right|thumb|250px|The House of Representatives Chamber of the Parliament of Australia in Canberra.

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modelled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of ''parler'' (to speak): a ''parlement'' is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which such a discussion took place. It acquired its modern meaning as it came to be used for the body of people (in an institutional sense) who would meet to discuss matters of state.

Parliament government

Legislatures called parliaments operate under a parliamentary system of government in which the executive is constitutionally answerable to the parliament. This can be contrasted with a presidential system, on the model of the United States' congressional system, which operate under a stricter separation of powers whereby the executive does not form part of, nor is appointed by, the parliamentary or legislative body.

Typically, congresses do not select or dismiss heads of governments, and governments cannot request an early dissolution as may be the case for parliaments. Some states have a semi-presidential system which combines a powerful president with an executive responsible to parliament.

Parliaments may consist of ''chambers'' or ''houses'', and are usually either bicameral or unicameral although more complex models exist, or have existed (''see Tricameralism).

A nation's prime minister ("P.M") is almost always the leader of the majority party in the lower house of parliament, but only holds his or her office as long as the "confidence of the house" is maintained. If members of the lower house lose faith in the leader for whatever reason, they can call a vote of no confidence and force the PM to resign.

This can be particularly dangerous to a government when the distribution of seats is relatively even, in which case a new election is often called shortly thereafter. However, in case of general discontent with the head of government, his replacement can be made very smoothly without all the complications that it represents in the case of a presidential system.

Proto-parliamentarian institutions

:''See History of Parliamentarism''

Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders. This is called tribalism. Some scholars suggest that in ancient Mesopotamia there was a primitive democratic government where the kings were assessed by council. The same has been said about ancient India, where some form of deliberative assemblies existed, and therefore there was some form of democracy. However, these claims are not accepted by most scholars, who see these forms of government as oligarchies.

Ancient Athens was the cradle of democracy. The Athenian assembly (ἐκκλησία ekklesia) was the most important institution, and every citizen could take part in the discussions. However, Athenian democracy was not representative, but rather direct, and therefore the ekklesia was different from the parliamentary system.

The Roman republic had legislative assemblies, who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital punishment, the declaration of war and peace, and the creation (or dissolution) of alliances. The Roman Senate controlled money, administration, and the details of foreign policy.

Some Muslim scholars argue that the Islamic shura (a method of taking decisions in Islamic societies) is analogous to the parliament. However, many other disagree, highlighting some fundamental differences between the shura system and the parliamentary system.

In Anglo-Saxon England,the Witenagamot was an important political institution. The name derives from the Old English ƿitena ȝemōt, or witena gemōt, for "meeting of wise men". The first recorded act of a witenagemot was the law code issued by King Æthelberht of Kent ca. 600, the earliest document which survives in sustained Old English prose; however, the witan was certainly in existence long before this time. The Witan, along with the folkmoots(local assemblies), is an important ancestor of the modern English parliament.

England

England has long had a tradition of a body of men who would assist and advise the King on important matters. Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, there was an advisory council, the Witenagemot ("meeting of wise men"). As part of the Norman Conquest of England, the new King, William I, did away with the Witenagemot, replacing it with a Curia Regis ("King's Council"). Membership of the Curia was largely restricted to the tenants in chief, the few nobles who "rented" great estates directly from the King, along with certain senior ecclesiastics.

Most historians date the emergence of a parliament with some degree of power to which the throne had to defer no later than the rule of Edward I. (Kaeuper, Richard W., War Justice and Public Order: England and France in the Later Middle Ages, Oxford U. Press, 1988.) Like previous kings, Edward called leading nobles and church leaders to discuss government matters, especially finance. A meeting in 1295 became known as the Model Parliament because it set the pattern for later Parliaments. The significant difference between the Model Parliament and the earlier Curia Regis was the addition of the Commons, that is, elected representatives of rural landowners and of townsmen. In 1307, Edward I agreed not to collect certain taxes without consent of the realm. He also enlarged the court system.

William of Normandy brought to England the feudal system of his native Normandy, and sought the advice of the curia regis, before making laws. This body is the origin from which the Parliament, the higher courts of law, the Privy Council and Cabinet have sprung. Of these, the legislature is formally the High Court of Parliament; judges sit in the Supreme Court of Judicature; and only the executive government is no longer conducted in a royal court.

The tenants-in-chief often struggled with their spiritual counterparts and with the King for power. In 1215, they secured from John the Magna Carta, which established that the King may not levy or collect any taxes (except the feudal taxes to which they were hitherto accustomed), save with the consent of a council. It was also established that the most important tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics be summoned to the council by personal writs from the Sovereign, and that all others be summoned to the council by general writs from the sheriffs of their counties. Modern government has its origins in the Curia Regis; parliament descends from the Great Council later known as the ''parliamentum'' established by Magna Carta.

The English Parliaments during the reign of King Henry III in the 13th century incorporated elected representation from shires and towns, and is considered the forerunner of the modern parliament. In 1265, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, who was in rebellion against Henry III, summoned a parliament of his supporters without royal authorisation. The archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls and barons were summoned, as were two knights from each shire and two burgesses from each borough. Knights had been summoned to previous councils, but the representation of the boroughs was unprecedented. De Montfort's scheme of representation and election was formally adopted by Edward I in the so-called "Model Parliament" of 1295. At first, each estate debated independently; by the reign of Edward III, however, Parliament had been separated into two Houses and was recognisably assuming its modern form.

Parliament under Henry VIII and Edward VI

The purpose and structure of parliament in Tudor England underwent a significant transformation under the reign of Henry VIII. Originally its methods were primarily medieval and the monarch still had inarguable dominion over the decisions. According to Elton, it was Cromwell who then initiated the beginnings of change within parliament.

The Reformation Acts gave parliament unlimited power over the country, and authority over every matter, be it social, economic, political or even religious; it legalised the Reformation, officially and indisputably. The King had to rule through the council, not over it, and there had to be mutual agreement when creating or passing laws, changing religions or adjusting taxes. The monarch no longer had sole control over the country. For instance, during the later years of Mary, the parliament originally rejected Mary's intent to revive Catholicism in the realm, and even later, denied Elizabeth her request for marriage. If parliament had had this power before Cromwell, during Wolsey's reign as Secretary, the reformation might never have happened as the king would have had to gain the consent of all parliament members before so drastically changing the country's religious laws.

The effectiveness of parliament considerably increased after Cromwell's adjustments. It gave the country an unprecedented stability when dealing with dynastic complications, such as a minor king or the lack of a suitable heir. When an acceptable monarch was not available, the changes in government meant that the country could still run efficiently through the parliament, without having to succumb to civil war. Management and organisation was also improved and parliamentary procedure was documented, statutes printed. The fact that the monarch was suddenly dependent on another political body meant that decisions were more thoroughly considered and the rash whims of Henry VIII were trivialised and reduced. He could not establish supremacy by proclamation; he needed the parliament to enforce statute, to add felonies and treasons. One of the main liberties of parliament was its freedom of speech; Henry allowed anything to be spoken openly within parliament and the speakers were not allowed to be arrested, a fact which they exploited incessantly. Despite this fact however, parliament held very little objection to the desires of the monarch, and under Henry and Edward's reign it complied willingly to the majority of the Kings' decisions.

As Williams described it, "King and parliament were not separate entities, but a single body, of which the monarch was the senior partner and the Lords and the Commons the lesser, but still essential, members."

The Parliament of England met until the Acts of Union merged the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England, creating the new Parliament of Great Britain in 1707.

France

Originally, there was only the Parliament of Paris, born out of the Curia Regis in 1307, and located inside the medieval royal palace, now the Paris Hall of Justice. The jurisdiction of the ''Parliament'' of Paris covered the entire kingdom. In the thirteenth century, judicial functions were added. In 1443, following the turmoil of the Hundred Years' War, King Charles VII of France granted Languedoc its own ''parliament'' by establishing the ''Parliament'' of Toulouse, the first ''parliament'' outside of Paris, whose jurisdiction extended over the most part of southern France. From 1443 until the French Revolution several other ''parliaments'' were created in some provinces of France (Grenoble, Bordeaux).

All the ''parliaments'' could issue regulatory decrees for the application of royal edicts or of customary practices; they could also refuse to register laws that they judged contrary to fundamental law or simply as being untimely. Parliamentary power in France was suppressed more so than in England as a result of absolutism, and parliaments were eventually overshadowed by the larger Estates General, up until the French Revolution, when the National Assembly became the lower house of France's bicameral legislature.

Scotland

From the 10th century the Kingdom of Alba was ruled by chiefs (''toisechs'') and subkings (''mormaers'') under the suzerainty, real or nominal, of a High King. Popular assemblies, as in Ireland, were involved in law-making, and sometimes in king-making, although the introduction of tanistry—naming a successor in the lifetime of a king—made the second less than common. These early assemblies cannot be considered "parliaments" in the later sense of the word, and were entirely separate from the later, Norman-influenced, institution.

The Parliament of Scotland evolved during the Middle Ages from the King's Council of Bishops and Earls. The unicameral parliament is first found on record, referred to as a ''colloquium'', in 1235 at Kirkliston (a village now in Edinburgh).

