A poll tax (head tax or capitation tax, per U.S. English usage) is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount applied to an individual in accordance with the census (as opposed to a percentage of income). When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax (and vice versa, if a poll tax obligation can be worked off). Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments from ancient times until the 19th century. There have been several famous (and infamous) cases of head taxes in history, notably a tax formerly required for voting in parts of the United States that was often designed to disenfranchise poor people, including African Americans, Native Americans, and white people of non-English descent (e.g., the Irish). In the United Kingdom, poll taxes were levied by the governments of John of Gaunt in the 14th C., Charles II in the 17th and Margaret Thatcher in the 20th century.

The word poll is an English word that once meant "head" - and still does, in some specialised contexts - hence the name poll tax for a per-person tax. In the United States, however, the term has come to be used almost exclusively for a fixed tax applied to voting. Since "going to the polls" is a common idiom for voting (deriving from the fact that early voting involved head-counts), a new folk etymology has supplanted common knowledge of the phrase's true origins in America.

Mosaic law[link]

As prescribed in Exodus (30: 11-16) Jewish law imposed a poll tax of half-shekel, payable by every man above the age of twenty ("the rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less").

Exodus 30:11-16...

11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

12 When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.

13 This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD.

14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD.

15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.

16 And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls. (Authorized Version)

The money was designated for the upkeep of the Temple of Jerusalem. Priests, women, slaves and minors were exempted, although they can offer it voluntarily. Payment by Samaritans or Gentiles was rejected. It was collected yearly during the month of Adar, both at the Temple and at special collection bureaus in the provinces.

Roman Empire[link]

The ancient Romans imposed a tributum capitis (poll tax) as one of the principal direct taxes on the peoples of the Roman provinces (Digest 50, tit.15). In the Republican period, poll taxes were principally collected by private tax farmers (publicani), but from the time of Emperor Augustus, the collection were gradually transferred to magistrates and the senates of provincial cities. The Roman census was conducted periodically in the provinces to draw up and update the poll tax register.

The Roman poll tax fell principally on Roman subjects in the provinces, but not on Roman citizens. Towns in the provinces who possessed the Jus Italicum (enjoying the "privileges of Italy") were exempted from the poll tax. The 212 edict of Emperor Caracalla which formally conferred Roman citizenship on all residents of Roman provinces, did not however exempt them from the poll tax.

The Roman poll tax was deeply resented - Tertullian bewailed the poll tax as a "badge of slavery" - and it provoked numerous revolts in the provinces. Perhaps most famous is the Zealot revolt in Judaea of 66 CE. After the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, the Emperor imposed an extra poll tax on Jews throughout the empire, the fiscus judaicus, of two denari each.

The Italian revolt of the 720s, organized and led by Pope Gregory II, was originally provoked by the attempt of the Constantinople Emperor Leo III the Isaurian to introduce a poll tax in the Italian provinces of the Byzantine Empire in 722, and set in motion the permanent separation of Italy from the Byzantine empire. When King Aistulf of the Lombards availed himself of the Italian dissent and invaded the Exarchate of Ravenna in 751, one of his first acts was to institute a crushing poll tax of one gold solidus per head on every Roman citizen. Seeking relief from this burden, Pope Stephen II appealed to the Pepin the Short of the Franks for assistance, that led to the establishment of the Papal States in 756.

Islamic law[link]

Jizya is a poll tax imposed under Islamic law on non-Muslims - specifically, the dhimmi ("People of the Book", i.e. Jews and Christians). The tax is levied on free-born abled-bodied men of military age. The poor are exempt, as well as those who are not independent or wealthy, such as slaves, women, children, the old, the sick, monks and hermits.

There are several legal rationales for the jizya (and its equivalent land tax, the kharaj). The common argument is that jizya was a fee in exchange for the dhimma (permission to practice one's faith, enjoy communal autonomy, and to be entitled to Muslim protection from outside aggression). Some scholars emphasize that its higher rate is also a sign of submission and acceptance of Muslim rule, and some argue humiliation for failing to embrace Islam. Other rationales assume such rights were every person's birthright (Muslim or non-Muslim), and the imposition of jizya on non-Muslims similar to the imposition of zakat (one of the Five Pillars of Islam, an obligatory wealth tax paid on certain assets which are not used productively for a period of a year) on Muslims. The rates of jizya are higher (often quite higher)^{[citation needed]} than zakat.

