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Pope Clement III
Pope Clement III (; 1130 – 20 March 1191), born Paulino (or Paolo) Scolari, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 December 1187 to his death.
A Roman by birth, Pope Alexander III appointed him in succession archpriest of the patriarchal Liberian Basilica, cardinal-deacon of Sergio e Bacco, and finally cardinal bishop of Palestrina in December 1180.
Shortly after his accession at the conclusion of the papal election of December 1187, Clement succeeded in allaying the conflict which had existed for half a century between the popes and the citizens of Rome, with an agreement by which the citizens were allowed to elect their magistrates, while the nomination of the governor of the city remained in the hands of the pope. On 31 May 1188 he concluded a treaty with the Romans which removed long standing difficulties, thus returning the papacy to Rome.
Clement also inherited a depleted college of cardinals, consisting of no more than twenty cardinals. He orchestrated three series of promotions (March 1188, May 1189 and October 1190) that resulted in over thirty new cardinals.
He pushed King Henry II of England and King Philip II of France to undertake the Third Crusade. In April 1189, Clement made peace with the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa.
He settled a controversy with King William I of Scotland concerning the choice of the archbishop of St Andrews, and on 13 March 1188 removed the Scottish church from the legatine jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York, thus making it independent of all save Rome.
In spite of agreeing to crown Henry VI as Holy Roman Emperor, Clement III angered him by bestowing Sicily on Tancred, son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia. The crisis was acute when the Pope died in the latter part of March 1191.
Attribution: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24100 |
Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V (; c. 1264 – 20 April 1314), born Raymond Bertrand de Got (also occasionally spelled "de Guoth" and "de Goth"), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 5 June 1305 to his death. He is remembered for suppressing the order of the Knights Templar and allowing the execution of many of its members, and as the pope who moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, ushering in the period known as the Avignon Papacy.
He was born in Vilandraut, Aquitaine, the son of Bérard, Lord of Villandraut. Bertrand studied the arts at Toulouse and canon and civil law at Orléans and Bologna. He became canon and sacristan of the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux, then vicar-general to his brother Bérard de Got, the Archbishop of Lyon, who in 1294 was created Cardinal-Bishop of Albano and papal legate to France. He was then made Bishop of St-Bertrand-de-Comminges, the cathedral church of which he was responsible for greatly enlarging and embellishing, and chaplain to Pope Boniface VIII, who made him Archbishop of Bordeaux in 1297.
As Archbishop of Bordeaux, Bertrand de Got was actually a subject of the King of England, but from early youth he had been a personal friend of Philip the Fair.
Following the death of Benedict XI in 1304, there was a year's interregnum occasioned by disputes between the French and Italian cardinals, who were nearly equally balanced in the conclave, which had to be held at Perugia. Bertrand was elected Pope Clement V in June 1305 and crowned on 14 November. Bertrand was neither Italian nor a cardinal, and his election might have been considered a gesture towards neutrality. The contemporary chronicler Giovanni Villani reports gossip that he had bound himself to King Philip IV of France by a formal agreement before his elevation, made at St. Jean d'Angély in Saintonge. Whether this was true or not, it is likely that the future pope had conditions laid down for him by the conclave of cardinals.
At Bordeaux, Bertrand was formally notified of his election and urged to come to Italy, but he selected Lyon for his coronation on 14 November 1305, which was celebrated with magnificence and attended by Philip IV. Among his first acts was the creation of nine French cardinals.
At Clement's coronation, Duke John II of Brittany was leading the Pope's horse through the crowd during the celebrations. So many spectators had piled atop the walls that one of the walls crumbled and collapsed on top of the Duke, who died four days later.
Early in 1306, Clement V explained away those features of the Papal bull "Clericis Laicos" that might seem to apply to the king of France and essentially withdrew "Unam Sanctam", the bull of Boniface VIII that asserted papal supremacy over secular rulers and threatened Philip's political plans, a radical change in papal policy.
On Friday, 13 October 1307, hundreds of the Knights Templar were arrested in France, an action apparently motivated financially and undertaken by the efficient royal bureaucracy to increase the prestige of the crown. Philip IV was the force behind this move, but it has also embellished the historical reputation of Clement V. From the very day of Clement V's coronation, the king charged the Templars with usury, credit inflation, fraud, heresy, sodomy, immorality, and abuses, and the scruples of the Pope were heightened by a growing sense that the burgeoning French State might not wait for the Church, but would proceed independently.
Meanwhile, Philip IV's lawyers pressed to reopen Guillaume de Nogaret's charges of heresy against the late Boniface VIII that had circulated in the pamphlet war around the bull "Unam sanctam". Clement V had to yield to pressures for this extraordinary trial, begun on 2 February 1309 at Avignon, which dragged on for two years. In the document that called for witnesses, Clement V expressed both his personal conviction of the innocence of Boniface VIII and his resolution to satisfy the king. Finally, in February 1311, Philip IV wrote to Clement V abandoning the process to the future Council of Vienne. For his part, Clement V absolved all the participants in the abduction of Boniface at Anagni.
In pursuance of the king's wishes, Clement V in 1311 summoned the Council of Vienne, which refused to convict the Templars of heresy. The Pope abolished the order anyway, as the Templars seemed to be in bad repute and had outlived their usefulness as papal bankers and protectors of pilgrims in the East. Their French estates were granted to the Knights Hospitallers, but Philip IV held them until his death and expropriated the Templars' bank outright.
False charges of heresy and sodomy set aside, the guilt or innocence of the Templars is one of the more difficult historical problems, partly because of the atmosphere of hysteria that had built up in the preceding generation (marked by habitually intemperate language and extravagant denunciations exchanged between temporal rulers and churchmen), partly because the subject has been embraced by conspiracy theorists and quasi-historians.
Clement sent John of Montecorvino to Beijing to preach in China.
Clement engaged intermittently in communications with the Mongol Empire towards the possibility of creating a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Muslims. In April 1305, the Mongol Ilkhan ruler Oljeitu sent an embassy led by Buscarello de Ghizolfi to Clement, Philip IV of France, and Edward I of England. In 1307, another Mongol embassy led by Tommaso Ugi di Siena reached European monarchs. However, no coordinated military action was forthcoming and hopes of alliance petered out within a few years.
In 1308, Clement ordered the preaching of a crusade to be launched against the Mamluks in the Holy Land in the spring of 1309. This resulted in the unwanted Crusade of the Poor appearing before Avignon in July 1309. Clement granted the poor crusaders an indulgence, but refused to let them participate in the professional expedition led by the Hospitallers. That expedition set off in early 1310, but instead of sailing for the Holy Land, the Hospitallers conquered the city of Rhodes from the Byzantines.
On 4 April 1312, a Crusade was promulgated by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne. Another embassy was sent by Oljeitu to the West and to Edward II of England in 1313. The same year, Philip IV "took the cross", making the vow to go on a Crusade in the Levant.
In March 1309, the entire papal court moved from Poitiers (where it had remained for 4 years) to the Comtat Venaissin, around the city of Avignon (which was not then part of France, but technically part of the Kingdom of Arles within the Holy Roman Empire, since 1290 held as an imperial fief
by the king of Naples).
This move, actually to Carpentras, the capital of the territory, was justified at the time by French apologists on grounds of security, since Rome, where the dissensions of the Roman aristocrats and their armed militia had reached a nadir and the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano had been destroyed in a fire, was unstable and dangerous. But the decision proved the precursor of the long Avignon Papacy, the "Babylonian captivity" (1309–77), in Petrarch's phrase.
Clement V's pontificate was also a disastrous time for Italy. The Papal States were entrusted to a team of three cardinals, but Rome, the battleground of the Colonna and Orsini factions, was ungovernable. In 1310, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII entered Italy, established the Visconti as vicars in Milan, and was crowned by Clement V's legates in Rome in 1312 before he died near Siena in 1313.
In Ferrara, which was taken into the Papal states to the exclusion of the Este family, papal armies clashed with Venice and their populace. When excommunication and interdict failed to have their intended effect, Clement V preached a crusade against the Venetians in May 1309, declaring that Venetians captured abroad might be sold into slavery, like non-Christians.
Other remarkable incidents of Clement V's reign include his violent repression of the Dulcinian movement in Lombardy, which he considered a heresy, and his promulgation of the Clementine Constitutions in 1313.
Clement died on 20 April 1314. According to one account, while his body was lying in state, a thunderstorm arose during the night and lightning struck the church where his body lay, setting it on fire. The fire was so intense that by the time it was extinguished, the Pope's body had been all but destroyed. He was buried at the collegiate church in Uzeste close to his birthplace in Villandraut as laid down in his will. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24102 |
Pope Clement VI
Pope Clement VI (; 1291 – 6 December 1352), born Pierre Roger, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death in 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Black Death (1348–1350), during which he granted remission of sins to all who died of the plague.
Roger steadfastly resisted temporal encroachments on the Church's ecclesiastical jurisdiction and, as
Clement VI, entrenched French dominance of the Church and opened its coffers to enhance the regal splendour of the Papacy. He recruited composers and music theorists for his court, including figures associated with the then-innovative Ars Nova style of France and the Low Countries. His nepotism was ultimately reflected in the 44 statues of relatives which surrounded his sarcophagus.
Pierre Roger (also spelled Rogier and Rosiers) was born in the château of Maumont, today part of the commune of Rosiers-d'Égletons, Corrèze, in Limousin, France, the son of the lord of Maumont-Rosiers-d'Égletons. He had an elder brother, Guillaume, who married three times and had thirteen children; and a younger brother, Hugues, who became Cardinal Priest of S. Lorenzo in Damaso and who could have become pope in 1362. Pierre also had two sisters: Delphine, who married Jacques de Besse; and Alienor, who married Jacques de la Jugie. His brother Guillaume became Seigneur de Chambon, thanks to his wife's dowry, and, with the benefit of his papal brother's influence on King Philip VI, became Vicomte de Beaufort.
Roger entered the Benedictine order as a boy in 1301, at the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu in the diocese of Clermont in the Auvergne. After six years there, he was directed to higher studies by the Bishop of Le Puy, Jean de Cumenis, and his own abbot, Hugues d'Arc. In 1307 he took up studies in Paris at the College de Sorbonne, where he entered the Collège de Narbonne. To support him, beyond what was supplied by his bishop and his abbot, he was granted the post of Prior of St. Pantaléon in the diocese of Limoges. In the summer of 1323, after Pierre had been studying both theology and canon law in Paris for sixteen years, the Chancellor of Paris was ordered by Pope John XXII, on the recommendation of King Charles IV, to confer on him the doctorate in Theology, a chair, and a license to teach. Pierre was in his thirty-first year. He lectured publicly on the "Sententiae" of Peter Lombard, and defended and promoted the works of Thomas Aquinas. He was appalled by the "Defensor Pacis" of Marsilius of Padua, and wrote a treatise in 1325 condemning its principles and defending Pope John XXII.
He was granted the priory of St. Baudil, a dependency of the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu, on 24 April 1324, at the personal order of Pope John XXII; and then, on 23 June 1326, he was named Abbot of Fécamp, a royal abbey and one of the most important monasteries in France. He held the position until 1329.
Pierre Roger was called to Avignon through the influence of his friend and protector, Cardinal Pierre de Mortemart (who was named a cardinal on 18 December 1327), both of whom were close to King Charles IV. Unfortunately, King Charles IV died on 1 February 1328, the last Capetian king of France in the direct line.
As Abbot of Fécamp, and therefore a feudal subject of Edward III, Pierre was assigned the task in 1328 of summoning Edward III of England to pay homage to Philip VI of France for the duchy of Aquitaine. He received no reply, however, from King Edward, and was forced to return to France, his mission unaccomplished.
On 3 December 1328 Peter Roger was named Bishop of Arras, in which capacity he became a royal councilor of King Philip VI. He held the diocese of Arras only until 24 November 1329, less than a year, when he was promoted to the Archdiocese of Sens. He held the Archbishopric of Sens for one year and one month, until his promotion to the See of Rouen on 14 December 1330.
In 1329, while Pierre Roger was still Archbishop-elect of Sens, a major assembly of the French Clergy was held at Vincennes in the presence of King Philip VI (1328–1350), to deal with issues involving the judicial powers of ecclesiastical authorities. Many propositions were put forward against ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which were ably argued by Pierre de Cugnières (Petrus de Cugneriis). Pierre Roger made the rejoinders on 22 December 1329, on behalf of the ecclesiastical authority.
When Pierre Roger became Archbishop of Rouen in December 1330, he was expected to swear allegiance to his feudal overlord. King Philip VI had recently given his son Jean the Dukedom of Normandy as an apanage, and Pierre was worried about what might happen if someone other than a member of the French royal family might become Duke of Normandy. He therefore asked the King for time to consider his position, but the King was firm and seized the temporalities of the Archbishop. Pierre was forced to go to Paris, where an agreement was worked out that, should someone other than a member of the royal family become Duke, then the Archbishop would swear fealty directly to the King.
As Archbishop of Rouen, Roger was one of the Peers of France and he was a member of the embassy sent by King Philip his son John, in 1333, to swear in their name to take the cross and serve in a crusade in the Holy Land. Later in the year, in Paris in the Prés des Clercs, the King received the cross personally from the hands of Archbishop Roger.
It is said that he was promoted to the office of Chancellor of France, though there is no documentary proof. The earliest claim that he was Chancellor is made by Alfonso Chacon (Ciaconius) (1530–1599).
In 1333, the issue of the Beatific Vision, which had been under discussion since a sermon of Pope John XXII in 1329, reached a serious stage. The French Royal Court had been hearing complaints from various quarters, and the King and Queen finally decided to seek competent advice. The Pope knew that the University of Paris was hostile to his ideas, and so he sent Gerard Odonis, the Minister General of the Franciscans, and a Dominican preacher, to Paris to preach the Pope's views in public. King Philip responded to the general indignation by summoning the Masters of Theology of the University to Vincennes just before Christmas 1334, where it appeared that there was general agreement against the Pope. The King privately informed the Pope of their opinions, but the Pope harshly responded to the King that he should stop favoring an opinion which the Pope had not yet definitively settled. The Pope ordered the Archbishop of Rouen, Pierre Roger, to set the Pope's view down in writing and explain it to the King. Ironically, Pierre Roger was not on the Pope's side of the argument. A committee, which included Archbishop Roger, the theologian Pierre de la Palud (Petrus Paludensis), the Chancellor of France Guillaume de Sainte-Maure, the Archdeacon of Rouen Jean de Polenciac, and others, attempted to talk the Pope out of his notions. Early in 1334 Pope John XXII informed the King that he had ordered the Cardinals and prelates and Doctors of theology and of Canon Law at the Papal Court to look into the propositions thoroughly and report to him their findings. John XXII was attempting to save face by placing the matter in the hands of a committee, but in the end, on his deathbed, he was compelled to repudiate his opinions, which were formally condemned by his successor, Benedict XII.
On 14 April 1335, Pierre Roger's friend and patron, Cardinal Pierre de Mortemart died, naming Pierre Roger as one of the executors of his Testament.
In September 1335 Archbishop Roger held a provincial council at Rouen in the Priory of Nôtre-Dame-du Pré (later called Bonne-nouvelle). Two of his bishops were present, the other four were represented by procurators. The cathedral chapters of the province and the abbots of monasteries were invited as well. The council issued a dozen canons, urging the lower clergy to be diligent in their assigned duties. The most notable item was the encouragement given to bishops to facilitate the business of those who wished to join the King on crusade.
Pierre Roger was created a Cardinal Priest by Pope Benedict XII (1334–1342) on 18 December 1338, in his only Consistory for the creation of cardinals. He created six new cardinals: four were fellow monks (two Benedictines, a Cistercian, and a Mercedarian); one was from Rimini, the rest from southern France. Four were lawyers, two were theologians. One died before he received the red hat, and was replaced by another candidate. Pierre Roger entered the Curia in Avignon for the first time on 5 May 1339, and received the "titulus" of Santi Nereo e Achilleo.
Cardinal Napoleone Orsini died during Lent of 1342, on 23 March. The funeral took place on Monday in Holy Week in the Franciscan church in Avignon, and the funeral sermon was preached by Cardinal Pierre Roger. A month later, on 25 April 1342, Pope Benedict XII died in the Papal Palace in Avignon. King Philip VI immediately sent his eldest son, Prince John, to press the candidacy of Pierre Roger, but he arrived too late to have any effect. Eighteen of the nineteen cardinals assembled for the Conclave to elect his successor. Fourteen were French, three were Italian, one was Spanish. Only Cardinal Bertrand de Montfavez, who was ill with podagra (gout), was unable to attend. The Conclave began on Sunday, 5 May 1342, and on the morning of Tuesday, 7 May, agreement was reached. Two cardinals wrote to King Edward III of England on 8 May that the election had been accomplished "with no preliminary politicking and with only Divine Inspiration." Cardinal Pierre Roger was chosen to succeed Benedict XII as pope. He was crowned on Pentecost Sunday, 19 May, in the church of the Dominicans, the largest church in Avignon. Present were Prince John of France, Duke of Normandy; Jacques, Duke of Burgundy, Imbert, Dauphin of Vienne, and many others. Cardinal Roger chose the regnal name Clement VI.
During the season of Pentecost immediately following his coronation, as Peter de Herenthal writes, when a new Pope customarily gratifies the expectations of his family, his followers, his supporters, his cardinals, and the Roman Curia, Pope Clement promised gifts to every cleric who presented himself at Avignon within two months. Such a multitude of poor clerics appeared in Avignon that a computation was made that the number of poor clerics in all the dioceses of the world was around 100,000, a number which Peter de Herenthal was quite prepared to accept. When Clement VI, at the very beginning of his pontificate was making reservations of abbacies and prelatures, and declaring elections in monasteries and Chapters void, in order to acquire benefices for papal use in granting favors, it was intimated to him that his predecessors had not engaged in reservations of such a sort. Clement is said to have replied, "Our predecessors did not know how to be pope."
One of the greatest ways in which a Pope can reward his supporters is to raise them to the Cardinalate. On 20 September 1342, four months after his coronation, Clement VI held a Consistory for the creation of cardinals. He appointed ten prelates, including three nephews, Hugues Roger, Ademar Roberti and Bernard de la Tour d'Auvergne. He also elevated Guy de Boulogne, Archbishop of Lyon, the son of Robert VII, Comte d' Auvergne et de Boulogne, and Gerard de Daumar de la Garde of Tulle, the Master-General of the Dominicans and a papal cousin, who died a year after his creation, on 27 September 1343. Five of his appointments were from his own native area of Limoges and one from Périgueux. Only one was Italian, Andrea Ghini Malpighi, a Florentine, who died on 2 June 1343. The College of Cardinals was now thoroughly French, with a strong accent of the Auvergne.
On 19 May 1344 the two new cardinals who had died were replaced by two more Frenchmen: the Provençal Pierre Bertrand, the nephew of Cardinal Pierre Bertrand; and Nicolas de Besse, yet another papal nephew.
Like his immediate predecessors, Clement was devoted to France, and he demonstrated his French sympathies by refusing a solemn invitation to return to Rome from the city's people, as well as from the poet Petrarch. To placate the Romans, however, Clement VI issued the bull "Unigenitus Dei filius" on 27 January 1343, reducing the interval between one Great Jubilee and the next from 100 years to 50 years. In the document he elaborated for the first time the power of the pope in the use of indulgences. This document would later be used by Cardinal Cajetan in the examination of Martin Luther and his 95 Theses in his trial at Augsburg in 1518. By then, "Unigenitus" was firmly fixed in Canon Law, having been added in the collection called "Extravagantes".
On 23 February 1343 Pope Clement appointed Pons Saturninus as his "Provisor of Works of the Palace", thereby beginning a program of construction and decoration that continued throughout his reign. It was immediately clear that the Pope had no intention of returning to Rome, and that he intended to provide offices and quarters for the various organs of the Roman Curia in the Palace. Pope Benedict XII, his predecessor, had built a palace, sufficiently accommodating for a Cistercian monk, but Pierre Roger had spent much of his career at the French Court and had imbibed its tastes for far greater display and ceremony. The Pope was, after all, a sovereign, and Clement intended to live and work in an appropriate state. He commissioned the new Tower of the Garde-Robe, the Audience (for the Auditors of the Rota), the new Papal Chapel and the grand staircase that led to it, and the Tour de la Gache (where the "Audientia contradictarum", the appellate court for countersuits, had its offices). He was also responsible for the two new entrance façades.
He also purchased the sovereignty of Avignon from Queen Joan I of Naples in 1348 for the sum of 80,000 crowns.
Clement VI was on the papal throne when the Black Death first struck Europe in 1347. This pandemic swept through Asia and the Middle East and into Europe between 1347 and 1350, and is believed to have killed between a third and two-thirds of Europe's population. During the plague, Clement attributed the plague to divine wrath. But he also sought the opinions of astrologers for an explanation. Johannes de Muris was among the team "of three who drew up a treatise explaining the plague of 1348 by the conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in 1341" Clement VI's physicians advised him that surrounding himself with torches would block the plague. However, he soon became skeptical of this recommendation and stayed in Avignon supervising sick care, burials, and the pastoral care of the dying. He never contracted the disease, even though there was so much death around him that the cities ran out of ground for cemeteries, and he had to consecrate the entire Rhone River so that it could be considered holy ground and bodies could be thrown into it. One of Pope Clement's physicians, Gui de Chauliac, later wrote a book called the "Chirurgia magna" (1363), in which he correctly distinguished between bubonic and pneumonic plague, based on his own observations of his patients and himself.
Perhaps feeling the pressure of mortality, having lost no fewer than six cardinals in the year 1348 alone, Pope Clement VI named a new cardinal on 29 May 1348, his nephew and namesake, Pierre Roger de Beaufort, who was not yet eighteen years old. On 17 December 1350, he added twelve more cardinals, nine of them French and only three from Limoges, including two relatives, Guillaume d'Aigrefeuille and Pierre de Cros.
Popular opinion blamed the Jews for the plague, and pogroms erupted throughout Europe. Clement issued two papal bulls in 1348 (6 July and 26 September), the latter named "Quamvis Perfidiam", which condemned the violence and said those who blamed the plague on the Jews had been "seduced by that liar, the Devil." He went on to emphasise that “It cannot be true that the Jews, by such a heinous crime, are the cause or occasion of the plague, because through many parts of the world the same plague, by the hidden judgment of God, has afflicted and afflicts the Jews themselves and many other races who have never lived alongside them.” He urged clergy to take action to protect Jews as he had done.
Clement continued the struggle of his predecessors with Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV. On 13 April 1346, after protracted negotiations, he excommunicated the Emperor, and directed the election of Charles IV. After the death of Louis in October 1347 Charles received general recognition, ending the schism which had long divided Germany.
Clement proclaimed a crusade in 1343, but nothing was accomplished beyond a naval attack on Smyrna on 29 October 1344. He also had a role in the Hungarian invasion of the Kingdom of Naples, namely a papal fief; the contest between Louis I of Hungary and Joanna I of Naples, accused of ordering the assassination of her husband and the former's brother, concluded in 1348 in a trial held in Avignon, at which she was acquitted. Among the other benefits, Clement took advantage of the situation to obtain by her the rights over the city of Avignon.
Pope Clement was also involved in disputes with King Edward III of England as a result of the latter's encroachments on ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He also faced problems with the kings of Castile and Aragon. His negotiations for reunion with the Armenians and the Byzantine emperor, John VI Kantakouzenos turned out to be fruitless.
In Italy the Papacy faced a serious challenge to its authority with the commencement of Cola di Rienzo's agitation in Rome. Pope Clement had appointed Cola to a civil position (Senator) at Rome, and, although at first approving of Rienzo's establishment of the tribunate, he later realized the implications of a permanent antagonist to papal government in the form of a popularly elected Tribune, and sent a Papal Legate who excommunicated Rienzo and, with the help of the aristocratic faction, drove him from the city in December 1347.
Clement also had warned King Casimir III of Poland, who was already under an interdict laid against him by the Bishop of Kraków and the Apostolic See, because the King had oppressed the Church of Kraków with intolerable burdens and then harassed the clergy who observed the interdict, that he was attracting more severe penalties to himself. In 1345 the Pope sent a nuncio to King Casimir and King John of Bohemia, soliciting them to make peace between themselves, and threatening that, if they turned deaf ears to his pleas, he would anathematize them and bar them from the sacraments.
Responding to numerous complaints against the highhanded behavior of the Archbishop of Mainz, Prague's Metropolitan, Clement made Prague an archbishopric on 30 April 1344, and assigned the Bishopric of Olmouc as its suffragan. The Archbishop of Prague acquired the right to crown the King of Bohemia.
Unlike the Cistercian Benedict XII, the Benedictine Clement VI was devoted to an openhanded and generous lifestyle, and the treasury which he inherited from his predecessor made that lifestyle possible. He claimed to have "lived as a sinner among sinners" in his own words. During his pontificate, he added a new chapel to the Papal Palace and dedicated it to St. Peter. He commissioned the artist Matteo Giovanetti of Viterbo to paint common hunting and fishing scenes on the walls of the existing papal chapels, and purchased enormous tapestries to decorate the stone walls. To bring good music to the celebrations, he recruited musicians from northern France, especially from Liège, who cultivated the Ars Nova style. He liked music so much that he kept composers and theorists close to him throughout his entire pontificate, Philippe de Vitry being among the more famous. The first two payments he made after his coronation were to musicians.
Clement had been ill for some time in 1352, not just with kidney stones, which had troubled him for many years, but also with a tumor, which broke out into an abscess with fever during his last week. Pope Clement VI died on 6 December 1352, in the eleventh year of his reign. After his death, his Almoner, Pierre de Froideville, distributed the sum of 400 livres to the poor of Avignon, and on the day of the solemn funeral another 40 livres were distributed during the procession to the Cathedral to the poor who were present. Clement left the reputation of "a fine gentleman, a prince munificent to profusion, a patron of the arts and learning, but no saint". His body was placed on exhibit in the Notre Dame-des-Doms, where it was buried temporarily. Three months later the body was transferred in a splendid procession to the abbey of La Chaise-Dieu, passing through Le Puy on 6 April. On arrival, the coffin was placed in the church of the Carmelites. Later in April it was permanently interred in a tomb in the center of the Choir of the Church. The funeral procession was accompanied by his brother Count William Roger of Beaufort, and by the five cardinals who were his family members: Hugues Roger, Guillaume de la Jugié, Nicolas de Besse, Pierre Roger de Beaufort, and Guillaume d' Aigrefeuille. In 1562 the tomb was attacked by the Huguenots and severely damaged, losing the forty-four statues of Clement's relatives which surrounded the sarcophagus. Only the sarcophagus and tomb cover survived, making the present tomb a mere shadow of its former architectural and decorative glory. The tomb cover, in white marble, was made by master sculptor Pierre Roye, and his two assistants Jean de Sanholis and Jean David. The construction of the tomb began in 1346, and was completed in 1351. It cost 3500 florins, to which were added 120 écus d'or, as a gratuity for the master sculptor. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24103 |
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application. They are said to form a peer-to-peer network of nodes.
Peers make a portion of their resources, such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth, directly available to other network participants, without the need for central coordination by servers or stable hosts. Peers are both suppliers and consumers of resources, in contrast to the traditional client-server model in which the consumption and supply of resources is divided. Emerging collaborative P2P systems are going beyond the era of peers doing similar things while sharing resources, and are looking for diverse peers that can bring in unique resources and capabilities to a virtual community thereby empowering it to engage in greater tasks beyond those that can be accomplished by individual peers, yet that are beneficial to all the peers.
While P2P systems had previously been used in many application domains, the architecture was popularized by the file sharing system Napster, originally released in 1999. The concept has inspired new structures and philosophies in many areas of human interaction. In such social contexts, peer-to-peer as a meme refers to the egalitarian social networking that has emerged throughout society, enabled by Internet technologies in general.
While P2P systems had previously been used in many application domains, the concept was popularized by file sharing systems such as the music-sharing application Napster (originally released in 1999). The peer-to-peer movement allowed millions of Internet users to connect "directly, forming groups and collaborating to become user-created search engines, virtual supercomputers, and filesystems." The basic concept of peer-to-peer computing was envisioned in earlier software systems and networking discussions, reaching back to principles stated in the first Request for Comments, RFC 1.
Tim Berners-Lee's vision for the World Wide Web was close to a P2P network in that it assumed each user of the web would be an active editor and contributor, creating and linking content to form an interlinked "web" of links. The early Internet was more open than present day, where two machines connected to the Internet could send packets to each other without firewalls and other security measures. This contrasts to the broadcasting-like structure of the web as it has developed over the years. As a precursor to the Internet, ARPANET was a successful client-server network where "every participating node could request and serve content." However, ARPANET was not self-organized, and it lacked the ability to "provide any means for context or content-based routing beyond 'simple' address-based routing."
Therefore, USENET, a distributed messaging system that is often described as an early peer-to-peer architecture, was established. It was developed in 1979 as a system that enforces a decentralized model of control. The basic model is a client-server model from the user or client perspective that offers a self-organizing approach to newsgroup servers. However, news servers communicate with one another as peers to propagate Usenet news articles over the entire group of network servers. The same consideration applies to SMTP email in the sense that the core email-relaying network of mail transfer agents has a peer-to-peer character, while the periphery of e-mail clients and their direct connections is strictly a client-server relationship.
In May 1999, with millions more people on the Internet, Shawn Fanning introduced the music and file-sharing application called Napster. Napster was the beginning of peer-to-peer networks, as we know them today, where "participating users establish a virtual network, entirely independent from the physical network, without having to obey any administrative authorities or restrictions."
A peer-to-peer network is designed around the notion of equal "peer" nodes simultaneously functioning as both "clients" and "servers" to the other nodes on the network. This model of network arrangement differs from the client–server model where communication is usually to and from a central server. A typical example of a file transfer that uses the client-server model is the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) service in which the client and server programs are distinct: the clients initiate the transfer, and the servers satisfy these requests.
Peer-to-peer networks generally implement some form of virtual overlay network on top of the physical network topology, where the nodes in the overlay form a subset of the nodes in the physical network. Data is still exchanged directly over the underlying TCP/IP network, but at the application layer peers are able to communicate with each other directly, via the logical overlay links (each of which corresponds to a path through the underlying physical network). Overlays are used for indexing and peer discovery, and make the P2P system independent from the physical network topology. Based on how the nodes are linked to each other within the overlay network, and how resources are indexed and located, we can classify networks as "unstructured" or "structured" (or as a hybrid between the two).
"Unstructured peer-to-peer networks" do not impose a particular structure on the overlay network by design, but rather are formed by nodes that randomly form connections to each other. (Gnutella, Gossip, and Kazaa are examples of unstructured P2P protocols).
Because there is no structure globally imposed upon them, unstructured networks are easy to build and allow for localized optimizations to different regions of the overlay. Also, because the role of all peers in the network is the same, unstructured networks are highly robust in the face of high rates of "churn"—that is, when large numbers of peers are frequently joining and leaving the network.
However, the primary limitations of unstructured networks also arise from this lack of structure. In particular, when a peer wants to find a desired piece of data in the network, the search query must be flooded through the network to find as many peers as possible that share the data. Flooding causes a very high amount of signaling traffic in the network, uses more CPU/memory (by requiring every peer to process all search queries), and does not ensure that search queries will always be resolved. Furthermore, since there is no correlation between a peer and the content managed by it, there is no guarantee that flooding will find a peer that has the desired data. Popular content is likely to be available at several peers and any peer searching for it is likely to find the same thing. But if a peer is looking for rare data shared by only a few other peers, then it is highly unlikely that search will be successful.
In "structured peer-to-peer networks" the overlay is organized into a specific topology, and the protocol ensures that any node can efficiently search the network for a file/resource, even if the resource is extremely rare.
The most common type of structured P2P networks implement a distributed hash table (DHT), in which a variant of consistent hashing is used to assign ownership of each file to a particular peer. This enables peers to search for resources on the network using a hash table: that is, ("key", "value") pairs are stored in the DHT, and any participating node can efficiently retrieve the value associated with a given key.
However, in order to route traffic efficiently through the network, nodes in a structured overlay must maintain lists of neighbors that satisfy specific criteria. This makes them less robust in networks with a high rate of "churn" (i.e. with large numbers of nodes frequently joining and leaving the network). More recent evaluation of P2P resource discovery solutions under real workloads have pointed out several issues in DHT-based solutions such as high cost of advertising/discovering resources and static and dynamic load imbalance.
Notable distributed networks that use DHTs include Tixati, an alternative to BitTorrent's distributed tracker, the Kad network, the Storm botnet, YaCy, and the Coral Content Distribution Network. Some prominent research projects include the Chord project, Kademlia, PAST storage utility, P-Grid, a self-organized and emerging overlay network, and CoopNet content distribution system. DHT-based networks have also been widely utilized for accomplishing efficient resource discovery for grid computing systems, as it aids in resource management and scheduling of applications.
Hybrid models are a combination of peer-to-peer and client-server models. A common hybrid model is to have a central server that helps peers find each other. Spotify was an example of a hybrid model [until 2014]. There are a variety of hybrid models, all of which make trade-offs between the centralized functionality provided by a structured server/client network and the node equality afforded by the pure peer-to-peer unstructured networks. Currently, hybrid models have better performance than either pure unstructured networks or pure structured networks because certain functions, such as searching, do require a centralized functionality but benefit from the decentralized aggregation of nodes provided by unstructured networks.
CoopNet (Cooperative Networking) was a proposed system for off-loading serving to peers who have recently downloaded content, proposed by computer scientists Venkata N. Padmanabhan and Kunwadee Sripanidkulchai, working at Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University. Basically when a server experiences an increase in load it redirects incoming peers to other peers who have agreed to mirror the content, thus off-loading balance from the server. All of the information is retained at the server. This system makes use of the fact that the bottle-neck is most likely in the outgoing bandwidth than the CPU, hence its server-centric design. It assigns peers to other peers who are 'close in IP' to its neighbors [same prefix range] in an attempt to use locality. If multiple peers are found with the same file it designates that the node choose the fastest of its neighbors. Streaming media is transmitted by having clients cache the previous stream, and then transmit it piece-wise to new nodes.
Peer-to-peer systems pose unique challenges from a computer security perspective.
Like any other form of software, P2P applications can contain vulnerabilities. What makes this particularly dangerous for P2P software, however, is that peer-to-peer applications act as servers as well as clients, meaning that they can be more vulnerable to remote exploits.
Also, since each node plays a role in routing traffic through the network, malicious users can perform a variety of "routing attacks", or denial of service attacks. Examples of common routing attacks include "incorrect lookup routing" whereby malicious nodes deliberately forward requests incorrectly or return false results, "incorrect routing updates" where malicious nodes corrupt the routing tables of neighboring nodes by sending them false information, and "incorrect routing network partition" where when new nodes are joining they bootstrap via a malicious node, which places the new node in a partition of the network that is populated by other malicious nodes.
The prevalence of malware varies between different peer-to-peer protocols. Studies analyzing the spread of malware on P2P networks found, for example, that 63% of the answered download requests on the gnutella network contained some form of malware, whereas only 3% of the content on OpenFT contained malware. In both cases, the top three most common types of malware accounted for the large majority of cases (99% in gnutella, and 65% in OpenFT). Another study analyzing traffic on the Kazaa network found that 15% of the 500,000 file sample taken were infected by one or more of the 365 different computer viruses that were tested for.
Corrupted data can also be distributed on P2P networks by modifying files that are already being shared on the network. For example, on the FastTrack network, the RIAA managed to introduce faked chunks into downloads and downloaded files (mostly MP3 files). Files infected with the RIAA virus were unusable afterwards and contained malicious code. The RIAA is also known to have uploaded fake music and movies to P2P networks in order to deter illegal file sharing. Consequently, the P2P networks of today have seen an enormous increase of their security and file verification mechanisms. Modern hashing, chunk verification and different encryption methods have made most networks resistant to almost any type of attack, even when major parts of the respective network have been replaced by faked or nonfunctional hosts.
The decentralized nature of P2P networks increases robustness because it removes the single point of failure that can be inherent in a client-server based system. As nodes arrive and demand on the system increases, the total capacity of the system also increases, and the likelihood of failure decreases. If one peer on the network fails to function properly, the whole network is not compromised or damaged. In contrast, in a typical client–server architecture, clients share only their demands with the system, but not their resources. In this case, as more clients join the system, fewer resources are available to serve each client, and if the central server fails, the entire network is taken down.
There are both advantages and disadvantages in P2P networks related to the topic of data backup, recovery, and availability. In a centralized network, the system administrators are the only forces controlling the availability of files being shared. If the administrators decide to no longer distribute a file, they simply have to remove it from their servers, and it will no longer be available to users. Along with leaving the users powerless in deciding what is distributed throughout the community, this makes the entire system vulnerable to threats and requests from the government and other large forces. For example, YouTube has been pressured by the RIAA, MPAA, and entertainment industry to filter out copyrighted content. Although server-client networks are able to monitor and manage content availability, they can have more stability in the availability of the content they choose to host. A client should not have trouble accessing obscure content that is being shared on a stable centralized network. P2P networks, however, are more unreliable in sharing unpopular files because sharing files in a P2P network requires that at least one node in the network has the requested data, and that node must be able to connect to the node requesting the data. This requirement is occasionally hard to meet because users may delete or stop sharing data at any point.
In this sense, the community of users in a P2P network is completely responsible for deciding what content is available. Unpopular files will eventually disappear and become unavailable as more people stop sharing them. Popular files, however, will be highly and easily distributed. Popular files on a P2P network actually have more stability and availability than files on central networks. In a centralized network, a simple loss of connection between the server and clients is enough to cause a failure, but in P2P networks, the connections between every node must be lost in order to cause a data sharing failure. In a centralized system, the administrators are responsible for all data recovery and backups, while in P2P systems, each node requires its own backup system. Because of the lack of central authority in P2P networks, forces such as the recording industry, RIAA, MPAA, and the government are unable to delete or stop the sharing of content on P2P systems.
In P2P networks, clients both provide and use resources. This means that unlike client-server systems, the content-serving capacity of peer-to-peer networks can actually "increase" as more users begin to access the content (especially with protocols such as Bittorrent that require users to share, refer a performance measurement study). This property is one of the major advantages of using P2P networks because it makes the setup and running costs very small for the original content distributor.
Many file peer-to-peer file sharing networks, such as Gnutella, G2, and the eDonkey network popularized peer-to-peer technologies.
Peer-to-peer networking involves data transfer from one user to another without using an intermediate server. Companies developing P2P applications have been involved in numerous legal cases, primarily in the United States, over conflicts with copyright law. Two major cases are "Grokster vs RIAA" and "MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.". In the last case, the Court unanimously held that defendant peer-to-peer file sharing companies Grokster and Streamcast could be sued for inducing copyright infringement.
Cooperation among a community of participants is key to the continued success of P2P systems aimed at casual human users; these reach their full potential only when large numbers of nodes contribute resources. But in current practice, P2P networks often contain large numbers of users who utilize resources shared by other nodes, but who do not share anything themselves (often referred to as the "freeloader problem"). Freeloading can have a profound impact on the network and in some cases can cause the community to collapse. In these types of networks "users have natural disincentives to cooperate because cooperation consumes their own resources and may degrade their own performance." Studying the social attributes of P2P networks is challenging due to large populations of turnover, asymmetry of interest and zero-cost identity. A variety of incentive mechanisms have been implemented to encourage or even force nodes to contribute resources.
Some researchers have explored the benefits of enabling virtual communities to self-organize and introduce incentives for resource sharing and cooperation, arguing that the social aspect missing from today's P2P systems should be seen both as a goal and a means for self-organized virtual communities to be built and fostered. Ongoing research efforts for designing effective incentive mechanisms in P2P systems, based on principles from game theory, are beginning to take on a more psychological and information-processing direction.
Some peer-to-peer networks (e.g. Freenet) place a heavy emphasis on privacy and anonymity—that is, ensuring that the contents of communications are hidden from eavesdroppers, and that the identities/locations of the participants are concealed. Public key cryptography can be used to provide encryption, data validation, authorization, and authentication for data/messages. Onion routing and other mix network protocols (e.g. Tarzan) can be used to provide anonymity.
Perpetrators of live streaming sexual abuse and other cybercrimes have used peer-to-peer platforms to carry out activities with anonymity.
Although peer-to-peer networks can be used for legitimate purposes, rights holders have targeted peer-to-peer over the involvement with sharing copyrighted material. Peer-to-peer networking involves data transfer from one user to another without using an intermediate server. Companies developing P2P applications have been involved in numerous legal cases, primarily in the United States, primarily over issues surrounding copyright law. Two major cases are "Grokster vs RIAA" and "MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd." In both of the cases the file sharing technology was ruled to be legal as long as the developers had no ability to prevent the sharing of the copyrighted material. To establish criminal liability for the copyright infringement on peer-to-peer systems, the government must prove that the defendant infringed a copyright willingly for the purpose of personal financial gain or commercial advantage. Fair use exceptions allow limited use of copyrighted material to be downloaded without acquiring permission from the rights holders. These documents are usually news reporting or under the lines of research and scholarly work. Controversies have developed over the concern of illegitimate use of peer-to-peer networks regarding public safety and national security. When a file is downloaded through a peer-to-peer network, it is impossible to know who created the file or what users are connected to the network at a given time. Trustworthiness of sources is a potential security threat that can be seen with peer-to-peer systems.
A study ordered by the European Union found that illegal downloading "may" lead to an increase in overall video game sales because newer games charge for extra features or levels. The paper concluded that piracy had a negative financial impact on movies, music, and literature. The study relied on self-reported data about game purchases and use of illegal download sites. Pains were taken to remove effects of false and misremembered responses.
Peer-to-peer applications present one of the core issues in the network neutrality controversy. Internet service providers (ISPs) have been known to throttle P2P file-sharing traffic due to its high-bandwidth usage. Compared to Web browsing, e-mail or many other uses of the internet, where data is only transferred in short intervals and relative small quantities, P2P file-sharing often consists of relatively heavy bandwidth usage due to ongoing file transfers and swarm/network coordination packets. In October 2007, Comcast, one of the largest broadband Internet providers in the United States, started blocking P2P applications such as BitTorrent. Their rationale was that P2P is mostly used to share illegal content, and their infrastructure is not designed for continuous, high-bandwidth traffic. Critics point out that P2P networking has legitimate legal uses, and that this is another way that large providers are trying to control use and content on the Internet, and direct people towards a client-server-based application architecture. The client-server model provides financial barriers-to-entry to small publishers and individuals, and can be less efficient for sharing large files. As a reaction to this bandwidth throttling, several P2P applications started implementing protocol obfuscation, such as the BitTorrent protocol encryption. Techniques for achieving "protocol obfuscation" involves removing otherwise easily identifiable properties of protocols, such as deterministic byte sequences and packet sizes, by making the data look as if it were random. The ISP's solution to the high bandwidth is P2P caching, where an ISP stores the part of files most accessed by P2P clients in order to save access to the Internet.
Researchers have used computer simulations to aid in understanding and evaluating the complex behaviors of individuals within the network. "Networking research often relies on simulation in order to test and evaluate new ideas. An important requirement of this process is that results must be reproducible so that other researchers can replicate, validate, and extend existing work." If the research cannot be reproduced, then the opportunity for further research is hindered. "Even though new simulators continue to be released, the research community tends towards only a handful of open-source simulators. The demand for features in simulators, as shown by our criteria and survey, is high. Therefore, the community should work together to get these features in open-source software. This would reduce the need for custom simulators, and hence increase repeatability and reputability of experiments."
Besides all the above stated facts, there have been work done on ns-2 open source network simulator. One research issue related to free rider detection and punishment has been explored using ns-2 simulator here. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24107 |
Prime minister
A prime minister is the head of a cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state of their respective state nor a monarch, rather they are the head of government, serving typically under a monarch in a hybrid of aristocratic and democratic government forms or a president in a republican form of government.
In parliamentary systems fashioned after the Westminster system, the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of government and head of the executive branch. In such systems, the head of state or their official representative (e.g., monarch, president, governor-general) usually holds a largely ceremonial position, although often with reserve powers.
In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime minister is the presiding member and chairman of the cabinet. In a minority of systems, notably in semi-presidential systems of government, a prime minister is the official who is appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of the head of state.
The prime minister is often, but not always, a member of the Legislature or the Lower House thereof and is expected with other ministers to ensure the passage of bills through the legislature. In some monarchies the monarch may also exercise executive powers (known as the royal prerogative) that are constitutionally vested in the crown and may be exercised without the approval of parliament.
As well as being head of government, being prime minister may require holding other roles or posts—the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, for example, is also First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. In some cases, prime ministers may choose to hold additional ministerial posts (e.g. when its portfolio is critical to that government’s mandate at the time): during the Second World War, Winston Churchill was also Minister of Defence (although there was then no Ministry of Defence at the time). Another example is the Thirty-fourth government of Israel , when Benjamin Netanyahu at one point served as the Prime Minister and those of Communications, Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation, Economy, Defense and Interior.
The term "prime minister" in its French form, "premier ministre", is attested in 17th Century sources referring to Cardinal Richelieu after he was named to head the royal council in 1624. The title was however informal and used alongside the equally informal "principal ministre d'État" ("chief minister of the state") more as a job description. After 1661, Louis XIV and his descendants refused to allow one of their ministers to be more important than the others, so the term was not in use.
The term "prime minister" in the current sense originated in the 18th century in the United Kingdom when members of parliament disparagingly used the title in reference to Sir Robert Walpole (whose official title was First Lord of the Treasury). During the whole of the 18th Century, Britain was involved in a prolonged conflict with France, periodically bursting into all-out war, and Britons took outspoken pride in their "Liberty" as contrasted to the "Tyranny" of French Absolute Monarchy; therefore, being implicitly compared with Richelieu was no compliment to Walpole. Over time, however, the title became honorific and remains so in the 21st century.
The monarchs of England and the United Kingdom had ministers in whom they placed special trust and who were regarded as the head of the government. Examples were Thomas Cromwell under Henry VIII; William Cecil, Lord Burghley under Elizabeth I; Clarendon under Charles II and Godolphin under Queen Anne. These ministers held a variety of formal posts, but were commonly known as "the minister", the "chief minister", the "first minister" and finally the "prime minister".
The power of these ministers depended entirely on the personal favour of the monarch. Although managing the parliament was among the necessary skills of holding high office, they did not depend on a parliamentary majority for their power. Although there was a cabinet, it was appointed entirely by the monarch, and the monarch usually presided over its meetings.
When the monarch grew tired of a first minister, he or she could be dismissed, or worse: Cromwell was executed and Clarendon driven into exile when they lost favour. Kings sometimes divided power equally between two or more ministers to prevent one minister from becoming too powerful. Late in Anne's reign, for example, the Tory ministers Harley and Viscount Bolingbroke shared power.
In the mid 17th century, after the English Civil War (1642–1651), Parliament strengthened its position relative to the monarch then gained more power through the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and passage of the Bill of Rights in 1689. The monarch could no longer establish any law or impose any tax without its permission and thus the House of Commons became a part of the government. It is at this point that a modern style of prime minister begins to emerge.
A tipping point in the evolution of the prime ministership came with the death of Anne in 1714 and the accession of George I to the throne. George spoke no English, spent much of his time at his home in Hanover, and had neither knowledge of, nor interest in, the details of English government. In these circumstances it was inevitable that the king's first minister would become the de facto head of the government.
From 1721 this was the Whig politician Robert Walpole, who held office for twenty-one years. Walpole chaired cabinet meetings, appointed all the other ministers, dispensed the royal patronage and packed the House of Commons with his supporters. Under Walpole, the doctrine of cabinet solidarity developed. Walpole required that no minister other than himself have private dealings with the king, and also that when the cabinet had agreed on a policy, all ministers must defend it in public, or resign. As a later prime minister, Lord Melbourne, said, "It matters not what we say, gentlemen, so long as we all say the same thing."
Walpole always denied that he was "prime minister", and throughout the 18th century parliamentarians and legal scholars continued to deny that any such position was known to the Constitution. George II and George III made strenuous efforts to reclaim the personal power of the monarch, but the increasing complexity and expense of government meant that a minister who could command the loyalty of the Commons was increasingly necessary. The long tenure of the wartime prime minister William Pitt the Younger (1783–1801), combined with the mental illness of George III, consolidated the power of the post. The title was first referred to on government documents during the administration of Benjamin Disraeli but did not appear in the formal British Order of precedence until 1905.
The prestige of British institutions in the 19th century and the growth of the British Empire saw the British model of cabinet government, headed by a prime minister, widely copied, both in other European countries and in British colonial territories as they developed self-government. In some places alternative titles such as "premier", "chief minister", "first minister of state", "president of the council" or "chancellor" were adopted, but the essentials of the office were the same.
By the late 20th century, the majority of the world's countries had a prime minister or equivalent minister, holding office under either a constitutional monarchy or a ceremonial president. The main exceptions to this system have been the United States and the presidential republics in Latin America modelled on the U.S. system, in which the president directly exercises executive authority.
Bahrain's prime minister, Sheikh Khalifah bin Sulman Al Khalifah has been in the post since 1970, making him the longest serving non-elected prime minister.
The post of prime minister may be encountered both in constitutional monarchies (such as Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Malaysia, Morocco, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom) and in parliamentary republics, in which the head of state is an elected official (such as Finland, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia (1945–1959), Ireland, Pakistan, Portugal, Montenegro, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey (1923–2018)). See also "First Minister", "Premier", "Chief Minister", "Chancellor", "Taoiseach", "Minister of State ("Statsminister")", "President of the Government", "President of the Council of Minister" and "Secretary of State": alternative titles usually equivalent in meaning to, or translated as, "prime minister".
This contrasts with the presidential system, in which the president (or equivalent) is both the head of state and the head of the government. In some presidential and all semi-presidential systems, such as those of France, Russia or South Korea, the prime minister is an official generally appointed by the president but usually approved by the legislature and responsible for carrying out the directives of the president and managing the civil service. The head of government of the People's Republic of China is referred to as the Premier of the State Council and the premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan) is also appointed by the president, but requires no approval by the legislature.
Appointment of the prime minister of France requires no approval by the parliament either, but the parliament may force the resignation of the government. In these systems, it is possible for the president and the prime minister to be from different political parties if the legislature is controlled by a party different from that of the president. When it arises, such a state of affairs is usually referred to as (political) cohabitation.
In parliamentary systems a prime minister may enter into office by several means.
Most prime ministers in parliamentary systems are not appointed for a specific term in office and in effect may remain in power through a number of elections and parliaments. For example, Margaret Thatcher was only ever appointed prime minister on "one" occasion, in 1979. She remained "continuously" in power until 1990, though she used the assembly of each House of Commons after a general election to reshuffle her cabinet.
Some states, however, do have a term of office of the prime minister linked to the period in office of the parliament. Hence the Irish Taoiseach is formally 'renominated' after every general election. (Some constitutional experts have questioned whether this process is actually in keeping with the provisions of the Irish constitution, which "appear" to suggest that a taoiseach should remain in office, without the requirement of a renomination, unless s/he has clearly lost the general election.) The position of prime minister is normally chosen from the political party that commands majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.
In parliamentary systems, governments are generally required to have the confidence of the lower house of parliament (though a small minority of parliaments, by giving a right to block supply to upper houses, in effect make the cabinet responsible to both houses, though in reality upper houses, even when they have the power, rarely exercise it). Where they lose a "vote of confidence", have a "motion of no confidence" passed against them, or where they lose supply, most constitutional systems require either:
The latter in effect allows the government to appeal the opposition of parliament to the electorate. However, in many jurisdictions a head of state "may" refuse a parliamentary dissolution, requiring the resignation of the prime minister and his or her government. In most modern parliamentary systems, the prime minister is the person who decides when to request a parliamentary dissolution.
Older constitutions often vest this power in the cabinet. In the United Kingdom, for example, the tradition whereby it is the prime minister who requests a dissolution of parliament dates back to 1918. Prior to then, it was the "entire" government that made the request. Similarly, though the modern 1937 Irish constitution grants to the Taoiseach the right to make the request, the earlier 1922 Irish Free State Constitution vested the power in the "Executive Council" (the then name for the Irish cabinet).
In Australia, the Prime Minister is expected to step down if they loses the majority support of their party under a spill motion as have many such as Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull.
The Prime Minister's executive office is usually called the Office of the Prime Minister or Cabinet Office. The U.K.’s Cabinet Office includes the Prime Minister’s Office. Conversely, some Prime Minister's Offices incorporate the role of Cabinet, while Australia’s Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet joins them at par. In Israel, the Prime Minister's executive office is officially titled the "Prime Minister's Office" in English, but the original Hebrew term can also be translated as the Prime Minister's Ministry. The Prime Minister's Department is also used, as is Cabinet Department.
Wilfried Martens, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium, described his role as follows:
In the Russian constitution the prime minister is actually titled "Chairman of the government" while the Irish prime minister is called the (which is rendered into English as "prime minister"), and in Israel he or she is "Rosh HaMemshalah," meaning "head of the government". In many cases, though commonly used, "prime minister" is not the official title of the office-holder; the Spanish prime minister is the President of the Government ().
Other common forms include president of the council of ministers (for example in Italy, ), President of the Executive Council, or Minister-President. In the Nordic countries the prime minister is called "Statsminister", meaning "Minister of State". In federations, the head of government of a federated entity (e.g., a Canadian province, a Brazilian state, etc.) is most commonly known as the premier, chief minister, governor or minister-president.
The convention in the English language is to call nearly all national heads of government "prime minister" (sometimes the equivalent term "premier") except in the cases where the head of state and head of government are fused into one position, usually a presidency, regardless of the correct title of the head of government as applied in his or her respective country. The few exceptions to the rule are Germany and Austria, whose heads of government titles are almost always translated as Chancellor; Monaco, whose head of government is referred to as the Minister of State; and Vatican City, for which the head of government is titled the Secretary of State. In the case of Ireland, the head of government is occasionally referred to as the Taoiseach by English speakers. A stand-out case is the President of Iran, who is not actually a head of state, but the head of the government of Iran. He is referred to as "president" in both the Persian and English languages.
In non-Commonwealth countries the prime minister may be entitled to the style of Excellency like a president. In some Commonwealth countries prime ministers and former prime ministers are styled Right Honourable due to their position (the Prime Minister of Canada, for example). In the United Kingdom the prime minister and former prime ministers may appear to also be styled Right Honourable, however this is not due to their position as head of government but as a privilege of being current members of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.
In the UK, where devolved government is in place, the leaders of the Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh Governments are styled First Minister. Between 1921 and 1972, when Northern Ireland was a Majority Rule Parliament the head of government would be known as the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. In India, the Prime Minister is called "Pradhān Mantrī", literally meaning the Head of ministers or Prime Minister. In Pakistan, the prime minister is referred to as "Wazir-e-Azam", meaning "Grand Vizier".
The position, power and status of prime ministers differ depending on the age of the constitution.
Australia's constitution makes no mention of a Prime Minister of Australia and the office only exists by convention, based on the British model.
Bangladesh's constitution clearly outlines the functions and powers of the Prime Minister, and also details the process of his/her appointment and dismissal.
The People's Republic of China constitution set a premier just one place below the National People's Congress in China. Premier read as (Simplified Chinese: 总理; pinyin: Zŏnglĭ) in Chinese.
Canada has a 'mixed' or hybrid constitution, partly formally codified and partly uncodified. The codified part originally made no reference whatsoever to a prime minister and still gives no parameters of the office. Instead, her or his powers, duties, appointment and termination follow uncodified conventions. The "Constitution Act, 1867" only establishes the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, to which all federal ministers (among others) are appointed and with Members of which the Monarch or her Governor General normally performs executive government (as Queen- or Governor-in-Council). The "Constitution Act, 1982", adds passing reference to the "Prime Minister of Canada" [French: ] but as detail of conferences of federal and provincial first ministers.)
Czech Republic's constitution clearly outlines the functions and powers of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and also details the process of his/her appointment and dismissal.
France's constitution (1958) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of France.
Germany's Basic Law (1949) lists the powers, functions and duties of the federal chancellor.
Greece's constitution (1975) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Greece.
Hungary's constitution (2012) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Hungary.
India's constitution (1950) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of India. In India, prime ministerial candidates must be a member of parliament, i.e. of either the Lok Sabha (Lower House) or Rajya Sabha (Upper House). No parliamentary vote takes place on who forms a government.
Ireland's constitution (1937), provides for the office of Taoiseach in detail, listing powers, functions and duties.
Italy's constitution (1948) lists the powers, functions and duties of the President of the Council of Ministers.
Japan's constitution (1946) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Japan.
The Republic of Korea's constitution (1987) sections 86–87 list the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea.
Malta's constitution (1964) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Malta.
Malaysia's constitution (1957) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Norway's constitution (1814) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Norway
Pakistan's constitution (1973) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Spain's constitution (1978) regulates the appointment, dismissal, powers, functions and duties of the President of the Government.
Thailand's constitution (1932) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Thailand.
Taiwan's constitution (1946) lists the powers, functions and duties of the President of the Executive Yuan.
The United Kingdom's constitution, being uncodified and largely unwritten, makes no mention of a prime minister. Though it had "de facto" existed for centuries, its first mention in official state documents did not occur until the first decade of the twentieth century. Accordingly, it is often said "not to exist"; indeed there are several instances of parliament declaring this to be the case. The prime minister sits in the cabinet solely by virtue of occupying another office, either First Lord of the Treasury (office in commission) or more rarely Chancellor of the Exchequer (the last of whom was Balfour in 1905).
During the period between the time it is clear that the incumbent government has been defeated at a general election, and the actual swearing-in of the new prime minister by the monarch, governor-general, or president, that person is referred to as the "prime minister-elect" or "prime minister-designate". Neither term is strictly correct from a constitutional point of view, but they have wide acceptance. In a situation in which a ruling party elects or appoints a new leader, the incoming leader will usually be referred as "prime minister-in-waiting". An example or this situation was in 2016 in the United Kingdom when Theresa May was elected leader of the Conservative Party while David Cameron was still prime minister.
Ukraine's constitution (1996) lists the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of Ukraine.
The following table groups the list of past and present prime ministers and details information available in those lists. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24109 |
President (government title)
The president is a common title for the head of state in most republics. In politics, president is a title given to leaders of republican states.
The functions exercised by a president vary according to the form of government. In parliamentary republics, they are usually, but not always, limited to those of the head of state, and are thus largely ceremonial. In presidential, selected parliamentary (e.g. Botswana and South Africa) and semi-presidential republics, the role of the president is more prominent, encompassing also (in most cases) the functions of the head of government. In authoritarian regimes, a dictator or leader of a one-party state may also be called a president.
The title "president" is derived from the Latin "prae-" "before" + "sedere" "to sit." As such, it originally designated the officer who presides over or "sits before" a gathering and ensures that debate is conducted according to the rules of order ("see also" chairman and speaker), but today it most commonly refers to an executive official in any social organization. Early examples are from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge (from 1464) and the founding president of the Royal Society William Brouncker in 1660. This usage survives today in the title of such offices as "President of the Board of Trade" and "Lord President of the Council" in the United Kingdom, as well as "President of the Senate" in the United States (one of the roles constitutionally assigned to the vice president). The officiating priest at certain Anglican religious services, too, is sometimes called the "president" in this sense. However, the most common modern usage is as the title of a head of state in a republic.
In pre-revolutionary France, the president of a "Parlement" evolved into a powerful magistrate, a member of the so-called "noblesse de robe" ("nobility of the gown"), with considerable judicial as well as administrative authority. The name referred to his primary role of presiding over trials and other hearings. In the 17th and 18th centuries, seats in the "Parlements," including presidencies, became effectively hereditary, since the holder of the office could ensure that it would pass to an heir by paying the crown a special tax known as the "paulette". The post of "first president" ("premier président"), however, could only be held by the King's nominees. The "Parlements" were abolished by the French Revolution. In modern France the chief judge of a court is known as its president ("président de la cour").
The first usage of the word "president" to denote the highest official in a government was during the Commonwealth of England. After the abolition of the monarchy the English Council of State, whose members were elected by the House of Commons, became the executive government of the Commonwealth. The Council of State was the successor of the Privy Council, which had previously been headed by the lord president; its successor the Council of State was also headed by a lord president, the first of which was John Bradshaw. However, the lord president alone was not head of state, because that office was vested in the council as a whole.
The modern usage of the term "president" to designate a single person who is the head of state of a republic can be traced directly to the United States Constitution of 1787, which created the office of President of the United States. Previous American governments had included "presidents" (such as the president of the Continental Congress or the president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress), but these were presiding officers in the older sense, with no executive authority. It has been suggested that the executive use of the term was borrowed from early American colleges and universities, which were usually headed by a "president." British universities were headed by an official called the "Chancellor" (typically a ceremonial position) while the chief administrator held the title of "Vice-Chancellor". But America's first institutions of higher learning (such as Harvard University and Yale University) didn't resemble a full-sized university so much as one of its constituent colleges. A number of colleges at Cambridge University featured an official called the "president". The head, for instance, of Magdalene College, Cambridge was called the "master" and his second the "president." The first president of Harvard, Henry Dunster, had been educated at Magdalene. Some have speculated that he borrowed the term out of a sense of humility, considering himself only a temporary place-holder. The presiding official of Yale College, originally a "rector" (after the usage of continental European universities), became "president" in 1745.
A common style of address for presidents, "Mr/Mrs. President," is borrowed from British Parliamentary tradition, in which the presiding Speaker of the House of Commons is referred to as "Mr/Mrs. Speaker." Coincidentally, this usage resembles the older French custom of referring to the president of a "parlement" as ""Monsieur/Madame le Président"", a form of address that in modern France applies to both the president of the Republic and to chief judges. Similarly, the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada is addressed by francophone parliamentarians as ""Monsieur/Madame le/la Président(e)"". In Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" of 1782, the character identified as "Madame la Présidente de Tourvel" ("Madam President of Tourvel") is the wife of a magistrate in a "parlement". The fictional name Tourvel refers not to the "parlement" in which the magistrate sits, but rather, in imitation of an aristocratic title, to his private estate.
Once the United States adopted the title of "president" for its republican head of state, many other nations followed suit. Haiti became the first presidential republic in Latin America when Henri Christophe assumed the title in 1807. Almost all of the American nations that became independent from Spain in the early 1810s and 1820s chose a US-style president as their chief executive. The first European president was the president of the Italian Republic of 1802, a client state of revolutionary France, in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte. The first African president was the president of Liberia (1848), while the first Asian president was the president of the Republic of China (1912).
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the powers of presidencies have varied from country to country. The spectrum of power has included presidents-for-life and hereditary presidencies to ceremonial heads of state.
Presidents in the countries with a democratic or representative form of government are usually elected for a specified period of time and in some cases may be re-elected by the same process by which they are appointed, i.e. in many nations, periodic popular elections. The powers vested in such presidents vary considerably. Some presidencies, such as that of Ireland, are largely ceremonial, whereas other systems vest the president with substantive powers such as the appointment and dismissal of prime ministers or cabinets, the power to declare war, and powers of veto on legislation. In many nations the president is also the commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces, though once again this can range from a ceremonial role to one with considerable authority.
In almost all states with a presidential system of government, the president exercises the functions of head of state and head of government, i.e. the president directs the executive branch of government. When a president is not only head of state, but also head of government, this is, "in Europe" known as a "President of Counsel" from the French Présidente du Conseil, used 1871-1940 and 1944–1958 in the Third and Fourth French Republics. In the United States the president has always been both "Head of State" and "Head of Government" and has always had the title of President.
Presidents in this system are either "directly" elected by popular vote or "indirectly" elected by an electoral college or some other democratically elected body.
In the United States, the president is "indirectly" elected by the Electoral College made up of electors chosen by voters in the presidential election. In most states of the United States, each elector is committed to voting for a specified candidate determined by the popular vote in each state, so that the people, in voting for each elector, are in effect voting for the candidate. However, for various reasons the numbers of electors in favour of each candidate are unlikely to be proportional to the popular vote. Thus, in five close United States elections (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016), the candidate with the most popular votes still lost the election.
In Mexico, the president is "directly" elected for a six-year term by popular vote. The candidate who wins the most votes is elected president even without an absolute majority. The president may never get another term. The 2006 Mexican elections had a fierce competition, the electoral results showed a minimal difference between the two most voted candidates and such difference was just about the 0.58% of the total vote. The Federal Electoral Tribunal declared an elected president after a controversial post-electoral process.
In Brazil, the president is "directly" elected for a four-year term by popular vote. A candidate has to have more than 50% of the valid votes. If no candidates achieve a majority of the votes, there is a runoff election between the two candidates with most votes. Again, a candidate needs a majority of the vote to be elected. In Brazil, a president cannot be elected to more than two consecutive terms, but there is no limit on the number of terms a president can serve.
Many South American, Central American, African and some Asian nations follow the presidential model.
A second system is the semi-presidential system, also known as the French model. In this system, as in the parliamentary system, there are both a president and a prime minister; but unlike the parliamentary system, the president may have significant day-to-day power. For example, in France, when their party controls the majority of seats in the National Assembly, the president can operate closely with the parliament and prime minister, and work towards a common agenda. When the National Assembly is controlled by their opponents, however, the president can find themselves marginalized with the opposition party prime minister exercising most of the power. Though the prime minister remains an appointee of the president, the president must obey the rules of parliament, and select a leader from the house's majority holding party. Thus, sometimes the president and prime minister can be allies, sometimes rivals; the latter situation is known in France as cohabitation. Variants of the French semi-presidential system, developed at the beginning of the Fifth Republic by Charles de Gaulle, are used in France, Portugal, Romania, Sri Lanka and several post-colonial countries which have emulated the French model. In Finland, although the 2000 constitution moved towards a ceremonial presidency, the system is still formally semi-presidential, with the president of Finland retaining e.g. foreign policy and appointment powers.
The parliamentary republic, is a parliamentary system in which the presidency is largely ceremonial with either "de facto" or no significant executive authority (such as the president of Austria) or "de jure" no significant executive power (such as the president of Ireland), and the executive powers rests with the prime minister who automatically assumes the post as head of a majority party or coalition, but takes oath of office administered by the president. However, the president is head of the civil service, commander in chief of the armed forces and in some cases can dissolve parliament. Countries using this system include Austria, Armenia, Albania, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Pakistan, Singapore.
A variation of the parliamentary republic is a system with an executive president in which the president is the head of state and the government but unlike a presidential system, is elected by and accountable to a parliament, and referred to as president. Countries using this system include Botswana, Nauru and South Africa.
In dictatorships, the title of president is frequently taken by self-appointed or military-backed leaders. Such is the case in many states: Idi Amin in Uganda, Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Suharto in Indonesia, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq are some examples. Other presidents in authoritarian states have wielded only symbolic or no power such as Craveiro Lopes in Portugal and Joaquín Balaguer under the "Trujillo Era" of the Dominican Republic.
President for Life is a title assumed by some dictators to try to ensure that their authority or legitimacy is never questioned. Ironically, most leaders who proclaim themselves president for life do not in fact successfully serve a life term. On the other hand, presidents like Alexandre Pétion, Rafael Carrera, Josip Broz Tito and François Duvalier died in office. Kim Il-sung was named Eternal President of the Republic after his death.
In ancient Rome, Lucius Cornelius Sulla appointed himself in 82 BC to an entirely new office, "dictator rei publicae constituendae causa" ("dictator for the making of laws and for the settling of the constitution"), which was functionally identical to the dictatorate "rei gerundae causa" ("for the matter to be done," e.g., a military command against a specific enemy) except that it lacked any set time limit, although Sulla held this office for over two years before he voluntarily abdicated and retired from public life.
The second well-known incident of a leader extending his term indefinitely was Roman dictator Julius Caesar, who made himself "Perpetual Dictator" (commonly mistranslated as 'Dictator-for-life') in 45 BC. His actions would later be mimicked by the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte who was appointed "First Consul for life" in 1802 and five years later, the French senate proclaimed him emperor (a monarchical title).
Only a tiny minority of modern republics do not have a single head of state. Some examples of this are:
As the country's head of state, in most countries the president is entitled to certain perquisites, and may have a prestigious residence, often a lavish mansion or palace, sometimes more than one (e.g. summer and winter residences, or a country retreat) Customary symbols of office may include an official uniform, decorations, a presidential seal, coat of arms, flag and other visible accessories, as well as military honours such as gun salutes, ruffles and flourishes, and a presidential guard. A common presidential symbol is the presidential sash worn most often by presidents in Latin America and Africa as a symbol of the continuity of the office.
United Nations member countries in columns, other entities at the beginning:
Some countries with parliamentary systems use a term meaning/translating as "president" (in some languages indistinguishable from chairman) for the head of parliamentary government, often as President of the Government, President of the Council of Ministers or President of the Executive Council.
However, such an official is explicitly not the president of the "country". Rather, he/she is called a president in an older sense of the word, to denote the fact that he/she heads the "cabinet". A separate head of state generally exists in their country that instead serves as the president or monarch of the country.
Thus, such officials are really premiers, and to avoid confusion are often described simply as 'prime minister' when being mentioned internationally.
There are several examples for this kind of presidency:
"President" can also be the title of the chief executive at a lower administrative level, such as the parish presidents of the parishes of the U.S. state of Louisiana, the presiding member of city council for villages in the U.S. state of Illinois, or the municipal presidents of Mexico's municipalities. Perhaps the best known sub-national presidents are the borough presidents of the five boroughs of New York City.
In Poland the "President of the City" () is the executive authority of the municipality elected in direct elections, the equivalent of the mayor. The Office of the President (Mayor) is also found in Germany and Switzerland.
Governors of ethnic republics in the Russian Federation used to have the title of President, occasionally alongside other, secondary titles such as "Chairman of the Government" (also used by Prime Minister of Russia). This likely reflects the origin of Russian republics as homelands for various ethnic groups: while all federal subjects of Russia are currently "de jure" equal, their predecessors, the ASSRs, used to enjoy more privileges than the ordinary krais and oblasts of the RSFSR (such as greater representation in the Soviet of Nationalities). Thus, the ASSRs and their eventual successors would have more in common with nation-states than with ordinary administrative divisions, at least in spirit, and would choose titles accordingly.
Over the course of the 2010s the presidents of Russian republics would progressively change their title to that of Head (), a proposition suggested by the president of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and later made law by the Parliament of Russia and President Dmitriy Medvedev in 2010. Despite this, however, presidents of Tatarstan would reject this change and, as of 2017, retain their title in defiance of Russian law. The new title did not result in any changes in the powers wielded by the governors.
The lord president of the Council is one of the Great Officers of State in England who presides over meetings of British Privy Council; the Cabinet headed by the prime minister is technically a committee of the Council, and all decisions of the Cabinet are formally approved through Orders in Council. Although the lord president is a member of the Cabinet, the position is largely a ceremonial one and is traditionally given to either the leader of the House of Commons or the leader of the House of Lords.
Historically the president of the Board of Trade was a cabinet member.
In Alderney, the elected head of government is called the president of the States of Alderney.
In the Isle of Man, there is a president of Tynwald.
In Spain, the executive leaders of the autonomous communities (regions) are called presidents. In each community, they can be called "Presidente de la Comunidad" or "Presidente del Consejo" among others. They are elected by their respective regional assemblies and have similar powers to a state president or governor.
Below a president, there can be a number of or "vice presidents" (or occasionally "deputy presidents") and sometimes several "assistant presidents" or "assistant vice presidents", depending on the organisation and its size. These posts do not hold the same power but more of a subordinate position to the president. However, power can be transferred in special circumstances to the deputy or vice president. Normally vice presidents hold some power and special responsibilities below that of the president. The difference between vice/deputy presidents and assistant/associate vice presidents is the former are legally allowed to run an organisation, exercising the same powers (as well as being second in command) whereas the latter are not.
In some countries the speaker of their unicameral legislatures, or of one or both houses of bicameral legislatures, the speakers have the title of president of "the body", as in the case of Spain, where the Speaker of the Congress is the president of the Congress of Deputies and the Speaker of the Senate is the president of the Senate.
In French legal terminology, the president of a court consisting of multiple judges is the foremost judge; he chairs the meeting of the court and directs the debates (and this thus addressed as "Mrs President", "Madame la Présidente", Mr President", or "Monsieur le Président". In general, a court comprises several chambers, each with its own president; thus the most senior of these is called the "first president" (as in: "the First President of the Court of Cassation is the most senior judge in France"). Similarly in English legal practice the most senior judge in each division uses this title (e.g. President of the Family Division, President of the Court of Appeal).
In the Spanish Judiciary, the leader of a court of multiples judges is called President of the Court. The same happens with the different bodies of the Spanish judicial system, where we can find a president of the Supreme Court, a president of the National Court and presidents in the Regional High Courts of Justice and in the Provincial Courts. The body that rules over the Judiciary in Spain is the General Council of the Judiciary, and its president is the president of the Supreme Court, which is normally called "President of the Supreme Court and of the GCJ".
The Constitutional Court is not part of the Judiciary, but the leader of it is called President of the Constitutional Court.
In the recently established Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the most senior judge is called the president of the Supreme Court. The lady/lord president of the Court of Session is head of the judiciary in Scotland, and presiding judge (and Senator) of the College of Justice and Court of Session, as well as being Lady/Lord Justice General of Scotland and head of the High Court of Justiciary, the offices having been combined in 1784. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24110 |
President of the United States
The President of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The President directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
In contemporary times, the President is looked upon as one of the world's most powerful political figures as the leader of the only remaining global superpower. The role includes responsibility for the world's most expensive military, which has the second largest nuclear arsenal. The President also leads the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The President possesses significant domestic and international hard and soft power.
Article II of the Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government. It vests the executive power of the United States in the President. The power includes the execution and enforcement of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The President is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The President directs the foreign and domestic policies of the United States, and takes an active role in promoting his or her policy priorities to members of Congress. In addition, as part of the system of checks and balances, of the Constitution gives the President the power to sign or veto federal legislation. The power of the presidency has grown substantially since its formation, as has the power of the federal government as a whole.
Through the Electoral College, registered voters indirectly elect the President and Vice President to a four-year term. This is the only federal election in the United States which is not decided by popular vote. Nine Vice Presidents became President by virtue of a President's intra-term death or resignation.
Donald Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. He assumed office on January 20, 2017.
In July 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, the Thirteen Colonies, acting jointly through the Second Continental Congress, declared themselves to be 13 independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. Recognizing the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British, the Continental Congress simultaneously began the process of drafting a constitution that would bind the states together. There were long debates on a number of issues, including representation and voting, and the exact powers to be given the central government. Congress finished work on the Articles of Confederation to establish a perpetual union between the states in November 1777 and sent it to the states for ratification.
Under the Articles, which took effect on March 1, 1781, the Congress of the Confederation was a central political authority without any legislative power. It could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, and could not impose any taxes or enforce local commercial regulations upon its citizens. This institutional design reflected how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. The states were out from under any monarchy and assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress; the remaining prerogatives were lodged within their own respective state governments. The members of Congress elected a President of the United States in Congress Assembled to preside over its deliberation as a neutral discussion moderator. Unrelated to and quite dissimilar from the later office of President of the United States, it was a largely ceremonial position without much influence.
In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak and their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another. They witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.
Following the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, Alexander Hamilton led the Annapolis delegates in a call for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.
When the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.
The Presentment Clause requires that any bill passed by Congress must be presented to the President before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the President has three options:
In 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the President's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the President to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the President then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In "Clinton v. City of New York", , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.
The President can also be involved in crafting legislation by suggesting, requesting or even insisting that Congress enact laws he believes are needed. Additionally, he can attempt to shape legislation during the legislative process by exerting influence on individual members of Congress. Presidents possess this power because the Constitution is silent about who can write legislation, but the power is limited because only members of Congress can introduce legislation. Article I, Section1 of the Constitution, bolstered by Article I, Section 8, puts all lawmaking power in Congress's hands, and Article 1, Section 6, Clause2 prevents the President (and all other executive branch officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress.
The President or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The President can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally (e.g. ) or statutorily mandated periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today the greatest in importance is given as the oral State of the Union addresses, which often outline the President's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the President may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.
In the 20th century, critics charged that too many legislative and budgetary powers that should have belonged to Congress had slid into the hands of Presidents. As the head of the executive branch, Presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that Presidents could appoint a "virtual army of 'czars'—each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House". Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an "increasingly swollen executive branch" and "the eclipse of Congress".
One of the most important of executive powers is the President's role as commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, but the President has ultimate responsibility for the direction and disposition of the military. The exact degree of authority that the Constitution grants to the President as commander-in-chief has been the subject of much debate throughout history, with Congress at various times granting the President wide authority and at others attempting to restrict that authority.
The amount of military detail handled personally by the President in wartime has varied greatly. George Washington, the first U.S. President, firmly established military subordination under civilian authority. In 1794, Washington used his constitutional powers to assemble 12,000 militia to quell the Whiskey Rebellion—a conflict in western Pennsylvania involving armed farmers and distillers who refused to pay an excise tax on spirits. According to historian Joseph Ellis, this was the "first and only time a sitting American President led troops in the field", though James Madison briefly took control of artillery units in defense of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812. Abraham Lincoln was deeply involved in overall strategy and in day-to-day operations during the American Civil War, 1861–1865; historians have given Lincoln high praise for his strategic sense and his ability to select and encourage commanders such as Ulysses S. Grant.
The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces is delegated to the Department of Defense and is normally exercised through the secretary of defense. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combatant Commands assist with the operation as outlined in the Presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the President's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explained this in Federalist No. 69: Pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, Congress must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to Presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. Presidents have historically initiated the process for going to war, but critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which Presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989.
The Constitution also empowers the President to propose and chiefly negotiate agreements between the United States and other countries. Such agreements, upon receiving the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate (by a two-thirds majority vote), become binding with the force of federal law.
The President is head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed". The executive branch has over four million employees, including the military.
Presidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming President may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a President with the "advice and consent" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the President may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.
The power of a President to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a President may remove executive officials purely at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a President's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute.
To manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.
To allow the government to act quickly in case of a major domestic or international crisis arising when Congress is not in session, the President is empowered by of the Constitution to call a special session of one or both houses of Congress. Since John Adams first did so in 1797, the President has called the full Congress to convene for a special session on 27 occasions. Harry Truman was the most recent to do so in July 1948 (the so-called "Turnip Day Session"). In addition, prior to ratification of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, which brought forward the date on which Congress convenes from December to January, newly inaugurated Presidents would routinely call the Senate to meet to confirm nominations or ratify treaties. Correspondingly, the President is authorized to adjourn Congress if the House and Senate cannot agree on the time of adjournment; no President has ever had to exercise this administrative power.
The President also possesses the power to manage operations of the federal government through issuing various types of directives, such as Presidential proclamation and executive orders. When the President is lawfully exercising one of the constitutionally conferred Presidential responsibilities, the scope of this power is broad. Even so, these directives are subject to judicial review by U.S. federal courts, which can find them to be unconstitutional. Moreover, Congress can overturn an executive order through legislation (e.g., Congressional Review Act).
The President has power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations require Senate confirmation before they may take office. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for Presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, Presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon a month after taking office. Presidents often grant pardons shortly before leaving office, like when Bill Clinton pardoned Patty Hearst on his last day in office; this is often controversial.
Two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the President to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the President to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the President in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed the privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in "United States v. Nixon", , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a President was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in "Clinton v. Jones", , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the President.
The state secrets privilege allows the President and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in "Totten v. United States" , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until "United States v. Reynolds" , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in "Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc." Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions.
The degree to which the President personally has sovereign immunity from court cases is contested and has been the subject of several Supreme Court decisions. "Nixon v. Fitzgerald" (1982) dismissed a civil lawsuit against by-then former President Richard Nixon based on his official actions. "Clinton v. Jones" (1997) decided that a President has no immunity against civil suits for actions taken before becoming President, and ruled that a sexual harassment suit could proceed without delay, even against a sitting President. The 2019 Mueller Report on Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election detailed evidence of possible obstruction of justice, but investigators declined to refer Donald Trump for prosecution based on a United States Department of Justice policy against indicting an incumbent President. The report noted that impeachment by Congress was available as a remedy. As of October 2019, a case was pending in the federal courts regarding access to personal tax returns in a criminal case brought against Donald Trump by the New York County District Attorney alleging violations of New York state law.
The President fulfills many ceremonial duties. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Opening Day. Every President since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. Every President since Theodore Roosevelt has served as honorary President of the Boy Scouts of America.
Other Presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947, during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the President is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of "pardoning" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life.
Presidential traditions also involve the President's role as head of government. Many outgoing Presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the Presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming President.
During a state visit by a foreign head of state, the President typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the President which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening.
The modern presidency holds the President as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by Presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as "propagandized leadership" which has a "mesmerizing power surrounding the office". Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling Presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed "in rich detail" which "drew on the power of myth" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his Presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of Presidents: voters expect a President to "drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees".
The nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress—which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution—to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive department. However, Presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and "monarchist" in nature. Professor Dana D. Nelson believes Presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards "undivided Presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies". She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding "the many existing uncheckable executive powers—such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements—that already allow Presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress". Bill Wilson, board member of Americans for Limited Government, opined that the expanded presidency was "the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule".
of the Constitution sets three qualifications for holding the presidency. To serve as President, one must:
A person who meets the above qualifications would, however, still be disqualified from holding the office of President under any of the following conditions:
The modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's presidential nominee. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice-presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession of presidents is lawyer.
Nominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.
The President is elected indirectly by the voters of each state and the District of Columbia through the Electoral College, a body of electors formed every four years for the sole purpose of electing the President and vice President to concurrent four-year terms. As prescribed by Article II, Section 1, Clause 2, each state is entitled to a number of electors equal to the size of its total delegation in both houses of Congress. Additionally, the Twenty-third Amendment provides that the District of Columbia is entitled to the number it would have if it were a state, but in no case more than that of the least populous state. Currently, all states and the District of Columbia select their electors based on a popular election held on Election Day. In all but two states, the party whose Presidential–vice Presidential ticket receives a plurality of popular votes in the state has its entire slate of elector nominees chosen as the state's electors. Maine and Nebraska deviate from this practice, awarding two electors to the statewide winner and one to the winner in each congressional district.
On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about 6 weeks after the election, the electors convene in their respective state capitals (and in Washington, D.C.) to vote for President and, on a separate ballot, for vice President. They typically vote for the candidates of the party that nominated them. While there is no constitutional mandate or federal law requiring them to do so, the District of Columbia and 30 states have laws requiring that their electors vote for the candidates to whom they are pledged. Following the vote, each state then sends a certified record of their electoral votes to Congress. The votes of the electors are opened and counted during a joint session of Congress, held in the first week of January. If a candidate has received an absolute majority of electoral votes for President (currently 270 of 538), that person is declared the winner. Otherwise, the House of Representatives must meet to elect a President using a contingent election procedure in which representatives, voting by state delegation, with each state casting a single vote, choose between the top electoral vote-getters for President. For a candidate to win, he or she must receive the votes of an absolute majority of states (currently 26 of 50).
There have been two contingent Presidential elections in the nation's history. A 73–73 electoral vote tie between Thomas Jefferson and fellow Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr in the election of 1800 necessitated the first. Conducted under the original procedure established by of the Constitution, which stipulates that if two or three persons received a majority vote and an equal vote, the House of Representatives would choose one of them for President; the would become vice President. On February 17, 1801, Jefferson was elected President on the 36th ballot, and Burr became vice President. Afterward, the system was overhauled through the Twelfth Amendment in time to be used in the 1804 election. A quarter-century later, the choice for President again devolved to the House when no candidate won an absolute majority of electoral votes (131 of 261) in the election of 1824. Under the Twelfth Amendment, the House was required to choose a President from among the top three electoral vote recipients: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford. Held February 9, 1825, this second and most recent contingent election resulted in John Quincy Adams being elected President on the first ballot.
Pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the four-year term of office for both the President and the vice President begins at noon on January 20. The first Presidential and vice Presidential terms to begin on this date, known as Inauguration Day, were the second terms of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner in 1937. Previously, Inauguration Day was on March 4. As a result of the date change, the first term (1933–37) of both men had been shortened by days.
Before executing the powers of the office, a President is required to recite the Presidential Oath of Office, found in . This is the only component in the inauguration ceremony mandated by the Constitution:
Presidents have traditionally placed one hand upon a Bible while taking the oath, and have added "So help me God" to the end of the oath. Although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, Presidents are traditionally sworn in by the chief justice of the United States.
When the first President, George Washington, announced in his "Farewell Address" that he was not running for a third term, he established a "two-terms then out" precedent. Precedent became tradition after Thomas Jefferson publicly embraced the principle a decade later during his second term, as did his two immediate successors, James Madison and James Monroe. In spite of the strong two-term tradition, Ulysses S. Grant sought a non-consecutive third term in 1880, as did Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 (though it would have been only his second full term). Both were unsuccessful.
In 1940, after leading the nation through the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a third term, breaking the self-imposed precedent. Four years later, with the U.S. engaged in World War II, he was re-elected again despite his declining physical health; he died 82 days into his fourth term on April 12, 1945.
In response to the unprecedented length of Roosevelt's presidency, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted in 1951. The amendment bars anyone from being elected President more than twice, or once if that person served more than two years (24 months) of another President's four-year term. Harry S. Truman, President when this term limit came into force, was exempted from its limitations, and briefly sought a second full term—to which he would have otherwise been ineligible for election, as he had been President for more than two years of Roosevelt's fourth term—before he withdrew from the 1952 election.
Since the amendment's adoption, five Presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Both Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson, having held the presidency for one full term in addition to only 14 months of John F. Kennedy's unexpired term, was eligible for a second full term in 1968, but he withdrew from the Democratic primary. Additionally, Gerald Ford, who served out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, sought a full term but was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.
John Whiteclay Chambers II has traced the evolution of the ex-presidency. Until 1958, former Presidents had no governmental aid to maintain themselves. Gradually, a small beginning became large, but with the public disaffection with Presidents Johnson and Nixon, some began to question the propriety and the amounts involved. Some ex-Presidents were very active, especially in international affairs, most notably Theodore Roosevelt; Herbert Hoover; Richard Nixon; and Jimmy Carter.
of the Constitution allows for the removal of high federal officials, including the President, from office for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". authorizes the House of Representatives to serve as a "grand jury" with the power to impeach said officials by a majority vote. authorizes the Senate to serve as a court with the power to remove impeached officials from office, by a two-thirds vote to convict.
Three Presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019; all three were acquitted by the Senate. Additionally, the House Judiciary Committee conducted an impeachment inquiry against Richard Nixon in 1973–74; however, he resigned from office before the full House voted on the articles of impeachment.
Vacancies and succession in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation, and removal from office. Deaths have occurred a number of times, a resignation has occurred only once, and removal from office has never occurred.
The Constitution, in , stipulates that the vice President takes over the "powers and duties" of the presidency in the event of a President's removal, death, resignation, or inability. Even so, it does not clearly state whether the vice President would become President of the United States or simply act as President in a case of succession. This ambiguity was alleviated in 1967 by , which unequivocally states that the vice President becomes President upon the removal from office, death, or resignation of the President.
Under , the President may transfer the Presidential powers and duties to the vice President, who then becomes acting President, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President "pro tempore" of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The President resumes the discharge of the Presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. Such a transfer of power has occurred on three occasions: Ronald Reagan to George H. W. Bush once, on July 13, 1985, and George W. Bush to Dick Cheney twice, on June 29, 2002, and on July 21, 2007.
Under , the vice President, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the Presidential powers and duties from the President to the vice President by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the President "pro tempore" of the Senate that the President is incapacitated—unable to discharge their Presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice President will assume the Presidential powers and duties as acting President; however, the President can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the Presidential powers and duties. If the vice President and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 also authorizes Congress to declare who shall become acting President in the "Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President". The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (codified as ) provides that if both the President and vice President have left office or are both otherwise unavailable to serve during their terms of office, the Presidential line of succession follows the order of: Speaker of the House, then, if necessary, the President pro tempore of the Senate, and then if necessary, the eligible heads of federal executive departments who form the President's Cabinet. The Cabinet currently has 15 members, of which the secretary of state is first in line; the other Cabinet secretaries follow in the order in which their department (or the department of which their department is the successor) was created. Those department heads who are constitutionally ineligible to be elected to the presidency are also disqualified from assuming the powers and duties of the presidency through succession. No statutory successor has yet been called upon to act as President.
Political parties have dominated American politics for most of the nation's history. Though the Founding Fathers generally spurned political parties as divisive and disruptive, and their rise had not been anticipated when the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, organized political parties developed in the U.S. in the mid-1790s nonetheless. They evolved from political factions, which began to appear almost immediately after the Federal government came into existence. Those who supported the Washington administration were referred to as "pro-administration" and would eventually form the Federalist Party, while those in opposition joined the emerging Democratic-Republican Party.
Greatly concerned about the very real capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency. He was, and remains, the only U.S. President never to be affiliated with a political party. Since George Washington, 43 persons have been sworn into the office of President, and each has been affiliated with a political party at the time of assuming office. The number of Presidents per political party (at the time of entry into office) are:
The following graphical timeline depicts the progression of the Presidents and their political affiliation at the time of assuming office.
Since 2001, the President's annual salary has been $400,000, along with a: $50,000 expense allowance; $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 entertainment account. The President's salary is set by Congress, and under of the Constitution, any increase or reduction in Presidential salary can not take effect before the next Presidential term of office.
The White House in Washington, D.C. is the official residence of the President. The site was selected by George Washington, and the cornerstone was laid in 1792. Every President since John Adams (in 1800) has lived there. At various times in U.S. history, it has been known as the "President's Palace", the "President's House", and the "Executive Mansion". Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901. Facilities that are available to the President include access to the White House staff, medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The federal government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the President pays for personal, family, and guest dry cleaning and food.
Camp David, officially titled Naval Support Facility Thurmont, a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, is the President's country residence. A place of solitude and tranquility, the site has been used extensively to host foreign dignitaries since the 1940s.
Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, serves as the President's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the President if needed. Four interconnected, 19th century houses—Blair House, Lee House, and 700 and 704 Jackson Place—with a combined floor space exceeding comprise the property.
The primary means of long-distance air travel for the President is one of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners and are referred to as "Air Force One" while the President is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as "Air Force One" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes, while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. The President also has access to smaller Air Force aircraft, most notably the Boeing C-32, which are used when the President must travel to airports that cannot support a jumbo jet. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight.
For short-distance air travel, the President has access to a fleet of U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated "Marine One" when the President is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.
For ground travel, the President uses the Presidential state car, which is an armored limousine designed to look like a Cadillac sedan, but built on a truck chassis. The U.S. Secret Service operates and maintains the fleet of several limousines. The President also has access to two armored motorcoaches, which are primarily used for touring trips.
The U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the President and the first family. As part of their protection, Presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition.
Under the Former Presidents Act, all living former Presidents are granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with congressional approval. Retired Presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former Presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The act also provides former Presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former Presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the President's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting Secret Service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a President leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime Secret Service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent Presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for Secret Service protection.
Some Presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected President again 4 years later in 1892. Two former Presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for 17 years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875, though he died soon after.
Presidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his Presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 Presidential bids and President Obama on his 2012 reelection campaign.
, there are four living former U.S. Presidents. The most recent former President to die was George H. W. Bush (1989–1993), on November 30, 2018. The living former Presidents, in order of service, are:
Every President since Herbert Hoover has created a repository known as a Presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records, and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen Presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also Presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois; the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Southern Methodist University; the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University; and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.
A number of Presidents have lived for many years after leaving office, and several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own Presidential libraries. Some have even made arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several Presidential libraries contain the graves of the President they document, including the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. These gravesites are open to the general public. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24113 |
Religious affiliations of presidents of the United States
The religious affiliations of presidents of the United States can affect their electability, shape their stances on policy matters and their visions of society and also how they want to lead it. Speculation of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and William Howard Taft being atheists was reported during election campaigns, while others, such as Jimmy Carter, used faith as a defining aspect of their campaigns and tenure to hold the office. Almost all of the presidents can be characterized as Christian, at least by upbringing, though some were unaffiliated with any specific religious body. Protestants predominate, with Episcopalians and Presbyterians being the most prevalent. The United States has had one Catholic president (John F. Kennedy). There have been four Nontrinitarian presidents. No president has openly identified as atheist.
Most presidents have been formal members of a particular church or religious body, and a specific affiliation can be assigned to every president from James A. Garfield on. For many earlier presidents, however, formal church membership was forestalled until they left office; and in several cases a president never joined any church. Conversely, though every president from George Washington to John Quincy Adams can be definitely assigned membership in an Anglican or Unitarian body, the significance of these affiliations is often downplayed as unrepresentative of their true beliefs.
The pattern of religious adherence has changed dramatically over the course of United States history, so that the pattern of presidential affiliations is quite unrepresentative of modern membership numbers. For example, Episcopalians are extraordinarily well represented among the presidents compared to a current membership of about 2% of the population; this is partly because the Church of England, from which the Episcopal Church is derived, was the established church in some of the British Colonies (such as New York and Virginia) before the American Revolution. The Episcopal Church has been much larger previously, with its decline in membership occurring only in more recent decades. The first seven presidents listed as Episcopalians were all from Virginia. Unitarians are also overrepresented, reflecting the importance of those colonial churches. Conversely, Baptists are underrepresented, a reflection of their quite recent expansion in numbers; there has been only one Catholic president, although they are currently the largest single denomination, and there have been no Adventist, Anabaptist, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal, or Latter Day Saint presidents.
While many presidents did not formally join a church until quite late in life, there is a genre of tales of deathbed conversions. Biographers usually doubt these, though the baptism of James K. Polk is well documented.
The inner beliefs of the presidents are much more difficult to establish than church membership. While some presidents have been relatively voluble about religion, many have been reticent to the point of complete obscurity. Researchers have tried to draw conclusions from patterns of churchgoing or religious references in political speeches. When explicit statements are absent, it is difficult to assess whether the presidents in question were irreligious, were unorthodox in their beliefs, or simply believed that religion was not a matter for public revelation.
On the other hand, there are several presidents who considered themselves aligned with a particular church, but who withheld from formal affiliation for a time. James Buchanan, for instance, held himself allied with the Presbyterian church, but refrained from joining it until he left office.
Some presidents changed their beliefs and affiliation at some point in their lives; synthesis of statements and membership from different periods can be misleading.
Deism was a religious philosophy in common currency in colonial times, and some Founding Fathers (most notably Thomas Paine, who was an explicit proponent of it, and Benjamin Franklin, who spoke of it in his Autobiography) are identified more or less with this system. Thomas Jefferson became a deist in later life, and Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Tyler are often identified as having some degree of deistic beliefs.
Four presidents are affiliated with Unitarian churches, and a fifth (Jefferson) was an exponent of ideas now commonly associated with Unitarianism. Unitarians fall outside of Trinitarian Christianity, and the question arises as to the degree to which the presidents themselves held Christian precepts. The information is generally available in the statements of the presidents themselves; for example, John Quincy Adams left detailed statements of his beliefs. William Howard Taft, a Unitarian, is noted to have said in a letter to a friend, "I am interested in the spread of Christian civilization, but to go into a dogmatic discussion of creed I will not do whether I am defeated or not. ... If the American electorate is so narrow as not to elect a Unitarian, well and good. I can stand it."
Two presidents were Quakers (Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon) and information about their religion is harder to come by. Quakerism is, by its nature, not circumscribed by doctrines, but even so it is hard to determine whether either Hoover or Nixon had much adherence even to Quaker practice. For instance, it is common among Quakers to refuse to swear oaths; however, recordings show that Nixon did swear the oath of office in the conventional manner in all cases, and while the matter is clouded for Hoover, there is newspaper and circumstantial evidence that he did likewise. While Abraham Lincoln never officially joined a church, there has been some research indicating that he may have had Quaker leanings. During his time in office, he had numerous meetings with Quakers and had investigated a supposed Quaker ancestry.
The only other president with any association with a definitely non-Trinitarian body is Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose parents moved from the River Brethren to the antecedents of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Eisenhower himself was baptized in the Presbyterian church shortly after assuming the presidency, the only president thus far to undergo such a rite while in office; and his attendance at West Point was in sharp opposition to the tenets of the groups to which his parents belonged.
There are some presidents for whom there is little evidence as to the importance of religion in their lives. For example, almost no evidence exists for Monroe's personal religious beliefs, though this may be the result of the destruction of most of his personal correspondence, in which religious sentiments may have been recorded. As with claims of deism, these identifications are not without controversy. No president has declared himself to be atheist.
St. John's Episcopal Church (built 1815–1816) just across Lafayette Square and north of the White House, is the church nearest to the White House, and its services have been attended at least once by nearly every president since James Madison (1809–1817). Another Episcopal church, Washington National Cathedral, chartered by Congress in 1893, has been the scene of many funeral and memorial services of presidents and other dignitaries, as well as the site of interfaith presidential prayer services after their inaugurations, and the burial place of Woodrow Wilson.
Presidential proclamations, from the earliest days, have often been laden with religious if not explicitly Christian language. In at least two cases, Presidents saw fit to issue denials that they were atheists. At the same time, this was tempered, especially in early years, by a strong commitment to disestablishment. Several presidents especially stand out as exponents of this. Consideration of this has become increasingly contentious as topics such as civil rights and human sexuality have increasingly put churches at odds with each other and with the government.
Presidential biographers have often been brought to consider the issue of presidential religion. In the case of certain key figures (particularly Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln), they have devoted considerable attention to the subject.
Some researchers have produced general surveys of presidential religion. A recent example is "The Faiths of the Founding Fathers" by David L. Holmes, which examines the views of some early presidents as well as other political figures of the period. The Adherents.com website maintains a list of presidential affiliations, with subpages for each president. Most of these subpages refer to a site by one Peter Roberts, which has links and some more detailed information on the religion of the presidents, vice presidents, and founding fathers.
For each president, the formal affiliation at the time of his presidency is listed first, with other affiliations listed after. Further explanation follows if needed, as well as notable detail. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24115 |
Peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are used to maintain quality standards, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia, scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication. Peer review can be categorized by the type of activity and by the field or profession in which the activity occurs, e.g., medical peer review.
Professional peer review focuses on the performance of professionals, with a view to improving quality, upholding standards, or providing certification. In academia, peer review is used to inform in decisions related to faculty advancement and tenure. Henry Oldenburg (1619–1677) was a German-born British philosopher who is seen as the 'father' of modern scientific peer review.
WA prototype is a professional peer-review process originally recommended in the "Ethics of the Physician" written by Ishāq ibn ʻAlī al-Ruhāwī (854–931). He stated that a visiting physician had to make duplicate notes of a patient's condition on every visit. When the patient was cured or had died, the notes of the physician were examined by a local medical council of other physicians, who would decide whether the treatment had met the required standards of medical care.
Professional peer review is common in the field of health care, where it is usually called "clinical peer review". Further, since peer review activity is commonly segmented by clinical discipline, there is also physician peer review, nursing peer review, dentistry peer review, etc. Many other professional fields have some level of peer review process: accounting, law, engineering (e.g., software peer review, technical peer review), aviation, and even forest fire management.
Peer review is used in education to achieve certain learning objectives, particularly as a tool to reach higher order processes in the affective and cognitive domains as defined by Bloom's taxonomy. This may take a variety of forms, including closely mimicking the scholarly peer review processes used in science and medicine.
The European Union has been using peer review in the "Open Method of Co-ordination" of policies in the fields of active labour market policy since 1999. In 2004, a program of peer reviews started in social inclusion. Each program sponsors about eight peer review meetings in each year, in which a "host country" lays a given policy or initiative open to examination by half a dozen other countries and the relevant European-level NGOs. These usually meet over two days and include visits to local sites where the policy can be seen in operation. The meeting is preceded by the compilation of an expert report on which participating "peer countries" submit comments. The results are published on the web.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, through UNECE Environmental Performance Reviews, uses peer review, referred to as "peer learning", to evaluate progress made by its member countries in improving their environmental policies.
The State of California is the only U.S. state to mandate scientific peer review. In 1997, the Governor of California signed into law Senate Bill 1320 (Sher), Chapter 295, statutes of 1997, which mandates that, before any CalEPA Board, Department, or Office adopts a final version of a rule-making, the scientific findings, conclusions, and assumptions on which the proposed rule are based must be submitted for independent external scientific peer review. This requirement is incorporated into the California Health and Safety Code Section 57004.
Medical peer review may be distinguished in 4 classifications: 1) clinical peer review; 2) peer evaluation of clinical teaching skills for both physicians and nurses; 3) scientific peer review of journal articles; 4) a secondary round of peer review for the clinical value of articles concurrently published in medical journals.
Additionally, "medical peer review" has been used by the American Medical Association to refer not only to the process of improving quality and safety in health care organizations, but also to the process of rating clinical behavior or compliance with professional society membership standards. Thus, the terminology has poor standardization and specificity, particularly as a database search term.
In engineering, technical peer review is a type of engineering review. Technical peer reviews are a well defined review process for finding and fixing defects, conducted by a team of peers with assigned roles. Technical peer reviews are carried out by peers representing areas of life cycle affected by material being reviewed (usually limited to 6 or fewer people). Technical peer reviews are held within development phases, between milestone reviews, on completed products or completed portions of products.
To an outsider, the anonymous, pre-publication peer review process is opaque. Certain journals are accused of not carrying out stringent peer review in order to more easily expand their customer base, particularly in journals where authors pay a fee before publication. Richard Smith, MD, former editor of the "British Medical Journal", has claimed that peer review is "ineffective, largely a lottery, anti-innovatory, slow, expensive, wasteful of scientific time, inefficient, easily abused, prone to bias, unable to detect fraud and irrelevant; Several studies have shown that peer review is biased against the provincial and those from low- and middle-income countries; Many journals take months and even years to publish and the process wastes researchers' time. As for the cost, the Research Information Network estimated the global cost of peer review at £1.9 billion in 2008."
In addition, Australia's Innovative Research Universities group (a coalition of seven comprehensive universities committed to inclusive excellence in teaching, learning and research in Australia) has found that "peer review disadvantages researchers in their early careers, when they rely on competitive grants to cover their salaries, and when unsuccessful funding applications often mark the end of a research idea".
