The role of the European Parliament

The role of the European Parliament INTRODUCTION The division of powers among an executive, a legislature and a judiciary (Montesquieus tripartite system, The Spirit of Laws, 1748) is the common feature of the national democratic systems. The Parliament/National Assembly as a voice of the people can be considered as the institution that legitimizes system as a whole. Every country has its own parliamentary system, recognized and identified by the citizens. The European Parliament as the EU level legislature was created on the model of its counterparts. However its perception is significantly different. One can compare the internal organization of both, national and European Parliament, status of their members or party system but what undermines all the comparisons is the context in which these bodies are placed. The role of the European Parliament is determined by the nature of the EU and its sui generis character ‘a political system on its own right. It decides on the role of the institutions, division of competences and in ter-institutional relations that differ from those at the national level. Lack of traditional government has a significant impact on the position of the European political parties within the system. There is no executive to identify with nor to oppose to. The European party system is based on two competing principals that posses different resources to shape behavior of ‘their MEPs [agents]- national parties and the European political parties. EU is very often contested because of the lack of the legitimacy. The importance of the European elections is diminished because of the lack of electoral connection with the public and dominance of the national issues (second order elections). The internal procedures as well as decision making process are too complex to be entirely understood by an average citizen. As a consequence there is a different environment for the parties to operate in at the national and the EU level. It generates diverse level of cohesiveness, abilities to control, sanctions and rewards. All these factors decide on the way political parties organize at each level collectively or individually and what are the incentives that determine their choice. Are they in fact weaker in the European Parliament if compares to those in the domestic parliaments in Europe? If it is the case what are the main reasons that make them weaker? Which of the lsquo;principals has more influence? I will argue that due to the different constitutional structure of the EU lack of government performance of the European parties is less apparent than those at the national level. As a consequence the incentives for collective party organization can be indeed considered weaker than it is a case for the domestic parliaments. However evaluation of these incentives cannot be oversimplified. These two levels are interlinked and mutually dependent. Growing cohesiveness within the political groups can be a merit of both: national and European party levels. Importance of the EP (especially after the Lisbon Treaty) draws more and more attention to what does happen in the EP. Its growing power provides national parties with additional incentives to organize collectively at the supra-domestic level in order to maximize effectiveness of their actions. Firstly I will emphasize the main features of the European party system, its structure, mechanisms and levels of collective organization. The first part will be divided in two sections: brief presentation of the nomenclature used in the context of the European parliamentary system and theory of two principals the system is based on. Secondly I will present common incentives for collective party organization, that can be found at both levels. In the third part, I will focus on European dimension of these incentives. Forth part will contain a comparative analysis of two levels: national and European presenting the main differences. Given to the information, presented in the prior chapters, in the fifth one, I will answer what determines voting behavior of the MEPs and internal-party cohesiveness. In the last, sixth part, I will come to concluding statements. I. EUROPEAN PARTY SYSTEM STRUCTURE AND MECHANISMS Structure of the party system in the European Parliament is characterized by its multiplicity of organization levels and actors involved. First of all there are national party delegations which join the European political parties (transnational parties or Europarties) which then create European political groups. These two first levels may result in third although less official one at which political groups cooperate together in order to minimize the influence of other political groups or to build a common front against the other EU institutions such as the Council or the European Commission. Thus one could describe internal organization of the European Parliament as two and a half or three level transnational party system (see Figure 1.1). I.1. DEFINITIONS The European party system is characterized by the complexity of nomenclature which needs to be clarified in order to understand the party organization. Starting from the first component of the structure. National party delegations can be defined as entities within the transnational parties in the EP consisting of MEPs from the same national party. Transnational parties are the group [s] of representatives within a given institution that typically come from the same party family. According to Lindberg et al., in the EP, these transnational parties are also commonly referred to as (transnational) party groups. However, it has to be mentioned that these transnational parties, albeit they create transnational political groups, they are not the equivalent of the latter. In most cases political groups are composed of more than one political party. Not every MEPs belongs to the party that creates the group unaffiliated members. Political groups are not allowed to take part in the campaign for the European elections and cannot be established if the proposed membership consists of MEPs from only one member state. Functioning and organization of the European parties has its legal basis in the Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 on the regulations governing political parties at European level and the rules regarding their funding. I.2. TWO PRINCIPALS THEORY The principal-agent theory is frequently used by the scholars to describe the relations among the actors involved in the EU policy-making process, namely: institutions and members states. The central problem analyzed [in this theory] is that one actor (the principal) needs to delegate tasks and resources to another actor (the agent) who will take action on behalf of the principal but who has interests and objectives of his or her own. Agent cannot observe the actions of its principal, thus its control abilities are very limited. It creates a serious incentive problem and a necessity of the sanction mechanism to ensure expected outcomes. Principal-agent interaction applies also to the European Parliament. There are two party principals that possess specific resources to shape the behavior of their MEPs. Quality of these resources determines the influence and efficiency of the principals. National parties (principal 1) can use their control of candidate reselection and their control of the process of European elections to influence whether an MEP is elected to the parliament in the first place. European parties (principal 2), in turn, can use their control of resources and power inside the parliament to influence whether an MEP is able to secure his or her policy and career goals once elected. What does the two-principal theory mean for the effectiveness of the European party system? What does it say about the interactions within the system? According to David Marquand, European party system, in order to be fully democratic and effective has to be based on Europe des partis where politics is structured through a party system, and not on Europe des patries where politics is structured around national identities and governments. It would guarantee a higher level of internal cohesiveness and secure the policy objectives. In the European Parliament, there is however a significant pressure from the national parties which may have a strong impact on the final decisions of one MEP or another. When the power of the EP is at stake, MEPs have strong incentive to vote together to acquire more power relative to other EU institutions , to ensure a counterbalance. However, the national parties may be encouraged to exert more influence over their MEPs because of the growing legislative power of the EP. Hence, it can be argued that there will be an increased intervention by national parties to control the activities of their European re presentatives. The functioning of the EP depends to a great extent on the interactions between two principals and the influence of one or/and the other. These interactions are, in turn, determined by a lot of factors. Among the others one can mention: issue covered, circumstances, institutional context and strategies applied by the particular groups. Different incentives offered by them evoke different behavior. Incentives for collective party organization can be common for both levels: national and European, separate or may create a sort of   toolbox of the incentives that are taken out of the box, when there is such a need. II. COMMON INCENTIVES FOR COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION Collective organization is one of the concept which can be applied to a lot of spheres of political and social science. It refers to the logic of collective action of Mancur Olson and its theory of groups. The main purpose of the collective organization is to reduce transaction costs of what can be achieved by joining the group whose members share the same interests. The most evident form of collective organization in political parties context is the coalition-building. According to John H. Aldrich, political parties are institutional solutions created by rational utility-maximizing legislators to reduce the transaction costs of collective decision-making and solve the internal collective action problems they face in the legislature. There are two main common incentives for collective organization: reduction of transaction costs and solution for collective action problem. Building a coalition is a very time-consuming and demanding process that includes the costs of putting together a proposal, identifying coalition partners and forging a compromise acceptable to a sufficient