Politics
Politics is the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized control over a human community, politics is the study or practice of the distribution of power and resources within a given community as well as the interrelationship between communities. It is very often said that politics is about power, a political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a given society. History of political thought can be traced back to antiquity, with seminal works such as Platos Republic, Aristotles Politics. Formal Politics refers to the operation of a system of government and publicly defined institutions. Political parties, public policy or discussions about war and foreign affairs would fall under the category of Formal Politics, many people view formal politics as something outside of themselves, but that can still affect their daily lives. Semi-formal Politics is Politics in government associations such as neighborhood associations, informal Politics is understood as forming alliances, exercising power and protecting and advancing particular ideas or goals.
Generally, this includes anything affecting ones daily life, such as the way an office or household is managed, informal Politics is typically understood as everyday politics, hence the idea that politics is everywhere. The word comes from the same Greek word from which the title of Aristotles book Politics derives, the book title was rendered in Early Modern English in the mid-15th century as Polettiques, it became politics in Modern English. The history of politics is reflected in the origin, the origin of the state is to be found in the development of the art of warfare. Historically speaking, all communities of the modern type owe their existence to successful warfare. Kings and other types of monarchs in many countries including China, of the institutions that ruled states, that of kingship stood at the forefront until the French Revolution put an end to the divine right of kings. Nevertheless, the monarchy is among the political institutions, dating as early as 2100 BC in Sumeria to the 21st century AD British Monarchy.
Kingship becomes an institution through the institution of Hereditary monarchy, the king often, even in absolute monarchies, ruled his kingdom with the aid of an elite group of advisors, a council without which he could not maintain power. As these advisors and others outside the monarchy negotiated for power, constitutional monarchies emerged, long before the council became a bulwark of democracy, it rendered invaluable aid to the institution of kingship by, Preserving the institution of kingship through heredity. Preserving the traditions of the social order, being able to withstand criticism as an impersonal authority. Being able to manage a greater deal of knowledge and action than an individual such as the king. The greatest of the subordinates, the earls and dukes in England and Scotland
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different nations, constituent states, independent organizations, or groups. The term was chosen for the Continental Congress to emphasize the status of each colony represented there as a self-governing unit. Subsequent to the use of congress by the U. S. legislature, the term has been adopted by states within unions. Countries with Congresses and presidential systems, The Congress of Guatemala is the legislature of Guatemala. The National Congress of Honduras is the branch of the government of Honduras. The Congress of Mexico is the branch of Mexican government. The Congress of Paraguay is the legislature of Paraguay. The Congress of the Argentine Nation is the branch of the government of Argentina. The Congress of the Dominican Republic is the legislature of the Dominican Republic. The Palau National Congress is the legislative branch of the Republic of Palau. The Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia is the legislature of the Federated States of Micronesia.
The Congress of the Philippines is the branch of the Philippine government. The Congress of the Republic of Peru is the legislature of Peru. The Congress of Colombia is the legislature of Colombia. The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The National Congress of Bolivia was the legislature of Bolivia before being replaced by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. The National Congress of Brazil is Brazils bicameral legislature, the National Congress of Chile is the legislative branch of the government of Chile. The National Congress of Ecuador was the legislature of Ecuador before being replaced by the National Assembly
International relations theory
International relations theory is the study of international relations from a theoretical perspective. It attempts to provide a framework upon which international relations can be analyzed. The three most prominent theories are realism and constructivism, many often conflicting ways of thinking exist in IR theory, including constructivism, Marxism, neo-Gramscianism, and others. However, two positivist schools of thought are most prevalent and liberalism, however, is increasingly becoming mainstream. The study of International relations as theory can be traced to E. H. Carrs The Twenty Years Crisis which was published in 1939 and to Hans Morgenthaus Politics Among Nations published in 1948. International relations as a discipline is believed to have emerged after the First World War with the establishment of a Chair of International Relations at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Early international relations scholarship in the years focused on the need for the balance of power system to be replaced with a system of collective security.
These thinkers were described as Idealists, the leading critique of this school of thinking was the realist analysis offered by Carr. However, a recent study by David Long and Brian Schmidt in 2005. They claim, that the history of the field can be traced back to late 19th Century imperialism and internationalism and their revisionist account claims that up until 1918, International Relations already existed in the form of colonial administration, race science and race development. Explanatory and constitutive approaches in international relations theory is a distinction made when classifying international relations theories, explanatory theories are ones which see the world as something external to theorize about it. A constitutive theory is one which believes that theories actually help construct the world, Realism or political realism has been the dominant theory of international relations since the conception of the discipline. The theory claims to rely upon an ancient tradition of thought which includes such as Thucydides, Machiavelli.
