Critique of an article using the Scientific Method Essay Example for Free

Critique of an article using the Scientific Method Essay The paper Politics and Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean is a research paper authored by Evelyne Huber, Francois Nielsen, Jenny Pribble, and John D. Stephens. This paper is a time series analysis of the impact that politics and policy bring about on inequality in the scope of Latin America and the Caribbean. This research is based on various models consisting of sociological and economic variables, plus the strength of the democratic tradition, as well as the distribution of long-term legislative partisan political power and the social spending to explain inequality variations. As a study that aims to analyze social factors and its effect on the inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean, this research was able to conform to the Scientific Method, despite some instances where there are some unsupported arguments. Basing on the Scientific Method of research, we’ll first know what these researchers wanted to find out. What do these people want to learn about? The researchers’ primary concern was to determine what factors are contributing to the inequality levels in Latin America and the Caribbean. Their initial expectations were political variables such as partisan legislative power, strength of democratic tradition, and the nature of social expenditures were the ones initially determining these inequality levels. Another assumption regarding this matter is that these variables have weights different from the ones in advanced modern/industrial societies. One of their basis for this assumption is that most advanced industrial countries have uninterrupted records of democracy as compared to that of Latin America. These countries were able to establish welfare states that redistribute the income. They’re basing their assumption on previous records like the overall size of welfare states and the structure of taxation expenditures. Closely looking at this matter, we can say that what these researchers wanted to find out was somehow in line with the use of scientific method. They came up with an inquiry which is based on previous data. They also gave their hypothesis as to what they expect about their assumption. In relation to this, their assumptions were given as an answer to their inquiry, and that will be the basis of how they’ll go about with this research. They came up with a set of data gathered from previous information from other studies and published articles. One of the bases that they used was studies which utilized multiple regression analyses of inequality in developing countries. They used this information as a pattern or guide in conducting their own study. One study made by Morley is about the determinants of differences in inequality of income distribution among countries in Latin America. Here, he combined multiple regression analysis with case studies of nine countries. Because of this, he came up with variables which play an important role in his research. These variables include national income, inflation, education, economic reform indices and land distribution. These variables are essential because it can also be used for other researches like this one. Basing on the scientific method, we can say that it this research made full use of the information from previous studies. They were able to gather essential information which they could use in proving their assumptions for this study. However, they may have overused the information and relied on it too much. There is a great resemblance of their research with that of Morley’s, that’s why it ma have resulted to something similar. The point is, they could have altered several aspects in other researches and not just utilized everything from that one into their own. If they are expecting to find something new, then their research should be something new also. Other researches are there for additional information and guide, that’s why they shouldn’t dwell on it always. The researchers came up with different hypotheses on democracy, political parties, social spending, economic development, inflation, demography, ethnic composition, education, foreign direct investment, the informal sector, and land distribution. They were able to give arguments and related studies as to how these factors were able to affect the inequality in Latin America. However, the way they presented these factors and how they reasoned out regarding its effect on the state of inequality in the area is questionable. The scientific method should be based on facts and concrete evidences. Surely, they were able to provide related literature for most of the factors, but in some, they also tried injecting their own opinion without giving any basis for saying that. The scientific method relies on how you will be able to back up your statements by using previous studies or materials from previous researches. If you are to say something without backing it up with concrete evidence, then the information you are relaying is questionable. The research posed a lot of information regarding these factors. But not all of the information that they gave were verifiable by evidence, so the credibility of their statements are somewhat questionable, thus making their research somewhat weaker. The next step of the scientific method involves gathering and organizing data for the research. Here, we see that the researches devoted enough time and effort to come up with sufficient data. Their main sources of information were secondary data from various country’s statistics, and how it was related to that country’s social and economic situation. They utilized various analytical methods in interpreting this data, sorting it in manner where one could clearly see how it affected the inequality for the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this part, they were able to stick to the scientific method of conducting a study wherein they properly gathered and sorted the data to be analyzed. As a result, they were able to come up with the necessary information which was interpreted. The results are there in order to verify and support the hypothetical claims that they made earlier on the study. This could either prove or disprove their assumptions. The next part of the scientific method is the discussion of the results before actually concluding the research. The results showed that the assumptions regarding the outcome of the study were strongly supported, wherein politics is really important in shaping the inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean countries. The democratic records were one of the strongest evidence for this, along with the cumulative record of the strength of left-of-center parties in the legislature, as well as the interaction of social security spending and democracy. It has left us with the conclusion that democracy is very important for inequality. This could be quantified in two ways, which are: 1) it allows the leaders who are concerned with the welfare of the underprivileged to let them build organizations in the form of political parties, and 2) allow those parties to establish a support base, and to gain necessary influence in the legislature and be able to use that influence to shape various policies is the direction of redistribution. The conclusion can be well associated with the scientific method, as it summarized the results and mentioned the possible implications of the research. Another problem is whether the research can easily be repeated for the purpose of verification. With all the necessary factors at hand, reproduction of this research may be hard because the political state of a country can be changed, thus affecting the variables it has previously possessed.