By the early fourteenth century the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, and from 1326 burgh commissioners attended. Consisting of the Three Estates; of clerics, lay tenants-in-chief and burgh commissioners sitting in a single chamber, the Scottish parliament acquired significant powers over particular issues. Most obviously it was needed for consent for taxation (although taxation was only raised irregularly in Scotland in the medieval period), but it also had a strong influence over justice, foreign policy, war, and all manner of other legislation, whether political, ecclesiastical, social or economic. Parliamentary business was also carried out by "sister" institutions, before c. 1500 by General Council and thereafter by the Convention of Estates. These could carry out much business also dealt with by Parliament — taxation, legislation and policy-making — but lacked the ultimate authority of a full parliament.

The parliament, which is also referred to as the Estates of Scotland, the Three Estates, the Scots Parliament or the auld Scots Parliament (Eng: ''old''), met until the Acts of Union merged the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England, creating the new Parliament of Great Britain in 1707. After a referendum on devolution it was reconvened on 1 July 1999.

Poland

According to the ''Chronicles'' of Gallus Anonymus, the first legendary Polish ruler, Siemowit, who began the Piast Dynasty, was chosen by a ''wiec''. The ''veche'' (Russian: вече, Polish: wiec) was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries, and in late medieval period, a parliament. The idea of the ''wiec'' led in 1182 to the development of the Polish parliament, the ''Sejm''.

The term "sejm" comes from an old Polish expression denoting a meeting of the populace. The power of early sejms grew between 1146–1295, when the power of individual rulers waned and various councils and wiece grew stronger. The history of the national Sejm dates back to 1182. Since the 14th century irregular sejms (described in various Latin sources as ''contentio generalis, conventio magna, conventio solemna, parlamentum, parlamentum generale, dieta'' or Polish ''sejm walny'') have been called by Polish kings. From 1374, the king had to receive sejm permission to raise taxes. The General Sejm (Polish ''Sejm Generalny'' or ''Sejm Walny''), first convoked by the king John I Olbracht in 1493 near Piotrków, evolved from earlier regional and provincial meetings (''sejmiks''). It followed most closely the ''sejmik generally'', which arose from the 1454 Nieszawa Statutes, granted to the szlachta (nobles) by King Casimir IV the Jagiellonian. From 1493 forward, indirect elections were repeated every two years. With the development of the unique Polish Golden Liberty the Sejm's powers increased.

The Commonwealth's general parliament consisted of three estates: the King of Poland (who also acted as the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Russia/Ruthenia, Prussia, Mazovia, etc.), the Senat (consisting of Ministers, Palatines, Castellans and Bishops) and the Chamber of Envoys—circa 170 nobles (szlachta) acting on behalf of their Lands and sent by Land Parliaments. Also representatives of selected cities but without any voting powers. Since 1573 at a royal election all peers of the Commonwealth could participate in the Parliament and become the King's electors.

Nordic and Germanic development

A ''thing'' or ''ting'' (Old Norse and Icelandic: ''þing''; other modern Scandinavian: ''ting'', ''ding'' in Dutch) was the governing assembly in Germanic societies, made up of the free men of the community and presided by lawspeakers. Today the term lives on in the official names of national legislatures, political and judicial institutions in the North-Germanic countries. In the Yorkshire and former Danelaw areas of England, which were subject to much Norse invasion and settlement, the wapentake was another name for the same institution.

The thing was the assembly of the free men of a country, province or a hundred ''(hundare/härad/herred)''. There were consequently, hierarchies of things, so that the local things were represented at the thing for a larger area, for a province or land. At the thing, disputes were solved and political decisions were made. The place for the thing was often also the place for public religious rites and for commerce.

The thing met at regular intervals, legislated, elected chieftains and kings, and judged according to the law, which was memorised and recited by the "law speaker" (the judge).

Later national diets with chambers for different estates developed, e.g. in Sweden and in Finland (which was part of Sweden until 1809), each with a House of Knights for the nobility. In both these countries, the national parliaments are now called riksdag (in Finland also ''eduskunta''), a word used since the Middle Ages and equivalent of the German word Reichstag.

Russia

The name of the parliament of Russian Federation is the Federal Assembly of Russia. The term for its lower house, Duma (which is better known than the Federal Assembly itself, and is often mistaken for the entirety of the parliament) comes from the Russian word ''думать'' (''dumat''), "to think". The Boyar Duma was an advisory council to the grand princes and tsars of Muscovy. The Duma was discontinued by Peter the Great, who transferred its functions to the Governing Senate in 1711.

Novgorod and Pskov

The ''veche'' was the highest legislature and judicial authority in the republic of Novgorod until 1478. In its sister state, Pskov, a separate veche operated until 1510.

Since the Novgorod revolution of 1137 ousted the ruling grand prince, the veche became the supreme state authority. After the reforms of 1410, the veche was restructured on a model similar to that of Venice, becoming the Commons chamber of the parliament. Аn upper Senate-like Council of Lords was also created, with title membership for all former city magistrates. Some sources indicate that veche membership may have became full-time, and parliament deputies were now called ''vechniks''. It is recounted that the Novgorod assembly could be summoned by anyone who rung the veche bell, although it is more likely that the common procedure was more complex. This bell was a symbol of republican sovereignty and independence. The whole population of the city—boyars, merchants, and common citizens—then gathered at Yaroslav's Court. Separate assemblies could be held in the districts of Novgorod. In Pskov the veche assembled in the court of the Trinity cathedral.

Spain

Although there are documented councils held in 873, 1020, 1050 and 1063, there was no representation of commoners. What is considered to be the first Spanish Parliament (with the presence of commoners), Cortes – was held in the Kingdom of León in 1188. Prelates, nobles and commoners met separately in the three estates of the Cortes. In this meeting new laws were approved to protect commoners against the arbitrarities of nobles, prelates and the king. This important set of laws is known as the "Carta Magna Leonesa"

Following this event, new Cortes would appear in the other different territories that would make up Spain: Catalonia in 1218, the Kingdom of Castile in 1250, Kingdom of Aragon in 1274, Kingdom of Valencia in 1283 and Kingdom of Navarre in 1300.

After the union of the Kingdoms of Leon and Castile under the Crown of Castile, their Cortes were united as well in 1258. The Castilian Cortes had representatives from Burgos, Toledo, León, Seville, Córdoba, Murcia, Jaén, Zamora, Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca, Cuenca, Toro, Valladolid, Soria, Madrid, Guadalajara and Granada (after 1492). The Cortes' assent was required to pass new taxes, and could also advise the king on other matters. The comunero rebels intended a stronger role for the Cortes, but were defeated by the forces of Habsburg Emperor Charles V in 1521. The Cortes maintained some power, however, though it became more of a consultative entity. However, by the time of King Philip II, Charles's son, the Castilian Cortes had come under functionally complete royal control, with its delegates dependent on the Crown for their income.

The Cortes of the Crown of Aragon kingdoms retained their power to control the king's spending with regard to the finances of those kingdoms. But after the War of the Spanish Succession and the arrival of another royal house – the Bourbons – in 1714 with Philip V, their Cortes were suppressed (as were those of Aragon and Valencia in 1707, Catalonia and Balearic islands in 1714).

The Roman Catholic Church

"Conciliarism" or the "conciliar movement", was a reform movement in the 14th and 15th century Roman Catholic Church which held that final authority in spiritual matters resided with the Roman Church as corporation of Christians, embodied by a general church council, not with the pope. In effect, the movement sought – ultimately, in vain – to create an All-Catholic Parliament. Its struggle with the Papacy had many points in common with the struggle of parliaments in specific countries against the authority of Kings and other secular rulers.

Parliaments of the United Kingdom

The British Parliament is often referred to as the ''Mother of Parliaments'' (in fact a misquotation of John Bright, who remarked in 1865 that "England is the Mother of Parliaments") because the British Parliament has been the model for most other parliamentary systems, and its Acts have created many other parliaments. Many nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British "three-tier" model. Most countries in Europe and the Commonwealth have similarly organised parliaments with a largely ceremonial head of state who formally opens and closes parliament, a large elected lower house and a smaller, upper house.

The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 by the Acts of Union that replaced the former parliaments of England and Scotland. A further union in 1801 united the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland into a Parliament of the United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom, Parliament consists of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Monarch. The House of Commons is composed of 650 members who are directly elected by British and Northern Irish citizens to represent single-member constituencies. The leader of a Party that wins more than half the seats or less than half but can count on support of smaller parties to achieve enough support to pass law is invited by the Queen to form a government. Legally the Queen is the head of government and no business in Parliament can be taken without her authority. The House of Lords is a body of long-serving, unelected members: 92 of whom inherit their titles (and of whom 90 are elected internally by members of the House to lifetime seats), 26 bishops while they remain in office, and 588 of whom have been appointed to lifetime seats.

Legislation can originate from either the Lords or the Commons. It is voted on in several distinct stages, called readings, in each house. First reading is merely a formality. Second reading is where the bill as a whole is considered. Third reading is detailed consideration of clauses of the bill.

In addition to the three readings a bill also goes through a committee stage where it is considered in great detail. Once the bill has been passed by one house it goes to the other and essentially repeats the process. If after the two sets of readings there are disagreements between the versions that the two houses passed it is returned to the first house for consideration of the amendments made by the second. If it passes through the amendment stage Royal Assent is granted and the bill becomes law as an Act of Parliament.

