The Union for a Popular Movement (French: Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, UMP) is a centre-right^[6] political party in France, being one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party (PS). The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under President Jacques Chirac.

The party enjoys an absolute majority in the National Assembly, while the plurality in the Senate is held by the Socialists and their allies. Jean-François Copé is the party secretary-general. The UMP is a member of the European People's Party (EPP), the Centrist Democrat International (CDI) and the International Democrat Union (IDU).

The former leader of the UMP, Nicolas Sarkozy, was elected President of France in the 2007 presidential election, but was defeated by Socialist François Hollande in a run-off five years later.

History[link]

Background[link]

Since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right joined forces around the values of economic liberalism and the building of Europe. Their rivalries had contributed to their defeat in the 1981 and 1988 elections.

Before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR) and the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France. However, at the 1995 presidential campaign they were both divided between followers of Jacques Chirac, who was eventually elected, and supporters of Edouard Balladur. After their defeat in the 1997 legislative election, RPR and UDF created the Alliance for France in order to coordinate the action of their parliamentary groups.

Foundation and early years[link]

Before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Jacques Chirac who were divided in three right-wing parliamentary parties founded an association named Union on the Move (Union en mouvement).^[7] After Chirac's re-election, in order to fight together the legislative election, the Union for the Presidential Majority (Union pour la majorité présidentielle) was created. It was renamed "Union for a Popular Movement" some months later, establishing the UMP as a permanent organization.^[7]

The UMP was founded as a merger of the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR), the conservative-liberal Liberal Democracy (DL), a sizeable portion of the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF), more precisely the UDF's Christian Democrats (such as Philippe Douste-Blazy and Jacques Barrot), the social-liberal Radical Party and the centrist Popular Party for French Democracy (both associate parties of the UDF until 2002). The UMP was thus the merger of four major French political families: Gaullism, Liberalism (also known as Republicanism in France), Christian Democracy (Popularism) and Radicalism.

As indicated by its initial name, the UMP generally supported the policies of President Chirac. However, in 2004, the party showed increasing signs of independence. The unpopularity with the electorate of Jacques Chirac and Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government led most members of the UMP to support Nicolas Sarkozy, a rival of Chirac. On the issues, the party under Sarkozy publicly disapproved of Turkey's proposed membership in the European Union, which Chirac had previously endorsed several times publicly, and generally took a more right-wing position.

At the 2004 regional elections the UMP suffered a heavy blow, winning the presidencies of only 2 out of 22 regions in metropolitan France (Alsace and Corsica) and only half of the departments (the right had previously won numerous departmental presidencies). At the 2004 European Parliament election in June the party also suffered a heavy blow, with only 16.6% of the vote, far behind the Socialist Party, and only 16 seats. This results remains the UMP's lowest point.

The first president of the UMP, Alain Juppé, a close associate of Jacques Chirac, resigned on 15 July 2004 after being convicted of political corruption in January of the same year. On 29 November 2004, Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation. The failure of the referendum on the European Constitution of 25 May 2005 led to the fall of the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and to the formation of a new cabinet, presided by another UMP politician, Dominique de Villepin.

Nicolas Sarkozy[link]

On 22 April 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy won the plurality of votes in the first round of the 2007 presidential election. On 6 May he faced the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal in the second round and won, garnering 53.1% of the vote. As a consequence, he resigned from the presidency of the UMP on 14 May 2007, two days before becoming President of the French Republic. François Fillon was appointed Prime Minister. On 17 June, at a legislative election, the UMP gained a majority in the National Assembly with 313 out of 577 seats, though it was less than expected.

At the 2008 municipal and cantonal elections the party suffered a big blow, losing numerous cities, such as Toulouse and Strasbourg, as well as 8 departmental presidencies to the left. Xavier Bertrand was selected as secretary-general of the party in late 2008 to replace Patrick Devedjian, who resigned to take up a cabinet position. At the 2009 European Parliament election, the party ran a common "Presidential Majority" list with the smaller Radical Party as well as New Centre and Modern Left. The UMP list won 27.9%, a remarkably good result for a governing party in off-year "mid-term" elections, and elected 29 MEPs, significantly improving on the UMP's poor result in the 2004 election – also an off-year election. However, in the 2010 regional election the UMP obtained a very poor result with only 26.0% of votes, losing Corsica and retaining only Alsace.

In a cabinet reshuffle in November 2010, which disappointed centrists within and outside the UMP, François Fillon was confirmed Prime Minister and Alain Juppé re-joined the government after three years out of politics. Among those who quit the cabinet there were Bernard Kouchner, Hervé Morin and, above all, Jean-Louis Borloo. Xavier Bertrand, who re-joined the government, was replaced as general-secretary of the UMP by Jean-François Copé.^[8][9]

In May 2011, during a party congress, the Radical Party, led by Borloo, decided to leave the UMP and launch The Alliance, a new centrist coalition.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Factions[link]

• Liberal Conservatives or Sarkozysts (conservatives, liberal conservatives, conservative liberals): Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-Claude Gaudin, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Édouard Balladur, Dominique Bussereau, Michel Barnier, Dominique Perben, Jean-François Mattei, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Charles Millon, Alain Lamassoure, Brice Hortefeux, Joseph Daul, Rachida Dati, Bernard Accoyer, Margie Sudre, Marie-Hélène Descamps
• The Reformers (classical liberals): Hervé Novelli, Gérard Longuet, Alain Madelin, Patrick Devedjian, Philippe Cochet, Jean-Pierre Soisson, Claude Goasguen, Pierre Lellouche, Luc Chatel, Louis Giscard d'Estaing, Jean-Jacques Descamps
• Democratic and Popular (Christian democrats, centrists): Philippe Douste-Blazy, Pierre Méhaignerie, Adrien Zeller, Jacques Barrot, Nicole Fontaine, Pierre-André Wiltzer, Marc-Philippe Daubresse, Alain Joyandet, Antoine Herth
• Neo-Gaullists, formerly known also as Chiraquiens (right-wing slightly liberal Gaullists, secular-minded conservatives): Jacques Chirac, Michèle Alliot-Marie, Jean-Louis Debré, Jean-François Copé, Alain Juppé, Patrick Ollier, François Baroin, Xavier Bertrand, Xavier Darcos, Valérie Pécresse, Christine Albanel, Éric Wœrth, Roger Karoutchi, Josselin de Rohan, Adrien Gouteyron, Hervé Mariton, François Baroin
  • Initiative and Liberty Movement (Gaullists, national conservatives): Bernard Debré, Yves Guéna, Eric Raoult, Jean Tiberi
  • Social Gaullists (left-wing Gaullists, social democrats): François Fillon, Roselyne Bachelot, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, Jean Mattéoli
• The Progressives (formerly Socialist social liberals): Éric Besson
• The Free Right (conservative liberals, libertarians, souverainists): Rachid Kaci, Alexandre del Valle, Étienne Blanc, Yannick Favennec, François d'Aubert
• Christian Democratic Party (social conservatives, Christian democrats): Christine Boutin, Jean-Frédéric Poisson, Charles de Champeaux
• Rally for France (national conservatives, souverainists): Charles Pasqua, Lionnel Luca, Jacques Myard, Jean-Jacques Guillet, Philippe Pemezec
• Blue Ecology (centrist ecologists): Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet

