Portal:Politics
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Politics (from Greek: Πολιτικά, politiká, 'affairs of the cities') is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations between individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies politics and government is referred to as political science.
It may be used positively in the context of a "political solution" which is compromising and nonviolent, or descriptively as "the art or science of government", but also often carries a negative connotation. For example, abolitionist Wendell Phillips declared that "we do not play politics; anti-slavery is no half-jest with us." The concept has been defined in various ways, and different approaches have fundamentally differing views on whether it should be used extensively or limitedly, empirically or normatively, and on whether conflict or co-operation is more essential to it.
A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to the international level. In modern nation states, people often form political parties to represent their ideas. Members of a party often agree to take the same position on many issues and agree to support the same changes to law and the same leaders. An election is usually a competition between different parties.
A political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a society. The history of political thought can be traced back to early antiquity, with seminal works such as Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics in the West, and Confucius's political manuscripts and Chanakya's Arthashastra and Chanakya Niti in the East. (Full article...)
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The FairTax is a proposed change to the tax laws of the United States that would replace the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and all federal income taxes (including corporate taxes and capital gains taxes), as well as payroll taxes (including Social Security and Medicare taxes), gift taxes, and estate taxes with a national retail sales tax. Its enacting legislation, the Fair Tax Act, is pending in the United States Congress. The tax would be levied once at the point of purchase on all new goods and services. The proposal also calls for a monthly payment to all households of citizens and legal resident aliens (based on family size) as an advance rebate of tax on purchases up to the poverty level. The sales tax rate, as defined in the legislation, is 23% of net prices which includes the tax (23¢ out of every $1 spent—calculated like income taxes), which is comparable to a 30% traditional sales tax (23¢ on top of every 77¢ spent). With the rebate taken into consideration, the effective tax rate would be progressive on consumption and could result in a federal tax burden of zero or less. However, opponents of the tax argue that while progressive on consumption, the tax would be regressive on income, and would accordingly decrease the tax burden on high income earners and increase the tax burden on the middle class.
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Dr. Javier Solana was the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union (EU) and the Western European Union (WEU). This photograph shows him discussing with students of RWTH Aachen University, one day before receiving the International Charlemagne Prize of the city of Aachen.
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The governor of the State of Hawaii is the head of government of Hawaii, and commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws; the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Hawaii Legislature; the power to convene the legislature; and the power to grant pardons, except in cases of treason and impeachment.
Of the eight governors of the state, two have been elected to three terms, four have been elected to two terms, and one has been elected to one term. No state governor has yet resigned or died in office, nor did any territorial governor die in office. George Ariyoshi was the first Asian American to be governor of any U.S. state. The current governor is Democrat David Ige, who took office on December 1, 2014. (Full article...)- There are ten counties in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Five of the counties were created in 1769, when New Hampshire was still an English colony and not a state, during the first subdivision of the state into counties. The last counties created were Belknap County and Carroll County, in 1840.
The majority of New Hampshire's counties were named for prominent British or American people or geographic locations and features. Only one county's name originates in a Native American language: Coös County, named for an Algonquian word meaning "small pines". (Full article...)
The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the New Jersey Legislature, to convene the legislature, and to grant pardons, except in cases of treason or impeachment.
There have been 55 official governors of New Jersey, 1 of which were female, with several others acting as governor for a time. In the official numbering, governors are counted only once each, and traditionally, only elected governors were included. However, legislation signed on January 10, 2006, allowed acting governors who had served at least 180 days to be considered full governors. The law was retroactive to January 1, 2001; it therefore changed the titles of Donald DiFrancesco and Richard Codey, affecting Jim McGreevey's numbering. The current governor is Phil Murphy, who took office on January 16, 2018. (Full article...)- This is a list of counties in Wyoming. There are 23 counties in the U.S. state of Wyoming. There were originally five counties in the Wyoming Territory: Laramie and Carter, established in 1867; Carbon and Albany established in 1868; and Uinta, an annexed portion of Utah and Idaho, extending from Montana (including Yellowstone Park) to the Wyoming-Utah boundary. On July 10, 1890, Wyoming was admitted to the Union with thirteen counties in it. Ten more counties were created after statehood.