The House of Lords is the less powerful of the two houses as a result of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. These Acts removed the veto power of the Lords over a great deal of legislation. If a bill is certified by the Speaker of the House of Commons as a money bill (i.e. acts raising taxes and similar) then the Lords can only block it for a month. If an ordinary bill originates in the Commons the Lords can only block it for a maximum of one session of Parliament. The exceptions to this rule are things like bills to prolong the life of a Parliament beyond five years.

In addition to functioning as the second chamber of Parliament, the House of Lords was also the final court of appeal for much of the law of the United Kingdom—a combination of judicial and legislative function that recalls its origin in the Curia Regis. This changed in October 2009 when the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom opened and acquired the former jurisdiction of the House of Lords.

Since 1998, there has been a Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, which is a national, unicameral legislature for Scotland. However, the Scottish Parliament does not have complete power over Scottish Politics, as it only holds the powers which were devolved to it by Westminster in 1997. It cannot legislate on defence issues, currency, or national taxation (e.g. VAT, or Income Tax).

List of parliaments

Contemporary national parliaments

:''List is not exhaustive''

Parliaments of the European Union

European Parliament

Parliament of Austria

Belgian Federal Parliament

National Assembly of Bulgaria

House of Representatives of Cyprus

Parliament of the Czech Republic

Parliament of Denmark

Parliament of Estonia

Parliament of Finland

Parliament of France (''Parlement'')

Parliament of Germany – The Bundestag

Hellenic Parliament (Greece)

Parliamnet of Hungary (''Országgyűlés'')

Parliament of Ireland – the Oireachtas

Parliament of Italy (''Parlamento Italiano'')

Parliament of Latvia

Parliament of Lithuania

Parliament of Luxembourg

Parliament of Malta

Parliament of the Netherlands

National Assembly of the Republic of Poland

Assembleia da República (Portugal)

Parliament of Romania (consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate)

National Council of the Slovak Republic

Slovenian Parliament

Cortes Generales of Spain

Parliament of Sweden

Parliament of the United Kingdom

Others

Parliament of Albania

Croatian Parliament

Parliament of Australia

:* The federal (Commonwealth) government of Australia has a bicameral parliament, and each of Australia's six states has a bicameral parliament except for Queensland, which has a unicameral parliament.

Parliament of Bangladesh – Jatiyo Sangshad

Parliament of Barbados

Parliament of Canada

:* The federal government of Canada has a bicameral parliament, and each of Canada's 10 provinces has a unicameral parliament.

Parliament of the Faroe Islands (''Løgtingið'')

Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan)

Parliament of the Fiji Islands

Parliament of Iceland (The Icelandic Althing and the Manx Tynwald share the claim of the oldest parliaments in the world.)

Parliament of India consisting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha

Parliament of Iran

Council of Representatives of Iraq

National Diet of Japan

Parliament of Lebanon

Parliament of the Isle of Man – Tynwald (Manx: ''Tinvaal'') (The Icelandic Althing and the Manx Tynwald share the claim of the oldest parliaments in the world.)

Parliament of Israel – The Knesset

Parliament of Malaysia

Parliament of Montenegro

Parliament of Morocco

Parliament of Nauru

Parliament of New Zealand

Parliament of Norway (''Storting'')

Parliament of Pakistan

National Assembly of Serbia (''Narodna Skupština'')

National Assembly of Thailand

National Assembly of Wales

National People's Congress

:* Legislative Council of Hong Kong

Parliament of Singapore

Parliament of South Africa

Spanish Cortes

Parliament of Sri Lanka

Federal Assembly of Switzerland (''Bundesversammlung'', ''Assemblée fédérale'', ''Assemblea federale'')

Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago

Parliament of Nepal (recently reorganised)

Scottish Parliament

Sapmi Parliament

Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration8*

Parliament of Ukraine

Republic of Zimbabwe || Parliament

Contemporary supranational parliaments

:''List is not exhaustive''

Pan-African Parliament

Central American Parliament

Latin American Parliament

European Parliament

Equivalent national legislatures

Majlis, e.g. in Iran

in Afghanistan: Wolesi Jirga (elected, legislative lower house) and Meshrano Jirga (mainly advisory, indirect representation); in special cases, e.g. as constituent assembly, a Loya Jirga

in Indonesia: People's Consultative Assembly, consists of People's Representative Council (elected, legislative lower house) and Regional Representative Council (elected, legislative upper house with limited powers)

Defunct

National Assembly of the Republic of China (1913–2005)

Parliament of Ireland (1297–1801)

Parliament of Southern Ireland (1921–1922)

Parliament of Northern Ireland (1921–1973)

People's Parliament (1940s)

Silesian Parliament (1922–1945)

Subnational parliamentary government

Canada

''See: Legislative Assemblies of Canadian provinces and territories

Australia

''See: Parliaments of the Australian states and territories

Belgium

In the federal (bicameral) kingdom of Belgium, there is a curious asymmetrical constellation serving as directly elected legislatures for three "territorial" ''regions''—Flanders (Dutch), Brussels (bilingual, certain peculiarities of competence, also the only region not comprising any of the 10 provinces) and Wallonia (French)—and three cultural ''communities''—Flemish (Dutch, competent in Flanders and for the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Brussels), Francophone (French, for Wallonia and for Francophones in Brussels) and German (for speakers of that language in a few designated municipalities in the east of the Walloon Region, living alongside Francophones but under two different regimes)

Vlaams Parliament ("Flemish Parliament"; originally styled Vlaamse Raad "Flemish Council") served both the Flemish Community (whose same it uses) and, in application of a Belgian constitutional option, of the region of Flanders (in all matters of regional competence, its decisions have no effect in Brussels)

Parliament of the French Community

parliament of the German Community

parliament of the Walloon region

parliament of the Brussels 'capital' region;

: within the capital's regional assembly however, there also exist two so-called ''Community Commissions'' (fixed numbers, not an automatic repartition of the regional assembly), a Dutch-speaking one and a Francophone one, for various matters split up by linguistic community but under Brussels' regional competence, and even 'joint community commissions' consisting of both for certain institutions that could be split up but are not.

Denmark

Parliament of Greenland

Løgting

Finland

Parliament of Åland

The Netherlands

States-Provincial

Norway

:''see subnational parliamentary system in Norway''

Spain

:See: List of Spanish regional legislatures

United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

Northern Ireland Assembly

Scottish Parliament

Welsh Assembly

See also

Congress

Delegated legislation

Global democracy

Government

History of democracy

Inter-Parliamentary Union

Legislation

Parliamentary procedure

Parliamentary records

Witan

Parliament of the World's Religions

References

See also

List of current presidents of assembly

External links

The International Association of Business and Parliament (IABP) Scottish Scheme

United Kingdom Parliament

Category:Legislatures Category:Westminster system Category:Old French loanwords Category:Forms of government

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name	Nick Boles
birth date	November 02, 1965
Office	Member of Parliament for Grantham and Stamford
term start	6 May 2010
majority	14,826 (28.1%)
predecessor	Quentin Davies
party	Conservative
nationality	British
alma mater	Magdalen College, OxfordJohn F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
footnotes	}}

Nicholas Edward Coleridge "Nick" Boles (born 2 November 1965) is a British Conservative Party politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Grantham and Stamford constituency in Lincolnshire. He was previously a Westminster City councillor and the Director of Policy Exchange, a think tank based in Westminster.

Career

Boles was a scholar at Winchester College before studying PPE at Magdalen College, Oxford, then winning a Kennedy Scholarship to study for a Master's in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

In 1995, he founded a small DIY supply small business—Longwall Holdings Limited—of which he is non-executive chairman, having served as the chief executive until 2000. In 1998, he was elected to Westminster City Council for the West End ward comprising Mayfair and Soho. He was chairman of the Housing Committee from 1999 to 2001, before stepping down in 2002. During much of this time, Boles flatshared with fellow Conservative activists Michael Gove and Ivan Massow. He and Gove, along with fellow Westminster Conservatives Ed Vaizey, David Cameron, George Osborne and Rachel Whetstone, are sometimes referred to as the 'Notting Hill Set' an influential group of relatively young Conservatives. He founded the think tank Policy Exchange in 2002 and served as the Director until leaving the organisation in 2007 to avoid a potential conflict of interest. During his tenure Policy Exchange became one of the most influential think tanks in the country, especially after David Cameron was elected Conservative Party leader in 2005.

Boles was the Conservative Party candidate for the Labour-held marginal seat of Hove for the May 2005 general election. He received some media attention during 2005 election by being an openly gay Conservative candidate for a winnable seat. However, Celia Barlow retained the seat for Labour. The share of the Conservative vote fell by 2% in this target marginal constituency. He was a candidate in the Conservative primary for the London mayoral election, 2008, but withdrew after being diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Boles recovered from his illness and in October 2007 was selected as the prospective Conservative candidate to contest Grantham and Stamford, the seat previously occupied by Quentin Davies, who switched allegiance from the Conservatives to Labour earlier in 2007. In May 2008, he was appointed as the Chief of Staff for the new Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson for a period of three months. In the later half of 2008 he started work on preparing the Conservatives for potential government by meeting senior civil servants to discuss how to implement Conservative policies if they won the next general election.

He was elected as member for Grantham and Stamford on 6 May 2010 with a majority of 14,826 votes. He was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Schools Minister, Nick Gibb in 2010.

