better used to explain and correct egregious displays of police behavior (Engel, 2002, pp. 269-270). There is a need for empirical based studies of police behavior in order to determine which factors, if any, influence the behavior of police officers, the use of discretion, and whether if police departments can control for these behaviors by emphasizing the hiring of women, minorities, and college educated officers (National Research Council, 2004, pp. 152-154). Based on the evidence so far, the influences on police behavior are too complex and varied to make a strong conclusion that certain policies such as hiring more minorities, women, and college educated officers can correct and/control individual police behavior. Although strong correlations exist between police behavior and situational, legal, organizational, and community factors, none represents a bellwether solution for influencing police behavior. With no conclusive evidence linking certain officer characteristics such as officer race, gender, and education to particular behaviors, policies emphasizing departmental solutions to behavioral issues should be maintained within certain contexts. Rather than being seen as a tool to influence officer behaviors and outcomes, these hiring practices should be seen as an attempt to correct previous discriminatory hiring practices, promote employee diversity, and as an endeavor to have a police agency reflect their constituency in order to bu ild trust and cooperation. Other factors such as police culture, situations, and police bureaucracy that have been shown to have more of an influence police behavior than officer characteristics should be given more focus in attempts to change officer behavior. DISCRETION AND POLICE BEHAVIOR The Importance of Discretion Tackling the issue of determining the basis of police behavior is not new but the complexity of the issue was realized from the beginning of such research as the American Bar Foundation Survey in the 1950s and its follow-on research by the Presidents Commission on Law Enforcement in 1967. Though these early studies spent considerable time in attempting to understand police discretion, they laid the groundwork for later studies on police behavior and raised several questions in the process (Walker, 1992, pp. 48-54). Questions such as the influence of officer characteristics and attitude on officer behavior are still not fully understood. These studies began with the emphasis on examining police behavior and public interaction with the belief that most officers performed their jobs according to the letter of the law. However, it was soon discovered in the course of these studies that the police exercised an enormous amount of discretion in applying the law (National Research Council, 2 004, pp. 22-23). The importance discretion has on police behavior cannot be overstated. A police officer, once out of training, operates with very little direct supervision and can be highly selective in demonstrating the power of the police. Even when answering service calls with ample evidence of a crime, there is no guarantee that the officer will take a formal action against a citizen. Almost every interaction an officer has with the public has a measure of discretion. Because of a lack of direct supervision, the actions of the officer cannot be constantly monitored to ensure adherence to the law and obedience of civil rights. On one hand, an officer decides to enforce the law and make the arrest. This action then comes under the review of the police department, courts, the media, and the public since arrest in the United States are a matter of the public record. On the other hand, an officer decides not to make an arrest by using discretion. The reasons for no arrest can vary from lack of eviden ce to the officers concern that her/his shift is almost over and does not want to stay late to book an arrest. Only the officer, the suspect, and perhaps some bystanders have knowledge of the non-arrest. Since none of these people occupy the officers chain of command or justice sub-system, this decision of non-arrest is not up for review except in rare circumstances (Goldstein, 1960, pp. 90-92). Goldstein (1960) noted that the use of police discretion in not making arrests are not reviewed except in cases where the police detained suspects in a crime and the suspect went on to commit further crimes and/or the non-arrest is seen as part of corruption. However, arrests and therefore the decisions to make that arrest are under review at every juncture of the criminal justice process, from booking through adjudication. Therefore, the burden of a good arrest and the discretion used to make the arrest is no longer on the officer put placed with the courts for review. Police officers use their discretion for a multitude of purposes, from being a crime fighter to doing their best to avoid as much work as possible. Allowing for the effects of being the subject of a study, officers still exhibit a wide range of behaviors depending on when, where, and with whom they choose to exercise their powers of detention, questioning, arrest, and force (Van Maanen, 1974, p. 122). Added to the everyday factors such as the situation in which the officer find himself or herself interacting with citizens, expectations of their agency and co-workers, and differences in location, the officer is also part of a public service organization. The police have competing mandates and responsibilities placed upon them by a fickle public and an even more fickle political system. These mandates and responsibilities are usually not clearly communicated or only communicated after an incident has taken place and the police response was not what the public expected of their agency. Discretion is used by police management to guide these expectations down to the beat officer and to adjust to a changing and mercurial political climate (National Research Council, 2004, p. 57). Studying Police Behavior and Discretion Discretion has been the focus of study since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to understand how officer decision making influences police behavior. More importantly, researchers were looking into how discretion factored into situations in which officers violated civil rights, arrest decisions, and racial discrimination (National Research Council, 2004, p. 64). While previous research focused on the police applying the law, it was thought that officers clearly applied the law fairly and non-discriminately when the law had been broken. However, follow-up studies revealed that discretion in how the officer applied the law was more important to decision making than once believed. Officers were shown to not make arrests even when the law was clearly broken and were making arrests for reasons other than law breaking i.e., citizen safety, disrespect, and case management (National Research Council, 2004, p. 70). Attempts to control discretion have been tried in different police agencies, often because of police shootings and other misapplications of deadly force. While most attempts to control or formalize discretion have met with mixed results, other such as in the aftermath of the Memphis police shootings have been successful in reducing police shootings and implementing other administrative controls (Fyfe, 1982, p. 72). The use of discretion carries with it a double-sided curse of being unavoidable in police work in a democratic political system. With no discretion, police officers would be heavy handed and legalistic but still exercising some type of preference, just with more subtlety and with obvious crimes being ignored and minor infractions being investigated. Attempts by police administrators to control discretion have failed (Aaronson et al., 1984, pp. 408-436) and even though it can encourage abuses, discretion carries with it the will of the people who are being policed. The Exercise of Police Arrest Power The actions of the police are based on the lawfulness and legitimacy of their actions in controlling the public. The public also has to recognize the legitimacy of the police and submit to these tenets in order to be policed. When there is conflict between the public and the police it is usually a result of the police not following the strictures set up under