Portal:Politics

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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 status or resources. The branch of social science that studies politics and government is referred to as political science.

Politics may be used positively in the context of a "political solution" which is compromising and non-violent, or descriptively as "the art or science of government", but the word often also carries a negative connotation. 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...)

Selected article

The privilege of peerage is the body of special privileges belonging to members of the British peerage. It is distinct from Parliamentary privilege, which applies to those peers serving in the House of Lords, and members of the House of Commons, during and forty days before and after a Parliamentary session. The privileges have been lost and eroded over time. Only three survived into the 20th century: the right to be tried by other peers of the realm instead of juries of commoners, freedom from arrest in civil (but not criminal) cases, and access to the Sovereign to advise him or her on matters of state. The right to be tried by other peers was abolished in 1948. Legal opinion considers the right of freedom from arrest as obsolete. The remaining privilege was recommended for formal abolition in 1999, and may be retained, arguably, by peers whether members of the House of Lords or not. Peers have other rights that do not formally comprise the privilege of peerage. For example, they are entitled to use coronets and supporters on their achievements of arms.

Featured picture

An 1880 political cartoon depicts Senator Roscoe Conkling over a "presidential puzzle" consisting of some of the potential Republican nominees as pieces of a newly invented sliding puzzle. Conkling held significant influence over the party during the 1880 Republican National Convention and attempted to use that to nominate Ulysses S. Grant, only to lose out to "dark horse" candidate James A. Garfield.

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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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  The Canadian province of Manitoba was created in 1870. Manitoba has a unicameral Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the premier is the leader of the party that controls the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The premier is Manitoba's head of government, and the King of Canada is its head of state and is represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. The premier picks a cabinet from the elected members to form the Executive Council of Manitoba, and then presides over that body.
  
  Members are first elected to the legislature during general elections. General elections must be conducted every four years from the date of the last election, but the premier may ask for early dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. An election may also happen if the governing party loses the confidence of the legislature by the defeat of a supply bill or tabling of a confidence motion. (Full article...)
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  Counties of Croatia:   Bjelovar-Bilogora   Brod-Posavina   Dubrovnik-Neretva   Istria   Karlovac   Koprivnica-Križevci   Krapina-Zagorje   Lika-Senj   Međimurje   Osijek-Baranja   Požega-Slavonia   Primorje-Gorski Kotar   Šibenik-Knin   Sisak-Moslavina   Split-Dalmatia   Varaždin   Virovitica-Podravina   Vukovar-Srijem   Zadar   City of Zagreb   Zagreb County

  
  The counties of Croatia (Croatian: hrvatske županije) are the first-level administrative subdivisions of the Republic of Croatia. Since they were re-established in 1992, Croatia has been divided into 20 counties and the capital city of Zagreb, which has the authority and legal status of both a county and a city (separate from the surrounding Zagreb County). As of 2015, the counties are subdivided into 128 cities and 428 (mostly rural) municipalities. The divisions have changed over time since the medieval Croatian state. They reflected territorial losses and expansions; changes in the political status of Dalmatia, Dubrovnik and Istria; and political circumstances, including the personal union and subsequent development of relations between the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and the Kingdom of Hungary. (Full article...)
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  Districts (Sinhala: දිස්ත්‍රි‌ක්‌ක, romanized: Distrikka, Tamil: மாவட்டம், romanized: Māvaṭṭam) are the second level administrative divisions of Sri Lanka, preceded by provinces. Sri Lanka has 25 districts organized into 9 provinces. Districts are further divided into a number of divisional secretariats (commonly known as D.S. divisions), which are in turn subdivided into 14,022 grama niladhari divisions. There are 331 DS divisions in Sri Lanka.
  
