Portal:Politics
| Main | Topics and categories | Tasks and projects |
The Politics portal
.jpg)
Politics is the activity of settling affairs in an organized society. Politics is usually concerned with resolving issues within a society via a government. Politicians are individuals engaged in the activity of politics. The branch of social science that studies politics and government is referred to as political science.
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 internal and external 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 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, Aristotle's Politics, Confucius's political manuscripts and Chanakya's Arthashastra.
Politics may be used positively in the context of a "political solution" which is compromising and non-violent, or descriptively as "the art or science of government", but the word often also carries a negative connotation. (Full article...)
Selected article
The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The CPC is the sole governing party of China, although it coexists alongside eight other legal parties that comprise the United Front. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The party grew quickly, and by 1949 the CPC had driven the Kuomintang (KMT) government from mainland China after a 10-year civil war, thus leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The CPC is currently the world's second largest political party with a membership of 87.79 million as of 2015. The current General Secretary (party leader) is Xi Jinping, elected at the 18th National Congress (held in 2012).
Featured picture
A campaign poster from the National Union Party during the US election of 1864, showing presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln (left) and his running-mate Andrew Johnson. The Republican Party changed its name and selected Johnson, a former Democrat, to draw support from War Democrats during the Civil War.
Featured lists -
Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.
-
There are 16 counties and one independent city in the U.S. state of Nevada. On November 25, 1861, the first Nevada Territorial Legislature established nine counties. Nevada was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, with 11 counties. In 1969, Ormsby County and Carson City were consolidated into a single municipal government known as Carson City.
The FIPS county code is the five-digit Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code which uniquely identifies counties and county equivalents in the United States. The three-digit number is unique to each individual county within a state, but to be unique within the entire United States, it must be prefixed by the state code. This means that, for example, while Churchill County, Nevada is 001, Alameda County, California and Baker County, Oregon are also 001. To uniquely identify Churchill County, Nevada, one must use the state code of 32 plus the county code of 001; therefore, the unique nationwide identifier for Churchill County, Nevada is 32001. The links in the column FIPS County Code are to the Census Bureau Info page for that county. (Full article...) -
Monarchs of the Muhammad Ali dynasty reigned over Egypt from 1805 to 1953. Their rule also extended to Sudan throughout much of this period, as well as to the Levant, and Hejaz during the first half of the nineteenth century. The Muhammad Ali dynasty was founded by Pasha Muhammad Ali, an Albanian commander in the expeditionary force sent by the Ottoman Empire in 1801 to dislodge the French occupation of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte. The defeat and departure of the French left a power vacuum in Egypt, which had been an Ottoman province since the sixteenth century, but in which the pre-Ottoman Mamluk military caste maintained considerable power. After a three-way civil war, Muhammad Ali managed to consolidate his control over Egypt, and declared himself Khedive of the country. The Ottoman government refused to acknowledge this title, instead recognizing Muhammad Ali by the more junior title of Wāli (roughly equivalent to a governor or viceroy) on 17 May 1805, making Muhammad Ali the successor to Hurshid Pasha in that position. In the years following his consolidation of power, Muhammad Ali extended Egypt's borders southwards into Sudan, and eastwards into the Arab-majority Mashriq, particularly the Levant. In 1840, his demand for hereditary control of Egypt and Sudan to be passed to his heirs and successors was accepted and confirmed by the Convention of London, but he was compelled to agree that, upon his death, control over his territories in the Mashreq would revert to the Porte.
Muhammad Ali had a 43-year reign, the longest in the history of modern Egypt. Termed the "father of modern Egypt," he is viewed in Egyptian historiography as the dynasty's most important ruler, due to his massive agricultural, administrative, and military reforms. His son, Ibrahim Pasha, was the shortest-reigning monarch of the dynasty. The duration of his rule varies from one source to another, depending on whether or not his reign as regent is taken into account. Contrary to what the short length of his reign might suggest, Ibrahim Pasha was far from being a historically negligible figure, although most of his significant achievements were made before his accession to the throne. His successor, Abbas Helmi I, a traditionalist described by Lord Cromer as "an Oriental despot of the worst type," reverted many of his predecessors' reform-minded measures, and is considered the most controversial ruler of his family. (Full article...) -
David Eby has been premier of British Columbia since 2022.
