User:Alex K. Tran/sandbox

Alex Tran

Hi all! My name is Alex Tran and I am in UGBA 39E.

Article Evaluation

• Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
  • The article that I did research on was called "Civic application" and can be found at Civic application. Everything on this page was pretty relevant to the topic at hand. It was not too long, but I would suggest there be more pictures for this specific article.
• Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
  • The article is pretty neutral and their claims or not heavily biased towards a particular side.
• Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
  • With the previous answer being noted, I still believe that the article does not reference the dangers of Civic applications. It talks about "Non-Governmental Organizations and public national institutions are noticing the value of the civic apps" (Civic application). However, the article does not talk about the dangers that Civic application has for civilians as it offers dangerous entry points for ransomware and potential hackers.
• Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
  • When checking the links, they all work and support the claims mentioned in the article.
• Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
  • The facts referenced are from websites such as http://opencityapps.org. This website is straight from the civic application so it has reliable information. With that being said, it doesn't offer sources from those that oppose the Civic application platform.
• Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
  • Everything seems to be pretty up to date.
• Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
  • The only thing that was commented was from fellow classmate James Wang who said, "What are some of the disadvantages of using civic application and how can this negatively impact the market of civic technology?".
• How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
  • Start-Class and High-Performance. It is a part of the WikiProject Software and Politics.
• How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
  • In class we briefly mentioned the cons of these Civic applications, whereas this article does not. Something that I do appreciate is how it references the goals that Civic applications usually embody.
• Required (Not optional as stated on WikiEdu.org): Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — ~~~~. Put a link in your sandbox to the evaluation on the Talk page for the article.
  • Talk:Civic application

Choosing Possible Topics

• Look up 3-5 potential topics related to the course that you might want to update on Wikipedia. Review the content of the articles and check the Talk pages to see what other Wikipedians are already contributing. Identify one or two areas from each that you could improve.
  • Gun control
    • Doesn't reference recent gun control regulation as being put into place or pushes that have been instituted by various gun reform groups.
    • Also doesn't mention the NRA's impact on gun control policies.
  • Abortion
    • I believe that the history and religion portions should be split due to the strong difference between the two and the confusion that is caused when they are together.
    • I think there should be a larger reference to recent abortion cases in the news.
  • College tuition in the United States
    • I believe that there should be the mentioning of the impact that college and the college tuition has on different wealth classes.
    • In addition, I believe that there should be a section on politics and how different movements have pushed for changes within the tuition system.
• Choose 2-3 potential articles from that list that you could tackle, and post links to the articles and your notes about what you might improve in your sandbox (Links to an external site.).
  • Abortion
    • I believe that there should be a more elaborate description on the pro-life and pro-choice sides. As I mentioned earlier, I also believe that there should be more news on recent abortion laws and opinions.
    • In addition, there is no recent survey to gage various opinions. "A 1995 survey reported that Catholic women are as likely as the general population to terminate a pregnancy, Protestants are less likely to do so, and Evangelical Christians are the least likely to do so."
  • Gun control #Regulation of civilian firearms
    • "Another 2017 study showed that laws banning gun possession by people subject to intimate partner violence restraining orders, and requiring such people to give up any guns they have, were associated with lower intimate partner homicide rates." Throughout the paragraphs this was constantly repeated. Instead of going into depth about a specific study, the article would quickly glance over every study by making it sound like some sort of list. This was extremely hard to read and decreased the value behind every study in my opinion.
    • When talking about the regulation of fire arms, the article just talks about surveys, but now what is being done or put into place.
    • "A 2011 survey of 28 countries over five continents found that a major distinction between different national regimes of firearm regulation is whether civilian gun ownership is seen as a right or a privilege."
    • I believe that this is important to improve in order to keep people up to date and understanding of current trends and issues.

Finalize Topic and Sources

For my topic, I want to focus on Digital health and the progress that is being made this year in terms of wireless devices, telemedicine, software, and cybersecurity. In addition, I want to talk about the improvements being made to key health technologies such as heart disease. A big reason I want to choose this topic is due to the fact that the ethics of the issue interests me. On top of that, I am doing research on the topic for another project that I am working on.

As I mentioned in the page for Digital health... "In 2019, the FDA published a Digital Health Innovation Action Plan that would reduce inefficiencies for physicians in an effort to cut overhead costs, improve access, increase quality of service, and make medicine more easily adapted for each person. Topics within the innovation plan are wireless devices, telemedicine, software, and cybersecurity, among others." This will be the main umbrella of my topic, focusing on change within government as well.

