Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the discipline that applies engineering, engineering mathematics, materials science principles to design, analyze and maintain mechanical systems. It is one of the broadest of the engineering disciplines; the mechanical engineering field requires an understanding of core areas including mechanics, thermodynamics, materials science, structural analysis, electricity. In addition to these core principles, mechanical engineers use tools such as computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, product life cycle management to design and analyze manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and machinery and cooling systems, transport systems, watercraft, medical devices and others, it is the branch of engineering that involves the design and operation of machinery. Mechanical engineering emerged as a field during the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 18th century. In the 19th century, developments in physics led to the development of mechanical engineering science.
The field has continually evolved to incorporate advancements. It overlaps with aerospace engineering, metallurgical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering, chemical engineering, industrial engineering, other engineering disciplines to varying amounts. Mechanical engineers may work in the field of biomedical engineering with biomechanics, transport phenomena, bionanotechnology, modelling of biological systems; the application of mechanical engineering can be seen in the archives of various ancient and medieval societies. In ancient Greece, the works of Archimedes influenced mechanics in the Western tradition and Heron of Alexandria created the first steam engine. In China, Zhang Heng improved a water clock and invented a seismometer, Ma Jun invented a chariot with differential gears; the medieval Chinese horologist and engineer Su Song incorporated an escapement mechanism into his astronomical clock tower two centuries before escapement devices were found in medieval European clocks.
He invented the world's first known endless power-transmitting chain drive. During the Islamic Golden Age, Muslim inventors made remarkable contributions in the field of mechanical technology. Al-Jazari, one of them, wrote his famous Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206 and presented many mechanical designs. Al-Jazari is the first known person to create devices such as the crankshaft and camshaft, which now form the basics of many mechanisms. During the 17th century, important breakthroughs in the foundations of mechanical engineering occurred in England. Sir Isaac Newton formulated Newton's Laws of Motion and developed Calculus, the mathematical basis of physics. Newton was reluctant to publish his works for years, but he was persuaded to do so by his colleagues, such as Sir Edmond Halley, much to the benefit of all mankind. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is credited with creating Calculus during this time period. During the early 19th century industrial revolution, machine tools were developed in England and Scotland.
This allowed mechanical engineering to develop as a separate field within engineering. They brought with them manufacturing machines and the engines to power them; the first British professional society of mechanical engineers was formed in 1847 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, thirty years after the civil engineers formed the first such professional society Institution of Civil Engineers. On the European continent, Johann von Zimmermann founded the first factory for grinding machines in Chemnitz, Germany in 1848. In the United States, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers was formed in 1880, becoming the third such professional engineering society, after the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Mining Engineers; the first schools in the United States to offer an engineering education were the United States Military Academy in 1817, an institution now known as Norwich University in 1819, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1825. Education in mechanical engineering has been based on a strong foundation in mathematics and science.
Degrees in mechanical engineering are offered at various universities worldwide. Mechanical engineering programs take four to five years of study and result in a Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science Engineering, Bachelor of Technology, Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, or Bachelor of Applied Science degree, in or with emphasis in mechanical engineering. In Spain and most of South America, where neither B. Sc. nor B. Tech. Programs have been adopted, the formal name for the degree is "Mechanical Engineer", the course work is based on five or six years of training. In Italy the course work is based on five years of education, training, but in order to qualify as an Engineer one has to pass a state exam at the end of the course. In Greece, the coursework is based on a five-year curriculum and the requirement of a'Diploma' Thesis, which upon completion a'Diploma' is awarded rather than a B. Sc. In the United States, most undergraduate mechanical engineering programs are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology to ensure similar course requirements and standards a
Venezuelan general strike of 2002–03
The Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003 known as the oil strike or oil lockout, was an attempt by the Venezuelan opposition to President Hugo Chávez to force a new presidential election. It took place from December 2002 to February 2003, although within this period the effectiveness of the call to strike varied; the main impact of the strike derived from the stoppage of the oil industry, in particular the state-run PDVSA, which provides a majority of Venezuelan export revenue. The strike was preceded by the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt in April 2002, a one-day strike in October 2002. After April's coup d'état attempt, conflict simmered throughout the rest of 2002. On 14 August the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, in what appeared a politically motivated decision, absolved four military officers involved in the April coup; this set the scene for further actions by the military. On 21 October a one-day general strike took place, aimed at forcing the resignation of Chávez or at least the calling of new elections.