The premier of British Columbia is the first minister for the Canadian province of British Columbia. The province was a British crown colony governed by the governors of British Columbia before joining Canadian Confederation in 1871. Since then, it has had a unicameral Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the premier is the leader of the party that controls the most seats in the legislative assembly. The premier is British Columbia's head of government, and the king of Canada is its head of state and is represented by the lieutenant governor of British Columbia. The premier picks a cabinet from the elected members to form the Executive Council of British Columbia and presides over that body.
Members are first elected to the legislature during general elections. General elections must be conducted every four years from the date of the last election. An election may take place before the four-year mark if the governing party loses the confidence of the legislature by the defeat of a supply bill or the passage of a no-confidence motion, provided that there is no alternative configuration in the legislature that the lieutenant governor believes can command confidence. (Full article...) -
The departments of Peru (Spanish: departamentos), informally called regions (Spanish: regiones), are the first-level administrative subdivisions of the country. According to the Organic Law of Regional Governments, each department is administered by a regional government and a legislature responsible for administration, economic planning, and public services. These governments operate with autonomy while still coordinating with national authorities. Each department is led by a regional governor, who is elected by popular vote for a four-year term, and is responsible for implementing regional policies, managing budgets, and overseeing infrastructure projects. The governor is supported by a regional legislative council, composed of elected representatives from different provinces within the department. This council approves budgets, monitors public investments, and ensures government accountability.
There are 24 departments in total, as well as two provinces that operate under a special regime: Callao and Lima. The former does not belong to any department since 1836, but is nevertheless administered by a regional government of its own. The latter is administered by the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, which is equal in status to a regional government. (Full article...) -
Location of New Brunswick in Canada
New Brunswick is the eighth-most populous province in Canada, with 775,610 residents as of the 2021 census, and the third-smallest province by land area, at 71,248.50 km2 (27,509.20 mi2). New Brunswick's 104 municipalities, as of 2021, covered only 10.9% of the province's land mass but were home to 69.5% of its population.
Local governments in New Brunswick may be incorporated under the Local Governance Act of 2017. Local governments include municipalities – cities, towns, and villages – as well as rural communities and regional municipalities. Municipal governments are led by elected councils and are responsible for the delivery of services such as civic administration, land use planning, emergency measures, policing, road, and garbage collection. (Full article...) -
The Constitution of the Soviet Union recognised the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (between 1938 and 1989) and the earlier Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Congress of Soviets (between 1922 and 1938) 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 Socialist Federative Soviet Republic functioned as the constitution of the USSR. Based on the 1918 Constitution of the Russian SFSR, the Central Executive Committee (CEC) was established. It had a Presidium with a collective group of chairmen considered as the heads of state and 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, as well as the power to 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...) -
Since the office was established in 1789, 45 individuals have served as president of the United States. Of these, eight have died in office, of whom four were assassinated and four died of natural causes. In each of these instances, the vice president has succeeded to the presidency. This practice is now governed by Section One of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1967, which declares that, "the Vice President shall become President" if the president is removed from office, dies, or resigns. The initial authorization for this practice was provided by Article II, Section 1, Clause 6, of the U.S. Constitution.
The first incumbent U.S. president to die was William Henry Harrison, on April 4, 1841, only one month after Inauguration Day. He died from complications of what at the time was believed to be pneumonia. The second U.S. president to die in office, Zachary Taylor, died on July 9, 1850, from acute gastroenteritis. Abraham Lincoln was the third U.S. president to die in office, and was the first to be assassinated. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth on the night of April 14, 1865, and died the following morning. Sixteen years later, on July 2, 1881, James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, surviving for 79 days before dying on September 19, 1881. (Full article...) -
The chancellor of Austria is the head of government of Austria, appointed by the president and viewed as the country's de facto chief executive. The chancellor chairs and leads the Cabinet, which also includes the vice-chancellor and the ministers.
