Religion as a conservative force Essay Example for Free

Religion as a conservative force Essay There Christian churches manage to force their conservative values onto masses of people. But, within the last 100 years the Anglican church has been very progressive in that the stance the church has on a lot of modern issues has changed. The churches stance on abortion has changed from absolutely against God to acceptable in some cases. And, although they still see sex before marriage as wrong they are no longer as condemning about it. In this example religion as a conservative force is dying as modern values take over religion and religion can no longer reinstate traditional ones. In contrast the Roman Catholic church, while being Christian, is extremely conservative and hasn t changed its stance on most contempory issues. They still believe that abortion is wrong unless its harmful to the mother, that sex before marriage is wrong in all cases and that contraception is not allowed. The Catholic church is still incredibly prominent and important within many countries and so they view that religion is a conservative force is still true. When discussing whether religion is a conservative force it is really a discussion about different religious institutions being conservative. Within Christianity, different churches and interpretations differ greatly regarding being conservative or progressive. In its day, Protestantism was a very progressive force and Catholicism was very conservative, even though they both were Christian churches they were either conservative or progressive. Traditionally sects are not seen as a conservative force. Q. an values. There Christian churches manage to foAssess the view that religion is a conservative force. Religion can be defined in many different ways, from the traditional view of a belief in God, contrasting with the functionalist view that religion only needs to function and help people and does not require a God. Religion can also differ in size and beliefs and, especially in modern countries, how progressive or conservative they are. Conservative religion s religion which religion which conserves a countries values and norms. The Christian religion does this in many western countries as it embodies many of the values which those countries hold. According to functionalists and Durkheim, by religion holding these values it makes them more sacred and re-enforces these values. According to Parsons religion also generalises these values into society. The values which are generally preserved by religion in these countries are very conservative ones. This is where religion is against social change, maintaining the status quo. This is what functionalists see as necessary for keeping and creating social unity. However, this differs greatly from progressive religion. Religion which is progressive brings about change within societies and usually holds very little of the same values which the society does, and by doing so doesn t reinforce them. Religion which usually falls under the category of progressive religion is very New Age, but they do not all challenge the values in western countries. This is where religion helps social change. Churches such as the Anglican church within Christianity are incredibly traditionally and conservative in the way that they hold very much the same values which they held including the views on certain behaviours which they traditionally held. Churches such as the Christian churccts see themselves as progressive within society and institutions which challenge a country s norms instead of conforming to them or agreeing with them. The tend to be very New Age in their beliefs and deviate from traditional conservative religions not just in values but in the way they recruit, have a hierarchy and conduct religious business. As many traditional religions are loosing members sects are rapidly growing in size, and although many don t make it through the first few years, those which do have increasing popularity and manage to recruit members which are more willing to be a force within society. This is where religion is becoming an increasingly progressive force within societies. Many sects are even progressive with how they recruit members. As well as the traditional route of recruiting one-on-one they also do so online. This is a very progressive method as it differs greatly from the usual method of bringing people into religion from birth and ado lance generally through religious ceremony. But, not all sects to this. The increasingly common Christian sect within Britain and American ( ) recruits members from birth within families, instating their values from birth. So, sects sometimes are conservative but in different ways. This shows that even new religions can be conservative and that the force of conservative religion remains strong. Weber look into Protestants and social change found that religion did result in the change of values and norms within British society at the time. Protestantism changed laws and made things such as dancing illegal. But, Protestantism, in many ways, was more traditional than what was in place before. If conservatism is defined as traditional values is was in fact a conservative force that took over Britain and many other countries within Western Europe. This contradicts the view that conservative religion reinforces values and norms with societies. Marxists argue that religion is a conservative force as it does not bring about social change. Many of the traditional values which many churches hold are values which are the same as middle class or are to the benefit of middle class. As they do not change Marxists believe that religion is the force behind this and are therefore a conservative, not a progressive force. Fundamentalists are traditionally seen as conservative religious forces. Taylor defines involvement in fundamentalism as those who believe that there is a challenge to the ultimate authority which the believe in; people who do not tolerate this challenge, they can reaffirm their belief in that authority and oppose those who challenge their beliefs. The reason fundamentalist are usually found to be religious is that according to this view fundamentalism involves the conservative reassertion of beliefs and, usually, action against any change. Conservative fundamentalists are most notably found to be a big force in the USA. They may hold traditional conservative Christian values but they are a progressive movement as they see the USA as declining away from the those values and especially the world. This movement is a return to old values and the reinstatement of them, such as a return to creationalism within schools. This movement is also forceful in that it holds a lot of power with America and its electoral system. President Bust who was elected for two terms manage to get elected mainly on a traditional conservative values campaign, showing that the conservative religion movement is huge within such a powerful advanced modern country. But even conservative fundamentalists can bring about progress change as what they believe are traditional values can differ from what other people believe for traditional values. This is especially true with Islam as within Islam are many different fundamentalist groups, all of whom are interpreting true Islam in different ways. The Sacred Brethren is also an example of a sect which can be seen as conservative and yet does rapidly change. When the leader of this sect died and someone else took over its values changed and although it remained a conservative force it was still resulting in change, not just reinstating its traditional values. And, fundamentalist can be progressive and bring about social change in other ways. In Iran the bringing back of traditional Islamic values brought major change as it overthrew the Iranian Government, in-stating new laws and values. Even tough it was a return to traditional values and came within a conservative force it was still progressive in bringing about change. Religion obviously differs a lot, not just in belief, and it can be spilt into progressive or conservative. But, even with this it can differ when you take into account the conservative religions which bring about change. Even though the evidence points towards sects and progressive religions being the future for this world as they increase their membership as conservative religions decrease their membership. But in countries such as the USA it is conservative religions which are increasing in power, which means the conservative religion and more power within societies. s manage to get elected mainly on a traditional conservative values campaign, showing that the conservative religion movement is huge within such a powerful advanced modern country.

