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<!DOCTYPE html> <html class="client-nojs" lang="en" dir="ltr"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"/> <title>Politics - RationalWiki</title> <script>document.documentElement.className="client-js";RLCONF={"wgBreakFrames":!1,"wgSeparatorTransformTable":["",""],"wgDigitTransformTable":["",""],"wgDefaultDateFormat":"dmy","wgMonthNames":["","January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],"wgRequestId":"Z94LHYc5j1Ma11RJv4WkTQAAAIE","wgCSPNonce":!1,"wgCanonicalNamespace":"","wgCanonicalSpecialPageName":!1,"wgNamespaceNumber":0,"wgPageName":"Politics","wgTitle":"Politics","wgCurRevisionId":2631419,"wgRevisionId":2631419,"wgArticleId":3766,"wgIsArticle":!0,"wgIsRedirect":!1,"wgAction":"view","wgUserName":null,"wgUserGroups":["*"],"wgCategories":["Pages using DynamicPageList parser function","Politics","Philosophy"],"wgPageContentLanguage":"en","wgPageContentModel":"wikitext","wgRelevantPageName":"Politics","wgRelevantArticleId":3766,"wgIsProbablyEditable":!0,"wgRelevantPageIsProbablyEditable":!0,"wgRestrictionEdit":[],"wgRestrictionMove":[], "wgMediaViewerOnClick":!0,"wgMediaViewerEnabledByDefault":!0};RLSTATE={"site.styles":"ready","noscript":"ready","user.styles":"ready","user":"ready","user.options":"loading","ext.cite.styles":"ready","skins.vector.styles.legacy":"ready","mediawiki.toc.styles":"ready"};RLPAGEMODULES=["ext.cite.ux-enhancements","site","mediawiki.page.startup","mediawiki.page.ready","mediawiki.toc","skins.vector.legacy.js","ext.gadget.ReferenceTooltips","mmv.head","mmv.bootstrap.autostart"];</script> <script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.loader.implement("user.options@1hzgi",function($,jQuery,require,module){/*@nomin*/mw.user.tokens.set({"patrolToken":"+\\","watchToken":"+\\","csrfToken":"+\\"}); });});</script> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=ext.cite.styles%7Cmediawiki.toc.styles%7Cskins.vector.styles.legacy&only=styles&skin=vector"/> <script async="" src="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=startup&only=scripts&raw=1&skin=vector"></script> <meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content=""/> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=site.styles&only=styles&skin=vector"/> <meta name="generator" content="MediaWiki 1.35.6"/> <meta name="description" content="Politics is the means by which public policy is decided. Technically, politics refers to the interactions between people in a given polity (Ancient Greek for the city-states that were dominant during that time), or community. The general application refers to policy-making at a government level; however, it has also come to mean the ins and outs of complex social situations, often having nothing to do with the reason the situation exists - for example, "office politics.""/> <link rel="alternate" type="application/x-wiki" title="Edit" href="/w/index.php?title=Politics&action=edit"/> <link rel="edit" title="Edit" href="/w/index.php?title=Politics&action=edit"/> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico"/> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/w/opensearch_desc.php" title="RationalWiki (en)"/> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/api.php?action=rsd"/> <link rel="license" href="/wiki/RationalWiki:Copyrights"/> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="RationalWiki Atom feed" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=atom"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="RationalWiki"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Politics"/> <meta property="og:description" content="Politics is the means by which public policy is decided. Technically, politics refers to the interactions between people in a given polity (Ancient Greek for the city-states that were dominant during that time), or community. The general application refers to policy-making at a government level; however, it has also come to mean the ins and outs of complex social situations, often having nothing to do with the reason the situation exists - for example, "office politics.""/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Politics"/>  </head> <body class="mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject mw-editable page-Politics rootpage-Politics skin-vector action-view minerva--history-page-action-enabled skin-vector-legacy"> <div id="mw-page-base" class="noprint"></div> <div id="mw-head-base" class="noprint"></div> <div id="content" class="mw-body" role="main"> <a id="top"></a> <div id="siteNotice" class="mw-body-content"><div id="localNotice" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div id="2025_RationalWiki_.27Oregon_Plan.27_Fundraiser"> <table role="presentation" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; width: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="width: 60%; text-align: left;"><big><center><b><a href="/wiki/RationalWiki:Fundraiser" title="RationalWiki:Fundraiser">2025 RationalWiki 'Oregon Plan' Fundraiser</a></b></center></big> <p><b>There is no RationalWiki without you.</b> We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. 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margin: 0 0 0.5em 0.5em; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #1E90FF; width:175px;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF"><b>Oh no, they're talking about</b><br /><a class="mw-selflink selflink"><font size="4" color="White"><b>Politics</b></font></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#97DEFF;" align="center"><a href="/wiki/Category:Politics" title="Category:Politics"><img alt="Icon politics.svg" src="/w/images/thumb/f/f2/Icon_politics.svg/100px-Icon_politics.svg.png" decoding="async" width="100" height="100" srcset="/w/images/thumb/f/f2/Icon_politics.svg/150px-Icon_politics.svg.png 1.5x, /w/images/thumb/f/f2/Icon_politics.svg/200px-Icon_politics.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="200" data-file-height="200" /></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b>Theory</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Political_spectrum" title="Political spectrum">Political spectrum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Political_party" title="Political party">Political party</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Government" title="Government">Government</a> (<a href="/wiki/List_of_forms_of_government" title="List of forms of government">forms of</a>)</li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b>Practice</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/International_relations" title="International relations">International relations</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Propaganda" title="Propaganda">Propaganda</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/War" title="War">War</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b><a href="/wiki/Political_philosophy" title="Political philosophy"><font color="white">Philosophies</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Political_spectrum" title="Political spectrum">Political spectrum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Communism" title="Communism">Communism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conservatism" title="Conservatism">Conservatism</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b><a href="/wiki/Category:Political_terms" title="Category:Political