  Each district is administered under a district secretary, who is appointed by the central government. The main tasks of the district secretariat involve coordinating communications and activities of the central government and divisional secretariats. The district secretariat is also responsible for implementing and monitoring development projects at the district level and assisting lower-level subdivisions in their activities, as well as revenue collection and coordination of elections in the district. (Full article...)
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  Number of seats won by major parties at each election

  •   UCP
  •   Wildrose
  •   Conservative/PC
  •   Liberal
  •   CCF/NDP
  •   Social Credit
  •   United Farmers
  •   Dominion Labour Party
  •   Independants
  •   Other

  
  
  The Canadian province of Alberta holds elections to its unicameral legislative body, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The maximum period between general elections of the assembly is five years, but the Lieutenant Governor is able to call one at any time. However, the premier has typically asked the lieutenant governor to call the election in the fourth or fifth year after the preceding election. The number of seats has increased over time, from 25 for the first election in 1905, to the current 87.
  
  Alberta's politics has historically been one of long-lasting governments with government changes being few and far between. The province from 1905 to 2015 was ruled by four "dynasties": the Liberal Party (1905–1921); the United Farmers of Alberta (1921–1935), the Social Credit Party (1935–1971), and the Progressive Conservative (PC) Association (1971–2015), the longest political dynasty in Canada. No minority government has ever been elected. Thus, Alberta can be said to have continuously had a dominant-party system for its entire political history, though the dominant party has changed over time. (Full article...)
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  Since the office was established in 1789, 45 individuals have served as president of the United States. Of these, eight have died in office: four were assassinated, and four died of natural causes. In each of these instances, the vice president has succeeded to the presidency. This practice is now governed by Section One of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1967, which declares that, "the Vice President shall become President" if the president is removed from office, dies, or resigns. The initial authorization for this practice was provided by Article II, Section 1, Clause 6, of the U.S. Constitution.
  
  The first incumbent U.S. president to die was William Henry Harrison, on April 4, 1841, only one month after Inauguration Day. He died from complications of what at the time was believed to be pneumonia. The second American president to die in office, Zachary Taylor, died on July 9, 1850, from acute gastroenteritis. Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to be killed while in office. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth on the night of April 14, 1865, and died the following morning. Sixteen years later, on July 2, 1881, James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, surviving for over two months before dying on September 19, 1881. (Full article...)
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  Map of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania with municipal labels showing cities and boroughs (red) and townships (white)

  
  There are 52 municipalities in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Under Pennsylvania law, counties have three main types of incorporated municipalities, of which Lycoming County has one city, nine boroughs and 42. As of the most recent United States Census (2020), Pennsylvania has 67 counties, which contain 1,547 townships, 955 boroughs (and 2 towns), and 56 cities. There are no unincorporated areas in the county, since all territory in Pennsylvania is incorporated.
  
  The 52 incorporated municipalities in Lycoming County are the subject of the first list, which gives their names and etymologies, dates settled and incorporated, what they were formed from, area, population in 2020, and a map of their location within the county. Eighteen other Pennsylvania counties were formed from or contain land originally in Lycoming County. The second list is of the 22 townships which were formerly incorporated in Lycoming County, and now are part of these other counties. It gives the same information as the first list, based on the current status of these townships. (Full article...)
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  The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government of Kentucky, and serves as commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws; the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Kentucky General Assembly; the power to convene the legislature; and the power to grant pardons, except in cases of treason and impeachment. The governor is also empowered to reorganize the state government or reduce it in size. Historically, the office has been regarded as one of the most powerful executive positions in the United States.
  