Three counties were renamed after their creation. Carter County was renamed Sweetwater County on December 1, 1869. Hanover County existed for seven days in 1911 before it was renamed Washakie County. Pease County, formed in 1875, was renamed Johnson County in 1879. (Full article...)
, there have been 24 members appointed to the United States Cabinet who had been born outside the present-day United States.
Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers who signed the United States Constitution, was the first Cabinet member to be born outside of the United States. President George Washington appointed Hamilton, born in Nevis in 1755 or in 1757, as the United States' first Secretary of Treasury in 1789. Irish-born James McHenry, whom Washington appointed as Secretary of War in 1796 and who served the in same post in John Adams's administration, was the other foreign-born individual in Washington's cabinet. (Full article...)
Royal Arms as used by Her Majesty's Government
Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office is the title of the official resident cat of the prime minister of the United Kingdom at 10 Downing Street. There has been a resident cat in the English government employed as a mouser and pet since the 1500s, although modern records date only to the 1920s. Despite other cats having served Downing Street, the first one to be given the official title of Chief Mouser by the British government was Larry in 2011. Other cats have been given this title affectionately, usually by the British press. In 2004, a study was conducted showing that voters' perceptions of the chief mouser were not completely above partisanship. (Full article...)
Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, United States, is divided into 13 incorporated municipalities. State law defines the two kinds of municipalities present in the county: four boroughs and nine townships. In the 2010 census, the population of Sullivan County was 6,428, making it an "Eighth Class County", defined by Pennsylvania law as "having a population of less than 20,000 inhabitants". Its county seat is Laporte, which was the smallest county seat in Pennsylvania by population, as of 2001.
Sullivan County is located in north central Pennsylvania, about 123 miles (198 km) northwest of Philadelphia and 195 miles (314 km) east-northeast of Pittsburgh. The county covers 452 square miles (1,170 km2), of which 450 square miles (1,165 km2) is land and 2 square miles (5.2 km2) (0.53%) is water. Its municipalities range in size from the borough of Dushore with 0.9 square miles (2.3 km2) to Davidson Township with 78.2 square miles (203 km2). Cherry Township has the highest population of any municipality (1,705 or 26.5% of the county total as of 2010), while the borough of Eagles Mere has the lowest population (120 or 1.9%). (Full article...)
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of the Government of the United Kingdom, and chair of the British Cabinet. There is no specific date for when the office of prime minister first appeared, as the role was not created but rather evolved over a period of time through a merger of duties. However, the term was regularly, if informally, used of Walpole by the 1730s. It was used in the House of Commons as early as 1805, and it was certainly in parliamentary use by the 1880s. In 1905, the post of prime minister was officially given recognition in the order of precedence. Modern historians generally consider Sir Robert Walpole, who led the government of Great Britain for over twenty years from 1721, as the first prime minister. Walpole is also the longest-serving British prime minister by this definition. However, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was the first and Margaret Thatcher the longest-serving prime minister officially referred to as such in the order of precedence. The first to use the title in an official act was Benjamin Disraeli, who signed the Treaty of Berlin as "Prime Minister of her Britannic Majesty" in 1878.
Strictly speaking, the first prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was William Pitt the Younger. The first prime minister of the current United Kingdom, i.e. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was Bonar Law, although the country was not renamed officially until 1927, when Stanley Baldwin was the serving prime minister. (Full article...)
The papal conclave of 2013 was convened to elect a pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, to succeed Benedict XVI following his resignation on 28 February 2013. According to the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis, which governed the vacancy of the Holy See, only cardinals who had not passed their 80th birthdays on the day on which the Holy See fell vacant (in this case, those who were born on or after 28 February 1933) were eligible to participate in the conclave. Although not a formal requirement, the cardinal electors invariably elect the pope from among their number. The election is carried out by secret ballot (Latin: per scrutinium).