John Ioannidis argues that since the exams and other tests that people pass on their way from "layman" to "expert" focus on answering the questions in time and in accordance with a list of answers, and not on making precise distinctions (the latter of which would be unrecognizable to experts of lower cognitive precision), there is as much individual variation in the ability to distinguish causation from correlation among "experts" as there is among "laymen". Ioannidis argues that as a result, scholarly peer review by many "experts" allows only articles that are understandable at a wide range of cognitive precision levels including very low ones to pass, biasing publications towards favoring articles that infer causation from correlation while mislabelling articles that make the distinction as "incompetent overestimation of one's ability" on the side of the authors because some of the reviewing "experts" are cognitively unable to distinguish the distinction from alleged rationalization of specific conclusions. It is argued by Ioannidis that this makes peer review a cause of selective publication of false research findings while stopping publication of rigorous criticism thereof, and that further post-publication review repeats the same bias by selectively retracting the few rigorous articles that may have made it through initial pre-publication peer review while letting the low-end ones that confuse correlation and causation remain in print.
Researchers have peer reviewed manuscripts prior to publishing them in a variety of ways since the 18th century. The main goal of this practice is to improve the relevance and accuracy of scientific discussions. Even though experts often criticize peer review for a number of reasons, the process is still often considered the "gold standard" of science. Occasionally however, peer review approves studies that are later found to be wrong and rarely deceptive or fraudulent results are discovered prior to publication. Thus, there seems to be an element of discord between the ideology behind and the practice of peer review. By failing to effectively communicate that peer review is imperfect, the message conveyed to the wider public is that studies published in peer-reviewed journals are "true" and that peer review protects the literature from flawed science. A number of well-established criticisms exist of many elements of peer review. In the following we describe cases of the wider impact inappropriate peer review can have on public understanding of scientific literature.
Multiple examples across several areas of science find that scientists elevated the importance of peer review for research that was questionable or corrupted. For example, climate change deniers have published studies in the "Energy and Environment" journal, attempting to undermine the body of research that shows how human activity impacts the Earth's climate. Politicians in the United States who reject the established science of climate change have then cited this journal on several occasions in speeches and reports.
At times, peer review has been exposed as a process that was orchestrated for a preconceived outcome. "The New York Times" gained access to confidential peer review documents for studies sponsored by the National Football League (NFL) that were cited as scientific evidence that brain injuries do not cause long-term harm to its players. During the peer review process, the authors of the study stated that all NFL players were part of a study, a claim that the reporters found to be false by examining the database used for the research. Furthermore, "The Times" noted that the NFL sought to legitimize the studies" methods and conclusion by citing a "rigorous, confidential peer-review process" despite evidence that some peer reviewers seemed "desperate" to stop their publication. Recent research has also demonstrated that widespread industry funding for published medical research often goes undeclared and that such conflicts of interest are not appropriately addressed by peer review.
Another problem that peer review fails to catch is ghostwriting, a process by which companies draft articles for academics who then publish them in journals, sometimes with little or no changes. These studies can then be used for political, regulatory and marketing purposes. In 2010, the US Senate Finance Committee released a report that found this practice was widespread, that it corrupted the scientific literature and increased prescription rates. Ghostwritten articles have appeared in dozens of journals, involving professors at several universities.
Just as experts in a particular field have a better understanding of the value of papers published in their area, scientists are considered to have better grasp of the value of published papers than the general public and to see peer review as a human process, with human failings, and that "despite its limitations, we need it. It is all we have, and it is hard to imagine how we would get along without it". But these subtleties are lost on the general public, who are often misled into thinking that published in a journal with peer review is the "gold standard" and can erroneously equate published research with the truth. Thus, more care must be taken over how peer review, and the results of peer reviewed research, are communicated to non-specialist audiences; particularly during a time in which a range of technical changes and a deeper appreciation of the complexities of peer review are emerging. This will be needed as the scholarly publishing system has to confront wider issues such as retractions and replication or reproducibility "crisis'.
Peer review is often considered integral to scientific discourse in one form or another. Its gatekeeping role is supposed to be necessary to maintain the quality of the scientific literature and avoid a risk of unreliable results, inability to separate signal from noise, and slow scientific progress.
Shortcomings of peer review have been met with calls for even stronger filtering and more gatekeeping. A common argument in favor of such initiatives is the belief that this filter is needed to maintain the integrity of the scientific literature.
Calls for more oversight have at least two implications that are counterintuitive of what is known to be true scholarship.
Others argue that authors most of all have a vested interest in the quality of a particular piece of work. Only the authors could have, as Feynman (1974) puts it, the "extra type of integrity that is beyond not lying, but bending over backwards to show how you're maybe wrong, that you ought to have when acting as a scientist." If anything, the current peer review process and academic system could penalize, or at least fail to incentivize, such integrity.
Instead, the credibility conferred by the "peer-reviewed" label could diminish what Feynman calls the "culture of doubt" necessary for science to operate a self-correcting, truth-seeking process. The effects of this can be seen in the ongoing replication crisis, hoaxes, and widespread outrage over the inefficacy of the current system. It's common to think that more oversight is the answer, as peer reviewers are not at all lacking in skepticism. But the issue is not the skepticism shared by the select few who determine whether an article passes through the filter. It is the validation, and accompanying lack of skepticism, that comes afterwards. Here again more oversight only adds to the impression that peer review ensures quality, thereby further diminishing the culture of doubt and counteracting the spirit of scientific inquiry.
Quality research - even some of our most fundamental scientific discoveries - dates back centuries, long before peer review took its current form. Whatever peer review existed centuries ago, it took a different form than it does in modern times, without the influence of large, commercial publishing companies or a pervasive culture of publish or perish. Though in its initial conception it was often a laborious and time-consuming task, researchers took peer review on nonetheless, not out of obligation but out of duty to uphold the integrity of their own scholarship. They managed to do so, for the most part, without the aid of centralised journals, editors, or any formalised or institutionalised process whatsoever. Supporters of modern technology argue that it makes it possible to communicate instantaneously with scholars around the globe, make such scholarly exchanges easier, and restore peer review to a purer scholarly form, as a discourse in which researchers engage with one another to better clarify, understand, and communicate their insights.
Such modern technology includes posting results to preprint servers, preregistration of studies, open peer review, and other open science practices. In all these initiatives, the role of gatekeeping remains prominent, as if a necessary feature of all scholarly communication, but critics argue that a proper, real-world implementation could test and disprove this assumption; demonstrate researchers' desire for more that traditional journals can offer; show that researchers can be entrusted to perform their own quality control independent of journal-coupled review. Jon Tennant also argues that the outcry over the inefficiencies of traditional journals centers on their inability to provide rigorous enough scrutiny, and the outsourcing of critical thinking to a concealed and poorly-understood process. Thus, the assumption that journals and peer review are required to protect scientific integrity seems to undermine the very foundations of scholarly inquiry.
To test the hypothesis that filtering is indeed unnecessary to quality control, many of the traditional publication practices would need to be redesigned, editorial boards repurposed if not disbanded, and authors granted control over the peer review of their own work. Putting authors in charge of their own peer review is seen as serving a dual purpose. On one hand, it removes the conferral of quality within the traditional system, thus eliminating the prestige associated with the simple act of publishing. Perhaps paradoxically, the removal of this barrier might actually result in an increase of the quality of published work, as it eliminates the cachet of publishing for its own sake. On the other hand, readers know that there is no filter so they must interpret anything they read with a healthy dose of skepticism, thereby naturally restoring the culture of doubt to scientific practice.
In addition to concerns about the quality of work produced by well-meaning researchers, there are concerns that a truly open system would allow the literature to be populated with junk and propaganda by those with a vested interest in certain issues. A counterargument is that the conventional model of peer review diminishes the healthy skepticism that is a hallmark of scientific inquiry, and thus confers credibility upon subversive attempts to infiltrate the literature. Allowing such "junk" to be published could make individual articles less reliable but render the overall literature more robust by fostering a "culture of doubt".
One initiative experimenting in this area is Researchers.One, a non-profit peer review publication platform featuring a novel author-driven peer review process. Other similar examples include the Self-Journal of Science, PRElights, and The Winnower, which do not yet seem to have greatly disrupted the traditional peer review workflow. Supporters conclude that researchers are more than responsible and competent enough to ensure their own quality control; they just need the means and the authority to do so. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24116 |
Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of Australia. The prime minister is the leader of the federal government and is also accountable to federal parliament under the principles of responsible government. The incumbent prime minister is Scott Morrison, who took office in August 2018 as leader of the Liberal Party.
The prime minister is appointed by the governor-general. The position is not specifically identified in the Australian constitution, but its creation was assumed by the constitution's authors based on the conventions of the Westminster system. The appointment of the prime minister is governed by political convention and custom, most importantly that he or she must hold the confidence of the House of Representatives. As such, the prime minister is typically the leader of the political party or coalition with the largest number of seats in the House. Prime ministers do not have a set duration or number of terms for which they can hold the office. An individual's term usually comes to end when their political party loses a federal election (held at maximum intervals of three years), or when they lose or relinquish the leadership of their party.
Executive power is formally vested in the governor-general but exercised only on the advice of government ministers, who are nominated by the prime minister and form the Federal Executive Council. The most senior ministers form the federal cabinet, which the prime minister chairs. The role of the prime minister has evolved over time, as the powers and responsibilities of the federal government have changed. He or she plays a key role in determining government policy. In addition to cabinet meetings, the prime minister also chairs the National Security Committee, the Council of Australian Governments, and the National Cabinet. Administrative support is provided by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The prime minister has two official residences – The Lodge in the national capital Canberra and Kirribilli House in Sydney – as well as an office at Parliament House.
Thirty people have served as prime minister, including four who served non-consecutive terms. The first prime minister was Edmund Barton, who took office on 1 January 1901 following the federation of the Australian colonies. The longest-serving prime minister was Robert Menzies, who served over 18 years, and the short-serving was Frank Forde, who served one week. There is no line of succession, but the position of deputy prime minister is well established.
The prime minister of Australia is appointed by the governor-general of Australia under Section 64 of the Australian Constitution, which empowers the governor-general, as the official representative of the Crown, to appoint government ministers of state on the advice of the prime minister and requires them to be members of the House of Representatives or the Senate, or become members within three months of the appointment. The prime minister and treasurer are traditionally members of the House, but the Constitution does not have such a requirement. Before being sworn in as a Minister of State, a person must first be sworn in as a member of the Federal Executive Council if they are not already a member. Membership of the Federal Executive Council entitles the member to the style of "The Honourable" (usually abbreviated to "The Hon") for life, barring exceptional circumstances. The senior members of the Executive Council constitute the Cabinet of Australia.
The prime minister is, like other ministers, normally sworn in by the governor-general and then presented with the commission (letters patent) of office. When defeated in an election, or on resigning, the prime minister is said to "hand in the commission" and actually does so by returning it to the governor-general. In the event of a prime minister dying in office, or becoming incapacitated, or for other reasons, the governor-general can terminate the commission. Ministers hold office "during the pleasure of the governor-general" (s. 64 of the Constitution of Australia), so theoretically, the governor-general can dismiss a minister at any time, by notifying them in writing of the termination of their commission; however, their power to do so except on the advice of the prime minister is heavily circumscribed by convention.
According to convention, the prime minister is the leader of the majority party or largest party in a coalition of parties in the House of Representatives which holds the confidence of the House. Some commentators argue that the governor-general may also dismiss a prime minister who is unable to pass the government's supply bill through both houses of parliament, including the Australian Senate, where the government doesn't normally command the majority, as happened in the 1975 constitutional crisis. Other commentators argue that the governor-general acted improperly in 1975 as Whitlam still retained the confidence of the House of Representatives, and there are no generally accepted conventions to guide the use of the governor-general's reserve powers in this circumstance. However, there is no constitutional requirement that the prime minister sit in the House of Representatives, or even be a member of the federal parliament (subject to a constitutionally prescribed limit of three months), though by convention this is always the case. The only case where a member of the Senate was appointed Prime Minister was John Gorton, who subsequently resigned his Senate position and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives.
Despite the importance of the office of Prime Minister, the Constitution does not mention the office by name. The conventions of the Westminster system were thought to be sufficiently entrenched in Australia by the authors of the Constitution that it was deemed unnecessary to detail these. Indeed, prior to Federation in 1901 the terms "premier" and "prime minister" were used interchangeably for the head of government in a colony.
If a government cannot get its appropriation (budget) legislation passed by the House of Representatives, or the House passes a vote of "no confidence" in the government, the prime minister is bound by convention to immediately advise the governor-general to dissolve the House of Representatives and hold a fresh election.
Following a resignation in other circumstances or the death of a prime minister, the governor-general generally appoints the deputy prime minister as the new prime minister, until or if such time as the governing party or senior coalition party elects an alternative party leader. This has resulted in the party leaders from the Country Party (now named National Party) being appointed as Prime Minister, despite being the smaller party of their coalition. This occurred when Earle Page became caretaker prime minister following the death of Joseph Lyons in 1939, and when John McEwen became caretaker prime minister following the disappearance of Harold Holt in 1967. However, in 1941, Arthur Fadden became the leader of the Coalition and subsequently Prime Minister by the agreement of both coalition parties, despite being the leader of the smaller party in coalition, following the resignation of UAP leader Robert Menzies.
Excluding the brief transition periods during changes of government or leadership elections, there have only been a handful of cases where someone other than the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives was Prime Minister:
Most of the prime minister's power derives from being the head of government. In practice, the Federal Executive Council acts to ratify all executive decisions made by the government and requires the support of the prime minister. The powers of the prime minister are to direct the governor-general through advice to grant Royal Assent to legislation, to dissolve and prorogue parliament, to call elections and to make government appointments, which the governor-general follows.
The Constitution divides power between the federal government and the states, and the prime minister is constrained by this.
The formal power to appoint the governor-general lies with the queen of Australia, on the advice of the prime minister, whereby convention holds that the queen is bound to follow the advice. The prime minister can also advise the monarch to dismiss the governor-general, though it remains unclear how quickly the monarch would act on such advice in a constitutional crisis. This uncertainty, and the possibility of a "race" between the governor-general and prime minister to dismiss the other, was a key question in the 1975 constitutional crisis. Prime ministers whose government loses a vote of no-confidence in the House of Representatives, are expected to advise the governor-general to dissolve parliament and hold an election, if an alternative government cannot be formed. If they fail to do this, the governor-general may by convention dissolve parliament or appoint an alternative government.
The prime minister is also the responsible minister for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, which is tasked with supporting the policy agendas of the prime minister and Cabinet through policy advice and the coordination of the implementation of key government programs, to manage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy and programs and to promote reconciliation, to provide leadership for the Australian Public Service alongside the Australian Public Service Commission, to oversee the honours and symbols of the Commonwealth, to provide support to ceremonies and official visits, to set whole of government service delivery policy, and to coordinate national security, cyber, counterterrorism, regulatory reform, cities, population, data, and women's policy. Since 1992, the prime minister also acts as the chair of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), an intergovernmental forum between the federal government and the state governments in which the prime minister, the state premiers and chief ministers, and a representative of local governments meet annually.
As of 1 July 2019, Australia's prime minister is paid a total salary of $549,250. This is made up of the 'base salary' received by all Members of Parliament ($211,250) plus a 160 percent 'additional salary' for the role of Prime Minister. Increases in the base salary of MPs and senators are determined annually by the Australian Government's Remuneration Tribunal.
While in office, the prime minister has two official residences. The primary official residence is The Lodge in Canberra. Most prime ministers have chosen The Lodge as their primary residence because of its security facilities and close proximity to Parliament House. There have been some exceptions, however. James Scullin preferred to live at the Hotel Canberra (now the Hyatt Hotel) and Ben Chifley lived in the Hotel Kurrajong. More recently, John Howard used the Sydney Prime Ministerial residence, Kirribilli House, as his primary accommodation. On her appointment on 24 June 2010, Julia Gillard said she would not be living in The Lodge until such time as she was returned to office by popular vote at the next general election, as she became Prime Minister by replacing an incumbent during a parliamentary term. Tony Abbott was never able to occupy The Lodge during his term (2013–15) as it was undergoing extensive renovations, which continued into the early part of his successor Malcolm Turnbull's term. Instead, Abbott resided in dedicated rooms at the Australian Federal Police College when in Canberra.
During his first term, Rudd had a staff at The Lodge consisting of a senior chef and an assistant chef, a child carer, one senior house attendant, and two junior house attendants. At Kirribilli House in Sydney, there is one full-time chef and one full-time house attendant.
The official residences are fully staffed and catered for both the prime minister and their family. In addition, both have extensive security facilities. These residences are regularly used for official entertaining, such as receptions for Australian of the Year finalists.
The prime minister receives a number of transport amenities for official business. The Royal Australian Air Force's No. 34 Squadron transports the prime minister within Australia and overseas by specially converted Boeing Business Jets and smaller Challenger aircraft. The aircraft contain secure communications equipment as well as an office, conference room and sleeping compartments. The call-sign for the aircraft is "Envoy". For ground travel, the prime minister is transported in an armoured BMW 7 Series model. It is referred to as "C-1", or Commonwealth One, because of its number plate. It is escorted by police vehicles from state and federal authorities.
Politicians, including prime ministers, are usually granted certain privileges after leaving office, such as office accommodation, staff assistance, and a Life Gold Pass, which entitles the holder to travel within Australia for "non-commercial" purposes at government expense. In 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the pass should be available only to former prime ministers, though he would not use it when he was no longer PM.
Only one prime minister who had left the Federal Parliament ever returned. Stanley Bruce was defeated in his own seat in 1929 while Prime Minister but was re-elected to parliament in 1931. Other prime ministers were elected to parliaments other than the Australian federal parliament: Sir George Reid was elected to the UK House of Commons (after his term as High Commissioner to the UK), and Frank Forde was re-elected to the Queensland Parliament (after his term as High Commissioner to Canada, and a failed attempt to re-enter the Federal Parliament).
It is a convention for the deputy prime minister to serve as acting prime minister when the prime minister is travelling outside Australia or absent due to illness. If the deputy prime minister is also unavailable, another senior member of the government is appointed as acting prime minister.
The "Acts Interpretation Act 1901" confers upon acting ministers "the same power and authority with respect to the absent Minister's statutory responsibilities".
In the early 20th century, overseas travel generally required long journeys by ship. As a result, some held the position of acting prime minister for significant periods of time, including William Watt (16 months, 1918–1919), George Pearce (7 months, 1916), Alfred Deakin (6 months, 1902), Joseph Cook (5 months, 1921), James Fenton (19 weeks, 1930–1931), John Forrest (4 months, 1907), and Arthur Fadden (4 months, 1941). Fadden was acting prime minister for a cumulative total of 676 days (over 22 months) between 1941 and 1958.
As of , there are six living former Australian prime ministers.
The greatest number of living former prime ministers at any one time was eight. This has occurred twice:
Ben Chifley lived the least of all former prime ministers, as he died one year and six months after his term as prime minister. All other deceased former prime ministers have lived at least another 10 years, with the longest surviving former prime minister being Gough Whitlam, who lived 38 years and 11 months after office, surpassing Stanley Bruce's previous record of 37 years and 10 months.
The youngest person to become prime minister was Chris Watson37, who was also 37 when he ceased being prime minister. The oldest person to become prime minister was John McEwen67 as an interim prime minister, otherwise William McMahon63. Robert Menzies was the oldest person to ever be prime minister, leaving office at 71 years old.
Prime Ministers have been granted numerous honours, typically after their period as Prime Minister has concluded, with a few exceptions. Prime Ministers were awarded honours within the British honours system before 1975, when appointment to the Order of Australia began. Only one former Prime Minister, John Howard, has been awarded a British Honour since 1975, being the Order of Merit (within the Queen's personal gift) in 2012.
Nine former Prime Ministers were awarded knighthoods: Barton (GCMG, 1902), Reid (GCMG, 1911), Cook (GCMG, 1918), Page (GCMG, 1938), Menzies (KT, 1963), Fadden (KCMG, 1951), McEwen (GCMG, 1971), Gorton (GCMG, 1977), and McMahon (GCMG, 1977). Of those awarded, Barton and Menzies were knighted whilst still serving as Prime Minister, with Page awarded his before becoming Prime Minister, and the remainder awarded after leaving office. Reid (GCB, 1916), Menzies (AK, 1976)) and Fadden (GCMG, 1958) were awarded a second knighthood sometime later after leaving office.
Non-titular honours were also bestowed on former Prime Ministers, usually the Order of the Companions of Honour. This honour was awarded to Bruce (1927), Lyons (1936), Hughes (1941), Page (1942), Menzies (1951), Holt (1967), McEwen (1969), Gorton (1971), McMahon (1972),, and Fraser (1977), mostly during office as Prime Minister. The aforementioned John Howard was appointed to the Order of Merit in 2012.
In almost all occasions these honours were only accepted by non-Labor/conservative Prime Ministers. However, appointment to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom was accepted by all Prime Ministers until 1983 (with the exception of Alfred Deakin, Chris Watson and Gough Whitlam), with Malcolm Fraser being the last Prime Ministerial appointee.
Since its introduction in 1975, former Prime Ministers of Australia have been appointed to the Order of Australia and to its highest level – Companion: Whitlam (1978), Fraser (1988), Gorton (1988), Howard (2008), Gillard (2017), Rudd (2019), and Abbott (2020). Keating refused appointment in 1997. Bob Hawke was appointed a Companion in 1979, for service to trade unionism and industrial relations, before becoming Prime Minister in 1983. Menzies was appointed to the higher grade of Knight of the Order, which is no longer awarded, in 1976.
In addition to these honours, all deceased former Prime Ministers of Australia currently have federal electorates named after them, with the exceptions of Joseph Cook (a Division of Cook does exist, but it is only named after explorer James Cook) and the recently late Bob Hawke.
The longest-serving prime minister was Sir Robert Menzies, who served in office twice: from 26 April 1939 to 28 August 1941, and again from 19 December 1949 to 26 January 1966. In total Robert Menzies spent 18 years, 5 months and 12 days in office. He served under the United Australia Party and the Liberal Party respectively.
The shortest-serving prime minister was Frank Forde, who was appointed to the position on 6 July 1945 after the death of John Curtin, and served until 13 July 1945 when Ben Chifley was elected leader of the Australian Labor Party.
The last prime minister to serve out a full government term in the office was John Howard, who won the 2004 election and led his party to the 2007 election, but lost. Since then, the five subsequent prime ministers have been either voted out of the office mid-term by the caucuses of their own parties, assumed the office mid-term under such circumstances, or both. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24117 |
Passive management
Passive management (also called passive investing) is an investing strategy that tracks a market-weighted index or portfolio. Passive management is most common on the equity market, where index funds track a stock market index, but it is becoming more common in other investment types, including bonds, commodities and hedge funds.
The most popular method is to mimic the performance of an externally specified index by buying an index fund. By tracking an index, an investment portfolio typically gets good diversification, low turnover (good for keeping down internal transaction costs), and low management fees. With low fees, an investor in such a fund would have higher returns than a similar fund with similar investments but higher management fees and/or turnover/transaction costs.
One of the largest equity mutual funds, the Vanguard 500, is passively managed. The two firms with the largest amounts of money under management, BlackRock and State Street, primarily engage in passive management strategies.
The concept of passive management is counterintuitive to many investors. The rationale behind indexing stems from the following concepts of financial economics:
The bull market of the 1990s helped spur the growth in indexing observed over that decade. Investors were able to achieve desired absolute returns simply by investing in portfolios benchmarked to broad-based market indices such as the S&P 500, Russell 3000, and Wilshire 5000.
In the United States, indexed funds have outperformed the majority of active managers, especially as the fees they charge are very much lower than active managers. They are also able to have significantly greater after-tax returns. This holds true when comparing both, mutual fund and the passive benchmark with the money market account, but changes by taking differential returns into account.
Some active managers may beat the index in particular years, or even consistently over a series of years. Nevertheless, the retail investor still has the problem of discerning how much of the outperformance was due to skill rather than luck, and which managers will do well in the future.
Investment funds run by investment managers who closely mirror the index in their managed portfolios and offer little "added value" as managers whilst charging fees for active management are called 'closet trackers'; that is they do not in truth actively manage the fund but furtively mirror the index.
The first step to implementing an index-based passive investment strategy is choosing a rules-based, transparent, and investable index consistent with the investment strategy's desired market exposure. Investment strategies are defined by their objectives and constraints, which are stated in their Investment Policy Statements. For equity passive investment strategies, the desired market exposures could vary by equity market segment (broad market vs. industry sectors, domestic vs. international), by style (value, growth, blend/core), or by other factors (high or low momentum, low volatility, quality).
Index rules could include the frequency at which index constituents are re-balanced, and criteria for including such constituents. These rules should be objective, consistent and predictable. Index transparency means that index constituents and rules are clearly disclosed, which ensures that investors can replicate the index. Index investability means that the index performance can be reasonably replicated by investing in the market. In the simplest case, investability means that all constituents of an index can be purchased on a public exchange.
Once an index has been chosen, an index fund can be implemented through various methods, financial instruments, and combinations thereof.
Passive management can be achieved through holding the following instruments or a combination of the following instruments.
Index funds are mutual funds that try to replicate the returns of an index by purchasing securities in the same proportion as in the stock market index. Some funds replicate index returns through sampling (e.g., buying stocks of each kind and sector in the index but not necessarily some of each individual stock), and there are sophisticated versions of sampling (e.g., those that seek to buy those particular shares that have the best chance of good performance). Investment funds that employ passive investment strategies to track the performance of a stock market index are known as index funds.
Exchange-traded funds are open-ended, pooled, registered funds that are traded on public exchanges. A fund manager manages the underlying portfolio of the ETF much like an index fund, and tracks a particular index or particular indices. "Authorized participant" acts as market makers for the ETF and delivers securities with the same allocation of the underlying fund to the fund manager in exchange for ETF units and vice versa. ETFs usually offer investors easy trading, low management fees, tax efficiency, and the ability to leverage using borrowed margin.
Index futures contracts are futures contacts on the price of particular indices. Stock market index futures offer investors easy trading, ability to leverage through notional exposure, and no management fees. However, futures contracts expire, so they must be rolled over periodically for a cost. As well, only relatively popular stock market indices have futures contracts, so portfolio managers might not get exactly the exposure they want using available futures contracts. The use of futures contracts is also highly regulated, given the amount leverage they allow investors. Portfolio managers sometimes uses stock market index futures contracts as short-term investment vehicles to quickly adjust index exposure, while replacing those exposures with cash exposures over longer periods.
Options on Index Futures Contracts are options on futures contracts of particular indices. Options offer investors asymmetric payoffs that could limit their risk of loss (or gain, depending on the option) to just the premiums they paid for the option. They also offer investors the ability to leverage their exposure to stock market indices since option premiums are lower than the amount of index exposure afforded by the options.
Stock Market Index Swaps are swap contracts typically negotiated between two parties to swap for a stock market index return in exchange for another source of return, typically a fixed income or money market return. Swap contracts exposure investors to counterparty credit risk, low liquidity risk, interest rate risk, and tax policy risk. However, swap contracts can be negotiated for whatever index the parties agree to use as underlying index, and for however long the parties agree to set the contract, so investors could potentially negotiate swaps more compatible with their investment needs than funds, ETFs, and futures contracts.
Full replication in index investing means that manager holds all securities represented by the index in weights that closely match the index weights. Full replication is easy to comprehend and explain to investors, and mechanically tracks the index performance. However, full replication requires that all the index components have sufficient investment capacity and liquidity, and that the assets under investment management is large enough to make investments in all components of the index.
Stratified sampling in index investing means that managers hold sub-sets of securities sampled from distinct sub-groups, or strata, of stocks in the index. The various strata imposed on the index should be mutually exclusive, exhaustive (sum to make up the whole index), and reflective of the characteristics and performance of the entire index. Common stratification techniques include industrial sector membership (such as sector membership defined by Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS)), equity style characteristics, and country affiliation. Sampling within each strata could be based on minimum market-cap criteria, or other criteria that mimics the weighting scheme of the index.
Optimization sampling in index investing means that managers hold a sub-set of securities generated from an optimization process that minimizes the index tracking error of a portfolio subject to constraints. These sub-sets of securities do not have to adher to common stock sub-groups. Common constraints include the number of securities, market-cap limits, stock liquidity, and stock lot size.
Globally diversified portfolios of index funds are used by investment advisors who invest passively for their clients based on the principle that underperforming markets will be balanced by other markets that outperform. A Loring Ward report in Advisor Perspectives showed how international diversification worked over the 10-year period from 2000–2010, with the Morgan Stanley Capital Index for emerging markets generating ten-year returns of 154 percent balancing the blue-chip S&P 500 index, which lost 9.1 percent over the same period – a historically rare event. The report noted that passive portfolios diversified in international asset classes generate more stable returns, particularly if rebalanced regularly.
State Street Global Advisors has long engaged companies on issues of corporate governance. Passive managers can vote against a board of directors using a large number of shares. Being forced to own stock on certain companies by the funds' charters, State Street pressures about principles of diversity, including gender diversity.
The Bank of America estimated in 2017 that 37 percent of the value of U.S. funds (not including privately held assets) were in passive investments such as index funds and index ETFs. The same year, BlackRock estimated that 17.5 percent of the global stock market was managed passively; in contrast, 25.6 percent was managed by active funds or institutional accounts, and 57 percent was privately held and presumably does not track an index. Similarly, Vanguard stated in 2018 that index funds own "15% of the value of all global equities".
Research conducted by the World Pensions Council (WPC) suggests that 15% to 20% of overall assets held by large pension funds and national social security funds are invested in various forms of passive funds- as opposed to the more traditional actively managed mandates which still constitute the largest share of institutional investments. The proportion invested in passive funds varies widely across jurisdictions and fund type.
The relative appeal of passive funds such as ETFs and other index-replicating investment vehicles has grown rapidly for various reasons ranging from disappointment with underperforming actively managed mandates to the broader tendency towards cost reduction across public services and social benefits that followed the 2008-2012 Great Recession. Public-sector pensions and national reserve funds have been among the early adopters of passive management strategies.
Analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC have criticized passive management as "worse than Marxism".
In their view, active market management and Marxism try to allocate resources optimally, while passive management increases correlation of stocks and impedes efficiency. Therefore, they advise policymakers to not undermine active management.
Analysts at Emperor Investments,Inc. argue that by the law of unintended consequences the rise of passive investing makes the market more and more inefficient, which in turn makes active investing more profitable.
A number of other prominent investors have criticized passive management on a variety of grounds. Carl Icahn, Howard Marks and Michael Burry argue that passive indexing has led to distortion of stock prices or a bubble, particularly in the price of large company stocks; while Nobel Memorial Prize winner Robert Shiller described passive indexing as "a chaotic system". Jeffrey Gundlach asserts that passive management has become a "mania" and an example of "herding behavior". Jack Bogle, who popularized passive investing in the 1970s with Vanguard, raised concerns in 2018 about the three largest US passive investing firms (Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street) holding a disproportionate share of voting control over US corporations.
It has been argued that large institutional investors owning shares across several companies in the same sector lead to reduced competition and higher prices to consumers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24118 |
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII (; ) (26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534), born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534.
“The most unfortunate of the Popes,” Clement VII’s reign was marked by a rapid succession of political, military, and religious struggles—many long in the making—which had far-reaching consequences for Christianity and world politics.
Elected in 1523 at the end of the Italian Renaissance, Clement VII came to the papacy with a high reputation as a statesman. He had served with distinction as chief advisor to Pope Leo X (1513–1521), Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523), and commendably as gran maestro of Florence (1519–1523). Assuming leadership at a time of crisis, with the Protestant Reformation spreading; the Church nearing bankruptcy; and large, foreign armies invading Italy, Clement VII initially tried to unite Christendom by making peace among the many Christian leaders then at odds. He later attempted to liberate Italy from foreign occupation, believing that it threatened the Church's freedom.
The complex political situation of the 1520s thwarted Clement's efforts. Inheriting daunting challenges, including Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe; a vast power struggle in Italy between Europe’s two most powerful kings, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France, each of whom demanded that the Pope choose a side; and Turkish invasions of Eastern Europe led by Suleiman the Magnificent; Clement's problems were exacerbated by King Henry VIII of England’s contentious divorce, resulting in England breaking away from the Catholic Church; and in 1527, souring relations with Emperor Charles V leading to the violent Sack of Rome, during which the Pope was imprisoned. After escaping confinement in the Castel Sant'Angelo, Clement—with few economic, military, or political options remaining—compromised the Church's and Italy's independence by allying with his former jailor, Emperor Charles V.
In contrast to his tortured Papacy, Clement VII was personally respectable and devout, possessing a “dignified propriety of character,” “great acquirements both theological and scientific,” as well as “extraordinary address and penetration—Clement VII, in serener times, might have administered the Papal power with high reputation and enviable prosperity. But with all of his profound insight into the political affairs of Europe, Clement does not seem to have comprehended the altered position of the Pope” in relation to Europe’s emerging nation-states and Protestantism.
In matters of science, Clement VII is best known for personally approving, in 1533, Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun—99 years before Galileo Galilei’s heresy trial for similar ideas. Ecclesiastically, Clement VII is remembered for issuing orders protecting Jews from the Inquisition, approving the Capuchin Franciscan Order, and securing the island of Malta for the Knights of Malta.
Giulio de' Medici's life began under tragic circumstances. On April 26, 1478 — exactly one month before his birth — his father, Giuliano de Medici (brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent) was murdered in the Florence Cathedral by enemies of his family, in what is now known as “The Pazzi Conspiracy”. He was born illegitimately on May 26, 1478, in Florence; the exact identity of his mother remains unknown, although a plurality of scholars contend that it was Fioretta Gorini, the daughter of a university professor. Giulio spent the first seven years of life with his godfather, the architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder.
Thereafter, Lorenzo the Magnificent raised him as one of his own sons, alongside his children Giovanni (the future Pope Leo X), Piero, and Giuliano. Educated at the Palazzo Medici in Florence by humanists like Angelo Poliziano, and alongside prodigies like Michelangelo, Giulio became an accomplished musician. In personality he was reputed to be shy, and in physical appearance, handsome.
Giulio's natural inclination was for the clergy, but his illegitimacy barred him from high-ranking positions in the Church. So Lorenzo the Magnificent helped him carve out a career as a soldier. He was enrolled in the Knights of Rhodes, but also became Grand Prior of Capua. In 1492, when Lorenzo the Magnificent died and Giovanni de' Medici assumed his duties as a cardinal, Giulio became more involved in Church affairs. He studied canon law at the University of Pisa, and accompanied Giovanni to the conclave of 1492, where Rodrigo Borgia was elected Pope Alexander VI.
Following the misfortunes of Lorenzo the Magnificent's firstborn son, Piero the Unfortunate, the Medici were expelled from Florence in 1494. Over the next six years, Cardinal Giovanni and Giulio wandered throughout Europe together — twice getting themselves arrested (first in Ulm, Germany, and later in Rouen, France). Each time Piero the Unfortunate bailed them out. In 1500, both returned to Italy and concentrated their efforts on re-establishing their family in Florence. Only in 1512, with the assistance of Pope Julius II and the Spanish troops of Ferdinand of Aragon, did the Medici retake control of the city.
In 1510, while the Medici were living near Rome, a servant in their household — identified in documents as Simonetta da Collevecchio — became pregnant, ultimately giving birth to a son, Alessandro de' Medici. Nicknamed “il Moro” (“the Moor”) due to his dark complexion, Alessandro was officially recognized as the illegitimate son of Lorenzo II de Medici; however, at the time and to this day, various scholars suggest that Alessandro was, in truth, the illegitimate son of Giulio de' Medici. The truth of his lineage remains unknown and debated.
Regardless of his paternity, throughout Alessandro's brief life, Giulio — as Pope Clement VII — showed him great favoritism, elevating Alessandro over Ippolito de Medici to become Florence's first hereditary monarch, despite the latter's comparable qualifications. Thus Alessandro de' Medici became the first black head of state in the modern Western World.
Giulio de' Medici appeared on the world stage in March 1513, at the age of 35, when his cousin Giovanni de' Medici was elected Pope, taking the name Leo X. Pope Leo X reigned until his death on 1 December 1521.
“Learned, clever, respectable, and industrious,” Giulio de’ Medici’s reputation and responsibilities grew at a rapid pace, unusual even for the Renaissance. Within three months of Leo X’s election, he was named Archbishop of Florence. Later that autumn, all barriers to his attaining the Church’s highest offices were removed by a papal dispensation declaring his birth legitimate. It stated that his parents had been betrothed , (i.e. "wed according to the word of those present.”) Whether or not this was true, it allowed Leo X to create him cardinal during the first papal consistory on 23 September 1513. On 29 September, he was appointed Cardinal Deacon of Santa Maria in Dominica — a position that had been vacated by the Pope.
The cardinal's reputation during the reign of Leo X is recorded by contemporary Marco Minio, the Venetian ambassador to the Papal Court, who wrote in a letter to the Venetian Senate in 1519: "Cardinal de' Medici, the Pope’s cardinal nephew, who is not legitimate, has great power with the Pope; he is a man of great competence and great authority; he resides with the Pope, and does nothing of importance without first consulting him. But he is returning to Florence to govern the city.”
While Cardinal de' Medici wasn’t officially appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Church (second-in-command) until 9 March 1517, in practice Leo X governed in partnership with his cousin from the beginning. Initially, the cardinal's duties centered primarily on administering Church affairs in Florence and conducting international relations. His diplomatic role began in January 1514, when King Henry VIII of England appointed him Cardinal protector of England. The following year, King Francis I of France nominated him to become Archbishop of Narbonne, and in 1516 named him cardinal protector of France. In a scenario typical of the cardinal's independent-minded statesmanship – the respective kings of England and France, recognizing a conflict of interest in Medici protecting both countries simultaneously, brought pressure to bear on him to resign his other protectorship; however, to their dismay, he refused.
That Medici’s loyalties didn’t lie with foreign alliances became apparent in 1521, when a personal rivalry between King Francis I and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V boiled over into war in northern Italy. Francis I expected Medici, his cardinal protector, to support France; however, Medici perceived the French King as threatening the Church’s independence – particularly the latter's control of Lombardy, and his use of the Concordat of Bologna to control the Church in France. Thus in 1521 Medici negotiated an alliance against France with Emperor Charles V – thereby gaining an ally to combat Lutheranism, then growing in the Emperor's German territories. That autumn, he helped lead a victorious Imperial-Papal army over the French in Milan and Lombardy. While Medici’s strategy of shifting alliances to liberate the Church (and later Italy) from foreign domination proved disastrous during his reign as Pope Clement VII, during the reign of Leo X it skillfully maintained a balance of power among the competing international factions seeking to influence the Church.
Cardinal de' Medici’s other endeavors on behalf of Pope Leo X were similarly successful, such that "he had the credit of being the prime mover of papal policy throughout the whole of Leo’s pontificate." Interested in Church reform, Medici organized and presided over the Florentine Synod of 1517, where he became the first member of the Church to implement the reforms recommended by the Fifth Lateran Council. These included prohibiting priests from carrying arms, frequenting taverns, and dancing provocatively – while urging them to attend weekly confession. Similarly, Medici’s artistic patronage was admired, (e.g. his commissioning Raphael’s "Transfiguration" and Michelangelo’s "Medici Chapel", among other works discussed elsewhere,) particularly for what goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini later described as "excellent taste".
Giulio de’ Medici governed Florence between 1519 and 1523, following the death of its civic ruler, Lorenzo II de Medici, in 1519. U.S. President John Adams later characterized Giulio's administration of Florence as "very successful and frugal." Adams chronicles the cardinal as having "reduced the business of the magistrates, elections, customs of office, and the mode of expenditure of public money, in such a manner that it produced a great and universal joy among the citizens."
On the death of Pope Leo X in 1521, Adams writes there was a "ready inclination in all of the principal citizens [of Florence], and a universal desire among the people, to maintain the state in the hands of the Cardinal de’ Medici; and all this felicity arose from his good government, which since the death of the Duke Lorenzo, had been universally agreeable." Medici’s rule of Florence lasted until 1523, when he was elected Pope Clement VII.
According to Adams, in 1522, rumors began to swirl that Cardinal de' Medici – lacking legitimate successors in Florence – planned to abdicate rule of the city and "leave the government freely in the people." When it became clear that these rumors were untrue, a faction of mostly elite Florentines hatched a plot to assassinate him, and then install their own government under Medici's "great adversary", Cardinal Francesco Soderini. Soderini encouraged the plot, exhorting both Pope Adrian VI and Francis I of France to strike against Medici and invade the latter's allies in Sicily; however, this did not happen. Instead of breaking with Medici, Pope Adrian VI had Cardinal Soderini imprisoned. Afterwards, the principal conspirators were "declared rebels", and some were "apprehended and beheaded; by which means the Cardinal was again secured [as leader of Florence]."
At Pope Leo X's death in 1521, Cardinal Medici was considered especially papabile in the protracted conclave. Although unable to gain the Papacy for himself or his ally Alessandro Farnese (both preferred candidates of Emperor Charles V (1519–56)), he took a leading part in determining the unexpected election of the short-lived Pope Adrian VI (1522–23), with whom he also wielded formidable influence. Following Adrian VI's death on 14 September 1523, Medici overcame the opposition of the French king and finally succeeded in being elected Pope Clement VII in the next conclave (19 November 1523).
Pope Leo brought to the papal throne a high reputation for political ability and possessed in fact all the accomplishments of a wily diplomat. However, he was considered by his contemporaries as worldly and indifferent to the perceived dangers of the Protestant Reformation.
At his accession, Clement VII sent the Archbishop of Capua, Nikolaus von Schönberg, to the Kings of France, Spain, and England, in order to bring the Italian War to an end. An early report from the Protonotary Marino Ascanio Caracciolo to the Emperor records: "As the Turks threaten to conquer Christian states, it seems to him that it is his first duty as Pope to bring about a general peace of all Christian princes, and he begs him (the Emperor), as the firstborn son of the Church, to aid him in this pious work." But the pope's attempt failed.
Francis I of France's conquest of Milan in 1524, during his Italian campaign of 1524–1525, prompted the Pope to quit the Imperial–Spanish side and to ally himself with other Italian princes, including the Republic of Venice, and France in January 1525. This treaty granted the definitive acquisition of Parma and Piacenza for the Papal States, the rule of Medici over Florence and the free passage of the French troops to Naples. This policy in itself was sound and patriotic, but Clement VII's zeal soon cooled; by his want of foresight and unseasonable economy, he laid himself open to an attack from the turbulent Roman barons, which obliged him to invoke the mediation of the emperor, Charles V. One month later, Francis I was crushed and imprisoned in the Battle of Pavia, and Clement VII went deeper in his former engagements with Charles V, signing an alliance with the viceroy of Naples.
But deeply concerned about Imperial arrogance, he was to pick up with France again when Francis I was freed after the Treaty of Madrid (1526): the Pope entered into the League of Cognac together with France, Venice, and Francesco II Sforza of Milan. Clement VII issued an invective against Charles V, who in reply defined him a "wolf" instead of a "shepherd", menacing the summoning of a council about the Lutheran question.
Like his cousin Pope Leo X, Clement was considered too generous to his Medici relatives, draining the Vatican treasuries. This included the assignment of positions all the way up to Cardinal, lands, titles, and money. These actions prompted reform measures after Clement's death to help prevent such excessive nepotism.
In his bull "Intra Arcana" Clement VII gave a grant of permissions and privileges to Charles V and the Spanish Empire, which included patronage power over their colonies in the Americas.
The Pope's wavering politics also caused the rise of the Imperial party inside the Curia: Cardinal Pompeo Colonna's soldiers pillaged Vatican Hill and gained control of the whole of Rome in his name. The humiliated Pope promised therefore to bring the Papal States to the Imperial side again. But soon after, Colonna left the siege and went to Naples, not keeping his promises and dismissing the Cardinal from his charge. From this point on, Clement VII could do nothing but follow the fate of the French party to the end.
Soon he found himself alone in Italy too, as Alfonso d'Este, duke of Ferrara, had supplied artillery to the Imperial army, causing the League Army to keep a distance behind the horde of Landsknechts led by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and Georg von Frundsberg, allowing them to reach Rome without harm.
Charles of Bourbon died while mounting a ladder during the short siege and his starving troops, unpaid and left without a guide, felt free to ravage Rome from 6 May 1527. The many incidents of murder, rape, and vandalism that followed ended the splendours of Renaissance Rome forever. Clement VII, who had displayed no more resolution in his military than in his political conduct, was shortly afterwards (6 June) obliged to surrender himself together with the Castel Sant'Angelo, where he had taken refuge. He agreed to pay a ransom of 400,000 ducati in exchange for his life; conditions included the cession of Parma, Piacenza, Civitavecchia, and Modena to the Holy Roman Empire. (Only the last could be occupied in fact.) At the same time, Venice took advantage of his situation to capture Cervia and Ravenna while Sigismondo Malatesta returned in Rimini.
Clement was kept as a prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo for six months. After having bought off some Imperial officers, he escaped disguised as a peddler and took shelter in Orvieto and then in Viterbo. He came back to a depopulated and devastated Rome only in October 1528.
Meanwhile, in Florence, Republican enemies of the Medici took advantage of the chaos to again expel the Pope's family from the city.
In June 1529 the warring parties signed the Peace of Barcelona. The Papal States regained some cities and Charles V agreed to restore the Medici to power in Florence. In 1530, after an eleven-month siege, the Tuscan city capitulated and Clement VII installed his illegitimate nephew Alessandro as duke. Subsequently, the Pope followed a policy of subservience to the emperor, endeavouring on the one hand to induce him to act with severity against the Lutherans in Germany and on the other to avoid his demands for a general council.
During his half-year imprisonment in 1527, Clement VII grew a full beard as a sign of mourning for the sack of Rome. This was in contradiction to Catholic canon law, which required priests to be clean-shaven; however, it had the precedent of the beard which Pope Julius II had worn for nine months in 1511–12 as a similar sign of mourning for the loss of the papal city of Bologna.
Unlike Julius II, however, Clement VII kept his beard until his death in 1534. His example in wearing a beard was followed by his successor, Paul III, and indeed by twenty-four popes who followed him, down to Innocent XII, who died in 1700. Clement VII was thus the unintentional originator of a fashion that lasted well over a century.
In 1532, Clement VII took possession of Ancona which definitively lost its freedom and became part of the Papal States, ending hundreds of years when the Republic of Ancona was an important maritime power.
By the late 1520s, King Henry VIII wanted to have his marriage to Charles's aunt Catherine of Aragon annulled. The couple's sons died in infancy, threatening the future of the House of Tudor, although Henry did have a daughter, Mary Tudor. Henry claimed that this lack of a male heir was because his marriage was "blighted in the eyes of God". Catherine had been his brother's widow, but the marriage had been childless, thus the marriage was not against Old Testament law, which forbids only such unions if the brother had children. Moreover, a special dispensation from Pope Julius II had been given to allow the wedding. Henry now argued that this had been wrong and that his marriage had never been valid. In 1527 Henry asked Pope Clement to annul the marriage, but the Pope, possibly acting under pressure from Catherine's nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, whose effective prisoner he was, refused. According to Catholic teaching, a validly contracted marriage is indivisible until death, and thus the pope cannot annul a marriage on the basis of an impediment previously dispensed. Many people close to Henry wished simply to ignore the Pope; but in October 1530 a meeting of clergy and lawyers advised that the English Parliament could not empower the Archbishop of Canterbury to act against the Pope's prohibition. In Parliament, Bishop John Fisher was the Pope's champion.
Henry subsequently underwent a marriage ceremony with Anne Boleyn, in either late 1532 or early 1533. The marriage was made easier by the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham, a stalwart friend of the Pope, after which Henry persuaded Clement to appoint Thomas Cranmer, a friend of the Boleyn family, as his successor. The Pope granted the papal bulls necessary for Cranmer’s promotion to Canterbury, and he also demanded that Cranmer take the customary oath of allegiance to the pope before his consecration. Laws made under Henry already declared that bishops would be consecrated even without papal approval. Cranmer was consecrated, while declaring beforehand that he did not agree with the oath he would take. Cranmer was prepared to grant the annulment of the marriage to Catherine as Henry required. The Pope responded to the marriage by excommunicating both Henry and Cranmer from the Catholic Church.
Consequently, in England, in the same year, the Act of Conditional Restraint of Annates transferred the taxes on ecclesiastical income from the Pope to the Crown. The Peter's Pence Act outlawed the annual payment by landowners of one penny to the Pope. This act also reiterated that England had "no superior under God, but only your Grace" and that Henry's "imperial crown" had been diminished by "the unreasonable and uncharitable usurpations and exactions" of the Pope. Ultimately, in 1534, Henry led the English Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy that established the independent Church of England and breaking from the Catholic Church.
A discerning patron, Clement VII personally commissioned Michelangelo’s "The Last Judgment" for the Sistine Chapel, and Raphael’s masterpiece, "The Transfiguration", as well as celebrated works by Benvenuto Cellini, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Parmigianino, among others. Artistic trends of the era are sometimes called the “Clementine style,” and notable for their virtuosity. Clement VII is also remembered for having been the patron of Benvenuto Cellini.
In 1533, Johann Widmanstetter (alternately called John Widmanstad), a secretary of Pope Clement VII, explained the Copernican system to the Pope and two cardinals. The Pope was so pleased that he gave Widmanstetter a valuable gift.
Towards the end of his life, Clement VII once more gave indications of a leaning towards a French alliance. His plans to ally the House of Medici with the French royal family bore fruit in the betrothal of the Pope's niece, Catherine de' Medici, to Henri, the son of King Francis I. Before setting out, the Pope issued a Bull on 3 September 1533 giving instructions as to what was to be done in the event that he died outside Rome. In September 1533 the Pope set out for France to solemnize the marriage. The marriage took place in Marseille on 28 October 1533. On 7 November in Marseille Pope Clement created four new cardinals, all four of them French. He also held private meetings with both Francis I and Charles V, though separately.
He returned to Rome on 10 December 1533, complaining of stomach problems and showing a fever. This was not a new illness. The Pope had been so ill at the beginning of August that year that Cardinal Agostino Trivulzio wrote to King Francis that the Pope's doctors had begun to fear that the Pope was in danger of dying. On 23 September 1533, Clement wrote a long letter of farewell to Charles V. He also ordered, just a few days before his death, Michelangelo's painting of "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel. He died on 25 September 1534, having lived 56 years and four months, and having reigned for 10 years, 10 months, and 7 days.
It has been said that he died from eating poisonous mushrooms, but the symptoms and length of illness do not fit this hypothesis. Nor do they account for the effects on his illness of two sea voyages within two months. In the words of his biographer Emmanuel Rodocanachi, "In accordance with the custom of those times, people attributed his death to poison." His body was interred in Saint Peter's Basilica, and later transferred to a permanent tomb in the Choir of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.
Historians usually tend to regard Pope Clement VII as incompetent and unsuccessful in his role - some say disastrous. While he was seen as adept and even statesman-like in protecting the interests of the Medici family, he was seen as indecisive, easily distracted and incapable of managing effectively the difficult political, religious and financial problems facing the papacy. As a result, Clement is not so much remembered for anything he accomplished as these were easily overshadowed by the major historical events that occurred during his reign, not least the Sack of Rome and the unchecked momentum of the Reformation. The people of Rome at the time hated Pope Clement VII and rejoiced his death because they never forgave him for the destruction of 1527 during the sack of Rome. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24119 |
Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII (; 24 February 1536 – 5 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in 1605. Born in Fano, Italy to a prominent Florentine family, he initially came to prominence as a canon lawyer before being made a Cardinal-Priest in 1585. In 1592 he was elected Pope and took the name of Clement. During his papacy he effected the reconciliation of Henry IV of France to the Catholic faith and was instrumental in setting up an alliance of Christian nations to oppose the Ottoman Empire in the so-called Long War. He also successfully adjudicated in a bitter dispute between the Dominicans and the Jesuits on the issue of efficacious grace and free will. In 1600 he presided over a jubilee which saw many pilgrimages to Rome. He had little pity for his opponents, presiding over the trial and execution of Giordano Bruno and implementing strict measures against Jewish residents of the Papal States. He may have been the first pope to drink coffee. Clement VIII died at the age of 69 in 1605 and his remains now rest in the Santa Maria Maggiore.
He was from a Florentine family, and followed his father as a canon lawyer, becoming an Auditor (judge) of the Roman Rota, the highest ecclesiastical court constituted by the Holy See. He was only ordained as a priest at the age of 45, and rose to Pope in a further 12 years. He was an effective, if sometimes ruthless, administrator.
He was made Cardinal-Priest of S. Pancrazio in 1585 by Pope Sixtus V, who named him major penitentiary in January 1586 and in 1588 sent him as legate in Poland. He placed himself under the direction of the reformer Philip Neri, who for thirty years was his confessor. Aldobrandini won the gratitude of the Habsburgs by his successful diplomatic efforts in Poland to obtain the release of the imprisoned Archduke Maximilian, the defeated claimant to the Polish throne.
After the death of Pope Innocent IX (1591), another stormy conclave ensued, in which a determined minority of Italian Cardinals were unwilling to be dictated to by Philip II of Spain. Known to be very intelligent, disciplined, and in tune with the inter workings of the Church, Cardinal Aldobrandini's election on 30 January 1592 was received as a portent of more balanced and liberal Papal policy in European affairs. He took the non-politicised name Clement VIII. He proved to be an able Pope, with an unlimited capacity for work, a lawyer's eye for detail, and a wise statesman, the general object of whose policy was to free the Papacy from its dependence upon Spain.
In November 1592, he published the Clementine Vulgate. It was issued with the Bull "Cum Sacrorum" (9 November 1592) which asserted that every subsequent edition must be assimilated to this one, no word of the text may be changed, nor even variant readings printed in the margin. This new official version of the Vulgate, known as the Clementine Vulgate" "or Sixto-Clementine Vulgate"," became the official Bible of the Catholic Church.""
In 1597, he established the Congregatio de Auxiliis which was to settle the theological controversy between the Dominican Order and the Jesuits concerning the respective role of efficacious grace and free will. Although the debate tended toward a condemnation of Molinism's insistence on free will to the detriment of efficacious grace, the important influence of the Jesuit Order — among other considerations — which, beside important political and theological power in Europe, had also various missions abroad (Misiones Jesuiticas in South America, missions in China, etc.), led the Pope to abstain from an official condemnation of the Jesuits. In 1611 and again in 1625 a decree prohibited any discussion of the matter, although it was often informally avoided by the publication of commentaries on Thomas Aquinas.
During the jubilee of 1600, three million pilgrims visited the holy places. The Synod of Brest was held 1595 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, by which a great part of the Ruthenian clergy and people were reunited to Rome.
Clement VIII canonised Hyacinth (17 April 1594), Julian of Cuenca (18 October 1594), and Raymond of Peñafort (1601). He beatified 205 individuals, 200 of them being group martyrs; notable individuals he named as Blessed included Carlo Borromeo.
The pope created 53 cardinals in six consistories during his pontificate; he named his two nephews Pietro and Cinzio Passeri as cardinals. Notable cardinals named during his reign included Camillo Borghese (his successor Pope Paul V) as well as the noted theologians Roberto Bellarmino and Cesare Baronio.
The most remarkable event of Clement VIII's reign was the reconciliation to the Church of Henry IV of France (1589–1610), after long negotiations, carried on with great dexterity through Cardinal Arnaud d'Ossat, that resolved the complicated situation in France. Henry embraced Catholicism on 25 July 1593. After a pause to assess Henry IV's sincerity, Clement VIII braved Spanish displeasure, and in the autumn of 1595 he solemnly absolved Henry IV, thus putting an end to the thirty years' religious war in France.
Henry IV's friendship was of essential importance to the Papacy two years later, when Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, died childless (27 October 1597), and the Pope resolved to attach the stronghold of the Este family to the states of the Church. Though Spain and the Emperor Rudolf II encouraged Alfonso II's illegitimate cousin, Cesare d'Este, to withstand the Pope, they were deterred from giving him any material aid by Henry IV's threats, and a papal army entered Ferrara almost unopposed.
In 1598 Clement VIII won more credit for the papacy by bringing about a definite treaty of peace between Spain and France in the Peace of Vervins, this put an end to their long contest, and he negotiated peace between France and Savoy as well.
In 1595, Clement VIII initiated an alliance of Christian European powers to take part in the war with the Ottoman Empire, fought mainly in Hungary, which would become known as the "Long War" and would continue past Clement's own lifetime. Facilitated by the Pope, a treaty of alliance was signed in Prague by Emperor Rudolf II and Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania. Aron Vodă of Moldavia and Michael the Brave of Wallachia joined the alliance later that year. Clement VIII himself lent the Emperor valuable assistance in men and money.
Clement VIII was as vigorous as Pope Sixtus V (1585–90) in crushing banditry in the papal provinces of Umbria and the Marche and in punishing the lawlessness of the Roman nobility. Upon his ascension to the papal throne in 1592, he immediately had several noble troublemakers put to death. These included most famously Troio Savelli, scion of a powerful ancient Roman family, and the youthful and noble Beatrice Cenci, who had murdered her father – probably as a consequence of his repeated abuses. The latter case prompted many requests of clemency – rejected by the Pope, who passed the confiscated Cenci property to his own family.
Clement's strict ways also concerned philosophical and religious matters. In 1599 he ordered the Italian miller Menocchio – who had formed the belief that God was not eternal but had Himself once been created out of chaos – to be burned at the stake. A more famous case was the trial for heresy of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake in 1600. Pope Clement VIII participated personally in the final phases of the trial, inviting the Cardinals in charge of the case to proceed with the verdict.
Clement VIII tightened measures against the Jewish inhabitants of his territories. In 1592, the papal bull "Cum saepe accidere" forbade the Jewish community of the Comtat Venaissin of Avignon, a papal enclave, to sell new goods, putting them at an economic disadvantage. In 1593, the bull "Caeca et Obdurata" reiterated Pope Pius V's decree of 1569 which banned Jews from living in the Papal states outside the cities of Rome, Ancona, and Avignon. The main effect of the bull was to evict Jews who had returned to areas of the Papal States (mainly Umbria) after 1586 (following their expulsion in 1569) and to expel Jewish communities from cities like Bologna (which had been incorporated under papal dominion since 1569). The bull also alleged that Jews in the Papal States had engaged in usury and exploited the hospitality of Clement VIII's predecessors "who, in order to lead them from their darkness to knowledge of the true faith, deemed it opportune to use the clemency of Christian piety towards them" (alluding to "Christiana pietas"). With the bull "Cum Hebraeorum malitia" a few days later, Clement VIII also forbade the reading of the Talmud.
Clement VIII was afflicted by gout, and was forced to spend much of his later life immobilized in bed. He suddenly became ill on 10 February 1605 and his condition rapidly deteriorated over the next few weeks. He died on 3 March 1605 around midnight, leaving a reputation for prudence, munificence, ruthlessness and capacity for business. Clement was buried in St. Peter's Basilica, and later Pope Paul V (1605–21) had a mausoleum built for him in the Borghese Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the remains were transferred in 1646.
His reign is especially distinguished by the number and beauty of his medals. Clement VIII founded the Collegio Clementino for the education of the sons of the richer classes, and augmented the number of national colleges in Rome by opening the Collegio Scozzese for the training of missionaries to Scotland.
Coffee aficionados often claim that the spread of its popularity among Catholics is due to Pope Clement VIII's influence. He was pressed by his advisers to denounce coffee. However, upon tasting coffee, Pope Clement VIII declared: "Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it." Clement allegedly blessed the bean because it appeared better for the people than alcoholic beverages. The year often cited is 1600. It is not clear whether this is a true story, but it may have been found amusing at the time. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24120 |
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese and attempt to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse, Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from the Achaemenid Empire, supported rebellions in Athens's subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens's empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens's fleet in the Battle of Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved, but Sparta refused.
Although the term "Peloponnesian War" was never used by Thucydides, one of the conflict's most important historians, the fact that the term is all but universally used today is a reflection of the Athens-centric sympathies of modern historians. As prominent historian J. B. Bury remarks, the Peloponnesians would have considered it the "Attic War".
The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world. On the level of international relations, Athens, the strongest city-state in Greece prior to the war's beginning, was reduced to a state of near-complete subjection, while Sparta became established as the leading power of Greece. The economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece; poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens was completely devastated, and never regained its pre-war prosperity. The war also wrought subtler changes to Greek society; the conflict between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta, each of which supported friendly political factions within other states, made war a common occurrence in the Greek world.
Ancient Greek warfare, meanwhile, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into an all-out struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Shattering religious and cultural taboos, devastating vast swathes of countryside, and destroying whole cities, the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece.
The Peloponnesian War was soon followed by the Corinthian War (394-386 BC), which, although it ended inconclusively, helped Athens regain some of its former greatness.
As the preeminent Athenian historian, Thucydides, wrote in his influential "History of the Peloponnesian War", "The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable." Indeed, the nearly fifty years of Greek history that preceded the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War had been marked by the development of Athens as a major power in the Mediterranean world. Its empire began as a small group of city-states, called the Delian League—from the island of Delos, on which they kept their treasury—that came together to ensure that the Greco-Persian Wars were truly over. After defeating the Second Persian invasion of Greece in the year 480 BC, Athens led the coalition of Greek city-states that continued the Greco-Persian Wars with attacks on Persian territories in the Aegean and Ionia. What then ensued was a period, referred to as the Pentecontaetia (the name given by Thucydides), in which Athens increasingly became in fact an empire, carrying out an aggressive war against Persia and increasingly dominating other city-states. Athens proceeded to bring under its control all of Greece except for Sparta and its allies, ushering in a period which is known to history as the Athenian Empire. By the middle of the century, the Persians had been driven from the Aegean and forced to cede control of a vast range of territories to Athens. At the same time, Athens greatly increased its own power; a number of its formerly independent allies were reduced, over the course of the century, to the status of tribute-paying subject states of the Delian League. This tribute was used to support a powerful fleet and, after the middle of the century, to fund massive public works programs in Athens, causing resentment.
Friction between Athens and the Peloponnesian states, including Sparta, began early in the Pentecontaetia; in the wake of the departure of the Persians from Greece, Sparta attempted to prevent the reconstruction of the walls of Athens (without the walls, Athens would have been defenseless against a land attack and subject to Spartan control), but was rebuffed. According to Thucydides, although the Spartans took no action at this time, they "secretly felt aggrieved".
Conflict between the states flared up again in 465 BC, when a helot revolt broke out in Sparta. The Spartans summoned forces from all of their allies, including Athens, to help them suppress the revolt. Athens sent out a sizable contingent (4,000 hoplites), but upon its arrival, this force was dismissed by the Spartans, while those of all the other allies were permitted to remain. According to Thucydides, the Spartans acted in this way out of fear that the Athenians would switch sides and support the helots; the offended Athenians repudiated their alliance with Sparta. When the rebellious helots were finally forced to surrender and permitted to evacuate the state, the Athenians settled them at the strategic city of Naupaktos on the Gulf of Corinth.
In 459 BC, Athens took advantage of a war between its neighbors Megara and Corinth, both Spartan allies, to conclude an alliance with Megara, giving the Athenians a critical foothold on the Isthmus of Corinth. A fifteen-year conflict, commonly known as the First Peloponnesian War, ensued, in which Athens fought intermittently against Sparta, Corinth, Aegina, and a number of other states. For a time during this conflict, Athens controlled not only Megara but also Boeotia; at its end, however, in the face of a massive Spartan invasion of Attica, the Athenians ceded the lands they had won on the Greek mainland, and Athens and Sparta recognized each other's right to control their respective alliance systems. The war was officially ended by the Thirty Years' Peace, signed in the winter of 446/5 BC.
The Thirty Years' Peace was first tested in 440 BC, when Athens's powerful ally Samos rebelled from its alliance with Athens. The rebels quickly secured the support of a Persian satrap, and Athens found itself facing the prospect of revolts throughout the empire. The Spartans, whose intervention would have been the trigger for a massive war to determine the fate of the empire, called a congress of their allies to discuss the possibility of war with Athens. Sparta's powerful ally Corinth was notably opposed to intervention, and the congress voted against war with Athens. The Athenians crushed the revolt, and peace was maintained.
The more immediate events that led to war involved Athens and Corinth. After suffering a defeat at the hands of their colony of Corcyra, a sea power that was not allied to either Sparta or Athens, Corinth began to build an allied naval force. Alarmed, Corcyra sought an alliance with Athens, which after debate and input from both Corcyra and Corinth, decided to swear a defensive alliance with Corcyra. At the Battle of Sybota, a small contingent of Athenian ships played a critical role in preventing a Corinthian fleet from capturing Corcyra. In order to uphold the Thirty Years' Peace, however, the Athenians were instructed not to intervene in the battle unless it was clear that Corinth was going to press onward to invade Corcyra. However, the Athenian warships participated in the battle nevertheless, and the arrival of additional Athenian triremes was enough to dissuade the Corinthians from exploiting their victory, thus sparing much of the routed Corcyrean and Athenian fleet.
Following this, Athens instructed Potidaea in the peninsula of Chalkidiki, a tributary ally of Athens but a colony of Corinth, to tear down its walls, send hostages to Athens, dismiss the Corinthian magistrates from office, and refuse the magistrates that the city would send in the future. The Corinthians, outraged by these actions, encouraged Potidaea to revolt and assured them that they would ally with them should they revolt from Athens. During the subsequent Battle of Potidaea, the Corinthians unofficially aided Potidaea by sneaking contingents of men into the besieged city to help defend it. This was a direct violation of the Thirty Years' Peace, which had (among other things) stipulated that the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League would respect each other's autonomy and internal affairs.
A further source of provocation was an Athenian decree, issued in 433/2 BC, imposing stringent trade sanctions on Megarian citizens (once more a Spartan ally after the conclusion of the First Peloponnesian War). It was alleged that the Megarians had desecrated the "Hiera Orgas". These sanctions, known as the Megarian decree, were largely ignored by Thucydides, but some modern economic historians have noted that forbidding Megara to trade with the prosperous Athenian empire would have been disastrous for the Megarans, and have accordingly considered the decree to be a contributing factor in bringing about the war. Historians that attribute responsibility for the war to Athens cite this event as the main cause for blame.
At the request of the Corinthians, the Spartans summoned members of the Peloponnesian League to Sparta in 432 BC, especially those who had grievances with Athens to make their complaints to the Spartan assembly. This debate was attended by members of the league and an uninvited delegation from Athens, which also asked to speak, and became the scene of a debate between the Athenians and the Corinthians. Thucydides reports that the Corinthians condemned Sparta's inactivity up to that point, warning the Spartans that if they continued to remain passive while the Athenians were energetically active, they would soon find themselves outflanked and without allies. The Athenians, in response, reminded the Spartans of their record of military success and opposition to Persia, and warned them of the dangers of confronting such a powerful state, ultimately encouraging Sparta to seek arbitration as provided by the Thirty Years' Peace. Undeterred, a majority of the Spartan assembly voted to declare that the Athenians had broken the peace, essentially declaring war.
Sparta and its allies, with the exception of Corinth, were almost exclusively land-based powers, able to summon large land armies which were very nearly unbeatable (thanks to the legendary Spartan forces). The Athenian Empire, although based in the peninsula of Attica, spread out across the islands of the Aegean Sea; Athens drew its immense wealth from tribute paid from these islands. Athens maintained its empire through naval power. Thus, the two powers were relatively unable to fight decisive battles.
The Spartan strategy during the first war, known as the Archidamian War (431–421 BC) after Sparta's king Archidamus II, was to invade the land surrounding Athens. While this invasion deprived Athenians of the productive land around their city, Athens itself was able to maintain access to the sea, and did not suffer much. Many of the citizens of Attica abandoned their farms and moved inside the Long Walls, which connected Athens to its port of Piraeus. At the end of the first year of the war, Pericles gave his famous Funeral Oration (431 BC).
The Spartans also occupied Attica for periods of only three weeks at a time; in the tradition of earlier hoplite warfare the soldiers were expected to go home to participate in the harvest. Moreover, Spartan slaves, known as helots, needed to be kept under control, and could not be left unsupervised for long periods of time. The longest Spartan invasion, in 430 BC, lasted just forty days.
The Athenian strategy was initially guided by the "strategos," or general, Pericles, who advised the Athenians to avoid open battle with the far more numerous and better trained Spartan hoplites, relying instead on the fleet. The Athenian fleet, the most dominant in Greece, went on the offensive, winning a victory at Naupactus. In 430 BC an outbreak of a plague hit Athens. The plague ravaged the densely packed city, and in the long run, was a significant cause of its final defeat. The plague wiped out over 30,000 citizens, sailors and soldiers, including Pericles and his sons. Roughly one-third to two-thirds of the Athenian population died. Athenian manpower was correspondingly drastically reduced and even foreign mercenaries refused to hire themselves out to a city riddled with plague. The fear of plague was so widespread that the Spartan invasion of Attica was abandoned, their troops being unwilling to risk contact with the diseased enemy.
After the death of Pericles, the Athenians turned somewhat against his conservative, defensive strategy and to the more aggressive strategy of bringing the war to Sparta and its allies. Rising to particular importance in Athenian democracy at this time was Cleon, a leader of the hawkish elements of the Athenian democracy. Led militarily by a clever new general Demosthenes (not to be confused with the later Athenian orator Demosthenes), the Athenians managed some successes as they continued their naval raids on the Peloponnese. Athens stretched their military activities into Boeotia and Aetolia, quelled the Mytilenean revolt and began fortifying posts around the Peloponnese. One of these posts was near Pylos on a tiny island called Sphacteria, where the course of the first war turned in Athens's favour. The post off Pylos struck Sparta where it was weakest: its dependence on the helots, who tended the fields while its citizens trained to become soldiers. The helots made the Spartan system possible, but now the post off Pylos began attracting helot runaways. In addition, the fear of a general revolt of helots emboldened by the nearby Athenian presence drove the Spartans to action. Demosthenes, however, outmanoeuvred the Spartans in the Battle of Pylos in 425 BC and trapped a group of Spartan soldiers on Sphacteria as he waited for them to surrender. Weeks later, though, Demosthenes proved unable to finish off the Spartans. After boasting that he could put an end to the affair in the Assembly, the inexperienced Cleon won a great victory at the Battle of Sphacteria. The Athenians captured 300 Spartan hoplites. The hostages gave the Athenians a bargaining chip.
After these battles, the Spartan general Brasidas raised an army of allies and helots and marched the length of Greece to the Athenian colony of Amphipolis in Thrace, which controlled several nearby silver mines; their product supplied much of the Athenian war fund. Thucydides was dispatched with a force which arrived too late to stop Brasidas capturing Amphipolis; Thucydides was exiled for this, and, as a result, had the conversations with both sides of the war which inspired him to record its history. Both Brasidas and Cleon were killed in Athenian efforts to retake Amphipolis (see Battle of Amphipolis). The Spartans and Athenians agreed to exchange the hostages for the towns captured by Brasidas, and signed a truce.
With the death of Cleon and Brasidas, zealous war hawks for both nations, the Peace of Nicias was able to last for some six years. However, it was a time of constant skirmishing in and around the Peloponnese. While the Spartans refrained from action themselves, some of their allies began to talk of revolt. They were supported in this by Argos, a powerful state within the Peloponnese that had remained independent of Lacedaemon. With the support of the Athenians, the Argives succeeded in forging a coalition of democratic states within the Peloponnese, including the powerful states of Mantinea and Elis. Early Spartan attempts to break up the coalition failed, and the leadership of the Spartan king Agis was called into question. Emboldened, the Argives and their allies, with the support of a small Athenian force under Alcibiades, moved to seize the city of Tegea, near Sparta.
The Battle of Mantinea was the largest land battle fought within Greece during the Peloponnesian War. The Lacedaemonians, with their neighbors the Tegeans, faced the combined armies of Argos, Athens, Mantinea, and Arcadia. In the battle, the allied coalition scored early successes, but failed to capitalize on them, which allowed the Spartan elite forces to defeat the forces opposite them. The result was a complete victory for the Spartans, which rescued their city from the brink of strategic defeat. The democratic alliance was broken up, and most of its members were reincorporated into the Peloponnesian League. With its victory at Mantinea, Sparta pulled itself back from the brink of utter defeat, and re-established its hegemony throughout the Peloponnese.
In the 17th year of the war, word came to Athens that one of their distant allies in Sicily was under attack from Syracuse. The people of Syracuse were ethnically Dorian (as were the Spartans), while the Athenians, and their ally in Sicilia, were Ionian. The Athenians felt obliged to assist their ally.
The Athenians did not act solely from altruism: rallied on by Alcibiades, the leader of the expedition, they held visions of conquering all of Sicily. Syracuse, the principal city of Sicily, was not much smaller than Athens, and conquering all of Sicily would have brought Athens an immense amount of resources. In the final stages of the preparations for departure, the hermai (religious statues) of Athens were mutilated by unknown persons, and Alcibiades was charged with religious crimes. Alcibiades demanded that he be put on trial at once, so that he might defend himself before the expedition. The Athenians however allowed Alcibiades to go on the expedition without being tried (many believed in order to better plot against him). After arriving in Sicily, Alcibiades was recalled to Athens for trial. Fearing that he would be unjustly condemned, Alcibiades defected to Sparta and Nicias was placed in charge of the mission. After his defection, Alcibiades claimed to the Spartans that the Athenians planned to use Sicily as a springboard for the conquest of all of Italy and Carthage, and to use the resources and soldiers from these new conquests to conquer the Peloponnese.
The Athenian force consisted of over 100 ships and some 5,000 infantry and light-armored troops. Cavalry was limited to about 30 horses, which proved to be no match for the large and highly trained Syracusan cavalry. Upon landing in Sicily, several cities immediately joined the Athenian cause. Instead of attacking at once, Nicias procrastinated and the campaigning season of 415 BC ended with Syracuse scarcely damaged. With winter approaching, the Athenians were then forced to withdraw into their quarters, and they spent the winter gathering allies and preparing to destroy Syracuse. The delay allowed the Syracusans to send for help from Sparta, who sent their general Gylippus to Sicily with reinforcements. Upon arriving, he raised up a force from several Sicilian cities, and went to the relief of Syracuse. He took command of the Syracusan troops, and in a series of battles defeated the Athenian forces, and prevented them from invading the city.
Nicias then sent word to Athens asking for reinforcements. Demosthenes was chosen and led another fleet to Sicily, joining his forces with those of Nicias. More battles ensued and again, the Syracusans and their allies defeated the Athenians. Demosthenes argued for a retreat to Athens, but Nicias at first refused. After additional setbacks, Nicias seemed to agree to a retreat until a bad omen, in the form of a lunar eclipse, delayed any withdrawal. The delay was costly and forced the Athenians into a major sea battle in the Great Harbor of Syracuse. The Athenians were thoroughly defeated. Nicias and Demosthenes marched their remaining forces inland in search of friendly allies. The Syracusan cavalry rode them down mercilessly, eventually killing or enslaving all who were left of the mighty Athenian fleet.
The Lacedaemonians were not content with simply sending aid to Sicily; they also resolved to take the war to the Athenians. On the advice of Alcibiades, they fortified Decelea, near Athens, and prevented the Athenians from making use of their land year round. The fortification of Decelea prevented the shipment of supplies overland to Athens, and forced all supplies to be brought in by sea at increased expense. Perhaps worst of all, the nearby silver mines were totally disrupted, with as many as 20,000 Athenian slaves freed by the Spartan hoplites at Decelea. With the treasury and emergency reserve fund of 1,000 talents dwindling away, the Athenians were forced to demand even more tribute from her subject allies, further increasing tensions and the threat of further rebellion within the Empire.
The Corinthians, the Spartans, and others in the Peloponnesian League sent more reinforcements to Syracuse, in the hopes of driving off the Athenians; but instead of withdrawing, the Athenians sent another hundred ships and another 5,000 troops to Sicily. Under Gylippus, the Syracusans and their allies were able to decisively defeat the Athenians on land; and Gylippus encouraged the Syracusans to build a navy, which was able to defeat the Athenian fleet when they attempted to withdraw. The Athenian army, attempting to withdraw overland to other, more friendly Sicilian cities, was divided and defeated; the entire Athenian fleet was destroyed, and virtually the entire Athenian army was sold off into slavery.
Following the defeat of the Athenians in Sicily, it was widely believed that the end of the Athenian Empire was at hand. Their treasury was nearly empty, its docks were depleted, and many of the Athenian youth were dead or imprisoned in a foreign land.
Following the destruction of the Sicilian Expedition, Lacedaemon encouraged the revolt of Athens's tributary allies, and indeed, much of Ionia rose in revolt against Athens. The Syracusans sent their fleet to the Peloponnesians, and the Persians decided to support the Spartans with money and ships. Revolt and faction threatened in Athens itself.
The Athenians managed to survive for several reasons. First, their foes were lacking in initiative. Corinth and Syracuse were slow to bring their fleets into the Aegean, and Sparta's other allies were also slow to furnish troops or ships. The Ionian states that rebelled expected protection, and many rejoined the Athenian side. The Persians were slow to furnish promised funds and ships, frustrating battle plans.
At the start of the war, the Athenians had prudently put aside some money and 100 ships that were to be used only as a last resort.
These ships were then released, and served as the core of the Athenians' fleet throughout the rest of the war. An oligarchical revolution occurred in Athens, in which a group of 400 seized power. A peace with Sparta might have been possible, but the Athenian fleet, now based on the island of Samos, refused to accept the change. In 411 BC this fleet engaged the Spartans at the Battle of Syme. The fleet appointed Alcibiades their leader, and continued the war in Athens's name. Their opposition led to the reinstitution of a democratic government in Athens within two years.
Alcibiades, while condemned as a traitor, still carried weight in Athens. He prevented the Athenian fleet from attacking Athens; instead, he helped restore democracy by more subtle pressure. He also persuaded the Athenian fleet to attack the Spartans at the battle of Cyzicus in 410. In the battle, the Athenians obliterated the Spartan fleet, and succeeded in re-establishing the financial basis of the Athenian Empire.
Between 410 and 406, Athens won a continuous string of victories, and eventually recovered large portions of its empire. All of this was due, in no small part, to Alcibiades.
From 414 BC, Darius II, ruler of the Achaemenid Empire had started to resent increasing Athenian power in the Aegean and had his satrap Tissaphernes enter into an alliance with Sparta against Athens, which in 412 BC led to the Persian reconquest of the greater part of Ionia. Tissaphernes also helped fund the Peloponnesian fleet.
Facing the resurgence of Athens, from 408 BC, Darius II decided to continue the war against Athens and give stronger support to the Spartans. He sent his son Cyrus the Younger into Asia Minor as satrap of Lydia, Phrygia Major and Cappadocia, and general commander ("Karanos", κἀρανος) of the Persian troops. There, Cyrus allied with the Spartan general Lysander. In him, Cyrus found a man who was willing to help him become king, just as Lysander himself hoped to become absolute ruler of Greece by the aid of the Persian prince. Thus, Cyrus put all his means at the disposal of Lysander in the Peloponnesian War. When Cyrus was recalled to Susa by his dying father Darius, he gave Lysander the revenues from all of his cities of Asia Minor.
Cyrus the Younger would later obtain the support of the Spartans in return, after having asked them "to show themselves as good friend to him, as he had been to them during their war against Athens", when he led his own expedition to Susa in 401 BC in order to topple his brother, Artaxerxes II.
The faction hostile to Alcibiades triumphed in Athens following a minor Spartan victory by their skillful general Lysander at the naval battle of Notium in 406 BC. Alcibiades was not re-elected general by the Athenians and he exiled himself from the city. He would never again lead Athenians in battle. Athens was then victorious at the naval battle of Arginusae. The Spartan fleet under Callicratidas lost 70 ships and the Athenians lost 25 ships. But, due to bad weather, the Athenians were unable to rescue their stranded crews or to finish off the Spartan fleet. Despite their victory, these failures caused outrage in Athens and led to a controversial trial. The trial resulted in the execution of six of Athens's top naval commanders. Athens's naval supremacy would now be challenged without several of its most able military leaders and a demoralized navy.
Unlike some of his predecessors the new Spartan general, Lysander, was not a member of the Spartan royal families and was also formidable in naval strategy; he was an artful diplomat, who had even cultivated good personal relationships with the Achaemenid prince Cyrus the Younger, son of Emperor Darius II. Seizing its opportunity, the Spartan fleet sailed at once to the Dardanelles, the source of Athens's grain. Threatened with starvation, the Athenian fleet had no choice but to follow. Through cunning strategy, Lysander totally defeated the Athenian fleet, in 405 BC, at the Battle of Aegospotami, destroying 168 ships and capturing some three or four thousand Athenian sailors. Only twelve Athenian ships escaped, and several of these sailed to Cyprus, carrying the "strategos" (general) Conon, who was anxious not to face the judgment of the Assembly.
Facing starvation and disease from the prolonged siege, Athens surrendered in 404 BC, and its allies soon surrendered as well. The democrats at Samos, loyal to the bitter last, held on slightly longer, and were allowed to flee with their lives. The surrender stripped Athens of its walls, its fleet, and all of its overseas possessions. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved. However, the Spartans announced their refusal to destroy a city that had done a good service at a time of greatest danger to Greece, and took Athens into their own system. Athens was "to have the same friends and enemies" as Sparta.
The overall effect of the war in Greece proper was to replace the Athenian Empire with a Spartan empire. After the battle of Aegospotami, Sparta took over the Athenian empire and kept all of its tribute revenues for itself; Sparta's allies, who had made greater sacrifices for the war effort than had Sparta, got nothing.
For a short period of time, Athens was ruled by the "Thirty Tyrants", and democracy was suspended. This was a reactionary regime set up by Sparta. In 403 BC, the oligarchs were overthrown and a democracy was restored by Thrasybulus.
Although the power of Athens was broken, it made something of a recovery as a result of the Corinthian War and continued to play an active role in Greek politics. Sparta was later humbled by Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, but the rivalry between Athens and Sparta was brought to an end a few decades later when Philip II of Macedon conquered all of Greece except Sparta, which was later subjugated by Philip's son Alexander in 331 BC. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24121 |
Pope Clement IX
Pope Clement IX (; 28 January 1600 – 9 December 1669), born Giulio Rospigliosi, was Pope from 20 June 1667 to his death in 1669.
Giulio Rospigliosi was born in 1600 to the Rospigliosi family, a noble family of Pistoia in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to Giacomo and Caterina Rospigliosi. He studied at the Seminario Romano and later at the University of Pisa as a pupil of the Jesuits. He would receive doctorates in theology, philosophy and both canon and civil law in 1623. After receiving his doctorates, he taught theology there as a professor from 1623 to 1625.
Later Rospigliosi worked closely with Pope Urban VIII (1623–1644) where he worked in the diplomatic corps as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura. He was appointed as the Titular Archbishop of Tarsus in 1644 and later received episcopal consecration in the Vatican. Rospigliosi also served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain from 1644 until 1653 when he decided to retire from that post. He lived in retirement throughout the pontificate of Pope Innocent X who disliked and distanced himself from those associated with his predecessor. He was also made vicar of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
Rospigliosi was an accomplished man of letters who wrote poetry, dramas and libretti, as well as what may be the first comic opera, namely his 1637 libretto "Chi soffre, speri". He was also a patron of Nicolas Poussin, commissioning "A Dance to the Music of Time" from him and dictating its iconography.
Pope Alexander VII appointed him to the cardinalate in 1657 as the Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and was also appointed as the Cardinal Secretary of State in 1655 which he held until 1667.
Pope Alexander VII died in 1667 and a conclave to choose his successor was called. King Louis XIV of France instructed the French faction to turn their support to Rospigliosi and believed also that he would appease the Spanish faction of Charles II due to the fact that he had once been the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain. On 20 June 1667, he was elected as pontiff and took the pontifical name of "Clement IX".
The new pope was crowned on 26 June 1667 by the protodeacon, Cardinal Rinaldo d'Este. He later took possession of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran on 3 July 1667.
Nothing remarkable occurred under Clement IX's short administration beyond the temporary adjustment of the disputes between the Holy See and those prelates of the Gallican Church who had refused to join in condemning the writings of Jansen. He was mediator during the 1668 peace of Aachen, in the wars of succession between France, Spain, England and the Netherlands.
He was popular with the people of Rome, not so much for his erudition and application to business, as for his extreme charity and his affability towards great and small. He increased the goodwill of his subjects by buying off the monopolist who had secured the "macinato", or privilege of selling grain, and as his predecessor had collected the money for the purpose, Clement IX had the decree published in the name of Alexander VII. Two days each week he occupied a confessional in St. Peter's church and heard any one who wished to confess to him. He frequently visited the hospitals, and was lavish in his alms to the poor. In an age of nepotism, he did little or nothing to advance or enrich his family. In his aversion to notoriety, he refused to permit his name to be placed on the buildings erected during his reign.
Clement IX confirmed the cultus of Margaret of Savoy on 9 October 1669. He also beatified Rose of Lima on 15 April 1668. On 28 April 1668, he canonized Magdalena de Pazzi and Peter of Alcantara.
He elevated 12 new cardinals in three consistories; this included Emilio Bonaventura Altieri who would succeed him as Pope Clement X.
As pope, Clement IX continued his interest in the arts. He embellished the city of Rome with famous works commissioned to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, including the angels of Ponte Sant'Angelo and the colonnade of Saint Peter's Basilica. Somewhat unusually for Popes of the era, Clement IX did not have his name displayed on monuments he built. He also opened the first public opera house in Rome, and for the Carnival celebrations of 1668, commissioned Antonio Maria Abbatini of the Sistine Chapel Choir to set to music his free Italian translation of a Spanish religious drama "La Baltasara". The production had sets designed by Bernini.
Clement IX worked to strengthen Venetian defences against the Turks on the island of Crete. However, he was unable to get wider support for this cause. At the end of October 1669, Clement IX fell ill after receiving news that the Venetian fortress of Candia in Crete had surrendered to the Turks.
Clement IX died in Rome, allegedly of a broken heart, on 9 December 1669. His successor, Pope Clement X (r. 1670–1676), built him an ornate tomb in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24122 |
Pope Clement X
Pope Clement X (; 13 July 1590 – 22 July 1676), born Emilio Bonaventura Altieri, was Pope from 29 April 1670 to his death in 1676.
Emilio Boneventura Altieri was born in Rome in 1590, the son of Lorenzo Altieri and Victoria Delfin, a noble Venetian lady, sister of Flaminio Delfin, commander general of the Papal Armies, and of Gentile Delfin, bishop of Camerino. His brother was Giambattista Altieri. The Altieri family belonged to the ancient Roman nobility and had enjoyed the highest consideration at Rome for several centuries; they had occasionally contracted alliances with the Colonnas and the Orsinis. During earlier pontificates, the Altieri held many important offices and had been entrusted with several delicate missions.
Altieri received a doctorate in law from the Roman College in 1611. After finishing his studies, he was named "auditor" of Giovanni Battista Lancellotti in 1623, in the nunciature of Poland. He was ordained April 6, 1624. On his return to Rome, he was named Bishop of Camerino, then governor of Loreto and of all Umbria. Pope Urban VIII (1623–44) gave him charge of the works designed to protect the territory of Ravenna from the unruly Po River.
Pope Innocent X (1644–55) sent him as nuncio to Naples, where he remained for eight years. He is credited with the re-establishment of peace after the stormy days of Masaniello. Pope Alexander VII (1655–67) confided to him a mission to Poland.
Pope Clement IX (1667–69) named him Superintendent of the Papal Exchequer (in charge of the Church's finances), and in 1667 his "maestro di camera", and he was made Secretary of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. Just before his death, Clement IX made him a cardinal. He was then about seventy-nine years of age; and Clement IX, when making him a member of the Sacred College, said to him: "You will be our successor."
After the funeral of Pope Clement IX, sixty-two electors entered into conclave on 20 December 1669. Forty-two votes were necessary, and due to the rivalry between the French and Spanish factions, heated discussion prevailed for four months. Giovanni Cardinal Conti was supported by twenty-two votes; Cardinal Rospigliosi, nephew of the late pope, had thirty, or, as some say, thirty-three, with two at the "accesso", so that he needed only seven more votes to gain the tiara. Cardinal Cerri obtained twenty-three votes.
At length the cardinals agreed to resort to the old expedient of electing a cardinal of advanced years, and proposed Cardinal Altieri, almost an octogenarian, whose long life had been spent in the service of the Catholic Church, and whom Clement IX, on the eve of his death, had raised to the dignity of the purple. The reason a prelate of such transcendent merits received the cardinalate so late in life seems to have been that he had waived his claims to the elevation in favour of an older brother.
On 29 April 1670, the papacy was offered to him by fifty-nine cardinals present at the election; only two being against him. He, however, objected because of his age, for he was almost eighty, and exclaimed, "I am too old to bear such a burden." Pointing to Cardinal Brancaccio, Altieri said he was the cardinal whom they ought to elect. He persisted in refusing, protesting that he no longer had strength or memory; eventually, with tears he accepted, and out of gratitude to his benefactor, by ten years his junior, he assumed the name of Clement X. He was crowned on 11 May.
On 8 June Clement X took possession of St. John Lateran. On 11 June, he confirmed the Minor Observantines in the Holy Land in the privileges and indulgences granted to those who visit the holy places, according to the decrees of Alexander VII and Clement IX. In the same month, he granted to the prelate-clerks of the chamber the use of the violet-coloured band around their hats. Occasionally forgetful, he sometimes promised the same favors to different people and came to rely on his cardinal-nephew, Cardinal Paoluzzi-Altieri.
All but one of the male scions of the Altieri family had chosen the ecclesiastical career. On his accession to the papacy, Clement X, in order to save the Altieri name from extinction, adopted the Paoluzzi family, and proposed that one of the Paluzzi should marry Laura Caterina Altieri, the sole heiress of the family. In exchange for adopting the Altieri surname, he would make one of the Paoluzzi a cardinal. Following the wedding, which he officiated, he appointed his niece's uncle-in-law Cardinal Paoluzzi-Altieri to the office of cardinal nephew to take on the duties which he was prevented from doing by age. The main activity was to invest the Church's money, and with advancing years gradually entrusted to him the management of affairs, to such an extent that the Romans said he had reserved to himself only the episcopal functions of "benedicere et sanctificare", resigning in favour of the cardinal the administrative duties of "regere et gubernare".
Clement X advised the Christian princes to love each other and to prove it by generous measures, and by a prudent and scrupulous conduct. It was especially between Spain and France that the pope desired to witness a renewal of feelings of good understanding.
In 1671, the Pope published an edict by which he declared that "a noble might be a merchant without loss of his nobility, provided always that he did not sell by retail". In 1676, Gianlorenzo Bernini sculpted one of his final statues, a bust of Clement X.
On 12 April 1671, Clement X canonised five new saints:
Fernando III called El Santo (the Saint), (1198/1199 – 30 May 1252) was a king of Castile (1217–1252) and Leon (1230–1252). He was the son of Alfonso IX and Berenguela of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VIII. In 1231 he united Castile and León permanently. Fernando was canonized by Pope Clement X in 1671. Several places named "San Fernando" were founded across the Spanish Empire.
In 1673, he had Pope Leo III's name entered in the Roman Martyrology.
He beatified Pope Pius V (1566–72), Francis Solano, and John of the Cross, all subsequently canonized by Clement XI and Pope Benedict XIII (1724–30). Clement X also declared Venerable one of the famous Spanish mystics, Sister María de Jesús de Ágreda.
Clement X, on 24 November 1673, beatified nineteen Martyrs of Gorkum, who had been taken prisoner at Gorcum, the Netherlands, and put to death in Brielle on 9 July 1572, in hatred of the Catholic faith, of the primacy of the Pope, and of the Roman Church. Of the nineteen Gorcum martyrs, Peter Ascanius and Cornelius Vican were laymen; eleven were Franciscan priests; one a Dominican, two Premonstratensians, one a regular canon of Saint Augustine, and four were secular priests.
On 13 January 1672, Clement X regulated the formalities to be observed in removing the relics of saints from sacred cemeteries. No one was to remove such relics without the permission of the cardinal-vicar. They were not to be exposed for the veneration of the faithful unless previously examined by the same cardinal. The principal relics of the martyr – that is to say, the head, the legs, the arms, and the part in which they suffered – were to be exposed only in the churches, and they were not to be given to private persons, but only to princes and high prelates; and even to them but rarely, lest the too great profusion should deprive relics of the respect which they ought to inspire. The Pope decreed severe penalties against all who gave a relic any name but that given by the cardinal-vicar. The pain of excommunication was pronounced against all who should demand any sum whatever for sealed and authentic relics. These decrees, and others made by preceding Popes were confirmed by Pope Clement XI (1700–21) in 1704.
Clement X confirmed the exemptions granted by Pope Gregory XIII (1572–85) to the German College at Rome in 1671; and then, on 16 October 1672, he ordered the pupils to swear that at the close of their studies they would set out for Germany without a day's delay.
Clement X, seeing the results of the apostolic labours of the early French missionaries in Canada, the number of the faithful, and the wide field of labour, resolved to give the Church an independent organisation, and erected a "see" at Quebec, the bishop to depend directly on the Holy See; this provision would later secure its permanence after Quebec passed into the hands of England. The first bishop was Monsignor Francois de Montmorency-Laval.
In 1673, there arrived at Rome ambassadors from the Grand Duke of Muscovy, Alexei not John Basilowitz. He solicited from the Pope the title of Czar, which, however, he had already conferred upon himself. At the same time it could not be forgotten that he gave strong financial aid to King John Sobieski of Poland in their fight against the Turkish invaders. But Paul Menesius, a Scotsman, who was the ambassador, could not obtain the grant or sanction of that title, though he was received with great magnificence and had many precious gifts to carry back to his master. The Grand Duke of Muscovy did not profess the Catholic faith in such a manner as to give any assurance of his intentions, and the King of Poland had looked upon the embassy with displeasure.
Meantime Rome had reason to fear trouble. Cardinal Altieri, who was at the head of the government, determined to increase the revenues, and he established a new tax of three percent upon all merchandise entering the city, including even goods for cardinals and ambassadors. Although the government complained that ambassadors had abused their privilege, the diplomatic corps showed discontent that they were not expressly exempted in the new tax law.
Another edict confirmed the first and ordered the confiscation without distinction of all goods that did not pay the new tax. The cardinals at first complained, though with moderation. But the ambassadors didn't speak Clement X's language.
The Cardinal nephew maintained that Clement X, within his own State, might make what rules he pleased. Then the ambassadors of the empire, of France, Spain, and Venice, sent their secretaries to demand an audience of the Pope. The chief chamberlain replied that the Pope was engaged that day. And for four days in succession, the chamberlain gave the same answer to the same applicants. Clement X, learning at length what had occurred, declared that he had given no such order. The ambassadors then sent their secretaries to ask an audience of Cardinal Altieri. He not only refused to admit them, but closed his doors and increased the guard at the pontifical palace, so that the offence could go no further. Subsequently, the Cardinal nephew wrote to the nuncios who resided in the courts of Europe, stating that the excesses committed by the ambassadors had induced the pope to publish the edict. The ambassadors, on the contrary, assured their sovereigns that the accusation was a pretext.
The conflict lasted for more than a year; and Clement X, who loved peace, at length referred the matter to a congregation. Sometime after, Cardinal Altieri declared that he had not intended to comprise the ambassadors among those for whom the edict was intended, and that the pope had never contemplated subjecting them to it.
Queen Christina of Sweden, who had become a Catholic and moved to Rome in December 1655, made Clement X prohibit the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival. In 1686 she issued a declaration that Roman Jews stood under her protection, signed "la Regina" – the queen.
In 1675 Clement X celebrated the fourteenth jubilee of the holy year. Notwithstanding his age, he visited the churches, regretting that the gout prevented him from making that holy visit more than five times. He went twelve times to Trinity hospital to wash the feet of the pilgrims, and after the ceremony gave them liberal alms. A commemorated silver piastra was issued on the occasion of the Holy Year.
Clement X created 20 cardinals in six consistories including Pietro Francesco Orsini, who would become Pope Benedict XIII several decades later.
On 22 July 1676, the agonies of the gout became so violent that Clement X died under them that afternoon. He was eighty-six years old and had governed the Church six years, two months, and twenty-four days. His tomb is in St. Peter's Basilica.
He laboured to preserve the peace of Europe even though he was menaced by the ambition of Louis XIV of France (1643–1715), an imperious monarch over ecclesiastical matters (the struggle concerned the "régale", or revenues of vacant dioceses and abbeys, which resulted in continued tension with France). He decorated the bridge of Sant'Angelo with the ten statues of angels in Carrara marble still to be seen there.
Pope Clement X had the two fountains located in Piazza of St. Peter's church built near the tribune, where a monument has been erected to his memory. During his papacy, the Palazzo Altieri in central Rome was refurbished.
Clement X appointed Francesco Lorenzo Brancati di Lauria head of the Vatican library. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24123 |
Pope Clement XI
Pope Clement XI (; 23 July 1649 – 19 March 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in 1721.
Clement XI was a patron of the arts and of science. He was also a great benefactor of the Vatican Library, his interest in archaeology is credited with saving much of Rome’s antiquity. He authorized expeditions which succeeded in rediscovering various ancient Christian writings and authorized excavations of the Roman catacombs.
Giovanni Francesco Albani was born in 1649 in Urbino to a distinguished family of Arbëreshë and Italian origin. His mother Elena Mosca (1630-1698) was a high-standing Italian of bergamasque origin, descended from the noble Mosca family of Pesaro. His father Carlo Albani (1623-1684) was a patrician descended in part from the Staccoli family, who were patricians of Urbino, in part from the Giordani, who were nobles of Pesaro, and in part from the noble Albani family which had established itself in Urbino from northern Albania in the 15th century.
Albani was educated at the Collegio Romano in Rome from 1660 onwards. He became a very proficient Latinist and gained a doctorate in both canon and civil law. He was one of those who frequented the academy of Queen Christina of Sweden. He would serve as a papal prelate under Pope Alexander VIII and was appointed by Pope Innocent XII as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura. Throughout this time, he also served as the governor of Rieti, Sabina and Orvieto.
Pope Alexander VIII elevated him to the cardinalate in 1690 despite his protests and made him the Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Aquiro but he later opted for the "Diaconia" of San Adriano al Forno and later, as the Cardinal-Priest, for the "titulus" of San Silvestro in Capite. He was then ordained to the priesthood in September 1700 and celebrated his first Mass in Rome on 6 October 1700.
After the death of Pope Innocent XII in 1700, a conclave was convoked to elect a successor. Albani was regarded as a fine diplomat known for his skills as a peacemaker and so was unanimously elected pope on 23 November 1700. He agreed to the election after three days of consultation.
Unusually, from the viewpoint of current practice, his election came within three months after his ordination as a priest and within two months after he celebrated his first Mass, though he had been a cardinal for ten years previously. Having accepted election after some hesitation, he was ordained a bishop on 30 November 1700 and assumed the pontifical name of "Clement XI". Cardinal protodeacon Benedetto Pamphili crowned him on 8 December 1700 and he took possession of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran on 10 April 1701.
Soon after his accession to the pontificate, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out.
In 1703 Pope Clement XI ordered a synod of Catholic bishops in northern Albania that discussed promotion of the Council of Trent decrees within Albanian dioceses, stemming conversions among locals to Islam and securing agreement to deny communion to crypto-Catholics who outwardly professed the Muslim faith.
Despite initially holding an ambiguous neutrality in world affairs, Clement XI was later forced to name Charles, Archduke of Austria, as the King of Spain, since the imperial army had conquered much of northern Italy and was threatening Rome itself in January 1709.
By the Treaty of Utrecht that put an end to the war, the Papal States lost their suzerainty over the Farnese Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in favour of Austria, and lost Comacchio as well, a blow to the prestige of the Papal States.
In 1713 Clement XI issued the bull "Unigenitus" in response to the spread of the Jansenist heresy. There followed great upheaval in France, where apart from theological issues, a strong Gallican tendency persisted. The bull, which was produced with the contribution of Gregorio Selleri, a lector at the College of Saint Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Angelicum", condemned Jansenism by extracting and anathematizing as heretical 101 propositions from the works of Quesnel declaring them to be identical in substance with propositions already condemned in the writings of Jansenius.
The resistance of many French ecclesiastics and the refusal of the French "parlements" to register the bull led to controversies extending through the greater part of the 18th century. Because the local governments did not officially receive the bull, it was not, technically, in force in those areas – an example of the interference of states in religious affairs common before the 20th century.
During his reign as a pope the famous "Illyricum Sacrum" was commissioned, and today it is one of the main sources of the field of Albanology, with over 5,000 pages divided in several volumes written by the Jesuit Daniele Farlati and Dom Jacopo Coleti.
Clement XI made a concerted effort to acquire Christian manuscripts in Syriac from Egypt and other places in the Middle East, greatly expanding the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana's collection of Syriac works.
Clement XI extended the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary to the Universal Church of the Roman Rite in 1716.
Clement XI confirmed the cultus of Ceslas Odrowaz (27 August 1712), Jakov Varingez (29 December 1700), John of Perugia (11 September 1704), Peregrine Laziosi (11 September 1702), Peter of Sassoferrato (11 September 1704), Buonfiglio Monaldi (1 December 1717), Pope Gregory X (8 July 1713) and Humbeline of Jully (1703). He formally beatified a number of individuals: Alexis Falconieri, Bartholomew degli Amidei and Benedict Dellantella, (1 December 1717) and John Francis Régis (24 May 1716).
He canonized Andrew Avellino, Catherine of Bologna, Felix of Cantalice and Pope Pius V on 22 May 1712, Humility on 27 January 1720, Sancha of Portugal on 10 May 1705, Theresa of Portugal on 20 May 1705, Stephen of Obazine in 1701 and Boniface of Lausanne in 1702.
Clement XI created a total of 70 cardinals in 15 consistories. Notably, one cardinal of his own creation was Michelangelo dei Conti who became his immediate successor, Pope Innocent XIII.
Another important decision of Clement XI was in regard to the Chinese Rites controversy: the Jesuit missionaries were forbidden to take part in honors paid to Confucius or the ancestors of the Emperors of China, which Clement XI identified as "idolatrous and barbaric", and to accommodate Christian language to pagan ideas under plea of conciliating the heathen.
Clement XI died in Rome on 19 March 1721 at 12:45pm and was buried in the pavement of St. Peter's Basilica rather than in an ornate tomb like those of his predecessors.
In his book "Journal of a Soul", while he was preparing for the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII resolved to pray the Universal Prayer and recommends it.
Pope Clement XI had a famous sundial added in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri and had an obelisk erected in the Piazza della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon, and a port built on the Tiber River, the beautiful porto di Ripetta, demolished at the end of the 19th century.
He established a committee, overseen by his favourite artists, Carlo Maratta and Carlo Fontana, to commission statuary of the apostles to complete the decoration of San Giovanni in Laterano. He also founded a painting and sculpting academy in the Campidoglio.
