Portal:Politics
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The Politics portal
Politics (from Greek: Πολιτικά, politiká, 'affairs of the cities') is the method of rulership over a national government, state government and local government in groups, or other forms of ruling power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies rulership, law making 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 in the East. (Full article...)
Selected article
The Act of Independence of Lithuania was signed by the Council of Lithuania on 16 February 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania, governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital. The act was signed by all twenty members of the council, chaired by Jonas Basanavičius. The act of 16 February was the end result of a series of resolutions on the issue, including one issued by the Vilnius Conference and the act of 8 January. The path to the act was long and complex because the German Empire exerted pressure on the council to form an alliance. The Council had to carefully manoeuvre between the Germans, whose troops were present in Lithuania, and the demands of the Lithuanian people. While the act's original document has been lost, its legacy continues. The laconic act is the legal basis for the existence of modern Lithuania, both during the interwar period and since 1990. The act formulated the basic constitutional principles that were and still are followed by all Constitutions of Lithuania. The act itself was a key element in the foundation of Lithuania's Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, adopted on 11 March 1990. Lithuania, breaking away from the Soviet Union, stressed that it was simply re-establishing the independent state that existed between the world wars and that the act never lost its legal power.
Featured picture
Photo taken by a Lockheed U-2 spy plane of the San Cristobal MRBM launch site in Cuba, November 1962, after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although this image was taken days after the crisis had ended (October 28), this image has become iconic of the crisis to the point where it is often cited incorrectly as having been taken during the crisis.
Featured lists -
The sultans of Zanzibar (Arabic: سلاطين زنجبار) were the rulers of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which was created on 19 October 1856 after the death of Said bin Sultan, who had ruled Oman and Zanzibar as the sultan of Oman since 1804. The sultans of Zanzibar were of a cadet branch of the Al Said Dynasty of Oman.
In 1698, Zanzibar became part of the overseas holdings of Oman, falling under the control of the sultan of Oman. In 1832, or 1840 (the date varies among sources), Said bin Sultan moved his capital from Muscat in Oman to Stone Town. He established a ruling Arab elite and encouraged the development of clove plantations, using the island's slave labour. Zanzibar's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said encouraged to settle on the island. After his death in 1856, two of his sons, Majid bin Said and Thuwaini bin Said, struggled over the succession, so Zanzibar and Oman were divided into two separate principalities; Thuwaini became the sultan of Oman while Majid became the first sultan of Zanzibar. During his 14-year reign as sultan, Majid consolidated his power around the East African slave trade. His successor, Barghash bin Said, helped abolish the slave trade in Zanzibar and largely developed the country's infrastructure. The third sultan, Khalifa bin Said, also furthered the country's progress toward abolishing slavery. (Full article...)
This is a list of the 16 counties in the U.S. state of Maine. Before statehood, Maine was officially part of the state of Massachusetts and was called the District of Maine. Maine was granted statehood on March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise. 9 of the 16 counties had their borders defined while Maine was still part of Massachusetts, and hence are older than the state itself.[page needed] Even after 1820, the exact location of the northern border of Maine was disputed with Britain, until the question was settled and the northern counties signed their final official form, the Webster–Ashburton Treaty, signed in 1842. Almost all of Aroostook County was disputed land until the treaty was signed.[page needed]
The first county to be created was York County, created as York County, Massachusetts by the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1652 to govern territories it claimed in southern Maine. No new counties have been created since 1860, when Knox County and Sagadahoc County were created. The most populous counties tend to be located in the southeastern portion of the state, along the Atlantic seaboard. The largest counties in terms of land area are inland and further north. Maine's county names come from a mix of British, American, and Native American sources, reflecting Maine's pre-colonial, colonial, and national heritage.[page needed] (Full article...)- There are 21 counties in New Jersey. These counties together contain 565 municipalities, or administrative entities composed of clearly defined territory; 250 boroughs, 52 cities, 15 towns, 244 townships, and 4 villages. In New Jersey, a county is a local level of government between the state and municipalities. County government in New Jersey includes a Board of County Commissioners, sheriff, clerk, and surrogate (responsible for uncontested and routine probate), all of which are elected officials. Counties organized under the Optional County Charter Law may also have an elected county executive. Counties traditionally perform state-mandated duties such as the maintenance of jails, parks, and certain roads. The site of a county's administration and courts is called the county seat. (Full article...)
President George Washington appointed 9 justices to the Supreme Court and 28 judges to United States district courts.
United States President George Washington appointed 39 Article III United States federal judges during his presidency, which lasted from April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797. The first group of Washington's appointments—two justices of the Supreme Court of the United States and ten district court judges—began service two days after Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, which formally established the federal judiciary. Washington's last court appointee received his commission twelve days before the end of Washington's presidency.
