White Collar Union Facts and Figures in Retrospect an Example by

White Collar Union: Facts and Figures in Retrospect When one says the term white-collar worker, it always refers to a laborer given a specific salary whose job revolves on anything that is clerical in nature. White collar unions, then, are groups of salaried professionals who are not inclined with manual labor. White collar unions have an interesting history. It was in the United States when white collar jobs became pronounced. From 1900 to 1998, a dramatic increase of 59.4% existed, showing how wide and popular white collar unions has gone for the past few years. This increase has been optimized by the changes in the economic structure of the United States and the technological revolution that took place in the said country. In 2002, white collar unions massively grew. A total of 66,000 white-collar workers decided to join white collar unions. Because of the organized labor and the fast-growing ranks of the workers combined, the record of 66,000 white collar workers seem to increase to 11 million by 2010. This observation is seen by AFL-CIO or the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations the biggest federation of unions in America and is a recognized national union trade center (Green, 2003). Need essay sample on "White Collar Union: Facts and Figures in Retrospect" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed Today, there are around six million white collar unions in the United States with a membership of 13 million. Companies running their businesses with the help of white collar workers can be downsized, but as this happens, white collar unions are upsized. White collar unions are made of forest rangers, journalists, musicians, attorneys, engineers, teachers, doctors and nurses among many others. Out of the overall workforce of the United States alone, over 60% of it is made of white collar workers (Green, 2003). These records can be supported by a lot of examples and here are among the many unmentioned groups: While the popularity of white collar unions became evident in the past years, these groups existed decades ago. In as early as 1896, a white collar union called MPU or Medical Practitioner's Union was founded. It was first referred to as the Incorporated Medical Practitioner's Association or IPMA in 1914before it became MPU. This group developed through the years until it 1937 came and the MPU became affiliated to the TUC. In 1970, a part of its members, approximately 5,520 members, became a part of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs or ASTMS. Undergraduates Very Often Tell EssayLab writers:I'm not in the mood to write my essay online. I don't have the timeProfessional writers suggest:Custom Essays - Easy And Quickly With Essaylab.ComPapers For Sale Essays Online For College Assignment Help Buy Essays Cheap In 1917, another white collar union was born by the name of Amalgamated Managers' and Foremen's Association. This group was founded in Darlington. While it was a short-lived white collar union, it merged with the NFA or National Foremen's Association in 1925 to revive its life. It can be easily said that 1917 is indeed the year for white collar unions because it was also the year when ASSET, or Association of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technicians was born. ASSET will always be remembered as a white collar group because it was the first group that forwarded a Private Members Bill in Parliament to become a law. It didn't take too long until ASSET merged with ASTMS or Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs. ASTMS was formed in 1968 and was first known as AScW or Association of Scientific Workers. ASTMS was a large white collar union made of 90,000 white collar workers. The secret to its impressive expansion was continuous encouragement of small unions to merge with the bigger ones and of course, the power of active recruitment. In 1988, ASTMS was one of the most successful white collar unions in the world, giving a home to over 400,000 white collar workers. It soon merged with TASS and paved the way to the founding of MSF. MSF, short for Manufacturing, Science, Finance merged with ASTMS (Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs) in 1988. In 2002, a full turn was witnessed in the history of white collar unions when MSR united with AEEU. With this, Amicus, another white collar union, was formed (Unite the Union, 2007). Reference Green, C. (October 7, 2003). White-Collar Workers Flocking to Unions; Professionals Now Approaching Half of AFL-CIO Union Membership. Working Life. Unite the Union. (2007). The White Collar Unions.

