published: 10 Jun 2011
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- Al Wefaq
- Ancient Greece
- Ancient Rome
- Andhra Pradesh
- Argentina
- Argentine Senate
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Afghanistan
Afghanistan
i/æfˈɡænɨstæn/ (Persian/Pashto: افغانستان, Afġānistān), officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming part of South Asia, Central Asia, and Greater Middle East, it is also considered to be part of a broader West Asia. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of 647,500 km2 (250,001 sq mi), making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and the east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.
Afghanistan has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration. Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation from as far back as 50,000 BC. Urban civilization may have begun in the area as early as 3,000 to 2,000 BC. Sitting at an important geostrategic location that connects the Middle East with Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the land has been home to various peoples through the ages and witnessed many military campaigns, notably by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and in modern era Western forces. The land also served as a source from which the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Timurids, Mughals and many others have risen to form major empires.
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Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh /ˌɑːndrə prəˈdɛʃ/ is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the country's southeastern coast. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh lies between 12°41' and 22°N latitude and 77° and 84°40'E longitude, and is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the east, Tamil Nadu to the south and Karnataka to the west.
Andhra Pradesh has the second-longest coastline of 972 km (604 mi) among the states of India. Two major rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna, run across the state. The small enclave (30 square kilometres (12 sq mi)) of Yanam, a district of Pondicherry, lies in the Godavari delta in the northeast of the state. The state is separated into three regions: Telangana, Andhra, and Rayalaseema.
The primary official language of Andhra Pradesh is Telugu and the co-official language is Urdu. Other languages often spoken in the state include Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, and Oriya.
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Argentina
Argentinai/ˌɑrdʒənˈtiːnə/, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina]), is a country in South America, the continent's second largest by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations.
Argentina's continental area is between the Andes mountain range in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. It borders Paraguay and Bolivia to the north, Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast, and Chile to the west and south. Argentine claims over Antarctica, as well as overlapping claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom, are suspended by the Antarctic Treaty of 1961. Argentina also claims the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as British Overseas Territories.
A recognised middle power, Argentina is Latin America's third-largest economy, with a "very high" rating on the Human development index. Within Latin America, Argentina has the fifth highest nominal GDP per capita and the highest in purchasing power terms. Analysts have argued that the country has a "foundation for future growth due to its market size, levels of foreign direct investment, and percentage of high-tech exports as share of total manufactured goods", and it is classed by investors as middle emerging economy. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercosur, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization, and is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies.
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Australia
Australia (
/əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
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Austria
Austria (i/ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/; German: Österreich [ˈøːstɐˌʁaɪç] (
listen)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,855 square kilometres (32,377 sq mi) and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Austro-Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Burgenland Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.
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Bahrain
Bahrain ( pronunciation) (Arabic: البحرين, al-Baḥrayn) (Persian: بحرين, Baḥrain), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain (Arabic: مملكة البحرين, Mamlakat al-Baḥrayn), is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,234,571, including 666,172 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.
Bahrain is an archipelago of 33 islands, the largest being Bahrain Island, at 55 km (34 mi) long by 18 km (11 mi) wide. Saudi Arabia lies to the west and is connected to Bahrain by the King Fahd Causeway. The peninsula of Qatar is to the southeast across the Gulf of Bahrain. The planned Qatar Bahrain Causeway will link Bahrain and Qatar and become the world's longest marine causeway.
Known for its oil and pearls, Bahrain is also home to many large structures, including the Bahrain World Trade Center and the Bahrain Financial Harbour, with a proposal in place to build the 1,022 m (3,353 ft) high Murjan Tower. The Qal'at al-Bahrain (the harbour and capital of the ancient land of Dilmun) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. The Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix takes place at the Bahrain International Circuit.
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Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic (Dutch: Bataafse Republiek) was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland.
The new Republic enjoyed widespread support from the Dutch population and was the product of a genuine popular revolution. Nevertheless, it clearly was founded with the armed support of the revolutionary French Republic. The Batavian Republic became a client state, first of that "sister-republic", and later of the French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte, and its politics were deeply influenced by the French who supported no fewer than three coups d'état to bring the different political factions to power that France favored at different moments in her own historical development. Nevertheless, the process of creating a written Dutch constitution was mainly driven by internal political factors, not by French influence—until Napoleon forced the Dutch government to accept his brother as monarch.
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Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈbaɪ.ɐn] ( listen)), is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of 70,548 square kilometres (27,200 sq mi), it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany. Bavaria is Germany's second most populous state (after North Rhine-Westphalia), with 12.5 million inhabitants, more than any of the three sovereign states on its borders. Bavaria's capital is Munich.
One of the oldest states of Europe, it was established as a duchy in the mid first millennium. In the 17th century, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. The Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, and Bavaria has since been a free state (republic). Modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia and Swabia.
The Bavarians emerged in a region north of the Alps, originally inhabited by the Gauls, which had been part of the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, probably did not migrate from elsewhere. Rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, Heruli. The name "Bavarian" ("Baiuvarii") means "Men of Baia" which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources c. 520. Saint Boniface completed the people's conversion to Christianity in the early-8th century. Bavaria was, for the most part, unaffected by the Protestant Reformation.
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Belgian Senate
The Belgian Senate (Dutch: Senaat (help·info), French: le Sénat, German: der Senat) is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parliament.
After the Belgian Revolution, the National Congress decided about the Belgian Constitution and the state structure. A bicameral Parliament was chosen over a unicameral one, due to fears of more democratic and progressive decisions in the Chamber of Representatives, as was seen in France. Thus the Senate served as a more conservative and elite body. To be eligible, one had to pay 1000 florins, which meant that at that time, only about 4000 persons could be elected.
In the past, French was the sole language of government in Belgium. In 1913, the liberal Emmanuel De Cloedt spoke for the first time in history Dutch in the Senate, which the French-speaking pro-catholic newspaper La Libre Belgique described as séparatisme parlementaire ("parliamentary separatism").
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Belgium
Belgium (i/ˈbɛldʒəm/ BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it has a population of about 11 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups, the Dutch-speakers, mostly Flemish (about 60%), and the French-speakers, mostly Walloons (about 40%), plus a small group of German-speakers. Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.
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Bihar
Bihar (/bɨˈhɑr/, pronounced [bɪˈɦaːr] ( listen)) is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi (98,940 km2) and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India.
Bihar lies mid-way between West Bengal in the east and Uttar Pradesh in the west. It is bounded by the country of Nepal to the north and by Jharkhand to the south. The Bihar plain is divided into two parts by the river Ganges which flows through the middle from west to east. Bihar has notified forest area of 6,764.14 km2, which is 6.8% of its geographical area. Hindi and Urdu are the official languages of the state, while the majority of the people speak Angika, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Maithili and Bajjika. In 2000, Bihar was divided into 2 parts, the Southern part known as Jharkhand.
Ancient Bihar (which consisted of Anga, Videha/Mithila, Magadha and Vajji/Vrijji) was a centre of power, learning and culture in ancient and classical India. Out of five "The Greats" from India, four greats belonged to this region of India, Magadh: Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Samudragupta and Vikramaditya. From Magadha arose India's first and greatest empire, the Maurya empire as well as one of the world's most widely adhered-to religions, Buddhism. Magadha empires, notably under the Maurya and Gupta dynasties, unified large parts of South Asia under a central rule. Its capital Patna, earlier known as Pataliputra, was an important centre of Indian civilization.Nalanda and Vikramshila were centres of learning established in the 5th and 8th century respectively in Bihar, and are counted amongst the oldest and truly international universities, where people all over the world came to study. Bihar has distinction of giving the world its first democracy through Lichchivi (modern days Vaishali) during ancient era.
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Brazil
Brazili/brəˈzɪl/ (Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.
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Bundesrat (Germany)
The German Bundesrat (literally "Federal Council"; pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁaːt]) is a legislative body that represents the sixteen Länder (federal states) of Germany at the federal level. It has its seat at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin.
The Bundesrat participates in legislation, alongside of the Bundestag, the directly elected representation of the people of Germany, with laws affecting state competences and all constitutional changes requiring the consent of the body. Functioning similarly, it is often said to be an upper house such as the US Senate or the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, although the German constitution does not declare the Bundestag and Bundesrat to form houses of a bicameral parliament (the word "Parliament" does not even occur in the Constitution). Officially, it is generally referred to as a "constitutional body" alongside the Bundestag, the President, the Government and the Federal Constitutional Court.
Bundesrath (from 1901 on: Bundesrat, according to a general spelling reform) was already the name of similar bodies in the North German Confederation (1867) and the German Empire (1871). In 1919-1933/1934 the name was Reichsrat.
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Bundesrat of Germany
The German Bundesrat (literally "Federal Council"; pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁaːt]) is a legislative body that represents the sixteen Länder (federal states) of Germany at the federal level. It has its seat at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin.
The Bundesrat participates in legislation, alongside of the Bundestag, the directly elected representation of the people of Germany, with laws affecting state competences and all constitutional changes requiring the consent of the body. Functioning similarly, it is often said to be an upper house such as the US Senate or the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, although the German constitution does not declare the Bundestag and Bundesrat to form houses of a bicameral parliament (the word "Parliament" does not even occur in the Constitution). Officially, it is generally referred to as a "constitutional body" alongside the Bundestag, the President, the Government and the Federal Constitutional Court.
Bundesrath (from 1901 on: Bundesrat, according to a general spelling reform) was already the name of similar bodies in the North German Confederation (1867) and the German Empire (1871). In 1919-1933/1934 the name was Reichsrat.
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Bundestag
The Bundestag (Federal Diet; pronounced [ˈbʊndəstaːk]) is a legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag was established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier Reichstag. Norbert Lammert is the current President of the Bundestag.
With the dissolution of the German Confederation in 1866 and the founding of the German Empire (Deutsches Reich) in 1871, the Reichstag was established as the German parliament in Berlin. Two decades later, the current parliament building was erected. The Reichstag delegates were elected by direct and equal male suffrage (and not the three-class electoral system prevailing in Prussia until 1918). The Reichstag did not participate in the appointment of the Chancellor until the parliamentary reforms of October 1918. After the Revolution of November 1918 and the establishment of the Weimar Constitution, women were given the right to vote for (and serve in) the Reichstag, and the parliament could use the no-confidence vote to force the chancellor or any cabinet member to resign. In March 1933, one month after the Reichstag fire, the then president, Paul von Hindenburg, a retired war hero, gave Hitler ultimate power through Enabling Act of 1933, he remained at the post of Federal Government Chancellor (though he called himself the Führer). After this the Reichstag met only rarely to unanimously rubber-stamp the decisions of the government. It last convened on 26 April 1942.
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Canada
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
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Czech Republic
The Czech Republic (i/ˈtʃɛk/ CHEK;Czech: Česká republika, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka] ( listen), short form Česko Czech pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛskɔ]) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the north, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. Its capital and largest city, with 1.3 million inhabitants, is Prague.
It is a pluralist multi-party parliamentary representative democracy, a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group.
