Politics Links by George Hernandez

Links that lead to off-site pages about politics. See also News Links and Money Links. For my local politicians, see About Me.

Official

International
- UN.org. The United Nations.
- Europa.eu.int. 'Gateway to the European Union'
- EurUnion.org. E.U. in the U.S..
U.S. Government
- Archives.gov. "The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent Federal agency that preserves our nation's history and defines us as a people by overseeing the management of all Federal records."
- GPO.gov. 'The U.S. Government Printing Office disseminates official information from all three branches of the Federal Government.'
- Science.gov. 'a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results.'
- Congress
  - House.gov
    - Democrats.House.gov
    - As of 2004-01-21, there is no Republicans.House.gov, but there is a GOP.gov.
    - USCode.House.gov. 'The Office of the Law Revision Counsel prepares and publishes the United States Code, which is a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States.'
  - Senate.gov. Please include your real name and address when contacting your representatives so they will take you more seriously.
    - Democrats.Senate.gov
    - Republicans.Senate.gov
    - U.S. Senators for Illinois [2006-03-15]
  - LOC.gov. 'The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with nearly 128 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves.'
- USCourts.gov
- WhiteHouse.gov.
  - CIA: The World Factbook
    - Chiefs of State
  - DOL.gov. U.S. Dept. of Labor.
    - BLS.gov. Bureau of Labor Statistics. EGs: CPI (Consumer Price Index), Unemployment Rate. See also The Consumer Price Index.
For links about Illinois, Cook county, and Chicago, see Chicago.
AmericanRhetoric.com. "A database of 5,000+ full text, audio and video (streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events..."

By Party

Left/Liberal

Democrats. Mascot: Donkey. Usual color: BLUE. Aka: Left, Liberal, Democratic, Progressive. Social equality over equity.

Blogs
- BillMon.org. "Whiskey Bar"
- DeanEsmay.com. Dean's World.
- DonaldSensing.com.
- LoneDissenter.com. Supposedly born ca. 1987.
- MichaelTotten.blogspot.com. Anti-liberal Liberal.
- TalkingPointsMemo.com. By Joshua Micah Marshall.
Popular Media
- AirAmericaRadio.com. Radio station. They stream their shows too. Air America is like an antidote to the Conservative media (like Rush Limbaugh). Hopefully there will be productive conflict between the two camps about the issues.
- New York Times [nyt.com].
- Current [current.com].
Miscellany
- AmericanAssembler.com.
- CommonBits.org. 'a free community directory of progressive media'
- ConceptualGuerilla.com. A former trial lawyer with strong rhetoric for fighting the "cheap Labor Conservatives".
  - Defeat The Right In Three Minutes. 'First, you have to beat their ideology, which really isn't that difficult. At bottom, conservatives believe in a social hierarchy of "haves" and "have nots" that I call "corporate feudalism". They have taken this corrosive social vision and dressed it up with a "respectable" sounding ideology. That ideology is pure hogwash, and you can prove it.'
- Democrats.org
- HPLeft.com. Human Potential Left. Not merely Left but off the planet, spiritual, paranormal, etc.
- Huffington Post [huffingtonpost.com]
- LiberalOasis.com. "LiberalOasis is on a mission to reclaim the good name of liberals. LiberalOasis loves America because America was founded on liberal beliefs of freedom and justice for all. LiberalOasis loves Americans, and not just those in the blue states. LiberalOasis believes in winning, and that means convincing more of America than San Francisco and Northhampton, MA. LiberalOasis believes paying taxes is patriotic, because you can't love your country and stiff it at the same time."
- LyingSocialistWeasels.com. The Daily Weasel. "Common Sense from the Left Side".
- Soros.org. "The Open Society Institute (OSI) is a private operating and grantmaking foundation based in New York City that serves as the hub of the Soros foundations network, a group of autonomous foundations and organizations in more than 50 countries. OSI and the network implement a range of initiatives that aim to promote open societies by shaping government policy and supporting education, media, public health, and human and women's rights, as well as social, legal, and economic reform."
- Prospect.org. "The aim of The American Prospect is to contribute to a renewal of America's democratic traditions by presenting a practical and convincing vision of liberal philosophy, politics and public life."
- truthdig.com. "Truthdig is a news website that provides expert coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. The site is built around reports by authorities in their fields who conduct in-depth exploration of contemporary topics. To offer frequent change and surprise, the site also presents a diversity of original reporting and aggregated content culled by the site's editors and staff."
- WhiteHouse.org. Scathing and funny anti-Bush type stuff.
- YuricaReport.com. So far left that it some of it are conspiracy theories but others merely report on the weirdness of the times.