buy custom Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching essay

buy custom Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching essay Educational assessment is one of the controversial and problematic fields in the educational practice. One way to assess students is through the use of standardized tests. There is little this criterion has done to enable students do well in their final exams, for instance the High School Exit Exam. In fact, the Standardized testing has considerably undermined the whole learning concept among schools. In the current era throughout the world, there has been suggested a move to find out the stated goals of the curriculum and who is accountable for their outcomes. A key component to this move has found that there are inefficiencies from the standardized tests as a measure of students learning and evaluation among schools. A research conducted revealed that, if a curriculum wanted to pursue students excellence in schools, then the adoption of standardized tests would contribute very little to the students success (Lee 16). The reason cited in this research is that the standardized tests focus assumes an unusually narrow approach to the promotion of excellence. Among is the issue that, standardized tests emphasize only basic ideas in core areas of the curriculum for instance reading, mathematics and science and nothing more. This is particularly limited in the U.S.A., as a result of the requirements of NCLB (Andrew 78). In all cases of these students assessments, these tests do not involve the students in creative study and problem solving. It also does not engage students in skills use and analysis to perform critically reasoning tests. Very minimal in these standardized tests do involve students into meaningful thinking and idea generation. They lack the capacity for meaning factual recall. Apart from idea concerning creativity of students, they lack tests that are also beneficial in areas of child development, for instance honesty, social life and basic life focusing behavior. The worst of it all is that, at the moment, most schools are following this constrained syllabus focus of these tests to continually narrow down their curriculum hence reducing and restricting the quality of learning and educational development (Lee 16). Teaching the content standards is like teaching to test and it is not a wise idea. Put it differently, if the tests are to measure the level of skills that stdents are expected to, this means, therefore, that teaching to test is profound idea. The worst is when these tests are not related at any given level to what is being taught; perhaps teachers solely rely on repeated drills that encompass the old questions to prepare students. Standardized tests have proved to waste a great and valuable learning time for students not only in high school, but deny them a chance to proceed to college (Beanie 79). However, standardized tests have the bright side of it, for instance the time students spend their time preparing for tests, and they often learn valuable skills. The better aspect of these tests is when students learn time managing skills, how to understand passages, following instructions and knowing how and when certain answers can be eliminated. All these are valuable test-taking skills that are of significance to students understanding as they progress through their schools and career paths. Proponents of the standardized tests say that these tests, if well integrated to proper teaching strategies can come with great learning success. Accordingly they say standardized tests are part of instrumental programs; they are not entirely independent. They explain that standardized tests always requires students to demonstrate their skills after learning, especially reading comprehension, to demonstrate the meaning of words in the texts read and pull out facts embodied and try to connect meaning. They say these are skills of a good reader and might be expected in a professional life (Andrew 88). Standardized tests have been used as a constructivism in school as reflected in the curriculum that greatly eliminates grades in this system. Learning is a process; for this reason, it can be demonstrated in a variety of ways and application. This will eliminate cases where a students fail to get admission to college for just falling a point below the standardized limit. Critically, standardized testing does not provide a proper and genuine assessment of the students performance. Over and above they do not provide avenues for improvement in schools. They fall behind the fact that some students cannot keep to the requirement of the materials. If, for instance, a student could not pass a class, he/she was kept back to repeat that class. As per now, with the passage of NCLB, teachers have been forced to ensure that tthe test score for these children remain high in order to keep the schools under operation so that facilities are well utilized (Beanie 79). Standardized testing in the USA is a pretty joke, since not all students who are cut out to proceed to collage, or to take careers relevant to many of their skills that were studied in high schools. For instance, students at a given high school must take a Graduation test before they are permitted to graduate. In this case, they have to pass the test, which normally take a week of time. This time is very significant to a student, in that could be used in their labs or learning entrepreneurial skills that are relevant to their future life (Andrew 90). Standardized testing has lost the originality out of the schools. This greatly impact the art and music classes, as these classes will be the first to be cut when the test are low which means that the school finally lose the funding. This will go a step further to affect students whose interests are art and music at collage after high school graduation. Other extra curriculums are next on the line to go such as agriculture and entrepreneurship. This affects the other core subjects and classes in a similar manner, where teachers are forced to teach from strict guidelines, as per the requirements of the state, which will see the students prepared for testing. On the same note, fun activities and new materials are often cut from the syllabus, especially from the English department. This is to allow them to focus on the test materials, not in a way where the students are interested. In this case, they are mandated to exclude the classic literature out of the curriculum and instead opt fo r grammar and composition writing (Beanie 79). In conclusion, standardized tests are a disservice to the high school graduate of America. According to Pros and Cons of No Child Left behind (2006), these students are forced to learn material that deprives them the research and career development skills. Over and above, they are mandated to learn streamlined material, which have been found to lack the depth and well grounded knowledge that is crucial in their future careers. Lastly, some of these tests have denied most of these students a chance to proceed to college after high school graduation for having fall short of one or two points. Buy custom Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching essay

The Different Sources of Law in England and Wales Essay

The Different Sources of Law in England and Wales - Essay Example Judges create common law by delivering written judgments on the cases that have been brought before them. If magistrates’ courts across both Wales and England were to be allowed to follow and make their own precedents, this would have the effect of creating relatively huge variations in both the regional and local legal customs in the two countries (Gearey, Morrison and Jago, 2013). The common law works to ensure that the law remains common throughout the land. However, it is the responsibility of the House of Lords and the criminal division of the Court of Appeal to create legal precedents in relation to criminal matters affecting Wales and England. It is the decision that is made by these higher courts that works to bind the lower courts.  At times, new situations occur that are found to be entirely new in relation to common law. In such instances, courts in England and Wales can sometimes opt to look aboard at the decisions of the courts made in other commonwealth countri es in order to seek the necessary guidance or from them. This allows for common law systems to have a degree of flexibility and stability as they continue to look to each other for guidance (Gearey, Morrison and Jago, 2013).Statute Law and Common Law Interaction  Although the English legal system is primarily founded n common law, this does not necessarily mean that statutes are any less binding. In fact, the relationship between statute and common law is that that statute law codifies certain rules whereas the common law serves to provide clarification.