Early realism can be characterized as a reaction against interwar idealist thinking, the outbreak of World War II was seen by realists as evidence of the deficiencies of idealist thinking. There are various strands of modern-day realist thinking, the main tenets of the theory have been identified as statism and self-help. Statism, Realists believe that states are the main actors in international politics. As such it is a theory of international relations. This contrasts with liberal international relations theories which accommodate roles for non-state actors, Realists believe that the international system is governed by anarchy, meaning that there is no central authority
City council
A city council, town council, town board, or board of aldermen is the legislative body that governs a city, municipality or local government area. Because of the differences in legislation between the states, the definition of a City Council varies. However, it is only those local government areas which have been specifically granted city status that are entitled to refer to themselves as cities. The official title is Corporation of the City of ------ or similar, some of the larger urban areas of Australia are governed mostly by a single entity, while others may be controlled by a multitude of much smaller city councils. Also some significant urban areas can be under the jurisdiction of rural local governments. Periodic re-alignments of boundaries attempt to rationalize these situations and adjust the deployment of assets, the 2001 Local Government Act restyled the five county boroughs of Dublin, Galway and Limerick as city councils, with the same status in law as county councils. For many decades until the government reforms of 1989, a borough with more than 20,000 people could be proclaimed a city.
The boundaries of councils tended to follow the edge of the built-up area, as a result, the term city began to take on two meanings. The word city came to be used in a formal sense to describe major urban areas independent of local body boundaries. This informal usage is jealously guarded, for example, adamantly described itself as the first city in the world to see the new millennium. Gisborne is administered by a council, but its status as a city is not generally disputed. Under the current law the minimum population for a new city is 50,000, in the Republic of China, a city council represents a provincial city. Members of the councils are elected through local elections for provincial cities which are held every 4–5 years, Councils for the provincial cities in Taiwan are Chiayi City Council, Hsinchu City Council and Keelung City Council. In the UK, a city council is, In England, a parish council that has been granted city status. The council of a London borough that has been granted city status, in Wales, The council of a principal area that has been granted city status.
A community council that has been granted city status, in Scotland, The council of one of four council areas designated a City by the Local Government etc. City councils and town boards generally consist of elected aldermen or councillors. In the United States, members of city councils are typically called council member or council man/woman, while in Canada they are typically called councillor
Political economy
Political economy is a term used for studying production and trade, and their relations with law and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth. Political economy originated in moral philosophy and it was developed in the 18th century as the study of the economies of states, or polities, hence the term political economy. In the late 19th century, the term came to replace political economy. Earlier, William Stanley Jevons, a proponent of mathematical methods applied to the subject, advocated economics for brevity and it is available as an area of study in certain colleges and universities. Originally, political economy meant the study of the conditions under which production or consumption within limited parameters was organized in nation-states, in that way, political economy expanded the emphasis of economics, which comes from the Greek oikos and nomos. Thus, political economy was meant to express the laws of production of wealth at the state level, the phrase économie politique first appeared in France in 1615 with the well-known book by Antoine de Montchrétien, Traité de l’economie politique.
The French physiocrats, along with Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo, Henry George, the worlds first professorship in political economy was established in 1754 at the University of Naples Federico II in southern Italy. The Neapolitan philosopher Antonio Genovesi was the first tenured professor, in 1763, Joseph von Sonnenfels was appointed a Political Economy chair at the University of Vienna, Austria. Thomas Malthus, in 1805, became Englands first professor of economy, at the East India Company College, Haileybury. This left the class of 1998 as the last to be graduated with a Master of Arts in Political Economy. In the United States, political economy first was taught at the College of William and Mary, an early and continuing focus of that research program is what came to be called constitutional political economy. Other traditional topics include analysis of public policy issues as economic regulation, rent-seeking, market protection, institutional corruption. From the mid-1990s, the field has expanded, in part aided by new data sets that allow tests of hypotheses on comparative economic systems.