Nick Boles is a member of the Cambridge-based think tank the Henry Jackson Society, which advocates a pro-active approach to the spread of liberal democracy in the world.

On Newsnight, 18 July 2011, Boles said the News Corporation phone hacking scandal was a "little local difficulty puffed up by Labour".

Personal

Boles is openly gay. In May 2011 Boles entered a civil partnership with an Israeli born person, as noted in his middle east parliament debate contribution on 16 May 2011.

Bibliography

. .

References

External links

Policy Exchange

Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs Category:UK MPs 2010– Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Category:Councillors in Westminster Category:Gay politicians Category:Old Wykehamists Category:Politics of Grantham Category:John F. Kennedy School of Government alumni Category:LGBT politicians from the United Kingdom

alt	A mid-twenties African American man wearing a sequined military jacket and dark sunglasses. He is walking while waving his right hand, which is adorned with a white glove. His left hand is bare.
background	solo_singer
birth name	Michael Joseph Jackson
alias	Michael Joe Jackson, MJ, King of Pop
birth date	August 29, 1958
birth place	Gary, Indiana, U.S.
death date	June 25, 2009
death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
instrument	vocals, guitar, drums, percussion, keyboards
genre	R&B;, pop, rock, soul, dance, funk, disco, new jack swing
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, composer, dancer, choreographer, record producer, actor, businessman, philanthropist
years active	1964–2009
label	Motown, Epic, Legacy
associated acts	The Jackson 5
relatives	Janet Jackson (sister)
website	130pxMichael Jackson's signature }}

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5, then the Jacksons in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.

In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style have influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B;, pop and rock artists.

Jackson's 1982 album ''Thriller'' is the best-selling album of all time. His other records, including ''Off the Wall'' (1979), ''Bad'' (1987), ''Dangerous'' (1991), and ''HIStory'' (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first (and currently only) dancer from the world of pop and rock 'n' roll. Some of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy Awards (as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award); 26 American Music Awards (more than any other artist, including the "Artist of the Century"); 13 number-one singles in the United States in his solo career (more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era); and the estimated sale of over 750 million records worldwide. Jackson won hundreds of awards, which have made him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of popular music.

Life and career

Early life and The Jackson 5 (1958–1975)

Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, the eighth of ten children in an African American working-class family who lived in a small 3-room house in Gary, Indiana, an industrial city near Chicago. His mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovah's Witness, and his father, Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson, was a steel mill worker who performed with an R&B; band called The Falcons. Jackson had three sisters: Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet, and five brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy. A sixth brother, Brandon, died shortly after birth.

Jackson had a troubled relationship with his father, Joe. In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B; Album, Favorite Soul/R&B; Male Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B; Single for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". That year, he also won Billboard Year-End for Top Black Artist and Top Black Album and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance, also for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". Jackson again won at the American Music Awards in 1981 for Favorite Soul/R&B; Album and Favorite Soul/R&B; Male Artist. Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt ''Off the Wall'' should have made a much bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release. In 1980, he secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37 percent of wholesale album profit.

''Thriller'' and ''Motown 25'' (1982–83)

In 1982, Jackson contributed the song "Someone In the Dark" to the storybook for the film ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''; the record won a Grammy for Best Recording for Children in 1984. In the same year he won another seven Grammys and eight American Music Awards (including the Award of Merit, the youngest artist to win it), making him the most awarded in one night for both award shows. The album topped the ''Billboard'' 200 chart for 37 weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. It was the first album to have seven ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top 10 singles, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It," and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." ''Thriller'' was certified for 29 million shipments by the RIAA, giving it Double Diamond status in the United States. The album won also another Grammy for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical in 1984, awarding Bruce Swedien for his work. Thanks to the ''Bad'' album, Bruce Swedien and Humberto Gatica won one Grammy in 1988 for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical and Michael Jackson won one Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form for "Leave Me Alone" in 1989. ''HIStory'' received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. However, the sales for ''Invincible'' were lower than those of his previous releases, due in part to a lack of promotion, no supporting world tour and the label dispute. The album also came out at a bad time for the music industry in general. Jackson rehearsed in Los Angeles in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of choreographer Kenny Ortega. Most of these rehearsals took place at the Staples Center, which was owned by AEG. With ''Thriller'', Christopher Connelly of ''Rolling Stone'' commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the songs "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". In "Billie Jean", Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered a child of hers. In "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" he argues against gossip and the media. "Beat It" decried gang violence in an homage to ''West Side Story'', and was Jackson's first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey. He also observed that the title track "Thriller" began Jackson's interest with the theme of the supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years. In 1985, Jackson co-wrote the charity anthem "We Are the World"; humanitarian themes later became a recurring theme in his lyrics and public persona.

In ''Bad'', Jackson's concept of the predatory lover can be seen on the rock song "Dirty Diana". The lead single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a traditional love ballad, while "Man in the Mirror" is an anthemic ballad of confession and resolution. "Smooth Criminal" was an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that ''Dangerous'' presents Jackson as a very paradoxical individual. He comments the album is more diverse than his previous ''Bad'', as it appeals to an urban audience while also attracting the middle class with anthems like "Heal the World". The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like "Jam" and "Remember the Time". The album is Jackson's first where social ills become a primary theme; "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", for example, protests against world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs. ''Dangerous'' contains sexually charged efforts such as the multifaceted love song, "In the Closet". The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire. The second half includes introspective, pop-gospel anthems such as "Will You Be There", "Heal the World" and "Keep the Faith"; these songs show Jackson opening up about various personal struggles and worries. In the ballad "Gone Too Soon", Jackson gives tribute to his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS.

''HIStory'' creates an atmosphere of paranoia. Its content focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through just prior to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock efforts "Scream" and "Tabloid Junkie", along with the R&B; ballad "You Are Not Alone", Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs much of his anger at the media. In the introspective ballad "Stranger in Moscow", Jackson laments over his "fall from grace", while songs like "Earth Song", "Childhood", "Little Susie" and "Smile" are all operatic pop pieces. In the track "D.S.", Jackson launched a verbal attack against Tom Sneddon. He describes Sneddon as an antisocial, white supremacist who wanted to "get my ass, dead or alive". Of the song, Sneddon said, "I have not—shall we say—done him the honor of listening to it, but I've been told that it ends with the sound of a gunshot". ''Invincible'' found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins. It is a record made up of urban soul like "Cry" and "The Lost Children", ballads such as "Speechless", "Break of Dawn" and "Butterflies" and mixes hip-hop, pop and R&B; in "2000 Watts", "Heartbreaker" and "Invincible".

Vocal style

Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed noticeably. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice descended from boy soprano to high tenor. Jackson first used a technique called the "vocal hiccup" in 1973, starting with the song "It's Too Late to Change the Time" from The Jackson 5's ''G.I.T.: Get It Together'' album. Jackson did not use the hiccup technique— somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping— fully until the recording of ''Off the Wall'': it can be seen in full force in the "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" promotional video. With the arrival of ''Off the Wall'' in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded. At the time, ''Rolling Stone'' compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly". 1982 saw the release of ''Thriller'', and ''Rolling Stone'' was of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a "fully adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness".

A distinctive deliberate mispronunciation of "come on", used frequently by Jackson, occasionally spelled "cha'mone" or "shamone", is also a staple in impressions and caricatures of him. The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the introspective album ''Dangerous''. ''The New York Times'' noted that on some tracks, "he gulps for breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing through clenched teeth" and he had a "wretched tone". When singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to "smooth" vocals. When commenting on ''Invincible'', ''Rolling Stone'' were of the opinion that—at the age of 43—Jackson still performed "exquisitely voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies". Nelson George summed up Jackson's vocals by stating "The grace, the aggression, the growling, the natural boyishness, the falsetto, the smoothness—that combination of elements mark him as a major vocalist".

Music videos and choreography

Referred to as the King of Music Videos, Steve Huey of Allmusic observed how Jackson transformed the music video into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial barriers. Before ''Thriller'', Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV, allegedly because he was African American. Pressure from CBS Records persuaded MTV to start showing "Billie Jean" and later "Beat It", leading to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, also helping other black music artists gain recognition. MTV employees deny any racism in their coverage, or pressure to change their stance. MTV maintains that they played rock music, regardless of race. The popularity of his videos on MTV helped to put the relatively young channel "on the map"; MTV's focus shifted in favor of pop and R&B.; His performance on ''Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever'' changed the scope of live stage show; "That Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean' is, in itself, not extraordinary, but the fact that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether the performance was live or lip-synced made no difference to the audience" thus creating an era in which artists re-create the spectacle of music video imagery on stage. Short films like ''Thriller'' largely remained unique to Jackson, while the group dance sequence in "Beat It" has frequently been imitated. The choreography in ''Thriller'' has become a part of global pop culture, replicated everywhere from Indian films to prisons in the Philippines. The ''Thriller'' short film marked an increase in scale for music videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever by the ''Guinness World Records''.

In the 19-minute music video for "Bad"—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest, torso and crotch. When asked by Oprah in the 1993 interview about why he grabbed his crotch, he replied, "I think it happens subliminally" and he described it as something that was not planned, but rather, as something that was compelled by the music. "Bad" garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics; ''Time'' magazine described it as "infamous". The video also featured Wesley Snipes; in the future Jackson's videos would often feature famous cameo roles.

