Ethical issues in Health Care Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ethical issues in Health Care Management - Essay Example The latter increasingly take into account what are the ethical norms within the healthcare institution, because ethical considerations affect the commercial and corporate world. Stakeholders seek to maximize the profit and return on their investments and that is why they are particularly concern of ethical codes being correctly applied. Avoiding negative social effects in healthcare management is an activity, which is open and socially responsible. Stakeholders aim to minimize the ethical issues in health institutions because this affects sustainability of the organizations and destroys the bond between the local community and the healthcare system there. Therefore, following strictly the chosen ethical code increases the community’s confidence in the healthcare and secures its population with greater tolerance, compassion, awareness and flexibility. Ethical codes in healthcare institutions posses substantial advantage for the heath corporation, because society can anticipate certain behaviour and create public ethical expectations. Such are very helpful to the stakeholders, who run financially the system and invest in its technological improvements, research and development. Ethical codes and law go hand in hand in healthcare management, and stakeholders have to be aware of unethical/unlawful actions being taken. An example where ethics and law clash is the dumping of patients, namely in the US, where the healthcare system and social and medicare is designed in a way that do not fully covers the ethical presumptions of health institutions. In such cases I believe, stakeholders have the take decisions, which are rather patient abiding, than law

Black women thru history Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Black women thru history - Research Paper Example To allow her personal aspirations to fall victim to life's hardships was a solution that many slaves accepted, but for Harriet Tubman that would have been a costly sacrifice. Through perseverance, drive, and passion she rose above difficulties, and her long term goal to be free served as a light at the end of a seemingly never -ending tunnel. After releasing herself from the curse of slavery, Harriet Tubman sensed to be grateful to assist others see their illumination at the ending of their tunnel. Until the Civil War, she used all her money and resources to return to the south in secret. There were about nineteen trips like this, in which she brought more than three hundred slaves out of bondage. Then again, in the summer of 1863, during the war, she led a major raid into enemy territory resulting in the freeing of more slaves and the destruction of supplies that could aid the enemy. She also served at a number of hospitals were she nursed and healed both blacks and whites. After th e war, Harriet Tubman was an advocate for women's suffrage; and until her death in 1913 she worked for the poor, the disadvantaged, and the elderly among African Americans. Harriet Tubman was one who was dedicated to helping others know the satisfaction of obtaining their goals. No matter what her situation, if there was a knock on her door, she would answer it as she was able. During the course of her life Harriet Tubman has suffered for what she believed. She took the road least traveled by many slaves which had made all the difference in her life. She did not let anything stand in her way to freedom. When she was in her teens, she no longer allowed to work indoors because the masters though she would be better working in fields. In 1844 she got married. The amazing parts in her life began when the owner of the Bordras Plantation died. In 1849 her fears were realized when the owner of Brodas plantation died and many slaves were to be sold. When she heard her fate she decided to es cape that night the only person she informed was her sister because she knew her husband would snitch on her. She was much considerate about her family members. She went back to Maryland to rescue her sister’s family and she succeeded. Then they returned to transport her brothers to the North. Later she came for her husband, but he remarried and didn’t follow her. In 1857 she finally returned for her and settled her perents in Audurn, New York. She was nicknamed the "Moses of her people," because she helped so many blacks escape slavery. (Taylor, 66) In all, Harriet made 19 trips on the Underground Railroad and freed more then 300 slaves. With the arrival of the civil war, Harriet became a spy for the union army. She later worked in Washington D.C as government nurse. At the end of the war, Harriet returned to her parents in Aurbarn. On March 10, 1913 Harriet died of pneumonia. She was 93 years old. Harriet Tubman saved 300 slaves in 19 trips. She got married twice. Sh e lived a very long life. She made a big difference in many peoples lives .And I think she will always be a hero. Harriet herself fled to Pennsylvania with help from the Underground Railroad. She faced many problems on her way to freedom especially encounters with bounty hunters because of the $12 000