As the first president, Washington was responsible for appointing the entire Supreme Court; he appointed a record eleven justices, including two Chief Justices who were confirmed from outside the Court and one former Justice named as Chief Justice by a recess appointment, but not ultimately confirmed to the position. Additionally, Washington nominated Robert H. Harrison, who declined to serve, and nominated William Cushing for elevation to Chief Justice, who likewise declined. (Full article...)
Thirteen first ladies of the United States have written a total of twenty-two memoirs. The first lady is the hostess of the White House, and the position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, with some historical exceptions. Every memoir by a first lady published in the 20th and 21st centuries has been a bestseller, at times outselling those of their presidential husbands.
In the early 1800s, Abigail Adams had her correspondence published as Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams, and Louisa Adams "made several attempts at an autobiography", though she never sought to publish them. The Memoirs and Letters of Dolley Madison, Wife of James Madison, President of the United States were published in 1886 but were actually edited by Lucia Cutts and written by Dolley Madison's niece Mary Cutts. (Full article...)
The U.S. state of West Virginia has 55 counties. Fifty of them existed at the time of the Wheeling Convention in 1861, during the American Civil War, when those counties seceded from the Commonwealth of Virginia to form the new state of West Virginia. West Virginia was admitted as a separate state of the United States on June 20, 1863. Five additional counties (Grant, Mineral, Lincoln, Summers, and Mingo) were formed from the original counties in the decades following admission.
After the Civil War, Berkeley County and Jefferson County, the two easternmost counties of West Virginia, refused to recognize their inclusion in the state, and the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation attempting to reclaim them. In March 1866, the United States Congress passed a joint mandate assenting to their inclusion in the new state, and the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed this outcome in the case of Virginia v. West Virginia (1871). (Full article...)
This is a list of European Union member states, their forms of government and their parliaments. The European Union (EU) is a sui generis supranational union of states. At a European Council Summit held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 June and 22 June 1993, the European Union defined the Copenhagen criteria regarding the conditions a candidate country has to fulfill to be considered eligible for accession to the European Union:
Consequently, all European Union member states are directly elected, nominally democratic states that are considered to be "free" or "partly free" according to the criteria of Freedom House. As of 2020, there is no expert consensus on how to classify Hungary's regime type; Freedom House considers it a hybrid regime. As of 2015, all European Union member states are representative democracies; however, they do not all have the same political system, with most of the differences arising from different historical backgrounds. (Full article...)- A total of 115 people have served on the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial body in the United States, since it was established in 1789. Supreme Court justices have life tenure, and so they serve until they die, resign, retire, or are impeached and removed from office. For the 106 non-incumbent justices, the average length of service was 6,203 days (16 years, 359 days). Their length of service ranges from William O. Douglas's 13,358 days (36 years, 209 days) on the Court to the 452-day (1 year, 87 days) tenure of James F. Byrnes. Among the current members of the Court, Clarence Thomas's tenure of 11,081 days (30 years, 123 days) is the longest, while Amy Coney Barrett's 484 days (1 year, 119 days) is the shortest.
The table below ranks all United States Supreme Court Justices by time in office. For five individuals confirmed for associate justice, and later served as chief justice —Charles Evans Hughes, William Rehnquist, John Rutledge, Harlan F. Stone, and Edward Douglass White—their cumulative length of service on the Court is measured. The basis of the ranking is the difference between dates; if counted by number of calendar days all the figures would be one greater, with the exception of Charles Evans Hughes and John Rutledge, who would receive two days, as each served on the Court twice (their service as associate justice and as chief justice was separated by a period of years off the Court). The start date given for each justice is the day they took the prescribed oath of office, with the end date being the date of the justice's death, resignation, or retirement. A highlighted row indicates a justice currently serving on the Court. (Full article...) - 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...)
The Mayor of Pichilemu is an elected politician who is the head of the executive branch of government of the commune of Pichilemu, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, Chile. The mayor presides over the local city council, composed of six members, and serves as the civic representative of the commune. The mayor is popularly elected in a municipal election, by simple majority. The office is held for a four-year term without term limits.