Although jizya is designated as a poll tax, its assessment and collection is often qualified by income. For instance, Amr ibn al-As, after conquering Egypt, set up a census to measure the population for the jizya, and thus the total expected jizya revenue for the whole province, but organized the actual collection by partitioning the population into wealth classes, so that the rich paid more and the poor less jizya of that total sum. Elsewhere, it is reported customary to partition into three classes, e.g. 48 dirhams for the rich, 24 for middle class and 12 for the poor.^[1]

The differing tax rates between zakat and jizya gave an incentive for populations to convert to Islam, to benefit from the lower tax rates. However, this was not always respected by the governing authorities, who were reluctant to lose the cash revenues. In the late 7th and early 8th C., during the Umayyad Caliphate, conversions were often ignored and jizya continued being collected on Muslim converts, particularly if they were non-Arabs (e.g. Berbers, Persians), raising tensions throughout the caliphate. In 718, the Umayyad caliph Umar II strictly forbade collection of jizya from Muslim converts. However, after his death, difficulties in the caliphal treasury prompted governors to side-step the prohibitions and surreptitiously re-introduce jizya-collection on converts by other guises. The zeal of the Umayyad tax-collectors led to the eruption of two notable revolts in the 740s - the Berber Revolt in North Africa and Spain and the Abbasid Revolt in Persia - demanding the equality of all Muslims, regardless of ethnicity, and adherence to the tax rates prescribed by Islamic law.

In 1855, the Ottoman Empire abolished the jizya tax, as part of reforms to equalize the status of Muslims and non-Muslims. It was replaced, however, by a military-exemption tax on non-Muslims, the Bedel-i Askeri.

United Kingdom[link]

The poll tax was essentially a lay subsidy (a tax on the movable property of most of the population) to help fund war. It had first been levied in 1275 and continued, under different names, until the 17th century. People were taxed a percentage of the assessed value of their movable goods. That percentage varied from year to year and place to place, and which goods could be taxed differed between urban and rural locations. Churchmen were exempt, as were the poor, workers in the Royal Mint, inhabitants of the Cinque Ports, tin workers in Cornwall and Devon, and those who lived in the Palatinate counties of Cheshire and Durham.

14th century[link]

The Hilary Parliament, held between January and March 1377, levied a poll tax in 1377 to finance the war against France at the request of John of Gaunt who, as King Edward III was mortally sick, was the de facto head of government at the time. This tax covered almost 60% of the population, far more than lay subsidies had earlier. It was levied three times, in 1377, 1379 and 1381. Each time the basis was slightly different. In 1377, every lay person over the age of 14 years who was not a beggar had to pay a groat (4d) to the Crown. By 1379 that had been graded by social class, with the lower age limit changed to 16, and to 15 two years later. The levy in 1381 was particularly unpopular, as each person aged over 15 was required to pay the amount of one shilling, which was then a large amount. This played a role in provoking the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, due in part to attempts to restore feudal conditions in rural areas.

17th Century[link]

The poll tax was resurrected during the 17th C., usually related to a military emergency. It was imposed by Charles I in 1641 to finance the raising of the army against the Scottish and Irish uprisings. With the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, the Convention Parliament of 1660 instituted a poll tax to finance the disbanding of the New Model Army (pay arrears, etc.) (12 Charles II c.9).^[2] The poll tax was assessed according to "rank", e.g. dukes paid £100, earls £60, knights £20, esquires £10. Eldest sons paid 2/3rds of their father's rank, widows paid a third of their late husband's rank. The members of the livery companies paid according to company's rank (e.g. masters of first-tier guilds like the Mercers paid £10, whereas masters of fifth-tier guilds, like the Clerks, paid 5 shillings). Professionals also paid differing rates, e.g. physicians (£10), judges (£20), advocates (£5), attorneys (£3), and so on. Anyone with property (land, etc.) paid 40 shillings per £100 earned, anyone over the age of 16 and unmarried paid 12-pence and everyone else over 16 paid 6-pence.

The poll tax was imposed again by William and Mary in 1689 (1 Will. & Mar. c.13), reassessed in 1690 adjusting rank for fortune, and then again in 1691 back to rank irrespective of fortune. The poll tax was imposed again in 1692, and one final time in 1698 (the last poll tax until the 20th C.). A poll tax was imposed on Scotland between 1694 and 1699.

As the greater weight of the 17th C. poll taxes fell primarily upon the wealthy and powerful, it was not too unpopular. There were grumblings within the taxed ranks about lack of differentiation by income within ranks. Ultimately, it was the inefficiency of their collection - what they brought in routinely fell far short of expected revenues - that prompted the government to abandon the poll tax after 1698.

Far more controversial was the hearth tax introduced in 1662 (13 & 14 Charles II c.10), which imposed a hefty two shillings on every hearth in a family dwelling (which was easier to count than persons). Heavier, more permanent and more regressive than the poll tax proper, the intrusive entry of tax inspectors into private homes to count hearths was a very sore point, and it was promptly repealed with the Glorious Revolution in 1689. It was replaced with a "window tax" in 1695 (inspectors could count windows from outside of homes).