Following World War I, the office was established by the Provisional National Assembly on 30 October 1918 and named state chancellor of the Republic of German-Austria, and its first holder, Karl Renner, was appointed by the State Council. After the Allied powers forbade German-Austria to merge with the Weimar Republic, the country formed the federal First Austrian Republic and the office was renamed from state chancellor to federal chancellor. The first federal chancellor was Michael Mayr. Ten chancellors served under the First Republic until Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss created the authoritarian and dictatorial Federal State of Austria. Following Dollfuss's assassination by Austrian National Socialists, Kurt Schuschnigg succeeded him as chancellor and upheld the dictatorship. Schuschnigg was replaced by Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a Nazi caretaker who held the office for two days, until Austria was annexed into Nazi Germany. (Full article...) -
The Canadian province of Manitoba was created in 1870. Manitoba has a unicameral Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the premier is the leader of the party that controls the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The premier is Manitoba's head of government, and the King of Canada is its head of state and is represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. The premier picks a cabinet from the elected members to form the Executive Council of Manitoba, and then presides over that body.
Members are first elected to the legislature during general elections. General elections must be conducted every four years from the date of the last election, but the premier may ask for early dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. An election may also happen 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...) -
Priestley, painted by James Sharples, c. 1797
Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) was a British natural philosopher, Dissenting clergyman, political theorist, theologian, and educator. He is best known for his discovery, simultaneously with Antoine Lavoisier, of oxygen gas.
A member of marginalized religious groups throughout his life and a proponent of what was called "rational Dissent," Priestley advocated religious toleration and equal rights for Dissenters. He argued for extensive civil rights in works such as the important Essay on the First Principles of Government, believing that individuals could bring about progress and eventually the Millennium; he was the foremost British expounder of providentialism. Priestley also made significant contributions to education, publishing, among other things, The Rudiments of English Grammar, a seminal work on English grammar. In his most lasting contributions to education, he argued for the benefits of a liberal arts education and of the value of the study of modern history. In his metaphysical works, Priestley "attempt[ed] to combine theism, materialism, and determinism," a project that has been called "audacious and original." (Full article...) -
There are 23 counties and one independent city in the U.S. state of Maryland. Many of the counties in Maryland were named for relatives of the Barons Baltimore, who were the proprietors of the Maryland colony from its founding in 1634 through 1771. The Barons Baltimore were Catholic, and George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, originally intended that the colony be a haven for English Catholics, though for most of its history Maryland has had a majority of Protestants.
Though formally an independent city rather than a county, the City of Baltimore is considered the equal of a county for most purposes and is functionally a county-equivalent in most respects. (Full article...) -
The President of the Indian National Congress is the chief executive of the Indian National Congress (INC), one of the principal political parties in India, founded by retired British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume. Constitutionally, the president is elected by an electoral college composed of members drawn from the Pradesh Congress Committees and members of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). In the event of any emergency because of any cause such as the death or resignation of the president elected as above, the most senior general secretary discharges the routine functions of the president until the Working Committee appoints a provisional president pending the election of a regular president by the AICC. The president of the party has effectively been the party's national leader, head of the party's organisation, head of the Working Committee, the chief spokesman, and all chief Congress committees.