New political economy may treat economic ideologies as the phenomenon to explain, Charles S. Maier suggests that a political economy approach interrogates economic doctrines to disclose their sociological and political premises. In sum, regards economic ideas and behavior not as frameworks for analysis and this approach informs Andrew Gambles The Free Economy and the Strong State, and Colin Hays The Political Economy of New Labour. It informs much work published in New Political Economy, a journal founded by Sheffield University scholars in 1996. International political economy is a field comprising approaches to the actions of various actors. They are associated with the journal The Review of International Political Economy, there is a more critical school of IPE, inspired by thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci and Karl Polanyi, two major figures are Matthew Watson and Robert W. Cox
Feudalism
Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour, since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. There is no commonly accepted definition of feudalism, at least among scholars. Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R, outside a European context, the concept of feudalism is often used only by analogy, most often in discussions of feudal Japan under the shoguns, and sometimes medieval and Gondarine Ethiopia. The term feudalism has been applied—often inappropriately or pejoratively—to non-Western societies where institutions, the term féodal was used in 17th-century French legal treatises and translated into English legal treatises as an adjective, such as feodal government. In the 18th century, Adam Smith, seeking to describe systems, effectively coined the forms feudal government. In the 19th century the adjective feudal evolved into a noun, the term feudalism is recent, first appearing in French in 1823, Italian in 1827, English in 1839, and in German in the second half of the 19th century.
The term feudal or feodal is derived from the medieval Latin word feodum, the etymology of feodum is complex with multiple theories, some suggesting a Germanic origin and others suggesting an Arabic origin. Initially in medieval Latin European documents, a grant in exchange for service was called a beneficium. Later, the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents, the first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one-hundred years earlier. The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, the most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch. Bloch said it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which means cattle and -ôd means goods. This was known as feos, a term that took on the meaning of paying for something in lieu of money. This meaning was applied to itself, in which land was used to pay for fealty. Thus the old word feos meaning movable property changed little by little to feus meaning the exact opposite and this Germanic origin theory was shared by William Stubbs in the 19th century.
Another theory was put forward by Archibald R. Lewis, Lewis said the origin of fief is not feudum, but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomuss Vita Hludovici. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious that says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant, another theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū. Samarrais theory is that early forms of fief include feo, feuz and others, the first use of these terms is in Languedoc, one of the least Germanic areas of Europe and bordering Muslim Spain
Parliamentary system
In a parliamentary system, the head of state is usually a different person from the head of government. Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders, eventually these councils have slowly evolved into the modern Parliamentary system. The first parliaments date back to Europe in the Middle Ages, for example in 1188 Alfonso IX, the modern concept of parliamentary government emerged in the Kingdom of Great Britain and its contemporary, the Parliamentary System in Sweden. In England, Simon de Montfort is remembered as one of the fathers of representative government for holding two famous parliaments, the first, in 1258, stripped the King of unlimited authority and the second, in 1265, included ordinary citizens from the towns. Later, in the 17th century, the Parliament of England pioneered some of the ideas and systems of liberal democracy culminating in the Glorious Revolution, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, the monarch, in theory, chaired cabinet and chose ministers.
In practice, King George Is inability to speak English led the responsibility for chairing cabinet to go to the minister, literally the prime or first minister. By the nineteenth century, the Great Reform Act of 1832 led to parliamentary dominance, with its choice invariably deciding who was prime minister, hence the use of phrases like Her Majestys government or His Excellencys government. Nineteenth century urbanisation, industrial revolution and, modernism had already fueled the political struggle for democracy. In the radicalised times at the end of World War I, a parliamentary system may be either bicameral, with two chambers of parliament or unicameral, with just one parliamentary chamber. Scholars of democracy such as Arend Lijphart distinguish two types of parliamentary democracies, the Westminster and Consensus systems, the Westminster system is usually found in the Commonwealth of Nations and countries which were influenced by the British political tradition. These parliaments tend to have a more style of debate.
The Australian House of Representatives is elected using instant-runoff voting, while the Senate is elected using proportional representation through single transferable vote, regardless of which system is used, the voting systems tend to allow the voter to vote for a named candidate rather than a closed list. The Western European parliamentary model tends to have a more consensual debating system, Consensus systems have more of a tendency to use proportional representation with open party lists than the Westminster Model legislatures. The committees of these Parliaments tend to be more important than the plenary chamber, some West European countries parliaments implement the principle of dualism as a form of separation of powers. In countries using this system, Members of Parliament have to resign their place in Parliament upon being appointed minister, ministers in those countries usually actively participate in parliamentary debates, but are not entitled to vote. Some countries such as India require the prime minister to be a member of the legislature, the head of state appoints a prime minister who will likely have majority support in parliament.