Conclusion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Conclusion - Assignment Example Since the company is fragmented into independently owned restaurants the company does not utilize a universal human resource framework. One of the HR tools the firm utilizes is strategic integration. The utilization of strategic integration creates consistency in the application of HR practices through the organization. The organization applies a combination of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ human resources approaches. McDonalds is a flexible organization that adapts to the specific market and business condition of the environment. The application of ‘hard’ human resources practices ensures that the each franchise is able to meet its business objectives including achieving a good profit. The ‘soft’ human resource approach within McDonalds is utilized in order to motivate employees and empower them to achieve high levels of performance. McDonalds utilized a combination of both hard and soft HR practices. The adaptability of the company enables to firm to achieve a competitive advantage. As a global organization McDonalds realizes that it is important to attend the needs of all its stakeholders which include the community, environment, and its employees among other groups. The ability of satisfying the stakeholder’s demands has enabled the company gain acceptance from stakeholders groups across most countries in the world. McDonalds is a publicly traded enterprise and one of its primary objectives is to maximize shareholder’s wealth. As we move forward into the second deca de of the 21st century McDonalds will continue to succeed as long as the firm maintains emphasis in the importance of its human

Sylvia Plath and Spirited Away Essay Example for Free

Sylvia Plath and Spirited Away Essay The inner journey is a metaphysical process in which an individual travels into their own psyche often resulting in form of self realization. Although the journey is not physical, an inner journey is a powerful tool in which one can enhance their knowledge of the world and their own human nature, commonly encountering imaginative obstacles which assist in the individual’s self-realization. The texts that I will use to illustrate the inner journeys are â€Å"You’re† and â€Å"A Birthday Present† by Sylvia Plath and The animated film â€Å"Spirited Away† directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Sylvia Plath utilizes the inner journey as a way to explore aspects of her life through the medium of poetry. Her poem â€Å"You’re† explores the emotional journey of an expecting mother, using poetic techniques to highlight the joys and mysteries of the baby in the womb, In contrast to Sylvia Plath’s poem â€Å"A Birthday Present† which explores the persona’s fear of death, despite desperation to end ones life, effectively using techniques to highlight the fear and want for death. Comparatively Hayao Miyazaki utilizes his film â€Å"Spirited Away† to demonstrate the protagonist’s, Chihro journey to develops and overcome circumstances to become a self-sufficient and self-reflective girl, by emphasizing the development with camera techniques and layout of particular scenes. These texts demonstrate the importance of inner journeys, demonstrating how journeys result in knowledge of their own nature and the world around them. Plath’s poem â€Å"You’re† conveys, a deep sense of joy and excitement, as a mother goes through the emotional journey, going through the delight of bearing a child, while still going through the mysterious and vagueness of the child referencing it to the furthest place imagined, for the persona â€Å"farther off than Australia†. Plath uses a range of techniques to express the joy of bearing a child and the warm comfort of it being â€Å"wrapped up in yourself like a spool†, the simile reinforces the idea of always being safe and loved, as well as the metaphor â€Å"Snug as a bud† creating the sense of the small baby being safe. It can also be lively and playful â€Å"Jumpy as a Mexican bean† all the techniques restate that the journey so far is positive and delightful and how she continues to try to understand her coming child with similes â€Å"like a sprat in a pickle jug†. However the mother experiences the mysteries and vagueness of the unborn child, noting her difficulty in describing it, she relies on terms from the world she knows for example â€Å"gilled like a fish† comparing it to a fish as it is all wrinkled and complex, as well as describing it as a â€Å"travelled prawn† and â€Å"moon skulled†, we understand the difficulty of understanding how it looks. The mother continues to try describing and understand the child she is about to have using the metaphor â€Å"vague as fog† to show how mysterious and undefined the child is, yet it is still eagerly anticipated and â€Å"looked for like mail† showing no matter what, the mother is overcome by joy on having the child. The Mother ventures through all these