Essay --

World War II had many events that changed the world we live in today. There were two major events which were the Holocaust and dropping two atomic drops on the Japanese civilians. They both were reasoning with mass killing and also, mass caulsitaites. Holocaust was Adolf Hitler way to eliminate the enemy. World War II saw new military technology such as the atomic bomb. As a result of creating the atomic bomb, many countries raced to be the first to have it. The United States wanted to end the war as quickly as possible and believed dropping the atomic bomb was the best way to accomplish this. The men involved in these outrageous events justified there actions. Henry L. Stimson was the U.S Secretary of War and help with the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Rudolf Hoss was a Nazi solider in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. â€Å"Memoirs† by Rudolf Hoss and â€Å"The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb† by Henry L. Stimson give us some insight on what was going on at that time. Rudolf Hoss reconciled his role in the mass annihilation of Jews by racial superiority and anti-Semitism, while Henry L. Stimson reconciled his role in dropping the atomic bomb by claiming it was the best way to save as many American lives as possible. Henry L. Stimson result in dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945 is a very controversial issue. The Japanese were known to be determined soldiers, and why dropping the bombs was the right choice when saving American lives. Stimson reconcile this choice because defeating the japanese would require lots of time, the lives of thousands of soldiers and numerous resources. Stimson states â€Å"the allies would be faced with the enormous task of destroying an armed force of five million men and five ... ...how that he was not anti-semitic but that is not the case. He still treats them like every other prisoner because he feels empowered to do so. Hitler was this high ranking officer who gave Germany an enemy that everybody could hate. Atomic bombed getting dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945 and the Holocaust were both huge events that happened during World War II. They both had massive death tolls. â€Å"Memoirs† by Rudolf Hoss and â€Å"The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb† by Henry L. Stimson give us some insight on what was going on at that time. Rudolf Hoss and Henry L. Stimson both justified their actin during these events. Stimson reconciled his role in dropping the atomic drop to end the war early and to save as many Americans as possible. Hoss rationalizes his action in killing the massive amount of Jewish people were racial superiority and German nationalism.