LSTD206 Capstone Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

LSTD206 Capstone Paper - Essay Example This informs the basis of the establishment of sound client-relations policies, which do not only serve as the basis of informing how a firm relates with its clients, but also as a marketing tool for the firm, since good client experience is a recipe for increased customer base for a firm (Brink & Berndt, 2008). Therefore, this discussion seeks to establish the client-relations policies that a legal firm should establish to enhance its client relationship as well as its marketing, communication, advertising, confidentiality and conflict of interest handling. This discussion is important for a legal firm, since it creates insights into the relevant strategies that such firms should apply to enhance a productive relationship with the clients, and thus be able to maintain a secured client base, in the face of the ever increasing competition. Discussion Client reception is the core of productive client-relations policies formulation, considering that it is the reception that clients get when they first visit a firm that determines their first impression of the firm, and the consequent future interactions with the firm (Silk, 2012). This being the case, it is therefore significant to ensure that the receptionists and the customer relationship officers within a firm follows certain guidelines that enhances a positive and productive relationship with the client, which enable the firm to project a positive image to the clients, and thus attract them for further visits and interactions. Thus, courtesy and helpfulness is the basis of the customer relationship policy, where the receptionists and the customer relationship officers address the clients with respect and integrity, while offering the essential help that a client could require (Knackstedt, 2008). While being courteous, respectful and helpful serves to enable the client feel comfortable within the firm and feel valued and appreciated as a stakeholder to the firm, it plays the vital role of enticing the customer to make repeat visits. Thus, courteousness, helpfulness and respectfulness serves both as a client recognition and appreciation strategies, as well as firm marketing strategies that encourages further business. Confidentiality is paramount in the legal relationship business, considering that the relationship between a client and a legal firm entails the discussion of sensitive personal, business or family matters, which should not be introduced to the public domain (Nollkamper, 2008). Thus, a confidentiality policy is vital within a legal firm, to ensure that the relationship between a client and the firm, and the issues discussed between them remains between the two parties, and can only be disclosed whenever it is necessary, may be in a court of law. Through implementing the confidentiality policy, a firm is able to ensure that the customer feels comfortable while dealing with the firm, through the knowledge that the personal and confidential information shared with the firm will remain as such, without any risk of unnecessary exposure (Silk, 2012). Client communications and legal advice is yet another aspect that requires that a policy guideline is established to safeguard the relationship. The policy applicable under this concept

The typography used on the word helpline Essay Example for Free

The typography used on the word helpline Essay The font is the same throughout the ad but the size is different. The main question asked in the ad is what do you know about cocaine? This is put in a bigger font size in the whole ad and it goes through both pages to make it stand out. The colour of the font is white throughout the ad apart from the drugs Help-line, which is in yellow writing on a black background. This is because it is trying to make the number stand out at you in the dark. This could also symbolise the fact the most people take drugs in the dark or the colour black could symbolise death. The typography used on the word helpline has a question mark replacing the letter P. This is used to catch the readers attention if they are skim reading the ad and once the readers attention has been caught, the phone number is directly under the question mark. The telephone number is in a larger size font than the website. This is because the advertiser wants the reader to use the phone and explain their problems and have assistance with what they can do. If they made the website stand out most teenagers could go onto it but then think I have better things to do. However, they do want to have a website for people who may feel more comfortable going on the Internet, but the whole point of the ad is to advertise the Help-line. This ad is definitely aimed at teenagers or people who are in their early twenties. This is because the ad has got pictures of teenagers and what they think of drugs. There is a good chance that the teenagers who take drugs can relate to this ad because the opinions of the men in the advert are common opinions on what most teenagers think of the effects of drugs. You can also easily tell the ad is aimed for teenagers because the pictures are taken at a disco, the main place where teenagers go. Not only that but you can also see teenagers in the background drinking and dancing. The overall message of the ad is quite simple; dont take cocaine and if you  are not sure what the effects of them are, call the National Drugs Helpline and  who will tell you all the facts. The lifestyles that the ad seems to suggest  after you have cocaine this can cause you being scruffy, getting paranoid weeks after taking cocaine and you cant sleep hence the womens opinion of drugs in the ad. The message that the ad is trying to get across to the reader is dont believe what your friends say about drugs and find out the actual facts before you take them.