The Czech state, formerly known as Bohemia, was formed in the late 9th century as a small duchy around Prague, at that time under dominance of the powerful Great Moravian Empire (which reached its greatest territorial extent during the reign of Svatopluk I from the House of Mojmír). After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power was transferred from Moravia to Bohemia, under the Přemyslids. During the rule of Přemyslid dukes/kings and their successors, the Luxembourgs, the country reached its greatest territorial extent (13th–14th century). Life in the country was significantly affected by the Hussite wars, during which it faced economic embargo and crusades from all over Europe. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg monarchy as one of its three principal parts alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Bohemian Revolt (1618–20) led to the further centralization of the monarchy including forced recatholization and Germanization. During radical reforms in the 18th century the Bohemian Crown was even de facto abolished (1749). In the 19th century the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia which was formed in 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I.
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European Parliament
The European Parliament (abbreviated as Europarl or the EP) is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council) and the European Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world. The Parliament is currently composed of 754 Members of the European Parliament, who represent the second largest democratic electorate in the world (after the Parliament of India) and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world (375 million eligible voters in 2009).
It has been directly elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, and has been under 50% since 1999. Turnout in 2009 stood at 43% of all European voters, ranging from 90% in Luxembourg and Belgium (where compulsory voting is used) to 20% in Slovakia. Turnout was under 50% in 18 out of 27 member states.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Germany
Germany (i/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
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Hong Kong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
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House of Councillors
Coordinates: 35°40′35.5″N 139°44′40.5″E / 35.676528°N 139.744583°E / 35.676528; 139.744583
The House of Councillors (参議院, Sangiin?) is the upper house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, or designation of the prime minister, the House of Representatives can insist on its decision. In all other decisions, the House of Representatives can override a vote of the House of Councillors only by a two-thirds majority of members present.
The House of Councillors has 242 members who each serve six-year terms, two years longer than those of the House of Representatives. Councillors must be at least 30 years old, compared with 25 years old in the House of Representatives. The House cannot be dissolved, as only half of its membership is elected at each election. Of the 121 members subject to election each time, 73 are elected from the 47 prefectural districts (by single non-transferable vote) and 48 are elected from a nationwide list by proportional representation with open lists. Up to the 1998 election, there were 252 members, 126 elected at a time: 76 from prefectural districts and 50 elected nationwide. At the 2001 elections these numbers were reduced and the total number was 247 (126 elected in 1998 and 121 elected in 2001) and the open list preference vote was introduced.
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House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster.
The House of Lords is independent from, and complements the work of, the House of Commons – they share responsibility for making laws and checking government action. Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons and members of the Lords may also take on roles as Government Ministers.
Unlike the House of Commons, most new members of the House of Lords are appointed. Membership of the House of Lords is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. There are currently 26 Lords Spiritual, who sit in the Lords by virtue of their ecclesiastical role in the established Church of England. The Lords Temporal make up the rest of the membership; of these, the majority are life peers who are appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
Membership was once a right of birth to hereditary peers but, following a series of reforms, only 92 members (as of 1 July 2011 (2011 -07-01)[update]) sitting by virtue of a hereditary peerage remain. The number of members is not fixed; as of 1 April 2012 (2012 -04-01)[update] the House of Lords has 786 members (plus 21 who are on leave of absence or otherwise disqualified from sitting), as against the fixed 650-seat membership of the House of Commons.
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India
India (i/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
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Italy
Italyi/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
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Jammu-Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmiri/ˌdʒɑːmuː/ & /ˈkæʃmɪər/ is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the Pakistan-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan, to the west and northwest respectively.
Formerly a part of the erstwhile Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu, which governed the larger historic region of Kashmir, this territory is disputed among China, India and Pakistan. Pakistan, which claims the territory as disputed, refers to it alternatively as Indian-occupied Kashmir or Indian-held Kashmir, while some international agencies such as the United Nations, call it Indian-administered Kashmir. The regions under the control of Pakistan are referred to as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or PoK within India.
Jammu and Kashmir consists of three regions: Jammu, the Kashmir valley and Ladakh. Srinagar is the summer capital, and Jammu is the winter capital. While the Kashmir valley is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape, Jammu's numerous shrines attract tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims every year. Ladakh, also known as "Little Tibet", is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and Buddhist culture.
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Japan
Japan
i/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 
Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
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Karnataka
Karnataka /kɑrˈnɑːtəkə/ is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava (Formation Day). Originally known as the State of Mysore /maɪˈsɔər/, it was renamed Karnataka in 1973. It is the land of the Kannadigas, Tuluvas, Konkanis and Kodavas. The capital and largest city is Bangalore.
Karnataka is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, Goa to the northwest, Maharashtra to the north, Andhra Pradesh to the east, Tamil Nadu to the southeast, and Kerala to the southwest. The state covers an area of 191,976 square kilometres (74,122 sq mi), or 5.83% of the total geographical area of India. It is the eighth largest Indian state by area. With over 61 million inhabitants (2011), Karnataka is the ninth largest state by population, comprising 30 districts. Kannada is the most widely spoken and official language of the state.
The two main river systems of the state are Krishna and its tributaries (Bhima, Ghataprabha, Vedavati, Malaprabha, and Tungabhadra) in the north, and the Cauvery and its tributaries (Hemavati, Shimsha, Arkavathi, Lakshmana Thirtha and Kabini) in the south. Both these rivers flow eastward and fall into the Bay of Bengal.
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Maharashtra
Maharashtra /mɑːhəˈrɑːʃtrə/ (Marathi: महाराष्ट् mahārāṣṭra [məharaːʂʈrə] ( listen)) is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India. Maharashtra is the richest state in India, contributing 15% of the country's industrial output and 13.3% of its GDP (2006–2007 figures).
Maharashtra is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, Gujarat and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the northwest, Madhya Pradesh to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the east, Karnataka to the south, Andhra Pradesh to the southeast, and Goa to the southwest. The state covers an area of 307,731 km2 (118,816 sq mi) or 9.84% of the total geographical area of India. Mumbai, the capital city of the state, is India's largest city and the financial capital of the nation. Nagpur is the second capital of the state. Marathi is the official language.
Maharashtra is the world's second most populous first-level administrative country sub-division. Were it a nation in its own right, Maharashtra would be the world's tenth most populous country ahead of Mexico.
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Malaysia
Malaysia (i/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or i/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
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Mexico
Mexico (i/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
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Minnesota
Minnesota (i/mɪnɨˈsoʊtə/) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. Known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the state's name comes from a Dakota word for "sky-tinted water". Those waters, together with forests, parks, and wilderness areas, offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.
Minnesota is the 12th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the U.S. states. Nearly 60% of its residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area (known as the "Twin Cities"), the center of transportation, business, industry and education and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.
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Nebraska
Nebraska (i/nəˈbræskə/) is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. Its state capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River.
The state is crossed by many historic trails, but it was the California Gold Rush that first brought large numbers here, and it became a state in 1867. Certain landmarks still compete for the notional distinction 'Where the West Begins'.
There are wide variations between winter and summer temperatures, and violent thunderstorms and tornadoes are common. The state is characterized by treeless prairie, ideal for cattle-grazing, and it is a major producer of beef, as well as pork, maize and soybeans. Nebraska is overwhelmingly rural, as the 8th least-densely populated state of the United States.
Ethnically, the largest group are German-Americans, and the state has the biggest Czech-American population per head. During the Great Migration, many African Americans came to Omaha, and they continue to campaign for improved conditions. More recently, Native American activism has increased, with a drive for self-determination in a climate of co-operation with state officials on regional issues. It is traditionally a Republican-voting state.
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Netherlands
The Netherlands (i/ˈnɛðərləndz/; Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdə(r)lɑnt] or [ˈneɪ̯də(r)lɑnt] (
listen); West Frisian: Nederlân; Papiamento: Hulanda) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with some islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is a parliamentary democracy organised as a unitary state. The country capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands in its entirety is often referred to as Holland, although North and South Holland are actually only two of its twelve provinces (a case of pars pro toto; see terminology of "the Netherlands").
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New South Wales
Coordinates: 32°0′S 147°0′E / 32°S 147°E / -32; 147
New South Wales (abbreviated as NSW) is a state of Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales encompasses the whole of the Australian Capital Territory. The state capital is Sydney, which is also the state's most populous city. As of June 2010[update], the estimated population was 7,238,819, which was 34.5% of the population of Australia, making it Australia's most populous state. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen.
The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 and originally comprised much of the Australian mainland, as well as Van Diemen's Land, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island, in addition to the area currently referred to as the state of New South Wales, which was formed during Federation in 1901. New Zealand briefly became a part of New South Wales when it was annexed by Britain in 1840. During the 19th century, large areas were successively separated to form the British colonies of Tasmania (established as a separate colony named Van Diemen's Land in 1825), South Australia (1836), Victoria (1851) and Queensland (1859).
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Norway
Norwayi/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål) or Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.
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Nunavut
Nunavut /ˈnuːnəˌvʊt/ (from Inuktitut: ᓄᓇᕗᑦ [ˈnunavut]) is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map since the incorporation of the new province of Newfoundland in 1949.
Nunavut comprises a major portion of Northern Canada, and most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, making it the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world. The capital Iqaluit (formerly "Frobisher Bay") on Baffin Island, in the east, was chosen by the 1995 capital plebiscite. Other major communities include the regional centres of Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay. Nunavut also includes Ellesmere Island to the north, as well as the eastern and southern portions of Victoria Island in the west and Akimiski Island in James Bay to the far south.
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Oireachtas
The Oireachtas (Irish pronunciation: [ɛrʲaxt̪ˠasˠ]), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:
The Houses of the Oireachtas sit in Leinster House in Dublin, an eighteenth-century ducal palace. The directly elected Dáil is by far the most powerful branch of the Oireachtas.
Dáil Éireann, the lower house, is directly elected under universal suffrage of all Irish and United Kingdom citizens who are resident and at least eighteen years of age. An election is held at least once in every five years as required by law. However the house can usually be dissolved at any time at the request of the Taoiseach (head of government). Dáil elections occur under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The Dáil has had 166 members since 1981. The Seanad is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members selected in a number of ways. 43 senators are elected by councillors and parliamentarians, 11 are appointed by the Taoiseach, and six are elected by two university constituencies, giving a total of 60 members. The President of Ireland is directly elected once in every seven years, for a maximum of two terms. However if, as has occurred on a number of occasions, a consensus among the larger political parties can result in only a single candidate being nominated, then no actual ballot occurs.
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Ontario
Ontario /ɒnˈtɛərioʊ/ is one of the provinces of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province or territory and fourth largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.
Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay to the north, Quebec to the east, and to the south by the U.S. states of Minnesota, Michigan (portions to the west), New York (portions to the east), Ohio and Pennsylvania. All but a small part of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,677 mi) border with the United States follow inland waterways: from the west at Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River drainage system. These are the Rainy River, the Pigeon River, Lake Superior, the St. Mary's River, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, and along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall, Ontario.