Associate parties[link]

The Christian Democratic Party, the Rally for France, The Progressives and Modern Left are associate parties of the UMP. By adhering to these parties, members also adhere to the UMP and can participate in the UMP's inner organization. The Radical Party was associated with the UMP from 2002 through 2011.

Overseas parties associated with the UMP include O Porinetia To Tatou Ai'a in French Polynesia and The Rally–UMP in New Caledonia.

Elected officials[link]

• Deputies: 305 members and 8 caucusing members in the UMP group in the National Assembly. This group also includes members of the Radical Party, the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNI, 2 deputies) and Miscellaneous Right.
• Senators: 134 members and 14 caucusing members in the UMP group in the Senate. This group also includes members of the Radical Party, the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNI, 2 deputies) and Miscellaneous Right. In addition, Gilbert Barbier and the Radical Aymeri de Montesquiou sit in the European Democratic and Social Rally (RDSE) group.
• MEPs: 24 members (in addition to 3 New Centre and 2 Modern Left members, total of 29) in the EPP Group in the European Parliament.

Major officeholders[link]

• Nicolas Sarkozy (President of the Republic, 2007–2012)
• François Fillon (Prime Minister, 2007–2012)
• Bernard Accoyer (President of the National Assembly)
• Jean-Louis Debré (President of the Constitutional Council)
• Joseph Daul (President of the EPP Group in the European Parliament)

Popular support[link]

The UMP's electoral base reflects that of the old Rally for the Republic and, in some cases, that of the Union for French Democracy. In the 2007 presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy performed best in the east of France – particularly Alsace (36.2%); Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur (37.0%) – the wealthy coastal department of the Alpes-Maritimes (43.6%) was his best department in France; Champagne-Ardenne (32.7%) and Rhône-Alpes (32.7%). These areas were among far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen's best regions in 2002 and are conservative on issues such as immigration. Sarkozy obviously received a lot of votes from voters who had supported the far-right in April 2002. For example, in the Alpes-Maritimes, Sarkozy performed 21.6% better than Chirac did in 2002 while Le Pen lost 12.6% in five years.^[14] Sarkozy also appealed more than average to blue-collar workers in regions such as northern Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, although most of these regions, despite his gains, remain reliably left-wing.^[15] The party is also strong in every election in very wealthy suburban or coastal (and, in some cases, urban) areas such as Neuilly-sur-Seine (72.6% for Sarkozy in the first round),^[16] Saint-Tropez (54.79%),^[17] Cannes (48.19%)^[18] or Marcq-en-Barœul (47.35%).^[19] It is strong in most rural areas, like most conservative parties in the world, but this does not extend to the rural areas of the south of France, areas which are old strongholds of republican and secular ideals. However, in old "clerical" Catholic rural areas, such as parts of Lozère or Cantal, it is very strong, as was the Union for French Democracy (UDF) in its hey day.

However, the UMP does poorly in one of the UDF's best regions, Brittany, where the decline of religious practice, a moderate electorate and urbanization has hurt the UMP and also the UDF. Nicolas Sarkozy performed relatively poorly in departments with a large share of moderate Christian democratic (often centrist or centre-right) voters, such as Lozère where the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal performed better (44.3%) than François Mitterrand had in his 1988 left-wing landslide (43.1%). While former President Jacques Chirac, the right's strongman in normally left-wing Corrèze had always done very well in Corrèze and the surrounding departments, Sarkozy did very poorly and actually lost the department in the 2007 runoff. However, in the 2009 European election, the UMP's results in those departments were superior to Sarkozy's first round result (nationally, they were 4% lower).^[14]

Presidential elections[link]

Legislative elections[link]

European elections[link]

Leadership[link]

Nicolas Sarkozy speaking at a UMP party congress in 2004

Presidents[link]

• Alain Juppé (2002–2004)
• Nicolas Sarkozy (2004–2007)
• collegial leadership (2007–present)

Vice Presidents[link]

• Jean-Claude Gaudin (2002–2008)
• Pierre Méhaignerie (2007–2008)
• Jean-Pierre Raffarin (2007–present)
• Michèle Alliot-Marie (2008–present)
• Jean-Louis Borloo (2008–present)
• Brice Hortefeux (2008–present)

Secretaries-general[link]

• Philippe Douste-Blazy (2002–2004)
• Pierre Méhaignerie (2004–2007)
• Patrick Devedjian (2007–2008)
• Xavier Bertrand (2008–2010)
• Jean-François Copé (2010–present)

Group leaders in the National Assembly[link]

• Jacques Barrot (2002–2004)
• Bernard Accoyer (2004–2007)
• Jean-François Copé (2007–2010)
• Christian Jacob (2010–present)

Group leaders in the Senate[link]

• Josselin de Rohan (2002–2008)
• Henri de Raincourt (2008–2009)
• Gérard Longuet (2009–2011)
• Jean-Claude Gaudin (2011–present)

See also[link]

conservatism portal

• Politics of France
• List of political parties in France

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Union pour un mouvement populaire

