Portal:Politics

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Politics (from 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 nonviolent, 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 limitedly, 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

History of poll taxes as a condition to voting

The women's poll tax repeal movement was a movement in the United States, predominantly led by women, that attempted to secure the abolition of poll taxes as a prerequisite for voting in the Southern states. The movement began shortly after the ratification in 1920 of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which granted suffrage to women. Before obtaining the right to vote, women were not obliged to pay the tax, but shortly after the Nineteenth Amendment became law, Southern states began examining how poll tax statutes could be applied to women. For example, North and South Carolina exempted women from payment of the tax, while Georgia did not require women to pay it unless they registered to vote. In other Southern states, the tax was due cumulatively for each year someone had been eligible to vote.

Featured picture

Gina Krog (20 June 1847 – 14 April 1916) was a Norwegian suffragist, teacher, liberal politician, writer and editor. She played a central role in the Norwegian women's movement from the 1880s until her death, notably as a leading campaigner for women's right to vote. In 1884, Krog co-founded the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights with liberal MP Hagbart Berner. Over the next two decades, Krog co-founded the Women's Voting Association, the National Association for Women's Suffrage, and the Norwegian National Women's Council, spearheading the presentation of women's suffrage proposals to the Storting (the Norwegian parliament). She was an early member of the Liberal Party and served as a deputy member of its national board.

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

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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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  The governor of Utah is the head of government of Utah and the commander-in-chief of its military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws as well as the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Utah Legislature. The governor may also convene the legislature on "extraordinary occasions".
  
  The self-proclaimed State of Deseret, precursor to the organization of the Utah Territory, had only one governor, Brigham Young. Utah Territory had 15 territorial governors from its organization in 1850 until the formation of the state of Utah in 1896, appointed by the President of the United States. John W. Dawson had the shortest term of only three weeks and Brigham Young, the first territorial governor, had the longest term at seven years. (Full article...)
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  Great Seal of the State of Delaware

  
  The governor of Delaware (known as the president of Delaware from 1776 to 1792) is the head of government of Delaware 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 Delaware Legislature, to convene the legislature, and to grant pardons, except in cases of impeachment, and only with the recommendation of the Board of Pardons.
  
  There have been 71 people who have served as governor, over 74 distinct terms. Three (Joseph Haslet, Charles Polk Jr. and Elbert N. Carvel) served non-consecutive terms. Additionally, Henry Molleston was elected, but died before he could take office. Only four governors have been elected to two consecutive terms, with the longest-serving being Ruth Ann Minner, who was elected twice after succeeding to the office, serving a total of just over eight years. The shortest term is that of Dale E. Wolf, who served 18 days following his predecessor's resignation; David P. Buckson served 19 days under similar circumstances. The current governor is Democrat John Carney, who took office on January 17, 2017. (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 official seal of the vice-president of the Philippines

  
  The vice president of the Philippines is the second-highest executive official in the government of the Philippines. The vice president is directly elected by qualified voters to a six-year term, and may be a cabinet member without confirmation from the Commission on Appointments and is first in the presidential line of succession. There have been 15 vice presidents. (Full article...)
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  This is a list of the 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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  There are 62 counties in the state of New York.
  
  The first 12 were created immediately after the British took over the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam; two of these counties were later abolished, their land going to Massachusetts. The newest is Bronx County, created in 1914 from the portions of New York City that had been annexed from Westchester County in the late 19th century and added to New York County. New York's counties are named for various Native American words; British provinces, counties, cities, and royalty; early American statesmen and military personnel; and New York State politicians. (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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  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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  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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  The leader of the Official Opposition (French: chef de l'Opposition officielle), formally known as the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition (French: chef de la loyale opposition de Sa Majesté), is the politician who leads the Official Opposition in Canada, typically the leader of the party possessing the most seats in the House of Commons that is not the governing party or part of the governing coalition.
  
  Pierre Poilievre has been the Leader of the Opposition since September 10, 2022, when he was elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, following the 2022 leadership election. He succeeded Candice Bergen, who had served as the party's interim leader from February 2, 2022. (Full article...)
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  The premier of the Northwest Territories is a title given to the head of government in the Northwest Territories of Canada when the territory is using an elected system of responsible government. Throughout its history, the territory has been governed by various combinations of locally elected governments and administrators appointed by the government of Canada.
  
  Upon creation, the Northwest Territories were governed by the lieutenant governor of Manitoba, a representative of the federal government and Queen Victoria, for the newly created province of Manitoba. Six years later in 1876, the territory was given its own lieutenant governor, separate from that of Manitoba. These lieutenant governors presided over an assembly with members both elected and appointed by the federal government. Before 1888, the territory required electoral districts with an area of 3,000 km² (1,200 sq mi) to contain at least 1,000 people. When this quota was met, a by-election was held to elect a member to replace an appointed one. (Full article...)
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  Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie (c. 1791)

  
  The lifetime of British writer, philosopher, and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) encompassed most of the second half of the eighteenth century, a time of great political and social upheaval throughout Europe and America: political reform movements in Britain gained strength, the American colonists successfully rebelled, and the French Revolution erupted. Wollstonecraft experienced only the headiest of these days, not living to see the end of the democratic revolution when Napoleon crowned himself emperor. Although Britain was still revelling in its mid-century imperial conquests and its triumph in the Seven Years' War, it was the French revolution that defined Wollstonecraft's generation. As poet Robert Southey later wrote: "few persons but those who have lived in it can conceive or comprehend what the memory of the French Revolution was, nor what a visionary world seemed to open upon those who were just entering it. Old things seemed passing away, and nothing was dreamt of but the regeneration of the human race."
  
