Boeing and Mcdonnell Douglas Merger Essay Example for Free

Boeing and Mcdonnell Douglas Merger Essay Boeing and Airbus; two longtime rivals fighting over market share in an extremely volatile market due to high research and development costs and constant changes in market demand was the cause for Boeing to take drastic protective measures. Boeing which at the time was one of the largest commercial aircraft manufacturer and third largest aerospace defense contractor decided to merge with McDonnell Douglas. McDonnell Douglas also produces commercial aircraft but held much less of the market share than Boeing. The intent of this paper is to describe the search and screening process Boeing used which is broken down in to three categories: legal, financial and operational, discuss the valuation criteria, analyze the negotiation and bidding process and determine what kind of financing Boeing used to secure McDonnell Douglas. Legal Issues When Boeing announced they were planning on purchasing rival McDonnell Douglas, this sparked a great deal of concern not only with the Federal Trade Commission but with anti-trust authorities in Europe as well. â€Å"The belief was that by reducing the markets to only two players, such a merger would so reduce the competition that consumers would be forced to pay more for airline tickets and tax payers would be forced to pay more for jet fighters and space vehicles† (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/boeing/boeingtoo.htm). The goal addressing these concerns was to prevent Boeing and McDonnell Douglas from creating a monopoly of the aircraft and aerospace market. A monopoly is a situation in which a single company owns all or nearly all of the market for a given product or service (â€Å"Monopoly†, 2012). The concern in Europe was due to Boeing’s Practice of negotiating exclusive supply deals with major airlines such as Delta Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines that prohibited purchases of Airbus planes (European Union Objects To Just About Everything In Boeing-Mcdonnell Merger, 1997). In the end, Boeing was forced to make concessions to ensure the merger would be allowed to go through. Andrews (1997) â€Å"Boeing agreed not to enforce the exclusive-supplier provisions of those deals, though analysts said that would have little effect on Boeings bottom line† (para. 3). Financial Status The commercial and defense aircraft market is extremely volatile and will change from extreme high demand in one or both commercial and defense to a decline in demand in one or both areas. At the time of this merger, Boeing had seen huge changes in defense spending that caused growth on the commercial side of the aircraft market. For Boeing this was a favorable change due to the fact that eighty percent of their products were for commercial aircraft rather than defense. Rolinitis (1997) â€Å"Although these factors heavily favored Boeing’s make-up, Boeing was still concerned with the severe cyclical swings that the commercial market faces† (Boeing’s View). Boeing’s main concern was to gain market share to better compete with the Airbus which was the second largest commercial aircraft manufacture that held most of its operations in Europe. At this time, McDonnell Douglas was structured exactly the opposite; two thirds of its revenue generated from defense products. Due to severe cuts in defense spending, McDonnell Douglas was consistently losing market share. This situation made an attractive opportunity for Boeing to merge with McDonnell Douglas and seemed that it would work out for both parties; Boeing would gain more market share in European markets and McDonnell Douglas would in essence not have to suffer large losses waiting for defense spending to increase. Operational Status The merger between Boeing and McDonnell Douglas was viewed by most a perfect match. The new company would have operations in the United States and Europe; maintain market share in both commercial and defense aircraft production markets. For Boeing, the only downside is they were forced to give up exclusive supplier relations with three airlines; however that did not seem to have that large of a negative effect on the new organization. Rolinitis (1997) â€Å"The merged company will have approximately 200,000 employees which included the recent Boeing merger of Rockwell aerospace and defense units. It will operate with estimated 1997 revenues in excess of $48 billion, making it the largest integrated aerospace company in the world† (The Deal). Valuation Criteria Negotiations Financing Conclusion The air craft production industry is one of the most volatile industries due to ever changing supply and demand and high research and development costs. As the air craft market changed moving towards more commercial demand and declining defense demand, it became in the best interest for Boeing and McDonnell Douglas to merge into one joint company making them the largest commercial and defense air craft production company. There can be quite a bit of issues concerning the merger of two companies; some concern what is in the best interest of one company and others may include the concern of not violating trade laws. The purpose of this paper was to describe the search and screen process and issues; specifically legal, financial, and operational status, discuss the valuation criteria, valuation and negotiation and bidding processes of the merger between McDonnell Douglas and Boeing. References Andrews, E. L. (1997). Boeing Concession Averts Trade War With Eurpe. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/24/business/boeing-concession-averts-trade-war-with-europe.html European Union Objects to Just About Everything in Boeing-McDonnell Merger. (1997). Retrieved from http://www.prenhall.com/divisions/bp/app/phblaw/html/august/august5.html Monopoly. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.investorwords.com/3112/monopoly.html Rolinitis, S. (1997). The Boeing McDonnell Douglas Merger. Retrieved from http://economics.illinoisstate.edu/dloomis/eco320/downloads/papers/steve.PDF