• Official website

v t e Political parties in France National Assembly (577 seats) Union for a Popular Movement (313) Socialist Party (186) New Centre 2 (22) Radical Party 2 (18) French Communist Party (17) Radical Party of the Left (8) United Republic (6) Europe Écologie – The Greens (3) Democratic Movement (3) Left Party (3) Movement for France (2) Arise the Republic (2) National Centre of Independents and Peasants (2) Citizen and Republican Movement (1) Senate (343 seats) Socialist Party (143) Union for a Popular Movement (132) French Communist Party (20) New Centre 2 (13) Radical Party of the Left (11) Europe Écologie – The Greens (10) Radical Party 2 (7) Democratic Movement (5) Modern Left 2 (2) Citizen and Republican Movement (1) European Parliament (74 seats) Union for a Popular Movement (21) Socialist Party (14) Europe Écologie – The Greens (14) Democratic Movement (5) Radical Party 2 (3) New Centre 2 (3) National Front (3) French Communist Party (2) Modern Left 2 (2) Democratic Convention 2 (1) Left Front (1) Left Party (1) Communist Party of Réunion (1) Movement for France (1) Party of the Corsican Nation (1) Citizenship, Action, Participation for the 21st Century 3 (1) Non-parliamentary Abertzaleen Batasuna Alsace First Breton Democratic Union Breton Party Christian Democratic Party 1 Ecology Generation Independent Ecological Movement Independent Workers' Party New Anticapitalist Party Occitan Party The Progressives 1 Republican Left of Catalonia Savoyan League Savoy Region Movement Unitarian Left Workers' Struggle Notes: 1, 2, and 3. Numbers denote party affiliations, 1 is for parties linked to the Union for a Popular Movement, 2 is for parties linked to the Alliance, and 3 is for parties linked to the Democratic Movement.

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The Popular Movement (Arabic: الحركة الشعبية‎ Al-Haraka Al-Chaëbiya) is a conservative liberal party in Morocco established in 1957 by the Berber Caid Mahjoubi Aherdane with help from Dr. Abdelkrim al-Khatib who founded later a splinter party (Mouvement populaire démocratique et constitutionnel) that became the Justice and Development Party.

The present party results from a 25 March 2006 merger between the main party which had kept the original name and two splinter parties, the National Popular Movement (Mouvement National Populaire, Alharaka alwatania ashaabia) and the Democratic Union (Union démocratique).^[1][2]

The party is a full member of Liberal International, which it joined at the latter's Dakar Congress in 2003.^[3]

In the parliamentary election held on 27 September 2002, the party won 27 out of 325 seats. It improved its standing in the parliamentary election held on 7 September 2007, winning 41 out of 325 seats.^[4]

See also[link]

• Liberalism
• Liberalism worldwide
• List of liberal parties

References[link]

External links[link]

• Popular Movement official site

v t e Political parties in Morocco Assembly of Representatives (Major parties) Justice and Development Party (107) Istiqlal Party (60) National Rally of Independents (52) Authenticity and Modernity Party (47) Socialist Union of Popular Forces (39) Popular Movement (32) Constitutional Union (23) Party of Progress and Socialism (18) Assembly of Representatives (Minor parties) Labour Party (4) Party of Renewal and Equity (2) Democratic and Social Movement (2) Environment and Development Party (2) Democratic Oath Party (2) Front of Democratic Forces (1) Action Party (1) Union and Democracy Party (1) Party of Liberty and Social Justice (1) Green Left Party (1) Unrepresented Citizens' Forces Democratic Left Alliance (National Congress Party, Democratic Socialist Vanguard Party and Unified Socialist Party) Democratic Way Moroccan Union for Democracy National Democratic Party Party of Renaissance and Virtue Socialist Party Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of Morocco

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This article about a Moroccan political party is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama

Born	(1952-10-27) October 27, 1952 (age 59) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Main interests	Developing nations Governance International political economy Nation-building and democratization Strategic and security issues
Notable ideas	End of history
Influenced by Allan Bloom, Samuel P. Huntington, Harvey Mansfield
Website	http://fukuyama.stanford.edu/

Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama (born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, and author.

He is best known for his book The End of History and the Last Man (1992), which argued that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and free market capitalism of the West and its lifestyle may signal the end point of humanity's sociocultural evolution and become the final form of human government. However, his subsequent book "Trust: Social Virtues and Creation of Prosperity" (1995) modified his earlier position to acknowledge that culture cannot be cleanly separated from economics. Fukuyama is also associated with the rise of the neoconservative movement,^[1] from which he has since distanced himself.

Fukuyama is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University.^[2] Before that he served as a professor and director of the International Development program at the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University.

Early life[link]

Francis Fukuyama was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. His paternal grandfather fled the Russo-Japanese war in 1905 and started a shop on the west coast before being interned in the second world war.^[3] His father, Yoshio Fukuyama, a second-generation Japanese-American, was trained as a minister in the Congregational Church, received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, and taught religious studies.^[4][5][6] His mother, Toshiko Kawata Fukuyama, was born in Kyoto, Japan, and was the daughter of Shiro Kawata, founder of the Economics Department of Kyoto University and first president of Osaka City University.^[7] Francis grew up in Manhattan as an only child, had little contact with Japanese culture, and did not learn Japanese.^[4][5] His family moved to State College, Pennsylvania in 1967.^[7]

Education[link]

Fukuyama received his Bachelor of Arts degree in classics from Cornell University, where he studied political philosophy under Allan Bloom.^[5][8] He initially pursued graduate studies in comparative literature at Yale University, going to Paris for six months to study under Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida, but became disillusioned and switched to political science at Harvard University.^[5] There, he studied with Samuel P. Huntington and Harvey Mansfield, among others. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard for his thesis on Soviet threats to intervene in the Middle East.^[5][8] In 1979, he joined the global policy think tank RAND Corporation.^[5]

Fukuyama has been affiliated with the Telluride Association since his undergraduate years at Cornell, an education enterprise that was home to other significant leaders and intellectuals, including Steven Weinberg, Paul Wolfowitz and Kathleen Sullivan.

Fukuyama was the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University from 1996 to 2000. Until July 10, 2010, he was the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and Director of the International Development Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. He is now Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow and resident in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.^[8]

Writings[link]

Fukuyama is best known as the author of The End of History and the Last Man, in which he argued that the progression of human history as a struggle between ideologies is largely at an end, with the world settling on liberal democracy after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Fukuyama predicted the eventual global triumph of political and economic liberalism:^{[citation needed]}

What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of postwar history, but the end of history as such.... That is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.