20th century: community charge[link]

The Community Charge was a poll tax to fund local government in the United Kingdom, instituted in 1989 by the government of Margaret Thatcher. It replaced the rates that were based on the notional rental value of a house. The abolition of rates was in the manifesto of Thatcher's Conservative Party in the 1979 general election, and the replacement was proposed in the Green Paper of 1986, Paying for Local Government based on ideas developed by Dr Madsen Pirie and Douglas Mason of the Adam Smith Institute. It was a fixed tax per adult resident, but there was a reduction for those with lower household income. Each person was to pay for the services provided in their community. This proposal was contained in the Conservative Manifesto for the 1987 General Election. The new tax replaced the rates in Scotland from the start of the 1989/90 financial year, and in England and Wales from the start of the 1990/91 financial year.

The system was deeply unpopular. It seemed to shift the tax burden from rich to poor, as it was based on the number of people living in a house rather than its estimated price. Many tax rates set by local councils proved to be much higher than earlier predictions, leading to resentment even among people who had supported it. The tax in different boroughs differed dramatically because local taxes paid by businesses varied and grants by central government to local authorities sometimes varied capriciously.

Mass protests were called by the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation, with which the vast majority of local Anti Poll Tax Unions (APTUs) were affiliated. In Scotland the APTUs called for mass non-payment and these calls rapidly gathered widespread support which spread to England and Wales, even though non-payment meant that people could be prosecuted. In some areas, 30% of former ratepayers defaulted. While owner-occupiers were easy to tax, those who regularly changed accommodation were almost impossible to pursue if they chose not to pay. The cost of collecting the tax rose steeply while the returns from it fell. Enforcement measures became increasingly draconian, and unrest grew and culminated in a number of Poll Tax Riots. The most serious was in a protest at Trafalgar Square, London, on 31 March 1990, of more than 200,000 protesters. A Labour MP, Terry Fields, was jailed for 60 days for refusing to pay his poll tax.

This unrest was instrumental in toppling Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Her replacement, John Major, replaced the Community Charge with the Council Tax, similar to the rating system that preceded the Poll Tax. The main differences were that it was levied on capital value rather than notional rental value of a property, and that it had a 25% discount for single-occupancy dwellings.

France[link]

Capitation[link]

In France, a poll tax, the capitation, was first imposed by King Louis XIV in 1695 as a temporary measure to finance the War of the League of Augsburg, and thus repealed in 1699. It was resumed during the War of Spanish Succession and in 1704 set on a permanent basis, remaining until the end of the Ancien regime.

Like the English poll tax, the French capitation tax was assessed on rank – for taxation persons, French society was divided in twenty-two "classes", with the Dauphin (a class by himself) paying 2,000 livres, princes of the blood paying 1500 livres, and so on down to the lowest class, composed of day laborers and servants, who paid 1 livre each. The bulk of the common population was covered by four classes, paying 40, 30, 10 and 3 livres respectively. Unlike most other direct French taxes, nobles and clergy were not exempted from capitation taxes. It did, however, exempt the mendicant orders and the poor who contributed less than 40 sous.

At the time of its design, the capitation tax was probably the most equitable tax in France.^{[citation needed]} This was soon gnawed away. The French clergy managed to temporarily escape capitation assessment by promising to pay a total sum of 4 million livres per annum in 1695, and then obtained permanent exemption in 1709 with a lump sum payment of 24 million livres. The Pays d'états (Brittany, Burgundy, etc.) and many towns also escaped assessment by promising annual fixed payments. The nobles did not escape assessment, but they obtained the right to appoint their own capitation tax assessors, which allowed them to escape most of the burden (in one calculation, they escaped ⅞ of it). So it not long before it was only the routiers (peasants) who paid the capitation tax.

Compounding the burden, the assessment on the capitation did not remain stable. The pays de taille personelle (basically, Pays d'élection, the bulk of France and Aquitaine) secured the ability to assess the capitation tax proportionally to the taille - which effectively meant adjusting the burden heavily against the lower classes. According to the estimates of Jacques Necker in 1788, the capitation tax was so riddled in practice, that the privileged classes (nobles and clergy and towns) were largely exempt, while the lower classes were heavily crushed: the lowest peasant class, originally assessed to pay 3 livres, were now paying 24, the second lowest, assessed at 10 livres, were now paying 60 and the third-lowest assessed at 30 were paying 180. The total collection from the capitation, according to Necker in 1788, was 41 million livres, well short of the 54 million estimate, and it was projected that the revenues could have doubled if the exemptions were revoked and the original 1695 assessment properly restored.

The old capitation tax was repealed with the French Revolution and replaced, in November 23, 1790, with a new poll tax as part of the contribution personnelle mobilière, which lasted well into the late 19th Century. It was fixed for every individual at "three days's labor" (assessed locally, but by statute, no less than 1 franc 50 centimes and no more than 4 francs 50 centimes, depending on the area). A dwelling tax (impôt sur les portes et fenêtres, similar to the English window-tax) was imposed in 1791.