Performance appraisal methods Essay Example for Free

Performance appraisal methods Essay In order to succeed in the market, companies need to ensure they provide efficient management of human resources. Companies can perform well only in such a case when all of the employees are able to realize their potential, apply their skills and make sufficient contribution to the development of the company. Performance appraisal is particularly important for all of the organizations because it enables them to determine the contribution of every employee to the performance of the company. Performance appraisal is currently one of the most important issues in human resources management which â€Å"continues to be a subject of interest and importance to human resource specialists. † (Hornsby et al. 1996, p. 10). Bernardin Klatt (1985); Hall, Posner, Hardner (1989); Maroney Buckley (1992); Thomas Bretz (1994) have all devoted considerable attention to the development of theoretical models of performance appraisal. How can a manager of the organization make a conclusion about the necessity to promote this or that employee, increase of decrease his salary, shift him to another department? How can the manager decide which employee needs special training or which can perform on the highest level without additional training? The most efficient tool in such a case is performance appraisal. If carried out correctly and on the basis of efficient methods, performance appraisal can be very helpful for the evaluation of employees’ work. â€Å"Companies that hope to succeed in todays competitive business environment must learn to identify their most capable employees for placement in key organizational appointments. To do this, managers should devote more attention to maximizing the effectiveness of performance appraisal systems. (Mcbey 1994, p. 23). Appraisal methods for the performance of the customer care supervisor in Fabulous. com require both the application of generally recognized methods of performance appraisal and their slight adjustment to the specification of the position. On one hand, this position needs to be appraised with the help of commonly used principles and methods. On the other hand, it requires deep understanding of the functions which customer care supervisor needs to perform daily, his responsibilities, all of the complication which can occur in the process of the fulfillment of his responsibilities. The choice of appraisal methods needs to be guided by the specifications of the position. In order to make a decision about the appraisal method which will be used for the position of customers care supervisor, it is necessary to analyze all of the most well-known methods of performance appraisal in relation to their effectiveness for this position. What needs to be kept in mind is that there is no possibility to find one completely efficient method. All of the methods will have both advantages and disadvantages. After more than 30 years of serious research†¦ it seems that little progress has been made in developing an efficient and psychometrically sound alternative to the traditional graphic rating scale. One major conclusion to be drawn from this research is that there is no easy way to get accurate and informative performance data. † (Rice 1985, p. 30). Even though there is no possibility to determine a completely accurate method, some tools of performance appraisal need to be used in any case because â€Å"timely, useful, and accepted feedback can help individuals make great strides toward optimal performance. (Coyens, Jenkins 2001, p. 34). Comparative standards include straight ranking method; alternative ranking method; paired comparison method; forced distribution method. All of these methods are inappropriate for the position of customer care supervisor due to the specifics of his activities. Comparative standards can be very efficient for the types of job in which employees need to do exactly the same kind of work and it is possible to tell the differences between their performance. However, the position of customer care supervisor is created in order to maintain a solid relationship with customers and supervise all of the major activities dealing with customer service in the company. This is not the type of job in which employees’ performance can be compared because it is hard to find the criterion of comparison in such a case. Comparative standards application in performance appraisal of customer care supervisor would lead to inaccurate results. Besides, in customer care it is particularly important to make emphasize on the further improvement of performance of the supervisor. Comparative standards do not provide any information on that point. The straight ranking method is the simplest and the most inaccurate because it only enables to compare employees. It does not let the appraisers to perceive the qualities of the employee himself. Alternative ranking method, paired comparison method and forced distribution methods can all be used in manufacturing companies and organizations of similar type but they will be completely useless when appraising customer care supervisor at Fabulous. com. Absolute standards include narrative essay; critical incidents method; weighted checklists; forced choice; Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS); Behavioral Observations Scale (BOS). â€Å"With this style of appraisal, managers use written, absolute standards. Reviews