terms"><font color="white">Terms</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Democracy" title="Democracy">Democracy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Extrajudicial_punishment" title="Extrajudicial punishment">Extrajudicial punishment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Liberal_conservatism" title="Liberal conservatism">Liberal conservatism</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b>As usual</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Irredentism" title="Irredentism">Irredentism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Council_of_Europe" title="Council of Europe">Council of Europe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington" title="Samuel P. Huntington">Samuel P. Huntington</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b>Country sections</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <center><a href="/wiki/Category:United_States_politics" title="Category:United States politics"><img alt="United States politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/35px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="18" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/53px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/70px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1235" data-file-height="650" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:British_politics" title="Category:British politics"><img alt="British politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg/40px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="21" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg/60px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg/120px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1000" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Canadian_politics" title="Category:Canadian politics"><img alt="Canadian politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Flag_of_Canada.svg/35px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="18" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Flag_of_Canada.svg/53px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Flag_of_Canada.svg/70px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1200" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Chinese_politics" title="Category:Chinese politics"><img alt="Chinese politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg/35px-Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg/53px-Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg/70px-Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:French_politics" title="Category:French politics"><img alt="French politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/40px-Flag_of_France.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/60px-Flag_of_France.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/120px-Flag_of_France.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:German_politics" title="Category:German politics"><img alt="German politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Flag_of_Germany.svg/35px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="21" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Flag_of_Germany.svg/53px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Flag_of_Germany.svg/70px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1000" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Indian_politics" title="Category:Indian politics"><img alt="Indian politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Flag_of_India.svg/35px-Flag_of_India.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Flag_of_India.svg/53px-Flag_of_India.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Flag_of_India.svg/70px-Flag_of_India.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Iranian_politics" title="Category:Iranian politics"><img alt="Iranian politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Flag_of_Iran.svg/35px-Flag_of_Iran.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="20" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Flag_of_Iran.svg/53px-Flag_of_Iran.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Flag_of_Iran.svg/70px-Flag_of_Iran.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="630" data-file-height="360" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Israeli_politics" title="Category:Israeli politics"><img alt="Israeli politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Flag_of_Israel.svg/35px-Flag_of_Israel.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="25" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Flag_of_Israel.svg/53px-Flag_of_Israel.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Flag_of_Israel.svg/70px-Flag_of_Israel.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1100" data-file-height="800" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Japanese_politics" title="Category:Japanese politics"><img alt="Japanese politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/40px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/60px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/120px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:South_Korean_politics" title="Category:South Korean politics"><img alt="South Korean politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Flag_of_South_Korea.svg/40px-Flag_of_South_Korea.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Flag_of_South_Korea.svg/60px-Flag_of_South_Korea.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Flag_of_South_Korea.svg/120px-Flag_of_South_Korea.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Turkish_politics" title="Category:Turkish politics"><img alt="Turkish politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg/35px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg/53px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg/70px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1200" data-file-height="800" /></a> </center> <div class="vte plainlinks" style="font-size:smaller; text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Template:Politics" title="Template:Politics">v</a> - <a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Politics" title="Template talk:Politics">t</a> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Politics&action=edit">e</a></div> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Politics</b> is the means by which public policy is decided. Technically, politics refers to the interactions between people in a given <i>polity</i> (Ancient Greek for the city-states that were dominant during that time), or community. The general application refers to policy-making at a <a href="/wiki/Government" title="Government">government</a> level; however, it has also come to mean the ins and outs of complex social situations, often having nothing to do with the reason the situation exists - for example, "office politics." </p><p>Whatever the system a government uses for its organization (<a href="/wiki/Democracy" title="Democracy">democratic</a> <a href="/wiki/Republic" title="Republic">republic</a>, <a href="/wiki/Dictatorship" title="Dictatorship">dictatorship</a>, <a href="/wiki/Theocracy" title="Theocracy">theocracy</a>, etc.), there is bound to be political wrangling for power, glory, and occasionally, the public good. Some systems attempt to keep much of this political give-and-take in the public eye (usually much to the disgust of the public), while in other systems, almost everything save the occasional "announcement" takes place behind closed doors. The difference is mostly based on the degree to which political participation by the broader public is desired or allowed. </p><p>The art of politics mostly consists of obtaining a position of power or responsibility, and then figuring out how to get other people in such positions to agree to one's grand schemes in order to make them into laws. This usually involves complex negotiations and so many compromises between the parties involved that the final result is unrecognizable to either, or their constituencies. Usually, bribery of some form is the best way to get one's desired results.