United States[link]

A poll tax (in the sense of capitation) plays a significant role in the history of taxation in the United States and the adoption of income tax as a significant source of government funding. The second meaning of poll tax, namely a tax to be paid as a prerequisite to voting, is more widely known in the United States today. The term was widely used in the South at the turn of the 20th century in combination with other measures as a means of disfranchisement to bar poor people, especially blacks, from voter registration and voting.

Recent debate has arisen about whether requiring citizens to purchase a state identification card acts as a poll tax and bars poor voters from voting.^[3] To reduce cost, some state offer free identification cards for those who can demonstrate the need. However, significant additional costs can be incurred by individuals to acquire a "free" ID, as they need to provide other proof of identity. In addition to travel costs or potential lost wages, a certified copy of a birth certificate costs from $10 to $45 depending on the state, a passport costs $85, and certified naturalization papers cost $19.95. About 12 percent of voting-age Americans lack a driver's license and would need such state identification cards.^[4]

Capitation and federal taxation[link]

The capitation clause of Article I of the United States Constitution, reads "[n]o capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken." Capitation here means a tax of a uniform, fixed amount per taxpayer.^[5] Direct tax means a tax levied directly by the United States federal government on taxpayers, as opposed to a tax on events or transactions.^[6] The United States government levied direct taxes from time to time during the 18th and early 19th centuries. It levied direct taxes on the owners of houses, land, slaves, and estates in the late 1790s but cancelled the taxes in 1802.

An income tax is neither a poll tax nor a capitation, as the amount of tax will vary from person to person, depending on each person's income. Until a United States Supreme Court decision in 1895, all income taxes were deemed to be excises (i.e., indirect taxes). The Revenue Act of 1861 established the first income tax in the United States, to pay for the cost of the American Civil War. This income tax was abolished after the war, in 1872. Another income tax statute in 1894 was overturned in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. in 1895, where the Supreme Court held that income taxes on income from property, such as rent income, interest income, and dividend income (but not income taxes on income from wages, employment, etc.) were to be treated as direct taxes. Because the statute in question had not apportioned income taxes on income from property by population, the statute was ruled unconstitutional. Finally, ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913 made possible modern income taxes, by removing the requirement of apportionment with respect to income taxes.^[6]

Canada[link]

1885 head tax[link]

The Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 stipulated that all Chinese entering Canada would be subjected to a head tax of $50. The act was mostly to discourage the lower class Chinese from entering, since Canada still welcomed the rich Chinese merchants who could afford the head tax. After the Government of Canada realized that the $50 fee did not effectively eliminate Chinese from entering Canada, the government passed the Chinese Immigration Act of 1900 and 1903, increasing the tax to $100 and $500, respectively. In 1923, the government passed Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 which prohibited all Chinese from immigrating to Canada.

On 22 June 2006, the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper delivered a message of redress for a head tax once applied to Chinese immigrants.^[7] Survivors or their spouses will receive $20,000 CAD compensation.^[7]

New Zealand[link]

The numbers of the Chinese immigration went from 20,000 a year to 8 people after the government-imposed "head tax". New Zealand imposed a poll tax on Chinese immigrants during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The poll tax was effectively lifted in the 1930s following the invasion of China by Japan, and was finally repealed in 1944. Prime Minister Helen Clark offered New Zealand's Chinese community an official apology for the poll tax on 12 February 2002.^[8]

See also[link]

• Hut tax
• Fixed tax
• Poll tax (United States)
• Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era
• Corvée

References[link]

1. ^ Mannan Islamic Economics: Theory and Practice, p.247
2. ^ Statutes of the Realm, vol. v, p.207-225
3. ^ "Georgia's New Poll Tax". The New York Times. 12 September 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/opinion/12mon1.html. 
4. ^ "Young and Overton on Voter ID". 29 September 2005. http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2005/09/young-and-overton-on-voter-id.html. 
5. ^ United States Department of State (2004). "The Constitution of the United States of America with Explanatory Notes". US Department of State web site. United States. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080514004923/http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/constitution/constitution.htm. Retrieved 18 May 2008. 
6. ^ ^{a b} United States Department of the Treasury. "History of the U.S. Tax System". US Treasury Department : Education : Fact Sheets : Taxes. United States. http://www.treasury.gov/education/fact-sheets/taxes/ustax.shtml. Retrieved 4 August 2009. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Canada (2006). "Address by the Prime Minister on the Chinese Head Tax Redress". Government of Canada. http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?category=2&id=1220. Retrieved 8 August 2006. 
8. ^ New Zealand Office of Ethnic Affairs (2002). "Chinese Poll Tax in New Zealand - Formal Apology". New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs. http://www.dia.govt.nz/oeawebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/What-We-Do-Consultations-Formal-Apology. Retrieved 18 August 2006. 