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Pakistan
Pakistan (i/ˈpækɨstæn/ or i/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
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Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada (French: Parlement du Canada) is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and organization. The governor general summons and appoints each of the 105 members of the upper house on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, while the 308 members of the lower house are directly elected by eligible voters in the Canadian populace, with each Member of Parliament representing a single electoral district, commonly referred to as a riding.
By constitutional convention, the House of Commons is the dominant branch of parliament, the Senate and Crown rarely opposing its will. The Senate, thus, reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint, and the monarch and viceroy provide the necessary Royal Assent to make bills into law and summon, prorogue, and dissolve parliament in order to call an election, as well as reading the Throne Speech. The current parliament, summoned by Governor General David Johnston on 2 June 2011, is the 41st since Confederation.
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Philippines
The Philippinesi/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/ FI-lə-peenz (Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas) is a sovereign country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
With an estimated population of about 98 million people, the Philippines is the 7th most populated Asian country and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12.5 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences which remain to this day.
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Quebec
Coordinates: 53°45′N 071°59′W / 53.75°N 71.983°W / 53.75; -71.983 (Quebec)
Quebec /kwəˈbɛk/ or /kəˈbɛk/ (French: Québec [kebɛk] ( listen)) is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.
Quebec is Canada's largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division; only the territory of Nunavut is larger. It is bordered to the west by the province of Ontario, James Bay and Hudson Bay, to the north by Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay, to the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick. It is bordered on the south by the US states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. It also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.
Quebec is Canada's second most populous province, after Ontario. Most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. English-speaking communities and English-language institutions are concentrated in the west of the island of Montreal but are also significantly present in the Outaouais, Eastern Townships, and Gaspé regions. The Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples.
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Queensland
Coordinates: 23°0′S 143°0′E / 23°S 143°E / -23; 143 Queensland is the second-largest and third-most populous state of Australia, located in the northeast of the country. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, southwest and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. Queensland has a population of 4,580,700, concentrated along the coast and particularly in the state's South East. The state is the world's sixth largest subnational entity, with an area of 1,852,642 km2. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australia's third largest city. Referred to as the 'Sunshine State', Queensland is home to 10 of Australia's 30 largest cities and is the nation's third largest economy.
Queensland was first occupied by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who arrived at least 40,000 years ago. The first European to land in Queensland was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1607. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney; New South Wales at that time included all of what is now Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. Queensland was explored in subsequent decades until the establishment of a penal colony at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley. Penal transportation ceased in 1839 and free settlement permitted in 1842. Queensland was separated from New South Wales, forming a self-governing colony, on 6 June 1859, a date now celebrated state-wide as Queensland Day. Queensland achieved statehood with the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901.
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Republic of Ireland
Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ or /ˈɑrlənd/; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. Its capital is Dublin. The population of the state was 4.59 million in 2011. It is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy, with an elected president serving as head of state. In the 1937 constitution, the name of the state is given as simply "Ireland". The Constitution of Ireland (Article 4) and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provides that the "Republic of Ireland" (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is "the description of the state".
Ireland is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations. A developed country with the seventh highest Human Development Index, Ireland is also highly ranked for press freedom, economic freedom and democracy and political freedom.
The modern Irish state was established in 1922 as the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty which brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. The partition of Ireland had already been provided for in previous British legislation in 1921 in response to opposition to Irish Home Rule or independence by Unionists, who formed a majority in the north-eastern part of the country. Six of the nine counties in the northern province of Ulster were established under that legislation as Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, with which the Irish state shares its only land border. The state is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south east, and the Irish Sea to the east.
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Romania
Romania (i/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Roumania; or Rumania;Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.
At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU with about two million people.
The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.
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Russia
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
wn.com/Russia -
Russian Federation
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
wn.com/Russian_Federation -
Senate (Mexico)
The Senate of the Republic, (Spanish: Senado de la República) constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union (Spanish: Cámara de Senadores del H. Congreso de la Unión, is the upper house of Mexico's bicameral Congress.
After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:
In a senatorial race, each party nominates two candidates who run and are elected together by direct vote. The party of the two candidates that won the second highest vote within the state or the Federal District then assigns a senator to occupy the third seat (first minority seat), according to the list of candidates that the party registered with the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE).
Senators serve six-year terms, running concurrently with the President of Mexico. Special elections are rare, as substitutes are chosen at every election.
The Senate is completely renewed every six years, since senators are barred from immediate reelection.
In Spanish, it is conventional to refer to each Legislature of the Senate by the Roman numeral of its term.
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Senate of Kazakhstan
The Senate of Kazakhastan is the upper house of two chambers in Kazakhstan's legislature, known as the Parliament (Parlamenti). The Senate has 47 members, 40 of whom are elected for six-year terms in double-seat constituencies by the local assemblies, half renewed every two years; and 7 presidential appointees. In addition, ex-presidents are ex-officio senators for life. The other house is the Majilis.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is the chairman of the Senate.
Coordinates: 51°10′47″N 71°26′48″E / 51.17972°N 71.44667°E / 51.17972; 71.44667
wn.com/Senate_of_Kazakhstan -
Senate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, (Spanish: Senado de la República) constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union (Spanish: Cámara de Senadores del H. Congreso de la Unión, is the upper house of Mexico's bicameral Congress.
After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:
In a senatorial race, each party nominates two candidates who run and are elected together by direct vote. The party of the two candidates that won the second highest vote within the state or the Federal District then assigns a senator to occupy the third seat (first minority seat), according to the list of candidates that the party registered with the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE).
Senators serve six-year terms, running concurrently with the President of Mexico. Special elections are rare, as substitutes are chosen at every election.
The Senate is completely renewed every six years, since senators are barred from immediate reelection.
In Spanish, it is conventional to refer to each Legislature of the Senate by the Roman numeral of its term.
wn.com/Senate_of_Mexico -
Senate of Spain
The Senate of Spain (Spanish: Senado de España) is the upper house of Spain's parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is made up of 266 members: 208 elected by popular vote, and 58 appointed by the regional legislatures. All senators serve four-year terms, though regional legislatures may recall their appointees at any time.
The last election was held on 20 November 2011. The composition of the 10th Senate, which cannot serve beyond 2015, is:
Spanish Senate was instituted by the Constitution of 1837 under the Regency of Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. It remained under the regime of the Constitutions of 1845, 1856, 1869 and 1876. It was composed at that latter time of three main categories; Senators by their own right, Senators for life and Senators elected. This chamber was suppressed after the Coup of General Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1923.
Only after the Transicion in 1978 was again re-instituted.
Senators form groups along party lines. Parties with fewer than ten Senators form the Mixed Group. If the membership of an existing group falls below six during a session, it is merged into the Mixed Group at the next session. For example, Coalición Canaria lost its Senate caucus in 2008 after electoral losses reduced its group from six to two. The Basque Nationalist Party, falling from seven to four, "borrowed" Senators from the ruling Socialist Party to form their group; in exchange, they supported the election of socialist Javier Rojo as President of the Senate. The PNV group is again under threshold after returning the borrowed Socialists, and it faces dissolution after the current session.
wn.com/Senate_of_Spain -
Senate of Uruguay
The Chamber of Senators (Cámara de Senadores) is the upper house of the General Assembly (Asamblea General) of Uruguay. The Chamber has 30 members elected for a five year term by proportional representation; the vice-president of Uruguay presides over the chamber's sessions. As of the most recent general election, 16 Senators represent the Frente Amplio, 9 represent the National Party, and 5 represent the Colorado Party.
As of the Uruguayan general election, 2009.
As of the Uruguayan general election, 2004.
Coordinates: 34°53′28″S 56°11′14″W / 34.89111°S 56.18722°W / -34.89111; -56.18722
wn.com/Senate_of_Uruguay -
South Africa
Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.
wn.com/South_Africa -
Spain
Spain (i/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
wn.com/Spain -
Spanish Senate
The Senate of Spain (Spanish: Senado de España) is the upper house of Spain's parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is made up of 266 members: 208 elected by popular vote, and 58 appointed by the regional legislatures. All senators serve four-year terms, though regional legislatures may recall their appointees at any time.
The last election was held on 20 November 2011. The composition of the 10th Senate, which cannot serve beyond 2015, is:
Spanish Senate was instituted by the Constitution of 1837 under the Regency of Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. It remained under the regime of the Constitutions of 1845, 1856, 1869 and 1876. It was composed at that latter time of three main categories; Senators by their own right, Senators for life and Senators elected. This chamber was suppressed after the Coup of General Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1923.
Only after the Transicion in 1978 was again re-instituted.
Senators form groups along party lines. Parties with fewer than ten Senators form the Mixed Group. If the membership of an existing group falls below six during a session, it is merged into the Mixed Group at the next session. For example, Coalición Canaria lost its Senate caucus in 2008 after electoral losses reduced its group from six to two. The Basque Nationalist Party, falling from seven to four, "borrowed" Senators from the ruling Socialist Party to form their group; in exchange, they supported the election of socialist Javier Rojo as President of the Senate. The PNV group is again under threshold after returning the borrowed Socialists, and it faces dissolution after the current session.
wn.com/Spanish_Senate -
Switzerland
Switzerland (German: die Schweiz[ˈʃvaɪts]; French: Suisse [sɥis(ə)]; Italian: Svizzera [ˈzvit͡sːɛra]; Romansh: Svizra [ˈʒviːtsrɐ] or [ˈʒviːtsʁːɐ]), in its full name the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.
Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centres of Zurich and Geneva.
The Swiss Confederation has a long history of armed neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002. It pursues, however, an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland is also the birthplace of the Red Cross and home to a large number of international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association and is part of the Schengen Area – although it is notably not a member of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area.
wn.com/Switzerland -
The Maritimes
The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the northeastern province of Newfoundland & Labrador. The population of the Maritime provinces was 1,826,896 in 2008.
The Maritimes front the Atlantic Ocean and its various sub-basins such as the Gulf of Maine and Gulf of St. Lawrence systems. The region is located northeast of New England, southeast of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula, and southwest of the island of Newfoundland.
There was talk of a Maritime Union of the three provinces to have greater political power; however, the first discussions on the subject in 1864 at the Charlottetown Conference led to the process of Canadian Confederation which formed the larger Dominion of Canada instead.
The Maritimes are home to Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy people and have an extensive history of French and British settlement dating back to the seventeenth century, forming a unique culture that predates Canada.
wn.com/The_Maritimes -
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh /ˌʌtər prəˈdɛʃ/, abbreviation U.P. ("Northern Province"; formerly: United Provinces), is a state located in the north western part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity. Were it a nation in its own right, Uttar Pradesh would be the world's fifth most populous country, ahead of Brazil (a country thirty-five times larger in territorial area than Uttar Pradesh). On 9 November 2000, the Himalayan portion of the state, comprising the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions and Haridwar district, was formed into a new state 'Uttaranchal', now called Uttarakhand, meaning the 'Northern Segment' state.
