Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Social sciences for Competitive examination

The Spanish Electoral System

Spain holds several types of elections for different levels of government, each with its own set of rules and representation systems.

• Local Authorities: Elects city and town councillors.
• Autonomous Parliaments: Elects members for the regional governments.
• National Parliament (Cortes Generales): Elects members for the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.
• European Parliament: Elects Spain's representatives (MEPs).

Most elections, including those for the Congress, Autonomous Parliaments, and European Parliament, use a proportional representation system based on the D'Hondt method.

The Congress of Deputies: Proportional Representation

The Congress of Deputies has 350 members. The electoral district in Spain is the province,...

The Freedmen's Bureau and Its Legacy

• Established by Congress.
• Served as an early welfare agency.
• Led by General Oliver O. Howard.
• Achieved significant success in education, teaching formerly enslaved people to read.
• Suffered from poor land distribution policies (the promise of "40 acres and a mule" was largely unfulfilled).

Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan (10% Plan)

• A key Reconstruction plan proposed by President Lincoln.
• Required 10% of the state's voters from the 1860 election to take an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and abide by emancipation.

The Black Codes: Regulating Freedmen's Lives

• Laws enacted in the South to regulate the affairs of freed Black citizens.
• Designed to ensure a stable and subservient labor force.
• Severely oppressed the ideal of freedom

Analysis Process Framework

When analyzing a company, we should divide the analysis in two points: External and Internal. The focus of these analyses is to find their main Strengths, Weaknesses (internal analysis), Opportunities, and Threats (external analysis). After research we can finally build our SWOT analysis of the company.

External:

• Trends = PESTLE - allows the company to make specific choices when planning the company's future, from how the brand should be presented, to any changes within the structure of the company's organization, to the development of new products.
• Sector = Porter’s 5 forces - Analytical model used to help identify the structure of an industry, and to help companies determine their competitive strategies.

Internal Analysis:

Marxist Theory

Human beings are trying to cover basic need, biological necessities. Men are compelled to produce those things. Life from a Marxist point of view is the process where human beings first make products to satisfy their needs, and secondly make themselves making products. Marx defines us as workers. We express ourselves in labor, working. When the product of workers' labor belongs to other people, the workers' humanity is stolen or abducted. In private property, his product is separated from workers, he looks himself alienated. In human history, human life has had:

1. Material needs and scarcity poverty
2. Alienation

He is following Feuerbach to establish his idea of original religion, is the fact that human beings live with basic necessities,...

Rhetoric and Poetica

As a general concept, rhetoric refers to the art of speaking or writing correctly and elegantly to move, delight, or persuade. Different authors have defined it in various ways:

• Cockcroft: Art of persuasive speech
• Lopez Eyre: Art of properly using language
• Arist: Ability to achieve something
• Quintilian: Science to work and take care of the ability to speak
• Protagoras: Man as a measure of all things

The natural origin of rhetoric is legal and political. Its roots can be traced back to Syracuse in the 5th century BC when eloquence became necessary to persuade during land expropriation disputes. Rhetoric was the capacity for oratory, the art of persuading. The first discourse on this topic was written by Corax of Syracuse, but it...

Regional Economic Integration: Benefits & Types

Regional economic integration, also known as regionalism, is the process whereby countries in a geographic region cooperate to reduce or eliminate barriers to the international flow of products, people, or capital. There are five main types of regional economic integration:

• Free Trade Area: Member countries eliminate tariffs and quotas among themselves, but each maintains its own external trade policies.
• Customs Union: Builds on a free trade area by adding a common external trade policy.
• Common Market: Extends a customs union by allowing the free movement of labor and capital among members.
• Economic Union: Combines a common market with the coordination of national economic policies (e.g., monetary,

The Historical Impact of Latin on English Vocabulary

Latin Influence via Celtic Transmission

When the English migrated from the Continent to Britain in the mid-fifth century, they found the island already inhabited. Celtic people had been there for many centuries. Despite the long Roman occupation, the British Celts continued to speak their own language.

However, the relations between the Celts and the English were such that the Latin influence of this period remains the slightest of all influences that Old English owed to contact with Roman civilization.

The Christianization of Britain (597 AD)

The greatest influence of Latin upon Old English was occasioned by the reintroduction of Christianity into Britain in 597. The leader of this band was St....

United States: Key Facts & Cultural Insights

The head of state and of the government is the President of the United States. The capital is Washington D.C. The USA occupies all the territory of North America, between Mexico and Canada, as well as the peninsula of Alaska and the island of Hawaii. This makes a total of 9.5 million km² and a population of some 300 million inhabitants.

Geographical Framework of the USA

The geographical characteristics of the USA are diverse due to its vast size. Three zones must be distinguished:

• The continental zone, where different geophysical regions are observed.
• Alaska, formed by a mountainous region.
• The Hawaiian Islands, which are of volcanic formation.

The most important river is the Mississippi.

Historical

Main Institutions of the EU

European Commission

The Commission is independent of the national governments and its goal is to represent and defend the interests of the EU as a whole. They elaborate law proposals that are presented in the Parliament.

It also has an executive function and must implement the decisions of the Parliament and the Council. Its main duties are:

• Propose legislation to the Council and the Parliament.
• Manage and implement EU policies and budget.
• Enforce European legislation (together with the Court of Justice).
• Represent the EU in international forums.

EU Council (Council of the European Union)

It is comprised of the heads of the member states, along with the President of the Council and the President of the Commission. It has...

Anorexia: Teenagers Affected Nearly Doubled

One of the most striking results to emerge from a recent survey is that the number of teenagers who suffer from Anorexia has nearly doubled in the last three years. This devastating social scourge is causing immense suffering.

Rising Crisis of Domestic Violence

Have you ever met a victim of domestic violence? What could we do to stop this social scourge? According to a recent survey carried out by El Mundo newspaper, the number of women who suffer from domestic violence has been increasing very seriously since 2009.

Addressing this issue requires collaboration: Politicians, teachers, doctors, and educators should work together to try to solve this serious problem.

Migration: Increase in Undocumented Arrivals

What...