the law e.g., unlawful search and seizure, interrogations without Miranda warnings, and excessive force (National Research Council, 2004, pp. 5-6, 252). Various police agencies exercise discretion and arrest power in different ways based on the style of policing the agency utilizes. There are three styles of policing identified by Wilson (1968): the watchman, service, and legalistic. Discretion is used the most often under the watchman style since these types of agencies are primarily concerned with order maintenance. Officers using this style are most concerned with maintaining social control by suppressing illegal activities and disruptive behavior. Discretion is used along with arrest powers to persuade, threaten, and discourage potential lawbreakers (National Research Council, 2004, pp. 70-71). The legalistic police agency is the opposite of the watchman style with an emphasis on enforcing the law no matter how small the infraction may be. Legalistic agencies tend to have high arrest rates, issue more citations, and utilize the law to target and/or harass persons suspected of violating the law. The use of discretion is low for th ese types of departments since they tend to view infractions in more concrete terms and use arrest as a tool even for minor infractions. This type of full enforcement also constrains officer behavior and allows some amount of control over the officer by the agency. Police agencies that use a service style of policing are using both order maintenance and law enforcement while staying attuned to the desires of the community they serve. While less emphasis is placed on using arrest for even minor infractions, the service type of agency still uses arrest and discretion to enforce the laws that are important to the local community. Officer behavior is still controlled but not as much as under the legalistic style but also not given as much freedom as under the watchman style. However, discretion is still present in all three styles with varying degrees of arrest power implemented and/or encouraged by the agency in order to more closely adhere to the desired outcomes of the police agency. OFFICER CHARACTERISTICS Effects on Police Behavior It has been suggested that an officers psychological and attitudinal orientation influence the officers behavior when they interact with the public. This assumption deals with an officers traits, experiences, and attitudes (Terrill and Mastrofski, 2002, p. 218). One area that has drawn an increasing amount of attention from researchers is officer characteristics and the use of force. Research into the influences of officer education and experience has suggested that officer education and experience have a positive effect on the use of force in that officers with more experience and formal education are more likely to use alternate forms of citizen control. Officer education refers to formal education outside of police training and usually means some type of college or trade school education. Officer experience refers to the amount of years employed as a police officer. The research found that a more educated and experienced officer shows more restraint when applying force (Terrill an d Mastrofski, 2002, p. 244). Officer behavior can be explained by the situational factors officers find themselves in and by the attitude exhibited by the officer. However, the link between situational factors and officer behavior is stronger than the attitude link. While going against conventional wisdom, officer attitude has not been found to be a strong indicator of officer behavior and this holds true for the general population as well (Worden, 1989, p. 670). Situational and organizational factors have been found to be a more important source of officer decision making than attitudinal based factors (Worden, 1989, pp. 673-674). An officer is also heavily influenced by the legal factors involved when an officer encounters a citizen such as the citizens resistance to orders, officer and citizen safety, and evidence of a crime. Usually when an officer finds her or himself dealing with a situation that requires arrest or the use of force within a legal framework, they will behave accordingly rather than rely on officer attitude or other officer characteristics (Terrill and Mastrofski, 2002, pp. 233-235). The officers race has also been studied as a possible explanation for police behavior with the thinking that an officer of a minority background would interact with citizens of the same race differently and with greater understanding. Agencies have encouraged the hiring of more black officers with the expectation that black officers would improve relations between police and the black community and reduce the amount of bias held by officers against black citizens. However, before race or ethnicity can be examined as a possible source of behavior and a predictor of future behavior, other influential factors must be controlled for. These include length of the officers experience on the job, their level of education, characteristics of the suspect, and type of encounter in question. Studies such as Brown and Franks (2006) hold that officer race has an influence on arrest decisions and behavior but their study had to control for the above-mentioned factors. They found white officers were more likely to make arrests than black officers were but that black officers were more likely to arrest black suspects. Other research found that while there were differences in the attitudes of minority and white officers, African American officers arrested African American suspects more often and were more likely to use force against minority suspects than white officers (XXX) An officers gender has also been identified as a possible source of officer behavior. However, there has been no significant evidence to suggest that male and female officers behave differently in the course of their jobs even though it has been suggested that female officers would be less aggressive and rely more on persuasion and verbal tactics during suspect confrontations (National Research Council, 2004, p. 151). The few studies that showed a difference in officer behaviors based on gender were directed toward community policing and order maintenance situations. Engel et al. (2000) founds that female officers focus more on problem solving when confronted with issues during their shifts (National Research Council, 2004, p. 151). Female officers, when operating under the auspices of community policing, have been found to have a more positive attitude towards citizens and the goals of the community policing programs than do male officers (Skogan and Hartnett, 1997, pp. 239-242). Ma strofski et al. (2000) concluded that female officers also were more likely to honor a citizens request to control other citizens within the context of community policing (p. 335). Other than attitudes, differences between female and male officer bahvior during the course of their duties has not been shown. Female officers seem to exhibit the same bahviors as male officers when confronted with different situations and different behaviors exhibited by citizens. Whether these citizen inteactions required restraint, issuance of citations, force, or arrest, the actions of the female officers was very similar to those of male officers (Walker, Despite some differences in attitudes, research findings confirm that there are only very slight differences in on-the-job behavior between the sexes. Studies of police officers in several agencies have revealed that female and male officers responded to similar calls for service and encountered similar proportions of problem citizens (e.g., citizens who are intoxicated, angry, violent, etc.). Only slight-and nonstatistically significant-differences existed in the proportion of arrest and citations issued by male and female officers (for review, see Walker). Findings regarding officers use of deadly force, however, have been somewhat mixed. Studies have shown that male officers are involved in deadly force incidents more often than female officers, but female officers who are partnered with a male officer reacted similarly to their male partners when responding to violent confrontations (Walker). In addition, a study of police officers in Indianapolis Police Department