Political parties perform a vital task in government. They convey people together to attain control of the govt., develop policies favorable to their interests or the groups that support them, and organize and persuade voters to elect their candidates to office. Although substantially involved within the operation of the presidency at the least level, political parties don’t seem to be the government. Itself, and also the Constitution makes no mention of them.

The basic purpose of political parties is to nominate candidates for posts and to induce as many of them elected as possible. Once elected, these officials try and achieve the goals of their party through legislation and program initiatives. Although many folks don’t think about it in this manner, registering as a Democrat or Republican makes them members of an organization. Political parties want as many folks involved as possible. Most members take a reasonably passive role, simply voting for their party’s candidates at election time. Some become more active and work as officials within the party or volunteer to influence people to vote. The foremost ambitious members may commit to running office themselves.

Representing groups of interests
In turn, elected officials must not only reflect the concerns of their own party but must also attempt to attract support from people in their districts or states who belong to the opposite party. They’ll attract this support by supporting bipartisan issues (matters of concern that cross party lines) and nonpartisan issues (matters that don’t have anything to try to do with party allegiance).

Political parties represent groups additionally as individuals. These interest groups have special concerns. they will represent the interests of farm workers, urban African Americans, small business operators, particular industries, or teachers — any similar individuals who cooperate with specific a selected agenda.

Simplifying choices
The two main political parties within the U.S. appeal to as many various groups as possible. They are doing so by stating their goals in a very general way so voters are interested in a broad philosophy without necessarily specializing in every specific issue. The choice to using the final philosophies of the political parties to delineate candidates is to vote for people who supported just their own one-or two-issue programs.

Making policy
Political parties aren’t policymaking organizations in themselves. They certainly take positions on important policy questions, especially to supply alternatives to the position of whichever party is in power. When in power, a celebration attempts to place its philosophy into practice through legislation. If a candidate wins office by an oversized majority, it’s going to mean that the voters have given him or her a mandate to hold out the program outlined within the campaign. Because President Clinton didn’t win a majority of the popular choose both 1992 and 1996, few considered his victories a mandate for any specific policy or ideology. President George W. Bush also entered the office without a transparent mandate, because his opponent, Al Gore, won more votes (and might need to be won the body if not for irregularities, like confusing ballots, in Florida).

 

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Images have increased in importance and ubiquity in recent years and decades. Almost all media are now also visual media. Images play a central role, especially in media reporting and social media. Companies like SupportiveKoala use images in their templates library to generate marketing tools perfect for political engagements. With images that you can autogenerate, you can customize a concert ticket template perfect for events.

Accordingly, print media such as newspapers and magazines can hardly be imagined without images or photos. It is not at all easy to describe the role of images in media reporting. Rather, one must speak of their different roles. Depending on how you use it, you can use an image either as a purely decorative element or as a central, content-related message, or even for both functions.

People use images as decorative elements when they use them in print media. You can use images visually to break up a closely printed page or as filler images in television reporting.

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Functions of images for political news and feature posts

Images fulfil central content-related functions. For example, pictures become a reliable and lasting documentation service like no other medium. They show you scenes from all over the world in great detail, bringing you impressions of the world into your living room, so to speak.

People see journalistic images as “witnesses” to a situation, as “true” and “objective”. In some cases, in the sense of “seeing is believing”, they are even given more credence than the printed journalistic report. Regardless of the purpose for which images are used, they are particularly suitable for attracting the viewer’s attention.

Images for political news get attention for a number of reasons

Images can be taken in at a glance and thus much more quickly than verbal messages. In addition, images have a great potential for emotionalizing. They both directly depict human emotions. They can quickly and easily generate emotions through the way they are represented. Both lead to images catching the recipient’s attention and directing them to the journalistic report.

As a result, images also influence the perception and evaluation of messages. Since you perceive images more quickly than text and they put you in a certain mood, they have a major influence on how you perceive and understand the written or spoken text. In addition, pictures are extremely memorable. You remember images you have already seen very well and can judge within fractions of a second whether you have seen an image before.

This clarifies that images in media reporting can be powerful messages whose function goes beyond the purely decorative function.  They influence your perception of reports and thus your opinions and attitudes.

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eCommerce

 

Returns are something that every e-commerce business has to deal with. Research among companies shows that they see a role for the government in stimulating sustainable behavior among consumers themselves. The current law gives consumers many rights but not so much responsibility. Shouldn’t that be different?

Returns are a natural part of eCommerce. After all, if you can’t fit, feel or smell an item before purchase, then you should have the chance to return it if you don’t quite like it anyway. The consumer’s return rights are enshrined in law. So it’s not surprising that consumers are using it en masse. This is what retailers of hanging chairs are patiently dealing with as the hanging egg chair is now available to buy online. Luckily, the product is of good quality and is only getting very minimal returns.

This topic is popping up more and more often in the media. Do consumers possibly make use of their return rights very often and easily? What do online retailers think of this? What do they do about this themselves and what do they think is the role of the government? Reductify conducted research into this on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management.