majority. Going through all these stages every time a party looks for an ally is too risky and does not guarantee sufficient level of influence after all. The existence of political parties reduces these costs by allowing the actors concerned to ‘pre-pack like-minded legislators and form more stable coalition patterns. Coalition-building solves also the problem of collective action in decision making process. Through organizing themselves into a majority party, legislators can receive a higher pay-off in terms of policy then they could achieve as individual legislators. Being a part of a majoritarian coalition is the only way to have enough influence in order to pass a legislation that would secure the policy objectives. Every coalition, once built, has to be cohesive, otherwise it will not play its expected role. Voting behavior of the coalition members determines its power and effectiveness. Transnational character of the political groups, however, can easily impede the internal cohesiveness. There two groups of the reasons that can be mentioned. First one, having its sources in systemic differences as to the political culture, traditions, habits, mentalities, political scene stability (bi- or multipolar), level of dependence on national authorities, attachment to domestic parties, importance of national issues etc. Second one concerning individual features such as personality, knowledge about the issues concerned, language barrier which can hinder the access to informal source of information as well as the informal inter-MEPs relations. The list of the reasons is not exhaustive one. It shows, however, the importance and influence of the national system on the behavior of the MEPs who have been brought up by each particular system. The question arises what can be done in order to ensure a satisfactory level of cohesiveness? What are the instruments that can be used to control voting behavior? The EU party system does not have such an advanced sanction mechanism as it is the case in the domestic parliaments in Europe. Therefore, establishing party leadership seems to be the most effective, if not the only one, solution to compensate this deficiency. There are two possible scenarios that can be applied by the parties. According to the first one, parties can establish a transnational party together with like-minded legislators in order to reduce transaction costs of legislative decision-making. There is no centralized party group leadership and collective action problem of maintaining party unity can be solved through repeated actions. Alternative option assumes the establishment of party group leadership with monitoring capabilities and disciplinary power. These two scenarios give the legislators incentives to fo rm transnational parties at the European level in order to increase their influence over policy outcomes. Apart from having influence on policy-making ‘policy seeking incentive, scholars distinguish two others: ‘re-election and ‘office-seeking. Together, they form a sort of the incentives triangle which defines the collective party organization (see Figure 2.1). It depends on the particular system which incentive is more likely to be used. In the domestic parliamentary system ‘re-election is particularly important one due to a great impact of national parties on future career of their MEPs. It has to be born in mind, that this incentives triangle is characterized by mutual dependence on the one hand and inequality on the other. According Thorsten Faas, their relations can be described ‘clear lexicographic order. He underlines importance of re-election goal as the one that decide on the existence of the two others. ‘Without re-election, there is neither office, nor policy. It confirms the importance of the domestic parliamentary system and preliminary incentive it offers. Once, however, re-election is achieved, it creates further incentives that can be applied at the EU level. III. INCENTIVES FOR COLLECTIVE PARTY ORGANIZATION AT THE EU LEVEL ‘Transnational parties are (†¦) a product of national parties, who created and sustain the transnational parties to serve their own policy goals in the European Parliament. Thus, it is in the national parties interest to ensure the cohesiveness in once created supranational platform. ‘Each national party is unlikely to obtain its policy objectives by acting alone. They need an access to transnational level which would open a ‘window of opportunity through which they could pass their goals. Transnational parties ‘help national parties and MEPs, structure their behavior. These two levels of party organization are characterized by interdependence based on mutuality of interests and benefits. National party as an essential subcomponent of transnational party on the one hand. Transnational party as a useful platform and a source of behavior structure on the other. Apart from these inter-related incentives, falling partially in Principal 1 and Principal 2 resources, one can mention other, reserved only for MEPs once they have been elected (See: II.2. Two principal theory; Principal 2). The most important one is allocation of leadership position within the EP. Party groups ‘control important assets within the EP such as committee positions, rapporteurships for writing legislative reports, and plenary speaking time. ‘The most salient reports are allocated to the most loyal MEPs. Another incentive, however less important, is the control of the parliamentary agenda by the MEPs. They do have an influence on what can be included in the agenda, but they cannot decide on whether one issue or another can be kept of the agenda. The larger party group is, the greater influence on allocation of leadership position and agenda control it has. Using the allocation position power as well as (limited) agenda control one can argue that European poli tical groups are able to ‘enforce party line and mobilize its members to unified voting. While analyzing incentives for collective party organization at the EU level, institutional context has to be mentioned. Behavior of the institutions and their members is to a great extent determined by inter-institutional competition. Each of them seeks to preserve its position on the institutional arena and ensure its influence on the issues concerned. In other words, the inter-institutional competition system is based on counterbalance mechanisms that help the institutions prevent the dominant position of one of them. This is the case also for the European Parliament, whose power has been systematically enforcing by the treaties, moving the EP form its position of purely consultative body (Treaty of Rome) and to the one of an active player the decision-making process (veto power). The ordinary legislative procedure introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, entered into a force in 2009, makes the role of the EP even more significant. Collective organization within the EP as well as voting c ohesiveness help the EP to reduce the importance of two other institutions, namely the Council and the Commission. Another level of the competition which is very present in the EP concern party groups. Inter-party group competition determines voting behavior within the groups increasing cohesiveness. It is in the interest of the political groups to ensure a strong position vis à   vis other groups. Following the general rule bigger can more, creating bigger and more influential platform enables the groups to be more competitive and to constitute a counterbalance to the others. As S. Hix et al. argue, ‘the incentive to form and maintain powerful transnational party organization is fundamentally related to political competition inside the European Parliament (†¦) It pays to be cohesive because this increases a partys chance of being on the winning side of a vote and thus to influence its final outcome. IV. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INCENTIVES IN DOMESTIC PARLIAMENTS IN EUROPE AND IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Among the consequences of the distinct nature of the nation state on the one hand and the European Union on the other (see: Introduction, pp. 1-2) one can find differences between incentives for collective party organization accessible at both levels. The reasons maybe divided into groups which touch upon different aspects: nature of the European election, re-election capabilities, sanction instruments, constitutional structure and general perception of political parties performance at both levels. Domestic parliaments are perceived as the ones that offer their deputies more incentives than it is the case of the European Parliament, where ‘the role of the political parties is much less apparent.Reif and Schmitt coined the term of ‘second-order national elections to underline the importance of the national issues in the election campaigns in Europe. One can also mention very low turnout, ‘weak electoral connection between citizens and European legislators, no ‘brand name at the EU level ‘since candidates do not use a common European label, but the label of their national party. Taking into account these factors, ‘the nature of elections does not [seem to] provide an incentive to act within a cohesive party group that is as strong as in genuine national election. Internal functioning of the EP shows an important role played by the national electoral systems as well as strong a ‘connection between the MEPs and their national parties. The national parties constitute ‘the main aggregate actors in the European Parliament. There are lots of aspects justifying this statement. These are the national parties that nominate the candidates to the European elections. They decide also ‘which of their MEPs will be returned to the European Parliament. ‘National party leaderships have a dominant influence on the future career prospects of the MEPs, both within and beyond the EP. National parties decide which of their MEPs they will support for key committee position and offices inside the parliament and also whether MEPs will be chosen as candidates for national legislative and executive office. There is a clear list of incentives and goal that may be achieved. The most important one is ‘re-election. The lack of this particular incentive to offer at the EU level weakens significantly the position of transnational parties in comparison to their national counterparts. Level of the voting cohesiveness determines the effectiveness of the transnational groups once they are established. It decides if they are able or not to ‘ensure political accountability and consistent decision-making.Domestic