and St. Petersburg Police Department during 1996-1997 found that male officers are more likely than female officers to respond positively to citizens requests to control another citizen (Mastrofski et al., 2000). Going Against Type, Styles of Officer Behavior Being part of a heavily bureaucratized and politicized organization, the police officer has the opportunity to depend upon a certain type of behavior in order to make their work enjoyable. A police officer is supervised closely and operates independently at the same time, utilizing discretion and experience to either patrol aggressively or only answer service calls. The intricate factors that influence decision-making include organizational pressures, territory coverage, survival, street code, group dynamics, and coping skills. Since the nature of patrol work can change from moment to moment and can only be generally predicted over the course of a shift, the behavior an officer exhibits can quickly change from an aggressive legalistic style to a laid back, emergency response style over the course of a shift (Van Maanen, 1974, pp. 120-121). Outside factors have an influence on officer behavior as strongly as internalized attitudes and beliefs. Because the police agency is heavily influenced by outside forces such as the law, bureaucratic control, politics, and public complaints, sometimes the officers behavior is pre-determined by such constraints (Herbert, 1998, pp. 361-364). An officer also has to hold themselves to an organizational ideal of being competent, moral, and safe (for self and fellow officers). Even if an officer exhibits the attributes of a hard-charger or a desk jockey, they are still expected to meet the minimum expectations of the group i.e., assist when called upon, show solidarity with fellow officers, and be safe (Herbert, 1998, pp. 355-361). SITUATIONAL FACTORS OF POLICE BEHAVIOR The Probability of Arrest Factors other than officer characteristics have been shown to be a better predictor of officer behavior in terms of arrest. Citizen initiated arrests and preferences have a stronger influence on arrest decisions than the preferences of the officer, who sometimes would prefer to be more lenient and possess more evidence when making an arrest decision. Seriousness of the crime, whether the suspect is known and/or related to the officer, and the amount of disrespect given to the officer are also factors that take the arrest decision beyond officer characteristics (Black, 1971, pp. 1104-1110). Suspect demeanor also has been shown to be a strong indicator of the chances of being arrested. An officer, no matter their attitude or other characteristics, will not usually subject themselves to disrespect and abuse at the hands of a citizen. Although situation specific, interaction between police and citizens is influenced by the behavior displayed by both parties, and an escalation of perceived disrespect by one party against the other is met with resistance by the other. There is also disagreement among officers on what construes disrespect, which adds to the difficulty in using suspect demeanor as an officer behavior predictor (Klinger, 1994, pp. 489-491). However, the correlation in suspect demeanor and chance of arrest is still a strong indicator of officer behavior and prediction (Worden Shepard, 1996, pp. 99-103). Other situational factors such as the mental health of a suspect and citizen requests have a much stronger effect on officer behavior than officer characteristics. Even though there may be a correlation on an officers education level in respect to the officers predilection to arrest a mentally disordered suspect (Engel and Silver, 2001, p. 247), officers have not been shown to disproportionately arrest mentally disordered persons based on mental health (Engel and Silver, 2001, pp. 245-248). An officer is usually not inclined to grant a citizens request to arrest another unless there is evidence of a crime committed. This holds true regardless of the citizens race, wealth, or social affiliation. However, Mastrofski et al. (2000) found that male officers, officers of limited experience, and officers with a passion for community policing were more apt to honor a request for arrest. Suspect Characteristics It has long been pre-supposed by the advocates of conventional wisdom that certain characteristics of the suspects that are immediately discernable such as age, race, sex, and social class had an influence on the officers decision to make an arrest or some other formal action. (EXPAND) ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS ON OFFICER BEHAVIOR The Influences of the Organization The influence of organizational factors on officer behavior is dependent upon the type of organization the officer is working in. Smith (1984) identified bureaucratic and professional agencies with four sub-categories identified by the level of bureaucracy and professionalism within the agency. High professionalism and high bureaucracy is legalistic, high professionalism with low bureaucracy is service, low professionalism with high bureaucracy is militaristic, and low professionalism with low bureaucracy is fraternal. Therefore, the behavior of the officer can be reasonably predicted based on the type of agency and that agencys definition of legal control (Smith, 1984, pp. 33-35). Organizational influences on officer behavior can also be seen when using expectancy theory. The organization, in this case police agency or department, instills certain expectations from its officers in regards to arrests, traffic stops, citations issued, etc. In the example used by Mastrofski et al. (1994) in their study of Pennsylvania police officers, DUI enforcement was the studied expectancy. Mastrofski et al. (1994) found that when the officers operated under the expectations of their agencies, they usually complied whether the expectations were for high or minimal enforcement. The characteristics of the individual officers did not play a significant role except for a small number of rate busters who bucked the system and made significantly more arrests for DUI (Mastrofski et al., 1994, pp. 142-145). Organizational factors have been shown to have the ability to change officer behavior when there has been directed action against identified behavior, usually in response to police abuses or scandal. An example of this occurred when the Memphis police department made a concerted effort to reduce the amount of police shootings since the rate of deadly shootings in Memphis was disproportionate when compared to other, larger cities (Fyfe, 1982, pp. 712-717). The reasons for shooting given by the Memphis officers were not in agreement with reasons given by the comparison city of New York since Memphis officers showed a predilection to using deadly force for property crime offenses (Fyfe, 1982, pp. 715-716) while New York officers did not. The Memphis police addressed this issue by instituting a more stringent deadly force policy and officer survival training in an attempt to reduce the shootings incidents. An organizations influence on officer behavior can also be seen in the supervisory styles of police mid-level management. Engel (2001) identified different supervisory styles among police sergeants and lieutenants identified as traditional, innovative, supportive, and active (pp. 347-350). While each style has a direct influence on the officers they are supervising, it is also interesting to note the attitudes of the supervisors themselves when the distribution is included for sex, race, rank, age, experience, and education. Engel (2001) found that half of the traditional supervisors were female, this may be attributed to their use of rules, and regulations to keep officers in line and under control since female supervisors may have an issue with perceived power by subordinates (pp. 350-351). COMMUNITY FACTORS ON POLICE BEHAVIOR Patrolling the Neighborhood The area in which a police officer patrols has an effect on their behavior. This depends on the social, economic, and attitudinal makeup of the local residents of the neighborhood in question. There are also other environmental factors influencing police behavior. These include community interaction, past history of policing the neighborhood, the local politics, and the dominant