emotions, grasping to understand the unborn child, using similes and metaphors to figure out how the child may be and reflecting upon the joy of it all. Recognizing the uniqueness of the child arriving with its â€Å"own face†. Comparatively Sylvia Plath’s â€Å"A Birthday Present† deals with the persona inner battle of to decide to live on. â€Å"A birthday Present† is an extended metaphor, symbolizing death, allowing the audience to understand the shocking irony of the poem and the persona’s real want of what is â€Å"behind this veil†. However the fear of death is the only obstacle stopping the persona from killing themselves. The inner journey which is present in this poem is of the personas hesitation to kill herself she â€Å"would not mind if it were bones, or a pearl button† demonstrating her want for something tangible, Questioning her inner self if she actually wants it â€Å"can you not give it to me? † the change of voice to reassure herself. Tempting and luring her inner self to choose death with the continuous repetition of â€Å"let down the veil, the veil, the veil†. Ultimately the persona is fearful of death stating â€Å"You are terrified† confirming to herself that she is unsure reinforced by the simile â€Å"shimmering like curtains† reflecting the unstable curtains as her uncertainty. However her pessimistic outlook upon life and repetitious suppression of adhering to rules, to rules, to rules† gives her the strength to take her life. Her cynical tone â€Å"My god what a laugh† gives her courage to the view the world pessimistically and take her life, as well as continuously referring her life with little importance â€Å"I will only take it and go aside quietly†, â€Å"A marvel to your grandchildren †¦ it is not so† stating that no one will care after she is gone. The persona is now definite about taking her life and that â€Å"only you can give it to me†, representing now that behind the veil is death and how she asks for a quick death â€Å"you will not hear me opening it†. And that there is nothing left to fear as â€Å"the universe slide[s] from my side†, showing that through the inner journey the persona was able to understand the pessimistic world around her and how utilizing repetition, rhetorical questions and cynical tone to find the courage to no longer fear death. Comparatively â€Å"Spirited Away† is both a mental and physical journey to save her parents, which results in the growth and self-realization of Chihiro’s true self, facing challenges that allow Chihiro to learn lessons such as patience and understanding to survive and return home, with important scenes and symbolic items throughout the film to represent Chihiro’s growth. Chihiro was bought up in materialistic and idle world â€Å"don’t worry, you’ve got Daddy here. He’s got credit cards and cash† as well shown when Chihiro lying on the backseat, which is in shocking transition to when Chihiro has to work for herself in the bath house. At first she works ineffectively with other workers commenting â€Å"get out of the way†, representing her incompatibility and unwelcomed arrival, however she slowly progresses and gradually through the determination to save her parents becomes better, with the scene of washing of the stink spirit determining her capabilities to grow and become accepted, with rejoicing music and cheers from fellow workers, showing a close up a shot of Chihiro showing a sense a achievement and happiness, demonstrating Chihiro’s growth of maturity through working at the bath house. In comparison we learn Chihiro is a stoic young girl fearful of changes, shown in the first scene when her flowers start to die representing her old life wilting away. Yubaba takes away Chihiro’s name, she appears completely frightened, whimpering and shaking in a close up shot when Yubaba, and only takes the job to survive. Chihro clings desperately to her old self shown crying and curling up in a ball, with classical music playing in the background emphasizing the scene. Yet during her time as Sen her true self develops, showing unconditional compassion and kindness to several of the bathhouse inhabitants, especially Haku. One particular scene when Sen climbs the bathhouse to reach Haku, demonstrates her growth to protect Haku, even when endangering her life. Using the low angle camera shot to add to the enormity of seeing Chihiro on the roof tying her clothes, to risk her life to save Haku, portraying Chihiro’s growth to not only face her fears, but do so for others. She develops to also be able to stand up to Yubaba, in the final test, a high angle long shot, shows Chihiro striding confidently across the bridge as well as a close up of Chihiro’s determined face while facing Yubaba, depicting Chihiro no longer a scared frightened girl that she used to be. In â€Å"Spirited Away† Chihiro goes on a inner journey, which develops her from the immature, fearful child to the self-sufficient and self-reflective young girl, portrayed by the camera angles and shots and symbolism.