Of the 207 members of the College of Cardinals at the time of the vacancy of the Holy See, there were 117 cardinal electors who were eligible to participate in the subsequent conclave. Two cardinal electors did not participate, decreasing the number in attendance to 115 (98.3 per cent of all cardinal electors, 55.6 per cent of all cardinals). The number of votes required to be elected pope with a two-thirds supermajority was 77. (Full article...)
There are 52 municipalities in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Under Pennsylvania law, there are three types of incorporated municipalities in Lycoming County: cities, boroughs and. Any municipality in Pennsylvania with more than 10 persons can incorporate as a borough. Any township or borough with a population of at least 10,000 can ask the state legislature to become chartered as a city. There are no unincorporated areas in the county, since all territory in Pennsylvania is incorporated.
The 52 incorporated municipalities in Lycoming County are the subject of the first list, which gives their names and etymologies, dates settled and incorporated, what they were formed from, area, population, and location within the county. Two other lists dealing with former parts of Lycoming County are included. The second list is of former incorporated townships and gives the same information as above on their current status. The third list gives information on the eighteen other Pennsylvania counties which were formed from or contain land originally in the county. (Full article...)- The Canadian province of New Brunswick was a British crown colony before it joined Canada in 1867. It had a system of responsible government beginning in 1854, and has kept its own legislature to deal with provincial matters. New Brunswick has a unicameral Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the premier is the leader of the party that has the confidence of the Legislative Assembly to form a government. The premier is New Brunswick's head of government, and the Queen of Canada is its head of state and is represented by the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. The premier picks a cabinet from the elected members to form the Executive Council of New Brunswick, and presides over that body.
Members are first elected to the legislature during general elections. General elections must be conducted every five years from the date of the last election, but the premier may ask for early dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. An election may also take place if the governing party loses the confidence of the legislature by the defeat of a supply bill or tabling of a confidence motion. (Full article...) - The Constitution of the Soviet Union recognised the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the earlier Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Congress of Soviets as the highest organs of state authority in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) between legislative sessions. Under the 1924, 1936 and 1977 Soviet Constitutions these bodies served as the collective head of state of the Soviet Union. The Chairman of these bodies personally performed the largely ceremonial functions assigned to a single head of state but was provided little real power by the constitution.
The Soviet Union was established in 1922. However, the country's first constitution was only adopted in 1924. Before that time, the 1918 Constitution of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic functioned as the constitution of the USSR. According to the 1918 Constitution, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (CEC), whose chairman was head of state, had the power to determine what matters of income and taxation would go to the state budget and what would go to the local soviets. The CEC could also limit taxes. In periods between convocations of the Congress of Soviets the CEC held supreme power. In between sessions of the Congress of Soviets the CEC was responsible for all the affairs of the Congress of Soviets. The CEC and the Congress of Soviets was replaced by the Presidium and the Supreme Soviet respectively by several amendments to the 1936 constitution in 1938. (Full article...)
Over 20 graduates of the United States Naval Academy (USNA) have served as members of the United States Congress as legislators in the United States Senate or United States House of Representatives or in their home nation. The Naval Academy is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, Maryland, with the mission of educating and commissioning officers for the Navy and Marine Corps. The Academy is often referred to as Annapolis, while sports media refer to the Academy as "Navy" and the students as "Midshipmen"; this usage is officially endorsed. During the latter half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, the United States Naval Academy was the primary source of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officers, with the Class of 1881 being the first to provide officers to the Marine Corps. Graduates of the Academy are also given the option of entering the United States Army or United States Air Force. Most Midshipmen are admitted through the congressional appointment system. The curriculum emphasizes various fields of engineering.