  Fifty-nine individuals have held the office of governor. Prior to a 1992 amendment to the state's constitution, the governor was prohibited from succeeding himself or herself in office, though four men (Isaac Shelby, John L. Helm, James B. McCreary and Happy Chandler) served multiple non-consecutive terms. Paul E. Patton, the first Kentucky governor eligible for a second consecutive term under the amendment, won his reelection bid in 1999. James Garrard succeeded himself in 1800, before the constitutional provision existed. Garrard is also the longest serving governor, serving for a total period of eight years and 90 days. In 2023 Democrat Andy Beshear became the 3rd incumbent governor in Kentucky history to be reelected to a second consecutive term. (Full article...)
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  A monarch is the head of a monarchy, a form of government in which a state is ruled by an individual who normally rules for life or until abdication, and typically inherits the throne by birth. Monarchs may be autocrats (as in all absolute monarchies) or may be ceremonial figureheads, exercising only limited or no reserve powers at all, with actual authority vested in a legislature and/or executive cabinet (as in many constitutional monarchies). In many cases, a monarch will also be linked with a state religion. Most states only have a single monarch at any given time, although a regent may rule when the monarch is a minor, not present, or otherwise incapable of ruling. Cases in which two monarchs rule simultaneously over a single state, as is the current situation in Andorra, are known as coregencies.
  
  A variety of titles are applied in English; for example, "king" and "queen", "prince" and "princess", "grand duke" and "grand duchess", "emperor" and "empress". Although they will be addressed differently in their local languages, the names and titles in the list below have been styled using the common English equivalent. Roman numerals, used to distinguish related rulers with the same name, have been applied where typical. (Full article...)
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  There are five counties in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Rhode Island is tied with Hawaii for having the second-fewest counties of any U.S. state (only Delaware has fewer, with three counties). Although Rhode Island is divided into counties, it does not have any local government at the county level. Instead, local governance is provided by the eight cities and thirty-one towns. Counties in Rhode Island have had no governmental functions since 1846 other than as court administrative and sheriff corrections boundaries which are part of state government.
  
  Within Rhode Island, Washington County is colloquially referred to as South County. (Full article...)
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  The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Austria is the official representative of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation to the President and the Government of the Republic of Austria.
  
  The ambassador and his staff work at large in the Embassy of Russia in Vienna. The post of Russian Ambassador to Austria is currently held by Dmitry Lyubinsky, incumbent since 10 August 2015. (Full article...)
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  Seal of the State of Florida

  
  The governor of Florida is the head of government of the U.S. state of Florida and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Florida Legislature, to convene the legislature and grant pardons, except in cases of impeachment.
  
  When Florida was first acquired by the United States, future president Andrew Jackson served as its military governor. Florida Territory was established in 1822 and five people served as governor over 6 distinct terms. The first territorial governor, William Pope Duval, served 12 years, the longest of any Florida governor to date. (Full article...)
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  The Republic of Adygea, an enclave within Krasnodar Krai located at the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, is a federal subject of Russia. It was originally established in 1922 as the Cherkess (Adyghe) Autonomous Oblast within the Russian SFSR for the Adyghe (Circassian) majority that lived in the area. As of the 2010 Census, Adyghe people accounted for 25.2% of the republic's population (107,048 people), while Russians accounted for the majority 63.6% (270,714 people).
  
  Since establishing and maintaining the structure of the administrative divisions of the federal subjects is not explicitly specified in the Constitution of Russia as the responsibility of the federal government, this task falls within the scope of the responsibilities of the Republic of Adygea itself. Changes to the administrative-territorial structure of the republic are authorized by the State Council. (Full article...)
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  Party Composition of Maryland State Senate districts.

  
  The Maryland Senate is the upper house of the Maryland General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Maryland. One Senator is elected from each of the state's 47 electoral districts. As of January 2023, 34 of those seats are held by Democrats and 13 by Republicans. The leader of the Senate is known as the President, a position currently held by Bill Ferguson, who represents Baltimore. In addition, senators elect a President Pro Tempore, and the respective party caucuses elect a majority and minority leader and a majority and minority whip.
  