Right/Conservative

Republicans. Mascot: Elephant. Usual color: RED. Aka: Right, Conservative, Republican, GOP (Grand Old Party). Social equity over equality.

There are a lot more Right sites partly because of their corporate funding.

Blogs
- AndrewSullivan.com. The Daily Dish.
- CommonsenseWonder.com. Commonsense & Wonder.
- InstaPundit.com. By Glenn Reynolds. Conservative.
- LittleGreenFootballs.com/Weblog. By Charles and Michael Johnson. They have a reputation of piranha like behavior.
- RachelLucas.com. Conservative.
- TownHall.com. Conservative.
  - Columnists.
Popular Media
- FoxNews.com. Very Conservative. Has names like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
- RushLimbaugh.com. Very Conservative.
- WSJ.com. The Wall Street Journal. Conservative.
Top
- NationalReview.com. Aka NRO (National Review Online). Very Conservative.
- WeeklyStandard.com. NeoConservative.
Think tanks. Conservatives (corporations) have invested billions of dollars to aid their cause.
- AEI.org. American Enterprise Institute. Conservative.
- Heritage.org. Heritage Foundation. Conservative.
- www-Hoover.Stanford.edu. Hoover Institution.
  - Condoleezza Rice's Homepage
- Manhattan-Institute.org. Conservative.
- PacificResearch.org. 'Pacific Research Institute (PRI) is a free-market think tank providing practical solutions for the issues that impact the daily lives of all individuals. Our mission is to champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility by advancing free-market policy solutions.'
Miscellany
- CapMag.com. Capitalism Magazine. NeoConservative.
  - UNisEvil.com. Some of the content is right (the UN is far from perfect) but most of it is freakish. EGs: "Global Treaty Banning Landmines is a Moral Obscenity" and "UNICEF Kills the Little Children...". It's a NeoCon cult movement. The rhetoric is there and it has elements of truth but then it gets so twisted.
- ConservativeChronicle.com. Weekly columns by top U.S. Conservative commentators.
- Drudge Report [drudgereport.com]. By Matt Drudge.
- Empower.org. "The primary mission of the organization is to explore public policy solutions that foster growth, individual responsibility, economic freedom and prosperity."
  - EmpowerAmerica.org. "Empower America bridges the gap between the array of think tanks that produce white papers on the public-policy debate and the actual enactment of policy. In implementing our free-market, entrepreneurial principles into law, we are convinced, through actual experience, that we are the most effective "delivery" system in existence."
- Human Events [humanevents.com].
- NewAmericanCentury.org.
  - 'The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle; and that too few political leaders today are making the case for global leadership.'
  - The heart of NeoConservativism.
- NewsMax.com. Overtly right-biased media.
- Republicans.org
- RightMarch.com. The anti-MoveOn.org folks. Lame-ass wannabes! They couldn't come up with something original.
- TAE.com. The American Enterprise. "Thousands of conservative activists, local leaders, congressmen, state and federal judges, writers, researchers, military officers, and business executives read us? Lots of non-conservative readers enjoy and respect us too (sometimes with one eyebrow raised)."

Third Party

I wish third parties were more significant in U.S. politics but they aren't. The emphasis should be on particular issues but then such a group is lumped as a "special interest".