He also enriched the Vatican library with numerous Oriental codices and patronaged the first archaeological excavations in the Roman catacombs. In his native Urbino he restored numerous edifices and founded a public library. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24124 |
Pan flute
Pan Flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been popular as folk instruments. The pipes are typically made from bamboo, giant cane, or local reeds. Other materials include wood, plastic, metal and ivory.
The pan flute is named after Pan, the Greek god of nature and shepherds often depicted with such an instrument.
In Greek mythology, Syrinx (Σύριγξ) was a forest Nymph. In her attempt to escape the affection of god Pan (a creature half he-goat and half he-man), she was transformed into a water-reed or calamos (cane-reed). Then, Pan cut several reeds, placed them in parallel one next to the other, and bound them together to make a melodic musical instrument. Ancient Greeks called this instrument Syrinx, in honour of the Muse, and Pandean, or Pan-pipes and Pan-flute, after Pan. The Syrinx, a predominantly pastoral instrument for the Greeks, was adopted by the Etruscans who played it at their festivals and banquets; the Etruscans called it fistula. The Romans adopted the Syrinx from the Greeks and the Etruscans, and they too played it at their banquets, festivals, as well as in religious and funeral processions.
The pan flute's tubes are stopped at one end, at which the standing wave is reflected giving a note an octave lower than that produced by an open pipe of equal length. In the traditional South American style, pipes are fine-tuned to correct pitch by placing small pebbles or dry corn kernels into the bottom of the pipes. Contemporary makers of curved Romanian-style panpipes use wax (commonly beeswax) to tune new instruments. Special tools are used to place or remove the wax. Corks and rubber stoppers are also used, and are easier to quickly tune pipes.
The pan flute is an end-blown flute. Sound is produced by the vibration of an air-stream blowing across an open hole at the end of a resonating tube. The length of the tube determines the fundamental frequency. An overblown harmonic register is near a 12th above the fundamental in cylindrical tubes, but can approach an octave jump (8th) if a decreasing taper is used.
According to the Fundamental Principle for pan flutes, the frequency and the length of the tube are inversely proportional. Every time the pitch goes up one octave, the frequency doubles. Because there are 12 notes in a chromatic scale or a full octave, every half-step in a chromatic scale is multiplied by the 12th root of 2 to get the note next to it. By this, it is possible to calculate the length of any pipe, given that one knows the length of any one pipe. The formula for calculating the length of a pan flute pipe is L = (c / f) / 4 (the "theoretical length" L equals the speed of sound c = 343 m/s, divided by the desired frequency in hertz f, that quantity divided by 4; this simplifies and rearranges to: Length of pipe (in centimeters) × Frequency (in hertz) = 8575). Because of a property of compression within the tube, the length must be a little shorter to correct flat pitch. The extra length is helpful for a maker, who can use a cork or plug at the bottom to adjust the pitch. Some instruments use wax or pellets to tune the fundamental pitch of each tube. A tube that has a diameter 1/10 of its length yields a typical tone colour (see Timbre). An inner diameter range between 1/7 and 1/14 of the length L is acceptable. A narrow tube will sound "reedy", while a wide one will sound "flutey". A more exact method is to multiply the bore diameter by 0.82 and subtract this value from the tube length. This compensates for internal compression slowing frequency and the lips partially covering the voicing. Only tiny adjustments will be needed then to adjust fundamental pitch for air density and temperature.
The pan flute is played by blowing horizontally across an open end against the sharp inner edge of the pipes. Each pipe is tuned to a keynote, called the fundamental frequency. By overblowing, that is, increasing the pressure of breath and tension of lips, odd harmonics (notes whose frequencies are odd-number multiples of the fundamental), near a 12th in cylindrical tubes, may also be produced. The Romanian pan flute has the pipes arranged in a curved array, solidly glued together, unlike Andean versions, which are usually tied together. Thus, the player can easily reach all the notes by simply swiveling the head, or by moving the instrument with the hands. These instruments can also play all the sharps and flats, with a special technique of both tilting the pipes and jaw movement, thus reducing the size of the pipe's opening and producing a change in pitch. A very advanced player can play any scale and in any key. There are two styles of vibrato possible, hand vibrato and breath vibrato. In hand vibrato, the pitch is shifted up and down, like a vocal vibrato. The player gently moves one end of the pan flute (usually the high end) somewhat similar to violin vibrato. Breath, or throat vibrato, which is really tremolo, a shift in volume, is the same technique used by players of the flute and other woodwinds by use of the player's diaphragm, or throat muscles.
The curved-style pan flute was popularized by the Romanian musician Gheorghe Zamfir, who toured extensively and recorded many albums of pan flute music in the 1970s, and by several other artists who began recording at the same time. Today there are thousands of devoted players across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Both the curved and traditional South American variations are also very popular in Peruvian traditional groups and other Andean music.
In Laos and Thailand, there is a cylindrical version called the wot, used in folk music from the Isaan region of the country. The player alters notes by rotating the instrument with the hands, rather than by head movements.
Some new designs are beginning to appear, as designers and makers take advantage of computer-aided design and 3D additive manufacturing, to move past the limitations of traditional tool and materials. These new pan flutes address some long-standing issues to make it an easier instrument to learn and to play accurately.
Notable pan flute musicians: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24126 |
Energy storage
Energy storage is the capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time.
A device that stores energy is generally called an accumulator or battery.
Energy comes in multiple forms including radiation, chemical, gravitational potential, electrical potential, electricity, elevated temperature, latent heat and kinetic.
Energy storage involves converting energy from forms that are difficult to store to more conveniently or economically storable forms.
Some technologies provide short-term energy storage, while others can endure for much longer.
Bulk energy storage is currently dominated by hydroelectric dams, both conventional as well as pumped.
Common examples of energy storage are the rechargeable battery, which stores chemical energy readily convertible to electricity to operate a mobile phone, the hydroelectric dam, which stores energy in a reservoir as gravitational potential energy, and ice storage tanks, which store ice frozen by cheaper energy at night to meet peak daytime demand for cooling.
Fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline store ancient energy derived from sunlight by organisms that later died, became buried and over time were then converted into these fuels.
Food (which is made by the same process as fossil fuels) is a form of energy stored in chemical form.
In the 20th century grid, electrical power was largely generated by burning fossil fuel. When less power was required, less fuel was burned. Concerns with air pollution, energy imports, and global warming have spawned the growth of renewable energy such as solar and wind power. Wind power is uncontrolled and may be generating at a time when no additional power is needed. Solar power varies with cloud cover and at best is only available during daylight hours, while demand often peaks after sunset ("see" duck curve). Interest in storing power from these intermittent sources grows as the renewable energy industry begins to generate a larger fraction of overall energy consumption.
Off grid electrical use was a niche market in the 20th century, but in the 21st century, it has expanded. Portable devices are in use all over the world. Solar panels are now common in the rural settings worldwide. Access to electricity is now a question of economics and financial viability, and not solely on technical aspects. However, powering transportation without burning fuel remains in development.
The following list includes a variety of types of energy storage:
Energy can be stored in water pumped to a higher elevation using pumped storage methods or by moving solid matter to higher locations (gravity batteries).
Other commercial mechanical methods include compressing air and flywheels that convert electric energy into kinetic energy and then back again when electrical demand peaks.
Hydroelectric dams with reservoirs can be operated to provide electricity at times of peak demand.
Water is stored in the reservoir during periods of low demand and released when demand is high.
The net effect is similar to pumped storage, but without the pumping loss.
While a hydroelectric dam does not directly store energy from other generating units, it behaves equivalently by lowering output in periods of excess electricity from other sources.
In this mode, dams are one of the most efficient forms of energy storage, because only the timing of its generation changes.
Hydroelectric turbines have a start-up time on the order of a few minutes.
Worldwide, pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH) is the largest-capacity form of active grid energy storage available, and, as of March 2012, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) reports that PSH accounts for more than 99% of bulk storage capacity worldwide, representing around 127,000 MW. PSH energy efficiency varies in practice between 70% and 80%, with claims of up to 87%.
At times of low electrical demand, excess generation capacity is used to pump water from a lower source into a higher reservoir. When demand grows, water is released back into a lower reservoir (or waterway or body of water) through a turbine, generating electricity. Reversible turbine-generator assemblies act as both a pump and turbine (usually a Francis turbine design). Nearly all facilities use the height difference between two water bodies. Pure pumped-storage plants shift the water between reservoirs, while the "pump-back" approach is a combination of pumped storage and conventional hydroelectric plants that use natural stream-flow.
Compressed air energy storage (CAES) uses surplus energy to compress air for subsequent electricity generation. Small-scale systems have long been used in such applications as propulsion of mine locomotives. The compressed air is stored in an underground reservoir, such as a salt dome.
Compressed-air energy storage (CAES) plants can bridge the gap between production volatility and load. CAES storage addresses the energy needs of consumers by effectively providing readily available energy to meet demand. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy vary. So at times when they provide little power, they need to be supplemented with other forms of energy to meet energy demand. Compressed-air energy storage plants can take in the surplus energy output of renewable energy sources during times of energy over-production. This stored energy can be used at a later time when demand for electricity increases or energy resource availability decreases.
Compression of air creates heat; the air is warmer after compression. Expansion requires heat. If no extra heat is added, the air will be much colder after expansion. If the heat generated during compression can be stored and used during expansion, efficiency improves considerably. A CAES system can deal with the heat in three ways. Air storage can be adiabatic, diabatic, or isothermal. Another approach uses compressed air to power vehicles.
Flywheel energy storage (FES) works by accelerating a rotor (a flywheel) to a very high speed, holding energy as rotational energy. When energy is added the rotational speed of the flywheel increases, and when energy is extracted, the speed declines, due to conservation of energy.
Most FES systems use electricity to accelerate and decelerate the flywheel, but devices that directly use mechanical energy are under consideration.
FES systems have rotors made of high strength carbon-fiber composites, suspended by magnetic bearings and spinning at speeds from 20,000 to over 50,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) in a vacuum enclosure. Such flywheels can reach maximum speed ("charge") in a matter of minutes. The flywheel system is connected to a combination electric motor/generator.
FES systems have relatively long lifetimes (lasting decades with little or no maintenance; full-cycle lifetimes quoted for flywheels range from in excess of 105, up to 107, cycles of use), high specific energy (100–130 W·h/kg, or 360–500 kJ/kg) and power density.
Changing the altitude of solid masses can store or release energy via an elevating system driven by an electric motor/generator.
Potential energy storage or gravity energy storage was under active development in 2013 in association with the California Independent System Operator. It examined the movement of earth-filled hopper rail cars driven by electric locomotives from lower to higher elevations.
Methods include using rails and cranes to move concrete weights up and down, using high-altitude solar-powered buoyant platforms supporting winches to raise and lower solid masses, using winches supported by an ocean barge for taking advantage of a 4 km (13,000 ft) elevation difference between the surface and the seabed, and raising and lowering concrete in mine shafts of recently closed mines. Efficiencies can be as high as 85% recovery of stored energy.
Thermal energy storage (TES) is the temporary storage or removal of heat.
Sensible heat storage take advantage of sensible heat in a material to store energy.
Seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) allows heat or cold to be used months after it was collected from waste energy or natural sources. The material can be stored in contained aquifers, clusters of boreholes in geological substrates such as sand or crystalline bedrock, in lined pits filled with gravel and water, or water-filled mines. Seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) projects often have paybacks in four to six years. An example is Drake Landing Solar Community in Canada, for which 97% of the year-round heat is provided by solar-thermal collectors on the garage roofs, with a borehole thermal energy store (BTES) being the enabling technology. In Braedstrup, Denmark, the community's solar district heating system also uses STES, at a temperature of . A heat pump, which is run only when there is surplus wind power available on the national grid, is used to raise the temperature to for distribution. When surplus wind generated electricity is not available, a gas-fired boiler is used. Twenty percent of Braedstrup's heat is solar.
Latent heat thermal energy storage systems work by transferring heat to or from a material to change its phase. A phase-change is the melting, solidifying, vaporizing or liquifying. Such a material is called a phase change material (PCM). Materials used in LHTESs often have a high latent heat so that at their specific temperature, the phase change absorbs a large amount of energy, much more than sensible heat.
A steam accumulator is a type of LHTES where the phase change is between liquid and gas and uses the latent heat of vaporization of water.
A rechargeable battery comprises one or more electrochemical cells. It is known as a 'secondary cell' because its electrochemical reactions are electrically reversible. Rechargeable batteries come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from button cells to megawatt grid systems.
Rechargeable batteries have lower total cost of use and environmental impact than non-rechargeable (disposable) batteries. Some rechargeable battery types are available in the same form factors as disposables. Rechargeable batteries have higher initial cost but can be recharged very cheaply and used many times.
Common rechargeable battery chemistries include:
A flow battery works by passing a solution over a membrane where ions are exchanged to charge or discharge the cell. Cell voltage is chemically determined by the Nernst equation and ranges, in practical applications, from 1.0 V to 2.2 V. Storage capacity depends on the volume of solution. A flow battery is technically akin both to a fuel cell and an electrochemical accumulator cell. Commercial applications are for long half-cycle storage such as backup grid power.
Supercapacitors, also called electric double-layer capacitors (EDLC) or ultracapacitors, are a family of electrochemical capacitors that do not have conventional solid dielectrics. Capacitance is determined by two storage principles, double-layer capacitance and pseudocapacitance.
Supercapacitors bridge the gap between conventional capacitors and rechargeable batteries. They store the most energy per unit volume or mass (energy density) among capacitors. They support up to 10,000 farads/1.2 Volt, up to 10,000 times that of electrolytic capacitors, but deliver or accept less than half as much power per unit time (power density).
While supercapacitors have specific energy and energy densities that are approximately 10% of batteries, their power density is generally 10 to 100 times greater. This results in much shorter charge/discharge cycles. Also, they tolerate many more charge-discharge cycles than batteries.
Supercapacitors have many applications, including:
Power to gas is the conversion of electricity to a gaseous fuel such as hydrogen or methane. The three commercial methods use electricity to reduce water into hydrogen and oxygen by means of electrolysis.
In the first method, hydrogen is injected into the natural gas grid or is used for transportation. The second method is to combine the hydrogen with carbon dioxide to produce methane using a methanation reaction such as the Sabatier reaction, or biological methanation, resulting in an extra energy conversion loss of 8%. The methane may then be fed into the natural gas grid. The third method uses the output gas of a wood gas generator or a biogas plant, after the biogas upgrader is mixed with the hydrogen from the electrolyzer, to upgrade the quality of the biogas.
The element hydrogen can be a form of stored energy. Hydrogen can produce electricity via a hydrogen fuel cell.
At penetrations below 20% of the grid demand, renewables do not severely change the economics; but beyond about 20% of the total demand, external storage becomes important. If these sources are used to make ionic hydrogen, they can be freely expanded. A 5-year community-based pilot program using wind turbines and hydrogen generators began in 2007 in the remote community of Ramea, Newfoundland and Labrador. A similar project began in 2004 on Utsira, a small Norwegian island.
Energy losses involved in the hydrogen storage cycle come from the electrolysis of water, liquification or compression of the hydrogen and conversion to electricity.
About 50 kW·h (180 MJ) of solar energy is required to produce a kilogram of hydrogen, so the cost of the electricity is crucial. At $0.03/kWh, a common off-peak high-voltage line rate in the United States, hydrogen costs $1.50 per kilogram for the electricity, equivalent to $1.50/gallon for gasoline. Other costs include the electrolyzer plant, hydrogen compressors or liquefaction, storage and transportation.
Hydrogen can also be produced from aluminum and water by stripping aluminum's naturally-occurring aluminum oxide barrier and introducing it to water. This method is beneficial because recycled aluminum cans can be used to generate hydrogen, however systems to harness this option have not been commercially developed and are much more complex than electrolysis systems. Common methods to strip the oxide layer include caustic catalysts such as sodium hydroxide and alloys with gallium, mercury and other metals.
Underground hydrogen storage is the practice of hydrogen storage in caverns, salt domes and depleted oil and gas fields. Large quantities of gaseous hydrogen have been stored in caverns by Imperial Chemical Industries for many years without any difficulties. The European Hyunder project indicated in 2013 that storage of wind and solar energy using underground hydrogen would require 85 caverns.
Methane is the simplest hydrocarbon with the molecular formula CH4. Methane is more easily stored and transported than hydrogen. Storage and combustion infrastructure (pipelines, gasometers, power plants) are mature.
Synthetic natural gas (syngas or SNG) can be created in a multi-step process, starting with hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is then reacted with carbon dioxide in a Sabatier process, producing methane and water. Methane can be stored and later used to produce electricity. The resulting water is recycled, reducing the need for water. In the electrolysis stage, oxygen is stored for methane combustion in a pure oxygen environment at an adjacent power plant, eliminating nitrogen oxides.
Methane combustion produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. The carbon dioxide can be recycled to boost the Sabatier process and water can be recycled for further electrolysis. Methane production, storage and combustion recycles the reaction products.
The CO2 has economic value as a component of an energy storage vector, not a cost as in carbon capture and storage.
Power to liquid is similar to power to gas except that the hydrogen is converted into liquids such as methanol or ammonia. These are easier to handle than gases, and requires fewer safety precautions than hydrogen. They can be used for transportation, including aircraft, but also for industrial purposes or in the power sector.
Various biofuels such as biodiesel, vegetable oil, alcohol fuels, or biomass can replace fossil fuels. Various chemical processes can convert the carbon and hydrogen in coal, natural gas, plant and animal biomass and organic wastes into short hydrocarbons suitable as replacements for existing hydrocarbon fuels. Examples are Fischer–Tropsch diesel, methanol, dimethyl ether and syngas. This diesel source was used extensively in World War II in Germany, which faced limited access to crude oil supplies. South Africa produces most of the country's diesel from coal for similar reasons. A long term oil price above US$35/bbl may make such large scale synthetic liquid fuels economical.
Aluminum has been proposed as an energy store by a number of researchers. Its electrochemical equivalent (8.04 Ah/cm3) is nearly four times greater than that of lithium (2.06 Ah/cm3). Energy can be extracted from aluminum by reacting it with water to generate hydrogen. However, it must first be stripped of its natural oxide layer, a process which requires pulverization, chemical reactions with caustic substances, or alloys. The byproduct of the reaction to create hydrogen is aluminum oxide, which can be recycled into aluminum with the Hall–Héroult process, making the reaction theoretically renewable. If the Hall-Heroult Process is run using solar or wind power, aluminum could be used to store the energy produced at higher efficiency than direct solar electrolysis.
Boron, silicon, and zinc have been proposed as energy storage solutions.
The organic compound "norbornadiene" converts to "quadricyclane" upon exposure to light, storing solar energy as the energy of chemical bonds. A working system has been developed in Sweden as a molecular solar thermal system.
A capacitor (originally known as a 'condenser') is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy electrostatically. Practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors (plates) separated by a dielectric (i.e., insulator). A capacitor can store electric energy when disconnected from its charging circuit, so it can be used like a temporary battery, or like other types of rechargeable energy storage system. Capacitors are commonly used in electronic devices to maintain power supply while batteries change. (This prevents loss of information in volatile memory.) Conventional capacitors provide less than 360 joules per kilogram, while a conventional alkaline battery has a density of 590 kJ/kg.
Capacitors store energy in an electrostatic field between their plates. Given a potential difference across the conductors (e.g., when a capacitor is attached across a battery), an electric field develops across the dielectric, causing positive charge (+Q) to collect on one plate and negative charge (-Q) to collect on the other plate. If a battery is attached to a capacitor for a sufficient amount of time, no current can flow through the capacitor. However, if an accelerating or alternating voltage is applied across the leads of the capacitor, a displacement current can flow. Besides capacitor plates, charge can also be stored in a dielectric layer.
Capacitance is greater given a narrower separation between conductors and when the conductors have a larger surface area. In practice, the dielectric between the plates emits a small amount of leakage current and has an electric field strength limit, known as the breakdown voltage. However, the effect of recovery of a dielectric after a high-voltage breakdown holds promise for a new generation of self-healing capacitors. The conductors and leads introduce undesired inductance and resistance.
Research is assessing the quantum effects of nanoscale capacitors for digital quantum batteries.
Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems store energy in a magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a superconducting coil that has been cooled to a temperature below its superconducting critical temperature. A typical SMES system includes a superconducting coil, power conditioning system and refrigerator. Once the superconducting coil is charged, the current does not decay and the magnetic energy can be stored indefinitely.
The stored energy can be released to the network by discharging the coil. The associated inverter/rectifier accounts for about 2–3% energy loss in each direction. SMES loses the least amount of electricity in the energy storage process compared to other methods of storing energy. SMES systems offer round-trip efficiency greater than 95%.
Due to the energy requirements of refrigeration and the cost of superconducting wire, SMES is used for short duration storage such as improving power quality. It also has applications in grid balancing.
The classic application before the industrial revolution was the control of waterways to drive water mills for processing grain or powering machinery. Complex systems of reservoirs and dams were constructed to store and release water (and the potential energy it contained) when required.
Home energy storage is expected to become increasingly common given the growing importance of distributed generation of renewable energies (especially photovoltaics) and the important share of energy consumption in buildings. To exceed a self-sufficiency of 40% in a household equipped with photovoltaics, energy storage is needed. Multiple manufacturers produce rechargeable battery systems for storing energy, generally to hold surplus energy from home solar or wind generation. Today, for home energy storage, Li-ion batteries are preferable to lead-acid ones given their similar cost but much better performance.
Tesla Motors produces two models of the Tesla Powerwall. One is a 10 kWh weekly cycle version for backup applications and the other is a 7 kWh version for daily cycle applications. In 2016, a limited version of the Tesla Powerpack 2 cost $398(US)/kWh to store electricity worth 12.5 cents/kWh (US average grid price) making a positive return on investment doubtful unless electricity prices are higher than 30 cents/kWh.
RoseWater Energy produces two models of the "Energy & Storage System", the HUB 120 and SB20. Both versions provide 28.8 kWh of output, enabling it to run larger houses or light commercial premises, and protecting custom installations. The system provides five key elements into one system, including providing a clean 60 Hz Sine wave, zero transfer time, industrial-grade surge protection, renewable energy grid sell-back (optional), and battery backup.
Enphase Energy announced an integrated system that allows home users to store, monitor and manage electricity. The system stores 1.2 kWh of energy and 275W/500W power output.
Storing wind or solar energy using thermal energy storage though less flexible, is considerably cheaper than batteries. A simple 52-gallon electric water heater can store roughly 12 kWh of energy for supplementing hot water or space heating.
For purely financial purposes in areas where net metering is available, home generated electricity may be sold to the grid through a grid-tie inverter without the use of batteries for storage.
The largest source and the greatest store of renewable energy is provided by hydroelectric dams. A large reservoir behind a dam can store enough water to average the annual flow of a river between dry and wet seasons. A very large reservoir can store enough water to average the flow of a river between dry and wet years. While a hydroelectric dam does not directly store energy from intermittent sources, it does balance the grid by lowering its output and retaining its water when power is generated by solar or wind. If wind or solar generation exceeds the region's hydroelectric capacity, then some additional source of energy is needed.
Many renewable energy sources (notably solar and wind) produce variable power. Storage systems can level out the imbalances between supply and demand that this causes. Electricity must be used as it is generated or converted immediately into storable forms.
The main method of electrical grid storage is pumped-storage hydroelectricity. Areas of the world such as Norway, Wales, Japan and the US have used elevated geographic features for reservoirs, using electrically powered pumps to fill them. When needed, the water passes through generators and converts the gravitational potential of the falling water into electricity. Pumped storage in Norway, which gets almost all its electricity from hydro, has currently a capacity of 1.4 GW but since the total installed capacity is nearly 32 GW and 75% of that is regulable, it can be expanded significantly.
Some forms of storage that produce electricity include pumped-storage hydroelectric dams, rechargeable batteries, thermal storage including molten salts which can efficiently store and release very large quantities of heat energy, and compressed air energy storage, flywheels, cryogenic systems and superconducting magnetic coils.
Surplus power can also be converted into methane (sabatier process) with stockage in the natural gas network.
In 2011, the Bonneville Power Administration in Northwestern United States created an experimental program to absorb excess wind and hydro power generated at night or during stormy periods that are accompanied by high winds. Under central control, home appliances absorb surplus energy by heating ceramic bricks in special space heaters to hundreds of degrees and by boosting the temperature of modified hot water heater tanks. After charging, the appliances provide home heating and hot water as needed. The experimental system was created as a result of a severe 2010 storm that overproduced renewable energy to the extent that all conventional power sources were shut down, or in the case of a nuclear power plant, reduced to its lowest possible operating level, leaving a large area running almost completely on renewable energy.
Another advanced method used at the former Solar Two project in the United States and the Solar Tres Power Tower in Spain uses molten salt to store thermal energy captured from the sun and then convert it and dispatch it as electrical power. The system pumps molten salt through a tower or other special conduits to be heated by the sun. Insulated tanks store the solution. Electricity is produced by turning water to steam that is fed to turbines.
Since the early 21st century batteries have been applied to utility scale load-leveling and frequency regulation capabilities.
In vehicle-to-grid storage, electric vehicles that are plugged into the energy grid can deliver stored electrical energy from their batteries into the grid when needed.
Thermal energy storage (TES) can be used for air conditioning. It is most widely used for cooling single large buildings and/or groups of smaller buildings. Commercial air conditioning systems are the biggest contributors to peak electrical loads. In 2009, thermal storage was used in over 3,300 buildings in over 35 countries. It works by chilling material at night and using the chilled material for cooling during the hotter daytime periods.
The most popular technique is ice storage, which requires less space than water and is cheaper than fuel cells or flywheels. In this application, a standard chiller runs at night to produce an ice pile. Water circulates through the pile during the day to chill water that would normally be the chiller's daytime output.
A partial storage system minimizes capital investment by running the chillers nearly 24 hours a day. At night, they produce ice for storage and during the day they chill water. Water circulating through the melting ice augments the production of chilled water. Such a system makes ice for 16 to 18 hours a day and melts ice for six hours a day. Capital expenditures are reduced because the chillers can be just 40% - 50% of the size needed for a conventional, no-storage design. Storage sufficient to store half a day's available heat is usually adequate.
A full storage system shuts off the chillers during peak load hours. Capital costs are higher, as such a system requires larger chillers and a larger ice storage system.
This ice is produced when electrical utility rates are lower. Off-peak cooling systems can lower energy costs. The U.S. Green Building Council has developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program to encourage the design of reduced-environmental impact buildings. Off-peak cooling may help toward LEED Certification.
Thermal storage for heating is less common than for cooling. An example of thermal storage is storing solar heat to be used for heating at night.
Latent heat can also be stored in technical phase change materials (PCMs). These can be encapsulated in wall and ceiling panels, to moderate room temperatures.
Liquid hydrocarbon fuels are the most commonly used forms of energy storage for use in transportation, followed by a growing use of Battery Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Other energy carriers such as hydrogen can be used to avoid producing greenhouse gases.
Public transport systems like trams and trolleybuses require electricity, but due to their variability in movement, a steady supply of electricity via renewable energy is challenging. Photovoltaic systems installed on the roofs of buildings can be used to power public transportation systems during periods in which there is increased demand for electricity and access to other forms of energy are not readily available.
Capacitors are widely used in electronic circuits for blocking direct current while allowing alternating current to pass. In analog filter networks, they smooth the output of power supplies. In resonant circuits they tune radios to particular frequencies. In electric power transmission systems they stabilize voltage and power flow.
The United States Department of Energy International Energy Storage Database (IESDB), is a free-access database of energy storage projects and policies funded by the United States Department of Energy Office of Electricity and Sandia National Labs.
Storage capacity is the amount of energy extracted from a power plant energy storage system; usually measured in joules or kilowatt-hours and their multiples, it may be given in number of hours of electricity production at power plant nameplate capacity; when storage is of primary type (i.e., thermal or pumped-water), output is sourced only with the power plant embedded storage system.
The economics of energy storage strictly depends on the reserve service requested, and several uncertainty factors affect the profitability of energy storage. Therefore, not every storage method is technically and economically suitable for the storage of several MWh, and the optimal size of the energy storage is market and location dependent.
Moreover, ESS are affected by several risks, e.g.:
1) Techno-economic risks, which are related to the specific technology;
2) Market risks, which are the factors that affect the electricity supply system;
3) Regulation and policy risks.
Therefore, traditional techniques based on deterministic Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) for the investment appraisal are not fully adequate to evaluate these risks and uncertainties and the investor's flexibility to deal with them. Hence, the literature recommends to assess the value of risks and uncertainties through the Real Option Analysis (ROA), which is a valuable method in uncertain contexts.
The economic valuation of large-scale applications (including pumped hydro storage and compressed air) considers benefits including: curtailment avoidance, grid congestion avoidance, price arbitrage and carbon-free energy delivery. In one technical assessment by the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Centre, economic goals could be met using batteries if their capital cost was $30 to $50 per kilowatt-hour.
A metric of energy efficiency of storage is energy storage on energy invested (ESOI), which is the amount of energy that can be stored by a technology, divided by the amount of energy required to build that technology. The higher the ESOI, the better the storage technology is energetically. For lithium-ion batteries this is around 10, and for lead acid batteries it is about 2. Other forms of storage such as pumped hydroelectric storage generally have higher ESOI, such as 210.
In 2013, the German Federal government allocated €200M (approximately US$270M) for research, and another €50M to subsidize battery storage in residential rooftop solar panels, according to a representative of the German Energy Storage Association.
Siemens AG commissioned a production-research plant to open in 2015 at the "Zentrum für Sonnenenergie und Wasserstoff (ZSW," the German Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in the State of Baden-Württemberg), a university/industry collaboration in Stuttgart, Ulm and Widderstall, staffed by approximately 350 scientists, researchers, engineers, and technicians. The plant develops new near-production manufacturing materials and processes (NPMM&P) using a computerized Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. It aims to enable the expansion of rechargeable battery production with increased quality and lower cost.
In 2014, research and test centers opened to evaluate energy storage technologies. Among them was the Advanced Systems Test Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in Wisconsin State, which partnered with battery manufacturer Johnson Controls. The laboratory was created as part of the university's newly opened Wisconsin Energy Institute. Their goals include the evaluation of state-of-the-art and next generation electric vehicle batteries, including their use as grid supplements.
The State of New York unveiled its New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST) Test and Commercialization Center at Eastman Business Park in Rochester, New York, at a cost of $23 million for its almost 1,700 m2 laboratory. The center includes the Center for Future Energy Systems, a collaboration between Cornell University of Ithaca, New York and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. NY-BEST tests, validates and independently certifies diverse forms of energy storage intended for commercial use.
On September 27, 2017, Senators Al Franken of Minnesota and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico introduced Advancing Grid Storage Act (AGSA), which would devote more than $1 billion in research, technical assistance and grants to encourage energy storage in the United States.
In the United Kingdom, some 14 industry and government agencies allied with seven British universities in May 2014 to create the SUPERGEN Energy Storage Hub in order to assist in the coordination of energy storage technology research and development.
Journals and papers | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24130 |
PHP
PHP is a popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994; the PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. PHP originally stood for "Personal Home Page", but it now stands for the recursive initialism "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".
PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter implemented as a module, a daemon or as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) executable. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code which may be any type of data, such as generated HTML or binary image data would form the whole or part of a HTTP response. Various web template systems, web content management systems, and web frameworks exist which can be employed to orchestrate or facilitate the generation of that response. Additionally, PHP can be used for many programming tasks outside of the web context, such as standalone graphical applications and robotic drone control. Arbitrary PHP code can also be interpreted and executed via command-line interface (CLI).
The standard PHP interpreter, powered by the Zend Engine, is free software released under the PHP License. PHP has been widely ported and can be deployed on most web servers on almost every operating system and platform, free of charge.
The PHP language evolved without a written formal specification or standard until 2014, with the original implementation acting as the "de facto" standard which other implementations aimed to follow. Since 2014, work has gone on to create a formal PHP specification.
, over half of sites on the web using PHP are still on discontinued/"EOLed" version 5.6 or older; and with version 7.0 and 7.1 over 68%, that are neither officially supported by The PHP Development Team, while security support is provided by third parties, such as Debian (up to June 2020 for PHP 5). Because of the popularity of PHP that means at least 53% of the websites in the world run on implementations of languages no longer supported by their designers. In addition, PHP version 7.2, the most popular supported PHP version, will stop getting security updates on November 30, 2020.
PHP development began in 1994 when Rasmus Lerdorf wrote several Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs in C, which he used to maintain his personal homepage. He extended them to work with web forms and to communicate with databases, and called this implementation "Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter" or PHP/FI.
PHP/FI could be used to build simple, dynamic web applications. To accelerate bug reporting and improve the code, Lerdorf initially announced the release of PHP/FI as "Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools) version 1.0" on the Usenet discussion group "comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi" on June 8, 1995. This release already had the basic functionality that PHP has today. This included Perl-like variables, form handling, and the ability to embed HTML. The syntax resembled that of Perl, but was simpler, more limited and less consistent.
An example of the early PHP syntax:
Early PHP was not intended to be a new programming language, and grew organically, with Lerdorf noting in retrospect: "I don't know how to stop it, there was never any intent to write a programming language [...] I have absolutely no idea how to write a programming language, I just kept adding the next logical step on the way." A development team began to form and, after months of work and beta testing, officially released PHP/FI 2 in November 1997.
The fact that PHP was not originally designed, but instead was developed organically has led to inconsistent naming of functions and inconsistent ordering of their parameters. In some cases, the function names were chosen to match the lower-level libraries which PHP was "wrapping", while in some very early versions of PHP the length of the function names was used internally as a hash function, so names were chosen to improve the distribution of hash values.
Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans rewrote the parser in 1997 and formed the base of PHP 3, changing the language's name to the recursive acronym "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor". Afterwards, public testing of PHP 3 began, and the official launch came in June 1998. Suraski and Gutmans then started a new rewrite of PHP's core, producing the Zend Engine in 1999. They also founded Zend Technologies in Ramat Gan, Israel.
On May 22, 2000, PHP 4, powered by the Zend Engine 1.0, was released. As of August 2008 this branch reached version 4.4.9. PHP 4 is no longer under development nor will any security updates be released.
On July 14, 2004, PHP 5 was released, powered by the new Zend Engine II. PHP 5 included new features such as improved support for object-oriented programming, the PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension (which defines a lightweight and consistent interface for accessing databases), and numerous performance enhancements. In 2008, PHP 5 became the only stable version under development. Late static binding had been missing from PHP and was added in version 5.3.
Many high-profile open-source projects ceased to support PHP 4 in new code as of February 5, 2008, because of the GoPHP5 initiative, provided by a consortium of PHP developers promoting the transition from PHP 4 to PHP 5.
Over time, PHP interpreters became available on most existing 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems, either by building them from the PHP source code, or by using pre-built binaries. For PHP versions 5.3 and 5.4, the only available Microsoft Windows binary distributions were 32-bit IA-32 builds, requiring Windows 32-bit compatibility mode while using Internet Information Services (IIS) on a 64-bit Windows platform. PHP version 5.5 made the 64-bit x86-64 builds available for Microsoft Windows.
Official security support for PHP 5.6 ended on 31 December 2018, but Debian 8.0 Jessie will extend support until June 2020.
PHP received mixed reviews due to lacking native Unicode support at the core language level. In 2005, a project headed by Andrei Zmievski was initiated to bring native Unicode support throughout PHP, by embedding the International Components for Unicode (ICU) library, and representing text strings as UTF-16 internally. Since this would cause major changes both to the internals of the language and to user code, it was planned to release this as version 6.0 of the language, along with other major features then in development.
However, a shortage of developers who understood the necessary changes, and performance problems arising from conversion to and from UTF-16, which is rarely used in a web context, led to delays in the project. As a result, a PHP 5.3 release was created in 2009, with many non-Unicode features back-ported from PHP 6, notably namespaces. In March 2010, the project in its current form was officially abandoned, and a PHP 5.4 release was prepared containing most remaining non-Unicode features from PHP 6, such as traits and closure re-binding. Initial hopes were that a new plan would be formed for Unicode integration, but none had been adopted.
During 2014 and 2015, a new major PHP version was developed, which was numbered PHP 7. The numbering of this version involved some debate. While the PHP 6 Unicode experiment had never been released, several articles and book titles referenced the PHP 6 name, which might have caused confusion if a new release were to reuse the name. After a vote, the name PHP 7 was chosen.
The foundation of PHP 7 is a PHP branch that was originally dubbed "PHP next generation" ("phpng"). It was authored by Dmitry Stogov, Xinchen Hui and Nikita Popov, and aimed to optimize PHP performance by refactoring the Zend Engine while retaining near-complete language compatibility. , WordPress-based benchmarks, which served as the main benchmark suite for the phpng project, showed an almost 100% increase in performance. Changes from phpng are also expected to make it easier to improve performance in the future, as more compact data structures and other changes are seen as better suited for a successful migration to a just-in-time (JIT) compiler. Because of the significant changes, the reworked Zend Engine is called "Zend Engine 3", succeeding Zend Engine 2 used in PHP 5.
Because of major internal changes in phpng it must receive a new major version number of PHP, rather than a minor PHP 5 release, according to PHP's release process. Major versions of PHP are allowed to break backward-compatibility of code and therefore PHP 7 presented an opportunity for other improvements beyond phpng that require backward-compatibility breaks. In particular, it involved the following changes:
PHP 7 also included new language features. Most notably, it introduces return type declarations for functions which complement the existing parameter type declarations, and support for the scalar types (integer, float, string, and boolean) in parameter and return type declarations.
Beginning on June 28, 2011, the PHP Development Team implemented a timeline for the release of new versions of PHP. Under this system, at least one release should occur every month. Once per year, a minor release should occur which may include new features. Every minor release should at least be supported for two years with security and bug fixes, followed by at least one year of only security fixes, for a total of a three-year release process for every minor release. No new features, unless small and self-contained, are to be introduced into a minor release during the three-year release process.
Latest versions of PHP are PHP 7.2.30, PHP 7.3.17 and PHP 7.4.5 released on 16 Apr 2020.
The mascot of the PHP project is the "elePHPant", a blue elephant with the PHP logo on its side, designed by Vincent Pontier in 1998. "The (PHP) letters were forming the shape of an elephant if viewed in a sideways angle." The elePHPant is sometimes differently colored when in plush toy form.
Many variations of this mascot have been made over the years. Only the elePHPants based on the original design by Vincent Pontier are considered official by the community. These are collectible and some of them are extremely rare. Different variations are listed on A Field Guide to Elephpants.
The following "Hello, World!" program is written in PHP code embedded in an HTML document:
However, as no requirement exists for PHP code to be embedded in HTML, the simplest version of "Hello, World!" may be written like this, with the closing tag omitted as preferred in files containing pure PHP code
The PHP interpreter only executes PHP code within its delimiters. Anything outside its delimiters is not processed by PHP, although non-PHP text is still subject to control structures described in PHP code. The most common delimiters are to close PHP sections. The shortened form also exists. This short delimiter makes script files less portable, since support for them can be disabled in the local PHP configuration and it is therefore discouraged; there is no recommendation against the echo short tag =. Prior to PHP 5.4.0, this short syntax for echo() only works with the codice_13 configuration setting enabled, while for PHP 5.4.0 and later it is always available. The purpose of all these delimiters is to separate PHP code from non-PHP content, such as JavaScript code or HTML markup.
The first form of delimiters, , in XHTML and other XML documents, creates correctly formed XML processing instructions. This means that the resulting mixture of PHP code and other markup in the server-side file is itself well-formed XML.
Variables are prefixed with a dollar symbol, and a type does not need to be specified in advance. PHP 5 introduced "type hinting" that allows functions to force their parameters to be objects of a specific class, arrays, interfaces or callback functions. However, before PHP 7.0, type hints could not be used with scalar types such as integer or string.
Unlike function and class names, variable names are case sensitive. Both double-quoted ("") and heredoc strings provide the ability to interpolate a variable's value into the string. PHP treats newlines as whitespace in the manner of a free-form language, and statements are terminated by a semicolon. PHP has three types of comment syntax: /* */ marks block and inline comments; // or # are used for one-line comments. The codice_14 statement is one of several facilities PHP provides to output text.
In terms of keywords and language syntax, PHP is similar to the C style syntax. if conditions, for and while loops, and function returns are similar in syntax to languages such as C, C++, C#, Java and Perl.
PHP stores integers in a platform-dependent range, either as a 32, 64 or 128-bit signed integer equivalent to the C-language long type. Unsigned integers are converted to signed values in certain situations, which is different behavior to many other programming languages. Integer variables can be assigned using decimal (positive and negative), octal, hexadecimal, and binary notations.
Floating point numbers are also stored in a platform-specific range. They can be specified using floating point notation, or two forms of scientific notation. PHP has a native Boolean type that is similar to the native Boolean types in Java and C++. Using the Boolean type conversion rules, non-zero values are interpreted as true and zero as false, as in Perl and C++.
The null data type represents a variable that has no value; codice_15 is the only allowed value for this data type.
Variables of the "resource" type represent references to resources from external sources. These are typically created by functions from a particular extension, and can only be processed by functions from the same extension; examples include file, image, and database resources.
Arrays can contain elements of any type that PHP can handle, including resources, objects, and even other arrays. Order is preserved in lists of values and in hashes with both keys and values, and the two can be intermingled. PHP also supports strings, which can be used with single quotes, double quotes, nowdoc or heredoc syntax.
The Standard PHP Library (SPL) attempts to solve standard problems and implements efficient data access interfaces and classes.
PHP defines a large array of functions in the core language and many are also available in various extensions; these functions are well documented in the online PHP documentation. However, the built-in library has a wide variety of naming conventions and associated inconsistencies, as described under history above.
Custom functions may be defined by the developer:
function myAge(int $birthYear): string
echo 'I am currently ' . myAge(1995) . ' old.';
In 2020, the output of the above sample program is 'I am currently 25 years old.'
In lieu of function pointers, functions in PHP can be referenced by a string containing their name. In this manner, normal PHP functions can be used, for example, as callbacks or within function tables. User-defined functions may be created at any time without being prototyped. Functions may be defined inside code blocks, permitting a run-time decision as to whether or not a function should be defined. There is a codice_16 function that determines whether a function with a given name has already been defined. Function calls must use parentheses, with the exception of zero-argument class constructor functions called with the PHP operator codice_17, in which case parentheses are optional.
Until PHP 5.3, support for anonymous functions and closures did not exist in PHP. While codice_18 has existed since PHP 4.0.1, it is merely a thin wrapper around codice_19 that allows normal PHP functions to be created during program execution. PHP 5.3 added syntax to define an anonymous function or "closure" which can capture variables from the surrounding scope:
function getAdder($x)
$adder = getAdder(8);
echo $adder(2); // prints "10"
In the example above, codice_20 function creates a closure using passed argument (the keyword codice_21 imports a variable from the lexical context), which takes an additional argument , and returns the created closure to the caller. Such a function is a first-class object, meaning that it can be stored in a variable, passed as a parameter to other functions, etc.
Unusually for a dynamically typed language, PHP supports type declarations on function parameters, which are enforced at runtime. This has been supported for classes and interfaces since PHP 5.0, for arrays since PHP 5.1, for "callables" since PHP 5.4, and scalar (integer, float, string and boolean) types since PHP 7.0. PHP 7.0 also has type declarations for function return types, expressed by placing the type name after the list of parameters, preceded by a colon. For example, the codice_22 function from the earlier example could be annotated with types like so in PHP 7:
function getAdder(int $x): Closure
$adder = getAdder(8);
echo $adder(2); // prints "10"
echo $adder(null); // throws an exception because an incorrect type was passed
$adder = getAdder([]); // would also throw an exception
By default, scalar type declarations follow weak typing principles. So, for example, if a parameter's type is codice_23, PHP would allow not only integers, but also convertible numeric strings, floats or booleans to be passed to that function, and would convert them. However, PHP 7 has a "strict typing" mode which, when used, disallows such conversions for function calls and returns within a file.
Basic object-oriented programming functionality was added in PHP 3 and improved in PHP 4. This allowed for PHP to gain further abstraction, making creative tasks easier for programmers using the language. Object handling was completely rewritten for PHP 5, expanding the feature set and enhancing performance. In previous versions of PHP, objects were handled like value types. The drawback of this method was that code had to make heavy use of PHP's "reference" variables if it wanted to modify an object it was passed rather than creating a copy of it. In the new approach, objects are referenced by handle, and not by value.
PHP 5 introduced private and protected member variables and methods, along with abstract classes, final classes, abstract methods, and final methods. It also introduced a standard way of declaring constructors and destructors, similar to that of other object-oriented languages such as C++, and a standard exception handling model. Furthermore, PHP 5 added interfaces and allowed for multiple interfaces to be implemented. There are special interfaces that allow objects to interact with the runtime system. Objects implementing ArrayAccess can be used with array syntax and objects implementing Iterator or IteratorAggregate can be used with the codice_6 language construct. There is no virtual table feature in the engine, so static variables are bound with a name instead of a reference at compile time.
If the developer creates a copy of an object using the reserved word codice_25, the Zend engine will check whether a codice_26 method has been defined. If not, it will call a default codice_26 which will copy the object's properties. If a codice_26 method is defined, then it will be responsible for setting the necessary properties in the created object. For convenience, the engine will supply a function that imports the properties of the source object, so the programmer can start with a by-value replica of the source object and only override properties that need to be changed.
The following is a basic example of object-oriented programming in PHP:
Objects of the same type have access to each other's private and protected members even though they are not the same instance.
The only complete PHP implementation is the original, known simply as PHP. It is the most widely used and is powered by the Zend Engine. To disambiguate it from other implementations, it is sometimes unofficially called "Zend PHP". The Zend Engine compiles PHP source code on-the-fly into an internal format that it can execute, thus it works as an interpreter. It is also the "reference implementation" of PHP, as PHP has no formal specification, and so the semantics of Zend PHP define the semantics of PHP. Due to the complex and nuanced semantics of PHP, defined by how Zend works, it is difficult for competing implementations to offer complete compatibility.
PHP's single-request-per-script-execution model, and the fact the Zend Engine is an interpreter, leads to inefficiency; as a result, various products have been developed to help improve PHP performance. In order to speed up execution time and not have to compile the PHP source code every time the web page is accessed, PHP scripts can also be deployed in the PHP engine's internal format by using an opcode cache, which works by caching the compiled form of a PHP script (opcodes) in shared memory to avoid the overhead of parsing and compiling the code every time the script runs. An opcode cache, Zend Opcache, is built into PHP since version 5.5. Another example of a widely used opcode cache is the Alternative PHP Cache (APC), which is available as a PECL extension.
While Zend PHP is still the most popular implementation, several other implementations have been developed. Some of these are compilers or support JIT compilation, and hence offer performance benefits over Zend PHP at the expense of lacking full PHP compatibility. Alternative implementations include the following:
PHP is free software released under the PHP License, which stipulates that:
This restriction on use of "PHP" makes the PHP License incompatible with the General Public License (GPL), while the Zend License is incompatible due to an advertising clause similar to that of the original BSD license.
PHP includes various free and open-source libraries in its source distribution, or uses them in resulting PHP binary builds. PHP is fundamentally an Internet-aware system with built-in modules for accessing File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers and many database servers, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and SQLite (which is an embedded database), LDAP servers, and others. Numerous functions familiar to C programmers, such as those in the stdio family, are available in standard PHP builds.
PHP allows developers to write extensions in C to add functionality to the PHP language. PHP extensions can be compiled statically into PHP or loaded dynamically at runtime. Numerous extensions have been written to add support for the Windows API, process management on Unix-like operating systems, multibyte strings (Unicode), cURL, and several popular compression formats. Other PHP features made available through extensions include integration with IRC, dynamic generation of images and Adobe Flash content, "PHP Data Objects" (PDO) as an abstraction layer used for accessing databases, and even speech synthesis. Some of the language's core functions, such as those dealing with strings and arrays, are also implemented as extensions. The PHP Extension Community Library (PECL) project is a repository for extensions to the PHP language.
Some other projects, such as "Zephir", provide the ability for PHP extensions to be created in a high-level language and compiled into native PHP extensions. Such an approach, instead of writing PHP extensions directly in C, simplifies the development of extensions and reduces the time required for programming and testing.
, the PHP Group consisted of ten people: Thies C. Arntzen, Stig Bakken, Shane Caraveo, Andi Gutmans, Rasmus Lerdorf, Sam Ruby, Sascha Schumann, Zeev Suraski, Jim Winstead, and Andrei Zmievski.
Zend Technologies provides a PHP Certification based on PHP 5.5 exam for programmers to become certified PHP developers.
There are two primary ways for adding support for PHP to a web server – as a native web server module, or as a CGI executable. PHP has a direct module interface called Server Application Programming Interface (SAPI), which is supported by many web servers including Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft IIS, Netscape (now defunct) and iPlanet. Some other web servers, such as OmniHTTPd, support the Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI), which is a Microsoft's web server module interface. If PHP has no module support for a web server, it can always be used as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) or FastCGI processor; in that case, the web server is configured to use PHP's CGI executable to process all requests to PHP files.
PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) is an alternative FastCGI implementation for PHP, bundled with the official PHP distribution since version 5.3.3. When compared to the older FastCGI implementation, it contains some additional features, mostly useful for heavily loaded web servers.
When using PHP for command-line scripting, a PHP command-line interface (CLI) executable is needed. PHP supports a CLI server application programming interface (SAPI) as of PHP 4.3.0. The main focus of this SAPI is developing shell applications using PHP. There are quite a few differences between the CLI SAPI and other SAPIs, although they do share many of the same behaviors.
PHP has a direct module interface called SAPI for different web servers; in case of PHP 5 and Apache 2.0 on Windows, it is provided in form of a DLL file called , which is a module that, among other functions, provides an interface between PHP and the web server, implemented in a form that the server understands. This form is what is known as a SAPI.
There are different kinds of SAPIs for various web server extensions. For example, in addition to those listed above, other SAPIs for the PHP language include the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and command-line interface (CLI).
PHP can also be used for writing desktop graphical user interface (GUI) applications, by using the PHP-GTK extension. PHP-GTK is not included in the official PHP distribution, and as an extension it can be used only with PHP versions 5.1.0 and newer. The most common way of installing PHP-GTK is compiling it from the source code.
When PHP is installed and used in cloud environments, software development kits (SDKs) are provided for using cloud-specific features. For example:
Numerous configuration options are supported, affecting both core PHP features and extensions. Configuration file codice_39 is searched for in different locations, depending on the way PHP is used. The configuration file is split into various sections, while some of the configuration options can be also set within the web server configuration.
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to server-side web development, in which case PHP generally runs on a web server. Any PHP code in a requested file is executed by the PHP runtime, usually to create dynamic web page content or dynamic images used on websites or elsewhere. It can also be used for command-line scripting and client-side graphical user interface (GUI) applications. PHP can be deployed on most web servers, many operating systems and platforms, and can be used with many relational database management systems (RDBMS). Most web hosting providers support PHP for use by their clients. It is available free of charge, and the PHP Group provides the complete source code for users to build, customize and extend for their own use.
Originally designed to create dynamic web pages, PHP now focuses mainly on server-side scripting, and it is similar to other server-side scripting languages that provide dynamic content from a web server to a client, such as Microsoft's ASP.NET, Sun Microsystems' JavaServer Pages, and codice_40. PHP has also attracted the development of many software frameworks that provide building blocks and a design structure to promote rapid application development (RAD). Some of these include PRADO, CakePHP, Symfony, CodeIgniter, Laravel, Yii Framework, Phalcon and Zend Framework, offering features similar to other web frameworks.
The LAMP architecture has become popular in the web industry as a way of deploying web applications. PHP is commonly used as the "P" in this bundle alongside Linux, Apache and MySQL, although the "P" may also refer to Python, Perl, or some mix of the three. Similar packages, WAMP and MAMP, are also available for Windows and macOS, with the first letter standing for the respective operating system. Although both PHP and Apache are provided as part of the macOS base install, users of these packages seek a simpler installation mechanism that can be more easily kept up to date.
, over 20 million Internet domains had web services hosted on servers with PHP installed and codice_41 was recorded as the most popular Apache HTTP Server module. , PHP was used as the server-side programming language on 78.8% of websites, down from 83.5% previously, where the language could be determined. Web content management systems written in PHP include MediaWiki, Joomla, eZ Publish, eZ Platform, SilverStripe, WordPress, Drupal, and Moodle. Websites written in PHP, in back-end and/or user-facing portion, include Facebook, Digg, Tumblr, Dailymotion, and Slack.
For specific and more advanced usage scenarios, PHP offers a well defined and documented way for writing custom extensions in C or C++. Besides extending the language itself in form of additional libraries, extensions are providing a way for improving execution speed where it is critical and there is room for improvements by using a true compiled language. PHP also offers well defined ways for embedding itself into other software projects. That way PHP can be easily used as an internal scripting language for another project, also providing tight interfacing with the project's specific internal data structures.
PHP received mixed reviews due to lacking support for multithreading at the core language level, though using threads is made possible by the "pthreads" PECL extension.
, PHP was used in more than 240 million websites (39% of those sampled) and was installed on 2.1 million web servers.
A command line interface, php-cli, and two ActiveX Windows Script Host scripting engines for PHP have been produced.
, PHP 7 is the most used version of the language with 50.6% of sites using PHP and 39.6% of all websites on the web.
In 2019, 11% of all vulnerabilities listed by the National Vulnerability Database were linked to PHP; historically, about 30% of all vulnerabilities listed since 1996 in this database are linked to PHP. Technical security flaws of the language itself or of its core libraries are not frequent (22 in 2009, about 1% of the total although PHP applies to about 20% of programs listed). Recognizing that programmers make mistakes, some languages include taint checking to automatically detect the lack of input validation which induces many issues. Such a feature is being developed for PHP, but its inclusion into a release has been rejected several times in the past.
There are advanced protection patches such as Suhosin and Hardening-Patch, especially designed for web hosting environments.
Historically, old versions of PHP had some configuration parameters and default values for such runtime settings that made some PHP applications prone to security issues. Among these, codice_42 and codice_43 configuration directives were the best known; the latter made any URL parameters become PHP variables, opening a path for serious security vulnerabilities by allowing an attacker to set the value of any uninitialized global variable and interfere with the execution of a PHP script. Support for "magic quotes" and "register globals" settings has been deprecated as of PHP 5.3.0, and removed as of PHP 5.4.0.
Another example for the potential runtime-settings vulnerability comes from failing to disable PHP execution (for example by using the codice_44 configuration directive) for the directory where uploaded files are stored; enabling it can result in execution of malicious code embedded within the uploaded files. The best practice is to either locate the image directory outside of the document root available to the web server and serve it via intermediary script, or disable PHP execution for the directory which stores the uploaded files.
Also, enabling the dynamic loading of PHP extensions (via codice_45 configuration directive) in a shared web hosting environment can lead to security issues.
Implied type conversions that result in different values being treated as equal, sometimes against the programmer's intent, can lead to security issues. For example, the result of the comparison is codice_46, because strings that are parseable as numbers are converted to numbers; in this case, the first compared value is treated as scientific notation having the value (), which is zero. Errors like this resulted in authentication vulnerabilities in Simple Machines Forum, Typo3 and phpBB when MD5 password hashes were compared. The recommended way is to use hash_equals() (for timing attack safety), codice_47 or the identity operator (codice_48), as results in codice_49.
In a 2013 analysis of over 170,000 website defacements, published by Zone-H, the most frequently (53%) used technique was exploitation of file inclusion vulnerability, mostly related to insecure usage of the PHP language constructs codice_50, codice_51, and codice_52. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24131 |
Principia Mathematica
The Principia Mathematica (often abbreviated PM) is a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics written by the philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell and published in 1910, 1912, and 1913. In 1925–27, it appeared in a second edition with an important "Introduction to the Second Edition", an "Appendix A" that replaced ✸9 and all-new "Appendix B" and "Appendix C". "PM" is not to be confused with Russell's 1903 "The Principles of Mathematics". "PM" was originally conceived as a sequel volume to Russell's 1903 "Principles", but as "PM" states, this became an unworkable suggestion for practical and philosophical reasons: "The present work was originally intended by us to be comprised in a second volume of "Principles of Mathematics"... But as we advanced, it became increasingly evident that the subject is a very much larger one than we had supposed; moreover on many fundamental questions which had been left obscure and doubtful in the former work, we have now arrived at what we believe to be satisfactory solutions."
"PM", according to its introduction, had three aims: (1) to analyze to the greatest possible extent the ideas and methods of mathematical logic and to minimize the number of primitive notions and axioms, and inference rules; (2) to precisely express mathematical propositions in symbolic logic using the most convenient notation that precise expression allows; (3) to solve the paradoxes that plagued logic and set theory at the turn of the 20th-century, like Russell's paradox.
This third aim motivated the adoption of the theory of types in "PM". The theory of types adopts grammatical restrictions on formulas that rules out the unrestricted comprehension of classes, properties, and functions. The effect of this is that formulas such as would allow the comprehension of objects like the Russell set turn out to be ill-formed: they violate the grammatical restrictions of the system of "PM".
There is no doubt that "PM" is of great importance in the history of mathematics and philosophy: as Irvine has noted, it sparked interest in symbolic logic and advanced the subject by popularizing it; it showcased the powers and capacities of symbolic logic; and it showed how advances in philosophy of mathematics and symbolic logic could go hand-in-hand with tremendous fruitfulness. Indeed, "PM" was in part brought about by an interest in logicism, the view on which all mathematical truths are logical truths. It was in part thanks to the advances made in "PM" that, despite its defects, numerous advances in meta-logic were made, including Gödel's incompleteness theorems.
For all that, "PM" is not widely used today: probably the foremost reason for this is its reputation for typographical complexity. Somewhat infamously, several hundred pages of
"PM" precede the proof of the validity of the proposition 1+1=2. Contemporary mathematicians tend to use a modernized form of the system of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. Nonetheless, the scholarly, historical, and philosophical interest in "PM" is great and ongoing: for example, the Modern Library placed it 23rd in a list of the top 100 English-language nonfiction books of the twentieth century.
The "Principia" covered only set theory, cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, and real numbers. Deeper theorems from real analysis were not included, but by the end of the third volume it was clear to experts that a large amount of known mathematics could "in principle" be developed in the adopted formalism. It was also clear how lengthy such a development would be.
A fourth volume on the foundations of geometry had been planned, but the authors admitted to intellectual exhaustion upon completion of the third.
As noted in the criticism of the theory by Kurt Gödel (below), unlike a formalist theory, the "logicistic" theory of "PM" has no "precise statement of the syntax of the formalism". Another observation is that almost immediately in the theory, "interpretations" (in the sense of model theory) are presented in terms of "truth-values" for the behaviour of the symbols "⊢" (assertion of truth), "~" (logical not), and "V" (logical inclusive OR).
Truth-values: "PM" embeds the notions of "truth" and "falsity" in the notion "primitive proposition". A raw (pure) formalist theory would not provide the meaning of the symbols that form a "primitive proposition"—the symbols themselves could be absolutely arbitrary and unfamiliar. The theory would specify only "how the symbols behave based on the grammar of the theory". Then later, by "assignment" of "values", a model would specify an "interpretation" of what the formulas are saying. Thus in the formal Kleene symbol set below, the "interpretation" of what the symbols commonly mean, and by implication how they end up being used, is given in parentheses, e.g., "¬ (not)". But this is not a pure Formalist theory.
The following formalist theory is offered as contrast to the logicistic theory of "PM". A contemporary formal system would be constructed as follows:
The theory of "PM" has both significant similarities, and similar differences, to a contemporary formal theory. Kleene states that "this deduction of mathematics from logic was offered as intuitive axiomatics. The axioms were intended to be believed, or at least to be accepted as plausible hypotheses concerning the world". Indeed, unlike a Formalist theory that manipulates symbols according to rules of grammar, "PM" introduces the notion of "truth-values", i.e., truth and falsity in the "real-world" sense, and the "assertion of truth" almost immediately as the fifth and sixth elements in the structure of the theory ("PM" 1962:4–36):
Cf. "PM" 1962:90–94, for the first edition:
The "first" edition (see discussion relative to the second edition, below) begins with a definition of the sign "⊃"
✸1.01. "p" ⊃ "q" .=. ~ "p" ∨ "q". Df.
✸1.1. Anything implied by a true elementary proposition is true. Pp modus ponens
✸1.2. ⊦: "p" ∨ "p" .⊃. "p". Pp principle of tautology
✸1.3. ⊦: "q" .⊃. "p" ∨ "q". Pp principle of addition
✸1.4. ⊦: "p" ∨ "q" .⊃. "q" ∨ "p". Pp principle of permutation
✸1.5. ⊦: "p" ∨ ( "q" ∨ "r" ) .⊃. "q" ∨ ( "p" ∨ "r" ). Pp associative principle
✸1.6. ⊦:. "q" ⊃ "r" .⊃: "p" ∨ "q" .⊃. "p" ∨ "r". Pp principle of summation
✸1.7. If "p" is an elementary proposition, ~"p" is an elementary proposition. Pp
✸1.71. If "p" and "q" are elementary propositions, "p" ∨ "q" is an elementary proposition. Pp
✸1.72. If φ"p" and ψ"p" are elementary propositional functions which take elementary propositions as arguments, φ"p" ∨ ψ"p" is an elementary proposition. Pp
Together with the "Introduction to the Second Edition", the second edition's Appendix A abandons the entire section ✸9. This includes six primitive propositions ✸9 through ✸9.15 together with the Axioms of reducibility.
The revised theory is made difficult by the introduction of the Sheffer stroke ("|") to symbolise "incompatibility" (i.e., if both elementary propositions "p" and "q" are true, their "stroke" "p" | "q" is false), the contemporary logical NAND (not-AND). In the revised theory, the Introduction presents the notion of "atomic proposition", a "datum" that "belongs to the philosophical part of logic". These have no parts that are propositions and do not contain the notions "all" or "some". For example: "this is red", or "this is earlier than that". Such things can exist "ad finitum", i.e., even an "infinite enumeration" of them to replace "generality" (i.e., the notion of "for all"). "PM" then "advance[s] to molecular propositions" that are all linked by "the stroke". Definitions give equivalences for "~", "∨", "⊃", and ".".
The new introduction defines "elementary propositions" as atomic and molecular positions together. It then replaces all the primitive propositions ✸1.2 to ✸1.72 with a single primitive proposition framed in terms of the stroke:
The new introduction keeps the notation for "there exists" (now recast as "sometimes true") and "for all" (recast as "always true"). Appendix A strengthens the notion of "matrix" or "predicative function" (a "primitive idea", "PM" 1962:164) and presents four new Primitive propositions as ✸8.1–✸8.13.
✸88. Multiplicative axiom
✸120. Axiom of infinity
In simple type theory objects are elements of various disjoint "types". Types are implicitly built up as follows. If τ1...,τ"m" are types then there is a type (τ1...,τ"m") that can be thought of as the class of propositional functions of τ1...,τ"m" (which in set theory is essentially the set of subsets of τ1×...×τ"m"). In particular there is a type () of propositions, and there may be a type ι (iota) of "individuals" from which other types are built. Russell and Whitehead's notation for building up types from other types is rather cumbersome, and the notation here is due to Church.
In the ramified type theory of PM all objects are elements of various disjoint ramified types. Ramified types are implicitly built up as follows. If τ1...,τ"m",σ1...,σ"n" are ramified types then as in simple type theory there is a type (τ1...,τ"m",σ1...,σ"n") of "predicative" propositional functions of τ1...,τ"m",σ1...,σ"n". However, there are also ramified types (τ1...,τ"m"|σ1...,σ"n") that can be thought of as the classes of propositional functions of τ1...τ"m" obtained from propositional functions of type (τ1...,τ"m",σ1...,σ"n") by quantifying over σ1...,σ"n". When "n"=0 (so there are no σs) these propositional functions are called predicative functions or matrices. This can be confusing because current mathematical practice does not distinguish between predicative and non-predicative functions, and in any case PM never defines exactly what a "predicative function" actually is: this is taken as a primitive notion.
Russell and Whitehead found it impossible to develop mathematics while maintaining the difference between predicative and non-predicative functions, so they introduced the axiom of reducibility, saying that for every non-predicative function there is a predicative function taking the same values. In practice this axiom essentially means that the elements of type (τ1...,τ"m"|σ1...,σ"n") can be identified with the elements of type (τ1...,τ"m"), which causes the hierarchy of ramified types to collapse down to simple type theory. (Strictly speaking this is not quite correct, because PM allows two propositional functions to be different even if they take the same values on all arguments; this differs from current mathematical practice where one normally identifies two such functions.)
In Zermelo set theory one can model the ramified type theory of PM as follows. One picks a set ι to be the type of individuals. For example, ι might be the set of natural numbers, or the set of atoms (in a set theory with atoms) or any other set one is interested in. Then if τ1...,τ"m" are types, the type (τ1...,τ"m") is the power set of the product τ1×...×τ"m", which can also be thought of informally as the set of (propositional predicative) functions from this product to a 2-element set {true,false}. The ramified type (τ1...,τ"m"|σ1...,σ"n") can be modeled
as the product of the type (τ1...,τ"m",σ1...,σ"n") with the set of sequences of "n" quantifiers (∀ or ∃) indicating which quantifier should be applied to each variable σ"i". (One can vary this slightly by allowing the σs to be quantified in any order, or allowing them to occur before some of the τs, but this makes little difference except to the bookkeeping.)
One author observes that "The notation in that work has been superseded by the subsequent development of logic during the 20th century, to the extent that the beginner has trouble reading PM at all"; while much of the symbolic content can be converted to modern notation, the original notation itself is "a subject of scholarly dispute", and some notation "embodies substantive logical doctrines so that it cannot simply be replaced by contemporary symbolism".
Kurt Gödel was harshly critical of the notation:
This is reflected in the example below of the symbols ""p"", ""q"", ""r"" and "⊃" that can be formed into the string ""p" ⊃ "q" ⊃ "r"". "PM" requires a "definition" of what this symbol-string means in terms of other symbols; in contemporary treatments the "formation rules" (syntactical rules leading to "well formed formulas") would have prevented the formation of this string.
Source of the notation: Chapter I "Preliminary Explanations of Ideas and Notations" begins with the source of the elementary parts of the notation (the symbols =⊃≡−ΛVε and the system of dots):
PM changed Peano's Ɔ to ⊃, and also adopted a few of Peano's later symbols, such as ℩ and ι, and Peano's practice of turning letters upside down.
"PM" adopts the assertion sign "⊦" from Frege's 1879 "Begriffsschrift":
Thus to assert a proposition "p" "PM" writes:
Most of the rest of the notation in PM was invented by Whitehead.
"PM" 's dots are used in a manner similar to parentheses. Each dot (or multiple dot) represents either a left or right parenthesis or the logical symbol ∧. More than one dot indicates the "depth" of the parentheses, for example, ".", ":" or ":.", "::". However the position of the matching right or left parenthesis is not indicated explicitly in the notation but has to be deduced from some rules that are complex and at times ambiguous. Moreover, when the dots stand for a logical symbol ∧ its left and right operands have to be deduced using similar rules. First one has to decide based on context whether the dots stand for a left or right parenthesis or a logical symbol. Then one has to decide how far the other corresponding parenthesis is: here one carries on until one meets either a larger number of dots, or the same number of dots next that have equal or greater "force", or the end of the line. Dots next to the signs ⊃, ≡,∨, =Df have greater force than dots next to ("x"), (∃"x") and so on, which have greater force than dots indicating a logical product ∧.
Example 1. The line
corresponds to
The two dots standing together immediately following the assertion-sign indicate that what is asserted is the entire line: since there are two of them, their scope is greater than that of any of the single dots to their right. They are replaced by a left parenthesis standing where the dots are and a right parenthesis at the end of the formula, thus:
(In practice, these outermost parentheses, which enclose an entire formula, are usually suppressed.) The first of the single dots, standing between two propositional variables, represents conjunction. It belongs to the third group and has the narrowest scope. Here it is replaced by the modern symbol for conjunction "∧", thus
The two remaining single dots pick out the main connective of the whole formula. They illustrate the utility of the dot notation in picking out those connectives which are relatively more important than the ones which surround them. The one to the left of the "⊃" is replaced by a pair of parentheses, the right one goes where the dot is and the left one goes as far to the left as it can without crossing a group of dots of greater force, in this case the two dots which follow the assertion-sign, thus
The dot to the right of the "⊃" is replaced by a left parenthesis which goes where the dot is and a right parenthesis which goes as far to the right as it can without going beyond the scope already established by a group of dots of greater force (in this case the two dots which followed the assertion-sign). So the right parenthesis which replaces the dot to the right of the "⊃" is placed in front of the right parenthesis which replaced the two dots following the assertion-sign, thus
Example 2, with double, triple, and quadruple dots:
stands for
Example 3, with a double dot indicating a logical symbol (from volume 1, page 10):
stands for
where the double dot represents the logical symbol ∧ and can be viewed as having the higher priority as a non-logical single dot.
Later in section ✸14, brackets "[ ]" appear, and in sections ✸20 and following, braces "{ }" appear. Whether these symbols have specific meanings or are just for visual clarification is unclear. Unfortunately the single dot (but also ":", ":.", "::", etc.) is also used to symbolise "logical product" (contemporary logical AND often symbolised by "&" or "∧").
Logical implication is represented by Peano's "Ɔ" simplified to "⊃", logical negation is symbolised by an elongated tilde, i.e., "~" (contemporary "~" or "¬"), the logical OR by "v". The symbol "=" together with "Df" is used to indicate "is defined as", whereas in sections ✸13 and following, "=" is defined as (mathematically) "identical with", i.e., contemporary mathematical "equality" (cf. discussion in section ✸13). Logical equivalence is represented by "≡" (contemporary "if and only if"); "elementary" propositional functions are written in the customary way, e.g., ""f"("p")", but later the function sign appears directly before the variable without parenthesis e.g., "φ"x"", "χ"x"", etc.
Example, "PM" introduces the definition of "logical product" as follows:
Translation of the formulas into contemporary symbols: Various authors use alternate symbols, so no definitive translation can be given. However, because of criticisms such as that of Kurt Gödel below, the best contemporary treatments will be very precise with respect to the "formation rules" (the syntax) of the formulas.
The first formula might be converted into modern symbolism as follows:
alternately
alternately
etc.
The second formula might be converted as follows:
But note that this is not (logically) equivalent to ("p" → ("q" → "r")) nor to (("p" → "q") → "r"), and these two are not logically equivalent either.
These sections concern what is now known as predicate logic, and predicate logic with identity (equality).
Section ✸10: The existential and universal "operators": "PM" adds "("x")" to represent the contemporary symbolism "for all "x" " i.e., " ∀"x"", and it uses a backwards serifed E to represent "there exists an "x"", i.e., "(Ǝx)", i.e., the contemporary "∃x". The typical notation would be similar to the following:
Sections ✸10, ✸11, ✸12: Properties of a variable extended to all individuals: section ✸10 introduces the notion of "a property" of a "variable". "PM" gives the example: φ is a function that indicates "is a Greek", and ψ indicates "is a man", and χ indicates "is a mortal" these functions then apply to a variable "x". "PM" can now write, and evaluate:
The notation above means "for all "x", "x" is a man". Given a collection of individuals, one can evaluate the above formula for truth or falsity. For example, given the restricted collection of individuals { Socrates, Plato, Russell, Zeus } the above evaluates to "true" if we allow for Zeus to be a man. But it fails for:
because Russell is not Greek. And it fails for
because Zeus is not a mortal.
Equipped with this notation "PM" can create formulas to express the following: "If all Greeks are men and if all men are mortals then all Greeks are mortals". ("PM" 1962:138)
Another example: the formula:
means "The symbols representing the assertion 'There exists at least one "x" that satisfies function φ' is defined by the symbols representing the assertion 'It's not true that, given all values of "x", there are no values of "x" satisfying φ'".
The symbolisms ⊃"x" and "≡"x"" appear at ✸10.02 and ✸10.03. Both are abbreviations for universality (i.e., for all) that bind the variable "x" to the logical operator. Contemporary notation would have simply used parentheses outside of the equality ("=") sign:
"PM" attributes the first symbolism to Peano.
Section ✸11 applies this symbolism to two variables. Thus the following notations: ⊃"x", ⊃"y", ⊃"x, y" could all appear in a single formula.
Section ✸12 reintroduces the notion of "matrix" (contemporary truth table), the notion of logical types, and in particular the notions of "first-order" and "second-order" functions and propositions.
New symbolism "φ ! "x"" represents any value of a first-order function. If a circumflex "＾" is placed over a variable, then this is an "individual" value of "y", meaning that ""ŷ"" indicates "individuals" (e.g., a row in a truth table); this distinction is necessary because of the matrix/extensional nature of propositional functions.
Now equipped with the matrix notion, "PM" can assert its controversial axiom of reducibility: a function of one or two variables (two being sufficient for "PM" 's use) "where all its values are given" (i.e., in its matrix) is (logically) equivalent ("≡") to some "predicative" function of the same variables. The one-variable definition is given below as an illustration of the notation ("PM" 1962:166–167):
✸12.1 ⊢: (Ǝ "f"): φ"x" .≡"x". "f" ! "x" Pp;
This means: "We assert the truth of the following: There exists a function "f" with the property that: given all values of "x", their evaluations in function φ (i.e., resulting their matrix) is logically equivalent to some "f" evaluated at those same values of "x". (and vice versa, hence logical equivalence)". In other words: given a matrix determined by property φ applied to variable "x", there exists a function "f" that, when applied to the "x" is logically equivalent to the matrix. Or: every matrix φ"x" can be represented by a function "f" applied to "x", and vice versa.
✸13: The identity operator "=" : This is a definition that uses the sign in two different ways, as noted by the quote from "PM":
means:
The not-equals sign "≠" makes its appearance as a definition at ✸13.02.
✸14: Descriptions:
From this "PM" employs two new symbols, a forward "E" and an inverted iota "℩". Here is an example:
This has the meaning:
The text leaps from section ✸14 directly to the foundational sections ✸20 GENERAL THEORY OF CLASSES and ✸21 GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIONS. "Relations" are what is known in contemporary set theory as sets of ordered pairs. Sections ✸20 and ✸22 introduce many of the symbols still in contemporary usage. These include the symbols "ε", "⊂", "∩", "∪", "–", "Λ", and "V": "ε" signifies "is an element of" ("PM" 1962:188); "⊂" (✸22.01) signifies "is contained in", "is a subset of"; "∩" (✸22.02) signifies the intersection (logical product) of classes (sets); "∪" (✸22.03) signifies the union (logical sum) of classes (sets); "–" (✸22.03) signifies negation of a class (set); "Λ" signifies the null class; and "V" signifies the universal class or universe of discourse.
Small Greek letters (other than "ε", "ι", "π", "φ", "ψ", "χ", and "θ") represent classes (e.g., "α", "β", "γ", "δ", etc.) ("PM" 1962:188):
When applied to relations in section ✸23 CALCULUS OF RELATIONS, the symbols "⊂", "∩", "∪", and "–" acquire a dot: for example: "⊍", "∸".
The notion, and notation, of "a class" (set): In the first edition "PM" asserts that no new primitive ideas are necessary to define what is meant by "a class", and only two new "primitive propositions" called the axioms of reducibility for classes and relations respectively ("PM" 1962:25). But before this notion can be defined, "PM" feels it necessary to create a peculiar notation ""ẑ"(φ"z")" that it calls a "fictitious object". ("PM" 1962:188)
At least "PM" can tell the reader how these fictitious objects behave, because "A class is wholly determinate when its membership is known, that is, there cannot be two different classes having the same membership" ("PM" 1962:26). This is symbolised by the following equality (similar to ✸13.01 above:
Perhaps the above can be made clearer by the discussion of classes in "Introduction to the Second Edition", which disposes of the "Axiom of Reducibility" and replaces it with the notion: "All functions of functions are extensional" ("PM" 1962:xxxix), i.e.,
This has the reasonable meaning that "IF for all values of "x" the "truth-values" of the functions φ and ψ of "x" are [logically] equivalent, THEN the function ƒ of a given φ"ẑ" and ƒ of ψ"ẑ" are [logically] equivalent." "PM" asserts this is "obvious":
Observe the change to the equality "=" sign on the right. "PM" goes on to state that will continue to hang onto the notation ""ẑ"(φ"z")", but this is merely equivalent to φ"ẑ", and this is a class. (all quotes: "PM" 1962:xxxix).
According to Carnap's "Logicist Foundations of Mathematics", Russell wanted a theory that could plausibly be said to derive all of mathematics from purely logical axioms. However, Principia Mathematica required, in addition to the basic axioms of type theory, three further axioms that seemed to not be true as mere matters of logic, namely the axiom of infinity, the axiom of choice, and the axiom of reducibility. Since the first two were existential axioms, Russell phrased mathematical statements depending on them as conditionals. But reducibility was required to be sure that the formal statements even properly express statements of real analysis, so that statements depending on it could not be reformulated as conditionals. Frank P. Ramsey tried to argue that Russell's ramification of the theory of types was unnecessary, so that reducibility could be removed, but these arguments seemed inconclusive.
Beyond the status of the axioms as logical truths, one can ask the following questions about any system such as PM:
Propositional logic itself was known to be consistent, but the same had not been established for "Principia"'s axioms of set theory. (See Hilbert's second problem.) Russell and Whitehead suspected that the system in PM is incomplete: for example, they pointed out that it does not seem powerful enough to show that the cardinal ℵω exists. However, one can ask if some recursively axiomatizable extension of it is complete and consistent.
In 1930, Gödel's completeness theorem showed that first-order predicate logic itself was complete in a much weaker sense—that is, any sentence that is unprovable from a given set of axioms must actually be false in some model of the axioms. However, this is not the stronger sense of completeness desired for Principia Mathematica, since a given system of axioms (such as those of Principia Mathematica) may have many models, in some of which a given statement is true and in others of which that statement is false, so that the statement is left undecided by the axioms.
Gödel's incompleteness theorems cast unexpected light on these two related questions.
Gödel's first incompleteness theorem showed that no recursive extension of "Principia" could be both consistent and complete for arithmetic statements. (As mentioned above, Principia itself was already known to be incomplete for some non-arithmetic statements.) According to the theorem, within every sufficiently powerful recursive logical system (such as "Principia"), there exists a statement "G" that essentially reads, "The statement "G" cannot be proved." Such a statement is a sort of Catch-22: if "G" is provable, then it is false, and the system is therefore inconsistent; and if "G" is not provable, then it is true, and the system is therefore incomplete.
Gödel's second incompleteness theorem (1931) shows that no formal system extending basic arithmetic can be used to prove its own consistency. Thus, the statement "there are no contradictions in the "Principia" system" cannot be proven in the "Principia" system unless there "are" contradictions in the system (in which case it can be proven both true and false).
By the second edition of "PM", Russell had removed his "axiom of reducibility" to a new axiom (although he does not state it as such). Gödel 1944:126 describes it this way:
This new proposal resulted in a dire outcome. An "extensional stance" and restriction to a second-order predicate logic means that a propositional function extended to all individuals such as "All 'x' are blue" now has to list all of the 'x' that satisfy (are true in) the proposition, listing them in a possibly infinite conjunction: e.g. "x1" ∧ "x2" ∧ . . . ∧ "xn" ∧ . . .. Ironically, this change came about as the result of criticism from Wittgenstein in his 1919 "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus". As described by Russell in the Introduction to the Second Edition of "PM":
In other words, the fact that an infinite list cannot realistically be specified means that the concept of "number" in the infinite sense (i.e. the continuum) cannot be described by the new theory proposed in "PM Second Edition".
Wittgenstein in his "Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, Cambridge 1939" criticised "Principia" on various grounds, such as:
Wittgenstein did, however, concede that "Principia" may nonetheless make some aspects of everyday arithmetic clearer.
In his 1944 "Russell's mathematical logic", Gödel offers a "critical but sympathetic discussion of the logicistic order of ideas":
This section describes the propositional and predicate calculus, and gives the basic properties of classes, relations, and types.
This part covers various properties of relations, especially those needed for cardinal arithmetic.
This covers the definition and basic properties of cardinals. A cardinal is defined to be an equivalence class of similar classes (as opposed to ZFC, where a cardinal is a special sort of von Neumann ordinal). Each type has its own collection of cardinals associated with it, and there is a considerable amount of bookkeeping necessary for comparing cardinals of different types. PM define addition, multiplication and exponentiation of cardinals, and compare different definitions of finite and infinite cardinals. ✸120.03 is the Axiom of infinity.
A "relation-number" is an equivalence class of isomorphic relations. PM defines analogues of addition, multiplication, and exponentiation for arbitrary relations. The addition and multiplication is similar to the usual definition of addition and multiplication of ordinals in ZFC, though the definition of exponentiation of relations in PM is not equivalent to the usual one used in ZFC.
This covers series, which is PM's term for what is now called a totally ordered set. In particular it covers complete series, continuous functions between series with the order topology (though of course they do not use this terminology), well-ordered series, and series without "gaps" (those with a member strictly between any two given members).
This section constructs the ring of integers, the fields of rational and real numbers, and "vector-families", which are related to what are now called torsors over abelian groups.
This section compares the system in PM with the usual mathematical foundations of ZFC. The system of PM is roughly comparable in strength with Zermelo set theory (or more precisely a version of it where the axiom of separation has all quantifiers bounded).
Apart from corrections of misprints, the main text of PM is unchanged between the first and second editions. The main text in Volumes 1 and 2 was reset, so that it occupies fewer pages in each. In the second edition, Volume 3 was not reset, being photographically reprinted with the same page numbering; corrections were still made. The total number of pages (excluding the endpapers) in the first edition is 1,996; in the second, 2,000. Volume 1 has five new additions:
In 1962, Cambridge University Press published a shortened paperback edition containing parts of the second edition of Volume 1: the new introduction (and the old), the main text up to *56, and Appendices A and C.
Primary:
The first edition was reprinted in 2009 by Merchant Books, , , .
Secondary: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24133 |
Prime Minister of Canada
The prime minister of Canada () is the head of government, chair of the Cabinet, and primary minister of the Crown. Canadian prime ministers are styled as "The Right Honourable" (), a privilege maintained for life.
Justin Trudeau is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He took office on November 4, 2015, following the 2015 federal election where his Liberal Party won a majority of seats and was invited to form the 29th Canadian Ministry. Trudeau was subsequently re-elected following the 2019 election with a minority of seats.
The prime minister is supported by the Prime Minister's Office. The prime minister also chooses the ministers who make up the Cabinet. The two groups, with the authority of the Parliament of Canada, manage the Government of Canada. The Cabinet and the prime minister also appoint members of the Senate of Canada, the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada and other federal courts, and the leaders and boards, as required under law, of various Crown Corporations, and selects the governor general of Canada. Under the Canadian constitution, all of the power to exercise these activities is actually vested in the monarch of Canada, but in practice the monarch (who is the head of state) or her representative, the governor general of Canada, approves them routinely, and their role is largely ceremonial, and their powers are only exercised under the advice of the prime minister.
Not outlined in any constitutional document, the office exists only as per long-established convention (originating in Canada's former colonial power, the United Kingdom) that stipulates the monarch's representative, the governor general, must select as prime minister the person most likely to command the confidence of the elected House of Commons; this individual is typically the leader of the political party that holds the largest number of seats in that chamber.
The position of prime minister is not outlined in any Canadian constitutional document and is mentioned only in passing in the "Constitution Act, 1982", and the Letters Patent, 1947 issued by King George VI. The office and its functions are instead governed by constitutional conventions and modelled on the same office in the United Kingdom.
The prime minister, along with the other ministers in cabinet, is appointed by the governor general on behalf of the monarch. However, by the conventions of responsible government, designed to maintain administrative stability, the governor general will call to form a government the individual most likely to receive the support, or confidence, of a majority of the directly elected members of the House of Commons; as a practical matter, this is often the leader of a party whose members form a majority, or a very large plurality, of Members of Parliament (MPs).
While there is no legal requirement for prime ministers to be MPs themselves, for practical and political reasons the prime minister is expected to win a seat very promptly. However, in rare circumstances individuals who are not sitting members of the House of Commons have been appointed to the position of prime minister. Two former prime ministers—Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott and Sir Mackenzie Bowell—served in the 1890s while members of the Senate. Both, in their roles as Government Leader in the Senate, succeeded prime ministers who had died in office—John A. Macdonald in 1891 and John Sparrow David Thompson in 1894. That convention has since evolved toward the appointment of an interim leader from the commons in such a scenario.
Prime ministers who are not MPs upon their appointment (or who lose their seats while in office) have since been expected to seek election to the House of Commons as soon as possible. For example, William Lyon Mackenzie King, after losing his seat in the 1925 federal election (that his party won), briefly "governed from the hallway" before winning a by-election a few weeks later. Similarly, John Turner replaced Pierre Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party in 1984 and subsequently was appointed prime minister while not holding a seat in the House of Commons; Turner won a riding in the next election but the Liberal Party was swept from power. Turner was the last prime minister to not occupy a House of Commons seat while in office as prime minister.
Should a serving prime minister today lose his or her seat in the legislature, or should a new prime minister be appointed without holding a seat, the typical process that follows is that a junior member in the governing political party will resign to allow the prime minister to run in the resulting by-election. A safe seat is usually chosen; while the Liberal and Conservative parties traditionally observed a convention of not running a candidate against another party's new leader in the by-election, the New Democratic Party and smaller political parties typically do not follow the same convention. However, if the governing party selects a new leader shortly before an election is due, and that new leader is not a member of the legislature, he or she will normally await the upcoming election before running for a seat in parliament.
In a poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid following the first prorogation of the 40th parliament on December 4, 2008, it was found that 51% of the sample group thought the prime minister was directly elected by Canadians.
The prime minister serves "At Her Majesty's pleasure", meaning, the post does not have a fixed term, and that once appointed and sworn in by the governor general, the prime minister remains in office until they resign, are dismissed, or die. In practice, under the system of responsible government, the prime minister (by convention) resigns should they lose the confidence of the elected House of Commons. This can happen if the government loses an important vote, such as on the budget (loss of supply), or more explicitly if a motion of no confidence is passed. A loss of confidence is rare if the government enjoys a majority or a formal coalition agreement between parties exists. Majority governments typically last about four years (since elections are normally held every four years). Minority governments are more liable to lose the confidence of the House of Commons and generally last for a shorter period of time.
While the lifespan of a parliament is constitutionally limited to five years, a 2007, amendment to the "Canada Elections Act", Section 56.1(2) limited the term of a majority government to four years, with election day being set as the third Monday in October of the fourth calendar year after the previous polling date The governor-general may still, on the advice of the prime minister, dissolve parliament and issue the writs of election prior to the date mandated by the constitution or "Canada Elections Act"; the King–Byng Affair was the only time since Confederation that the governor-general deemed it necessary to refuse his prime minister's request for a general vote.
Following parliamentary dissolution, the prime minister must run in the resulting general election if he or she wishes to maintain a seat in the House of Commons. Should the prime minister's party subsequently win a majority of seats in the House of Commons, it is unnecessary to re-appoint the prime minister or again swear him or her into office. If, however, an opposition party wins a majority of seats, the prime minister may resign or be dismissed by the governor-general. Should the prime minister's party achieve a minority while an opposition party wins a plurality (i.e., more seats than any other party but less than a majority), the prime minister can attempt to maintain the confidence of the House by forming a coalition with other minority parties. This option was last entertained in 1925.
Because the prime minister is, in practice, the most politically powerful member of the Canadian government, they are sometimes erroneously referred to as Canada's head of state, when, in fact, that post is held by the Canadian monarch, represented by the governor general. The prime minister is, instead, the head of government and is responsible for advising the Crown on how to exercise the Royal Prerogative and its executive powers, which are governed by the constitution and its conventions. However, the function of the prime minister has evolved with increasing power. Today, as per the doctrines of constitutional monarchy, the advice given by the prime minister is ordinarily binding, meaning the prime minister effectively carries out those duties ascribed to the sovereign or governor general, leaving the latter to act in predominantly ceremonial fashions. As such, the prime minister, supported by the Office of the Prime Minister (PMO), controls the appointments of many key figures in Canada's system of governance, including the governor general, the Cabinet, justices of the Supreme Court, senators, heads of crown corporations, ambassadors to foreign countries, the provincial lieutenant governors, and approximately 3,100 other positions. Further, the prime minister plays a prominent role in the legislative process—with the majority of bills put before parliament originating in the Cabinet—and the leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Pierre Trudeau is credited with, throughout his tenure as prime minister between 1968 and 1984, consolidating power in the PMO, which is itself filled by political and administrative staff selected at the prime minister's discretion and unaccountable to parliament. At the end of the 20th century and into the 21st, analysts—such as Jeffrey Simpson, Donald Savoie, Andrew Coyne, and John Gomery—argued that both parliament and the Cabinet had become eclipsed by prime ministerial power; Savoie wrote: "The Canadian prime minister has little in the way of institutional check, at least inside government, to inhibit his ability to have his way." Indeed, the position has been described as undergoing a "presidentialisation", to the point that its incumbents publicly outshine the actual head of state (and prime minister's spouses are sometimes called the "First Lady of Canada"). Former governor general Adrienne Clarkson alluded to what she saw as "an unspoken rivalry" that had developed between the prime minister and the Crown. It has been theorized that such is the case in Canada as its parliament is less influential on the executive than in other countries with Westminster parliamentary systems; particularly, Canada has fewer MPs, a higher turnover rate of MPs after each election, and an Americanized system for selecting political party leaders, leaving them accountable to the party membership rather than caucus, as is the case in the United Kingdom.
There do exist checks on the prime minister's power: the Commons may revoke its confidence in an incumbent prime minister and Cabinet or caucus revolts can quickly bring down a serving premier and even mere threats of such action can persuade or compel a prime minister to resign his post, as happened with Jean Chrétien. The "Reform Act, 2014", codifies the process by which a caucus may trigger a party leadership review and, if necessary, chose an interim leader, thereby making a prime minister more accountable to the MPs in his or her party. Caucuses may choose to follow these rules, though the decision would be made by recorded vote, thereby subjecting the party's choice to public scrutiny.
The Senate may delay or impede legislation put forward by the Cabinet, such as when Brian Mulroney's bill creating the Goods and Services Tax (GST) came before the upper chamber and, given Canada's federal nature, the jurisdiction of the federal government is limited to areas prescribed by the constitution. Further, as executive power is constitutionally vested in the monarch, meaning the Royal Prerogative belongs to the Crown and not to any of its ministers, the sovereign's supremacy over the prime minister in the constitutional order is thus seen as a "rebuff to the pretensions of the elected: As it has been said, when the prime minister bows before the queen, he bows before us [the Canadian people]." Either the sovereign or his or her governor general may therefore oppose the prime minister's will in extreme, crisis situations. Near the end of her time as governor general, Adrienne Clarkson stated: "My constitutional role has lain in what are called 'reserve powers': making sure that there is a prime minister and a government in place, and exercising the right 'to encourage, to advise, and to warn'[...] Without really revealing any secrets, I can tell you that I have done all three."
Two official residences are provided to the prime minister—24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa and Harrington Lake, a country retreat in Gatineau Park—as well an office in the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council (formerly known as Langevin Block), across from Parliament Hill. For transportation, the prime minister is afforded an armoured car and shared use of two official aircraft—a CC-150 Polaris for international flights and a Challenger 601 for domestic trips. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also furnish constant personal security for the prime minister and his or her family. All of the aforementioned is supplied by the Queen-in-Council through budgets approved by parliament, as is the prime minister's total annual compensation of C$357,800. The prime minister's total compensation consists of the Member of the House of Commons Basic Sessional Indemnity of C$178,900, the Prime Minister Salary of C$178,900, and the Prime Minister Car Allowance of C$2000.
Should a serving or former prime minister die, he or she is accorded a state funeral, wherein their casket lies in state in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill. Only Bowell and the Viscount Bennett were given private funerals, Bennett also being the only former prime minister of Canada to die and be buried outside the country and Bowell the only whose funeral was not attended by politicians. John Thompson also died outside Canada, at Windsor Castle, where Queen Victoria permitted his lying-in-state before his body was returned to Canada for a state funeral in Halifax.
In earlier years, it was traditional for the monarch to bestow a knighthood on newly-appointed Canadian prime ministers. Accordingly, several carried the prefix "Sir" before their name; of the first eight premiers of Canada, only Alexander Mackenzie refused the honour of a knighthood from Queen Victoria. Following the 1919 Nickle Resolution, however, the House of Commons motioned that it should be against the policy of the Canadian Sovereign (and Her Canadian Majesty's government advising the Monarch when such honours are not within the Monarch's personal gift) to bestow aristocratic or chivalric titles to Canadians. The Crown in right of Canada (but not the Crown in right of the United Kingdom, which has periodically bestowed such Imperial honours on such citizens) has since adopted this policy generally, such that the last prime minister to be knighted near appointment was Sir Robert Borden, who was premier at the time the Nickle Resolution was debated in the House of Commons (and was knighted before the resolution). Still, Bennett was, in 1941, six years after he stepped down as prime minister, elevated to the peerage of the United Kingdom by King George VI as Viscount Bennett, of Mickleham in the County of Surrey and of Calgary and Hopewell in Canada. No prime minister has since been titled (though other Canadians have since been given Imperial honours, such as The Lord Black of Crossharbour).
The Canadian Heraldic Authority (CHA) has granted former prime ministers an augmentation of honour on the personal coat of arms of those who pursued them. The heraldic badge, referred to by the CHA as the "mark of the Prime Ministership of Canada", consists of four red maple leaves joined at the stem on a white field ("Argent four maple leaves conjoined in cross at the stem Gules"); the augmentation has, so far, been granted either as a canton sinister or centred in the chief. To date, former prime ministers Joe Clark, Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell and Jean Chrétien were granted arms with the augmentation.
Canada continues the Westminster tradition of using the title "Prime Minister" when one is speaking to the federal head of government directly; the Department of Canadian Heritage advises that it is incorrect to use the term "Mr. Prime Minister". The written form of address for the prime minister should use his or her full parliamentary title: "The Right Honourable [name], [post-nominal letters], Prime Minister of Canada". However, while in the House of Commons during Question Period, other members of parliament may address the prime minister as "the Right Honourable Member for [prime minister's riding]" or simply "the Right Honourable Prime Minister". Former prime ministers retain the prefix "the Right Honourable" for the remainder of their lives; should they remain sitting MPs, they may be referred as "the Right Honourable Member for [member's riding]", by their portfolio title (if appointed to one), as in "the Right Honourable Minister of National Defence", or should they become opposition leader, as "the Right Honourable Leader of the Opposition".
In the decades following Confederation, it was common practice to refer to the prime minister as "Premier of Canada", a custom that continued until the First World War, around the time of Robert Borden's premiership. While contemporary sources will still speak of early prime ministers of Canada as "premier", the modern practice is such that the federal head of government is known almost exclusively as the "prime minister", while the provincial and territorial heads of government are termed "premiers" (in French, premiers are addressed as , literally translated as "prime minister of [province]").
The prime minister–designate of Canada refers to the person who has been designated as the future prime minister by the governor general, after either winning a general election, forming a confidence and supply government, or forming a coalition government. The term does not apply to incumbent prime ministers.
After exiting office, former prime ministers of Canada have engaged in various pursuits. Some remained in politics: Bowell continued to serve as a senator, Stephen Harper returned to the House of Commons as a backbench MP, and Bennett moved to the United Kingdom after being elevated to the House of Lords. A number served as leaders of the Official Opposition in the Canadian parliament: John A. Macdonald, Arthur Meighen, Mackenzie King, and Pierre Trudeau, all before being re-appointed as prime minister (Mackenzie King twice); Alexander Mackenzie and John Diefenbaker, both prior to sitting as regular Members of Parliament until their deaths; Wilfrid Laurier dying while still in the post; and Charles Tupper, Louis St. Laurent, and John Turner, each before they returned to private business. Meighen was also appointed to the Senate following his second period as prime minister, but resigned his seat to seek re-election and moved to private enterprise after failing to win a riding. Following Meighen into civilian life were: Robert Borden, who served as Chancellor of Queen's and McGill Universities, as well as working in the financial sector; Lester B. Pearson, who acted as Chancellor of Carleton University; Joe Clark and Kim Campbell, who became university professors, Clark also consultant and Campbell working in international diplomacy and as the director of private companies and chairperson of interest groups; while Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien returned to legal practice. Former prime ministers also commonly penned autobiographies—Tupper, for example—or published their memoirs—such as Diefenbaker and Paul Martin. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24135 |
Process theology
Process theology is a type of theology developed from Alfred North Whitehead's (1861–1947) process philosophy, most notably by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000) and John B. Cobb (b. 1925). Process theology and process philosophy are collectively referred to as "process thought".
For both Whitehead and Hartshorne, it is an essential attribute of God to affect and be affected by temporal processes, contrary to the forms of theism that hold God to be in all respects non-temporal (eternal), unchanging (immutable), and unaffected by the world (impassible). Process theology does not deny that God is in some respects eternal (will never die), immutable (in the sense that God is unchangingly good), and impassible (in the sense that God's eternal aspect is unaffected by actuality), but it contradicts the classical view by insisting that God is in some respects temporal, mutable, and passible.
According to Cobb, "process theology may refer to all forms of theology that emphasize event, occurrence, or becoming over substance. In this sense theology influenced by Hegel is process theology just as much as that influenced by Whitehead. This use of the term calls attention to affinities between these otherwise quite different traditions." Also Pierre Teilhard de Chardin can be included among process theologians, even if they are generally understood as referring to the Whiteheadian/Hartshornean school, where there continue to be ongoing debates within the field on the nature of God, the relationship of God and the world, and immortality.
Various theological and philosophical aspects have been expanded and developed by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000), John B. Cobb, Jr., and David Ray Griffin. A characteristic of process theology each of these thinkers shared was a rejection of metaphysics that privilege "being" over "becoming", particularly those of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. Hartshorne was deeply influenced by French philosopher Jules Lequier and by Swiss philosopher Charles Secrétan who were probably the first ones to claim that in God liberty of becoming is above his substantiality.
Process theology soon influenced a number of Jewish theologians including Rabbis Max Kadushin, Milton Steinberg and Levi A. Olan, Harry Slominsky and, to a lesser degree, Abraham Joshua Heschel. Today some rabbis who advocate some form of process theology include Bradley Shavit Artson, Lawrence A. Englander, William E. Kaufman, Harold Kushner, Anson Laytner, Michael Lerner, Gilbert S. Rosenthal, Lawrence Troster, Donald B. Rossoff, Burton Mindick, and Nahum Ward.
Alan Anderson and Deb Whitehouse have applied process theology to the New Thought variant of Christianity.
The work of Richard Stadelmann has been to preserve the uniqueness of Jesus in process theology.
Whitehead's classical statement is a set of antithetical statements that attempt to avoid self-contradiction by shifting them from a set of oppositions into a contrast:
Henry Young combines Black theology and Process theology in his book "Hope in Process". Young seeks a model for American society that goes beyond the alternatives of integration of Blacks into white society and Black separateness. He finds useful the process model of the many becoming one. Here the one is a new reality that emerges from the discrete contributions of the many, not the assimilation of the many to an already established one.
Monica Coleman has combined Womanist theology and Process theology in her book "Making a Way Out of No Way". In it, she argues that 'making a way out of no way' and 'creative transformation' are complementary insights from the respective theological traditions. She is one of many theologians who identify both as a process theologian and feminist/womanist/ecofeminist theologian, which includes persons such as Sallie McFague, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki.
C. Robert Mesle, in his book "Process Theology", outlines three aspects of a process theology of liberation:
Process theology affirms that God is working in all persons to actualize potentialities. In that sense each religious manifestation is the Divine working in a unique way to bring out the beautiful and the good. Additionally, scripture and religion represent human interpretations of the divine. In this sense pluralism is the expression of the diversity of cultural backgrounds and assumptions that people use to approach the Divine.
Contrary to Christian orthodoxy, the "Christ" of mainstream process theology is not the mystical and historically exclusive union of divine and human natures in one hypostasis, the eternal Logos of God uniquely enfleshed in and identifiable as the man Jesus. Rather God is incarnate in the lives of all people when they act according to a call from God. Jesus fully and in every way responded to God's call, thus the person of Jesus is theologically understood as "the divine Word in human form." Jesus is not singularly or essentially God, but he was perfectly synchronized to God at all moments of life. Cobb expressed the Incarnation in process terms that link it to his understanding of actualization of human potential: "'Christ' refers to the Logos as incarnate hence as the process of creative transformation in and of the world".
A criticism of process theology is that it offers a too severely diminished conception of God’s power. Process theologians argue that God does not have unilateral, coercive control over everything in the universe. In process theology, God cannot override a person’s freedom, nor perform miracles that violate the laws of nature, nor perform physical actions such as causing or halting a flood or an avalanche. Critics argue that this conception diminishes divine power to such a degree that God is no longer worshipful.
The process theology response to this criticism is that the traditional Christian conception of God is actually "not" worshipful as it stands, and that the traditional notion of God’s omnipotence fails to make sense.
First, power is a relational concept. It is not exerted in a vacuum, but always by some entity "A" over some other entity "B". As such, power requires analysis of both the being exerting power, and the being that power is being exerted upon. To suppose that an entity "A" (in this case, God), can always successfully control any other entity "B" is to say, in effect, that "B" does not exist as a free and individual being in any meaningful sense, since there is no possibility of its resisting "A" if "A" should decide to press the issue.
Mindful of this, process theology makes several important distinctions between different kinds of power. The first distinction is between "coercive" power and "persuasive" power. Coercive power is the kind that is exerted by one physical body over another, such as one billiard ball hitting another, or one arm twisting another. Lifeless bodies (such as the billiard balls) cannot resist such applications of physical force at all, and even living bodies (like arms) can only resist so far, and can be coercively overpowered. While finite, physical creatures can exert coercive power over one another in this way, God—lacking a physical body—"cannot" (not merely "will" not) exert coercive control over the world.
But process theologians argue that coercive power is actually a secondary or derivative form of power, while persuasion is the primary form. Even the act of self-motion (of an arm, for instance) is an instance of persuasive power. The arm may not perform in the way a person wishes it to—it may be broken, or asleep, or otherwise unable to perform the desired action. It is only after the persuasive act of self-motion is successful that an entity can even "begin" to exercise coercive control over other finite physical bodies. But no amount of coercive control can alter the free decisions of other entities; only persuasion can do so.