This list is drawn from graduates of the Naval Academy who became members of Congress or its equivalent in their native country. The Academy was founded in 1845 and graduated its first class in 1846. The first alumnus to graduate and go on to become a member of Congress was John Buchanan Robinson, who graduated from the Class of 1868. As of March 2009, three alumni are members of Congress: Senator John McCain (class of 1958), Senator James H. Webb, Jr. (class of 1968), and Representative Joe Sestak (class of 1974). Roilo Golez (class of 1970) served as a Congressman in his native country, the Philippines. (Full article...)
The 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest) are the political subdivisions of Belgium's central region. The government of each municipality is responsible for the handling of local level duties, such as law enforcement and the upkeep of schools and roads within its borders. Municipal administration is also conducted by a mayor, a council, and an executive.
In 1831, Belgium was divided into 2,739 municipalities, including the 19 in the Brussels-Capital Region (which at that time did not exist). Unlike most of the municipalities in Belgium, the ones located in the Brussels-Capital Region were not merged with others during mergers occurring in 1964, 1970, and 1975. However, several municipalities outside of the Brussels-Capital Region have been merged with the City of Brussels throughout its history including Laken, Haren, and Neder-Over-Heembeek, which were merged into the City of Brussels in 1921. (Full article...)
There are 95 counties in the U.S. State of Tennessee. As of 2020, Shelby County was both Tennessee's most populous county, with 929,744 residents, and the largest county in area, covering an area of 755 sq mi (1,955 km2). The least populous county was Pickett County (5,001) and the smallest in area was Trousdale County, covering 114 sq mi (295 km2). As of the same year, Davidson County, in which the capital Nashville is located, covers 502 sq mi (1,300 km2) with a population of 715,884. The population of the state of Tennessee as of the 2020 census was 6,910,840 in an area of 42,169 sq mi (109,217 km2). The oldest county is Washington County, founded in 1777. The most recently formed county is Chester County (1879).
According to the 2010 census, the center of population for Tennessee was located at , 2.5 mi (4.0 km) south of Murfreesboro in Rutherford County. The center of population pinpoints the location at which the population of the state, as placed on a map of the state where they reside, would balance out the map. The geographic center, the point where the map of Tennessee would balance without the population, is located 5 mi (8 km) northeast of Murfreesboro. In 1976, the Rutherford County Historical Society marked the geographic center of Tennessee with an obelisk. (Full article...)
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News and Current events
- August 11: 4 local government areas in New South Wales, Australia locked down after COVID-19 case
- August 11: Australia: AstraZeneca vaccine access expanded by Victorian government
- August 1: Australia: Victorian lockdown lifted
- July 29: Tunisia's president dismisses prime minister, suspends parliament
- July 25: Australia: Wikinews interviews Reg Kidd, mayor of the City of Orange, about COVID-19 lockdown and local government
- July 23: South Australia enters week-long lockdown to contain COVID-19 Delta variant spread
- July 21: Technological University Dublin senior lecturer Dr Lorcan Sirr speaks to Wikinews on housing market in Ireland
- July 21: Three rural councils in New South Wales, Australia enter 7-day lockdown
- July 21: Australia: Victoria lockdown extended by a week with 85 active cases recorded
- July 15: California governor signs new state budget, eligible Californians to get stimulus payments
Selected biography
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and election in 1980. As U.S. President, Reagan implemented new political initiatives as well as economic policies, advocating a laissez-faire philosophy, but the extent to which these ideas were implemented is debatable. The policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", included substantial tax cuts implemented in 1981. After surviving an assassination attempt and ordering controversial military actions in Grenada, he was re-elected in a landslide victory in 1984. Reagan's second term was marked by the ending of the Cold War, as well as a number of administration scandals, notably the Iran–Contra affair. He ordered a massive military buildup in an arms race with the Soviet Union, foregoing the previous strategy of détente. He publicly portrayed the USSR as an "Evil Empire" and supported anti-Communist movements worldwide.
Did you know...
- ...that the 2010 Bihar legislative assembly election takes place across six phases and over one month?