Internet Taxation and the Expansion of E-Commerce Essay example -- Tax

Internet Taxation and the Expansion of E-Commerce Internet taxation is an issue concerning different aspects of the Internet and its taxing. The taxes include: (1) taxes imposed upon Internet access fees, (2) sales taxes charged to online businesses selling to other businesses, and (3) sales taxes charged to consumers buying from a business. This is a very important issue as Internet sales continue to increase and as more business is conducted over the Internet. Because of this, revenue is not being pumped into state and local economies as much for lack of purchasing at local stores, and economies’ revenues are suffering as a result. Taxes could be imposed on Internet purchases, but this would in turn affect those businesses who conduct their business online, either business-to-business or business-to-consumer, and those consumers who shop online. Internet Taxation: What it is and Why it is Important As already stated, Internet taxation is the imposition of taxes on Internet access fees and taxes that could be added to goods, services, properties, and information purchased over the Internet. In 1998, Congress passed the Internet Tax Freedom Act which established an Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. This Commission was set up to study federal, state and local, and international taxation and tariff issues concerning purchases over the Internet, and everything else along with electronic commerce. Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, is â€Å"any transaction conducted over the Internet or through Internet access, comprising the sale, lease, license, offer, or delivery of property, goods, services, or information, whether or not for consideration, and includes the provision of Internet access.† (The Internet Tax... ...mmission on Electronic Commerce, Mar. 8, 2005, http://www.ecommercecommission.org/ITFA.htm Lassman, Kent 2001, The Internet Tax Freedom Act: Congress Could Put an End to Tax Confusion, The Federalist Society, Mar. 8, 2005, http://www.fed-soc.org/Publications/practicegroupnewsletters/telecommunications/tc020102.htm Maguire, Steven Dec. 12, 2000, RL30431: Internet Transactions and the Sales Tax, Congress, Mar. 8, 2005, http://www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/ Science/st-65.cfm?&CFID=19433234&CFTOKEN=43272686#_1_3 Nellen, Annette Sept. 26, 2001, Overview to E-Commerce Taxation Issues, San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, Mar. 8, 2005, http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/ facstaff/nellen_a/ECTaxUpdate9-01.doc Taxes-Background on Internet Taxation, January 2001, Association of American Universities, Mar. 8, 2005, http://www.aau.edu/sheets/InternetTax.html