Forty different individuals, including acting mayors, have held the office of mayor since the commune of Pichilemu was created in December 1891. José María Caro Martínez, elected in 1894, was the inaugural mayor of the commune, and served for almost four consecutive terms, interrupted by his resignation in 1905. The current mayor is independent Cristian Pozo Parraguez, who was elected in May 2021 and took office on that 28 June. (Full article...)- The timeline of elections in Canada covers all the provincial, territorial and federal elections from when each province was joined Confederation through to the present day. The table below indicates which party won the election. Several provinces held elections before joining Canada, but only their post-Confederation elections are shown. These include:
- Lower Canada held 15 elections for its Legislative Assembly, from 1792 to 1835;
- Upper Canada held 13 elections to its Legislative Assembly, from 1792 to 1836;
- the Province of Canada held 8 elections for its Legislative Assembly from 1841 to 1863;
- New Brunswick's first 21 elections, beginning in 1785 (the 21st Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick was elected in 1866, one year before Confederation, and continued until 1870, three years after Confederation);
- Nova Scotia's first 22 elections, beginning in 1758;
- Prince Edward Island's first 25 elections, beginning in 1773; and
- Newfoundland's first 29 elections, beginning in 1832.
The most recent election is shown with a box limited to five years of government, as this is the maximum length of office, as set by the constitution. However, elections can be called at any time by an incumbent government. The federal government, nine provinces, and one territory have changed to fixed election dates every four years. For these legislatures, the box is shown as running until the next scheduled election, but one could still be earlier if the government falls due to a motion of no confidence. Nova Scotia and Yukon do not have fixed election dates in this matter. (Full article...)
The leader of the Official Opposition (French: chef de l'Opposition officielle), formally known as the leader of her Majesty's Loyal Opposition (French: chef de la loyale opposition de Sa Majesté), is the politician who leads the Official Opposition in Canada, typically the leader of the party possessing the most seats in the House of Commons that is not the governing party or part of the governing coalition.
Candice Bergen has been the leader of the Opposition since February 2, 2022, when she was elected interim Conservative leader following the ousting of Erin O'Toole. (Full article...)
The Chamber of the House of Commons
The Parliament of Canada is the legislative body of the Government of Canada. The Parliament is composed of the House of Commons (lower house), the Senate (upper house), and the Sovereign, represented by the Governor General. Most major legislation originates from the House, as it is the only body that is directly elected. A new parliament begins after an election of the House of Commons and can sit for up to five years. The number of seats in parliament has varied as new provinces joined the country and as population distribution between the provinces changed; there are currently 338 House MPs and 105 Senators (when there are no vacancies).
Canada uses a Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons becomes Prime Minister, even if the leader is not an elected member of parliament. The leader of the party with the second-most seats in the House becomes the Leader of the Official Opposition, and debate (formally called Oral Questions) between the parties is presided over by the Speaker of the House. When the party with the most seats has less than half of the total number of seats, it forms a minority government, which can be voted out of power by the other parties. The Canadian Parliament is located at Parliament Hill in the capital city, Ottawa, Ontario. (Full article...)
The vice president of the Philippines is the second-highest executive official in the government of the Philippines. The vice president can be a cabinet member without confirmation from the commission on appointments and is first in the presidential line of succession.[1] There have been 14 vice presidents.[2]
The office of vice president was initially created following the ratification of the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines, which states that the vice-president shall be elected by direct vote of the people.[3] Vice presidents during the Commonwealth of the Philippines were under American sovereignty,[4] and there was no office of vice president during the Second Republic,[5] which was considered to be a puppet state of Imperial Japan during World War II.[6] During the martial law declared by President Ferdinand Marcos from 1972 to 1986, the office of the vice-president was abolished and the sitting vice-president, Fernando Lopez, was removed from the office.[5] Though the 1973 Constitution initially did not provide for a vice president, subsequent amendments restored the office.[5] A vice president was appointed after the 1986 election when Marcos and Arturo Tolentino were proclaimed as winners by the Batasang Pambansa. However, in 1986, the People Power Revolution overthrew Macros' dictatorship and repealed the 1973 Constitution.[5][7] The subsequently formed 1987 Constitution of the Philippines was established, which states that: "There shall be a vice-president who shall have the same qualifications and term of office and be elected with, and in the same manner, as the president."[8] (Full article...)
The Canadian province of Alberta holds elections to its unicameral legislative body, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The maximum period between general elections of the assembly is five years, but the Lieutenant Governor is able to call one at any time. However, the Premier has typically asked the Lieutenant Governor to call the election in the fourth or fifth year after the preceding election. The number of seats has increased over time, from 25 for the first election in 1905, to the current 87.
Alberta's politics has historically been one of long-lasting governments with government changes being few and far between. The province from 1905 to 2015 was ruled by four "dynasties": the Liberal Party (1905–1921); the United Farmers of Alberta (1921–1935), the Social Credit Party (1935–1971), and the Progressive Conservative (PC) Association (1971–2015), the longest political dynasty in Canada. No minority government has ever been elected. Thus, Alberta can be said to have continuously had a dominant-party system for its entire political history, though the dominant party has changed over time. (Full article...)