}} ;Bibliography

George, Nelson (2004). ''Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection'' booklet. Sony BMG.

Further reading

External links

Michael Jackson Live: Best Pics – slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Michael Jackson at MTV

FBI file on Michael Jackson

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name	Rupert Murdoch
birth date	March 11, 1931
birth name	Keith Rupert Murdoch
birth place	Melbourne, Australia
nationality	United States
citizenship	United States (naturalized 1985)
occupation	Chairman and CEO ofNews Corporation
networth	US$7.6 billion (2011)
spouse	(divorced) (divorced)
children	Prudence Murdoch (b. 1958) Elisabeth Murdoch (b. 1968) Lachlan Murdoch (b. 1971)James Murdoch (b. 1972)Grace Murdoch (b. 2001) Chloe Murdoch (b. 2003)
parents	Keith Murdoch (1885–1952)Elisabeth Joy (née Greene, b. 1909)
relatives	Matthew Freud (son-in-law)Sarah Murdoch (daughter-in-law)
awards	Companion of the Order of Australia (1984).
footnotes	Australian citizenship lost in 1985 (under S17 of Australian Citizenship Act 1948) with acquisition of US nationality }}

Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian American business magnate. He is the Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate.

In 1953, Murdoch became managing director of News Limited, inherited from his father. He acquired troubled newspapers in Australia and New Zealand during the 1950s and '60s before expanding into the UK in 1969, taking over the ''News of the World'' and then the ''The Sun'', which he built into Britain's best selling daily. He moved to New York in 1974 and expanded into the US market, and in 1985 he became a US citizen. In 1981, he bought ''The Times'', his first British broadsheet. In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, he consolidated his UK printing operations in Wapping, causing bitter industrial disputes. His News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989) and ''The Wall Street Journal'' (2007). He formed BSkyB in 1990 and during the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000 Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries with a net worth of over $5 billion.

In July 2011 Murdoch faced allegations that his companies including the ''News of the World'', owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of private citizens. He also faces police and government investigations into bribery and corruption in the UK and FBI investigations in the US.

Murdoch has been listed three times in the ''Time'' 100 as among the most influential people in the world. He is ranked 13th most powerful person in the world in the 2010 ''Forbes''' The World's Most Powerful People list. With a personal net worth of US$7.6 billion, he was ranked 117th wealthiest person in the world in March 2011.

Early life

Rupert Murdoch was born in Melbourne, the only son of Sir Keith Murdoch (1885–1952) and Elisabeth Joy (née Greene) (b. 1909). Elisabeth is of English and Scottish ancestry. They were both born in Melbourne. Keith was a renowned war correspondent and later a regional newspaper magnate. He asked for a rendezvous after seeing her debutante photograph in one of his own newspapers and they married in 1928, when she was aged 19 and he 23 years her senior. In addition to Rupert, the couple had three daughters: Janet Calvert-Jones, Anne Kantor and Helen Handbury (1929–2004).

Rupert Murdoch attended the elite Geelong Grammar School, where he had his first experience of editing a publication, being co-editor of the school's official journal ''The Corian'' and editor of the student journal ''If Revived''. He worked part time at the ''Melbourne Herald'' and was groomed by his father from an early age to take over the family business. Murdoch read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Worcester College, Oxford University in England, where he supported the Labour Party. After his father's death from cancer in 1952, Elisabeth Murdoch went on to invest herself in charity work, as life governor of the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne and establishing the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. At 102 (in 2011) she has 74 descendants. Rupert Murdoch did an MA before working as a sub-editor with the ''Daily Express'' for two years.

Activities in Australia and New Zealand

Following his father's death, when he was 21, Murdoch returned from Oxford to take charge of the family business News Limited, which had been established in 1923. Rupert Murdoch turned its newspaper, ''Adelaide News'', its main asset, into a major success. He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion, buying the troubled ''Sunday Times'' in Perth, Western Australia (1956) and over the next few years acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory, including the Sydney afternoon tabloid, ''The Daily Mirror'' (1960). ''The Economist'' describes Murdoch as "inventing the modern tabloid", as he developed a pattern for his newspapers, increasing sports and scandal coverage and adopting eye-catching headlines.

Murdoch's first foray outside Australia involved the purchase of a controlling interest in the New Zealand daily ''The Dominion''. In January 1964, while touring New Zealand with friends in a rented Morris Minor after sailing across the Tasman, Murdoch read of a takeover bid for the Wellington paper by the British-based Canadian newspaper magnate, Lord Thomson of Fleet. On the spur of the moment, he launched a counter-bid. A four-way battle for control ensued in which the 32-year-old Murdoch was ultimately successful. Later in 1964, Murdoch launched ''The Australian'', Australia's first national daily newspaper, and its first broadsheet, which was based first in Canberra and later in Sydney. In 1972, Murdoch acquired the Sydney morning tabloid ''The Daily Telegraph'' from Australian media mogul Sir Frank Packer, who later regreted selling it to him. In 1984, Murdoch was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia for services to publishing.

In 1999, Murdoch significantly expanded his music holdings in Australia by acquiring the controlling share in a leading Australian independent label, Michael Gudinski's Mushroom Records; he merged that with Festival Records, and the result was Festival Mushroom Records (FMR). Both Festival and FMR were managed by Murdoch's son James Murdoch for several years.

Political activities in Australia

Murdoch found a political ally in John McEwen, leader of the Australian Country Party (now known as the National Party of Australia), who was governing in coalition with the larger Menzies-Holt Liberal Party. From the very first issue of ''The Australian'' Murdoch began taking McEwen's side in every issue that divided the long-serving coalition partners. (The Australian, 15 July 1964, first edition, front page: "Strain in Cabinet, Liberal-CP row flares.") It was an issue that threatened to split the coalition government and open the way for the stronger Australian Labor Party to dominate Australian politics. It was the beginning of a long campaign that served McEwen well.

After McEwen and Menzies retired, Murdoch threw his growing power behind the Australian Labor Party under the leadership of Gough Whitlam and duly saw it elected on a social platform that included universal free health care, free education for all Australians to tertiary level, recognition of the People's Republic of China, and public ownership of Australia's oil, gas and mineral resources. Rupert Murdoch's backing of Whitlam turned out to be brief. Murdoch had already started his short-lived ''National Star'' newspaper in America, and was seeking to strengthen his political contacts there.

Asked about the Australian federal election, 2007 at News Corporation's annual general meeting in New York on 19 October 2007, its chairman Rupert Murdoch said, "I am not commenting on anything to do with Australian politics. I'm sorry. I always get into trouble when I do that." Pressed as to whether he believed Prime Minister John Howard should be re-elected, he said: "I have nothing further to say. I'm sorry. Read our editorials in the papers. It'll be the journalists who decide that – the editors." In 2009, in response to accusations by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that News Limited was running vendettas against him and his government, Murdoch opined that Rudd was "oversensitive" Murdoch described Howard's successor, Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as "...more ambitious to lead the world [in tackling climate change] than to lead Australia..." and criticised Rudd's expansionary fiscal policies in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 as unnecessary. Although News Limited's interests are extensive, also including the ''Daily Telegraph'', the ''Courier-Mail'' and the ''Adelaide Advertiser'', it was suggested by the commentator Mungo MacCallum in ''The Monthly'' that "the anti-Rudd push, if coordinated at all, was almost certainly locally driven" as opposed to being directed by Murdoch, who also took a different position from local editors on such matters climate change and stimulus packages to combat the financial crisis.

Activities in Britain

Business activities in Britain

In 1968 Murdoch entered the UK newspaper market with his acquisition of the populist ''News of the World'', followed in 1969 with the purchase of the struggling daily broadsheet ''The Sun'' from IPC. Murdoch turned it into a tabloid format and reduced costs by using the same printing press for both newspapers. In 1997 ''The Sun'' attracted 10 million daily readers. In 1981, Murdoch acquired the struggling ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' from Canadian newspaper publisher Lord Thomson of Fleet. Ownership of ''The Times'' came to him through his relationship with Lord Thomson, who had grown tired of losing money on it as a result of much industrial action that stopped publication. In the light of success and expansion at ''The Sun'' the owners believed that Murdoch could turn the papers around. Harold Evans, Editor of the ''Sunday Times'' from 1967, was made head of the daily ''Times'', though he stayed only a year amidst editorial conflict with Murdoch.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Murdoch's publications were generally supportive of Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. At the end of the Thatcher/Major era, Murdoch switched his support to the Labour Party and its leader, Tony Blair. The closeness of his relationship with Blair and their secret meetings to discuss national policies was to become a political issue in Britain. Though this later started to change, with ''The Sun'' publicly renouncing the ruling Labour government and lending its support to David Cameron's Conservative Party, which soon after came to form a coalition government. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said in November 2009 that Brown and Murdoch "were in regular communication" and that "there is nothing unusual in the prime minister talking to Rupert Murdoch".

In 1986, Murdoch introduced electronic production processes to his newspapers in Australia, Britain and the United States. The greater degree of automation led to significant reductions in the number of employees involved in the printing process. In England, the move roused the anger of the print unions, resulting in a long and often violent dispute that played out in Wapping, one of London's docklands areas, where Murdoch had installed the very latest electronic newspaper purpose-built publishing facility in an old warehouse. The bitter dispute at Wapping started with the dismissal of 6,000 employees who had gone on strike and resulted in street battles and demonstrations. Many on the political left in Britain alleged the collusion of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government with Murdoch in the Wapping affair, as a way of damaging the British trade union movement. In 1987, the dismissed workers accepted a settlement of £60 million.