are not based upon relative standing of the employee in a specific work group. Absolute methods facilitate intergroup comparison of employees in an organization. † (Mcbey 1994, p. 11). They are more efficient and could be applied for performance appraisal of the position of customer care supervisor. However, they have many disadvantages which need to be discussed. Narrative essay generally could give a good idea about the employee working at the position of customer care supervisor. However, it is more a qualitative description than a quantitative method of appraisal. It would not provide all of the important data about the performance of the employee. Critical incidents method is efficient only to some extent because it provides information about the employee’s behavior only in critical situations. The work of customer care supervisor does not always consist of critical situations, in fact, they are quite rare. That is why there is no sense the measure the employee’s performance with the help of this method. Weighted checklists can be useful but they have a very large impact of the appraiser’s opinion, and weighting coefficients can sometimes be applied incorrectly. Forced choice is not the most efficient method to be applied for the case of customer care supervisor because this method does not meet developmental needs and does not allow the appraiser to interpret the ratings correctly at times. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) are used quite frequently nowadays. BARS uses expected performance levels as a basis for the appraisal. Behavior is judged by a job analysis and comments from those in the same or similar jobs. Behavioral statements are developed for each job in the organization and are anchored by numerical scales. † (Mcbey 1994, p. 12). However, this method has some important disadvantages. â€Å"Although BARS provides excellent specific behavioral guidance for employees, it is among the most complex and difficult performance appraisal system that can be introduced, especially for smaller organizations without significant human resource staff capabilities. † (Mcbey 1994, p. 2). Other authors also point at the complexity of this method: â€Å"While advocates of BARS, particularly the consultants who do a thriving business with it, claim its a great leap forward, critics point to several drawbacks. The lengthy job analyses and complex scale construction require a major investment of a companys time and money. A scale designed for use in one department may not apply in another. † (Rice 1985, p. 32). In our opinion, there is no sense to apply very complicated performance appraisal techniques in our case because the position which is being analyzed is not the key position in the company. Such complex techniques should rather be used for employees occupying positions of senior- and top management. Behavioral Observations Scale (BOS) are very similar to BARS in their complexity. â€Å"The BOS system observes past performance as the standard for appraisal. BOS offers many of the same benefits as BARS, most notably concrete examples to guide employee behavior and developmental difficulty. † (Mcbey 1994, p. 13). The application of this method is also not efficient for the position which is being analyzed due to its over-complexity. Objectives-based approaches include Management by Objectives (MBO) and work standards approach. These approaches are the most suitable for the performance appraisal of the customer care supervisor because it is particularly important for the employee in the position to achieve his goals. There are types of jobs in which the goals are pre-determined for many years ahead of time: for example, a salesperson needs to ensure he or she sells as much merchandise available in the store as possible. There are no adjustments of this goal or any corrections because it is universal. The position dealing with customer care and maintenance of successful relationship with customers is very challenging and deals with change in many aspects. The goals constantly need to be re-adjusted according to the needs to customers. The capability of the customer care supervisor to achieve all of the goals is the measurement of his success in this position and his adequate performance. There can be no better appraisal methods for this position than objective-based approaches. Management by Objectives (MBO) is very useful in this case. â€Å"MBO became popular because, in theory, it can be tailored to each individual job and because it lets subordinates know how their performance will be measured and gives them specific, mutually-agreed-on goals. (Rice 1985, p. 33). Its mechanism is relatively simple. â€Å"As customarily practiced today, supervisors and their subordinates sit down at the beginning of each year, or every six months, and agree (often in writing) on specific goals to be accomplished. At the end of the period, the supervisors evaluate their subordinates in terms of how well they have met those objectives. † (Rice 1985, p. 33). Work standards approach is similar to MBO except that organizations determine goals and appraisal techniques on the basis of their past experience. Of course, there are some disadvantages of this method which need to be taken into consideration. For example, â€Å"one major weakness is the difficulty of setting reasonable goals well in advance, when they may be vulnerable to factors outside the employees control, such as economic conditions, labor problems and price increases. † (Rice 1985, p. 33). At the same time, this disadvantage can be interpreted as an advantage in such a case if the goals are constantly re-adjusted according to the needs of the consumers. In such a case, the performance appraisal method will work efficiently.

