Tell me about Politics

Here I admit I am an idiot when it comes to politics. It's something I've been meaning to learn about for a while. The few times I've tried to look up some basic terms online, it gets into a lengthy discussion, a one-sided argument. It assumes that you already know what a 'liberal' is, so it doesn't bother giving a basic definition and starts elaborating on something like the deeper meaning behind the liberal viewpoint. So it's been difficult for me to figure these things out. For my age (21) this lack of knowledge is embarrassing.

I want to know, at a very basic level at first, what some basic terms mean. Liberal, democrat, republican, etc. And maybe some other random terms to do with politics or government, like 'free market', 'capitalism', etc. Or, how a process basically works, basic political history, how the taxing process works, etc. It would be difficult to get too basic with me. And politics specific to the US are okay too.

I realize this is something I won't learn completely about on this forum. I'm just looking for some very basic information, so that I can go on to other websites explaining things in more detail, which assume I already know what the basic terms mean. I'd also love to know more about current political events, but can't at all do that when I can't comprehend the news articles because I don’t know the definitions of the terms they use.

Thanks in advance.

Alright well the first thing that is important to note is that some terms, especially names of political parties, have very little actual meaning or a set definition. For instance, the two major political parties in the US are the Republican party and the Democratic party. A republican is somebody who supports the Republican party and a democrat is somebody who supports the Democratic party, but the names themselves don't really imply any political systems and have no relevance outside the US.

Most western countries (which forms the bulk of countries with a decent political system) are either constitutional monarchies or republics. A constitutional monarchy is a country who's head of state is a monarch (king/queen/etc.) who usually serves as a figurehead. They are pretty much the last vestiges of the Middle Ages in countries that used to have absolute monarchies (all power rests with the king/queen) and are popular in Europe and their colonies. Some examples of constitutional monarchies: UK, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc. A republic was originally a country where the power rested with the people rather than a monarch, these are usually countries that overthrew their monarchy. Some examples of republics: United States, France, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Italy, Mexico, etc.

Both these systems typically employ representative democracy. Since there are too many people in a country for everybody to vote on every issue (which would be a true or direct democracy), we break down the country into regions and elect people to represent us at a collective assembly. These elected officials are supposed to fight for the interests of the citizens in their political riding. There are many different ways of doing this, that's why some countries have presidents or prime ministers (or both) and other terms. This gets a little complicated and changes from country to country but the main point is that you elect somebody that represents your entire area and all its people at a specific government level (whether it be national, provincial/state, etc.)

Another popular term is a federation, a federation is a large body that unites many smaller "independent" entities under one country and a federal government. The United States is a good example, there are 50 autonomous states with their own state government united under the federal government. The federal government only has so much authority over these states (which unfortunately frequently causes some trouble). Russia and Mexico are other examples of federations. There is also the confederation, which is an even looser collection of sovereign states, like Switzerland.

Then there are all the wonky forms of government like military dictatorships and islamic republics (a theocracy) which are obviously piles of crap...

Now 99% of politics can be easily explained using the old left-wing/right-wing method. Left-wings are described as "liberal" and right-wings are described as "conservative". First you have to separate politics into two parts, social and economical. A socially liberal person will want lots of government social programs (welfare, healthcare, education, public housing, public transportation...) and very "liberal" laws. A social conservative will want the government to have as little social programs as possible so that taxes will be as low as possible, as well as more conservative (which unfortunately often means religious) laws. An economic liberal will want the government to intervene in the economy by modifying interest rates, taxing certain industries and subsidizing companies (or having government owned companies). An economic conservative will want the government to stay out of the economy and let the market play itself out (free market economics). A liberal can be described as a socialist (socialism is a very broad term which could use a thread on its own) and a conservative tends to be a capitalist (someone who wants little government intervention and all ownership in private hands).

There are many different ways to levy taxes. First of all there are different levels of government all looking for taxes. In Canada, that means federal, provincial and municipal governments. The municipal government gets most of its taxes from businesses and property taxes. Both the provincial and federal governments have sales taxes (which are sometimes combined like in BC and Ontario), that's taxes on anything you buy, and income taxes, which are a percentage of your paycheck. The percentage depends on how much you make, there are different tax brackets so that the more money you make, the more you get taxed. This goes from barely anything on a minimum wage salary to roughly 50% if you make +100k/year. There are tons of ways to get tax deductions though, especially if you're a student or if you have dependents (children or other people in your care). The governments also get lots of taxes off of industries and imports/exports.

I will follow up with a post on Canadian politics...

Canada started off as the French colony of New France and was ruled by a representative of the king of France. The English conquered New France in the 18th century and eventually created Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Québec). The Canadian confederation (note that Canada is a federation, when people say the "Canadian Confederation" they mean the moment when everybody got together to create the federation) took place in 1867 and united several British colonies to form the Dominion of Canada, which comprised of the provinces of Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. As a dominion, Canada had autonomy over internal affairs but Britain still handled our foreign affairs (until 1931). One by one, provinces and territories were added until the country looked like it does now.