Dividend Policy and Share Prices

Introduction In this paper the impact of dividend policy of the companies on the firm’s share prices is analysed and different views in the context of the semi-strong form of the efficient market hypothesis are contrasted. The overview of the traditional and most recent empirical investigations of the stock market reaction to the dividend announcements is provided and different findings are discussed and compared. Three companies have been selected from the FTSE All share price index. These companies are Tesco, Burberry and Vodafone. These firms belong to different sectors of the economy.Tesco is the largest retailer in the UK, Burberry is a fashion firm and Vodafone is the telecommunication services company. The dividends and accounts have been retrieved from annual reports of the companies (Tesco, 2011; Burberry, 2011; Vodafone, 2011). The share prices were sourced from Yahoo Finance (2012). The copies of the company accounts are provided in the appendices. Dividend Policies of Companies These three companies were chosen for the following reasons. Firstly, it was intended to choose large companies that have an established dividend policy and revenue of more than ? billion a year. Secondly, the companies from different industries had to be analysed. Thirdly, both services sector and goods sector were intended to be analysed. Finally, it was interesting to compare both pro-cyclical firms (e. g. Burberry) and counter-cyclical firms (e. g. Vodafone). The former are very sensitive to the effects of the economic recession whereas the latter are less sensitive because consumers would still have to use mobile phones and services regardless of their financial position.The dividend payout ratio has been calculated for these companies for the period from 2007 to 2011. The following formula was used: Dividend payout ratio = dividends per share / earnings per share The results are summarised in the following figure. Figure 1 Dividend Payout Ratios Source: Annual Re ports of Tesco (2011), Burberry (2011) and Vodafone (2011) The payout ratios indicate different dividend policies adopted by the three companies. Tesco’s policy is aimed at maintaining a constant dividend payout ratio, which is very common for mature industries such as retailing.In these industries the majority of the large companies are â€Å"cash cows† for the investors and therefore the dividend policy tends to show constant payout ratios, which inspires trust in the company and expectation of future stability. In contrast, the dividend policies of Vodafone and Burberry are not aimed at a constant payout ratio. In fact, as the following figure demonstrates, the policies of Vodafone and Burberry are aimed at dividend growth. Figure 2 Final DividendsSource: Annual Reports of Tesco (2011), Burberry (2011) and Vodafone (2011) However, whereas Vodafone demonstrates a â€Å"steady dividend growth strategy†, Burberry demonstrates the a strategy that does not show a specific pattern but can be interpreted as a signal to the market because in 2009 the company announced the dividends that were equal to the dividends announced in the previous year in spite of the accounting losses suffered by the firm which were reflected in negative earnings per share (Appendix C).This move can be interpreted as a sign that the management attempted to signal the market that the losses are temporary and the company was expected to recover quickly. It is interesting to note that the latter policy is inconsistent with the position that dividends should be paid out of earnings rather than accumulated capital or reserves. Furthermore, the companies could undertake an alternative dividend policy which would imply linking the dividend payout to the investment opportunities that could be managed by firms (Brealey and Myers, 2003).If the company has many projects that offer positive net present value, then it would be recommended that dividends could be retained and reinv ested in the firm. Only residual earnings, which are left after investments in all positive NPV projects could be distributed as dividends (Bodie et al, 2009). Dividend Announcements and Share Prices Dividend announcements and their impact on share prices can be explained by the semi strong form of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH).Efficient market hypothesis implies that the only thing that may impact the stock prices is new information, since all other possibly influencing parameters are already included in the firm’s stock price (Palan, 2004). The efficient market hypothesis may be divided into three forms: the weak form, the semi-strong form, and the strong form. The weak form implies that share prices bear or reflect the past prices and trade volume information, the semi-strong form adds publicly available information to the weak form, and the strong form adds even insider information to the efficiency approach (Harder, 2008).Empirical evidences show that successive changes in stock prices are independent and this independence is in line with the efficient market hypothesis, as markets promptly react to the new information (Fama et al. , 1969). In this context it may be assumed that dividend announcements convey particular positive information about the company and provide signals about future performance of the firm. The decision about paying dividends is made by the firm’s managers and often supported by shareholders’ voting.Since dividend announcements bear useful information, from the efficient market hypothesis view point this information is reflected in the share price changes immediately after the public announcement (Bodie et al, 2009). The three companies that were chosen have been used to test the semi strong form of the EMH and whether the dividends announcements made by Tesco, Vodafone and Burberry had a significant impact on shareholder returns and share prices. So, the null hypotheses of the analysis are the followin g:H0: Dividends have a positive and significant effect on the share prices H0: Dividends have a positive and significant effect on the weekly stock returns. The alternative hypotheses are the following: Halt: Dividends do not have a significant effect on the share prices Halt: Dividends