- ...that Matt Taibbi's book Griftopia has been described as a "necessary ... corrective" to the assertion that bubbles are an inevitable part of the market economy?
- ...that in the book Net.wars, author Wendy M. Grossman attributes Internet conflict in the 1990s to culture shock from an influx of users?
- ...that former California Assembly Republican Leader and California Republican Party Chair Robert W. Naylor was editor of The Stanford Daily while he was a student at Stanford University?
- ...that although U.S. President Barack Obama is Christian, high-ranked al-Qaida member Ayman al-Zawahiri has falsely claimed that Obama secretly "pray[s] the prayers of the Jews"?
- ...that tiao-kuai is the quasi-federal administration system in China?
In this month
- October 1, 1949 – The People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed.
- October 1, 1982 – Helmut Kohl, described as "the greatest European leader of the second half of the 20th century" by George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, is elected Chancellor of Germany.
- October 4, 1849 – Official founding of the Colombian Conservative Party.
- October 7, 1949 – The Democratic Republic of Germany DDR is established officially.
- October 7, 2003 – Voters recall Governor Gray Davis from office and elect actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to succeed him.
- October 10, 1911 – The Wuchang Uprising starts the Xinhai Revolution that leads to the founding of the Republic of China.
- October 10, 1919 – The Kuomintang of China was founded.
- October 27, 2005 – The political establishment in France is rocked by the spread of rioting among poor immigrant communities in suburbs of the major cities.
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Ferdinand Marcos was a Philippine dictator and kleptocrat. His regime was infamous for its corruption. (from Political corruption)
Transparency International 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (from Political corruption)
Blockchain technology has created cryptocurrencies similarly to voting tokens seen in blockchain voting platforms, with recognizable names including Bitcoin and Ethereum. (from Politics and technology)
Protesters in support of American whistleblower Edward Snowden, Berlin, Germany, 30 August 2014 (from Political corruption)
The Flag of the United Nations flying at United Nations Plaza in the Civic Center, San Francisco, California. The UN is one of the key organizations in the process of the political globalization (from Political globalization)
Karl Marx and his theory of Communism developed along with Friedrich Engels proved to be one of the most influential political ideologies of the 20th century. (from History of political thought)
Detail from Corrupt Legislation (1896) by Elihu Vedder. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. (from Political corruption)
Candlelight protest against South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul, South Korea, 7 January 2017 (from Political corruption)
Sir Halford Mackinder's Heartland concept showing the situation of the "pivot area" established in the Theory of the Heartland. He later revised it to mark Northern Eurasia as a pivot while keeping area marked above as Heartland. (from Geopolitics)
American lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation (from Political corruption)
This is the divide of the different political parties in Estonia where in the 2013 elections, over 133,000 people (roughly 21.2% of participating voters) voted over the Internet. The 2013 elections were also the first elections to allow vote verification with mobile devices. (from Politics and technology)
Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Croatian Spring participant; Europe's first female prime minister (from Civil and political rights)
Montenegro's president Milo Đukanović is often described as having strong links to Montenegrin mafia. (from Political corruption)
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders campaigning for extended US medicare coverage in 2017. (from Health politics)
Division of the world according to Haushofer's Pan-Regions Doctrine (from Geopolitics)
Countries with politicians, public officials or close associates implicated in the Panama Papers leak on April 15, 2016 (from Political corruption)
A memorial to the Great Famine (Ireland), a famine event in Ireland that faced elongated suffering from the UK's domestic policy failures at the time under the Prime Ministers Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell. (from Health politics)
Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty in the corruption trial over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal. (from Political corruption)
World map with the concepts of Heartland and Rimland applied (from Geopolitics)
The logo and slogan for change.org (from Politics and technology)
Reformers like the American Joseph Keppler depicted the Senate as controlled by the giant moneybags, who represented the nation's financial trusts and monopolies. (from Political corruption)
Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830, Louvre), a painting created at a time where old and modern political philosophies came into violent conflict. (from History of political thought)
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