How foragers and horticulturalists allocate land and labor Essay

Let’s start with a basic question whose answer may come as a surprise. What is culture and when did it begin? Culture is the multi-generational hard-drive of memory, change, and innovation. Culture transforms a record of the past into a prediction of the future; it transforms memory into tradition—into rules of how to proceed. And culture is profoundly social. It exists not just in one mind, but binds together mobs of minds in a common enterprise. When did culture first appear in this 13.7 billion-year-old universe? The answers are surprising. Most evolutionary experts say that human culture kicked off 45,000 to 35,000 years ago. Paleontologists studying pre-historic Europe call this period The Cultural Explosion. 45,000 to 35,000 years ago, men and women began to perforate, grind, polish, and drill bone, ivory, antler, shell and stone into harpoons, fish hooks, buttons, ornaments, sewing needles, and awls. Frosting the cake, humans invented musical instruments, calendars marked on pieces of antler, and paintings on the walls of caves. Then there’s the un-standard answer about culture’s beginnings, a rebel timeline of human culture that a relatively new pale anthropological school is fighting for. This new scientific movement has made its digs in Africa, not Europe, and has come up with radically different dates. Culture, says this upstart school, started approximately 280,000 years ago when humans invented the makeup industry, then followed that up with the invention of jewelry, beads, and trade. Culture is transmitted from one generation to generation and is learned mainly in childhood and during maturation. We learn not only our behavior but also our attitudes and values. The ability to acquire culture in this way makes humans highly adaptable to different cultural environments. We has humans are born with potential to learn whatever knowledge and skills are practices in are communities. When did another ingredient of culture— social memory, a memory that gives a foundation of knowledge, perception, and direction to an entire society—first arise? A firm answer is more elusive than you might think. Why? For the first 300,000 years after the Big Bang, the cosmos was host to a massive social dance. Particle gangs moved at super speed, colliding with each other like bullets smashing head to head, then bouncing away with ferocious velocity. Astonishingly, the particles involved—particularly the protons—came out of each crash with all their mass and form intact. Was this act of identity-retention a primitive form of memory? Was it tradition arisen before its time? The study examines decision of middle class of U.S. and highland Mayan parents regarding sleeping arrangements during the first two years the infants sleep with their mother up until there a toddler. But in the U.S. infants only sleep in the bed with their mother every now and then. This is how Mayan explains the closeness of their infants. When we put infant in a room by themselves then this making them impendent to be able to sleep on there on. Mayan families use there bedtimes as a routines and objects to facilitate transition to sleep. Rites of passage are a category of rituals that mark the passage of a person through the life cycle, from one stage to another over time, from one role or social position to another, integrating the human and cultural experiences with biological destiny: birth, reproduction, and death. These ceremonies make the basic distinctions, observed in all groups, between young and old, male and female, living and dead. The interplay of biology and culture is at the heart of all rites of passage, and the struggle between these two spheres asserts the essential paradox of our mortal heritage. As humans, we dwell in an equivocal world, for we belong to both nature and Reference page Cultural Anthropology (Bonvillain) Cultural Variation in Infants’ sleeping Arrangements Development Psychology 1992 Vol 4 604-613

Redemption And Utopia - 1367 Words

Redemption and Utopia The Torah doesn’t recognize Messiah as a designation of waiting for a redeemer in the eschatological, technical or personnel sense like the Christian tradition later understood in light of the redeeming death of Jesus of Nazareth. The word Messiah derives etymologically from the Hebrew and means anointed with oil. In the Jewish Bible the name Messiah applies to both the king (1 Sam 24,7.11), as the high priest (Lev 4.3), and later appears associated with all priests (2Mac 1, 10). The anointed presupposed, in short, the figure of anyone associated with the implementation of a special mission, rushed by G-d, but their status was still emptied of the eschatological and unique character of the person â€Å"Messiah† as would be reinforced later by biblical hermeneutics. The history of Judaism of the post-exilic period gave rise to a complex set of beliefs towards the expectations about the future: resurrection of the body, eternal reward and punishment, final judgment, heaven, retribution and the Messiah. Many of these beliefs, however, have become doctrines only later, and so are presented only bland and implicitly in the Torah. Indeed, to the astonishment of many, if not used as a task careful exegetical research, these beliefs remain hidden between the lines of the scripture. This was one reason, incidentally, that led the faction of the Sadducees to not believe in the resurrection of the dead, that is, because they are not explicitly written in theShow MoreRelatedThe Roots of Happiness1560 Words   |  7 Pagesthrough utopian literature. 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