Uttar Pradesh is the second largest state-economy in India, with a GDP of $103.5 billion in 2009. The annual per capita GDP of the state was $1586 in 2009, on purchasing power parity basis. It contributed 8.34% to India's total GDP in the financial year 2010. Agriculture is a significant part of UP's economy. The state was India's sixth largest producer of fruits, and became the largest producer of vegetables in 2010. With an area of 93,933 sq mi (243,290 km2), Uttar Pradesh covers a large part of the highly fertile and densely populated upper Gangetic plain. It shares an international border with Nepal to the north. Other states along Uttar Pradesh's border include Uttarakhand, Haryana and Delhi to the north and northwest; Rajasthan on the west; Madhya Pradesh on the south; Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand on the south east; and Bihar on the east.
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Yukon
Coordinates: 63°38′N 135°46′W / 63.633°N 135.767°W / 63.633; -135.767
Yukon/ˈjuːkɒn/ is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories.
The territory was created from the rump of the Hudson's Bay Company's North-Western Territory in 1898 as "the Yukon". Receiving royal assent on March 27, 2002, the federal government moderized the Yukon Act to confirm "Yukon", rather than "Yukon Territory", as the current usage standard. Though officially bilingual (English and French) the Yukon Government also recognizes First Nations languages.
At 5,959 m (19,551 ft), Yukon's Mount Logan, in Kluane National Park and Reserve, is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest of North America (after Mount McKinley in the U.S. state of Alaska). The territory's climate is Arctic and subarctic, resulting in long cold winters, short summers, and little precipitation.
It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in.
The territory is the approximate shape of a right triangle, bordering the U.S. state of Alaska to the west for 1,210 km (752 mi) mostly along longitude 141° W, the Northwest Territories to the east and British Columbia to the south. Its northern coast is on the Beaufort Sea. Its ragged eastern boundary mostly follows the divide between the Yukon Basin and the Mackenzie River drainage basin to the east in the Mackenzie mountains. Whitehorse is the territorial capital.
wn.com/Yukon
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Austria
Austria (i/ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/; German: Österreich [ˈøːstɐˌʁaɪç] ( listen)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,855 square kilometres (32,377 sq mi) and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Austro-Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Burgenland Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.
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Hong Kong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
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James Madison
James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 (O.S. March 5) – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman and political theorist, the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817). He is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being instrumental in the drafting of the United States Constitution and as the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights. He served as a politician much of his adult life. Like other Virginia statesmen in the slave society, he was a slaveholder and part of the élite; he inherited his plantation known as Montpelier, and owned hundreds of slaves during his lifetime to cultivate tobacco and other crops.
After the constitution had been drafted, Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify it. His collaboration with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay produced the Federalist Papers (1788). Circulated only in New York at the time, they would later be considered among the most important polemics in support of the Constitution. He was also a delegate to the Virginia constitutional ratifying convention, and was instrumental to the successful ratification effort in Virginia. Like most of his contemporaries, Madison changed his political views during his life. During the drafting and ratification of the constitution, he favored a strong national government, though later he grew to favor stronger state governments, before settling between the two extremes late in his life.
wn.com/James_Madison -
Jesse Ventura
James George Janos (born July 15, 1951), better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American statesman, actor, author, and former professional wrestler who served as the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003.
Ventura served as a Navy UDT during the Vietnam War. He later embarked on an 11-year professional wrestling career from 1975 to 1986, taking up the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He had a long tenure in the World Wrestling Federation as a performer and color commentator, and was inducted into the company's Hall of Fame in 2004. After leaving wrestling, Ventura began a successful film career, appearing in films such as 1987's Predator.
Ventura first entered politics as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from 1991 to 1995. He ran as the Reform Party candidate in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998, running a campaign centered on grassroots events and unusual ads that implored citizens not to "vote for politics as usual". The campaign was successful, and Ventura served from January 4, 1999, to January 6, 2003, without running for a second term.
wn.com/Jesse_Ventura -
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Korbelová Albright (born May 15, 1937) was the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by US President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997.
Albright currently serves as a Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. She holds a PhD from Columbia University. She holds honorary degrees from Brandeis University (1996); the University of Washington (2002); Smith College (2003); University of Winnipeg (2005); the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2007), and Knox College (2008). In May 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Barack Obama. Secretary Albright also serves as a Director on the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Albright is fluent in English, French, Russian, and Czech; she speaks and reads Polish and Serbo-Croatian as well.
Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈmarɪjɛ ˈjana ˈkorbɛlovaː]) in the Smíchov district of Prague, Czechoslovakia. At the time of her birth, Czechoslovakia had been independent for less than twenty years, having gained independence from Austria after World War I. Her father, Josef Korbel, was a Czech Jewish diplomat and supporter of the early Czech democrats, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš. She was his first child with his Jewish wife, Anna (née Spieglová), who later also had another daughter Katherine (a schoolteacher) and son John (an economist).
wn.com/Madeleine_Albright
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Video Glossary: Bicameral Legislature
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:57
- Updated: 23 May 2012
Congress, Constitution
http://wn.com/Video_Glossary_Bicameral_Legislature
American Government: A Bicameral Legislative Body
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:31
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
www.mindbites.com for full video. Check out www.mindbites.com for other video lessons on US Government concepts.
http://wn.com/American_Government_A_Bicameral_Legislative_Body
Introducing Bicameral Legislative Democracy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:11
- Updated: 25 Oct 2012
Everything You Want From Government and Much More ----A Lot Less Government www.PortablePublishing.com
http://wn.com/Introducing_Bicameral_Legislative_Democracy
Politics: Democracy in a Bicameral Legislation
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:53
- Updated: 24 Jan 2012
if you are in anyway confused by this video, then it's obvious you have a lot to learn about your so called american government. watch in 1080p
http://wn.com/Politics_Democracy_in_a_Bicameral_Legislation
Julian Jaynes and the Bicameral Mind Theory
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 20:56
- Updated: 10 Nov 2012
Dustin Eirdosh Interviews the founder of the Julian Jaynes Society Marcel Kuijsten.
http://wn.com/Julian_Jaynes_and_the_Bicameral_Mind_Theory
Thea Iberall at Two Idiots Peddling Poetry
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:00
- Updated: 06 Oct 2011
www.Poetry.LA -- Thea Iberall performs at the open mic of the Two Idiots Peddling Poetry reading series at The Ugly Mug Caffe, Orange, CA (6/24/09)
http://wn.com/Thea_Iberall_at_Two_Idiots_Peddling_Poetry
Senator Mike Crapo Chairs Bicameral Western Caucus Hearing
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 18:03
- Updated: 04 May 2012
The Western Caucus hearing was entitled "Washington Obstacles to Prosperity and Property Rights in the West." Special witnesses before the hearing included Idaho Governor CL "Butch" Otter and Mike and Chantell Sackett.
http://wn.com/Senator_Mike_Crapo_Chairs_Bicameral_Western_Caucus_Hearing
Cravaack Calls on Senate to Negotiate Bicameral Agreement on Highway Bill
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:36
- Updated: 19 Jun 2012
http://wn.com/Cravaack_Calls_on_Senate_to_Negotiate_Bicameral_Agreement_on_Highway_Bill
Jaynes' Bicameral Mind, Consciousness, and Free Will
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:59
- Updated: 08 Nov 2012
Video Cam Direct Upload
http://wn.com/Jaynes'_Bicameral_Mind,_Consciousness,_and_Free_Will
Bicameral Hearing on Subprime Crisis - Shiller's Testimony
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:24
- Updated: 27 Feb 2012
The bicameral Joint Economic Committee is currently holding a hearing, "Evolution of an Economic Crisis?: The Subprime Lending Disaster and the Threat to the Broader Economy." Dr. Robert J. Shiller, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics at Yale University, testifies.
http://wn.com/Bicameral_Hearing_on_Subprime_Crisis_Shiller's_Testimony
MPSL VLog: Bicameral Legislature and Gridlock
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:50
- Updated: 24 Oct 2012
Congress, Constitution
http://wn.com/MPSL_VLog_Bicameral_Legislature_and_Gridlock
The Bicameral Mind
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 21:29
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
An accident during battle swaps part of RUSTY's program with part of NUMBER FOUR's giving them each aspects of the others personality. Watch hundreds of free full-length streaming movies and TV shows on www.crackle.com Want to see some more legends? Come check out the Animated Hall of Heroes, free at http Tags: The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot Frank Miller comic book comicbook cartoon comics dark horse scifi Geof Darrow Tokyo Gabrille Carteris Stephen Root R Lee Ermey Clancy Brown Legion Ex Machina Axel Donovan Neugog Watch Free Video Online Now Streaming Full-length Television Tv Show
http://wn.com/The_Bicameral_Mind
Rep. Denham Lauds Bipartisan, Bicameral Passage of Tracy Solar Energy Bill
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:33
- Updated: 07 May 2012
US Representative Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) today voted in support of a S. 1302, a Tracy land conveyance bill, as it passed the House of Representatives. The bill passed unanimously through the House Subcommittee of Economic Development, Public Buildings and, Emergency Management, which is chaired by Rep. Denham. The bill addresses a 14-year-old bureaucratic problem and will allow the City of Tracy to use the property on Schulte Road for a job-creating renewable energy project. www.facebook.com/RepJeffDenham www.twitter.com/RepJeffDenham www.Denham.House.gov
http://wn.com/Rep_Denham_Lauds_Bipartisan,_Bicameral_Passage_of_Tracy_Solar_Energy_Bill
Corker: CAP Act Gains Bipartisan, Bicameral Momentum
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:26
- Updated: 04 Jun 2011
Senator Bob Corker held a news conference in the US Capitol today to announce bipartisan, bicameral support for his bill to put an across-the-board, binding cap on all federal spending. US Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) have added their names to the CAP Act, and US Representatives Jimmy Duncan (R-Tenn.) and Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) will be leading the effort in the House to build bipartisan support for the bill.
http://wn.com/Corker_CAP_Act_Gains_Bipartisan,_Bicameral_Momentum
Nancy Moyer - Bicameral Faces
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:56
- Updated: 31 Oct 2011
Artist Nancy Moyer explores the human face and applies a process of portrait photography and post production to explore the intricate nature of the face, and the unique stories that the left and/or right side of our faces tell about us.