Murdoch's British-based satellite network, Sky Television, incurred massive losses in its early years of operation. As with many of his other business interests, Sky was heavily subsidised by the profits generated by his other holdings, but convinced rival satellite operator British Satellite Broadcasting to accept a merger on his terms in 1990. They were quick to see advantages of direct to home (DTH) satellite broadcasting that did not require costly cable networks and the merged company, BSkyB, has dominated the British pay-TV market ever since. By 1996, BSkyB had more than 3.6 million subscribers, triple the number of cable customers in the UK.

In response to print media's decline and the increasing influence of online journalism during the 2000s, Murdoch proclaimed his support of the micropayments model for obtaining revenue from on-line news, although this has been criticised by some.

News Corporation has subsidiaries in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands and the Virgin Islands. From 1986, News Corporation's annual tax bill averaged around seven percent of its profits.

Political activities in Britain

In Britain, in the 1980s, Murdoch formed a close alliance with Margaret Thatcher, and ''The Sun'' credited itself with helping John Major to win an unexpected election victory in the 1992 general election. In the general elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005, Murdoch's papers were either neutral or supported Labour under Tony Blair. This has led some critics to argue that Murdoch simply supports the incumbent parties (or those who seem most likely to win an upcoming election) in the hope of influencing government decisions that may affect his businesses. The Labour Party, under Blair, had moved from the Left to a more central position on many economic issues prior to 1997. Murdoch identifies himself as a libertarian, saying "What does libertarian mean? As much individual responsibility as possible, as little government as possible, as few rules as possible. But I'm not saying it should be taken to the absolute limit."

In a speech delivered in New York, Rupert Murdoch said that the British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the BBC coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster as being full of hatred of America.

In 1998, Rupert Murdoch failed in his attempt to buy the football club Manchester United F.C. with an offer of £625 million. It was the largest amount ever offered for a sports club. It was blocked by the United Kingdom's Competition Commission, which stated that the acquisition would have "hurt competition in the broadcast industry and the quality of British football".

On 28 June 2006 the BBC reported that Murdoch and News Corporation were flirting with the idea of backing Conservative leader David Cameron at the next General Election. In a later interview in July 2006, when he was asked what he thought of the Conservative leader, Murdoch replied "Not much". In a 2009 blog, it was suggested that in the aftermath of the News of the World phone hacking scandal which is still ongoing in 2011 and might yet have Transatlantic implications Murdoch and News Corporation might have decided to back Cameron. Despite this, there had already been a convergence of interests between the two men over the muting of Britain's communications regulator Ofcom.

In 2006, Britain's ''Independent'' newspaper reported that Murdoch would offer Tony Blair a senior role in his global media company News Corporation when the prime minister stood down from office.

He is accused by former Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan of having a personal vendetta against him and of conspiring with MI5 to produce a video of him confessing to having affairs – allegations over which Sheridan had previously sued News International and won. On being arrested for perjury following the case, Sheridan claimed that the charges were "orchestrated and influenced by the powerful reach of the Murdoch empire".

In August 2008 British Conservative leader and future Prime Minister David Cameron accepted free flights to hold private talks and attend private parties with Murdoch on his yacht, the ''Rosehearty''. Cameron has declared in the Commons register of interests he accepted a private plane provided by Murdoch's son-in-law, public relations guru Matthew Freud; Cameron has not revealed his talks with Murdoch. The gift of travel in Freud's Gulfstream IV private jet was valued at around £30,000. Other guests attending the "social events" included the then EU trade commissioner Lord Mandelson, the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and co-chairman of NBC Universal Ben Silverman. The Conservatives have not disclosed what was discussed.

In July 2011 it emerged that Cameron met key executives of Murdoch's News Corporation 26 times during the 14 months that Cameron had served as Prime Minister. It was also reported that Murdoch had given Cameron a personal guarantee that there would be no risk attached to hiring Andy Coulson, the former editor of ''News of the World'', as the Conservative Party's communication director in 2007. This was in spite of Coulson having resigned as editor over phone hacking by a reporter. Cameron chose to take Murdoch's advice, despite warnings from Nick Clegg, Lord Ashdown and ''The Guardian''. Coulson resigned his post in 2011 and was later arrested and questioned on allegations of further criminal activity at The ''News of the World'', specifically the News International phone hacking scandal.

News International phone hacking scandal

In July 2011 Rupert Murdoch along with his son James gave testimony before a British parliamentary committee regarding phone hacking. In the U.K his media empire remains under fire as investigators continue to probe reports of other phone hacking.

On 14 July, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons served a summons on Murdoch, his son James, and his former CEO Rebekah Brooks to testify before a committee on 19 July. After an initial refusal, the Murdochs confirmed they would attend after the committee issued them a summons to Parliament. The day before the committee, the website of the News Corporation publication ''The Sun'' was hacked, and a bogus story was posted on the front page claiming that Murdoch had died. Murdoch described the day of the committee "the most humble day of my life". He argued that since he ran a global business of 53,000 employees and that the ''News of the World'' was "just 1%" of this, he was not ultimately responsible for what went on at the tabloid. He added that he had not considered resigning, and that he and the other top executives had been completely unaware of the hacking.

On 15 July Rupert Murdoch attended a private meeting in London with the family of Milly Dowler, where he personally apologised for the hacking of their murdered daughter's voicemail by a company he owns. On 16 and 17 July, News International published two full-page apologies in many of Britain's national newspapers. The first apology took the form of a letter, signed by Rupert Murdoch, in which he said sorry for the "serious wrongdoing" that occurred. The second was titled "Putting right what's gone wrong", and gave more detail about the steps News International was taking to address the public's concerns. In the wake of the allegations Murdoch accepted the resignations of Rebekah Brooks, head of Murdoch's British operations, and Les Hinton, head of ''The Wall Street Journal'' who was chairman of Murdoch's British newspaper division when some of the abuses happened. They both deny any knowledge of any wrong-doing under their command.

Activities in the United States

Murdoch made his first acquisition in the United States in 1973, when he purchased the ''San Antonio Express-News''. Soon afterwards, he founded ''Star'', a supermarket tabloid, and in 1976, he purchased the ''New York Post''. On 4 September 1985, Murdoch became a naturalised citizen to satisfy the legal requirement that only US citizens were permitted to own American television stations. This resulted in Murdoch losing his Australian citizenship. Also in 1985, Murdoch purchased the 20th Century Fox movie studio.In 1986, Murdoch purchased six television stations owned by Metromedia. These stations would form the nucleus of the Fox Broadcasting Company, founded on 9 October 1986, which would go on to have great success with programmes such as ''The Simpsons'' and ''The X-Files''. In 1987 in Australia, he bought The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, the company that his father had once managed. By 1990 News Corporation had built up debts of $7 billion (much from Sky TV in the UK). forcing Murdoch to sell many of the American magazine interests he had acquired in the mid-1980s. In 1993 took exclusive of the National Football League (NFL) from CBS and increased programming to seven days a week. In 1995, Murdoch's Fox Network became the object of scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), when it was alleged that News Ltd.'s Australian base made Murdoch's ownership of Fox illegal. However, the FCC ruled in Murdoch's favour, stating that his ownership of Fox was in the best interests of the public. That same year, Murdoch announced a deal with MCI Communications to develop a major news website and magazine, ''The Weekly Standard''. Also that year, News Corporation launched the Foxtel pay television network in Australia in partnership with Telstra. In 1996, Murdoch decided to enter the cable news market with the Fox News Channel, a 24-hour cable news station. Ratings studies released in 2009 showed that the network was responsible for nine of the top ten programs in the "Cable News" category at that time. Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner (founder and former owner of CNN) are long-standing rivals. In late 2003, Murdoch acquired a 34 percent stake in Hughes Electronics, the operator of the largest American satellite TV system, DirecTV, from General Motors for $6 billion (USD). His Fox movie studio would go on to have global hits with ''Titanic'' and ''Avatar''.

In 2004, Murdoch announced that he was moving News Corporation headquarters from Adelaide, Australia to the United States. Choosing a US domicile was designed to ensure that American fund managers could purchase shares in the company, since many were deciding not to buy shares in non-US companies. Some analysts believed that News Corporation's Australian domicile was leading to the company being undervalued compared with its peers.

On 20 July 2005, News Corporation bought Intermix Media Inc., which held Myspace, Imagine Games Network and other social networking-themed websites, for $580 million USD, making Murdoch a major in online media concerns. In June 2011, it sold off Myspace for US$35 million. On 11 September 2005, News Corporation announced that it would buy IGN Entertainment for $650 million (USD).

In May 2007, Murdoch made a $5 billion offer to purchase Dow Jones. At the time, the Bancroft family, who had owned the Dow Jones for 105 years and controlled 64% of the shares at the time, firmly declined the offer, opposing Murdoch's much-used strategy of slashing employee numbers and gutting existing systems. Later, the Bancroft family confirmed a willingness to consider a sale. Besides Murdoch, the Associated Press reported that supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and Internet entrepreneur Brad Greenspan were among the other interested parties. In 2007, Murdoch had acquired Dow Jones, an acquisition which gave Murdoch such publications as ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''Barron's Magazine'', the ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' (based in Hong Kong) and ''SmartMoney''.