Race Relations in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Essay

Race Relations in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The reasons listed by the censors for banning I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings do not explain the widespread controversy around the novel. There is reason to believe that the question of the novel is in its poignant portrayal of race relations. This explains why the novel has been most controversial in the South, where racial tension is historically worst, and where the novel is partially set. Therefore, understanding the blatant and subtle effects of racism on the young Marguerite help explain the censorship controversy, and the person she became. One of the earliest examples of race relations in the book symbolizes the strict dichotomy of opportunity for black and white children. On the second page, Marguerite explains how she wished that she would wake up in a white world, with blond hair, blue eyes, and she would shudder from the nightmare of being black. Thus, from the beginning of the book, race relations were one of the major themes. Maya Angelou also shows the effect of oppression on the black people, and that impact on her as a child. One early example occurred when the po' white trash children confronted Mama in front of the store. They were represented as clownish, dirty, and rather silly. On the other hand, Mama simply stood like a rock and sang the Gospel. Her beauty of soul versus their disgusting antics creates a powerful scene about the nature of the oppressed and the oppressor. Marguerite, meanwhile, lies crouched behind the screen in agony at the inability of her class to command respect simply because of their color. Then, as the scene progresses, she understands that in spite of the disparity of power between the po'white trash and M... ...ice. It is interesting to note the poetical nature of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Her perspective of a young girl is flawless. One truly sees the events through the eyes of a young girl. For example, the molestation scenes are depicted simply and innocently, which bothers one's consciousness. Another aspect of the book is the way in which the chapters are laid out. At the beginning of each chapter, Maya introduces a topic, discusses it, and then provides resolution. Each chapter is a short story by itself, but they also relate together. The chapters build on each other, and the end provides resolution to the common threads of the book. The end, however, also is a new beginning for Marguerite. It is the perfect ending to a profound and moving novel. Works Cited: Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1969. Â  

Mermaids

The French Revolution in the Minds of Men Author(s): Maurice Cranston Reviewed work(s): Source: The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer, 1989), pp. 46-55 Published by: Wilson Quarterly Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org/stable/40257906 . Accessed: 31/05/2012 21:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www. jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms. jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive.We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email  protected] org. Wilson Quarterly and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Wilson Quarterly (1976-). http://www. jstor. org 1789 THE FRENCH IN THE REVOLUTION OF MEN MINDS by Maurice Cranston July 14, 1989- BastilleDay- political and culturalleaders of every ideological persuasion assembled in Paristo celebratethe bicentennial of the French Revolution.Was there something strange about their unanimous applause? All subsequent major revolutions, such as those that took place in Russia and China, remain controversialtoday. But the French Revolution, which served as the direct or indirect model for these later upheavals, now passes for an innocuous occasion which anyone, Marxistor monarchist,can join in celebrating. Wasthis proof only of the anaesthetizing power of time, that two centuries could turn the French Revolutioninto a museum piece, an exhibitionacceptable to all viewers, even to a descendent of the old Bourbon monarchs?Or is there something about the French Revolution itself that, from its beginning, sets it apart from later revolutions? The tricouleur, the Marseillaise, the monumental paintings of David all celebr ate a series of connected events, alternatelyjoyous and grim, which make up the real, historical French Revolution. But there is another French Revolution, one which emerged only after the tumultuous days were over and the events and deeds became inflated or distorted in the minds of later partisans. This is the French Revolution as myth, and it is in many ways the more importantof the two.It is so, one could argue, because the myth, and not the reality, inspired the scores of revolutions that were to come. The actors of the French Revolution, anWQ SUMMER 1989 nouncing their principles on behalf of all mankind, clearly intended their deeds to have a mythic dimension. They wanted to inspireothers to follow their example. Consider the Declarationof the Rights of Man, passed in Augustof 1789. At no point does it refer to the specific conditions or laws of France. Instead, it speaks in grand universals, as if it were the voice of mankinditself.Replete with terms like citizen, liberty,th e sacred rights of man, the common good, the document provides the lexicon for all future revolutions. By contrast, the earlier revolutionary models which stirredthe French in 1789 to act- the English Revolution of 1688 and the American Revolution of 1776- had been essentiallypolitical events, limited in scope and conservative in objectives. The English revolutionists claimed to restore the liberty that the despotic James II had destroyed; the American revolutionaries made the kindredclaim that they were only defending their rights against tyrannical measures introduced by George III.Neither revolutionsought to change society. The French Revolution, however, sought to do exactly