Canada's head of state is the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II (who is also queen of all the Commonwealth realms). The queen's representative in Canada is the Governor General who is appointed by the queen on advice of the Canadian government. The GG's role is basically formal, they have to sign in every legislation and have some ceremonial positions within the military. They also act as ambassadors and meet foreign diplomats. They also have the power to dissolve the government and force an election.

Canada's government follows a Parliament system similar to the UK. We elect 308 members of Parliament (one per electoral district) in a federal election to serve in the House of Commons. There they debate a ton of issues (often with lots of yelling and childish name calling) and try to pass legislation. The senate (senators are appointed by the GG on advice of the prime minister) passes or rejects the legislation. They rarely reject and are pretty pointless, as well as very overpaid.

There are different political parties in Canada, and each party internally selects a leader (you have to be a party member to get a vote). The party that wins the most seats in an election gains control and its leader becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister then appoints a cabinet from other sitting Members of Parliament in his party for important positions (minister of finance, minister of defense, minister of foreign affairs, etc.) If the winning party gets more seats then all other parties combined, it is called a majority government, and the party will be able to pass any law without opposition because it will always have a majority vote. If it has less seats than all the other parties combined, then it is called a minority government. This is much trickier as the party in control can't do anything it wants and must constantly appease the other parties or they will not pass its legislation. If the other parties refuse to pass something important, like a budget, then there is a vote of no confidence in the minority government which will trigger an election. Canada has had a minority government since 2003.

There are four major political parties. The Conservative party is currently in control with Stephen Harper as its leader and Prime Minister of Canada. The Conservative party is a merger of most of the right-wing political parties that took place in the early 2000s, which is kind of scary because if the left merges also then we'll have a virtual two-party system like in the US which has been really bad for them. Note that right-wing for Canada is much more moderate than right-wing in the US, the Conservatives are doing a decent job especially for a minority government.

The Liberal party is the next biggest party, then comes the NDP (New Democratic Party) and the Bloc Québécois (which is a separatist party representing Québec interests, don't get me started on how stupid this is...) The Green Party is getting pretty big too but they don't yet have a seat in Parliament.

There are also parliaments for every provincial government. Québec's is by far the most complicated due to its complex history. The territories do have a certain autonomy from elected assemblies, but are in theory directly controlled by the federal government.

Big posts, hope they made sense :P.

Elaborating on what Spart said. Terms like 'liberal' 'democrat' 'conservative' and 'republican' have little no meaning as to their original denominations today. The best they are is an extremely broad moniker for an even broader group of people claiming their subjective, conflicting views fit under their own personal label.

Basically, they don't mean anything. And nobody has any idea what the fuck is going on. Don't sweat it.

Thanks a lot Spartiate. That was very concise and well presented. I feel I've learned at least a little now (relative to how much there is to know). I think I'll go to some random posts of yours and give you like 3 more thanks for taking the time to write all of that.

To correct one thing Spartiate said, an economic liberal is the same thing as being a conservative in economics. A person who says they are liberal in this age, usually mean they are socially liberal, and economically socialist. Economic liberalism is the belief in hands off approach to the economy, and promotes low taxes and capitalism. I would ignore the left right stuff at this stage, since it doesn't make sense and people just make stuff up. Instead, decide what you believe on each issue.

As was said before, republicans and democrats are political parties. The reason we have parties is because people got together and decided that they would have more say in government, if they were in a group, instead of being individuals. So often their beliefs don't match up, and there are hundreds of political parties. It is just the two major ones have a lot of control, so people tend to join them. Being a part of a party means you are more likely to be elected.

If you are learning about US government(and if you want to know about politics you need to learn government), you usually start with the three branches of government. The legislative, the executive and the judicial. The legislative is the congress. Which is made up of the senate(elected every 6 years) and the house of representatives(elected every 2 years) . They deal with passing laws. The executive is ran by the president, who's job is to enforce the laws congress passes. So police, the army, the IRS, FBI all fall under the executive branch and ran by the president. Judicial branch are the courts. Which is straight forward.

Keep in mind this is all federal government that I am talking about. States usually have their own governments, which are often very similar to federal government, but on a smaller scale. All the states are different though, and while some are similar to each other, others are unique, so it is difficult to go into each state.

Taxes are made in the same way any law is created. Someone in congress, has to introduce the law and is is voted on. There is a few more steps to this, but for now just know that they vote, and both the senate and house of representatives must both agree on a law. After wards the president needs to sign the law to make it official. If he doesn't then the congress can get around it if they have enough votes, or if they don't then the law will die.

If you are going to learn one thing about government though, you should read the bill of rights. You should really read the entire constitution(it isn't that long), but if you don't, at least read the bill of rights. Since they apply directly to you. They are also the things brought up a lot when discussion politics.

All you need to know about politics may be summed up in two words:

It sucks.