Authors like Ralf Dahrendorf have argued that the essay gave Fukuyama his 15 minutes of fame, which will be followed by a slide into obscurity.^[9][10]

Fukuyama has written a number of other books, among them Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity and Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. In the latter, he qualified his original "end of history" thesis, arguing that since biotechnology increasingly allows humans to control their own evolution, it may allow humans to alter human nature, thereby putting liberal democracy at risk.^[11] One possible outcome could be that an altered human nature could end in radical inequality. He is a fierce enemy of transhumanism, an intellectual movement asserting that posthumanity is a desirable goal.

In another work, The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstruction of Social Order, he explores the origins of social norms, and analyses the current disruptions in the fabric of our moral traditions, which he considers as arising from a shift from the manufacturing to the information age. This shift is, he thinks, normal and will prove self-correcting, given the intrinsic human need for social norms and rules.

In 2006, in America at the Crossroads, Fukuyama discusses the history of neoconservatism, with particular focus on its major tenets and political implications. He outlines his rationale for supporting the Bush administration, as well as where he believes it has gone wrong.

In 2008, he published the book Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap Between Latin America and the United States, which resulted from research and a conference funded by Grupo Mayan to gain understanding on why Latin America, once far wealthier than North America, fell behind in terms of development in only a matter of centuries. Discussing this book at a 2009 conference, Fukuyama outlined his belief that inequality within Latin American nations is a key impediment to growth. An unequal distribution of wealth, he stated, leads to social upheaval, which then results in stunted growth.^[12]

Neoconservatism[link]

As a key Reagan Administration contributor to the formulation of the Reagan Doctrine, Fukuyama is an important figure in the rise of neoconservatism, although his works came out years after Irving Kristol's 1972 book crystalized neconservatism.^[13] Fukayama was active in the Project for the New American Century think tank starting in 1997, and as a member co-signed the organization's 1998 letter recommending that President Bill Clinton support Iraqi insurgencies in the overthrow of then-President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.^[14] He was also among forty co-signers of William Kristol's September 20, 2001 letter to President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks that suggested the U.S. not only "capture or kill Osama bin Laden", but also embark upon "a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq".^[15][16]

In a New York Times article of February 2006, Fukuyama, in considering the ongoing Iraq War, stated: "What American foreign policy needs is not a return to a narrow and cynical realism, but rather the formulation of a 'realistic Wilsonianism' that better matches means to ends."^[17] In regard to neoconservatism he went on to say: "What is needed now are new ideas, neither neoconservative nor realist, for how America is to relate to the rest of the world — ideas that retain the neoconservative belief in the universality of human rights, but without its illusions about the efficacy of American power and hegemony to bring these ends about."^[17]

Fukuyama's current views[link]

Fukuyama began to distance himself from the neoconservative agenda of the Bush administration, citing its overly militaristic basis and embrace of unilateral armed intervention, particularly in the Middle East. By late 2003, Fukuyama had voiced his growing opposition to the Iraq War^[18] and called for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as Secretary of Defense.^[19]

At an annual dinner of the American Enterprise Institute in February 2004, Dick Cheney and Charles Krauthammer declared the beginning of a unipolar era under American hegemony. "All of these people around me were cheering wildly,"^[20] Fukuyama remembers. He believes that the Iraq War was being blundered. "All of my friends had taken leave of reality."^[20] He has not spoken to Paul Wolfowitz (previously a good friend) since.^[20]

Fukuyama declared he would not be voting for Bush,^[21] and that the Bush administration had made three major mistakes:^{[citation needed]}

• They had overstated the threat of radical Islam to the US;
• They had failed to foresee the fierce negative reaction to its "benevolent hegemony." From the very beginning they had shown a negative attitude toward the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations and hadn't seen that this would increase anti-Americanism in other countries; and
• They had misjudged what was needed to bring peace in Iraq and had been overly optimistic about the success with which social engineering of western values could be applied to Iraq and the Middle East in general.

Fukuyama believes the US has a right to promote its own values in the world, but more along the lines of what he calls "realistic Wilsonianism," with military intervention only as a last resort and only in addition to other measures. A latent military force is more likely to have an effect than actual deployment. The US spends 43% of global military spending,^[22] but Iraq shows there are limits to its effectiveness.

The US should instead stimulate political and economic development and gain a better understanding of what happens in other countries. The best instruments are setting a good example and providing education and, in many cases, money. The secret of development, be it political or economic, is that it never comes from outsiders, but always from people in the country itself. One thing the US proved to have excelled in during the aftermath of World War II was the formation of international institutions. A return to support for these structures would combine American power with international legitimacy. But such measures require a lot of patience. This is the central thesis of his 2006 work America at the Crossroads.

In a 2006 essay in the New York Times Magazine strongly critical of the invasion, he identified neoconservatism with Leninism. He wrote that neoconservatives,^[23]

believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support.

Fukuyama announced the end of the neoconservative moment and argued for the demilitarization of the War on Terrorism:^[23]

[W]ar is the wrong metaphor for the broader struggle, since wars are fought at full intensity and have clear beginnings and endings. Meeting the jihadist challenge is more of a "long, twilight struggle" whose core is not a military campaign but a political contest for the hearts and minds of ordinary Muslims around the world.

Fukuyama endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 US presidential election. He states:^[24]

"I’m voting for Barack Obama this November for a very simple reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush. It was bad enough that he launched an unnecessary war and undermined the standing of the United States throughout the world in his first term. But in the waning days of his administration, he is presiding over a collapse of the American financial system and broader economy that will have consequences for years to come. As a general rule, democracies don't work well if voters do not hold political parties accountable for failure. While John McCain is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would be a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale."

Affiliations[link]

• Between 2006 and 2008, Fukuyama advised Muammar Gaddafi as part of the Monitor Group, a consultancy firm based in Cambridge, MA.^[25]
• In August 2005, Fukuyama co-founded The American Interest, a quarterly magazine devoted to the broad theme of "America in the World". He is currently chairman of the editorial board.^[8]
• He was a member of the RAND Corporation's Political Science Department from 1979 to 1980, 1983 to 1989, and 1995 to 1996. He is now a member of the Board of Trustees.^[8]
• Fukuyama was a member of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2004.^[8]
• Fukuyama is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).
• Fukuyama is on the steering committee for the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Trust.^[26] Fukuyama is a long-time friend of Libby. They served together in the State Department in the 1980s.
• During the 2008 Presidential Election, Fukuyama endorsed Democratic candidate Barack Obama who went on to win the Presidential Election.^[27]
• Fukuyama is a member of the Board of Counselors for the Pyle Center of Northeast Asian Studies at the National Bureau of Asian Research.^[28]
• Fukuyama is on the board of Global Financial Integrity.
• Fukuyama is on the executive board of the Inter-American Dialogue.