Literature Review of Industrial Policies

Literature Review of Industrial Policies What types of industrial policies are there? Discuss, comparatively, the experience of  Brazil and South Korea. Discussing the literature of industrial policy. The Industrial Policy plan of a country, sometimes shortened IP, is its official strategic effort to encourage the development and growth of the manufacturing sector of the economy.There are role of government which takes measures aimed at improving the competitiveness and capabilities of domestic firms and promoting structural transformation. [4] A countrys infrastructure (transportation, telecommunications and energy industry) is a major part of the manufacturing sector that usually has a key role in IP 1. What kinds of industrial policies are effective? One aspect of this question is whether governments should use industrial policies to make the most of their country’s current comparative advantage, or instead invest in higher-productivity industries that are not competitive in the short-term. According to Justin Yifu Lin, World Bank Chief Economist, where industrial policies fail this is â€Å"due mostly to governments’ inability to align their efforts with their country’s resource base and level of development† (Lin, 2010). For Lin, developing countries should first seek to profit from the (mostly labour- and resource-intensive) products and services that they are currently most competitive in. They will accumulate human and physical capital in the process. This capital, Lin argues, can be reinvested over time in more productive industries. An article in the †The Economist† draws similar conclusions. Ha-Joon Chang, in contrast, argues that dev eloping countries should defy their comparative advantage. For Chang, the cost of moving capital between industries (e.g. from sewing machines to car plants) means that countries should actively promote high-productivity industries at an early stage in their development. Some argue that while manufacturing should be given special policy treatment, governments should not favour particular manufacturing industries (cf. UNIDO, 2011)2. One way to do this is by improving the infrastructure that manufacturers require, e.g. by promoting industrial clusters (UNIDO 2009). The creation of export-oriented Special Economic Zones is a well-known example of this. Critics argue that such an approach may only attract short-term investment, achieving little if any positive spillover into the wider economy (Good and Hughes, 2002 ). Another question is which kinds of industrial policy are most effective in promoting economic development. For example, economists debate whether developing countries should focus on their comparative advantage by promoting mostly resource- andlabour-intensiveproducts and services, or invest inhigher-productivityindustries, which may only become competitive in the longer term. An example of typical industrial policy can be import-substitution-industrialization (ISI), where trade barriers are temporarily imposed on some key sectors, such as manufacturing. By selectively protecting certain industries, these industries are given time to learn (learning by doing) and upgrade. Once competitive enough, these restrictions are lifted to expose the selected industries to the international market. ISI was most successful in countries with large populations and income levels which allowed for the consumption of locally produced products. Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and (to a lesser extent) Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela, had the most success with ISI. The Brazilian ISI process, which occurred from 1930 until the end of the 1980s, involved in boosting exports and discouraging imports (thus promoting the consumption of locally manufactured products), as well as the adoption of different exchange rates for importing capital goods and for importing consumer goods. Moreover, government policies toward investment were not always opposed to foreign capital: the Brazilian industrialization process was based on: governmental, private, and foreign capital, the first being directed to infrastructure and heavy industry, the second to manufacturing consumer goods, and the third, to the production of durable goods (such as automobiles). Volkswagen, Ford, GM, and Mercedes all established production facilities in Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s.. Industrial policy covers many areas of policy. In the historical and comparative literature on the industrialization processes in East Asia and Latin America, the following areas of industrial policy have been persistently disputed: trade strategies, the role and extent of directed credits and subsidies, and innovation policies. In a country whose government has industrial policies, the market force is more or less distorted due to government intervention. It can also be the case that the government uses industrial policy to correct market distortion resulted from domestic monopoly. However, there is no uniformity in the essence or the extent of industrial policies. Different paths chosen by the governments lead to different patterns of industrial development. Even similar strategies could bring about different results when implemented under different environments. A scarcity of natural resources has motivated South Korea to look at its human capital as its biggest endowment, and the country has invested heavily in education, science and technology, and a â€Å"knowledge-based† economy. The South Korea is one of the few countries in the world that has managed radically to transform its domestic economy from one based on agriculture to that of a leading world industrial power, with a constant increase in income per capita and a high growth pattern (Figure 1). Industrialisation and the shift from light to heavy and chemical industries boosted