parliamentary systems have at their disposal greater sanctions for the behavior contradictory to the party lines. Taking into account what national parties can offer, there is too much to lose if one decide not follow their instructions (cost and benefits analysis). One of the relevant instruments available at the domestic level is the confidence vote attached to a legislative proposal. It can be used by the governmental party or coalition in order to ensure (party) voting cohesion.On top of that, ‘the cabinet, with its prerogatives in the legislative process, is formed along partisan lines and the portfolios are distributed by party leaders. It shows that political parties ‘are crucial at all stages of the making of public policy. The sanctions mechanism within the European Parliament is developed enough to exert an effective influence on voting behavior of the MEPs. There are two instruments which has to be mentioned. Political groups can control their members through ‘whips or by ‘group coordinators in case of the committees. The second one at the disposal of the political groups is ‘the ultimate sanction of expelling an individual MEP or national party delegation from the group. However, political groups make use of this possibility only in extreme cases.Decision of the expulsion ‘has to be supported by a majority of all MEPs in the group and is only credible if expelling the party would not weaken the political group compared with its opponents in the parliament.Importance of the available instruments is limited by their rather theoretical dimension. If we assume that the transnational parties are responsible for the growing cohesiveness within the political groups, the threat of us e of the sanction itself should be sufficient in order to ensure an obedience of the MEPs. However, if these are the national parties which determine the voting behavior, these sanction instruments lose their raison dà ªtre and should be regarded as rather simple provision. Differences between two levels concern to a large extent the constitutional structure. The one of the EU ‘does not (†¦) resemble the structure of a parliamentary system.First of all, there is no traditional government to support, discredit, refer to: identify with or oppose to. No executive ‘which can enforce party unity via a vote of confidence.Only possibility at the EPs disposal is ‘the power to vote the European executive (the Commission) through vote of no confidence. However, the necessary majority (two-thirds majority of the votes cast, representing a majority of the component MEPs, art. 234 TFEU) is very difficult to achieve. Furthermore, the Commission ‘[is not] recruited from a majority coalition within the EP.It has no power to dissolve the Parliament, even for the budgets rejection which would normally have happened in the national systems. One can say that both positive and negative incentives from the part of the ‘executive are very li mited. Nothing to be afraid of and nothing to strive for. Performance of European political groups is weakened by limited abilities of agenda control (in comparison to the domestic parliaments). ‘No transnational party can use agenda control powers in order to keep policy issues which divide the party from arising in the legislative decision-making process (†¦) even if [this particular party holds] a sufficient majority of votes'(see Section III, p. 7). It is the European Commission that has an exclusive right to initiative. The European Parliament can only submit the proposal for legislative act, which then is considered by the Commission. The same applies to the transnational parties in the Council. Thus, Lindberg et al., argue that ‘partisan control of the legislative agenda is only possible if a political camp dominates all three legislative bodies in the EU, namely: the Commission, the Council and the Parliament. Table 1 Party effects on legislative decision-making National parties Transnational parties Electoral arena Selection of representatives European Parliament Yes No Council Yes No Commission Yes No Legislative arena Legislative organization European Parliament Mixed Mixed Council No No Commission No No Intra-institutional decision-making European Parliament Yes Yes Council Mixed Mixed Commission No No Intra-institutional decision-making Mixed Yes (preliminary evidence) Source: B. Lindberg, A. Rasmussen, A. Warntjen, ‘Party politics as usual? The role of political parties in EU legislative decision-making, Journal of European Public Policy, Volume 15, Issue 8, 2008, p. 1114. V. DETERMINANTS OF THE VOTING COHESIVENESS INSIDE THE EP Different factors that determine the voting behavior inside the EP refer us to the theory of two principals mentioned in the second part (see pages 3-4). Which of them has a greater impact on how the MEPs vote: national parties of transnational groups? What does prevail: national loyalty or partisan alignments? Do they necessarily oppose to each other? One can assume that MEPs take their decision being well informed and fully aware of the context of the decisions, their content as well as their consequences. However, a significant part of them are being taken without this knowledge and rationally based analysis. Instead of it, other factors influence the MEPs and their final decision. Three of them seem to be the most important. First, personal relations among the MEPs established as a result of socialization. It concerns especially those first-time elected deputies who are not very familiar with organizational structure of the EP. They are often forced to rely on somebody else while taking the decision. Somebody who, for different reasons, they decide to trust while taking decision. Second, content of the issue discussed and its impact on a vote. If the outcome of the decision is particularly important from a countrys perspective, one could expect that MEP to be well informed about the issue. Then probability that he or she will vote in accordance to the national party line is higher, either. Third, time the decision is taken. One can argue that MEPs are more likely to vote in line with their European party/political group when the leadership positions have not been allocated yet. In other words, it is difficult to apply the well know rule of ‘stick and carrot if the carrot does no longer exist. ‘Despite frequent criticism of the lack of strength of the EP party groups, it is shown that they achieve relatively high and rising levels of cohesion.However, there is no clear answer on ‘whether it is mainly the transnational or the national parties that act as the principals of the MEPs.At least three observations can be made to show the relations between them. First, ‘national political parties make up the European parties strategically choose to vote together and impose discipline on their MEPs even when their preferences diverge. Doing so, they want to secure their ‘long term collective policy goaland not necessarily ‘the immediate outcome of particular vote.Second, MEPs rarely vote against the European party line. Mostly because a ‘high level of consensus between European political groups and national parties rarely forces them to make that choice. Third however, if the conflict between two principals appears they will chose the national on e. One can say that ‘MEPs are ultimately controlled by their national parties rather than European political groups. Importance of the national actors in determining the cohesion of the European parties depends on ‘how closely [nation parties] follow Parliamentary debates and how often the offer guidance to their own members. The national parties are more likely to be directly involved ‘when they are opposed to the group vote or when the issue is of particular national concern.Voting against the majority within the political group does not simply pay if the rate is not high enough. The same applies for the roll-call voting where votes (Yes, No, Abstain) are published in the parliaments official minutes.Votes that are usually taken by roll call concerns decision of rather political nature (not technical one). It gives an extra incentive to ‘show loyalty to the European political groups. Existing studies of roll-call voting confirm this statement showing that ‘MEPs are likely to vote along transnational party lines than national lineswhen such a method is applied. ‘Though the Parliament is organized

Physics of the Arctic :: physics arctic

The Arctic is a strange and unusual place where nature still rules with and icy fist. In the land of the "high noon moon", the extreme cold has a strange effect on the environment, the people, and even everyday objects that we take for granted act different. Ice rules the land and shapes it to it's will. Layers of cold air change a normal scene into a wonderland of color and mystery. Normal, everyday items take on unusual characteristics in the sub-zero climate. Ice wedges are structures where water has filled a crack or hole in the ground and froze over the winter. As the water freezes, it expands, making the crack bigger. As the Wedge gets bigger, the whole it creates gets bigger and gets fovered with sediments and dirt. On the surface, these ice wedges make the ground look like a patchwork of tiles, called polygons. As the wedge gets deeper, it begins to melt and the water is then put under high pressure from the surrounding ice and dirt. This causes the water to be forced to the surface. As it moves twards the surface, the rock and soil above it are pushed out of the way, making pingos. These pingos are usually a small hill with a ring or rock and soil at the center. Many pingos, thought, can reach the size of a house or other large building. When we think of a mirage, we usually think of a hot desert. In the arctic, though, the thermal layering of the cold air causes a similar effect. The effect is the opposite of a heat mirage though. Here, you can see that the mountain looks to be up-side down and mushroom shaped. In the winter in the far north, the temperatures can get real low! This was the coldest temperature during the winter of '03-'04. The extreme cold allowed me to have a little fun and also caused a few problems. On the morning that the temperature reached -54F, i decided to get up early and go into town to get a picture of a sign so all my friends would beleave me when i told them how cold it had been, when i started to move in the car, however, i noticed that the tired felt wierd as i drove. When the air in the tires is supercooled, he presure drops and the tires arreap to deflate, causing the bottoms to become flattened against the ground.