that. Indeed, to many of the more zealous French revolutionaries, the central aim was the creation of a new man- or at least the liberation of pristine man, in all his natural goodness and simplicity, from the cruel and corrupting prison of the traditionalsocial order. It is easy to see how this grandiose vi sion of the Revolution's purpose went hand-in-handwith the emergence of Romanticism.The great Romantic poets and philosophers encouraged people through- 46 1789 out the West to believe that imagination could triumph over custom and tradition, that everything was possible given the will to achieve it. In the early 1790s, the young William Wordsworth expressed the common enthusiasm for the seemingly brave and limitless new world of the Revolution: France standingon the top of golden hours, And human nature seeming born again. Here we encounter one of the many differences between reality and myth.The reality of the French Revolution, as Tocqueville maintained, was prepared by the rationalist philosophers of the 18th-century Enlightenment, by Voltaire, Diderot, Helvetius, d'Alembert, and Holbach no less than by Rousseau. Its myth, however, was perpetuated during the 19th century by Ro- mantic poets such as Byron, Victor Hugo and Holderlin. Byron in his life and in his poetry bore witnes s to that romanticized revolutionary idealism, fighting and then dying as he did to help the Greeks throw off the Turkish yoke and set up a free state of their own.The grandeur of its lofty aims made the French Revolution all the more attractive to succeeding generations of revolutionaries, real and would-be; the violence added theatrical glamor. The guillotine – itself an invention of gruesome fascination together with the exalted status of its victims, many of them royal, noble, or political celebrities, made the Terror as thrilling as it was alarming. The wars which broke out in 1793, when France declared war on Great Britain, Holland, and Spain, were fought not by professional soldiers but by conscripts, ordinary men who were ex-Duringthe 1790s, the FrenchArmybecame the â€Å"schoolof the Revolution,†where volunteers learned to â€Å"knowwhat theyfoughtfor and love what they know. † WQ SUMMER 1989 47 1789 pected to †know what they fought for and love w hat they know. † These wars were thought of as wars of liberation. It hardly matteredthat Napoleon turnedout to be an imperialist conqueror no better than Alexander or Caesar;he was still a people's emperor. If historians of the French Revolution are unanimous about any one point, it is this:thatthe Revolutionbroughtthe people into French political life. To say that it inwould be to say too troduced â€Å"democracy† much.Althoughpopularsuffragein varying degrees was institutedas the revolutionunfolded, no fully democratic system was set up. But popular supportcame to be recognized as the only basis for legitimatingthe nationalgovernment. Even the new despotism of Napoleon had to rest on a plebiscitary authority. These plebiscites, which allowed voters only to ratifydecisions already made, denied popular sovereignty in fact while paying tribute to it in theory. (The vote for the Constitutionwhich made Napoleon emperor in 1804-3,500,000 for versus 2,500 against hardlysugg estsa vigorous democracy. But if Napoleon's government was not democratic, it was obviously populistic. The people did not rule themselves, but they approvedof the man who ruled them. The end of Napoleon's empire in 1815, which was also in a sense the end of the historicalFrench Revolution,could only be brought about by the intervention of foreign armies. Those foreign armies could place a king on the throne of France, as they did with Louis XVIIIin 1815, but they could not restore the principle of royal sovereignty in the hearts of the French people. They simply put a lid on forces which would break ut in anotherrevolution 15 years later,this time not only in France but in other parts of the Westernworld. The French Revolution had turned the French into a republican people. Even when they chose a king- Louis-Philippe to lead that revolution of 1830, he was more of a republican prince than a royal sovereign in the traditional mold. LouisPhilippe,the â€Å"CitizenKing,†had to recognize, as part of his office, â€Å"the sovereignty of the nation. â€Å"And what kind of sovereign is it, one may ask, who has to submit to the sovereigntyof the nation?The answer must clearlybe, one who is king neitherby grace of God nor birth nor lawfulinheritancebut only through the will of the people, who are thus his electors and not his subjects. of â€Å"sovereignty the nation†was a new and powerful idea, a revolutionaryidea, in the 19th century. At the philosophical level, it is usually asto cribed,with some justification, the teachof JeanJacques Rousseau, whom Eding mund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and many lesser commentators considered the ideologue of the French Revolution.What Rousseau did was to separate the concept which he said should be kept of sovereignty, the people in their own hands, from the by which he urged the concept of government, people to entrustto carefullychosen elites, their moral and intellectual superiors. Rousseauheld that neither h ereditarykings nor aristocratscould be considered superiors of this kind. Rousseau was uncompromisinglyrepublican. To him a republic could be based only on the collective will of citizens who contracted to live together under laws that they themselves enacted. â€Å"Myargument,†Rousseauwrote in TheSo-Maurice Cranston, a former Wilson Center Guest Scholar, is professor of political science at the London School of Economics. Born in London, he was educated at St. Catherine'sCollege and The His OxfordUniversity. books include John StuartMill (1965),Jean-Jacques: EarlyLife and Work of Jean-JacquesRousseau, 1712-54 (1982), and John Locke: A Biography(1985). WQ SUMMER 1989 48 1789 Three Leaders Three Phases of the Revolution. The liberalMarquisde Lafayetteinitiallyguided the Revolution. GeorgesDanton helped overthrowthe monarchy,but was executedfor being too