On 22 October 14 military officers, suspended for participating in the coup, led by General Enrique Medina Gómez, occupied Plaza Francia in Altamira. A wealthy Eastern Caracas neighbourhood, declared it a "liberated territory", they said they would not leave until Chávez had resigned, called on their colleagues in the military to take up arms against him. In early November, there was a major clash of government and opposition demonstrators in downtown Caracas; the Coordinadora Democrática, led by the business federation Fedecámaras and the trade union federation Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela, called for a fourth paro cívico, which turned out to be the most serious, is known as the 2002–2003 oil lockout/strike, to begin on 2 December 2002. The opposition called a recall-referendum-petition-signature-gathering day for 4 December; the strike had a mixed response, with affluent eastern Caracas seeing most shops closed, while downtown and western Caracas was busy. Early attempts to block a crucial navigation channel in Lake Maracaibo, in order to paralyse the oil industry, were foiled by the navy.
The National Electoral Council voted to hold a non-binding recall referendum on 2 February, but the Coordinadora Democrática chose to ignore it. On 4 December the captain of a large oil tanker named for the beauty queen Pilín León anchored in the Lake Maracaibo shipping channel and refused to move; the rest of PDVSA 13-ship fleet was similarly grounded. Combined with the PDVSA management walkout, this paralysed the Venezuelan oil industry; the key element of the paro was the stoppage of production at the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, effected by management's locking workers out of facilities, along with the shipping shutdown. Many low and mid-level employees reported for work. Unlike the previous strikes, this oil strike included not only the PDVSA management but substantial parts of its operational staff, including all of its marine flotilla captains. Within days the company was paralyzed. Petroleum production soon fell to one-third normal. Many owned businesses closed or went on short time, some out of sympathy for the strike, others because of the fuel shortage and economic paralysis.
As long waits for gasoline became common, airlines cancelled many domestic flights, banks limited their opening hours, many shops were shut despite it being peak Christmas shopping season. The Coordinadora adopted the slogan "2002 without Christmas, 2003 without Chávez"; the private television networks gave enormous coverage to the near-daily protest rallies and strike activities, as well as daily updates by the Coordinadora Democrática. They "canceled regular advertisements and ran pro-strike, anti-Chávez spots around the clock." Venevisión's president declared solidarity with the strike. A media war between the private networks and the state-run Venezolana de Televisión resulted, with for example the private networks declaring all universities and schools closed, while on VTV the Minister for Education declared them open. In 2009 Globovisión was assessed $2.3m in back taxes for the opposition advertisements shown during this period. Large pro- and anti-Chávez marches were held in the first weeks of the strike.
On 6 December a Portuguese taxi driver named João de Gouveia killed three and injured 28 at Plaza Altamira. The opposition blamed Chávez, the killings "energized and radicalized the opposition movement". On 9 December the opposition declared the strike to be of indefinite duration, said that only Chávez's resignation could end it; as shortages of gasoline and basic foods took hold, the government responded by developing an informal emergency import network with the support of other governments in the region. Chávez took an hard line with PDVSA in an attempt to break the strike. On 12 December he fired four PDVSA executives leading the strike, he continued to dismiss striking managers on a daily basis. Attempts to use the navy to take over the key Pilín León tanker were thwarted by a lack of a qualified crew. On 19 Dec
University of the Andes (Venezuela)
The University of the Andes is the second-oldest university in Venezuela, whose main campus is located in the city of Mérida, Venezuela. ULA is the largest public university in the Venezuelan Andes, having one of the largest student bodies in the country. ULA was established as a Catholic seminary on March 29, 1785 by the Bishop of Mérida, Friar Juan Ramos de Lora. De Lora called the newly founded house of studies "Real Colegio Seminario de San Buenaventura de Mérida", or Royal Seminary College of San Buenaventura of Mérida; the school was elevated to the status of Royal University of San Buenaventura of Mérida de los Caballeros on September 21, 1810, entitling it to confer junior and senior degrees in Philosophy, Medicine and Canonical Law, Theology. Universidad de Los Andes maintained its affiliation with the Catholic Church until 1832, when the president of Venezuela, General José Antonio Páez, passed an act making it a secular institution. Universidad de Los Andes operates two campuses in Mérida, with about a dozen faculties spread throughout the city, as well as two satellite campuses in the other Venezuelan Andean states of Tachira and Trujillo.