area culture (National Research Council, 2004, pp. 155-156). The influence of the neighborhood is strong on potential police behavior dependent upon the type of neighborhood that is served by the police. Smith (1986) found that police behave differently in higher status neighborhoods than they do in lower status neighborhoods. For example, the police are more prone to stop and question a suspicious person in a higher status neighborhood than in lower status, less racially heterogeneous neighborhoods (pp. 338-339). Neighborhood conditions also affect police behavior. Klinger (1997) found that officers come to view deviant behaviors as normal if they are exposed to the behavior in neighborhoods that are economically disadvantaged. Rather than acting as service providers in these types of neighborhoods, officers quickly learn to prioritize the crimes in terms of urgency and the need to respond (pp. 298-300). Crank (1990) also found differences in officer behaviors in terms of motivation to arrest in rural and urban areas. Not only are there differences between police behaviors within a municipal area, there are also differences in behavior between rural and urban police with the rural police officer being more prone to make arrests for discretionary offenses (pp. 185-187). DISCUSSION Police agencies, the public, policy makers, and politicians have long had the desire to recruit and employ officers whose behavior is beyond reproach. An officer who made the correct decision in every instance without regard to a suspects race, sex, economic status, or mental health would be highly regarded and emulated. When the officer was confronted with situations that required the application of force and/or restraint, they would do so correctly and with the proper legal justifications. It is thought that the use of officer discretion would also be properly applied and controlled by the first line supervisors and directed by the agencies themselves based on community need. Agencies believe they could partially meet these goals if they emphasize the hiring of women, minorities, and college educated officers. However, due the complexity of police work and the multitude of influences such as situational, organizational, and environmental factors, shaping officer behaviors would be very difficult indeed. As was shown in numerous studies above, these other influences besides officer characteristics, often have a stronger influence over officer behavior than the officers own attitude, race, sex, and/or education. CONCLUSION The emphasis on hiring more minorities, women, and college-educated officers should continue because these programs are causing no harm and they are a reflection on the desires of the community that is being policed. No study has shown a negative effect of having more minorities, women, and college-educated officers on a particular police force. However, no study has shown a significant difference in police behaviors based on sex or race so more research is needed in an attempt to understand a connection between officer behavior and officer characteristics.

Minority Mental Illness Essay -- essays research papers

Mental health is essential to overall health as well as efficiency. It is the foundation for thriving contributions to family, district, and culture. All through the lifespan, mental health is the source of thoughts and communication skills, knowledge, pliability, and self-esteem. It is all too easy to dismiss the worth of mental health until troubles emerges (Brager, G. & Holloway, S., 1978). Mental health troubles and illnesses are factual and disabling conditions that are experienced by one in five Americans. Those who do not get treatment, mental illnesses can consequence in disability and desolation for families, schools, societies, and the workplace. The mainly important aspect of minorities’ health and wellness is the one that gets the slightest concentration ‘mental health’. Many minorities have to contract with numerous stressful issues at once (Hagedorn, 1977). For instance, current immigrants have to settle in to a new country, learn a new language, look for a good and secure job, afford proper residence for their family, and may also miss their relatives, and friends in their motherland of origin. Further, young minorities have to compact with finding their own ethnic uniqueness and how they fit into their specific racial community. Moreover, all minority communities frequently have to compact with the gloomy and often agonizing realities of what it means to be minority community and a person of color in American society and the chauvinism, inequity, and racism that on occasion goes along with it. Cultural and social features contribute to the causation of mental illness, yet that involvement varies by disorder. Though, Cultures diverge with esteem to the significance they instruct to mental illness, their approach of making sense of the prejudiced experience of illness and distress (Hagedorn, 1977). The implication of an illness refers to entrenched outlooks and beliefs a culture holds concerning whether an illness is actual or probable, whether it is of the body or the mind, whether it deserves understanding, how much disgrace surrounds it, what might ground it, and what kind of person might yield to it. Cultural significance of mental illness have real consequences in terms of whether people are aggravated to look for treatment, how they deal with their indications, how helpful their relatives and communities are, where they search for ... ...ficantly on verbal communication between patient and clinician concerning symptoms, their temperament, strength, and collision on functioning. While lots of mental health professionals endeavor to deliver treatment that is receptive to the culture of the patient, problems can take place. (Anthony, Kennard, O'Brien, Forbes, R. 1986). Physicians must be alert to the prospect of overlooking mental health disorders along with their minority patients. The consequences suggest also the requirement for strategies to look up the discovery of such problems in certain patient populations, mainly African Americans, and Hispanics. References Anthony, W. A., Kennard, W. A., O'Brien, W. F. & Forbes, R. (1986). Psychiatric rehabilitation: Past myths and current realities. 2. Brager, G. & Holloway, S. (1978). Changing Human services organizations: Politics and practice. New York: Free Press. 3. Hagedorn, H. (1977). A manual on state mental health planning (DHHS Publication. Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office. 4. Hasenfeld, Y. (1983). Human service organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 5. Levitt, T. (1988). Command and consent Harvard Business Review

Scarlet Letter Essay -- Essays Papers

Scarlet Letter The Puritan Beliefs As Told Through The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne was not a Puritan. But Hawthrone’s forefathers were Puritans, so he had an understanding of their belief system and their basis behind it. He stated that he hoped the sins of his forefathers had been forgiven. Hoping to expose those ideas which he understood, yet despised, Hawthorne purposely presented many important Puritan beliefs as import aspects to the Scarlet Letter. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne addresses three main Puritan beliefs: providence, predestination, and the strict code of ethics that the settlers of New Englanders lived by. The first main Puritanical belief Hawthorne referred to was the belief in divine providence. The Puritans believed that God granted providence, the right to enter heaven upon one’s death, to people who were moral and performed meaningful deeds while on earth. The main example of God granting providence is in chapter 8 when Hester visits the governor concerning Pearl. "†¦ The young minister’s argument†¦[that] the child had saved [Hester] from Satan’s snare" (100). Surly if God did not want Hester to enter His kingdom upon her passing, He certainly would’ve allowed Pearl to be taken and Hester to enter the forest with Mistress Gibbons. A second example of providence in the Scarlet Letter is when Dimmesdale is dying on the scaffold. He claims that the "burning torture upon his breast" (226) and the "dark and terrible old man" (226) ...