Personal life[link]

Fukuyama is a part-time photographer. He also has a keen interest in early-American furniture, which he reproduces by hand.^[29] He is keenly interested in sound recording and reproduction, saying, "These days I seem to spend as much time thinking about gear as I do analyzing politics for my day job."^[20]

Fukuyama is married to Laura Holmgren, whom he met when she was a UCLA graduate student after he started working for the RAND Corporation.^[5][8] He dedicated his book Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity to her. They live in California, with their three children, Julia, David, and John away in school.

Selected bibliography[link]

Books[link]

• The End of History and the Last Man. Free Press, 1992. ISBN 0-02-910975-2
• Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. Free Press, 1995. ISBN 0-02-910976-0
• The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order. Free Press, 1999. ISBN 0-684-84530-X
• Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. ISBN 0-374-23643-7
• State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century. Cornell University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8014-4292-3
• America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy (Yale University Press, 2006). ISBN 0-300-11399-4
• After the Neo Cons: Where the Right went Wrong. Profile Books, 2006. ISBN 1-86197-922-3 (N.B. Published in the US as America at the Crossroads see above)
• Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap between Latin America and the United States, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2008). ISBN 978-0-19-536882-6
• The Origins of Political Order (April 2011)^[30]

Essays[link]

• Human Nature and the Reconstruction of Social Order
• Women and the Evolution of World Politics, Foreign Affairs October 1998
• Immigrants and Family Values, The Immigration Reader 1998. ISBN 1-55786-916-2
• Social capital and civil society, paper prepared for delivery at the International Monetary Fund Conference on Second Generation Reforms, 1 October 1999
• The neoconservative moment, The National Interest, Summer 2004
• After neoconservatism, The New York Times Magazine, 19 February 2006
• Supporter's voice now turns on Bush, The New York Times Magazine, 14 March 2006
• Why shouldn't I change my mind?, Los Angeles Times, 9 April 2006
• The Fall of America, Inc. Newsweek, 13 October 2008
• The New Nationalism and the Strategic Architecture of Northeast Asia Asia Policy January 2007
• Left Out, The American Interest, January 2011
• The Future of History; Can Liberal Democracy Survive the Decline of the Middle Class?, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2012

See also[link]

• Biopolitics
• Neo-con
• Brave New World argument
• Obama Republican

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (June 2011)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Francis Fukuyama

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Francis Fukuyama

• Francis Fukuyama's home page at Johns Hopkins University
• Works by or about Francis Fukuyama in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Islam and America... Friends or Foes?
• In Depth interview with Fukuyama, March 5, 2006
• Booknotes interview with Fukuyama on The End of History and the Last Man, February 9, 1992
• ANU Public Lecture Series MP3 of a public lecture by Fukuyama titled The Missing Dimension of Stateness delivered at The Australian National University, December 15, 2006
• RAND Corporation - Information and Biological Revolutions: Global Governance Challenges - Summary of a Study Group by Francis Fukuyama and Caroline S. Wagner
• Nick Bostrom's rebuttal of Fukuyama's views on biotechnology
• Biography from Francis Fukuyama's website
• Danny Postel. Fukuyama’s moment: a neocon schism opens
• Audio interview with National Review Online
• RightWeb profile of Francis Fukuyama
• Against war in Iraq
• Interview on ABC Radio Late Night Live Fukuyama discusses After the Neo-Cons: America at the Crossroads broadcast April 12, 2006
• interviews Francis Fukuyama (meaningoflife.tv), Robert Wright
• Sabancı University School of Languages Podcasts: The End of History? Lecture by Ayhan Akman, The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Video interviews and conversations with Fukuyama on BloggingHeads.tv
• Audio: Francis Fukuyama in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion show The Forum

Gabrielle Union
Union in February 2009
Born	Gabrielle Monique Union (1972-10-26) October 26, 1972 (age 39) Omaha, Nebraska U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1993–present
Spouse	Chris Howard 2001-2006 (divorced)

Gabrielle Monique Union (born October 26, 1972) is an American actress and former model. Among her notable roles is as the cheerleader opposite Kirsten Dunst in the film Bring it On. Union starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the blockbuster film Bad Boys II and played a medical doctor in the CBS drama series City of Angels. She starred with LL Cool J in Deliver Us from Eva in 2003.

Early life[link]

Union was born in Omaha, Nebraska. She is the daughter of Theresa (née Glass), a former dancer, social worker, and phone company manager, and Sylvester C. Union, an AT&T manager and military sergeant.^[1][2][3] She was raised Catholic.^[4] At the age of eight, her family moved to Pleasanton, California, where she grew up and attended Foothill High School. In high school, Union was an all-star point guard in basketball and a year-round athlete, also playing in soccer and ran track.

Career[link]

Union attended the University of Nebraska before moving on to Cuesta College. She eventually transferred to UCLA and earned a degree in sociology. While studying there, she interned at the Judith Fontaine Modeling & Talent Agency to earn extra academic credits. Invited by the agency's owner, Judith Fontaine, Union started working as a model to pay off college loans.^[5]

Union started her acting career in minor roles. Most were in teen movies such as 10 Things I Hate About You and Love and Basketball. In 1997, Union appeared in the sixth-season episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Sons and Daughters" as the Klingon N'Garen.^[6] She also appeared in Sister, Sister as Vanessa, in Smart Guy as Denise, and in five episodes of 7th Heaven as Keesha Hamilton.

In 2000, Union landed the role of Isis in the cheerleading movie Bring it On opposite Kirsten Dunst. Bring It On helped push Union into the mainstream and she began gaining more exposure. This led to Union being cast in the CBS television drama City of Angels as Dr. Courtney Ellis.

Union was cast in her first leading role in the 2003 film Deliver Us from Eva with rapper L.L. Cool J. This was her second time working with the rapper since making a cameo in his video "Paradise" in 2002. The film received fair reviews from critics and it showed that Union was a leading lady. Union landed the role of Will Smith's girlfriend Syd in the film Bad Boys II, a box office success grossing over $273 million worldwide. Union starred with Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx in the film Breakin' All the Rules in 2004.