Libertarian. Libertarians are like the Right when it comes to business but like the Left when it comes to civil rights.
- Blogs
  - LewRockwell.com. Libertarian.
- Miscellany
  - Cato.org. "The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace."
  - FFF.org. "The mission of The Future of Freedom Foundation is to advance the libertarian philosophy by providing an uncompromising moral and economic case for individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government."
  - ISIL.org. International Society for Individual Liberty. Libertarianism. "We are a network of individuals and associations in over 80 countries dedicated to building a free and peaceful world through the ideals of free markets, social tolerance and individual responsibility."
    - Intro Animation
  - Libertarian.org
  - Libertocracy.com. 'Libertocracy is a polycentric free enterprise government and socio-economic system whereby sovereign individuals join together by mutual consent in a civilization that respects and defends the freedom, dignity and rights of all people equally. '
  - LP.org. "The Libertarian Party is committed to America's heritage of freedom: individual liberty and personal responsibility; a free-market economy of abundance and prosperity; a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade."
  - TheIHS.org. "The Institute for Humane Studies". Libertarians ("classical liberals").
    - Politopia.com. Studying political orientation. Take a simple test to evaluate your political bias.
    - LibertyGuide.com.
Progressive. These days Progressives are like the far Left.
- Blogs
  - CommonDreams.org. Progressive.
  - Context.org. Context Institute. Humane Sustainable Culture.
  - NotGeniuses.com. By Ezra Klein, Joe Rospars, and Matt Singer. All born ca. 1980.
  - OSPolitics.org. 'Open Source Politics was founded to promote active discourse among progressives. We firmly believe that the strength of every democratic nation comes from government of, by, and for its people.'
- Top
  - AmericaComingTogether.com. ACT. Anti-Bush organization seeking to mobilize voters.
  - CenterForAmericanProgress.org. Center for American Progress.
  - MoveOn.org. Anti-Bush organization.
    - MoveOnPAC.org. Move-On Political Action Committee.
- Think Tanks
  - RockRidgeInstitute.org. "The mission of the Rockridge Institute is to help achieve a just, democratic, environmentally sustainable, and humane society."
    - "Framing the issues: UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics". This is a paradigm shift article. The model of "strict father" v "nurturant father" neatly pegs the Right v Left issues. The framing that the Right does (ala Rush Limbaugh, Frank Lutz) is very powerful. The running on "identity" v running on issues is also very important.
- Miscellany
  - OldAmericanCentury.org. 'Project for the Old American Century (POAC) is in no way related to or associated with project for the new American century'
  - WorkingForChange.com. Progressive.
  - Ruckus.org. 'The Ruckus Society provides environmental, human rights, and social justice organizers with the tools, training, and support needed to achieve their goals.'
Miscellany
- Links of many minor parties. Via DCPoliticalReport.com.

Comic Strips

Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index. Editorial cartoons from around the country.
DayByDayCartoon.com. By Chris Muir. Right oriented. 4 major characters representing a political, age (Gen X v Baby Boomer), and sex spectrum, but they're actually very Right biased. Serial Rate: Daily.
Get Your War On. Left oriented. Lots of profanity. Serial rate: Batches posted roughly every few weeks.
This Modern World. By Tom Tomorrow (aka Dan Perkins). Left oriented. Serial Rate: Weekly.

Law, Legal, Lawyers

Blogs
- Blogs.Law.Harvard.edu. Weblogs at Harvard Law. Assisted by Dave Winer.
- CyberLaw.Stanford.edu/Lessig/blog/. By Lawrence Lessig.
- InstaPundit.com. By Glenn Reynolds.
- Research.Yale.edu/LawMeme. By Yale law students.
Miscellany
- FindLaw.com
  - Introductory Materials. "U.S. historical documents, background information on the U.S. courts and government, and more."
  - Legal Commentary. Articles and such.
  - U.S.
    - USC (US Code). Laws made by the U.S. Congress.
    - CFR (Code of Federal Regulations). Rules made by federal agencies and executive departments.
    - Federal Register. "Official daily publication for Rules, Proposed Rules, and Notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as Executive Orders and other Presidential Documents."
  - IL
    - Constitution of the State of Illinois
    - Illinois State Laws
- LegalAffairs.org. "The magazine at the intersection of law and life."
- Municode.com. "Municipal Code Corporation was founded in 1951 as a one man operation, for the sole purpose of codifying municipal laws and ordinances and publishing this material in looseleaf form. "
  - Chicago Code of Ordinances. Much more complete than the link under the City Clerk.
- TechLawAdvisor.com

Political Contributions

CampaignMoney.com
FundRace.org
NewsMeat.com. 'the supreme one-click resource for researching individual political donations.'
OpenSecrets.org. "Your Guide to the Money in U.S. Elections."