http://wn.com/Nancy_Moyer_Bicameral_Faces
![ENEMY LOGIC - Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind [European Metal Channel]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121119233234im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hSyLYGbMkNU/default.jpg "ENEMY LOGIC - Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind [European Metal Channel]")
ENEMY LOGIC - Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind [European Metal Channel]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:38
- Updated: 29 Feb 2012
◄◊► EUROPEAN METAL CHANNEL ◄◊► www.youtube.com ► EUROPEAN METAL CHANNEL "2" ◄ www.youtube.com FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: twitter.com ENEMY LOGIC: www.enemylogic.com www.myspace.com www.enemylogic.bigcartel.com www.youtube.com -----Subscribe and enjoy the best European Metal bands----- NOTE: All videos are uploaded with the permission of their owners
http://wn.com/ENEMY_LOGIC_Breakdown_Of_The_Bicameral_Mind_European_Metal_Channel_
Sen. Hutchison Speaks at Bicameral Honest Budget Act Press Conference
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:28
- Updated: 01 Feb 2012
http://wn.com/Sen_Hutchison_Speaks_at_Bicameral_Honest_Budget_Act_Press_Conference
Bipartisan and Bicameral Congressional Leadership Meet with President Bush (2007)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:27
- Updated: 14 May 2012
thefilmarchive.org April 18, 2007 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech (VT), is a public land-grant university with the main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, with other research and educational centers throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and internationally. Founded in 1872 as an agricultural and mechanical land-grant college, Virginia Tech is a research university with the largest full-time student population in Virginia and one of the few public universities in the United States that maintains a corps of cadets. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia. Virginia Tech has the largest number of degree offerings in Virginia, more than 125 campus buildings, a 2600-acre main campus, off-campus educational facilities in six regions, a study-abroad site in Switzerland, and a 1700-acre agriculture research farm near the main campus. The main Virginia Tech campus is located in the New River Valley in the valley and ridge physiographic region of the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, a few miles from the Jefferson National Forest in Montgomery County. The Board of Visitors is the governing authority for Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The Board is composed of 14 members, 13 of whom are appointed by the Governor. The ...
http://wn.com/Bipartisan_and_Bicameral_Congressional_Leadership_Meet_with_President_Bush_2007
Anonymous: Message to US Bicameral government and Hollywood.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:50
- Updated: 31 Oct 2012
SOPA, PIPA, have taken a blow for now. Anonymous, arise. Unite. Legion. Never Forget. ~Corvus Borgore's Guided Relaxation is property of Buygore, Sumerian.
http://wn.com/Anonymous_Message_to_US_Bicameral_government_and_Hollywood
3/18/10 Bicameral GOP Leadership Stakeout
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:04
- Updated: 26 Jul 2012
House Republican Leader John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell speak following their Bicameral Republican Conference Meeting on health care.
http://wn.com/3_18_10_Bicameral_GOP_Leadership_Stakeout
Bicameral Immigration Forum - FULL EVENT (3/7/07)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 42:15
- Updated: 23 Mar 2010
On March 7, 2007, NDN held a bicameral forum on comprehensive immigration reform featuring: Senator Edward Kennedy Congressman Luis Gutierrez Senator Ken Salazar Senator Harry Reid Senator Bob Menendez Congressman Xavier Becerra Simon Rosenberg, President of NDN
http://wn.com/Bicameral_Immigration_Forum_FULL_EVENT_3_7_07
Bicameral Hearing on Subprime Crisis - Maloney's Opening
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:36
- Updated: 22 Jul 2010
The bicameral Joint Economic Committee is currently holding a hearing, "Evolution of an Economic Crisis?: The Subprime Lending Disaster and the Threat to the Broader Economy." Witnesses include Peter R. Orszag, Director of the Congressional Budget Office; Dr. Robert J. Shiller, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics at Yale University; Martin Eakes, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Responsible Lending; and Alex J. Pollock, Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Rep. Carolyn Maloney gives opening remarks.
http://wn.com/Bicameral_Hearing_on_Subprime_Crisis_Maloney's_Opening
The Sleep of Reason: Bicameral
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:35
- Updated: 25 Aug 2010
This three-act architecturally informed performance incorporates live video mixing, experimental music, psychoacoustic research, theatrical and site-specific dance.
http://wn.com/The_Sleep_of_Reason_Bicameral
Photo: AP / Hatem Moussa
18 Nov 2012
Israeli air strikes killed 16 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, prompting the Arab League to announce a visit to the battered enclave and a review of its Middle East peace policy. Egypt’s President...
Photo: AP / Eyad Baba
17 Nov 2012
Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak more than doubled his call-up of army reservists last night (Friday night) as its cabinet and military chiefs convened to discuss a ground invasion of Gaza. With...
Photo: AP / Hatem Moussa
19 Nov 2012
Gaza/Jerusalem - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that...
Photo: UN / UN
17 Nov 2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's new offensive against the Gaza Strip has turned into a political bonanza for the territory's Hamas rulers, while sidelining Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,...
Photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb
18 Nov 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling Israel's ongoing uprooting of hundreds of Palestinian olive trees in the West Bank, including possibly sabotaging Palestine's recent bid for state...
The Daily Tribune
The Palace and its chief ally Sen. Franklin Drilon, acting chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, failed to achieve their self-imposed target yesterday to ratify the controversial sin tax bill after Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile sprung a surprise by allowing the Senate in plenary to...(size: 5.0Kb)
Bicam committee OKs amendments to IP law
19 Nov 2012
The Daily Tribune
The bicameral conference committee today approved the reconciled version of the bill amending the Intellectual Property (IP) Code. In a meeting at Traders Hotel, the conferees from the Senate and the House of Representatives reconciled the disagreeing provisions in Senate Bill 2842 and House Bill...(size: 2.1Kb)
House passes K to 12 bill on final reading
19 Nov 2012
Sun Star
MANILA -- The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2012 or the K to 12 bill passed its final reading in the House of Representatives Monday night. House records show 198 legislators voted in favor of the measure while eight others voted against it....(size: 1.6Kb)
Sun Star
A MEMBER of the House of Representatives said the chamber is willing to accept Senator Franklin Drilon's proposal, which aims to raise between P40 billion and P45 billion in additional revenues. Davao City Representative Isidro Ungab, chairman of the...(size: 1.7Kb)
Salafi society calls for Arab action for Gaza
18 Nov 2012
Gulf News
Manama: A Bahraini society has called for severing all ties with Israel and a better coordination between Arab and Islamic states to end “the unfair Israeli assault on Gaza” quickly. “Israel should not be allowed to kill and move around as it wishes,” Salafi society Al Asala...(size: 18.7Kb)
The Examiner
Related topics Top News TopicsBarack Obama Advertisement President Barack Obama delivered his weekly address this morning and to no one's surprise, encouraged Congress to extend the middle class tax cuts. He warned in the weekly address that "if Congress fails to act by the end of the year, then...(size: 12.8Kb)
The News & Observer
Jacquelyn Martin, File - AP Photo FILE - This Nov. 16, 2012 file photo shows Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., left, with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio looking on, speaking to reporters outside the White House in Washington following a meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss the...(size: 18.4Kb)
The Examiner
Related topics Fiscal Cliff TalksBarack ObamaCongressTaxesWhite Houserepublicans and democrats Advertisement In an effort to avert a year-end fiscal crisis that has put markets on edge, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders met Friday and emerged from the meeting sounding positive and...(size: 8.8Kb)
The White House
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with the bipartisan, bicameral leadership...(size: 0.6Kb)
Business Insider
President Barack Obama and top Congressional leaders are set to meet this morning to begin discussing a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. It comes about a month and a half before a spree of new tax increases and spending cuts are set to take effect if no deal is reached, which the...(size: 3.1Kb)
Reforms in Myanmar: Challenges and prospects
15 Nov 2012
Al Jazeera
In a week's time, US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Asia's - and perhaps the world's - hottest destination: Myanmar. He should "see" the ugly realities of the country's reforms that lie just beneath their surface and hear the cries of the wretched of Myanmar, such as the Muslim...(size: 30.8Kb)
Bahraini lawmaker presses for help to Jordan
15 Nov 2012
Gulf News
Manama: A Bahraini lawmaker has called upon the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to assist Jordan as the country faces a difficult situation. “Jordan has exploded after the government dropped subsidies on fuel, causing the prices to rise,” MP Adel Al Mouawda said. “The GCC...(size: 20.1Kb)
As good as dead
14 Nov 2012
The Daily Tribune
With the anti-Freedom of Information bill advocates buying at least two weeks before the House committee on public information votes on the controversial measure, the FoI bill is deemed as good as dead. For assuming the panel will vote to approve the FoI bill on its next hearing scheduled on Nov....(size: 4.4Kb)
In government, bicameralism (Latin bi, two + camera, chamber) is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers compromise bills.
Bicameralism is an essential and defining feature of the classical notion of mixed government. Bicameral legislatures tend to require a concurrent majority to pass legislation.
Contents |
Theory of bicameral congress[link]
Although the ideas on which bicameralism are based can be traced back to the theories developed in Ancient Sumer and later ancient Greece, ancient India, and Rome, recognizable bicameral institutions first arose in medieval Europe where they were associated with separate representation of different estates of the realm. For example, one house would represent the aristocracy, and the other would represent the commoners.[1]
The Founding Fathers of the United States also favored a bicameral legislature. The idea was to have the Senate be wealthier, and (apparently) wiser. "The Senate was created to be a stabilizing force, elected not by mass electors, but selected by the State legislators. Senators would be more knowledgeable and more deliberate—a sort of republican nobility—and a counter to what Madison saw as the 'fickleness and passion' that could absorb the House.[1]
He noted further, 'The use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with more system and with more wisdom, than the popular branch.' Madison's argument led the Framers to grant the Senate prerogatives in foreign policy, an area where steadiness, discretion, and caution were deemed especially important".[1] The Senate was chosen by state legislators, and senators had to possess a significant amount of property in order to be deemed worthy and sensible enough for the position. In fact, it was not until the year 1913 that the 17th Amendment was passed, which "mandated that Senators would be elected by popular vote rather than chosen by the State legislatures".[1]
As part of the Great Compromise, they invented a new rationale for bicameralism in which the upper house would have states represented equally, and the lower house would have them represented by population.
In subsequent constitution making, federal states have often adopted bicameralism, and the solution remains popular when regional differences or sensitivities require more explicit representation, with the second chamber representing the constituent states. Nevertheless, the older justification for second chambers—providing opportunities for second thoughts about legislation—has survived.[citation needed]
Growing awareness of the complexity of the notion of representation and the multifunctional nature of modern legislatures may be affording incipient new rationales for second chambers, though these do generally remain contested institutions in ways that first chambers are not. An example of political controversy regarding a second chamber has been the debate over the powers of the Canadian Senate or the election of the Senate of France.[2]
The relationship between the two chambers varies; in some cases, they have equal power, while in others, one chamber is clearly superior in its powers. The first tends to be the case in federal systems and those with presidential governments. The latter tends to be the case in unitary states with parliamentary systems.
There are two streams of thought: Critics believe bicameralism makes meaningful political reforms more difficult to achieve and increases the risk of gridlock (particularly in cases where both chambers have similar powers), while proponents argue the merits of the "checks and balances" provided by the bicameral model, which they believe help prevent the passage into law of ill-considered legislation.
Types[link]
Federal[link]
Some countries, such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States, link their bicameral systems to their federal political structure.