Support for American politicians and political positions

McNight (2010) identifies four characteristics of his media operations: free market ideology; unified positions on matters of public policy; global editorial meetings; and opposition to a perceived liberal bias in other public media.

On 8 May 2006, the ''Financial Times'' reported that Murdoch would be hosting a fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Clinton's (D-New York) Senate re-election campaign. In a 2008 interview with Walt Mossberg, Murdoch was asked whether he had "anything to do with the ''New York Post'''s endorsement of Barack Obama in the democratic primaries." Without hesitating, Murdoch replied, "Yeah. He is a rock star. It's fantastic. I love what he is saying about education. I don't think he will win Florida... but he will win in Ohio and the election. I am anxious to meet him. I want to see if he will walk the walk." Murdoch is a strong supporter of Israel and its domestic policies.

In 2010 News Corporation gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association and $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Murdoch also served on the board of directors of the libertarian Cato Institute.

Italy

Murdoch owns controlling interest in ''Sky Italia'', a satellite television provider in Italy. Murdoch's business interest in Italy have been a source contention since they began.ref Name="BW"/> In 2010 Murdoch won a media dispute with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A judge ruled the Italian Prime Minister's media arm Mediaset prevented News Corporation's Italian unit, Sky Italia, from buying advertisements on its television networks.

Expansion in Asia

In 1993, Murdoch acquired Star TV, a Hong Kong company founded by Richard Li for $1 billion (Souchou, 2000:28), and subsequently set up offices for it throughout Asia. The deal enables News International to broadcast from Hong Kong to India, China, Japan and over thirty other countries in Asia, becoming one of the biggest satellite TV networks in the east.However, the deal did not work out as Murdoch had planned, because the Chinese government placed restrictions on it that prevented it from reaching most of China.

Family

Marriages

In 1956 Murdoch married Patricia Booker, a former shop assistant and flight attendant from Melbourne and they had their first child, Prudence, in 1958. Rupert and Patricia Murdoch divorced in 1967. In 1967 Murdoch married Anna Torv, a Scottish-born cadet journalist working for his Sydney newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'' (not to be mistaken for the actress Anna Torv of ''Fringe'' who is the elder Torv's niece). During his marriage to Torv, a Roman Catholic, Murdoch was awarded the KSG, a papal honour. Torv and Murdoch had three children: Elisabeth Murdoch (born in Sydney, Australia on 22 August 1968), Lachlan Murdoch (born in London, UK on 8 September 1971), and James Murdoch, (born in London on 13 December 1972). Murdoch's companies published two novels by his then wife: ''Family Business'' (1988) and ''Coming to Terms'' (1991), both widely regarded as vanity publications. They divorced in June 1999. Anna Murdoch received a settlement of US$ 1.2 billion in assets.

On 25 June 1999, 17 days after divorcing his second wife, Murdoch, then aged 68, married Chinese-born Deng Wendi (Wendi Deng). She was 30, a recent Yale School of Management graduate, and a newly appointed vice-president of his STAR TV. Murdoch has two children with her.

Murdoch's children and their business interests

Murdoch has six children. His eldest child Prudence MacLeod was appointed, on 28 January 2011, to the board of Times Newspapers Ltd, part of News International, which publishes ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. Murdoch's eldest son Lachlan, formerly the deputy chief operating officer at the News Corporation and the publisher of the ''New York Post'', was Murdoch's heir apparent before resigning from his executive posts at the global media company at the end of July 2005. Lachlan's departure left James Murdoch chief executive of the satellite television service British Sky Broadcasting since November 2003, as the only Murdoch son still directly involved with the company's operations, though Lachlan has agreed to remain on the News Corporation's board.

After graduating from Vassar College and marrying classmate Elkin Kwesi Pianim (the son of Ghanaian financial and political mogul Kwame Pianim) in 1993, Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, along with her husband, purchased a pair of NBC-affiliate television stations in California, KSBW and KSBY, with a $35 million loan provided by her father. By quickly re-organising and re-selling them at a $12 million profit in 1995, Elisabeth emerged as an unexpected rival to her brothers for the eventual leadership of the publishing dynasty's empire. But after divorcing her first husband in 1998 and quarrelling publicly with her assigned mentor Sam Chisholm at BSkyB, she struck out on her own as a television and film producer in London. She has since enjoyed independent success, in conjunction with her second husband, Matthew Freud, the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis) whom she met in 1997 and married in 2001.

It is not known how long Murdoch will remain as News Corporation's CEO. For a while the American cable television entrepreneur John Malone was the second-largest voting shareholder in News Corporation after Murdoch himself, potentially undermining the family's control. In 2007, the company announced that it would sell certain assets and give cash to Malone's company in exchange for its stock. In 2007, the company issued Murdoch's older children voting stock.

Rupert Murdoch has two children with Wendi Deng: Grace (b. New York, 19 November 2001) and Chloe (b. New York, 17 July 2003). There is reported to be tension between Murdoch and his oldest children over the terms of a trust holding the family's 28.5 percent stake in News Corporation, estimated in 2005 to be worth about $6.1 billion. Under the trust, his children by Wendi Deng share in the proceeds of the stock but have no voting privileges or control of the stock. Voting rights in the stock are divided 50/50 between Murdoch on the one side and his children of his first two marriages. Murdoch's voting privileges are not transferable but will expire upon his death and the stock will then be controlled solely by his children from the prior marriages, although their half-siblings will continue to derive their share of income from it. It is Murdoch's stated desire to have his children by Deng given a measure of control over the stock proportional to their financial interest in it (which would mean, if Murdoch dies while at least one of the children is a minor, that Deng would exercise that control). It does not appear that he has any strong legal grounds to contest the present arrangement, and both ex-wife Anna and their three children are said to be strongly resistant to any such change.

Portrayal on television, in film, books and music

Rupert Murdoch and rival newspaper and publishing magnate Robert Maxwell are thinly fictionalised as "Keith Townsend" and "Richard Armstrong" in ''The Fourth Estate'' by British novelist and former MP Jeffrey Archer.

Rupert Murdoch has been portrayed by Barry Humphries in the 1991 mini-series ''Selling Hitler'', Hugh Laurie in a parody of ''It's a Wonderful Life'' in the television show ''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'', Ben Mendelsohn in the film ''Black and White'', Paul Elder in ''The Late Shift'' and by himself on ''The Simpsons'' first in "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" and most recently in "Judge Me Tender".

It has been speculated that the character of Elliot Carver, the global media magnate and main villain in the 1997 James Bond movie ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', is based on Rupert Murdoch. The writer of the film, Bruce Feirstein, has stated that Carver was actually inspired by British press magnate Robert Maxwell, who was one of Murdoch's rivals. Since both Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell had the same initials they were often confused by the public. This confusion was exploited by the writers of the British situation comedy 'Drop the Dead Donkey' which was set in a TV newsroom who chose to name the fictional proprietor Sir Roysten Merchant (initials RM). The writers state on their DVD commentares that it was "fortunate" for them that the two men shared the same initials.

In the 1997 film ''Fierce Creatures'', the head of Octopus Inc. Rod McCain (initials R.M.) character is likely modeled after Rupert Murdoch.

In 1999, the Ted Turner owned TBS aired an original sitcom, ''The Chimp Channel''. This featured an all-simian cast and the role of an Australian TV veteran named Harry Waller. The character is described as "a self-made gazillionaire with business interests in all sorts of fields. He owns newspapers, hotel chains, sports franchises and genetic technologies, as well as everyone's favorite cable TV channel, The Chimp Channel." Waller is thought to be a parody of Murdoch, a long-time rival of Turner's.

In 2004, the movie ''Outfoxed'' included many interviews accusing Fox News of pressuring reporters to report only one side of news stories, in order to influence viewers' political opinions.

Remuneration and wealth

According to the 2011 list of Forbes richest Americans, Murdoch is the 38th richest person in the US and the 117th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $7.6 billion.

See also

List of assets owned by News Corporation

Notes

References

Dover, Bruce. ''Rupert's Adventures in China: How Murdoch Lost A Fortune And Found A Wife'' (Mainstream Publishing).

Ellison, Sarah. ''War at the Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle To Control an American Business Empire'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. ISBN 9780547152431 (Also published as: ''War at The Wall Street Journal: How Rupert Murdoch Bought an American Icon'', Melbourne, Text Publishing, 2010.)