  Senators are elected in even-numbered years when the President of the United States is not being elected, similar to most other state offices in Maryland. The most recent election was in November 2022. Senators are not term-limited. Should a Senator resign from office before his or her term expires, the local central committee of the party to which the retiring senator belonged makes a recommendation to the Governor for whom to appoint to the open seat. It is tradition for the Governor to appoint the recommended person. Nine of the current members of the Maryland State Senate were originally appointed, all of whom have since been elected in their own right. Newly elected senators are sworn in and begin work on the second Wednesday of the January following their election. (Full article...)
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  Indiana's congressional districts since 2023

  
  
  These are tables of congressional delegations from Indiana to the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
  
  Since its statehood in 1816, the U.S. state of Indiana has sent congressional delegations to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. Each state elects two senators statewide to serve for six years, and their elections are staggered to be held in two of every three even-numbered years—Indiana's Senate election years are to Classes I and III. Before the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were elected by the Indiana General Assembly. Members of the House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms, one from each of Indiana's nine congressional districts. Before becoming a state, the Indiana Territory elected delegates at-large and sent three to Congress, but the territorial delegates were restricted from voting on legislation. (Full article...)

Selected quote

Selected biography

John McCain at the U.S. Naval Academy, mid-1950s

The early life and military career of John Sidney McCain III spans the first forty-five years of his life (1936–1981). McCain's father and grandfather were admirals in the United States Navy. McCain was born on August 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, and attended many schools growing up as his family moved among naval facilities. McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958. He married the former Carol Shepp in 1965; he adopted two children from her previous marriage and they had another child together.

As a naval aviator, McCain flew attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War, he narrowly escaped death in the 1967 Forrestal fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder in October 1967, he was shot down over Hanoi and badly injured. He subsequently endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture. In 1968, he refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release, because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer. He was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords.

Did you know (auto-generated) -

• ... that Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, the new mayor of Frankfurt, gave birth to her first child while a political prisoner in the wake of the Iranian Revolution?
• ... that a co-founder of Braver Angels designed their Red/Blue political depolarization workshops based on couples therapy?
• ... that following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a diverse group of exiled Russian public figures formed the Anti-War Committee of Russia to unite different political movements to oppose the war?
• ... that in her 2021 book White Evangelical Racism, professor of religion Anthea Butler called American evangelicalism a pro-Trump, "nationalistic political movement"?
• ... that Denpasar mayor I Gusti Ngurah Jaya Negara became active in politics after he was laid off from a bank due to the Asian financial crisis?
• ... that Olga Onuch is believed to be the first professor of Ukrainian politics in the English-speaking world?

More did you know...

• ...that the public activist group Citizen Action shut down in 1997 due to the effects of a labor union election campaign funds scandal?

• ...that Mussolini's Quota 90 fixed the lira exchange rate against the pound sterling at the prevailing rate from five years earlier, when he assumed power?
• ...that the energy lobby contributed 19 million dollars to United States political campaigns in the 2006 election cycle?
• ...that the lifelong Democrat Jim Naugle is in his sixth straight term as the Mayor of Fort Lauderdale and supported only Republicans for President since 1968?

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

• ...that the Second Malaysia Plan sought to restructure the socioeconomic state of Malaysia through aggressive affirmative action?

In this month

• December 7, 2003 – the Conservative Party of Canada is formed.
• December 13, 2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court stops the Florida presidential recount, effectively giving the state, and the Presidency, to George W. Bush.
• December 6, 2005 – David Cameron becomes the 26th Leader of the British Conservative Party
• December 15, 2005 – Parliamentary elections are held in Iraq.
• December 17, 2005 – Evo Morales wins the presidential elections in Bolivia, ousting incumbent Eduardo Rodriguez and becoming the country's first indigenous leader.
• December 18, 1834 – Sir Robert Peel publishes the Tamworth Manifesto which lays the foundation for the modern British Conservative Party.
• December 30, 2006 – Former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein is hanged.