For example, a child is told by his parent that he must go to bed. The child, as a self-conscious, decision-making individual, can always make the decision to "not" go to bed. The parent may then respond by picking up the child bodily and carrying him to his room, but nothing can force the child to alter his decision to resist the parent's directive. It is only the "body" of the child that can be coercively controlled by the body of the physically stronger parent; the child's free will remains intact. While process theologians argue that God does not have coercive power, they also argue that God has "supreme persuasive power", that God is always influencing/persuading us to choose the good.
One classic exchange over the issue of divine power is between philosophers Frederick Sontag and John K. Roth and process theologian David Ray Griffin. Sontag and Roth argued that the process God’s inability to, for instance, stop the genocide at Auschwitz meant that God was not worthy of worship, since there is no point in worshipping a God that cannot save us from such atrocities. Griffin's response was as follows:
One of the stronger complaints from Sontag and Roth is that, given the enormity of evil in the world, a deity that is [merely] doing its best is not worthy of worship. The implication is that a deity that is "not" doing its best "is" worthy of worship. For example, in reference to Auschwitz, Roth mocks my God with the statement that “the best that God could possibly do was to permit 10,000 Jews a day to go up in smoke.” Roth prefers a God who had the power to prevent this Holocaust but did not do it! This illustrates how much people can differ in what they consider worthy of worship. For Roth, it is clearly brute "power" that evokes worship. The question is: is this what "should" evoke worship? To refer back to the point about revelation: is this kind of power worship consistent with the Christian claim that divinity is decisively revealed in Jesus? Roth finds my God too small to evoke worship; I find his too gross.
The process argument, then, is that those who cling to the idea of God's coercive omnipotence are defending power for power's sake, which would seem to be inconsistent with the life of Jesus, who Christians believe died for humanity's sins rather than overthrow the Roman empire. Griffin argues that it is actually the God whose omnipotence is defined in the "traditional" way that is not worshipful.
One other distinction process theologians make is between the idea of "unilateral" power versus "relational" power. Unilateral power is the power of a king (or more accurately, a tyrant) who wishes to exert control over his subjects "without" being affected "by" them. However, most people would agree that a ruler who is not changed or affected by the joys and sorrows of his subjects is actually a despicable ruler and a psychopath. Process theologians thus stress that God’s power is relational; rather than being unaffected and unchanged by the world, God is the being "most" affected by every other being in the universe. As process theologian C. Robert Mesle puts it:
Relational power takes great strength. In stark contrast to unilateral power, the radical manifestations of relational power are found in people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus. It requires the willingness to endure tremendous suffering while refusing to hate. It demands that we keep our hearts open to those who wish to slam them shut. It means offering to open up a relationship with people who hate us, despise us, and wish to destroy us.
In summation, then, process theologians argue that their conception of God’s power does not diminish God, but just the opposite. Rather than see God as one who unilaterally coerces other beings, judges and punishes them, and is completely unaffected by the joys and sorrows of others, process theologians see God as the one who persuades the universe to love and peace, is supremely affected by even the tiniest of joys and the smallest of sorrows, and is able to love all beings despite the most heinous acts they may commit. God is, as Whitehead says, "the fellow sufferer who understands." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24136 |
Proton decay
In particle physics, proton decay is a hypothetical form of particle decay in which the proton decays into lighter subatomic particles, such as a neutral pion and a positron. The proton decay hypothesis was first formulated by Andrei Sakharov in 1967. Despite significant experimental effort, proton decay has never been observed. If it does decay via a positron, the proton's half-life is constrained to be at least years.
According to the Standard Model, protons, a type of baryon, are stable because baryon number (quark number) is conserved (under normal circumstances; see chiral anomaly for exception). Therefore, protons will not decay into other particles on their own, because they are the lightest (and therefore least energetic) baryon. Positron emission – a form of radioactive decay which sees a proton become a neutron – is not proton decay, since the proton interacts with other particles within the atom.
Some beyond-the-Standard Model grand unified theories (GUTs) explicitly break the baryon number symmetry, allowing protons to decay via the Higgs particle, magnetic monopoles, or new X bosons with a half-life of 1031 to 1036 years. To date, all attempts to observe new phenomena predicted by GUTs (like proton decay or the existence of magnetic monopoles) have failed.
Quantum gravity (via virtual black holes and Hawking radiation) may also provide a venue of proton decay at magnitudes or lifetimes well beyond the GUT scale decay range above, as well as extra dimensions in supersymmetry.
There are theoretical methods of baryon violation other than proton decay including interactions with changes of baryon and/or lepton number other than 1 (as required in proton decay). These included "B" and/or "L" violations of 2, 3, or other numbers, or "B" − "L" violation. Such examples include neutron oscillations and the electroweak sphaleron anomaly at high energies and temperatures that can result between the collision of protons into antileptons or vice versa (a key factor in leptogenesis and non-GUT baryogenesis).
One of the outstanding problems in modern physics is the predominance of matter over antimatter in the universe. The universe, as a whole, seems to have a nonzero positive baryon number density – that is, matter exists. Since it is assumed in cosmology that the particles we see were created using the same physics we measure today, it would normally be expected that the overall baryon number should be zero, as matter and antimatter should have been created in equal amounts. This has led to a number of proposed mechanisms for symmetry breaking that favour the creation of normal matter (as opposed to antimatter) under certain conditions. This imbalance would have been exceptionally small, on the order of 1 in every (1010) particles a small fraction of a second after the Big Bang, but after most of the matter and antimatter annihilated, what was left over was all the baryonic matter in the current universe, along with a much greater number of bosons.
Most grand unified theories explicitly break the baryon number symmetry, which would account for this discrepancy, typically invoking reactions mediated by very massive X bosons or massive Higgs bosons (). The rate at which these events occur is governed largely by the mass of the intermediate or particles, so by assuming these reactions are responsible for the majority of the baryon number seen today, a maximum mass can be calculated above which the rate would be too slow to explain the presence of matter today. These estimates predict that a large volume of material will occasionally exhibit a spontaneous proton decay.
Proton decay is one of the key predictions of the various grand unified theories (GUTs) proposed in the 1970s, another major one being the existence of magnetic monopoles. Both concepts have been the focus of major experimental physics efforts since the early 1980s. To date, all attempts to observe these events have failed; however, these experiments have been able to establish lower bounds on the half-life of the proton. Currently the most precise results come from the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov radiation detector in Japan: a 2015 analysis placed a lower bound on the proton's half-life of years via positron decay, and similarly, a 2012 analysis gave a lower bound to the proton's half-life of years via antimuon decay, close to a supersymmetry (SUSY) prediction of 1034–1036 years. An upgraded version, Hyper-Kamiokande, probably will have sensitivity 5–10 times better than Super-Kamiokande.
Despite the lack of observational evidence for proton decay, some grand unification theories, such as the SU(5) Georgi–Glashow model and SO(10), along with their supersymmetric variants, require it. According to such theories, the proton has a half-life of about 1031 to 1036 years and decays into a positron and a neutral pion that itself immediately decays into 2 gamma ray photons:
Since a positron is an antilepton this decay preserves "B" − "L" number, which is conserved in most GUTs.
Additional decay modes are available (e.g.: → + ), both directly and when catalyzed via interaction with GUT-predicted magnetic monopoles. Though this process has not been observed experimentally, it is within the realm of experimental testability for future planned very large-scale detectors on the megaton scale. Such detectors include the Hyper-Kamiokande.
Early grand unification theories (GUTs) such as the Georgi–Glashow model, which were the first consistent theories to suggest proton decay, postulated that the proton's half-life would be at least 1031 years. As further experiments and calculations were performed in the 1990s, it became clear that the proton half-life could not lie below 1032 years. Many books from that period refer to this figure for the possible decay time for baryonic matter. More recent findings have pushed the minimum proton half-life to at least 1034-1035 years, ruling out the simpler GUTs (including minimal SU(5)/Georgi–Glashow) and most non-SUSY models. The maximum upper limit on proton lifetime (if unstable), is calculated at 6 × 1039 years, a bound applicable to SUSY models, with a maximum for (minimal) non-SUSY GUTs at 1.4 × 1036 years.
Although the phenomenon is referred to as "proton decay", the effect would also be seen in neutrons bound inside atomic nuclei. Free neutrons—those not inside an atomic nucleus—are already known to decay into protons (and an electron and an antineutrino) in a process called beta decay. Free neutrons have a half-life of about 10 minutes () due to the weak interaction. Neutrons bound inside a nucleus have an immensely longer half-life—apparently as great as that of the proton.
The lifetime of the proton in vanilla SU(5) can be naively estimated as formula_1. Supersymmetric GUTs with reunification scales around yield a lifetime of around 1034 yr, roughly the current experimental lower bound.
The dimension-6 proton decay operators are formula_2, formula_3, formula_4 and formula_5 where formula_6 is the cutoff scale for the Standard Model. All of these operators violate both baryon number ("B") and lepton number ("L") conservation but not the combination "B" − "L".
In GUT models, the exchange of an X or Y boson with the mass ΛGUT can lead to the last two operators suppressed by formula_7. The exchange of a triplet Higgs with mass "formula_8" can lead to all of the operators suppressed by formula_9. See doublet–triplet splitting problem.
In supersymmetric extensions (such as the MSSM), we can also have dimension-5 operators involving two fermions and two sfermions caused by the exchange of a tripletino of mass "M". The sfermions will then exchange a gaugino or Higgsino or gravitino leaving two fermions. The overall Feynman diagram has a loop (and other complications due to strong interaction physics). This decay rate is suppressed by formula_10 where "M"SUSY is the mass scale of the superpartners.
In the absence of matter parity, supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model can give rise to the last operator suppressed by the inverse square of sdown quark mass. This is due to the dimension-4 operators
c and
ccc.
The proton decay rate is only suppressed by formula_11 which is far too fast unless the couplings are very small.
When Woody Allen in his 1980 film "Stardust Memories" launches a depressive soliloquy with the quote, "Did anybody read on the front page of "The Times" that matter is decaying?", this was almost certainly a reference to the GUTs models of the 1970s, given the film's period, their importance at the time and the many contemporary layperson articles in general media about some of the model's most striking consequences, particularly its mechanism for proton decay.
In the "Law & Order" episode "Big Bang", a scientist's pursuit of evidence that proton decay exists leads to the murder central to the episode.
In the "Big Bang Theory" episode "The Anxiety Optimization", Sheldon has a problem in his dark matter proton decay research.
In the Jerry Spinelli novel "Smiles to Go", the notion of proton decay is a key source of anxiety for the book's protagonist. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24138 |
Paul the Apostle
Paul the Apostle (; ; ; c. 5 – c. 64 or 67), commonly known as Saint Paul and also known by his Hebrew name Saul of Tarsus (; ), was an apostle (although not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world. Paul is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age and from the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD he founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe.
According to the New Testament book Acts of the Apostles (often simply called Acts), Paul persecuted some of the early disciples of Jesus, possibly Hellenised diaspora Jews converted to Christianity, in the area of Jerusalem prior to his conversion. In the narrative of Acts, Paul was traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to "arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem" when the ascended Jesus appeared to him in a great light. He was struck blind, but after three days his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah and the Son of God. Approximately half of the book of Acts deals with Paul's life and works.
Thirteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. Seven of the Pauline epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, with varying degrees of argument about the remainder. Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not asserted in the Epistle itself and was already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews, but that view is now almost universally rejected by scholars. The other six are believed by some scholars to have come from followers writing in his name, using material from Paul's surviving letters and letters written by him that no longer survive. Other scholars argue that the idea of a pseudonymous author for the disputed epistles raises many problems.
Today, Paul's epistles continue to be vital roots of the theology, worship and pastoral life in the Latin and Protestant traditions of the West, as well as the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions of the East. Paul's influence on Christian thought and practice has been characterized as being as "profound as it is pervasive", among that of many other apostles and missionaries involved in the spread of the Christian faith.
It has been popularly assumed that Saul's name was changed when he became a follower of Jesus Christ, but that is not the case. His Jewish name was "Saul" (), perhaps after the biblical King Saul, a fellow Benjamite and the first king of Israel. According to the Book of Acts, he was a Roman citizen. As a Roman citizen, he also bore the Latin name of "Paul" (essentially a Latin transliteration of Saul) – in biblical Greek: Παῦλος ("Paulos"), and in Latin: Paulus. It was typical for the Jews of that time to have two names: one Hebrew, the other Latin or Greek.
Jesus called him "Saul, Saul" in "the Hebrew tongue" in the book of Acts, when he had the vision which led to his conversion on the Road to Damascus. Later, in a vision to Ananias of Damascus, "the Lord" referred to him as "Saul, of Tarsus". When Ananias came to restore his sight, he called him "Brother Saul".
In , Saul is called "Paul" for the first time on the island of Cyprus – much later than the time of his conversion. The author (Luke) indicates that the names were interchangeable: "Saul, who also is called Paul." He thereafter refers to him as Paul, apparently Paul's preference since he is called Paul in all other Bible books where he is mentioned, including those that he authored. Adopting his Roman name was typical of Paul's missionary style. His method was to put people at their ease and to approach them with his message in a language and style to which they could relate, as in .
The main source for information about Paul's life is the material found in his epistles and in Acts. However, the epistles contain little information about Paul's pre-conversion past. The book of Acts recounts more information but leaves several parts of Paul's life out of its narrative, such as his probable but undocumented execution in Rome. Some scholars believe Acts also contradicts Paul's epistles on multiple accounts, in particular concerning the frequency of Paul's visits to the church in Jerusalem.
Sources outside the New Testament that mention Paul include:
The two main sources of information by which we have access to the earliest segments of Paul's career are the Bible's Book of Acts and the autobiographical elements of Paul's letters to the early Christian communities. Paul was likely born between the years of 5 BC and 5 AD. The Book of Acts indicates that Paul was a Roman citizen by birth, but Helmut Koester takes issue with the evidence presented by the text.
He was from a devout Jewish family based in the city of Tarsus, one of the largest trade centers on the Mediterranean coast. It had been in existence several hundred years prior to his birth. It was renowned for its university. During the time of Alexander the Great, who died in 323 BC, Tarsus was the most influential city in Asia Minor.
Paul referred to himself as being "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee". The Bible reveals very little about Paul's family. Acts quotes Paul referring to his family by saying he was "a Pharisee, born of Pharisees". Paul's nephew, his sister's son, is mentioned in . In he states that his relatives, Andronicus and Junia, were Christians before he was and were prominent among the Apostles.
The family had a history of religious piety. Apparently the family lineage had been very attached to Pharisaic traditions and observances for generations. Acts says that he was an artisan involved in the leather or tent-making profession. This was to become an initial connection with Priscilla and Aquila with whom he would partner in tentmaking and later become very important teammates as fellow missionaries.
Professor Robert Eisenman of California State University, Long Beach argues that Paul was a member of the family of Herod the Great. Eisenman makes a connection between Paul and an individual identified by Josephus as "Saulus", a "kinsman of Agrippa". Another oft-cited element of the case for Paul as a member of Herod's family is found in where Paul writes, "Greet Herodion, my kinsman".
While he was still fairly young, he was sent to Jerusalem to receive his education at the school of Gamaliel, one of the most noted rabbis in history. Although modern scholarship agrees that Paul was educated under the supervision of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, he was not preparing to become a rabbi and probably never had any contact with the Hillelite school. Some of his family may have resided in Jerusalem since later the son of one of his sisters saved his life there. Nothing more is known of his biography until he takes an active part in the martyrdom of Stephen, a Hellenised diaspora Jew converted to Christianity.
Although we know from his biography and from Acts that Paul could and did speak Hebrew, modern scholarship suggests that Koine Greek was his first language. In his letters, Paul drew heavily on his knowledge of Stoic philosophy, using Stoic terms and metaphors to assist his new Gentile converts in their understanding of the Gospel and to explain his Christology.
Paul confesses that prior to his conversion he persecuted "beyond measure" the church of God, specifically Hellenised diaspora Jews converted to Christianity, who had returned to the area of Jerusalem. According to James Dunn, the Jerusalem community consisted of "Hebrews," Jews speaking both Aramaic and Greek, and "Hellenists," Jews speaking only Greek, possibly diaspora Jews who had resettled in Jerusalem. Paul's initial persecution of Christians probably was directed against these Greek-speaking "Hellenists" converted to Christianity due to their anti-Temple attitude. Within the early Jewish Christian community, this also set them apart from the "Hebrews" and their continuing participation in the Temple cult.
Paul's conversion can be dated to 31–36 by his reference to it in one of his letters. In Paul writes that God "was pleased to reveal his son to me." In , as he lists the order in which Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, Paul writes, "last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also."
According to the account in Acts, it took place on the road to Damascus, where he reported having experienced a vision of the ascended Jesus. The account says that "He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' He asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' The reply came, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting'.".
According to the account in , he was blinded for three days and had to be led into Damascus by the hand. During these three days, Saul took no food or water and spent his time in prayer to God. When Ananias of Damascus arrived, he laid his hands on him and said: "Brother Saul, the Lord, "[even]" Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." His sight was restored, he got up and was baptized. This story occurs only in Acts, not in the Pauline epistles.
The author of Acts of the Apostles may have learned of Paul's conversion from the church in Jerusalem, or from the church in Antioch, or possibly from Paul himself.
According to Timo Eskola, early Christian theology and discourse was influenced by the Jewish Merkabah tradition. Similarly, Alan Segal and Daniel Boyarin regard Paul's accounts of his conversion experience and his ascent to the heavens as the earliest first person accounts we have of a Merkabah mystic in Jewish or Christian literature. Conversely, Timothy Churchill has argued that Paul's Damascus road encounter does not fit the pattern of Merkabah.
According to Acts,
After his conversion, Paul went to Damascus, where Acts 9 states he was healed of his blindness and baptized by Ananias of Damascus. Paul says that it was in Damascus that he barely escaped death. Paul also says that he then went first to Arabia, and then came back to Damascus. Paul's trip to Arabia is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, and some suppose he actually traveled to Mount Sinai for meditations in the desert. He describes in Galatians how three years after his conversion he went to Jerusalem. There he met James and stayed with Simon Peter for 15 days. Paul located Mount Sinai in Arabia in .
Paul asserted that he received the Gospel not from man, but directly by "the revelation of Jesus Christ". He claimed almost total independence from the Jerusalem community (possibly in the Cenacle), but agreed with it on the nature and content of the gospel. He appeared eager to bring material support to Jerusalem from the various growing Gentile churches that he started. In his writings, Paul used the persecutions he endured to avow proximity and union with Jesus and as a validation of his teaching.
Paul's narrative in Galatians states that 14 years after his conversion he went again to Jerusalem. It is not known what happened during this time, but both Acts and Galatians provide some details. At the end of this time, Barnabas went to find Paul and brought him to Antioch. The Christian community at Antioch had been established by Hellenised diaspora Jews converted to Christianity living in Jerusalem, who played an important role in reaching a Gentile, Greek audience, notably at Antioch, which had a large Jewish community and significant numbers of Gentile "God-fearers." From Antioch the mission to the Gentiles started, which would fundamentally change the character of the early Christian movement, eventually turning it into a new, Gentile religion.
When a famine occurred in Judea, around 45–46, Paul and Barnabas journeyed to Jerusalem to deliver financial support from the Antioch community. According to Acts, Antioch had become an alternative center for Christians following the dispersion of the believers after the death of Stephen. It was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians".
The author of Acts arranges Paul's travels into three separate journeys. The first journey, for which Paul and Barnabas were commissioned by the Antioch community, and led initially by Barnabas, took Barnabas and Paul from Antioch to Cyprus then into southern Asia Minor (Anatolia), and finally returning to Antioch. In Cyprus, Paul rebukes and blinds Elymas the magician who was criticizing their teachings.
They sail to Perga in Pamphylia. John Mark leaves them and returns to Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas go on to Pisidian Antioch. On Sabbath they go to the synagogue. The leaders invite them to speak. Paul reviews Israelite history from life in Egypt to King David. He introduces Jesus as a descendant of David brought to Israel by God. He said that his team came to town to bring the message of salvation. He recounts the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. He quotes from the Septuagint to assert that Jesus was the promised Christos who brought them forgiveness for their sins. Both the Jews and the "God-fearing" Gentiles invited them to talk more next Sabbath. At that time almost the whole city gathered. This upset some influential Jews who spoke against them. Paul used the occasion to announce a change in his mission which from then on would be to the Gentiles.
Antioch served as a major Christian homebase for Paul's early missionary activities, and he remained there for "a long time with the disciples" at the conclusion of his first journey. The exact duration of Paul's stay in Antioch is unknown, with estimates ranging from nine months to as long as eight years.
In Raymond Brown's "An Introduction to the New Testament" (1997), a chronology of events in Paul's life is presented, illustrated from later 20th century writings of biblical scholars. The first missionary journey of Paul is assigned a "traditional" (and majority) dating of 46–49 AD, compared to a "revisionist" (and minority) dating of after 37 AD.
A vital meeting between Paul and the Jerusalem church took place in the year 49 by "traditional" (and majority) dating, compared to a "revisionist" (and minority) dating of 47/51. The meeting is described in and usually seen as the same event mentioned by Paul in . The key question raised was whether Gentile converts needed to be circumcised. At this meeting, Paul states in his letter to the Galatians, Peter, James, and John accepted Paul's mission to the Gentiles.
The Jerusalem meetings are mentioned in Acts, and also in Paul's letters. For example, the Jerusalem visit for famine relief apparently corresponds to the "first visit" (to Peter and James only). F. F. Bruce suggested that the "fourteen years" could be from Paul's conversion rather than from his first visit to Jerusalem.
Despite the agreement achieved at the Council of Jerusalem, Paul recounts how he later publicly confronted Peter in a dispute sometimes called the "Incident at Antioch", over Peter's reluctance to share a meal with Gentile Christians in Antioch because they did not strictly adhere to Jewish customs.
Writing later of the incident, Paul recounts, "I opposed [Peter] to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong", and says he told Peter, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?" Paul also mentions that even Barnabas, his traveling companion and fellow apostle until that time, sided with Peter.
The final outcome of the incident remains uncertain. The "Catholic Encyclopedia" suggests that Paul won the argument, because "Paul's account of the incident leaves no doubt that Peter saw the justice of the rebuke". However Paul himself never mentions a victory and "From Jesus to Christianity" draws the opposite conclusion: "The blowup with Peter was a total failure of political bravado, and Paul soon left Antioch as "persona non grata", never again to return".
The primary source account of the Incident at Antioch is Paul's letter to the Galatians.
Paul left for his second missionary journey from Jerusalem, in late Autumn 49, after the meeting of the Council of Jerusalem where the circumcision question was debated. On their trip around the Mediterranean Sea, Paul and his companion Barnabas stopped in Antioch where they had a sharp argument about taking John Mark with them on their trips. The book of Acts said that John Mark had left them in a previous trip and gone home. Unable to resolve the dispute, Paul and Barnabas decided to separate; Barnabas took John Mark with him, while Silas joined Paul.
Paul and Silas initially visited Tarsus (Paul's birthplace), Derbe and Lystra. In Lystra, they met Timothy, a disciple who was spoken well of, and decided to take him with them. Paul and his companions, Silas and Timothy, had plans to journey to the southwest portion of Asia Minor to preach the gospel but during the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him to go to Macedonia to help them. After seeing the vision, Paul and his companions left for Macedonia to preach the gospel to them. The Church kept growing, adding believers, and strengthening in faith daily.
In Philippi, Paul cast a spirit of divination out of a servant girl, whose masters were then unhappy about the loss of income her soothsaying provided. They turned the city against the missionaries, and Paul and Silas were put in jail. After a miraculous earthquake, the gates of the prison fell apart and Paul and Silas could have escaped but remained; this event led to the conversion of the jailor. They continued traveling, going by Berea and then to Athens, where Paul preached to the Jews and God-fearing Greeks in the synagogue and to the Greek intellectuals in the Areopagus. Paul continued from Athens to Corinth.
Around 50–52, Paul spent 18 months in Corinth. The reference in Acts to Proconsul Gallio helps ascertain this date (cf. Gallio Inscription). In Corinth, Paul met Priscilla and Aquila, who became faithful believers and helped Paul through his other missionary journeys. The couple followed Paul and his companions to Ephesus, and stayed there to start one of the strongest and most faithful churches at that time.
In 52, departing from Corinth, Paul stopped at the nearby village of Cenchreae to have his hair cut off, because of a vow he had earlier taken. It is possible this was to be a final haircut prior to fulfilling his vow to become a Nazirite for a defined period of time. With Priscilla and Aquila, the missionaries then sailed to Ephesus and then Paul alone went on to Caesarea to greet the Church there. He then traveled north to Antioch, where he stayed for some time (, perhaps about a year), before leaving again on a third missionary journey. Some New Testament texts suggest that he also visited Jerusalem during this period for one of the Jewish feasts, possibly Pentecost. Textual critic Henry Alford and others consider the reference to a Jerusalem visit to be genuine and it accords with , according to which Paul and Trophimus the Ephesian had previously been seen in Jerusalem.
According to Acts, Paul began his third missionary journey by travelling all around the region of Galatia and Phrygia to strengthen, teach and rebuke the believers. Paul then traveled to Ephesus, an important center of early Christianity, and stayed there for almost three years, probably working there as a tentmaker, as he had done when he stayed in Corinth. He is claimed to have performed numerous miracles, healing people and casting out demons, and he apparently organized missionary activity in other regions. Paul left Ephesus after an attack from a local silversmith resulted in a pro-Artemis riot involving most of the city. During his stay in Ephesus, Paul wrote four letters to the church in Corinth. The Jerusalem Bible suggests that the letter to the church in Philippi was also written from Ephesus.
Paul went through Macedonia into Achaea and stayed in Greece, probably Corinth, for three months during 56–57 AD. Commentators generally agree that Paul dictated his Epistle to the Romans during this period. He then made ready to continue on to Syria, but he changed his plans and traveled back through Macedonia because of some Jews who had made a plot against him. In Paul wrote that he visited Illyricum, but he may have meant what would now be called Illyria Graeca, which was at that time a division of the Roman province of Macedonia. On their way back to Jerusalem, Paul and his companions visited other cities such as Philippi, Troas, Miletus, Rhodes, and Tyre. Paul finished his trip with a stop in Caesarea, where he and his companions stayed with Philip the Evangelist before finally arriving at Jerusalem.
According to Charles Woods' studies of Albania from 1918, when St. Paul he arrived in Illyria, he stated ""Round about unto Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ"".
Among the writings of the early Christians, Pope Clement I said that Paul was "Herald (of the Gospel of Christ) in the West", and that "he had gone to the extremity of the west". John Chrysostom indicated that Paul preached in Spain: "For after he had been in Rome, he returned to Spain, but whether he came thence again into these parts, we know not". Cyril of Jerusalem said that Paul, "fully preached the Gospel, and instructed even imperial Rome, and carried the earnestness of his preaching as far as Spain, undergoing conflicts innumerable, and performing Signs and wonders". The Muratorian fragment mentions "the departure of Paul from the city [of Rome] [5a] (39) when he journeyed to Spain".
This table is adapted from White, "From Jesus to Christianity." Note that the matching of Paul's travels in the Acts and the travels in his Epistles is done for the reader's convenience and is not approved of by all scholars.
In 57, upon completion of his third missionary journey, Paul arrived in Jerusalem for his fifth and final visit with a collection of money for the local community. Acts reports that he initially was warmly received. However, Acts goes on to recount how Paul was warned by James and the elders that he was gaining a reputation for being against the Law, saying "they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs". Paul underwent a purification ritual to give the Jews no grounds to bring accusations against him for not following their law.
After seven days in Jerusalem, some "Jews from Asia" (most likely from Roman Asia) accused Paul of defiling the temple by bringing gentiles into it. He was seized and dragged out of the temple by an angry mob. He narrowly escaped being killed by surrendering to a group of Roman centurions, who arrested him, put him in chains and took him to the tribune.
When a plot to kill Paul on his way to an appearance before the Jews was discovered, he was transported by night to Caesarea Maritima. He was held as a prisoner there for two years by Marcus Antonius Felix, until a new governor, Porcius Festus, reopened his case in 59. When Festus suggested that he be sent back to Jerusalem for further trial, Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to "appeal unto Caesar". Finally, Paul and his companions sailed for Rome where Paul was to stand trial for his alleged crimes.
Acts recounts that on the way to Rome for his appeal as a Roman citizen to Caesar, Paul was shipwrecked on "Melita" (Malta), where the islanders showed him "unusual kindness" and where he was met by Publius. From Malta, he travelled to Rome via Syracuse, Rhegium and Puteoli.
He finally arrived in Rome around 60, where he spent another two years under house arrest. The narrative of Acts ends with Paul preaching in Rome for two years from his rented home while awaiting trial.
Irenaeus wrote in the 2nd century that Peter and Paul had been the founders of the church in Rome and had appointed Linus as succeeding bishop. Paul was not a bishop of Rome, nor did he bring Christianity to Rome since there were already Christians in Rome when he arrived there. Also, Paul wrote his letter to the church at Rome before he had visited Rome. Paul only played a supporting part in the life of the church in Rome.
The date of Paul's death is believed to have occurred after the Great Fire of Rome in July 64, but before the last year of Nero's reign, in 68. According to the First Epistle of Clement (95–96 AD), Ignatius (110 AD) and Dionysius of Corinth (166–174 AD) Paul was martyred. The apocryphal Acts of Paul (160 AD), Tertullian (200 AD), Eusebius of Caesarea (320 AD), Lactantius (318 AD), Jerome (392 AD), John Chrysostom (c. 349–407) and Sulpicius Severus (403 AD) describe the martyrdom of Paul citing that Nero condemned Paul to death by decapitation at Rome.
A legend later developed that his martyrdom occurred at the Aquae Salviae, on the Via Laurentina. According to this legend, after Paul was decapitated, his severed head rebounded three times, giving rise to a source of water each time that it touched the ground, which is how the place earned the name "San Paolo alle Tre Fontane" ("St Paul at the Three Fountains").
According to further legend, Paul's body was buried outside the walls of Rome, at the second mile on the Via Ostiensis, on the estate owned by a Christian woman named Lucina. It was here, in the fourth century, that the Emperor Constantine the Great built a first church. Then, between the fourth and fifth centuries it was considerably enlarged by the Emperors Valentinian I, Valentinian II, Theodosius I, and Arcadius. The present-day Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls was built there in 1800.
Caius in his "Disputation Against Proclus" (198 AD) mentions this of the places in which the remains of the apostles Peter and Paul were deposited: "I can point out the trophies of the apostles. For if you are willing to go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this Church".
Jerome in his "De Viris Illustribus" (392 AD) writing on Paul's biography, mentions that "Paul was buried in the Ostian Way at Rome".
In 2002, an -long marble sarcophagus, inscribed with the words "PAULO APOSTOLO MART" ("Paul apostle martyr") was discovered during excavations around the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls on the Via Ostiensis. Vatican archaeologists declared this to be the tomb of Paul the Apostle in 2005. In June 2009, Pope Benedict XVI announced excavation results concerning the tomb. The sarcophagus was not opened but was examined by means of a probe, which revealed pieces of incense, purple and blue linen, and small bone fragments. The bone was radiocarbon-dated to the 1st or 2nd century. According to the Vatican, these findings support the conclusion that the tomb is Paul's.
Various Christian writers have suggested more details about Paul's life.
1 Clement, a letter written by the Roman bishop Clement of Rome around the year 90, reports this about Paul:
Commenting on this passage, Raymond Brown writes that while it "does not explicitly say" that Paul was martyred in Rome, "such a martyrdom is the most reasonable interpretation". Eusebius of Caesarea, who wrote in the 4th century, states that Paul was beheaded in the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. This event has been dated either to the year 64, when Rome was devastated by a fire, or a few years later, to 67. According to one tradition, the church of San Paolo alle Tre Fontane marks the place of Paul's execution. A Roman Catholic liturgical solemnity of Peter and Paul, celebrated on June 29, commemorates his martyrdom, and reflects a tradition (preserved by Eusebius) that Peter and Paul were martyred at the same time. The Roman liturgical calendar for the following day now remembers all Christians martyred in these early persecutions; formerly, June 30 was the feast day for St. Paul. Persons or religious orders with special affinity for St. Paul can still celebrate their patron on June 30.
The apocryphal Acts of Paul and the apocryphal Acts of Peter suggest that Paul survived Rome and traveled further west. Some think that Paul could have revisited Greece and Asia Minor after his trip to Spain, and might then have been arrested in Troas, and taken to Rome and executed. A tradition holds that Paul was interred with Saint Peter "ad Catacumbas" by the via Appia until moved to what is now the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. Bede, in his "Ecclesiastical History", writes that Pope Vitalian in 665 gave Paul's relics (including a cross made from his prison chains) from the crypts of Lucina to King Oswy of Northumbria, northern Britain. Paul is considered the patron saint of London.
The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul is celebrated on January 25.
The New Testament offers little if any information about the physical appearance of Paul, but several descriptions can be found in apocryphal texts. In the "Acts of Paul" he is described as "A man of small stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked". In the Latin version of the "Acts of Paul and Thecla" it is added that he had a red, florid face.
In "The History of the Contending of Saint Paul" his countenance is described as "ruddy with the ruddiness of the skin of the pomegranate". "The Acts of Saint Peter" confirms that Paul had a bald and shining head, with red hair.
As summarised by Barnes, Chrysostom records that Paul's stature was low, his body crooked and his head bald. Lucian, in his Philopatris, describes Paul as "corpore erat parvo (he was small), contracto (contracted), incurvo (crooked), tricubitali (of three cubits, or four feet six)".
Nicephorus claims that Paul was a little man, crooked, and almost bent like a bow, with a pale countenance, long and wrinkled, and a bald head. Pseudo-Chrysostom echoes Lucian's height of Paul, referring to him as "the man of three cubits".
Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 14 have been attributed to Paul; 7 of these are widely considered authentic and Paul's own, while the authorship of the other 7 is disputed. The undisputed letters are considered the most important sources since they contain what everyone agrees to be Paul's own statements about his life and thoughts. Theologian Mark Powell writes that Paul directed these 7 letters to specific occasions at particular churches. As an example, if the Corinthian church had not experienced problems concerning its celebration of the Lord's Supper, today we would not know that Paul even believed in that observance or had any opinions about it one way or the other. Powell asks if we might be ignorant of other matters simply because no crises arose that prompted Paul to comment on them.
In Paul's writings, he provides the first written account of what it is to be a Christian and thus a description of Christian spirituality. His letters have been characterized as being the most influential books of the New Testament after the Gospels of Matthew and John.
Seven of the 13 letters that bear Paul's name – Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon – are almost universally accepted as being entirely authentic (dictated by Paul himself). They are considered the best source of information on Paul's life and especially his thought.
Four of the letters (Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) are widely considered pseudepigraphical, while the authorship of the other two is subject to debate. Colossians and 2 Thessalonians are possibly "Deutero-Pauline" meaning they may have been written by Paul's followers after his death. Similarly, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus may be "Trito-Pauline" meaning they may have been written by members of the Pauline school a generation after his death. According to their theories, these disputed letters may have come from followers writing in Paul's name, often using material from his surviving letters. These scribes also may have had access to letters written by Paul that no longer survive.
The authenticity of Colossians has been questioned on the grounds that it contains an otherwise unparalleled description (among his writings) of Jesus as "the image of the invisible God", a Christology found elsewhere only in John's gospel. However, the personal notes in the letter connect it to Philemon, unquestionably the work of Paul. Internal evidence shows close connection with Philippians.
Ephesians is a letter that is very similar to Colossians, but is almost entirely lacking in personal reminiscences. Its style is unique. It lacks the emphasis on the cross to be found in other Pauline writings, reference to the Second Coming is missing, and Christian marriage is exalted in a way which contrasts with the reference in . Finally, according to R.E. Brown, it exalts the Church in a way suggestive of a second generation of Christians, "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" now past.
The defenders of its Pauline authorship argue that it was intended to be read by a number of different churches and that it marks the final stage of the development of Paul's thinking. It has been said, too, that the moral portion of the Epistle, consisting of the last two chapters, has the closest affinity with similar portions of other Epistles, while the whole admirably fits in with the known details of Paul's life, and throws considerable light upon them.
Three main reasons have been advanced by those who question Paul's authorship of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus – also known as the Pastoral Epistles.
Although approximately half of Acts deals with Paul's life and works, the Book of Acts does not refer to Paul writing letters. Historians believe that the author of Acts did not have access to any of Paul's letters. One piece of evidence suggesting this is that Acts never directly quotes from the Pauline epistles. Discrepancies between the Pauline epistles and Acts would further support the conclusion that the author of Acts did not have access to those epistles when composing Acts.
British Jewish scholar Hyam Maccoby contended that the Paul as described in the book of Acts and the view of Paul gleaned from his own writings are very different people. Some difficulties have been noted in the account of his life. Paul as described in the Book of Acts is much more interested in factual history, less in theology; ideas such as justification by faith are absent as are references to the Spirit, according to Maccoby. He also pointed out that there are no references to John the Baptist in the Pauline Epistles, although Paul mentions him several times in the book of Acts.
Others have objected that the language of the speeches is too Lukan in style to reflect anyone else's words. Moreover, George Shillington writes that the author of Acts most likely created the speeches accordingly and they bear his literary and theological marks. Conversely, Howard Marshall writes that the speeches were not entirely the inventions of the author and while they may not be accurate word-for-word, the author nevertheless records the general idea of them.
F. C. Baur (1792–1860), professor of theology at Tübingen in Germany, the first scholar to critique Acts and the Pauline Epistles, and founder of the Tübingen School of theology, argued that Paul, as the "Apostle to the Gentiles", was in violent opposition to the original 12 Apostles. Baur considers the Acts of the Apostles were late and unreliable. This debate has continued ever since, with Adolf Deissmann (1866–1937) and Richard Reitzenstein (1861–1931) emphasising Paul's Greek inheritance and Albert Schweitzer stressing his dependence on Judaism.
In the opening verses of , Paul provides a litany of his own apostolic appointment to preach among the Gentiles and his post-conversion convictions about the risen Christ. Paul described himself as set apart for the gospel of God and called to be an apostle and a servant of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had revealed Himself to Paul, just as He had appeared to Peter, to James, to the Twelve, after his Resurrection. Paul experienced this as an unforeseen, sudden, startling change, due to all-powerful grace, not as the fruit of his reasoning or thoughts.
Paul also describes himself as inflicted with a debilitating physical condition akin to having a handicap which he refers to as "a thorn in the flesh";
There are debates as to whether Paul understood himself as commissioned to take the gospel to the Gentiles at the moment of his conversion. Before his conversion he believed his violent persecution of the church to be an indication of his zeal for his religion; after his conversion he believed Jewish hostility toward the church was sinful opposition, that would incur God's wrath. Paul believed he was halted by Christ, when his fury was at its height. It was "through zeal" that he persecuted the Church, and he obtained mercy because he had "acted ignorantly in unbelief".
Paul's writings emphasized the crucifixion, Christ's resurrection and the Parousia or second coming of Christ. Paul saw Jesus as Lord ("kyrios"), the true messiah and the Son of God, who was promised by God beforehand, through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. While being a biological descendant from David ("according to the flesh"), He was declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.
According to E. P. Sanders, Paul "preached the death, resurrection, and lordship of Jesus Christ, and he proclaimed that faith in Jesus guarantees a share in his life."
In Paul's view, "Jesus’ death was not a defeat but was for the believers’ benefit," a sacrifice which substitutes for the lifes of others, and frees them from the bondage of sin. Believers participate in Christ's death and resurrection by their baptism. The resurrection of Jesus was of primary importance to Paul, bringing the promise of salvation to believers. Paul taught that, when Christ returned, those who had died believing in Christ as the saviour of mankind would be brought back to life, while those still alive would be "caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air"
Sanders concludes that Paul's writings reveal what he calls the essence of the Christian message: "(1) God sent his Son; (2) the Son was crucified and resurrected for the benefit of humanity; (3) the Son would soon return; and (4) those who belonged to the Son would live with him forever. Paul’s gospel, like those of others, also included (5) the admonition to live by the highest moral standard: “May your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” ()"
In Paul's writings, the public, corporate devotional patterns towards Jesus in the early Christian community are reflective of Paul's perspective on the divine status of Jesus in what scholars have termed a "binitarian" pattern of devotion. For Paul, Jesus receives prayer (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 12:8–9; 1 Thess. 3:11), the presence of Jesus is confessionally invoked by believers (1 Cor. 16:22; Romans 10:9–13; Phil. 2:10–11), people are baptized in Jesus’ name (1 Cor. 6:11; Rom. 6:3), Jesus is the reference in Christian fellowship for a religious ritual meal (the Lord's Supper; 1 Cor. 11:17–34 – in pagan cults, the reference for ritual meals is always to a deity), and Jesus is the source of continuing prophetic oracles to believers (1 Thess. 4:15–17).
Paul taught that Christians are redeemed from sin by Jesus' death and resurrection. His death was an expiation as well as a propitiation, and by Christ's blood peace is made between God and man. By grace, through faith, a Christian shares in Jesus' death and in his victory over death, gaining as a free gift a new, justified status of sonship.
According to Krister Stendahl, the main concern of Paul's writings on Jesus' role, and salvation by faith, is not the individual conscience of human sinners, and their doubts about being chosen by God or not, but the problem of the inclusion of gentile (Greek) Torah observers into God's covenant. 'Dying for our sins' refers to the problem of gentile Torah-observers, who, despite their faithfulness, cannot fully observe commandments, including circumcision, and are therefore 'sinners', excluded from God's covenant. Jesus' death and resurrection solved this problem of the exclusion of the gentles from God's covenant, as indicated by Rom 3:21–26.
Paul's conversion fundamentally changed his basic beliefs regarding God's covenant and the inclusion of Gentiles into this covenant. Paul believed Jesus' death was a voluntary sacrifice, that reconciled sinners with God. The law only reveals the extent of people's enslavement to the power of sin – a power that must be broken by Christ. Before his conversion Paul believed Gentiles were outside the covenant that God made with Israel; after his conversion he believed Gentiles and Jews were united as the people of God in Christ Jesus. Before his conversion he believed circumcision was the rite through which males became part of Israel, an exclusive community of God's chosen people; after his conversion he believed that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but that the new creation is what counts in the sight of God, and that this new creation is a work of Christ in the life of believers, making them part of the church, an inclusive community of Jews and Gentiles reconciled with God through faith.
According to E.P. Sanders, who initiated the New Perspective on Paul with his 1977 publication "Paul and Palestinian Judaism", Paul saw the faithful redeemed by participation in Jesus' death and rising. Though "Jesus’ death substituted for that of others and thereby freed believers from sin and guilt," a metaphor derived from "ancient sacrificial theology," the essence of Paul's writing is not in the "legal terms" regarding the expiation of sin, but the act of "participation in Christ through dying and rising with him." According to Sanders, "those who are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death, and thus they escape the power of sin [...] he died so that the believers may die with him and consequently live with him." By this participation in Christ's death and rising, "one receives forgiveness for past offences, is liberated from the powers of sin, and receives the Spirit."
Some scholars see Paul (or Saul) as completely in line with 1st-century Judaism (a Pharisee and student of Gamaliel as presented by Acts), others see him as opposed to 1st-century Judaism (see Marcionism), while the majority see him as somewhere in between these two extremes, opposed to insistence on keeping the "Ritual Laws" (for example the circumcision controversy in early Christianity) as necessary for entrance into God's New Covenant, but in full agreement on "Divine Law". These views of Paul are paralleled by the views of Biblical law in Christianity.
Paul is critical both theologically and empirically of claims of moral or lineal superiority of Jews while conversely strongly sustaining the notion of a special place for the Children of Israel. Paul's theology of the gospel accelerated the separation of the messianic sect of Christians from Judaism, a development contrary to Paul's own intent. He wrote that faith in Christ was alone decisive in salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike, making the schism between the followers of Christ and mainstream Jews inevitable and permanent. He argued that Gentile converts did not need to become Jews, get circumcised, follow Jewish dietary restrictions, or otherwise observe Mosaic laws to be saved. According to Fredriksen, Paul's opposition to male circumcison for Gentiles is in line with Old Testament predictions that "in the last days the gentile nations would come to the God of Israel, as gentiles (e.g., Zechariah 8:20–23), not as proselytes to Israel." For Paul, Gentile male circumcison was therefore an affront to God's intentions. According to Hurtado, "Paul saw himself as what Munck called a salvation-historical figure in his own right," who was "personally and singularly deputized by God to bring about the predicted ingathering (the "fullness") of the nations (Romans 11:25)."
According to Sanders, Paul insists that salvation is received by the grace of God; according to Sanders, this insistence is in line with Judaism of ca. 200 NCE until 200 CE, which saw God's covenant with Israel as an act of grace of God. Observance of the Law is needed to maintain the covenant, but the covenant is not earned by observing the Law, but by the grace of God.
Sanders' publications have since been taken up by Professor James Dunn who coined the phrase "The New Perspective on Paul". N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop of Durham, notes a difference in emphasis between Galatians and Romans, the latter being much more positive about the continuing covenant between God and his ancient people than the former. Wright also contends that performing Christian works is not insignificant but rather proof of having attained the redemption of Jesus Christ by grace (free gift received by faith). He concludes that Paul distinguishes between performing Christian works which are signs of ethnic identity and others which are a sign of obedience to Christ.
According to Bart Ehrman, Paul believed that Jesus would return within his lifetime. Paul expected that Christians who had died in the meantime would be resurrected to share in God's kingdom, and he believed that the saved would be transformed, assuming heavenly, imperishable bodies.
Paul's teaching about the end of the world is expressed most clearly in his letters to the Christians at Thessalonica. He assures them that the dead will rise first and be followed by those left alive. This suggests an imminent end but he is unspecific about times and seasons, and encourages his hearers to expect a delay. The form of the end will be a battle between Jesus and the man of lawlessness whose conclusion is the triumph of Christ.
Before his conversion he believed God's messiah would put an end to the old age of evil, and initiate a new age of righteousness; after his conversion he believed this would happen in stages that had begun with the resurrection of Jesus, but the old age would continue until Jesus returns.
The second chapter of the first letter to Timothy – one of the six disputed letters – is used by many churches to deny women a vote in church affairs, reject women from serving as teachers of adult Bible classes, prevent them from serving as missionaries, and generally disenfranchise women from the duties and privileges of church leadership.
The KJV translation of this passage taken literally says that women in the churches are to have no leadership roles vis-à-vis men.
Fuller Seminary theologian J. R. Daniel Kirk finds evidence in Paul's letters of a much more inclusive view of women. He writes that is a tremendously important witness to the important role of women in the early church. Paul praises Phoebe for her work as a deaconess and Junia who is described by Paul in Scripture as being respected among the Apostles. It is Kirk's observation that recent studies have led many scholars to conclude that the passage in ordering women to "be silent" during worship was a later addition, apparently by a different author, and not part of Paul's original letter to the Corinthians.
Other scholars, such as Giancarlo Biguzzi, believe that Paul's restriction on women speaking in 1 Corinthians 14 is genuine to Paul but applies to a particular case where there were local problems of women – who were not allowed in that culture to become educated – asking questions or chatting during worship services. He does not believe it to be a general prohibition on any woman speaking in worship settings since in 1 Corinthians Paul affirms the right (responsibility) of women to prophesy.
There were women prophets in the highly patriarchal times throughout the Old Testament. The most common term for prophet in the Old Testament is "nabi" in the masculine form, and "nebiah" in the Hebrew feminine form, is used six times of women who performed the same task of receiving and proclaiming the message given by God. These women include Miriam, Aaron and Moses' sister, Deborah, the prophet Isaiah's wife, and Huldah, the one who interpreted the Book of the Law discovered in the temple during the days of Josiah. There were false prophetesses just as there were false prophets. The prophetess Noadiah was among those who tried to intimidate Nehemiah. Apparently they held equal rank in prophesying right along with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elisha, Aaron, and Samuel.
Kirk's third example of a more inclusive view is :
In pronouncing an end within the church to the divisions which are common in the world around it, he concludes by highlighting the fact that "there were New Testament women who taught and had authority in the early churches, that this teaching and authority was sanctioned by Paul, and that Paul himself offers a theological paradigm within which overcoming the subjugation of women is an anticipated outcome".
Classicist Evelyn Stagg and theologian Frank Stagg believe that Paul was attempting to "Christianize" the societal household or domestic codes that significantly oppressed women and empowered men as the head of the household. The Staggs present a serious study of what has been termed the New Testament domestic code, also known as the "Haustafel". The two main passages that explain these "household duties" are Paul's letters to the and to the . An underlying Household Code is also reflected in four additional Pauline letters and 1 Peter: 1 Timothy 2:1ff., 8ff.; 3:1ff., 8ff.; 5:17ff.; 6:1f.; and . Biblical scholars have typically treated the "Haustafel" in Ephesians as a resource in the debate over the role of women in ministry and in the home.
Margaret MacDonald argues that the "Haustafel", particularly as it appears in Ephesians, was aimed at "reducing the tension between community members and outsiders".
E. P. Sanders has labeled the Apostle's remark in about women not making any sound during worship as "Paul's intemperate outburst that women should be silent in the churches". Women, in fact, played a very significant part in Paul's missionary endeavors:
Most Christian traditions say Paul clearly portrays homosexuality as sinful in two specific locations: , and . Another passage addresses the topic more obliquely: . Since the nineteenth century, however, most scholars have concluded that 1 Timothy (along with 2 Timothy and Titus) is not original to Paul, but rather an unknown Christian writing in Paul's name some time in the late-first-to-mid-2nd century.
Paul's influence on Christian thinking arguably has been more significant than any other New Testament author. Paul declared that "Christ is the end of the law", exalted the Christian church as the body of Christ, and depicted the world outside the Church as under judgment. Paul's writings include the earliest reference to the "Lord's Supper", a rite traditionally identified as the Christian communion or Eucharist. In the East, church fathers attributed the element of election in to divine foreknowledge. The themes of predestination found in Western Christianity do not appear in Eastern theology.
Paul had a strong influence on early Christianity. Hurtado notes that Paul regarded his own Christological views and those of his predecessors and that of the Jerusalem Church as essentially similar. According to Hurtado, this "work[s] against the claims by some scholars that Pauline Christianity represents a sharp departure from the religiousness of Judean 'Jesus movements'."
Marcionism, regarded as heresy by contemporary mainstream Christianity, was an Early Christian dualist belief system that originated in the teachings of Marcion of Sinope at Rome around the year 144. Marcion asserted that Paul was the only apostle who had rightly understood the new message of salvation as delivered by Christ.
Marcion believed Jesus was the savior sent by God, and Paul the Apostle was his chief apostle, but he rejected the Hebrew Bible and the God of Israel. Marcionists believed that the wrathful Hebrew God was a separate and lower entity than the all-forgiving God of the New Testament.
In his account of his conversion experience, Augustine gave his life to Christ after reading Romans 13. Augustine's foundational work on the gospel as a gift (grace), on morality as life in the Spirit, on predestination, and on original sin all derives from Paul, especially Romans.
In his account of his conversion Martin Luther wrote about righteousness in Romans 1 praising Romans as the perfect gospel, in which the Reformation was birthed. Martin Luther's interpretation of Paul's writings influenced Luther's doctrine of "sola fide".
John Calvin said the Book of Romans opens to anyone an understanding to the whole Scripture.
In his commentary "The Epistle to the Romans" (Ger. "Der Römerbrief"; particularly in the thoroughly re-written second edition of 1922) Karl Barth argued that the God who is revealed in the cross of Jesus challenges and overthrows any attempt to ally God with human cultures, achievements, or possessions.
In addition to the many questions about the true origins of some of Paul's teachings posed by historical figures as noted above, some modern theologians also hold that the teachings of Paul differ markedly from those of Jesus as found in the Gospels. Barrie Wilson states that Paul differs from Jesus in terms of the origin of his message, his teachings and his practices. Some have even gone so far as to claim that, due to these apparent differences in teachings, that Paul was actually no less than the "second founder" of Christianity (Jesus being its first).
As in the Eastern tradition in general, Western humanists interpret the reference to election in Romans 9 as reflecting divine foreknowledge.
Jewish interest in Paul is a recent phenomenon. Before the positive historical reevaluations of Jesus by some Jewish thinkers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he had hardly featured in the popular Jewish imagination and little had been written about him by the religious leaders and scholars. Arguably, he is absent from the Talmud and rabbinical literature, although he makes an appearance in some variants of the medieval polemic Toledot Yeshu (as a particularly effective spy for the rabbis).
However, with Jesus no longer regarded as the paradigm of gentile Christianity, Paul's position became more important in Jewish historical reconstructions of their religion's relationship with Christianity. He has featured as the key to building barriers (e.g. Heinrich Graetz and Martin Buber) or bridges (e.g. Isaac Mayer Wise and Claude G. Montefiore) in interfaith relations, as part of an intra-Jewish debate about what constitutes Jewish authenticity (e.g. Joseph Klausner and Hans Joachim Schoeps), and on occasion as a dialogical partner (e.g. Richard L. Rubenstein and Daniel Boyarin).
He features in an oratorio (by Felix Mendelssohn), a painting (by Ludwig Meidner) and a play (by Franz Werfel), and there have been several novels about Paul (by Shalom Asch and Samuel Sandmel). Jewish philosophers (including Baruch Spinoza, Leo Shestov, and Jacob Taubes) and Jewish psychoanalysts (including Sigmund Freud and Hanns Sachs) have engaged with the apostle as one of the most influential figures in Western thought. Scholarly surveys of Jewish interest in Paul include those by , , , and .
In the second (and possibly late first) century, Gnosticism was a competing religious tradition to Christianity which shared some elements of theology.
Elaine Pagels concentrated on how the Gnostics interpreted Paul's letters and how evidence from gnostic sources may challenge the assumption that Paul wrote his letters to combat "gnostic opponents" and to repudiate their statement that they possess secret wisdom.
Muslims have long believed that Paul purposefully corrupted the original revealed teachings of Jesus, through the introduction of such elements as paganism, the making of Christianity into a theology of the cross, and introducing original sin and the need for redemption.
Sayf ibn Umar claimed that certain rabbis persuaded Paul to deliberately misguide early Christians by introducing what Ibn Hazm viewed as objectionable doctrines into Christianity. Ibn Hazm repeated Sayf's claims. The Karaite scholar Jacob Qirqisani also believed that Paul created Christianity by introducing the doctrine of Trinity. Paul has been criticized by some modern Muslim thinkers. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas wrote that Paul misrepresented the message of Jesus, and Rashid Rida accused Paul of introducing "shirk" (polytheism) into Christianity. Mohammad Ali Jouhar quoted Adolf von Harnack's critical writings of Paul.
In Sunni Muslim polemics, Paul plays the same role (of deliberately corrupting the early teachings of Jesus) as a later Jew, Abdullah ibn Saba', would play in seeking to destroy the message of Islam from within (by introducing proto-Shi'ite beliefs). Among those who supported this view were scholars Ibn Taymiyyah (who believed while Paul ultimately succeeded, Ibn Saba failed) and Ibn Hazm (who claimed that the Jews even admitted to Paul's sinister purpose).
Among the critics of Paul the Apostle was Thomas Jefferson, a Deist, who wrote that Paul was the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus." Christian anarchists and took a similar view. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24140 |
Perestroika
Perestroika (; ) was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s and is widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning "openness") policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.
Perestroika is sometimes argued to be a significant cause of the revolutions of 1989 (referred to as counter-revolutions by the USSR's defenders, and color revolutions) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which marked the end of the Cold War.
Mikhail Gorbachev first used the term "Perestroika" in a speech during his visit to the City of Tolyatti in 1986.
Perestroika lasted from 1985 until 1991.
Perestroika allowed more independent actions from various ministries and introduced many market-like reforms. The alleged goal of perestroika, however, was not to end the command economy but rather to make socialism work more efficiently to better meet the needs of Soviet citizens by adopting elements of liberal economics. The process of implementing perestroika created shortages, political, social, and economic tensions within the Soviet Union and is often blamed for the political ascent of nationalism and nationalist political parties in the constituent republics. Perestroika and its associated structural ailments have been cited as major catalysts leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
In May 1985, Gorbachev gave a speech in Leningrad in which he admitted the slowing of economic development, and inadequate living standards.
The program was furthered at the 27th Congress of the Communist Party in Gorbachev's report to the congress, in which he spoke about "perestroika", "uskoreniye", "human factor", "glasnost", and "expansion of the khozraschyot" (commercialization).
During the initial period (1985–87) of Mikhail Gorbachev's time in power, he talked about modifying central planning but did not make any truly fundamental changes ("uskoreniye"; "acceleration"). Gorbachev and his team of economic advisors then introduced more fundamental reforms, which became known as "perestroika" (restructuring).
At the June 1987 plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Gorbachev presented his "basic theses", which laid the political foundation of economic reform for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union.
In July 1987, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union passed the Law on State Enterprise. The law stipulated that state enterprises were free to determine output levels based on demand from consumers and other enterprises. Enterprises had to fulfill state orders, but they could dispose of the remaining output as they saw fit. However, at the same time the state still held control over the means of production for these enterprises, thus limiting their ability to enact full-cost accountability. Enterprises bought input from suppliers at negotiated contract prices. Under the law, enterprises became self-financing; that is, they had to cover expenses (wages, taxes, supplies, and debt service) through revenues. No longer was the government to rescue unprofitable enterprises that could face bankruptcy. Finally, the law shifted control over the enterprise operations from ministries to elected workers' collectives. Gosplan's (; "Gosudarstvenniy komitet po planirovaniyu"; "State Committee for Planning") responsibilities were to supply general guidelines and national investment priorities, not to formulate detailed production plans.
The Law on Cooperatives, enacted in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev era. For the first time since Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy was abolished in 1928, the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but it later revised these to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene.
Gorbachev brought "perestroika" to the Soviet Union's foreign economic sector with measures that Soviet economists considered bold at that time. His programme virtually eliminated the monopoly that the Ministry of Foreign Trade had once held on most trade operations. It permitted the ministries of the various industrial and agricultural branches to conduct foreign trade in sectors under their responsibility, rather than having to operate indirectly through the bureaucracy of trade ministry organizations. In addition, regional and local organizations and individual state enterprises were permitted to conduct foreign trade. This change was an attempt to redress a major imperfection in the Soviet foreign trade regime: the lack of contact between Soviet end users and suppliers and their foreign partners.
The most significant of Gorbachev's reforms in the foreign economic sector allowed foreigners to invest in the Soviet Union in the form of joint ventures with Soviet ministries, state enterprises, and cooperatives. The original version of the Soviet Joint Venture Law, which went into effect in June 1987, limited foreign shares of a Soviet venture to 49 percent and required that Soviet citizens occupy the positions of chairman and general manager. After potential Western partners complained, the government revised the regulations to allow majority foreign ownership and control. Under the terms of the Joint Venture Law, the Soviet partner supplied labor, infrastructure, and a potentially large domestic market. The foreign partner supplied capital, technology, entrepreneurial expertise, and in many cases, products and services of world competitive quality.
Gorbachev's economic changes did not do much to restart the country's sluggish economy in the late 1980s. The reforms decentralised things to some extent, although price controls remained, as did the rouble's inconvertibility and most government controls over the means of production.
By 1990, the government had virtually lost control over economic conditions. Government spending increased sharply as an increasing number of unprofitable enterprises required state support and consumer price subsidies continued. Tax revenues declined because republic and local governments withheld tax revenues from the central government under the growing spirit of regional autonomy. The elimination of central control over production decisions, especially in the consumer goods sector, led to the breakdown in traditional supply-demand relationships without contributing to the formation of new ones. Thus, instead of streamlining the system, Gorbachev's decentralisation caused new production bottlenecks.
"Perestroika" and Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms have similar origins but very different effects on their respective countries' economies. Both efforts occurred in large socialist countries attempting to liberalise their economies, but while China's GDP has grown consistently since the late 1980s (albeit from a much lower level), national GDP in the USSR and in many of its successor states fell precipitously throughout the 1990s. Gorbachev's reforms were gradualist and maintained many of the macroeconomic aspects of the command economy (including price controls, inconvertibility of the rouble, exclusion of private property ownership, and the government monopoly over most means of production).
Reform was largely focused on industry and on cooperatives, and a limited role was given to the development of foreign investment and international trade. Factory managers were expected to meet state demands for goods, but to find their own funding. Perestroika reforms went far enough to create new bottlenecks in the Soviet economy but arguably did not go far enough to effectively streamline it.
Chinese economic reform was, by contrast, a bottom-up attempt at reform, focusing on light industry and agriculture (namely allowing peasants to sell produce grown on private holdings at market prices). Economic reforms were fostered through the development of "Special Economic Zones", designed for export and to attract foreign investment, municipally managed Township and Village Enterprises and a "dual pricing" system leading to the steady phasing out of state-dictated prices. Greater latitude was given to managers of state-owned factories, while capital was made available to them through a reformed banking system and through fiscal policies (in contrast to the fiscal anarchy and fall in revenue experienced by the Soviet government during "perestroika"). Perestroika was expected to lead to results such as market pricing and privately sold produce, but the Union dissolved before advanced stages were reached.
Another fundamental difference is that where perestroika was accompanied by greater political freedoms under Gorbachev's glasnost policies, Chinese economic reform has been accompanied by continued authoritarian rule and a suppression of political dissidents, most notably at Tiananmen Square. Gorbachev acknowledges this difference but has always maintained that it was unavoidable and that perestroika would have been doomed to defeat and revanchism by the nomenklatura without glasnost, because conditions in the Soviet Union were not identical to those in China. Gorbachev had lived through the era in which the attempted reforms by Khrushchev, limited as they were, were rolled back under Brezhnev and other pro-totalitarian conservatives, and he could clearly see that the same could happen again without glasnost to allow broad oppositional pressure against the nomenklatura. Gorbachev cited a line from a 1986 newspaper article that he felt encapsulated this reality: "The apparatus broke Khrushchev's neck and the same thing will happen now."
Another difference is that Soviet Union faced strong secession threats from its ethnic regions and a primacy challenge by the RSFSR. Gorbachev's extension of regional autonomy removed the suppression from existing ethnic-regional tension, while Deng's reforms did not alter the tight grip of the central government on any of their so-called autonomous regions. The Soviet Union's dual nature, part supranational union of republics and part unitary state, played a part in the difficulty of controlling the pace of restructuring, especially once the new Russian Communist Party was formed and posed a challenge to the primacy of the CPSU. Gorbachev described this process as a "parade of sovereignties" and identified it as the factor that most undermined the gradualism of restructuring and the preservation of the Soviet Union. This caused a situation in the USSR whose closest analog would be if English sovereignty undermined that of the United Kingdom at a time when the entire UK society and economy was under significant stress and reform, or if North China had a party and state emerge as a challenge to the CCP and PRC during Deng's reforms.
One of the final important measures taken on the continuation of the movement was a report from the central committee meeting of the CPSU titled "On Reorganization and the Party's Personnel Policy". This report was in such high demand in Prague and Berlin that many people could not get a copy. One effect was the abrupt demand for Russian dictionaries in order to understand the content of Gorbachev's report.
The biggest weapons used during Perestroika was Glasnost as a Political Weapon. For the last fifty years, the USSR was a bureaucracy that needed restructuring and Gorbachev saw it needed to shift towards conservative. It was said that the theory of glasnost is perceived as being Leninist, in reference to Leninist socialism. In an interview with Miezeslaw Rakowski he states the success of perestroika was impossible without glasnost.
During the 1980s and 1990s the United States President George H. W. Bush pledged solidarity with Gorbachev, but never brought his administration into supporting Gorbachev's reform. In fact, "no bailout for Gorbachev" was a consistent policy line of the Bush Administration, further demonstrating the lack of true support from the West. President Bush had a financial policy to aid perestroika that was shaped by a minimalist approach, foreign-policy convictions that set Bush up against other U.S. internal affairs, and a frugal attitude, all influencing his unwillingness to aid Gorbachev. Other factors influenced the West's lack of aid as well like "the in-house Gorbi-skeptics" advocacy, the expert community's consensus about the undesirability of rushing U.S. aid to Gorbachev, and strong opposition to any bailout at many levels, including foreign-policy conservatives, the U.S. Congress, and the American public at large. The West seemed to miss an opportunity to help reform the Soviet regime into a more democracy-like society. The Soviets aided in the expansion of Western capitalism to allow for an inflow of Western investments, but the perestroika managers failed. President Bush had the opportunity to aid the Soviet Union in a chance to improve their government, like Harry S. Truman did for Western Europe. Early on, as perestroika was getting under way, I felt like the West might come along and find it a sensible thing to do—easing Russia's difficult transition from totalitarianism to democracy. What I had in mind in the Preface iv first place, was the participation [of the West] in conversion of defense industries, the modernization of light and food industries, and Russia's inclusion on an equal-member footing in the frameworks of the international economic relations ... [U]nlike some democrats, I did not expect "manna from Heaven," but counted on the Western statesmen to use their common sense.President George H.W. Bush continued to dodge helping the Russians and the President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, laid bare the linkage for the Americans in his address to a joint session of Congress on February 21, 1990: ... I often hear the question: How can the United States of America help us today? My reply is as paradoxical as the whole of my life has been: You can help us most of all if you help the Soviet Union on its irreversible, but immensely complicated road to democracy. ...[T]he sooner, the more quickly, and the more peacefully the Soviet Union begins to move along the road toward genuine political pluralism, respect for the rights of nations to their own integrity and to a working—that is a market—economy, the better it will be, not just for Czechs and Slovaks, but for the whole world.
When the United States needed help with Germany's reunification, Gorbachev proved to be instrumental in bringing solutions to the "German problem" and Bush acknowledged that "Gorbachev was moving the USSR in the right direction". Bush, in his own words, even gave praise to Gorbachev "to salute the man" in acknowledgment of the Soviet leader's role as "the architect of perestroika ... [who had] conducted the affairs of the Soviet Union with great restraint as Poland and Czechoslovakia and GDR ... and other countries [that had] achieved their independence", and who was "under extraordinary pressure at home, particularly on the economy."
Kino (band) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24143 |
Polyphony
Polyphony is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, homophony.
Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term "polyphony" is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Baroque forms such as fugue, which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as contrapuntal. Also, as opposed to the "species" terminology of counterpoint, polyphony was generally either "pitch-against-pitch" / "point-against-point" or "sustained-pitch" in one part with melismas of varying lengths in another. In all cases the conception was probably what Margaret Bent (1999) calls "dyadic counterpoint", with each part being written generally against one other part, with all parts modified if needed in the end. This point-against-point conception is opposed to "successive composition", where voices were written in an order with each new voice fitting into the whole so far constructed, which was previously assumed.
The term "polyphony" is also sometimes used more broadly, to describe any musical texture that is not monophonic. Such a perspective considers homophony as a sub-type of polyphony.
Traditional (non-professional) polyphony has a wide, if uneven, distribution among the peoples of the world. Most polyphonic regions of the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Oceania. It is believed that the origins of polyphony in traditional music vastly predate the emergence of polyphony in European professional music. Currently there are two contradictory approaches to the problem of the origins of vocal polyphony: the Cultural Model, and the Evolutionary Model. According to the Cultural Model, the origins of polyphony are connected to the development of human musical culture; polyphony came as the natural development of the primordial monophonic singing; therefore polyphonic traditions are bound to gradually replace monophonic traditions. According to the Evolutionary Model, the origins of polyphonic singing are much deeper, and are connected to the earlier stages of human evolution; polyphony was an important part of a defence system of the hominids, and traditions of polyphony are gradually disappearing all over the world.
Although the exact origins of polyphony in the Western church traditions are unknown, the treatises "Musica enchiriadis" and "Scolica enchiriadis", both dating from "c". 900, are usually considered the oldest extant written examples of polyphony. These treatises provided examples of two-voice note-against-note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths. Rather than being fixed works, they indicated ways of improvising polyphony during performance. The "Winchester Troper", from "c". 1000, is the oldest extant example of notated polyphony for chant performance, although the notation does not indicate precise pitch levels or durations.
European polyphony rose out of melismatic organum, the earliest harmonization of the chant. Twelfth-century composers, such as Léonin and Pérotin developed the organum that was introduced centuries earlier, and also added a third and fourth voice to the now homophonic chant. In the thirteenth century, the chant-based tenor was becoming altered, fragmented, and hidden beneath secular tunes, obscuring the sacred texts as composers continued to play with this new invention called polyphony. The lyrics of love poems might be sung above sacred texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be placed within a familiar secular melody. The oldest surviving piece of six-part music is the English rota "Sumer is icumen in" (c. 1240).
These musical innovations appeared in a greater context of societal change. After the first millennium, European monks decided to start translating the works of Greek philosophers into the vernacular. Western Europeans were aware of Plato, Socrates, and Hippocrates during the Middle Ages. However they had largely lost touch with the content of their surviving works because the use of Greek as a living language was restricted to the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). Once these ancient works started being translated thus becoming accessible, the philosophies had a great impact on the mind of Western Europe. This sparked a number of innovations in medicine, science, art, and music.
European polyphony rose prior to, and during the period of the Western Schism. Avignon, the seat of the antipopes, was a vigorous center of secular music-making, much of which influenced sacred polyphony.
It was not merely polyphony that offended the medieval ears, but the notion of secular music merging with the sacred and making its way into the papal court. It gave church music more of a jocular performance quality removing the solemn worship they were accustomed to. The use of and attitude toward polyphony varied widely in the Avignon court from the beginning to the end of its religious importance in the fourteenth century. Harmony was not only considered frivolous, impious, and lascivious, but an obstruction to the audibility of the words. Instruments, as well as certain modes, were actually forbidden in the church because of their association with secular music and pagan rites. Dissonant clashes of notes give a creepy feeling that was labeled as evil, fueling their argument against polyphony as being the devil's music. After banishing polyphony from the Liturgy in 1322, Pope John XXII spoke in his 1324 bull "Docta Sanctorum Patrum" warning against the unbecoming elements of this musical innovation. Pope Clement VI, however, indulged in it.
The oldest extant polyphonic setting of the mass attributable to one composer is Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame, dated to 1364, during the pontificate of Pope Urban V.
More recently, the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) stated: "Gregorian chant, other things being equal, should be given pride of place in liturgical services. But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded... Religious singing by the people is to be skillfully fostered, so that in devotions and sacred exercises, as also during liturgical services, the voices of the faithful may ring out”.
English Protestant west gallery music included polyphonic multi-melodic harmony, including fuguing tunes, by the mid-18th century. This tradition passed with emigrants to North America, where it was proliferated in tunebooks, including shape-note books like "The Southern Harmony" and "The Sacred Harp". While this style of singing has largely disappeared from British and North American sacred music, it survived in the rural Southern United States, until it again began to grow a following throughout the United States and even in places such as Ireland, the United Kingdom, Poland, Australia and New Zealand, among others.
Polyphonic singing in the Balkans is traditional folk singing of this part of southern Europe. It is also called "ancient", "archaic" or "old-style" singing.
Incipient polyphony (previously primitive polyphony) includes antiphony and call and response, drones, and parallel intervals.
Balkan drone music is described as polyphonic due to Balkan musicians using a literal translation of the Greek ('many voices'). In terms of Western classical music, it is not strictly polyphonic, due to the drone parts having no melodic role, and can better be described as "multipart".
The polyphonic singing tradition of Epirus is a form of traditional folk polyphony practiced among Aromanians, Albanians, Greeks, and Macedonian Slavs in southern Albania and northwestern Greece. This type of folk vocal tradition is also found in North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Albanian polyphonic singing can be divided into two major stylistic groups as performed by the Tosks and Labs of southern Albania. The drone is performed in two ways: among the Tosks, it is always continuous and sung on the syllable ‘e’, using staggered breathing; while among the Labs, the drone is sometimes sung as a rhythmic tone, performed to the text of the song. It can be differentiated between two-, three- and four-voice polyphony.
The phenomenon of Albanian folk iso-polyphony (Albanian iso-polyphony) has been proclaimed by UNESCO a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity". The term "iso" refers to the drone, which accompanies the iso-polyphonic singing and is related to the ison of Byzantine church music, where the drone group accompanies the song.
The French island Corsica has a unique style of music called that is known for its polyphony. Traditionally, Paghjella contains a staggered entrance and continues with the three singers carrying independent melodies. This music tends to contain much melisma and is sung in a nasal temperament. Additionally, many paghjella songs contain a picardy third. After paghjella's revival in the 1970s, it mutated. In the 1980s it had moved away from some of its more traditional features as it became much more heavily produced and tailored towards western tastes. There were now four singers, significantly less melisma, it was much more structured, and it exemplified more homophony. To the people of Corsica, the polyphony of paghjella represented freedom; it had been a source of cultural pride in Corsica and many felt that this movement away from the polyphonic style meant a movement away from paghjella's cultural ties. This resulted in a transition in the 1990s. Paghjella again had a strong polyphonic style and a less structured meter.
Cantu a tenore is a traditional style of polyphonic singing in Sardinia.
Polyphony in the Republic of Georgia is arguably the oldest polyphony in the Christian world. Georgian polyphony is traditionally sung in three parts with strong dissonances, parallel fifths, and a unique tuning system based on perfect fifths. Georgian polyphonic singing has been proclaimed by UNESCO an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Polyphony plays a crucial role in Abkhazian traditional music. Polyphony is present in all genres where the social environment provides more than one singer to
support the melodic line. The ethnomusicologist Izaly Zemtsovsky reported witnessing an example of such an incident, in which an Abkhazian dozing at a bus stop started singing a drone to support a singer unknown to him. Abkhazian two and three-part polyphony is based on a drone (sometimes a double drone). Two part drone songs are considered by Abkhazian and Georgian scholars the most important indigenous style of Abkhazian polyphony. Two-part drone songs are dominating in Gudauta district, the core region of ethnic Abkhazians. Millennia of cultural, social and economic interactions between Abkhazians and Georgians on this territory resulted in reciprocal influences, and in particular, creation of a new, so-called “Georgian style” of three-part singing in Abkhazia, unknown among Adyghes. This style is based on two leading melodic lines (performed by soloists - akhkizkhuo) singing together with the drone or ostinato base (argizra). Indigenous Abkhazian style of three-part polyphony uses double drones (in fourths, fifths, or octaves) and one leading melodic line at one time. Abkhazians use a very specific cadence: tetrachordal downward movement, ending on the interval of a fourth.
Both Chechen and Ingush traditional music could be very much defined by their
tradition of vocal polyphony. As in other North Caucasian musical cultures, Chechen and
Ingush polyphony is based on a drone. Unlike most of the other North Caucasian
polyphonic traditions (where two-part polyphony is the leading type), Chechen and Ingush polyphony is mostly three-part. Middle part, the carrier of the main melody of
songs, is accompanied by the double drone, holding the interval of the fifth “around” the
main melody. Intervals and chords, used in Chechen and Ingush polyphony, are often
dissonances (sevenths, seconds, fourths). This is quite usual in all North Caucasian
traditions of polyphony as well, but in Chechen and Ingush traditional songs more sharp
dissonances are used. In particular, a specific cadence, where the final chord is a
dissonant three-part chord, consisting of fourth and the second on top (c-f-g), is quite
unique for North Caucasia. Only on the other side of Caucasian mountains, in western
Georgia, there are only few songs that finish on the same dissonant chord (c-f-g).
Parts of Oceania maintain rich polyphonic traditions.
The peoples of New Guinea Highlands including the Moni, Dani, and Yali use vocal polyphony, as do the people of Manus Island. Many of these styles are drone-based or feature close, secondal harmonies dissonant to western ears. Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands are host to instrumental polyphony, in the form of bamboo panpipe ensembles.
Early European encounters with Polynesians were surprised to find polyphonic singing there, which was likely drone-based and dissonant, like Melanesian polyphony. However, Polynesian traditions became strongly influenced by Western choral church music, which brought counterpoint into Polynesian musical practice.
"See Also Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony"
Numerous Sub-Saharan African music traditions host polyphonic singing, typically moving in parallel motion.
While the Maasai people traditionally sing with drone polyphony, other East African groups use more elaborate techniques. The Dorze people, for example, sing with as many as six parts, and the Wagogo use counterpoint.
The music of African Pygmies (e.g. that of the Aka people) is typically ostinato and contrapuntal, featuring yodeling. Other Central African peoples tend to sing with parallel lines rather than counterpoint.
The singing of the San people, like that of the pygmies, features melodic repetition, yodeling, and counterpoint. The singing of neighboring Bantu peoples, like the Zulu, is more typically parallel.
The peoples of tropical West Africa traditionally use parallel harmonies rather than counterpoint. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24144 |
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or figurative language. A pun differs from a malapropism in that a malapropism is an incorrect variation on a correct expression, while a pun involves expressions with multiple (correct or fairly reasonable) interpretations. Puns may be regarded as in-jokes or idiomatic constructions, especially as their usage and meaning are usually specific to a particular language or its culture.
Puns have a long history in human writing. For example, the Roman playwright Plautus was famous for his puns and word games.
Puns can be classified in various ways.
The homophonic pun, a common type, uses word pairs which sound alike (homophones) but are not synonymous. Walter Redfern summarized this type with his statement, "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms." For example, in George Carlin's phrase "atheism is a non-prophet institution", the word "prophet" is put in place of its homophone "profit", altering the common phrase "non-profit institution". Similarly, the joke "Question: Why do we still have troops in Germany? Answer: To keep the Russians in Czech" relies on the aural ambiguity of the homophones "check" and "Czech". Often, puns are not strictly homophonic, but play on words of similar, not identical, sound as in the example from the "Pinky and the Brain" cartoon film series: "I think so, Brain, but if we give peas a chance, won't the lima beans feel left out?" which plays with the similar—but not identical—sound of "peas" and "peace" in the anti-war slogan "Give Peace a Chance".
A "homographic" pun exploits words which are spelled the same (homographs) but possess different meanings and sounds. Because of their origin, they rely on sight more than hearing, contrary to homophonic puns. They are also known as "heteronymic puns". Examples in which the punned words typically exist in two different parts of speech often rely on unusual sentence construction, as in the anecdote: "When asked to explain his large number of children, the pig answered simply: 'The wild oats of my sow gave us many piglets.'" An example that combines homophonic and homographic punning is Douglas Adams's line "You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass." The phrase uses the homophonic qualities of "tune a" and "tuna", as well as the homographic pun on "bass", in which ambiguity is reached through the identical spellings of (a string instrument), and (a kind of fish). Homographic puns do not necessarily need to follow grammatical rules and often do not make sense when interpreted outside the context of the pun.
"Homonymic" puns, another common type, arise from the exploitation of words which are both homographs and homophones. The statement "Being in politics is just like playing golf: you are trapped in one bad lie after another" puns on the two meanings of the word "lie" as "a deliberate untruth" and as "the position in which something rests". An adaptation of a joke repeated by Isaac Asimov gives us "Did you hear about the little moron who strained himself while running into the screen door?" playing on "strained" as "to give much effort" and "to filter". A homonymic pun may also be polysemic, in which the words must be homonymic and also possess related meanings, a condition that is often subjective. However, lexicographers define polysemes as listed under a single dictionary lemma (a unique numbered meaning) while homonyms are treated in separate lemmata.
A compound pun is a statement that contains two or more puns. In this case, the wordplay cannot go into effect by utilizing the separate words or phrases of the puns that make up the entire statement. For example, a complex statement by Richard Whately includes four puns: "Why can a man never starve in the Great Desert? Because he can eat the sand which is there. But what brought the sandwiches there? Why, Noah sent Ham, and his descendants mustered and bred." This pun uses "sand which is there/sandwiches there", "Ham/ham", "mustered/mustard", and "bred/bread". Similarly, the phrase "piano is not my forte" links two meanings of the words "forte" and "piano", one for the dynamic markings in music and the second for the literal meaning of the sentence, as well as alluding to "pianoforte", the older name of the instrument. Compound puns may also combine two phrases that share a word. For example, "Where do mathematicians go on weekends? To a Möbius strip club!" puns on the terms "Möbius strip" and "strip club".
A recursive pun is one in which the second aspect of a pun relies on the understanding of an element in the first. For example, the statement "π is only half a pie." (π radians is 180 degrees, or half a circle, and a pie is a complete circle). Another example is "Infinity is not in finity", which means infinity is not in finite range. Another example is "a Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother." The recursive pun "Immanuel doesn't pun, he Kant," is attributed to Oscar Wilde.
Visual puns are sometimes used in logos, emblems, insignia, and other graphic symbols, in which one or more of the pun aspects is replaced by a picture. In European heraldry, this technique is called canting arms. Visual and other puns and word games are also common in Dutch gable stones as well as in some cartoons, such as "Lost Consonants" and "The Far Side". Another type of visual pun exists in languages which use non-phonetic writing. For example, in Chinese, a pun may be based on a similarity in shape of the written character, despite a complete lack of phonetic similarity in the words punned upon. Mark Elvin describes how this "peculiarly Chinese form of visual punning involved comparing written characters to objects."
Richard J. Alexander notes two additional forms which puns may take: graphological (sometimes called visual) puns, such as concrete poetry; and morphological puns, such as portmanteaux.
Puns are a common source of humour in jokes and comedy shows. They are often used in the punch line of a joke, where they typically give a humorous meaning to a rather perplexing story. These are also known as feghoots. The following example comes from the movie "", though the punchline stems from far older Vaudeville roots. The final line puns on the stock phrase "the lesser of two evils".
Not infrequently, puns are used in the titles of comedic parodies. A parody of a popular song, movie, etc., may be given a title that hints at the title of the work being parodied, replacing some of the words with ones that sound or look similar. For example, collegiate a cappella groups are often named after musical puns to attract fans through attempts at humor. Such a title can immediately communicate both that what follows is a parody and also which work is about to be parodied, making any further "setup" (introductory explanation) unnecessary.
2014 saw the inaugural UK Pun Championships, at the Leicester Comedy Festival, hosted by Lee Nelson. The winner was Darren Walsh. The competition included the line "My computer's got a Miley Virus. It's stopped twerking." Walsh went on to take part in the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships in Austin, Texas. In 2015 the UK Pun Champion was Leo Kearse.
Sometimes called "books never written" or "world's greatest books", these are jokes which consist of fictitious book titles with authors' names that contain a pun relating to the title. Perhaps the best-known example is: ""Tragedy on the Cliff" by Eileen Dover", which according to one source was devised by humourist Peter DeVries. It is common for these puns to refer to taboo subject matter, such as ""What Boys Love" by E. Norma Stitts".
Non-humorous puns were and are a standard poetic device in English literature. Puns and other forms of wordplay have been used by many famous writers, such as Alexander Pope, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, Robert Bloch, Lewis Carroll, John Donne, and William Shakespeare, who is estimated to have used over 3,000 puns in his plays.
Here is an example from Shakespeare's "Richard III":
Shakespeare was also noted for his frequent play with less serious puns, the "quibbles" of the sort that made Samuel Johnson complain, "A quibble is to Shakespeare what luminous vapours are to the traveller! He follows it to all adventures; it is sure to lead him out of his way, sure to engulf him in the mire. It has some malignant power over his mind, and its fascinations are irresistible." Elsewhere, Johnson disparagingly referred to punning as the lowest form of humour.
In the poem "A Hymn to God the Father", John Donne, married to Anne More, reportedly puns repeatedly: "Son/sun" in the second quoted line, and two compound puns on "Donne/done" and "More/more". All three are homophonic, with the puns on "more" being both homographic and capitonymic. The ambiguities serve to introduce several possible meanings into the verses.
Alfred Hitchcock stated, "Puns are the highest form of literature."
Puns can function as a rhetorical device, where the pun serves as a persuasive instrument for an author or speaker. Although puns are sometimes perceived as trite or silly, if used responsibly a pun "…can be an effective communication tool in a variety of situations and forms". A major difficulty in using puns in this manner is that the meaning of a pun can be interpreted very differently according to the audience's background and can significantly subtract from a message.
Like other forms of wordplay, paronomasia is occasionally used for its attention-getting or mnemonic qualities, making it common in titles and the names of places, characters, and organizations, and in advertising and slogans.
Many restaurant and shop names use puns: Cane & Able mobility healthcare, Sam & Ella's Chicken Palace, Tiecoon tie shop, Planet of the Grapes wine and spirits, Curl Up and Dye hair salon, as do books such as "Pies and Prejudice", comics ("") and films ("Good Will Hunting"). The Japanese anime "Speed Racer's" original title, "Mach GoGoGo!" refers to the English word itself, the Japanese word for five (the Mach Five's car number), and the name of the show's main character, Go Mifune. This is also an example of a multilingual pun, full understanding of which requires knowledge of more than one language on the part of the listener.
Names of fictional characters also often carry puns, such as Ash Ketchum and Goku ("Kakarrot"), the protagonists of the anime series based on the video game series "Pokémon" and the manga series "Dragon Ball", respectively, both franchises which are known for including second meanings in the names of many of their characters. A recurring motif in the "Austin Powers" films repeatedly puns on names which suggest male genitalia. In the science fiction television series "Star Trek", "B-4" is used as the name of one of four androids models constructed "before" the android Data, a main character. And a librarian in another Star Trek episode was named 'Mr. Atoz' (A to Z).
The parallel sequel "The Lion King 1½" advertised with the phrase "You haven't seen the 1/2 of it!". Wyborowa Vodka employed the slogan "Enjoyed for centuries straight", while Northern Telecom used "Technology the world calls on."
On 1 June 2015 the BBC Radio 4 "You and Yours" included a feature on "Puntastic Shop Titles". Entries included a Chinese Takeaway in Ayr town centre called "Ayr’s Wok", a kebab shop in Ireland called "Abra Kebabra" and a tree-surgeon in Dudley called "Special Branch". The winning competition entry, selected by Lee Nelson, was a dry cleaner's in Fulham and Chelsea called "Starchy and Starchy".
Visual puns on the bearer's name are used extensively as forms of heraldic expression, they are called canting arms. They have been used for centuries across Europe and have even been used recently by members of the British Royal Family, such as on the arms of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and of Princess Beatrice of York. The arms of U.S. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower are also canting.
Paronomasia has found a strong foothold in the media. William Safire of the "New York Times" suggests that "the root of this pace-growing [use of paranomasia] is often a headline-writer’s need for quick catchiness, and has resulted in a new tolerance for a long-despised form of humor." It can be argued that paronomasia is common in the media, especially headlines, to draw the reader's interest. The rhetoric is important because it connects people with the topic. A notable example is the New York Post headline "Headless Body in Topless Bar."
Paronomasia is prevalent orally as well. Salvatore Attardo believes that puns are verbal humor. He talks about Pepicello and Weisberg's linguistic theory of humor and believes the only form of linguistic humor is limited to puns. This is because a pun is a play on the word itself. Attardo believes that only puns are able to maintain humor and this humor has significance. It is able to help soften a situation and make it less serious, it can help make something more memorable, and using a pun can make the speaker seem witty.
Paronomasia is strong in print media and oral conversation so it can be assumed that paronomasia is strong in broadcast media as well. Examples of paranomasia in media are sound bites. They could be memorable because of the humor and rhetoric associated with paronomasia, thus making the significance of the sound bite stronger.
There exist subtle differences between paronomasia and other literary techniques, such as the double entendre. While puns are often simple wordplay for comedic or rhetorical effect, a double entendre alludes to a second meaning which is not contained within the statement or phrase itself, often one which purposefully disguises the second meaning. As both exploit the use of intentional double meanings, puns can sometimes be double entendres, and vice versa. Puns also bear similarities with paraprosdokian, syllepsis, and eggcorns. In addition, homographic puns are sometimes compared to the stylistic device antanaclasis, and homophonic puns to polyptoton.
Puns can be used as a type of mnemonic device to enhance comprehension in an educational setting. Used discreetly, puns can effectively reinforce content and aid in the retention of material. Some linguists have encouraged the creation of neologisms to decrease the instances of confusion caused by puns.
Puns were found in ancient Egypt, where they were heavily used in the development of myths and interpretation of dreams.
In China, Shen Dao (ca. 300 BC) used "shi", meaning "power", and "shi", meaning "position" to say that a king has power because of his position as king.
In ancient Mesopotamia, about 2500 BC, punning was used by scribes to represent words in cuneiform.
The Hebrew Bible contains puns.
The Maya are known for having used puns in their hieroglyphic writing, and for using them in their modern languages.
In Japan, "graphomania" was one type of pun.
In Tamil, "Sledai" is the word used to mean pun in which a word with two different meanings. This is also classified as a poetry style in ancient Tamil literature. Similarly, in Telugu language, "Slesha" is the equivalent word and is one of several poetry styles in Telugu literature. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24145 |
Pope Clement XII
Pope Clement XII (; 7 April 16526 February 1740), born Lorenzo Corsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 July 1730 to his death in 1740.
Clement presided over the growth of a surplus in the papal finances. He thus became known for building the new façade of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, beginning construction of the Trevi Fountain, and the purchase of Cardinal Alessandro Albani's collection of antiquities for the papal gallery. In his 1738 bull "In eminenti apostolatus", he provides the first public papal condemnation of Freemasonry.
Lorenzo Corsini was born in Florence in 1652 as the son of Bartolomeo Corsini, Marquis of Casigliano and his wife Elisabetta Strozzi, the sister of the Duke of Bagnuolo. Both of his parents belonged to the old Florentine nobility. He was a distant relative of Saint Andrea Corsini.
Corsini studied at the Jesuit Collegio Romano in Rome and also at the University of Pisa where he earned a doctorate in both civil law and canon law.
Corsini practiced law under the able direction of his uncle, Cardinal Neri Corsini. After the death of his uncle and his father, in 1685, Corsini, now thirty-three, would have become head of the Corsini. Instead he resigned his right of primogeniture and from Pope Innocent XI (1676–1689) he purchased, according to the custom of the time, for 30,000 scudi, a position of prelatial rank and devoted his wealth and leisure to the enlargement of the library bequeathed to him by his uncle. Corsini's home on the Piazza Novona was the center of Rome's scholarly and artistic life.
In 1690 he was made titular Archbishop of Nicomedia and chosen nuncio to Vienna. He did not proceed to the imperial court, because Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor, maintained that he had the right to select the nuncio from a list of three names furnished by the pope.
In 1696, Corsini was appointed treasurer-general and governor of the Castel Sant'Angelo. His good fortune increased during the pontificate of Pope Clement XI (1700–1721), who employed his talents as a courtier and named him Cardinal-Priest of "Santa Susanna" on 17 May 1706, retaining his services as papal treasurer.
He advanced still further under Pope Benedict XIII (1724–1730), who made him Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a judicial branch of the Roman Curia. He was successively appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli and Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.
Under Benedict XIII, the finances of the Papal States had been delivered into the hands of Cardinal Niccolò Coscia and other members of the curia, who had drained the financial resources of the see. Benedict died in 1730, and in the conclave that followed his death, after deliberating for four months, the College of Cardinals selected Corsini, 78 years old and with failing eyesight, who had held all the important offices of the Roman Curia. Clement XII was one of the oldest men to be elected pope.
As a Corsini, with his mother a Strozzi, the new pope represented a family in the highest level of Florentine society, with a cardinal in every generation for the previous hundred years.
His first moves as Pope Clement XII were to restore the papal finances. He demanded restitution from the ministers who had abused the confidence of his predecessor. The chief culprit, Cardinal Niccolò Coscia, was heavily fined and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Papal finances were also improved through reviving the public lottery, which had been suppressed by the severe morality of Benedict XIII. Soon it poured into Clement XII's treasury an annual sum amounting to nearly a half million "scudi", enabling him to undertake the extensive building programs for which he is chiefly remembered, but which he was never able to see.
A competition for the majestic façade of the San Giovanni in Laterano was won by architect Alessandro Galilei. The façade he designed is perhaps more palatial than ecclesiastic, and was finished by 1735. Clement XII erected in that ancient basilica a magnificent chapel dedicated to his 14th century kinsman, St. Andrew Corsini. He restored the Arch of Constantine and built the governmental palace of the "Consulta" on the Quirinal. He purchased from Cardinal Alessandro Albani for 60,000 scudi a famous collection of statues, inscriptions, etc., and added it to the gallery of the Capitol. He paved the streets of Rome and the roads leading from the city, and widened the Corso. He began the triumphant Baroque Fontana di Trevi, one of the noted ornaments of Rome. Under his reign a port was built at Ancona, with a highway that gave easy access to the interior. He drained the malarial marshes of the Chiana near Lake Trasimeno.
Politically, however, this was not a successful papacy among the secular powers of Europe. When the attempt of papal forces to take over the ancient independent Republic of San Marino failed, Clement XII disavowed the arbitrary action of his legate, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, in seizing San Marino, and restored its independence. He was also rebuffed in Papal claims over the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza.
In August 1730 he gave permission for Victor Amadeus II of Savoy to carry out a morganatic marriage to Anna Canalis di Cumiana. Victor Amadeus II subsequently abdicated his throne causing great unrest in Savoy.
In ecclesiastic affairs he issued "In eminenti apostolatus", the first papal decree against the Freemasons on 28 April 1738. He canonized Saint Vincent de Paul and proceeded with vigour against the French Jansenists. He campaigned for the reunion of the Roman and Orthodox churches, received the Patriarch of the Coptic Church and persuaded the Armenian Patriarch to remove the anathema against the Council of Chalcedon and Pope Leo I (440–461). He dispatched Joseph Simeon Assemani to the East for the twofold purpose of continuing his search for manuscripts and presiding as legate over a national council of Maronites. He created the youngest Cardinal ever when on 19 December 1735, he named Luis Antonio Jaime de Borbón y Farnesio, Royal Infant of Spain, age 8, to the Sacred College.
Though he was blind and compelled to keep to his bed, from which he gave audiences and transacted affairs of state, he surrounded himself with capable officials, many of them his Corsini relatives, but he did little for his family except to purchase and enlarge the palace built in Trastevere for the Riarii, and now known as the Palazzo Corsini (the seat of the Regia Accademia dei Lincei). In 1754, his nephew, Cardinal Neri Corsini, founded there the famous Corsini Library.
Clement XII created 35 cardinals in fifteen consistories held throughout his pontificate. The first individual he raised into the cardinalate was his nephew Neri Maria Corsini while he also raised his future successor Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico (Pope Clement XIII) to the cardinalate.
The pope named five new saints during his reign with the most notable being Vincent de Paul. He also beatified eight others including his predecessor Pope Benedict XI.
Clement XII died on 6 February 1740 at 9:30am due to complications from gout. His remains were transferred to his tomb in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran on 20 July 1742. Pope Clement XII's tomb is in the Capella Corsini of the Basilica of St. John Lateran and was completed by the sculptors Maini and Monaldi. His bust was completed by Filippo della Valle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24146 |
Palindrome
A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of characters which reads the same backward as forward, such as "madam", "racecar". There are also numeric palindromes, including date/time stamps using short digits "11/11/11 11:11" and long digits "02/02/2020." Sentence-length palindromes may be written when allowances are made for adjustments to capital letters, punctuation, and word dividers, such as "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!".
Composing literature in palindromes is an example of constrained writing.
The word "palindrome" was first published by Henry Peacham in his book, "The Truth of Our Times" (1638). It is derived from the Greek roots ' (; "again") and ' (; "way, direction"); however, the Greek language uses a different word, καρκινικός 'carcinic' (lit. "crab-like") to refer to letter-by-letter reversible writing.
The ancient Greek poet Sotades (3rd century BCE) invented a form of Ionic meter called Sotadic or Sotadean verse, which is sometimes said to have been palindromic, but no examples survive, and the exact nature of the "reverse" readings is unclear.
A palindrome was found as a graffito at Herculaneum, a city buried by ash in 79 CE. This palindrome, called the Sator Square, consists of a sentence written in Latin: "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas" ("The sower Arepo holds with effort the wheels"). It is remarkable for the fact that the first letters of each word form the first word, the second letters form the second word, and so forth. Hence, it can be arranged into a word square that reads in four different ways: horizontally or vertically from either top left to bottom right or bottom right to top left. As such, they can be referred to as palindromatic.
A palindrome with the same square property is the Hebrew palindrome, "We explained the glutton who is in the honey was burned and incinerated", (פרשנו רעבתן שבדבש נתבער ונשרף; "perashnu: ra`avtan shebad'vash nitba`er venisraf"), credited to Abraham ibn Ezra in 1924, and referring to the halachic question as to whether a fly landing in honey makes the honey "treif" (non-kosher).
The palindromic Latin riddle ""In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni"" ("we go in a circle at night and are consumed by fire") describes the behavior of moths. It is likely that this palindrome is from medieval rather than ancient times. The second word, borrowed from Greek, should properly be spelled "gyrum".
Byzantine Greeks often inscribed the palindrome, "Wash [thy] sins, not only [thy] face" (""Nip͜s
on anomēmata mē monan op͜s
in""), attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus, on baptismal fonts; most notably in the basilica of Hagia Sophia, i.e. of the Holy Wisdom of God, in Constantinople. A variant, also a palindrome, replaces the plural ("sins") by the singular ("sin"). This practice was continued in many churches in Western Europe, such as the font at St. Mary's Church, Nottingham and also the font of St. Stephen d'Egres, Paris; at St. Menin's Abbey, Orléans; at Dulwich College; and at the following churches in England: Worlingworth (Suffolk), Harlow (Essex), Knapton (Norfolk), St Martin, Ludgate (London), and Hadleigh (Suffolk).
A Greek poet in 1802 Vienna even composed a poem, Ποίημα Καρκινικόν ("Carcinic Poem"), in Ancient Greek, where every one of the 455 lines was a palindrome.
In English, there are dozens of palindrome "words", such as "eye", "madam", and "deified", but English writers generally only cited Latin and Greek palindromic sentences in the early 19th century, even though John Taylor had coined one in 1614: "Lewd did I live, & evil I did dwel" (with the ampersand being something of a "fudge"). This is generally considered to be the first English-language palindrome sentence, and was long reputed (notably by James "Hermes" Harris) to be the "only" one, despite many efforts to find others. (Taylor had also composed two other, "rather indifferent", palindromic lines of poetry: "Deer Madam, Reed", "Deem if I meed".) Then in 1848, a certain "J.T.R." coined "Able was I ere I saw Elba", which became famous after it was (implausibly) attributed to Napoleon.
In recent history, there have been competitions related to palindromes, such as the 2012 World Palindrome Championship, set in Brooklyn, USA.
Some well-known English palindromes are, "Able was I ere I saw Elba" (1848), "A man, a plan, a canal – Panama" (1948), "Madam, I'm Adam" (1861), and "Never odd or even".
English palindromes of notable length include mathematician Peter Hilton's "Doc, note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod" and Scottish poet Alastair Reid's "T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad; I'd assign it a name: gnat dirt upset on drab pot toilet."
The most familiar palindromes in English are character-unit palindromes. The characters read the same backward as forward. Some examples of palindromic words are "redivider", "deified", "civic", "radar", "level", "rotor", "kayak", "reviver", "racecar", "madam", and "refer".
There are also word-unit palindromes in which the unit of reversal is the word ("Is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?"). Word-unit palindromes were made popular in the recreational linguistics community by J. A. Lindon in the 1960s. Occasional examples in English were created in the 19th century. Several in French and Latin date to the Middle Ages.
There are also line-unit palindromes.
Palindromes often consist of a sentence or phrase, e.g., "Mr. Owl ate my metal worm", "Do geese see God?", "Was it a car or a cat I saw?", "Murder for a jar of red rum" or "Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog". Punctuation, capitalization, and spaces are usually ignored. Some, such as "Rats live on no evil star", "Live on time, emit no evil", and "Step on no pets", include the spaces.
Semordnilap (palindromes spelled backward) is a name coined for words that spell a different word in reverse. The word was coined by Martin Gardner in his notes to C.C. Bombaugh's book "Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature" in 1961.
An example of this is the word "stressed", which is "desserts" spelled backward.
Some semordnilaps are deliberate creations. An example in electronics (although rarely used now) is the mho, a unit of electrical conductance, which is ohm spelled backwards, the unit of electrical resistance and the reciprocal of conductance. Similarly, the daraf, a unit of elastance, is farad spelled backwards, the unit of capacitance and the reciprocal of elastance. In fiction, many characters have names deliberately made to be semordnilaps of other names or words, such as Alucard (a semordnilap of "Dracula").
Semordnilaps are also known as emordnilaps, word reversals, reversible anagrams, heteropalindromes, semi-palindromes, half-palindromes, reversgrams, mynoretehs, volvograms, or anadromes. They have also sometimes been called antigrams, though this term usually refers to anagrams which have opposite meanings. As of October 2018, none of these terms have been accepted as official entries in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Some names are palindromes, such as the given names Hannah, Ava, Anna, Eve, Bob and Otto, or the surnames Harrah, Renner, Salas, and Nenonen.
Lon Nol (1913–1985) was Prime Minister of Cambodia. Nisio Isin is a Japanese novelist and manga writer, whose pseudonym (西尾 維新, "Nishio Ishin") is a palindrome when romanized using the Kunrei-shiki or the Nihon-shiki systems, and is often written as NisiOisiN to emphasize this. Some people have changed their name in order to make it palindromic (such as actor Robert Trebor and rock-vocalist Ola Salo), while others were given a palindromic name at birth (such as the philologist Revilo P. Oliver, the flamenco dancer Sara Baras, and the sportswriter Mark Kram).
There are also palindromic names in fictional media. "Stanley Yelnats" is the name of the main character in "Holes", a 1998 novel and 2003 film. Four of the fictional "Pokémon" species have palindromic names in English (Eevee, Girafarig, Ho-Oh, and Alomomola).
The 1970s pop band ABBA is a palindrome using the starting letter of the first name of each of the four band members.
A palindromic number is a number whose digits, with decimal representation usually assumed, are the same read backward, for example, 91019. They are studied in recreational mathematics where palindromic numbers with special properties are sought. A palindromic prime is a palindromic number that is a prime number, for example, 191 and 313.
The continued fraction of + ⌊⌋ is a repeating palindrome when "n" is an integer, where essentially, for any positive "x", ⌊"x"⌋ denotes the integer part of "x".
The question of whether Lychrel numbers exist is an unsolved problem in mathematics about whether all numbers become palindromes when they are continuously reversed and added. For example, 56 is not a Lychrel number as 56 + 65 = 121, and 121 is a palindrome. The number 59 becomes a palindrome after three iterations: 59 + 95 = 154; 154 + 451 = 605; 605 + 506 = 1111, so 59 is not a Lychrel number either. Numbers such as 196 are thought to never become palindromes when this reversal process is carried out and are therefore suspected to be Lychrel numbers. If a number is not a Lychrel number, it is called a "delayed palindrome" (56 has a delay of 1 and 59 has a delay of 3). In January 2017 the number 1,999,291,987,030,606,810 was published in OEIS as , and described as "The Largest Known Most Delayed Palindrome", with a delay of 261. Several smaller 261-delay palindromes were published separately as .