Lady Macbeth Analysis Essay

Lady Macbeth has a manipulative, vindictive nature. She is a very controlling character yet we see her troubled mind reveal itself as the play progresses although as a character, in my opinion, when her mind unravels and her actions of insanity later occurs in the play I do not feel an ounce of sympathy for the murderous malicious actions of Macbeth’s temptress that lead him to doom and destruction. Therefore Lady Macbeth is just like a serpent that poisons her prey. In the opening scenes of the play it is clear to see how acutely in love Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are. When Macbeth is told the prophecy by the witches he immediately writes a letter to Lady Macbeth telling her of this news. Macbeth addresses Lady Macbeth as â€Å"my dearest partner of greatness† act 1 scene 5; this shows the magnitude of his love for her. He thoroughly respects her and reports to her, â€Å"deliver thee† not failing to tell her any new information. The first time we meet Lady Macbeth it doesn’t give the reader a great perspective. She immediately becomes captivated in Macbeths letter and the prophecy of him being King, and conjures up a plan to kill Duncan, it is later revealed they are mutual friends, as he addresses her as â€Å"honored hostess† act 1 scene 6. This cold hearted nature and deep desire for social status and thriving ambition makes her desert any feelings of guilt and remorse, (for the time being). She is confident and strong, she fears Macbeth is not evil enough to execute a friend to reach the final goal of high status we hear this in her soliloquy, â€Å"too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way,† act 1 scene 5 she prays for help â€Å"metaphysical aid† act 1 scene 5 to help Macbeth become ruthless. She fears he is â€Å"without ambition† act 1 scene 5 and so would not carry out the deed properly. Lady Macbeth even would do the murder herself as she prays to become manlier â€Å"unsex me† act 1 scenes 5-7, she prays that she will have no conscience and to be filled with poison. This shows the extent of her ambitious mind. It also reveals that although how evil she is, she still needs an extra push to give her confidence, this doesn’t mean however that she is an innocent flower, she is still an evil serpent at the fact that she wishes to be even more evil and filled with malice. When she first meets Macbeth she begins to goad and persuade him to do the deed she administrates ideas of looking above suspicion. She tells him â€Å"look like th’innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.† act 1 scene 5, Shakespeare uses very expressive language here with contrasting imagery of a flower (which represents good) and a serpent (which represents evil). This could also be interpreted as a metaphor for Macbeth’s relationship with his wife in that when Lady Macbeth is plotting murderous schemes and manipulating her husband, Macbeth is presented in a good and vulnerable light. The same applies for when Macbeth decides to take the murders further later on in the book and the audience gains sympathy for his wife. Macbeth is left with little to say and is interrupted by his wife on several occasions in that scene, providing the audience with a clear insight into Shakespeare’s intentions for the hierarchy within the relationship. That hierarchy being where Macbeth is more or less controlled by what Lady Macbeth tells him to do, almost like a spell of her own. This provides strong evidence for those who believe that Lady Macbeth is like a serpent. Lady Macbeth shows more serpent techniques as she hides her malevolent plans while greeting her guest, the King, at her household. She is skilled with her welcome of politeness towards Duncan as she has already planned that Duncan will die, â€Å"fatal battlements,† act 1 scene 5 yet she can mask her wickedness and still seem courteous towards Duncan. Progressing through the book from the start Lady Macbeth now symbolizes the character of wickedness to her full extent, like a snake that targets its prey and is not satisfied until the aim is achieved. In Act 1 scene 7 we see how Lady Macbeth belittles her husband in an attempt for him to agree whole heartedly to kill the king of Scotland. She tries to make him feel weak and cowardly. She uses foul phrases with appalling imagery such as telling Macbeth that while she was breast feeding her baby she would: â€Å"while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn you had done to this.† She tries to come over as very menacing and heartless at this point in the play, making a point of the fact that if she had promised to kill her own child she would do so. The role of women at the time when Shakespeare wrote this play was that women were mothers and supported their husbands, there main objective would be to look after the home. A Shakespearian audience would be appalled that Lady Macbeth is neither and that she even threatens a life of a child. This shows how Lady Macbeth would have done almost anything to persuade Macbeth however, after the murder of Duncan, she contradicts herself ra ther strongly as she comments on not being able to kill her father. In Act 2 scene 2 Lady Macbeth shows strength. Macbeth returns from killing the king to discuss the event with his wife. Shakespeare uses this as an opportunity for the audience to feel sympathy as we see his grief and guilt. We also get to see a very new side to Lady Macbeth, she admits that if he had not looked like her own father she would have done the deed herself, showing that underneath her hard exterior, there are elements of compassion and guilt that though she expresses little, she still feels them just like any other human being. The audience then can see her snap out of her sensitive phase and channel her emotions into reassuring and controlling her husband. She tells him to dismiss his hallucinations about the dagger and to return them to frame the guards who were guarding Duncan’s room. â€Å"These deeds must not be thought, after these ways; so, it will make us mad.† The audience could consider this as foreshadowing of what occurs as the play progresses as both Lady Macbeth and her husband experience mental disturbances because of the horrific crimes they committed. Hands are used as a metaphor throughout this scene and as an extended metaphor throughout the play. Macbeth refers to his as â€Å"hangman’s hands† and uses phrases such as â€Å"ravelled sleeve of care†, whereas Lady Macbeth is far more literal and tells him to â€Å"wash this filthy witness from your hand.† This could be interpreted as the hands representing guilt and so each character handles the guilt in different ways; Macbeth is very open about his guilt and remorse by using dramatic devices such as personification and metaphors, for example: â€Å"Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.† Lady Macbeth, however, deals with her culpability in a different way in that she pretends to feel nothing towards the situation but it obviously haunts her as we see in her final scene in Act 5 scene 1 where she sleep walks and hallucinates. Shakespeare illustrates this well when Lady Macbeth mocks Macbeth for being so gentle: â€Å"My hands are of your colour, but I shame, to wear a heart so white.† She also says rather flippantly, â€Å"A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then! Your constancy hath left you unattended.† Shakespeare’s intention for this scene, I think, was to show us that there is a sensitive, guilty side underneath her shell of ambition and malevolence. Conversely the depth of evil she has shown so far throughout the play cannot make her an innocent flower but an evil and manipulative serpent. When Macduff discovers Duncan’s murder with great astonishment, he alerts the whole castle including Banquo, Malcolm and Donaldbain of the king’s death and so Lady Macbeth enters. She acts very much â€Å"like th’innocent flower† by pretending to be oblivious to what had happened in the previous scene, â€Å"What’s the business that such a hideous trumpet calls to parley, the sleepers of the house?