The head of state appoints a minister who must gain a vote of confidence within a set time. The head of state appoints the leader of the party holding a plurality of seats in parliament as prime minister
Committee
A committee is a body of one or more persons that is subordinate to a deliberative assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to them more fully than would be possible if the assembly itself were considering them. Committees may have different functions and the type of work that each committee does would depend on the type of organization, a deliberative assembly may form a committee consisting of one or more persons to assist with the work of the assembly. For larger organizations, much work is done in committees and they may have the advantage of widening viewpoints and sharing out responsibilities. They can be appointed with experts to recommend actions in matters that require specialized knowledge or technical judgment, a governance committee is formed as a separate committee to review the performance of the board and board policy as well as nominate candidates for the board. Coordination and administration A large body may have smaller committees with more specialized functions, examples are an audit committee, an elections committee, a finance committee, a fundraising committee, and a program committee.
Large conventions or academic conferences are organized by a coordinating committee drawn from the membership of the organization. Research and recommendations Committees may be formed to do research and make recommendations on a potential or planned project or change, discipline A committee on discipline may be used to handle disciplinary procedures on members of the organization. However, this could be considered a dilatory tactic, committees are required to report to their parent body. Committees do not usually have the power to act unless the body that created it gives it such power. When a committee is formed, a chairman is designated for the committee, sometimes a vice-chairman is appointed. It is common for the chairman to organize its meetings. The chairman is responsible for running meetings, duties include keeping the discussion on the appropriate subject, recognizing members to speak, and confirming what the committee has decided. Using Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised, committees may follow informal procedures, the level of formality depends on the size and type of committee, in which sometimes larger committees considering crucial issues may require more formal processes.
Minutes are a record of the decisions at meetings and they can be taken by a person designated as the secretary. For most organizations, committees are not required to keep formal minutes, some bodies require that committees take minutes, especially if the committees are public ones subject to open meeting laws. Committees may meet on a basis, such as weekly or more often. The frequency of the meetings depend on the work of the committee, when the committee completes its work, it provides the results in a report to its parent body
Republic
It is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology, composition, in the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition, today referred to as humanism, is sometimes considered to derive directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens, but had a democratic aspect, Republics became more common in the Western world starting in the late 18th century, eventually displacing absolute monarchy as the most common form of government in Europe. In modern republics, the executive is legitimized both by a constitution and by popular suffrage, for instance, Article IV of the United States Constitution guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government. The term originates as the Latin translation of Greek word politeia, among other Latin writers, translated politeia as res publica and it was in turn translated by Renaissance scholars as republic.
The term politeia can be translated as form of government, polity, or regime, and is therefore not always a word for a specific type of regime as the modern word republic is. And amongst classical Latin, the term republic can be used in a way to refer to any regime. In medieval Northern Italy, a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments, in the late Middle Ages, such as Giovanni Villani, began writing about the nature of these states and the differences from other types of regime. They used terms such as libertas populi, a free people, the terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Rome caused writers to prefer using classical terminology. To describe non-monarchical states writers, most importantly Leonardo Bruni, adopted the Latin phrase res publica. While Bruni and Machiavelli used the term to describe the states of Northern Italy, which were not monarchies, the term can quite literally be translated as public matter. It was most often used by Roman writers to refer to the state and government, in subsequent centuries, the English word commonwealth came to be used as a translation of res publica, and its use in English was comparable to how the Romans used the term res publica.
Notably, during The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell the word commonwealth was the most common term to call the new monarchless state, likewise, in Polish, the term was translated as rzeczpospolita, although the translation is now only used with respect to Poland. Presently, the term republic commonly means a system of government which derives its power from the rather than from another basis. After the classical period, during the Middle Ages, many cities developed again. The modern type of itself is different from any type of state found in the classical world. Nevertheless, there are a number of states of the era that are today still called republics
Upper house
An upper house, sometimes called a Senate, is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the house is usually smaller. Examples of upper houses in countries include the UKs House of Lords, Canadas Senate, Indias Rajya Sabha, Russias Federation Council, Irelands Seanad, Germanys Bundesrat, a legislature composed of only one house is described as unicameral. An upper house is different from the lower house in at least one of the following respects, Powers, In a parliamentary system. Therefore, in countries the Upper House votes on only limited legislative matters. Cannot vote a motion of no confidence against the government, while the house always can. In a presidential system, It may have equal or nearly equal power with the lower house and it may have specific powers not granted to the lower house. For example, It may give advice and consent to some executive decisions and it may have the sole power to try impeachments against officials of the executive, following enabling resolutions passed by the lower house.