Universidad de Los Andes offers undergraduate programs in the arts, sciences and humanities, long and short programs, as well as courses, post-graduate professional and doctoral programs, diplomas, etc. Admission to ULA is competitive and mediated through the Venezuelan Oficina de Planeacion del Sector Universitario, which oversees grades and standardized tests for all Venezuelan students enrolled in secondary education institutions. ULA lists some of the highest high school academic index requirements in Venezuela. ULA is one of the universities most engaged in research in Venezuela ranking among the top two or three universities in Venezuela across all disciplines. In 2009, ULA was ranked 37th out of the 437 Latin American universities and research institutes evaluated by the Ranking Iberoamericano de Instituciones de Investigacion. Active graduate research groups include: Kinetics & Catalysis, Polymer Chemistry, Behavioral Physiology, Enzimology, Cytology, Toxicology and Molecular Spectroscopy, Astrophysics, Condensed Matter Physics and Theoretical Physics, Magnetism of Solids, Urban Environmental Quality, Entrepreneurial Development, Agricultural Management, Comparative Politics, Environmental Geopolitics, International Politics, Linguistics, Phonetics, Gender Studies, Latin American Arts and Literature, Medieval Studies, etc.
ULA houses numerous varsity athletic teams, including soccer, rhythmic gymnastics, basketball and track and field and performing arts companies such as Ballet Estable de la ULA, Teatro Estable de la ULA, Coral Universitaria and Orfeon Universitario. However, ULA's athletic dominance has declined in the past decade; the Orfeon Universitario Choir has toured Colombia, the Netherlands and Germany. ULA hosts annual ballet seasons, a chamber orchestra season and numerous theater and music festivals open to the community. List of colonial universities in Latin America Official website www.saber.ula.ve ULA TV Núcleo Universitario "Alberto Adriani", El Vigía Núcleo Universitario "Rafael Rangel", Trujillo Núcleo Universitario "Pedro Rincón Gutiérrez", Táchira Galería de fotos de la Universidad de Los Andes Portal wiki de la Universidad de Los Andes Portal del Rectorado Laboratorio de Demostraciones de Física Puerta a la mayoría de enlaces de la ULA Proyecto Alma-Mater Agendas del Consejo Universitario de la Universidad de Los Andes Oficina de Prensa ULA Centro de Atención al Usuario
Nicolás Maduro
Nicolás Maduro Moros is a Venezuelan politician serving as President of Venezuela since 2013, disputed president since January 2019. AP News reported that "familiar geopolitical sides" had formed in the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, with allies Russia, Iran and Cuba supporting Maduro, the US, most of Western Europe supporting Juan Guaidó as interim president. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade union leader before being elected to the National Assembly in 2000, he was appointed to a number of positions under President Hugo Chávez and was described in 2012 by the Wall Street Journal as the "most capable administrator and politician of Chávez's inner circle". He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2013 and as Vice President of Venezuela from 2012 to 2013 under Chávez. After Chávez's death was announced on 5 March 2013, Maduro assumed the presidential powers and responsibilities. A special presidential election was held in 2013, which Maduro won with 50.62% of the vote as the United Socialist Party of Venezuela candidate.
He has ruled Venezuela by decree since 19 November 2013 through powers granted to him by the pre-2015 Venezuela legislature. Shortages in Venezuela and decreased living standards led to protests beginning in 2014 that escalated into daily marches nationwide, repression of dissent and a decline in Maduro's popularity. According to The New York Times, Maduro's administration was held "responsible for grossly mismanaging the economy and plunging the country into a deep humanitarian crisis" and attempting to "crush the opposition by jailing or exiling critics, using lethal force against antigovernment protesters". An opposition-led National Assembly was elected in 2015 and a movement toward recalling Maduro began in 2016; the Supreme Tribunal removed power from the elected National Assembly, resulting in a constitutional crisis and protests in 2017. Maduro called for a rewrite of the constitution, the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela was elected in 2017, under what many—including Venezuela's chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega and Smartmatic, the company that ran the voting machines—considered irregular voting conditions.