moderate. Robespierre was both directorand victim of the Terror. ial Contract, â€Å"is that sovereignty, being nothing othe r than the exercise of the general will, can never be alienated; and the sovereign, which is simply a collective being, cannot be represented by anyone but itself- power may be delegated, but the will cannot be. † The sheer size of France, however, with a population in 1789 of some 26 million of people, precluded the transformation the French kingdom into the sort of direct democracy that Rousseau a native Swissthe Americanshad very reenvisaged. Still, cently proved that a nation need not be as small as a city-statefor a republican constitution to work.And as an inspirationto the average Frenchman, the American Revolution was no less importantthan the writings of Rousseau. The American Revolution thus became a model for France,despite its conservative elements. Moreover,the AmericanRevolution later served as a model for others largely because its principles were â€Å"translated† and universalized by the French Revolution. In Latin America, the Spanish and Portuguesecol onies could not directly follow the American example and indict their monarchs for unlawfully violating their rights; Spain and Portugal, unlike England, recognized no such rights.But following the example of the French RevoWQ SUMMER 1989 49 1789 lution, LatinAmericanslike Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martinwere able to appeal to abstract or universal principles. To describe Bolivia's new constitution in 1826, Simon Bolivarused the same universaland idealisticcatchwordswhich the French had patented 37 years before: â€Å"In this constitution/' Bolivar announced, â€Å"you will find united all the guarantees of permanency and liberty, of equality and order. † If the South American republics sometimes seemed to run short on republican liberty nd equality,the concept of royal or imperial sovereignty was nonetheless banished forever from American shores. The short reign of Maximilianof Austriaas Emperor of Mexico ( 1864- 1867) provideda brief and melancholy epilogue to such ide as of sovereignty in the New World. Even in the Old World,royal and aristocratic governments were on the defensive. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna, under Prince Metternichof Austria'sguidance, attempted to erase the memory of the Revolution and restore Europe to what it had been before 1789.Yet only five years after the Congress,Metternichwrote to the Russian tsar,AlexanderI, admitting,†Thegovernments, having lost their balance, are frightened, intimidated, and thrown into confusion. † French Revolution had permanently destroyed the mystique on which traditional regimes were based. No king could indisputablyclaim that he ruled by divine right; nor could lords and bishops assume that their own interests and the nationalinterestscoincided. After the French Revolution, commoners, the hitherto silent majorityof ordinaryunderprivilegedpeople, asserted the right to have opinions of their own- and to make them known.For once the ideas of liberty, democracy,and the rightsof men had been extracted from philosophers'treatises and put on the agenda of political actionwhich is what the French Revolution with its â€Å"universalprinciples†did- there could be no security for any regime which set itself againstthose ideals. In old history textbooks one can still find the interpretation of the French Revolutionfirstadvancedby Jules Micheletand Jean Jaures and other left-wing historians who explained the Revolution as one abolishing feudalismand advancing bourgeois capitalist society.While few historians still view the Revolution this way,the Micheletinterpretation was widespread during the 19th century,and its currency promptedmany an aspiring Robespierreto â€Å"comThe revolutionaryuprisingin Frankfurt 1848. â€Å"Thedull sound plete† the revolution. in Completing the revoluof revolution,†which VictorHugo had detected â€Å"pushingout under every kingdomin Europe,†grew dramaticallyloud thatyear. tion meant overthrowing 50 WQ SUMMER 19 89 1789 the bourgeoisie in favor of the working class, just as the bourgeoisie had supposedly overthrown the feudal aristocracyin 1789.The convulsive year of 1848 was marked in Europe by several revolutions which attempted to complete the work of 1789. Their leaders all looked back to the FrenchRevolutionfor their â€Å"historicjustification. â€Å"Tocquevilleobservedof these revolutionaries that their â€Å"imitation [of 1789] was so manifestthat it concealed the terrible originalityof the facts;I continuallyhad the impression they were engaged in playactingthe FrenchRevolutionfar more than continuing it. If the 19th centurywas, as many historians describe it, the â€Å"century of revolutions,†it was so largelybecause the French Revolution had provided the model. As it turns out, the existence of a proper model has proved to be a more decisive prod to revolution than economic crisis, political unrest, or even the agitations of young revolutionaries. Indeed, the role of pr ofessionalrevolutionaries seems negligible in the preparation of most revolutions. Revolutionaries often watched and analyzed the political and social disintegrationaround them, but they were seldom in a position to direct it.Usually,as HannahArendtobserved,†revolution broke out and liberated,as it were, the professional revolutionistsfrom wherever they happened to be- from jail, or from the coffee house, or from the library. † Tocqueville made a similar observation about the revolutionaries of 1848: The French monarchy fell â€Å"before rather than beneath the blows of the victors, who were as astonishedat their triumph as were the vanquishedat their defeat. † Disturbances which during the 18th century would hardly have proven so incendiary ignited one revolution after another during the 19th century.They did so because now there existed a revolutionary model for respondingto crises. During the 1790s, revolutionaries outside of France such as ToussaintL'Ouverture Haiti and in Wolfe Tone in Ireland tried simply to import the French Revolution,with