Status, In some countries, its members are not popularly elected, membership may be indirect and its members may be elected with a different voting system than that used to elect the lower house. Less populated states, provinces, or administrative divisions may be represented in the upper house than in the lower house. Members terms may be longer than in the house. Members may be elected in portions, for staggered terms, rather than all at one time, in some countries, the upper house cannot be dissolved at all, or can be dissolved only in more limited circumstances than the lower house. It typically has fewer members or seats than the lower house and it has usually a higher age of candidacy than the lower house. In parliamentary systems the upper house is seen as an advisory or revising chamber. Some or all of the restrictions are often placed on upper houses. No absolute veto of proposed legislation, though suspensive vetoes are permitted in some states, in countries where it can veto legislation, it may not be able to amend the proposals.
A reduced or even absent role in initiating legislation, additionally, a Government must have the consent of both to remain in office, a position which is known as perfect bicameralism or equal bicameralism. An example is the British House of Lords, bills can only be delayed for up to one year before the Commons can use the Parliament Act, although economic bills can only be delayed for one month
International relations
International relations is an academic and a public policy field, and so can be positive and normative, because it analyzes and formulates the foreign policy of a given State. As political activity, international relations dates from the time of the Greek historian Thucydides, in practice International Relations and International Affairs forms a separate academic program or field from Political Science, and the courses taught therein are highly interdisciplinary. The history of international relations based on sovereign states is often traced back to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, prior to this the European medieval organization of political authority was based on a vaguely hierarchical religious order. Contrary to popular belief, Westphalia still embodied layered systems of sovereignty, the centuries of roughly 1500 to 1789 saw the rise of the independent, sovereign states, the institutionalization of diplomacy and armies. The French Revolution added to this the new idea that not princes or an oligarchy, such a state in which the nation is sovereign would thence be termed a nation-state.
The term republic increasingly became its synonym, the same claim to sovereignty was made for both forms of nation-state. The particular European system supposing the sovereign equality of states was exported to the Americas and Asia via colonialism, the contemporary international system was finally established through decolonization during the Cold War. While the nation-state system is considered modern, many states have not incorporated the system and are termed pre-modern, further, a handful of states have moved beyond insistence on full sovereignty, and can be considered post-modern. The ability of contemporary IR discourse to explain the relations of different types of states is disputed. What is explicitly recognized as international relations theory was not developed until after World War I, IR theory, has a long tradition of drawing on the work of other social sciences. The use of capitalizations of the I and R in international relations aims to distinguish the academic discipline of international relations from the phenomena of international relations.
Similarly, liberalism draws upon the work of Kant and Rousseau, in the 20th century, in addition to contemporary theories of liberal internationalism, Marxism has been a foundation of international relations. International relations as a field of study began in Britain. IR emerged as an academic discipline in 1919 with the founding of the first IR professorship. Georgetown Universitys Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service is the oldest international relations faculty in the United States and this was rapidly followed by establishment of IR at universities in the US and in Geneva, Switzerland. The creation of the posts of Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at LSE, the International History department at LSE developed a focus on the history of IR in the early modern and Cold War periods. The first university dedicated to the study of IR was the Graduate Institute of International Studies. The Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago was the first to offer a graduate degree, in 2012, Ramon Llull University initiated the first International Relations degree in Barcelona, fully in English
Democracy
Democracy, in modern usage, is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as rule of the majority, Democracy was originally conceived in Classical Greece, where political representatives were chosen by a jury from amongst the male citizens and poor. The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle French, in the 5th century BC, to denote the political systems existing in Greek city-states, notably Athens, the term is an antonym to aristocracy, meaning rule of an elite. While theoretically these definitions are in opposition, in practice the distinction has been blurred historically, the political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic citizenship to free men and excluded slaves and women from political participation. In 1906, Finland became the first government to harald a more inclusive democracy at the national level.
Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is held by an individual, as in an absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals. Nevertheless, these oppositions, inherited from Greek philosophy, are now ambiguous because contemporary governments have mixed democratic and monarchic elements. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders, No consensus exists on how to define democracy, but legal equality, political freedom and rule of law have been identified as important characteristics. These principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law, other uses of democracy include that of direct democracy. In some countries, notably in the United Kingdom which originated the Westminster system, in the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a central attribute. In India, parliamentary sovereignty is subject to the Constitution of India which includes judicial review, though the term democracy is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles are applicable to private organisations.
Majority rule is listed as a characteristic of democracy. Hence, democracy allows for political minorities to be oppressed by the tyranny of the majority in the absence of legal protections of individual or group rights. An essential part of a representative democracy is competitive elections that are substantively and procedurally fair, i. e. just. It has suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of all voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society. While representative democracy is sometimes equated with the form of government. Many democracies are constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom, the term democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. The word comes from demos, common people and kratos, led by Cleisthenes, Athenians established what is generally held as the first democracy in 508–507 BC
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