Union starred in the short-lived 2005 ABC series Night Stalker. She has also starred in the independent drama films Neo Ned and Constellation, the latter of which was released to theaters. She won an award for Best Actress in Neo Ned at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, and the film received awards at several festivals.

She starred in the 2005 remake of The Honeymooners with comedian Cedric The Entertainer. In 2006, she starred as Busta Rhymes' love interest in the music video for Rhymes' "I Love My Chick". Union starred in the 2007 films Daddy's Little Girls by Tyler Perry (released on Valentine's Day) and the Christmas film The Perfect Holiday which opened on December 12.

In an interview with Art Nouveau Magazine, Union complained about the lack of roles for black actresses and actors in Hollywood: "There used to be [roles] specifically written black, if you knew Denzel was doing a movie you knew his wife, girl or love interest was going to be black [but] that’s not necessarily the case anymore. You’re in that room with every amazingly talented actress of every hue, and it’s a dogfight, it’s hard".^[7]

In 2008, Union appeared on Ugly Betty for 3 episodes (36-38) as Renee, Wilhelmina Slater's (Vanessa L. Williams) sister and Daniel Meade's (Eric Mabius) love interest. She also made a cameo appearance in the music video for Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent".

She joined the cast of the U.S. television series Life on NBC and appeared in four episodes prior to the cancellation of series in May 2009.^[8] She appeared in the ABC series FlashForward alongside John Cho and Joseph Fiennes as Zoey Andata, a role for which she got nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Current and upcoming projects[link]

In 2012, she worked with Tyler Perry on the romantic comedy Good Deeds playing the role of Natalie, the soon to be wife of Perry's character Wesley Deeds.^[9] She now appears in Steve Harvey's movie Think Like A Man, another romantic comedy which is based on his book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. The movie debuted at #1 during the weekend of April 20, 2012.

In 2012 she began as the star of the BET network show Being Mary Jane.^[10]

Personal life[link]

In 1992 at age 19 Union was attacked and raped^[11] at her part-time job in a shoe store. Her attacker later turned himself in and was sentenced to 33 years in prison. She has since become an advocate for survivors of assault.^[12]

On May 5, 2001, Gabrielle married Chris Howard; they divorced in 2006. She dated American football player Jonathan Borrero in 2007. She is now dating Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade.^[13]

Awards and nominations[link]

• MTV Awards
  • 2005, Best Actress (2004, Best Actress (nominated)
  • 2003, Best Actress (nominated)

• Black Reel Awards
  • 2009, Best Ensemble: Cadillac Records (winner)
  • 2005, Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy: Breakin' All the Rules (nominated)
  • 2005, Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series: Something the Lord Made (nominated)
  • 2004, Best Actress: Deliver Us From Eva (nominated)
  • 2002, Best Supporting Actress: The Brothers (nominated)
  • 2001, Best Supporting Actress: Bring It On (winner)she is a leader in herlife and history

• Image Awards 2005-
  • 2005, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Breakin' All the Rules (nominated)
  • 2005, Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series: Something the Lord Made (nominated)
  • 2004, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Deliver Us From Eva (nominated)
  • 2004, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Bad Boys II (nominated)

• Palm Beach International Film Festival
  • 2006, Best Actress Neo Ned (winner)

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

• Family Matters - TV series (1993)
• Saved by the Bell: The New Class - TV series (1995–1996)
• Moesha - TV series (1996)
• Malibu Shores - TV series (1996)
• Goode Behavior - TV series (1996)
• 7th Heaven - TV series (1996–1999)
• Smart Guy - TV series (1997)
• Dave's World - TV series (1997)
• Hitz - TV series (1997)
• Sister, Sister - TV series (1997)
• City Guys - TV series (1997)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - TV series (1997)
• The Steve Harvey Show - TV series (1998)
• Clueless - TV series (1999)
• Grown Ups - TV series (1999)
• H-E Double Hockey Sticks - TV film (1999)
• ER - TV series (2000)
• The Others - TV series (2000)
• Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane - TV series (2000)
• City of Angels - TV series (2000)
• Close to Home - TV film (2001)
• Friends - TV series (2001)
• The Proud Family - TV series (2003)
• The West Wing - TV series (2004)
• Something the Lord Made - TV film (2004)
• Family Guy - TV series (2005)
• Night Stalker - TV series (2005–2006)
• Football Wives - TV film (2007)
• Ugly Betty - TV series (2008)
• The BET Honors - TV film (2010)
• Life - TV series (2009)
• FlashForward - TV series (2009–2010)
• Army Wives - TV series (2010)
• "NTSF:SD:SUV"-TV series (2011)
• Half the Sky - TV Documentary (in production, 2012)^[16]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gabrielle Union at the Internet Movie Database
• Gabrielle Union at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

]

Edward Albert Filene (September 3, 1860, Salem, Massachusetts - September 26, 1937, Paris, France) was an American businessman, social entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is best known for building the Filene's department store chain and for his decisive role in pioneering credit unions across the United States.

Early life[link]

Edward was one of five children of William Filene (born: May 8, 1830) and Clara Ballin ( born: December 13, 1833). William Filene was a German Jewish immigrant from Posen, Prussia, while Clara Ballin was born in Segnitz-am-Main, Bavaria. William immigrated to the US in 1848 after abandoning law school in Berlin. As “a peddler, chiefly of women’s apparel” he built up a company composed of several small retail shops and in 1881 founded a department store in Boston.^[1] It was some time in the 1850s that William and Clara met while Clara was visiting relatives in Hartford, Connecticut. They married in New York City.

At the age of 5 Edward was injured in a fall that left him with a permanent limp. In 1872, Clara Filene enrolled her three boys in Handel's Institut, a military school, known for excellence in instruction and discipline. The boys remained at the school until 1875, and it was a period of intense loneliness and homesickness for Edward. Upon his return to the US, Edward attended high school in Lynn, Massachusetts, and worked in his father's store evenings, weekends, and summers. Edward passed his entrance exams for Harvard University but gave up his educational ambitions to take over the family business in 1890 when his father became seriously ill. One of the great disappointments in his life was being unable to attend Harvard.

Together with his younger brother Abraham Lincoln Filene, reorganized their father's store into William Filene's Sons Company, which would later become Filene's. In 1909, Edward established the "Automatic Bargin Basement" whereby unsold merchandise moved from the floor to the basement as prices were gradually reduced on a set schedule. Additionally, as goods remained unsold, they were eventually donated to charity. Eventually, Edward was ousted from store management, but retained an office and the title of President. His ouster allowed him to dedicate more time to his passions of travel, civic organizations, and philanthropy.