Distance Selling Act

The government has a role in the e-commerce market. It determines the laws and regulations that all players must comply with. In the field of returns in e-commerce, the so-called Distance Selling Act is in force. This regulates the consumer’s right to return goods with a purchase that has been made “remotely”, so for example via a website or by telephone. This is also called the right of withdrawal. This is European legislation that applies to all countries of the EU. Whether players also comply with this law is monitored in the Netherlands by the supervisory authority ACM.

How do online retailers see the return challenge?

Qualitative research among 16 leading online retailers in the Dutch market shows that they do not see the return challenge as much as a problem, but as something that belongs to e-commerce. The challenges that returns pose are therefore different for each player. For example, the ‘challenge’ is strongly product-dependent. In fashion, it is mainly due to the high return percentage (30-50%) and the challenge to resell the many returns as quickly as possible.

In consumer electronics, the return rate is very low (3-8%), but returns are expensive because it often takes much more effort to resell the returned products. Often the original packaging is damaged and needs to be replaced or offered as a ‘second chance’ product with broken packaging at a lower rate. The challenge here is much more in reselling the product and the high cost per return. Increasingly, not only costs but also sustainability play a role in the consideration of online retailers to make returned products saleable again.

 

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How do online retailers see the role of the government?

Online retailers see the returns as part of their commercial considerations. What service do I offer customers at what price? Do I make returns free of charge or do I ask for a fee? Am I lenient in accepting and reimbursing returned products strictly? How do I ensure that I can resell a returned product? Initially, online retailers see no role for the government in this.

However, if we ask more about where the challenge lies and we present some statements about what role the government could potentially play, we see that online retailers generally do benefit from certain government interventions. For example, in the field of communication to make consumers aware of the steps they can take themselves to shop more sustainably (online), or to prohibit the destruction of returned goods that are not damaged. Perhaps most importantly, retailers see a task for the government not only to protect the consumer’s rights in current legislation but also to anchor sustainability.

Distance Selling Act and Sustainability

Both online retailers and Thuiswinkel.org see that the Distance Selling Act is now outdated. This law is already about 20 years old when e-commerce was still in its infancy and the right of the consumer had to be well protected. With today’s perspective, one might wonder whether the return rights of consumers are not very broadly protected and in some respects seem to be at odds with sustainable consumption.

For example, it seems logical to anchor returns with a statement of reasons in the law, instead of returning without giving reasons. It is precisely the return reason that is important information that helps the online retailer improve its services and reduce its returns. Or, for example, trying out products during the return period. It would make sense to limit this trying out in the law for products with a hygiene component. Precisely these are the products that are unsaleable if they are returned to the retailer, think for example an electric toothbrush or a shaver. Refusing the right of return in the event of return fraud should also become possible.

In short, making the e-commerce market more sustainable also includes making returns more sustainable. Both the consumer and the online retailer and the government have a role in this. The government has the task of adjusting the legislation in the field of returns in e-commerce in such a way that sustainability becomes easier.

 

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Aerial view of Northern Ireland shore

 

For the first time in a hundred years, the Catholic party Sinn Féin has won the elections in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin has been advocating unification with the Republic of Ireland for years and dreams of a referendum. The victory will drastically affect the economy and businesses like the booming egg chair industry (this website has Ireland’s largest selection of egg chairs that you can check out).

Why is Sinn Féin’s win leading to a landslide?

“The Protestant and Catholic people of Northern Ireland have been at odds with each other for years. These tensions have everything to do with identity. The Protestants, also called loyalists or unionists, want to belong to the United Kingdom. They feel British and swear allegiance to Queen Elizabeth. The Catholics, on the other hand, feel connected to the Catholic Republic of Ireland. That’s why they’re called republicans.”

“In the seventies and eighties, tensions turned into an outright civil war. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed British targets at the time and demanded a reunited Ireland. Sinn Féin was born out of the political branch of the IRA.”

 

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A political party born out of a paramilitary organization, doesn’t that sound explosive?

“It is. Since peace was signed in 1998, Sinn Féin has been trying to shake off the IRA past. But the largest unionist party DUP remains suspicious.”

“During an election debate earlier this week, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson accused Sinn Féin of still maintaining contact with paramilitary groups. This is not entirely out of the blue, the accusation is based on a publication of The Sunday Times.

Yet the fear does not only come from the past. The Protestant community feels cornered. The Catholic population is growing and now makes up a larger part of the population than the Protestants. It used to be the other way around.”

“And to make matters worse, Brexit has created a trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. The dissatisfaction among the Unionists is great.”

So why does Sinn Féin win?

“Precisely because during their campaign they did not focus on topics that cause division. Sinn Féin has not said a word about reunification with Ireland or a referendum.”

“They presented themselves as the party that tackles everyday problems, such as education and rising prices. With a modern, female leader, Michelle O’Neill, at the helm, Sinn Féin is winning a lot of votes.”

Will there be a referendum on Irish reunification?

“Who knows someday. Indeed, a large proportion of Irish people believe that in 25 years’ time Northern Ireland will be among the rest of Ireland. But that is not yet the case. Under the 1998 peace agreement, both countries must hold a referendum – Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Such a referendum must therefore first be approved by the governments of the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain. According to the latest polls, a majority in Northern Ireland would currently vote to remain part of the United Kingdom. Sinn Féin will first wait until they are more favorable in the polls.”

 

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