The Role of Women in Literature Essay -- Thousand and One Nights, The

The Role of Women in The Thousand and One Nights, The Ramayana of Valmiki and The Medea Throughout most of the assigned readings in this class, women are portrayed as clever, ruthless, and deceitful individuals that are willing to do whatever it takes in order to get what they desire. With careful calculation and timing they are able to manipulate others into doing things their way and have favor in their eyes. Sometimes they use their craftiness for good and other times for evil, whatever reason they have for such action usually impacting the story and its characters immensely. In The Thousand and One Nights tale, the deceitfulness of women impacts the story from the beginning to the end. Every good and bad thing that occurred in the tale did because of the act of women. It was the deceitfulness of women that caused King Shahrayar to lose all his trust for women, and vowed to have nothing to do with them for more than a night. However, it was that same deceitfulness that changed his viewed of women and has him see that all hope is not lost; there are some that are still loyal and honest. This quote is an important piece in the story because it changed the way King Shahrayar and his brother viewed women. It was the moment that they both realize that all women are disloyal, crafty, and deceitful and therefore can never be trusted. In addition, it also exemplifies the treacheries and craftiness of women and how they can greatly influence others, especially men. After King Shahrayar discovered that his wife and his concubines have been deceiving him, by having him think that they are honest and loyal to him, he loses all his trust and respect for women. He was so heartbroken and confused; he could not understand how such ... ...t the same time it is fair to say that there are few that try to be deceitful in a good way, meaning their intension are good and will use it for a good cause. For example, Shahrazad, deceive the king by telling him a new tale just before dawn each day because she was trying to save her life and that of many more women that would have been killed had she not been successful. Her cunningness was for a good deed, a deed that not only changed the king himself but his brother as well. He, Shahzaman, hearing about the good act that had happen to his brother, king Shahrayar, decided to stop his practice too and try to have a relationship again, in hopes that it would be different. One could say that it is sometimes a good thing that women have the ability to deceive others, especially in times of trouble and at other time they are better off without their deceitfulness.

Advertising-Critical Appraisal Essay

Abstract: The paper traces the journey of television in India which started for promoting development and serving the cause of the poor and the underprivileged. While some efforts were made to fulfil these brave goals, television also earned the unholy reputation of being a vehicle for government propaganda. Doordarshan – the public service broadcaster was the only available terrestrial network till 1991 when transnational satellite television channels began to make forays into the country. Soon Indian players entered the television industry thereby leading to enormous expansion. Since then, the very nature of Indian broadcasting has changed. Television has transformed from a medium devoted to development communication and the cause of the marginalised, to a true middle-class medium. Contemporary Indian television is divorced from the realities of the ‘other half of India that lives in abject poverty and deprivation, thus presenting a distorted view of social reality. This paper seeks to examine these and other related issues, and make some suggestions for policy initiatives to put the development agenda back on television. See more: The Issues Concerning Identity Theft Essay Keywords: Indian television, Doordarshan, television and development communication, public service broadcasting, commercialisation of Indian television, broadcast regulation 1 Introduction Out of the different mass media such as newspapers, radio, television, internet among others, the one introduced in the country with the aim of promoting development was television. Television began in India in 1959 as an educational project supported by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Ford Foundation. Television was based on the model of a public broadcasting system prevalent in many countries of Europe. In independent India, the political leaders recognised the value of information and its use for accelerating the process of development. Thus was started a model of public broadcasting committed to inform, educate and entertain the people. The then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru decided to have full government control over broadcasting for the time being. In retrospect, many observers feel that it was the hangover of the colonial legacy of controlling the media and fears about the power of the mass media to inflame social conflicts that prevented Indian policy makers from thinking creatively about radio and television in the country (Agrawal and Raghaviah, 2006; Jeffrey, 2006). In the decades since 1959, vast changes took place in the television landscape of India. In its early years, apart from being used as an educational tool, television was also misused as a mouthpiece for the central government and the party in power. Programming was primarily in Hindi and much of the news and current affairs focussed on Delhi – the seat of political power (Johnson, 2000; Singhal and Rogers, 2001). Thus, while television was entrusted with the brave goal of promoting national integration, the same medium was found to reinforce a sense of alienation in many parts of the country particularly in the north-eastern states (Joshi, 1985; Ninan, 1995; Page and Crawley, 2001). Despite being the world leader in experimenting with television and satellite technology, India failed to capitalise on the lessons learnt from early development communication projects such as the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) and the much acclaimed Kheda Communication Project (Singhal and Rogers, 2001). Contemporary Indian television is criticised by many for having shifted from its humanitarian goals and becoming a medium for the urban middle class. It is this class which owns and operate most of the television industry in India. It is the same class which is transmitting its own values, principles, and opinions to the rest of India (Johnson, 2000). Consequently, the cause of the poor, underprivileged people for whose development the medium was brought to the country has suffered a setback. Changes in the television