This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010)

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010)

A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization (e.g., a government, a charity, an NGO, or a trade union) at a meeting or conference between organizations of the same level (e.g., trade talks or an environmental summit between governments; an arbitration over an industrial dispute; or a meeting of student unions from individual colleges at a national student union conference). Generally, but not always, delegates differ from representatives because they receive and carry out instructions from the group that sends them, and, unlike representatives, are not expected to act independently.^{[citation needed]}

Politics[link]

United States of America[link]

Delegate is the title of a person elected to the United States House of Representatives to serve the interests of an organized United States territory, at present only overseas or the District of Columbia, but historically in most cases in a portion of North America as precursor to one or more of the present states of the union. Delegates have powers similar to that of Representatives, including the right to vote in committee, but have no right to take part in the floor votes in which the full house actually decides whether the proposal is carried. See: Delegate (United States Congress).

A similar mandate is held in a few cases under the style Resident commissioner.

• Delegate is also the title given to individuals elected to the lower houses of the bicameral legislative bodies of the states of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia (see House of Delegates).

• Members of other parliamentary assemblies, such as the Continental Congress or the New York State Constitutional Convention.

• Members of a body charged with writing or revising a foundational or other basic governmental document (such as members of a constitutional convention are usually referred to as "delegates".

Presidential conventions[link]

Democratic Party[link]

The Democratic Party of the United States uses pledged delegates and superdelegates. A candidate for the Democratic nominee must win a majority of combined delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention.

Pledged delegates are elected or chosen at the state or local level, with the understanding that they will support a particular candidate at the convention. Pledged delegates are however not actually bound to vote for that candidate, thus the candidates are allowed to periodically review the list of delegates and eliminate any of those they feel would not be supportive. Currently there are 3,253 pledged delegates.

Of the 4,047 total Democratic delegates, 794 are superdelegates, which are usually Democratic members of Congress, governors, former Presidents, and other party leaders. They are not required to indicate preference for a candidate.

The Democratic Party uses a proportional representation to determine how many delegates each candidate is awarded in each state. For example, a candidate who wins 40% of a state's vote in the primary election will win 40% of that state's delegates; however, a candidate must win at least 15% of the primary vote in order to receive any delegates. There is no process to win superdelegates, since they can vote for whomever they please. A candidate needs to win a simple majority of total delegates to earn the Democratic nomination.^[1]

Republican Party[link]

The Republican Party of the United States utilizes a similar system with slightly different terminology, employing pledged and unpledged delegates. Of the total 2,380 Republican delegates (2,286 in 2012), 1,719 are pledged delegates, who as with the Democratic Party, are elected at the state or local level. To become the Republican Party nominee, the candidate must win a simple majority of 1,191 of the 2,380 total delegates at the Republican National Convention.

A majority of the unpledged delegates are elected much like the pledged delegates, and are likely to be committed to a specific candidate. Many of the other unpledged delegates automatically claim the delegate status either by virtue of their position as a party chair or national party committee person. This group is known as unpledged RNC member delegates.

The process by which delegates are awarded to a candidate will vary from state to state. Many states use a winner-take-all system, where popular vote determines the winning candidate for that state, however, beginning in 2012 many states now use proportional representation. While the Republican National Committee does not require a 15% minimum threshold, individual state parties may impart such a threshold.

The unpledged RNC member delegates are free to vote for any candidate and are not bound by the electoral votes of their state. The majority of the unpledged delegates (those who are elected or chosen) are technically free to vote for any candidate; however they are likely to be committed to one specifically.^[1]

Religion[link]

Look up delegate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Apostolic delegate, one appointed by the Pope

References[link]

In psychology-related slang, control freak is a derogatory term for a person who attempts to dictate how everything around them is done. The phrase was first used in the late 1960s^[1] — an era when great stress was laid on the principle of 'doing one's own thing' and letting others do the same.^[2]

Vulnerability[link]

Control freaks are often perfectionists^[3] defending themselves against their own inner vulnerabilities, in the belief that, if not in total control, they risk exposing themselves once more to childhood angst.^[4] Such figures manipulate and pressurise others to change, so as to avoid having to change themselves;^[5] use power over others to escape an inner emptiness.^[6] When a control freak's pattern is broken, “the Controller is left with a terrible feeling of powerlessness … But feeling their pain and fear brings them back to themselves”.^[7]

Control freaks have been linked to codependents, in the sense that the latters' fear of abandonment leads to attempts to control those they are dependent on.^[8] Recovery for them entails recognising that being a control freak helped paradoxically preserve codependency itself.^[9]

In terms of personality-type theory, control freaks are very much the Type A personality, driven by the need to dominate and control.^[10] An obsessive need to control others is also associated with antisocial personality disorder.^[11]

In management[link]

In the corporate world, control freaks tend to publicly admonish their inferiors, especially during meetings.^[12] More positively, the term can also refer to someone with a limited number of things that they want done a specific way; professor of clinical psychology Les Parrott wrote that “Control Freaks are people who care more than you do about something and won't stop at being pushy to get their way”.^[13] There may be a fine line between being a detail-oriented manager, who likes to have things done 'right', and being a (destructive) control freak.^[14] Control freaks are usually a cause of micromanagement.

In some cases, the control freak sees their constant intervention as beneficial or even necessary; this can be caused by feelings of superiority, believing that others are incapable of handling matters properly, or the fear that things will go wrong if they do not attend to every detail. In other cases, they may simply enjoy the feeling of power it gives them so much that they automatically try to gain control of everything around them

One argument against hierarchies in a research context is that they afford too much scope for nit-picking to the control freak.^[15]

In history[link]

Wellington v. Napoleon[link]

Wellington as military commander was undoubtedly a hands-on micromanager, trusting his subordinates as little as possible, and showing many of the characteristics of the modern day control freak.^[16] In 1811 he wrote that “I am obliged to be everywhere and if absent from any operation, something goes wrong … success can only be attained by attention to the most minute details”.^[17]

By contrast, Napoleon gave his marshals much more tactical freedom.^[18] At the critical meeting of the two generals at the Battle of Waterloo - where Wellington's close supervision contrasted strongly with the effective delegation of operational management by Napoleon to Marshall Ney^[19] - it was at least arguably Wellington's control mania that played the decisive role in the Allied victory, justifying his claim the following day that “I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there”.^[20]

Steve Jobs and closed systems[link]

Steve Jobs was a perfectionist who favoured the closed system of control over all aspects of a product from start to finish - what he termed the integrated over the fragmented approach.^[21] As Steve Wozniak, his long-term collaborator and occasional critic, put it: "Apple gets you into their playpen and keeps you there".^[22] The triumph of the PC over the Mac was a blow for that philosophy, a situation which was then reversed by the serial successes of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad - only for the Android challenge to reopen the debate again.^[23]

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• E.A. Deuble & A. Bradley, It Has A Name!: How To Keep Control Freaks & Other Unhealthy Narcissists From Ruining Your Life (2010)
• Mary L. Berg, The Joy of Being a Control Freak (2011)