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[note 1]</a></sup> Threats also work. Democracies usually have strong rules and structures governing the political process, while autocracies are more accustomed to naked power struggles. <a href="/wiki/International_relations" title="International relations">Politics at the international level</a> still bears the hallmarks of the latter due to the anarchic nature of the system and the sovereignty of states, although organizations like the <a href="/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations">United Nations</a> and multilateral treaties can rein them in to some extent. </p><p>Since politics is the means by which interests are brokered in a community, it is usually heavily entangled with <a href="/wiki/Economics" title="Economics">economics</a>. The academic discipline dedicated to the study of politics is creatively named "political science", and has similarly strong connections to other <a href="/wiki/Social_science" title="Social science">social sciences</a> like sociology and psychology. </p> <div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></span></div> <ul> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#Political_parties"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Political parties</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="#Political_spectrum"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Political spectrum</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="#To_be_rid_of_politics"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">To be rid of politics</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="#Famous_quotes"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Famous quotes</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="#Notes"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Notes</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li> </ul> </div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Political_parties">Political parties</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Politics&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Political parties">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div role="note" class="hatnote">See the main article on this topic: <a href="/wiki/Political_party" title="Political party">Political party</a></div> <p>In most countries in which people have a say in politics, political parties form. Political parties are (in theory) a means for people to band together and present a united voice on issues of importance for them. Sometimes, these parties are loose coalitions of individuals who are mostly out to fight for themselves and retain a great deal of independence, like in the United States.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[note 2]</a></sup> On the other hand, many European parliamentary democracies are characterized by strong, highly organized and hierarchical parties, in which politicians who defy the will of the leadership seldom thrive. Depending on several factors, different countries will give rise to specific party systems, affecting the number of choices that are available to voters. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Political_spectrum">Political spectrum</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Politics&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Political spectrum">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div role="note" class="hatnote">See the main article on this topic: <a href="/wiki/Political_spectrum" title="Political spectrum">Political spectrum</a></div> <div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:302px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Nolan-chart.svg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Nolan-chart.svg/300px-Nolan-chart.svg.png" decoding="async" width="300" height="300" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Nolan-chart.svg/450px-Nolan-chart.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Nolan-chart.svg/600px-Nolan-chart.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="275" data-file-height="275" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Nolan-chart.svg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>The often-used Nolan chart</div></div></div> <p>Modern politics and policymaking is heavily influenced by the participants' ideology and underlying <a href="/wiki/Political_philosophy" title="Political philosophy">political philosophy</a>. In the West, political views have traditionally been defined in terms of "left" and "right", mostly describing differences regarding the economic agenda.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">[note 3]</a></sup> There have been attempts to create more accurate models of political leanings that use multiple axes, such as the <a href="/wiki/Nolan_Chart" class="mw-redirect" title="Nolan Chart">Nolan Chart</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Political_Compass" title="Political Compass">Political Compass</a>™. The two most common axes are the social axis and the economic axis, each of which deal with issues regarding the respective term (social and economic). The image on the right shows the position on a two-axis compass of several leading political figures. </p><p>Even this concept has led to lightweight proseletyzing - the <a href="/wiki/Libertarian_Party" title="Libertarian Party">Libertarian Party</a> has a compass with a very short quiz to go with it,<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4">[1]</a></sup> that is designed to make <i>everyone</i> discover that they are actually <a href="/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism">libertarians</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5">[2]</a></sup> </p><p>In order to truly show where someone falls in their political views, of course, many more more axes would be needed - perhaps as many as one for every major issue in their times and locale.