External links[link]

• Middle Ages Poll Tax
• Pictures by Paul Ross, who witnessed the riots
• The battle that brought down Thatcher - a perspective by the Trotskyist Militant tendency

Rachel Maddow
Maddow hosting KPTK's "Changing the Media, Changing America" event in Seattle
Born	Rachel Anne Maddow (1973-04-01) April 1, 1973 (age 39) Castro Valley, California, U.S.
Education	B.A., Stanford University D.Phil, University of Oxford
Occupation	News anchor Political commentator Television host
Notable credit(s)	The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC) The Rachel Maddow Show (Air America Radio)
Website
www.rachelmaddow.com

Rachel Anne Maddow (pronounced /ˈmædoʊ/; born April 1, 1973) is an American television host, political commentator, and author.^[1][2] Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC.^[3] Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor of a prime-time news program in the United States.^[4][5][6][7]

Asked about her political views by the Valley Advocate, Maddow replied, "I'm undoubtedly a liberal, which means that I'm in almost total agreement with the Eisenhower-era Republican party platform."^[8]

Early life and education[link]

Maddow was born in Castro Valley, California. Her father, Robert B. "Bob" Maddow, is a former United States Air Force captain who resigned his commission the year before her birth and found civilian work as a lawyer for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Her mother, Elaine Maddow (née Gosse), is a school program administrator from Newfoundland, Canada.^[9][10][11] She has one older brother, David. Her father is of Russian and Dutch descent and her mother is of English and Irish ancestry.^[11] Maddow's mother was raised a strict Roman Catholic, and Maddow herself grew up in a community that her mother has described as "very conservative."^[12][13] Maddow was a competitive athlete and played three sports in high school.^[14] Referencing John Hughes films, she describes herself in high school as "a cross between the jock and the antisocial girl."^[13]

A graduate of Castro Valley High School in Castro Valley, California, she attended Stanford University. While a freshman, she was outed by the college newspaper when an interview with her was published by the student newspaper before she could tell her parents.^[15] Maddow earned a degree in public policy from Stanford in 1994.^[16] At graduation she was awarded the John Gardner Fellowship.^[17] She was also the recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship and began her postgraduate study in 1995 at Lincoln College, Oxford. In 2001, she earned a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in politics from Oxford University.^[18] Her thesis is titled HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons (supervisor: Dr Lucia Zedner). She was the first openly gay American to win a Rhodes scholarship.^[19][20]

Radio career[link]

Maddow's first radio hosting job was at WRNX (100.9 FM) in Holyoke, Massachusetts, after she entered and won a contest the station held to find a new on-air personality.^[21] She was hired to co-host WRNX's morning show, The Dave in the Morning Show. She went on to host Big Breakfast on WRSI, in Northampton, Massachusetts, for two years. She left the show in March 2004 to join the new Air America.^[18] There she hosted Unfiltered along with Chuck D (of the hip hop group Public Enemy) and Lizz Winstead (co-creator of The Daily Show), until its cancellation in March 2005.^[22] Two weeks after the cancellation of Unfiltered in April 2005, Maddow's weekday two-hour radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, began airing; in March 2008 it gained an hour, broadcasting from 6 to 9 p.m. EST with David Bender filling in the third hour for the call-in section, when Maddow was on TV assignment. In September 2008, the show's length returned to two hours when Maddow began a nightly MSNBC television program. In February 2009, after renewing her contract with Air America, Maddow returned to the 5 am hour-long slot.^[23] Her last Air America show was on January 21, 2010, two weeks before its owners filed for bankruptcy.^[24]

Television career[link]

In June 2005, Maddow became a regular panelist on MSNBC's Tucker.^[25] During and after the November 2006 election, she was a frequent guest on CNN's Paula Zahn Now. In January 2008, Maddow became a MSNBC political analyst and was a regular panelist on MSNBC's Race for the White House with David Gregory and MSNBC's election coverage,^[26] as well as a frequent contributor on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.^[18]

In April 2008, Maddow was the substitute host for Countdown with Keith Olbermann, her first time hosting a program on MSNBC. Maddow described herself on air as "nervous." Keith Olbermann complimented her work, and she was brought back to host Countdown the next month. The show she hosted was the highest rated news program among people ages 25 to 54, a key demographic in ratings.^[27] For her success, the next Monday, Olbermann ranked Maddow third in his show's segment "World's Best Persons".^[28] In July 2008, while Olbermann was on vacation, Maddow filled in again for several broadcasts and, on July 21, for half the show.^[29] Maddow also filled in for David Gregory as host of Race for the White House.^[18]

