Documents Gallery
Assessing the Westminster Model in the Caribbean
Since gaining independence from The United Kingdom 1962-1980, many of the
English-speaking islands in the Caribbean, specifically the twelve nations
that form The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), adopted the British Westminster
form of government. Nevertheless,
independence for these former British colonies was not truly about
independence.
Supreme Court Rejects Texas Voter I.D. Appeal
On January 23, 2017, the United State Supreme court declined to hear an
appeal from the government of Texas over its Voter ID Law.
Texas was seeking to restore the controversial voter ID law, which
ruled the law was unconstitutional by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on
New Orleans. In their brief, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. gave no
specific reasons for refusing to hear the appeal.
Fighting for the Uninsured: Government's Role in Public
Health
The Commerce Clause states that Congress has power to specify rules to
govern the manner by which people may exchange or trade goods from one state
to another, to remove
obstructions to domestic trade erected
by states, and to both regulate and restrict the flow of goods to and from
other nations (and the Indian tribes) for the purpose of promoting the
domestic economy and foreign trade. Cases decided specifically based on the
Commerce Clause are rare, few and far between.
The Role of Volunteers in Public Service Delivery
Volunteers can be a source of tension with paid staff. Care and concern
should also be acknowledged about unnecessary job substitution and
organizations should maintain their quality standards through extensive
training and good management.
Millennials: Ethics, Governance and Politics
Millennial politics is simple,
really. Young people support big government, unless it costs any more money.
They’re for smaller government, unless budget cuts scratch a program they’ve
heard of. They’d like Washington to fix everything, just so long as it
doesn’t run anything.
The Role of Mobile Apps in Public Administration of
Disaster Relief
In the last five years, we have witnessed a paradigm shift in emergency
management by which the reliance of “brick and mortar” procedures—such as
telephones, computers, ships, planes and vehicles used to assist in disaster
relief—are now nicely complemented with mobile apps specifically designed
for disaster relief.
International Trends in Disaster Assistance
In the Caribbean, for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), there is a
substantial risk and vulnerability to natural disasters such as severe
storms and hurricanes. SIDS face a range of potential disasters
brought on by no fault of their own due to settings of tectonic plates,
location and topography, according to the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP).
The Influence of Social Media on Emergency Management
According to a Pew Research Center study,
when you take into account both the total reach of a site (the share of
Americans who use it) and the proportion of users who get news on the site (Anderson,
Caumont, 2014), Facebook is the obvious news
powerhouse among social media sites. Therefore, it is no surprise that
social media has a strong and growing influence on emergency management.
When disaster strikes, many look to social media for their initial source of
information.