† Then with immense dramatic irony, Macduff replies calling her â€Å"gentle lady† and commenting on the fact that the talk of murderous deeds is too tender for a woman’s ears. The audience would find this somewhat amusing as they know that Lady Macbeth is responsible for persuading Macbeth to commit the murder of Duncan and so would not in any way find the subject too sensitive or painful. Lady Macbeth is very much out of control in this scene, she is surprised to find out that Macbeth killed the two attendants which weren’t in her plan and she begins to falter. In the Macbeth’s relationship this is somewhat very different from the beginning, Macbeth did not consult Lady Macbeth of killing the attendants and this shows their relationship distancing. Lady Macbeth shows her fragility by fainting, although it is unknown to the audience if she genuinely fainted or if it is an act. Lady Macbeth experiences a loss of power and control in Act 3 scene 2, where Macbeth arranges his next murder without her involvement. Shakespeare has her character showing compassion to her husband’s ‘sorriest fancies’ when he complains of insecurity about his dangerous thoughts and deeds. She tries to make him forget what has happened by instructing him: â€Å"Using those thoughts which should indeed have died, with them think on? Things without all remedy should be without regard; what’s done is done.† But Lady Macbeth has lost some of her control, her serpent like naturisms have become wilted but like a serpent, it always remains. Lady Macbeth presents herself as the gracious hostess once more as she invites the lords to dinner in Act 3 scene 4. At the beginning of the scene the audience is presented with the news of Banquo’s slaughter. Lady Macbeth suspects this but is not directly informed as her husband has somewhat distanced himself from her, implying that he does not need her influences for villainous thoughts any more, he can do it all by himself now. This scene manages to arouse some sympathy for Lady Macbeth as we see her power lessening downfall. This could be what ultimately leads to her suspected suicide. The audience gets to understand that Shakespeare did not want to present Lady Macbeth as a character who takes pleasure in the sight of bloodshed and gore, but one who craves power and enforces her ambitions upon those she can manipulate. We also see a role reversal here for the second time in the play. She already has upset the natural order of marital hierarchy from the beginning of the play where she presents herself in the dominant role which was extremely uncommon for that period. Then as the play progresses she becomes part of a downward spiral where she loses power and the status within the marriage as she becomes the more recessive figure next to her now dominant husband. Which in essence, could her suicide later on in the play be reflected upon the idea that Lady Macbeth needs to be the dominate figure? I think that she becomes so broken by her husband’s horrific actions that even she wouldn’t commit and she can’t take anymore of the division between the once close couple this could be seen as an innocent flower but considering everything that has happened throughout the play, she can certainly not be called innocent. The ghost of Banquo makes an appearance at the dinner table in this scene but of course only Macbeth can see (another one of his deluded hallucinations like the dagger). He becomes extremely unsettled by this and begins to shout at the ghost with a fiery passion that stuns the rest of his guests. â€Å"Thou canst not say I did it; never shake thy gory locks at me!† Ross initiates the lords standing up and leaving their new king in peace to rest and collect himself but Lady Macbeth being â€Å"th’innocent flower† that she pretends to be assures the lords that he is fine and is just unwell. The audience feels some sort of consideration for her as we can see her husband’s mental health deteriorates and her power disintegrate. She snaps at Macbeth â€Å"Are you a man?† as she quite obviously feels utterly embarrassed by his reactions to the ghost. She tries to use this as an opportunity to regain her status above Macbeth which is understandable as she f eels defeated but is selfish considering her husband’s state, she shows serpent qualities, the need to be in control of her prey. In the most dramatic scene in Lady Macbeth’s presence on stage, the audience is given the opportunity to see the real Lady Macbeth as her subconscious takes over her physical state. Having no further matters to occupy her mind as Macbeth no longer tells her his plans, she begins to dwell on the past, slipping further and further from reality until she eventually completely loses her hold on sanity and takes her own life. At the beginning of her last scene, Act 5 scene 1, the doctor and gentlewoman are analyzing her recent behavior, â€Å"She has light by her continually, ’tis her command.† As light is a common metaphor for purity this insinuates that she doesn’t want to be considered evil and wants to redeem herself but can’t because she is too involved to dig herself out now and so her subconscious speaks the words she cannot. â€Å"Out damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear? Who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?† A Shakespearian audience would have recognized the spot as the devil’s mark and would have reacted with horror as they saw this scene being played; this shows that once again she can be called a serpent. Shakespeare has used very disjointed language with punctuation separating every short phrase. This translates to her being very edgy and emotionally unstable. She then reels off a list of other people for which she feels responsible for their deaths as well as her husband. She refers back to the common theme of hands which has occurred throughout the play. â€Å"What, will these hands ne’er be clean?† â€Å"All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O.† She still refers to her hands as being â€Å"little† and the need for them to be ‘sweetened’ and so this indicates the want for her to be filled with good and that she is feeling genuine guilt and mental anguish. This anguish finally leads to her suicide by unspecified means. Shakespeare probably chose not to present the death of Lady Macbeth on stage to add to the impact of her exit and last scene and also to be slightly ambiguous. I think a dying scene would have been effective for Lady Macbeth’s last scene; she could perhaps have given a soliloquy explaining how she truly was feeling. To let her portray her malice side and let the audience be satisfied to call her an evil serpent. The significance of Lady Macbeth being an evil woman becoming tortured with guilt and grief is off great importance to a Shakespearian audience, in that time they believed in witchcraft and in my opinion Lady Macbeth could be portrayed as how people who are evil and malicious never get away with the deed. I think a Shakespearian audience would think witchcraft would have been involved in Lady Macbeth’s downfall and this would be very real and true for them. She was certainly a bold character for going against the ‘Chain of Being’ in which God was considered to be ultimately at the top with monarchs under that and other members of society such as lords and townsfolk following after, but at the bottom were women and so she was courageous to consider herself to be above even monarchy! Though wrong, especially considering what was said if the chain of being was to be disrupted, that chaos would arise, disrupting the natural order of life on earth and in the heavens which is seen as inexcusable a definite serpent quality. To conclude, it is evident that Shakespeare had Lady Macbeth’s emotional state disintegrate as the play proceeded to in effect show the downfall of a control freak. In the first two acts we have little sympathy for Lady Macbeth as Shakespeare only provides the audience with her vindictive exterior, at this time we cannot see what she is truly thinking and feeling. It is only as the play progresses that we understand why she turns out to be the way that she is, that she has a very ambitious character and so enforces that upon her husband. She feels that Macbeth becoming king will benefit them both and sees killing the existing king as the fastest way to get to the throne. She then becomes gradually defeated as Macbeth’s ambition and obsession with becoming king begins to soar and spiral. She is then over-ridden with guilt and eventually feels that she cannot bear the guilt that torments her troubled mind and so decides to end it all. Had her ambition not overridden her sense of morality, she could have been a respectable, intelligent woman who complemented her husband’s abilities to form a perfect partnership. However, she ended up becoming a tortured, immoral, dejected soul, and disliked by many people becoming a serpent.

Technology And Civil Practices Of The Middle Eastern...