Social entrepreneurship[link]

Edward Filene drew inspiration from the scientific management ideas of Frederick Winslow Taylor. While Taylor is best known for the use of scientific methods to increase workplace efficiency, he was also interested in how to improve the quality of work for employees. Filene is credited with refining a number of under-utilized and some cases novel retailing techniques. Filene’s Department Store offered complete and honest descriptions of its merchandise and offered to give customers their "money back if not satisfied".

Although Filene's Basement was not the first ‘bargain basement’ in the United States, the retail design and later the ‘automatic mark-downs’ generated excitement and proved very profitable. Filene personally supervised construction of the first basement in Boston. An advocate of consumer education, he introduced color matching tools in the clothing departments of his stores.

Filene was also a pioneer in employee relations. He instituted a profit sharing program, a minimum wage for women, a 40 hour work week, health clinics and paid vacations. He also played an important role in encouraging the Filene Cooperative Association: ‘perhaps the earliest American company union’. Through this channel he engaged constructively with his employees in collective bargaining and arbitration processes.^[1]

He formed a savings and loan association for employees which later became the Filene Employee’s Credit Union.

Philanthropy[link]

Filene “played a pivotal role in passing America’s first Workmen’s Compensation Law in 1911” and was a founder of the Boston, American and international chambers of commerce.^[1]

Another important initiative was the ‘Boston-1915’, a multi-sector, private-public sector partnership that organized leaders and committees to take leadership roles in solving key urban problems, including slums, public health, crime and local governance.^[2]

Living in the era of Henry Ford, Filene believed that the problems of mass production had essentially been solved. But he feared that production by itself would not ensure prosperity; if ordinary workers could not afford to continue financing this expansion with their purchasing power, the result would be either reduced production or worse, increased social inequality leading to violence or dictatorship. He saw credit unions as an important part of the answer.

In a speech in California in 1936 he summed up his view.

“What is needed is that the American masses shall learn the art of constructive self-government in this machine age – in this age in which life is no longer organized on a small community pattern but in which all Americans are more or less dependent upon what all other Americans are doing.”^[3]

Filene also believed in the intrinsic capability of ordinary people to improve their own condition, given “good information and the discipline to use it effectively.” ^[4] This faith led not only to his involvement with credit unions, but to a wider interest in research into critical social and economic trends. This research, if clearly explained to the public, would advance the causes of both democracy and peace. These views led him to found the Twentieth Century Fund in 1919 (since renamed The Century Foundation).

Lifestyle[link]

Filene’s lifestyle and motivation for his philanthropic work was described by Bergengren, who knew him for much of his adult life.

“He had a great distaste for material things, lived very modestly, never owned an automobile and was scrupulously careful about small expenditures, all because he felt that he was a trustee for the money that he had earned and that the trustee-ship involved turning his accumulations into the greatest possible disinterested public service.”^[5]

Filene began traveling in the 1880s, purchasing merchandise, studying business practices, and increasingly examining how different societies were organized and the problems they faced. He corresponded with a wide range of leaders from Woodrow Wilson and Georges Clemenceau to Mahatma Gandhi and Vladimir Lenin.

Origins of US credit unions[link]

In 1907 Filene traveled around the world, and by February reached Calcutta, India. There, he visited some rural cooperative banks that had been promoted and funded by the British colonial government. On his return, he contacted his associate Franklin D. Roosevelt and suggested that a similar type of organization be promoted by the US government in the Philippines.^[6]

He realized that credit unions could help ordinary American workers to access loans when they needed them without falling victim to usury. Equally important, workers could save their money so that when hard times hit, they were prepared.

Subsequent to this trip the philanthropy he practiced, combined with the steady implementation efforts of his associate Roy Bergengren were critical to the emergence of credit unions in the United States. He also donated $1 million to the Consumers Distribution Corporation to help them organize a national network of cooperative retail stores.

In 1908, Filene and Massachusetts banking commissioner Pierre Jay, helped organize public hearings on creating credit union legislation in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Credit Union Act of 1909 was the first comprehensive credit union law in the United States, and would serve as a model for the Federal Credit Union Act of 1934.

Filene seems to have been responsible, with the collaboration of Pierre Jay, for the adoption of the term ‘credit union’ in the United States. His concern with fighting loan sharks and excessively costly consumer loans led to the choice of the word ‘credit’, while his interest in working people made him want to cast unions in a more positive light.

Inspired by the experience in many European countries where credit unions were called ‘people’s banks’, Filene organized the National Association of Peoples Banks to advance the credit union cause in the US. However, little came of this until 1921, when Filene observed in Roy Bergengren the key organizer he needed. Together with Bergengren he founded the Credit Union National Extension Bureau.

Credit Union National Extension Bureau[link]

The Extension Bureau, to which Filene donated nearly $1 million during its 14-year history, had four goals:

1. to bring about the laws needed for credit union development in the various states,
2. subsequently, to organize some credit unions in each state that could serve as examples to others,
3. to expand the number of credit unions to the point that they could create self-sustaining state federations, and
4. to combine the federations into a self-sustaining national association.^[7]

The collaboration between Filene and Bergengren, and the work of the Extension Bureau, proved very effective. It brought state laws to fruition in 26 states and substantially revised flawed legal frameworks in 5 others. In 1934 the Roosevelt Administration passed the Federal Credit Union Act, making it possible to form a credit union anywhere in the United States.

The Extension Bureau has been a model for many projects related to international development and microfinance since. Foreshadowing debates that still rage however, the views of Filene and Bergengren diverged on two key issues.

First, Bergengren believed that the Extension Bureau should attempt to secure federal legislation first, rather than work state by state. Filene prevailed in this debate, maintaining that a national law should be based on a sound understanding of the diverse circumstances of people across America—from shrimp fishermen in Louisiana, to factory workers in Massachusetts or farmers in the mid-West. Only by developing many state laws first would such a sound national understanding be possible.^[8]

Second, as the Great Depression set in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation under President Hoover sought to stimulate the economy with soft loans targeted to banks, railways and large companies. Filene favoured asking for $100 million in reconstruction credits to be pumped into credit unions. Bergengren strongly opposed this position, and his view prevailed this time. "To him, it meant destroying the vital principle of the whole movement by converting a community enterprise into an agency of the government. To teach people how to help themselves was more important by far in times of depression than at any other time."^[9]

Credit Union National Association[link]

With the work of the Bureau essentially completed, a national meeting of credit union leaders was called at Estes Park, Colorado. On August 11, 1934 the Credit Union National Association – a national federation funded by the nation’s credit unions—was formed to replace the Bureau. The role of philanthropy in creating the US credit union system was over.