do not have a significant effect on the weekly stock returns. According to EMH in its semi strong form, the information on dividends should be quickly absorbed into the stock prices during the first week and hence the acceptance of the null hypotheses will be consistent with the semi strong efficiency.However, if abnormal returns persist in the longer run, e. g. three months, the EMH in the semi strong form can be rejected. Empirical evidences also provide support for the semi-strong efficient market hypothesis, implying that stock market efficiently and quickly adjusts to new information about dividends (Aharony and Swary, 1980). However, the research of Amihud and Li (2006) finds that the reaction of stock market to dividend announcement is not constant. It is concluded that cumulative abnormal returns promoted by dividend announcements decline to zero in due course.The findings suggest that dividend announcement are less informative over time, and this may be related to the reluctance of managers to pay extra expenses related to dividends (Amihud and Li, 2006). Moreover, the recent decrease in propensity of companies to pay dividends is sometimes related to the lower informational contend of dividend announcements. Since institutional investors are normally better informed and tend to play key roles in public firms, the costly dividends have become a less popular way to provide information (Baker, 2009).The study of Asquth and Mullins (1983) also suggests that stock prices and shareholders’ wealth are impacted by initiation and increase of dividends. Moreover, the effect of dividend increase is stronger than the influence of dividend initiation. The results are in lin e with assumption that dividend announcements bear valuable information for investors. Dividend policy may be used as a simple way to signal managers’ view of the company’s recent and future performance (Asquth and Mullins, 1983). However, it must be stated that dividend policies are not directly influencing share prices and lead to their changes.Instead, dividend policies are changed by managers when some fundamental developments in company’s performance are expected, and these developments cause the change of the share prices. Thus, dividend announcement is only the way for investors to obtain information about these fundamental developments. Similarly, there are no evidences that a company value may be increased through increase of dividends, since dividends only convey signals about fundamental changes in the company and are viewed as only by-products of the changes (Moles et al. 2011). Nevertheless, the study of Shiller (1981) challenges the efficient marke t hypothesis suggesting that the volatility of stock prices are too high to be explained by the future dividends. A more recent investigation of Mehnidiratta and Gupta (2010) supports the semi-strong form of efficient market hypothesis concluding that stock prices promptly and accurately react to the publicly available information, particularly to dividend announcements. The two-stage study tests the share prices response to dividend announcement.The first stage included the evaluation of beta based on post facto returns on stock and market index and predicted returns on every of the stocks. The second stage these values were used to calculate abnormal returns around the day of announcement. The results provide information that though investors do not obtain significant value prior to the dividend announcement day or on the event day, they do gain value after the announcement. Investors move their security positions on the announcement day which implies that after the event day ther e is informational value in dividend announcement.The evidences prove that the increases in dividends imply more positive abnormal stock returns, and this supports the efficient market hypothesis (Mehnidiratta and Gupta, 2010). But there are also empirical evidences of little stock market reaction to dividend announcements at some periods (Hasan et al. , 2012). The event study methodology was used to evaluate the effect of cash dividend announcements on the share prices. The data about abnormal returns around the event day was analysed and the events before, on, or after the announcement day were pooled.The tested assumption states that payment of cash dividends is the most significant factor that impacts all prices around the event days (Hasan et al. , 2012). In the following figures the results of the regression analysis and statistical tests applied to the regressions are presented. Table 1 Effects of Dividends on Investor Weekly Return Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coeffici ents Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) .012 .009 1. 375 .175 Dividend -. 002 .002 -. 143 -1. 030 .308 Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate imension0 1 .143a .020 .001 .03489 a. Predictors: (Constant), Dividend According to the first regression, dividends do not have a significant impact on the weekly stock returns and hence the null hypothesis related to stock returns is rejected. However, the output from the regression of share prices on dividends demonstrates that the former have a statistically significant positive influence on the share price performance. This was evidenced with the t-test. Table 2 Effects of Dividends on Share Prices Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 151. 362 47. 949 3. 157 .003 Dividend 45. 955 9. 186 .574 5. 003 .000 Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate dimension0 1 .574a .329 .316 191. 