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Politics (from Ancient Greek πολιτικά (politiká) 'affairs of the cities') is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies politics and government is referred to as political science.

It may be used positively in the context of a "political solution" which is compromising and non-violent, or descriptively as "the art or science of government", but also often carries a negative connotation. The concept has been defined in various ways, and different approaches have fundamentally differing views on whether it should be used extensively or in a limited way, empirically or normatively, and on whether conflict or co-operation is more essential to it.

A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising 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 nation states, people often form political parties to represent their ideas. Members of a party often agree to take the same position on many issues and agree to support the same changes to law and the same leaders. An election is usually a competition between different parties.

A political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a society. The history of political thought can be traced back to early antiquity, with seminal works such as Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics, Confucius's political manuscripts and Chanakya's Arthashastra. (Full article...)

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The Ordinances of 1311 were a series of regulations imposed upon King Edward II by the peerage and clergy of the Kingdom of England to restrict the power of the king. The twenty-one signatories of the Ordinances are referred to as the Lords Ordainers. English setbacks in the Scottish war, combined with perceived extortionate royal fiscal policies, set the background for the writing of the Ordinances in which the administrative prerogatives of the king were largely appropriated by a baronial council. The Ordinances reflect the Provisions of Oxford and the Provisions of Westminster from the late 1250s, but unlike the Provisions, the Ordinances featured a new concern with fiscal reform, specifically redirecting revenues from the king's household to the exchequer. Just as instrumental to their conception were other issues, particularly discontent with the king's favourite, Piers Gaveston, whom the barons subsequently banished from the realm. Edward II accepted the Ordinances only under coercion, and a long struggle for their repeal ensued that did not end until Thomas of Lancaster – the leader of the Ordainers – was executed in 1322.

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Credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

Salman Khurshid (born 1 January 1953) is an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress, a lawyer, and a writer who has been elected from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in the General Election of 2009. He belongs to the Farrukhabad area. He is presently the Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of Law and Justice and Ministry of Minority Affairs.

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

Image 1

Emblem of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). From 1924 until the country's dissolution in 1991, the officeholder was the recognized leader of the Soviet Union. Prior to Stalin's accession, the position was not viewed as an important role in Lenin's government and previous occupants had been responsible for technical rather than political decisions.

Officially, the General Secretary solely controlled the Communist Party directly. However, since the party had a monopoly on political power, the General Secretary de facto had executive control of the Soviet government. Because of the office's ability to direct both the foreign and domestic policies of the state and preeminence over the Soviet Communist Party, it was the de facto highest office of the Soviet Union. (Full article...)
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There are 23 counties and one independent city in the U.S. state of Maryland. 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. 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. (Full article...)
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The Senate Chamber, located in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill

This is a list of current members of the Senate of Canada (French: Le Sénat du Canada), the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Unlike the members of Parliament in the House of Commons, the 105 senators are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Senators originally held their seats for life; however, under the British North America Act, 1965, members may not sit in the Senate after reaching the age of 75.

Seats are allocated on a regional basis: each of the four major regions receives 24 seats, with 9 remaining seats assigned to jurisdictions outside those regions. The four major regions are Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island), and the Western provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan). The seats for Newfoundland and Labrador (6), the Northwest Territories (1), Yukon (1), and Nunavut (1) are assigned apart from these regional divisions. The province of Quebec has 24 Senate divisions that are constitutionally mandated. In all other provinces, a Senate division is strictly an optional designation of the senator's own choosing, and has no real constitutional or legal standing. A senator who does not choose a special senate division is considered a senator for the province at large. (Full article...)
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Location of Lithuania in the European Union

Lithuania is divided into three layers of administrative divisions. The first-level division consists of 10 counties (Lithuanian: singular – apskritis, plural – apskritys). These are sub-divided into 60 municipalities (Lithuanian: plural – savivaldybės, singular – savivaldybė), which in turn are further sub-divided into over 500 smaller groups, known as elderships (Lithuanian: plural – seniūnijos, singular – seniūnija).

At the end of its tenure as a Soviet Socialist Republic, Lithuania's administrative divisions consisted of 44 regions, 12 cities, 80 towns, 19 settlements, and 426 rural districts. The reform of this system was an immediate concern for the new government. The Constitution of Lithuania, ratified in 1992, delegated the power of establishing future administrative units to the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas). Accordingly, the Seimas passed two fundamental laws: a 1993 law on government representation and a 1994 law specifying the territorial-administrative units and their boundaries. The current system of a set of municipalities under 10 counties was codified by 1995. Several changes were made in 2000, resulting in 60 municipalities. (Full article...)
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There are 21 counties in the U.S. state of New Jersey. These counties together contain 564 municipalities, or administrative entities composed of clearly defined territory; 252 boroughs, 52 cities, 15 towns, 241 townships, and 4 villages. In New Jersey, a county is a local level of government between the state and municipalities. County government in New Jersey includes a Board of County Commissioners, sheriff, clerk, and surrogate (responsible for uncontested and routine probate), all of which are elected officials. Counties organized under the Optional County Charter Law may also have an elected county executive. Counties traditionally perform state-mandated duties such as the maintenance of jails, parks, and certain roads. The site of a county's administration and courts is called the county seat. (Full article...)
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█ ASEAN full member states