After the party's foundation in December 1885, Womesh Chandra Banerjee became its first president. From 1885 to 1933, the presidency had a term of one year only. From 1933 onwards, there was no such fixed term for the president. During Jawaharlal Nehru's premiership, he rarely held the Presidency of INC, even though he was always head of the Parliamentary Party. Despite being a party with a structure, Congress under Indira Gandhi did not hold any organisational elections after 1978. In 1978, Gandhi split from the INC and formed a new opposition party, popularly called Congress (I), which the national election commission declared to be the real Indian National Congress for the 1980 general election. Gandhi institutionalised the practice of having the same person as the Congress president and the prime minister of India after the formation of Congress (I). Her successors Rajiv Gandhi and P. V. Narasimha Rao also continued that practice. Nonetheless, in 2004, when the Congress was voted back into power, Manmohan Singh became the first and only prime minister not to be the president of the party since establishment of the practice of the president holding both positions. (Full article...) -
In Australian federal politics, the leader of the Opposition is an elected member of parliament (MP) in the Australian House of Representatives who leads the Opposition. The leader of the Opposition, by convention, is the leader of the largest political party in the House of Representatives that is not in government.
When in Parliament, the opposition leader sits on the left-hand side of the centre table, in front of the opposition and opposite of the prime minister. The opposition leader is elected by their party according to its rules. A new leader of the opposition may be elected when the incumbent dies, resigns, or is challenged for the leadership. (Full article...) -
Map of Maryland (highlighted in red) within the United States
The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Maryland. Three delegates are elected from each district, though some districts are divided into sub-districts. In the original state constitution, four delegates were elected from each county to one-year terms, and two were elected from each of the major early cities of Baltimore and Annapolis. Reforms in the 1830s, however, led to the apportionment of delegates by population rather than geography, and by 1922, delegates served four year terms. The modern system of apportionment of seats began in 1972, when 47 districts of roughly equal population were identified, although sub-districts were created to ensure local representation for areas with too little population to warrant an entire district.
Delegates are elected in even years when the President of the United States is not being elected, similar to most other state offices in Maryland. The most recent election was in November 2022. Delegates are not term-limited. (Full article...) -
France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions.
Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I, king of the Franks (r. 507–511), as the first king of France. However, most historians today consider that such a kingdom did not begin until the establishment of West Francia, after the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century. (Full article...)
.svg)
_(cropped).png)
.jpg)
.svg)
Selected quote
Selected biography
Zhou Enlai (simplified Chinese: 周恩来; traditional Chinese: 周恩來; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade–Giles: Chou En-lai) IPA: [ʈʂóʊ ə́nlǎɪ] (5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou served with Mao Zedong and was instrumental in consolidating the control of the Communist Party's rise to power, forming foreign policy, and developing the Chinese economy. Zhou survived the purges of other top officials during the Cultural Revolution. With Mao dedicating most of his later years to political struggle and ideological work, Zhou was the main driving force behind the affairs of state during much of the Cultural Revolution. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guards' damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in the Cultural Revolution's later stages.
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that an effort to ban one German political party revealed that it was so heavily infiltrated that the German government partially controlled it?
- ... that an ancient Chinese political manual included a posthumous chapter on zither music?
- ... that the Mexican-American band Grupo Frontera has been affected by a massive backlash because of an alleged endorsement of Donald Trump after a viral video of the vocalist's grandmother?
- ... that a year after becoming the first woman president of the Canadian Political Science Association, Caroline Andrew moderated the first Canadian leaders' debate on women's issues?
- ... that classical singer Mordecai Bauman used his music to support far-left American politics during the 1930s?
- ... that mathematician Grete Hermann wrote political philosophy articles for Der Funke and Sozialistische Warte under various pseudonyms during the German resistance to Nazism?
More did you know...
- ...that political opportunity theory explains the rise and decline of social movements by their dependence on outside, political factors?
- ...that impeachment in Norway was used six times in 1814–1845, but only twice since?
- ...that The Mass Psychology of Fascism, a book written by Wilhelm Reich in 1933, blamed sexual repression for the rise of fascism?
- ...that the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum recorded over 1,200 violations of human rights in Zimbabwe by the law enforcement agencies from 2001 to September 2006?
- ...that the ideology of the Romanian National Renaissance Front has been described as "operetta fascism"?
- ...that in the 1984 Brown v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a New Jersey gaming law requiring union leaders to be of good moral character?