its ideals of nationalism,equalityand republicanism, and adapt it to local conditions. And well into the 19th century,most revolutionaries continued to focus their eyes not on the future but on the past- on what the French duringthe 1790s had done in roughlysimilar circumstances. e sure, the French Revolution possessed differentand even contradictory meanings, differences which reflect die various stages of the historical Revolution. The ideals and leaders of each stage inspired a particulartype of The revolutionarymen later revolutionary. of 1789-91, including the Marquisde Lafayette, inspired liberal and aristocratic revolutionaries. Their ideal was a quasiBritish constitutional monarchy and suffrage based on propertyqualifications. The revolutionariesof 1830-32 realizedthis liberal vision in France and Belgium.The Girondins and moderate Jacobins of 1792-93 became the model for lowermiddle-class and intellectual revolutionaries whose political goal was a democratic republic and usually some form of a â€Å"welfare state. â€Å"The French Revolutionof 1848, with its emphasis on universal manhood suffrage and the state's obligation to provide jobs for all citizens, initiallyembodied their vision of society. A third type of revolutionary,the extremists of 1793-94 such as Robespierre and GracchusBabeuf, inspired later working-classand socialist revolutionaries.A reactionarysuch as Prince Metternich would hardly have distinguished among these three types of revolutionaries. But a later observer,Karl Marx,did. Seeing that the nationalist revolutions of his time igWQ SUMMER 1989 51 1789 Lenin (shown here in a 1919 photograph) exploitedthe precedentof the FrenchRevolution to legitimizethe BolshevikRevolutionin the eyes of the world. nored the socialist-radical strain of the French Revolution, he came to deplore its influence on later revolutionaries.Marx,who by 1848 was alreadyac tive in communist politics, condemned what he considered the confusion of understanding in most of these revolutionarymovements. An emotional yearning to reenact the dramas of 1789-1815 seemed to him to stand in the way of a successful revolutionary strategy. In a letter to a friend in September, 1870, Marxwrote: â€Å"The tragedyof the French, and of the working class as a whole, is that they are trapped in their memories of momentous events. We need to see an end, once and for all, to this reactionary cult of the past. † VladimirIlyich Lenin had no such resWQ SUMMER 1989 ervations.He passed up no rhetorical opportunityto present his Russian Bolsheviks as the heirs of the French revolutionary traditionand the RussianRevolutionof 1917 as a reenactment of France'sRevolution of 1789. Lenin went so far as to call his Bolshevik faction â€Å"the Jacobins of contemporarySocial-Democracy. † is not difficult to understandLenin's motives. Throughoutthe 19th century, most of th e successful revolutions in Europe and Latin America had been nationalist revolutions. (Indeed, when the revolutionaryGerman liberals of 1848 issued their Declaration of Rights, they ascribed those rightsto the GermanVolkas a whole and not to privatepersons. But the 52 1789 into his hands but the ideology and propaexample of the French Revolution suga revolutioncould be more than ganda adopted by the Allied powers in gested that World War I did so as well. When their just a matter of nationalism. Takingthe example of the French Revolution under the earlymilitarycampaignswent badly,the Alfanatical Robespierre,one could argue, as lies attemptedto make the war more popuLenin did, that the true goal of revolution lar, and the enormous casualties more tolwas to alter the way people lived together, erable,by declaringtheir cause to be a war In for â€Å"liberty. the name of liberty,Great socially and economically. as we know, Lenin looked back Britain, France, and the United States enYet , a century when attempts at radical couraged the subject nations of the Gerupon social revolutions had been ultimatelyand man, Austrian and Turkish empires to uniformlyabortive. The French Revolution throw off the imperialyoke. of 1848, which removed the â€Å"liberal†King But in championingnationalliberty,the Allies were guilty of hypocrisy.Neither Louis-Philippe,briefly gave greater power to the working class. Duringits most prom- GreatBritainnor France had any intention of permittingnationalistrevolutionswithin ising days, the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) even accepted a their own empires or those of any neutral seat in the legislative chamber. But the power. But Leninwas able to catch them in the trap of their own contradictions. coup d'etat of Napoleon III in 1851 soon brought an end to all this.The communist By declaring to the world that the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 was a removement, which Marx described as a enactment of the French Revolutio n, he specter haunting Europe, produced no more tangible results than most specters was able to attach to his regime all those do. Before World War I, Marxwas notably less influential as a theoretician than were the champions of â€Å"revolutionary socialism† such as Proudhon and FerdinandLassalle(1825-1864) who persuaded the workers that their interestswould be better served by reform and democratic process than by revolution.It was World War I which put revolutionarysocialism back on the agenda again. The â€Å"war to end all wars†gave Lenin the opportunityto persuade the world that the French Revolution could be repeated as a communist revolution in, of all with a Chinese face†: Mao's Cultural Revolution â€Å"Robespierre places, Russia. Not only did hoped to realizeRobespierre'sdream of pushing beyondpolitical the upheavals of war play reformto remakeman and society. WQ SUMMER 1989 53 1789 strong, if mixed, emotions which the French Revolution had kindled in the outside world from 1789 on.In symbolicways, both large and small- such as naming one of their first naval ships Marat, after the French revolutionaryleader- the early Soviets underscored their connection with the earlier revolution. The attempts