█ ASEAN candidate member state

█ ASEAN observer state

██ ASEAN Plus Three

███ East Asia Summit

██████ ASEAN Regional Forum

, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has 10 member states, one candidate member state, and one observer state.

ASEAN was founded on 8 August 1967 with five member states: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. It is headquartered in Jakarta. (Full article...)
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A total of 116 people have served on the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial body in the United States, since it was established in 1789. Supreme Court justices have life tenure, meaning that they serve until they die, resign, retire, or are impeached and removed from office. For the 107 non-incumbent justices, the average length of service was 6,203 days (16 years, 359 days). The longest serving justice was William O. Douglas, with a tenure of 13,358 days (36 years, 209 days). The longest serving chief justice was John Marshall, with a tenure of 12,570 days (34 years, 152 days). John Rutledge, who served on the court twice, was both the shortest serving associate justice, with a tenure of 383 days (1 year, 18 days), and the shortest serving chief justice, with a tenure of 138 days (4 months 16 days). Among the current members of the court, Clarence Thomas's tenure of 11,886 days (32 years, 198 days) is the longest, while Ketanji Brown Jackson's 678 days (1 year, 313 days) is the shortest.

The table below ranks all United States Supreme Court justices by time in office. For five individuals confirmed for associate justice, and who later served as chief justice—Charles Evans Hughes, William Rehnquist, John Rutledge, Harlan F. Stone, and Edward Douglass White—their cumulative length of service on the court is measured. The basis of the ranking is the difference between dates; if counted by number of calendar days all the figures would be one greater, with the exception of Charles Evans Hughes and John Rutledge, who would receive two days, as each served on the court twice (their service as associate justice and as chief justice was separated by a period of years off the court). The start date given for each justice is the day they took the prescribed oath of office, with the end date being the date of the justice's death, resignation, or retirement. A highlighted row indicates a justice currently serving on the court. (Full article...)
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The Palace of Westminster, meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords

This is a list of people who have addressed both Houses of the United Kingdom Parliament at the same time. Although English and later British monarchs have jointly addressed the House of Commons and the House of Lords on several occasions since the 16th century, the first foreign dignitary to do so was French President Albert Lebrun in March 1939. The list excludes the speeches given by (or on behalf of) the Sovereign at the State Opening of Parliament and at the close of each parliamentary session.

Only four people besides the reigning monarch at the time have addressed both Houses together on more than one occasion. Nelson Mandela addressed Members of the Commons and the Lords in 1993 and in 1996 as President of South Africa. Mikhail Gorbachev addressed the Houses as a secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and a foreign delegate of the Soviet Union in 1984 and again, in 1993, on behalf of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Shimon Peres addressed the Houses as Prime Minister of Israel in 1986 and as President in 2008. Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Houses as President of Ukraine, the first to address in the Chamber (albeit via remote video link from Ukraine), in 2022 during the war in Ukraine. (Full article...)
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The 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region are the political subdivisions of Belgium's central region. The government of each municipality is responsible for the handling of local level duties, such as law enforcement and the upkeep of schools and roads within its borders. Municipal administration is also conducted by a mayor, a council, and an executive.

In 1831, Belgium was divided into 2,739 municipalities, including 20 within the current Brussels-Capital Region (which at that time did not exist). In 1841, a 21st and 22nd municipality were created when Berchem-Sainte-Agathe formally separated from neighbouring Koekelberg and Jette-Ganshoren split into Jette and Ganshoren. Since then, three municipalities have been merged with the City of Brussels: Laeken, Haren, and Neder-Over-Heembeek, in 1921. Unlike most of the municipalities in Belgium, the ones located in the Brussels-Capital Region were not merged with others during mergers occurring in 1964, 1970, and 1975. However, many territorial changes have occurred, predominantly between the City of Brussels and its neighbouring municipalities. (Full article...)
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The Chamber of the House of Commons

The Parliament of Canada is the legislative body of the government of Canada. The Parliament is composed of the House of Commons (lower house), the Senate (upper house), and the sovereign, represented by the governor general. Most major legislation originates from the House, as it is the only body that is directly elected. A new parliament begins after an election of the House of Commons and can sit for up to five years. The number of seats in parliament has varied as new provinces joined the country and as population distribution between the provinces changed; there are currently 338 House MPs and 105 Senators (when there are no vacancies).