Political Self-Tests

Here are typical topics on these sort of tests:
- Job, min wage; Schools, curiculum, vouchers; Drugs; Safety laws; health care, soc sec; sex porn; welfare; economic, environmental, tariffs; free speech; taxation; immigration; foreign
- people are: responsible & resilient, fragile & in need of assistance, in need of strong leaders
- left, right, liberal, conservative, centrist, libertarian, authoritarian, socialist, anarchist, other (green, etc)
- personal: military service; press; sex; drugs; immigration
- economic: subsidies; tariffs; min wage; taxes; foreign aid
- alliances v democracy; diplomacy v force; security v exchange; domestic v military; role v non-military; multilateral v unilateral; econ pressure v trade
AmericanChoices.org. Take a simple test to evaluate your views on American foreign policy.
Politopia.com. Studying political orientation. Take a simple test to evaluate your political bias. 14 questions, each of which usually has 5 answers. They collect your email though.
As of 2004-01-01
OKCupid.com/Politics. This test is a bit more genial. Just 42 multiple choice questions, plus a few bonus questions.

As of 2005-11-17.
TheAdvocates.org. A much better looking map then Politopia's map. 10 questions (5 personal & 5 economic) with Yes, Maybe, and No answers.
As of 2004-01-01
Libertarian Purity Test by Bryan Caplan
IOP Political Personality Test. It's sort of like your usual political self-test but this one compares your results with that of college students across the nation and the result is put on a grid of Liberal v Conservative AND Religious v Secular. Here are the results as of today [2004-04-21] (I was a Traditional Liberal).

Polls, Voting

Chicago
- Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago [chicagoelections.com]. Locates your polling place. Lists candidates. 312-269-7900.
Miscellany
- Electoral-Vote.com.
- FairVote.org. The Center for Voting and Democracy is "dedicated to fair elections where every vote counts and all voters are represented".
- Gallup.com
- MyPollingPlace.com. If you're not sure about where to vote, just enter you address at this site and they'll tell you where your polling place is.
- MyVoteRight.com. Summarizes your voting rights.
- OurVote.com. 'Election Protection is a nonpartisan coalition of civil rights and civic organizations committed to protecting your right to cast your ballot. Our hotline (1-866-OURVOTE/687-8683) is an immediate, on-the-spot resource staffed by lawyers and law students trained to resolve your problem. If you have any problems casting your ballot, call us. We can help!'
- Zogby.com
- Zoomerang.com. 'an easy to use, Internet-based survey tool allowing customers to design and send surveys and analyze the results in real time'

Pieces

Perhaps this should just be in my blog. O well.

"Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives" [http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html]