A 2018 paper has demonstrated that every positive integer can be written as the sum of three palindromic numbers in every number system with base 5 or greater.
A day or timestamp is a palindrome when its digits are the same when reversed. Only the digits are considered in this determination and the component separators (hyphens, slashes, and dots) are ignored. Short digits may be used as in "11/11/11 11:11" or long digits as in "02/02/2020".
A notable palindrome day is this century's 2 Feb 2020 because this date is a palindrome regardless of the date format by country (yyyy-mm-dd, dd-mm-yyyy, or mm-dd-yyyy) used in various countries. For this reason, this date has also been termed as a "Universal Palindrome Day". Other universal palindrome days include, almost a millennium previously, "11/11/1111", the future "12/12/2121", and in a millenium "03/03/3030".
A phonetic palindrome is a portion of speech that is identical or roughly identical when reversed. It can arise in context where language is played with, for example in slang dialects like "verlan". In French, there is the phrase "une Slave valse nue" ("a Slavic woman waltzes naked"), phonemically . John Oswald discussed his experience of phonetic palindromes while working on audio tape versions of the cut-up technique using recorded readings by William S. Burroughs. A list of phonetic palindromes discussed by word puzzle columnist O.V. Michaelsen (Ove Ofteness) include "crew work"/"work crew", "dry yard", "easy", "Funny enough", "Let Bob tell", "new moon", "selfless", "Sorry, Ross", "Talk, Scott", "to boot", "top spot" (also an orthographic palindrome), "Y'all lie", "You're caught. Talk, Roy", and "You're damn mad, Roy".
Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 47 in G is nicknamed "the Palindrome". In the third movement, a minuet and trio, the second half of the minuet is the same as the first but backwards, the second half of the ensuing trio similarly reflects the first half, and then the minuet is repeated.
The interlude from Alban Berg's opera "Lulu" is a palindrome, as are sections and pieces, in arch form, by many other composers, including James Tenney, and most famously Béla Bartók. George Crumb also used musical palindrome to text paint the Federico García Lorca poem "¿Por qué nací?", the first movement of three in his fourth book of Madrigals. Igor Stravinsky's final composition, "The Owl and the Pussy Cat", is a palindrome.
The first movement from Constant Lambert's ballet "Horoscope" (1938) is entitled "Palindromic Prelude". Lambert claimed that the theme was dictated to him by the ghost of Bernard van Dieren, who had died in 1936.
British composer Robert Simpson also composed music in the palindrome or based on palindromic themes; the slow movement of his Symphony No. 2 is a palindrome, as is the slow movement of his String Quartet No. 1. His hour-long String Quartet No. 9 consists of thirty-two variations and a fugue on a palindromic theme of Haydn (from the minuet of his Symphony No. 47). All of Simpson's thirty-two variations are themselves palindromic.
"Hin und Zurück" ("There and Back": 1927) is an operatic 'sketch' (Op. 45a) in one scene by Paul Hindemith, with a German libretto by Marcellus Schiffer. It is essentially a dramatic palindrome. Through the first half, a tragedy unfolds between two lovers, involving jealousy, murder and suicide. Then, in the reversing second half, this is replayed with the lines sung in reverse order to produce a happy ending.
The music of Anton Webern is often palindromic. Webern, who had studied the music of the Renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac, was extremely interested in symmetries in music, be they horizontal or vertical. An example of horizontal or linear symmetry in Webern's music is the first phrase in the second movement of the symphony, Op. 21. A striking example of vertical symmetry is the second movement of the Piano Variations, Op. 27, in which Webern arranges every pitch of this dodecaphonic work around the central pitch axis of A4. From this, each downward reaching interval is replicated exactly in the opposite direction. For example, a G3—13 half-steps down from A4 is replicated as a B5—13 half-steps above.
Just as the letters of a verbal palindrome are not reversed, so are the elements of a musical palindrome usually presented in the same form in both halves. Although these elements are usually single notes, palindromes may be made using more complex elements. For example, Karlheinz Stockhausen's composition "Mixtur", originally written in 1964, consists of twenty sections, called "moments", which may be permuted in several different ways, including retrograde presentation, and two versions may be made in a single program. When the composer revised the work in 2003, he prescribed such a palindromic performance, with the twenty moments first played in a "forwards" version, and then "backwards". Each moment, however, is a complex musical unit, and is played in the same direction in each half of the program. By contrast, Karel Goeyvaerts's 1953 electronic composition, "Nummer 5 (met zuivere tonen)" is an "exact" palindrome: not only does each event in the second half of the piece occur according to an axis of symmetry at the centre of the work, but each event itself is reversed, so that the note attacks in the first half become note decays in the second, and vice versa. It is a perfect example of Goeyvaerts's aesthetics, the perfect example of the imperfection of perfection.
In classical music, a crab canon is a canon in which one line of the melody is reversed in time and pitch from the other.
A large-scale musical palindrome covering more than one movement is called "chiasic", referring to the cross-shaped Greek letter "χ" (pronounced /ˈkaɪ/.) This is usually a form of reference to the crucifixion; for example, the "" movement of Bach's Mass in B minor. The purpose of such palindromic balancing is to focus the listener on the central movement, much as one would focus on the center of the cross in the crucifixion. Other examples are found in Bach's cantata BWV 4, "Christ lag in Todes Banden", Handel's "Messiah" and Fauré's Requiem.
A table canon is a rectangular piece of sheet music intended to be played by two musicians facing each other across a table with the music between them, with one musician viewing the music upside down compared to the other. The result is somewhat like two speakers simultaneously reading the Sator Square from opposite sides, except that it is typically in two-part polyphony rather than in unison.
The longest palindromic word in the "Oxford English Dictionary" is the onomatopoeic "tattarrattat", coined by James Joyce in "Ulysses" (1922) for a knock on the door. The "Guinness Book of Records" gives the title to "detartrated", the preterite and past participle of "detartrate", a chemical term meaning to remove tartrates. Rotavator, a trademarked name for an agricultural machine, is often listed in dictionaries. The term "redivider" is used by some writers, but appears to be an invented or derived term—only "redivide" and "redivision" appear in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary. "Malayalam", a language of southern India, is of equal length.
In English, two palindromic novels have been published: "Satire: Veritas" by David Stephens (1980, 58,795 letters), and "Dr Awkward & Olson in Oslo" by Lawrence Levine (1986, 31,954 words). Another palindromic English work is a 224-word long poem, "Dammit I'm Mad", written by Demetri Martin.
According to Guinness World Records, the Finnish 19-letter word "saippuakivikauppias" (a soapstone vendor), is the world's longest palindromic word in everyday use.
In most genomes or sets of genetic instructions, palindromic motifs are found. The meaning of palindrome in the context of genetics is slightly different, however, from the definition used for words and sentences. Since the DNA is formed by two paired strands of nucleotides, and the nucleotides always pair in the same way (Adenine (A) with Thymine (T), Cytosine (C) with Guanine (G)), a (single-stranded) sequence of DNA is said to be a palindrome if it is equal to its complementary sequence read backward. For example, the sequence ACCTAGGT is palindromic because its complement is TGGATCCA, which is equal to the original sequence in reverse complement.
A palindromic DNA sequence may form a hairpin. Palindromic motifs are made by the order of the nucleotides that specify the complex chemicals (proteins) that, as a result of those genetic instructions, the cell is to produce. They have been specially researched in bacterial chromosomes and in the so-called Bacterial Interspersed Mosaic Elements (BIMEs) scattered over them. Recently a research genome sequencing project discovered that many of the bases on the Y-chromosome are arranged as palindromes. A palindrome structure allows the Y-chromosome to repair itself by bending over at the middle if one side is damaged.
It is believed that palindromes frequently are also found in proteins, but their role in the protein function is not clearly known. It has recently been suggested that the prevalence existence of palindromes in peptides might be related to the prevalence of low-complexity regions in proteins, as palindromes frequently are associated with low-complexity sequences. Their prevalence might also be related to an alpha helical formation propensity of these sequences, or in formation of proteins/protein complexes.
In automata theory, a set of all palindromes in a given alphabet is a typical example of a language that is context-free, but not regular. This means that it is impossible for a computer with a finite amount of memory to reliably test for palindromes. (For practical purposes with modern computers, this limitation would apply only to impractically long letter-sequences.)
In addition, the set of palindromes may not be reliably tested by a deterministic pushdown automaton which also means that they are not LR(k)-parsable or LL(k)-parsable. When reading a palindrome from left-to-right, it is, in essence, impossible to locate the "middle" until the entire word has been read completely.
It is possible to find the longest palindromic substring of a given input string in linear time.
The palindromic density of an infinite word "w" over an alphabet "A" is defined to be zero if only finitely many prefixes are palindromes; otherwise, letting the palindromic prefixes be of lengths "n""k" for "k"=1,2... we define the density to be
Among aperiodic words, the largest possible palindromic density is achieved by the Fibonacci word, which has density 1/φ, where φ is the Golden ratio.
A palstar is a concatenation of palindromic strings, excluding the trivial one-letter palindromes – otherwise all strings would be palstars. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24147 |
Pope Clement XIII
Pope Clement XIII (; 7 March 1693 – 2 February 1769), born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in 1769. He was installed on 16 July 1758.
His pontificate was overshadowed by the constant pressure to suppress the Society of Jesus but despite this, he championed their order and also proved to be their greatest defender at that time.
He was also one of the few early popes who favoured dialogue with Old Catholic Protestants and to this effect hoped to mend the schism with the Catholic Church that existed in England and the low countries. These efforts ultimately bore little fruit.
Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico was born in 1693 to a recently ennobled family of Venice, the second of two children of the man who bought the unfinished palace on the Grand Canal (now Ca' Rezzonico) and finished its construction. Born to Giovanni Battista Rezzonico and Vittoria Barbarigo, his brother was Aurelio.
He received a Jesuit education in Bologna and later studied at the University of Padua where he obtained his doctorate in canon law and civil law. From there, he travelled to Rome where he attended the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles.
In 1716 Rezzonico became the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura and in 1721 was appointed Governor of Fano. He was ordained to the priesthood on 23 December 1731 in Rome. Pope Clement XII appointed him to the cardinalate in 1737 as the Cardinal-Deacon of San Nicola in Carcere. He also filled various important posts in the Roman Curia.
Rezzonico was chosen as Bishop of Padua in 1743 and he received episcopal consecration in Rome by Pope Benedict XIV himself, at the presence of Giuseppe Accoramboni and cardinal Antonio Saverio Gentili as co-consecrators. Rezzonico visited his diocese on frequent occasions and reformed the way that the diocese ran, paying attention to the social needs of the diocese. He was the first to do this in five decades. He later opted to become the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in 1747 and later to become the Cardinal-Priest of San Marco in 1755.
Pope Benedict XIV died of gout in 1758 and the College of Cardinals gathered at the papal conclave in order to elect a successor. Direct negotiations between the rival factions resulted in the proposal for the election of Rezzonico. On the evening of 6 July 1758, Rezzonico received 31 votes out of a possible 44, one more than the required amount. He selected the pontifical name of "Clement XIII" in honor of Pope Clement XII, who elevated him to the cardinalate. Rezzonico was crowned as pontiff on 16 July 1758 by the protodeacon, Cardinal Alessandro Albani.
Notwithstanding the meekness and affability of his upright and moderate character, he was modest to a fault (he had the classical sculptures in the Vatican provided with mass-produced fig leaves) and generous with his extensive private fortune. He also permitted vernacular translations of the Bible in Catholic countries.
Clement XIII's pontificate was repeatedly disturbed by disputes respecting the pressures to suppress the Jesuits coming from the progressive Enlightenment circles of the "philosophes" in France.
Clement XIII placed the "Encyclopédie" of D'Alembert and Diderot on the "Index," but this index was not as effective as it had been in the previous century. More unexpected resistance came from the less progressive courts of Spain, the Two Sicilies, and Portugal. In 1758 the reforming minister of Joseph I of Portugal (1750–77), the Marquis of Pombal, expelled the Jesuits from Portugal, and transported them all to Civitavecchia, as a "gift for the Pope." In 1760, Pombal sent the papal nuncio home and recalled the Portuguese ambassador from the Vatican. The pamphlet titled the "Brief Relation," which claimed the Jesuits had created their own sovereign independent kingdom in South America and tyrannised the Native Americans, all in the interest of an insatiable ambition and avarice, did damage to the Jesuit cause as well.
On 8 November 1760, Clement XIII issued a Papal bull "Quantum ornamenti", which approved the request of King Charles III of Spain to invoke the Immaculate Conception as the Patroness of Spain, along with its eastern and western territories, while continuing to recognize Saint James the Greater as co-patron.
In France, the Parliament of Paris, with its strong upper bourgeois background and Jansenist sympathies, began its campaign to expel the Jesuits from France in the spring of 1761, and the published excerpts from Jesuit writings, the "Extrait des assertions", provided anti-Jesuit ammunition (though, arguably, many of the statements the "Extrait" contained were made to look worse than they were through judicious omission of context). Though a congregation of bishops assembled at Paris in December 1761 recommended no action, Louis XV of France (1715–74) promulgated a royal order permitting the Society to remain in France, with the proviso that certain essentially liberalising changes in their institution satisfy the Parlement with a French Jesuit vicar-general who would be independent of the general in Rome. When the Parlement by the "arrêt" of 2 August 1762 suppressed the Jesuits in France and imposed untenable conditions on any who remained in the country, Clement XIII protested against this invasion of the Church's rights and annulled the "arrêts". Louis XV's ministers could not permit such an abrogation of French law, and the King finally expelled the Jesuits in November 1764.
Clement XIII warmly espoused the Jesuit order in a papal bull "Apostolicum pascendi", 7 January 1765, which dismissed criticisms of the Jesuits as calumnies and praised the order's usefulness; it was largely ignored: by 1768 the Jesuits had been expelled from France, the Two Sicilies and Parma. In Spain, they appeared to be safe, but Charles III of Spain (1759–88), aware of the drawn-out contentions in Bourbon France, decided on a more peremptory efficiency. During the night of 2–3 April 1767, all the Jesuit houses of Spain were suddenly surrounded, the inhabitants arrested, shipped to the ports in the clothes they were wearing and bundled onto ships for Civitavecchia. The King's letter to Clement XIII promised that his allowance of 100 "piastres" each year would be withdrawn for the whole order, should any one of them venture at any time to write anything in self-defence or in criticism of the motives for the expulsion, motives that he refused to discuss, then or in the future.
Much the same fate awaited them in the territories of the Bourbon Duke of Parma and Piacenza, advised by the liberal minister Guillaume du Tillot. In 1768, Clement XIII issued a strong protest ("monitorium") against the policy of the Parmese government. The question of the investiture of Parma aggravated the Pope's troubles. The Bourbon Kings espoused their relative's quarrel, seized Avignon, Benevento and Pontecorvo, and united in a peremptory demand for the total suppression of the Jesuits (January 1769).
Driven to extremes, Clement XIII consented to call a consistory to consider the step, but on the very eve of the day set for its meeting he died, not without suspicion of poison, of which, however, there appears to be no conclusive evidence.
Clement XIII backed plans to reunite the Catholic Church, with Old Catholic branches that split from Rome in 1724 over the issue of Papal authority, as well as with Protestants. This made little progress since Clement refused to compromise on doctrine with Protestants or on Papal authority with Old Catholics.
In support of this policy, he recognised the Hanoverians as Kings of Great Britain despite the long-term residence in Rome of the Catholic House of Stuart. When James Francis Edward Stuart, aka James III died in 1766, Clement refused to recognise his son Charles Edward Stuart as Charles III, despite the objections of his brother Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart.
Clement XIII created 52 new cardinals in seven consistories in his pontificate. The pope created his nephew Carlo as a cardinal in his first consistory and later created Antonio Ganganelli - who would succeed him as Pope Clement XIV - as a cardinal.
The pope approved the cultus for several individuals: Andrew of Montereale and Vincent Kadlubek on 18 February 1764, Angelus Agostini Mazzinghi on 7 March 1761, Antoine Neyrot on 22 February 1767, Augustine Novello in 1759, Elizabeth Achler on 19 July 1766, James Bertoni in 1766, Francesco Marinoni on 5 December 1764, Mattia de Nazarei on 27 July 1765, Sebastian Maggi on 15 April 1760 and Angela Merici on 30 April 1768. He formally beatified Beatrix of Este the Elder on 19 November 1763, Bernard of Corleone on 15 May 1768 and Gregorio Barbarigo on 6 July 1761.
Clement XIII canonized four saints in his pontificate: Jerome Emiliani, Joseph Calasanz, Joseph of Cupertino, and Serafino of Montegranaro on 16 July 1767.
Clement XIII died during the night of 2 February 1769 in Rome of an apoplexy. He was laid to rest on 8 February 1769 in the Vatican but his remains were transferred on 27 September 1774 to a monument in the Vatican that had been sculpted by Antonio Canova at the request of Senator Abbondio Rezzonico, the nephew of the late pontiff.
From the "Annual Register", for 1758: Pope Clement XIII was "the honestest man in the world; a most exemplary ecclesiastic; of the purest morals; devout, steady, learned, diligent..." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24148 |
Pope Clement XIV
Pope Clement XIV (; 31 October 1705 – 22 September 1774), born Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 May 1769 to his death in 1774. At the time of his election, he was the only Franciscan friar in the College of Cardinals. To date, he is the last pope to take the pontifical name of "Clement" upon his election.
He is best known for his suppression of the Society of Jesus.
Ganganelli was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna in 1705 as the second child of Lorenzo Ganganelli and Angela Serafina Maria Mazza. He received the sacrament of baptism on 2 November 1705.
He initially studied at Verucchio but later received his education from the Society of Jesus at Rimini from 1717. He also studied with the Piarists of Urbino. Ganganelli entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventual on 15 May 1723 in Forlì and taking the name to Lorenzo Francesco. He did his novitiate in Urbino where his cousin Vincenzo was a friar. He was professed as a full member of that order on 18 May 1724. He was sent to the convents of Pesaro, Fano and Recanati from 1724 to 1728 where he did his theological studies. He continued his studies in Rome under Antonio Lucci and obtained his doctorate in theology in 1731.
He was ordained around this time after he received his doctorate and he taught philosophy and theology for almost a decade in Ascoli, Bologna and Milan. He later returned to Rome as the regent of the college that he studied in and was later elected as the Definitor General of the order in 1741. In the general chapters of his order in 1753 and 1756, he declined the generalship of his order and some rumored it was due to his desire of a higher office.
Ganganelli became a friend of Pope Benedict XIV, who in 1758 appointed him to investigate the issue of the traditional blood libel regarding the Jews, which Ganganelli found to be untrue.
Pope Clement XIII elevated Ganganelli to the cardinalate on 24 September 1759 and appointed him as the Cardinal-Priest of San Lorenzo in Panisperna. His elevation came at the insistence of Lorenzo Ricci, who was the Superior-General of the Society of Jesus.
Ganganelli opted to become the Cardinal-Priest of Ss. XII Apostoli in 1762. In 1768 he was named the "ponens" of the cause of beatification of Juan de Palafox y Mendoza.
The papal conclave in 1769 was almost completely dominated by the problem of the Society of Jesus. During the previous pontificate, the Jesuits had been expelled from Portugal and from all the courts of the House of Bourbon, which included France, Spain, Naples, and Parma. In January, 1769, these powers made a formal demand for the dissolution of the Society. Clement XIII had planned a consistory to discuss the matter, but died on 2 February, the night before it was to be held.
Now the general suppression of the order was urged by the faction called the "court cardinals", who were opposed by the diminished pro-Jesuit faction, the "Zelanti" ("zealous"), who were generally opposed to the encroaching secularism of the Enlightenment. Much of the early activity was "pro forma" as the members waited for the arrival of those cardinals who had indicated that they would attend. The conclave had been sitting since 15 February 1769, heavily influenced by the political maneuvers of the ambassadors of Catholic sovereigns who were opposed to the Jesuits.
Some of the pressure was subtle. On 15 March, Emperor Joseph II (1765–90) visited Rome to join his brother Leopold, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had arrived on 6 March. The next day, after touring St. Peter's Basilica, they took advantage of the conclave doors being opened to admit Cardinal Girolamo Spinola to enter as well. They were shown, upon the Emperor's request, the ballots, the chalice into which they would be placed, and where they would later be burned. That evening Gaetano Duca Cesarini hosted a party. It was the middle of Passion Week.
The minister of King Louis XV of France (1715–74), the duc de Choiseul, had former experience of Rome as the French ambassador and was Europe's most skilled diplomat. "When one has a favour to ask of a Pope", he wrote, "and one is determined to obtain it, one must ask for two". Choiseul's suggestion was advanced to the other ambassadors and it was that they should press, in addition to the Jesuit issue, territorial claims upon the Patrimony of Saint Peter, including the return of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin to France, the duchies of Benevento and Pontecorvo to Spain, an extension of territory adjoining the Papal States to Naples, and an immediate and final settlement of the vexed question of Parma and Piacenza that had occasioned a diplomatic rift between Austria and Pope Clement XIII.
By 18 May, the court coalition appeared to be unravelling as the respective representatives began to negotiate separately with different cardinals. The French ambassador had earlier suggested that any acceptable candidate be required to put in writing that he would abolish the Jesuits. The idea was largely dismissed as a violation of canon law. Spain still insisted that a firm commitment should be given, though not necessarily in writing. However, such concessions could be immediately nullified by the pope upon election. On 19 May 1769, Cardinal Ganganelli was elected as a compromise candidate largely due to support of the Bourbon courts, which had expected that he would suppress the Society of Jesus. Ganganelli, who had been educated by Jesuits, gave no commitment, but indicated that he thought the dissolution was possible. He took the pontifical name of "Clement XIV". Ganganelli first received episcopal consecration in the Vatican on 28 May 1769 by Cardinal Federico Marcello Lante and was crowned as pope on 4 June 1769 by the cardinal protodeacon Alessandro Albani.
He was replaced as Cardinal-Priest by Buenaventura Fernández de Córdoba Spínola.
Clement XIV's policies were calculated from the outset to smooth the breaches with the Catholic Crowns that had developed during the previous pontificate. The dispute between the temporal and the spiritual Catholic authorities was perceived as a threat by Church authority, and Clement XIV worked towards reconciliation among the European sovereigns. By yielding the Papal claims to Parma, Clement XIV obtained the restitution of Avignon and Benevento and in general he succeeded in placing the relations of the spiritual and the temporal authorities on a friendlier footing. The pontiff went on to suppress the Jesuits, writing the decree to this effect in November 1772 and signing it on 21 July 1773.
His accession was welcomed by the Jewish community who trusted that the man who, as councilor of the Holy Office, declared them, in a memorandum issued 21 March 1758, innocent of the slanderous blood accusation, would be no less just and humane toward them on the throne of Catholicism. Assigned by Pope Benedict XIV to investigate a charge against the Jews of Yanopol, Poland, Ganganelli not only refuted the claim, but showed that most of the similar claims since the thirteenth century were groundless. He deferred somewhat on the already sainted Simon of Trent, in 1475, and Andreas of Rinn, but noted the length of time before their canonizations as indicative that the veracity of the accusations raised significant doubts. Ganganelli concluded his memorandum by reminding the Christians that they themselves were once accused by the heathen of the same crime, as attested by Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Theodoret, and Rufinus.
Two months after his accession, Clement XIV withdrew the Roman Jews from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition and placed them under that of the "Vicariato di Roma" (5 Aug. 1769).
The Jesuits had been expelled from Brazil (1754), Portugal (1759), France (1764), Spain and its colonies (1767), and Parma (1768). With the accession of a new pope, the Bourbon monarchs pressed for the Society's total suppression. Clement XIV tried to placate their enemies by apparent unfriendly treatment of the Jesuits: he refused to meet the superior general, Lorenzo Ricci, removed it from the administration of the Irish and Roman Colleges, and ordered them not to receive novices, etc.
The pressure kept building up to the point that Catholic countries were threatening to break away from the Church. Clement XIV ultimately yielded "in the name of peace of the Church and to avoid a secession in Europe" and suppressed the Society of Jesus by the brief "Dominus ac Redemptor" of 21 July 1773. However, in non-Catholic nations, particularly in Prussia and Russia, where papal authority was not recognized, the order was ignored. It was a result of a series of political moves rather than a theological controversy.
Pope Clement XIV and the customs of the Catholic Church in Rome are described in letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and of his father Leopold Mozart, written from Rome in April and May 1770 during their tour of Italy. Leopold found the upper clergy offensively haughty, but was received, with his son, by the pope, where Wolfgang demonstrated an amazing feat of musical memory. The papal chapel was famous for performing a "Miserere mei, Deus" by the 17th-century composer Gregorio Allegri, whose music was not to be copied outside of the chapel on pain of excommunication. The 14-year-old Wolfgang was able to transcribe the composition in its entirety after a single hearing. Clement made young Mozart a knight of the Order of the Golden Spur.
Clement XIV elevated sixteen new cardinals into the cardinalate in twelve consistories including Giovanni Angelo Braschi, who succeeded him.
The pope held no canonizations in his pontificate but he beatified a number of individuals.
The last months of Clement XIV's life were embittered by his failures and he seemed always to be in sorrow because of this. His work was hardly accomplished before Clement XIV, whose usual constitution was quite vigorous, fell into a languishing sickness, generally attributed to poison. No conclusive evidence of poisoning was ever produced. The claims that the Pope was poisoned were denied by those closest to him, and as the Annual Register for 1774 stated, he was over 70 and had been in ill health for some time.
On 10 September 1774, he was bedridden and received Extreme Unction on 21 September 1774. It is said that St. Alphonsus Liguori assisted Clement XIV in his last hours by the gift of Bilocation.
Clement XIV died on 22 September 1774, execrated by the Ultramontane party but widely mourned by his subjects for his popular administration of the Papal States. When his body was opened for the autopsy, the doctors ascribed his death to scorbutic and hemorrhoidal dispositions of long standing that were aggravated by excessive labour and the habit of provoking artificial perspiration even in the greatest heat. His Neoclassical style tomb was designed and sculpted by Antonio Canova, and it is found in the church of Santi Apostoli in Rome. To this day, he is best remembered for his suppression of the Jesuits.
The "Monthly Review" spoke highly of Ganganelli. In a review of a "Sketch of the Life and Government of Pope Clement XIV", the 1786 "English Review" said it was clearly written by an ex-Jesuit and noted the malignant characterization of a man it described as "...a liberal, affable, ingenious man; …a politician enlarged in his views, and equally bold and dexterous iin the means by which he executed his designs."
The 1876 Encyclopædia Britannica says that:
Jacques Cretineau-Joly, however, wrote a critical history of the Pope's administration. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24149 |
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (informally abbreviated to PM) is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister directs both the executive and the legislature, and together with their Cabinet is accountable to the monarch, to Parliament, to their party, and ultimately to the electorate, for the government's policies and actions.
The office of Prime Minister is not established by any statute or constitutional document but exists only by long-established convention, whereby the reigning monarch appoints as prime minister the person most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons; this individual is typically the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that holds the largest number of seats in that chamber. The position of Prime Minister was not created; it evolved slowly and organically over three hundred years due to numerous Acts of Parliament, political developments, and accidents of history. The office is therefore best understood from a historical perspective. The origins of the position are found in constitutional changes that occurred during the Revolutionary Settlement (1688–1720) and the resulting shift of political power from the Sovereign to Parliament. Although the sovereign was not stripped of the ancient prerogative powers and legally remained the head of government, politically it gradually became necessary for him or her to govern through a prime minister who could command a majority in Parliament.
By the 1830s, the Westminster system of government (or cabinet government) had emerged; the prime minister had become "primus inter pares" or the first among equals in the Cabinet and the head of government in the United Kingdom. The political position of Prime Minister was enhanced by the development of modern political parties, the introduction of mass communication and photography. By the start of the 20th century the modern premiership had emerged; the office had become the pre-eminent position in the constitutional hierarchy vis-à-vis the Sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet.
Prior to 1902, the prime minister sometimes came from the House of Lords, provided that his government could form a majority in the Commons. However as the power of the aristocracy waned during the 19th century the convention developed that the prime minister should always sit as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the lower house, making them answerable only to the Commons in Parliament. As leader of the House of Commons, the prime minister's authority was further enhanced by the Parliament Act 1911 which marginalised the influence of the House of Lords in the law-making process.
The prime minister is "ex officio" also First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. Indeed, certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to prime ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury.
The status and executive powers of the British prime minister means that the incumbent is consistently ranked as one of the most powerful and influential people in the world.
The prime minister is the head of the United Kingdom government. As such, the modern prime minister leads the Cabinet (the Executive). In addition, the prime minister leads a major political party and generally commands a majority in the House of Commons (the lower House of the legislature). The incumbent wields both significant legislative and executive powers. Under the British system, there is a unity of powers rather than separation. In the House of Commons, the prime minister guides the law-making process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of their political party. In an executive capacity, the prime minister appoints (and may dismiss) all other Cabinet members and ministers, and co-ordinates the policies and activities of all government departments, and the staff of the Civil Service. The prime minister also acts as the public "face" and "voice" of Her Majesty's Government, both at home and abroad. Solely upon the advice of the prime minister, the Sovereign exercises many statutory and prerogative powers, including high judicial, political, official and Church of England ecclesiastical appointments; the conferral of peerages and some knighthoods, decorations and other important honours.
The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, meaning that it is not set out in any single document. The British constitution consists of many documents and most importantly for the evolution of the office of the prime minister, it is based on customs known as constitutional conventions that became accepted practice. In 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs:In this country we live ... under an unwritten Constitution. It is true that we have on the Statute-book great instruments like Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights which define and secure many of our rights and privileges; but the great bulk of our constitutional liberties and ... our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the formal assent of the King, Lords and Commons. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, but which in the course of time received universal observance and respect.
The relationships between the prime minister and the sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the prime minister's executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still formally vested in the sovereign, who remains the head of state. Despite its growing dominance in the constitutional hierarchy, the premiership was given little formal recognition until the 20th century; the legal fiction was maintained that the Sovereign still governed directly. The position was first mentioned in statute only in 1917, in the schedule of the Chequers Estate Act. Increasingly during the 20th century, the office and role of Prime Minister featured in statute law and official documents; however, the prime minister's powers and relationships with other institutions still largely continue to derive from ancient royal prerogatives and historic and modern constitutional conventions. Prime ministers continue to hold the position of First Lord of the Treasury and, since November 1968, that of Minister for the Civil Service, the latter giving them authority over the civil service.
Under this arrangement, Britain might appear to have two executives: the prime minister and the sovereign. The concept of "the Crown" resolves this paradox. The Crown symbolises the state's authority to govern: to make laws and execute them, impose taxes and collect them, declare war and make peace. Before the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, the sovereign exclusively wielded the powers of the Crown; afterwards, Parliament gradually forced monarchs to assume a neutral political position. Parliament has effectively dispersed the powers of the Crown, entrusting its authority to responsible ministers (the prime minister and Cabinet), accountable for their policies and actions to Parliament, in particular the elected House of Commons.
Although many of the sovereign's prerogative powers are still legally intact, constitutional conventions have removed the monarch from day-to-day governance, with ministers exercising the royal prerogatives, leaving the monarch in practice with three constitutional rights: to be kept informed, to advise and to warn.
Because the premiership was not intentionally created, there is no exact date when its evolution began. A meaningful starting point, however, is 1688–89 when James II fled England and the Parliament of England confirmed William III and Mary II as joint constitutional monarchs, enacting legislation that limited their authority and that of their successors: the Bill of Rights (1689), the Mutiny Bill (1689), the Triennial Bill (1694), the Treason Act (1696) and the Act of Settlement (1701). Known collectively as the Revolutionary Settlement, these acts transformed the constitution, shifting the balance of power from the Sovereign to Parliament. They also provided the basis for the evolution of the office of Prime Minister, which did not exist at that time.
The Revolutionary Settlement gave the Commons control over finances and legislation and changed the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature. For want of money, sovereigns had to summon Parliament annually and could no longer dissolve or prorogue it without its advice and consent. Parliament became a permanent feature of political life. The veto fell into disuse because sovereigns feared that if they denied legislation, Parliament would deny them money. No sovereign has denied royal assent since Queen Anne vetoed the Scottish Militia Bill in 1708.
Treasury officials and other department heads were drawn into Parliament serving as liaisons between it and the sovereign. Ministers had to present the government's policies, and negotiate with Members to gain the support of the majority; they had to explain the government's financial needs, suggest ways of meeting them and give an account of how money had been spent. The Sovereign's representatives attended Commons sessions so regularly that they were given reserved seats at the front, known as the Treasury Bench. This is the beginning of "unity of powers": the sovereign's ministers (the Executive) became leading members of Parliament (the Legislature). Today, the prime minister (First Lord of the Treasury), the Chancellor of the Exchequer (responsible for The Budget) and other senior members of the Cabinet sit on the Treasury bench and present policies in much the same way Ministers did late in the 17th century.
After the Revolution, there was a constant threat that non-government members of Parliament would ruin the country's finances by proposing ill-considered money bills. Vying for control to avoid chaos, the Crown's Ministers gained an advantage in 1706, when the Commons informally declared, "That this House will receive no petition for any sum of money relating to public Service, but what is recommended from the Crown." On 11 June 1713, this non-binding rule became Standing Order 66: that "the Commons would not vote money for any purpose, except on a motion of a Minister of the Crown." Standing Order 66 remains in effect today (though renumbered as no. 48), essentially unchanged for more than three hundred years.
Empowering ministers with sole financial initiative had an immediate and lasting impact. Apart from achieving its intended purpose – to stabilise the budgetary process – it gave the Crown a leadership role in the Commons; and, the Lord Treasurer assumed a leading position among ministers.
The power of financial initiative was not, however, absolute. Only Ministers might initiate money bills, but Parliament now reviewed and consented to them. Standing Order 66 therefore represents the beginnings of Ministerial responsibility and accountability.
The term "Prime Minister" appears at this time as an unofficial title for the leader of the government, usually the Head of the Treasury. Jonathan Swift, for example, wrote that in 1713 there had been "those who are now commonly called Prime Minister among us", referring to Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin and Robert Harley, Queen Anne's Lord Treasurers and chief ministers. Since 1721, every head of the Sovereign's government – with one exception in the 18th century (William Pitt the Elder) and one in the 19th (Lord Salisbury) – has been First Lord of the Treasury.
Political parties first appeared during the Exclusion Crisis of 1678–1681. The Whigs, who believed in limited monarchy, wanted to exclude James, Duke of York, from succeeding to the throne because he was a Roman Catholic. The Tories, who believed in the "Divine Right of Kings", defended James's hereditary claim.
Political parties were not well organised or disciplined in the 17th century. They were more like factions, with "members" drifting in and out, collaborating temporarily on issues when it was to their advantage, then disbanding when it was not. A major deterrent to the development of opposing parties was the idea that there could only be one "King's Party" and to oppose it would be disloyal or even treasonous. This idea lingered throughout the 18th century. Nevertheless it became possible at the end of the 17th century to identify Parliaments and Ministries as being either "Whig" or "Tory" in composition.
The modern prime minister is also the leader of the Cabinet. A convention of the constitution, the modern Cabinet is a group of ministers who formulate policies. As the political heads of government departments Cabinet Ministers ensure that policies are carried out by permanent civil servants. Although the modern prime minister selects ministers, appointment still rests with the sovereign. With the prime minister as its leader, the Cabinet forms the executive branch of government.
The term "Cabinet" first appears after the Revolutionary Settlement to describe those ministers who conferred privately with the sovereign. The growth of the Cabinet met with widespread complaint and opposition because its meetings were often held in secret and it excluded the ancient Privy Council (of which the Cabinet is formally a committee) from the sovereign's circle of advisers, reducing it to an honorary body. The early Cabinet, like that of today, included the Treasurer and other department heads who sat on the Treasury bench. However, it might also include individuals who were not members of Parliament such as household officers (e.g. the Master of the Horse) and members of the royal family. The exclusion of non-members of Parliament from the Cabinet was essential to the development of ministerial accountability and responsibility.
Both William and Anne appointed and dismissed Cabinet members, attended meetings, made decisions, and followed up on actions. Relieving the Sovereign of these responsibilities and gaining control over the Cabinet's composition was an essential part of evolution of the Premiership. This process began after the Hanoverian Succession. Although George I (1714–1727) attended Cabinet meetings at first, after 1717 he withdrew because he did not speak fluent English and was bored with the discussions. George II (1727–1760) occasionally presided at Cabinet meetings but his successor, George III (1760–1820), is known to have attended only two during his 60-year reign. Thus, the convention that sovereigns do not attend Cabinet meetings was established primarily through royal indifference to the everyday tasks of governance. The prime minister became responsible for calling meetings, presiding, taking notes, and reporting to the Sovereign. These simple executive tasks naturally gave the prime minister ascendancy over his Cabinet colleagues.
Although the first three Hanoverians rarely attended Cabinet meetings they insisted on their prerogatives to appoint and dismiss ministers and to direct policy even if from outside the Cabinet. It was not until late in the 18th century that prime ministers gained control over Cabinet composition (see section Emergence of Cabinet Government below).
British governments (or ministries) are generally formed by one party. The prime minister and Cabinet are usually all members of the same political party, almost always the one that has a majority of seats in the House of Commons. Coalition governments (a ministry that consists of representatives from two or more parties) and minority governments (a one-party ministry formed by a party that does not command a majority in the Commons) were relatively rare before the 2010 election, since 2010 there has been both a coalition and minority government. "One party government", as this system is sometimes called, has been the general rule for almost three hundred years.
Early in his reign, William III (1689–1702) preferred "mixed ministries" (or coalitions) consisting of both Tories and Whigs. William thought this composition would dilute the power of any one party and also give him the benefit of differing points of view. However, this approach did not work well because the members could not agree on a leader or on policies, and often worked at odds with each other.
In 1697, William formed a homogeneous Whig ministry. Known as the "Junto", this government is often cited as the first true Cabinet because its members were all Whigs, reflecting the majority composition of the Commons.
Anne (1702–1714) followed this pattern but preferred Tory Cabinets. This approach worked well as long as Parliament was also predominantly Tory. However, in 1708, when the Whigs obtained a majority, Anne did not call on them to form a government, refusing to accept the idea that politicians could force themselves on her merely because their party had a majority. She never parted with an entire Ministry or accepted an entirely new one regardless of the results of an election. Anne preferred to retain a minority government rather than be dictated to by Parliament. Consequently, her chief ministers Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin and Robert Harley, who were called "Prime Minister" by some, had difficulty executing policy in the face of a hostile Parliament.
William's and Anne's experiments with the political composition of the Cabinet illustrated the strengths of one party government and the weaknesses of coalition and minority governments. Nevertheless, it was not until the 1830s that the constitutional convention was established that the Sovereign must select the prime minister (and Cabinet) from the party whose views reflect those of the majority in Parliament. Since then, most ministries have reflected this one party rule.
Despite the "one party" convention, prime ministers may still be called upon to lead either minority or coalition governments. A minority government may be formed as a result of a "hung parliament" in which no single party commands a majority in the House of Commons after a general election or the death, resignation or defection of existing members. By convention, the serving prime minister is given the first opportunity to reach agreements that will allow them to survive a vote of confidence in the House and continue to govern. Until 2017, the last minority government was led by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson for eight months after the February 1974 general election produced a hung parliament. In the October 1974 general election, the Labour Party gained 18 seats, giving Wilson a majority of three.
A hung parliament may also lead to the formation of a coalition government in which two or more parties negotiate a joint programme to command a majority in the Commons. Coalitions have also been formed during times of national crisis such as war. Under such circumstances, the parties agree to temporarily set aside their political differences and to unite to face the national crisis. Coalitions are rare: since 1721, there have been fewer than a dozen.
When the general election of 2010 produced a hung parliament, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties agreed to form the Cameron–Clegg coalition, the first coalition in seventy years. The previous coalition in the UK before 2010 was led by Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill during most of the Second World War, from May 1940 to May 1945. Clement Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, served as Deputy Prime Minister. After the general election of 2015, the nation returned to one party government after the Tories won an outright majority.
The premiership is still largely a convention of the constitution; its legal authority is derived primarily from the fact that the prime minister is also First Lord of the Treasury. The connection of these two offices – one a convention, the other a legal office – began with the Hanoverian succession in 1714.
When George I succeeded to the British throne in 1714, his German ministers advised him to leave the office of Lord High Treasurer vacant because those who had held it in recent years had grown overly powerful, in effect, replacing the sovereign as head of the government. They also feared that a Lord High Treasurer would undermine their own influence with the new king. They therefore suggested that he place the office in "commission", meaning that a committee of five ministers would perform its functions together. Theoretically, this dilution of authority would prevent any one of them from presuming to be the head of the government. The king agreed and created the Treasury Commission consisting of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord, and three Junior Lords.
No one has been appointed Lord High Treasurer since 1714; it has remained in commission for three hundred years. The Treasury Commission ceased to meet late in the 18th century but has survived, albeit with very different functions: the First Lord of the Treasury is now the prime minister, the Second Lord is the Chancellor of the Exchequer (and actually in charge of the Treasury), and the Junior Lords are government Whips maintaining party discipline in the House of Commons; they no longer have any duties related to the Treasury, though when subordinate legislation requires the consent of the Treasury it is still two of the Junior Lords who sign on its behalf.
Since the office evolved rather than being instantly created, it may not be totally clear-cut who the first prime minister was. However, this appellation is traditionally given to Sir Robert Walpole, who became First Lord of the Treasury of Great Britain in 1721.
In 1720, the South Sea Company, created to trade in cotton, agricultural goods and slaves, collapsed, causing the financial ruin of thousands of investors and heavy losses for many others, including members of the royal family. King George I called on Robert Walpole, well known for his political and financial acumen, to handle the emergency. With considerable skill and some luck, Walpole acted quickly to restore public credit and confidence, and led the country out of the crisis. A year later, the king appointed him First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House of Commons – making him the most powerful minister in the government. Ruthless, crude, and hard-working, he had a "sagacious business sense" and was a superb manager of men. At the head of affairs for the next two decades, Walpole stabilised the nation's finances, kept it at peace, made it prosperous, and secured the Hanoverian succession.
Walpole demonstrated for the first time how a chief minister – a prime minister – could be the actual head of the government under the new constitutional framework. First, recognising that the sovereign could no longer govern directly but was still the nominal head of the government, he insisted that he was nothing more than the "King's Servant". Second, recognising that power had shifted to the Commons, he conducted the nation's business there and made it dominant over the Lords in all matters. Third, recognising that the Cabinet had become the executive and must be united, he dominated the other members and demanded their complete support for his policies. Fourth, recognising that political parties were the source of ministerial strength, he led the Whig party and maintained discipline. In the Commons, he insisted on the support of all Whig members, especially those who held office. Finally, he set an example for future prime ministers by resigning his offices in 1742 after a vote of confidence, which he won by just three votes. The slimness of this majority undermined his power, even though he still retained the confidence of the sovereign.
For all his contributions, Walpole was not a prime minister in the modern sense. The king – not Parliament – chose him; and the king – not Walpole – chose the Cabinet. Walpole set an example, not a precedent, and few followed his example. For over 40 years after Walpole's fall in 1742, there was widespread ambivalence about the position. In some cases, the prime minister was a figurehead with power being wielded by other individuals; in others there was a reversion to the "chief minister" model of earlier times in which the sovereign actually governed. At other times, there appeared to be two prime ministers. During Great Britain's participation in the Seven Years' War, for example, the powers of government were divided equally between the Duke of Newcastle and William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, leading to them both alternatively being described as Prime Minister. Furthermore, many thought that the title "Prime Minister" usurped the sovereign's constitutional position as "head of the government" and that it was an affront to other ministers because they were all appointed by and equally responsible to the sovereign.
For these reasons, there was a reluctance to use the title. Although Walpole is now called the "first" prime minister, the title was not commonly used during his tenure. Walpole himself denied it. In 1741, during the attack that led to Walpole's downfall, Samuel Sandys declared that "According to our Constitution we can have no sole and prime minister". In his defence, Walpole said "I unequivocally deny that I am sole or Prime Minister and that to my influence and direction all the affairs of government must be attributed". George Grenville, Prime Minister in the 1760s, said it was "an odious title" and never used it. Lord North, the reluctant head of the King's Government during the American War of Independence, "would never suffer himself to be called Prime Minister, because it was an office unknown to the Constitution".
Denials of the premiership's legal existence continued throughout the 19th century. In 1806, for example, one member of the Commons said, "the Constitution abhors the idea of a prime minister". In 1829, Lord Lansdowne said, "nothing could be more mischievous or unconstitutional than to recognise by act of parliament the existence of such an office".
By the turn of the 20th century the premiership had become, by convention, the most important position in the constitutional hierarchy. Yet there were no legal documents describing its powers or acknowledging its existence. The first official recognition given to the office had only been in the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, when Disraeli signed as "First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister of her Britannic Majesty". Not until seven years later, in 1885, did the official records entrench the institution of Prime Minister, using "Prime Minister" in the list of government ministers printed in Hansard. Incumbents had no statutory authority in their own right. As late as 1904, Arthur Balfour explained the status of his office in a speech at Haddington: "The Prime Minister has no salary as Prime Minister. He has no statutory duties as Prime Minister, his name occurs in no Acts of Parliament, and though holding the most important place in the constitutional hierarchy, he has no place which is recognised by the laws of his country. This is a strange paradox."
In 1905 the position was given some official recognition when the "prime minister" was named in the order of precedence, outranked, among non-royals, only by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the Lord Chancellor.
The first Act of Parliament to mention the premiership – albeit in a schedule – was the Chequers Estate Act on 20 December 1917. This law conferred the Chequers Estate owned by Sir Arthur and Lady Lee, as a gift to the Crown for use as a country home for future prime ministers.
Unequivocal legal recognition was given in the Ministers of the Crown Act 1937, which made provision for payment of a salary to the person who is both "the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister". Explicitly recognising two hundred years' of ambivalence, the Act states that it intended "To give statutory recognition to the existence of the position of Prime Minister, and to the historic link between the premiership and the office of First Lord of the Treasury, by providing in respect to that position and office a salary of ..." The Act made a distinction between the "position" (prime minister) and the "office" (First Lord of the Treasury), emphasising the unique political character of the former. Nevertheless, the brass plate on the door of the prime minister's home, 10 Downing Street, still bears the title of "First Lord of the Treasury", as it has since the 18th century as it is officially the home of the First Lord and not the prime minister.
Following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British prime minister, William Pitt the Younger, believed the solution to rising Irish nationalism was a union of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. Britain then included England and Wales and Scotland, but Ireland had its own parliament and government, which were firmly Anglo-Irish and did not represent the aspirations of most Irishmen. For this and other reasons, Pitt advanced his policy, and after some difficulty in persuading the Irish political class to surrender its control of Ireland under the Constitution of 1782, the new union was created by the Acts of Union 1800. With effect from 1 January 1801, Great Britain and Ireland were united into a single kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Parliament of Ireland came to an end, and until 1922 British ministers were responsible for all three kingdoms of the British Isles.
Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921, which was to be put into effect within one year, the enactment of the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 was concluded on 5 December 1922, creating the Irish Free State. Bonar Law, who had been in office as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Ireland for only six weeks, and who had just won the general election of November 1922, thus became the last prime minister whose responsibilities covered both Britain and the whole of Ireland. Most of a parliamentary session beginning on 20 November was devoted to the Act, and Bonar Law pushed through the creation of the Free State in the face of opposition from the "die hards".
Despite the reluctance to legally recognise the Premiership, ambivalence toward it waned in the 1780s. During the first 20 years of his reign, George III (1760–1820) tried to be his own "prime minister" by controlling policy from outside the Cabinet, appointing and dismissing ministers, meeting privately with individual ministers, and giving them instructions. These practices caused confusion and dissension in Cabinet meetings; King George's experiment in personal rule was generally a failure. After the failure of Lord North's ministry (1770–1782) in March 1782 due to Britain's defeat in the American Revolutionary War and the ensuing vote of no confidence by Parliament, the Marquess of Rockingham reasserted the prime minister's control over the Cabinet. Rockingham assumed the Premiership "on the distinct understanding that measures were to be changed as well as men; and that the measures for which the new ministry required the royal consent were the measures which they, while in opposition, had advocated." He and his Cabinet were united in their policies and would stand or fall together; they also refused to accept anyone in the Cabinet who did not agree. King George threatened to abdicate but in the end reluctantly agreed out of necessity: he had to have a government.
From this time, there was a growing acceptance of the position of Prime Minister and the title was more commonly used, if only unofficially. Associated initially with the Whigs, the Tories started to accept it. Lord North, for example, who had said the office was "unknown to the constitution", reversed himself in 1783 when he said, "In this country some one man or some body of men like a Cabinet should govern the whole and direct every measure." In 1803, William Pitt the Younger, also a Tory, suggested to a friend that "this person generally called the first minister" was an absolute necessity for a government to function, and expressed his belief that this person should be the minister in charge of the finances.
The Tories' wholesale conversion started when Pitt was confirmed as Prime Minister in the election of 1784. For the next 17 years until 1801 (and again from 1804 to 1806), Pitt, the Tory, was Prime Minister in the same sense that Walpole, the Whig, had been earlier.
Their conversion was reinforced after 1810. In that year, George III, who had suffered periodically from mental instability (possibly due to porphyria), became permanently insane and spent the remaining 10 years of his life unable to discharge his duties. The Prince Regent was prevented from using the full powers of kingship. The regent became George IV in 1820, but during his 10-year reign was indolent and frivolous. Consequently, for 20 years the throne was virtually vacant and Tory Cabinets led by Tory prime ministers filled the void, governing virtually on their own.
The Tories were in power for almost 50 years, except for a Whig ministry from 1806 to 1807. Lord Liverpool was Prime Minister for 15 years; he and Pitt held the position for 34 years. Under their long, consistent leadership, Cabinet government became a convention of the constitution. Although subtle issues remained to be settled, the Cabinet system of government is essentially the same today as it was in 1830.
Under this form of government, called the Westminster system, the Sovereign is head of state and titular head of Her Majesty's Government. The Sovereign selects as Prime Minister the person who is able to command a working majority in the House of Commons, and invites him or her to form a government. As the actual Head of Government, the prime minister selects the Cabinet, choosing its members from among those in Parliament who agree or generally agree with his or her intended policies. The prime minister then recommends the Cabinet to the Sovereign who confirms the selection by formally appointing them to their offices. Led by the prime minister, the Cabinet is collectively responsible for whatever the government does. The Sovereign does not confer with members privately about policy, nor attend Cabinet meetings. With respect to "actual" governance, the monarch has only three constitutional rights: to be kept informed, to advise, and to warn. In practice this means that the Sovereign reviews state papers and meets regularly with the prime minister, usually weekly, when she may advise and warn him or her regarding the proposed decisions and actions of Her Government.
The modern British system includes not only a government formed by the majority party (or coalition of parties) in the House of Commons but also an organised and open opposition formed by those who are not members of the governing party. Called Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition, they occupy the benches to the Speaker's left. Seated in the front, directly across from the ministers on the Treasury Bench, the leaders of the opposition form a "shadow government", complete with a salaried "shadow prime minister", the Leader of the Opposition, ready to assume office if the government falls or loses the next election.
Opposing the King's government was considered disloyal, even treasonous, at the end of the 17th century. During the 18th century this idea waned and finally disappeared as the two party system developed. The expression "His Majesty's Opposition" was coined by John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton. In 1826, Broughton, a Whig, announced in the Commons that he opposed the report of a Bill. As a joke, he said, "It was said to be very hard on His Majesty's ministers to raise objections to this proposition. For my part, I think it is much more hard on His Majesty's Opposition to compel them to take this course." The phrase caught on and has been used ever since. Sometimes rendered as the "Loyal Opposition", it acknowledges the legitimate existence of the two party system, and describes an important constitutional concept: opposing the government is not treason; reasonable men can honestly oppose its policies and still be loyal to the Sovereign and the nation.
Informally recognized for over a century as a convention of the constitution, the position of Leader of the Opposition was given statutory recognition in 1937 by the Ministers of the Crown Act.
British prime ministers have never been elected directly by the public. A prime minister need not be a party leader; David Lloyd George was not a party leader during his service as prime Minister during World War I, and neither was Ramsay MacDonald from 1931 to 1935. Prime ministers have taken office because they were members of either the Commons or Lords, and either inherited a majority in the Commons or won more seats than the opposition in a general election.
Since 1722, most prime ministers have been members of the Commons; since 1902, all have had a seat there. Like other members, they are elected initially to represent only a constituency. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, for example, represented Sedgefield in County Durham from 1983 to 2007. He became Prime Minister because in 1994 he was elected Labour Party leader and then led the party to victory in the 1997 general election, winning 418 seats compared to 165 for the Conservatives and gaining a majority in the House of Commons.
Neither the sovereign nor the House of Lords had any meaningful influence over who was elected to the Commons in 1997 or in deciding whether or not Blair would become Prime Minister. Their detachment from the electoral process and the selection of the prime minister has been a convention of the constitution for almost 200 years.
Prior to the 19th century, however, they had significant influence, using to their advantage the fact that most citizens were disenfranchised and seats in the Commons were allocated disproportionately. Through patronage, corruption and bribery, the Crown and Lords "owned" about 30% of the seats (called "pocket" or "rotten boroughs") giving them a significant influence in the Commons and in the selection of the prime minister.
In 1830, Charles Grey, the 2nd Earl Grey and a life-long Whig, became Prime Minister and was determined to reform the electoral system. For two years, he and his Cabinet fought to pass what has come to be known as the Great Reform Bill of 1832. The greatness of the Great Reform Bill lay less in substance than in symbolism. As John Bright, a liberal statesman of the next generation, said, "It was not a good Bill, but it was a great Bill when it passed." Substantively, it increased the franchise by 65% to 717,000; with the middle class receiving most of the new votes. The representation of 56 rotten boroughs was eliminated completely, together with half the representation of 30 others; the freed up seats were distributed to boroughs created for previously disenfranchised areas. However, many rotten boroughs remained and it still excluded millions of working-class men and all women.
Symbolically, however, the Reform Act exceeded expectations. It is now ranked with Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights as one of the most important documents of the British constitutional tradition.
First, the Act removed the sovereign from the election process and the choice of Prime Minister. Slowly evolving for 100 years, this convention was confirmed two years after the passage of the Act. In 1834, King William IV dismissed Melbourne as premier, but was forced to recall him when Robert Peel, the king's choice, could not form a working majority. Since then, no sovereign has tried to impose a prime minister on Parliament.
Second, the Bill reduced the Lords' power by eliminating many of their pocket boroughs and creating new boroughs in which they had no influence. Weakened, they were unable to prevent the passage of more comprehensive electoral reforms in 1867, 1884, 1918 and 1928 when universal equal suffrage was established.
Ultimately, this erosion of power led to the Parliament Act 1911, which marginalised the Lords' role in the legislative process and gave further weight to the convention that had developed over the previous century that a prime minister cannot sit in the House of Lords. The last to do so was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, from 1895 to 1902. Throughout the 19th century, governments led from the Lords had often suffered difficulties governing alongside ministers who sat in the Commons.
Grey set an example and a precedent for his successors. He was "primus inter pares" (first among equals), as Bagehot said in 1867 of the prime minister's status. Using his Whig victory as a mandate for reform, Grey was unrelenting in the pursuit of this goal, using every parliamentary device to achieve it. Although respectful toward the king, he made it clear that his constitutional duty was to acquiesce to the will of the people and Parliament.
The Loyal Opposition acquiesced too. Some disgruntled Tories claimed they would repeal the bill once they regained a majority. But in 1834, Robert Peel, the new Conservative leader, put an end to this threat when he stated in his Tamworth Manifesto that the bill was "a final and irrevocable settlement of a great constitutional question which no friend to the peace and welfare of this country would attempt to disturb".
The premiership was a reclusive office prior to 1832. The incumbent worked with his Cabinet and other government officials; he occasionally met with the sovereign and attended Parliament when it was in session during the spring and summer. He never went out on the stump to campaign, even during elections; he rarely spoke directly to ordinary voters about policies and issues.
After the passage of the Great Reform Bill, the nature of the position changed: prime ministers had to go out among the people. The Bill increased the electorate to 717,000. Subsequent legislation (and population growth) raised it to 2 million in 1867, 5.5 million in 1884 and 21.4 million in 1918. As the franchise increased, power shifted to the people, and prime ministers assumed more responsibilities with respect to party leadership. It naturally fell on them to motivate and organise their followers, explain party policies, and deliver its "message". Successful leaders had to have a new set of skills: to give a good speech, present a favourable image, and interact with a crowd. They became the "voice", the "face" and the "image" of the party and ministry.
Robert Peel, often called the "model prime minister", was the first to recognise this new role. After the successful Conservative campaign of 1841, J. W. Croker said in a letter to Peel, "The elections are wonderful, and the curiosity is that all turns on the name of Sir Robert Peel. It's the first time that I remember in our history that the people have chosen the first Minister for the Sovereign. Mr. Pitt's case in '84 is the nearest analogy; but then the people only confirmed the Sovereign's choice; here every Conservative candidate professed himself in plain words to be Sir Robert Peel's man, and on that ground was elected."
Benjamin Disraeli and William Ewart Gladstone developed this new role further by projecting "images" of themselves to the public. Known by their nicknames "Dizzy" and the "Grand Old Man", their colourful, sometimes bitter, personal and political rivalry over the issues of their time – Imperialism vs. Anti-Imperialism, expansion of the franchise, labour reform, and Irish Home Rule – spanned almost twenty years until Disraeli's death in 1881. Documented by the penny press, photographs and political cartoons, their rivalry linked specific personalities with the Premiership in the public mind and further enhanced its status.
Each created a different public image of himself and his party. Disraeli, who expanded the Empire to protect British interests abroad, cultivated the image of himself (and the Conservative Party) as "Imperialist", making grand gestures such as conferring the title "Empress of India" on Queen Victoria in 1876. Gladstone, who saw little value in the Empire, proposed an anti-Imperialist policy (later called "Little England"), and cultivated the image of himself (and the Liberal Party) as "man of the people" by circulating pictures of himself cutting down great oak trees with an axe as a hobby.
Gladstone went beyond image by appealing directly to the people. In his Midlothian campaign – so called because he stood as a candidate for that county – Gladstone spoke in fields, halls and railway stations to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of students, farmers, labourers and middle class workers. Although not the first leader to speak directly to voters – both he and Disraeli had spoken directly to party loyalists before on special occasions – he was the first to canvass an entire constituency, delivering his message to anyone who would listen, encouraging his supporters and trying to convert his opponents. Publicised nationwide, Gladstone's message became that of the party. Noting its significance, Lord Shaftesbury said, "It is a new thing and a very serious thing to see the Prime Minister on the stump."
Campaigning directly to the people became commonplace. Several 20th-century prime ministers, such as David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, were famous for their oratorical skills. After the introduction of radio, motion pictures, television, and the internet, many used these technologies to project their public image and address the nation. Stanley Baldwin, a master of the radio broadcast in the 1920s and 1930s, reached a national audience in his talks filled with homely advice and simple expressions of national pride. Churchill also used the radio to great effect, inspiring, reassuring and informing the people with his speeches during the Second World War. Two recent prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair (who both spent a decade or more as Prime Minister), achieved celebrity status like rock stars, but have been criticised for their more 'presidential' style of leadership. According to Anthony King, "The props in Blair's theatre of celebrity included ... his guitar, his casual clothes ... footballs bounced skilfully off the top of his head ... carefully choreographed speeches and performances at Labour Party conferences."
In addition to being the leader of a great political party and the head of Her Majesty's Government, the modern prime minister directs the law-making process, enacting into law his or her party's programme. For example, Tony Blair, whose Labour party was elected in 1997 partly on a promise to enact a British Bill of Rights and to create devolved governments for Scotland and Wales, subsequently stewarded through Parliament the Human Rights Act (1998), the Scotland Act (1998) and the Government of Wales Act (1998).
From its appearance in the fourteenth century Parliament has been a bicameral legislature consisting of the Commons and the Lords. Members of the Commons are elected; those in the Lords are not. Most Lords are called "Temporal" with titles such as Duke, Marquess, Earl, and Viscount. The balance are Lords Spiritual (prelates of the Anglican Church).
For most of the history of the Upper House, Lords Temporal were landowners who held their estates, titles, and seats as a hereditary right passed down from one generation to the next – in some cases for centuries. In 1910, for example, there were nineteen whose title was created before 1500.
Until 1911, prime ministers had to guide legislation through the Commons and the Lords and obtain majority approval in both houses for it to become law. This was not always easy, because political differences often separated the chambers. Representing the landed aristocracy, Lords Temporal were generally Tory (later Conservative) who wanted to maintain the status quo and resisted progressive measures such as extending the franchise. The party affiliation of members of the Commons was less predictable. During the 18th century its makeup varied because the Lords had considerable control over elections: sometimes Whigs dominated it, sometimes Tories. After the passage of the Great Reform Bill in 1832, the Commons gradually became more progressive, a tendency that increased with the passage of each subsequent expansion of the franchise.
In 1906, the Liberal party, led by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, won an overwhelming victory on a platform that promised social reforms for the working class. With 379 seats compared to the Conservatives' 132, the Liberals could confidently expect to pass their legislative programme through the Commons. At the same time, however, the Conservative Party had a huge majority in the Lords; it could easily veto any legislation passed by the Commons that was against their interests.
For five years, the Commons and the Lords fought over one bill after another. The Liberals pushed through parts of their programme, but the Conservatives vetoed or modified others. When the Lords vetoed the "People's Budget" in 1909, the controversy moved almost inevitably toward a constitutional crisis.
In 1910, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduced a bill "for regulating the relations between the Houses of Parliament" which would eliminate the Lords' veto power over legislation. Passed by the Commons, the Lords rejected it. In a general election fought on this issue, the Liberals were weakened but still had a comfortable majority. At Asquith's request, King George V then threatened to create a sufficient number of new Liberal Peers to ensure the bill's passage. Rather than accept a permanent Liberal majority, the Conservative Lords yielded, and the bill became law.
The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the Commons. It provided that the Lords could not delay for more than one month any bill certified by the Speaker of the Commons as a money bill. Furthermore, the Act provided that any bill rejected by the Lords would nevertheless become law if passed by the Commons in three successive sessions provided that two years had elapsed since its original passage. The Lords could still delay or suspend the enactment of legislation but could no longer veto it. Subsequently the Lords "suspending" power was reduced to one year by the Parliament Act 1949.
Indirectly, the Act enhanced the already dominant position of Prime Minister in the constitutional hierarchy. Although the Lords are still involved in the legislative process and the prime minister must still guide legislation through both Houses, the Lords no longer have the power to veto or even delay enactment of legislation passed by the Commons. Provided that he or she controls the Cabinet, maintains party discipline, and commands a majority in the Commons, the prime minister is assured of putting through his or her legislative agenda.
Varying and competing theories of the role and power of the contemporary modern prime minister have emerged in the post-war period, particularly in response to new styles of leadership and governance. The classic view of Cabinet Government was laid out by Walter Bagehot in "The English Constitution" (1867) in which he described the prime minister as the primus inter pares ("first among equals"). This view was challenged in "The British Cabinet" by John P. Mackintosh, who instead used the terminology of "Prime Ministerial Government" to describe the British government. This transformation, according to Mackintosh primarily resulted because of the diminishing role of the Cabinet Ministers and because of centralisation of the party machine and the bureaucracy. Richard Crossman also alluded to the presidentialisation of British politics in the "Introduction" to the 1963 version of Walter Bagehot's "The English Constitution". Crossman mentions the Second World War, and its immediate aftermath as a water-shed moment for Britain that led to immense accumulation of power in the hands of the British prime minister These powers, according to Crossman, are so immense that their study require the use of presidential parallels.
The most prominent characterisation of prime ministerial power to emerge is the "presidentialisation thesis". This asserts that the prime minister has become more detached from Cabinet, party and Parliament and operates as if the occupant of the office is elected directly by the people. The thesis is usually presented with comparisons to the American Presidency. Thomas Poguntke and Paul Webb define it as:
The thesis has been most popularised by Michael Foley, who wrote two books, namely, "The Rise of the British Presidency", and "The British Presidency: Tony Blair and the Politics of Public Leadership" that are solely dedicated to the subject of presidentialisation in Britain. Foley writes:
The thesis has been widely applied to the premiership of Tony Blair as many sources such as former ministers have suggested that decision-making was controlled by him and Gordon Brown, and the Cabinet was no longer used for decision-making. Former ministers such as Clare Short and Chris Smith have criticised the lack of decision-making power in Cabinet. When she resigned, Short denounced "the centralisation of power into the hands of the prime minister and an increasingly small number of advisers". Graham Allen (a Government Whip during Tony Blair's first government) made the case in "The Last Prime Minister: Being Honest About the UK Presidency" (2003) that in fact the office of Prime Minister has presidential powers.
The notion of presidentialisation in British politics has been criticised, however, due to the structural and constitutional differences between Britain and the United States. These authors cite the stark differences between the British parliamentary model, with its principle of parliamentary sovereignty, and the American presidential model, which has its roots in the principle of separation of powers. For example, according to John Hart, using the American example to explain the accumulation of power in the hands of the British PM is flawed and that changing dynamics of the British executive can only be studied in Britain's own historical and structural sense. The power that a prime minister has over his or her Cabinet colleagues is directly proportional to the amount of support that they have with their political parties and this is often related to whether the party considers them to be an electoral asset or liability. Additionally, when a party is divided into factions a prime minister may be forced to include other powerful party members in the Cabinet for party political cohesion. The prime minister's personal power is also curtailed if their party is in a power-sharing arrangement, or a formal coalition with another party (as happened in the coalition government of 2010 to 2015).
Keith Dowding argues, as well, that British prime ministers are already more powerful than the American presidents, as the prime minister is part of the legislature. Therefore, unlike presidents, the prime minister can directly initiate legislation and due to the context British politics functions within, faces fewer "veto players" than a president. Thus, Dowding argues that adding to these powers, makes the prime minister less like presidents, and that what Britain is witnessing can be best explained as "Prime Ministerialisation" of British politics. The work of Martin J. Smith, importantly, runs contrary to these increasingly personalised conceptualisations of the modern prime minister, however. The Core Executive model asserts that prime ministerial power (especially of individual leaders, such as Thatcher and Blair) has been greatly overstated, and, instead, is both dependent upon and constrained by relationships, or "dependency linkages", with other institutions in government, such as members of the Cabinet or the Treasury. In this model, prime ministers are seen to have improved their institutional position, but rejects the notion that they dominate government and that they act, or have the ability to act, as Presidents due to the aforementioned dependencies and constraints 'that define decision-making in central government.' Smith emphasises "complex resource relationships" (or rather how formal and informal powers are used) and what resources a particular actor possesses. In this case, the prime minister naturally holds more resources than others. These include patronage, control of the Cabinet agenda, appointment of Cabinet Committees and the prime minister's office, as well as collective oversight and the ability to intervene in any policy area. However, all actors possess "resources" and government decision making relies upon resource exchange in order to achieve policy goals, not through command alone. Smith originally used this model to explain the resignation of Margaret Thatcher in 1990, concluding that:
Prime ministerial leadership has been described by academics as needing to involve successful statecraft. Statecraft is the idea that successful prime ministers need to maintain power in office in order to achieve any substantive long-term policy reform or political objectives. To achieve successful statecraft leaders must undertake key tasks including demonstrating competence in office, developing winning electoral strategies and carefully managing the constitution in order to protect their political interests. Interviews with former prime ministers and party leaders in the UK found the approach to be an accurate part of some of the core tasks of political leadership. Tony Blair was the first prime minister to be assessed using the academic framework and was judged to be a successful leader in these terms. Assessments have been made of other leaders using the model.
When commissioned by the sovereign, a potential prime minister's first requisite is to "form a Government" – to create a cabinet of ministers that has the support of the House of Commons, of which they are expected to be a member. The prime minister then formally kisses the hands of the sovereign, whose royal prerogative powers are thereafter exercised solely on the advice of the prime minister and Her Majesty's Government ("HMG"). The prime minister has weekly audiences with the sovereign, whose rights are constitutionally limited: "to warn, to encourage, and to be consulted"; the extent of the sovereign's ability to influence the nature of the prime ministerial advice is unknown, but presumably varies depending upon the personal relationship between the sovereign and the prime minister of the day.
The prime minister will appoint all other cabinet members (who then become active Privy Counsellors) and ministers, although consulting senior ministers on their junior ministers, without any Parliamentary or other control or process over these powers. At any time, the PM may obtain the appointment, dismissal or nominal resignation of any other minister; the PM may resign, either purely personally or with the whole government. The prime minister generally co-ordinates the policies and activities of the Cabinet and Government departments, acting as the main public "face" of Her Majesty's Government.
Although the Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces is legally the sovereign, under constitutional practice the prime minister can declare war, and through the Secretary of State for Defence (a position which the prime minister may appoint, dismiss or even appoint themselves to), as chair of the Defence Council, exert power over the deployment and disposition of the UK's forces.
The prime minister makes all the most senior Crown appointments, and most others are made by ministers over whom the prime minister has the power of appointment and dismissal. Privy Counsellors, Ambassadors and High Commissioners, senior civil servants, senior military officers, members of important committees and commissions, and other officials are selected, and in most cases may be removed, by the prime minister. The prime minister also formally advises the sovereign on the appointment of archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, but the prime minister's discretion is limited by the existence of the Crown Nominations Commission. The appointment of senior judges, while constitutionally still on the advice of the prime minister, is now made on the basis of recommendations from independent bodies.
Peerages, knighthoods, and most other honours are bestowed by the sovereign only on the advice of the prime minister. The only important British honours over which the prime minister does not have control are the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle, the Order of Merit, the Order of the Companions of Honour, the Royal Victorian Order, and the Venerable Order of Saint John, which are all within the "personal gift" of the sovereign.
The prime minister appoints officials known as the "Government Whips", who negotiate for the support of MPs and to discipline dissenters. Party discipline is strong since electors generally vote for individuals on the basis of their party affiliation. Members of Parliament may be expelled from their party for failing to support the Government on important issues, and although this will not mean they must resign as MPs, it will usually make re-election difficult. Members of Parliament who hold ministerial office or political privileges can expect removal for failing to support the prime minister. Restraints imposed by the Commons grow weaker when the Government's party enjoys a large majority in that House, or among the electorate. In most circumstances, however, the prime minister can secure the Commons' support for almost any bill by internal party negotiations, with little regard to Opposition MPs.
However, even a government with a healthy majority can on occasion find itself unable to pass legislation. For example, on 9 November 2005, Tony Blair's Government was defeated over plans which would have allowed police to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge, and on 31 January 2006, was defeated over certain aspects of proposals to outlaw religious hatred. On other occasions, the Government alters its proposals to avoid defeat in the Commons, as Tony Blair's Government did in February 2006 over education reforms.
Formerly, a prime minister whose government lost a Commons vote would be regarded as fatally weakened, and the whole government would resign, usually precipitating a general election. In modern practice, when the Government party has an absolute majority in the House, only loss of supply and the express vote "that this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government" are treated as having this effect; dissenters on a minor issue within the majority party are unlikely to force an election with the probable loss of their seats and salaries.
Likewise, a prime minister is no longer just "first amongst equals" in HM Government; although theoretically the Cabinet might still outvote the prime minister, in practice the prime minister progressively entrenches his or her position by retaining only personal supporters in the Cabinet. In occasional reshuffles, the prime minister can sideline and simply drop from Cabinet the Members who have fallen out of favour: they remain Privy Counsellors, but the prime minister decides which of them are summoned to meetings. The prime minister is responsible for producing and enforcing the Ministerial Code.
By tradition, before a new prime minister can occupy 10 Downing Street, they are required to announce to the country and the world that they have "kissed hands" with the reigning monarch, and have thus become Prime Minister. This is usually done by saying words to the effect of:
Her Majesty the Queen "[His Majesty the King]" has asked me to form a government and I have accepted.
Throughout the United Kingdom, the prime minister outranks all other dignitaries except members of the royal family, the Lord Chancellor, and senior ecclesiastical figures.
In 2010, the prime minister received £142,500 including a salary of £65,737 as a member of parliament. Until 2006, the Lord Chancellor was the highest paid member of the government, ahead of the prime minister. This reflected the Lord Chancellor's position at the head of the judicial pay scale. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 eliminated the Lord Chancellor's judicial functions and also reduced the office's salary to below that of the prime minister.
The prime minister is customarily a member of the Privy Council and thus entitled to the appellation "The Right Honourable". Membership of the Council is retained for life. It is a constitutional convention that only a privy counsellor can be appointed Prime Minister. Most potential candidates have already attained this status. The only case when a non-privy counsellor was the natural appointment was Ramsay MacDonald in 1924. The issue was resolved by appointing him to the Council immediately prior to his appointment as Prime Minister.
According to the now defunct Department for Constitutional Affairs, the prime minister is made a privy counsellor as a result of taking office and should be addressed by the official title prefixed by "The Right Honourable" and not by a personal name. Although this form of address is employed on formal occasions, it is rarely used by the media. As "prime minister" is a position, not a title, the incumbent should be referred to as "the prime minister". The title "Prime Minister" (e.g. "Prime Minister Boris Johnson") is technically incorrect but is sometimes used erroneously outside the United Kingdom and has more recently become acceptable within it. Within the UK, the expression "Prime Minister Johnson" is never used, although it, too, is sometimes used by foreign dignitaries and news sources.
10 Downing Street, in London, has been the official place of residence of the prime minister since 1732; they are entitled to use its staff and facilities, including extensive offices. Chequers, a country house in Buckinghamshire, gifted to the government in 1917, may be used as a country retreat for the prime minister.
There are five living former British prime ministers:
Upon retirement, it is customary for the sovereign to grant a prime minister some honour or dignity. The honour bestowed is commonly, but not invariably, membership of the UK's most senior order of chivalry, the Order of the Garter. The practice of creating a retired prime minister a Knight of the Garter (KG) has been fairly prevalent since the mid–nineteenth century. Upon the retirement of a prime minister who is Scottish, it is likely that the primarily Scottish honour of Knight of the Thistle (KT) will be used instead of the Order of the Garter, which is generally regarded as an English honour.
Historically it has also been common to grant prime ministers a peerage upon retirement from the Commons, elevating the individual to the Lords. Formerly, the peerage bestowed was usually an earldom. The last such creation was for Harold Macmillan, who resigned in 1963. Unusually, he became Earl of Stockton only in 1984, over twenty years after leaving office.
Macmillan's successors, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher, all accepted life peerages (although Douglas-Home had previously disclaimed his hereditary title as Earl of Home). Edward Heath did not accept a peerage of any kind and nor have any of the prime ministers to retire since 1990, although Heath and Major were later appointed as Knights of the Garter.
The most recent former prime minister to die was Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) on 8 April 2013. Her death meant that for the first time since 1955 (the year in which the Earldom of Attlee was created, subsequent to the death of Earl Baldwin in 1947) the membership of the House of Lords included no former prime minister, a situation which remains the case as of 2020. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24150 |
Flatworm
The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, Plathelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek πλατύ, "platy", meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), "helminth-", meaning "worm") are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrates. Unlike other bilaterians, they are acoelomates (having no body cavity), and have no specialized circulatory and respiratory organs, which restricts them to having flattened shapes that allow oxygen and nutrients to pass through their bodies by diffusion. The digestive cavity has only one opening for both ingestion (intake of nutrients) and egestion (removal of undigested wastes); as a result, the food cannot be processed continuously.
In traditional medicinal texts, Platyhelminthes are divided into Turbellaria, which are mostly non-parasitic animals such as planarians, and three entirely parasitic groups: Cestoda, Trematoda and Monogenea; however, since the turbellarians have since been proven not to be monophyletic, this classification is now deprecated. Free-living flatworms are mostly predators, and live in water or in shaded, humid terrestrial environments, such as leaf litter. Cestodes (tapeworms) and trematodes (flukes) have complex life-cycles, with mature stages that live as parasites in the digestive systems of fish or land vertebrates, and intermediate stages that infest secondary hosts. The eggs of trematodes are excreted from their main hosts, whereas adult cestodes generate vast numbers of hermaphroditic, segment-like proglottids that detach when mature, are excreted, and then release eggs. Unlike the other parasitic groups, the monogeneans are external parasites infesting aquatic animals, and their larvae metamorphose into the adult form after attaching to a suitable host.
Because they do not have internal body cavities, Platyhelminthes were regarded as a primitive stage in the evolution of bilaterians (animals with bilateral symmetry and hence with distinct front and rear ends). However, analyses since the mid-1980s have separated out one subgroup, the Acoelomorpha, as basal bilaterians – closer to the original bilaterians than to any other modern groups. The remaining Platyhelminthes form a monophyletic group, one that contains all and only descendants of a common ancestor that is itself a member of the group. The redefined Platyhelminthes is part of the Lophotrochozoa, one of the three main groups of more complex bilaterians. These analyses had concluded the redefined Platyhelminthes, excluding Acoelomorpha, consists of two monophyletic subgroups, Catenulida and Rhabditophora, with Cestoda, Trematoda and Monogenea forming a monophyletic subgroup within one branch of the Rhabditophora. Hence, the traditional platyhelminth subgroup "Turbellaria" is now regarded as paraphyletic, since it excludes the wholly parasitic groups, although these are descended from one group of "turbellarians".
Two planarian species have been used successfully in the Philippines, Indonesia, Hawaii, New Guinea, and Guam to control populations of the imported giant African snail "Achatina fulica", which was displacing native snails. However, these planarians are themselves a serious threat to native snails and should not be used for biological control. In northwest Europe, there are concerns about the spread of the New Zealand planarian "Arthurdendyus triangulatus", which preys on earthworms.
Platyhelminthes are bilaterally symmetrical animals: their left and right sides are mirror images of each other; this also implies they have distinct top and bottom surfaces and distinct head and tail ends. Like other bilaterians, they have three main cell layers (endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm), while the radially symmetrical cnidarians and ctenophores (comb jellies) have only two cell layers. Beyond that, they are "defined more by what they do not have than by any particular series of specializations." Unlike other bilaterians, Platyhelminthes have no internal body cavity, so are described as acoelomates. They also lack specialized circulatory and respiratory organs, both of these facts are defining features when classifying a flatworm's anatomy. Their bodies are soft and unsegmented.
The lack of circulatory and respiratory organs limits platyhelminths to sizes and shapes that enable oxygen to reach and carbon dioxide to leave all parts of their bodies by simple diffusion. Hence, many are microscopic and the large species have flat ribbon-like or leaf-like shapes. The guts of large species have many branches, allowing nutrients to diffuse to all parts of the body. Respiration through the whole surface of the body makes them vulnerable to fluid loss, and restricts them to environments where dehydration is unlikely: sea and freshwater, moist terrestrial environments such as leaf litter or between grains of soil, and as parasites within other animals.
The space between the skin and gut is filled with mesenchyme, also known as parenchyma, a connective tissue made of cells and reinforced by collagen fibers that act as a type of skeleton, providing attachment points for muscles. The mesenchyme contains all the internal organs and allows the passage of oxygen, nutrients and waste products. It consists of two main types of cell: fixed cells, some of which have fluid-filled vacuoles; and stem cells, which can transform into any other type of cell, and are used in regenerating tissues after injury or asexual reproduction.
Most platyhelminths have no anus and regurgitate undigested material through the mouth. However, some long species have an anus and some with complex, branched guts have more than one anus, since excretion only through the mouth would be difficult for them. The gut is lined with a single layer of endodermal cells that absorb and digest food. Some species break up and soften food first by secreting enzymes in the gut or pharynx (throat).
All animals need to keep the concentration of dissolved substances in their body fluids at a fairly constant level. Internal parasites and free-living marine animals live in environments with high concentrations of dissolved material, and generally let their tissues have the same level of concentration as the environment, while freshwater animals need to prevent their body fluids from becoming too dilute. Despite this difference in environments, most platyhelminths use the same system to control the concentration of their body fluids. Flame cells, so called because the beating of their flagella looks like a flickering candle flame, extract from the mesenchyme water that contains wastes and some reusable material, and drive it into networks of tube cells which are lined with flagella and microvilli. The tube cells' flagella drive the water towards exits called nephridiopores, while their microvilli reabsorb reusable materials and as much water as is needed to keep the body fluids at the right concentration. These combinations of flame cells and tube cells are called protonephridia.
In all platyhelminths, the nervous system is concentrated at the head end. This is least marked in the acoels, which have nerve nets rather like those of cnidarians and ctenophores, but densest around the head. Other platyhelminths have rings of ganglia in the head and main nerve trunks running along their bodies.
Early classification divided the flatworms in four groups: Turbellaria, Trematoda, Monogenea and Cestoda. This classification had long been recognized to be artificial, and in 1985, Ehlers proposed a phylogenetically more correct classification, where the massively polyphyletic "Turbellaria" was split into a dozen orders, and Trematoda, Monogenea and Cestoda were joined in the new order Neodermata. However, the classification presented here is the early, traditional, classification, as it still is the one used everywhere except in scientific articles.
These have about 4,500 species, are mostly free-living, and range from to in length. Most are predators or scavengers, and terrestrial species are mostly nocturnal and live in shaded, humid locations, such as leaf litter or rotting wood. However, some are symbiotes of other animals, such as crustaceans, and some are parasites. Free-living turbellarians are mostly black, brown or gray, but some larger ones are brightly colored. The Acoela and Nemertodermatida were traditionally regarded as turbellarians, but are now regarded as members of a separate phylum, the Acoelomorpha, or as two separate phyla. "Xenoturbella", a genus of very simple animals, has also been reclassified as a separate phylum.
Some turbellarians have a simple pharynx lined with cilia and generally feed by using cilia to sweep food particles and small prey into their mouths, which are usually in the middle of their undersides. Most other turbellarians have a pharynx that is eversible (can be extended by being turned inside-out), and the mouths of different species can be anywhere along the underside. The freshwater species "Microstomum caudatum" can open its mouth almost as wide as its body is long, to swallow prey about as large as itself.
Most turbellarians have pigment-cup ocelli ("little eyes"); one pair in most species, but two or even three pairs in others. A few large species have many eyes in clusters over the brain, mounted on tentacles, or spaced uniformly around the edge of the body. The ocelli can only distinguish the direction from which light is coming to enable the animals to avoid it. A few groups have statocysts - fluid-filled chambers containing a small, solid particle or, in a few groups, two. These statocysts are thought to function as balance and acceleration sensors, as they perform the same way in cnidarian medusae and in ctenophores. However, turbellarian statocysts have no sensory cilia, so the way they sense the movements and positions of solid particles is unknown. On the other hand, most have ciliated touch-sensor cells scattered over their bodies, especially on tentacles and around the edges. Specialized cells in pits or grooves on the head are most likely smell sensors.
Planarians, a subgroup of seriates, are famous for their ability to regenerate if divided by cuts across their bodies. Experiments show that (in fragments that do not already have a head) a new head grows most quickly on those fragments which were originally located closest to the original head. This suggests the growth of a head is controlled by a chemical whose concentration diminishes throughout the organism, from head to tail. Many turbellarians clone themselves by transverse or longitudinal division, whilst others, especially acoels, reproduce by budding.
The vast majority of turbellarians are hermaphrodites (they have both female and male reproductive cells) which fertilize eggs internally by copulation. Some of the larger aquatic species mate by penis fencing – a duel in which each tries to impregnate the other, and the loser adopts the female role of developing the eggs. In most species, "miniature adults" emerge when the eggs hatch, but a few large species produce plankton-like larvae.
These parasites' name refers to the cavities in their holdfasts (Greek τρῆμα, hole), which resemble suckers and anchor them within their hosts. The skin of all species is a syncitium, which is a layer of cells that shares a single external membrane. Trematodes are divided into two groups, Digenea and Aspidogastrea (also known as Aspodibothrea).
These are often called flukes, as most have flat rhomboid shapes like that of a flounder (Old English "flóc"). There are about 11,000 species, more than all other platyhelminthes combined, and second only to roundworms among parasites on metazoans. Adults usually have two holdfasts: a ring around the mouth and a larger sucker midway along what would be the underside in a free-living flatworm.
Although the name "Digeneans" means "two generations", most have very complex life cycles with up to seven stages, depending on what combinations of environments the early stages encounter – the most important factor being whether the eggs are deposited on land or in water. The intermediate stages transfer the parasites from one host to another. The definitive host in which adults develop is a land vertebrate; the earliest host of juvenile stages is usually a snail that may live on land or in water, whilst in many cases, a fish or arthropod is the second host. For example, the adjoining illustration shows the life cycle of the intestinal fluke "metagonimus", which hatches in the intestine of a snail, then moves to a fish where it penetrates the body and encysts in the flesh, then migrating to the small intestine of a land animal that eats the fish raw, finally generating eggs that are excreted and ingested by snails, thereby completing the cycle. Schistosomes, which cause the devastating tropical disease bilharzia, belong to this group.
Adults range between and in length. Individual adult digeneans are of a single sex, and in some species slender females live in enclosed grooves that run along the bodies of the males, partially emerging to lay eggs. In all species the adults have complex reproductive systems, capable of producing between 10,000 and 100,000 times as many eggs as a free-living flatworm. In addition, the intermediate stages that live in snails reproduce asexually.
Adults of different species infest different parts of the definitive host - for example the intestine, lungs, large blood vessels, and liver. The adults use a relatively large, muscular pharynx to ingest cells, cell fragments, mucus, body fluids or blood. In both the adult and snail-inhabiting stages, the external syncytium absorbs dissolved nutrients from the host. Adult digeneans can live without oxygen for long periods.
Members of this small group have either a single divided sucker or a row of suckers that cover the underside. They infest the guts of bony or cartilaginous fish, turtles, or the body cavities of marine and freshwater bivalves and gastropods. Their eggs produce ciliated swimming larvae, and the life cycle has one or two hosts.
These parasites attach themselves to their hosts by means of disks that bear crescent-shaped hooks. They are divided into the Monogenea and Cestoda groupings.
Of about 1,100 species of monogeneans, most are external parasites that require particular host species - mainly fish, but in some cases amphibians or aquatic reptiles. However, a few are internal parasites. Adult monogeneans have large attachment organs at the rear, known as haptors (Greek ἅπτειν, "haptein", means "catch"), which have suckers, clamps, and hooks. They often have flattened bodies. In some species, the pharynx secretes enzymes to digest the host's skin, allowing the parasite to feed on blood and cellular debris. Others graze externally on mucus and flakes of the hosts' skins. The name "Monogenea" is based on the fact that these parasites have only one nonlarval generation.
These are often called tapeworms because of their flat, slender but very long bodies – the name "cestode" is derived from the Latin word "cestus", which means "tape". The adults of all 3,400 cestode species are internal parasites.
Cestodes have no mouths or guts, and the syncitial skin absorbs nutrients – mainly carbohydrates and amino acids – from the host, and also disguises it chemically to avoid attacks by the host's immune system. Shortage of carbohydrates in the host's diet stunts the growth of parasites and may even kill them. Their metabolisms generally use simple but inefficient chemical processes, compensating for this inefficiency by consuming large amounts of food relative to their physical size.
In the majority of species, known as eucestodes ("true tapeworms"), the neck produces a chain of segments called proglottids via a process known as strobilation. As a result, the most mature proglottids are furthest from the scolex. Adults of "Taenia saginata", which infests humans, can form proglottid chains over long, although is more typical. Each proglottid has both male and female reproductive organs. If the host's gut contains two or more adults of the same cestode species they generally fertilize each other, however, proglottids of the same worm can fertilize each other and even themselves. When the eggs are fully developed, the proglottids separate and are excreted by the host. The eucestode life cycle is less complex than that of digeneans, but varies depending on the species. For example:
Members of the smaller group known as Cestodaria have no scolex, do not produce proglottids, and have body shapes similar to those of diageneans. Cestodarians parasitize fish and turtles.
The relationships of Platyhelminthes to other Bilateria are shown in the phylogenetic tree:
The internal relationships of Platyhelminthes are shown below. The tree is not fully resolved.
The oldest confidently identified parasitic flatworm fossils are cestode eggs found in a Permian shark coprolite, but helminth hooks still attached to Devonian acanthodians and placoderms might also represent parasitic flatworms with simple life cycles. The oldest known free-living platyhelminth specimen is a fossil preserved in Eocene age Baltic amber and placed in the monotypic species "Micropalaeosoma balticus", whilst the oldest subfossil specimens are schistosome eggs discovered in ancient Egyptian mummies. The Platyhelminthes have very few synapomorphies - distinguishing features that all Platyhelminthes (but no other animals) exhibit. This makes it difficult to work out their relationships with other groups of animals, as well as the relationships between different groups that are described as members of the Platyhelminthes.
The "traditional" view before the 1990s was that Platyhelminthes formed the sister group to all the other bilaterians, which include, for instance, arthropods, molluscs, annelids and chordates. Since then, molecular phylogenetics, which aims to work out evolutionary "family trees" by comparing different organisms' biochemicals such as DNA, RNA and proteins, has radically changed scientists' view of evolutionary relationships between animals. Detailed morphological analyses of anatomical features in the mid-1980s, as well as molecular phylogenetics analyses since 2000 using different sections of DNA, agree that Acoelomorpha, consisting of Acoela (traditionally regarded as very simple "turbellarians") and Nemertodermatida (another small group previously classified as "turbellarians") are the sister group to all other bilaterians, including the rest of the Platyhelminthes. However, a 2007 study concluded that Acoela and Nemertodermatida were two distinct groups of bilaterians, although it agreed that both are more closely related to cnidarians (jellyfish, etc.) than other bilaterians are.
"Xenoturbella", a bilaterian whose only well-defined organ is a statocyst, was originally classified as a "primitive turbellarian". Later studies suggested it may instead be a deuterostome, but more detailed molecular phylogenetics have led to its classification as sister-group to the Acoelomorpha.
The Platyhelminthes excluding Acoelomorpha contain two main groups - Catenulida and Rhabditophora - both of which are generally agreed to be monophyletic (each contains all and only the descendants of an ancestor that is a member of the same group). Early molecular phylogenetics analyses of the Catenulida and Rhabditophora left uncertainties about whether these could be combined in a single monophyletic group; a study in 2008 concluded that they could, therefore Platyhelminthes could be redefined as Catenulida plus Rhabditophora, excluding the Acoelomorpha.
Other molecular phylogenetics analyses agree the redefined Platyhelminthes are most closely related to Gastrotricha, and both are part of a grouping known as Platyzoa. Platyzoa are generally agreed to be at least closely related to the Lophotrochozoa, a superphylum that includes molluscs and annelid worms. The majority view is that Platyzoa are part of Lophotrochozoa, but a significant minority of researchers regard Platyzoa as a sister group of Lophotrochozoa.
It has been agreed since 1985 that each of the wholly parasitic platyhelminth groups (Cestoda, Monogenea and Trematoda) is monophyletic, and that together these form a larger monophyletic grouping, the Neodermata, in which the adults of all members have syncitial skins. However, there is debate about whether the Cestoda and Monogenea can be combined as an intermediate monophyletic group, the Cercomeromorpha, within the Neodermata. It is generally agreed that the Neodermata are a sub-group a few levels down in the "family tree" of the Rhabditophora. Hence the traditional sub-phylum "Turbellaria" is paraphyletic, since it does not include the Neodermata although these are descendants of a sub-group of "turbellarians".
An outline of the origins of the parasitic life style has been proposed; epithelial feeding monopisthocotyleans on fish hosts are basal in the Neodermata and were the first shift to parasitism from free living ancestors. The next evolutionary step was a dietary change from epithelium to blood. The last common ancestor of Digenea + Cestoda was monogenean and most likely sanguinivorous.
The earliest known fossils confidently classified as tapeworms have been dated to , after being found in coprolites (fossilised faeces) from an elasmobranch. Putative older fossils include brownish bodies on the bedding planes reported from the Late Ordovician (Katian) Vauréal Formation (Canada) by Knaust & Desrochers (2019), tentatively interpreted as turbellarians (though the authors cautioned that they might ultimately turn out to be fossils of acoelomorphs or nemerteans) and circlets of fossil hooks preserved with placoderm and acanthodian fossils from the Devonian of Latvia, at least some of which might represent parasitic monogeneans.
Cestodes (tapeworms) and digeneans (flukes) cause diseases in humans and their livestock, whilst monogeneans can cause serious losses of stocks in fish farms. Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever, is the second-most devastating parasitic disease in tropical countries, behind malaria. The Carter Center estimated 200 million people in 74 countries are infected with the disease, and half the victims live in Africa. The condition has a low mortality rate, but usually presents as a chronic illness that can damage internal organs. It can impair the growth and cognitive development of children, increasing the risk of bladder cancer in adults. The disease is caused by several flukes of the genus "Schistosoma", which can bore through human skin; those most at risk use infected bodies of water for recreation or laundry.
In 2000, an estimated 45 million people were infected with the beef tapeworm "Taenia saginata" and 3 million with the pork tapeworm "Taenia solium". Infection of the digestive system by adult tapeworms causes abdominal symptoms that, whilst unpleasant, are seldom disabling or life-threatening. However, neurocysticercosis resulting from penetration of "T. solium" larvae into the central nervous system is the major cause of acquired epilepsy worldwide. In 2000, about 39 million people were infected with trematodes (flukes) that naturally parasitize fish and crustaceans, but can pass to humans who eat raw or lightly cooked seafood. Infection of humans by the broad fish tapeworm "Diphyllobothrium latum" occasionally causes vitamin B12 deficiency and, in severe cases, megaloblastic anemia.
The threat to humans in developed countries is rising as a result of social trends: the increase in organic farming, which uses manure and sewage sludge rather than artificial fertilizers, spreads parasites both directly and via the droppings of seagulls which feed on manure and sludge; the increasing popularity of raw or lightly cooked foods; imports of meat, seafood and salad vegetables from high-risk areas; and, as an underlying cause, reduced awareness of parasites compared with other public health issues such as pollution. In less-developed countries, inadequate sanitation and the use of human feces (night soil) as fertilizer or to enrich fish farm ponds continues to spread parasitic platyhelminths, whilst poorly designed water-supply and irrigation projects have provided additional channels for their spread. People in these countries usually cannot afford the cost of fuel required to cook food thoroughly enough to kill parasites. Controlling parasites that infect humans and livestock has become more difficult, as many species have become resistant to drugs that used to be effective, mainly for killing juveniles in meat. While poorer countries still struggle with unintentional infection, cases have been reported of intentional infection in the US by dieters who are desperate for rapid weight-loss.
There is concern in northwest Europe (including the British Isles) regarding the possible proliferation of the New Zealand planarian "Arthurdendyus triangulatus" and the Australian flatworm "Australoplana sanguinea", both of which prey on earthworms. "A. triangulatus" is thought to have reached Europe in containers of plants imported by botanical gardens.
In Hawaii, the planarian "Endeavouria septemlineata" has been used to control the imported giant African snail "Achatina fulica", which was displacing native snails; "Platydemus manokwari", another planarian, has been used for the same purpose in Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea and Guam. Although "A. fulica" has declined sharply in Hawaii, there are doubts about how much "E. septemlineata" contributed to this decline. However, "P. manokwari" is given credit for severely reducing, and in places exterminating, "A. fulica" – achieving much greater success than most biological pest control programs, which generally aim for a low, stable population of the pest species. The ability of planarians to take different kinds of prey and to resist starvation may account for their ability to decimate "A. fulica". However, these planarians are a serious threat to native snails and should never be used for biological control.
A study in La Plata, Argentina, shows the potential for planarians such as "Girardia anceps", "Mesostoma ehrenbergii", and "Bothromesostoma evelinae" to reduce populations of the mosquito species "Aedes aegypti" and "Culex pipiens". The experiment showed that "G. anceps" in particular can prey on all instars of both mosquito species yet maintain a steady predation rate over time. The ability for these flatworms to live in artificial containers demonstrated the potential of placing these species in popular mosquito breeding sites, which would ideally reduce the amount of mosquito-borne diseases. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24151 |
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The population was 106,595 in 2010 census, making it the 267th most populous city in the United States and the 9th largest in Colorado. Pueblo is the heart of the Pueblo Metropolitan Statistical Area, totaling over 160,000 people and an important part of the Front Range Urban Corridor. As of 2014, Pueblo is the primary city of the Pueblo–Cañon City combined statistical area (CSA) totaling approximately 208,000 people, making it the 134th largest in the nation.
Pueblo is situated at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek, south of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. The area is considered semi-arid desert land, with approximately of precipitation annually. With its location in the "Banana Belt", Pueblo tends to get less snow than the other major cities in Colorado.
Pueblo is one of the largest steel-producing cities in the United States, for which reason Pueblo is referred to as the "Steel City". The Historic Arkansas River Project (HARP) is a riverwalk in the Union Avenue Historic Commercial District, and shows the history of the devastating Pueblo Flood of 1921.
Pueblo has the least expensive residential real estate of all major cities in Colorado. The median home price for homes on the market in Pueblo is $192,500 as of April 2018. It is the sixth most affordable place to live in America as measured by the 2014 Cost of Living Index. Costs of housing, goods and services, utilities, transportation, groceries and health care are lower than the national average. Pueblo was listed by AARP in 2013 as one of the best affordable places to live.
James Beckwourth, George Simpson, and other trappers such as Mathew Kinkead, claimed to have helped construct the plaza that became known as El Pueblo around 1842. According to accounts of residents who traded at the plaza (including that of George Simpson), the Fort Pueblo Massacre happened sometime between December 23 and December 25, 1854, by a war party of Utes and Jicarilla Apaches under the leadership of Tierra Blanca, a Ute chief. They allegedly killed between fifteen and nineteen men, as well as captured two children and one woman. The trading post was abandoned after the raid, but it became important again between 1858 and 1859 during the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859.
The current city of Pueblo represents the consolidation of four towns: Pueblo (incorporated 1870), South Pueblo (incorporated 1873), Central Pueblo (incorporated 1882), and Bessemer (incorporated 1886). Pueblo, South Pueblo, and Central Pueblo legally consolidated as the City of Pueblo between March 9 and April 6, 1886. Bessemer joined Pueblo in 1894.
The consolidated city became a major economic and social center of Colorado, and was home to important early Colorado families such as the Thatchers, the Ormans, and the Adams. By the early 1870s the city was being hailed as a beacon of development, with newspapers like the Chicago Tribune boasting of how the region's lawless reputation was giving way to orderly agriculture with triumphalist rhetoric. One author crowed of Pueblo that "the necessity exists no longer for Sharp's rifles and revolvers. These have been supplied by the plow and the mowing-machine."
Pueblo's development stretched beyond agriculture. Steel emerged as a key industry very early, and in 1909 the city was considered the only steel town west of the Mississippi River.
Until a series of major floods culminated in the Great Flood of 1921, Pueblo was considered the 'Saddle-Making capital of the World'. Roughly one-third of Pueblo's downtown businesses were lost in this flood, along with a substantial number of buildings. Pueblo struggled with this significant loss, but has had a resurgence in growth.
Pueblo's orphanages were an influential part of the city. The transformations that have occurred throughout the three orphanages in the town of Pueblo, Colorado are important aspects of the city's history. Historically, many people were influenced by the Orphanages of Pueblo, Colorado and the homes are now all historical sites. The transformations have occurred architecturally and economically within the people from then to now. The three orphanages in Pueblo were known as Sacred Heart, Lincoln, and McClelland. Lincoln was the first historically black orphanage in Colorado, and one of only seven in the country. Sacred Heart was run by the Catholic Welfare Bureau, while McClelland was run by the Lutheran Church. Several children from Cuba were placed at Sacred Heart as part of "Operation Pedro Pan". Though the Orphanages in Pueblo are no longer in service, the buildings still exist and have transformed with the times. According to the Rocky Mountain News, in 1988 the Sacred Heart Orphanage was bought by the Pueblo Housing Authority and turned into 40 small-family housing units.
The main industry in Pueblo for most of its history was the Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) Steel Mill on the south side of town. For nearly a century the CF&I was the largest employer in the state of Colorado. The steel-market crash of 1982 led to the decline of the company. After several bankruptcies, the company was acquired by Oregon Steel Mills and changed its name to Rocky Mountain Steel Mills. The company was plagued with labor problems, mostly due to accusations of unfair labor practices. This culminated with a major strike in 1997, leading to most of the workforce being replaced.
In September 2004, both United Steelworkers locals 2102 and 3267 won the strike and the unfair labor practice charges. All of the striking steel workers returned to their jobs, and the company paid them the back pay owed for the seven years they were on strike. In 2007, shortly after Oregon Steel made amends with the union and its workers, Evraz Group, one of Russia's biggest steel producers, agreed to buy the company for $2.3 billion.
Of the many production and fabrication mills that once existed on the site, only the steel production (electric furnaces, used for scrap recycling), rail, rod, bar, and seamless tube mills are still in operation. The wire mill was sold in the late 1990s to Davis Wire, which still produces products such as fence and nails under the CF&I brand name.
The facility operated blast furnaces until 1982, when the steel market collapsed. The main blast furnace structures were torn down in 1989, but due to asbestos content, many of the adjacent stoves still remain. The stoves and foundations for some of the furnaces can be seen from Interstate 25, which runs parallel to the plant's west boundary.
Several of the administration buildings, including the main office building, dispensary, and tunnel gatehouse were purchased in 2003 by the Bessemer Historical Society. In 2006, they underwent renovation. In addition to housing the historic CF&I Archives, they also house the Steelworks Museum of Industry and Culture.
Due to the growth of the CF&I steel mill and the employment that it offered, Pueblo in the early twentieth century attracted a large number of immigrant laborers. The groups represented led to Pueblo becoming the most ethnically and culturally diverse city in Colorado and the West. At one point, more than 40 languages were spoken in the steel mill and more than two-dozen foreign language newspapers were published in the city. Irish, Italian, German, Slovenian, Greek, Jewish, Lithuanian, Russian, Hungarian, Japanese, and African-American groups arrived in the area at the turn of the century and remain to the present time. The convergence of cultures led to a cosmopolitan character to the city that resulted in a number of ethnically-rooted neighborhoods that are typically not seen west of the Mississippi. Respective cultural groups maintain cultural festivals to the present, with the city being home to locations of the Order Sons of Italy, American Slovenian Catholic Union, and I.O.O.F., among others.
Another major employer in Pueblo is the Colorado State Hospital. The hospital is the preeminent mental health facility in the Rocky Mountain region. Established in 1879 as the Colorado State Insane Asylum, it was renamed as the Colorado State Hospital in 1917. In 1991, the name was changed to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP). The Robert L. Hawkins High Security Forensic Institute opened in June 2009 and is a 200-bed, high-security facility.
