Public trust

Public trust

The concept of the public trust relates back to the origins of democratic government, and its seminal idea that; within the public, lies the true power and future of a society, therefore, whatever trust the public places in its officials must be respected.

One of the reasons why bribery is regarded as a notorious evil is that it contributes to a culture of corruption in which public trust is eroded.

A famous example of the betrayal of public trust is in the story of Julius Caesar, who was killed by Roman senators who believed they had to act drastically to preserve the republic against his alleged monarchical ambitions. It is an interesting concept, nevertheless.

Public Trust is also the name of a public trustee in New Zealand, where a crown entity of that name has taken over the traditional corporation sole in providing government supervised trust services.


See also

Public trust doctrine

Ethics

Ethics

Ethics, a major branch of philosophy, encompasses right conduct and good living. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong.

Ethics (via Latin ethica from the Ancient Greek ἠθική [φιλοσοφία] "moral philosophy", from the adjective of ἤθος ēthos "custom, habit"), a major branch of philosophy, encompasses right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct. The major problem is the discovery of the summum bonum, the greatest good. The right act can be identified as the one causing the greatest good and the immoral act as the one impeding it.[1]


Morals

Ethics and morals are respectively akin to theory and practice. Ethics denotes the theory of right action and the greater good, while morals indicate their practice. Moral has a dual meaning. The first indicates a person's comprehension of morality and his capacity to put it into practice. In this meaning, the antonym is "amoral", indicating an inability to distinguish between right and wrong. The second denotes the active practice of those values. In this sense, the antonym is "immoral", referring to actions that violate ethical principles. Personal ethics signifies a moral code applicable to individuals, while social ethics means moral theory applied to groups. Social ethics can be synonymous with social and political philosophy, inasmuch as it is the foundation of a good society or state. Ethics is not limited to specific acts and defined moral codes, but encompasses the whole of moral ideals and behaviors, a person's philosophy of life (or Weltanschauung).[2]


Applied ethics

Applied ethics is a discipline of philosophy that attempts to apply ethical theory to real-life situations. The lines of distinction between meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics are often blurry. For example, the issue of abortion can be seen as an applied ethical topic since it involves a specific type of controversial behaviour. But it can also depend on more general normative principles, such as possible rights of self-rule and right to life, principles which are often litmus tests for determining the morality of that procedure. The issue also rests on meta-ethical issues such as, "where do rights come from?" and "what kind of beings have rights?"

Another concept which blurs ethics is moral luck. A drunk driver may safely reach home without injuring anyone, or he might accidentally kill a child who runs out into the street while he is driving home. The action of driving while drunk is usually seen as equally wrong in each case, but its dependence on chance affects the degree to which the driver is held responsible.


Specific questions

Applied ethics is used in determining public policy. For example, the following would be questions of applied ethics: "Is getting an abortion immoral?" "Is euthanasia immoral?" "Is affirmative action right or wrong?" "What are human rights, and how do we determine them?" and "Do animals have rights as well?"

A more specific question could be: "If someone else can make better out of his/her life than I can, is it then moral to sacrifice myself for them if needed?" Without these questions there is no clear fulcrum on which to balance law, politics, and the practice of arbitration — in fact, no common assumptions of all participants—so the ability to formulate the questions are prior to rights balancing. But not all questions studied in applied ethics concern public policy. For example, making ethical judgments regarding questions such as, "Is lying always wrong?" and, "If not, when is it permissible?" is prior to any etiquette.

Often, questions of applied ethics take legal or political form before they are interpreted in frameworks of normative ethics. The UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights of 1948 and the Global Green Charter of 2001 are two such examples.


See also

List of ethics topics

Normative ethics

Moral absolutism

Ethical relativism

Ethical subjectivism

Moral nihilism

Ethical skepticism

Altruism (ethics)

Ethical egoism

Bioethics

Medical ethics

Business ethics

Legal ethics

Journalism ethics

Engineering ethics



External links

An Introduction to Ethics by Paul Newall, aimed at beginners.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

William Frankena, Ethics, 2d ed., 1973.

W. D. Ross, The Right and the Good (1930)

Election litter

Election litter

Election litter is a term used by some national and subnational governments to describe the unlawful erection of political propaganda on private residences or property owned by the local government. Often, election signs may only be displayed on private property with permission for a certain time within the election, and may not exceed a certain size. When placed on public property or public rights of way without permission, or if left on private property for too long, they are often in violation of littering laws, and/or laws intended to prevent Street spam.


Banning election litter

Election litter usually is defined as placing campaign signs on public, government-owned property, or on privately owned property (including residences) without the owner's permission.[1] It is usually banned by local government.