On 20 May 2018, presidential elections were called prematurely. The majority of nations in the Western world did not recognize the Constituent Assembly election or the validity of Maduro's 2018 reelection. Maduro has been described as a "dictator", an Organization of American States report determined that crimes against humanity have been committed during his presidency. Maduro allies including China, Russia and Turkey support and denounce what they call interference in Venezuela's domestic affairs. Amid widespread condemnation, President Maduro was sworn in on 10 January 2019, the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, was declared the interim President by that body on 23 January 2019. Maduro's government states that the crisis is a "coup d'état led by the United States to topple him and control the country's oil reserves." Guaidó denies the coup allegations. Nicolás Maduro Moros was born on 23 November 1962 in Caracas, into a working-class family, his father, Nicolás Maduro García, a prominent trade union leader, died in a motor vehicle accident on 22 April 1989.
His mother, Teresa de Jesús Moros, was born in Cúcuta, a Colombian border town at the boundary with Venezuela on "the 1st of June of 1929, as it appears in the National Registry of Colombia". He was born into a leftist family and "militant dreamer of the Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo". Maduro was raised in Calle 14, a street in Los Jardines, El Valle, a working-class neighborhood on the western outskirts of Caracas; the only male of four siblings, he had "three sisters, María Teresa and Anita". Maduro was raised as a Roman Catholic, although in 2012 it was reported that he was a follower of Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba and visited the guru in India in 2005. Racially, Maduro has indicated that he identifies as mestizo, stating that he includes as a part of his mestizaje admixture from the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Africans, he stated in a 2013 interview that "my grandparents were Jewish, from a Sephardic Moorish background, converted to Catholicism in Venezuela". Maduro has been married twice.
His first marriage was to Adriana Guerra Angulo, with whom he had his only son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra known as "Nicolasito", appointed to several senior government posts. He married Cilia Flores, a lawyer and politician who replaced Maduro as President of the National Assembly in August 2006, when he resigned to become Minister of Foreign Affairs, becoming the first woman to serve as President of the National Assembly; the two had been in a romantic relationship since the 1990s when Flores was Hugo Chávez's lawyer following the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts and were married in July 2013 months after Maduro became president. While they have no children together, Maduro has three step-children from his wife's first marriage to Walter Ramón Gavidia.
United Socialist Party of Venezuela
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela is a socialist political party in Venezuela which resulted from the fusion of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivarian Revolution led by President Hugo Chávez. At the 2015 parliamentary election, PSUV lost its majority in the National Assembly for the first time since the unicameral legislature's creation in 2000 against the Democratic Unity Roundtable, earning 55 out of the National Assembly's 167 seats; the process of merging most of the unidentified parties involved in the pro-Bolivarian Revolution coalition was initiated by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez after he won the Venezuelan presidential election of 2006. The process was led by Chávez' own party, the Fifth Republic Movement, was supported by a range of smaller parties such as the People's Electoral Movement, Venezuelan Popular Unity, the Tupamaro Movement, the Socialist League and others which all together added up 45.99% of the votes received by Chávez during the 2006 election.
Other pro-Bolivarian parties like the Communist Party of Venezuela, Fatherland for All and For Social Democracy, that cast 14.60% of the votes from that election, declined to join the new party. On 7 March 2007, Chávez presented a phased plan for founding the new party until November 2007. PODEMOS, PPT and PCV stated they would wait until PSUV had been founded and decide their membership in the new party based on its program. On 18 March 2007, Chávez declared on his programme Aló Presidente that he had "opened the doors for the For Social Democracy, the Fatherland for All, the Communist Party of Venezuela if they want to go away from Chávez´s alliance, they may do so and leave us in peace". In his opinion, those parties were near to be on the opposition and they should choose wisely, between going "in silence, hugging us or throwing stones". PPT, at its 2007 congress on 10 and 11 April, decided not to join but re-affirmed its support for Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution; the party held its founding congress in early 2008, from 12 January to 2 March, with 1681 delegates participating.