Pueblo is the hometown of four Medal of Honor recipients (more than any other municipality in the United States) - William J. Crawford, Carl L. Sitter, Raymond G. Murphy, and Drew D. Dix. President Dwight D. Eisenhower upon presenting Raymond G. "Jerry" Murphy with his medal in 1953 commented, "What is it... something in the water out there in Pueblo? All you guys turn out to be heroes!"
In 1993, Pueblo City Council adopted the tagline "Home of Heroes" for the city due to the fact that Pueblo can claim more recipients of the Medal per capita than any other city in the United States. On July 1, 1993, the "Congressional Record" recognized Pueblo as the "Home of Heroes." A memorial to the recipients of the medal is at the Pueblo Convention Center. Central High School is known as the "School of Heroes," as it is the alma mater of two recipients, Sitter and Crawford.
Pueblo is located at (38.266933, −104.620393).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water (99.34% and 0.66% respectively).
Pueblo is south of Denver and is on the front range of the Rocky Mountains.
Pueblo sits on western edge of the Great Plains in a high desert area of terrain in southern Colorado and is near the western edge of the Southwestern Tablelands ecology region. Pueblo has a steppe climate (Köppen "BSk"), with four distinct seasons. Winter days are usually mild, but the high does not surpass freezing on an average 15.3 days per year, and lows fall to or below on 7.8 nights. Snowfall usually falls in light amounts, and due to the high altitude, and the accompanying stronger sun, rarely remains on the ground for long (typically, for one or two days). January is the snowiest month, followed by March, and the seasonal average is ; however, snow is uncommon in October, and in May or September, snow is exceedingly rare, with an average first and last date of measurable (≥) snowfall being November 6 and April 13, respectively. Summers are hot and dry, with or greater highs are on average seen 66.7 days per year, with or greater on 10.2 days. Diurnal temperature ranges are large throughout the year, averaging .
Precipitation is generally low, with the winter months receiving very little. Sunshine is abundant throughout the year, with an annual total of nearly 3470, or 78% of the possible total. Pueblo is considered a high desert climate, and sits on the desert lands in southern Colorado between Pueblo and the Royal Gorge.
As of the census of 2000, there were 102,121 people, 40,307 households, and 26,118 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,265.5 people per square mile (874.6/km2). There were 43,121 housing units at an average density of 956.6 per square mile (369.3/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 56.21% White, 2.41% African American, 1.73% Native American, 0.67% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 15.20% from other races, and 3.71% from two or more races. Latinos made up 44.13% of the population. 10.1% were of German, 8.1% Italian, 6.0% American, 5.5% English and 5.4% Irish ancestry according to Census 2000.
According to the 2005 Census estimates, the city had grown to an estimated population of 104,951 and had become the ninth most populous city in the state of Colorado and the 245th most populous city in the United States.
There were 40,307 households out of which 29.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.5% were married couples living together, 15.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.2% were non-families. 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the city, the ages of the population were spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 26.6% from 25 to 44, 21.4% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $29,650, and the median income for a family was $35,620. Males had a median income of $29,702 versus $22,197 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,026. About 13.9% of families and 17.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.3% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those age 65 or over.
As of the 2010 census, the population of Pueblo was 106,544 (259th most populous U.S. city), the population of the Pueblo Metropolitan Statistical Area was 159,063 (190th most populous MSA), the population of the Pueblo–Cañon City, CO Combined Statistical Area was 205,887, the population of the South Central Colorado Urban Area was 851,500, and the population of the Front Range Urban Corridor in Colorado was an estimated 4,166,855.
As of the April 2010 census the racial makeup of the city was: 75.2% White, 2.5% Black or African American, 2.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 4.1% Two or More Races. Hispanic or Latino (of any race) were 49.8% and Non-Hispanic Whites were 45.2% of the population.
Pueblo is the home of the Federal Citizen Information Center, operated by the General Services Administration, and its Consumer Information Catalog. For over 30 years, public service announcements invited Americans to write for information at "Pueblo, Colorado, 81009". In recent times GSA has incorporated Pueblo into FCIC's toll-free telephone number.
Vestas Wind Systems has constructed the largest (nearly 700,000 square feet) wind turbine tower manufacturing plant in the world at Pueblo's industrial park.
Renewable Energy Systems Americas broke ground on the Comanche Solar Project seven miles south of Pueblo in 2015. When complete, it will be the largest solar energy farm east of the Rocky Mountains, and its backers say the project will produce electricity more cheaply than natural gas. The project will cover 1,000 acres with 500,000 solar panels, providing a capacity of 156 megawatts of power—enough to supply 31,000 homes. The project will be run by SunEdison, with a power purchase agreement signed by Xcel Energy. A number of scientific studies now list Pueblo as the state's primary locale for solar energy development and the premier setting for solar companies to locate, placing it ahead of regional rivals such as Boulder, Colorado and Taos, New Mexico.
In February 2017, Pueblo City Council voted to commit the city to 100% renewable energy ("Ready for 100%") by the year 2035, with the city's electric franchisee, Black Hills Energy, expected to ramp up its renewable energy portfolio from 29% to 65%. Pueblo County commissioners joined the renewable commitment in April 2018. For several years, Pueblo's Energy Future has been pushing the city to become a municipal electric provider. Among the claimed advantages for the move toward independence: lower cost to the consumer, increased reliability and the opportunity to move more aggressively toward renewable energy development. At one time, an August 2020 "divorce" seemed possible.
According to Pueblo's 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:
Pueblo is the home to Colorado's largest single event, the Colorado State Fair, held annually in the late summer, and the largest parade, the state fair parade, as well as an annual Chile & Frijoles Festival.
Pueblo is the hometown of Dutch Clark, the first man from Colorado inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well as the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. The primary football stadium belonging to Pueblo City Schools is named for him. Two long-standing high school rivalries are played annually at this stadium. The Bell Game has been played annually since 1892 between the Central Wildcats and the Centennial Bulldogs in what is touted as the oldest football rivalry west of the Mississippi River.
In 2008, Professional Bull Riders (PBR) moved its corporate headquarters to Pueblos this became the site of their world headquarters based at the Historic Arkansas River Project. located bordering the Union Avenue Historic Commercial District.
In 2014, the CSU–Pueblo ThunderWolves, playing for Colorado State University Pueblo, won the NCAA Division II Football Championship, a first national title for the football program.
In 2019, the Pueblo Bulls junior ice hockey team in the United States Premier Hockey League, began play out of the Pueblo Ice Arena.
Pueblo is a state-chartered municipal corporation, previously governed by its city council without the office of mayor and administered by a city manager. In 2017 voters passed Question 2A changing the city charter to a strong-mayor form of city government known as "Mayor-Council Government". Only two other cities in the state of Colorado use the strong-mayor form of government, Denver and Colorado Springs. In 2018 an election was held for mayor for the first time in over sixty years, due to none of the sixteen candidates getting more than fifty percent of the vote, a runoff was required to decide the winner. In January 2019 attorney Nicholas Gradisar faced former Pueblo City Council President Steve Nawrocki, Gradisar prevailed and was sworn in as mayor on the first of February for a term of five years, with all subsequent mayoral terms being four years and a maximum of two consecutive terms.
The deputy mayor is selected by the mayor and must be confirmed by a vote of the city council, the deputy mayor serves a term of one year. According to the city charter, the deputy mayor must be a city department head.
The city council is elected by the residents of the city. There are seven council seats, four of which are elected by district, and three elected at-large.
Pueblo is included in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is currently represented by Republican Scott Tipton. Pueblo is also included in the 3rd District of the Colorado State Senate, currently represented by Democrat Leroy Garcia; and District 46 of the Colorado State House currently represented by Democrat Daneya Esgar.
The Pueblo Police Department is led by Chief Troy Davenport. Per capita, the crime rate in Pueblo is higher than the national average for a city of the same size and does not take into account the surrounding unincorporated cumulative population of 176,529. In 2016, the FBI's Uniform Crime Report listed Pueblo's major reported crimes stats as: 1,081 violent crime, murders 9, rape 171, robbery 224, aggravated assault 677, property crimes (all) 7,473, burglary 1,797, larceny 4,505, motor vehicle theft (all) 1,171, arson 49.
Pueblo is home to Colorado State University–Pueblo (CSU–Pueblo), a regional comprehensive university. It is part of the Colorado State University System (CSU System), with about 4,500 students. On May 8, 2007, CSU–Pueblo received approval from the Board of Governors of the Colorado State University System to bring back football as a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The first game was played in the fall of 2008 at the ThunderBowl, a stadium at CSU–Pueblo for over 12,000 spectators. In 2014, the football team won the NCAA Division II Football Championship.
Pueblo Community College (PCC) is a two-year, public, comprehensive community college, one of thirteen community colleges within the Colorado Community College System (CCCS). It operates three campuses serving a widely dispersed eight-county region in Southern Colorado. The main campus is located in Pueblo and serves Pueblo County. The Fremont Campus is located approximately west of Pueblo in Cañon City and serves Fremont and Custer Counties. The Southwest Campus, southwest of Pueblo, serves Montezuma, Dolores, La Plata, San Juan, and Archuleta counties. PCC is a Hispanic Serving Institution as designated by the Federal Government. Approximately 5,000 students attend PCC per semester.
Almost all of the city limits is within the Pueblo City Schools school district. Very small portions lie within Pueblo County School District 70.
Centennial High School was founded north of downtown on Eleventh Street in 1876, the year Colorado entered the Union. Centennial was rebuilt on a new site to the northwest in 1973. Central High School was founded in Bessemer in 1882. Central's present campus on East Orman Avenue was built in 1906 and expanded in the early 1970s. Its original building still stands four blocks away on East Pitkin Avenue. South High School and East High School were built in the late 1950s to accommodate the Baby Boomer generation. Pueblo County High School, east of the city in Vineland, serves rural residents. Rye High School is in a foothills town southwest of Pueblo. Pueblo West High School is located in the northwestern suburb of Pueblo West.
Pueblo Catholic High School closed in 1971. Its building became Roncalli middle school in the early 1970s. By 1975 all Catholic schools in Pueblo (under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pueblo) had closed. there are two Catholic grade schools in Pueblo: St. John Neumann Catholic School and St. Therese Catholic School.
Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School was founded in 2004, and relocated to its current building in 2007. It features the only Early College Program in Pueblo recognized by the State of Colorado, where many students graduate with their associate degree from Pueblo Community College while also earning credit from Colorado State University–Pueblo. Other Pueblo area high schools include Southern Colorado Early College, School of Engineering and Biomedical Science (formerly Pueblo Technical Academy), Parkhill Christian Academy and the Health Academy.
The Pueblo radio market includes all of Pueblo County. In its Fall 2013 ranking of radio markets by population, Arbitron ranked the Pueblo market 238th in the United States. Six AM and 15 FM radio stations broadcast from or are licensed to the city.
Due to Pueblo's proximity to Colorado Springs, local listeners can also receive the signal of most radio stations broadcasting from the Colorado Springs radio market.
The city's main retail center is Pueblo Mall, built in 1976.
The Colorado Springs–Pueblo market is the 90th largest television market in the United States.
The City of Pueblo operates Pueblo Transit. Greyhound Lines provides bus service towards Denver, Colorado; Amarillo, Texas; Albuquerque, New Mexico. Regional bus service to La Junta, Lamar as well as Colorado Springs is provided by the CDOT operated Bustang.
Freight service is provided by BNSF and Union Pacific. There is currently no intercity passenger service directly into Pueblo. Amtrak's "Southwest Chief" stops in La Junta (Amtrak station) (64 miles to the east of Pueblo) twice each day and provides passenger rail service towards Los Angeles and Chicago. An Amtrak study in 2016 floated the idea of rerouting the "Southwest Chief" from Trinidad in the south, to Pueblo and then east, back to the existing "Southwest Chief" route in La Junta. The study projected that a new stop in Colorado Springs would gain as many as 14,000 new riders, and would pull in about $1.45 million in ticket revenue. Pueblo itself last had intercity passenger service in 1967 with the Denver to Dallas "Texas Zephyr," run by the Colorado & Southern Railway and the Fort Worth & Denver Railway (both subsidiaries of the Burlington Route).
The local airport, Pueblo Memorial Airport, lies to the east of the city. It is home to the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum (named for Fred Weisbrod, late city manager), reflecting the airport's beginnings as an Army Air Corps base in 1943. There is a general aviation field just west of Pueblo West/Penrose.
SkyWest Airlines under the flag of United Express services southern Colorado with non-stop daily flights from Pueblo Memorial Airport to Denver International Airport utilizing Bombardier's CRJ-200 aircraft.
Throughout the year, aircraft spotters can see large C-130, C-17, and E-3 performing landings and takeoffs. Modern fighters such as the F-22, F-15, F-35, and F-16 are also seen on occasion flying around the facility and parked on the ramp.
Interstate 25 and US Route 85 run in tandem on the same north–south expressway through Pueblo. US Route 50 runs east–west through Pueblo. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24158 |
Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond (born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, November 25, 1924 – May 30, 1977) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer, best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for composing that group's biggest hit, "Take Five". He was one of the most popular musicians to come out of the cool jazz scene.
In addition to his work with Brubeck, he led several groups and collaborated with Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Jim Hall, and Ed Bickert. After years of chain smoking and poor health, Desmond succumbed to lung cancer in 1977 after a tour with Brubeck.
Desmond was born Paul Emil Breitenfeld in San Francisco, California, in 1924, the son of Shirley (née King) and Emil Aron Breitenfeld. His grandfather, Sigmund Breitenfeld was, according to an obituary, born in Austria in 1857. Sigmund Breitenfeld, a medical doctor, emigrated to New York City with his wife Hermine (born Hermine Lewy) at the end of the 19th century, and the Breitenfelds raised their four children (including Desmond's father Emil) with no religion. Interviewed by Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey, Desmond's first cousin Rick Breitenfeld said that no one in the Breitenfeld family could find evidence of Jewish ancestry or Jewish religious observance, but Paul Desmond and members of his father's family "frequently speculated as to whether or not Sigmund or Hermine Breitenfeld had Jewish backgrounds". Biographer Ramsey notes that "the name Breitenfeld could be Jewish or non-Jewish. There are plenty of Breitenfelds in Germany and Austria to support both sides of the argument. Lewy, the maiden surname of Paul's paternal grandmother Hermine, is more likely to be of Jewish origin, but no evidence of her genealogy has surfaced." However, Fred Barton, songwriter/arranger and Desmond's cousin, found extensive genealogical proof that both the Breitenfeld and Löwy families were Bohemian Jews. The Breitenfeld family in Bohemia and Vienna featured musicians in every generation throughout the 1800s, 1900s, and to the present day.
Desmond's mother, born Shirley King, was Catholic, and of Irish descent.
Desmond's father, Emil Breitenfeld, was a pianist, organist, arranger, and composer. Breitenfeld accompanied silent films in movie theaters and produced musical arrangements for printed publication and for live theatrical productions. During World War I, while Breitenfeld was training with the 17th New York Regiment in Plattsburgh, New York, he composed "The Last Long Mile", one of the best-known soldiers' songs of that war.
Desmond's mother Shirley was emotionally unstable throughout his upbringing, and appears to have suffered from obsessive–compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses. Starting in 1933, Desmond spent nearly five years living with relatives in New Rochelle, New York due to his mother's mental health problems.
Desmond began to study clarinet at the age of twelve, which he continued while at San Francisco Polytechnic High School. During high school, he wished to study violin, but his father dissuaded him, saying that violin players were "a dime a dozen...with the violin, you'll starve." Desmond developed a talent for writing during high school as well, becoming co-editor of his high school newspaper. In that capacity, he interviewed comedian Bob Hope for his school newspaper during one of Hope's visits to San Francisco. As freshman at San Francisco State College, Desmond began playing alto saxophone. In his first year of college, Desmond was drafted into the United States Army and joined the Army band while stationed in San Francisco. He spent three years in the military, but his unit was not called to combat.
In 1946, following his military discharge, Desmond legally changed his last named from Breitenfeld to Desmond. He told many stories over the years regarding how he chose the name Desmond, but his biographer Doug Ramsey offers an account from Desmond's friend Hal Strack that the two were listening to the Gene Krupa band singer Johnny Desmond in 1942, and Desmond told Strack "that's such a great name. It's so smooth and yet it's uncommon...If I ever decide I need another name, it's going to be Desmond." Desmond was married from 1947 to 1949 to Duane Reeves Lamon. Following his divorce, he remained single for the rest of his life.
After World War II, Desmond started working in the San Francisco Bay Area, taking pick-up work as a backing musician as he could find it. He worked occasionally for Dave Brubeck at the Geary Cellar in San Francisco. For a period of several weeks, he led a small jazz combo at the Band Box in Redwood City that included Dave Brubeck. Desmond had a falling out with Brubeck when he resigned from the Band Box and prevented Brubeck from taking over the residency. In 1950 Desmond joined the band of Jack Fina and toured with Fina for several months, but he returned to California after hearing Brubeck's trio on the radio and deciding that he should repair his relationship with Brubeck and attempt to join Brubeck's increasingly successful band.
At the time, Brubeck and Brubeck's wife Iola had three small children, and Brubeck had instructed Iola not to let Desmond set foot in the family home. Desmond appeared at Brubeck's San Francisco apartment one day while Dave was in the back yard hanging diapers on a laundry line, and Iola, defying Brubeck's wishes, let Desmond in and took him to Dave. Desmond offered to perform arranging and administrative work for Brubeck's band, and to babysit Brubeck's children, and Brubeck finally relented and agreed to try working with Desmond again.
Desmond had met Dave Brubeck in 1944 while still in the military. Brubeck was trying out for the 253rd Army band which Desmond belonged to. After making the cut he—unlike Desmond—was sent overseas in 1944, to Europe. Desmond once told Marian McPartland of National Public Radio's "Piano Jazz" that he was taken aback by the chord changes Brubeck introduced during that 1944 audition. After convincing Brubeck to hire him following his stint with Jack Fina, the two had a contract drafted (of which Brubeck was the sole signatory); the language forbade Brubeck from firing him, ensured Brubeck's status as group leader, and gave Desmond twenty percent of all profits generated from the quartet. That is how the Dave Brubeck Quartet had its start, a group that began in 1951 and ended in December 1967. The quartet became especially popular with college-age audiences, often performing in college settings like on their ground-breaking 1953 album "Jazz at Oberlin" at Oberlin College, or on their recordings on the campuses of Ohio University and the University of Michigan, among others. The success of the quartet led to a "Time" magazine piece on them in 1954, with the famous cover featuring Brubeck's face. The group played until 1967, when Brubeck switched his musical focus from performance to composition and broke the unit up. During the 1970s Desmond joined Brubeck for several reunion tours, including "Two Generations of Brubeck". Accompanying them were Brubeck's sons Chris Brubeck, Dan Brubeck and Darius Brubeck. In 1976 Desmond played 25 shows in 25 nights with Brubeck, touring the United States in several cities by bus.
Desmond worked several times during his career with baritone saxophonist and band leader Gerry Mulligan. The two made two studio albums together ("Gerry Mulligan - Paul Desmond Quartet" (1957), and "Two of a Mind" (1962)). In June 1969 Desmond appeared at the New Orleans Jazz Festival with Gerry Mulligan, procuring favorable reactions from critics and audience members. During Brubeck's "Two Generations" tours, Desmond and Mulligan shared the stage together in 1974. Unlike Brubeck, Mulligan personally shared much in common with Desmond. The two shared similar interests and humor, and both men had no shortage of addictions in their lives.
Desmond had a celebrated studio partnership with guitarist Jim Hall. Hall played on several albums recorded by Desmond between 1959 and 1963 for the Warner Bros. and RCA record labels. After some time spent inactive, Desmond was asked to play the Half Note in New York City in 1971 by Hall. With his special brand of humor, Desmond said that he took the job only because he was nearby and could tumble out of bed to work. The two continued to play at the club to jam-packed audiences. Desmond also joined the Modern Jazz Quartet for a Christmas concert in 1971 at the New York Town Hall.
Desmond was a guest artist on five tracks by Chet Baker recorded between 1975-1977. These were released on the albums "She Was Too Good to Me", "You Can't Go Home Again", and "The Best Thing For You". Baker and Desmond also appeared together on two tracks included on Jim Hall's 1975 "Concierto" album.
Desmond met Canadian guitarist Ed Bickert through a recommendation by Jim Hall, and Desmond performed with Bickert at several clubs in the Toronto area during 1974-1975. Desmond featured Bickert on his 1975 studio album "Pure Desmond", and the two played together at the 1976 Edmonton Jazz Festival. Live recordings of that concert and club dates with Bickert performed during 1974-1975 were released during and after Desmond's lifetime.
In their private lives Dave Brubeck and his family were very close to Paul Desmond, though the two men possessed very different personalities. Darius Brubeck recalls thinking that Desmond was his uncle almost into adolescence. Desmond grew especially close to Dave's son Michael, to whom he left his saxophone upon death. Desmond was also described as a womanizer who was unable to form (and was uninterested in maintaining) steady relationships with women, though he had no shortage of female companions throughout his life. Desmond is reported to have quipped, upon seeing a former girlfriend on the street, "There she goes, not with a whim but a banker" (a semi-Spoonerism reference to T.S. Eliot's "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper"). In contrast, Brubeck was deeply religious and a stalwart family man.
Desmond enjoyed reading works by the thinkers of his generation like Timothy Leary and Jack Kerouac, also dabbling in some LSD usage. He was known to have several addictions, including Dewar's Scotch whisky and Pall Mall cigarettes. In the 1940s and 1950s, Desmond frequently took amphetamines, and in the 1970s, he was known to use cocaine. His chemical-dependency problems would sometimes drain him of his energy on the road. Clarinetist Perry Robinson recalls in his autobiography that Desmond would sometimes need a vitamin B12 shot just to go on playing during his later career.
Desmond died on May 30, 1977, not of his heavy alcohol habit but of lung cancer, the result of his longtime heavy smoking. Never without his humor, after he was diagnosed with cancer he expressed pleasure at the health of his liver. His last concert was with Brubeck in February 1977, in New York City. His fans did not know that he was already dying. Desmond specified in his will that all proceeds from "Take Five" would go to the Red Cross following his death. Desmond reportedly owned a Baldwin grand piano, which he lent to Bradley Cunningham, owner of Bradley's piano bar in Greenwich Village, with the condition that Cunningham had to move the large piano back to Desmond's Upper West Side apartment to become part of Desmond's estate. After this long and expensive process, Desmond willed the piano to Cunningham, a characteristic and final prank.
The Paul Desmond Papers are held at the Holt-Atherton Special Collections in the University of the Pacific Library.
Desmond was cremated and his ashes were scattered.
Desmond produced a light, melodic tone on the alto saxophone, trying to sound, he said, "like a dry martini." With a style that was similar to that of Lee Konitz, one of his influences, he quickly became one of the best-known saxophonists from the West Coast's cool school of jazz. Much of the success of the classic Brubeck quartet was due to the juxtaposition of his airy style over Brubeck's sometimes relatively heavy, polytonal piano work.
His rare gift for improvised counterpoint is perhaps most evident on the two albums he recorded with baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan ("Mulligan-Desmond Quartet" and "Two of a Mind"). Desmond's playing was also notable for his ability to produce extremely high notes, the altissimo register, on his saxophone.
Desmond played a Selmer "Super Balanced Action" model alto saxophone coupled with an M. C. Gregory model 4A-18M hard rubber mouthpiece, both dating from circa 1951, with a moderately stiff Rico 3 ½ reed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24159 |
Piper (plant)
Piper, the pepper plants or pepper vines, is an economically and ecologically important genus in the family Piperaceae.
It contains about 1,000-2,000 species of shrubs, herbs, and lianas, many of which are dominant species in their native habitat. The diversification of this taxon is of interest to understanding the evolution of plants.
Pepper plants belong to the magnoliids, which are angiosperms but neither monocots nor eudicots. Their family, Piperaceae, is most closely related to the lizardtail family (Saururaceae), which in fact generally look like smaller, more delicate and amphibious pepper plants. Both families have characteristic tail-shaped inflorescences covered in tiny flowers. A somewhat less close relative is the pipevine family (Aristolochiaceae). A well-known and very close relative – being also part of the Piperaceae – are the radiator plants of the genus "Peperomia".
The scientific name "Piper" and the common name "pepper" are derived from the Sanskrit term "pippali", denoting the long pepper ("P. longum").
"Piper" species have a pantropical distribution, and are most commonly found in the understory of lowland tropical rainforests, but can also occur in clearings and in higher elevation life zones such as cloud forests; one species (Japanese Pepper, "P. kadsura", from southern Japan and southernmost Korea) is subtropical and can tolerate light winter frost. Peppers are often dominant species where they are found.
Most "Piper" species are either herbaceous or vines; some grow as shrubs or almost as small trees. A few species, commonly called "ant pipers" (e.g. "Piper cenocladum"), live in a mutualism with ants. The fruit of the "Piper" plant, called a peppercorn when it is round and pea-sized, as is usual, is distributed in the wild mainly by birds, but small fruit-eating mammals – e.g. bats of the genus "Carollia" – are also important. Despite the high content of chemicals that are noxious to herbivores, some have evolved the ability to withstand the chemical defences of pepper plants, for example the sematurine moth "Homidiana subpicta" or some flea beetles of the genus "Lanka". The latter can be significant pests to pepper growers.
Many pepper plants make good ornamentals for gardens in subtropical or warmer regions. Pepper vines can be used much as ivy in temperate climates, while other species, like lacquered pepper ("P. magnificum") grow as sizeable, compact and attractive shrubs with tough and shiny leaves. Smaller species, like Celebes pepper ("P. ornatum") with its finely patterned leaves, are also suitable as indoor pot plants.
Unsustainable logging of tropical primary forests is threatening a number of peppers. The extent of the effect of such wholesale habitat destruction on the genus is unknown, but it is to be noted that in the forests of Ecuador – the only larger region for which comprehensive data exists – more than a dozen species are known to be on the brink of extinction. On the other hand, other "Piper" species (e.g. spiked pepper, "P. aduncum") have been widely distributed as a result of human activity and are a major invasive species in certain areas.
The most significant human use of "Piper" is not for its looks however, but ultimately for the wide range of powerful secondary compounds found particularly in the fruits.
Culinary use of pepper plants is attested perhaps as early as 9,000 years ago. Peppercorn remains were found among the food refuse left by Hoabinhian artisans at Spirit Cave, Thailand. It is likely that these plants were collected from the wild rather than deliberately grown.
Use of peppercorns as pungent spice is significant on an international scale. By classical antiquity, there was a vigorous trade of spices including black pepper ("P. nigrum") from South Asia to Europe. The "Apicius", a recipe collection complied about 400 AD, mentions "pepper" as a spice for most main dishes. In the late Roman Empire, black pepper was expensive, but was available readily enough to be used more frequently than salt or sugar.
As Europe moved into the Early Middle Ages, trade routes deteriorated and the use of pepper declined somewhat, but peppercorns, storing easily and having a high mass per volume, never ceased to be a profitable trade item. In the Middle Ages, international traders were nicknamed "Pfeffersäcke" ("pepper-sacks") in German towns of the Hanseatic League and elsewhere. Later, wars were fought by European powers, between themselves and in complex alliances and enmities with Indian Ocean states, in part about control of the supply of spices, perhaps the most archetypal being black pepper fruit. Today, peppercorns of the three preparations (green, white and black) are one of the most widely used spices of plant origin worldwide.
Due to the wide distribution of "Piper", the fruit of other species are also important spices, many of them internationally. Long pepper ("P. longum"), is possibly the second-most popular "Piper" spice internationally; it has a rather chili-like "heat" and the whole inflorescence is used as the fruits are tiny. Cubeb ("P. cubeba"), also known as tailed pepper, played a major role in the spice trade. Reputedly Philip IV of Spain suppressed trade in cubeb peppercorns at the end of the 1630s to capitalize on his share of the black pepper trade. It remains a significant spice around the Indian Ocean region today, however. West African pepper ("P. guineense"), is commonly used in West African cuisine, and is sometimes used in the East African "berbere" spice mix. This species, despite being traded more extensively in earlier times, is less common outside Africa today.
Not only the seeds of "Piper" are used in cooking. West African Pepper leaves, known locally as "uziza", are used as a flavoring vegetable in Nigerian stews. In Mexican-influenced cooking, "hoja santa" or Mexican pepperleaf ("P. auritum") has a variety of uses. In Southeast Asia, leaves of two species of "Piper" have major importance in cooking: lolot ("P. lolot") is used to wrap meat for grilling in the Indochina region, while wild betel ("P. sarmentosum") is used raw or cooked as a vegetable in Malay and Thai cuisine; The stems and roots of "Piper chaba" are used as a spice in Bangladeshi cuisine.
Cubeb ("P. cubeba") has been used in folk medicine and herbalism as well as, particularly in the early 20th century, as a cigarette flavoring. "P. darienense" is used medically by the Kuna people of the Panama-Colombia border region, and elsewhere it is used to intoxicate fish which then can be easily caught. Spiked pepper, often called "matico" appears to have strong disinfectant and antibiotic properties. Black pepper ("P. nigrum") essential oil is sometimes used in herbalism, and long pepper ("P. longum") is similarly employed in Ayurveda, where it was an ingredient of "Triphala Guggulu" and (together with black pepper) of "Trikatu" pills, used for "rasayana" (rejuvenating and detoxifying) purposes.
One "Piper" species has gained large-scale use as a stimulant. Betel ("P. betle") leaves are used to wrap betel palm nut slices; its sap helps release the stimulating effect of these "cookies" which are widely known as "pan" in India.
Conversely, another "Piper" species, kava ("P. methysticum"), is used for its depressant and euphoriant effects. In the Pacific region, where it has been widely spread as a canoe plant, kava is used to produce a calming and socializing drink somewhat similar to alcohol and benzodiazapines but without many of the negative side effects and less of an addiction risk. It has also become popular elsewhere in recent decades, and is used as a medical plant. However, pills that contain parts of the whole plant have occasionally shown a strong hepatotoxic effect, which has led to the banning of kava in many countries. On the other hand, the traditional preparation of the root as a calming drink appears to pose little, if any, such hazard.
The genus contains species suitable for studying natural history, molecular biology, natural products chemistry, community ecology, and evolutionary biology.
"Piper" is a model genus for research in ecology and evolutionary biology. The diversity and ecological importance of the genus makes it an strong candidate for ecological and evolutionary studies. Most research has focused on the economically important species "P. nigrum" (black pepper), "P. methysticum" (kava), and "P. betle" (betel). A recent study based on DNA sequence analysis suggest that "P. nigrum" originated in the Western Ghats hot spot in India .
The obligate and facultative ant mutualists found in some "Piper" species have a strong influence on their biology, making them ideal systems for research on the evolution of symbioses and the effect of mutualisms on biotic communities.
Important secondary metabolites found in pepper plants are piperine and chavicine, which were first isolated from Black Pepper, and reported to have antibiotic activities. Preliminary research reports has shown that piperine has an antibacterial activity against various bacteria such as "S. aureus", "Streptococcus mutans", and gastric cancer pathogen "Helicobacter pylori" and decreased "H. pylori" toxin entry to gastric epithelial cells. The piperidine functional group is named after the former, and piperazine (which is not found in "P. nigrum" in noticeable quantities) was in turn named after piperidine.
The significant secondary metabolites of kava are kavalactones and flavokawains. Pipermethystine is suspected to be the main hepatotoxic compound in this plant's stems and leaves.
The largest number of "Piper" species are found in the Americas (about 700 species), with about 300 species from Southern Asia. There are smaller groups of species from the South Pacific (about 40 species) and Africa (about 15 species). The American, Asian, and South Pacific groups each appear to be monophyletic; the affinity of the African species is unclear.
Some species are sometimes segregated into the genera "Pothomorphe", "Macropiper", "Ottonia", "Arctottonia", "Sarcorhachis", "Trianaeopiper", and "Zippelia", but other sources keep them in "Piper".
The species called ""Piper aggregatum"" and ""P. fasciculatum"" are actually "Lacistema aggregatum", a plant from the family Lacistemataceae. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24160 |
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a romantic novel of manners written by Jane Austen in 1813. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. Its humour lies in its honest depiction of manners, education, marriage, and money during the Regency era in Great Britain.
Mr Bennet of Longbourn estate has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family will be destitute upon his death. Thus it is imperative that at least one of the girls marry well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot. The novel revolves around the importance of marrying for love, not for money or social prestige, despite the communal pressure to make a wealthy match.
"Pride and Prejudice" has consistently appeared near the top of lists of "most-loved books" among literary scholars and the reading public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, and has inspired many derivatives in modern literature. For more than a century, dramatic adaptations, reprints, unofficial sequels, films, and TV versions of "Pride and Prejudice" have portrayed the memorable characters and themes of the novel, reaching mass audiences. The 2005 film "Pride & Prejudice" is the most recent film adaptation that closely represents the book.
The novel is set in rural England in the early 19th century. Mrs. Bennet attempts to persuade Mr. Bennet to visit Mr. Bingley, a rich bachelor recently arrived in the neighbourhood. After some verbal sparring with her husband, Mrs. Bennet believes he will not call on Mr. Bingley. Shortly afterward he visits Netherfield, Mr. Bingley's rented residence, much to Mrs. Bennet's delight. The visit is followed by an invitation to a ball at the local assembly rooms that the entire neighbourhood will attend.
At the ball, Mr. Bingley's friendly and cheerful manner makes him popular with guests. He appears attracted to Jane Bennet (the Bennets' eldest daughter), with whom he dances twice. Bingley's friend, Mr. Darcy, reputed to be twice as wealthy, is haughty and aloof, causing a decided dislike of him. He declines to dance with Elizabeth (the Bennets' second-eldest daughter), stating she is not attractive enough to tempt him. Elizabeth finds this amusing and jokes about it with her friends.
Mr. Bingley's sister, Caroline, later invites Jane to Netherfield for dinner. On her way there, Jane is caught in a rain shower and develops a bad cold, forcing her to stay at Netherfield to recuperate. When Elizabeth goes to see Jane, Mr. Darcy finds himself becoming attracted to Elizabeth (stating she has "fine eyes"), while Miss Bingley grows jealous, as she herself has designs on Mr. Darcy.
Mr. Collins, Mr. Bennet's cousin and the heir to the Longbourn estate, visits the Bennet family. He is a pompous, obsequious clergyman who intends to marry one of the Bennet girls. After learning that Jane may soon be engaged, he quickly decides on Elizabeth, the next daughter in both age and beauty.
Elizabeth and her family meet the dashing and charming army officer, George Wickham, who singles out Elizabeth. He says he is connected to the Darcy family and claims Mr. Darcy deprived him of an occupation (a permanent position as a clergyman in a prosperous parish with good revenue) promised to him by Mr. Darcy's late father. Elizabeth's dislike of Mr. Darcy is confirmed.
At the ball at Netherfield, Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth to dance, and, despite her vow never to dance with him, she accepts. Excluding Jane and Elizabeth, several Bennet family members display a distinct lack of decorum. Mrs. Bennet hints loudly that she fully expects Jane and Bingley to become engaged, and the younger Bennet sisters expose the family to ridicule by their silliness.
Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth. She rejects him, to her mother's fury and her father's relief. Shortly afterward, the Bingleys suddenly depart for London with no plans to return. After Elizabeth's rejection, Mr. Collins proposes to Charlotte Lucas, a sensible young woman and Elizabeth's friend. Charlotte, older (27), is grateful for a proposal that guarantees her a comfortable home. Elizabeth is aghast at such pragmatism in matters of love. Meanwhile, a heartbroken Jane visits her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London. It soon is clear that Miss Bingley has no intention of resuming their acquaintance, leaving Jane upset, though composed.
In the spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte and Mr. Collins in Kent. Elizabeth and her hosts are invited to Rosings Park, the imposing home of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, imperious patroness of Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy's wealthy aunt. Lady Catherine expects Mr. Darcy to marry her daughter, as planned in his childhood by his aunt and mother. Mr. Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, are also visiting at Rosings Park. Fitzwilliam tells Elizabeth how Mr. Darcy recently saved a friend, presumably Bingley, from an undesirable match. Elizabeth realises the prevented engagement was to Jane and is horrified that Mr. Darcy interfered. Later, Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, declaring his love for her despite her inferior social rank. She rejects him angrily, stating she could never love a man who caused her sister such unhappiness and further accuses him of treating Wickham unjustly. Mr. Darcy brags about his success in separating Bingley and Jane, and suggests that he had been kinder to Bingley than to himself. He dismisses the accusation regarding Wickham sarcastically, but does not address it.
Later, Mr. Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter, explaining that Wickham, the son of his late father's steward, had refused the living his father arranged for him, and was instead given money for it. Wickham quickly squandered the money and when impoverished, asked for the living again. After being refused, he tried to elope with Darcy's 15-year-old sister, Georgiana, for her considerable dowry. Mr. Darcy also writes that he separated Jane and Bingley due to Jane's reserved behaviour, he sincerely believed her indifferent to Bingley, and also because of the lack of propriety of the other members of her family.
Some months later, Elizabeth accompanies the Gardiners on a tour of Derbyshire. They visit Pemberley, the Darcy estate (after Elizabeth ascertains Mr. Darcy's absence). The housekeeper there describes Mr. Darcy as kind and generous, recounting several examples of these characteristics. When Mr. Darcy returns unexpectedly, he is exceedingly gracious and later invites Elizabeth and the Gardiners to meet his sister, and Mr. Gardiner to go fishing. Elizabeth is surprised and delighted by their treatment. She then receives news that her sister Lydia has run off with Wickham. She tells Mr. Darcy immediately, then departs in haste, believing she will never see him again as Lydia has ruined the family's good name.
After an agonising interim, Wickham has agreed to marry Lydia. With some veneer of decency restored, Lydia visits the family and tells Elizabeth that Mr. Darcy was at her and Wickham's wedding. Though Mr. Darcy had sworn everyone involved to secrecy, Mrs. Gardiner now feels obliged to inform Elizabeth that he secured the match, at great expense and trouble to himself. She hints that he may have had "another motive" for having done so, implying that she believes Darcy to be in love with Elizabeth.
Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy return to Netherfield. Bingley proposes to Jane, who accepts. Lady Catherine, having heard rumours that Elizabeth intends to marry Mr. Darcy, visits Elizabeth and demands she promise never to accept Mr. Darcy's proposal. Elizabeth refuses and the outraged Lady Catherine leaves. Darcy, heartened by his aunt's indignant relaying of Elizabeth's response, again proposes to her and is accepted. Elizabeth has difficulty in convincing her father that she is marrying for love, not position and wealth, but Mr. Bennet is finally convinced. Mrs. Bennet is exceedingly happy to learn of her daughter's match to Mr. Darcy and quickly changes her opinion of him. The novel concludes with an overview of the marriages of the three daughters and the great satisfaction of both parents at the fine, happy matches made by Jane and Elizabeth.
Many critics take the title as the start when analysing the themes of "Pride and Prejudice" but, Robert Fox cautions against reading too much into the title (which was first entitled: First Impressions), because commercial factors may have played a role in its selection. "After the success of "Sense and Sensibility", nothing would have seemed more natural than to bring out another novel of the same author using again the formula of antithesis and alliteration for the title. The qualities of the title are not exclusively assigned to one or the other of the protagonists; both Elizabeth and Darcy display pride and prejudice." The phrase "pride and prejudice" had been used over the preceding two centuries by Joseph Hall, Jeremy Taylor, Joseph Addison and Samuel Johnson. Austen probably took her title from a passage in Fanny Burney's "Cecilia" (1782), a popular novel she is known to have admired:
A theme in much of Austen's work is the importance of environment and upbringing in developing young people's character and morality. Social standing and wealth are not necessarily advantages in her world and a further theme common to Austen's work is ineffectual parents. In "Pride and Prejudice", the failure of Mr and Mrs Bennet as parents is blamed for Lydia's lack of moral judgment. Darcy has been taught to be principled and scrupulously honourable but he is also proud and overbearing. Kitty, rescued from Lydia's bad influence and spending more time with her older sisters after they marry, is said to improve greatly in their superior society. The American novelist Anna Quindlen observed in an introduction to an edition of Austen's novel in 1995:
The opening line of the novel famously announces: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." This sets marriage as a motif and a problem in the novel. Readers are poised to question whether or not these single men need a wife, or if the need is dictated by the "neighbourhood" families and their daughters who require a "good fortune".
Marriage is a complex social activity that takes political economy and economy generally, into account. In the case of Charlotte Lucas, the seeming success of her marriage lies in the comfortable financial circumstances of their household, while the relationship between Mr and Mrs Bennet serves to illustrate bad marriages based on an initial attraction and surface over substance (economic and psychological). The Bennets' marriage is an example that the youngest Bennet, Lydia, re-enacts with Wickham and the results are far from felicitous. Although the central characters, Elizabeth and Darcy, begin the novel as hostile acquaintances and unlikely friends, they eventually work toward a better understanding of themselves and each other, which frees them to truly fall in love. This does not eliminate the challenges of the real differences in their technically-equivalent social status as gentry and their female relations. It does however provide them with a better understanding of each other's point of view from the different ends of the rather wide scale of differences within that category.
When Elizabeth rejects Darcy's first proposal, the argument of marrying for love is introduced. Elizabeth only accepts Darcy's proposal when she is certain she loves him and her feelings are reciprocated. Austen's complex sketching of different marriages ultimately allows readers to question what forms of alliance are desirable especially when it comes to privileging economic, sexual, companionate attraction.
Money plays a fundamental role in the marriage market, for the young ladies seeking a well-off husband and for men who wish to marry a woman of means. George Wickham tried to elope with Georgiana Darcy, and Colonel Fitzwilliam married for money. Marrying a woman of a rich family also ensured a linkage to a high family, as is visible in the desires of Bingley's sisters to have their brother married to Georgiana Darcy. Mrs Bennet is frequently seen encouraging her daughters to marry a wealthy man of high social class. In chapter 1, when Mr Bingley arrives, she declares "I am thinking of his marrying one of them".
Inheritance was by descent but could be further restricted by entailment, which would restrict inheritance to male heirs only. In the case of the Bennet family, Mr Collins was to inherit the family estate upon Mr Bennet's death and his proposal to Elizabeth would have ensured her security but she refuses his offer. Inheritance laws benefited males because most women did not have independent legal rights until the second half of the 19th century and women's financial security depended on men. For the upper-middle and aristocratic classes, marriage to a man with a reliable income was almost the only route to security for the woman and the children she was to have. The irony of the opening line is that generally within this society it would be a woman who would be looking for a wealthy husband to have a prosperous life.
Austen might be known now for her "romances" but the marriages in her novels engage with economics and class distinction. "Pride and Prejudice" is hardly the exception. When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, he cites their economic and social differences as an obstacle his excessive love has had to overcome, though he still anxiously harps on the problems it poses for him within his social circle. His aunt, Lady Catherine, later characterises these differences in particularly harsh terms when she conveys what Elizabeth's marriage to Darcy will become, "Will the shades of Pemberley be thus polluted?" Although Elizabeth responds to Lady Catherine's accusations that hers is a potentially contaminating economic and social position (Elizabeth even insists she and Darcy, as gentleman's daughter and gentleman, are "equals"), Lady Catherine refuses to accept Darcy's actual marriage to Elizabeth even as the novel closes.
The Bingleys present a particular problem for navigating class. Though Caroline Bingley and Mrs Hurst behave and speak of others as if they have always belonged in the upper echelons of society, Austen makes a point to explain that the Bingleys are trade rather than inheritors and rentiers. The fact that Bingley rents Netherfield Hall – it is, after all, "to let" – distinguishes him significantly from Darcy, whose estate belonged to his father's family and through his mother, is the grandson and nephew of an earl. Bingley, unlike Darcy, does not own his property, but has portable and growing wealth that makes him a good catch on the marriage market for poorer daughters of the gentry, like Jane Bennet, ambitious cits (merchant class), etc. Class plays a central role in the evolution of the characters and Jane Austen's radical approach to class is seen as the plot unfolds.
An undercurrent of the old Anglo-Norman upper class is hinted at in the story, as suggested by the names of Fitzwilliam Darcy and his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh; "Fitzwilliam", "D'Arcy", "de Bourgh" ("Burke"), and even "Bennet", are traditional Norman surnames.
Through their interactions and their critiques of each other, Darcy and Elizabeth come to recognise their faults and work to correct them. Elizabeth meditates on her own mistakes thoroughly in chapter 36:
Other characters rarely exhibit this depth of understanding or at least are not given the space within the novel for this sort of development. Tanner writes that Mrs Bennet in particular, "has a very limited view of the requirements of that performance; lacking any introspective tendencies she is incapable of appreciating the feelings of others and is only aware of material objects". Mrs Bennet's behaviour reflects the society in which she lives, as she knows that her daughters will not succeed if they don't get married. "The business of her life was to get her daughters married: its solace was visiting and news." This shows that Mrs Bennet is only aware of "material objects" and not of her feelings and emotions.
"Pride and Prejudice", like most of Austen's works, employs the narrative technique of free indirect speech, which has been defined as "the free representation of a character's speech, by which one means, not words actually spoken by a character, but the words that typify the character's thoughts, or the way the character would think or speak, if she thought or spoke". Austen creates her characters with fully developed personalities and unique voices. Though Darcy and Elizabeth are very alike, they are also considerably different. By using narrative that adopts the tone and vocabulary of a particular character (in this case, Elizabeth), Austen invites the reader to follow events from Elizabeth's viewpoint, sharing her prejudices and misapprehensions. "The learning curve, while undergone by both protagonists, is disclosed to us solely through Elizabeth's point of view and her free indirect speech is essential ... for it is through it that we remain caught, if not stuck, within Elizabeth's misprisions." The few times the reader is allowed to gain further knowledge of another character's feelings, is through the letters exchanged in this novel. Darcy's first letter to Elizabeth is an example of this as through his letter, the reader and Elizabeth are both given knowledge of Wickham's true character. Austen is known to use irony throughout the novel especially from viewpoint of the character of Elizabeth Bennet. She conveys the "oppressive rules of femininity that actually dominate her life and work, and are covered by her beautifully carved trojan horse of ironic distance." Beginning with a historical investigation of the development of a particular literary form and then transitioning into empirical verifications, it reveals free indirect discourse as a tool that emerged over time as practical means for addressing the physical distinctness of minds. Seen in this way, free indirect discourse is a distinctly literary response to an environmental concern, providing a scientific justification that does not reduce literature to a mechanical extension of biology, but takes its value to be its own original form.
Austen began writing the novel after staying at Goodnestone Park in Kent with her brother Edward and his wife in 1796. It was originally titled "First Impressions", and was written between October 1796 and August 1797. On 1 November 1797 Austen's father sent a letter to London bookseller Thomas Cadell to ask if he had any interest in seeing the manuscript, but the offer was declined by return post. The militia were mobilised after the French declaration of war on Britain in February 1793, and there was initially a lack of barracks for all the militia regiments, requiring the militia to set up huge camps in the countryside, which the novel refers to several times. The Brighton camp for which the militia regiment leaves in May after spending the winter in Meryton was opened in August 1793, and the barracks for all the regiments of the militia were completed by 1796, placing the events of the novel between 1793 and 1795.
Austen made significant revisions to the manuscript for "First Impressions" between 1811 and 1812. As nothing remains of the original manuscript, we are reduced to conjecture. From the large number of letters in the final novel, it is assumed that "First Impressions" was an epistolary novel. She later renamed the story "Pride and Prejudice" around about 1811/1812, which she sold the rights to publish the manuscript to Thomas Egerton for £110 (). In renaming the novel, Austen probably had in mind the "sufferings and oppositions" summarised in the final chapter of Fanny Burney's "Cecilia", called "Pride and Prejudice", where the phrase appears three times in block capitals. It is possible that the novel's original title was altered to avoid confusion with other works. In the years between the completion of "First Impressions" and its revision into "Pride and Prejudice", two other works had been published under that name: a novel by Margaret Holford and a comedy by Horace Smith.
Austen sold the copyright for the novel to Thomas Egerton from the Military Library, Whitehall in exchange for £110 (Austen had asked for £150). This proved a costly decision. Austen had published "Sense and Sensibility" on a commission basis, whereby she indemnified the publisher against any losses and received any profits, less costs and the publisher's commission. Unaware that "Sense and Sensibility" would sell out its edition, making her £140, she passed the copyright to Egerton for a one-off payment, meaning that all the risk (and all the profits) would be his. Jan Fergus has calculated that Egerton subsequently made around £450 from just the first two editions of the book.
Egerton published the first edition of "Pride and Prejudice" in three hardcover volumes on 28 January 1813. It was advertised in "The Morning Chronicle", priced at 18s. Favourable reviews saw this edition sold out, with a second edition published in October that year. A third edition was published in 1817.
Foreign language translations first appeared in 1813 in French; subsequent translations were published in German, Danish, and Swedish. "Pride and Prejudice" was first published in the United States in August 1832 as "Elizabeth Bennet or, Pride and Prejudice". The novel was also included in Richard Bentley's Standard Novel series in 1833. R. W. Chapman's scholarly edition of "Pride and Prejudice", first published in 1923, has become the standard edition on which many modern published versions of the novel are based.
The novel was originally published anonymously, as were all of Austen's novels. However, whereas her first published novel, "Sense and Sensibility" was presented as being written "by a Lady," "Pride and Prejudice" was attributed to "the Author of "Sense and Sensibility"". This began to consolidate a conception of Austen as an author, albeit anonymously. Her subsequent novels were similarly attributed to the anonymous author of all her then-published works.
The novel was well received, with three favourable reviews in the first months following publication. Anne Isabella Milbanke, later to be the wife of Lord Byron, called it "the fashionable novel". Noted critic and reviewer George Henry Lewes declared that he "would rather have written "Pride and Prejudice", or "Tom Jones", than any of the Waverley Novels".
Charlotte Brontë, however, in a letter to Lewes, wrote that "Pride and Prejudice" was a disappointment, "a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but ... no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck".
Austen for her part thought the "playfulness and epigrammaticism" of "Pride and Prejudice" was excessive, complaining in a letter to her sister Cassandra in 1813 that the novel lacked "shade" and should have had a chapter "of solemn specious nonsense, about something unconnected with the story; an essay on writing, a critique on Walter Scott or the history of Bounaparté".
Walter Scott wrote in his journal "Read again and for the third time at least, Miss Austen's very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice.."
The American scholar Claudia Johnson defended the novel from the criticism that it has an unrealistic fairy-tale quality. One critic, Mary Poovey, wrote that the "romantic conclusion" of "Pride and Prejudice" is an attempt to hedge the conflict between the "individualistic perspective inherent in the bourgeois value system "and" the authoritarian hierarchy retained from traditional, paternalistic society". Johnson wrote that Austen's view of a power structure capable of reformation was not an "escape" from conflict. Johnson wrote the "outrageous unconventionality" of Elizabeth Bennet was in Austen's own time very daring, especially given the strict censorship that was imposed in Britain by the Prime Minister, William Pitt, in the 1790s when Austen wrote "Pride and Prejudice".
"Pride and Prejudice" has engendered numerous adaptations. Some of the notable film versions include that of 1940, starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier (based in part on Helen Jerome's 1936 stage adaptation) and that of 2005, starring Keira Knightley (an Oscar-nominated performance) and Matthew Macfadyen. Notable television versions include two by the BBC: a 1980 version starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul and the popular 1995 version, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. This also includes "Bride and Prejudice" and 'Trishna" (1985 Hindi TV Series).
A 1936 stage version was created by Helen Jerome played at the St James's Theatre in London, starring Celia Johnson and Hugh Williams. "First Impressions" was a 1959 Broadway musical version starring Polly Bergen, Farley Granger, and Hermione Gingold. In 1995, a musical concept album was written by Bernard J. Taylor, with Claire Moore in the role of Elizabeth Bennet and Peter Karrie in the role of Mr Darcy. A new stage production, "Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, The New Musical", was presented in concert on 21 October 2008 in Rochester, New York, with Colin Donnell as Darcy. The Swedish composer Daniel Nelson based his 2011 opera "Stolthet och fördom" on "Pride and Prejudice".
"The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" - which premiered on a dedicated YouTube channel on April 9, 2012, and concluded on March 28, 2013 - is an Emmy award-winning web-series which recounts the story via vlogs recorded primarily by the Bennet sisters. It was created by Hank Green and Bernie Su.
The novel has inspired a number of other works that are not direct adaptations. Books inspired by "Pride and Prejudice" include the following:
In Gwyn Cready's comedic romance novel, "Seducing Mr Darcy", the heroine lands in "Pride and Prejudice" by way of magic massage, has a fling with Darcy and unknowingly changes the rest of the story.
Abigail Reynolds is the author of seven Regency-set variations on "Pride and Prejudice". Her Pemberley Variations series includes "Mr Darcy's Obsession", "To Conquer Mr Darcy", "What Would Mr Darcy Do" and "Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World". Her modern adaptation, "The Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice", is set on Cape Cod.
Bella Breen is the author of four variations on "Pride and Prejudice". "Pride and Prejudice and Poison", "Pride and Prejudice and Secrets", "Forced to Marry" and "The Rescue of Elizabeth Bennet".
Helen Fielding's 1996 novel "Bridget Jones's Diary" is also based on "Pride and Prejudice"; the feature film of Fielding's work, released in 2001, stars Colin Firth, who had played Mr Darcy in the successful 1990s TV adaptation.
In March 2009, Seth Grahame-Smith's "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" takes Austen's work and mashes it up with zombie hordes, cannibalism, ninja and ultraviolent mayhem. In March 2010, Quirk Books published a prequel by Steve Hockensmith that deals with Elizabeth Bennet's early days as a zombie hunter, "". The 2016 film of Grahame-Smith's adaptation was released starring Lily James, Sam Riley and Matt Smith.
In 2011, author Mitzi Szereto expanded on the novel in "Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts", a historical sex parody that parallels the original plot and writing style of Jane Austen.
Marvel has also published their take on this classic by releasing a short comic series of five issues that stays true to the original storyline. The first issue was published on 1 April 2009 and was written by Nancy Hajeski. It was published as a graphic novel in 2010 with artwork by Hugo Petrus.
Pamela Aidan is the author of a trilogy of books telling the story of "Pride and Prejudice" from Mr Darcy's point of view: "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman". The books are "An Assembly Such as This", "Duty and Desire" and "These Three Remain".
Detective novel author P. D. James has written a book titled "Death Comes to Pemberley", which is a murder mystery set six years after Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage.
Sandra Lerner's sequel to "Pride and Prejudice", "Second Impressions", develops the story and imagined what might have happened to the original novel's characters. It is written in the style of Austen after extensive research into the period and language and published in 2011 under the pen name of Ava Farmer.
Jo Baker's bestselling 2013 novel "Longbourn" imagines the lives of the servants of "Pride and Prejudice". A cinematic adaptation of "Longbourn" was due to start filming in late 2018, directed by Sharon Maguire, who also directed "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Bridget Jones's Baby", screenplay by Jessica Swale, produced by Random House Films and StudioCanal. The novel was also adapted for radio, appearing on BBC Radio 4's "Book at Bedtime", abridged by Sara Davies and read by Sophie Thompson. It was first broadcast in May 2014; and again on Radio 4 Extra in September 2018.
In the novel "Eligible", Curtis Sittenfeld sets the characters of "Pride and Prejudice" in modern-day Cincinnati, where the Bennet parents, erstwhile Cincinnati social climbers, have fallen on hard times. Elizabeth, a successful and independent New York journalist, and her single older sister Jane must intervene to salvage the family's financial situation and get their unemployed adult sisters to move out of the house and onward in life. In the process they encounter Chip Bingley, a young doctor and reluctant reality TV celebrity, and his medical school classmate, Fitzwilliam Darcy, a cynical neurosurgeon.
"Pride and Prejudice" has also inspired works of scientific writing. In 2010, scientists named a pheromone identified in male mouse urine "darcin", after Mr Darcy, because it strongly attracted females. In 2016, a scientific paper published in the Journal of Inherited Metabolic Diseases speculated that Mrs Bennet may have been a carrier of a rare genetic disease, explaining why the Bennets didn't have any sons, and why some of the Bennet sisters are so silly.
In summer 2014, Udon Entertainment's Manga Classics line published a manga adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24162 |
Human rights in Sudan
Sudan's human rights record has been widely condemned. Some human rights organizations have documented a variety of abuses and atrocities carried out by the Sudanese government over the past several years under the rule of Omar al-Bashir. The 2009 Human Rights Report by the United States Department of State noted serious concerns over human rights violations by the government and militia groups. Capital punishment, including crucifixion, is used for many crimes. In September, 2019, the government of Sudan signed an agreement with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to open a UN Human Rights Office in Khartoum and field offices in Darfur, Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan and East Sudan.
Conflicts between the government and rebel groups—the civil war involving north-south tensions, the Darfur conflict involving Arab-tribespeople tensions in the Darfur region in the west—have resulted in rape, torture, killings, and massive population displacements (estimated at over 2 million in 2007), earning Sudan comparison to Rwanda in the press. There have also been several reported cases of crucifixions carried out in Sudan.
According to "The Christian Science Monitor" on 25 March 2004:
The Darfur region war boils down to this: African tribes have long been at odds with Arab groups in the region over access to good land. Then, last year, two armed African groups began a rebellion against the Khartoum regime. The government responded by apparently giving military support to Arab militias. There are reports of Sudanese military planes bombing villages, after which Arab militias go in and rape and kill survivors.
The conflict has been described by Mukesh Kapila, United Nations (UN) coordinator for Sudan, as ethnic cleansing, as Black Arab militias carry out systematic massacres of tribespeople in the Darfur region. According to Kapila, "The government has a close knowledge of what's going on - and can influence the Arab militia." The UN has estimated that 300,000 civilians in the Darfur region were killed between 2003 and 2010.
Some organizations, in particular Christian Solidarity Worldwide and related organizations, argue that enslavement exists in Sudan and is encouraged by the Sudanese government. As an example of such allegations, in "The Wall Street Journal" on 12 December 2001, Michael Rubin said:
...[O]n 4 October, Sudanese Vice President Ali Uthman Taha declared, "The jihad is our way and we will not abandon it and will keep its banner high.
Between 23–26 October, Sudanese government troops attacked villages near the southern town of Aweil, killing 93 men and enslaving 85 women and children. Then, on 2 November, the Sudanese military attacked villages near the town of Nyamlell, carrying off another 113 women and children. A Kenyan aide worker was also abducted, and has not been seen since.
What's Sudanese slavery like? One 11-year-old Christian boy told me about his first days in captivity: "I was told to be a Muslim several times, and I refused, which is why they cut off my finger." Twelve-year-old Alokor Ngor Deng was taken as a slave in 1993. She has not seen her mother since the slave raiders sold the two to different masters. Thirteen-year-old Akon was seized by Sudanese military while in her village five years ago. She was gang-raped by six government soldiers, and witnessed seven executions before being sold to a Sudanese Arab.
Many freed slaves bore signs of beatings, burnings and other tortures. More than three-quarters of formerly enslaved women and girls reported rapes.
While nongovernmental organizations argue over how to end slavery, few deny the existence of the practice. ...[E]stimates of the number of blacks now enslaved in Sudan vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands (not counting those sold as forced labor in Libya)...
On the other hand, fraud in the name of "slave redemption" has been documented before.
Sudan is a developing nation that faces many challenges in regard to gender inequality. Freedom House gave Sudan the lowest possible ranking among repressive regimes during 2012. South Sudan received a slightly higher rating but it was also rated as "not free". In the 2013 report of 2012 data, Sudan ranks 171st out of 186 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI). Sudan also is one of very few countries that are not a signatory on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Despite all of this, there have been positive changes in regard to gender equality in Sudan. As of 2012, women embodied 24.1% of the National Assembly of Sudan. Sudanese women account for a larger percentage of the national parliament than many Westernized nations. Notwithstanding that, gender inequalities in Sudan, particularly as they pertain to female genital mutilation and the disparity of women to men in the labor market, have received attention in the international community.
For more, see article: "Gender inequality in Sudan"
According to Rory Mungoven, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Sudan has one of the worst child soldier problems in the world. There are more than 17,000 child soldiers fighting for the governments' side or for rebel forces even after 25,000 former child soldiers had been demobilized from rebel groups in Southern Sudan in 2001. They carry AK-47s and M-16s on the front lines of combat, while serving as human mine detectors, participating in suicide missions, and acting as spies. Many are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under the threat of death. Others join armed groups out of desperation or after being subjected to lies and brainwash. Many children are promised that they are going to attend school, which are actually military training facilities disguised as school. The facilities, despite being under the direction of the United Nations and international organizations, are where children were brainwashed to become ruthless killers. Improvements in technology have provided weapons which weigh less, cost less, and can be assembled, loaded, and fired by an illiterate child, adding additional appeal to child soldiers.
Several hundred adults and children were imprisoned after members of the Justice and Equality Movement attacked Khartoum in May 2008, a disproportionate number from the Darfur region. Human Rights Watch criticised the Sudanese government for refusing to provide any information on their whereabouts. Evidence of widespread torture and abuse was found on released prisoners and was gathered in numerous interviews recorded by Human Rights Watch.
In the period from 2003 to 2011, Mudawi Ibrahim Adam was repeatedly arrested for charges related to his human rights work with the group Sudan Social Development Organization. These arrests were protested by groups including Human Rights Watch, Front Line, and Amnesty International, the latter of whom named him a "prisoner of conscience."
On 5 March 2009, the same day that President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the ICC, the Sudanese government ordered the closure of SUDO, and its offices were taken over by state security forces. The "New York Times" reported that the letter closing the offices "came from the Humanitarian Affairs Commission, which is run by Ahmed Haroun, one of the people facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for mass slaughter in Darfur." The Sudanese government simultaneously expelled "the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam UK, CARE, Mercy Corps and the Dutch section of Doctors Without Borders. Mudawi and SUDO appealed their closure in court, winning the appeal in April 2010. However, according to a 2011 SUDO press release, the organization remains effectively closed: "in Sudan you can win a case but nothing changes. SUDO’s offices remained locked, its assets remained frozen, and the organization in Sudan was not allowed to resume operations."
Pastors Michael Yat and Peter Yan have been held incommunicado by Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) from 14 December 2014 and 11 January 2015 respectively, on 1 March they were charged with eight offences under the 1991 Penal Code, two of which carry the death sentence. Peter Yan was reported to be arrested whilst enquiring into Michael Yat's welfare, and Michael Yat was arrested following evangelistic preaching.
The following chart shows Sudan's ratings since 1972 in the Freedom in the World reports, published annually by Freedom House. A rating of 1 is "free"; 7, "not free".
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Sudan face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Sudan, with sentences including but not limited to capital punishment.
Sudan's stances on international human rights treaties are as follows:
Hiwaar organisation | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27431 |
Economy of Suriname
The economy of Suriname was largely dependent upon the exports of aluminium oxide and small amounts of aluminium produced from bauxite mined in the country. However after the departure of Alcoa, the economy depended on the exports of Crude oil and gold. Suriname was ranked the 124th safest investment destination in the world in the March 2011 Euromoney Country Risk rankings.
The backbone of Suriname's economy is the export of aluminium oxide (alumina) and small amounts of aluminium produced from bauxite mined in the country. In 1999, the aluminium smelter at Paranam was closed and mining at Onverdacht ceased; however, alumina exports accounted for 72% of Suriname's estimated export earnings of US$496.6 million in 2001. Suriname's bauxite deposits have been among the world's richest.
Inexpensive power costs are Suriname's big advantage in the energy-intensive alumina and aluminium business. In the 1960s, the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) built the US$150-million Afobaka Dam for the production of hydroelectric energy. This created the Brokopondo Reservoir a 1,560 km² lake, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world.
In 1976–1977, a 100 km long single track railway was constructed by Morrison-Knudsen Co. in West Suriname from the bauxite containing Bakhuis Mountains to the town of Apoera on the Corantijn river, to transport bauxite by river to processing plants elsewhere. The construction of this railway was financially funded by the Dutch government's independence/severance payments after November 25, 1975. After completion of this railway and associated facilities, for political and economical reasons it was never actually used and was left to be overgrown by the jungle. Also plans to construct a dam in the Kabalebo River were developed but never fully executed.
In 1984, , a subsidiary of Alcoa, formed a joint venture with the (at that time) Royal Dutch Shell-owned Billiton Company, which did not process the bauxite it mined in Suriname. Under this agreement, both companies share risks and profits.
The major mining sites at Moengo and Lelydorp are maturing, and it is now estimated that their reserves will be depleted by 2006. Other proven reserves exist in the east, west, and north of the country sufficient to last until 2045. However, distance and topography make their immediate development costly. In October 2002, Alcoa and BHP Billiton signed a letter of intent as the basis for new joint ventures between the two companies, in which Alcoa will take part for 55% in all bauxite mining activities in West Suriname. The government and the companies are looking into cost-effective ways to develop the new mines. The preeminence of bauxite and ALCOA's continued presence in Suriname is a key element in the U.S.-Suriname economic relationship.
There is one large scale gold mine operating in Suriname. This is the Rosebel Gold Mine. Development of a second large scale mine called the Merian Gold Project was approved by the government of Suriname on June 7, 2013. This mining project would be a partnership of Newmont Mining Corporation and Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals. Merian is about south of the town of Moengo on the Marowijne River. The government estimates there are another 20,000 small scale operators. Only 115 of these were registered by the government in 2009. The government calls these people porknokkers. Because of unemployment in Suriname, some local people turn to small, illegal gold mining as their source of incomes. Gold mining has caused environmental damages in the country.
Commission for the Ordering of the Gold Mining Sector (OGS) was established by the government in 2010. OGS is leading the reform effort to develop sustainable and environmentally responsible gold mining practices and transform informal small-scale gold mining into a viable sub-sector of the mining and national economy of Suriname.
Suriname does not produce chemical mercury and only allows mercury imports with a license. Since the 1990s these licenses were not issued anymore. Moreover, all licenses are used for mercury imports for medical use or research. Therefore, trade and import in mercury is illegal. Mercury is used in the small-scale gold mining because smuggling made mercury available. However people who are caught with mercury in their possession will be judged and/or fined.
On April 13, 2013, the government reached an agreement with multinational IAMGOLD to increase investment in Suriname.
On March 1, 2013, Kaloti Mint House Suriname laid its funding stone and is expected to start its refinery production by the first quarter of 2014. Kaloti Mint House will be instrumental in producing “clean gold” in Suriname. Kaloti Mint House have been awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification for gold and bullion manufacturing and ISO 14001 Environmental Certification. The company is presently applying for ISO 14025 for the Assaying of Gold and Silver. Kaloti will focus on melting and producing gold bars to international standards (999.9 purity) for local and international markets.
In October 2013, the UN wants to adopt the Minamata Treaty to ban the user of mercury altogether in Suriname.
The Government initiated a training unit within the Ordening Goudsector called the School of Mining. This training unit consists of 14 teachers. The teacher's training started February 2013 and is aimed at preparing them for the fieldwork. The duties of the teachers will be to provide hands-on training on the goldfields to small-scale gold miners. The teachers begin with prospecting and showing the small-scale miners more efficient ways to mine in their areas. Along the way they promote mercury free production methods. The Management of Ordening Goudsector hypothesizes that showing small-scale gold miners the benefits of new production methods will be the incentive itself to start the training programs.
The Ministry of Finance initiated a credit fund in March 2013 for small and medium scale entrepreneurs. Small-scale miners can become formally verified entrepreneurs as the piece of land will be viewed as a formal “title” by financial institutes. This means the miners will be eligible for credits and thus can acquire credit to upscale their production. A first amount of 35 million SRD (US$10.69 million, as of Monday, Apr 08, 2013, 04:15 PM GMT) is available for credit through the Central Bank.
The Mining Law says that one can only mine with a license from the Government. Ordening Goudsector regulates the concessionaires, how many machine owners there are and what the movements of small-scale miners are. New mining areas are still being issued. However it is important to note that data show that the interesting area to mine, especially for the small-scale miners who look for alluvial gold, is the Greenstone belt. The greenstone runs from Guyana, through Suriname, into French Guyana. This greenstone belt, however, only counts for 15% of the Surinamese surface. At the moment almost all areas in this belt are already given out in concessions.
After the return to a more or less democratically elected government in 1991, Dutch aid resumed. The Dutch relationship continues to be an important factor in the economy, with the Dutch insisting that Suriname undertake economic reforms and produce specific plans acceptable to the Dutch for projects on which aid funds could be spent. In 2000, however, the Dutch revised the structure of their aid package and signaled to the Surinamese authorities their decision to disburse aid by sectoral priorities as opposed to individual projects. Although the present government is not in favor of this approach, it has identified sectors and is now working on sectoral analyses to present to the Dutch.
After a short respite in 1991–1996, when measures taken in 1993 led to economic stabilization, a relatively stable exchange rate, low inflation, sustainable fiscal policies, and growth, Suriname's economic situation deteriorated from 1996 to the present. This was due in large part to loose fiscal policies of the Wijdenbosch government, which, in the face of lower Dutch development aid, financed its deficit through credit extended by the central bank. As a consequence, the parallel market for foreign exchange soared so that by the end of 1998, the premium of the parallel market rate over the official rate was 85%. Since over 90% of import transactions took place at the parallel rate, inflation took off, with 12-month inflation growing from 0.5% at the end of 1996, to 23% at the end of 1998, and 113% at the end of 1999. The government also instituted a regime of stringent economic controls over prices, the exchange rate, imports, and exports, in an effort to contain the adverse efforts of its economic policies. The cumulative impact of soaring inflation, an unstable exchange rate, and falling real incomes led to a political crisis.
Dutch aid stopped to a large extent after Dési Bouterse was elected president. Aid from China has increased.
Suriname elected a new government in May 2000, but until it was replaced, the Wijdenbosch government continued its loose fiscal and monetary policies. By the time it left office, the exchange rate in the parallel market had depreciated further, over 10% of GDP had been borrowed to finance the fiscal deficit, and there was a significant monetary overhang in the country. The new government dealt with these problems by devaluing the official exchange rate by 88%, eliminating all other exchange rates except the parallel market rate set by the banks and cambios, raising tariffs on water and electricity, and eliminating the subsidy on gasoline. The new administration also rationalized the extensive list of price controls to 12 basic food items. More important, the government ceased all financing from the central bank. It is attempting to broaden its economic base, establish better contacts with other nations and international financial institutions, and reduce its dependence on Dutch assistance. However, to date the government has yet to implement an investment law or to begin privatization of any of the 110 parastatal, nor has it given much indication that it has developed a comprehensive plan to develop the economy.
Oil is a promising sector. Staatsolie, the state-owned oil company, produced a day in 2012. Staatsolie currently refines a day at Tout Lui Faut in
the District of Wanica and is building more capacity to go to a day.
Some big companies are getting the hardwood out of the jungle. However, proposals for exploitation of the country's tropical forests and undeveloped regions of the interior traditionally inhabited by indigenous and Maroon communities have raised the concerns of environmentalists and human rights activists both in Suriname and abroad. These opposing parties are not yet strong in Suriname.
State-owned banana producer Surland closed its doors on April 5, 2002, after its inability to meet payroll expenses for the second month in a row; it is still unclear if Surland will survive this crisis.
It was remodeled as Stichting Behoud Bananen Sector Suriname (SBBS). The rumour was that because of political differences Surland was manipulated in shutting down. The SBBS has made banana profitable for the first time in 20 years.
A member of CARICOM, Suriname also exports in small numbers rice, shrimp, timber, bananas, fruits, and vegetables.
Moreover, in January 2002, the government renegotiated civil servant wages (a significant part of the work force and a significant portion of government expenditure), agreeing to raises as high as 100%. Pending implementation of these wage increases and concerned that the government may be unable to meet these increased expenses, the local currency weakened from Sf 2200 in January 2002 to nearly Sf 2500 in April 2002. On March 26, 2003, the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS) adjusted the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar. This action resulted in further devaluation of the Surinamese guilder. The official exchange rate of the US$ was SF 2,650 for selling and SF 2,600 for purchasing. With the official exchange rate, the CBvS came closer to the exchange rate on the parallel market which sold the U.S. dollar for SF 3,250.
From 2011: Surinamese dollar (SRD) = 100 cent; USD 1.00 is ca. SRD 3.20 (May 2011)
From 2004 to 2011: Surinamese dollar (SRD) = 100 cent; USD 1.00 is ca. SRD 2.74 (July 2007)
Before 2004: Surinamese gulden (SRG) = 100 cent, SRD 1 = SRG 1000; coins had extremely low official value and a much higher collector's value; their official value has now been multiplied by 1000: the value in SRD cent is equal to the former value in SRG cent. The same applies for "currency notes" (SRG 1 and 2.50).
Surinamese guilders per US dollar - 2,346.75 (2002), 2,178.5 (2001), 1,322.47 (2000), 859.44 (1999), 401 (1998)
Note: during 1998, the exchange rate splintered into four distinct rates; in January 1999 the government floated the guilder, but subsequently fixed it when the black-market rate plunged; the government then allowed trading within a band of SRG 500 around the official rate
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1990–2017. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27436 |
Telecommunications in Suriname
Telecommunications in Suriname includes radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Internet access is common and widely available in major cities, but less common in remote areas of the interior with limited bandwidth and often no access to electricity.
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet and the government asserts that it does not monitor e-mail or Internet chat rooms without judicial oversight. However, journalists, members of the political opposition and their supporters, and other independent entities report government interference or oversight of email and social media accounts.
The law provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. Members of the local and international press corps report threats of violence directly linked to their coverage of the amendment to the amnesty law. The president's official spokesperson publicly criticized and intimidated journalists who reported on negative public reaction to the amendment. Some media members practice self-censorship in response to pressure and intimidation by senior government officials or community leaders on journalists who publish negative stories about the administration. In addition many news outlets are affiliated with particular political parties, which discourages journalists from reporting on some subjects. The law prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice. The law requires search warrants, which are issued by quasi-judicial officers who supervise criminal investigations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27437 |
Transport in Suriname
The Republic of Suriname () has a number of forms of transport. Transportation emissions are an increasing part of Suriname's contributions to climate change, as part of the Nationally Determined Contributions for the Paris Agreement, Suriname has committed to emissions controls for vehicles and increased public transit investment.
The Afobakaweg is a paved 2-lane road connecting Paranam with Afobaka, the location of the Afobaka Dam. The road connects northwards to Paramaribo and the East-West Link. The Afobakaweg has two major branches: One paved branch leads to Brokopondo, and another paved branch leads to Pokigron via Brownsweg. A further extension of the Pokigron branch to Brazil via Vier Gebroeders is as of May 2020 still in the planning phase.
On 15 May 2020, the Desiré Delano Bouterse Highway opened, and is the first motorway of Suriname, providing a faster connection between Paramaribo and the Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport.
A major road is the 2-lane East-West Link connecting Albina to Nieuw Nickerie. The road was fully paved on 17 December 2009.. There is a Southern East-West Link connecting Paramaribo with Apoera via Bitagron, however it is mainly unpaved.
NOTE: Driving is on the left. Suriname and its neighbour Guyana are the only two countries on the (in-land) American continent which still drive on the left.
1,200 km; most important means of transport; oceangoing vessels with drafts ranging up to 7 m can navigate many of the principal waterways. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27438 |
Suriname National Army
After the creation of the Statute of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Royal Netherlands Army was entrusted with the defence of Suriname, while the defence of the Netherlands Antilles was the responsibility of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The army set up a separate "Troepenmacht in Suriname" (Forces in Suriname, TRIS). Upon independence in 1975, this force was turned into the "Surinaamse Krijgsmacht" (SKM):, Surinamese Armed Forces. On February 25, 1980, a group of 15 non-commissioned officers and one junior SKM officer, under the leadership of sergeant major Dési Bouterse, staged a coup d'état and overthrew the Government. Subsequently, the SKM was rebranded as "Nationaal Leger" (NL), National Army.
The Netherlands has provided limited military assistance to the Surinamese armed forces since the election of a democratic government in 1991. In recent years, the United States has provided training to military officers and policymakers to promote a better understanding of the role of the military in a civilian government. Also, since the mid-1990s, the People's Republic of China has been donating military equipment and logistical material to the Surinamese Armed Forces, as has Brazil.
Suriname's National Armed Forces are composed of some 2,500 personnel, the majority of whom are deployed in the Army of Suriname.
In 1982 a small air arm was formed within the Suriname defense force called "Surinaamse Luchtmacht" in short also called LUMA. The first military aircraft of the young air force was a Hughes 500 - Model 369D helicopter, simply registered SAF-100 and being used for light observation tasks. Unfortunately the aircraft was written off in March 1982 killing all five occupants (Major Henk Fernandes, second lieutenant Norman de Miranda, soldier Tjon a Kon and soldier Kowid and American pilot Foster Ford), but from May of the same year the Suriname Air Force was being equipped with four (Pilatus) Britten Norman BN-2B Defenders. Registered with the numbers SAF-001, SAF-002, SAF-003 and SAF-004. Later on during the decade a Cessna 172 Skyhawk "(SAF-007)", a Cessna 206 "(SAF-200)" and in 1993 a Cessna T303 Crusader "(SAF-008)" was acquired. The first official Surinam Air Force Commander from 1983 until 1989 was air force pilot lieutenant Eddie Alenso Savalie Djoe. He was one of the passenger victims of the Surinam Airways Flight 764 accident in June 1989, by then he was already promoted to the rank of Major.
All aircraft of the Suriname Air Force undertake border patrols, utility transport and SAR (Search & Rescue) missions from the main base at Paramaribo - Zorg en Hoop and are occasionally detached to Zanderij - Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, Nieuw Nickerie - Major Fernandes Airfield, Albina Airstrip and Moengo Airstrip. In 1986 anti-government guerrilla activity prompted the government to acquire a pair of Aérospatiale SA.316B Alouette III "(SAF-400 & SAF-500)" helicopters from the Portuguese Air Force ("Portuguese: Força Aérea Portuguesa"), formerly registered "FAP9350" & "FAP9386". In the same year also three Pilatus PC-7's "(SAF-111, SAF-112 & SAF-113)" were ordered in Switzerland for COIN (Counter-Insurgency) missions. One of the Alouettes crashed and both delivered PC-7s were returned to Switzerland but one was later re-delivered. In 1987 a Bell 205 Iroquois "(SAF-300)" was acquired from Venezuela and used as a gunship for five years prior to sale to the US as N6594S in 1991. It crashed in July 1987 due to a mechanical failure killing the American pilot Billy Pearson, seriously injuring the American mechanic and four other Surinamese crewmembers. The helicopter was later repaired and back in action.
Two CASA 212-400s Aviocar transports "(SAF-212 & SAF-214)" Garret AiResearch TPE331-10HR turbo-prop engined aircraft were delivered in 1999. One of these two Spanish built CASA 212-400s is a Maritime Patrol Aircraft version "(SAF-214)" which was modified for the maritime patrol role with a Bendix RDR-1500 surveillance radar. Lack of spares and funding has hampered maintenance and sometimes grounding much of the SAF fleet. In 2012 six experts from Venezuela made an assessment for the Suriname Air Force on the rehabilitation of the Casa 212 airplanes and now the Suriname Air Force has sold them to Fayard Enterprises in the USA.
Three single engined Indian HAL Chetak helicopters were ordered in 2009. In a deal worth US$13.4 million with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [HAL], facilitated through a line of credit from India. The deal was previous rumoured to include the more modern twin engined HAL Dhruv helicopters, but this proved to be wrong.
On 26 December 2012 ten technical personnel of the Suriname Air Force left to India to be trained to become certified helicopter mechanics. In 2014 eight helicopter pilots from the Suriname Air Force were trained on operating the HAL Chetak helicopters in Bangalore, India. In 2014 it was announced that Suriname's order for helicopters from India was in fact for HAL Chetak and not the HAL Dhruv even as the Chetak production line was planned to be shut down. Rumours aside, by the end of January 2015 the three Indian Chetak helicopters were assembled and delivered in Suriname as SAF-H001 "(c/n AH-350)", SAF-H002 "(c/n AH-351)" & SAF-H003 "(c/n AH-352)". These registrations later changed to SAF-153, SAF-303 and SAF-811 when operational training started. The plan is to have one helicopter each based at the city of Paramaribo (Zorg en Hoop Airport), Nickerie (Majoor Henk Fernandes Airport) and Albina (Albina Airstrip). Finally on 13 March 2015 the helicopter fleet of three Chetaks was officially handed over by the Indian ambassador Subashini Murgesan to the Minister of Defence of Suriname Lamuré Latour in a ceremony at Zorg en Hoop. On the same day and occasion the Minister announced that a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter was about to be added to the airfleet of the Suriname Air Force shortly, with pilots already in training. Because of the financial crisis in Suriname, the Air Force has had to decommission one of its Chetaks.
Previous aircraft operated by the Air Wing include the Cessna 206, Pilatus PC-7, and Britten-Norman Islander. Helicopters included the Bell 205 and Alouette III.
In 1977 the Navy (Marine) of Suriname received three large patrol vessels from the Dutch, built by De Vries Scheepsbouw. With a length of 32 meters each ship had two Paxman 12YHMC diesel engines of 1200HP performing a maximum speed of 20 knots. Delivery was between February 1977 and 1978 and the hull numbers were S-401, S-402 and S-403. Now all three are out of service, the last one S-401 later P-401 is still moored at the Marine Harbor. One was re-built as a luxurious yacht. All ships had their base at the Marine harbor on the Suriname river.
Today most of the fleet of the Marine of Suriname are based at Boxel, close to the resort town of Domburg in the Wanica District on the Suriname river.
In November 2012 the defence and internal affairs Ministry of Suriname bought three patrol vessels from the French company Ocea for the Coast Guard. This order was worth 16 million euros. These patrol vessels will be used for fishery protection and to counterattack piracy in Surinamese waters. The first Fast Patrol Boat (P201), a 32 meters long, 6,3 meters wide FPB 98 type, was delivered in June 2013. The first boat arrived in Paramaribo with a container vessel from the port of Saint-Nazaire, France. The vessels can reach speeds of 30 knots. Delivery of the remaining two vessels (P101 & P102), FPB 72 types (24 meters long), occurred by the end of July, 2013. The Surinamese Government ordered the three vessels, accelerating planning to set up a coast guard for Suriname that will be deployed to conduct patrol duties and fight maritime crime activities like illegal fishing, drug trafficking, and piracy.
The coast guard is a branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Soldiers were transferred from the Navy Unit (Marine) of the National Army, to form the initial coast guard staff. The Maritime Authority of Suriname (MAS) is currently training 16 students from the Nature Technical Institute (NaTIn) and Technical Faculty of University of Suriname on how to conduct technical maintenance of the vessels. Ocea sent a trainer along with the boats to help conduct a six-month course. Colonel Jerry Slijngaard heads the Government's coast guard committee. While the first three boats will barely be sufficient to patrol Suriname's territorial waters and combat maritime crime activities such piracy, rapid reaction is now possible.
The unit has its own base on the banks of the Suriname River in Paramaribo, with posts at the border with Guyana (in western District Nickerie) and French Guiana (in eastern District Marowijne). Legislation on which the coast guard will be founded is almost finished. It will soon be tabled in the Council of Ministers and the Council of State, after which it will head for the National Assembly for approval. The new unit is a civil organisation, with authority to enforce the law in Suriname territorial waters. The Surinamese government does not intend to make cuts to the Navy (Marine), once the Coast Guard is fully operational. The Navy will keep operating in the high seas outside the zone.
The President of the Republic, Dési Bouterse, is the head of the armed forces, with the title of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces ("Opperbevelhebber van de Strijdkrachten"). The President is the supreme authority for all national military matters . The President is assisted by the Minister of Defence in his role over the armed forces, Mr. Lamure Latour. The director of the Ministry of Defence is Mr. John Achong.
Beneath the President and Minister of Defense is the Commander of the Armed Forces ("Bevelhebber van de Strijdkrachten"), Colonel Hedwig Gilaard, whose headquarters is in Paramaribo, was followed-up after three years by Colonel Ronni Benschop, who in turn was promoted to Brigade General in February 2014. This is the highest-ranked officer in the Armed Forces of Suriname ever.
The Commander called "Bevelhebber", is the Military Chief, charged with command over the different Military Branches.
The Military Branches and regional Military Commands report to the Commander.
The Armed Forces is Headquartered in Paramaribo.
The task of the national army of Suriname is defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Suriname against foreign armed military aggression. That is, the defense of not only the territory but also the territorial waters and the airspace above it.
The Ministry of defence consists of the Policy Centre and the operational part (the national army) that makes up the Defence Organization Forms. The Department of Defense has no departments. There are various services and units. The Policy Centre is responsible for the care of the armed forces so that timely and adequate it can perform the duties or missions assigned to it by law in an efficient and effective manner.
Providing assistance to international organisations, if and to the extent that command is given for that purpose by the competent authority. This is e.g. for humanitarian operations of the United Nations. Also providing assistance in the preparation and implementation of projects related to the socio-economic development of Suriname
There are several military installations, barracks and detachments in the various districts including the Memre Boekoe Kazerne (Paramaribo), the Naval Marine base (district Wanica), the Air Force Luma base (Zorg en Hoop, Paramaribo), the training centre for recruits namely the Ayoko-barracks and the detachment Zanderij, the eastern border post, the Akontoe Velantie Kazerne at Albina, in Nickerie the western border post, the Professor Dr. Ali Kazerne and on the Kennedy Highway to Concordia the 1st Sgt Martowidjojo Kazerne. There are also various detachments and the so-called small stations throughout Suriname in the districts Sipaliwini, Saramacca, Brokopondo and Para. But also the protection of important objects such as the Afobakkadam or the bridge over the Coppename River belongs to the protective task of the National Army of Suriname.
The Armed Forces of Suriname were engaged in a domestic war against a few hundred freedom fighters who named themselves "Jungle Commandos" led by Ronnie Brunswijk between 1986 and 1992.
Surinamese armed forces also fought against the Resistance Amerindian groups who call themselves "Tucajana Amazon" and were led by Alex Jubitana and Thomas Sabajo. These Amerindian insurgents fought from 1986 to 1989. They opposed the expropriation of land owned by indigenous people and discrimination by the military regime.
The Army also participated in the Multi-National Force in Haiti in the 90's and were redeployed in 2010.
With latest procurement of three HAL Chetak helicopters from India for the Air Force and three patrol vessels from France for the new Coast Guard the Armed Forces of Suriname should be better equipped to fulfill its roles in the future.
In September 12, 2012. The Suriname defense minister, Lamouré Latour, discussed with the Brazilian defense minister the possibility of the Military of Suriname acquiring from two to four Brazilian Embraer AT-29B Super Tucano light attack (COIN) trainer planes, 500 ton light patrol ships and the revitalization of the armoured vehicles supplied from Brazil in 1983.
Beretta 92- seen in use during training with U.S. Forces.
FN FAL- main rifle used by Army.
FN F2000- used by some units.
CETME Model L- seen in a parade.
EE-9 Cascavel armoured car (45)
EE-11 Urutu armoured personnel carrier (16)
DAF YP-408 Dutch made 6x8 armoured vehicle (5)
DAF YA440 trucks with M-55 anti-aircraft guns
ZPU-1 towed anti-aircraft guns | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27439 |
Foreign relations of Suriname
As part of the foreign relations of Suriname, the country is a participant in numerous international organizations. International tensions have arisen due to Suriname's status as a trans-shipment point for South American recreational drugs destined mostly for Europe.
The country claims an area in French Guiana between Litani River and Marouini River (both headwaters of the Lawa). Suriname also claims an area in Guyana between New (Upper Courantyne) and Courantyne/Koetari Rivers (all headwaters of the Courantyne).
Suriname is a member of numerous international organizations. Among them, since gaining independence, Suriname has become a member of the UN, the OAS, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Suriname is a member of the Caribbean Community and Common Market and the Association of Caribbean States. It is associated with the European Union through the Lome Convention. Suriname participates in the Amazonian Pact, a grouping of the countries of the Amazon Basin that focuses on protection of the Amazon region's natural resources from environmental degradation.
Reflecting its status as a major bauxite producer, Suriname is a member of the International Bauxite Association. The country also belongs to the Economic Commission for Latin America, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Suriname became a member of the Islamic Development Bank in 1998, under the Wijdenbosch government. In 2003, Suriname joined the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language union).
Bilateral agreements with several countries of the region, covering diverse areas of cooperation, have underscored the government's interest in strengthening regional ties. The return to Suriname from French Guiana of about 8,000 refugees of the 1986–91 civil war between the military and domestic insurgents has improved relations with French authorities. Longstanding border disputes with Guyana and French Guiana remain unresolved. Negotiations with the Government of Guyana brokered by the Jamaican Prime Minister in 2000 did not produce an agreement but the countries agreed to restart talks after Guyanese national elections in 2001. In January 2002 the presidents of Suriname and Guyana met in Suriname and agreed to resume negotiations, establishing the Suriname-Guyana border commission to begin meeting in May 2002. An earlier dispute with Brazil ended amicably after formal demarcation of the border.
In May 1997, then-President Wijdenbosch joined US President Clinton and 14 other Caribbean leaders during the first-ever US-regional summit in Bridgetown, Barbados. The summit strengthened the basis for regional cooperation on justice and counter narcotics issues, finance, development, and trade. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27440 |
Svalbard
Svalbard ( , ; prior to 1925 known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, ) is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Situated north of mainland Europe, it is about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. While part of the Kingdom of Norway since 1925, Svalbard is not part of geographical Norway proper; administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by the Norwegian government, and a special jurisdiction subject to the Svalbard Treaty that is, unlike Norway proper, outside of the Schengen Area, the Nordic Passport Union and the European Economic Area.
Since 2002, Svalbard's main settlement, Longyearbyen, has had an elected local government, somewhat similar to mainland municipalities. Other settlements include the Russian mining community of Barentsburg, the research station of Ny-Ålesund, and the mining outpost of Sveagruva. Other settlements are farther north, but are populated only by rotating groups of researchers.
The islands were first used as a whaling base by whalers who sailed far north in pursuit of whales for blubber in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which they were abandoned. Coal mining started at the beginning of the 20th century, and several permanent communities were established. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 recognizes Norwegian sovereignty, and the 1925 Svalbard Act made Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway. They also established Svalbard as a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone. The Norwegian Store Norske and the Russian Arktikugol remain the only mining companies in place. Research and tourism have become important supplementary industries, with the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault playing critical roles. No roads connect the settlements; instead snowmobiles, aircraft and boats serve inter-community transport. Svalbard Airport, Longyear serves as the main gateway.
The archipelago features an Arctic climate, although with significantly higher temperatures than other areas at the same latitude. The flora take advantage of the long period of midnight sun to compensate for the polar night. Svalbard is a breeding ground for many seabirds, and also features polar bears, reindeer, the Arctic fox, and certain marine mammals. Seven national parks and twenty-three nature reserves cover two-thirds of the archipelago, protecting the largely untouched, yet fragile, natural environment. Approximately 60% of the archipelago is covered with glaciers, and the islands feature many mountains and fjords.
Svalbard and Jan Mayen are collectively assigned the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "SJ". Both areas are administered by Norway, though they are separated by a distance of over and have very different administrative structures.
The name Svalbard comes from an older native name for the archipelago, "Svalbarð", composed of the well-attested Old Norse words "svalr" ("cold") and "barð" ("edge; ridge"). The name "Spitsbergen" originated with Dutch navigator and explorer Willem Barentsz, who described the "pointed mountains" or, in Dutch, "spitse bergen" that he saw on the west coast of the main island, Spitsbergen. Barentsz did not recognize that he had discovered an archipelago, and consequently the name "Spitsbergen" long remained in use both for the main island and for the archipelago as a whole.
The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 defines Svalbard as all islands, islets and skerries from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The land area is , and dominated by the island of Spitsbergen, which constitutes more than half the archipelago, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. All settlements are located on Spitsbergen, except the meteorological outposts on Bjørnøya and Hopen. The Norwegian state took possession of all unclaimed land, or 95.2% of the archipelago, at the time the Svalbard Treaty entered into force; Store Norske, a Norwegian coal mining company, owns 4%, Arktikugol, a Russian coal mining company, owns 0.4%, while other private owners hold 0.4%.
Since Svalbard is located north of the Arctic Circle, it experiences midnight sun in summer and polar night in winter. At 74° north, the midnight sun lasts 99 days and polar night 84 days, while the respective figures at 81° are 141 and 128 days. In Longyearbyen, midnight sun lasts from 20 April until 23 August, and polar night lasts from 26 October to 15 February. In winter, the combination of full moon and reflective snow can give additional light. Due to the Earth's tilt and the high latitude, Svalbard has extensive twilights. Longyearbyen sees the first and last day of polar night having seven and a half hours of twilight, whereas the perpetual light lasts for two weeks longer than the midnight sun. On the summer solstice, the sun bottoms out at 12° sun angle in the middle of the night, being much higher during night than in mainland Norway's polar light areas. However, the daytime strength of the sun remains as low as 35°.
Glacial ice covers or 60% of Svalbard; 30% is barren rock while 10% is vegetated. The largest glacier is Austfonna () on Nordaustlandet, followed by Olav V Land and Vestfonna. During summer, it is possible to ski from Sørkapp in the south to the north of Spitsbergen, with only a short distance not being covered by snow or glacier. Kvitøya is 99.3% covered by glacier.
The landforms of Svalbard were created through repeated ice ages, when glaciers cut the former plateau into fjords, valleys, and mountains. The tallest peak is Newtontoppen (), followed by Perriertoppen (), Ceresfjellet (), Chadwickryggen (), and Galileotoppen (). The longest fjord is Wijdefjorden (), followed by Isfjorden (), Van Mijenfjorden (), Woodfjorden (), and Wahlenbergfjorden (). Svalbard is part of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province, and experienced Norway's strongest earthquake on 6 March 2009, which hit a magnitude of 6.5.
The Dutchman Willem Barentsz made the first discovery of the archipelago in 1596, when he sighted the coast of the island of Spitsbergen while searching for the Northern Sea Route.
The first recorded landing on the islands of Svalbard dates to 1604, when an English ship landed at "Bjørnøya", or Bear Island, and started hunting walrus. Annual expeditions soon followed, and Spitsbergen became a base for hunting the bowhead whale from 1611. Because of the lawless nature of the area, English, Danish, Dutch, and French companies and authorities tried to use force to keep out other countries' fleets.
Smeerenburg was one of the first settlements, established by the Dutch in 1619. Smaller bases were also built by the English, Danish, and French. At first the outposts were merely summer camps, but from the early 1630s, a few individuals started to overwinter. Whaling at Spitsbergen lasted until the 1820s, when the Dutch, British, and Danish whalers moved elsewhere in the Arctic. By the late 17th century, Russian hunters arrived; they overwintered to a greater extent and hunted land mammals such as the polar bear and fox.
After the Anglo-Russian War in 1809, Russian activity on Svalbard diminished, and ceased by the 1820s. Norwegian hunting—mostly for walrus—started in the 1790s. The first Norwegian citizens to reach Spitsbergen proper were a number of Coast Sámi people from the Hammerfest region, who were hired as part of a Russian crew for an expedition in 1795. Norwegian whaling was abandoned about the same time as the Russians left, but whaling continued around Spitsbergen until the 1830s, and around Bjørnøya until the 1860s.
By the 1890s, Svalbard had become a destination for Arctic tourism, coal deposits had been found and the islands were being used as a base for Arctic exploration. The first mining was along Isfjorden by Norwegians in 1899; by 1904, British interests had established themselves in Adventfjorden and started the first all-year operations. Production in Longyearbyen, by American interests, started in 1908; and Store Norske established itself in 1916, as did other Norwegian interests during the war, in part by buying American interests.
Discussions to establish the sovereignty of the archipelago commenced in the 1910s, but were interrupted by World War I. On 9 February 1920, following the Paris Peace Conference, the Svalbard Treaty was signed, granting full sovereignty to Norway. However, all signatory countries were granted non-discriminatory rights to fishing, hunting, and mineral resources. The treaty took effect on 14 August 1925, at the same time as the Svalbard Act regulated the archipelago and the first governor, Johannes Gerckens Bassøe, took office. The archipelago has traditionally been known as Spitsbergen, and the main island as West Spitsbergen. From the 1920s, Norway renamed the archipelago Svalbard, and the main island became Spitsbergen. Kvitøya, Kong Karls Land, Hopen, and Bjørnøya were not regarded as part of the Spitsbergen archipelago. Russians have traditionally called the archipelago Grumant (). The Soviet Union retained the name Spitsbergen () to support undocumented claims that Russians were the first to discover the island. In 1928, Italian explorer Umberto Nobile and the crew of the airship "Italia" crashed on the icepack off the coast of Foyn Island. The subsequent rescue attempts were covered extensively in the press and Svalbard received short-lived fame as a result.
Svalbard, known to both British and Germans as Spitsbergen, was little affected by the German invasion of Norway in April 1940. The settlements continued to operate as before, mining coal and monitoring the weather.
In July 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Royal Navy reconnoitred the islands with a view to using them as a base of operations to facilitate sending supplies to north Russia, but the idea was rejected as too impractical. Instead, with the agreement of the Soviets and the Norwegian government in exile, in August 1941 the Norwegian and Soviet settlements on Svalbard were evacuated, and facilities there destroyed, in Operation Gauntlet.
However the Norwegian government in exile decided it would be important politically to establish a garrison in the islands, which was done in May 1942 during Operation Fritham.
Meanwhile, the Germans had responded to the destruction of weather station by establishing a reporting station of their own, codenamed "Banso", in October 1941. This was chased away in November by a visit from four British warships, but later returned. A second station, "Knospel", was established at Ny Alesund in 1941, remaining until 1942. In May 1942, after the arrival of the Fritham force, the German unit at Banso was evacuated.
In September 1943 in Operation Zitronella a German task force, which included the battleship "Tirpitz", was sent to attack the garrison and destroy the settlements at Longyearbyen and Barentsburg. This was achieved, but had little long-term effect: after their departure the Norwegians returned and re-established their presence.
In September 1944, the Germans set up their last weather station, Operation Haudegen in NordOstLand; this remained functioning until after the German surrender. On 4 September 1945, the soldiers were picked up by a Norwegian seal hunting vessel and surrendered to its captain. This group of men were the last German troops to surrender after the Second World War.
After the war, the Soviet Union proposed common Norwegian and Soviet administration and military defence of Svalbard. This was rejected in 1947 by Norway, which two years later joined NATO. The Soviet Union retained high civilian activity on Svalbard, in part to ensure that the archipelago was not used by NATO.
After the war, Norway re-established operations at Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, while the Soviet Union established mining in Barentsburg, Pyramiden and Grumant. The mine at Ny-Ålesund had several fatal accidents, killing 71 people while it was in operation from 1945 to 1954 and from 1960 to 1963. The Kings Bay Affair, caused by the 1962 accident killing 21 workers, forced Gerhardsen's Third Cabinet to resign. From 1964, Ny-Ålesund became a research outpost, and a facility for the European Space Research Organisation. Petroleum test drilling was started in 1963 and continued until 1984, but no commercially viable fields were found. From 1960, regular charter flights were made from the mainland to a field at Hotellneset; in 1975, Svalbard Airport, Longyear opened, allowing year-round services.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union retained about two-thirds of the population on the islands (with a third being Norwegians) with the archipelago's population slightly under 4,000. Russian activity has diminished considerably since then, falling from 2,500 to 450 people from 1990 to 2010. Grumant was closed after it was depleted in 1962. Pyramiden was closed in 1998. Coal exports from Barentsburg ceased in 2006 because of a fire, but resumed in 2010. The Russian community has also experienced two air accidents, Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, which killed 141 people, and the Heerodden helicopter accident, which killed three people.
Longyearbyen remained purely a company town until 1989 when utilities, culture, and education was separated into Svalbard Samfunnsdrift. In 1993, it was sold to the national government and the University Centre was established. Through the 1990s, tourism increased and the town developed an economy independent of Store Norske and the mining. Longyearbyen was incorporated on 1 January 2002, receiving a community council.
In 2016, Svalbard had a population of 2,667, of which 423 were Russian and Ukrainian, 10 Polish, and 322 non-Norwegians living in Norwegian settlements. The largest non-Norwegian groups in Longyearbyen in 2005 were from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Thailand.
Longyearbyen is the largest settlement on the archipelago, the seat of the governor and the only town to be incorporated. The town features a hospital, primary and secondary school, university, sports center with a swimming pool, library, culture center, cinema, bus transport, hotels, a bank, and several museums. The newspaper "Svalbardposten" is published weekly. Only a small fraction of the mining activity remains at Longyearbyen; instead, workers commute to Sveagruva (or Svea) where Store Norske operates a mine. Sveagruva is a dormitory town, with workers commuting from Longyearbyen weekly.
Ny-Ålesund is a permanent settlement based entirely around research. Formerly a mining town, it is still a company town operated by the Norwegian state-owned Kings Bay. While there is some tourism there, Norwegian authorities limit access to the outpost to minimize impact on the scientific work. Ny-Ålesund has a winter population of 35 and a summer population of 180. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute has outposts at Bjørnøya and Hopen, with respectively ten and four people stationed. Both outposts can also house temporary research staff. Poland operates the Polish Polar Station at Hornsund, with ten permanent residents.
Barentsburg is the only permanently inhabited Russian settlement after Pyramiden was abandoned in 1998. It is a company town: all facilities are owned by Arktikugol, which operates a coal mine. In addition to the mining facilities, Arktikugol has opened a hotel and souvenir shop, catering for tourists taking day trips or hikes from Longyearbyen. The village features facilities such as a school, library, sports center, community center, swimming pool, farm, and greenhouse. Pyramiden features similar facilities; both are built in typical post-World War II Soviet architectural and planning style and contain the world's two most northerly Lenin statues and other socialist realism artwork. , a handful of workers are stationed in the largely abandoned Pyramiden to maintain the infrastructure and run the hotel, which has been re-opened for tourists.
Most of the population is Christian and affiliated with the Church of Norway. Catholics on the archipelago are pastorally served by the Territorial Prelature of Tromsø.
The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 established full Norwegian sovereignty over the archipelago. The islands are, unlike the Norwegian Antarctic Territory, a part of the Kingdom of Norway and not a dependency. The treaty came into effect in 1925, following the Svalbard Act. All forty signatory countries of the treaty have the right to conduct commercial activities on the archipelago without discrimination, although all activity is subject to Norwegian legislation. The treaty limits Norway's right to collect taxes to that of financing services on Svalbard. Therefore, Svalbard has a lower income tax than mainland Norway, and there is no value added tax. There is a separate budget for Svalbard to ensure compliance. Svalbard is a demilitarized zone, as the treaty prohibits the establishment of military installations. Norwegian military activity is limited to fishery surveillance by the Norwegian Coast Guard as the treaty requires Norway to protect the natural environment.