In the United States, Australia, and Mexico, for example, each state is given the same number of seats in the legislature's upper house. This takes account of population differences between states — it is designed to ensure that smaller states are not overshadowed by larger states, which have more representation in the lower house. In Canada, the country as a whole is divided into a number of Senate Divisions, each with a different number of Senators, based on a number of factors. These Divisions are Quebec, Ontario, Western Provinces, and the Maritimes, each with 24 Senators, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, each with 1 Senator, and Newfoundland and Labrador has 6 Senators, making for a total of 105 Senators.
Senators in Canada are not elected by the people but are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Senate does not originate most legislation (although a small fraction of government bills are introduced in the Senate and Senators may introduce private members' bills in the same way as MPs) but acts as a chamber of revision almost always passing legislation approved by the House of Commons, made up of Members of Parliament (MPs) who are elected. The Senate must pass legislation before it becomes law and can therefore act as a wise facilitator or engage in filibuster. The Senate does not have to endure the accountability and scrutiny of parliamentary elections. Therefore, the bicameral structure of Canadian parliament is more de jure than de facto.[citation needed]
In the German, Indian, and Pakistani systems, the upper houses (the Bundesrat, the Rajya Sabha, and the Pakistani Senate respectively) are even more closely linked with the federal system, being appointed or elected directly by the governments or legislatures of each German Bundesland, Indian State, or Pakistani Province. (This was also the case in the United States before the 17th Amendment.) The Indian Upper House does not have the states represented equally, but on the basis of their population. In the German Bundesrat, the various Länder have between three and seven votes; thus, while the less populated states have a lower weight, they still have a stronger voting power than would be the case in a system based purely on population, as the most populous Land currently has about 27 times the population of the least populous.
There are also instances of bicameralism in countries that are not federations, but which have upper houses with representation on a territorial basis. For example in South Africa, the National Council of Provinces (and before 1997, the Senate) has its members chosen by each Province's legislature. "
In Spain the Spanish Senate functions as a de facto territorial-based upper house, and there has been some pressure from the Autonomous Communities to reform it into a strictly territorial chamber.
The European Union maintains a bicameral legislative system which consists of the European Parliament, which is elected in general elections on the basis of universal suffrage, and the Council of the European Union which consists of members of the governments of the Member States which are competent for the relevant field of legislation. Although the European Union is not considered a state, it enjoys the power to legislate in many areas of politics; in some areas, those powers are even exclusively reserved to it.
Aristocratic[link]
In a few countries, bicameralism involves the juxtaposition of democratic and aristocratic elements.
The best known example is the British House of Lords, which includes a number of hereditary peers. The House of Lords represents a vestige of the aristocratic system which once predominated in British politics, while the other house, the House of Commons, is entirely elected. Over the years, there have been proposals to reform the House of Lords, some of which have been at least partly successful — the House of Lords Act 1999 limited the number of hereditary peers (as opposed to life peers, appointed by the government) to 92, down from around 700. The ability of the House of Lords to block legislation is curtailed by the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. Further reform of the Lords has been proposed, however not supported by many. Members of the House of Lords all have an aristocratic title, or are from the Clergy. At present, 786 people sit in the House of Lords, with 92 Hereditary, 26 being Bishops or Archbishops (the Lords Spiritual) and the rest being Life Peers. Membership is not fixed and will continue to grow. At the current rate, the House of Lords will be the largest Political Chamber in the world within a few years based on membership size.
Another example of aristocratic bicameralism was the Japanese House of Peers, abolished after World War II and replaced with the present House of Councillors.
Unitary states[link]
Many bicameral countries like the Netherlands, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Ireland and Romania are examples of bicameral systems existing in unitary states. In countries such as these, the upper house generally focuses on scrutinizing and possibly vetoing the decisions of the lower house.
On the other hand, in Italy the Parliament consists of two chambers that have same role and power: the Senate (Senate of the Republic, commonly considered the upper house) and the Chamber of Deputies, considered the lower house).
In some of these countries, the upper house is indirectly elected. Members of France's Senate, Ireland's Seanad Éireann are chosen by electoral colleges consisting of members of the lower house, local councillors, the Taoiseach, and graduates of selected universities, while the Netherlands' Senate is chosen by members of provincial assemblies (which in turn are directly elected).
Norway had a kind of semi-bicameral legislature with two chambers, or departments, within the same elected body, the Storting. These were called the Odelsting and Lagting and were abolished after the general election of 2009. According to Morten Søberg, there was a related system in the 1798 constitution of the Batavian Republic.[3]
In Hong Kong, members of the unicameral Legislative Council returned from geographical constituencies and functional constituencies are required to vote separately since 1997 on motions, bills or amendments to government bills not introduced by the government. The passage of these motions, bills or amendments to government bills requires double majority in both groups simultaneously. (Before 2004, when elections to the Legislative Council from the Election Committee was abolished, members returned through the Election Committee vote with members returned from geographical constituencies.) The double majority requirement does not apply to motions, bills and amendments introduced by the government.
Subnational entities[link]
In some countries with federal systems, individual states (like those of the United States, Australia and a few States of India) may also have bicameral legislatures. Only three such states, Nebraska in the US, Queensland in Australia and Bavaria in Germany have later adopted unicameral systems. Canadian provinces had all their upper houses abolished.
United States[link]
During the 1930s, the Legislature of the State of Nebraska was reduced from bicameral to unicameral with the 43 members that once comprised that state's Senate. One of the arguments used to sell the idea at the time to Nebraska voters was that by adopting a unicameral system, the perceived evils of the "conference committee" process would be eliminated.
A conference committee is appointed when the two chambers cannot agree on the same wording of a proposal, and consists of a small number of legislators from each chamber. This tends to place much power in the hands of only a small number of legislators. Whatever legislation, if any, the conference committee finalizes must then be approved in an unamendable "take-it-or-leave-it" manner by both chambers.
During his term as Governor of the State of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura proposed converting the Minnesotan legislature to a single chamber with proportional representation, as a reform that he felt would solve many legislative difficulties and impinge upon legislative corruption. In his book on political issues, Do I Stand Alone?, Ventura argued that bicameral legislatures for provincial and local areas were excessive and unnecessary, and discussed unicameralism as a reform that could address many legislative and budgetary problems for states.
Australia[link]
In Australian states, the lower house was traditionally elected based on the one-vote-one-value principle, whereas the upper house was partially appointed and elected, with a bias towards country voters. In Queensland, the appointed upper house was abolished in 1922, while in New South Wales there were similar attempts at abolition, before the upper house was reformed in the 1970s to provide for direct election. Nowadays, the upper house is elected using proportional voting and the lower house through preferential voting, except in Tasmania, where proportional voting is used for the lower house, and preferential voting for the upper house.
India[link]
Six Indian States of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu-Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have Bicameral Legislatures, these are called legislative councils (Vidhan Parishad), one third of who get elected every 6 years, there are graduate constituencies (members elected exclusively by graduates), teachers constituencies (members elected exclusively by teachers), municipal constituencies (members elected exclusively by Mayors and council members of the city Governments).From 1956 to 1958 the Andhra Pradesh Legislature was Unicameral and from 1958 when the Council was formed, it became bicameral and continued till 1st June, 1985 when the Legislative Council was abolished.This continued until March 2007 when the Legislative Council was reestablished and elections were held for its seats. Since then the Andhra Pradesh Legislature has become once again Bicameral.
Germany[link]
The German Land of Bavaria had a bicameral legislature from 1946 to 1999, when the Senate was abolished by a referendum amending the state's constitution. The other 15 Länder have used a unicameral system since their founding.
Reform[link]
Arab political reform[link]
A 2005 report on democratic reform in the Arab world by the US Council on Foreign Relations co-sponsored by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urged Arab states to adopt bicameralism, with upper chambers appointed on a 'specialised basis'. The Council claimed that this would protect against the 'Tyranny of the majority', expressing concerns that without a system of checks and balances extremists would use the single chamber parliaments to restrict the rights of minority groups.
In 2002, Bahrain adopted a bicameral system with an elected lower chamber and an appointed upper house. This led to a boycott of parliamentary elections that year by the Al Wefaq party, who said that the government would use the upper house to veto their plans. Many secular critics of bicameralism were won around to its benefits in 2005, after many MPs in the lower house voted for the introduction of so-called morality police.
Romania[link]
A referendum on introducing a unicameral Parliament instead of the current bicameral Parliament was held in Romania on 22 November 2009. The turnout rate was 50.95%, with 77.78% of "Yes" votes for a unicameral Parliament.[4] This referendum had a consultative role, thus requiring a parliamentary initiative and another referendum to ratify the new proposed changes.
Examples[link]
Nations with bicameral legislatures.
Nations with unicameral legislatures.
No legislature.
No data.
- Afghanistan - The National Assembly consists of Masharano Jirga and Wolesi Jirga
- Argentina - The National Congress consists of Senate and Chamber of Deputies. Of the twenty-three provincial legislatures, eight are bicameral, while the remaining fifteen and the legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires are unicameral.
- Australia - The Parliament consists of the House of Representatives and Senate; all of the state parliaments except Queensland's are also bicameral.
- Austria - The Parliament consists of the Nationalrat and the Bundesrat; all of the Bundesländer have unicameral parliaments.
- Belgium - The Federal Parliament consists of the Chamber of Representatives and Senate; all of the community and regional parliaments are unicameral.
- Brazil - The National Congress consists of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies; all of the 26 state legislatures and the Federal District legislature are unicameral.
- Canada - The Parliament consists of the House of Commons and the Senate; all of the provincial legislatures are unicameral.
- France - The Parliament in the Fifth French Republic consists of the National Assembly and the Senate
- Germany - The Bundestag and Bundesrat in Germany, which form two distinct bodies not framed by a comprehensive institution; all of the Länder today have unicameral parliaments.
- India - The Parliament in India, which consists of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) and the Rajya Sabha (Council of States); some of the states also have bicameral legislatures namely Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) and Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council).
- Ireland - The Oireachtas consists of Dáil Éireann (the House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (the Senate).
- Italy - The Parliament consists of two chambers that have same role and power: the Senate (Senate of the Republic, commonly considered the upper house) and the Chamber of Deputies, considered the lower house) with twice as many members as the Senate.
- Japan - The Diet is bicameral, consisting of the House of Representatives as the lower house and the House of Councillors as the upper house.
- Malaysia - The Parliament consists of the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) and the Dewan Negara (Senate); all of the state legislatures are unicameral.
- Mexico - The Congress consists of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies; all the 31 State Congresses and the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District are unicameral.
- Netherlands - The States-General of the Netherlands consists of the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives, literally Second Chamber) and the Eerste Kamer (Senate, literally First Chamber)
- Pakistan - The Parliament consists of the National Assembly and the Senate; all of the provincial assemblies are unicameral.
- Philippines - The Congress consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives; all local legislatures are unicameral.
- Russian Federation - The Federal Assembly consists of the State Duma and the Federation Council; all of the provincial parliaments are unicameral.
- South Africa - The Parliament consists of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces; all of the provincial legislatures are unicameral.
- Spain - The Cortes Generales consists of a lower house, the Congress of Deputies and an upper house, the Senate. Moreover, each Spanish autonomous region has its own unicameral regional parliament, with wide-ranging legislative powers on their own.