[edit] The Rachel Maddow Show

In August 2008, MSNBC announced The Rachel Maddow Show would replace Verdict with Dan Abrams in the network's 9 p.m. slot the following month.^[30][31] Following its debut, the show topped Countdown as the highest rated show on MSNBC on several occasions.^[32][33] After being on air for more than a month, Maddow's program doubled the audience that hour.^[34]

Early reviews for her show were mostly positive. The Los Angeles Times writer Matea Gold stated Maddow "finds the right formula on MSNBC,"^[35] and The Guardian writes Maddow has become the "star of America's cable news."^[20] Associated Press columnist David Bauder said she's "[Keith] Olbermann's political soul mate" and the Olbermann-Maddow shows are a "liberal two-hour block."^[36]

Public image and publicity[link]

Maddow has been profiled in People,^[37] the Guardian,^[38] and the New York Observer,^[39] has appeared on “The View” and “Charlie Rose”^[40]

Keith Olbermann played a pivotal role in Maddow's hiring at MSNBC. Olbermann was able to pressure Phil Griffin to give Maddow Dan Abram's slot. A fan of Maddow's, Olbermann was able to use his influence, which had become greater as his ratings rose.^[41]

A 2011 Hollywood Reporter profile of Maddow said that she was able to deliver news "with agenda, but not hysteria.”^[42] A Newsweek profile noted that “At her best, Maddow debates ideological opponents with civility and persistence...But for all her eloquence, she can get so wound up ripping Republicans that she sounds like another smug cable partisan.". Baltimore Sun critic David Zurawik has accused Maddow of acting like 'a lockstep party member.'”^[43]

A Time profile called her a “whip-smart, button-cute leftie.” It said that she radiates an essential decency and suggested that her career rise might signify that “nice is the new nasty.”^[44]

Political views[link]

Distinguishing herself from others on the left, Maddow said she's a "national security liberal" and in a different interview that she's not "a partisan."^[45][46] The New York Times called her a "defense policy wonk" who is writing a book on the role of the military in postwar American politics.^[35][45] (The book, titled Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, was published in 2012.) During the 2008 presidential election, Maddow did not formally support any candidate. Concerning Barack Obama's candidacy, Maddow said during the primaries, "I have never and still don't think of myself as an Obama supporter, either professionally or actually."^[47]

In March 2010, Republican Scott Brown, the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts, speculated that Maddow was going to run against him for his seat in 2012. He used this premise for a fundraising email that read "...The Massachusetts political machine is looking for someone to run against me. And you're not going to believe who they are supposedly trying to recruit — liberal MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow." Maddow said Brown's speculation was false. On her March 23, 2010, TV program, Maddow said, "I have the best job in the world. I am not running for office. Scott Brown didn't ask me if I was running or planning to run for office, before he wrote a fundraising letter with my name. No, it's completely made up by him." Despite her comments, the next day Brown continued along the same line, telling a Boston radio station, "Bring her on." To help put an end to the matter, Maddow ran a full-page advertisement in the Boston Globe confirming she was not running, and separately demanded Brown's apology. She added that despite repeated invitations over the months, Brown had refused to appear on her TV program.^{[48][49][50][51]}

Personal life[link]

Maddow lives in Manhattan and western Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.^[52][53] The couple met in 1999, when Mikula hired Maddow to do yard work at her home. Maddow was working on her doctoral dissertation at the time.^[52] Their first date was at a National Rifle Association "Ladies' Day on the Range" event.^[54] Although Massachusetts and New York recognize same-sex marriage, as of 2009 Maddow and Mikula had no plans to marry.^[13]

Honors and awards[link]

• Emmy Award in the Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis category for "The Rachel Maddow Show" episode "Good Morning Landlocked Central Asia!"
• Maddow was named in Out magazine's "Out 100" list of the "gay men and women who moved culture" in 2008.^[55]
• Maddow was voted "Lesbian/Bi Woman of the Year (American)" in AfterEllen's 2008 Visibility Awards.^[56]
• Maddow won a Gracie Award in 2009, presented by the American Women in Radio and Television.^[57]
• In 2009, Maddow was nominated for GLAAD's 20th Annual Media Awards for a segment of her MSNBC show, "Rick Warren, Change To Believe In?", in the Outstanding TV Journalism Segment category.^[58]
• On March 28, 2009, Maddow received a Proclamation of Honor from the California State Senate, presented in San Francisco by California State Senator Mark Leno.^[59]
• In April 2009, she was listed at number four in Out magazine's Annual Power 50 List.^[60]
• Maddow placed sixth in the "2009 AfterEllen.com Hot 100" list (May 11, 2009)^[61] and third in its "2009 Hot 100: Out Women" version.^[62]
• Maddow was included on a list of openly gay media professionals in The Advocate's "Forty under 40" issue of June/July 2009.^[63]
• In 1994, Maddow was an Honorable Mention in the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity Prize in Ethics.^[64]
• In June 2009, Maddow's MSNBC show was the only cable news show nominated for a Television Critics Association award in the Outstanding Achievement in News and Information category.^[65]
• In March 2010, Maddow won at the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in the category, Outstanding TV Journalism- Newsmagazine for her segment, "Uganda Be Kidding Me".^[66]
• Maddow was the 2010 commencement speaker and was given an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree at Smith College in Northampton, MA in May 2010.^[67]
• In July 2010, Maddow was presented with a Maggie Award for her ongoing reporting of healthcare reform, the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and the anti-abortion movement.^[68]
• In August 2010, Maddow won the Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award, which was presented by The Interfaith Alliance.^[69] Past honorees included Larry King, Tom Brokaw, and the late Peter Jennings.^[69]
• In November 2011, she was included on the list of "Over-Rated Thinkers" by the editors of The New Republic.^[70]
• In February 2012, Maddow was presented the John Steinbeck Award by the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University.^[71]