system did not occur in India alone. There was a worldwide trend during the 1980s towards the commercialisation of television. Herman and Mc Chesney (2001) argue that during this decade the policies of deregulation and privatisation were applied to national broadcasting and telecommunication systems that were traditionally regulated and often publicly owned and operated. This had a detrimental impact on public service programs which were replaced with more and more entertainment programming. The subsequent sections in the paper examine the divergence between the rhetoric of television for development and actual practice. Some of the ground-breaking initiatives in development communication using television are also captured. Before that, it becomes essential to dwell on the concept of development communication and the role of media is social change. Role of Media in Development It is important at this point to clarify the meaning of „development communication‟ for the term has a wide variety of connotations. Development communication is more than agricultural extension or rural communication. It doesn‟t restrict itself merely to the development of rural areas, nor is it concerned with agricultural development alone. It is oriented towards development whether it be in rural or urban areas, or in areas such as agriculture, family planning, or nutrition (Gupta, 1995). Theory and research suggests that mass communication can act as a positive agent of social change for some people while impeding and obstructing change for others (Johnson, 2000). There are many who dispute the role played by the mass media in bringing about social change (Gupta, 1995; Rodrigues, 2010; Vilanilam, 2005). Gupta (1995) asserts that radio and television are the best sources for creating awareness and interest among the audience regarding a new message or idea â€Å"but when it comes to adoption of the idea, interpersonal sources such as extension agents, friends, neighbours, family members are the most effective† (Gupta, 1995, p.72). In the 1960s, communication scholars and media experts were quite sure that television and the other media of mass communication would help national development. The media were considered the prime motivators of development. Eminent communication scholars such as Daniel Lerner, Wilbur Schramm and Everett M. Rogers, who based their theories of development and media efficacy on the important work of Walter Rostow, namely, The Stages of Economic Growth, stressed that the economic and technological development achieved by the Western nations were the result of increased media use (Vilanilam, 2005). However, since the 1970s the dominant paradigms of development have been challenged by different disciplines (Gupta, 1995; Vilanilam, 2005). It has been realised that distribution of goods and services along with economic and political opportunities among the majority is a pre-requisite for development. An information revolution ushered into a largely private society without appropriate changes in the social structure will not benefit the large majority of the people (Vilanilam, 2005). Everett M. Rogers and many other theorists criticised the dominant paradigm of development (as cited in Rodrigues, 2010) and broadened its definition from one that centred on materialistic economic growth to other social values such as social advancement. The concept of development in the 1970s was expanded as a widely participatory process of social change in a society, intended to bring about both social and material advancement, including greater equality, freedom, and other valued qualities, for the majority of the people by giving them greater control over their environment. Similarly, the new concept of development communication that began to emerge dealt with the promotion of social change leading to improvement in people‟s quality of living, by encouraging better health, higher literacy and higher production of goods through more effective communication (Rodrigues, 2010). There was also a tendency in communication theory and practice to regard the television audience as passive beings moulded and manipulated by those who create the media messages (Johnson, 2000). Many development communication campaigns suffered on this count. However, it is increasingly being realised that for such messages to be effective, people must be involved at all stages – planning, production, and presentation. The need for localisation of development communication has been emphasised by many researchers and commentators (Joshi, 1985; Page and Crawley, 2001; Singhal and Rogers, 2001; Verghese, 1978). The Beginning of Television in India: In the name of Development When television was introduced in the country in 1959, it started as an experiment in social communication for which small teleclubs were organised in Delhi and provided with community television sets. Educational television began in 1961 to support middle and higher secondary school education. Its experiments in teaching of science, mathematics, and language proved successful and received appreciation from many UNESCO experts (Kumar, 2000). A few years later telecasts for farmers began in the form of Krishi Darshan. It was telecast on Wednesdays and Fridays for 20 minutes each day and served 80 villages (around Delhi) provided with community television sets. This pilot project was initiated by the Department of Atomic Energy in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, All India Radio, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and the Delhi Administration (Kumar, 2000). Vikram Sarabhai, the architect of India‟s satellite communication experiments, in 1969 presented a paper entitled â€Å"Television for Development† at the Society for International Development Conference in New Delhi. The idea that the backward countries can and should tap the most advanced communication technologies including television for leapfrogging into rapid economic growth and social transformation was first presented here (Joshi, 1985). Indian television in its infancy was managed by All India Radio. In 1976, television was separated from radio and given a new name – Doordarshan. This adjunct arrangement is seen by some commentators as an impediment to the natural development of television in its initial years (Page and Crawley, 2001). The public service broadcaster – Doordarshan has been used over the years to deliver a number of useful messages. These include messages on family planning, immunization, nutrition of the mother and the child, the need to stem bias against the girl child, among others. Experience suggests that some communication campaigns have worked better than others. A key reason for the failure of many development communication campaigns was the lack of