- Switzerland - The Federal Assembly consists of the National Council and the Council of States; all of the cantons have unicameral parliaments.
- United Kingdom - The Parliament consists of the House of Commons and the House of Lords
- United States - The Congress consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives; all of the state legislatures except Nebraska are also bicameral.
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ a b c d Rules.House.gov
- ^ (French) Liberation.fr, Senat, le triomphe de l'anomalie
- ^ Minerva.as
- ^ Referendum turnout 50.95%. 77.78 said YES for a unicameral Parliament, 88.84% voted for the decrease in the number of Parliamentarians, Official reuslts from the Romanian Central Electoral Commission
External links[link]
- Seth Barrett Tillman, Noncontemporaneous Lawmaking: Can the 110th Senate Enact a Bill Passed by the 109th House?, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 331 (2007).
- Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl, Against Mix-and-Match Lawmaking, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 349 (2007).
- Seth Barrett Tillman, Defending the (Not So) Indefensible: A Reply to Professor Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 363 (2007).
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
Julian Jaynes (February 27, 1920 – November 21, 1997) was an American psychologist, best known for his book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976), in which he argued that ancient peoples were not conscious.
Jaynes defines "consciousness" more narrowly than most philosophers. Jaynes' definition of consciousness is synonymous with what philosophers call "meta-consciousness" or "meta-awareness" i.e. awareness of awareness, thoughts about thinking, desires about desires, beliefs about beliefs. This form of reflection is also distinct from the kinds of "deliberations" seen in other higher animals such as crows insofar as Jaynesian consciousness is dependent on linguistic cognition.
Jaynes wrote that ancient humans before roughly 1200 BC were not reflectively meta-conscious and operated by means of automatic, nonconscious habit-schemas. Instead of having meta-consciousness, these humans were constituted by what Jaynes calls the "bicameral mind". For bicameral humans, when habit did not suffice to handle novel stimuli and stress rose at the moment of decision, neural activity in the "dominant" (left) hemisphere was modulated by auditory verbal hallucinations originating in the so-called "silent" (right) hemisphere (particularly the right temporal cortex), which were heard as the voice of a chieftain or god and immediately obeyed.
Jaynes wrote, "[For bicameral humans], volition came as a voice that was in the nature of a neurological command, in which the command and the action were not separated, in which to hear was to obey."[1] Jaynes argued that the change from bicamerality to consciousness (linguistic meta-cognition) occurred over a period of centuries beginning around 1200 BC. The selection pressure for Jaynesian consciousness as a means for cognitive control is due, in part, to chaotic social disorganizations and the development of new methods of behavioral control such as writing.[citation needed]
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Life[link]
Jaynes was born in West Newton, Massachusetts, son of Julian Clifford Jaynes (1854–1922), a Unitarian minister, and Clara Bullard Jaynes (1884-1980). He attended Harvard University, was an undergraduate at McGill University and afterwards received master's and doctorate degrees from Yale University. He was mentored by Frank A. Beach and was a close friend of Edwin G. Boring. During this time period Jaynes made significant contributions in the fields of animal behavior and ethology. After Yale, Jaynes spent several years in England working as an actor and playwright. Jaynes later returned to the United States, and lectured in psychology at Princeton University from 1966 to 1990, teaching a popular class on consciousness for much of that time. He was in high demand as a lecturer, and was frequently invited to lecture at conferences and as a guest lecturer at other universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, Dalhousie, Wellesley, Florida State, the Universities of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward Island, and Massachusetts at Amherst and Boston Harbor. In 1984 he was invited to give the plenary lecture at the Wittgenstein Symposium in Kirchberg, Austria. He gave six major lectures in 1985 and nine in 1986. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. by Rhode Island College in 1979 and another from Elizabethtown College in 1985.[2] He died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on November 21, 1997.
Reception and influence[link]
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind was a successful work of popular science, selling out the first print run before a second could replace it. The book was a nominee for the National Book Award in 1978, and received dozens of positive book reviews, including those by well-known critics such as John Updike in The New Yorker, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in the New York Times, and Marshall McLuhan in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Articles on Jaynes's theory appeared in Time[3] magazine and Psychology Today[4] in 1977. Jaynes later expanded on the ideas in his book in a series of commentaries in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, in lectures and discussions published in Canadian Psychology, and in Art/World. He wrote an extensive Afterword for the 1990 edition of his book, in which he expanded on his theory and addressed some of the criticisms. More than 30 years later, Jaynes's book is still in print.
Jaynes's theory has been influential to philosophers such as Daniel Dennett,[5] psychologists such as Tim Crow[6] and Steven Pinker,[7] and psychiatrists such as Henry Nasrallah.[8] Jaynes's ideas have also influenced writers such as William S. Burroughs,[9] Neal Stephenson,[10] Robert J. Sawyer,[11] Philip K. Dick,[12] and Ken Wilber. Jaynes's theory inspired the investigation of auditory hallucinations by researchers such as psychologist Thomas Posey[13] and clinical psychologist John Hamilton,[14] which ultimately has led to a rethinking of the association of auditory hallucinations and mental illness.[15] Richard Dawkins cited Jaynes' ideas in his book The God Delusion, stating "It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between ...".[16] Jaynes's theory has been cited in thousands of both scientific and popular books and articles.[17]
In the late 1990s, Jaynes's ideas received renewed attention as brain imaging technology confirmed many of his early predictions.[18][19] A 2007 book titled Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited contains several of Jaynes's essays along with chapters by scholars from a variety of disciplines expanding on his ideas.[20] At the April 2008 "Toward a Science of Consciousness" Conference held in Tucson, Arizona, Marcel Kuijsten (Executive Director and Founder of the Julian Jaynes Society) and Brian J. McVeigh (University of Arizona) hosted a workshop devoted to Jaynesian psychology. At the same conference, a panel devoted to Jaynes was also held, with John Limber (University of New Hampshire), Marcel Kuijsten, John Hainly (Southern University), Scott Greer (University of Prince Edward Island), and Brian J. McVeigh presenting relevant research. At the same conference the philosopher Jan Sleutels (Leiden University) presented on Jaynesian psychology. A 2012 book titled The Julian Jaynes Collection gathers together many of the lectures and articles by Jaynes relevant to his theory (including some that were previously unpublished), along with interviews and question and answer sessions where Jaynes addresses misconceptions about the theory and extends the theory into new areas.[21]
Criticism[link]
Jaynes's theories on consciousness and the bicameral mind are controversial. An early criticism by philosopher Ned Block argued that Jaynes had confused the emergence of consciousness with the emergence of the concept of consciousness. In other words, according to Block, humans were conscious all along but didn't have the concept of consciousness and thus did not discuss it in their texts. Daniel Dennett countered that for some things, such as money, baseball, or consciousness, one cannot have the thing without also having the concept of the thing.[22] Moreover, it is arguable that Block misinterpreted the nature of what Jaynes claimed to be a social construction.[23]
See also[link]
- Bronze Age collapse, speculated by Jaynes to have been the ultimate cause of the breakdown of bicamerality
Notes[link]
- ^ Jaynes, Julian (1990). The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind. Houghton Mifflin. p. 99. ISBN 0-395-56352-6.
- ^ Kuijsten, Marcel (2007). Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited. Julian Jaynes Society. 13–68. ISBN 0-9790744-0-1.
- ^ Leo, John (1977). "The Lost Voices of the Gods". Time 14.
- ^ Keen, Sam (November 1977). "Julian Jaynes: Portrait of the Psychologist as a Maverick Theorizer". Psychology Today 11.
- ^ Dennett, Daniel (1992). Consciousness Explained. Back Bay Books.
- ^ Crow, Tim (2005). "Right Hemisphere Language Functions and Schizophrenia: The Forgotten Hemisphere". Brain 128 (5): 963.
- ^ Pinker, Steven (1999). How the Mind Works. W.W. Norton & Co..
- ^ Nasrallah, Henry (1985). "The Unintegrated Right Cerebral Hemispheric Consciousness as Alien Intruder: A Possible Mechanism for Schneiderian Delusions in Schizophrenia". Comprehensive Psychiatry 26 (3): 273. PMID 3995938.
- ^ Burroughs, William S. "Sects and Death." Three Fisted Tales of Bob. Ed. Rev. Ivan Stang. Fireside, 1990. ISBN 0-671-67190-1
- ^ Stephenson, Neal (1992). Snow Crash. Bantam Books.
- ^ Sawyer, Robert (2009). WWW: Wake. Ace.
- ^ Dick, Philip (1977). A Scanner Darkly. Doubleday.
- ^ Posey, Thomas (1983). "Auditory Hallucinations of Hearing Voices in 375 Normal Subjects". Imagination, Cognition, and Personality 3.
- ^ Hamilton, John (1988). "Auditory Hallucinations in Nonverbal Quadriplegics". Psychiatry 48. PMID 4070517.
- ^ Smith, Daniel (2007). Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination. Penguin Press.
- ^ Dawkins, Richard (2006). The God Delusion. Mariner Books.
- ^ "Google Books". Google. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Julian+Jaynes%22&tbm=bks&tbo=1. Retrieved Feb. 2011.
- ^ Olin, Robert (1999). "Auditory Hallcinations and the Bicameral Mind". Lancet 354 (9173): 166. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)75304-6. PMID 10408523.
- ^ Sher, Leo (2000). "Neuroimaging, Auditory Hallucinations, and the Bicameral Mind". Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience 25 (3).
- ^ Kuijsten, Marcel (2007). Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited. Julian Jaynes Society. ISBN 0-9790744-0-1.
- ^ Kuijsten, Marcel (2012). The Julian Jaynes Collection. Julian Jaynes Society. ISBN 978-0979074424.
- ^ Daniel Dennett, op. cit., at pp. 127-128 in Brainstorms
- ^ Williams, Gary (2010). "What is it like to be nonconscious? A defense of Julian Jaynes". Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. http://www.springerlink.com/content/e832238u36211688/.