Evans, Harold. ''Good Times, Bad Times'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983

McKnight, David. "Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation: A Media Institution with A Mission," ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television,'' Sept 2010, Vol. 30 Issue 3, pp 303–316

External links

Profile at ''Forbes''

Murdoch, Rupert (1931–) resources from Trove at the National Library of Australia

Bill Moyers on Rupert Murdoch, 29 June 2007

Arsenault, A & Castells, M. (2008) Rupert Murdoch and the Global Business of Media Politics. International Sociology. 23(4)

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Gives Big To GOP – audio report by ''NPR''

Review of Bruce Page's "The Murdoch Archipelago", by Godfrey Hodgson. ''New Statesman''

Category:Living people Category:1931 births

Category:Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Category:American businesspeople Category:American billionaires Category:American publishers (people) Category:American mass media owners Category:American people of Australian descent Category:Australian billionaires Category:Australian businesspeople Category:Australian emigrants to the United States Category:Australian mass media owners Category:Australian people of Scottish descent Category:Businesspeople from Melbourne Category:Companions of the Order of Australia Category:Critics of the European Union Category:Fox Broadcasting Company executives Category:Los Angeles Dodgers owners Category:Major League Baseball owners Category:Major League Baseball executives Category:Murdoch family Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:New York Post people Category:News Corporation people Category:News International phone hacking scandal Category:Newspaper publishers (people) Category:People educated at Geelong Grammar School Category:People from Adelaide

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Jørn Oberg Utzon, (), AC (9 April 1918 – 29 November 2008) was a Danish architect most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia. When the Sydney Opera House was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, he became only the second person to have his work recognised as a World Heritage Site while he was still alive.

Early life and career

Utzon was born in Copenhagen, the son of a naval engineer, and grew up in Denmark. From 1937 he attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Kay Fisker and Steen Eiler Rasmussen. After graduating in 1942, he went to Sweden to work for Gunnar Asplund. After the end of World War II and the German Occupation of Denmark, he returned to Copenhagen. In 1946 he visited Alvar Aalto in Helsinki. From 1947–48 he travelled in Europe in 1949 in the United States and Mexico. In America he attended Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's school in Arizona. In 1950 he established his own studio in Copenhagen.

Opera House design

In 1957 he unexpectedly won the competition to design the Sydney Opera House. Although he had won six other architectural competitions previously, the Opera House was his first non-domestic project. The designs he submitted were also little more than preliminary drawings. One of the judges, Eero Saarinen, described it as "genius" and declared he could not endorse any other choice.

Utzon refined his original conceptual designs for the shells over several years. One particular difficulty was that the Cahill government was so eager to commence the project that they arranged for the engineers, Ove Arup and Partners, to put out tenders for the podium without adequate working drawings; this work actually began in 1959 while Utzon was still in Denmark working on the final plans.

The extraordinary structure of the shells themselves represented a puzzle for the engineers. This was not resolved until 1961, when Utzon himself finally came up with the solution. He replaced the original elliptical shells with a design based on complex sections of a sphere. Utzon says his design was inspired by the simple act of peeling an orange: the 14 shells of the building, if combined, would form a perfect sphere. Although Utzon had spectacular, innovative plans for the interior of these halls, he was unable to realize this part of his design. In mid-1965 the state Liberal government of Robert Askin was elected. Askin had been a 'vocal critic of the project prior to gaining office.' His new Minister for Public Works, Davis Hughes, was even less sympathetic. Elizabeth Farrelly, Australian architecture critic has written that

Utzon soon found himself in conflict with the new Minister. Attempting to rein in the escalating cost of the project, Hughes began questioning Utzon's capability, his designs, schedules and cost estimates. Hughes eventually stopped payments to Utzon. Unable to pay his staff, Utzon was forced to resign as chief architect in February 1966 and left the country never to return. Utzon has never seen the completed work that brought him international renown.

When Utzon left, the shells were almost complete, and costs amounted to only $22.9 million. Following major changes to the original plans for the interiors that finally rose to $103 million.

In an article in Harvard Design Magazine in 2005, Oxford University professor Bent Flyvbjerg argues that Utzon fell victim to a politically lowballed construction budget, which eventually resulted in a cost overrun of 1,400 percent. The overrun and the scandal it created kept Utzon from building more masterpieces. This, according to Flyvbjerg, is the real cost of the Sydney Opera House: "Utzon was thirty-eight when he won the competition for the ''Opera House'' - how would the work of the mature master have enriched our lives? We'll never know. That's the high price Sydney has imposed by its incompetence in building the ''Opera House''."

The Opera House was finally completed, and opened in 1973 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The architect was not invited to the ceremony, nor was his name mentioned.

Selected buildings

Major built projects:

Water tower in Svaneke, Bornholm, Denmark, 1949–1951

Architect's own house, Hellebæk, Denmark, 1950–1952 image

Middelboe house, Holte, Denmark, 1953–1955 image

Kingo Houses, Elsinore, Denmark 1956–1960

Elineberg Housing, Helsingborg, Sweden, 1954–1966. Built by Swedish partners Erik and Henry Andersson image

Planetstaden housing project in Lund, Sweden, 1956–1958. Built by Swedish partners Erik and Henry Andersson.

Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia, 1956–1973

Fredensborghusene, courtyard housing, Fredensborg, Denmark, 1959–1962 image

Melli Bank University of Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran, 1959–1960 archnet page

Hammershøj care centre, Elsinore, Denmark, 1962–1966. Built by Birger Schmidt. image

Bagsværd Church, Bagsværd, Denmark, 1968–1976 image

Espansiva building system, pre-fabricated single family houses, Denmark, 1969

Can Lis, Architect's own house, Majorca, Spain, 1971–1973 image

National Assembly of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait, 1972–1984 archnet page

Paustian Furniture Store, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1985–1987 image

Can Feliz, Majorca, Spain, 1991–1994

Skagen Odde Nature Center, Denmark, 1989 (completed by his son Jan Utzon in 1999-2000)

Major unbuilt projects:

High School in Elsinore, Denmark, 1958–1962

Architect's own house, Bayview, Sydney, Australia, 1963–1965

Museum dedicated to the work of artist Asger Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark, 1963

Theatre, Zurich, Switzerland, 1964–1970

Jeita Theatre, Lebanon, 1968.

Stadium, Jedda, Saudi Arabia, 1969

Awards and recognition

1967 C. F. Hansen Medal

1973 RAIA Gold Medal from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects

1978 RIBA Royal Gold Medal

1980 The Daylight and Building Component Award

1982 Alvar Aalto Medal

1992 Sir John Sulman Medal

1992 Wolf Prize

1998 Sonning Prize

2003 Pritzker Prize

Death and honours

On 17 May 1985, Utzon was made an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (AC). He was also involved in redesigning the Opera House, and in particular, the Reception Hall, following an agreement made in 2000. In March 2003, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Sydney for his work on the Opera House. Utzon's son accepted the award on his behalf as Utzon himself was too ill to travel to Australia. He was also given the Keys to the City of Sydney. In 2003, he received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honor.

In March 2006, Queen Elizabeth II opened the western colonnade addition to the building that was constructed by Utzon in the last years without having been to Australia since 1966. His son, Jan, took his place in the opening ceremony instead, saying his father "is too old by now to take the long flight to Australia. But he lives and breathes the Opera House, and as its creator he just has to close his eyes to see it."

On 28 June 2007, the Sydney Opera House was declared a World Heritage Site.

Utzon died in Copenhagen on 29 November 2008, aged 90, of a heart attack in his sleep after a series of operations. He died having never returned to Australia to see the completed opera house. On 2 December 2008 the Parliament of New South Wales passed a special motion of condolence to honour Utzon's life and work

On 25 March 2009, a state memorial and reconciliation concert for Utzon was held in the Concert Hall at Sydney Opera House.

Literature

Interview with Utzon, October 1992

Arkitektur (magazine), Copenhagen 1947 #7–9, essay ''Tendenser i nutidens arkitektur'' by Jørn Utzon and Tobias Faber

Arkitektur (magazine), Copenhagen 1970 #1, essay ''Additiv arkitektur'' by Jørn Utzon

Zodiac 5 (magazine), Milan 1959

Zodiac 10 (magazine), Milan 1962, essay ''Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect'' by Jørn Utzon

Zodiac 14 (magazine), Milan 1965

Sigfried Gideon: ''Space, Time and Architecture.'' Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1967

Kenneth Frampton: ''Studies in Tectonic Culture.'' Cambridge, Mass. & London: MIT Press, 1995. ISBN 0-262-56149-2

Françoise Fromonot: ''Jørn Utzon, The Sydney Opera House.'' Corte Madera, California: Gingko Press, 1998. ISBN 3-927258-72-5

Richard Weston: ''Utzon — Inspiration, Vision, Architecture.'' Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002. ISBN 87-88978-98-2

J.J. Ferrer Forés: ''Jørn Utzon. Obras y Proyectos. Works and Projects.'' Spain: GG 2006. ISBN 978-84-252-2060-9

Katarina Stübe and Jan Utzon, ''Sydney Opera House: A Tribute to Jørn Utzon''. Reveal Books, 2009. ISBN 9780980612301

See also

Architecture of Denmark

References

External links

Utzon Center

Pritzker Architecture Prize 2003, including essays and photographs.

The Kingohouses website

The Sydney Opera House history

Competition drawings submitted by Jørn Utzon to the Opera House Committee

The Edge of the Possible, 58 minute documentary, 1998, Dir: Daryl Dellora, Film Art Doco Pty Ltd

Design by Deception: The Politics of Megaproject Approval

Obituary in The Economist, 11-Dec-2008.

Category:1918 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Danish architects Category:Modernist architects Category:20th-century architects Category:Modernist architecture in Scandinavia Category:Pritzker Prize winners Category:Recipients of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal Category:Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Category:Honorary Companions of the Order of Australia Category:People from Copenhagen Category:People from Aalborg Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni Category:Winners of the Nykredit Architecture Prize Category:Wolf Prize in Arts laureates

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