co-ordination with field level agencies (Ninan, 1995; Singhal and Rogers, 2001). Ninan (1995) explains just why the family planning message, the mainstay of development communication messages on television, failed to work. She attributes the failure to the inability of state agencies to provide back-up facilities in rural areas that were required to make the campaign successful. On the other hand, certain messages conveyed through television have worked well. Notable in this category are the health, hygiene, sanitation, and oral rehydration messages which people have adopted to a large extent (Ninan, 1995). Educational Television is another area in which Doordarshan has made significant contribution. Ever since the inception of television in India in 1959, one major responsibility entrusted to it is to provide support for the education system in the country. School television (STV) was launched in October 1961 as an organised, systematic and sequential support to formal school instruction. Teachers appreciated STV as a tool for teaching and presentation of content (Kumar, 2000). The country-wide classroom initiative of the University Grants Commission dedicated to higher education started its telecast on Doordarshan in 1984 with one-hour educational programmes. Though the urban youth may not even be aware of such programmes, these were found to be very useful in the small towns and remote areas of the country where people had less access to other sources of information (Ninan, 1995). In order to boost educational telecasts, a satellite channel devoted exclusively to education Gyandarshan was launched in 2000 in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Gyandarshan offers interesting and informative programmes of relevance to special categories – pre-school kids, primary and secondary school children, college and university students, youth seeking career opportunities, housewives, adults, and many others. In addition to educational fare, programmes from abroad are also broadcast to offer viewers a window to the world (Agrawal and Raghaviah, 2006). For three decades ever since the inception of television, the dominant theme was communication for development so as to improve the quality of life for the vast rural majority. The logic was that in an underdeveloped, largely rural country; television could be used to convey messages on agricultural improvement, health care, and family planning to millions of people without depending on the extension infrastructure such a task would normally require. But the irony was that none of this was done imaginatively or consistently (Ninan, 1995). Commenting on the weaknesses of India‟s educational and instructional broadcasts, the Verghese Committee set up in 1977 to suggest an autonomous framework for broadcasting, noted that in the absence of co-ordination with concerned government departments and educational institutions; the health, farm and educational broadcasts have not been very effective. Another area where it felt the broadcast media was found inadequate was in promoting social justice and educating the underprivileged about their rights (Verghese, 1978). Despite some such shortcomings, Indian television also has to its credit significant initiatives of promoting social change in rural areas. Notable among them are SITE, the educational telecasts and the Kheda Communication Project. One of the most extensive educational and social research projects, perhaps the largest national television experiment in the world, has been SITE (Vilanilam, 2005). Some of these landmark initiatives are discussed in the next section. Landmark Initiatives in Development Communication using Television The journey of television in India took a new turn with the launch of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment in 1975-76. It was a one year pilot-project using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration‟s ATS-6 satellite to broadcast educational messages through satellite to 2400 villages in the six states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Orissa, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Its objectives were to improve rural primary education, provide teacher training, improve agriculture, health and hygiene, and nutritional practices and contribute to family planning and national integration (Singhal and Rogers, 2001). SITE was â€Å"an unqualified success in terms of hardware but the software wasn‟t specific enough to the area and audience in content or language, and therefore was not so useful and comprehensible† (Joshi, 1985, p.32). The important lesson learnt was that the software has to be area-specific, relevant to the needs and aspirations of the audience, and has to be in the local language (Page and Crawley, 2001; Singhal and Rogers, 2001). The Kheda Communication Project (KCP) launched in 1976 remains to-date the most innovative experiment in using television for empowerment and participatory rural development. Initially known as Pij TV, it used a one-kilowatt transmitter. The Pij transmitter could be received in a radius of about 30 km from Pij village (Agrawal and Raghaviah, 2006). It was India‟s first effort at decentralised community television broadcasting and received the prestigious UNESCO-IPDC prize for rural communication effectiveness. Some 650 community television sets were provided to 400 villages and installed in public places. One of the reasons for the success of the KCP was due to its ability to tap into the existing development infrastructure of Kheda district. It collaborated with extension agencies working in dairying, agriculture and health services, with local banks, cooperatives and employment exchanges (Singhal and Rogers, 2001). The accent was on participatory programme making, the themes were often local, dared to deal with controversial subjects such as caste discrimination, alcoholism etc., and for the first time systemic audience research was carried out (Thomas, 2010). Recognising it contribution, UNESCO noted, â€Å"Kheda was an exceptional example of the combining of modern technologies with a participatory approach to communication. The project employed traditional cultural expressions of a rural community in the creation of its audiovisual programmes, while using modern evaluation techniques for its programme planning. Overall, this project proved to be a good example of the applications of 9 communication for the promotion of human development, particularly of the rural poor, women and children† (UNESCO website, 2011, para. 14). Despite being such a success, the Kheda Project was carried out in splendid isolation from the mainstream and its lessons were not allowed to influence the development and programme trajectory adopted by Doordarshan (Thomas, 2010).