the rising growth pattern and favoured a virtuous integration into foreign markets (Figure 2). For many years, Brazil employed various policies to alter its productive structure in order to increase the participation of sectors believed to have great potential to generate economic growth. Behind these initiatives lay the idea that since the terms of exchange tend over time to deteriorate as far as agricultural production is concerned, it would be appropriate for developing countries to make an effort to industrialize, principally by imposing protectionist tariffs [Prebisch (1950) Singer (1950)].1 The aim here is not to present a detailed report on Brazil’s industrial policy (IP, for now on) over the last few years [for this, see Suzigan (1995), Guimarà £es (1996) and Bonelli, Veiga Brito (1997), Suzigan Furtado (2006)], but rather to describe briefly the tools used to promote industry. Between the 50s and the 80s, various types of trade protection were basically used (import taxes and non-tariff barriers such as the examination of similarity, indices of nationalizat ion, contingency mechanisms, import licensing, preference in government procurement), along with export stimulation (favored exchange rates for exports of manufactured goods and tax exemptions) and subsidies for production in selected sectors (tax exemption and reduction and acceleration of capital depreciation). Besides this, there was an intense flow of credit to sectors considered to be priority and the strong direct presence of the State in various productive activities. To all this, add the obstacles against adopting new technologies (the Information Technology Law (â€Å"Lei de Informà ¡tica†), for example), large state investments in infrastructure (especially up to the late 70s) and expansion of higher education (principally as of the 70s). Brazilian industrial policy developed within the context of a paradigm shift in the relations between State and Society, in which the public sector sought to bring about a business environment favorable to productive investment, w hile the private sector busied itself with seeking out opportunities and making investments. Brazil’s Industrial, Technological and Foreign Trade Policy (PITCE), unveiled in March of 2004, has unique features which clearly distinguish it from previous policies. Its purpose is to bring increased efficiency and competitiveness to Brazilian companies and place them in international markets, thereby creating jobs and increasing incomes. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Nonetheless, it must be remembered that there is no consensus concerning deterioration of the terms of trade [see Hadass Williamson (2001) for pertinent references]. On the other hand, Sarkar Singer (1991) find indications that the terms of trade for exports of manufactured goods from developing countries also tend to deteriorate, which would justify the prescriptions set forth by Prebisch (1950) and Singer (1950) even in a more advanced stage of development. 2 These tools were not used with the same intensity in all periods. For further details, see Suzigan (1995) If IP appeared to be successful in changing Brazil’s productive structure, there is no evidence that it managed to promote sustained growth over many years. Comparison with countries that found themselves in a similar stage of development is quite illustrative. We see that Brazil’s per capita income in the 60s was higher than many of the countries in East Asia, but during the 80s it was surpassed by all of them. By way of illustration, in 1980 Brazil’s per capita income was 131% of South Korea’s, 40% of Japan’s and 108% of Taiwan’s, whereas in 2000 it had dropped to 50% of South Korea’s, 28% of Japan’s and 39% of Taiwan’s (see Figure 1). From the 90s on, a movement is perceived to open the economy and diminish the role of the State as entrepreneur. The impact of trade opening on industrial productivity has been widely documented [Ferreira Rossi-Jà ºnior (2003)], but this apparently was not translated into exceptionally high growth rates, especially if compared with previous periods (characterized by the intense use of vertical policies) or with the countries of East Asia (see Figure 1). This being so, many authors point to the performance of the Brazilian economy in the last fifteen years as evidence of the need to adopt sectorial policies [see Kupfer (2003), for example]. Work Cited Wikipedia. Industrial policy UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) www.unido.org Industrial Policy and Territorial Development. Lessons from Korea An industrial policy for Brazil (AlessAndro Teixeira. President of the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI) ) Import Substitution and Industrialization in Latin Amercia: Experiences and Interpretations. (Latin American Studies Association) Import Substitution Industrialization. Looking Inward for the Source of Economic Growth Industrial and innovation policies in Brazil: recent paths and main challenges (Institute for Manufacturing)

Wuthering Heights and Northanger Abbey as Gothic Novels Essay -- Emily