There are no restrictions on foreigners migrating in, and hence no visa requirement.
The Svalbard Act established the institution of the Governor of Svalbard (), who holds the responsibility as both county governor and chief of police, as well as holding other authority granted from the executive branch. Duties include environmental policy, family law, law enforcement, search and rescue, tourism management, information services, contact with foreign settlements, and judge in some areas of maritime inquiries and judicial examinations—albeit never in the same cases as acting as police. Since 2015, Kjerstin Askholt has been governor; she is assisted by a staff of 26 professionals. The institution is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and the Police, but reports to other ministries in matters within their portfolio.
Since 2002, Longyearbyen Community Council has had many of the same responsibilities of a municipality, including utilities, education, cultural facilities, fire department, roads, and ports. No care or nursing services are available, nor is welfare payment available. Norwegian residents retain pension and medical rights through their mainland municipalities. The hospital is part of University Hospital of North Norway, while the airport is operated by state-owned Avinor. Ny-Ålesund and Barentsburg remain company towns with all infrastructure owned by Kings Bay and Arktikugol, respectively. Other public offices with presence on Svalbard are the Norwegian Directorate of Mining, the Norwegian Polar Institute, the Norwegian Tax Administration, and the Church of Norway. Svalbard is subordinate to Nord-Troms District Court and Hålogaland Court of Appeal, both located in Tromsø.
Although Norway is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Schengen Agreement, Svalbard is not part of the Schengen Area or the EEA. Non-EU and non-Nordic Svalbard residents do not need Schengen visas, but are prohibited from reaching Svalbard from mainland Norway without such. People without a source of income can be rejected by the governor. No person is required to have a visa or residence permit for Svalbard. Everybody can live and work in Svalbard indefinitely regardless of citizenship. Svalbard Treaty grants treaty nationals equal right of abode as Norwegian nationals. So far, non-treaty nationals were admitted visa-free as well. "Regulations concerning rejection and expulsion from Svalbard" in force. Russia retains a consulate in Barentsburg.
In September 2010, a treaty was made between Russia and Norway fixing the boundary between the Svalbard archipelago and the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Increased interest in petroleum exploration in the Arctic raised interest in a resolution of the dispute. The agreement takes into account the relative positions of the archipelagos, rather than being based simply on northward extension of the continental border of Norway and Russia.
The three main industries on Svalbard are coal mining, tourism, and research. In 2007, there were 484 people working in the mining sector, 211 people working in the tourism sector, and 111 people working in the education sector. The same year, the mining gave a revenue of 2.008 billion Norwegian kroner (US$227,791,078), tourism 317 million kroner ($35,967,202), and research 142 million kroner ($16,098,404). In 2006, the average income for economically active people was 494,700 kroner; 23% higher than on the mainland. Almost all housing is owned by the various employers and institutions and rented to their employees; there are only a few privately owned houses, most of which are recreational cabins. Because of this, it is nearly impossible to live on Svalbard without working for an established institution.
Since the resettlement of Svalbard in the early 20th century, coal mining has been the dominant commercial activity. Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, a subsidiary of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, operates Svea Nord in Sveagruva and Mine 7 in Longyearbyen. The former produced 3.4 million tonnes in 2008, while the latter uses 35% of its output to fuel the Longyearbyen Power Station. Since 2007, there has not been any significant mining by the Russian state-owned Arktikugol in Barentsburg. There have previously been performed test drilling for petroleum on land, but these did not give satisfactory results for permanent operation. The Norwegian authorities do not allow offshore petroleum activities for environmental reasons, and the land formerly test-drilled on have been protected as natural reserves or national parks. In 2011, a 20-year plan to develop offshore oil and gas resources around Svalbard was announced.
Svalbard has historically been a base for both whaling and fishing. Norway claimed a exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around Svalbard in 1977, with of internal waters and of EEZ. Norway retains a restrictive fisheries policy in the zone, and the claims are disputed by Russia. Tourism is focused on the environment and is centered on Longyearbyen. Activities include hiking, kayaking, walks through glacier caves, and snowmobile and dog-sled safari. Cruise ships generate a significant portion of the traffic, including both stops by offshore vessels and expeditionary cruises starting and ending in Svalbard. Traffic is strongly concentrated between March and August; overnights have quintupled from 1991 to 2008, when there were 93,000 guest-nights.
Research on Svalbard centers on Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, the most accessible areas in the high Arctic. The treaty grants permission for any nation to conduct research on Svalbard, resulting in the Polish Polar Station and the Chinese Arctic Yellow River Station, plus Russian facilities in Barentsburg. The University Centre in Svalbard in Longyearbyen offers undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate courses to 350 students in various arctic sciences, particularly biology, geology, and geophysics. Courses are provided to supplement studies at the mainland universities; there are no tuition fees and courses are held in English, with Norwegian and international students equally represented.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a seedbank to store seeds from as many of the world's crop varieties and their botanical wild relatives as possible. A cooperation between the government of Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the vault is cut into rock near Longyearbyen, keeping it at a natural and refrigerating the seeds to .
The Svalbard Undersea Cable System is a fibre optic line from Svalbard to Harstad, needed for communicating with polar orbiting satellites through Svalbard Satellite Station and installations in Ny-Ålesund.
One source of income for the area was, until 2015, visiting cruise ships. The Norwegian government became concerned about large numbers of cruise ship passengers suddenly landing at small settlements such as Ny-Ålesund, which is conveniently close to the barren-yet-picturesque Magdalena Fjord. With the increasing size of the larger ships, up to 2,000 people can potentially appear in a community that normally numbers less than 40. As a result, the government severely restricted the size of cruise ships that may visit.
Unemployment is effectively banned, and there is no welfare system.
Within Longyearbyen, Barentsburg, and Ny-Ålesund, there are road systems, but they do not connect with each other. Off-road motorized transport is prohibited on bare ground, but snowmobiles are used extensively during winter—both for commercial and recreational activities. Transport from Longyearbyen to Barentsburg () and Pyramiden () is possible by snowmobile in winter, or by ship all year round. All settlements have ports and Longyearbyen has a bus system.
Svalbard Airport, Longyear, located from Longyearbyen, is the only airport offering air transport off the archipelago. Scandinavian Airlines has daily scheduled services to Tromsø and Oslo. Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle also has a service between Oslo and Svalbard, operating three or four times a week; there are also irregular charter services to Russia. Finnair operated service from Helsinki, operating three times per week between June and August 2016, but Norwegian authorities did not allow this route, citing the 1978 bilateral agreement on air traffic between Finland and Norway. Lufttransport provides regular corporate charter services from Longyearbyen to Ny-Ålesund Airport and Svea Airport for Kings Bay and Store Norske; these flights are generally not available to the public. There are heliports in Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and helicopters are frequently used by the governor and to a lesser extent the mining company Arktikugol.
The climate of Svalbard is dominated by its high latitude, with the average summer temperature at and January averages at . The West Spitsbergen Current, the northernmost branch of the North Atlantic Current system, moderates Svalbard's temperatures, particularly during winter. Winter temperatures in Svalbard are up to higher than those at similar latitudes in Russia and Canada. The warm Atlantic water keeps the surrounding waters open and navigable most of the year. The interior fjord areas and valleys, sheltered by the mountains, have larger temperature differences than the coast, giving about warmer summer temperatures and colder winter temperatures. On the south of Spitsbergen, the temperature is slightly higher than further north and west. During winter, the temperature difference between south and north is typically , and about in summer. Bear Island has average temperatures even higher than the rest of the archipelago.
Svalbard is where cold polar air from the north and mild, wet sea air from the south meet, creating low pressure, changeable weather and strong winds, particularly in winter; in January, a strong breeze is registered 17% of the time at Isfjord Radio, but only 1% of the time in July. In summer, particularly away from land, fog is common, with visibility under registered 20% of the time in July and 1% of the time in January, at Hopen and Bjørnøya. Precipitation is frequent, but falls in small quantities, typically less than per year in western Spitsbergen. More rain falls on the uninhabited east side, where there can be more than .
2016 was the warmest year on record at Svalbard Airport, with a remarkable mean temperature of , above the 1961–90 average, and more comparable to a location at the arctic circle. The coldest temperature of the year was as high as , warmer than the mean minimum in a normal January, February or March. In the same year, the number of days when there was rainfall equalled the number of days when there was snowfall, a significant deviation from the usual pattern whereby there would be at least twice as many snow days.
In addition to humans, three primarily terrestrial mammalian species inhabit the archipelago: the Arctic fox, the Svalbard reindeer, and accidentally introduced southern voles, which are found only in Grumant. Attempts to introduce the Arctic hare and the muskox have both failed. There are 15 to 20 types of marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, seals, walruses, and polar bears.
Polar bears are the iconic symbol of Svalbard, and one of the main tourist attractions. The animals are protected and people moving outside the settlements are required to have appropriate scare devices to ward off attacks. They are also advised to carry a firearm for use as a last resort. A British schoolboy was killed by a polar bear in 2011. In July 2018, a polar bear was shot dead after it attacked and injured a polar bear guard leading tourists off a cruise ship. Svalbard and Franz Joseph Land share a common population of 3,000 polar bears, with Kong Karls Land being the most important breeding ground.
The Svalbard reindeer ("R. tarandus platyrhynchus") is a distinct subspecies; although it was previously almost extinct, it can be legally hunted (as can Arctic fox). There are limited numbers of domesticated animals in the Russian settlements.
About eighty species of bird are found on Svalbard, most of which are migratory. The Barents Sea is among the areas in the world with most seabirds, with about 20 million individuals during late summer. The most common are little auk, northern fulmar, thick-billed murre, and black-legged kittiwake. Sixteen species are on the IUCN Red List. Particularly Bjørnøya, Storfjorden, Nordvest-Spitsbergen, and Hopen are important breeding ground for seabirds. The Arctic tern has the furthest migration, all the way to Antarctica. Only two songbirds migrate to Svalbard to breed: the snow bunting and the wheatear. Rock ptarmigan is the only bird to overwinter. Remains of Predator X ("Pliosaurus funkei") from the Jurassic period were discovered here; it is one of the largest dinosaur-era marine reptiles ever found.
Svalbard has permafrost and tundra, with both low, middle, and high Arctic vegetation. 165 species of plants have been found on the archipelago. Only those areas which defrost in the summer have vegetations, which accounts for about 10% of the archipelago. Vegetation is most abundant in Nordenskiöld Land, around Isfjorden and where affected by guano. While there is little precipitation, giving the archipelago a steppe climate, plants still have good access to water because the cold climate reduces evaporation. The growing season is very short, and may last only a few weeks.
There are seven national parks in Svalbard: Forlandet, Indre Wijdefjorden, Nordenskiöld Land, Nordre Isfjorden Land, Nordvest-Spitsbergen, Sassen-Bünsow Land and Sør-Spitsbergen. The archipelago has fifteen bird sanctuaries, one geotopic protected area and six nature reserves—with Nordaust-Svalbard and Søraust-Svalbard both being larger than any of the national parks. Most of the nature reserves and three of the national parks were created in 1973, with the remaining areas gaining protection in the 2000s. All human traces dating from before 1946 are automatically protected. The protected areas make up 65% of the archipelago. Svalbard is on Norway's tentative list for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The total solar eclipse of 20 March 2015 included only Svalbard and the Faroe Islands in the band of totality. Many scientists and tourists observed it.
Longyearbyen School serves ages 6–18. It is the primary/secondary school in the northernmost location on Earth. Once pupils reach ages 16 or 17, most families move to mainland Norway. Barentsburg has its own school serving the Russian community; by 2014 it had three teachers, and its welfare funds had declined. A primary school served the community of Pyramiden in the pre-1998 period.
There is a non-degree offering tertiary educational institution in Longyearbyen, University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), the northernmost tertiary school on Earth.
Association football is the most popular sport in Svalbard. There are three football pitches (one at Barentsburg), but no stadiums because of the small population.
There is also an indoor hall adopted for multiple sports including indoor football. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27441 |
Geography of Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean roughly centered on
78° north latitude and 20° east longitude. The archipelago is the northernmost part of the Kingdom of Norway. The three main islands in the group consist of Spitsbergen (the largest island), Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. There are also a number of smaller islands, such as Barents Island (Barentsøya) (), Kvitøya (), Prins Karls Forland (English: Prince Charles Foreland) (), Kongsøya (), Bear Island (), Svenskøya (), Wilhelm Island () and other smaller islands or skerries ().
There is no arable land in the island group due to heavy glaciation and the northern latitude. There are no trees native to the archipeligo, but there are shrubs such as crowberry and cloudberry. The west coast of Spitsbergen remains navigable most of the year, due to favorable winds which keep the area ice-free. Norway claims a fishery protection zone, but this is not recognized by neighboring Russia.
The climate of the Svalbard archipeligo is arctic, tempered by warm North Atlantic Current along the west and northern coasts. This means cool summers and cold winters along the wild, rugged mountainous islands. The high land of the island interiors is generally ice covered year round, with the west coast clear of ice about one half of the year. There are many fjords along west and north coasts
Svalbard has many mineral resources, and coal was mined extensively on the west side of Spitsbergen. Ice floes often block up the entrance to Bellsund (a transit point for coal exports) on the west coast and occasionally make parts of the northeastern coast inaccessible to maritime traffic
Although many prior adverse practises are now banned, the issues surrounding past exploitation of animal resources in the Svalbard area remain a problem. With whale, seal and walrus populations are still far below than they were even two centuries ago (the average age of a Greenland whale). The population of polar bears are locally recovering from the major culls of the 1960s and 1970s that came about due to the availability of snow scooters; however, the polar bear remains threatened at a global level, due to unsustainable levels of killing by humans and marine water pollution. There are a wide variety of birds in Svalbard including puffin, Arctic skua, kittiwake and fulmar, many of which populations are being monitored.
The main islands of Svalbard is parted into several "lands":
There are numerous fjords among the Svalbard islands; the five longest of which (measured from the head to open sea) are listed here:
Coastlines of the Svalbard islands (listed from largest island to smallest) show the extensive variability characteristic of glacial formation:
Although they are small when compared with the mountains of Norway, the elevation of the Svalbard island mountains accounts for much of the glacial erosion:
No roads link the settlements on the island; transportation includes boat, airplane, helicopter, and snowmobile. The gateway to Svalbard is Svalbard Airport, Longyearbyen. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27443 |
Eswatini
Eswatini ( ; ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini () and also known as Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its north, west, and south. At no more than north to south and east to west, Eswatini is one of the smallest countries in Africa; despite this, its climate and topography are diverse, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld.
The population is composed primarily of ethnic Swazis. The language is Swazi ("siSwati" in native form). The Swazis established their kingdom in the mid-18th century under the leadership of Ngwane III. The country and the Swazi take their names from Mswati II, the 19th-century king under whose rule Swazi territory was expanded and unified; the present boundaries were drawn up in 1881 in the midst of the Scramble for Africa. After the Second Boer War, the kingdom, under the name of Swaziland, was a British protectorate from 1903 until it regained its independence on 6 September 1968. In April 2018, the official name was changed from "Kingdom of Swaziland" to "Kingdom of Eswatini", mirroring the name commonly used in Swazi.
The government is an absolute monarchy, ruled by King Mswati III since 1986. Elections are held every five years to determine the House of Assembly and the Senate majority. The current constitution was adopted in 2005. "Umhlanga", the reed dance held in August/September, and "incwala", the kingship dance held in December/January, are the nation's most important events.
Eswatini is a developing country with a small economy. With a GDP per capita of $4,145.97, it is classified as a country with a lower-middle income. As a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), its main local trading partner is South Africa; in order to ensure economic stability, Eswatini's currency, the lilangeni, is pegged to the South African rand. Eswatini's major overseas trading partners are the United States and the European Union. The majority of the country's employment is provided by its agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Eswatini is a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the United Nations.
The Swazi population faces major health issues: HIV/AIDS and (to a lesser extent) tuberculosis are widespread. It is estimated that 26% of the adult population is HIV-positive. As of 2018, Eswatini has the 12th-lowest life expectancy in the world, at 58 years. The population of Eswatini is young, with a median age of 20.5 years and people aged 14 years or younger constituting 37.5% of the country's total population. The present population growth rate is 1.2%.
Artifacts indicating human activity dating back to the early Stone Age, around 200,000 years ago, have been found in Eswatini. Prehistoric rock art paintings dating from as far back as c. 27,000 years ago, to as recent as the 19th century, can be found in various places around the country.
The earliest known inhabitants of the region were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. They were largely replaced by the Nguni during the great Bantu migrations. These peoples originated from the Great Lakes regions of eastern and central Africa. Evidence of agriculture and iron use dates from about the 4th century. People speaking languages ancestral to the current Sotho and Nguni languages began settling no later than the 11th century.
The Swazi settlers, then known as "the Ngwane" (or "bakaNgwane") before entering Eswatini, had been settled on the banks of the Pongola River. Before that, they were settled in the area of the Tembe River near present-day Maputo, Mozambique. Continuing conflict with the Ndwandwe people pushed them further north, with Ngwane III establishing his capital at Shiselweni at the foot of the Mhlosheni hills.
Under Sobhuza I, the Ngwane people eventually established their capital at Zombodze in the heartland of present-day Eswatini. In this process, they conquered and incorporated the long-established clans of the country known to the Swazi as "Emakhandzambili".
Eswatini derives its name from a later king named Mswati II. "KaNgwane", named for Ngwane III, is an alternative name for Eswatini, the surname of whose royal house remains "Nkhosi Dlamini". "Nkhosi" literally means "king". Mswati II was the greatest of the fighting kings of Eswatini, and he greatly extended the area of the country to twice its current size. The "Emakhandzambili" clans were initially incorporated into the kingdom with wide autonomy, often including grants of special ritual and political status. The extent of their autonomy, however, was drastically curtailed by Mswati, who attacked and subdued some of them in the 1850s.
With his power, Mswati greatly reduced the influence of the "Emakhandzambili" while incorporating more people into his kingdom either through conquest or by giving them refuge. These later arrivals became known to the Swazis as "Emafikamuva". The clans who accompanied the Dlamini kings were known as the "Bemdzabuko" or "true Swazi".
The autonomy of the Swazi nation was influenced by British and Dutch rule of southern Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1881, the British government signed a convention recognising Swazi independence despite the Scramble for Africa that was taking place at the time. This independence was also recognised in the London Convention of 1884.
Because of controversial land/mineral rights and other concessions, Swaziland had a triumviral administration in 1890 following the death of King Mbandzeni in 1889. This government represented the British, the Dutch republics, and the Swazi people. In 1894, a convention placed Swaziland under the South African Republic as a protectorate. This continued under the rule of Ngwane V until the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899.
King Ngwane V died in December 1899, during incwala, after the outbreak of the Second Boer War. His successor, Sobhuza II, was four months old. Swaziland was indirectly involved in the war with various skirmishes between the British and the Boers occurring in the country until 1902.
In 1903, after the British victory in the Second Boer War, Swaziland became a British protectorate. Much of its early administration (for example, postal services) was carried out from South Africa until 1906 when the Transvaal Colony was granted self-government. Following this, Swaziland was partitioned into European and non-European (or native reserves) areas with the former being two-thirds of the total land. Sobhuza's official coronation was in December 1921 after the regency of Labotsibeni, after which he led an unsuccessful deputation to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in London in 1922 regarding the issue of the land.
In the period between 1923 and 1963, Sobhuza II established the Swazi Commercial Amadoda which was to grant licences to small businesses on the Swazi reserves and also established the Swazi National School to counter the dominance of the missions in education. His stature grew with time and the Swazi royal leadership was successful in resisting the weakening power of the British administration and the incorporation of Swaziland into the Union of South Africa.
The constitution for independent Swaziland was promulgated by Britain in November 1963 under the terms of which legislative and executive councils were established. This development was opposed by the Swazi National Council ("liqoqo"). Despite such opposition, elections took place and the first "Legislative Council of Swaziland" was constituted on 9 September 1964. Changes to the original constitution proposed by the Legislative Council were accepted by Britain and a new constitution providing for a House of Assembly and Senate was drawn up. Elections under this constitution were held in 1967.
Following the 1967 elections, Swaziland was a protected state until independence was regained in 1968.
Following the elections of 1973, the constitution of Swaziland was suspended by King Sobhuza II who thereafter ruled the country by decree until his death in 1982. At this point, Sobhuza II had ruled Swaziland for almost 83 years, making him the longest-reigning monarch in history. A regency followed his death, with Queen Regent Dzeliwe Shongwe being head of state until 1984 when she was removed by the Liqoqo and replaced by Queen Mother Ntfombi Tfwala. Mswati III, the son of Ntfombi, was crowned king on 25 April 1986 as King and "Ingwenyama" of Swaziland.
The 1990s saw a rise in student and labour protests pressuring the king to introduce reforms. Thus, progress toward constitutional reforms began, culminating with the introduction of the current Swazi constitution in 2005. This happened despite objections by political activists. The current constitution does not clearly deal with the status of political parties.
The first election under the new constitution took place in 2008. Members of parliament were elected from 55 constituencies (also known as "tinkhundla"). These MPs served five-year terms which ended in 2013.
In 2011, Swaziland suffered an economic crisis, due to reduced SACU receipts. This caused the government to request a loan from neighbouring South Africa. However, they did not agree with the conditions of the loan, which included political reforms.
During this period, there was increased pressure on the Swazi government to carry out more reforms. Public protests by civic organisations and trade unions became more common. Starting in 2012, improvements in SACU receipts have eased the fiscal pressure on the Swazi government. A new parliament, the second since promulgation of the constitution, was elected on 20 September 2013. At this time the king reappointed Sibusiso Dlamini as prime minister for the third time.
On 19 April 2018, King Mswati III announced that the Kingdom of Swaziland had renamed itself the Kingdom of Eswatini, reflecting the extant Swazi name for the state "eSwatini", to mark the 50th anniversary of Swazi independence. The new name, Eswatini, means "land of the Swazis" in the Swazi language and was partially intended to prevent confusion with the similarly named Switzerland.
Eswatini workers began anti-government protests against low salaries on 19 September 2018. They went on a three-day strike organised by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) that resulted in widespread disruption.
Eswatini is an absolute monarchy with constitutional provision and Swazi law and customs. The head of state is the king or "Ngwenyama" (lit. "Lion"), currently King Mswati III, who ascended to the throne in 1986 after the death of his father King Sobhuza II in 1982 and a period of regency. According to the country's constitution, the Ingwenyama is a symbol of unity and the eternity of the Swazi nation.
By tradition, the king reigns along with his mother (or a ritual substitute), the "Ndlovukati" (lit. "She-Elephant"). The former was viewed as the administrative head of state and the latter as a spiritual and national head of state, with real power counterbalancing that of the king, but, during the long reign of Sobhuza II, the role of the "Ndlovukati" became more symbolic.
The king appoints the prime minister from the legislature and also appoints a minority of legislators to both chambers of the Libandla (parliament) with help from an advisory council. The king is allowed by the constitution to appoint some members to parliament to represent special interests. These special interests are citizens who might have been electoral candidates who were not elected, or might not have stood as candidates. This is done to balance views in parliament. Special interests could be people of particular gender or race, people of disability, the business community, civic society, scholars, and chiefs.
The Swazi bicameral Parliament, or Libandla, consists of the Senate (30 seats; 10 members appointed by the House of Assembly and 20 appointed by the monarch; to serve five-year terms) and the House of Assembly (65 seats; 10 members appointed by the monarch and 55 elected by popular vote; to serve five-year terms). The elections are held every five years after dissolution of parliament by the king. The last elections were held on 18 August and 21 September 2018. The balloting is done in a non-partisan manner. All election procedures are overseen by the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
At Swaziland's independence on 6 September 1968, Swaziland adopted a Westminster-style constitution. On 12 April 1973, King Sobhuza II annulled it by decree, assuming supreme powers in all executive, judicial, and legislative matters. The first non-party elections for the House of Assembly were held in 1978, and they were conducted under the tinkhundla as electoral constituencies determined by the King, and established an Electoral Committee appointed by the King to supervise elections.
Until the 1993 election, the ballot was not secret, voters were not registered, and they did not elect representatives directly. Instead, voters elected an electoral college by passing through a gate designated for the candidate of choice while officials counted them. Later on, a constitutional review commission was appointed by King Mswati III in July 1996, comprising chiefs, political activists, and unionists to consider public submissions and draft proposals for a new constitution.
Drafts were released for comment in May 1999 and November 2000. These were strongly criticised by civil society organisations in Swaziland and human rights organisations elsewhere. A 15-member team was announced in December 2001 to draft a new constitution; several members of this team were reported to be close to the royal family.
In 2005, the constitution was put into effect. There is still much debate in the country about the constitutional reforms. From the early seventies, there was active resistance to the royal hegemony.
Nominations take place at the chiefdoms. On the day of nomination, the name of the nominee is raised by a show of hand and the nominee is given an opportunity to indicate whether he or she accepts the nomination. If he or she accepts it, he or she must be supported by at least ten members of that chiefdom. The nominations are for the position of Member of Parliament, Constituency Headman ("Indvuna"), and the Constituency Executive Committee ("Bucopho"). The minimum number of nominees is four and the maximum is ten.
Primary elections also take place at the chiefdom level. It is by secret ballot. During the Primary Elections, the voters are given an opportunity to elect the member of the executive committee (Bucopho) for that particular chiefdom. Aspiring members of parliament and the constituency Headman are also elected from each chiefdom. The secondary and final elections takes place at the various constituencies called Tinkhundla.
Candidates who won primary elections in the chiefdoms are considered nominees for the secondary elections at inkhundla or constituency level. The nominees with majority votes become the winners and they become members of parliament or constituency headman.
Eswatini is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Southern African Development Community.
The judicial system in Eswatini is a dual system. The 2006 constitution established a court system based on the Western model consisting of four regional Magistrates Courts, a High Court, and a Court of Appeal (the Supreme Court), which are independent of crown control. In addition, traditional courts (Swazi Courts or Customary Courts) deal with minor offenses and violations of traditional Swazi law and custom.
Judges are appointed by the King and are usually expatriates from South Africa. The Supreme Court, which replaced the previous Court of Appeal, consists of the Chief Justice and at least four other Supreme Court judges. The High Court consists of the Chief Justice and at least four High Court judges.
The military of Eswatini (Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force) is used primarily during domestic protests, with some border and customs duties. The military has never been involved in a foreign conflict. The king is the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Force and the substantive Minister of the Ministry of Defence.
There are approximately 3,000 personnel in the defence force, with the army being the largest component. There is a small air force, which is mainly used for transporting the king as well as cargo and personnel, surveying land with search and rescue functions, and mobilising in case of a national emergency.
Eswatini is divided into four regions: Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini, and Shiselweni. In each of the four regions, there are several "tinkhundla" (singular "inkhundla"). The regions are managed by a regional administrator, who is aided by elected members in each inkhundla.
The local government is divided into differently structured rural and urban councils depending on the level of development in the area. Although there are different political structures to the local authorities, effectively the urban councils are municipalities and the rural councils are the tinkhundla. There are twelve municipalities and 55 tinkhundla.
There are three tiers of government in the urban areas and these are city councils, town councils and town boards. This variation considers the size of the town or city. Equally, there are three tiers in the rural areas which are the regional administration at the regional level, tinkhundla and chiefdoms. Decisions are made by full council based on recommendations made by the various sub-committees. The town clerk is the chief advisor in each local council council or town board.
There are twelve declared urban areas, comprising two city councils, three town councils and seven town boards. The main cities and towns in Eswatini are Manzini, Mbabane, Nhlangano and Siteki which are also regional capitals. The first two have city councils and the latter two have town councils. Other small towns or urban area with substantial population are Ezulwini, Matsapha, Hlatikhulu, Pigg's Peak, Simunye, and Big Bend.
As noted above, there are 55 tinkhundla in Eswatini and each elects one representative to the House of Assembly of Eswatini. Each inkhundla has a development committee ("bucopho") elected from the various constituency chiefdoms in its area for a five-year term. Bucopho bring to the inkhundla all matters of interest and concern to their various chiefdoms, and take back to the chiefdoms the decisions of the inkhundla. The chairman of the bucopho is elected at the inkhundla and is called "indvuna ye nkhundla".
Eswatini lies across a fault which runs from the Drakensberg Mountains of Lesotho, north through the Eastern highlands of Zimbabwe, and forms the Great Rift Valley of Kenya.
A small, landlocked kingdom, Eswatini is bordered in the North, West and South by the Republic of South Africa and by Mozambique in the East. Eswatini has a land area of . Eswatini has four separate geographical regions. These run from North to South and are determined by altitude. Eswatini is at approximately 26°30'S, 31°30'E. Eswatini has a wide variety of landscapes, from the mountains along the Mozambican border to savannas in the east and rain forest in the northwest. Several rivers flow through the country, such as the Great Usutu River.
Along the eastern border with Mozambique is the Lubombo, a mountain ridge, at an altitude of around . The mountains are broken by the canyons of three rivers, the Ngwavuma, the Usutu and the Mbuluzi River. This is cattle ranching country. The western border of Eswatini, with an average altitude of , lies on the edge of an escarpment. Between the mountains rivers rush through deep gorges. Mbabane, the capital, is on the Highveld.
The Middleveld, lying at an average above sea level is the most densely populated region of Eswatini with a lower rainfall than the mountains. Manzini, the principal commercial and industrial city, is situated in the Middleveld.
The Lowveld of Eswatini, at around , is less populated than other areas and presents a typical African bush country of thorn trees and grasslands. Development of the region was inhibited, in early days, by the scourge of malaria.
Eswatini is divided into four climatic regions: the Highveld, Middleveld, Lowveld and Lubombo plateau. The seasons are the reverse of those in the Northern Hemisphere with December being mid-summer and June mid-winter. Generally speaking, rain falls mostly during the summer months, often in the form of thunderstorms.
Winter is the dry season. Annual rainfall is highest on the Highveld in the west, between depending on the year. The further east, the less rain, with the Lowveld recording per annum.
Variations in temperature are also related to the altitude of the different regions. The Highveld temperature is temperate and seldom uncomfortably hot, while the Lowveld may record temperatures around in summer.
The average temperatures at Mbabane, according to season:
Climate change in Eswatini is mainly evident in changing precipitation - including variability, persistent drought and heightened storm intensity. In turn, this leads to desertification, increased food insecurity and reduced river flows. Despite being responsible for a negligible portion of total global greenhouse gas emissions Eswatini is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The government of Eswatini has expressed concern that climate change is exacerbating existing social challenges such as poverty, a high HIV prevalence and food insecurity and will drastically restrict the country's ability to develop, as per Vision 2022. Economically, climate change has already adversely impacted Eswatini. For instance, the 2015-2016 drought decreased sugar and soft drink concentrate production export (Eswatini's largest economic export). Many of Eswatini's major exports are raw, agricultural products and are therefore vulnerable to a changing climate.
There are known to be 507 bird species in Eswatini, including 11 globally threatened species and four introduced species, and 107 mammal species native to Eswatini, including the critically endangered South-central black rhinoceros and seven other endangered or vulnerable species.
Protected areas of Eswatini include seven nature reserves, four frontier conservation areas and three wildlife or game reserves. Hlane Royal National Park, the largest park in Eswatini, is rich in bird life, including white-backed vultures, white-headed, lappet-faced and Cape vultures, raptors such as martial eagles, bateleurs, and long-crested eagles, and the southernmost nesting site of the marabou stork.
Eswatini's economy is diverse, with agriculture, forestry and mining accounting for about 13% of GDP, manufacturing (textiles and sugar-related processing) representing 37% of GDP and services – with government services in the lead – constituting 50% of GDP. Title Deed Lands (TDLs), where the bulk of high value crops are grown (sugar, forestry, and citrus) are characterised by high levels of investment and irrigation, and high productivity.
About 75% of the population is employed in subsistence agriculture upon Swazi Nation Land (SNL). In contrast with the commercial farms, Swazi Nation Land suffers from low productivity and investment. This dual nature of the Swazi economy, with high productivity in textile manufacturing and in the industrialised agricultural TDLs on the one hand, and declining productivity subsistence agriculture (on SNL) on the other, may well explain the country's overall low growth, high inequality and unemployment.
Economic growth in Eswatini has lagged behind that of its neighbours. Real GDP growth since 2001 has averaged 2.8%, nearly 2 percentage points lower than growth in other Southern African Customs Union (SACU) member countries. Low agricultural productivity in the SNLs, repeated droughts, the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS and an overly large and inefficient government sector are likely contributing factors. Eswatini's public finances deteriorated in the late 1990s following sizeable surpluses a decade earlier. A combination of declining revenues and increased spending led to significant budget deficits.
The considerable spending did not lead to more growth and did not benefit the poor. Much of the increased spending has gone to current expenditures related to wages, transfers, and subsidies. The wage bill today constitutes over 15% of GDP and 55% of total public spending; these are some of the highest levels on the African continent. The recent rapid growth in SACU revenues has, however, reversed the fiscal situation, and a sizeable surplus was recorded since 2006. SACU revenues today account for over 60% of total government revenues. On the positive side, the external debt burden has declined markedly over the last 20 years, and domestic debt is almost negligible; external debt as a percent of GDP was less than 20% in 2006.
Eswatini's economy is very closely linked to the economy of South Africa, from which it receives over 90% of its imports and to which it sends about 70% of its exports. Eswatini's other key trading partners are the United States and the EU, from whom the country has received trade preferences for apparel exports (under the African Growth and Opportunity Act – AGOA – to the US) and for sugar (to the EU). Under these agreements, both apparel and sugar exports did well, with rapid growth and a strong inflow of foreign direct investment. Textile exports grew by over 200% between 2000 and 2005 and sugar exports increasing by more than 50% over the same period.
The continued vibrancy of the export sector is threatened by the removal of trade preferences for textiles, the accession to similar preferences for East Asian countries, and the phasing out of preferential prices for sugar to the EU market. Eswatini will thus have to face the challenge of remaining competitive in a changing global environment. A crucial factor in addressing this challenge is the investment climate.
The recently concluded Investment Climate Assessment provides some positive findings in this regard, namely that Eswatini firms are among the most productive in Sub-Saharan Africa, although they are less productive than firms in the most productive middle-income countries in other regions. They compare more favourably with firms from lower middle income countries, but are hampered by inadequate governance arrangements and infrastructure.
Eswatini's currency, the lilangeni, is pegged to the South African rand, subsuming Eswatini's monetary policy to South Africa. Customs duties from the Southern African Customs Union, which may equal as much as 70% of government revenue this year, and worker remittances from South Africa substantially supplement domestically earned income. Eswatini is not poor enough to merit an IMF programme; however, the country is struggling to reduce the size of the civil service and control costs at public enterprises. The government is trying to improve the atmosphere for foreign direct investment.
The majority of Eswatini's population is ethnically Swazi, mixed with a small number of Zulu and White Africans, mostly people of British and Afrikaner descent. Traditionally Swazi have been subsistence farmers and herders, but most now mix such activities with work in the growing urban formal economy and in government. Some Swazi work in the mines in South Africa.
Eswatini also received Portuguese settlers and African refugees from Mozambique. Christianity in Eswatini is sometimes mixed with traditional beliefs and practices. Many traditionalists believe that most Swazi ascribe a special spiritual role to the monarch.
This is a list of major cities and towns in Eswatini. The table below also includes the population and region.
"SiSwati" (also known as "Swati", "Swazi" or "Siswati") is a Bantu language of the Nguni Group, spoken in Eswatini and South Africa. It has 2.5 million speakers and is taught in schools. It is an official language of Eswatini, along with English, and one of the official languages of South Africa. English is the medium of communication in schools and in conducting business including the press.
About 76,000 people in the country speak Zulu. Tsonga, which is spoken by many people throughout the region is spoken by about 19,000 people in Eswatini. Afrikaans is also spoken by some residents of Afrikaner descent. Portuguese has been introduced as a third language in the schools, due to the large community of Portuguese speakers from Mozambique or Northern and Central Portugal.
Eighty-three percent of the total population adheres to Christianity in Eswatini. Anglican, Protestant and indigenous African churches, including African Zionist, constitute the majority of Christians (40%), followed by Roman Catholicism at 6% of the population. On 18 July 2012, Ellinah Wamukoya, was elected "Anglican Bishop of Swaziland", becoming the first woman to be a bishop in Africa. Fifteen percent of the population follows traditional religions; other non-Christian religions practised in the country include Islam (2%), the Bahá'í Faith (0.5%), and Hinduism (0.2%). There were 14 Jewish families in 2013.
The Kingdom of Eswatini does not recognise non-civil marriages such as Islamic-rite marriage contracts.
As of 2016, Eswatini has the highest prevalence of HIV among adults aged 15 to 49 in the world (27.2%).
Education in Eswatini begins with pre-school education for infants, primary, secondary and high school education for general education and training (GET), and universities and colleges at the tertiary level. Pre-school education is usually for children 5-year or younger; after that the students can enroll in a primary school anywhere in the country. In Eswatini early childhood care and education (ECCE) centres are in the form of preschools or neighbourhood care points (NCPs). In the country 21.6% of preschool age children have access to early childhood education.
Primary education in Eswatini begins at the age of six. It is a seven-year programme that culminates with an end of Primary school Examination [SPC] in grade 7 which is a locally based assessment administered by the Examinations Council through schools. Primary Education is from grade 1 to grade 7.
The secondary and high school education system in Eswatini is a five-year programme divided into three years junior secondary and two years senior secondary. There is an external public examination (Junior Certificate) at the end of the junior secondary that learners have to pass to progress to the senior secondary level. The Examinations Council of Swaziland (ECESWA) administers this examination. At the end of the senior secondary level, learners sit for a public examination, the Swaziland General Certificate of Secondary Education (SGCSE) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) which is accredited by the Cambridge International Examination (CIE). A few schools offer the Advanced Studies (AS) programme in their curriculum.
There are 830 public schools in Eswatini including primary, secondary and high schools. There are also 34 recognised private schools with an additional 14 unrecognised. The biggest number of schools is in the Hhohho region. Education in Eswatini as of 2009 is free at primary level, mainly first through the fourth grade and also free for orphaned and vulnerable children, but not compulsory.
In 1996, the net primary school enrollment rate was 90.8%, with gender parity at the primary level. In 1998, 80.5% of children reached grade five. Eswatini is home to a United World College. In 1963, Waterford School, later named Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa, was founded as southern Africa's first multiracial school. In 1981, Waterford Kamhlaba joined the United World Colleges movement as the first United World College on the African continent, and the only African UWC until 2019 when UWC East Africa was established .
Adult and non-formal education centres are Sebenta National Institute for adult basic literacy and Emlalatini Development Centre, which provides alternative educational opportunities for school children and young adults who have not been able to complete their schooling.
The University of Eswatini, Southern African Nazarene University and Swaziland Christian University (SCU) are the institutions that offer university education in the country. A campus of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology can be found at Sidvwashini (Sidwashini), a suburb of the capital Mbabane. Ngwane Teacher's College and William Pitcher College are the country's teaching colleges. The Good Shepherd Hospital in Siteki is home to the College for Nursing Assistants.
The University of Eswatini is the national university, established in 1982 by act of parliament, and is headquartered at Kwaluseni with additional campuses in Mbabane and Luyengo. The Southern African Nazarene University (SANU) was established in 2010 as a merger of the Nazarene College of Nursing, College of Theology and the Nazarene Teachers College; it is in Manzini next to the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital. It is the university that produce the most nurses in the country.As a University it encampasses three faculties of which one is at Siteki which is the faculty of Theology and the other Two are found in Manzini which are the faculties of Education and the faculty of health Sciences
The SCU, focusing on medical education, was established in 2012 and is Eswatini's newest university. It is in Mbabane. The campus of Limkokwing University was opened at Sidvwashini in Mbabane in 2012.
The main centre for technical training in Eswatini is the Swaziland College of Technology (SCOT) which is slated to become a full university. It aims to provide high quality training in technology and business studies in collaboration with the commercial, industrial and public sectors. Other technical and vocational institutions include the Gwamile Vocational and Commercial Training Institute in Matsapha, the Manzini Industrial and Training Centre (MITC) in Manzini, Nhlangano Agricultural Skills Training Centre, and Siteki Industrial Training Centre.
In addition to these institutions, the kingdom also has the Swaziland Institute of Management and Public Administration (SIMPA) and Institute of Development Management (IDM). SIMPA is a government-owned management and development institute and IDM is a regional organisation in Botswana, Lesotho, and Eswatini, providing training, consultancy, and research in management. North Carolina State University's Poole College of Management is a sister school of SIMPA. The Mananga Management Centre was established at Ezulwini as Mananga Agricultural Management Centre in 1972 as an international management development centre offering training of middle and senior managers.
The principal Swazi social unit is the homestead, a traditional beehive hut thatched with dry grass. In a polygamous homestead, each wife has her own hut and yard surrounded by reed fences. There are three structures for sleeping, cooking, and storage (brewing beer). In larger homesteads there are also structures used as bachelors' quarters and guest accommodation.
Central to the traditional homestead is the cattle byre, a circular area enclosed by large logs, interspaced with branches. The cattle byre has ritual as well as practical significance as a store of wealth and symbol of prestige. It contains sealed grain pits. Facing the cattle byre is the great hut which is occupied by the mother of the headman.
The headman is central to all homestead affairs and he is often polygamous. He leads through example and advises his wives on all social affairs of the home as well as seeing to the larger survival of the family. He also spends time socialising with the young boys, who are often his sons or close relatives, advising them on the expectations of growing up and manhood.
The Sangoma is a traditional diviner chosen by the ancestors of that particular family. The training of the Sangoma is called "kwetfwasa". At the end of the training, a graduation ceremony takes place where all the local sangoma come together for feasting and dancing. The diviner is consulted for various purposes, such as determining the cause of sickness or even death. His diagnosis is based on "kubhula", a process of communication, through trance, with the natural superpowers. The Inyanga (a medical and pharmaceutical specialist in western terms) possesses the bone throwing skill ("kushaya ematsambo") used to determine the cause of the sickness.
The most important cultural event in Eswatini is the Incwala ceremony. It is held on the fourth day after the full moon nearest the longest day, 21 December. Incwala is often translated in English as "first fruits ceremony", but the King's tasting of the new harvest is only one aspect among many in this long pageant. Incwala is best translated as "Kingship Ceremony": when there is no king, there is no Incwala. It is high treason for any other person to hold an Incwala.
Every Swazi may take part in the public parts of the Incwala. The climax of the event is the fourth day of the Big Incwala. The key figures are the King, Queen Mother, royal wives and children, the royal governors (indunas), the chiefs, the regiments, and the "bemanti" or "water people".
Eswatini's most well-known cultural event is the annual Umhlanga Reed Dance. In the eight-day ceremony, girls cut reeds and present them to the queen mother and then dance. (There is no formal competition.) It is done in late August or early September. Only childless, unmarried girls can take part. The aims of the ceremony are to preserve girls' chastity, provide tribute labour for the Queen mother, and to encourage solidarity by working together. The royal family appoints a commoner maiden to be "induna" (captain) of the girls and she announces the dates of the annual ceremony over the radio. The chosen induna is expected to be an expert dancer and knowledgeable on royal protocol. One of the King's daughters acts as her counterpart during the ceremony.
The Reed Dance today is not an ancient ceremony but a development of the old "umchwasho" custom. In "umchwasho", all young girls were placed in a female age-regiment. If any girl became pregnant outside of marriage, her family paid a fine of one cow to the local chief. After a number of years, when the girls had reached a marriageable age, they would perform labour service for the Queen Mother, ending with dancing and feasting. The country was under the chastity rite of "umchwasho" until 19 August 2005.
Eswatini is also known for a strong presence in the handcrafts industry. The formalised handcraft businesses of Eswatini employ over 2,500 people, many of whom are women (per "TechnoServe Swaziland Handcrafts Impact Study", February 2011). The products are unique and reflect the culture of Eswatini, ranging from housewares, to artistic decorations, to complex glass, stone, or wood artwork. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27451 |
Geography of Eswatini
Eswatini is a country in Southern Africa, lying between Mozambique and South Africa. The country is located at the geographic coordinates . Eswatini has an area of 17,363 square kilometres, of which 160 are water. The major regions of the country are Lowveld, Midveld and Highveld.
The climate of Eswatini varies from tropical to near temperate. The seasons are the reverse of those in the Northern Hemisphere with December being mid-summer and June mid-winter. Generally speaking, rain falls mostly during the summer months, often in the form of thunderstorms. Winter is the dry season. Annual rainfall is highest on the Highveld in the West, between depending on the year. The further East, the less rain, with the Lowveld recording per annum. Variations in temperature are also related to the altitude of the different regions. The Highveld temperature is temperate and, seldom, uncomfortably hot while the Lowveld may record temperatures around in summer.
The average temperatures at Mbabane, according to seasons:
The terrain largely consists of mountains and hills, with some moderately sloping plains. The lowest point is the Great Usutu River, at 21 metres, and the highest is Emlembe, at 1,862 m.
As a landlocked country, Eswatini has neither coastline nor maritime claims. In terms of land boundaries, Eswatini borders Mozambique for 105 kilometres, and South Africa for 430, giving a total land boundary length of 535 km.
Eswatini possesses the following natural resources: asbestos, coal, clay, cassiterite, hydropower, forests, small gold and diamond deposits, quarry stone, and talc.
670 km² of the country's land is irrigated. The following table describes land use in Eswatini
Eswatini is prone to floods and drought. Soil erosion as a result of overgrazing is a growing problem.
Eswatini is part of the following international agreements: Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Nuclear Test Ban and Ozone Layer Protection. The country has signed, but not ratified the agreement on desertification, and the law of the sea.
This is a list of the extreme points of Eswatini, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27453 |
Demographics of Eswatini
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Eswatini, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The majority of Eswatini's population is ethnic Swazi, mixed with a small number of Zulus and white Africans, predominantly of British and Afrikaner origin. This population also includes a small segment within it that is mixed with any number of these ancestries.
Traditionally Swazis have been subsistence farmers and herders, but most now work in the growing urban formal economy and in government. Some Swazis work in the mines in South Africa. Eswatini also received Portuguese settlers and black refugees from Mozambique. Christianity in Eswatini is sometimes mixed with traditional beliefs and practices. Most Swazis ascribe a special spiritual role to the Swazi Royal Family.
The country's official languages are Siswati (a language related to Zulu) and English. Government and commercial business is conducted mainly in English. Asians, Afrikaners, Portuguese, and black Mozambicans speak their own languages.
Eswatini's population is 1,467,152 according to the 2017 estimate from the CIA World Factbook.
The 2007 Census put the nation's population at 912,229. This number is lower than the 1997 Census, which gave 929,718 residents. The small difference is believed to be the result of massive emigration of Swazis to South Africa in search of work.
According to the 2010 revision of the World Population Prospects the total population was 1,186,000 in 2010, compared to only 273,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 38.4%, 58.2% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.4% was 65 years or older
.
Registration of vital events is in Eswatini not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
Life expectancy from 1950 to 2015 ("UN World Population Prospects"):
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook.
389 deaths/100,000 live births (2015 est.)
7.1% of GDP (2014)
9.3% of GDP (2014)
16.5% (2016)
5.8% (2014)
0.15 physicians/1,000 population (2009)
2.1 beds/1,000 population (2011)
"noun:"
Swazi(s)
"adjective:"
Swazi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27454 |
Politics of Eswatini
Eswatini is an absolute monarchy with constitutional provisions and Swazi law and Custom. The head of state is the king or "Ngwenyama" (lit. "Lion"), currently King Mswati III, who ascended to the throne in 1986 after the death of his father King Sobhuza II in 1982 and a period of regency. According to the constitution of Eswatini, the king and Ingwenyama is a symbol of unity and the eternity of the Swazi nation. By tradition, the king reigns along with his mother or a ritual substitute, the "Ndlovukati" (lit. "She-Elephant"). The former was viewed as the administrative head of state and the latter as a spiritual and national head of state, with real power counterbalancing that of the king, but during the long reign of Sobhuza II the role of the "Ndlovukati" became more symbolic. The king appoints the prime minister from the legislature and also appoints a minority of legislators to both chambers of Libandla (parliament), with help from an advisory council. The king is allowed by the constitution to appoint some members to parliament for special interests. These special interests are citizens who might have been left out by the electorate during the course of elections or did not enter as candidates. This is done to balance views in parliament. Special interests could be people of gender, race, disability, business community, civic society, scholars, chiefs and so on. The Senate consists of 30 members, of which some are appointed by the king on recommendation of the advisory council and others elected by the lower house. The House of Assembly has 65 seats, 55 of which are occupied by elected representatives from the 55 constituencies around the country, 10 appointed by the king on recommendation of the advisory council and the attorney general is the ex-officio member. Elections are held every five years.
According to the Swazi law and custom, the monarch holds supreme executive, legislative, and judicial powers. The Ngwenyama (lion) is a hereditary leader, rules the country, with the assistance of a council of ministers and a national legislature. The Ndlovukati (The mother of the king) is in charge of national rituals, and acts as regent if her counterpart "Ngwenyama" dies and the heir has not performed royal adulthood rituals or is indisposed. If the king's mother is no longer living, one of the king's wives may act as Ndlovukati. In Sobhuza II's case, his grandmother the "Ndlovukati" Labotsibeni Mdluli was regent from his choice as infant heir in 1899 following the death of his father Bhunu until his accession to full authority in 1922, when his mother Lomawa Ndwandwe became the "ndlovukati". Later in his long reign three other women became senior queen; when an "ndlovukati" died, another was appointed from among his senior wives.
The king and the queen mother rule together in theory, and did so in practice up until the reign of Sobhuza II. Before colonization the senior queen acted as a check and counterweight to the king's power, both through her direct control of some military forces and her control of rainmaking medicines and rites and of key aspects of the Ncwala national ritual that annually binds the fate of the king and the nation together. British policy and the strength of Sobhuza II's personality shifted power decisively toward the king and away from the senior queen during his long reign.
During a period of intense succession struggles following the death of Sobhuza II, the Ndlovukati was assisted by Prince Sozisa Dlamini, the holder of a novel office, the Authorised Person, in-Libandla, and then was deposed and the mother of the heir, now King Mswati III was made Ndlovukati prior to his full accession. Subsequently, the constitution was revised to provide that where the Regent and the Authorised Person are not in agreement on any matter, the matter shall be referred to Bantfwabenkhosi (princes) and chiefs.
The King, according to the new constitution, is also Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces and Commissioner of Police. He and the Queen Mother have legal immunity.
Succession is chosen in relation to the status of the potential king's mother. Ndlovukazi is chosen by the Royal Council after the King's death; she will be from an unrelated family. Within the aristocracy, the first wife is never the main wife - a second wife who has a higher pedigree will take precedence. The Royal family line, the Dlaminis, never intermarry; the King is always a Dlamini, the Queen Mother is never a Dlamini. The king is not followed by blood brothers. He is "Nkosi Dlamini" and is expected to unify his position by choosing wives from all sectors of the community. The balance of power lies between the King and the Queen Mother. The Royal Council plays a key role in the selection of the successor to the throne. Much of this tradition remains secret (or undetermined) - but it is rumoured that the new king must be single, and is usually a minor. His wives are important.
A Swazi king's first two wives are chosen for him by the national councillors. These two have special functions in rituals and their sons can never claim kingship. The first wife must be a member of the Matsebula clan, the second of the Motsa clan. According to tradition, he can only marry his fiancées after they have fallen pregnant, proving they can bear heirs. Until then, they are Liphovela.
King Mswati III is often criticized for living so lavishly in a nation that is afflicted by one of the world's highest HIV infection rates. His fleet of luxury cars, and the millions spent towards refurbishing his numerous wives' luxury mansions, are at odds with the approximately 34 percent of the nation that stand unemployed, nearly 70 percent of which live on less than a dollar a day, and with around 35 percent of adults who suffer from HIV.
In general practice, however, the monarch's power is delegated through a dualistic system: modern and statutory bodies, like the cabinet, and less formal traditional government structures. At present, parliament consists of an 82-seat House of Assembly (55 members are elected through popular vote; the Attorney General as an ex-officio member; 10 are appointed by the king and four women elected from each one of the administrative regions) and 30-seat Senate (10 members are appointed by the House of Assembly, and 20 are appointed by the king, whom at least the half must be women). The king must approve legislation passed by parliament before it becomes law. The prime minister, who is head of government is appointed by the king from among the members of the House on recommendations of the King's Advisory Council and the cabinet, which is recommended by the prime minister and approved by the king, exercises executive authority.
The head of government is the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the King after the election of a new parliament. The prime minister is a member of parliament and serves a five-year term. The prime minister cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. The current prime minister is Sibusiso Dlamini, who was appointed for a third term, by the king, on 17 September 2013. As a head of government, he chairs the cabinet meetings.
The cabinet of the Eswatini government is appointed by the king on advise from the prime minister. The members of the cabinet must be members of either Houses of parliament. The members of the cabinet are known as ministers, and they head government departments called ministries. They head their respective portfolios until the end of the parliament's term, or unless there is a cabinet reshuffle, dismissal, or death.
The Swazi bicameral Parliament or Libandla consists of the Senate (30 seats; 10 members appointed by the House of Assembly and 20 appointed by the monarch; to serve five-year terms) and the House of Assembly (65 seats; 10 members appointed by the monarch and 55 elected by popular vote; to serve five-year terms). The elections are held every five years after dissolution of parliament by the King. The last elections were held on 20 September 2013. The balloting is done on a non-party basis in all categories. All election procedures are overseen by the elections and boundaries commission.
Nominations take place at the chiefdoms. On the day of nomination, the name of the nominee is raised by a show of hands and the nominee is given an opportunity to indicate whether he or she accepts the nomination. If he or she accepts it, he or she must be supported by at least ten members of that chiefdom. The nominations are for the position of Member of Parliament, Constituency Headman (Indvuna) and the Constituency Executive Committee (Bucopho). The minimum number of nominees is four and the maximum is ten. Primary elections also take place at the chiefdom level. They are by secret ballot. During the Primary Elections, the voters are given an opportunity to elect the member of the executive committee (Bucopho) for that particular chiefdom. Aspiring Members of Parliament and the constituency Headman are also elected from each chiefdom. The secondary and final elections take place at the various constituencies called Tinkhundla. Candidates who won primary elections in the chiefdoms are considered nominees for the secondary elections at inkhundla or constituency level. The nominees with majority votes become the winners and they become members of parliament or constituency headman.
Political parties were banned by the constitution promulgated on 13 October 1978. The new constitution does not take into consideration party activity whereas freedom of association is protected.
The 2005 constitution is currently in force. The constitution of 6 September 1968 was suspended 12 April 1973 by a State of Emergency decree imposed by King Sobhuza II, the father of the current King Mswati III. The decree gave absolute power to the monarchy and banned organised political opposition to royal rule.
A new constitution was promulgated 13 October 1978, but was not formally presented to the people.
In 2001 King Mswati III appointed a committee to draft a new constitution. The draft was released for comment in May 2003, and was strongly criticised by civil society organizations in Eswatini, as well as by Amnesty International and the International Bar Association, among others.
Amnesty international listed the following criticisms of the draft constitution of 2003:
A new draft was placed before the largely advisory parliament on November 4, 2004. The draft reportedly is substantially the same as the version issued in 2003.
Eswatini's two largest political organisations, the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) and the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC), together with labour unions, challenged the 2004 draft constitution in the Eswatini's High Court. However, in March 2005 the court upheld a ban on opposition political parties, citing the 1973 State of Emergency decree of King Sobhuza II. "It remains the duty and function of the court to uphold and apply the laws of the land, and especially so when constitutional issues are decided", the court ruled. The applicants indicated that they intended to pursue their case in the Court of Appeal.
Trade unions in the country have organized repeated strikes to protest against the lack of labour and political rights and the draft constitution. This included a general strike on 25 and 26 January 2005, although reportedly not widely heeded.
For local administration Eswatini is divided into four regions (Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini, Shiselweni), each with an administrator appointed by the king. Parallel to the government structure is the traditional system consisting of the king and his advisers, traditional courts, and 59 tinkhundla (subregional districts in which traditional chiefs are grouped).
Eswatini is a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) which the U.S. began negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with in May 2003. The other members of SACU are Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and South Africa.
Eswatini is further member of ACP, AfDB, C, ECA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, NAM, OAU, OPCW, PCA, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27455 |
Economy of Eswatini
The economy of Eswatini is fairly diversified. Agriculture, forestry and mining account for about 13 percent of Eswatini's GDP whereas manufacturing (textiles and sugar-related processing) represent 37 percent of GDP. Services – with government services in the lead – constitute the other 50 percent of GDP.
Title Deed lands), where the bulk of high-value crops are grown (sugar, forestry, and citrus) are characterized by high levels of investment and irrigation, and high productivity. Nevertheless, the majority of the population – about 75 percent—is employed in subsistence agriculture on Swazi Nation Land, which, in contrast, suffers from low productivity and investment. This dual nature of the Swazi economy, with high productivity in textile manufacturing and in the industrialized agricultural title deed lands on the one hand, and declining productivity subsistence agriculture on Swazi Nation Land on the other, may well explain the country’s overall low growth, high inequality and unemployment.
Economic growth in Eswatini has lagged behind that of its neighbors. Real GDP growth since 2001 has averaged 2.8 percent, nearly 2 percentage points lower than growth in other Southern African Customs Union (SACU) member countries. Low agricultural productivity in the Swazi nation lands, repeated droughts, the effect of HIV/AIDS, and an overly large and inefficient government sector are likely contributing factors. Eswatini’s public finances deteriorated in the late 1990s following sizeable surpluses a decade earlier. A combination of declining revenues and increased spending led to significant budget deficits. The considerable spending has not led to more economic growth and has not benefitted the poor to the same extent as regional comparators, although the poverty headcount has shifted slightly during the first decade of the 2000s (SHIES 2010). Much of the increased spending has gone to current expenditures related to wages, transfers, and subsidies. The wage bill today constitutes over 15 percent of GDP and 55 percent of total public spending; these are some of the highest levels on the African continent. The recent rapid growth in SACU revenues has, however, reversed the fiscal situation, and a sizeable surplus was recorded in 2006/07 and 2012/13. SACU revenues today account for over 50 percent of total government revenues. On the positive side, the external debt burden has declined markedly over the last 20 years, and domestic debt is almost negligible; external debt as a percent of GDP was less than 20 percent in 2006.
The Swazi economy is very closely linked to the economy of South Africa, from which it receives over 90 percent of its imports and to which it sends about 70 percent of its exports. Eswatini has great resources making a good trading partner. Eswatini’s other key trading partners are the United States and the EU, from whom the country has received trade preferences for apparel exports (under the African Growth and Opportunity Act – AGOA – to the US) and for sugar (to the EU). Under these agreements, both apparel and sugar exports did well, with rapid growth and a strong inflow of foreign direct investment. Textile exports grew by over 200 percent between 2000 and 2005 and sugar exports increasing by more than 50 percent over the same period. The continued vibrancy of the export sector is threatened by the removal of trade preferences for textiles, the accession to similar preferences for East Asian countries, and the phasing out of preferential prices for sugar to the EU market. Eswatini will thus have to face the challenge of remaining competitive in a changing global environment. A crucial factor in addressing this challenge is the investment climate. The recently concluded Investment Climate Assessment provides some positive findings in this regard, namely that Eswatini firms are among the most productive in Sub-Saharan Africa, although they are less productive than firms in the most productive middle-income countries in other regions. They compare more favorably with firms from lower middle income countries, but are hampered by inadequate governance arrangements and infrastructure.
Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, and the Republic of South Africa form the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), where import duties apply uniformly to member countries. Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa also are members of the Common Monetary Area (CMA) in which repatriation and unrestricted funds are permitted. Eswatini issues its own currency, the lilangeni (plural: emalangeni), which is at par with the South African rand.
Eswatini enjoys well-developed road links with South Africa. Eswatini Railways operates its railroads that run east to west and north to south. The older east-west link, called the Goba line, makes it possible to export bulk goods from Eswatini through the Port of Maputo in Mozambique. Until recently, most of Eswatini's imports were shipped through this port. Conflict in Mozambique in the 1980s diverted many Swazi exports to ports in South Africa. A north-south rail link, completed in 1986, provides a connection between the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga) rail network and the South African ports of Richards Bay and Durban. From the mid-1980s foreign investment in the manufacturing sector boosted economic growth rates significantly. Since mid-1985, the depreciated value of the currency has increased the competitiveness of Swazi exports and moderated the growth of imports, generating trade surpluses. During the 1990s, the country often ran small trade deficits.
Eswatini is the fourth largest producer of sugar in Africa and is 25th in production in the world. This demonstrates the immense focus of the industry in order to continue to grow their economy. Eswatini’s GDP was $8.621 billion (US dollars) in 2014 based on purchasing power parity and of that 7.2% of that is from the agriculture sector and of that sector, sugarcane and sugar products have the largest impact on GDP. According to the World CIA Factbook, wood pulp and sugarcane were the largest exports of Eswatini until the wood pulp producer closed in January 2010. This left the sugarcane industry as the sole main export. The largest company that produces sugar in Eswatini is the Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation (RES Corporation) and it produces a little under two-thirds of total sugar in the country and produces over 3,000 jobs for the people of Eswatini. The RES Corporation is composed of two main sugar mill producers, Mhlume and Simunye, which produce a combined 430,000 tons of cane per season. The second largest sugarcane company is Ubombo Sugar Limited which has grown from producing 5,600 tons in 1958 to approximately 230,000 tons of sugar annually. The third largest sugarcane producer is the Tambankulu Estate (largest independent sugar estate) and it produces 62,000 tons of sugar annually on 3,816 hectares of land.
The largest export partners of Eswatini and the larger Southern African Development Community (SADC) is the European Union. The SADC is a group of many southern African countries who have banded together in order to try to improve their individual socioeconomic status. In 2014-2015 the sugar production of Eswatini was 680,881 metric tons and of this about 355,000 metric tons of sugar was shipped to the European Union, larger than any other export partner. Another trade partner for Eswatini was the United States where they shipped 34,000 metric tons of sugar in the 2014-2015 year under the Tariff Rate Quota. These numbers are up from past years and continue to rise. The expected output based on the 2015-2016 post forecast predictions are that Eswatini will produce 705,000 metric tons, a new record for the country that can be attributed to an increase in land being available for sugar cultivation. Of this predicted figure about 390,000 metric tons will go to the European Union as part of a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). This new agreement between the EU and SADC means that members like Eswatini can sell their sugar on a duty-free and quota-free basis.
The quotas that the EU and the United States fill is similar to the Sugar Protocol which began in 1975. The goal of the Sugar Protocol was for the EU to purchase and import specific quantities from countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. These prices and quantities guaranteed production and were well above the world price, which translated into substantial profits for these mostly impoverished countries. This agreement reached an end in 2009 because the EU could no longer support the pre-determined demands. The Sugar Protocol came to an immediate end and was replaced with separate Economic Partnerships with the varying countries and regions. Even though the demands will be just as high as under the Sugar Protocol, the prices will drop significantly. In the case of Eswatini, they have received good reassurance that their product will still be bought by the EU.
Currently, Eswatini’s mineral sector is governed under a policy drawn up prior to Eswatini’s independence. In response to the sector’s recent decline, a new mining policy is being drafted by consultants, paid for by a grant from China, and legislation to facilitate small-scale mining has also been proposed.
The country’s main source of foreign exchange is the Bulembu asbestos mine, however production has hit a steep decline. Diamond, iron ore and gold have also been found in the past, however a lack of investment and development policy has seen the region’s potential falter.
Although fewer than 1,000 Swazis are directly employed in the mining sector, many workers from Eswatini processed timber from the country's extensive pine populations for mines in South Africa, and around 10,000–15,000 Swazis were employed in South African mines. Their contributions to Eswatini's economy through wage repatriation have been diminished, though, by the collapse of the international gold market and layoffs in South Africa.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017.
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
"lowest 10%:"
1.6%
"highest 10%:"
40.7% (2001)
Industrial production growth rate:
1% (2001 est.)
Electricity – production:
470 GWh (2008), 420 GWh (1998)
Electricity – consumption:
1,207 GWh (2008), 962.9 GWh (2001), 1.078 GWh (1998)
Electricity – exports:
0 kWh (2009, 2001, 1998)
Electricity – imports:
768 GWh (2009), 639 GWh (2001), 687 GWh (1998)
"note:"
imports about 60% of its electricity from South Africa (2009)
Currency:
1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents
Exchange rates:
emalangeni (E) per US$1 – 7.3 (2011), 7.32 (2010), 8.42 (2009), 7.75 (2008), 7.4 (2007), 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001), 6.9398 (2000), 6.1087 (1999), 5.4807 (1998), 4.6032 (1997), 4.2706 (1996), 3.6266 (1995); note – the Lilangeni is at par with the South African rand | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27456 |
Telecommunications in Eswatini
Telecommunications in Eswatini includes radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Eswatini is one of the last countries in the world to abolish an almost complete monopoly in all sectors of its telecommunications market. Until 2011 the state-owned operator, Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications (EPTC), also acted as the industry regulator and had a stake in the country's sole mobile network, in partnership with South Africa's MTN Group. In a bid to enter the mobile market independently, SPTC transferred its stake in MTN and the regulatory authority to the government. In return, Swazi MTN received a 3G licence and the right to provide its own backbone network and international gateway. However, proposals have been made to reinstate SPTC's monopoly on the national backbone and the international gateway, and MTN is challenging SPTC in the courts over its move into the mobile market.
Mobile market penetration in Eswatini has been well above the African average, but subscriber growth has slowed in recent years. The average revenue per user (APRU) is one of the highest in Africa. The government is considering issuing another mobile licence to an international operator.
The Internet sector has been open to competition with four licensed Internet service providers (ISPs), but prices have remained high and market penetration relatively low. ADSL was introduced in 2008 and 3G mobile broadband services in 2011, but development of the sector has been hampered by the limited fixed-line infrastructure and a lack of competition in the access and backbone network.
Eswatini has a relatively well-developed fibre optic backbone network. However, being landlocked, the country depends on neighbouring countries for international fibre bandwidth which has led to high prices. A reduction of the high cost of international bandwidth is expected from the several new submarine fibre optic cables that have reached the region recently.
There are no official government restrictions on access to the Internet. For the most part, individuals and groups engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. Nevertheless, there are reports that the government monitors e-mail, Facebook, and Internet chat rooms and that police tap certain individuals' telephones.
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, but the king may deny these rights at his discretion, and the government does at times restrict these rights, especially regarding political issues or the royal family. The law empowers the government to ban publications if they are deemed "prejudicial or potentially prejudicial to the interests of defense, public safety, public order, public morality, or public health." Most journalists practice self-censorship. The constitution and law prohibit arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence except "in the interest of defense, public safety, public order, public morality, public health, town and country planning, use of mineral resources, and development of land in the public benefit"; however, the government does not always respect these prohibitions and broadly construes exceptions to the law.
In March 2012, the "Times of Swaziland" reported that a number of senators asked that the government take legal action against individuals who criticized King Mswati III on social networking sites. Minister of Justice Mgwagwa Gamedze backed the calls and said he would look for "international laws" that could be used to charge offenders. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27457 |
Transport in Eswatini
Public transport is the main means of transportation in Eswatini. Car ownership is low, at 32 cars per 1,000 people. The National Road Network has 1500 km of main roads and 2270 km of district roads.
"total:" 3,594 km
"paved:" 1,078 km
"unpaved:" 2,516 km (2002)
Amongst its roadway network, the main roads are:
The MR3 road also includes a section, going from the Ngwenya border crossing, through Mbabane and until Manzini, with 4 lanes and has been upgraded as a motorway. This motorway section has a length of 56 km.
"total:"
301 km (2008), 297 km; note - includes 71 km which are not in use (1997 est.)
"narrow gauge:"
301 km (2008), 297 km gauge (1997 est.)
none - Landlocked
The country's main airport is King Mswati III International Airport, which has a 3,600m runway. The other paved airport is Matsapha Airport
"total:" 13
"914 to 1,523 m:" 6
"under 914 m:" 7 (2012) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27458 |
History of Switzerland
Since 1848 the Swiss Confederation has been a federal republic of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of confederacy that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics.
The early history of the region is tied to that of Alpine culture. Switzerland was inhabited by the Helvetii, and it came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC. Gallo-Roman culture was amalgamated with Germanic influence during Late Antiquity, with the eastern part of Switzerland becoming Alemannic territory. The area of Switzerland was incorporated in the Frankish Empire in the 6th century. In the high medieval period, the eastern part became part of the Duchy of Swabia within the Holy Roman Empire while the western part was part of Burgundy.
The Old Swiss Confederacy in the late medieval period (the "Eight Cantons")
established its independence from the House of Habsburg and the Duchy of Burgundy, and in the Italian Wars gained territory south of the Alps from the Duchy of Milan.
The Swiss Reformation divided the Confederacy and resulted in a drawn-out history of internal strife between the "Thirteen Cantons" in the Early Modern period.
In the wake of the French Revolution, Switzerland fell to a French invasion in 1798 and was reformed into the Helvetic Republic, a French client state. Napoleon's "Act of Mediation" in 1803 restored the status of Switzerland as a Confederation, and after the end of the Napoleonic period, the Swiss Confederation underwent a period of turmoil culminating in a brief civil war in 1847 and the creation of a federal constitution in 1848.
The history of Switzerland since 1848 has been largely one of success and prosperity. Industrialisation transformed the traditionally agricultural economy, and Swiss neutrality during the World Wars and the success of the banking industry furthered the ascent of Switzerland to its status as one of the world's most stable economies.
Switzerland signed a free-trade agreement with the European Economic Community in 1972, and has participated in the process of European integration by way of bilateral treaties, but it has notably resisted full accession to the European Union (EU) even though its territory has been surrounded by EU member states since 1995.
Archeological evidence suggests that hunter-gatherers were already settled in the lowlands north of the Alps in the Middle Paleolithic period 150,000 years ago. By the Neolithic period, the area was relatively densely populated. Remains of Bronze Age pile dwellings from as early as 3800 BC have been found in the shallow areas of many lakes. Around 1500 BC, Celtic tribes settled in the area. The Raetians lived in the eastern regions, while the west was occupied by the Helvetii.
A female who died in about 200 B.C was found buried in a carved tree trunk during a construction project at the Kern school complex in March 2017 in Aussersihl. Archaeologists revealed that she was approximately 40 years old when she died and likely carried out little physical labor when she was alive. A sheepskin coat, a belt chain, a fancy wool dress, a scarf and a pendant made of glass and amber beads were also discovered with the woman.
In 58 BC, the Helvetii tried to evade migratory pressure from Germanic tribes by moving into Gaul, but were defeated by Julius Caesar's armies and then sent back. The alpine region became integrated into the Roman Empire and was extensively romanized in the course of the following centuries. The center of Roman administration was at "Aventicum" (Avenches). In 259, Alamanni tribes overran the Limes, putting the settlements on Swiss territory on the frontier of the Roman Empire.
The first Christian bishoprics were founded in the fourth century.
With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Germanic tribes entered the area. Burgundians settled in the west; while in the north, Alamanni settlers slowly forced the earlier Celto-Roman population to retreat into the mountains. Burgundy became a part of the kingdom of the Franks in 534; two years later, the dukedom of the Alamans followed suit. In the Alaman-controlled region, only isolated Christian communities continued to exist and Irish monks re-introduced the Christian faith in the early 7th century.
Under the Carolingian kings, the feudal system proliferated, and monasteries and bishoprics were important bases for maintaining the rule. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 assigned Upper Burgundy (the western part of what is today Switzerland) to Lotharingia, and Alemannia (the eastern part) to the eastern kingdom of Louis the German which would become part of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the 10th century, as the rule of the Carolingians waned, Magyars destroyed Basel in 917 and St. Gallen in 926. Only after the victory of King Otto I over the Magyars in 955 in the Battle of Lechfeld, were the Swiss territories reintegrated into the empire.
In the 12th century, the dukes of Zähringen were given authority over part of the Burgundy territories which covered the western part of modern Switzerland. They founded many cities, including Fribourg in 1157, and Bern in 1191. The Zähringer dynasty ended with the death of Berchtold V in 1218, and their cities subsequently became "reichsfrei" (essentially a city-state within the Holy Roman Empire), while the dukes of Kyburg competed with the house of Habsburg over control of the rural regions of the former Zähringer territory.
Under the Hohenstaufen rule, the alpine passes in Raetia and the St Gotthard Pass gained importance. The latter especially became an important direct route through the mountains. Uri (in 1231) and Schwyz (in 1240) were accorded the "Reichsfreiheit" to grant the empire direct control over the mountain pass. Most of the territory of Unterwalden at this time belonged to monasteries which had previously become reichsfrei.
The extinction of the Kyburg dynasty paved the way for the Habsburg dynasty to bring much of the territory south of the Rhine under their control, aiding their rise to power. Rudolph of Habsburg, who became King of Germany in 1273, effectively revoked the status of "Reichsfreiheit" granted to the "Forest Cantons" of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. The Forest Cantons thus lost their independent status and were governed by reeves.
On 1 August 1291, the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden united to defend the peace upon the death of Emperor Rudolf I of Habsburg, forming the nucleus of the Old Swiss Confederacy.
By 1353, the three original cantons had been joined by the cantons of Glarus and Zug and the city states of Lucerne, Zürich, and Bern, forming the "Old Federation" of eight states that persisted during much of the 15th century.
At the battle of Sempach 1386, the Swiss defeated the Habsburgs, gaining increased autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire.
Zürich was expelled from the Confederation from 1440 to 1450 due to a conflict over the territory of Toggenburg (the Old Zürich War). The Confederation's power and wealth increased significantly, with victories over Charles the Bold of Burgundy during the 1470s and the success of Swiss mercenaries.
The traditional listing order of the cantons of Switzerland reflects this state, listing the eight "Old Cantons" first, with the city states preceding the founding cantons, followed by cantons that joined the Confederation after 1481, in historical order.
The Swiss defeated the Swabian League in 1499 and gained greater collective autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire, including exemption from the Imperial reforms of 1495 and immunity from most Imperial courts. In 1506, Pope Julius II engaged the Swiss Guard, which continues to serve the papacy to the present day. The expansion of the Confederation and the reputation of invincibility acquired during the earlier wars suffered a first setback in 1515 with the Swiss defeat in the Battle of Marignano.
The Reformation in Switzerland began in 1523, led by Huldrych Zwingli, priest of the Great Minster church in Zürich since 1518. Zürich adopted the Protestant religion, joined by Berne, Basel, and Schaffhausen, while Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Nidwalden, Zug, Fribourg and Solothurn remained Catholic. Glarus and Appenzell were split. This led to multiple inter-cantonal religious wars ("Kappeler Kriege") in 1529 and 1531, because each canton usually made the opposing religion illegal, and to the formation of two diets, the Protestant one meeting in Aarau and the Catholic one in Lucerne (as well as the formal full diet still meeting usually in Baden) but the Confederation survived.
During the Thirty Years' War, Switzerland was a relative "oasis of peace and prosperity" ("Grimmelshausen") in war-torn Europe, mostly because all major powers in Europe depended on Swiss mercenaries, and would not let Switzerland fall into the hands of one of their rivals. Politically, they all tried to take influence, by way of mercenary commanders such as Jörg Jenatsch or Johann Rudolf Wettstein. The "Drei Bünde" of Grisons, at that point not yet a member of the Confederacy, were involved in the war from 1620, which led to their loss of the Valtellina in 1623.
At the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, Switzerland attained legal independence from the Holy Roman Empire. The Valtellina became a dependency of the "Drei Bünde" again after the Treaty and remained so until the founding of the Cisalpine Republic by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797.
In 1653, peasants of territories subject to Lucerne, Bern, Solothurn, and Basel revolted because of currency devaluation. Although the authorities prevailed in this Swiss peasant war, they did pass some tax reforms and the incident in the long term prevented an absolutist development as would occur at some other courts of Europe. The confessional tensions remained, however, and erupted again in the First War of Villmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War (or Second War of Villmergen), in 1712.
During the French Revolutionary Wars, the French army invaded Switzerland and turned it into an ally known as the "Helvetic Republic" (1798–1803). It had a central government with little role for cantons. The interference with localism and traditional liberties was deeply resented, although some modernizing reforms took place.
Resistance was strongest in the more traditional Catholic bastions, with armed uprisings breaking out in spring 1798 in the central part of Switzerland. The French Army suppressed the uprisings but support for revolutionary ideas steadily declined. The reform element was weak, and most Swiss resented their loss of local democracy, the centralization, the new taxes, the warfare, and the hostility to religion.
Major steps taken to emancipate the Jews included the repeal of special taxes and oaths in 1798. However, reaction took place in 1815, and not until 1879 were the Jews granted equal rights with the Christians.
In 1803, Napoleon's Act of Mediation partially restored the sovereignty of the cantons, and the former tributary and allied territories of Aargau, Thurgau, Grisons, St. Gallen, Vaud and Ticino became cantons with equal rights. Napoleon and his enemies fought numerous campaigns in Switzerland that ruined many localities.
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–15 fully reestablished Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to recognize permanent Swiss neutrality. At this time, Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva also joined Switzerland as new cantons, thereby extending Swiss territory to its current boundaries.
The long-term impact of the French Revolution has been assessed as (by William Martin):
On 6 April 1814, the so-called "Long Diet" (delegates from all the nineteen cantons) met at Zurich to replace the constitution.
Cantonal constitutions were worked out independently from 1814, in general restoring the late feudal conditions of the 17th and 18th century. The Tagsatzung was re-organized by the Federal Treaty ("Bundesvertrag") of 7 August 1815.
The liberal Free Democratic Party of Switzerland was strong in the largely Protestant cantons obtained the majority in the Federal Diet in the early 1840s. It proposed a new Constitution for the Swiss Confederation which would draw the several cantons into a closer relationship. In addition to the centralization of the Swiss government, the new Constitution also included protections for trade and other progressive reform measures. The Federal Diet, with the approval of a majority of cantons, had taken measures against the Catholic Church such as the closure of monasteries and convents in Aargau in 1841, and the seizure of their properties. Catholic Lucerne, in retaliation, in 1844 recalled the Jesuits to head its education. That succeeded and seven Catholic cantons formed the "Sonderbund." This caused a liberal-radical move in the Protestant cantons to take control of the national Diet in 1847. The Diet ordered the Sonderbund dissolved, igniting a small-scale civil war against rural cantons were strongholds of pro-Catholic ultramontanism.
The Radical-liberal-Protestant element charged that the "Sonderbund" was in violation of the Federal Treaty of 1815, §6 of which expressly forbade such separate alliances. Forming a majority in the Tagsatzung they decided to dissolve the Sonderbund on October 21, 1847. The odds were against the Catholics, who were heavily outnumbered in population; they were outnumbered in soldiers by 79,000 to 99,000, and lacked enough well-trained soldiers, officers and generals. When the Sonderbund refused to disband, the national army attacked in a brief civil war between the Catholic and the Protestant cantons, known as the "Sonderbundskrieg" ("Sonderbund War".) The national army was composed of soldiers of all the other cantons except Neuchâtel and Appenzell Innerrhoden (which remained neutral). The Sonderbund was easily defeated in less than a month; there were about 130 killed. Apart from small riots, this was the last armed conflict on Swiss territory. Many Sonderband leaders fled to Italy, but the victors were generous. They invited the defeated cantons to join them in a program of federal reform, and a new constitution was drafted along American lines. National issues were to be under the control of the national parliament, and the Jesuits were expelled. The Swiss voted heavily in favor of the new constitution by 2 million against 300,000. Switzerland became calm. However conservatives around Europe became frightened, and prepared their own forces to meet possible challenges, which indeed soon exploded the Revolutions of 1848. In those violent revolutions, outside Switzerland, the conservatives were always successful.
As a consequence of the civil war, Switzerland adopted a federal constitution in 1848, amending it extensively in 1874 and establishing federal responsibility for defense, trade, and legal matters, leaving all other matters to the cantonal governments. From then, and over much of the 20th century, continuous political, economic, and social improvement has characterized Swiss history.
While Switzerland was primarily rural, the cities experienced an industrial revolution in the late 19th century, focused especially on textiles. In Basel, for example, textiles, including silk, were the leading industry. In 1888 women made up 44% of the wage earners. Nearly half the women worked in the textile mills, with household servants the second largest job category. The share of women in the workforce was higher between 1890 and 1910 than it was in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Swiss Universities in the late 19th century are notable for the number of female students receiving medical education.
The major powers respected Switzerland's neutrality during World War I. In the Grimm–Hoffmann Affair, the Allies denounced a proposal by one politician to negotiate peace on the Eastern Front; they wanted the war there to continue so as to tie Germany down.
While the industrial sector began to grow in the mid-19th century, Switzerland's emergence as one of the most prosperous nations in Europe—the "Swiss miracle"—was a development of the short 20th century, among other things tied to the role of Switzerland during the World Wars.
Germany considered invading Switzerland during World War II, but never attacked. Under General Henri Guisan, the Swiss army prepared for mass mobilization of militia forces against invasion, and prepared strong, well-stockpiled positions high in the Alps known as the "Réduit". Switzerland remained independent and neutral through a combination of military deterrence, economic concessions to Germany, and good fortune as larger events during the war delayed an invasion.
Attempts by Switzerland's small Nazi party to cause an "Anschluss" with Germany failed miserably, largely due to Switzerland's multicultural heritage, strong sense of national identity, and long tradition of direct democracy and civil liberties. The Swiss press vigorously criticized the Third Reich, | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27461 |
Geography of Switzerland
The geography of Switzerland encompasses the geographical features of Switzerland, a mountainous and landlocked country located in Western and Central Europe. Switzerland is world-famous for the beauty and uniqueness of its landscapes. It is surrounded by 5 countries: Austria and Liechtenstein to the east, France to the west, Italy to the south and Germany to the north. Switzerland has a maximum north–south length of and an east–west length of about .
Switzerland is well known for the Alps in the south and south east. North of the Alps, the Swiss Plateau runs along the east–west axis of the country. Most of the population of Switzerland lives on the rolling hills and plains of the plateau. The smaller Jura Mountains are located on the north west side of the plateau. Much of the northern border with Germany follows the Rhine, through the Rhine enters Switzerland near Schaffhausen. The eastern border with Germany and a portion of Austria is drawn through Lake Constance (). A portion of the southwest border with France is drawn through Lake Geneva.
Switzerland is divided into 26 sovereign cantons. The cantons along the Swiss Plateau tend to be the most populous, industrial and religiously Protestant. The cantons in the Alps tend to be less populous, Catholic, and have an agrarian or tourism-based economy.
Switzerland is divided by language as well. There are four national languages: German (spoken by 63.7% of population), French (by 20.4% of population), Italian (by 6.5%) and Romansh (0.5%). From Bern east (except Ticino) the population generally speaks German. West of Bern, the population generally speaks French. In the southern canton of Ticino, most people speak Italian. Romansh, a group of dialects descended from Vulgar Latin, is spoken in several regions in the canton of Graubünden.
Switzerland extends between the parallels 45°49'05 and 47°48'30 lat. and the meridians 5° 57'23 and 10°29'31 long. It forms an irregular quadrilateral, of which the greatest length from east to west is , and the greatest breadth from north to south is nearly . Switzerland is a landlocked country, the closest coastline being at the Gulf of Genoa, 160 km south of Chiasso. Its political boundaries often do not coincide with those of nature. The entire canton of Ticino is south of the Alps, as are the valleys of Simplon (Valais), Mesocco, Bregaglia, Poschiavo and Müstair (all in Graubünden); the whole canton of Schaffhausen and part of that of Basel are north of the Rhine, while a large part of Graubünden lies to the east of the Rhine basin, and Porrentruy is far down on the western slope of the Jura. Putting these exceptional cases aside, the physical geography of Switzerland may thus be described:
Putting aside the valleys of the Ticino and Inn, Switzerland may thus be described as consisting of three great river valleys (Rhône, Rhine and Aare) with the smaller one of the Thur, which all lie to the north of the main chain of the Alps and include the region between the Alps and the Jura. If matters are examined more carefully, it can be noted that the Rhône and Rhine valleys are shut off from that of the Aare (and of the Thur) by the great northern outlier of the Alps, which consists of the Bernese and Glarus Alps. Two wide and undulating valleys (Aare and Thur) and two deeply cut trenches (Rhône and Rhine) thus lie on the northern slope of the Alps, to the north and south respectively of the great northern outlier of the Alps. The main chain of the Alps rises in Swiss territory to the height of in the loftiest summit or Dufourspitze (wholly Swiss) of Monte Rosa, though the Dom (), in the Mischabel range, is the highest mountain mass which is entirely within Switzerland. The great northern outlier attains a height of in the Finsteraarhorn, while the lowest level () within the Confederation, is on Lake Maggiore (on the course of the Ticino). The highest permanently inhabited village in Switzerland is Juf () at the head of the Avers valley (a tributary of the Rhine), while the lowest is Ascona (), on Lake Maggiore.
Different geological phenomena shaped the actual landscapes of Switzerland. The Alpine orogeny had the most visible effects on the landscape: this term covers entire geological movements contributing to the Alps’ formation.
A crystalline basement formed at the beginning of the Paleozoic era, between 540 and 360 million years ago. Later, between 205 and 96 million years ago, the alpine ocean or Tethys Ocean formed between Eurasia and Africa. The ocean reached its maximum width at the end of Jurassic period, 135 million years ago. The collision between the Eurasian and African plates made it progressively disappear. This plate collision (still in progress) began 100 million years ago. The Alps resulted from this geological movement, the two plates creating folding zones. The Central Plateau is mainly composed of molasse, a sedimentary rock that formed at the bottom of the Tethys ocean.
Switzerland is situated in a relatively tectonically inactive area, although the city of Basel was completely destroyed in 1356 by an earthquake, the largest historical seismic event in central Europe. The most seismically active regions are the Rhine Rift Valley (region of Basel) and the Valais.
Switzerland is divided in three main geographic regions: the Swiss Alps, the Central Plateau and the Jura, each corresponding to very different geological realities. In addition, two small regions are not part of those three. The first, north of the Rhine in the Basel area, is situated beyond the Jura. The second, on the south in the Mendrisio area, is located in the Po Valley. But these two territories are not extensive in comparison to the total area of the country.
The Swiss Alps occupy the southern part of Switzerland. They were formed by the thrust of the African plate, which also caused the formation of the Jura in the north-east and the plateau between the two massifs. In terms of area the Alps constitute about 60% of the country, the plateau 30% and the Jura 10%.
The rugged terrain of the Jura and the Alps are very sparsely populated, except for some large valleys such as the Valais. Most of the population lives on the plateau where the country's major cities such as Geneva, Zurich and Bern are located.
The Swiss Plateau extends from Lake Geneva on the French border across central Switzerland to Lake Constance on the German and Austrian borders. In the north and northwest, the Swiss Plateau is sharply delimited geographically and geologically by the Jura Mountains. In the south, there is no clear border with the Alps. Usually, the rising of the terrain to altitudes above 1500 metres, which is very abrupt in certain places, is taken as a criterion for delimitation. The plateau has an average altitude of . Even though the Swiss Plateau forms a basin, it is by no means a flat territory and it is covered with rolling hills, lakes and rivers. Most of Switzerland's large lakes are located in the plateau. Both Lake Geneva () and Lake Constance () are located in the plateau but are shared with other countries. The largest lake totally in Switzerland, Lake Neuchâtel (), is located in the Swiss Plateau.
The Swiss Plateau is crossed by three great river valleys (Rhône, Rhine and Aare) and the smaller Thur valley. While the headwaters of these four rivers all lie in the Alps, they all cut across the plateau between the Alps and the Jura mountains. Near Schaffhausen the Rhine passes through the Rhine Falls, Europe's largest waterfall. The Rhine Falls are wide and .
The plateau occupies about one third of the land area of Switzerland, and about two thirds of the population live in this area. The population density on the plateau averages about 450 people per km2 (1,166 per square mile). In the regions around Lake Geneva, Lake Zurich and other cities, the population density exceeds 1000 people per km2. As well as the majority of the population, the Swiss Plateau is also home to the majority of industry, manufacturing and farming in Switzerland. The farms are generally small and very organized. Most farms include small meadows alternating with fields with a variety of crops and small wooded areas.
The Swiss Alps form part of a chain of mountains that stretch across southern Europe and isolate Northern Europe from the Mediterranean Sea. Several important passes through the Alps are located in Switzerland, and control of the passes has been important throughout Switzerland's history. The Alps have an average altitude of and cover nearly two thirds of the total surface area. Within the Alps there are 48 mountains that are or higher.
The Alps are the watershed of Western Europe. The Rhine, together with its tributaries the Aare and the Thur drain about two thirds of the water into the North Sea. The Rhône and the Ticino drain about 18% of the water into the Mediterranean Sea. The Inn which flows into the Danube outside of Switzerland drains about 4.4% of the water into the Black Sea. The Swiss Alps also contain many of Central Europe's glaciers. There are about 1,800 glaciers which cover of the total glaciated area of the Alps.
The Alps are a popular tourist destination and are one of the most recognizable symbols of Switzerland. The tallest point in Switzerland, Monte Rosa () in Canton Valais, is located in the Alps as is tallest mountain wholly in Switzerland, the Dom (). One of the most recognizable symbols of Switzerland, the Matterhorn, is also located in the Alps. The Matterhorn () is the seventh highest peak in the Swiss Alps and is the most photographed mountain in Switzerland. The tallest mountain in the northern outlier or Bernese Alps is the Finsteraarhorn ().
Switzerland encompasses a significant portion of the south side of the Alps. Most of it is constituted by the canton of Ticino, almost reaching the plains of the Po and including Switzerland's lowest point on Lake Maggiore (). The canton of Graubünden is also partially located on the south side of the Alps with the four valleys of Misox, Bregaglia, Poschiavo and Müstair. Finally, the canton of Valais comprises the upper Diveria valley, located south of the Simplon Pass.
The Jura is a limestone mountain range running from Lake Geneva to the Rhine river. This area makes up about 12% of Switzerland's land area. Located about above sea level, this region is characterized by a limestone highland with deep river valleys.
The limestone rock in the Jura is a Jurassic period rock with numerous fossils and dinosaur tracks. The name Jurassic actually refers to the Jura region where these fossils were studied at the end of the 18th century. The Jura is considered one of the most important sites for dinosaur footprints in the world. In one area near the village of Courtedoux, over 13,000 footprints were discovered in between 2002 and 2011.
The range is being continually built up and decreasing in width by mountain building, accommodating the compression from alpine folding as the main Alpine orogenic front moves roughly northwards. The deformation becomes less pervasive away from the younger, more active Alpine mountain building.
Structurally, the Jura consists of a sequence of folds, the formation of which is facilitated by an evaporitic decollement layer. The box folds are still relatively young, evidenced by their defining the shape of the overlying landscape (meaning they have not existed long enough to experience erosion). The folds comprise three major (lithological units) bands of building evidence dated roughly by era: the Malm, Dogger, and Lias (part of the Jurassic Geologic period). Each era of folding represents effects on a previously shallow marine environment as evidenced by beds with particular carbonate sequences, containing abundant bioclasts and oolitic divisions between layers (called horizons).
The Jura Mountains rise in Swiss territory to a height of at Mont Tendre. Other high summits are La Dôle (), the Chasseron () and the Chasseral (), all located in the western part of the range, in the cantons of Vaud, Neuchâtel and Bern.
Switzerland has 6% of all freshwater reserves in Europe. The country shares five river basins and some of the largest lakes in western Europe with its neighbours. It is the source of several major European rivers that ultimately flow into the North Sea (Rhine), into the Mediterranean Sea (Rhône), into the Black Sea (Inn, through the Danube) and into the Adriatic Sea (Ticino, through the Po and Rom through the Adige).
Most of the great Swiss rivers, being in their origin mere mountain torrents, tend to overflow their banks. Much has been done to prevent this by embanking them, regaining arable land: the Rhine (between Bad Ragaz and Lake Constance), the Rhône, the Aare, the Reuss and in particular the great works on the Linth (carried out 1807–1810 by Hans Conrad Escher, earning him the surname of "Von der Linth") and the Zihl near the lakes of Neuchâtel and Biel, while the diversion of the Kander from its junction with the Aare to a channel by which it flows into Lake Thun was effected as early as 1714.
Switzerland has considerable reserves of groundwater and a large number of lakes, large and small, can be found in most areas. The two most extensive, those of Geneva and of Constance, balance each other, as it were, at the south-west and north-east corners of the land. But neither of these is wholly Swiss, this distinction being claimed by the next in size, that of Neuchâtel, Lake Maggiore (partly Swiss only) coming next in the list, and being followed by the wholly Swiss lakes of Lucerne and of Zurich. Then come Lake Lugano, Lake Thun, Lake Biel, Lake Zug, Lake Brienz, Lake Walenstadt and Lake Murten. These thirteen only are over in extent. Ten of them are in the Rhine basin (also in that of the Aare), two (Maggiore and Lugano) in that of the Po, and one (Geneva) in that of the Rhône. There are no large lakes in the Swiss portion of the Inn basin, the most extensive being that of Sils. Smaller Alpine lakes such as the Oeschinensee are innumerable, and often constitute popular tourist destination. Since the twentieth century a large number of dams have been built in the Alps and elsewhere, resulting in many artificial lakes. The largest are the Sihlsee and the Lake of Gruyère both approximately in extent. Also notable is Lac des Dix, withheld by the Grande Dixence, the tallest gravity dam in the world.
In total, lakes and reservoirs contain 50% of the stored water, glaciers 28%, groundwater 20% and rivers 2%.
In Switzerland, where the elevation above sea-level ranges from , many climates are naturally found, from the regions of olives, vines, oaks and beeches, pines and firs, to those of the high mountain pastures, rhododendrons, and of eternal snow.
In most inhabited regions of Switzerland, at lower altitudes, the weather is generally moderate. On the plateau, freezing temperatures generally occur during December-early March with an average temperature of for elevations between . On the Plateau the average precipitation is with a range of about . The higher elevations of the Jura and the Alps naturally cause lower temperatures and in the high Alps glaciers exist. The Jura and foothills (both north and south of the Alps) typically have more precipitation, with an average of , while the high Alps may have over . Ticino, on the south side of the Alps, has sub-tropical vegetation, is usually warmer, and os wetter than the Swiss Plateau.
In the Köppen climate classification, the Swiss Plateau is classed as Maritime Temperate or Oceanic climate (Cfb) and the Alps are considered Tundra climates or (ET). A maritime temperate area will have changeable, often overcast weather. Summers are cool due to cloud cover and winters are milder than expected due to latitude. The Jura will be slightly cooler due to higher altitude. Within the Alps, temperatures and snow fall correlate to altitude.
As a federal state, Switzerland is composed of 26 cantons, which are further divided into districts and municipalities. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848. There are considerable differences between the individual cantons, most particularly in terms of population and geographical area; hence seven larger and more homogeneous regions have been defined. They do not, however, constitute administrative units and are mostly used for statistical and economic purposes.
The Swiss territory is divided into four major types of land use. , 36.9% of the land in Switzerland was used for farming. 30.8% of the country is covered with forests and woodlands, with an additional 6.8% covered with houses or buildings. About one-fourth (25.5%) of the country is either mountains, lakes or rivers and is categorised as unproductive.
The habitat is mainly developed in the Swiss Plateau and the northern slopes of the Alps, near lakes and along major rivers. It occupies 14.6% of the Plateau, the Jura (7.4%), the southern (4.3%) and the northern Alps (4%), and finally the western central Alps (2.9%) and Eastern Alps (1.6%).
Habitat areas and infrastructure grow around the urban areas but also in the countryside, at the expense of agricultural land. This growth (called "suburbanization") is particularly pronounced along the main transport routes such as motorways and railways. New roads lead to a significant increase in construction activity in the affected regions. Many people who work in the city prefer to live in the countryside to take advantage of cheaper land and better quality of life. This is also reflected in the construction statistics: single-family homes arise mainly in rural areas, multi-family homes in the cities. Household structures are also evolving and tend to become smaller. In twelve years, the area devoted to housing increased by 25% while the increase of the population was only 9%.
Although it is declining, agriculture represents the most important use of the territory in Switzerland. Farmlands dominates the Plateau, occupying just over half of the area. The situation is similar in the Jura (44%), on the northern slopes of the Alps (38.2%) and in the eastern Central Alps (31.4%). In the mountainous regions of the western Central Alps (Valais) and in the south, the agricultural areas (mostly pastures) are proportionately lower.
In 1993 it was estimated that (or about 0.6%) of the entire country was irrigated meaning that most Swiss farms receive enough rainfall to grow.
The protection of forested areas led to numerous conflicts of interests around the farmland, especially on the Plateau and near urban areas where the habitat area development and infrastructure tend to reduce the amount of arable land. Conversely, the number of farms in the mountains tend to decrease, many areas are left for the benefit of woodlands to the detriment of landscape diversity. This decline is particularly marked in Valais and Ticino.
Forests cover less than a third of the territory, but the area is increasing year by year. The reforestation is essentially natural, mainly in the Alps where the forest areas reoccupy those abandoned by farmers. Afforestation contributes 13% to reforestation, and is conducted for compensation following a clearance or to provide protection against natural hazards in the mountainous areas (avalanches, landslides). Forests are more predominant in the Jura and in the southern Alps, occupying respectively 47.7% and 47.2% of the soil in these regions. On the northern slopes of the Alps, Alpine forest occupy 33.2% and on the Plateau 24.6%. It is in the Central Alps that forest areas occupy less floor with about 22% coverage.
Switzerland is home to mixed maple-ash forests of fertile and deep earth that collects at the base of slopes. They replace the moist oak-hornbeam forests in areas with higher rainfall. This type of forest has been called "one of the most productive in Switzerland" and the tree growth has been described as "aggressive". It takes one third of the time for trees to reach the same height as it would in a mull-beech forest and within 100 years trees in maple-ash forests can reach a height of 35m, though the quality of wood will not be as high. The rich undergrowth of these forests is dominated by the "allium ursinum" (wild garlic) common throughout Western Europe.
The unproductive areas correspond to all areas occupied by rocks, boulders, ice, snow fields and unproductive vegetation beyond the limits of forests. Lakes, rivers and wetlands are also unproductive areas. Occupying 25.5% of Swiss soil, these surfaces are in very slight decline (-0.1% over 10 years). They are predominant in the Central Alps (half of the soil), on the contrary they only cover 10% of the surface of the plateau and 1% of the Swiss Jura. The uncultivated mountain areas are exploited by the tourism and the production of hydroelectricity. Climatic conditions strongly affect the landscape of these areas: water seepage, landslides, avalanches, torrents in spate. Man intervenes on 0.2% of this surface area to create infrastructure protecting against floods or avalanches. The channels of communication, with many works of art occupy a portion of these surfaces.
In the plains, lakes and streams near areas of habitat are used for recreation and relaxation. Habitats, damp or dry, and nature reserves are managed and these areas contribute to maintain biodiversity.
The population of Switzerland is heavily urbanised. In 2009, 74% of the 7,785,800 inhabitants lived in urban areas. The distribution of population is shaped by the topography of the country, the plateau being the most populous area and including the major cities of Switzerland. With a population density of 450 inhabitants per km2, it is one of the most densely populated region in Europe. There are large disparities of population densities between the cantons lying in the plateau and those lying in the Alps. Thus, the population densities of the cantons of Lucerne, Solothurn and Zurich are respectively 261.0, 319.7 and 813.6 inhabitants per km2. On the other hand, the cantons of Uri and Graubünden have very low population densities, respectively 33.4 and 27.0 inhabitants per km2. In the southern Alps, the canton of Ticino also has a population density less than the national average, with 122.5 inhabitants per km2 (against 194.7).
With the delicate alpine and glacial environments making up a significant portion of the country and providing a major industry, Switzerland has been concerned with environmental issues. Some of the main issues are listed below.
The main environmental issues in Switzerland's air is air pollution from vehicle emissions and open-air burning as well as acid rain. In 2004, the average amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per resident was and in 2005 was . With these numbers, Switzerland is 31st to 33rd among the 45 nations listed by United Nations Millennium Development Goals Indicators as developed nations and 69th worldwide. In 2009 Switzerland announced that they expected by 2010 to reduce their total greenhouse gas emissions by 8% to 10% over emissions in 1990.
The population () uses 3.76 tonnes of oil equivalent per person per year, of which 43.7% comes from petroleum and 19% from nuclear power.
The major water issue in Switzerland is water pollution from the increased use of agricultural fertilizers as well as hydrocarbon pollution from transport and industry. While improvements have been made, there are still issues with eutrophication (an increase in nitrogen and phosphates) in many lakes in the Swiss Plateau.
The total renewable water resources of Switzerland, , totals , of which the total freshwater withdrawal is per year. This breaks down to a "per capita" freshwater withdrawal of per year. Of that water (), 24% is used in households, 74% in industry and only 2% is used for agriculture.
Switzerland is facing a loss of biodiversity. While the country is quite small, the wide range of climates allow a variety of organisms to flourish. There are about 50,000 animal and plant species living in Switzerland. While most species that live on north and south foothills of the Alps are generally doing well, the Swiss Plateau is seeing a decrease in many species. The pressure from city and agricultural growth is reducing or eliminating the habitat of many species that once flourished along the plateau. There are about 60 species that are considered endangered that live in Switzerland. To help offset this, 28.6% of the country is set aside as a protected natural area. In 2001, the Federal Office for the Environment FOEN launched a nationwide programme to systematically monitor biodiversity (Biodiversity Monitoring Switzerland).
"Party to:"
"Signed, but not ratified:"
The borders of Switzerland were established by the original formation of the Helvetic Republic in 1798, the accession thereto of Valais and Grisons, and the incorporation of various remaining feudal territories such as the County of Neuchâtel, Prince-Bishopric of Basel, Abbey of St. Gall, etc. The cantons largely had their current borders since 1815 (at accession of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva), except for the notable change from secession of Jura from Berne in 1979.
The total length of the border is 1,899 km,
enclosing an area of (
land: , water: ).
The border of Switzerland has six tripoints, of which two are located in rivers, one undefined location in the Lake of Constance, and the three other in high mountains.