The founding By-Laws of CUNA recognize Filene’s contributions with the following words:

“In grateful recognition of the fact that Edward A. Filene is the Raiffeisen of America – that he first brought cooperative credit to the United States – that he created in 1921 and financed from 1921 to 1934 the Credit Union National Extension Bureau in order that there might be a sustained development of cooperative credit in our country – in free acknowledgement of the unique debt which we and succeeding generations of credit union members owe and will always owe him – we make a part of these our By-laws, not subject at any time to amendment, this acknowledgement – and we create the office of Founder of this Association and name Edward A. Filene to that office for life. Thereafter said office shall be abolished. "^[10]

Last Years[link]

During the 1930s, Filene was concerned about the growing threat of the Axis powers on the international front, and the need to prevent another Great Depression on the home front. He was appalled by the growing strength of the Fascist movement and worried about the growing anti-Semitism in Europe. He gave many speeches on the subject and wrote against the growing anti-Semitism in the United States.

His other major concern was mass production. He argues that higher wages and shorter hours for workers would enable them to buy materials they could not otherwise afford. He wrote several books on the subject and proposed that mass production, mass distribution and worker purchasing power were the answer to economic depression. He admired the methods of Henry Ford in the auto industry.

In 1935, he made a visit to Moscow and was stricken with pneumonia. His assistant, Lillian Schoedler was able to get him the best of care and he did recover. In 1937, however, he made another trip to Europe to attend the International Chamber of Commerce meeting in Paris. He again contracted pneumonia and died in the American Hospital in Paris on September 26, 1937.

His death was reported on the front page of every major newspaper in the world. A man who thought of himself as a “seller of pins” would have been honored indeed by the tribute paid to him by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he heard of Filene’s death Roosevelt wrote:

"It is not individual persons but the people as a whole who were closest to the heart of this unique personality. Mr. Filene was, however, more than a champion of popular rights. He was a prophet who perceived the true meaning of these changing times. He was an analyst who was able, by mathematical calculations, to make plain to us that our modern mechanism of abundance cannot be kept in operation unless the masses of our people are enabled to live abundantly. His democracy was, therefore, more than a tradition. His liberalism was more than a formula. His faith was more than a mere assent to principles which have proved to be tried and true. He did not repudiate the past, after the fashion of some reformers, nor did he repudiate the future after the fashion of those who fear reform. He believed in learning and searching out the ways of human progress.”

Roy Bergengren conducted a series of memorial meetings for credit unionists around the country. The Board of Directors of Credit Union National Association and CUNA Mutual Insurance Company voted to raise funds to build a memorial to their founder. Filene House in Madison, Wisconsin was the result. President Harry S. Truman dedicated the building in May 1950.

An additional memorial, the S.S. Edward A. Filene, a liberty class cargo ship was built for the U.S. Maritime Commission in 1944. The hull number was 2472 and built by St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company, Jacksonville, Florida. The ship started construction on 9 February 1944 and launched on 6 April 1944, with a christening ceremony attended by many Floridian credit union people and Catherine Filene Shouse. The S.S. Edward A. Filene was sunk in 1966 at Cook Inlet, Alaska to be used as a breakwater and dock.

Legacy[link]

Perhaps partly as a result of his childhood injury, and the eczema that plagued him throughout his life, Filene was shy as a youth, and never married. As several writers mention, this may be why “his family in a very real sense became society as a whole.”^[11]

The results of this dedication speak for themselves. By the end of 2008 US credit unions had 89 million members. This is the largest membership of any country in the world, and one of the highest levels of market penetration in the world.^[12]

A credit union think tank and research organization, the Filene Research Institute, is named in his honor as the father of the credit union movement. A building of the Hillman Housing Corporation, a housing cooperative in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, is named after him. Bronze busts honoring Filene and seven other industry magnates stand outside between the Chicago River and the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, Illinois.

The first credit union to be named after Filene outside the United States was Filene Credit Union in Broad Cove, Nova Scotia in December 1932.

Publications[link]

The Way Out: A Forecast of Coming Changes in American Business and Industry. (1925)
More Profits from Merchandising: The Model Stock Plan for Distributors, Producers, and Buyers. (1925)
The Model Stock Plan. (1930)
Successful Living in This Machine Age. (1931)
Morals in Business. (1935)
Next Steps Forward in Retailing. (1937)
Speaking of Change: A Selection of Speeches and Articles. (1939)

See also[link]

• History of credit unions
• America's Credit Union Museum

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Stillman, Yanki. Edward Filene: Pioneer of Social Responsibility. Jewish Currents. Sept. 2004.
2. ^ Moody, J. Carroll; Fite, Gilbert C. The Credit Union Movement: Origins & Development, 1850-1980, p. 27
3. ^ cited in MacPherson, Ian. Hands Around the Globe, p. 20.
4. ^ MacPherson, Ian. Hands Around the Globe, p. 20.
5. ^ Roy Bergengren. Credit Union North America. Southern Publishers Inc., New York, Chicago, 1940, p. 94.
6. ^ Moody, J. Carroll; Fite, Gilbert C. The Credit Union Movement: Origins & Development, 1850-1980, pp. 21-22.
7. ^ Bergengren, Roy. Credit Union North America, p. 100
8. ^ Johnson, Gerald W. Liberal's Progress. Coward-McCowan Inc., New York, 1948, p. 218
9. ^ Johnson, Gerald W. Liberal's Progress. Coward-McCowan Inc., New York, 1948, p. 219
10. ^ Constitution & By-Laws of Credit Union National Association, cited by Bergengren in CUNA Emerges, p. 213.
11. ^ For example, Moody & Fite, p. 19.
12. ^ World Council of Credit Unions, Annual Statistical Report, 2006

External links[link]

• Credit Union National Association
• The Century Foundation
• Role in creation of Credit Unions
• Short bio
• A tribute to Edward Filene
• About the Filene Research Institute