News and Current events

Wikinews on Politics and conflicts

• August 11: 4 local government areas in New South Wales, Australia locked down after COVID-19 case
• August 11: Australia: AstraZeneca vaccine access expanded by Victorian government
• August 1: Australia: Victorian lockdown lifted
• July 29: Tunisia's president dismisses prime minister, suspends parliament
• July 25: Australia: Wikinews interviews Reg Kidd, mayor of the City of Orange, about COVID-19 lockdown and local government
• July 23: South Australia enters week-long lockdown to contain COVID-19 Delta variant spread
• July 21: Technological University Dublin senior lecturer Dr Lorcan Sirr speaks to Wikinews on housing market in Ireland
• July 21: Three rural councils in New South Wales, Australia enter 7-day lockdown
• July 21: Australia: Victoria lockdown extended by a week with 85 active cases recorded
• July 15: California governor signs new state budget, eligible Californians to get stimulus payments

Topics and categories

See the portal's Topics and categories page for a comprehensive overview.

General images

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

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  A map depicting Corruption Perceptions Index in the world in 2023; 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)
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  Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Croatian Spring participant; Europe's first female prime minister (from Civil and political rights)
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  United Nations Convention against Corruption (from Political corruption)
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  Montenegro's president Milo Đukanović is often described as having strong links to Montenegrin mafia. (from Political corruption)
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  The Flag of the United Nations flying at United Nations Plaza in the Civic Center, San Francisco, California. The UN is one of the key organizations in the process of the political globalization. (from Political globalization)
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  American lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation. (from Political corruption)
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  Division of the world according to Haushofer's pan-regions doctrine (from Geopolitics)
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  Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders campaigning for extended US Medicare coverage in 2017. (from Health politics)
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  Blockchain technology has created cryptocurrencies similarly to voting tokens seen in blockchain voting platforms, with recognizable names including Bitcoin and Ethereum. (from Politics and technology)
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  The sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams' "corrupt bargain" of 1824 is an example of patronage. (from Political corruption)
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  Ferdinand Marcos (pictured with his daughter Imee) was a Philippine dictator and kleptocrat. His regime was infamous for its corruption. (from Political corruption)
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  Candlelight protest against South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul, South Korea, 7 January 2017 (from Political corruption)
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  Sir Halford Mackinder's Heartland concept showing the situation of the "pivot area" established in the Theory of the Heartland. He later revised it to mark Northern Eurasia as a pivot while keeping area marked above as Heartland. (from Geopolitics)
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  Russia handing over the symbolic relay baton for the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar in June 2018 (from Political corruption)
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  Detail from Corrupt Legislation (1896) by Elihu Vedder. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. (from Political corruption)
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  Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830, Louvre), a painting created at a time where old and modern political philosophies came into violent conflict. (from History of political thought)
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  This is the divide of the different political parties in Estonia where in the 2013 elections, over 133,000 people (roughly 21.2% of participating voters) voted over the Internet. The 2013 elections were also the first elections to allow vote verification with mobile devices. (from Politics and technology)
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  World map with the concepts of Heartland and Rimland applied (from Geopolitics)
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  A world map distinguishing countries of the world as federations (green) from unitary states (blue), a work of political science (from Political science)
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  Countries with politicians, public officials or close associates implicated in the Panama Papers leak on April 15, 2016 (from Political corruption)
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  Protesters in support of American whistleblower Edward Snowden, Berlin, Germany, 30 August 2014 (from Political corruption)
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  Karl Marx and his theory of Communism, developed with Friedrich Engels, proved to be one of the most influential political ideologies of the 20th century. (from History of political thought)
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  Reformers like the American Joseph Keppler depicted the Senate as controlled by the giant moneybags, who represented the nation's financial trusts and monopolies. (from Political corruption)
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  A memorial to the Great Famine (Ireland), a famine event in Ireland that faced elongated suffering from the UK's domestic policy failures at the time under the Prime Ministers Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell. (from Health politics)
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  The logo and slogan for change.org (from Politics and technology)
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  US Military Police officer restraining and sedating prisoner while a soldier holds him down (from Political corruption)
• 
  Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty in the corruption trial over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal. He is currently serving his sentence in Kajang Prison. (from Political corruption)

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