War is defined by the Webster dictionary as â€Å"a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations†, this definition does not apply to the current war in Afghanistan. This war has been one of the most controversial wars in United States history,with one of the biggest issues being how Afghanistan is being effected since it is not a part of the war as much as a platform where it is taking place. For all the confusion, destruction, and loss during a war there is a bright side in the unification and advancement of both technology and civil practices. This war has been no different in the fact that technology has advanced exponentially, and the world has begun to truly understand the customs and practices of the Middle Eastern States. The improvement of technology has allowed the building of better agricultural equipment, which has in turn given rise to better agricultural practices. Another thing that has changed both with a change in personne l and a change in policies is the government of Afghanistan. The main driving force for the change being seen is by the young people of Afghanistan who want the culture to evolve in a more global manor. When all of these changes are looked at as a whole instead of individually there is a clear trends that shows the growing economy of Afghanistan increasing at the highest rate in 100 years. This paper will explore all of the issues and outcomes stated above using Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of culture andShow MoreRelatedThe Middle East1661 Words   |  7 Pages18th centuries in the Middle East were periods marked by severe financial crisis, increased decentralization, and stronger external control by western nations. 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The Babylonian Of The Assyrian Army - 1987 Words

This research paper is about one aspect of the ancient world that I have analyzed and the topic that I have done this research on is the Assyrian Army. I will give a detailed analysis with precise and concise information with well presented information with credible claims to support my paper and my thesis statement that â€Å".The Assyrian Army was the most organized Army in the Ancient near east; they conquered the Dark Age era with their tactical and physical nature of militant system which makes them the best army of all time†. The Worldview connection is that the Assyrian was into terror and believed that they were immortal which shows how brutal they were. The Assyrians not only viewed themselves as a great army but had a worldview that was set as the foundation of western civilization which was more polytheistic. Assyria is a major Mesopotamian East Semitic kingdom and empire of the Ancient Near East, existed as an independent state for a period of approximately ninetee n centuries, from the 25th century BCE to the 6th century BCE, spanning the mid to Early Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age. (Humanities 26) â€Å"For a short time the Assyrians became the first people to rule both Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. 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They forced all the people to move out to their Assyrian Kingdom and obey the Assyrian Kingdom. Hindus practice a religion called hinduism which was formally started in India. Many people had to live by hinduism because they were born in it. TheyRe ad MoreThe Old Testament Prophets1499 Words   |  6 Pagesprophetic books. We also know Haggai existed through other biblical and extra biblical sources. The book of Ezra contains passages mentioning Haggai initiating the reconstruction of the temple (Ezra 5:1, Ezra 6:14-15). He is documented in well over 100 Babylonian texts and there is archeological evidence that helps date Haggai. Archeologist found a tablet from the 5th century B.C.E in Nippur. Most scholars believe Haggai to be a very old man at the time of his prophecy. 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Analysis Of The Rocking Horse Winner And The Lottery

An Analysis exploring the irony in â€Å"The â€Å"Rocking-Horse Winner† and â€Å"The â€Å"Lottery† Often times an author will use irony as a literally technique to throw a twist in his story, whereby allowing the outcome of it to be completely different from what the reader expected. In D.H. Lawrence’s â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner† and Shirley Jackson’s â€Å"The Lottery,† Mrs. Hutchinson and Paul, despite their motivation, are victims of misguided reasoning, resulting in the irony of each character’s demise. In fact, each author uses a special dialect and tone to create a false sense of normality that gives the reader a feeling of certainty. Nonetheless, after the incongruity of events, this certainty dissipates and leaves the reader stupefied, in a state of astonishment. Both Lawrence and Jackson employ distinct literary elements that supply the reader with acumen into the motivations of their major characters, ergo explaining their misguided reasoning. In â€Å"The Lottery,† the countless images Jackson depicts, situated around the lottery itself, suggest a lifestyle marred by static tradition ensuing annual ritual. Moreover, for this reason, despite the irony of a peaceful and caring people indicated in the exposition, Jackson, later repudiates that representation of the villagers and reveals a strong animosity with lack of compassion, anticipating an immoral act among them. Nonetheless, in â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner,† by telling the story in the third person omniscient point of view, LawrenceShow MoreRelatedMedia Magic Making Class Invisible2198 Words   |  9 Pagessections of th (13 August) Community Influence In Literature (18 July) Ode To A Urn Detailed Analysis (17 June) Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge (14 June) Newburgh (14 June) Countee Cullen: A Reniassance Man (14 June) Death In The Hours (14 June) Antigone (14 June) The Art Of Persuasion (14 June) Compare And Contrast (13 June) Sonnys Blues (13 June) Social Order In Jackson#039;S Lottery (13 June) Mop Top (13 June) What Is The Primary Cause For MacbethS Descent Into WickednessRead MoreStrategic Marketing Management337596 Words   |  1351 PagesStrategic and marketing analysis 2 Marketing auditing and the analysis of capability 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Learning objectives Introduction Reviewing marketing effectiveness The role of SWOT analysis Competitive advantage and the value chain Conducting effective audits Summary 3 Segmental, productivity and ratio analysis 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 Learning objectives Introduction The clarification of cost categories Marketing cost analysis: aims and methods An illustrationRead MoreExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 Pagesmain issues inï ¬â€šuencing the competitive position of a number of organisations in the same industry with a relatively short case. For a case that permits a more comprehensive industry analysis The Pharmaceutical Industry could be used. However, if the purpose is more focused – illustrating the use of ‘ï ¬ ve forces’ analysis – the TUI case study or Illustration 2.3 on The Steel Industry could be used. Some cases are written entirely from published sources but most have been prepared in cooperation withRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesLine 58 Understanding and Appreciating Individual Differences Important Areas of Self-Awareness 61 Emotional Intelligence 62 Values 65 Ethical Decision Making and Values 72 Cognitive Style 74 Attitudes Toward Change 76 Core Self-Evaluation 79 SKILL ANALYSIS 84 Cases Involving Self-Awareness 84 Communist Prison Camp 84 Computerized Exam 85 Decision Dilemmas 86 SKILL PRACTICE 89 Exercises for Improving Self-Awareness Through Self-Disclosure 89 Through the Looking Glass 89 Diagnosing Managerial Characteristics

Plastic Money in Indiamn Shopping Essay Sample free essay sample