Canada uses a Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons becomes Prime Minister, even if the leader is not an elected member of parliament. The leader of the party with the second-most seats in the House becomes the leader of the Official Opposition, and debate (formally called Oral Questions) between the parties is presided over by the speaker of the House. When the party with the most seats has less than half of the total number of seats, it forms a minority government, which can be voted out of power by the other parties. The Canadian Parliament is located at Parliament Hill in the capital city, Ottawa, Ontario. (Full article...)
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West Virginia counties (clickable map)

The U.S. state of West Virginia has 55 counties. Fifty of them existed at the time of the Wheeling Convention in 1861, during the American Civil War, when those counties seceded from the Commonwealth of Virginia to form the new state of West Virginia. West Virginia was admitted as a separate state of the United States on June 20, 1863. Five additional counties (Grant, Mineral, Lincoln, Summers, and Mingo) were formed from the original counties in the decades following admission.

After the Civil War, Berkeley County and Jefferson County, the two easternmost counties of West Virginia, refused to recognize their inclusion in the state, and the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation attempting to reclaim them. In March 1866, the United States Congress passed a joint mandate assenting to their inclusion in the new state, and the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed this outcome in the case of Virginia v. West Virginia (1871). (Full article...)
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There are ten counties in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Five of the counties were created in 1769, when New Hampshire was still an English colony and not a state, during the first subdivision of the state into counties. The last counties created were Belknap County and Carroll County, in 1840.

The majority of New Hampshire's counties were named for prominent British or American people or geographic locations and features. Only one county's name originates in a Native American language: Coös County, named for an Algonquian word meaning "small pines". (Full article...)
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Sultanate flag

The sultans of Zanzibar (Arabic: سلاطين زنجبار) were the rulers of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which was created on 19 October 1856 after the death of Said bin Sultan. He had ruled Oman and Zanzibar as the sultan of Oman since 1804. The sultans of Zanzibar were of a cadet branch of the Al Said Dynasty of Oman.

In 1698, Zanzibar became part of the overseas holdings of Oman, falling under the control of the sultan of Oman. Omani and other Arab traders had already been prominent in trade with the island for hundreds of years. It was also visited by traders from Persia and India, who arrived with the seasonal musim (west wind). Months later they could return east with a change in the wind. (Full article...)
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Bombay Presidency in 1906

Until the 18th century, Bombay consisted of seven islands separated by shallow sea. These seven islands were part of a larger archipelago in the Arabian sea, off the western coast of India. The date of city's founding is unclear—historians trace back urban settlement to the late 17th century after the British secured the seven islands from the Portuguese to establish a secure base in the region. The islands provided the British with a sheltered harbour for trade, in addition to a relatively sequestered location that reduced the chances of land-based attacks. Over the next two centuries, the British dominated the region, first securing the archipelago from the Portuguese, and later defeating the Marathas to secure the hinterland.

Bombay Presidency was one of the three Presidencies of British India; the other two being Madras Presidency, and Bengal Presidency. It was in the centre-west of the Indian subcontinent on the Arabian Sea. It was bordered to the north-west, north, and north-east by Baluchistan province, Punjab province, and Rajputana Agency; to the east by Central India Agency, the Central Provinces and Berar and Hyderabad State; and to the south by Madras Presidency and Mysore State. The Presidency was established in the late 17th century and named after Bombay, the capital city and the island on which it was built. By 1906, the area under the jurisdiction of Bombay Presidency stretched from North Canara in the south to Sindh in the north, encompassing the now-Pakistani province of Sindh, some parts of the present-day state of Gujarat, northwestern part of Karnataka state, the British Aden protectorate in Yemen, and the western two-thirds of modern-day Maharashtra. (Full article...)
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President George Washington appointed 9 justices to the Supreme Court and 28 judges to United States district courts.

United States President George Washington appointed 39 Article III United States federal judges during his presidency, which lasted from April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797. The first group of Washington's appointments—two justices of the Supreme Court of the United States and ten district court judges—began service two days after Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, which formally established the federal judiciary. Washington's last court appointee received his commission twelve days before the end of Washington's presidency.

As the first president, Washington was responsible for appointing the entire Supreme Court; he appointed a record eleven justices, including two Chief Justices and who were confirmed from outside the Court and one former Justice named as Chief Justice by a recess appointment, but not ultimately confirmed to the position. Additionally, Washington nominated Robert H. Harrison, who declined to serve, and nominated William Cushing for elevation to Chief Justice, who likewise declined. (Full article...)

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Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-El, to save the planet Earth.