According to the "State Board of Elections littering notification" statute of the U.S state of North Carolina:

the State Board of Elections shall notify the candidate of the provisions
concerning campaign signs in G.S. 136‑32 and G.S. 14‑156, and the rules adopted
by the Department of Transportation pursuant to G.S. 136‑18. (2001‑512, s. 7.)[2]

Similarly, Chapter 23.04 of the San Jose (California) Municipal Code (adopted in August 2001) forbids the use of "election signs" on government-owned property, and only allows its use on private property with the permission of the owner of that property, and in residential areas with further restrictions. Setting up signs, and later removing them, is the responsibility of anyone who "undertakes an election campaign".[3]

The "Litter Pollution Act" of County Kerry, Ireland, restricted the deposition of materials in public places, so as to create litter. It was enforced in cleaning up election litter in 2002.[4] Violation of the Act is a summary offence.


Limits on election signs

While almost all laws about election litter restricts its placement on tax-funded public property and private property without permission, there are also special time limits imposed. For example, election signs in San Jose, California, are allowed no more than 10 days after election;[3] San Bruno, California, 14 days;[5] Tucson, Arizona, 15 days;[6] County Kerry (Ireland), 7 days after election.[4]

In addition, regulation can be placed on the size of election signs. For example, Saint Paul, Minnesota, places an area limit of 16 square feet (1.486 m2).[7] Tucson disallows the height of election signs to exceed 10 feet (3.048 m) in all districts, an area of 6 square feet (0.557 m2) in non-residential districts, and an area of 50 square feet (4.645 m2) in other districts.[6]


Cleanup of election litter

An excessive number of campaign signs is often considered a problem.[8][9]

The elimination of election litter was supported in Makati City in the Philippines. Organized by the DES (Department of Environmental Services), it was approximated that at least 95% of "leaflets, posters, streamers and billboards" were cleared, in according with an ordinance "prohibiting the defacement of walls and public spaces".[10] In Taipei, Republic of China, the removal of election litter was ordered to give residents "a clean city".[11]


Litter in the courts

In 1984 The United States Supreme Court held that political propaganda on public property was not entitled to protection under the First Amendment and that the States therefore may enact and enforce content-neutral laws to criminalize this "visual assault on the citizens". [12]

"The problem addressed by this ordinance -- the visual assault on the citizens of Los Angeles presented by an accumulation of signs posted on public property -- constitutes a significant substantive evil within the City's power to prohibit. "[The] city's interest in attempting to preserve [or improve] the quality of urban life is one that must be accorded high respect."

Later that decade the Fourth circuit court of appeal held in Major Media of the Southeast v. City of Raleigh 1987 that ". . . no empirical studies are necessary for reasonable people to conclude that billboards pose a traffic hazard, since by their very nature they are designed to distract drivers and their passengers from maintaining their view of the road."

Similarly the California Supreme Court held in Metromedia v. San Diego that ". . . as a matter of law that an ordinance which eliminates billboards designed to be viewed from streets and highways reasonably relates to traffic safety."
Recent studies in Indiana found that distractions were associated with 56% of accidents, more even than drunk drivers. [13]

Virginia has recently banned Roadside memorials for the same reason. [14]



See also

Flyposting

Littering



External links

A brochure by Litterbug.org advocating against election litter

Vote Bank

Votebank

A Votebank (also spelled vote-bank or vote bank) is a loyal bloc of voters from a single community, who consistently back a certain candidate or political formation in democratic elections. Such behaviour is often the result of an expectation of real or imagined benefits from the political formations, often at the cost of other communities.

Votebank politics is the practice of creating and maintaining votebanks through divisive policies. As this brand of politics encourages voters to vote on the basis of narrow communal considerations, often against their better judgement, it is considered inimical to democracy.
The term was coined in India, where the practice of votebank politics is rampant. Since then, it has gained currency in other Asian countries with a significant English-speaking population.


Origins

The term vote-bank was first used by noted Indian sociologist, M. N. Srinivas[1] (who also coined the terms Sanskritisation and dominant caste), in his 1955 paper entitled The Social System of a Mysore Village[2]. He used it in the context of political influence exerted by a patron over a client. Later, the expression was used by F. G. Bailey, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, in his 1959 book Politics and Social Change[3], to refer to the electoral influence of the caste leader. This is the usage that has since become popular.

Thought the term originally referred to voting along caste lines, it was soon expanded to describe votebanks based on other community characteristics, such as religion and language.


See also

Electoral system

Political campaigning

Blocks of Five

Red states and blue states




External links

Vote Bank Politics by Syed Ali Mujtaba

Political campaign staff

Political campaign staff

The staff of political campaigns are the people who formulate and implement the strategy needed to win an election. Many people have made careers out of working full-time for campaigns and groups that support them, in other campaigns much of the staff might be unpaid volunteers. Information on political consultants, people who do not work for the campaign full-time but still provide assistance in the form of advice and creative expertise, are discussed in the political consultants article.