66266 a. Predictors : (Constant), Dividend Thus, the null hypothesis related to the effects of dividends on the share prices is accepted. R-squared test has revealed that the second regression had a better fit. Conclusion As the semi-strong efficient market hypothesis suggests, new information including dividend announcement is quickly reflected in the company’s stock prices.Some empirical evidences support the hypothesis (Fama et al. , 1969; Aharony and Swary, 1980). Other findings suggest that the impact of the announcements may decline in the course of time (Amihud and Li, 2006). The recent empirical studies that were reviewed support the semi-strong efficient market hypothesis and find that dividend announcements produce abnormal returns and are positively related to the share prices (Mehnidiratta and Gupta, 2010). But another event study displays different reaction of stock prices to dividend announcement in different years (Hasan et al. , 2012).The analysis in the paper was conducted in th e context of three UK based companies from different sectors. The dividend policies of these companies have been analysed. Furthermore, the relationships between the share prices and the dividends were tested. It was found that the dividends produced a positive and statistically significant effect on the share prices but no significant effect on weekly returns. References Aharyny, J. and Swary, I. (1980) â€Å"Quarterly Dividend and Earnings Announcements and Stockholders’ Returns: An Empirical Analysis†, The Journal of Finance, 31 (1), pp. 1-12. Amihud, Y. nd Li, K. (2006) â€Å"The Declining Information Content of Dividend Announcements and the Effects of Institutional Holdings†, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 41, pp. 637-660. Asquith, P. and Mullins, D. W. Jr. (1983) â€Å"The Impact of Initiating Dividend Payments on Shareholders’ Wealth†, The Journal of Business, 56 (1), pp. 77-96. Baker, H. K. (2009) Dividends and dividend po licy. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Bodie, Z. , Kane, A. and Marcus, A. (2009) Investments, Hoboken: McGraw Hill Professional. Brealey, R. and Myers, S. (2003) Principles of Corporate Finance, New York: McGraw Hill.Burberry (2011) Annual Reports and Accounts, [online] Available at: www. burberryplc. com/bbry/results-centre/respre/rep2011/ [Accessed 6 February 2012]. Fama, E. F. , Fisher, L. , Jensen, M. C. and Roll, R. (1969) â€Å"The Adjustment of Stock Prices to New Information†, International Economic Review, 10 (1), pp. 1-21. Field A. (2005) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, London: Sage Publications. Gujarati, D. (1995) Basic Econometrics. 3rd ed. , New York: McGraw-Hill. Harder, S. (2008) â€Å"The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Application to Stock Markets†, Scholarly Research Paper, Germany: GRIN Verlag.Hasan, S. B. , Akhter, S. and Huda, H. A. E. (2012) â€Å"Cash Dividend Announcement Effect: Evidence from Dhaka Stock Exchange†, Research J ournal of Finance and Accounting, 3 (2), pp. 12-24. Maddala, G. S. (2001) Introduction to Econometrics. 3rd ed. , Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Mehnidiratta, N. and Gupta, S. (2010) â€Å"Impact of Dividend Announcement on Stock Prices†, International Journal of Information Technology and Knowledge Management, 2 (2), pp. 405-410. Moles, P. , Parrino, R. and Kidwell, D. (2011) Fundamentals of Corporate Finance – European Edition. UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Palan, S. 2004) â€Å"The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Validity in Today's Markets†, M. A. Thesis. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Shiller, R. J. (1981) â€Å"Do Stock Prices Move Too Much to be Justified by Subsequent Changes in Dividends? †, NBER Working Paper No. 456. Tesco (2011) Annual Report and Accounts [online] Available at: ar2011. tescoplc. com/ [Accessed 6 February 2012]. Vodafone (2011) Annual Report and Accounts [online] Available at: http://www. vodafone. com/content/index/investors/reports/ann ual_report. html [Accessed 6 February 2012]. Yahoo Finance (2012) Weekly Share Prices [online] Available at: finance. yahoo. co. uk [Accessed 6 February 2012].

Essay on The Responsibility of Macbeth for his own Actions

In the Elizabethan Era, society was highly suspicious of the power of supernatural forces and it was commonly accepted that one’s life was governed by fate and was predetermined. Shakespeare’s Macbeth challenges the Elizabethan ideology of fate by privileging that although Macbeth was a victim of his â€Å"vaulting ambition† (1:VII 27), he was ultimately responsible for his villainous actions. Shakespeare has foregounded certain events to privilege that a person has free will and a concience and the cosequences of going against ones conscience, thus challenging the assumption of the Elizabethan Era. The audience is invited to sympathise with the protagonist, Macbeth, and see him as a tragic hero. Before his descent into evil, Macbeth†¦show more content†¦Macbeth then began a series of murders to retain his fruitless crown (3:I 67), â€Å"to be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus† (3:I 54). It was Macbeths latent ambition for power that cau sed his descent into evil. Shakespeare foregrounds that Macbeth was aware of and resposible for his actions, through conscience and free will, to illustrate that he was not a victim of supernatural forces. By doing this he is challeging the assumptions of the Elizabethan Era that supernatural forces and supernatural soliciting predetermine ones destiny. The hallucinations and ghostly apparitions are foreground not to illustrate supernatural interference, but to foreground Macbeth’s guilty conscience. Macbeth struggles with his conscience, this humanises him and invites the audience to relate to him. Even before Macbeth had committed murder, his conscience was causing him to have qualms. One example of this is in Act One Scene 7, before the regicide of Duncan. â€Å"We will proceed no further in this business. (Duncan) hath honoured me of late, and I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people, which would be worn in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon.† Macbeth was disincl ined to murder â€Å"gracious Duncan† as he believed him to be a â€Å"good king† (4:III 163), however he still made the decision to commit regicide. This foregrounds the internal struggle Macbeth endured with his conscience that makes him a tragic hero. Supernatural elements exist toShow MoreRelated MacBeth is Responsible for His Downfall Essay690 Words   |  3 PagesMacBeth is Responsible for His Downfall    There were many wrongs committed in MacBeth. But who should bear the major responsibility for these actions? The witches prophesising? Lady MacBeths scheming and persuasion? Or should MacBeth himself be held responsible? 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