While on the vigorous journey through a novel, a reader can be faced with many questions, put forth intentionally by the author, as well as ones they might conjure up for themselves. Roland Barthes says â€Å"Literature is the question minus the answer.† For the most part this is true, however when one is reading for leisure or the author does not portray as well as they could this statement is invalid. Two novels that have been broken down recently are Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Neither book has a common central question, but they both have their pros and cons. Wuthering Heights is a book containing an intricate plot, and a labyrinth of relationships and emotions. The characterization in this book is extravagant, this is done primarily to draw attention to Bronte’s central question, â€Å"how good is humanity?† Most of Bronte’s focus goes into her characters, her most distinct character is Heathcliff, followed by the older Catherine then to Nelly. As we look back at the text, there were many moments of pain when Heathcliff is described. As a child he was abandoned by his biological family, then Earnshaw died and left him, then the rest of the family treated him poorly and he grew up a villain dragging Catherine with him. He is depicted as manipulative, cruel and heartless, and the classic outsider in Gothic novels. Most can agree that he was put through vast hardships and unfair circumstances and undoubtedly, his personality was altered negatively by this. Could he have changed to a good person? Did he want to? Maybe, but the death of his saviour and the hindrances of his new family all prevented him from becoming anything better. Yet we are all faced with hard circumstances and bitter hat... ...son for writing the novel. Even though the book was written over one hundred and fifty years ago, she still had a grasp on the ways of humanity. Austen on the other hand was not quite there. She did try to make the reader see beyond the plot and characters, and most of the readers pick up on the satire, but it seemed as if there was no more to the book aside from this and critic of the Gothic. Bronte wants us to look at our lives and see what wrongs we are doing and change them, but she still leaves the unanswered questions: ‘How?’ and ‘Why are humans like this?’ Austen may have intended to have more to her novel than just critic, but it was not obvious enough to be usable. All-in-all, both novels gave the reader a sense of being there with the characters, and both used precision in their narration to keep the readers in suspension or rolling on the floor laughing.

Penicillin Essay -- essays research papers fc

Penicillin was accidentally discovered at St. Mary's Hospital, London in 1929 by Dr. Alexander Fleming. As test continued, Fleming began to realize that he was on the verge of a great discovery. However, he still did not know the identity of the fungus, and had little knowledge of fungi. His crude extracts could be diluted 1,000 times and still be effective in killing bacteria. After years of working on penicillin and going nowhere, many of his co-workers grew tired of hearing about it. The first real test for penicillin came when a 48-year-old police officer nicked himself shaving. After a time, Alexander's face became infected and he developed a temperature. When he was rushed to the hospital, the doctors believed that he had only hours to live. Then Dr Fleming and his crew started to treat this patient. This was the first person that penicillin was used on. After five days, he was getting better. Unfortunately, because it was in such short supply, it had to be extracted from his urine, and the penicillin had been used up. The police officer died five days l ater. Their next attempt was successful. It involved a punctured eye. The stone was still in the eye, and normally the eye would have been amputated, but penicillin allowed the man to make a full recovery. By this time, it was now 1941, it was now acknowledged that penicillin was indeed a worthwhile drug and could save thousands of lives.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During World War I, death rate from pneumonia in th...

Camus: On and In Action :: Camus Essays

Camus: On and In Action ABSTRACT:In this paper I wish to examine the position of Camus regarding social change, namely his concepts of rebellion and revolution. I in no way question his well-deserved status as a major twentieth-century French writer, nor do I wish to suggest that he may have been someone caught in a Sartrean notion of 'bad faith.' I am concerned with what one might call his theory of social action. I do wish to assert that Camus was a good man who seriously wrestled with the events of his time. Yet his claims on behalf of suffering humanity, while honest, are not sufficient when faced with complex social issues. That his move toward the right that today might well be taken for a supposed liberalism was undoubtedly bound up with his continued misunderstanding of the dialectic of history. A Series of Critical Observations Camus continually stresses the break from Christianity (God is dead—the world is without order) whether in speaking of the French Revolution or what he calls the new absolutism of the communist revolution. In the first case there is a degree of confusion on the issue when speaking of Rousseau, St. Just, and the divine right monarchies. Camus obviously holds to one traditional view of the king as God's representative on earth and from this lays the groundwork for his future project. I would like to suggest that there are at least two alternate interpretations of divine right monarchy that vie for our attention. First, there is the view forwarded by Reinhart Koselleck in his 1959 book Kritik und Krise. There in he suggests that rather than a union of the sacred and the secular, divine right monarchy already announced the triumph of the secular over the sacred. Before this period there had been the two worlds of religion and politics. With the Reformation Christianity no longer w as unified under the pope but broke into various factions. The divine right of kings, whether it is in England or France, certainly allowed for an absolutism, but relegated the religious partner to the outer fringe of politics where it was left to argue matters of theology and direct the religious faithful while recognizing the supremacy of the King in all matters political, or even, as in England, recognizing the King as leader in both matters. When Camus points to Marx's observation that the beginning of a radical critique of society is a radical critique of religion, he believes his own critical project to be partly vindicated.