External links[link]
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Julian Jaynes |
- Julian Jaynes Society
- The Origin of consciousness..: Summary, selected quotes and review
- Neuroimaging, Auditory Hallucinations, and the Bicameral Mind by Leo Sher, MD
- Schizophrenic Process and The Emergence of Consciousness in Recent History: The Significance for Psychotherapy of Julian Jaynes by Heward Wilkinson
- What It Feels Like To Hear Voices: Fond Memories of Julian Jaynes. Biennial Julian Jaynes Conference on Consciousness, 7-9 August 2008, University of Prince Edward Island by Stevan Harnad
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Jaynes, Julian |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | February 27, 1920 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | November 21, 1997 |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Julian_Jaynes
Related pages:
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http://fr.wn.com/Julian Jaynes
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http://de.wn.com/Julian Jaynes
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Mike Crapo | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| United States Senator from Idaho |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 1999 Serving with Jim Risch |
|
| Preceded by | Dirk Kempthorne |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Idaho's 2nd district |
|
| In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1999 |
|
| Preceded by | Richard H. Stallings |
| Succeeded by | Mike Simpson |
| 37th President pro tempore of the Idaho Senate | |
| In office December, 1988 – December 1, 1992 |
|
| Preceded by | Jim Risch |
| Succeeded by | Jerry Twiggs |
| Idaho State Senator from District 32 | |
| In office December 1, 1984 – December 1, 1992 |
|
| Preceded by | Unknown |
| Succeeded by | Mel Richardson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Michael Dean Crapo (1951-05-20) May 20, 1951 (age 61) Bonneville County, Idaho, U.S. |
| Nationality |  United States |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Hasleton Crapo |
| Children | Michelle Crapo Brian Crapo Stephanie Crapo Lara Crapo Paul Crapo |
| Residence | Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Brigham Young Univ. (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
| Profession | Attorney |
| Religion | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) |
| Website | www.crapo.senate.gov |
Michael Dean "Mike" Crapo ( /ˈkreɪpoʊ/ KRAY-poh; born May 20, 1951) is the senior United States Senator from the state of Idaho and a member of the Republican Party.
Born in the city of Idaho Falls, Crapo is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School. He practiced law in his home city throughout the 1980s, while maintaining an active role in local Republican politics. His brother Terry Crapo was majority leader in the Idaho House of Representatives and a growing political figure until his death from leukemia in 1982. Mike Crapo, prompted by his brother's death, successfully ran for the Idaho Senate in 1984. He became Senate President pro tempore from 1988 to 1992, in which position he served as Acting Governor of Idaho for 12 hours in January 1989.
Crapo was elected to Congress in 1992, representing Idaho's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. After three terms in the House he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998. He was re-elected with no Democratic opposition in the 2004 election, a rarity in the Senate. He was again re-elected in 2010.
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Early life[link]
Crapo was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, the son of Melba (née Olsen) and George Lavelle Crapo.[1] He is distantly related to Henry Howland Crapo, who served as Governor of Michigan from 1865 to 1869, and William Crapo Durant, Henry's grandson, who founded General Motors. Mike Crapo and Henry Crapo are first cousins, four times removed, as Henry's father, Jesse Crapo, and Mike's great-great-great grandfather, Charles Crapo, were brothers. Crapo graduated from Idaho Falls High School in 1969, then earned a B.A. in political science from Brigham Young University in 1973 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1977.
Family[link]
The senator married Susan Diane Hasleton in June 1974; the couple has five children.
Early political career[link]
He served for one year as clerk to Judge James M. Carter, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit and then returned to Idaho to become a lawyer. While practicing law in Idaho Falls in the 1980s, he was active in the Republican Party's campaigns for seats in the state legislature. His brother Terry Crapo served in Idaho House of Representatives, four years as majority leader and was seen as a rising star in Idaho politics.[2]
Terry Crapo's death from leukemia in 1982 prompted Crapo to run for an open seat in the Idaho Senate. Crapo was elected to the state senate in 1984 where he served until 1992. In 1988, Senate President pro tempore Jim Risch unexpectedly lost reelection to the Idaho Senate and Crapo was elected by his colleagues to that position. Crapo served as Senate President pro tempore from 1988 to 1992. On January 27, 1989 Crapo served as acting governor of Idaho for 12 hours. Governor Cecil Andrus was out of the state testifying before Congress and then Lieutenant Governor Butch Otter was out of the state on business for his employer Simplot. Laws of succession dictate that the President pro tempore is next in line. Andrus, a Democrat, left Crapo a note saying "Don't do anything I wouldn't do.... P.S. The chair is comfortable, isn't it?" [3]
Crapo was elected to Congress in 1992, representing Idaho's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He was elected to the House for three terms from 1993 until 1999 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1998.
U.S. Senate[link]
Overview[link]
Crapo was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998, gaining the seat of Republican Dirk Kempthorne, who stepped down to run successfully for governor. In his Senate bid, as in his House campaigns, his campaign signs had a macron placed over the "a" in his name (Crāpo) to indicate at the correct pronunciation ("Cray-poe").
Crapo was re-elected in 2004 with 99% of the vote, with the other 1% going to write-in candidates. He was the only Senate candidate in 2004 to run unopposed on the ballot. Some Republicans want him to be appointed to a high position in the Senate Republican leadership because his seat is considered one of the safest in the entire Senate.[citation needed]
In the 111th Congress, Crapo currently serves on the following Senate Committees: Banking, Housing and Urban Development; Budget; Environment and Public Works; Indian Affairs; and Finance. He co-chairs the Senate Nuclear Caucus, the Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group (IPG); the COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Caucus, which he also founded; and the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus.
Crapo became the state's senior senator when the 111th United States Congress convened on January 3, 2009, succeeding Larry Craig, who decided not to seek re-election. At the convening of the 112th United States Congress he is now ranked 39th in seniority in the Senate.
Crapo opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009,[4] and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[5]
In November 2010, he was re-elected to a third term with 71% of the vote, defeating P. Tom Sullivan (D) and Randy Bergquist (Constitution Party).
Committee assignments[link]
- Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
- Committee on the Budget
- Committee on Environment and Public Works
- Committee on Finance
- Committee on Indian Affairs
Caucus memberships[link]
- International Conservation Caucus
- Senate Diabetes Caucus
- Senate Nuclear Cleanup Caucus (co-chair)
- Senate Renewables and Energy Efficiency Caucus (co-chair)
- Sportsmen's Caucus (co-chair)
- Western Water Caucus
- Zero Capital Gains Tax Caucus
Environmental record[link]
Crapo introduced S. 700, legislation to update and improve conservation incentives for landowners to protect endangered and threatened species through tax benefits. The legislation is supported by a broad array of prominent environmental advocacy organizations and outdoor recreationists.[6] This bipartisan, widely-supported legislation has twice been approved by the Senate Finance Committee. Two environmental initiatives Crapo has sponsored or promoted continue that collaborative approach. He sponsored a local working group partnership in Owyhee County, Idaho, to protect and preserve sensitive ecological and riverine areas in the county while ensuring the cooperation of landowners and grazers in the area. The Owyhee Initiative working group brings together local tribal members, ranchers, recreators, land managers, environmentalists, and county leaders and the process has been endorsed by editorials in local papers, including the Boise-based Idaho Statesman newspaper. Another collaboration promoted by Crapo is the Elk Cooperative, a loose working group of tribal members, wildlife officials, and recreators to identify plans that preserve stable populations of elk in northern Idaho.[citation needed]
Project SEARCH (Special Environmental Assistance for the Regulation of Communities and Habitat) has been approved in several Congresses, most recently authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill. It provides grants to small communities, to assist rural communities throughout the country with planning and engineering grants for environmental infrastructure projects necessary to meet the requirements of water and wastewater regulations.[citation needed]
Crapo partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency to provide funding and technical assistance to the Coeur d'Alene Basin Planning Commission, a partnership of state, local, community, and federal officials charged with implementing restoration of formerly-contaminated Superfund areas in the Silver Valley of North Idaho. In 2006, Crapo was given the lowest possible score (0%) by the League of Conservation Voters for his voting record in the Senate. This followed his score of 5% in 2005 to bring his lifetime score down to 4%. The LCV uses selected set of votes to determine the scoring for its yearly rating. Reasons for the low score include his votes for offshore drilling, for arctic refuge drilling, against funding to help "low-income families insulate and weatherize their homes", against funding for the environment and natural resources, against independent review of Army Corps of Engineers projects, and for having the Army Corps of Engineers review themselves.[7]
Personal life[link]
Crapo was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999 and underwent a radical prostatectomy in January 2000. While he had a full recovery and was declared cancer-free at that time, prostate cancer recurred in 2005, and he underwent a series of radiation treatments. His experience led him to become active in advocating for early detection tests for cancer and other treatable diseases.
Crapo is an Eagle Scout, awarded in 1966, and was awarded the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award (DESA) in 2000. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Electoral history[link]
| Year | Democrat | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | J. D. Williams | 81,450 | 35% | Mike Crapo | 139,783 | 61% | Steven L. Kauer | Independent | 4,917 | 2% | David W. Mansfield | Independent | 3,807 | 2% | |||||
| 1994 | Penny Fletcher | 47,936 | 25% | Mike Crapo | 143,593 | 75% | |||||||||||||
| 1996 | John D. Seidl | 67,625 | 29% | Mike Crapo | 157,646 | 69% | John Butler | Natural Law | 3,977 | 2% |
| Year | Democrat | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Bill Mauk | 107,375 | 28% | Mike Crapo | 262,966 | 70% | George J. Mansfeld | Natural Law | 7,833 | 2% | ||||
| 2004 | (no candidate) | Mike Crapo | 499,796 | 99% | Scott F. McClure | Write-in | 4,136 | 1% | ||||||
| 2010 | Tom Sullivan | 112,057 | 25% | Mike Crapo | 319,953 | 71% | Randy Bergquist | Constitution | 17,429 | 4% |
References[link]
- ^ 1
- ^ http://www.nationaljournal.com/almanac/2008/people/id/ids2.php
- ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=goJfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mTAMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4205,2984195&dq=crapo+idaho+falls&hl=en,
- ^ [1]
- ^ "U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records". Senate.gov. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00105. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ "Mike Crapo, U.S. Senate: General CRESA Information". Crapo.senate.gov. http://crapo.senate.gov/issues/cresa/support_letters.cfm. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
- ^ "National Environmental Scorecard" (PDF). League of Conservation Voters. 2006. http://www.lcv.org/images/client/pdfs/LCV_2006_Scorecard_final.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-03.
- ^ a b "Election Statistics". Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/index.html. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
External links[link]
Media related to Mike Crapo at Wikimedia Commons
- United States Senator Mike Crapo official U.S. Senate site
- Mike Crapo for Senate official campaign site
- Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
- Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
- Congressional profile at GovTrack
- Congressional profile at OpenCongress
- Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
- Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
- Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
- Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
- Appearances on C-SPAN programs
- Anatomy of a Press Release, editorial, Times-News (Idaho), October 10, 2011
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard H. Stallings |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Idaho's 2nd congressional district 1993–1999 |
Succeeded by Mike Simpson |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by Dirk Kempthorne |
United States Senator (Class 3) from Idaho 1999–present Served alongside: Larry Craig, Jim Risch |
Incumbent |
| United States order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Chuck Schumer D-New York |
United States Senators by seniority 39th |
Succeeded by Bill Nelson D-Florida |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Crapo, Mike |
| Alternative names | Crapo, Michael Dean (birthname) |
| Short description | American politician and activist |
| Date of birth | May 20, 1951 |
| Place of birth | Bonneville County, Idaho, U.S. |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Mike_Crapo
Related pages:
http://fr.wn.com/Mike Crapo
http://nl.wn.com/Mike Crapo
http://pt.wn.com/Mike Crapo
http://de.wn.com/Mike Crapo
http://it.wn.com/Mike Crapo
http://pl.wn.com/Mike Crapo
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Crapo
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