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6">[note 4]</a></sup> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="To_be_rid_of_politics">To be rid of politics</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Politics&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: To be rid of politics">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Politics can often become annoying, and in some places may rise to the level of being a <a href="/wiki/Molehill_mountaineering" title="Molehill mountaineering">public nuisance</a>. A desire to be rid of politics, or to circumscribe its appropriate subjects in ways that would strangle it by making it irrelevant, is a consistent feature of a variety of universalizing <a href="/wiki/Utopia" title="Utopia">utopian</a> <a href="/wiki/Ideology" title="Ideology">ideologies</a>. </p><p>Both <a href="/wiki/Socialism" title="Socialism">socialism</a> and <a href="/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism">libertarianism</a> imagine a future state of affairs, where the problems that politics attempts to address have been solved. This tendency however is not unique to the far-left or right. In the early 1990s, <a href="/wiki/Neoconservative" class="mw-redirect" title="Neoconservative">neoconservative</a> Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the "<a href="/wiki/End_of_History" title="End of History">End of History</a>", claiming that the triumph of an ideology he called '<a href="/wiki/Capitalism" title="Capitalism">capitalist</a> <a href="/wiki/Democracy" title="Democracy">democracy</a>' meant that the age of ethnic, religious, and ideological conflict was over. This seems not to have worked out as planned. The <a href="/wiki/Neoreactionary_movement" title="Neoreactionary movement">neoreactionary movement</a> explicitly rejects politics in the name of order. Somewhat more surprisingly, the academic <a href="/wiki/Liberalism" title="Liberalism">liberalism</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rawls" class="extiw" title="wp:John Rawls" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: John Rawls">John Rawls</span></a><sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> also envisions an ideal universal society where most of the issues addressed by politics have been rendered moot by a robust <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">jurisprudence</a> of <a href="/wiki/Civil_rights" title="Civil rights">civil rights</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7">[3]</a></sup> </p><p>However, people have always had different interests, desires, needs, etc, and it is impossible for any society to address all of them equally, either due to physical limits or the fact that some interests are mutually contradictory (to build a factory on a certain plot of land or cultivate it as a natural preserve, for instance). Politics is a direct result people having, to some extent, free will. Unless humans lose independent agency, there is no way to end, or even temporarily stop, politics. Stopping politics, after all, is also a political thing to do. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Famous_quotes">Famous quotes</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Politics&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Famous quotes">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span>Politics is the art of controlling one's environment.</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—Hunter S. Thompson<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8">[4]</a></sup></cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span>Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—John Godfrey Saxe (often misattributed to Otto von Bismark)<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9">[5]</a></sup></cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span>...Politics" is derived from 'POLY', meaning many, and 'TICS', meaning small, blood sucking insects.</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—Chris Clayton<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10">[6]</a></sup></cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span><i>Question:</i> How do you know when a politician is lying?<br /><i>Answer:</i> When their mouth moves.</div> </td></tr> </tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span><i>Question:</i> What is the difference between a politician and a statesman?<br /><i>Answer:</i> A statesman tells you the truth, whether it is popular or not; a politician tells you what is popular, whether it is true or not.</div> </td></tr> </tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span>A politician was given a lie detector test. It flashed when they told the unfamiliar truth.</div> </td></tr> </tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span>Politicians are not born, they are excreted</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—Cicero</cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Notes">Notes</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Politics&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Notes">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">In civilized republics, bribery is usually called "campaign contributions".</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-2">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">This is still true for the Democrats, but the Republicans have achieved a much greater extent of ideological uniformity and party discipline over the last decades.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-3">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">This terminology comes from the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly in 1789.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-6">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">However, there is a marked tendency for people who hold certain opinions (say, on <a href="/wiki/Same-sex_marriage" title="Same-sex marriage">same-sex marriage</a>) to also hold similar views on completely unrelated topics (like <a href="/wiki/Economics" title="Economics">economics</a>). It is not exact, but there is a correlation that political scientists have been studying for some time now.</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Politics&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-4">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz">The "World's Smallest Political Quiz"</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-5">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">See <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://world.std.com/~mhuben/wspq.html">here</a> for some critiques of their quiz</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-7">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">For further background, see generally John Gray, <i>Enlightenment's Wake</i> (Routledge; 1999)</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-8">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hunter_s_thompson.html">[1]</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-9">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Godfrey_Saxe">[2]</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-10">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.anvari.org/fortune/Quotations_-_Random/3261_quote-346-and-of-course-the-word-politics-is-derived-from-poly-meaning-many-and-tics-meaning-small-blood-sucking-insects.html">[3]</a></span> </li> </ol></div></div>    </div></div><div class="printfooter">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Politics&oldid=2631419">https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Politics&oldid=2631419</a>"</div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Politics" title="Category:Politics">Politics</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Philosophy" title="Category:Philosophy">Philosophy</a></li></ul></div><div id="mw-hidden-catlinks" class="mw-hidden-catlinks mw-hidden-cats-hidden">Hidden category: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Pages_using_DynamicPageList_parser_function" 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