  Part of what made reform possible in Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century was the dramatic increase in publishing; books, periodicals, and pamphlets became much more widely available than they had been just a few decades earlier. This increase in available printed material helped facilitate the rise of the British middle class. Reacting against what they viewed as aristocratic decadence, the new professional middle classes (made prosperous through British manufacturing and trade), offered their own ethical code: reason, meritocracy, self-reliance, religious toleration, free inquiry, free enterprise, and hard work. They set these values against what they perceived as the superstition and unreason of the poor and the prejudices, censorship, and self-indulgence of the rich. They also helped establish what has come to be called the "cult of domesticity", which solidified gender roles for men and women. This new vision of society rested on the writings of Scottish Enlightenment philosophers such as Adam Smith, who had developed a theory of social progress founded on sympathy and sensibility. A partial critique of the rationalist Enlightenment, these theories promoted a combination of reason and feeling that enabled women to enter the public sphere because of their keen moral sense. Wollstonecraft's writings stand at the nexus of all of these changes. Her educational works, such as her children's book Original Stories from Real Life (1788), helped inculcate middle-class values, and her two Vindications, A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), argue for the value of an educated, rational populace, specifically one that includes women. In her two novels, Mary: A Fiction and Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman, she explores the ramifications of sensibility for women. (Full article...)
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  The Norwegian Nobel Institute assists the Norwegian Nobel Committee in selecting recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize and in organising the annual award in Oslo.

  
  
  The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize annually "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and awarded by a committee of five people elected by the Parliament of Norway.
  
  Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma, and a monetary award prize (that has varied throughout the years). It is one of the five prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel (who died in 1896), awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. (Full article...)
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  David Eby has been premier of British Columbia since November 2022.

  
  
  The premier of British Columbia is the first minister for the Canadian province of British Columbia. The province was a British crown colony governed by the governors of British Columbia before joining Canadian Confederation in 1871. Since then, it has had a unicameral Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the premier is the leader of the party that controls the most seats in the legislative assembly. The premier is British Columbia's head of government, and the king of Canada is its head of state and is represented by the lieutenant governor of British Columbia. The premier picks a cabinet from the elected members to form the Executive Council of British Columbia and presides over that body.
  
  Members are first elected to the legislature during general elections. General elections must be conducted every four years from the date of the last election. An election may also take place if the governing party loses the confidence of the legislature by the defeat of a supply bill or tabling of a no-confidence motion. (Full article...)

Selected quote

Selected biography

John Robert Boyle, KC (February 1, 1870 or February 3, 1871 – February 15, 1936) was a Canadian politician and jurist who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, a cabinet minister in the Government of Alberta, and a judge on the Supreme Court of Alberta. Born in Ontario, he came west and eventually settled in Edmonton, where he practiced law. After a brief stint on Edmonton's first city council, he was elected in Alberta's inaugural provincial election as a Liberal. During the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal, he was a leader of the Liberal insurgency that forced Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford from office.

Did you know (auto-generated) -

• ... that the London Forum, a British far-right organization, was described by an anti-fascist magazine as "[bridging] the fascist and Tory right"?
• ... that the Democratic Society Party was the 25th political party to be banned in Turkey since 1962?
• ... that the Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos was blinded at the Theotokos Kosmosoteira monastery?
• ... that in a 2013 ranking compiled by the political editors of Verdens Gang, Astrid Gjertsen was rated the ninth-most important woman in Norwegian history?
• ... that the Citizens for Sanity political action committee, opposing "woke insanity", ran ads saying "vote progressive this November"?
• ... that prior to entering politics, Herbert Salvatierra led a troupe of carnival comparsas?

More did you know...

• ...that the Communist League of America was formed after some members of the Communist Party USA were expelled for Trotskyism?

• ...that politicians discuss the ways in which they and their families have suffered because of Oprahization?
• ...that Democratic and Republican plans for the 2012 United States federal budget both focus on deficit reduction, but differ in their changes to taxation, entitlement programs, and research funding?
• ...that Conservative Party candidate Bernard Trottier won a seat in the 41st Canadian Parliament by defeating the incumbent Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2011 federal election?

• ...that the Brown Dog affair, an Edwardian era vivisection controversy, led to massive riots?

• ...that on the death of Governor George Madison, Kentucky lieutenant governor Gabriel Slaughter was refused the title of "governor" by a hostile state legislature and was referred to as "acting governor" for the duration of his three-year administration?

In this month

• June 28, 2004 - Canadian federal elections occur; the Liberal party loses its absolute majority.

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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  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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  Karl Marx and his theory of Communism developed along 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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  World map with the concepts of Heartland and Rimland applied (from Geopolitics)

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  Protesters in support of American whistleblower Edward Snowden, Berlin, Germany, 30 August 2014 (from Political corruption)

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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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  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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  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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  A map depicting Corruption Perceptions Index in the world in 2022; a higher score indicates lower levels of 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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  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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  Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders campaigning for extended US medicare coverage in 2017. (from Health politics)

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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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  American lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation. (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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  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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  Candlelight protest against South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul, South Korea, 7 January 2017 (from Political corruption)

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  Division of the world according to Haushofer's Pan-Regions Doctrine (from Geopolitics)

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  The logo and slogan for change.org (from Politics and technology)

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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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  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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  Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Croatian Spring participant; Europe's first female prime minister (from Civil and political rights)

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  Saudi Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi Government agents after he criticised them many times. (from Political corruption)

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  United Nations Convention against Corruption (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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  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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  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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  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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