Bibliography[link]

• Maddow, Rachel (2012). Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power. Crown. ISBN 978-0-307-46098-1. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rachel Maddow

• Rachel Maddow on Twitter
• Official website
• Profile and show at MSNBC
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Rachel Maddow on Charlie Rose
• Rachel Maddow at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Rachel Maddow in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher LG OM PC FRS
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 4 May 1979 – 28 November 1990
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Deputy	William Whitelaw Geoffrey Howe
Preceded by	James Callaghan
Succeeded by	John Major
Leader of the Opposition
In office 11 February 1975 – 4 May 1979
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Edward Heath
Succeeded by	James Callaghan
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office 11 February 1975 – 28 November 1990
Preceded by	Edward Heath
Succeeded by	John Major
Secretary of State for Education and Science
In office 20 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Edward Short
Succeeded by	Reginald Prentice
Member of Parliament for Finchley
In office 8 October 1959 – 9 April 1992
Preceded by	John Crowder
Succeeded by	Hartley Booth
Personal details
Born	Margaret Hilda Roberts (1925-10-13) 13 October 1925 (age 86) Grantham, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Denis Thatcher (married 1951–2003, his death)
Children	Carol Thatcher Mark Thatcher
Residence	Chester Square
Alma mater	Somerville College, Oxford Inns of Court
Profession	Chemist Lawyer
Religion	Church of England (Since 1951)[1] Methodism (Before 1951)
Signature

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.

After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline.^{[nb 1]} Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.

Thatcher holds a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitles her to sit in the House of Lords.

Early life and education[link]

Margaret Thatcher's birthplace, in Grantham

Commemorative plaque on the building in which Margaret Thatcher was born

Margaret Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 13 October 1925. Her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel (née Stephenson) from Lincolnshire.^[3] She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops.^[4] She and her older sister Muriel were raised in the flat above the larger of the two, located near the railway line.^[4] Her father was active in local politics and the Christian church, serving as an alderman and a Methodist local preacher,^[5] and brought up his daughter as a strict Methodist.^[6] He came from a Liberal family but stood—as was then customary in local government—as an Independent. He was Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.^[5]

Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School.^[7] Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking.^[8][9] She was head girl in 1942–43.^[10] In her upper sixth year she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford but was initially rejected, and was offered a place only after another candidate withdrew.^[11][12] She arrived at Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with Second Class Honours in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree; in her final year she specialised in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin.^[13][14]

Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946.^[15][16] She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944),^[17] which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.^[18]

After graduating, Roberts moved to Colchester in Essex to work as a research chemist for BX Plastics.^[19] She joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association.^[20] One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, who were looking for candidates.^[20] Officials of the association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the Conservative party's approved list: she was selected in January 1951 and added to the approved list post ante.^[21] At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1951 she met Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy divorced businessman, who drove her to her Essex train.^[20][21] In preparation for the election Roberts moved to Dartford, where she supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream.^[20][22]

Early political career[link]

In the 1950 and 1951 general elections she was the Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Dartford, where she attracted media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate.^[23][24] She lost both times to Norman Dodds, but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000, and then a further 1,000.^[23] (By an odd coincidence, Edward Heath was elected for the first time in the neighbouring constituency in 1950.) During the campaigns, she was supported by her parents and by Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951.^[23][25] Denis funded his wife's studies for the bar;^[26] she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation.^[27] That same year her twins, Carol and Mark, were born.^[28]

Member of Parliament (1959–1970)[link]

Thatcher was not a candidate in the 1955 general election as it came fairly soon after the birth of her children, although she was narrowly defeated as the candidate for the Orpington by-election, 1955.^[28] Afterwards, she began looking for a safe Conservative seat, and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election.^[29] Her maiden speech was in support of her private member's bill (Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960), requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public. In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party's official position by voting for the restoration of birching.^[30] She regarded Finchley's Jewish residents as "her people" and became a founding member of the Anglo-Israel Friendship League of Finchley as well as a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.^[31] But she nevertheless believed that Israel had to trade land for peace, and condemned Israel's bombing of Osirak as "a grave breach of international law".^[31]