Literary Response

In May, the author tells of his/her chance encounter with a copperhead on the road one night as it lay â€Å"golden under the street lamp,† silent and tense and fearless. Having long wanted to see one, he/she kneels down transfixed, fascinated by its lethal grace, its being unlike the common black and green and garter snakes that evince only shyness; here is a real death striker within arm’s reach. The author remembers not its distinct markings or size or other physical characterstic other than the fact that its head is â€Å"wedge-shaped and fell back to the unexpected slimness of a neck,† its body â€Å"thick, tense and electric.† He/she moves a little, catching the creature’s attention; it jerks as if to attack, and he/she jumps back.   The snake flows â€Å"on across the road and down into the dark,† leaving him/her alone to contemplate the woods and the stars.Only a reptile, but what feelings it does evoke! Meeting the copperhead is an exciting experience that leaves one more capable of appreciating life. â€Å"I hope to see everything in this world before I die,† says the author, speaking of a hope that is uniquely human. The poem captures an impression, a feeling, and by so doing prints an image of the poet as well: curious, contemplative, daring, desirous to embark on a quest to discover everything that life has to offer.Almost everyone shares the author’s wish to â€Å"see everything in this world† before he/she dies, like the boy in Van Dyke’s The Blue Flower who, seeing his own burial lot already allotted to him, becomes terribly restless, â€Å"longing to see the world and to taste happiness† before his time comes to sleep beneath the elm tree where his future graveyard lies. Such, to my mind, is the author’s yearning: she is drawn to the copperhead as a moth is drawn to a flame, or a soldier lured to the battlefield, not by dreams of glory and honor, but by some v ague notion that a face-to-face confrontation with death would make him better appreciate the joy of living.But why does one have to look for excitement in things as wild, as unpredictable, as deadly as a copperhead? Perhaps, humans are drawn to the snake by the realization that they have a thing in common: a vulnerability without the fang. Remove man’s weapons, and he is but a feeble animal.   Of course, one can learn everything about snakes through books or the Internet or the science lab.   The author, if he/she wants to, can view the copperhead in its glass cage as it sleeps, coiled and undisturbed.   But a snake in the open, especially in one’s yard, always strikes terror.Like the serpent in the garden of Eden, it suggests cunning, mystery, power. Gliding and winding and recoiling, it has a beauty that seduces and mesmerizes. One must see a real snake up close and personal to have a glimpse of the real world. In this regard, â€Å"to see everything† d oes not simply amount to viewing things through a microscope, or watching a lion in its kingdom in the veldt from the safety of a car. It is akin to courting danger for the love of being scared, to feel one’s blood pulsing upon coming face to face with real-life demons. It is not seeing the world the way a tourist normally does, nor as a nature lover admires butterflies.   Nor is it a foolhardy man’s courtship of danger. The author does not go out of his/her way to meet the snake; it happens by chance. His/her wish â€Å"to see everything in this world† does not necessarily refer to making a solo voyage across the ocean, or free-falling from a cliff, or climbing the Himalayas â€Å"because it’s there.† It is not seeking danger for its sake, but finding comfort in deliverance when real danger comes along.The author’s desire â€Å"to see everything in this world† before dying echoes Thoreau’s self-admonition on his quest, livin g by himself in the woods, â€Å"to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life . . . to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms† (Walden). May’s author may not have gone to the extent of exploring the earth’s frontiers, at least not that we know of, to see everything in this planet: his/hers is only a hope, perhaps a childish one, for nobody can ever hope to see everything in a multiple of lifetimes. It is a powerful voice, nonetheless, emanating from within, that is always heard above the din of humanity.In a sense,   May is Rubaiyat-like in its simplicity: â€Å"make the most of what we may yet spend,/ Before we too into the Dust Descend.†   Of course, May never tells us to indulge before we die, nor does it preach or call our attention to the plight of endangered species. But it gives an impression of urgency: life is too short to be squandered on trivial pursuits.The author sees the copperhead not in some desert but in an in habited town, perhaps a city fringed by woods, illumined not by the sun or moon but by a street lamp. Perhaps it is a reminder of our affinity with the wild.   Maybe it is one way of telling us that material comforts and soft living have deprived us of the age-old need to go out and face our monsters. After the copperhead has flown â€Å"across the road and down into the dark,† the author â€Å"stood a while, listening to the small sounds of the woods and looking at the stars.† He/she notes that â€Å"after excitement we are so restful† and that â€Å"when the thumb of fear lifts, we are so alive.† Restfulness and vivacity are the aftermath of excitement and fear. But is it possible to become restful and alive at the same time? Meditative, or thoughtful, would be more apt. One can be brimming with life and excitement even when confined to a sickbed.The encounter with the copperhead heightens the author’s appreciation of nature’s other gift s, such as the small sounds of the woods and a view of the stars. At night, one can hear faint stirrings in the forest as predator and prey make their nocturnal rounds: a squirrel being caught in a coyote’s jaws, a rat being snatched by an owl on the wing. Yet humans do not really know, cannot really comprehend the life-and-death struggles that occur in their midst unless they too assume the role of predator or prey, killer or victim. The former is excited by the fact that it has power over the weak; the latter by the fact that it can outrun, even outwit, its pursuer. Has this not been the lot of all creatures since time began? In meeting the copperhead, the author unexpectedly catches a glimpse of what life really consisted of before civilization. By listening to the woods, one can hear the coming and going of life. By looking at the stars, one can wish life would go on forever.Every human at some point early in life feels an itch to set out and conquer the world, like the f rog in the parable of the well, or like the pioneers in the old West who could not settle down despite the abundance of game and the rich land of the frontier; they always wanted to move on, to find out what lay over the horizon all the way to the Pacific. That is man’s nature, and nothing has stopped him – not if it took all the copperheads in the world – to go and see what there is to find, even if it would only lead to frustration and despair. Every person yearns to find his/her El Dorado.May suggests endless possibilities, once-in-a-lifetime chances, secrets waiting to be discovered, if only we are willing to face them. Day after day we meet common people that do not impress us by their shyness, ordinary people, boring people. The daily routine becomes a blur and before we know it we are old, confined to a wheelchair, unsure of whether or not we had ever lived at all.   But once in a rare while we come across a deadly copperhead.May is all about someoneâ⠂¬â„¢s feelings after a brush with a poisonous snake. Maybe it is not about crossing the Sahara or climbing Mount Everest after all, but simply a matter of having to confront our own copperheads as we chance upon them in our everyday lives.WORKS CITEDDyke/The_Blue_Flower/>Khayyam, Omar. The Rubaiyat. 31 May 2007.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