Miscellany

Blogs
- AndrewSullivan.com. By Andrew Sullivan.
- Command-Post.org. Militaristic.
- DailyKos.com. By Markos Moulitsas.
- Denbeste.nu. USS Clueless. By Steven Den Beste. Humanist.
- GeorgeSoros.com/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Home. By George Soros.
- GrokLaw.net. By Pamela Jones. Follows the SCO legal cases against Linux.
- PhilosoRaptor. By Winston Smith.
- PoliticalWire.com. By Taegan Goodard. Has RSS news aggregator for major papers.
- SpinSanity.org. "watchdog of manipulative political rhetoric".
- Turning the Tide. "The official weblog of Noam Chomsky, including exclusive, original observations drawn from personal correspondence, ZNet Sustainer Forums posts, and direct blog entries"
  - Noam Chomsky Archive
- WatchBlog.com. "WatchBlog is a multiple-editor weblog broken up into three major political affiliations, each with its own blog: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Third Party (covering everything outside the two major parties)."
- Where Is Raed?. By Salam Pax. Iraqi made famous by blogging during the Iraqi War.
- Wonkette.com. By multiple bloggers. Cute fun stuff about recent politics.
Miscellany
- Anarchy Archives. 'My goals are eventually to provide at one site the collected works of the major anarchists and an online history of anarchists and anarchist movements worldwide, including a graphics archive.'
- AntiWar.com.
- Brookings.edu. "The Brookings Institution is an independent, nonpartisan organization devoted to research, analysis, education, and publication focused on public policy issues in the areas of economics, foreign policy, and governance. ... The Brookings Institution traces its beginnings to 1916, when a group of leading reformers founded the Institute for Government Research (IGR), the first private organization devoted to analyzing public policy issues at the national level."
- CFR.org. Council on Foreign Relations. "Founded in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, national membership organization and a nonpartisan center for scholars dedicated to producing and disseminating ideas so that individual and corporate members, as well as policymakers, journalists, students, and interested citizens in the United States and other countries, can better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other governments."
  - ForeignAffairs.org. A publication by CFR.
- CounterPunch.org. "bi-weekly muckraking newsletter edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. Twice a month we bring our readers the stories that the corporate press never prints."
- CQPress.com. "CQ Press is your first source for information on politics, policy, and people. We are the leading publisher of books, directories, subscriptions, and Web products on American politics, federal and state government, American institutions, campaigns and elections, current events, and world affairs."
- DCPoliticalReport.com.
  - Links of many minor parties
- E-ThePeople.org. "e.thePeople is a public forum for a new democracy conversation."
  - AmericanChoices.org. Take a simple test to evaluate your views on American foreign policy.
- ExtremeDemocracy.com. ' "Extreme democracy" is a political philosophy of the information era that puts people in charge of the entire political process. It suggests a deliberative process that places total confidence in the people, opening the policy-making process to many centers of power through deeply networked coalitions that can be organized around local, national and international issues. The choice of the word "extreme" reflects the lessons of the extreme programming movement in technology that has allowed small teams to make rapid progress on complex projects through concentrated projects that yield results far greater than previous labor-intensive programming practices. Extreme democracy emphasizes the importance of tools designed to break down barriers to collaboration and access to power, acknowledging that political realities can be altered by building on rapidly advancing generations of technology and that human organizations are transformed by new political expectations and practices made possible by technology. '
- FactCheck.org. 'We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding. The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state, and federal levels.'
- GlobalExchange.org. 'Global Exchange is an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political and social justice. Since our founding in 1988, we have increased the US public's global awareness while building partnerships worldwide.'
- Global Issues [GlobalIssues.org].
  - 'This web site looks into global issues that affect everyone and aims to show how most issues are inter-related.'
  - Including: Trade-Related Issues, Geopolitics, Human Rights Issues, and Environmental Issues.
- GlobalResearch.ca. 'Centre for Research on Globalization'
- GlobalSecurity.org.
- H-Net.org. "H-Net is an international interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers dedicated to developing the enormous educational potential of the Internet and the World Wide Web."
- HRW.org. Human Rights Watch.
- library.ubc.ca/poli/theory.html. Political Philosophy/Political Theory at the University of British Columbia.
- Marxists.org. 'Welcome to the Marxists Internet Archive! We are a volunteer based non-profit organisation, with the purpose of educating people around the world about Marxism.'
- MonkeyFist.com
- NationalIssues.com "a non-partisan, issue-oriented research web site that provides information to individuals, voters and students who are interested in truly understanding the major issues facing our nation today. ... nationalissues.com is not a political web site and will therefore not express any opinions."
  - ThisNation.com. American political mechanics.
- NewsBatch.com. 'NewsBatch was begun in the hope that citizens will begin to more fully understand the issues which confront their nationally elected leaders and make more informed choices at the ballot box. Unfortunately many newspaper and television stories cannot be fully understood without an understanding of policy. NewsBatch attempts to fill this gap by summarizing key policy topics and illustrating this information with easy to read charts and maps. The links to the charts and maps are inserted into the text so the reader can choose whether to have the concept visually illustrated. Wherever possible, references are made to key Congressional votes on these topics and to how these problems are dealt with in other countries.'
- NCPA.org. National Center for Policy Analysis. "a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization, established in 1983. The NCPA's goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector. Topics include reforms in health care, taxes, Social Security, welfare, criminal justice, education and environmental regulation."
  - "Both Sides". Looking at "both sides" of many issues.
- OnTheIssues.org, aka Issues2000.org.
  - "Every Political Leader On Every Issue"
  - Well at least some of the issues.
- OpenGov.Media.MIT.edu
  - "To empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive, easy-to-use repository of information on individuals, organizations, and corporations related to the government of the United States of America."
