Politics is the process and method of gaining or maintaining support for public or common action: the conduct of decision-making for groups. This notion predates human society. Although it is usually applied to governments, political behavior is also observed in corporate, academic, religious, and other institutions. Political science is the field devoted to studying political behavior and examining the acquisition and application of power, or the ability to impose one's will on another. Its practitioners are known as political scientists. Political scientists look at elections, public opinion, institutional activities (how legislatures act, the relative importance of various sources of political power), the ideologies behind various politicians and interest groups, how politicians achieve and wield their influence, and so on. A lot of articles in Wikipedia are related to politics, especially to political science, democracy and the various aspects of a democratic system, most notably elections. In general, all the following articles have at least some connection with politics or the democratic decision-making process.

More information can also be found at the category Politics.

Politics (general)

General

• Politics - Political science - Political history - Political scientist - Political scientists - Comparative politics - International politics - Political economy - Political psychology
• Political theory - Forms of state - Sovereignty - Consent of the governed - Theories of Political Behavior

Political systems/forms of government

• Absolute monarchy - Anarchism - Aristocracy - Autocracy - Democracy - Despotism - Dictatorship - Monarchy - Ochlocracy - Oligarchy - Panarchy - Plutocracy - Technocracy - Theocracy -Tyranny - See further: Forms of government

Political theories and ideologies

• Ideology - Legitimating ideology - Political philosophy
• Alternative society - Anarchism - Anarcho-capitalism - Anarcho-Communism - Anti-communism - Antidisestablishmentarianism - Asian values - Authoritarianism - Bioregional democracy - Black populism - Black supremacy - Christian democracy - Capitalism - Capitalism and related political ideologies - Classical liberalism - Classical republicanism - Collectivism - Communism - Communitarianism - Conservatism - Corporatocracy - Demarchy - Democracy (varieties) - Democratic egalitarianism - Democratic peace theory - Democratic socialism - Democratic transhumanism - Egalitarianism - Fascism - Federalism - Green anarchism - Green politics - Green syndicalism - Individualist anarchism - Infosocialism - Islamism - Leftism - Liberal fascism - Liberalism - Libertarian theory - Libertarianism - Libertarian socialism - Majoritarianism - Marxism - Marxism-Leninism - Marxist philosophy - Meritocracy - Minoritarianism - Miscegenation - Nationalism - Neoliberalism - Pacifism - Paleolibertarianism - Patriotism - Symbolism - Pacifism - Peronism - Populism - Post-Communism - Racial purity - Racial segregation - Racialism - Radical centrism - Republicanism - Screen theory - Slavophile - Small-l libertarianism - Social Credit - Social democracy - Socialism - Social liberalism - Social philosophy - Sphere of influence - Stalinism - Totalitarianism - Tribalism - Utilitarianism

Political theorists

Classical political theorists

• Plato - Aristotle - Thucydides - Cicero - Saint Augustine - Thomas Aquinas

Modern political theorists

• Niccolò Machiavelli - John Calvin - Martin Luther - Baruch Spinoza - Jean Bodin - Thomas Hobbes - John Locke - David Hume - Adam Smith - Jeremy Bentham - the Federalist Papers - Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Immanuel Kant - Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès - G.W.F. Hegel - Johann Gottfried von Herder - Alexis de Tocqueville - John Stuart Mill - Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels - Max Weber - Lenin

Contemporary political theorists

• David Friedman - Noam Chomsky - John Rawls - Jan Narveson - David Gauthier - Amartya Sen - Jürgen Habermas - James M. Buchanan - Bernard Crick - Michel Foucault - Jane Jacobs - Carol Moore - Antonio Negri - Robert Nozick - Hannah Arendt - Mohandas Gandhi - Ayn Rand - John Rawls

State and government

General

• State - Government - Separation of powers
• Public administration - Comparative government
• Three powers of the State - Separation of powers
  • Executive (government) - Head of state
  • Legislature - Parliament - Congress
  • Judiciary - Law - Rule of Law

Political components

• City - City-state - Confederation - Country - Empire - Federation - Nation-state - Prefecture - Principality - Province - Republic - State - World Government

Democracy

• Democracy - Democracy (varieties) - Form of government - Civil society - Checks and balances

Direct democracy

• Direct democracy - Athenian democracy - Referenda - Initiative

Indirect democracy

• Liberal democracy - Representative democracy - Delegated legislation

Presidential system

• Presidential system - Congress - Semi-presidential system - President

Parliamentary system

• Parliamentary system - History of Parliamentarism - Parliament - Inter-Parliamentary Union - Westminster System - Parliamentary supremacy - Semi-presidential system - Coalition government - Prime minister

Alternative forms of democracy

• Anticipatory democracy - Bioregional democracy - Consensus democracy - Deliberative democracy - E-democracy - Grassroots democracy - Participatory democracy - Demarchy - Non-partisan democracy - Totalitarian democracy - Semi-direct democracy - Gerontocracy - Meritocracy - Geniocracy

Election

Election and Electoral systems

• Election - Psephology - Electoral system - Condorcet method - Criticisms of electoralism - General election - By-election - Additional Member System - Fixed-term election - First Past the Post electoral system - Indirect election - Mixed member proportional voting - Party-list proportional representation - Pluralism - Proportional representation - Single non-transferable vote - Single Transferable Vote

Election results

• Elections by country - Electoral calendar

Voting and counting systems

• Vote counting systems - Voting system - Alternative vote top-up - Approval voting - Borda count - Bucklin voting - Cloneproof Schwartz Sequential Dropping - Closed list - Condorcet method - Coombs' method - Copeland's method - D'Hondt method - Droop quota - Election threshold - Hamilton method - Highest averages method - Instant-runoff voting - Largest remainder method - Preferential voting - Proportional approval voting - Range voting - Sainte-Laguë method

Miscellaneous on elections

• Absolute majority - Anti-incumbency - Ballot - Bloc voting - Canvassing - Compulsory voting - Constituency - Cumulative voting - Double majority - Duverger's law - Elector - Elective rights - Electoral college - Electoral fusion - Electorate - Electronic voting - Exit poll - Gerrymander - Incumbent - Independence of irrelevant alternatives - Majority rule - Marginal seat - Open list - Overhang seat - Parallel voting - Plurality - Polling station - Postal voting - Primary election - Protest vote - Push poll - Qualified Majority Voting - Recall election - Secret ballot - Simple majority - Sortition - Split vote - Spoiler effect - Strategic nomination - Suffrage - Suffragette - Supermajority - Tactical voting - Two-thirds majority - Underhang seat - Universal suffrage - Vote - Vote swapping - Vote-rigging - Voter turnout - Voting machine - Voting rights - Women's suffrage

Campaigning

• Campaign finance - Campaign finance reform - Campaign management tools - Canvassing - Election promise - Get out the vote - Negative campaigning - Political campaign - Political platform

Political parties

• Party system - Political spectrum - Political party - Multi-party system - Two-party system - Single-party state - Dominant-party system - Political parties by country - Political parties by name

Politicians

• Politician - Head of State - Head of Government - List of national leaders
• President - Prime Minister - Premier - Minister - Governor - Mayor
• Member of Parliament - Senator - Congressman - Councillor

Politics by country

• General information on countries: List of sovereign states - List of dependent territories
• History: History by country
• Politics: Politics by country - List of national leaders
• Elections: Elections by country - Table of voting systems by nation - List of national legislatures
• Political parties: Political parties by country -

E-democracy

• E-democracy - Emergent democracy - Internet democracy - Open Source Government