Portal:Politics

Politics are the process and method of gaining or maintaining support for public or common action, the conduct of decision-making for groups. Although it is usually applied to governments, political behavior is also observed in corporate, academic, religious, and other institutions. Political science is the field devoted to studying political behavior and examining the acquisition and application of power, or the ability to impose one's will on another. Its practitioners are known as political scientists. Political scientists look at elections, public opinion, institutional activities (how legislatures act, the relative importance of various sources of political power), the ideologies behind various politicians and interest groups, how politicians achieve and wield their influence, and so on.

More about politics…

The Latin American Boom (Boom latinoamericano) was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively youthful Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. The Boom is most closely associated with Julio Cortázar of Argentina, Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, and Gabriel García Márquez of Colombia; but it also brought fame to older writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda and Ernesto Sábato. Influenced by European and North American Modernism, but also by the Latin American Vanguardia movement, these writers challenged the established conventions of Latin American literature. Their work is experimental and, owing to the political climate of the Latin America of the 1960s, often very political. "It is no exaggeration", critic Gerald Martin writes, "to state that if the Southern continent was known for two things above all others in the 1960s, these were, first and foremost, the Cuban Revolution and its impact both on Latin America and the Third World generally, and secondly, the Boom in Latin American fiction, whose rise and fall coincided with the rise and fall of liberal perceptions of Cuba between 1959 and 1971." The sudden success of the Boom authors was in large part because their works were among the first Latin American novels to be published in Europe, by publishing houses such as Barcelona's avant-garde Seix Barral in Spain. Indeed, Frederick M. Nunn writes that "Latin American novelists became world famous through their writing and their advocacy of political and social action, and because many of them had the good fortune to reach markets and audiences beyond Latin America through translation and travel—and sometimes through exile."

The western (front) side of the United States Capitol. The U.S. Capitol serves as the location for Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. It is located in Washington, D.C., on top of Capitol Hill at the east end of the National Mall. The building is marked by its central dome above a rotunda and two wings. It is an exemplar of the Neoclassical architecture style.

• ...that the Japanese Farmer-Labour Party was banned just a few hours after its foundation in 1925?
• ...that Glenn Beck introduced a "Black-Robed Regiment" of pastors from various denominations during his Restoring Honor rally in 2010, and launched a news website called The Blaze three days later?
• ...that the book Targeted Killing in International Law argues support in the Western world for targeted killing increased following the September 11 attacks?

• ...that Nazi scientists claimed to have trained a dog to call "Adolf Hitler" as "Mein Führer"?
• ...that for many years, the Russian Soviet Republic did not have its Communist Party?
• ...that the World War II idea of Polish-Czechoslovakian confederation was eventually discarded by the Czechs, whose leader chose instead to believe in the Soviet Union promises of alliance?

• ...that the New Zealand McGillicuddy Serious Party wanted to return to a medieval lifestyle and establish a monarchy based on the Scottish Jacobite line?

• ...that tiao-kuai is the quasi-federal administration system in China?

Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean diplomat and the current Secretary-General of the United Nations. Before becoming Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated college, accepting his first post in New Delhi. In the foreign ministry he established a reputation for modesty and competence. Ban was the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea from January 2004 to November 2006. In February 2006 he began to campaign for the office of Secretary-General. Ban was initially considered to be a long shot for the office. As foreign minister of Korea, however, he was able to travel to all of the countries that were members of the United Nations Security Council, a manoeuvre that turned him into the campaign's front runner. On October 13 2006, he was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations General Assembly. On January 1, 2007, he succeeded Kofi Annan, and passed several major reforms regarding peacekeeping and UN employment practices. Diplomatically, Ban has taken particularly strong views on global warming, pressing the issue repeatedly with U.S. President George W. Bush, and Darfur, where he helped persuade Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to allow peacekeeping troops to enter Sudan.

Wikinews on Politics and conflicts

• May 25: Victorian premier apologises for history of criminalisation of homosexuality
• May 21: Lord Howard and Alistair Darling address Confederation of British Industry on EU referendum
• May 19: Besieged Syrian city of Deir Ezzour suffers multi-day attack
• May 17: Telegraph publishes letter from 300 business leaders who back UK leaving EU
• May 16: Wikinews interviews Augustus Sol Invictus, Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate
• May 15: Islamic State claims attack which killed 25 police recruits in Yemen
• May 13: IMF says UK leaving the EU will lead to negative economic consequences
• May 12: Brazilian Senate vote to suspend President Rousseff
• May 12: Italian parliament votes to back same-sex civil unions
• May 10: Political columnist apologises after mocking disabled broadcaster Andrew Marr

Other current events:

• Iran's nuclear program
• United States debt-ceiling crisis
• European sovereign-debt crisis

	70x45px
Anarchism	Barack Obama	British politics	Canadian politics

Communism	Conservatism	Criminal justice	European Union

Freedom of speech	Genocide	Government of India	Government of Pakistan

Government of the United States	Human rights	Law	Liberalism

	70x45px
Libertarianism	NATO	Political science	Presidency of the Philippines

SAARC	Social and political philosophy	Socialism	United Nations

War	Geert Wilders	Right-wing populism

The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject:

• What are portals?
• List of portals
• Featured portals