The Bully – Original Writing

Susan stood sobbing quietly in a toilet cubicle. She waited for the pounding footsteps to die away before emerging. Cautiously she gazed out of the entrance and then turned to face the dirty mirrors in front of her. She gently prodded the skin below her swelling left eye and flinched with pain. On examining her face she saw that as well as the blotchy redness that appears on your face after crying the beginnings of bruising were also emerging. She heard footsteps approaching and ran quickly back into the cubicle and locked the door. â€Å"Susan! Susan are you in here?† called a voice softly, â€Å"It's me, Nadine.† The door to the cubicle opened slowly and Susan emerged. â€Å"Oh my God!† exclaimed Nadine, â€Å"I heard them laughing and talking but I didn't think they'd actually done anything! Are you ok? Does it hurt?† â€Å"I'm fine!† snapped Susan â€Å"It doesn't matter now anyway. Do you have any foundation? I can't let Mom and Dad see this.† â€Å"Yeah, yeah of course I do† murmured Nadine; she had given up trying to persuade Susan to tell her parents about the bullies a long time ago. Nadine delved into her bag and pulled out a stick of foundation. The two girls went over the afternoons happenings as Susan carefully applied foundation to cover the bruising which was now a shade of red on her pale face. By the time she was finished the bell had rung and it was lunchtime. Susan and Nadine said goodbye and Susan left for home. â€Å"Susan? Is that you?† she heard her mother's voice sing from the sitting room. â€Å"Yeah, I wasn't feeling too good so I came home.† Susan mumbled. You should have called and asked me to pick you up† her mother replied sharply, † We bought you that mobile phone for a reason.† Susan, who was still standing in the hallway, hadn't told her parents about the gang of girls who tormented her. Therefore they did not know that her new Nokia phone had been stolen from her bag last week and by now had probably been sold on to someone for half the price Susan's parents had paid for it. â€Å"Susan? Come sit in here with me and I'll make you a nice cup of camomile tea.† â€Å"No it's ok mom,† Susan wondered why camomile tea was her mother's answer for everything, â€Å"I think I'll just go lie in my room for a while I've got a really bad headache.† And with that Susan trudged upstairs. â€Å"Susan! Nadine's on the phone!† her mother called upstairs sometime later. Susan padded across the hallway and picked up the extension in her parent's room she spoke to Nadine and assured her that she was all right, whilst going over the day's events in her head. She had not gone down for dinner that evening but had called hello to her father from the top of the stairs when he arrived home from work so that he would not get suspicious. Half an hour later Susan had hung up the phone and was trying to do a little revision for the GCSE's she had coming up later that year but her thoughts continued to return to the bullies. She wondered what would happen if she told her parents of the suffering she had endured due to her persecutors. She could imagine her mothers reaction, a completely over the top drama queen act during which she would insist on going directly to talk to the headmaster in whose office she would continually sob about her daughter's anguish and demand justice as though it were a court room. Her father on the other hand would tell her to stand up for herself and fight back. â€Å"You're a big girl now.† He would tell her in that patronising tone of voice she knew so well, â€Å"You can't continue to rely upon your mother and I to fight your battles for you. You have simply got to stand up for yourself.† Yeah, a fat lot of good telling them would do she told herself before falling in a fitful sleep. The next morning she heard her mother come bustling into the bedroom, â€Å"How are feeling today dear?† she asked in that singsong tone of voice that got on Susan's nerves. Remembering what had happened the previous day Susan quickly drew her head under her covers and told her mother in a muffled voice that she was feeling no better but agreed to have some breakfast and asked for a head ache tablet. As soon as her mom left the room Susan clambered out of her bed and looked into the mirror that hung above her dressing table. The bruising was not as bad as it had looked like it was going to be yesterday although, it was dark under her eye and along the left side of her face. Susan scurried into the bathroom, foundation in hand. By the time she went downstairs for breakfast it was impossible to see the bruising. Susan took that Friday off and by the time Monday morning arrived the violent wave of purple bruising was almost gone. Nadine arrived at Susan's house at 8-30am on Monday morning so that the two friends could walk to school together. â€Å"I thought I was never gonna get out of there!