†¢To know the perceptual experience of people towards fictile money. Secondary aims: †¢To know the importance of fictile money in the day-to-day life of consumers’ W. R. T recognition and debit cards. †¢To study the benefits of debit card and recognition cards. †¢To happen out the market leader among the assorted banks/companies publishing recognition and debit cards †¢To know the jobs faced by respondents utilizing fictile money. †¢To study the satisfaction degree of consumers towards fictile money. Need AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY Need of the survey: It is justly said the fictile money is need of hr. Peoples are utilizing these cards on a huge graduated table. But after sing the reappraisal of literature it is seen the whole payment procedure of treating these cards is non safe and client are confronting many jobs associating to plastic money. That’s why survey is focused on consumer perceptual experience sing the fictile money. Need of the survey is to acquire to cognize about the comparative analysis of fictile money. There are many ethical issues and challenges in the market of plastic money which is required to be studied. This survey is concerned with the Seven fringe benefits of fictile money Convenience. Budgeting engineering. Reputation hiking. Corporate might. Cops and robbers. the float. openness to dialogues. Scope of survey: the followers are the countries covered by fictile money ;ATM cards are easy being transformed into value-added debit cards. Bankers and analysts see enormous range for growing in debit cards. â€Å"There is enormous potency for debit cards. It will shortly be replacing checks. Utility payments will shortly be made through debit cards. either at the ATMs or at the counters. The debit card can be used to retreat hard currency from ATMs of other Bankss depending on whether the debit card-maker has a Visa or a Maestro affiliation. Visa and MasterCard both confirmed yesterday that they had been notified of the breach and had in bend notified several Bankss and recognition card companies of the possible informations via media. They declined to state how many companies have been notified. Credit cards Equally good as convenient. accessible recognition ; recognition cards offer consumers an easy manner to track disbursals. which is necessary for both monitoring personal o utgos and the trailing of work-related disbursals for revenue enhancement and reimbursement intents. Introduction: Plastic money or polymer money. made out of plastic. is a new and easy manner of paying for goods and services. Plastic money was introduced in the 1950s and is now an indispensable signifier of ready money which reduces the hazard of managing a immense sum of hard currency. It includes debit cards. ATMs. smart cards. etc. Credit cards. discrepancies of fictile money. are used as replacements for currency Recognition cards in India are deriving land. A figure of Bankss in India are promoting people to utilize recognition card. The construct of recognition card was used in 1950 with the launch of charge cards in USA by Diners Club and American Express. Credit card nevertheless became more popular with usage of magnetic strip in 1970. Credit card in India became popular with the debut of foreign Bankss in the state. Credit cards are fiscal instruments. which can be used more than one time to borrow money or purchase merchandises and services on recognition. Basically Bankss. retail shops and other concerns issue these. It was introduced around and has now become an indispensable signifier of ready money. One of the chief grounds for presenting fictile money. particularly recognition cards is to cut down the hazard of managing a immense sum of hard currency by individuals/merchants. The growing and popularity of fictile money in India has been phenomenal in the last few old ages. In the present twenty-four hours universe. no 1 wants to be bothered by the presence of immense hard currency in his or her billfold and the Indians are no exclusions. The unprecedented growing in the figure of recognition card users has stimulated the Indian economic system by a important extent. The reaching of promenades. multiplexes. on-line shopping shops and shopping composites have contributed to the growing of the usage of plastic cards. The Best recognition cards in India are normally meant for specific user group such as adult females. pupils and little concern proprietors. These cards are offered to the prospective clients with appealing trades. Over the old ages. American indians have been averse to recognition cards. This is chiefly because they believed that disbursement through recognition is a certain changeable manner of acquiring into the debt trap. Of class. films foregrounding the sad province of a borrower did non precisely assist affairs. And even the local kirana stores have the celebrated lines ; Aaj Nagad. Kal Udhari ( hard currency today. recognition tomorrow ) . But the state of affairs is non really that chilling. And it is all approximately right timing. Credit cards can be a utile tool at the custodies of savvy consumers who can efficaciously utilize the benefits offered by cards. It is of import to cognize that recognition card is a fiscal tool that needs to be used responsibly. While it ensures hard currency flow. it is non advisable for clients to borrow for a longer period of clip. Use it efficaciously and take good advantage of the clip line and unclutter your debts. without any extra costs. Major Banks publishing Credit Card in India: †¢State Bank of India recognition card ( SBI recognition card ) †¢Bank of Baroda recognition card or BOB recognition card †¢ICICI recognition card †¢HDF C chromium edit card †¢IDBI recognition card †¢ABN AMRO recognition card †¢Standard Chartered recognition card †¢HSBC recognition card †¢Citibank Credit Card Global participant in Credit card market are Master Card. VISA Card. American Express. Diners Club International. The first 6 figures of recognition cards figure are known as the issuer designation figure ( IIN ) . antecedently known as bank designation figure ( BIN ) . These place the establishment that issued the to the card holder The IIN scopes used by the major card strategies are VISA : Card figure start with a 4.Master Card: Card start with No. 51 and 55Diners Club: Card figure get downing 36 or 38Amex Ex: Card figure get downing 34 or37 [ movie ] Advancement in civilisation in its bend has brought out extremist alterations in the mode of trading. The demand for something per se utile and easy applicable in mundane dealing is clearly felt. Cash in the signifier of currency notes and coins makes up merely one signifier of the payment system. Development in banking while besides giving inputs to the farther development of hard currency brought about a 2nd stage in payment viz. paper instructions such as checks and recognition transportations. The demand for greater flexibleness and convenience has led to electronic payments. and this is where fictile cards have proved their worth. It allows the card issuers to restrict the amount of money the card-holders wish to pass. The disbursement of card-holders who have defaulted on payments or who are over their recognition bound can be restricted until the balances are cleared. Definition of recognition card A recognition card is a credit-token within the significance of subdivision 14 ( 1 ) . Consumer Credit Act 1974 of the UK which defines a credit-token as a card. check. verifier. voucher. cast. organize brochure or other papers or thing given to an person by a individual transporting on a consumer recognition concern. who undertakes: †¢ That on the production of it ( whether or non some other action is alsorequired ) . he will provide. hard currency. goods and services ( or any of them ) on recognition. or †¢ That were. on the production of it to third party ( whether or non any other action is besides required ) . the 3rd party supplies hard currency. goods and services ( whether or non subtracting any price reduction or committee ) . in return for paymentto him by the person. In really simple words recognition card can be termed as anunsecured personal loanoffered tocustomers by the Bankss where the card-holder could buy goods and services fromauthorized merchandiser or merchandiser constitutions ( MEs ) of the bank up to a fixed bound oncredit. Such recognition is usually made available for a period of 30 to 45 yearss. A recognition card can besides be used to procure air hose tickets and auto leases. Having a recognition cardcan brand purchases and reserves easier ; nevertheless. a recognition card should b e used responsibly so that the consumer does non over widen his fundss. Recognition cards are normally issued by banksor other fiscal establishments. Some recognition cards may be available online. HISTORY OF CREDIT CARDSOur society was one time upon a clip working without money ; it is once more likely to becomemoneyless. While ancient society was confronted with the jobs of seting mutuallysatisfactory rates and footing of exchange. future society. with the aid of computing machines. electronics and telecommunications. recognition cards. telephone and other modern agencies of communications. would settle fiscal minutess immediately. Money as a medium of exchange will function its map. The difference will be that in future coins. currency notes. checks. etc. . will be dispensed with in favor of records. India has entered the phase of creditcard system and recognition cards are deriving increasing relevancy to ease industrial. commercial and agricultural minutess. Credit was foremost used in Assyria. Babylon and Egypt 3. 