- ...that the New Zealand McGillicuddy Serious Party wanted to return to a medieval lifestyle and establish a monarchy based on the Scottish Jacobite line?
- ...that the controversial Iraq De-Ba'athification policy banned anyone affiliated with the Ba'ath Party from working in the public sector?
In this month
- July 20, 1944 – an assassination attempt is made on Adolf Hitler with involvement by notable German conservatives.
- July 23, 1952 – The European Coal and Steel Community is established.
- July 27, 1830 – King Charles X of France is overthrown in the French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution.
- July 31, 1912 – American conservative economist, statistician, and Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman is born.
Political news
- 24 July 2026 – Politics of Bangladesh
- Press secretary Sarwar Alam states that Bangladeshi president Mohammed Shahabuddin plans to resign from office when parliamentary speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad returns from Thailand. (Reuters)
- President of Bangladesh Mohammed Shahabuddin resigns from office, citing health reasons. (Reuters)
- 23 July 2026 – 2025 shootings of Minnesota legislators
- United States federal judge John R. Tunheim sentences Vance Boelter to two life terms plus 40 years without parole for killing Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and wounding state senator John Hoffman and his wife in June 2025. (AFP via The Manila Times)
- 23 July 2026 – Reactions to the 2026 Iran war
- The United States House of Representatives, in a 214–208 vote, approves war powers legislation attempting to require the president of the United States to halt military action against Iran. The United States Senate, in a 47–49 vote, stops the legislation from advancing. (CNBC) (Reuters)
- 21 July 2026 – 2026 Delhi Jantar Mantar protests
- Indian police detain Lok Sabha opposition leader Rahul Gandhi during education-reform protests in New Delhi after he called for prime minister Narendra Modi's resignation. Parliament adjourns as demonstrators demand accountability for examination scandals and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's removal. (AFP via The New Zealand Herald) (The Hindu) (The Times of India)
Topics and categories
See the portal's Topics and categories page for a comprehensive overview.
General images
The following are images from various politics-related articles on Wikipedia.
-
The logo and slogan for change.org (from Politics and technology) -
Russia handing over the symbolic relay baton for the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar in June 2018 (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) -
-
Division of the world according to Haushofer's pan-regions doctrine (from Geopolitics) -
-
The sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams' "corrupt bargain" of 1824 is an example of patronage. (from Political corruption) -
A memorial to the Great Famine (Ireland), a famine event in Ireland that faced prolonged 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) -
Ferdinand Marcos (pictured with his daughter Imee) was a Philippine dictator and kleptocrat. His regime was infamous for its corruption. (from Political corruption) -
Detail from Corrupt Legislation (1896) by Elihu Vedder. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. (from Political corruption) -
The Flag of the United Nations fly 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) -
-
Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Croatian Spring participant; Europe's first female prime minister (from Civil and political rights) -
Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty in the corruption trial over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal. He is currently serving his sentence in Kajang Prison. (from Political corruption) -
Karl Marx and his theory of Communism, developed with Friedrich Engels, proved to be one of the most influential political ideologies of the 20th century. (from History of political thought) -
A world map distinguishing countries of the world as federations (green) from unitary states (blue), a work of political science (from Political science) -
Montenegro's former 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) -
US Military Police officer restraining and sedating prisoner while a soldier holds him down (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) -
American lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation. (from Political corruption) -
Protesters in support of American whistleblower Edward Snowden, Berlin, Germany, August 2014 (from Political corruption) -
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) -
Portrait of Constant c. 1820 (from History of political thought) -
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) -
Candlelight protest against South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul, South Korea, January 2017 (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)
.jpg)
_(2).jpg)
,_%C3%A9crivain_et_homme_politique_-_P1679_-_Mus%C3%A9e_Carnavalet_(cropped).jpg)
.jpeg)
Related portals
.svg){kind=small}
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Sources
More portals
Discover Wikipedia using portals