This article provides a generic description of a campaign's staff and organization. Different campaigns have different structures.


Structure of a campaign

Campaigns are usually overseen by a campaign manager. The campaign manager coordinates the campaign making sure that the rest of the staff and the campaign's consultants are focused effectively on winning the election. In small local campaigns, the campaign manager will often be the only paid staff member and will be responsible for every aspect of the campaign that is not covered by the candidate or volunteers. In larger campaigns, such as an American presidential campaign, hundreds of staff members will cover the required tasks. While campaign managers are often the lead strategists in local campaigns, in the United States larger campaigns hire consultants to serve as strategists and the campaign manager focuses mostly on coordinating the campaign staff. Campaign managers will often have deputies who oversee various aspects of the campaign at a closer level.

Directly below the campaign manager on the organization chart is the deputy campaign manager and directly below them are department directors who coordinate specific aspects of the campaign. These staff members often have deputies as well.

Below the department level, campaigns vary widely in their structure. On larger campaigns, there will be various coordinators for certain functions within each department. For example, within the fundraising department, there might be a staff member who focuses only on direct mail fundraising.

At the bottom of the totem pole are the interns and volunteers who perform the least glamorous tasks of the campaign. These can include addressing envelopes, entering data into databases, and canvassing voters on behalf of the campaign.


Departments and their respective purposes

Field/Ground Department

The field department focuses on the "on-the-ground" organizing that is required in order to personally contact voters through canvassing, phone calls, and building local events. Voter contact helps construct and clean the campaign's voter file in order to help better target voter persuasion and identify which voters a campaign most wants to bring out on election day. Field is generally also tasked with running local "storefront" campaign offices as well as organizing phone banks and staging locations for canvasses and other campaign events.

On the state level, field departments are generally organized by geography with an overall state field director who oversees the efforts of several regional field directors who in turn manage several local offices. Other field workers below this level include:

• Organizer : generally responsible for the operations of a single office serving a county or several counties, the local organizer works to build a local organization, mostly of volunteers, that will be used to fill out campaign events, contact voters, and ultimately to provide ground troops for election day efforts.
  

• Volunteer coordinator : tasked full time with recruiting, retaining, and scheduling volunteers
  

• General Field Staff : the lowest level of field staff, these paid workers generally do direct voter contact full time as well as assisting the organizers
  

• GOTV coordinator : generally either brought in in the last few months of the campaign or a re-tasked staffer, GOTV coordinators plan the local "Get Out the Vote" efforts.

In addition to voter persuasion and voter identification, field staff will often provide information for the campaign headquarters as to what is going on in the communities they work in. Field staffers are the primary liaison between the campaign and local influentials such as interest group leaders and prominent community activists. Field departments are also often primarily responsible for the local distribution of "chum" i.e. lawn signs, bumper stickers, buttons, and other such materials.


Communications Department

The communications department oversees both the press relations and advertising involved in promoting the campaign in the media. They are responsible for the campaign's message and image among the electorate. Press releases, advertisements, phone scripts, and other forms of communication must be approved by this department before they can be released to the public. The staffers within this office vary widely from campaign to campaign. However they generally include:

• A press secretary who monitors the media and coordinates the campaign's relations with the press. Press secretaries set up interviews between the candidate and reporters, brief the press at press conferences, and perform other tasks involved in press relations.
  
• A rapid response director who makes sure that the campaign responds quickly to the attacks of the other campaigns. They and their staff constantly monitor the media and the moves of their opponents, making sure that attacks are rebutted quickly.

Policy Department

Researching and developing a set of policies requires a large team to research and write each plank. Researchers also provide information to the campaign on issues and the backgrounds of candidates (including the candidate they work for) in order to be aware of skeletons in the various candidates' closets. The latter practice is known as opposition research. On smaller campaigns this is often folded into the communications department. Most campaigns for a seat in a legislature will not have a full policy department, as party platforms are worked out by the central campaign office. Other races, such as a presidential or mayoral race will require a wide array of policy positions to be developed in-house.


Fundraising Department

The finance department coordinates the campaign's fundraising operation and ensures that the campaign always has the money it needs to operate effectively. The techniques employed by this campaign vary based on the campaign's needs and size. Small campaigns often involve casual fundraising events and phone calls from the candidate to donors asking for money. Larger campaigns will include everything from high-priced sit-down dinners to e-mail messages to donors asking for money.


Compliance and Legal Departments

The compliance and legal departments makes sure that the campaign is consistent with the law and also makes sure that the campaign files the appropriate forms with government authorities. In Britain and other Commonwealth countries, such as Canada and India, each campaign must have an official agent, who is legally responsible for the campaign and is obligated to make sure the campaign follows all rules and regulations.