† exclaimed Susan as she locked the front gate on her way out. â€Å"Did they not notice the bruising at all?† Nadine asked looking at Susan's face, Susan had covered it with foundation and you couldn't tell there were any marks on her face whatsoever. â€Å"Nope. And even if they did they didn't say anything to me.† The girls walked in silence until they reached the school. Susan froze outside. â€Å"It'll be fine. They won't say anything.† Nadine assured her. † Yeah, it'll be fine.† Echoed Susan, speaking more to herself then Nadine. Susan walked into her registration class and immediately she saw them, Lauren and Sophie glared at her as she marched purposefully to her teacher's desk, taking out the note her mother had written Susan handed it to Mrs. Fraeser and sat down at her seat beside Nadine. Susan felt that the next few weeks were fairly manageable, the two bullies did not go out of their way to intimidate her. Instead they stuck to small things, tripping her in hallways and throwing Polo's at her, but she was able to cope with all the little things that Sophie and Lauren did to put her down. Soon, Susan found that she was feeling better than she had done in a long while, the bruising had completely vanished and she and Nadine were getting along fine. One Friday morning about four weeks after returning to school Susan and Nadine arranged to go shopping in town. â€Å"I'll pick you up at about 10am tomorrow morning!† called Nadine as the bell signalling the end of the lunch break rang. â€Å"Ok!† was Susan's reply as she gathered her bag and made her way out of the toilets. She felt someone bump into her and glanced up to apologise when she saw Sophie and Lauren standing in front of the door. Susan straightened up and looked about her, the three of them were alone except for a girl who was applying make-up at the sink. Hastily Susan grabbed her things and headed for the door but before she got there she felt someone grab her roughly by the arm, spinning round she saw Sophie's leering face. â€Å"You!† Lauren called to the little girl at the sink, â€Å"Get out!† The girl looked up questioningly but left the bathroom anyway. â€Å"Long time, no see. Wouldn't you say so?† muttered Sophie, tightening her grip. â€Å"Let me go!† said Susan through gritted teeth. â€Å"Now, now.† Lauren chided sarcastically â€Å"That's no way to talk is it? Not very nice at all.† â€Å"Let me go! I'll scream if I have to.† Susan's voice was becoming high-pitched and her eyes were filling with tears. â€Å"Ooh! Poor ickle baby gonna have a cry. Here, I'll give you something to cry about.† Muttered Sophie letting go of Susan's arm and punching her. Susan tried to hit back but the two bullies wouldn't back off, Susan felt the punches and kicks rain down on her body. She sank to the ground but Lauren pulled her back to her feet. â€Å"No, we're going to do it properly this time!† she yelled banging Susan's head on the tiled walls. After that Susan could not tell how many times she was punched and she felt as if there were more than two people hitting her, suddenly she felt someone grab her throat and felt her head bang off something solid. She slumped to the ground and felt warm, sticky blood running down the back of her neck and the last thing she heard before slipping out of consciousness was the sound of laughter and running footsteps. It was a few hours later when she woke up in a hospital room and heard her father's voice, â€Å"Susan? How do you feel?† he asked. â€Å"I've got a headache.† Susan answered groggily, looking around her. Immediately a nurse bustled into the room and began fluffing pillows and checking Susan's pupils and pulse. After the nurse left Susan saw her mother sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed. â€Å"We're so sorry that we let this happen to you. But you've got a very good friend who told us what has been going on.† Said her mother with tears in her eyes. At that Nadine stepped in from behind the curtains and smiled at Susan. â€Å"They're going to be expelled, They're never gong to be able to get at you again.† Nadine said approaching Susan's bed and squeezing her hand. Susan nodded before finally falling into a much yearned for peaceful slumber.