— Barack Obama, Political fundraising dinner in New York, October 2008

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Leverett George DeVeber (sometimes spelled De Veber) (February 10, 1849 – July 9, 1925) was a Canadian politician who served as Member of the Legislative Assemblies of Alberta and the North-West Territories, minister in the government of Alberta, and member of the Senate of Canada. Born in New Brunswick and trained as a physician, he joined the North-West Mounted Police and came west, eventually settling in Lethbridge after leaving the police force. He represented Lethbridge in the North-West Legislative Assembly from 1898 until 1905, when Lethbridge became part of the new province of Alberta. He was appointed Minister without Portfolio in Alberta's first government, but resigned four months later to accept an appointment to the Senate, where he remained until his death.

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... that advertisements for Road 96 were taken down by Facebook for being too political?
... that a political action committee paid $132,000 to former First Lady Melania Trump's fashion stylist for strategy consulting?
... that Presidential Ballots, 1836–1892 was reviewed by Richard P. McCormick, who wrote that it "should stimulate a host of studies in the little-explored field of American political behavior"?
... that Jessica Mutch McKay hosted debates between the leaders of New Zealand's two major political parties?
... that after a career as political journalist, Peter Merseburger wrote biographies of Der Spiegel founder Rudolf Augstein and chancellor Willy Brandt?
... that before she was elected to the Parliament of Armenia, Maria Karapetyan spray-painted political graffiti on the streets of Yerevan in support of Nikol Pashinyan?

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...that the first phase of Mitt Romney's 2012 U.S. presidential campaign was announced via a video message?

...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 co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association Mohammed al-Bejadi spent most of 2011 in prison?

...that Roman embassies to China are reported in Chinese historical accounts from as early as 166?

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In this month

May 5, 2005 – A General Election in the United Kingdom sees Tony Blair's Labour government returned to office with a reduced majority of 66.
May 14, 1948 – The Declaration of Independence of Israel is made.
May 18, 1948 – The first Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.

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The following are images from various politics-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Division of the world according to Haushofer's Pan-Regions Doctrine (from Geopolitics)
Image 2Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders campaigning for extended US Medicare coverage in 2017. (from Health politics)
Image 3A map depicting Corruption Perceptions Index in the world in 2022; a higher score indicates lower levels of perceived corruption.
  100 – 90
  89 – 80
  79 – 70
  69 – 60
  59 – 50
  49 – 40
  39 – 30
  29 – 20
  19 – 10
  9 – 0
  No data
(from Political corruption)
Image 4World map with the concepts of Heartland and Rimland applied (from Geopolitics)
Image 5Ferdinand Marcos (pictured with his daughter Imee) was a Philippine dictator and kleptocrat. His regime was infamous for its corruption. (from Political corruption)
Image 6Reformers 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)
Image 7Eugène 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)
Image 8American lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation. (from Political corruption)
Image 9Detail from Corrupt Legislation (1896) by Elihu Vedder. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. (from Political corruption)
Image 10US Military Police officer restraining and sedating prisoner, while a soldier holds him down (from Political corruption)
Image 11A world map distinguishing countries of the world as federations (green) from unitary states (blue), a work of political science (from Political science)
Image 12Countries with politicians, public officials or close associates implicated in the Panama Papers leak on April 15, 2016 (from Political corruption)
Image 13This 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)
Image 14Montenegro's president Milo Đukanović is often described as having strong links to Montenegrin mafia. (from Political corruption)
Image 15Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Croatian Spring participant; Europe's first female prime minister (from Civil and political rights)
Image 16Sir 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)
Image 17Blockchain technology has created cryptocurrencies similarly to voting tokens seen in blockchain voting platforms, with recognizable names including Bitcoin and Ethereum. (from Politics and technology)
Image 18Protesters in support of American whistleblower Edward Snowden, Berlin, Germany, 30 August 2014 (from Political corruption)
Image 19Karl 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)
Image 20The logo and slogan for change.org (from Politics and technology)
Image 21Russia handing over the symbolic relay baton for the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar in June 2018 (from Political corruption)
Image 22Malaysia'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)
Image 23Candlelight protest against South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul, South Korea, 7 January 2017 (from Political corruption)
Image 24A memorial to the Great Famine (Ireland), a famine event in Ireland that faced elongated suffering from the UK's domestic policy failures at the time under the Prime Ministers Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell. (from Health politics)
Image 25United Nations Convention against Corruption (from Political corruption)
Image 26The sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams' "corrupt bargain" of 1824 is an example of patronage. (from Political corruption)
Image 27The Flag of the United Nations flying at United Nations Plaza in the Civic Center, San Francisco, California. The UN is one of the key organizations in the process of the political globalization. (from Political globalization)