In October 1961 Thatcher was promoted to the front bench as Parliamentary Undersecretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance in Harold Macmillan's administration.^[32] After the Conservatives lost the 1964 election she became spokeswoman on Housing and Land, in which position she advocated her party's policy of allowing tenants to buy their council houses.^[33] She moved to the Shadow Treasury team in 1966, and as Treasury spokeswoman opposed Labour's mandatory price and income controls, arguing that they would produce effects contrary to those intended and distort the economy.^[33]

At the Conservative Party Conference of 1966 she criticised the high-tax policies of the Labour Government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism".^[33] She argued that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work.^[33] Thatcher was one of the few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse's Bill to decriminalise male homosexuality^[34] and voted in favour of David Steel's bill to legalise abortion,^[1][35] as well as a ban on hare coursing.^[36][37] She supported the retention of capital punishment^[38] and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws.^[39][40]

In 1967 she was selected by the United States Embassy in London to take part in the International Visitor Leadership Program (then called the Foreign Leader Program), a professional exchange programme that gave her the opportunity to spend about six weeks visiting various US cities and political figures as well as institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.^[41] Thatcher joined the Shadow Cabinet later that year as Fuel spokesman. Shortly before the 1970 general election, she was promoted to Shadow Transport spokesman and later to Education.^[42]

Education Secretary (1970–1974)[link]

The Conservative party under Edward Heath won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was subsequently appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science. During her first months in office she attracted public attention as a result of the administration's attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools,^[43] and imposed public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven.^[44] She held that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk, but she agreed to provide younger children with a third of a pint daily, for nutritional purposes.^[44] Her decision provoked a storm of protest from the Labour party and the press,^[45] leading to the moniker "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher".^[44] Thatcher wrote in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson [from the experience]. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit."^[45][46]

Thatcher's term of office was marked by proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt comprehensive secondary education. Although she was committed to a tiered secondary modern-grammar school system of education, and determined to preserve grammar schools,^[43] during her tenure as Education Secretary she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals for schools to become comprehensives; the proportion of pupils attending comprehensive schools consequently rose from 32 per cent to 62 per cent.^[47]

Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979)[link]

Margaret Thatcher, Leader of the Opposition, 18 September 1975

The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, and lost the February 1974 general election.^[45] Labour formed a minority government, and went on to win a narrow majority in the October 1974 general election. Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start.^[48] Her main support came from the Conservative 1922 Committee.^[48] She defeated Heath on the first ballot and he resigned the leadership.^[49] In the second ballot she defeated Heath's preferred successor, William Whitelaw, and became party leader on 11 February 1975;^[50] she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath remained disenchanted with Thatcher to the end of his life, for what he and many of his supporters perceived as her disloyalty in standing against him.^[51]

Thatcher began to attend lunches regularly at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank founded by the poultry magnate Antony Fisher, a disciple of Friedrich von Hayek; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she was influenced by the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, and she became the face of the ideological movement opposing the welfare state Keynesian economics they believed was weakening Britain. The institute's pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers.^{[52][page needed]}

The television critic Clive James, writing in The Observer during the voting for the leadership, compared her voice of 1973 to a cat sliding down a blackboard.^{[nb 2]} Thatcher had already begun to work on her presentation on the advice of Gordon Reece, a former television producer. By chance Reece met the actor Laurence Olivier, who arranged lessons with the National Theatre's voice coach.^[53][54][55] Thatcher succeeded in completely suppressing her Lincolnshire dialect except when under stress, notably after provocation from Denis Healey in the House of Commons in April 1983, when she accused the Labour front bench of being frit.^{[56][nb 3]}

On 19 January 1976 Thatcher made a speech in Kensington Town Hall in which she made a scathing attack on the Soviet Union; in response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) called her the "Iron Lady":^[57]

The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns.^[57]

In mid-1978, the economy began to improve and opinion polls showed Labour in the lead, with a general election being expected later that year and a Labour win a serious possibility. Prime Minister James Callaghan surprised many by announcing on 7 September that there would be no general election that year and he would wait until 1979 before going to the polls. Thatcher reacted to this by branding the Labour government as "chickens", and Liberal Party leader David Steel joined in, criticising Labour for "running scared".^[58]

The Labour government then faced fresh public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, dubbed the "Winter of Discontent". The Conservatives attacked the Labour government's unemployment record, using advertising with the slogan Labour Isn't Working. A general election was called after James Callaghan's government lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons, and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's first female Prime Minister.