Chávez was proclaimed President of the new party on 14 March. As of 2014, the party has been described as "fracturing" and "weakening" due to the loss of Hugo Chávez, the poor state of Venezuela's economy and falling oil prices. Internal issues appeared in the party, with an email address and telephone hotline created to report "internal enemies". In 23 November PSUV elections, it was reported by party dissidents that few individuals participated, with less than 10% of the 7.6 million members casting a vote. Chávez said that "t's a young party" with an average age of 35 among members. Analysts agreed, saying: "The assumption is that the younger people are going to be Chavistas, they are going to be the ones whose families have benefited from Chávez's social programs."With the creation of PSUV, relationships soured with former coalition parties that chose not to join. By the 2008 regional election campaign in October, Chávez declared that "Patria Para Todos and the Communist Party of Venezuela will disappear from the political map because they are liars and manipulators."In April 2010, an Extraordinary Congress of the PSUV resulted in the endorsement of a range of "general principles", including among others socialism and Bolivarianism.
It defined the party as the "political vanguard of the revolutionary process". The party held its 3rd Congress in 2014, which elected Nicolás Maduro as the 2nd party president and honored Hugo Chávez posthumously as the party's eternal president and founder, party policies were updated, it was followed by the 4th Party Congress in 2018. Party builds on cult of personality of the Hugo Chávez, with revolutionary symbols like Chávez eyes sometimes along with the party symbols; the party is headed at the national level by the Eternal President Hugo Chávez, the president, vice-president, a 29-member national board of directors: Adán Chávez Alí Rodríguez Araque Ana Elisa Osorio Antonia Muñoz Aristóbulo Istúriz Carlos Escarrá Darío Vivas Cilia Flores Elías Jaua Érika Farías Freddy Bernal Héctor Navarro Héctor Rodríguez Jacqueline Faría Jorge Rodríguez Luis Reyes Reyes María Cristina Iglesias María León Mario Silva Nicolás Maduro Nohelí Pocaterra Rafael Ramírez Ramón Rodríguez Chacín Rodrigo Cabezas Tarek El Aissami Vanessa Davies Willian Lara Yelitza Santaella The Units of Battle Hugo Chávez is a collection of organizations with multiple members of PSUV involved that has both military and political characteristics.
The UBCh originated as a group to defend the Bolivarian Revolution and support the party through electoral processes in Venezuela, were transformed into their current name in 2013. They form the basic party unit in Venezuelan communities, 4 or more of them form a People's Struggle Circle in the community level; the Unit itself is divided into 10 Unit Patrols serving various functions for party members in various sectors. Other assisting groups include: PSUV National Political Bureau PSUV Regional Departments, led by Regional Vice Presidents PSUV Sectors Organizations, led by Sectoral Vice Presidents United Socialist Party of Venezuela Youth Revolutionary Marxist Current United Socialist Party of Venezuela Youth Facebook Instagram Twitter
International Standard Serial Number
An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSN are used in ordering, interlibrary loans, other practices in connection with serial literature; the ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971 and published as ISO 3297 in 1975. ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for maintaining the standard; when a serial with the same content is published in more than one media type, a different ISSN is assigned to each media type. For example, many serials are published both in electronic media; the ISSN system refers to these types as electronic ISSN, respectively. Conversely, as defined in ISO 3297:2007, every serial in the ISSN system is assigned a linking ISSN the same as the ISSN assigned to the serial in its first published medium, which links together all ISSNs assigned to the serial in every medium.
The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers. As an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits; the last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the general form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows: NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character, C is in; the ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, C=5. To calculate the check digit, the following algorithm may be used: Calculate the sum of the first seven digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, counting from the right—that is, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, respectively: 0 ⋅ 8 + 3 ⋅ 7 + 7 ⋅ 6 + 8 ⋅ 5 + 5 ⋅ 4 + 9 ⋅ 3 + 5 ⋅ 2 = 0 + 21 + 42 + 40 + 20 + 27 + 10 = 160 The modulus 11 of this sum is calculated. For calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, counting from the right.
The modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker. ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris; the International Centre is an intergovernmental organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, the ISDS Register otherwise known as the ISSN Register. At the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept. An ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an anonymous identifier associated with a serial title, containing no information as to the publisher or its location. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change. Since the ISSN applies to an entire serial a new identifier, the Serial Item and Contribution Identifier, was built on top of it to allow references to specific volumes, articles, or other identifiable components.
Separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic media versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. A CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved. However, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial; this "media-oriented identification" of serials made sense in the 1970s. In the 1990s and onward, with personal computers, better screens, the Web, it makes sense to consider only content, independent of media; this "content-oriented identification" of serials was a repressed demand during a decade, but no ISSN update or initiative occurred. A natural extension for ISSN, the unique-identification of the articles in the serials, was the main demand application. An alternative serials' contents model arrived with the indecs Content Model and its application, the digital object identifier, as ISSN-independent initiative, consolidated in the 2000s. Only in 2007, ISSN-L was defined in the
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada Her Majesty's Government, is the federal administration of Canada. In Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or the Queen-in-Council. In both senses, the current construct was established at Confederation through the Constitution Act, 1867—as a federal constitutional monarchy, wherein the Canadian Crown acts as the core, or "the most basic building block", of its Westminster-style parliamentary democracy; the Crown is thus the foundation of the executive and judicial branches of the Canadian government. Further elements of governance are outlined in the rest of the Canadian Constitution, which includes written statutes, court rulings, unwritten conventions developed over centuries; the monarch is represented by the Governor General of Canada. The Queen's Privy Council for Canada is the body that advises the sovereign or viceroy on the exercise of executive power. However, in practice, that task is performed only by the Cabinet, a committee within the Privy Council composed of ministers of the Crown, who are drawn from and responsible to the elected House of Commons in parliament.
The Cabinet is headed by the prime minister, appointed by the governor general after securing the confidence of the House of Commons. In Canadian English, the word government is used to refer both to the whole set of institutions that govern the country, to the current political leadership. In federal department press releases, the government has sometimes been referred to by the phrase Government. In late 2010, an informal instruction from the Office of the Prime Minister urged government departments to use in all department communications the term in place of Government of Canada; the same cabinet earlier directed its press department to use the phrase Canada's New Government. As per the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982, Canada is a constitutional monarchy, wherein the role of the reigning sovereign is both legal and practical, but not political; the Crown is regarded as a corporation sole, with the monarch, vested as she is with all powers of state, at the centre of a construct in which the power of the whole is shared by multiple institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority.
The executive is thus formally called the Queen-in-Council, the legislature the Queen-in-Parliament, the courts as the Queen on the Bench. Royal Assent is required to enact laws and, as part of the Royal Prerogative, the royal sign-manual gives authority to letters patent and orders in council, though the authority for these acts stems from the Canadian populace and, within the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy, the sovereign's direct participation in any of these areas of governance is limited; the Royal Prerogative includes summoning and dissolving parliament in order to call an election, extends to foreign affairs: the negotiation and ratification of treaties, international agreements, declarations of war. The person, monarch of Canada is the monarch of 15 other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, though, he or she reigns separately as King or Queen of Canada, an office, "truly Canadian" and "totally independent from that of the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms".
On the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister, the sovereign appoints a federal viceregal representative—the Governor General of Canada —who, since 1947, is permitted to exercise all of the monarch's Royal Prerogative, though there are some duties which must be performed by, or bills that require assent by, the king or queen. The government is defined by the constitution as the Queen acting on the advice of her privy council. However, the Privy Council—consisting of former members of parliament, chief justices of the supreme court, other elder statesmen—rarely meets in full; as the stipulations of responsible government require that those who directly advise the monarch and governor general on how to exercise the Royal Prerogative be accountable to the elected House of Commons, the day-to-day operation of government is guided only by a sub-group of the Privy Council made up of individuals who hold seats in parliament. This body of senior ministers of the Crown is the Cabinet. One of the main duties of the Crown is to ensure that a democratic government is always in place, which means appointing a prime minister to thereafter head the Cabinet.
Thus, the governor general must appoint as prime minister the person who holds the confidence of the House of Commons. Should no party hold a majority in the commons, the leader of one party—either the one with the most seats or one supported by other parties—will be called by the governor general to form a minority government. Once sworn in by the viceroy, the prime minister holds office until he or she resigns or is removed by the governor general, after either a motion of no confidence or his or her party's defeat in a general election; the monarch and governor general follow the near-binding advice of
Venezuela