This department will also be responsible for all financial tracking, including bank reconciliations, loans and backup for in-kind donations. They are generally required to keep both paper and electronic files. Small campaigns will often have one person responsible for financial disclosure while larger campaigns will have dozens of lawyers and treasurers making sure that the campaign's activities are legal. After the election, the compliance and legal department must still respond to audit requests and, when required, debt retirement.


Technology Department

The technology department designs and maintains campaign technology such as Voter File and websites. While small campaigns might have a volunteer or two who know how to use computers, large campaigns will have armies of computer professionals spread across the state or country handling everything from websites to blogs to databases.


Scheduling and Advance Department

The scheduling and advance department makes sure that the candidate and campaign surrogates are effectively scheduled so as to maximize their impact on the voters. This department also oversees the advance people who arrive at events before the candidate to make sure everything is in order. Often, this department will be a part of the field department.

On small campaigns the scheduling coordinator may be responsible for developing and executing events. The scheduling coordinator typically:

a) manages the candidate's personal and campaign schedule b) manages the field and advance team schedules c) gathers important information about all events the campaign and candidate will attend

Candidates and other members of the campaign must bear in mind that only one person should oversee the details of scheduling. Fluid scheduling is one of the many keys to making a profound impact on voters.


See also

Political consultant

Election campaign

The Role of the Campaign Treasurer

Microtargeting

Microtargeting

Microtargeting is the use by political parties and election campaigns of direct marketing datamining techniques that involve predictive market segmentation (aka cluster analysis). It is used by United States Republican and Democratic political parties and candidates to track individual voters and identify potential supporters.

They then use various means of communication -- direct mail, phone calls, home visits, television, radio, web advertising, email, text messaging, etc -- to communicate with voters, crafting messages to build support for fundraising, campaign events, volunteering, and eventually to turn them out to the polls on election day. Microtargeting's tactics rely on transmitting a tailored message to a subgroup of the electorate on the basis of unique information about that subgroup.


History

Democrats did not utilize microtargeting in 2004. Some news accounts credited Republican superiority in that area for victories in that election cycle.[3] Democrats later developed microtargeting capabilities for the 2006 election cycle.[2][1] "It's no secret that the other side [Republicans] figured this out a little sooner", said Josh Syrjamaki, director of the Minnesota chapter of America Votes in October 2006. "They've had four to six years' jump on us on this stuff...but we feel like we can start to catch up."[4]


Method

Microtargeting is a modification of a practice used by commercial direct marketers. It would not be possible on a large scale without the development of large and sophisticated databases that contain data about as many voters as possible. The database essentially tracks voter habits in the same ways that companies like Visa track consumer spending habits. The Republican National Committee's database is called Voter Vault. The Democratic National Committee effort is called VoteBuilder.[5] Meanwhile, a parallel Democratic effort is being developed by Catalist, a $9 million initiative headed by Harold Ickes.[2]

The databases contain specific information about a particular voter (party affiliation, frequency of voting, contributions, volunteerism, etc.) with other activities and habits available from commercial marketing vendors such as Acxiom, Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Americas, and InfoUSA. Such personal information is a "product" sold to interested companies. This data is particularly illuminating when portrayed through a GIS (Geographic Information System), where trends based on location can be mapped alongside dozens or hundreds of other variables.

This geographic depiction also makes it ideal for volunteers to visit potential voters (armed with lists in hand, laid out in the shortest route - much like how FedEx and UPS pre-determine delivery routes).

These data are then mined to identify issues important to each voter and whether that voter is more likely to identify with one party or another. Political information is obviously important here, but consumer preferences can play a role as well. For example, Republicans prefer bourbon, while Democrats tend to drink gin.[4] Individual voters are then put into groups on the basis of sophisticated computer modeling. Such groups have names like "Downscale Union Independents", "Tax and Terrorism Moderates" and "Older Suburban Newshounds."[2][4]

Once a multitude of voting groups is established according to these criteria and their minute political differences, then the tailored messages can be sent via the appropriate means. While political parties and candidates once prepared a single television advertisement for general broadcast nationwide, it is now not at all uncommon to have several dozen variations on the one message, each with a unique and tailored message for that small demographic sliver of the voting public. This goes the same for radio advertisement, direct mail, email, as well as stump speeches and fundraising events.


See also

Narrowcasting


External links

Romney's Data Cruncher - Washington Post (Online) - July 5, 2007.

Karl Rove's Split Personality - Vanity Fair (Online) - December, 2006.

Va. Gubernatorial Hopefuls Use Data to Zero In on Voters - Washington Post (Online) - August 28, 2005.