  - Find info about government officials lightning fast.
- People-Press.org.
- PewTrusts.com
  - 'The Pew Charitable Trusts serves the public interest by providing information, policy solutions and support for civic life. Based in Philadelphia, with an office in Washington, D.C., the Trusts makes investments to provide organizations and citizens with fact-based research and practical solutions for challenging issues. In 2003, with approximately $4.1 billion in dedicated assets, the Trusts committed more than $143 million to 151 nonprofit organizations.'
  - One of the better and pretty much non-partisan foundations.
  - StateLine.org. 'Politics & policy news, state by state'
  - PewInternet.org. 'The Pew Internet & American Life Project produces original, academic-quality reports that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The Project also aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the Internet through collection of essential, relevant data and timely discussions of real-world developments as they affect the virtual world.'
  - Journalism.org. 'The Project for Excellence in Journalism is an initiative by journalists to clarify and raise the standards of American journalism.'
  - ElectionLine.org. 'the nation?s only non-partisan, non-advocacy website providing up-to-the-minute news and analysis on election reform.'
- PublicAgenda.org. "A nonpartisan opinion research organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues since 1975."
- Reason.com. "Reason provides a refreshing alternative to right-wing and left-wing opinion magazines by making a principled case for liberty and individual choice in all areas of human activity."
  - The Great Gun Fight. Article looking at the issues from opposing sides.
- RedVsBlue.com.
- TheocracyWatch.org. "The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party"
- TomPaine.com. 'a public interest journal inspired by the great patriot Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense and The Rights of Man. Paine was a man of humble origins and modest education, but he became a writer of extraordinary skill and passion. He used his talent to advance the cause of liberty and democracy against distant and unaccountable rulers. '
- TruthOut.org
- Wikipedia.org
  - 'Politics is the process and method of decision-making for groups of human beings. Although it is generally applied to governments, politics is also observed in all human group interactions including corporate, academic, and religious. Political science is the study of political behavior and examines the acquisition and application of power, i.e. the ability to impose one's will on another.'
  - 'Political Philosophy is the study of the fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, property, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it should take and why, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe to a legitimate government, if any, and when it may be legitimately overthrown - if ever. Two key aspects are the political economy by which property rights are defined and access to capital is regulated, and the rules of truth and evidence that determine judgments in the law. Each theory of criminal justice is derived in part from some such view of these.'
  - Forms of Government (Political Systems)
    - 'Aristocracy is a form of government in which rulership is in the hands of an "upper class" known as aristocrats. (The Greek origins of the word aristocracy imply the meaning of "rule by the best".). This inevitably means those with the power to hold wealth, and to define who shall remain in poverty and slavery.'
    - 'Autocracy is a form of government where absolute power is held by a single individual. An emperor may rise to power due to hereditary lines, but is referred to as an autocrat rather than a monarch when his power overshadows his bloodline. It is a type of government historically found in the Eastern world; in the West a primary example is that of Russia, where the sovereign assumed, as a title, Autocrat of all the Russias. The term can also refer to a country that is ruled in this manner. In comparison, an oligarchy is a form of government where power is held by multiple people (yet still a small segment of society).'
    - 'A democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies with the voting citizenry (referred to as "the people", because in modern times it usually consists of all people over 18 years of age), and all decisions are made either by the people themselves or by representatives who act through the consent of the people, as enforced by elections and the rule of law. In some cases, democracy is associated with nominal monarchy where the monarch has sharply limited powers, but it is more commonly associated with a republic.'
      - 'A republic is a form of government (and a state so governed) where the head of state is not a monarch. The word is derived from the Latin res publica, or "public affair", and suggests an ownership and control of the state by the population at large. The concept of democracy, however, is not implicit to that of a republic. The republican form of government may involve a limited democracy, where such rights are available only to a limited group of people. In some cases, a republic may be a dictatorial or totalitarian state. The term is also broad enough to include representative democracies.'
    - 'Despotism is government by a singular authority, either a single person or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute power. The word implies tyrannical rule; it suggests a form of government which exercises exacting and near-absolute control over all of its citizens.'
    - 'A monarchy, (from the Greek "monos archein", meaning "one ruler") is a form of government that has a monarch as Head of State. The distinguishing characteristic of monarchies is that the Head of State holds his office for life, unlike in republics, where presidents are generally elected for a certain amount of time. The term monarchy is also used to refer to the people and institutions that make up the royal establishment, or to the realm in which the monarchy functions.
    - 'Oligarchy is a form of government where most political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence). The word oligarchy is from the Greek for "few" and "rule". Some political theorists have argued that all societies are inevitably oligarchies no matter the supposed political system.'
    - 'A plutocracy is a government system where wealth is the principal basis of power (from the Greek ploutos meaning wealth).'
    - 'Theocracy is a form of government in which the governmental rulers are identical with the leaders of the dominant religion.'
- You Decide. An interesting part of a California NPR station that let's you vote on an issue multiple times, but depending on your vote it presents you with specific arguments to make sure you see other sides of the issue. A very creative and interesting way to educate people about the issues. The question then is whether you trust that the radio station is sufficiently neutral, honest, informed, and insightful about the issues.

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