Potential Sources:

"Digital health". US Food and Drug Administration. 19 July 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.

https://medium.com/the-sustainable-future/the-coeducation-of-civic-tech-and-digital-health-b57b89252f34

https://medium.com/tradecraft-traction/navigating-the-field-of-civic-tech-c1f9670c8f69

https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/8-technologies-changing-healthcare/

https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/blog/5-ways-technology-is-improving-health/

https://online.king.edu/news/digitizing-healthcare-how-technology-is-improving-medical-care/

http://news.mit.edu/topic/health

https://healthadministrationdegree.usc.edu/blog/3-challenges-of-technology-implementation-in-healthcare/

Delegative Democracy - Topic Draft

Delegative Democracy has found its way to some of the largest countries in the world and some being postcommunist. Some of these countries include Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, the Philippines, and Korea. Delegative democracies are not institutionalized as they are the midpoint between authoritarianism and representative democracy. Authoritarianism is a type of government that focuses on strong centralized powers, leaving the population to having limited political freedoms. Representative democracy on the other hand is a type of government that is founded on democracy, based on elected officials that represent the governing body. Delegative democracies are able to prosper in their respective areas due to the fact that there are specific social and economic crisis that allow those in charge to go about their exercise of their authority. The idea of delegative democracy as a whole is spun from Robert Dahl’s definition of polyarchy.

When an individual is elected within a delegative democracy, they are able to govern the country as they see fit. Some of these individuals include Indira Gandhi, Corazon Aquino, and Isable Peron). The President is representative of the nation and their actions are said to represent the needs of the whole nation. Their actions are not party affiliated and in fact puts themselves above all parties. Unlike democratic republics like the United States who has Congress and the Judiciary, accountability is put all on the President instead of other institutions. Although delegative democracy focuses power on one leader, it shares democratic traditions in terms of allowing the majority to win.

Although some delegative democracies have been successful, there has been failures due to fall into a pervasive cycle of unhappiness from those that are being governed. Although the large social and economic problems are what allows these Presidents to set their position for their team, it is what also allows them to receive a discount from the population. Delegative democracy is all about the second phase of the democratic cycle so when this cycle is hindered by no economic and social growth, there tends to be unfavorable ruling for the political leader.

According to Guillermo O’Donnell,  “voters are supposed to choose, irrespective of their identities and affiliations, the individual who is most fit to take responsibility of the country… after the election, voters/delegators are expected to become a passive, but cheering audience of what the president does.”  In this sense, voters and the population have their main say in government while they are voting, but once the President is elected, the system reduces their power in terms of freedom of expression.

One of the largest examples of a Delegative democracy is Argentina. Argentina has seen large success in their delegative democracy due to the vertical accountability that is in place. Vertical accountability is the when civilians are able to enforce the performance of those that are in charge. Horizontal accountability on the other hand is when only the government is able to hold itself accountable, leading to check abuses by public agencies. When looking at what transpired in Argentina specifically, the death of Alberto Nisman under the rule of President Fernandez led to foundation of delegative democracy. Fernandez was able to dissolve the Secretariat of Intelligence and replace it with his new Federal Intelligence Agency. This ruling became a foundation for delegative democracy. Fernandez also released the Central Bank Chief, Martin Redrado, after he failed to comply with the orders that she instilled.

When looking at Colombia who has a delegative democracy, they have been exhibiting lack of checks and balances. As mentioned earlier, this is due to horizontal accountability where the governmental agencies serve the checks and balances. When looking at Colombia, these agencies are not progressive towards the people’s needs. In 2002 the country saw Alvaro Uribe rise to power and became the epitome of the delegative democratic model. During his presidency, his first project was staging of a national referendum that focused on establishing a unicameral congress. On top of Columbia, delegative democracy in Russia and Ukraine as well. In these specific countries, the leaders have lack of qualifications but due to the viewpoints of the people, it justifies their authoritarian behavior.

Bibliography:

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/225426/pdf

https://kellogg.nd.edu/sites/default/files/old_files/documents/172_0.pdf

https://u.osu.edu/latampolitics17/2017/02/19/delegative-democracy-a-failure-of-consolidation/

https://u.osu.edu/latampolitics17/2017/02/19/is-delegative-democracy-possible/

https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/news-and-politics/argentina-still-delegative-democracy

http://www.unsam.edu.ar/profesores/LucasGonzalez/LGonzalez-Unpacking%20Delegative%20Democracy.pdf

http://www.coha.org/delegative-democracy-the-case-of-colombia/

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.881.6753&rep=rep1&type=pdf

https://newvote.org/delegative-democracy

https://deptofbioregion.org/policy-issues-1/tag/Delegative+Democracy

Peer Review

1. User:Mervitan/Politics and technology/Alex K. Tran Peer Review
2. User:Ishangill10/Civic journalism/Alex K. Tran Peer Review
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Adamng926/Digital_citizen/Alex%20K.%20Tran_Peer_Review?preload=Template%3ADashboard.wikiedu.org_peer_review