of the Allied powers to send in troops to save TsaristRussiafrom the Bolshevikswas immediately seen by a war-wearyworld as a reactionary,counter-revolutionary†White Terror,†and public opinion soon put an end to that intervention. After1917,the Soviet Union'sself-image became less that of a revolutionaryregime socialist and more that of a well-established empire.This transition unexpectedly enabled its adherents at last to obey Marx's injunctionto abolish the cult of the revolutionary past and to fix their eyes on the present. The idea of revolutionthus passed from the left to the ultra-left,to Stalin and Trotskyand, later, to Mao Zedong and his CulturalRevolutionin China. Yet even during the extreme phase of the CulturalRevo lution, Mao still evinced his debt to the French Revolution, a debt which he shares with the later â€Å"Third World†revolutionaries.Whenever a revolutionary leader, from Ho Chi Minh and FrantzFanonto Fidel Castroand Daniel Ortega, speaksof a new man, or of restructuring a whole society, or of creating a new human order,one hears againthe ideas and assumptionsfirst sounded on the political stage during the French Revolution. fact, there can be no doubt that a â€Å"cultural revolution† is what Robespierre set afoot in France, and what, if he had lived, he would have tried to bring to completion. As a disciple of Rousseau, he truly believed that existing culture had corruptedmodern man in all classes of society, and that an entirely new culture was WQ SUMMER 1989 ecessaryif men were to recover their natural goodness. The new religious institutions which Robespierre introduced the cult of the Supreme Being and the worship of Truthat the altar of Reason, as well as the ne w patrioticfestivalsto replace the religious holidays were all intended to be part of what can only be called a cultural revolution. Robespierredid not believe that political, social, and economic changes alone, however radical,would enable men to achieve their full humanity.But while the ideals and the languageof the cultural revolution sound nobler than those of the political revolution,such elevation of thought seems only to authorize greater cruelty in action. Robespierre's domination of the French Revolution lasted for only a short period, from April 1793 until July 1794, when he himself died under the same guillotine which he had used to execute his former friendsand supposed enemies. Moderationwas restoredto the French Revolution after his execution by the least idealistic of its participants a a cynical Talleyrand, pusillanimousSieyes, and a crudely ambitious Napoleon. ikewise, moderation was restored to the Chinese Revolutionby the Chineseadmirersof Richard Nixon. Yet while moderation had been restored to the real historical French of Revolution,the inevitability the returnto was often conveniently ig†normalcy† nored by later revolutionaries. And what of France itself? At first glance, all the majorsubsequent â€Å"dates†of French history seem to be in a revolutionary tradition or at least of revolutionary magnitude- 1830 (Louis-Philippe); 1848 (the Second Republic); 1852 (the Second Empire); 1871 (the Third Republic); 1940 (the Vichy French State); 1945 (the Fourth Republic); 1958 (the Fifth Republic).Yet these headline dates, all suggesting recurrent tumult, may be misleading:Francehas not been wracked by major upheavalsnor 54 1789 that left the structure by social earthquakes of society unrecognizable, as Russia and Chinawere aftertheir revolutions. Continuity may be the most striking feature in Frenchlife. Robertand BarbaraAnderson's Bus Stop to Paris (1965) showed how a village not more than 10 miles from Paris remained unaffec tedyear afteryear by all the great rumblingsin the capital. Are we dealing with a revolutionwhose myth is all out of proportionto the facts?Tocqueville,that most dependableof all politicalanalysts,offersan answer:The major change effected by the Bourbon kings duringthe 17th and 18th centuries was the increasingcentralizationof France and the creation of a strong bureaucracyto administer it. This bureaucracy,in effect, ruled France then and has continued to rule it through every social upheaval and behind every facade of constitutionalchange. This bureaucracyhas providedstabilityand continuitythroughthe ups and downs of political fortune.The French Revolutionand Napoleon, far from making an abrupt break with the past, continued and even accelerated the tendencytowardbureaucraticcentralization. Tocquevillealmost broached sayingthat the French Revolution never happened, that the events not only looked theatrical but were theatrical:The French could afford to have as many revolutions as they pleased, because no matter what laws they enacted, or what persons they placed in their legislative and executive offices, the same civil servants, the functionaries,the members of V would remain Administration, in command. any revolutions can the historian cite as having left the people better off at the end than they were at the beginning? Unfortunatelythe discrepancybetween its mythand its reality may have made the French Revolution a deceptive model for other nations to imitate. The mythtreatedsociety like a neutral, ahistoricalprotoplasmfrom which old corrupt institutions could be extracted and into which new rules for human interaction could be inserted at will. The reality was that France, with its unusually strong state bureaucracy, could withstand the shocks and traumas of radical constitutional upheaval.In modern history, revolution often seems a luxurythat only privilegedpeoples such as the French and the Americansand the English can afford. Less fortunatepeoples, f rom the Russiansin 1918 to the Cambodians in 1975, on whom the burden of the establishedregimes weighed more cruelly, have often enacted their revolutions with catastrophicresults. It is perhaps one of the harsherironies of history that, since the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the more a country appears to need a revolution, the less likely it will be able to accomplish one successfully. WQ SUMMER 1989 55