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Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864–1945) was an Anglican prelate who served as Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Canterbury. As Archbishop of Canterbury during the abdication crisis of 1936 he took a strong moral stance, and comments he made in a subsequent broadcast were widely condemned as uncharitable towards the departed king. In his early ministry Lang served in slum parishes in Leeds and Portsmouth before his appointment in 1901 as suffragan Bishop of Stepney in London. In 1908 Lang was nominated Archbishop of York, despite his relatively junior status as a suffragan rather than a diocesan bishop. He entered the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual and caused consternation in traditionalist circles by speaking and voting against the Lords' proposal to reject David Lloyd George's 1909 "People's Budget". This apparent radicalism was not, however, maintained in later years. At the start of World War I, Lang was heavily criticised for a speech in which he spoke sympathetically of the Kaiser. After the war he supported controversial proposals for the revision of the Book of Common Prayer, but after acceding to Canterbury he took no practical steps to resolve this issue. As Archbishop of Canterbury he presided over the 1930 Lambeth Conference, which gave limited church approval to the use of contraception.
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that John Henry Dunn resigned from the Executive Council of Upper Canada only three weeks after his appointment, throwing away a post he had sought for 16 years, on a matter of political principle?
- ... that after the Greek Civil War, 20,000 leftists were exiled to the island of Gyaros, dubbed the "Dachau of the Mediterranean"?
- ... that John Cooper is the first political candidate to defeat an incumbent mayor of Nashville since the city consolidated with Davidson County, Tennessee?
- ... that Mikhail Semyonov swapped a career in mining for one in politics, rising to the position of Chairman of the People's Khural of Buryatia?
- ... that Michita Sakata declined an offer to be Prime Minister of Japan because he thought the role was too political?
- ... that 44 Union Square in New York City has housed the Tammany Hall political organization, a labor union, and two theaters?
More did you know...
- ...that the 2010 Bihar legislative assembly election takes place across six phases and over one month?
- ...that Nazi scientists claimed to have trained a dog to call "Adolf Hitler" as "Mein Führer"?
- ...that for many years, the Russian Soviet Republic did not have its Communist Party?
- ...that the World War II idea of Polish-Czechoslovakian confederation was eventually discarded by the Czechs, whose leader chose instead to believe in the Soviet Union promises of alliance?
- ...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 Roman embassies to China are reported in Chinese historical accounts from as early as 166?
In this month
- February 4, 2003 – Yugoslavia was renamed to Serbia and Montenegro converting the federal republic to a looser union.
- February 6, 1911 – Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, was born.
- February 16, 2005 – In the United States, the school board in Staunton, Virginia voted to continue classes in Weekday Religious Education. This was a milestone in the issue of Separation of church and state in the United States.
- February 20, 2005 – Spain approves the European Constitution in a consultative referendum, though with a low turnout of 42%.
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
Topics and categories
General images
Division of the world according to Haushofer's Pan-Regions Doctrine (from Geopolitics)
Montenegro's president Milo Đukanović is often described as having strong links to Montenegrin mafia. (from Political corruption)
Detail from Corrupt Legislation (1896) by Elihu Vedder. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. (from Political corruption)
Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty in the corruption trial over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal. (from Political corruption)
Candlelight protest against South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul, South Korea, 7 January 2017 (from Political corruption)
American lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation (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)
Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Croatian Spring participant; Europe's first female prime minister (from Civil and political rights)
The logo and slogan for change.org (from Politics and technology)
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)
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders campaigning for extended US medicare coverage in 2017. (from Health politics)
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)
Ferdinand Marcos was a Philippine dictator and kleptocrat. His regime was infamous for its corruption. (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)
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)
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)
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)
Protesters in support of American whistleblower Edward Snowden, Berlin, Germany, 30 August 2014 (from Political corruption)
Transparency International 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (from Political corruption)
Countries with politicians, public officials or close associates implicated in the Panama Papers leak on April 15, 2016 (from Political corruption)
World map with the concepts of Heartland and Rimland applied (from Geopolitics)
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)
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Related portals
Associated Wikimedia
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Portals
- ^ Rappler (b) (2021).
- ^ ABS-CBN news (2016).
- ^ Constitution of the Philippines (1935) § Article VII: Executive Department
- ^ Ooi (2004), p. 387.
- ^ a b c d Vice president of the Philippines.
- ^ Vellut (1964), p. 128.
- ^ BBC News (2016).
- ^ Constitution of the Philippines (1987) § Article VII: Executive Department