000 old ages ago. The measure of exchange – the precursor of bank notes – was established in the fourteenth century. Debts settled by one-thirdcas h and two-thirds measure of exchange paper money followed merely in the seventeenth century. The firstadvertisement for recognition was placed in 1730 by Christopher Thornton who offered furniturethat could be paid off hebdomadal. From the eighteenth century until the early portion of the twentieth. tallymen sold apparels in return for smallweekly payments ; they were called â€Å"tallymen† because they kept a record of run of what people had brought on a wooden stick. One side of the stick was marked with notches torepresent the sum of debt and the other side was a record of payments. In the 1920sshopper’s home base – â€Å"buy now. pay later† system – was introduced in USA. It could merely beused in stores which issued it. In 1950. Diners Club and American Expresslaunched their charge cards in USA. the first ‘plastic money’ . In 1951. Diners Club issued the first recognition card to 200 clients who coulduse it at 27 eating houses. With the magnetic strip in 1970. the recognition card became a portion of theinformation age. Th e beginnings of the bank recognition cardhave been traced to John C. Biggins. a consumer creditspecialist at the Flatbush National Bank of Brooklyn. New York. In 1946. Biggins launched acredit program called Charge-It. The programme featured a signifier of scrip that was accepted bylocal merchandisers for little purchases. After the sale was completed. the merchandiser depositedthe scrip in a bank history. and the bank billed the client for the entire scrip issued. Fictile Money: the Currency of Modern IndiaIndian consumers have neer had it so good. The dirty notes are decidedly out. Carryingcash is no more `a hurting in the neck’ as consumers are trusting more on the `plastic card’ whichgives them money on recognition. Plastic money fundamentally means debit cards and recognition cards which is holding a magnetic band. logo. signature of the cardholder made of plastic. Recognition Card games have eventually arrived in India. The card industry which is turning at the rate of 20 % per annum is flooded with cards runing from gold. Ag. planetary. smart to secure†¦ . thelist is eternal. From merely two participants in early 80s. the industry now houses over 10 major participants competing for a major ball of the card pie. Presently four major bishops are governing the card empire—Citibank. Standard Chartered Bank. HSBC and State Bank of India ( SBI ) . The industry. which is providing to over 3. 8 million cardusers. is exp ected to duplicate by the financial 2003. Harmonizing to a survey conducted by State Bank of India. Citibank is the dominant participant. holding issued 1. 5 million cards so far. Stanchartfollows manner behind with 0. 67 million. while Hongkong Bank has 0. 3 million recognition cardcustomers. Among the nationalized Bankss. SBI tops the list with 0. 28 million cards. followed by Bank of Baroda at 0. 22 million. Parties involved Cardholder: The proprietor of the card used to do a purchase ; the consumer.Card-issuing bank: The fiscal establishment or other organisation that issued the creditcard to the cardholder. This bank measures the consumer for refund and bears the hazard that thecard is used fraudulently. American Express and Discover were antecedently the lone card-issuing Bankss for their several trade names. but as of 2007. this is no longer the instance. Merchant: The person or concern accepting recognition card payments for merchandises or services sold to the cardholderGeting bank: The fiscal establishment accepting payment for the merchandises or services on behalf of the merchandiser.Independent gross revenues organisation: Resellers ( to merchandisers ) of the services of theacquiring bank.Merchant history: This could mention to the geting bank or the independent salesorganization. but in general is the organisation that the merchandiser trades with. Credit Card association: An association of card-issuing Bankss such as Visa. MasterCard. Discover. American Express. etc. that set dealing footings for merchandisers. card-issuing Bankss. and geting Bankss. Transaction web: The system that implements the mechanics of the electronictransactions. May be operated by an independent company. and one company may operatemultiple webs. Transaction treating webs include: Cardnet. Nabanco. Omaha. Paymentech. NDC Atlanta. Nova. Vital. Concord EFSnet. and VisaNet. DIFFERENT TYPES OF CREDIT CARDSCharge card A charge card carries all the characteristics of recognition cards. However. after utilizing a charge card youwill have to pay off the full sum billed. by the due day of the month. If you fail to make so. you arelikely to be considered a defaulter and will normally hold to pay up a steep late paymentcharge Winter Project Report SSCMR 2009-2011At the clip of utilizing the card he is non declared non as a defaulter even if girls due day of the month. A2. 95 per cent late payment fees ( this differs from one bank to another ) is levied in the following charge statement. Amex cardAmex stands for American Express and is one of the well-known charge cards. This card hasits ain merchandiser constitution affiliations and does non depend on the web of MasterCard or Visa.Smart cardA smart card contains an electronic bit which is used to hive away hard currency. This is most utile whenyou have to pay for little purchases. for illustration coach menus and java. No designation. signature or payment mandate is required for utilizing this card. The exact sum of purchase is deducted from the smart card during payment and iscollected by smart card reading machines. No alteration is given. Presently this merchandise isavailable merely in really developed states like the United States and is being used onlysporadically in India. Diners Club cardDiners Club is a branded charge card. There are a broad assortment of particular privileges offered tothe Diners Club cardholder. For case. as a cardholder you can put your ain spendinglimit. Besides. the card has its ain merchandiser constitution affiliations and does non depend onthe web of MasterCard or Visa. However. since this card is typically meant for high-income group classs. it may non beacceptable at many mercantile establishments. It would be a good thought to look into whether a member establishmentdoes accept the card or non in progress. Photo cardIn this exposure is imprinted on a card. and so you have what is known as a exposure card. Making this helps place the user of the recognition card and is hence considered safer. Besides. in many instances. your photo card can work as your individuality card as good. Global cardGlobal cards allow you the flexibleness and convenience of utilizing a recognition card instead than cashor travelers cheques while going abroad for either concern or personal grounds.Co-branded cardCo-branded cards are recognition cards issued by card companies that have tied up with a popular trade name for the intent of offering certain sole benefits to the consumer. .Affinity cardThe card issuer ties up with popular organizations/ establishments which are frequently non-profitorganizations ( Citi-WWF card or the stanch art-Cricket cards ) to offer an affinity card. Whenthe card is used. a certain per centum is contributed to the organisation /institution by the cardissue MasterCard and VisaMasterCard and Visa are planetary non-profit organisations dedicated to advance the growing of the card concern across the universe. They have built a huge web of merchantestablishments so that customer’s world-wide may utilize their several recognition cards to makevarious purchases. ? Visa card: Visa. Inc. . normally called VISA. is an economic joint venture of 21. 000 fiscal establishments that issue and market Visa merchandises including recognition anddebit cards. The company was originally named Visa International ServiceAssociation. The name alteration occurred in the autumn of 2007 as a portion of Visa’srestructuring and IPO program. The company is based in San Francisco. California. USA. PROCESS OF CREDIT CARDS FUNCTIONS OF CREDIT CARDSToday. recognition cards have many maps and are really versatile. They can besummarized into the undermentioned maps: RecognitionThe holder may obtain extended recognition up to an agreed bound at a published involvement rate. ChargeThe holder can refund the whole sum at the terminal of the month. without charge provided nocash progress has been taken. CashOn presentation at the appropriate Bankss. capable to look into. hard currency can be obtained. In mostcases can besides be used in ATMs to obtain hard currency. Cheque warrant A cheque drawn on a bank may be guaranteed up to a published bound provided it isaccompanied by a Cheque Guarantee Card ( or in some instances a Visa or MasterCard card ) issued by the bank on which it is drawn. Cheque encashment Cheque guaranteed as above may be used to obtain hard currency from subdivisions of most Bankss. although a charge may be levied in certain fortunes. International If the card is a member of Visa International or MasterCard International. you can utilize your card at many states where there are a batch Bankss who are members of them. Possibly the most important fact to emerge from the sum-up of card maps is thatstrictly talking. they are non debit cards. Although they can be used to obtain hard currency via ATM. the debit will be made from the recognition card history and non from the holder’s bank history. The recognition cards discussed above are bank cards. Different bank cards have different cardfunctions. The maps of bank cards truly depend on the single bank itself. Some bank card may hold all of the above maps and some may non. There other recognition cards that are issued by retail shops such as Petrol Card. Quasi Card andPrivate Label Card which may hold some of the above maps mentioned above.