war on drugs Essays -- essays research papers

The war on drugs is not a war that can be fought on the beaches of Normandy or in the jungles of Vietnam. It is a war fought in the backyards of all Americans, every day. This is a war that cannot be won with the aid of nuclear weapons or the help of any other forms of artillery. The number of casualties, however, will be determined by whether or not the legalization of drugs occurs. Many will suffer the same outcome as a soldier killed in battle if drugs become legal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If marijuana and other drugs are legalized, obtaining drugs will be easier for people of all ages. With the increased use of drugs, there are bound to be more traffic accidents resulting from those who are under the influence of drugs. Also, if more people are lawfully able to use drugs, more people will buy them and the prices of them will go down making them much easier to buy. Drugs will be everywhere, even in the hands of America’s youth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many drugs, even ones that are legal, cause health problems if they are used too often. Cigarettes and other tobacco products contain nicotine, an addictive substance that can cause illnesses such as lung cancer and other cancers to users. The legalization of narcotics that cause illnesses will mean that people who use the drugs are in danger of becoming sick and dying at an earlier age. If the narcotics fall into the hands of younger children, they will be at risk as well. Because their bodies are still developing, the narcotics will have a more devastating effect on them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The government spends a great amount of money on centers for the rehabilitation of those who are addicted to different types of drugs. If drugs are legalized, more and more people will become addicted and more rehabilitation centers will be needed for them. The more rehabilitation centers that are built, the more money our government spends which is less money that can be spent on more important things.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Certain drugs are illegal for a reason. They damage the physical and psychological state of the user. If the legalization of drugs occurs, the American public may assume that the government condones the use of drugs. Those who once were addicts and those who may be curious about the drug will be able to buy them. The number of users will increase and so will the numb... ... released, causing recidivism rates to increase as well. The only way to make sure that drug use in the neighborhoods of America does not get out of hand is for the communities to work together to do their best to prevent it. The schools and the parents should work together to teach children what is acceptable in their community and enforce the rules that are made to prohibit drug use (Glassner 223-226). Schools should also supply students with after school activities to keep them from boredom and promote a drug free life. Groups such as SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) should be offered and support groups for all students should also be provided in order to discourage drug use among teens. The legalization of drugs is an ever present threat to Americans of all ages. Legalization will cause more traffic accidents, increased drug use among teens as well as adults, and most importantly increased crime and death rates. Every American could be at risk of becoming a victim of a crime, a traffic accident, or problems resulting from a friend or family member that uses drugs. The legalization of drugs is a foe that must be fought with all the strength that Americans possess.

Performance Appraisal Essay

Performance appraisal is a universal phenomenon with the organization is making judgement about one is working with and about oneself. It serves as a basic element of effective work performance. Performance appraisal is essential for the effective management and evaluation of staff. It aims to improve the organizational performance as well as individual development. Performance is an employee’s accomplishment of assigned work as specified in the critical and as measured against standards of the employee’s position. The term â€Å"Performance Appraisal† is concerned with the process of valuing person’s worth to an organisation with a view to increasing it. EXERCISE : STEP 1: Divide participant in group of 3. STEP 2 : Let them to select upon themselves a manager, an employee and an observer. STEP 3 : Assign each group with one scenario to begin with. STEP 4 : Each scenario will take approximately 5 min to play. STEP 5 : manager and employee has to take part in play and observer has to write down the Observations. STEP 6 : Observer has to focus on following questions – †¢ What worked? †¢ What didn’t? †¢ How did the â€Å"manager† shows caring during the play? †¢ How did the â€Å"employee† react to a caring approach? †¢ Was the manager candid with the employee? How? †¢ How did the employee react to the candid approach? †¢ Did a collaborative effort surface? Describe it? Different scenarios are : Scenario 1 : Was it that important? Manager : You’ve missed the three of those meetings during the last two quarter. Employee : But I thought they were optional. I’ve been missing meetings all week†¦. I never realise it as a problem Manager : Well I am telling you now your attendance is mandatory. But that’s not the only reason you scored low in this category†¦.. You also been consistently coming to work late. Employee : But I am always here by 8:15. The switchboard doesn’t even open until 8:30. Manager : ( Ad lib from here, and see where it takes you! ) Employee : ( Ad lib from here, and see where it takes you! ) Scenario 2 : Are you done yet? Manager : I know you are working hard on this report I assigned, but you keep getting them to me late. I can’t prepare next year’s budget unless I know exactly how much money each contract brought in this year. So you are going to have to get them into me by tomorrow afternoon, Okay? Employee : Sorry, sometime I have trouble prioritizing†¦.. I didn’t realised they were that important. Manager : Well, they are important, and I need your report on time from now on. Okay? Employee : ( Ad lib from here, and see where it takes you! ) Manager : ( Ad lib from here, and see where it takes you! ) In that manner we can assign different scenario to different groups. STEP 7 : Now the manager and employee are going to provide with a paper and they were asked to write down the behaviour of one other in role play. ( In this way manager appraise their employees performance and employee appraise their managers performance. ) STEP 8 : Finally observer has to share his observation with others.

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