Elevation extremes:
"lowest point:"
Lake Maggiore:
"highest point:"
Monte Rosa:
"deepest point:"
In Lake Maggiore:
See also: Extreme points of Switzerland
No subdivision of Europe is universally accepted, therefore naming the different European regions and defining the borders between them is subject to debates. Depending on the definition chosen, Switzerland can be either part of Western or Central Europe: both concepts depend heavily on context and carry cultural, economic and political connotations.
The term "Western Europe" commonly indicates the region west of the Baltic and Adriatic Sea. Countries described as Western European (including Switzerland, according to the United Nations Statistics Division and the National Geographic Society) are invariably high-income developed countries, characterized by stable democratic political systems, mixed economies combining the free market with aspects of the welfare state. On the other hand, the term "Central Europe" refers to the region between Western and Eastern Europe. Central European countries (including Switzerland in the westernmost part, according to the World Factbook and various encyclopedias such as Britannica and Columbia) show high disparities with regard to income but possibly share similar cultural characteristics. The concept came back into use by the end of the Cold War, which had divided Europe politically into the Western World and the East Bloc, splitting Central Europe in half. Before World War I, the German-speaking world used the somewhat-related term "Mitteleuropa" (from German: "Middle Europe") for an area larger than most conceptions of Central Europe, notably encompassing Switzerland among the other German-speaking countries.
Physically, Switzerland is situated approximately in the middle of the portion of Europe west of the Carpathian Mountains. Defining the Ural Mountains as the eastern limit of the continent, Switzerland is located within the western third of Europe, approximately 15 degrees of longitude away from the extreme west and 50 degrees away from extreme east. Phytogeographically, the part of Switzerland that lies north of the Alps belongs to Central Europe, while the part south of the Alps belongs to Southern Europe. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27462 |
Demographics of Switzerland
This article is about the demographic features of the population of the Swiss Confederation, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Switzerland had a population of 8.57 million as of mid-2019. Its population quadrupled over the period 1800 to 1990 (average doubling time 95 years). Population growth was steepest in the period after World War II (1.4% per annum during 1950-1970, doubling time 50 years), it slowed during the 1970s to 1980s and has since again picked up to 1% during the 2000s (doubling time 70 years).
More than 75% of the population live in the central plain, which stretches between the Alps and the Jura Mountains and from Geneva in the southwest to the High Rhine and Lake Constance in the northeast.
As of 2019, foreigners resident in the country make up 25.2% of the population.
The "Federal Population Census" (, , , ) has been carried out every 10 years starting in 1850. The census was initiated by Federal Councillor Stefano Franscini, who evaluated the data of the first census all by himself after Parliament failed to provide the necessary funds. The census is now being conducted by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, which makes most results available on its website.
Collected data includes population data (citizenship, place of residence, place of birth, position in household, number of children, religion, languages, education, profession, place of work, etc.), household data (number of individuals living in the household, etc.), accommodation data (surface area, amount of rent paid, etc.) and building data (geocoordinates, time of construction, number of floors, etc.). Participation is compulsory and reached 99.87% of the population in 2000.
Since 2010, the population census has been carried out and analysed annually in a new format by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). In order to ease the burden on the population, the information is primarily drawn from population registers and supplemented by sample surveys. Only a small proportion of the population (about 5%) are surveyed in writing or by telephone. The first reference day for the new census was 31 December 2010.
Total of registered residents (numbers relate to 31 December):
During the 19th and 20th centuries, population growth rate has been at 0.7% to 0.8%, with a doubling time of ca. 90 years. In the later 20th century, the growth rate has fallen below 0.7% (1980s: 0.64%; 1990s: 0.65%), and in the 2000s it has risen again slightly (2000–2006: 0.69%), mostly due to immigration. In 2007 the population grew at a much higher 1.1% rate, again mostly due to immigration. For 2008, the population grew 1.6%, a level not seen since the early 1960s.
Total fertility rate
The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
Data according to Statistik Schweiz, United Nations, Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
Data: Swiss Federal Statistics Office
As population growth curbs, the percentage of elderly people increases. In July 2015, the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics published a projection estimating that by 2045, the ratio of residents over the retirement age of 65 would climb to 48.1 per 100 residents between 20 and 64 years old, and possibly as high as 50.0 in the highest case. In 2015 that ratio was only 29.1 per 100 residents.
Data: Swiss Federal Statistics Office
Data: Swiss Federal Statistics Office 2007
According to statistics released by the federal government in 2008, life expectancy stands at 79.7 years for men and 84.4 years for women, for an overall average of 82.1 years for the populace as a whole.
Sources: Our World In Data
1850-1950
1950 to 2015
Source: "UN World Population Prospects"
Encompassing the Central Alps, Switzerland sits at the crossroads of several major European cultures. Its population includes a two-thirds majority of Alemannic German speakers and a one-quarter Latin minority (French, Italian and Romansh), see linguistic geography of Switzerland. 10% of the population natively speak an immigrant language.
Switzerland consistently ranks high on quality of life indices, including per capita income, concentration of computer and internet usage per capita, insurance coverage per individual, and health care rates. For these and many other reasons, such as the four languages, it serves as an excellent test market for businesses hoping to introduce new products into Europe.
The number of registered resident foreigners was 1,001,887 (16.17%) in 1970. This amount decreased to 904,337 (14.34%) in 1979, and has increased steadily since that time, passing the 20% mark during 2001 and rising to 1,524,663 (20.56%) in 2004. The number of Swiss citizens thus numbered about 5.9 million in that year.
In 2013 there were a total of 1,937,447 permanent residents (23.8% of the total population of 8.14 million) in Switzerland. Of these, 1.65 million resident foreigners (85.0%, or 20.2% of the 8.14 Million total population), had European citizenship (Italian: 298,875; German: 292,291; Portuguese: 253,227; French: 110,103; Serbian: 90,704; Kosovan: 86,976; Spanish: 75,333, Macedonian: 62,633; British: 40,898; Austrian: 39,494; Bosnian and Herzegovinian: 33,002; Croatian: 30,471). From other continents; 122,941 residents were from Asia; 83,873 from Africa; 78,433 from the Americas; and 4,145 from Oceania.
The following chart shows permanent resident numbers from selected regions and countries every 5 years.
Source:
Tamil refugees fleeing from war in Sri Lanka are the largest number of Asians, while Albanians and former Yugoslavians continue to grow in number. Switzerland is also the second largest European country in number of acceptance of Iraqi refugees fleeing from the violence in Iraq since 2003, but behind Great Britain, Germany and Sweden in the number of Iraqis taken residence for a European country.
In 2004, 35,700 people acquired Swiss citizenship according to Swiss nationality law, a figure slightly larger than that of the previous year (35,424), and four times larger than the 1990 figure (8,658). About a third of those naturalized are from a successor state of Former Yugoslavia: 7,900 Serbia-Montenegro, 2,400 Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2,000 North Macedonia, 1,600 Croatia. 4,200 were from Italy, 3,600 from Turkey, 1,600 from Sri Lanka, 1,200 from Portugal, and 1,200 from France.
The yearly rate of naturalization has quintupled over the 1990s and 2000s, from roughly 9,000 to 45,000. Relative to the population of resident foreigners, this amounts to an increase from 8% in 1990 to 27% in 2007, or relative to the number of Swiss citizens from 1.6% in 1990 to 7.3% in 2007.
The following table shows the historical development of naturalization from selected countries.
Foreign population by country of citizenship as of 2018:
In 2004, 623,100 Swiss citizens (8.9%) lived abroad, the largest group in France (166,200), followed by the USA (71,400) and Germany (70,500). (see Swiss diaspora).
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.
Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Switzerland as a federal state has no state religion, though most of the cantons (except for Geneva and Neuchâtel) recognize official churches ("Landeskirchen"), in all cases including the Roman Catholic Church and the Swiss Reformed Church. These churches, and in some cantons also the Old Catholic Church and Jewish congregations, are financed by official taxation of adherents.
In 2000, 5.78 million residents (79.2%, compared to 93.8% in 1980) were Christian (Roman Catholic 41.8%, Protestant 35.3%, Orthodox 1.8%). 809,800 (11.1%, compared to 3.8% in 1980) were without any religious affiliation. 310,800 (4.3%) were Muslim (compared to 0.9% in 1980), 17,900 (0.2%) were Jewish. The 2005 Eurobarometer poll found 48% of Swiss residents to be theist, 39% expressing belief in "some sort of spirit or life force", 9% atheist and 4% said that they "don't know".
Adherence to Christian churches has declined considerably since the late 20th century, from close to 94% in 1980 to about 67% as of 2016. Furthermore notable is the significant difference in church adherence between Swiss citizens (72%) and foreign nationals (51%) in 2016.
The Federal Statistical Office reported the religious demographics as of 2016 as follows (based on the resident population age 15 years and older):
66.9% Christian (including 36.5% Roman Catholic, 24.5% Reformed, 5.9% other),
24.9% unaffiliated,
5.2% Muslim,
0.3% Jewish,
1.4% other religions.
(100%: 6,981,381, registered resident population age 15 years and older). From the same 2016 survey, of 15 to 24 year olds 65.4% were Christian (36.3% Roman Catholic, 22.6% Reformed, 6.6% other), 23.0% unaffiliated, 0.3% Jewish, 8.3% Muslim, 1.7% other religions. Those aged 25 to 44 were 58.4% Christian (33.1% Roman Catholic, 18.7% Reformed, 6.7% other), 31.0% unaffiliated, 0.2% Jewish, 7.5% Muslim, 1.7% other religions. Older adults (45 to 64 years old) were 67.0% Christian (37.7% Roman Catholic, 23.9% Reformed, 5.5% other), 25.9% unaffiliated, 0.2% Jewish, 4.2% Muslim, 1.5% other religions. Senior citizens (over 65) were 81.3% Christian (40.3% Roman Catholic, 36.2% Reformed, 4.8% other), 14.9% unaffiliated, 0.3% Jewish, 1.1% Muslim, 0.5% other religions.
The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh.
In 2017, permanent residents who spoke German (mostly Swiss German dialects) as their main language or co-main language numbered about 63% (5.2 million), followed by 22.9% (1.9 million) for French (mostly Swiss French, but including some Franco-Provençal dialects), 8.2% (678,000, mostly Swiss Italian, but including Insubric dialects) for Italian and less than 0.5% (44,000) for Romansh.
The non-official language with the largest group of main or co-main language speakers (in 2017) is English with 448,000 speakers, followed by Portuguese with 303,000, Albanian with 262,000, followed by Serbo-Croatian with 205,000 speakers and Spanish with 197,000. All other languages totaled 640,000.
Almost all Swiss are literate. Switzerland's 13 institutes of higher learning enrolled 99,600 students in the academic year of 2001-02. About 25% of the adult population hold a diploma of higher learning. According to the CIA World Factbook data for 2003, 99% of the Swiss population aged 15 and over could read and write, with the rate being identical for both sexes.
During the 2008/09 school year there were 1,502,257 students in the entire Swiss educational system. In kindergarten or pre-school, there were 152,919 students (48.6% female). These students were taught by 13,592 teachers (96.0% female) in 4,949 schools, of which 301 were private schools. There were 777,394 students (48.6% female) in the obligatory schools, which include primary and lower secondary schools. These students were taught by 74,501 teachers (66.3% female) in 6,083 schools, of which 614 were private. The upper secondary school system had 337,145 students (46.9% female). They were taught by 13,900 teachers (42.3% female) in 730 schools, of which 240 were private. The tertiary education system had 234,799 students (49.7% female). They were taught by 37,546 teachers (32.8% female) in 367 schools.
The police registered a total of 553,421 criminal offences in 2009, including 51 killings and 185 attempted murders. There were 616 cases of rape. In the same year, 94,574 adults (85% of them male, 47.4% of them Swiss citizens) were convicted under criminal law. 57.3% of convictions were for traffic offences.
In the same year, 15,064 minors (78.3% of them male, 68.2% of them of Swiss nationality, 76.3% aged between 15 and 18) were convicted.
The number of convicted persons is given in the following tables. Each class of crime references the relevant section of the "Strafgesetzbuch" (Criminal Code, abbreviated as StGB in German), or "Betäubungsmittelgesetz" (abbr. BetmG, Narcotics Act), or the "Strassenverkehrsgesetz" (abbr. SVG, Swiss Traffic Regulations). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27463 |
Politics of Switzerland
Switzerland is a semi-direct democratic federal republic. The federal legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Federal Assembly, the National Council and the Council of States. The Federal Council holds the executive power and is composed of seven power-sharing Federal Councillors elected by the Federal Assembly. The judicial branch is headed by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, whose judges are elected by the Federal Assembly.
Switzerland has a tradition of direct democracy. For any change in the constitution, a referendum is mandatory (mandatory referendum); for any change in a law, a referendum can be requested (optional referendum). In addition, the people may present a constitutional popular initiative to introduce amendments to the federal constitution. The people also assume a role similar to the constitutional court, which does not exist, and thus act as the guardian of the rule of law.
Cantonal and municipal politics vary in the different cantons, which may have different systems.
Switzerland features a system of government not seen in any other nation: direct representation, sometimes called half-direct democracy (this may be arguable, because theoretically, the Sovereign of Switzerland is actually its entire electorate). Referenda on the most important laws have been used since the 1848 constitution.
Amendments to the Federal Constitution of Switzerland, the joining of international organizations, or changes to federal laws that have no foundation in the constitution but will remain in force for more than one year must be approved by the majority of both the people and the cantons, a double majority.
Any citizen may challenge a law that has been passed by parliament. If that person is able to gather 50,000 signatures against the law within 100 days, a national vote has to be scheduled where voters decide by a simple majority of the voters whether to accept or reject the law.
Also, any citizen may seek a decision on an amendment they want to make to the constitution. For such a federal popular initiative to be organised, the signatures of 100,000 voters must be collected within 18 months. Such a federal popular initiative is formulated as a precise new text (general proposal initiatives have been canceled in 2009) whose wording can no longer be changed by parliament and the government. After a successful signature gathering, the federal council may create a counterproposal to the proposed amendment and put it to vote on the same day as the original proposal. Such counter-proposals are usually a compromise between the status quo and the wording of the initiative. Voters will decide in a national vote whether to accept the initiative amendment, the counter proposal put forward by the government if any, or both. If both are accepted, one has to additionally signal a preference. Initiatives (that are of constitutional level) have to be accepted by a double majority of both the popular votes and a majority of the cantons, while counter-proposals may be of legislative level and hence require only simple majority.
Federalism refers to a vertical separation of powers. The aim is to avoid the concentration of power in a forum, which allows a moderation of state power and the easing of the duties of the federal state.
In Switzerland, it is above all a matter of designating the independence of the cantons vis-à-vis the Confederation.
The Swiss Federal Council is a seven-member executive council that heads the federal administration, operating as a combination cabinet and collective presidency. Any Swiss citizen eligible to be a member of the National Council can be elected; candidates do not have to register for the election, or to actually be members of the National Council. The Federal Council is elected by the Federal Assembly for a four-year term. Present members are: Viola Amherd (CVP/PDC), Guy Parmelin (SVP/UDC), Ueli Maurer (SVP/UDC), Ignazio Cassis (FDP/PRD), Simonetta Sommaruga (SP/PS), Karin Keller-Sutter (FDP/PRD) and Alain Berset (SP/PS).
The largely ceremonial President and Vice President of the Confederation are elected by the Federal Assembly from among the members of the Federal Council for one-year terms that run concurrently. The President has almost no powers over and above his or her six colleagues, but undertakes representative functions normally performed by a president or prime minister in single-executive systems. The current () President and Vice President are Simonetta Sommaruga and Guy Parmelin, respectively.
The Swiss executive is one of the most stable governments worldwide. Since 1848, it has never been renewed entirely at the same time, providing a long-term continuity. From 1959 to 2003 the Federal Council was composed of a coalition of all major parties in the same ratio: two each from the Free Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, and Christian Democratic People's Party and one from the Swiss People's Party. Changes in the council occur typically only if one of the members resigns (merely four incumbent members were voted out of the office in over 150 years); this member is almost always replaced by someone from the same party (and often also from the same linguistic group).
The Federal Chancellor is the head of the Federal Chancellery, which acts as the general staff of the Federal Council. The Chancellery is divided into three distinct sectors. The Chancellor is the formal head of the Federal Chancellor Sector, comprising the planning and strategy section, the Internal Services section, the political rights section, the federal crisis management training unit of the Federal Administration, and the Records and Process Management section.
Two sectors are headed by the Vice-Chancellors: the Federal Council sector manages the agenda of the Federal Council's meeting. This sector comprises the Section for Federal Council Affairs, the Legal Section, the Official Publications Centre and the Central Language Services. The Information & Communications Sector is led by Vice-Chancellor André Simonazzi, this role also has expanded to become the official spokesman for the Federal Council in 2000. This sector includes the e-Government Section, the Communication Support Section and the Political Forum of the Confederation.
The Swiss government has been a coalition of the four major political parties since 1959, each party having a number of seats that roughly reflects its share of electorate and representation in the federal parliament. The classic distribution of 2 CVP/PDC, 2 SPS/PSS, 2 FDP/PRD and 1 SVP/UDC as it stood from 1959 to 2003 was known as the "magic formula".
This "magic formula" has been repeatedly criticised: in the 1960s, for excluding leftist opposition parties; in the 1980s, for excluding the emerging Green party; and particularly after the 1999 election, by the People's Party, which had by then grown from being the fourth largest party on the National Council to being the largest. In the elections of 2003, the People's Party received (effective January 1, 2004) a second seat in the Federal Council, reducing the share of the Christian Democratic Party to one seat.
Switzerland has a bicameral parliament called the Federal Assembly, which is composed by:
The Federal Assembly convenes to elect the members of the Federal Council.
The two chambers are equal (perfect bicameralism). This power-sharing system serves to avoid monopolization of federal politics by more populated cantons to the detriment of smaller and rural cantons.
Members of both houses serve for 4 years and only serve as members of parliament part-time (so-called "Milizsystem" or Citizen legislature).
Switzerland has a rich party landscape. The five parties represented in the Federal Council are generally called the government parties: Free Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, Christian Democratic Party, Swiss People's Party, and Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland.
As of 2011 only the five government parties were represented in the Council of States. In the National Council the party landscape is more diverse with six non-government parties having at least one seat.
Switzerland has a Federal Supreme Court, with judges elected for six-year terms by the Federal Assembly. The function of the Federal Supreme Court is to hear appeals of cantonal courts or the administrative rulings of the federal administration.
Switzerland does not have a Constitutional Court, and the Supreme Court cannot comment on law put forward by the parliament. This role is assumed by the people, which acts as a guardian and can repeal any legislation or constitutional change.
In Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus citizens assemble each year for the "Landsgemeinde" (general assembly) to elect the cantonal government and judiciary and to vote on several issues on the agenda (direct democracy)
Switzerland has a stable government. Most voters support the government in its philosophy of armed neutrality underlying its foreign and defense policies. Domestic policy poses some major problems, to the point that many observers deem that the system is in crisis but the changing international environment has generated a significant reexamination of Swiss policy in key areas such as defense, neutrality, and immigration. Quadrennial national elections typically produce only marginal changes in party representation.
In recent years, Switzerland has seen a gradual shift in the party landscape. The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), traditionally the junior partner in the four-party coalition government, more than doubled its voting share from 11.0% in 1987 to 22.5% in 1999, rising to 28.9% in 2007, thus overtaking its three coalition partners. This shift in voting shares put a strain on the "magic formula", the power-broking agreement of the four coalition parties. From 1959 until 2004, the seven-seat cabinet had comprised 2 Free Democrats, 2 Christian Democrats, 2 Social Democrats, and 1 Swiss People's Party, but in 2004, the Swiss People's Party took one seat from the Christian Democrats. In 2008 the Conservative Democratic Party split from the SVP, taking both of their Federal Council seats with them. However, the SVP eventually retook both seats, in 2009 and 2015 respectively.
The Swiss Federal Constitution limits federal influence in the formulation of domestic policy and emphasizes the roles of private enterprise and cantonal government. However, in more recent times the powers of the Confederation have increased with regard to education, agriculture, health, energy, the environment, organized crime, and narcotics.
The Index of perception of corruption puts Switzerland among the least corrupt nations. In the 2005 survey, Switzerland ranks 7th (out of 158 surveyed), with 9.1 out of 10 possible points, representing an improvement of 0.4 points over the past four years.
Together with seven other European nations, Switzerland leads the 2005 index on Freedom of the Press published by Reporters Without Borders (with a score 0.5 points, zero being the perfect score).
Switzerland has avoided alliances that might entail military, political, or direct economic action. In June 2001, Swiss voters approved new legislation providing for the deployment of armed Swiss troops for international peacekeeping missions under United Nations or Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe auspices as well as international cooperation in military training. The Swiss have broadened the scope of activities in which they feel able to participate without compromising their neutrality.
Switzerland maintains diplomatic relations with almost all countries and historically has served as a neutral intermediary and host to major international treaty conferences. The country has no major disputes in its bilateral relations.
The energy generated in Switzerland comprises 55.2% hydroelectricity, 39.9% from nuclear power, about 4% from conventional sources and about 1% other.
On May 18, 2003, two referenda regarding the future of nuclear power in Switzerland were held. The referendum "Electricity Without Nuclear" asked for a decision on a nuclear power phase-out and "Moratorium Plus" asked about an extension of an existing law forbidding the building of new nuclear power plants. Both were turned down: Moratorium Plus by a margin of 41.6% for and 58.4% opposed, and Electricity Without Nuclear by a margin of 33.7% for and 66.3% opposed. The former ten-year moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants was the result of a federal popular initiative voted on in 1990 which had passed with 54.5% Yes vs. 45.5% No votes (see Nuclear power in Switzerland for details).
In May 2011, due to the Fukushima accident in Japan, the Swiss government decided to abandon plans to build new nuclear reactors. The country's five existing reactors will be allowed to continue operating, but will not be replaced at the end of their life span. The last will go offline in 2034. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27464 |
Economy of Switzerland
The economy of Switzerland is one of the world's most advanced free market economies. The service sector has come to play a significant economic role, particularly the Swiss banking industry and tourism. The economy of Switzerland ranks first in the world in the 2015 Global Innovation Index and third in the 2020 Global Competitiveness Report. According to United Nations data for 2016, Switzerland is the third richest landlocked country in the world after Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, and together with the latter and Norway the only three countries in the world with a GDP per capita above US$70,000 that are neither island nations nor ministates.
Switzerland as a federal state was established in 1848. Before that time, the city-cantons of Zurich and Basel in particular began to develop economically based on industry and trade, while the rural regions of Switzerland remained poor and underdeveloped.
While a workshop system had been in existence throughout the early modern period, the production of machines began in 1801 in St. Gallen, with the third generation of machines imported from Great Britain. But in Switzerland, hydraulic power was often used instead of steam engines because of the country's mountainous topography and lack of significant deposits of coal. By 1814, hand weaving had been mostly replaced by the power loom. Both tourism and banking began to develop as economic factors at about the same time. While Switzerland was primarily rural, the cities experienced an industrial revolution in the late 19th century, focused especially on textiles. In Basel, for example, textiles, including silk, were the leading industry. In 1888, women made up 44% of wage earners. Nearly half the women worked in the textile mills, with household servants the second largest job category. The proportion of women in the workforce was higher between 1890 and 1910 than it was in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Railways played a major part in industrialization; the first railway opened in 1847, between Zurich and Baden. Due to competition between private players, Switzerland was covered with more than 1000 km of track by 1860.
The industrial sector began to grow in the 19th century with a laissez-faire industrial/trade policy, Switzerland's emergence as one of the most prosperous nations in Europe, sometimes termed the "Swiss miracle", was a development of the mid 19th to early 20th centuries, among other things tied to the role of Switzerland during the World Wars.
Switzerland's total energy consumption, which was dropping from the mid 1910s to the early 1920s, started to increase again in the early 1920s. It stagnated during the 1930s before falling again during the early 1940s; but rapid growth started once again in the mid 1940s.
In the 1940s, particularly during World War II, the economy profited from the increased export and delivery of weapons to Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other European countries. However, Switzerland's energy consumption decreased rapidly. The co-operation of the banks with the Nazis (although they also co-operated extensively with the British and French) and their commercial relations with the Axis powers during the war were later sharply criticised, resulting in a short period of international isolation of Switzerland. Switzerland's production facilities were largely undamaged by the war, and afterwards both imports and exports grew rapidly.
In the 1950s, annual GDP growth averaged 5% and Switzerland's energy consumption nearly doubled. Coal lost its rank as Switzerland's primary energy source, as other imported fossil fuels, such as crude and refined oil and natural and refined gas, increased.
In the 1960s, annual GDP growth averaged 4% and Switzerland's total energy consumption nearly doubled again. By the end of the decade oil provided over three-quarters of Switzerland's energy.
In the 1970s the GDP growth rate gradually declined from a peak of 6.5% in 1970; GDP then contracted by 7.5% in 1975 and 1976. Switzerland became increasingly dependent on oil imported from its main suppliers, the OPEC cartel. The 1973 international oil crisis caused Switzerland's energy consumption to decrease in the years from 1973 to 1978. In 1974 there were three nationwide car-free Sundays when private transport was prohibited as a result of the oil supply shock. From 1977 onwards GDP grew again, although Switzerland was also affected by the 1979 energy crisis which resulted in a short-term decrease in Switzerland's energy consumption. In 1970 industry still employed about 46% of the labor force, but during the economic recession of the 1970s the services sector grew to dominate the national economy. By 1970 17.2% of the population and about one quarter of the work force were foreign nationals, though job losses during the economic recession decreased this number.
In the 1980s, Switzerland's economy contracted by 1.3% in 1982 but grew substantially for the rest of the decade, with annual GDP growth between about 3% and 4%, apart from 1986 and 1987 when growth decreased to 1.9% and 1.6% respectively.
Switzerland's economy was marred by slow growth in the 1990s, having the weakest economic growth in Western Europe. The economy was affected by a three-year recession from 1991 to 1993, when the economy contracted by 2%. The contraction also became apparent in Switzerland's energy consumption and export growth rates. Switzerland's economy averaged no appreciable increase (only 0.6% annually) in GDP.
After enjoying unemployment rates lower than 1% before 1990, the three-year recession also caused the unemployment rate to rise to its all-time peak of 5.3% in 1997. In 2008, Switzerland was in second place among European countries with populations above one million in terms of nominal and purchasing power parity GDP per capita, behind Norway (see list). Several times in the 1990s, real wages decreased since nominal wages could not keep up with inflation. However, beginning in 1997, a global resurgence in currency movement provided the necessary stimulus to the Swiss economy. It slowly gained momentum, and peaked in the year 2000 with 3.7% growth in real terms.
In the early 2000s recession, being so closely linked to the economies of Western Europe and the United States, Switzerland could not escape the slowdown in these countries. After the worldwide stock market crashes in the wake of the 9/11 terrorism attacks, there were more announcements of false enterprise statistics and exaggerated managers' wages. The rate of GDP growth dropped to 1.2% in 2001; 0.4% in 2002; and minus 0.2% in 2003. This economic slowdown had a noticeable impact on the labour market.
Many companies announced mass dismissals and thus the unemployment rate rose from its low of 1.6% in September 2000 to a peak of 4.3% in January 2004, although well below the European Union (EU) rate of 9.2% at the end of 2004.
On 10 November 2002 the economics magazine "Cash" suggested five measures for political and economic institutions to implement to revive the Swiss economy:
1. Private consumption should be promoted with decent wage increases. In addition to that, families with children should get discounts on their health insurance.
2. Switzerland's national bank should revive investments by lowering interest rates. Besides that, monetary institutions should increasingly credit consumers and offer cheaper land to be built on.
3. Switzerland's national bank was asked to devalue the Swiss Franc, especially compared to the Euro.
4. The government should implement the anti-cyclical measure of increasing budget deficits. Government spending should increase in the infrastructure and education sectors. Lowering taxes would make sense in order to promote private household consumption.
5. Flexible work schedules should be instituted, thus avoiding low demand dismissals.
These measures were applied with successful results while the government strove for the "Magical Hexagon" of full employment, social equality, economic growth, environmental quality, positive trade balance and price stability. The rebound which started in mid-2003 saw growth rate growth rate averaging 3% (2004 and 2005 saw a GDP growth of 2.5% and 2.6% respectively; for 2006 and 2007, the rate was 3.6%). In 2008, GDP growth was modest in the first half of the year while declining in the last two quarters. Because of the base effect, real growth came to 1.9%. While it contracted 1.9% in 2009, the economy started to pick up in Q3 and by the second quarter of 2010, it had surpassed its previous peak. Growth for 2010 was 2.6%
The stock market collapse of 2007-2009 deeply affected investment income earned abroad. This translated to a substantial fall in the surplus of the current account balance. In 2006, Switzerland recorded a 15.1% per GDP surplus. It went down to 9.1% in 2007 and further dropped to 1.8% in 2008. It recovered in 2009 and 2010 with a surplus of 11.9% and 14.6% respectively. Unemployment peaked in December 2009 at 4.4%. In August 2018 the unemployment rate was 2.4%.
The chart below shows the trend of the gross domestic product of Switzerland at market prices:
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2018. Inflation under 2% is in green.
The Swiss economy follows the typical developed country model with respect to the economic sectors. Only a small minority of the workers are involved in the primary or agricultural sector (1.3% of the population, ) while a larger minority is involved in the secondary or manufacturing sector (27.7% ). The majority of the working population are involved in the tertiary or services sector of the economy (71.0% ).
While most of the Swiss economic practices have been brought largely into conformity with the European Union's policies, some trade protectionism remains, particularly for the small agricultural sector.
Switzerland is a leading exporter of high-end watches and clocks. Swiss companies produce most of the world's high-end watches: in 2011 exports reached nearly 19.3 billion CHF, up 19.2% over the previous year. The watches go to Asia (55%), Europe (29%), Americas (14%), Africa and Oceania (both 1%).
In 2011, Switzerland led the world by exporting over 20 billion USD value of all types of watches, followed by Hong Kong, at under USD$10 billion. China exported the highest number of watches by far in 2011.
Switzerland has one of the most competitive pharmaceutical industries in the world. Major Swiss pharmaceutical companies include Novartis and Roche.
Switzerland also has an extensive industrial sector, with globally competitive companies in various industrial sectors. Most noticeably, food processing like Nestlé, chemicals for industrial and construction use like Sika AG, and roof coating chemicals Sarnafil. LafargeHolcim is the largest construction materials group in the world.
Switzerland is extremely protective of its agricultural industry. High tariffs and extensive domestic subsidisations encourage domestic production, which currently produces about 60% of the food consumed in the country.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Switzerland is subsidising more than 70% of its agriculture compared to 35% in the EU. The "2007 Agricultural Program" increased subsidies by CHF 63 million to CHF 14.092 billion.
Protectionism acts to promote domestic production, but not to reduce prices or the cost of production, and there is no guarantee the increased domestic production is actually consumed internally; it may simply be exported, to the profit of the producers. 90 to 100% of potatoes, vegetables, pork, veal, cattle and most milk products are produced in the country. Beyond that, Swiss agriculture meets 65% of the domestic food demand. In 2016 the Swiss government spent about 5.5% of its total budget (over CHF 3.5 billion) on supporting food production.
The first reform in agricultural policies was in 1993. Among other changes, since 1998 Switzerland has linked the attribution of farm subsidies with the strict observance of good environmental practice. Before farmers can apply for subsidies, they must obtain certificates of environmental management systems (EMS) proving that they: "make a balanced use of fertilizers; use at least 7% of their farmland as ecological compensation areas; regularly rotate crops; adopt appropriate measures to protect animals and soil; make limited and targeted use of pesticides." 1,500 farms are driven out of business each year. But the number of organic farms increased by 3.3 percent between 2003 and 2004, and organic sales increased by 7 percent to $979 million. Moreover, Swiss consumers consider less important the drawback of higher prices for organic food compared to conventional locally produced food.
The CIA World Factbook estimates Switzerland's 2011 exports at $308.3 billion and the 2010 exports at $258.5 billion. Imports are estimated to be $299.6 billion in 2011 and $246.2 billion in 2010. According to the World Factbook numbers, Switzerland is the 20th largest exporter and the 18th largest importer.
The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database has lower numbers for Switzerland's exports and imports. The UN calculates exports at $223.5 billion in 2011 and $185.8 billion in 2010. The value of all imports in 2011 was $197.0 billion and in 2010 it was $166.9 billion.
Switzerland's largest trading partner is Germany. In 2017, 17% of Switzerland's exports and 20% of its imports came from Germany. The United States was the second largest destination of exports (10% of total exports) and the second largest source of imports (7.8%). China was the third largest destination of exports (9.2%) but only provided 4.8% of imports.
The next largest destinations of exports include India (7.3%), France (5.4%), Hong Kong (5.4%), the United Kingdom (4.5%) and Italy (4.4%). Other major sources of imports include: Italy (7.6%), the United Kingdom (7.1%), France (6.0%), China (mentioned above), the United Arab Emirates (3.7%) and Hong Kong (3.4%).
As a developed country with a skilled labor force, the majority of Swiss exports are precision or 'high tech' finished products. Switzerland's largest specific SITC categories of exports include medicaments (13%), heterocyclic compounds (2.2%), watches (6.4%), orthopaedic appliances (2.1%), and precious jewellery (2.5%). While watches and jewellery remained an important part of the economy, in 2017 about 24% of Swiss exports were gold bullion or coins. Agricultural products that Switzerland is famous for such as cheese (0.23%), wine (0.028%), and chocolate (0.35%) all make up only a small portion of Swiss exports. Switzerland is also a significant exporter of arms and ammunition, and the third largest for small calibers which accounted for 0.33% of the total exports in 2012.
Switzerland's main imports include gold (21%), medicaments (7.4%), cars (4.0%), precious jewellery (3.7%), and other unclassified transactions (18%). While Switzerland has a long tradition of manufacturing cars, there are currently no large-scale assembly line automobile manufacturers in the country.
Switzerland has highly developed tourism infrastructure, especially in the mountainous regions and cities, making it a good market for tourism-related equipment and services.
14% of hotels were in Grisons, 12% each in the Valais and Eastern Switzerland, 11% in Central Switzerland and 9% in the Bernese Oberland. The ratio of lodging nights in relation to resident population ("tourism intensity", a measure for the relative importance of tourism to local economy) was largest in Grisons (8.3) and Bernese Oberland (5.3), compared to a Swiss average of 1.3. 56.4% of lodging nights were by visitors from abroad (broken down by nationality: 16.5% Germany, 6.3% UK, 4.8% USA, 3.6% France, 3.0% Italy)
The total financial volume associated with tourism, including transportation, is estimated to CHF 35.5 billion (as of 2010) although some of this comes from fuel tax and sales of motorway vignettes. The total gross value added from tourism is 14.9 billion. Tourism provides a total of 144,838 full time equivalent jobs in the entire country. The total financial volume of tourist lodging is 5.19 billion CHF and eating at the lodging provides an additional 5.19 billion. The total gross value added of 14.9 billion is about 2.9% of Switzerland's 2010 nominal GDP of 550.57 billion CHF.
In 2003, the financial sector comprised an estimated 11.6% of Switzerland's GDP and employed approximately 196,000 people (136,000 of whom work in the banking sector); this represents about 5.6% of the total Swiss workforce.
Swiss neutrality and national sovereignty, long recognized by foreign nations, have fostered a stable environment in which the banking sector was able to develop and thrive. Switzerland has maintained neutrality through both World Wars, is not a member of the European Union, and was not even a member of the United Nations until 2002. Currently an estimated 28 percent of all funds held outside the country of origin (sometimes called "offshore" funds) are kept in Switzerland. In 2009 Swiss banks managed 5.4 trillion Swiss Francs.
The Bank of International Settlements, an organization that facilitates cooperation among the world's central banks, is headquartered in the city of Basel. Founded in 1930, the BIS chose to locate in Switzerland because of the country's neutrality, which was important to an organization founded by countries that had been on both sides of World War I. In May 2006, foreign banks operating in Switzerland managed 870 billion Swiss francs worth of assets. In 2014, this number was estimated to be 960 billion Swiss francs.
Swiss banks have served as safe havens for the wealth of dictators, despots, mobsters, arms dealers, corrupt officials, and tax cheats.
The Swiss economy is characterised by a skilled and generally 'peaceful' workforce. One quarter of the country's full-time workers are unionised. Labour and management relations are amicable, characterised by a willingness to settle disputes instead of resorting to labour action. They take place between trade unions and branch associations, that are themselves often grouped in Union of Employers, like the Fédération patronale vaudoise or the Fédération des Entreprises Romandes Genève. About 600 collective bargaining agreements exist today in Switzerland and are regularly renewed without major problems. However, there is no country-wide minimum wage across sectors, but some collective bargaining agreement may contain minimum wage requirements for specific sectors or employers. A May 2014 ballot initiative which would have required a Swiss minimum wage to 22 Swiss francs an hour (corresponding to a monthly income of about 4000 Swiss francs) failed to pass, gaining only 23.7% support on the ballot.
With the peak of the number of bankruptcies in 2003, however, the mood was pessimistic. Massive layoffs and dismissals by enterprises resulting from the global economic slowdown, major management scandals and different foreign investment attitudes have strained the traditional Swiss labour peace. Swiss trade unions have encouraged strikes against several companies, including Swiss International Air Lines, Coca-Cola, and Orange. Total days lost to strikes, however, remain among the lowest in the OECD.
In 2013 the mean household income in Switzerland was CHF 120,624 (c. USD 134,000 nominal, USD 101,000 PPP), the mean household income after social security, taxes and mandatory health insurance was CHF 85,560 (c. USD 95,000 nominal, USD 72,000 PPP).
The OECD lists Swiss household gross adjusted disposable income per capita USD 32,594 PPP for 2011.
As of 2016, Switzerland had the highest average wealth per adult, at $561,900.
This development was tied to the exchange rate between the US Dollar and the Swiss franc, which caused capital in Swiss francs to more than double its value in dollar terms during the 2000s and especially in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, without any direct increase in value in terms of domestic purchasing power.
The high average wealth is determined by the few who are extremely wealthy; the median (50th percentile) wealth of a Swiss adult is five times lower than the average, at USD 100,900 (USD 70,000 PPP as of 2011).
The Statistical Office defines the majority of the population as neither rich nor poor and the average Swiss earns just enough to afford the high cost of living in Switzerland.
Through the United States-Swiss Joint Economic Commission (JEC), Switzerland has passed strict legislation covering anti-terrorism financing and the prevention of terrorist acts, marked by the implementation of several anti-money laundering procedures and the seizure of al-Qaeda accounts.
Apart from agriculture, there are minimal economic and trade barriers between the European Union and Switzerland. In the wake of the Swiss voters' rejection of the European Economic Area Agreement in 1992, the Swiss Government set its sights on negotiating bilateral economic agreements with the EU. Four years of negotiations culminated in "Bilaterals", a cross-platform agreement covering seven sectors: research, public procurement, technical barriers to trade, agriculture, civil aviation, land transport, and the free movement of persons. Parliament officially endorsed the Bilaterals in 1999 and it was approved by general referendum in May 2000. The agreements, which were then ratified by the European Parliament and the legislatures of its member states, entered into force on June 1, 2002. The Swiss government has since embarked on a second round of negotiations, called the "Bilaterals II", which will further strengthen the country's economic ties with the organisation.
Switzerland has since brought most of their practices into conformity with European Union policies and norms in order to maximise the country's international competitiveness. While most of the EU policies are not contentious, police and judicial cooperation to international law enforcement and the taxation of savings are controversial, mainly because of possible side effects on bank secrecy.
Swiss and EU finance ministers agreed in June 2003 that Swiss banks would levy a withholding tax on EU citizens' savings income. The tax would increase gradually to 35% by 2011, with 75% of the funds being transferred to the EU. Recent estimates value EU capital inflows to Switzerland to $8.3 billion.
Switzerland is a member of a number of international economic organizations, including the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27465 |
Telecommunications in Switzerland
Extensive telecommunication facilities exist in Switzerland. They include the telephone system, internet, and broadcast media.
In 2007 there were 5 million fixed telephone lines in use and 8,096,000 mobile phones, more than one per capita.
The telephone system is described as providing "excellent domestic and international services" and having "extensive cable and microwave radio relay networks" in The World Factbook.
Mobile communication is provided by several companies including Swisscom, Sunrise, and Salt.
In 1998 the number of radio receivers in the country totalled 7,100,000, on average one per inhabitant; in 2004 there were 113 FM and 4 AM radio stations in the country, without counting many other low power stations.
Also, in 1995, there were 108 television stations and 3,310,000 television sets.
The country code top-level domain for Swiss web pages is .ch, coming from the Latin language name of the confederation, "Confederation Helvetica". There were 115 Internet service providers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein in 1999 and, as of 2008, 4,610,000 internet users. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27466 |
Transport in Switzerland
Switzerland has a dense network of roads and railways. The Swiss public transport network has a total length of 24,500 kilometers and has more than 2600 stations and stops.
The crossing of the Alps is an important route for European transportation, as the Alps separate Northern Europe from Southern Europe. Alpine railway routes began in 1882 with the Gotthard Railway with its central Gotthard Rail Tunnel, followed in 1906 by the Simplon Tunnel and the Lötschberg Tunnel in 1913. As part of the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA) in 2007 the Lötschberg Base Tunnel opened and in 2016 the Gotthard Base Tunnel opened on 1 June.
The Swiss road network is funded by road tolls and vehicle taxes. The Swiss motorway system requires the purchase of a road tax disc - which costs 40 Swiss francs for one calendar year - in order to use its roadways, for both passenger cars and trucks. The Swiss motorway network has a total length of 1,638 kilometres (as of 2000) and has also - with an area of 41,290 km2 - one of the highest motorway densities in the world.
Zurich Airport is Switzerland's largest international flight gateway, handling 24.9 million passengers in 2013. The second largest airport, Geneva Cointrin, handled 14.4 million passengers (2013) and the third largest EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg 6.5 million passengers; both airports are shared with France.
Switzerland has approved billions of francs for the improvement of its public transportation infrastructure. The modal split for public transportation is one of the highest in Europe, standing at 21.3% in 2010. In many cities with a population above 100,000, the modal split for public transportation lies above 50%.
Switzerland has a very high density of railway network, with an average of 122 km of track for every 1,000 km2 (average of 46 km in Europe). In 2008, each Swiss citizen traveled, on average, 2,422 km by rail, which makes them the most frequent users of rail transport.
Many of the Swiss standard gauge railway lines are part of the nationwide Swiss Federal Railways system, although other standard gauge lines are operated by independent companies such as BLS AG. In addition numerous narrow gauge railways are operated, the largest company of its kind being the Rhaetian Railway. In total 5,100 km of rail network are used.
The Swiss Federal Railways run some 5000 passenger train services covering about 274,000 kilometres daily. Half of these train services are long distance services; the other half are regional and suburban services. In 2013, 366 million passengers used the Swiss Federal Railways.
Rail transport in Switzerland also includes a car and truck transportation service (German: "Autoverlad") on some lines.
Urban commuter rail networks are focused on the country's major cities: Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Neuchâtel.
Lausanne is the only city with a metro system (Lausanne Metro), which includes two lines: one is light rail; the other, a fully automated metro, opened in 2008. After its opening, Lausanne replaced Rennes as the smallest city in the world to have a full metro system.
In response to the increasing need for transport capacity and the cost of ground surface infrastructures, an underground transportation system has been proposed and studied. The trains would use linear motor and magnetic levitation to reach speeds about 500 km per hour. The project is not likely to be realized in the near future, but a license for application has been deposited for a trial line between Geneva and Lausanne.
Trains cannot climb steep gradients, so it is necessary to build large amounts of track in order to gain height gradually. Transversals through the Alps were made possible with the use of hidden circular tunnels, which are called Spiral. In the case of extremely mountainous terrain, railway engineers opted for the more economical narrow gauge construction.
The many railway viaducts of the Rhaetian Railway in the canton of Graubünden, built for the most part in the early 20th century, have become a tourist attraction as well as a necessary transport system, drawing rail enthusiasts from all over the world.
Some railways were built only for tourist purposes as the Gornergrat or the Jungfraujoch, Europe's highest station in the Bernese Oberland, at an altitude of 3,454 metres (11,330 ft).
Switzerland has a network of two-lane national roads. These roads usually lack a median or central reservation. Some stretches are controlled-access, in that all traffic must enter and exit through ramps and must cross using grade separations.
Two of the important motorways are the A1, running from St. Margrethen in northeastern Switzerland's canton of St. Gallen through to Geneva in southwestern Switzerland, and the A2, running from Basel in northwestern Switzerland to Chiasso in southern Switzerland's canton of Ticino, using the Gotthard Road Tunnel.
"Autobahn" (plural: "Autobahnen") is the German name; in French-speaking Switzerland they are known as "autoroutes", and in Italian-speaking Switzerland they are known as "autostrade" (singular: "autostrada"). Swiss motorways have general speed limits of 120 km/h (75 mph).
Local bus services cover the whole country. Postauto cover the smaller urban areas and every region not connected to the rail network.
Switzerland also has a well-developed network of car sharing organised by the Mobility Carsharing cooperative.
Cycling is included and promoted in the Swiss constitution since 2018. Concretely, the authorities must develop bike-lanes and related infrastructures.
The Asian trend of bike sharing came to Switzerland in 2017 with new companies emerging such as oBike, PubliBike and Smide. The Singaporean-based company oBike launched in the city of Zurich on 5 July 2017.
Zurich Airport also called Kloten Airport, located in Kloten, canton of Zurich, is Switzerland's largest international flight gateway and hub to Swiss International Air Lines and Lufthansa. The airport handled 27.6 million passengers in 2016. In 2003, Zurich International completed an expansion project in which it built a car park, a midfield terminal, and an automated underground train to move passengers between the existing terminal complex and the new terminal. Zurich International lost traffic when Swissair shut down its operations. When Lufthansa took over its successor Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), traffic grew again.
Zurich Airport's railway station (Zürich Flughafen) is underneath the terminal. There are trains to many parts of Switzerland; frequent S-Bahn services, plus direct Inter-regio and intercity services to Winterthur, Bern, Basel and Lucerne (Luzern). By changing trains at Zürich Hauptbahnhof most other places in Switzerland can be reached in a few hours.
The second largest airport of the country, Geneva Airport , handled 16.5 million passengers in 2016. The airport has a single runway, the longest of its kind in Switzerland at 3,900 meters, built in 1960. The runway could only be built after an agreement was reached with France to exchange a piece of territory since it wouldn't otherwise fit entirely in Switzerland. In compensation, the airport has a french sector in its terminals, and therefore flights incoming/outgoing from/to France are considered domestic and a segregated road leads to the airport from France without crossing the Swiss customs.
A turnaround occurred in 1996 when Swissair decided to abandon all the intercontinental routes departing from Geneva except for New York and Washington (that is, all its African destinations). The airport then requested the Swiss Federal Government to implement an open skies policy for Geneva and abolish the legal monopoly enjoyed by Swissair. Following the open skies policy, Geneva Airport now serves over 110 direct destinations from more than 55 airlines. It is the main hub for easyJet Switzerland and a focus airport for Swiss International Air Lines, as well as home to the executive office of IATA.
Road access to the airport is provided by highways: It's directly connected to the rest of Switzerland by the A1 highway and France via the A40. It has its own railway station, Geneva Airport railway station, from the Swiss Federal Railways (CFF) located right besides the main terminal with trains regularly departing to the rest of Switzerland, towards Neuchâtel, Lausanne-Fribourg-Berne-Zurich, and Lausanne-Vevey-Montreux-Sion-Brig and stopping in all cases in Geneva main train station located in the city centre, which lies only 7 minutes away from the airport by train. Geneva train station is also connected via HSR to France and will from 2019 enjoy a new suburban rail network covering much of the city and connecting it to its french southern neighbours (the CEVA rail). The airport is also served by several Genevan public transport lines such as trolley line 10. Public transport to the city is free for the first 80 minutes for passengers leaving the airport (tickets are available from the baggage claim area).
The third largest Swiss airport is EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg which handled 7.3 million passengers in 2016 and is located entirely on French territory.
Switzerland is a landlocked country and has only small ports on its rivers, such as the Port of Basel.
In 2010, Switzerland had of natural gas pipelines, of crude oil pipelines, and of refined product pipelines.
The Swiss transport system is overseen by several offices within the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications. The principal such offices are the: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27467 |
Swiss Armed Forces
The Swiss Armed Forces (German: "Schweizer Armee," French: "Armée suisse," Italian: "Esercito svizzero," Romanisch: "Armada svizra)" operates on land and in the air. Under the country's militia system, regular soldiers constitute a small part of the military and the rest are conscripts or volunteers aged 19 to 34 (in some cases up to 50). Because of Switzerland's long history of neutrality, the Swiss Armed Forces do not take part in conflicts in other countries, but do participate in international peacekeeping missions. Switzerland is part of the NATO Partnership for Peace programme.
The regulations of the Swiss militia system stipulate that the soldiers keep their own personal equipment, including all personally assigned weapons, at home (until 2007 this also included ammunition), or in an armory. Compulsory military service applies to all male Swiss citizens, with women serving voluntarily. Males usually receive initial orders at the age of 18 for military conscription eligibility screening. About two-thirds of young Swiss men are found suitable for service, while alternative service exists for those found unsuitable. Annually, approximately 20,000 persons are trained in basic training for 18 weeks (23 weeks for special forces).
The reform "Army XXI" replaced the previous model "Army 95" and was adopted by popular vote in 2003, reducing manpower from 400,000 to about 200,000 personnel, with 120,000 receiving periodic military training and 80,000 reservists who have completed their total military training requirements. A further reform effective in 2018 began the reduction of forces to 100,000 members.
The land component of the Swiss Armed Forces originated from the cantonal troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy, called upon in cases of external threats by the Tagsatzung or by the canton in distress. In the federal treaty of 1815, the Tagsatzung prescribed cantonal troops to put a contingent of 2% of the population of each canton at the federation's disposition, amounting to a force of some 33,000 men. The cantonal armies were converted into the federal army ("Bundesheer") with the constitution of 1848. From this time, it was illegal for the individual cantons to declare war or to sign capitulations or peace agreements. Paragraph 13 explicitly prohibited the federation from sustaining a standing army, and the cantons were allowed a maximum standing force of 300 each (not including the "Landjäger" corps, a kind of police force). Paragraph 18 declared the "obligation" of every Swiss citizen to serve in the federal army if conscripted ("Wehrpflicht"), setting its size at 3% of the population plus a reserve of one and one half that number, amounting to a total force of some 80,000.
The first complete mobilization, under the command of Hans Herzog, was triggered by the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. In 1875, the army was called in to crush a strike of workers at the Gotthard tunnel. Four workers were killed and 13 were severely wounded.
Paragraph 19 of the revised constitution of 1874 extended the definition of the federal army to every able-bodied male citizen, swelling the size of the army (at least in theory) from under 150,000 to more than 700,000, with population growth during the 20th century rising further to some 1.5 million, the second largest armed force "per capita" after the Israel Defense Forces.
A major manoeuvre commanded in 1912 by Ulrich Wille, a reputed Germanophile, convinced visiting European heads of state, in particular Kaiser Wilhelm II, of the efficacy and determination of Swiss defences. Wille was subsequently put in command of the second complete mobilization in 1914, and Switzerland escaped invasion in the course of World War I. Wille also ordered the suppression of the 1918 general strike ("Landesstreik") with military force. Three workers were killed, and a rather larger number of soldiers died of the Spanish flu during mobilization. In 1932, the army was called to suppress an anti-fascist demonstration in Geneva. The troops shot dead 13 demonstrators, wounding another 65. This incident long damaged the army's reputation, leading to persistent calls for its abolition among left-wing politicians. In both the 1918 and the 1932 incidents, the troops deployed were consciously selected from rural regions such as the Berner Oberland, fanning the enmity between the traditionally conservative rural population and the urban working class. The third complete mobilization of the army took place during World War II under the command of Henri Guisan (see also Switzerland during the World Wars). The Patrouille des Glaciers race, created to test the abilities of soldiers, was created during the war.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the armed forces were organised according to the "Armee 61" structure. Horse mounted cavalry (specifically dragoons) were retained for combat roles until 1973, and were the last non-ceremonial horse cavalry in Europe, as were bicycle infantry battalions until 2001.
Since 1989, there have been several attempts to curb military activity or even abolish the armed forces altogether. A notable referendum on the subject was held on 26 November 1989 and, although defeated, did see a significant percentage of the voters in favour of such an initiative. However, a similar referendum, called for before, but held shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001 in the US, was defeated by over 77% of voters.
In 1989, the status of the army as a national icon was shaken by a popular initiative aiming at its complete dissolution (see: "Group for a Switzerland without an Army") receiving 35.6% support. This triggered a series of reforms and, in 1995, the number of troops was reduced to 400,000 ("Armee 95"). Article 58.1 of the 1999 constitution repeats that the army is "in principle" organized as a militia, implicitly allowing a small number of professional soldiers. A second initiative aimed at the army's dissolution in late 2001 received a mere 21.9% support. Nevertheless, the army was shrunk again in 2004, to 220,000 men ("Armee XXI"), including the reserves.
In 2016, the Swiss Federal Assembly voted to further reduce the army from 140,000 men to 100,000 men, reducing the time of basic training from 21 weeks to 18, but also to increase the military budget by 2.4 billion Swiss francs.
As of March 1, 2017, the Swiss Armed Forces consist of 120,496 people on active duty (in Switzerland called "Angehöriger der Armee", shortly "AdA", engl.: "Member of the Armed Forces"), of which 9,163 are professionals, with the rest being conscripts or volunteers. Women, for whom military service is voluntary, numbered 929: less than 1% of the total, with over 25% thereof being officers. Once decided to serve, women have the same rights and duties as their male colleagues, and they can join all services, including combat units. Recruits are generally instructed in their native language; however, the small number of Romansh-speaking recruits are instructed in German.
In contrast to most other comparable armed forces, officers are generally not career regulars. Under the most recent army reform, all soldiers complete a full recruit school of 18 weeks. During the initial 18-week training period, recruits may volunteer for consideration to continue with NCO training. After the completion of NCO training, individuals are promoted to Sergeant and integrated into platoons at recruit schools as squad leaders ("Gruppenchefs", "Chefs de Groupe", "Capogruppi"). Squad leaders support their platoon commanders for the 18-week duration of the recruit school, with the exception of those who volunteer for officer school — they leave after 7 weeks of service as squad leaders — while those who volunteer for higher NCO school leave after 12 weeks of service as squad leaders. Officer candidates complete a 15-week course to prepare them for their role as platoon leaders ("Zugführer", "Chef de section", "Caposezione"), which traditionally culminates in a march covering in 24 hours. After promotion to Lieutenant, platoon leaders return to their recruit schools, where they take charge of a recruit school platoon for 18 weeks.
There are currently 14,345 officers and 22,807 NCOs in the Swiss Armed Forces. Those of higher rank serve for more time each year; an ordinary soldier may serve 365 days over 30 years, while a high-ranking officer may serve 2,000 days before retiring. Each promotion requires more time, which is known as "paying your rank". This describes the mechanism of a soldier fulfilling their rank's minimal service time after being promoted into said rank. Companies subsidize military training by continuing to pay their employees, who list their ranks and responsibilities on their résumés.
In peacetime, the Swiss Armed Forces are led by the Chief of the Armed Forces ("Chef der Armee"), who reports to the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport and to the Swiss Federal Council as a whole. The current Chief of the Armed Forces is Lieutenant-General ("Korpskommandant") Thomas Süssli. Lt-Gen Süssli replaced Lieutenant-General ("Korpskommandant") Philippe Rebord on 1 January 2020.
In times of crisis or war, the Federal Assembly elects a full General (OF-9) as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces ("Oberbefehlshaber der Armee"). The rank is distinct and particular, as it is associated exclusively with wartime fighting or a national crisis due to war among Switzerland's neighbouring countries.
Under the "Armee 61" structure, the Army was organised into Field Army Corps 1, 2, and 4, and Mountain Army Corps 3. This structure was superseded by the "Armee 95" structure and thereafter the "Armee XXI" structure.
Since the Army XXI reform in 2004, the basic structure of the Army has been reorganised in the following units: infantry brigades (2 and 5); mountain infantry brigades (9 and 12); armoured brigades (1 and 11). Additionally two large reserve brigades (Infantry Brigade 7 and Mountain Brigade 10) exist. Four territorial divisions link the Army with the cantons by coordinating territorial tasks inside of their sector and are immediately responsible for the security of their regions, depending only on the decisions of the Federal Council.
The Swiss Air Force has been traditionally a militia-based service, including its pilots, with an inventory of approximately 456 aircraft whose lengthy service lives (many for more than 30 years) overlapped several eras. However, beginning with its separation from the Army in 1996, the Air Force has been downsizing; it now has a strength of approximately 270 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, and is moving towards a smaller, more professional force.
The primary front-line air-defence fleet consists of 30 F/A-18 Hornets (34 aircraft were originally purchased, with three F/A-18D and one F/A-18C lost in crashes) organized into three squadrons (11, 17 and 18) along with 53 F-5 Tiger IIs (98 F-5E and 12 F-5F originally purchased). In October 2008, the Swiss Hornet fleet reached the 50,000 flight hours milestone.
In 2017, the Swiss Hornet fleet reached the 100,000 flight hours milestone as well as 20 years of flight operations.
In peacetime the Swiss Air Force does not maintain 24/7 operational readiness status, due to the limited budget and staff available. The Swiss Air Force is now working on extending the operational times, aiming to be maintaining readiness for two armed jet fighters round-the-clock by 2020. The difficulty of defending Swiss airspace is illustrated by the mountainous character and the small size of the country; the maximum extension of Switzerland is 348 km, a distance that can be flown in a little over 20 minutes by commercial aircraft. Furthermore, Switzerland's policy of neutrality means that they are unlikely to be deployed elsewhere (except for training exercises).
The Swiss military department maintains the Onyx intelligence gathering system, similar to but much smaller than the international Echelon system.
The Onyx system was launched in 2000 in order to monitor both civil and military communications, such as telephone, fax or Internet traffic carried by satellite. It was completed in late 2005 and currently consists of three interception sites, all based in Switzerland. In a way similar to Echelon, Onyx uses lists of keywords to filter the intercepted content for information of interest.
On 8 January 2006, the Swiss newspaper "Sonntagsblick" (Sunday edition of the "Blick" newspaper) published a secret report produced by the Swiss government using data intercepted by Onyx. The report described a fax sent by the Egyptian department of Foreign Affairs to the Egyptian Embassy in London, and described the existence of secret detention facilities (black sites) run by the CIA in Central and Eastern Europe. The Swiss government did not officially confirm the existence of the report, but started a judiciary procedure for leakage of secret documents against the newspaper on 9 January 2006.
The maritime branch of the Army maintains a flotilla of military patrol boats to secure several sizeable lakes that span Switzerland's borders. These boats also serve in a search and rescue role.
During the Second World War, Switzerland fielded the Type 41 class of patrol boats, armed with an anti-tank gun (later replaced by 20mm auto-cannons) and dual machine guns. Nine units were commissioned between 1941 and 1944. These boats were upgraded in 1964, notably receiving radars, radios and modern armament, and were kept in service into the 1980s, the last being decommissioned in late 1983.
The force utilises later the "Aquarius"-class ("Patrouillenboot" 80) riverine patrol boats, which are operated by Motorboat Company 10 of the Corps of Engineers and which patrol lakes Geneva, Lucerne, Lugano, Maggiore and Constance.
In June 2019, Finnish shipbuilder Marine Alutech delivered first four of 14 , the "Patrouillenboot" 80's successor, to the flotilla and these boats's manufacturer designation as Watercat 1250 Patrol, all ships of this class will be named for astronomical object.
The term "Admiral of the Swiss Navy" is sometimes used metaphorically to describe a self-important person but it is regarded as United States military slang and unused in Switzerland. The lakes flotilla has no admiral, as it is only a company-sized unit of the Swiss Army.
Switzerland has mandatory military service for all able-bodied male citizens, who are conscripted when they reach the age of majority, though women may volunteer for any position. People determined unfit for service, where fitness is defined as "satisfying physically, intellectually and psychological requirements for military service or civil protection service and being capable of accomplishing these services without harming oneself or others", are exempted from service but pay a 3% additional annual income tax until the age of 37, unless they are affected by a disability. Almost 20% of all conscripts were found unfit for military or civilian service in 2008; the rate is generally higher in urban cantons such as Zurich and Geneva than in the rural ones. Swiss citizens living abroad are generally exempted from conscription in time of peace while dual citizenship by itself does not grant such exemption.
On 22 September 2013, a referendum was held that aimed to abolish conscription in Switzerland. With a turnout of 47.0% on this particular question, over 73% voted against eliminating conscription.
The prime role of the Swiss Armed Forces is Homeland Defence. Switzerland is not part of any multinational war-fighting structure, but selected Armed Forces members and units do take part in international missions.
After World War II, Switzerland began building homes with 40 cm-thick concrete ceilings that might survive firebombing of the type that destroyed Hamburg and Dresden. In the 1960s they began constructing radiation and blast shelters that could survive one to three bars of pressure from a nuclear explosion. Building codes require blast shelters, which are said to be able to accommodate 114% of the Swiss population. Small towns have large underground parking garages that can serve as sealed community shelters. There are also hospitals and command centres in such shelters, aimed at keeping the country running in case of emergencies. Every family or rental agency has to pay a replacement tax to support these shelters, or alternatively own a personal shelter in their place of residence; many private shelters serve as wine cellars and closets.
Thousands of tunnels, highways, railroads, and bridges are built with tank traps and primed with demolition charges to be used against invading forces; often, the civilian engineer who designed the bridge plans the demolition as a military officer. Hidden guns are aimed to prevent enemy forces from attempting to rebuild. Permanent fortifications were established in the Alps, as bases from which to retake the fertile valleys after a potential invasion. They include underground air bases that are adjacent to normal runways; the aircraft, crew and supporting material are housed in the caverns.
However, a significant part of these fortifications was dismantled between the 1980s and during the "Army 95" reformation. The most important fortifications are located at Saint-Maurice, Gotthard Pass area and Sargans. The fortification on the left side of the Rhône at Saint-Maurice is no longer used by the army since the beginning of the 1990s. The right side (Savatan) is still in use.
During the Cold War the military expected that any invasion would likely come from the northeast, as the Soviet Union associated the country with NATO despite its stated neutrality. The Swiss government thought that the aim of an invasion would be to control the economically important transport routes through the Swiss Alps, namely the Gotthard, the Simplon and Great St. Bernard passes, because Switzerland does not possess any significant natural resources.
Operating from a neutral country, Switzerland's Armed Forces do not take part in armed conflicts in other countries. However, over the years, the Swiss Armed Forces have been part of several peacekeeping missions around the world.
From 1996 to 2001, the Swiss Armed Forces were present in Bosnia and Herzegovina with headquarters in Sarajevo. Their mission, as part of the Swiss Peacekeeping Missions, was to provide logistic and medical support to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), protection duties and humanitarian demining. The mission was named SHQSU, standing for Swiss Headquarters Support Unit to BiH. It was composed of 50 to 55 elite Swiss soldiers under contract for six to 12 months. None of the active soldiers were armed during the duration of the mission. The Swiss soldiers were recognized among the other armies present on the field by their distinctive yellow beret. The SHQSU is not the same as the more publicized Swisscoy, which is the Swiss Army Mission to Kosovo.
In its first military deployment since 1815, Switzerland deployed 31 soldiers to Afghanistan in 2003, and two Swiss officers had worked with German troops. Swiss forces were withdrawn in February 2008.
Switzerland is part of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), which was created to monitor the armistice between North and South Korea. Since the responsibilities of the NNSC have been much reduced over the past few years, only five people are still part of the Swiss delegation, which is located near the Korean DMZ. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27468 |
Foreign relations of Switzerland
The foreign relations of Switzerland are the primary responsibility of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Some international relations of Switzerland are handled by other departments of the federal administration of Switzerland.
Article 54 of the Swiss Constitution of 1999 declares the safeguarding of Switzerland's independence and welfare as the principle objective of Swiss foreign policy. Below this overarching goal, the Constitution specifies these foreign policy objectives:
These objectives reflect the Swiss moral obligation to undertake social, economic, and humanitarian activities that contribute to world peace and prosperity. This is manifested by Swiss bilateral and multilateral diplomatic activity, assistance to developing countries, and support for the extension of international law, particularly humanitarian law.
Traditionally, Switzerland has avoided alliances that might entail military, political, or direct economic action. Only in recent years have the Swiss broadened the scope of activities in which they feel able to participate without compromising their neutrality. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union and joined the United Nations very late compared to its European neighbours.
Switzerland maintains diplomatic relations with almost all countries and historically has served as a neutral intermediary and host to major international treaty conferences. The country has no major dispute in its bilateral relations.
Switzerland (mainly Geneva) is home to many international governmental and nongovernmental organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross. One of the first international organisations, the Universal Postal Union, is located in Bern.
On 10 September 2002, Switzerland became a full member of the United Nations, after a referendum supporting full membership won in a close vote six months earlier;
Swiss voters had rejected membership by a 3-to-1 margin in 1986. The 2002 vote made Switzerland the first country to join based on a popular vote.
Prior to its formal accession to the United Nations, Switzerland had maintained an observer role at the UN's General Assembly and its Economic and Social Council. Prior to full membership it had no right to a seat as one of the elected members of the UN Security Council.
Switzerland has fully participated within many of the UN's specialised institutions, including the Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Environment Programme, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UN Conference on Trade and Development, UN Industrial Development Organization, and the Universal Postal Union. Switzerland has also furnished military observers and medical teams to several UN operations.
Switzerland is a party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice.
The Swiss government on 25 June 2003, eased most of the sanctions against the Republic of Iraq in accord with UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1483. The government lifted the trade embargo, flight restrictions, and financial sanctions in place since August 1990. The weapons embargo and the asset freeze, the scope of which was extended, remain in force, and restrictions on the trade in Iraqi cultural goods were newly imposed. Though not a member at the time, Switzerland had joined UN sanctions against Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait.
Switzerland also has joined UN economic sanctions imposed on Libya, Sierra Leone, UNITA (Angola), Liberia, and Serbia/Montenegro. On 15 October 2003, the Federal Council ended the import restrictions on raw diamonds from Sierra Leone and lifted sanctions against Libya.
Switzerland in October 2000 implemented an ordinance to enforce UN sanctions against the Taliban (UNSCR 1267), which it subsequently amended in April 2001 in accord with tighter UN regulations (UNSCR 1333). On 2 May 2002, the Swiss Government eased the sanctions regime in accord with UNSCR 1388 and 1390, lifting the ban on the sale of acetic acid (used in drug production), Afghan airlines, and Afghan diplomatic representations. The weapons embargo, travel restrictions, and financial sanctions remain in force.
The Swiss Government in November 2001 issued an ordinance declaring illegal the terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda as well as possible successor or supporting organisations. More than 200 individuals or companies linked to international terrorism have been blacklisted to have their assets frozen. Thus far, Swiss authorities have blocked about 72 accounts totalling U.S.$22.6 million.
Switzerland is a member of many international organisations, including the World Trade Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Free Trade Association, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, and INTELSAT. Its central bank is a member of the Bank for International Settlements, based in Basel.
Switzerland is an active participant in the OSCE, its foreign minister serving as Chairman-in-Office for 1996. Switzerland also is an active participant in the major nonproliferation and export control regimes.
Although it is surrounded by member nations, Switzerland is not a member nation of the European Union. In 1992 Swiss voters approved membership in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, but later that year rejected the European Economic Area agreement, which the government viewed as a first step toward European Union membership. The Swiss instead take part in the European single market and Schengen through bilateral treaties.
(More complete list of memberships):
ACCT, AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CE, CERN, CGPM, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, EFTA, ESA, FAO, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD (World Bank), ICAO, ICC, ICC, ICDO, ICFTU, ICMM, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFCS, IFRCS, IGC, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, IWC, LAIA (observer), NAM (guest), NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIE, OPCW, OSCE, OTIF, PCA, PFP, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOP, UNOMIG, UNTSO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC.
While the Swiss electorate did reject a government proposition to directly deploy Swiss troops as UN peacekeepers (the "Blue Helmets") in 1994, a total of 23 Swiss personnel including police and military observers (the "Blue Berets") have served or are now serving for the United Nations. These dispositions are impartial, clearly defined and cover a number of UN projects around the globe.
In 1996 Switzerland joined NATO's Partnership for Peace, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997, and deployed Yellow Berets to support the OSCE in Bosnia. In June 2001, Swiss voters approved new legislation providing for the deployment of armed Swiss troops for international peacekeeping missions under UN or OSCE auspices as well as closer international cooperation in military training.
Since 1999, the Swiss army is participating through SWISSCOY in the peace keeping mission of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) based on UN-resolution 1244, with prolonged presence until 2014, after approval by the Swiss federal assembly in Spring 2011. Main duties include the supervision of civilian reconstruction efforts, monitoring and protection of patrimonial sites, military police and medical assistance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27469 |
Languages of Switzerland
The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. All but Romansh maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation. In some situations, Latin is used, particularly as a single language to denote the country.
In 2017, the population of Switzerland was 62.6% native speakers of German (58.5% speak Swiss German and/or 11.1% Standard German at home); 22.9% French (mostly Swiss French, but including some Arpitan dialects); 8.2% Italian (mostly Swiss Italian, but including Lombard dialects); and 0.5% Romansh. The German region ("Deutschschweiz") is roughly in the east, north and center; the French part ("la Romandie") in the west and the Italian area ("Svizzera italiana") in the south. There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population in Graubünden in the east. The cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual; the canton of Graubünden is officially trilingual.
The main languages of Swiss residents from 1950 to 2015, in percentages, were as follows:
In 2012, for the first time, respondents could indicate more than one language, causing the percentages to exceed 100%.
The German-speaking part of Switzerland (, , , ) constitutes about 65% of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland, most of the Swiss Plateau and the greater part of the Swiss Alps).
In seventeen of the Swiss cantons, German is the only official language (Aargau, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Glarus, Luzern, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Uri, Zug, and Zürich).
In the cantons of Bern, Fribourg and Valais, French is co-official; in the trilingual canton of Graubünden, more than half of the population speaks German, while the rest speak Romansh or Italian. In each case, all languages are official languages of the respective canton.
While the French-speaking Swiss prefer to call themselves "Romands" and their part of the country is the Romandy, the German-speaking Swiss used to (and, colloquially, still do) refer to the French-speaking Swiss as "Welsche", and to their area as "Welschland", which has the same etymology as the English (see "Walha"). In Germany "Welsch" and "Welschland" refer to Italy; there, the term is antiquated, rarely used, and somewhat disparaging. Research shows, that individuals with a French-sounding name in the German-speaking part suffer from social discrimination.
Nevertheless, in 2017, 11.1%, or about 920,600 of the Swiss residents speak Standard German ("Hochdeutsch") at home, but this statistic is probably mainly due to German (and Austrian) immigrants.
By the Middle Ages, a marked difference had developed within the German-speaking part of Switzerland between the rural cantons (Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus, Zug, Appenzell, Schaffhausen) and the city cantons (Lucerne, Berne, Zurich, Solothurn, Fribourg, Basel, St. Gallen), divided by views about trade and commerce. After the Reformation, all cantons were either Catholic or Protestant, and the denominational influences on culture added to the differences. Even today, when all cantons are somewhat denominationally mixed, the different historical denominations can be seen in the mountain villages, where Roman Catholic Central Switzerland abounds with chapels and statues of saints, and the farm houses in the very similar landscape of the Protestant Bernese Oberland show Bible verses carved on the housefronts instead.
In addition to this more widespread notion of Swiss German dialect, there is also Walser German, another Highest Alemannic speech brought by Walser emigrants from Valais.
Romandy (, , ) is the French-speaking part of Switzerland. It covers the area of the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura as well as the French-speaking parts of the cantons of Bern (German-speaking majority), Valais (French-speaking majority), and Fribourg (French-speaking majority). 1.9 million people (or 24.4% of the Swiss population) live in Romandy.
Standard Swiss French and the French of France are the same language, with some differences. For example, like some other regions of the French-speaking world, Swiss people (as well as most Francophone Belgians) use "septante" (seventy) instead of "soixante-dix" (literally, "sixty ten") and "nonante" (ninety) instead of "quatre-vingt-dix" ("four twenties and ten"). In the cantons of Vaud, Valais and Fribourg, speakers use "huitante" (eighty) instead of the Standard French "quatre-vingts" (four twenties). "Sou" is used throughout Romandy for a 5-centime coin, as is "tune" (or "thune") when referring to a 5-Swiss-franc piece.
Historically, the vernacular language used by inhabitants of most parts of Romandy was Franco-Provençal. Franco-Provençal (also called Arpitan) is a language sometimes considered to be halfway between the langue d'oïl (the historical language of northern France and ancestor of French) and Occitan (the langue d'oc, spoken in southern France). Standard French and Franco-Provençal/Arpitan, linguistically, are distinct and mutual intelligibility is limited. Increasingly, Franco-Provençal/Arpitan is used only by members of the older generations.
The term "Romandy" does not formally exist in the political system, but is used to distinguish and unify the French-speaking population of Switzerland. The television channel Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) serves the "Romande" community across Switzerland, is syndicated to TV5 and CanalSat Romande.
Italian Switzerland (, , , ) is the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, which includes the canton of Ticino and the southern part of Graubünden. Italian is also spoken in the Gondo Valley (leading to the Simplon Pass, on the southern part of the watershed) in Valais.
The linguistic region covers an area approximately 3,500 km² and has a total population of around 350,000 inhabitants, with the number of Italophones residing in Switzerland being 545,274 (about 7% of the Swiss population).
The proportion of Italian-speaking inhabitants had been decreasing since the 1970s, after reaching a high of 12% of the population during the same decade. This was entirely because of the reduced number of immigrants from Italy to Switzerland, but gained again during the last decade.
On the cantonal level, Romansh is an official language only in the trilingual canton of Graubünden, where the municipalities in turn are free to specify their own official languages.
Significant communities of Romansh speakers remain in the Surselva, the Sursés/Oberhalbstein, the lower Engadin and the Val Müstair.
Romansh has been recognized as one of four "national languages" by the Swiss Federal Constitution since 1938. It was also declared an "official language" of the Confederation in 1996, meaning that Romansh speakers may use their language for correspondence with the federal government and expect to receive a Romansh response. (Although Romansh is split into several dialects, the federal authorities use the standardized version ("Romansh Grischun") exclusively.)
Besides the national languages and the many varieties of Swiss German, several regional Romance languages are spoken natively in Switzerland: Franco-Provençal and Lombard. About 20,000 Romani speak Sinte, an Indic language. Five sign languages are used: Swiss-German, French, Italian, Austrian, and German.
To avoid having to translate the name of Switzerland in the four national languages, Latin is used on the coins of the Swiss franc ("Helvetia" or "Confoederatio Helvetica") and on Swiss stamps ("Helvetia"). The country code top-level domain for Switzerland on the internet is .ch, the abbreviation of the Latin name, "Confoederatio Helvetica" (Swiss Confederation); similarly, the International vehicle registration code for Swiss automobiles is "CH". The Federal Palace of Switzerland bears the inscription "".
To have a unique name across the country (without favoring German or English), several Swiss foundations and associations have Latin names, such as Pro Helvetia, Pro Infirmis, Pro Juventute, Pro Natura, Pro Patria, Pro Senectute, Pro Specie Rara, etc. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27470 |
Geography of Syria
Syria is located in Western Asia, north of the Arabian Peninsula, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Lebanon and Israel to the west and southwest, Iraq to the east, and Jordan to the south. It consists of mountain ranges in the west and a steep area inland. In the east is the Syrian Desert and in the south is the Jabal al-Druze Range. The former is bisected by the Euphrates valley. A dam built in 1973 on the Euphrates created a reservoir named Lake Assad, the largest lake in Syria. The highest point in Syria is Mount Hermon () on the Lebanese border. Between the humid Mediterranean coast and the arid desert regions lies a semiarid steep zone extending across three-quarters of the country, which receives hot, dry winds blowing across the desert. Syria is extensively depleted, with 28 percent of the land arable, 4 percent dedicated to permanent crops, 46 percent utilized as meadows and pastures, and only 3 percent forest and woodland.
Syria is divided into fourteen governorates, or "muhafazat" (singular: "muhafazah"). The governorates are divided into a total of sixty districts, or "manatiq" (sing. "mintaqah"), which are further divided into sub-districts, or "nawahi" (sing. "nahiya"). The capital Damascus is the second largest city in Syria, and the metropolitan area is a governorate on its own. Aleppo (population 2,301,570) in northern Syria is the largest city. Latakia along with Tartus are Syria's main ports on the Mediterranean Sea.
The area includes about 185,180 square kilometers of deserts, plains, and mountains. It is divided into a coastal zone—with a narrow, double mountain belt enclosing a depression in the west—and a much larger eastern plateau. The climate is predominantly dry; about three-fifths of the country has less than of rain a year. Fertile land is the state's most important natural resource, and efforts have been made to increase the amount of arable land through irrigation projects.
Along the Mediterranean, a narrow coastal plain stretches south from the Turkish border to Lebanon. The flatness of this littoral, covered with sand dunes, is broken only by lateral promontories running down from the mountains to the sea. The major ports are Latakia and Tartous. Syria claimed a territorial limit of off its Mediterranean coastline. However, in 2003, Syria unilaterally declared its maritime zones, adhering to the 12 nautical miles allowed by the United Nations Law of the Sea.
The Jabal an Nusayriyah, a mountain range paralleling the coastal plain, has an average elevation of just over 1,212 meters above sea level; the highest peak, Nabi Yunis, is about 1,575 meters above sea level. The western slopes catch moisture-laden western sea winds and are thus more fertile and more heavily populated than the eastern slopes, which receive only hot, dry winds blowing across the desert. Before reaching the Lebanese border and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, the Jabal an Nusayriyah range terminates, leaving a corridor—the Homs Gap—through which run the highway and railroad from Homs to the Lebanese port of Tripoli. For centuries the Homs Gap has been a favorite trade and invasion route from the coast to the country's interior and to other parts of Asia. Eastward, the line of al-Ansariyah mountains is separated from the Jabal az Zawiyah range and the plateau region by the Al Ghab valley, a fertile, irrigated trench crossed by the meandering Orontes River.
Inland and farther south, the Anti-Lebanon Mountains rise to peaks of over 2,700 meters above sea level on the Syrian-Lebanese frontier and spread in spurs eastward toward the plateau region. The eastern slopes have little rainfall and vegetation and merge eventually with the desert.
In the southwest, the lofty Mount Hermon (Jabal ash Shaykh), also on the border between Syria and Lebanon, descends to the Hawran Plateau that receives rain-bearing winds from the Mediterranean. All but the lowest slopes of Mount Hermon are uninhabited, however. Volcanic cones, some of which reach over 900 meters, intersperse the open, rolling, once-fertile Hawran Plateau south of Damascus and east of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Southwest of the Hawran lies the high volcanic region of the Jabal al-Druze range home of the country's Druze population. This is part of the Harrat ash Shaam volcanic field that stretches all the way to Saudi Arabia. Northeast of Jabal al-Druze is a large lava field called Al-Safa that stands out in satellite views.
The entire eastern plateau region is intersected by a low chain of mountains, the Jabal ar Ruwaq, the Jabal Abu Rujmayn, and the Jebel Bishri, extending northeastward from the Jabal Al Arab to the Euphrates. South of these mountains lies a barren desert region known as the Hamad. North of the Jabal ar Ruwaq and east of the city of Homs is another barren area known as the Homs Desert, which has a hard-packed dirt surface.
Northeast of the Euphrates, which originates in the mountains of Turkey and flows diagonally across Syria into Iraq, is the fertile Jazira region. This region is watered by two tributaries to the Euphrates, the Balikh and the Khabur. The area underwent irrigation improvements during the 1960s and 1970s, and it provides substantial cereal and cotton crops. Oil and natural gas discoveries in the extreme northeastern portion of the Jazira have significantly enhanced the region's economic potential.
The country's waterways are of vital importance to its agricultural development. The longest and most important river is the Euphrates, which represents more than 80 percent of Syria's water resources. Its main left-bank tributaries, the Balikh and the Khabur, are small perennial rivers that both rise in the Syro-Turkish border region. The right-bank tributaries of the Euphrates are mostly small seasonal streams called wadis. In 1973, Syria completed construction of the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates River upstream from the town of Raqqa. The dam created a reservoir named Lake Assad (Buhayrat al Assad), a body of water about 80 kilometers long and averaging eight kilometers in width.
Throughout the arid plateau region east of Damascus, oases, streams, and a few interior rivers that empty into swamps and small lakes provide water for local irrigation. Most important of these is the Barada, a river that rises in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and disappears into the desert. The Barada creates the Al Ghutah Oasis, site of Damascus. This verdant area, some 370 square kilometers, has enabled Damascus to prosper since ancient times. In the mid-1980s, the size of Al Ghutah was gradually being eroded as suburban housing and light industry from Damascus encroached on the oasis.
Areas in the Jazira have been brought under cultivation with the waters of the Khabur River (Nahr al Khabur). The Sinn, a minor river which marks the borders between Tartus Governorate and Latakia Governorate, is used to irrigate the area west of the Jabal an Nusayriyah, about 32 kilometers southwest of the port of Latakia. In the south the springs that feed the upper Yarmouk River are diverted for irrigation of the Hawran. Underground water reservoirs that are mainly natural springs are tapped for both irrigation and drinking. The richest in underground water resources is the Al Ghab region, which contains about 19 major springs and underground rivers that have a combined yield of thousands of liters per minute.
The most striking feature of the climate is the contrast. Between the humid Mediterranean coast and the arid desert regions lies a semiarid steppe zone extending across three-quarters of the country and bordered on the west by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and the Jabal an Nusayriyah, on the north by the Turkish mountain region, and on the southeast by the Jabal al Arab, Jabal ar Ruwaq, Jabal Abu Rujmayn, and the Jabal Bishri ranges.
Rainfall in this area is fairly abundant, annual precipitation ranging between . Most of the rain, carried by winds from the Mediterranean, falls between November and May. The annual mean temperatures range from in January to in August. Because the high ridges of the Jabal an Nusayriyah catch most of the rains from the Mediterranean, the Al Ghab depression, located east of these mountains, is in a relatively arid zone with warm, dry winds and scanty rainfall. Frost is unknown in any season, although the peaks of the Jabal an Nusayriyah are sometimes snow-covered.
Farther south, rain-bearing clouds from the Mediterranean pass through the gap between the Jabal an Nusayriyah and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, reaching the area of Homs and, sometimes, the steppe region east of that city. Still farther to the south, however, the Anti-Lebanon Mountains bar the rains from the Mediterranean, and the area, including the capital city of Damascus, becomes part of the semiarid climatic zone of the steppe, with precipitation averaging less than a year and with temperatures from in January to in July and August. The vicinity of the capital is, nevertheless, verdant and cultivable because of irrigation from the Barada River by aqueducts built during Roman times.
In the southeast, the humidity decreases, and annual precipitation falls below . The scanty amounts of rain, moreover, are highly variable from year to year, causing periodic droughts. In the barren stony desert south of the Jabal ar Ruwaq, Jabal Abu Rujmayn, and Jabal Bishri ranges, temperatures in July often exceed . Sandstorms, common during February and May, damage vegetation and prevent grazing. North of the desert ranges and east of the Al Ghab depression lie the vast steppes of the plateau, where cloudless skies and high daytime temperatures prevail during the summer, but frosts, at times severe, are common from November to March. Precipitation averages a year but falls below in a large belt along the southern desert area. In this belt, only the Euphrates and Khabur rivers provide sufficient water for settlement and cultivation.
Natural resources:
petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower
Land use:
"arable land:"
24.8%
"permanent crops:"
4.47%
"other:"
70.73% (2005)
Irrigated land:
13.560 km2 (2003)
Total renewable water resources:
46.1 cu km (1997)
Area:
"total:"
185,180 km²
"land:"
183,630 km²
"water:"
1,550 km²
"note:" includes 1,295 km² of Israeli-occupied territory
Land boundaries:
"total:"
2,253 km
"border countries:"
Iraq 605 km, Israel 76 km, Jordan 375 km, Lebanon 375 km, Turkey 822 km
Coastline:
Maritime claims:
"contiguous zone:"
"territorial sea:"
Elevation extremes:
"lowest point:"
unnamed location near Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) -200 m
"highest point:"
Mount Hermon 2,814 m
Natural hazards:
dust storms, sandstorms, earthquakes
Environment - current issues:
deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification; water pollution from dumping of raw sewage and wastes from petroleum refining; inadequate supplies of potable water
Environment - international agreements:
"party to:"
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution (MARPOL 73/78), Wetlands
"signed, but not ratified:"
Environmental Modification | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27473 |
Demographics of Syria
Syria's estimated population is about 22 ±.5 million (pre–Syrian Civil War 2011) permanent inhabitants, which include
21,124,000 Syrians, Iraqi refugees, Palestinian refugees, and those from Somalia. The war makes an accurate count of the Syrian population difficult, as the numbers of Syrian refugees, internally displaced Syrians and casualty numbers are in flux. The CIA World Factbook showed an estimated 19,454,263 people as of July 2018.
Most modern-day Syrians are described as Arabs by virtue of their modern-day language and bonds to Arab culture and history. Genetically, Syrian Arabs are a blend of various Semitic-speaking groups indigenous to the region. Kurds are the second biggest ethnic group, followed by Turkmen.
More than six million refugees left the country during the civil war, of whom over five million are registered as refugees by the UNHCR as of mid-2019. Most of them fled to neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, as well as European nations like Greece, Germany and Sweden. Since 2017, tens of thousands have returned.
The war resulted in large-scale displacement in the country. The UNHCR estimates internally displaced people (IDPs) at seven million. A further 70,000 people were trapped on the border with Jordan at Rukban in 2016-18, with up to 40,000 still there in 2019.
A significant part of the population lives in territory outside government sovereignty. At its peak in 2015, ISIL ruled over ten million people across Syria and Iraq. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), commonly referred to as Rojava, has a population of around two million. Areas controlled by the opposition have had a population in the millions. In mid-2017, UN OCHA estimated that around 540,000 persons were trapped in besieged areas as of June 2017, the majority besieged by government forces in Eastern Ghouta. By the time the government retook Ghouta in April 2018, some 140,000 individuals had fled their homes and up to 50,000 were evacuated to Idlib and Aleppo governorates. The latter rebel areas had an estimated population of 3 million (40% of them displaced from defeated rebel areas). Fighting in Idlib has led to further displacements, of up to 250,000 people, and generating new refugee outflows to neighbouring Turkey.
Displacement has led to demographic shifts. One example is the area in the North under control by Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Many human rights groups, including Amnesty International and international organizations have accused SDF forces of committing ethnic cleansing in Arab areas they were capturing from other war factions. The accusation was repeated on 8 May 2019 by Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. NGOs and the opposition have also accused the government of using the conflict to affect demographic restructuring.
In April 2016, the UN estimated that 400,000 people had died in the war, and casualties have continued since, with estimates for the total dead by mid-2019 of up to 220,000 civilians, 175,000 government combatants, and 174,000 anti-government combatants (see Casualties of the Syrian Civil War).
The war also affected the birth rate. The annual birth rate in Syria has fallen by more than half since the country plunged into turmoil in March 2011, from about 500,000 births per year before 2011 (according to a medical official speaking to the government loyalist newspaper Al-Watan), to about 200,000 in 2015 (according to a "government report" cited by Press TV).
Since 1960, censuses have been conducted in 1960, 1970, 1981, 1994 and 2004.
In 2014, 17,951,639, a massive decline due to nearly 4 million Syrian refugees leaving the country because of the Syrian Civil War and furthermore because of the death in the war. This is a drop of 9.7% from the previous year.
In 2017, the head of the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs, Mohammad Akram al-Qash, said that the Syrian population was 28 million, of which, 21 million were living in Syria and that 7 million were refugees.
In 2018, 19,454,263 estimated.
This data is from CIA World Factbook:
total: 24.5 yearsmale: 24 yearsfemale: 25 years (2018 est.)
This data is from CIA World Factbook:
0.797% (2012 est.)
This data is from CIA World Factbook:
20.7 births/1,000 population (2018 est.)
This data is from CIA World Factbook:
4 deaths/1,000 population (2018 est.)
This data is from CIA World Factbook:
57 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2018 est.)
This data is from CIA World Factbook:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female0–14 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15–24 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
25–54 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
55–64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/femaletotal population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
UN estimates
Fertility
Marital fertility rate
Life expectancy at birth
This data is from CIA World Factbook:
"total": 75.2 years
"male": 72.8 years
"female": 77.8 years (2018 est.)
60% of the population lives in the Aleppo Governorate, the Euphrates valley or along the coastal plain; a fertile strip between the coastal mountains and the desert. Overall population density is about . Cities and towns during the Syrian Civil War
This data is from CIA World Factbook:
Urban population: 54.2% of total population (2018)
Rate of urbanization: 1.43% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)
As of 2018; this data is from CIA World Factbook:
Damascus (capital): 2.32 million
Aleppo: 1.754 million
Homs: 1.295 million
Hama: 894,000
On 1 January 2011, the number of residents of Syria was 24 million, distributed over the 14 governorates. These residents comprised a mixture of many ethnic and religious sects, as shown in the table below:
The CIA World Factbook cites the following figures for ethnic groups as at July 2018: approximately Arab 50%, Alawite 15%, Kurd 10%, Levantine 10%, other 15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkmen, Armenian and Chechens). However, Professor John A. Shoup said in 2018 that Kurds made 9% of the population, followed by Turkish-speaking Turkmen comprising 4-5% , Assyrians 4%, Armenians 2%, and Circassians about 1% of the total population.
There has been no Syrian census including a question about religion since 1960, these are thus the last official statistics available:
In 1991 Professor Alasdair Drysdale and Professor Raymond Hinnebusch said that some 85% of Syrians were Muslims and that the remainder were almost all Christians, however, both religious groups were subdivided into many ethnic sects. Among the former, approximately 75% of Syrians were Sunni Muslim, of whom, 60% were Arabic-speaking and the remainder of Sunnis included Kurds 8.5%, Turkmen/Turkoman 3%, and Circassians (less than 1%). In addition, Alawis formed 5.5%, Druze 3% and Ismailis 1.5% of the population. In regards to the Christians, they were subdivided into the Greek Orthodox 4.7%, Armenians 4% and Assyrians 1%.
According to Dr. Pierre Beckouche, before 2011, Sunni Muslims accounted for 78% of Syria's population, which included 500,000 Palestinian refugees and the non-Arab Sunni Muslims, namely the Kurds 9-10% and the Turkmen/Turkoman 4%. Other Muslims included Shias and Alawites 11%-16%, whilst the Christians made up 6% of the population. There were also a few Jewish communities in Aleppo and Damascus.
The CIA World Factbook cites the following figures for religious groups:
religions - Muslim 87% (official; includes Sunni 74% and Alawi, Ismaili, and Shia 13%), Christian 10% (mainly of the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches - may be smaller as a result of Christians fleeing the country), Druze 3%.
The first census which focused on the sectarian distribution was carried out in 1932 under the French mandate, however, this census was only carried out in the lands under the short-lived Government of Latakia (the Alawite State established by the French) which covered only out of modern Syria’s total area of . A general census of Syria in 1943 gave details of religious groups of the population and the rate of growth of each and estimates of the population in 1953 from an unnamed source were as follows:
Education is free and compulsory from ages 6 to 11. Schooling consists of 6 years of primary education followed by a 3-year general or vocational training period and a 3-year academic or vocational program. The second 3-year period of academic training is required for university admission. Total enrollment at post-secondary schools is over 150,000. The literacy rate of Syrians aged 15 and older is 86.0% for males and 73.6% for females.
definition: age 15 and older can read and write
male: 91.7%
female: 82%
total population: 86.4% (2015 est.)
Arabic is the official, and most widely spoken, language. Arabic speakers make up 85% of the population. Several modern Arabic dialects are used in everyday life, most notably Levantine in the west and Mesopotamian in the northeast. A report published by the UNHCR points out that "while the majority of Syrians are considered Arabs, this is a term based on spoken language (Arabic), not ethnicity."
According to "The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics", in addition to Arabic, the following languages are spoken in the country, in order of the number of speakers: Kurdish, Turkish, Neo-Aramaic (four dialects), Circassian, Chechen, Armenian, and finally Greek. None of these languages have official status.
Many educated Syrians also speak English and French. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27474 |
Politics of Syria
Politics in the Syrian Arab Republic takes place in the framework of a semi-presidential republic with multiparty representation. President Bashar al-Assad's family and his Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party have remained dominant forces in the country's politics since a 1970 coup.
Until the early stages of the Syrian uprising, the president had broad and unchecked decree authority under a long-standing state of emergency. The end of this emergency was a key demand of the uprising, and decrees are now subject to approval by the People's Council, the country's legislature. The Ba'ath Party is Syria's ruling party and the previous Syrian constitution of 1973 stated that "the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party leads society and the state." At least 167 seats of the 250-member parliament were guaranteed for the National Progressive Front, which is a coalition of the Ba'ath Party and several other much smaller allied parties. The new Syrian constitution of 2012 introduced multi-party system based on the principle of political pluralism without guaranteed leadership of any political party. The Syrian army and security services maintained a considerable presence in the neighbouring Lebanese Republic from 1975 until 24 April 2005.
Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970. After his death in 2000 his son, Bashar al-Assad, succeeded him as President. A surge of interest in political reform took place after Bashar al-Assad assumed power in 2000. Human-rights activists and other civil-society advocates, as well as some parliamentarians, became more outspoken during a period referred to as the "Damascus Spring" (July 2000-February 2001). Assad also made a series of appointments of reform-minded advisors to formal and less formal positions and is included a number of similarly oriented individuals in his Cabinet.
The Ba'ath platform is proclaimed succinctly in the party's slogan: "Unity, freedom, and socialism." The party is both socialist, advocating state ownership of the means of industrial production and the redistribution of agricultural land (in practice, Syria's nominally socialist economy is effectively a mixed economy, composed of large state enterprises and private small businesses), and revolutionary, dedicated to carrying a pan-Arab revolution to every part of the Arab world. Founded by Michel Aflaq, a Syrian Christian, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, a Syrian Sunni, and Zaki al-Arsuzi, an alawite, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, which was dissolved in 1966 following the 1966 Syrian coup d'état which led to the establishment of one Iraqi-dominated ba'ath movement and one Syrian-led ba'ath movement. The party embraces secularism and has attracted supporters of all faiths in many Arab countries, especially Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Since August 1990, however, the party has tended to downplay its socialism and to stress pan-Arab unity.
Six smaller political parties are permitted to exist and, along with the Ba'ath Party, make up the National Progressive Front (NPF), a grouping of parties that represents the sole framework of legal political party participation for citizens. While created ostensibly to give the appearance of a multi-party system, the NPF is dominated by the Ba'ath Party and does not change the essentially one-party character of the political system. Non-Ba'ath Party members of the NPF exist as political parties largely in name only and conform strictly to Ba'ath Party and government policies. There were reports in 2000 that the government was considering legislation to expand the NPF to include new parties and several parties previously banned; these changes have not taken place. However, one such party- the Syrian Social Nationalist Party- was legalised in 2005.
Traditionally, the parties of the NPF accepted the socialist and Arab nationalist ideology of the government. However, the SSNP was the first party that is neither socialist nor Arab nationalist in orientation to be legalised and admitted to the NPF. This has given rise to suggestions that broader ideological perspectives may be afforded some degree of toleration in the future, but ethnically-based (Kurdish and Assyrian) parties continue to be repressed and a strict ban on religious parties is still enforced.
Syria's Emergency Law was in force from 1963, when the Ba'ath Party came to power, until 21 April 2011 when it was rescinded by Bashar al-Assad (decree 161). The law, justified on the grounds of the continuing war with Israel and the threats posed by terrorists, suspended most constitutional protections.
Leadership in Damascus:
Leadership of the Syrian opposition in Idlib:
The previous Syrian constitution of 1973 vested the Ba'ath Party (formally the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party) with leadership functions in the state and society and provided broad powers to the president. The president, approved by referendum for a 7-year term, was also Secretary General of the Ba'ath Party and leader of the National Progressive Front. During the 2011–2012 Syrian uprising, a new constitution was put to a referendum. Amongst other changes, it abolished the old article 8 which entrenched the power of the Ba'ath party. The new article 8 reads: "The political system of the state shall be based on the principle of political pluralism, and exercising power democratically through the ballot box". In a new article 88, it introduced presidential elections and limited the term of office for the president to seven years with a maximum of one re-election. The referendum resulted in the adoption of the new constitution, which came into force on 27 February 2012.
The president has the right to appoint ministers (Council of Ministers), to declare war and states of emergency, to issue laws (which, except in the case of emergency, require ratification by the People's Council), to declare amnesty, to amend the constitution, and to appoint civil servants and military personnel. The late President Hafiz al-Asad was confirmed by unopposed plebiscites five times. His son and current President Bashar al-Asad, was confirmed by an unopposed referendum in July 2000. He was confirmed again on 27 May 2007 with 97.6% of the vote
Along with the National Progressive Front, the president decides issues of war and peace and approves the state's 5-year economic plans. The National Progressive Front also acts as a forum in which economic policies are debated and the country's political orientation is determined.
The Syrian constitution of 2012 requires that the president be Muslim but does not make Islam the state religion. The judicial system in Syria is an amalgam of Ottoman, French, and Islamic laws, with three levels of courts: courts of first instance, courts of appeals, and the constitutional court, the highest tribunal. In addition, religious courts handle questions of personal and family law.
The Ba'ath Party emphasizes socialism and secular Pan-Arabism. Despite the Ba'ath Party's doctrine on building national rather than ethnic identity, the issues of ethnic, religious, and regional allegiances still remain important in Syria.
The People's Council ("Majlis al-Sha'ab") has 250 members elected for a four-year term in 15 multi-seat constituencies. According to the previous Syrian constitution of 1973 Syria was a one-party state and only one political party, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was legally allowed to hold effective power. Of the 250 seats in the council, 167 were guaranteed for the National Progressive Front (founded in 1972) and 134 of these (as of 2007) were members of the Ba'ath Party. The minor parties in the Progressive Front, were legally required to accept the leadership of the Ba'ath Party. The other parties in the Progressive Front, for example, are not allowed to canvass for supporters in the army or the student body which are "reserved exclusively for the Ba'ath." The new Syrian constitution of 2012 introduced multi-party system without guaranteed leadership of any political party.
The last parliamentary election was on 7 May 2012 and the results were announced on 15 May.
The Baath party won an even larger victory than it did in previous elections. They won a majority of around 60% of the 250 parliamentary seats. Previously, the Baath had a majority of just over 50% of the seats in parliament. If one adds in the independent MPs aligned with the Baath Party, the MPs who support the president make up over 90% of the seats in new parliament. The National Unity List, which is dominated by the Syrian Baath Party, won more than 150 seats in the 250 member parliament. Independent individuals won more than 90 seats. Among the newly established opposition parties (established since August 2011), only one single seat was won, namely a seat in Aleppo won by the Syrian Democratic Party, Ahmad Koussa. In addition three representatives of longstanding opposition parties have been elected to Parliament: Qadri Jamil and Ali Haydar from the Front for Change and Liberation, and Amro Osi from the Initiative of Syrian Kurds.
Summary of the 7 May 2012 People's Council of Syria election results
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Syria is a member of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Arab Monetary Fund, Council of Arab Economic Unity, Customs Cooperation Council, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Food and Agriculture Organization, Group of 24, Group of 77, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Chamber of Commerce, International Development Association, Islamic Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Finance Corporation, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Maritime Organization, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, International Olympic Committee, International Organization for Standardization, International Telecommunication Union, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, United Nations, UN Commission on Human Rights, UN Conference on Trade and Development, UN Industrial Development Organization, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Universal Postal Union, World Federation of Trade Unions, World Health Organization, World Meteorological Organization, and World Tourism Organization.
Syria's diplomats last sat on the UN Security Council (as a non-permanent member) in December 2003. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27475 |
Economy of Syria
The economy of Syria has deteriorated considerably since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War Moreover, Syria's economic history has been turbulent. In 1963, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party came to power, and instituted socialist policies of nationalization and land reform. In 1970, General Hafez al-Assad took power. The restrictions on private enterprise were relaxed, but a substantial part of the economy was still under government control. By the 1980s, Syria found itself politically and economically isolated, and in the midst of a deep economic crisis. Real per capita GDP fell 22 percent between 1982 and 1989. In 1990, the Assad government instituted a series of economic reforms, although the economy remained highly regulated. The Syrian economy experienced strong growth throughout the 1990s, and into the 2000s. Syria's per capita GDP was 4,058 US dollars in 2010. There is no authoritative GDP data available after 2012, due to Syria's civil war.
Before the civil war the two main pillars of the Syrian economy were agriculture and oil, which together accounted for about one-half of GDP. Agriculture, for instance, accounted for about 26% of GDP and employed 25% of the total labor force. However, poor climatic conditions and severe drought badly affected the agricultural sector, thus reducing its share in the economy to about 17% of 2008 GDP, down from 20.4% in 2007, according to preliminary data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. On the other hand, higher crude oil prices countered declining oil production and led to higher budgetary and export receipts.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the Syrian economy has been hit by massive economic sanctions restricting trade with the Arab League, Australia, Canada, the European Union, (as well as the European countries of Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland) Georgia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. Sanctions against Syria are to be extended by the US Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act to come into effect in 2020.
The sanctions, destruction and dislocation associated with the Civil War have devastated Syria's economy. By the end of 2013, the UN estimated total economic damage of the Syrian civil war at $143 billion. The total economic loss from the Syrian Civil War will reach $237 billion by the end of 2015, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, with the Syrian opposition's capture of Nasib border crossing costing the government a further $500–$700 million a year on top of this. In 2018, the World Bank estimated that about one-third of Syria's housing stock and one half of its health and education facilities had been destroyed by the conflict. According to the World Bank, a cumulative total of $226 billion in GDP was lost due to the conflict from 2011 to 2016.
The Syrian economy suffered from conflict-related hyperinflation. The Syrian annual inflation rate is one of the highest in the world. The national currency, the Syrian pound, tumbled in mid-2020 against the US dollar. The pound, which traded at 47 pounds to the dollar before the 2011 uprising, plunged to over 3000 to the dollar. Prices of basic goods have skyrocketed and some staples have disappeared from the market as merchants and the public struggled to keep up with the rising cost of living.
During the 1960s, along socialist lines, the government nationalized most major enterprises and adopted economic policies designed to address regional and class disparities. Economic reform has been incremental and gradual. In 2001, Syria legalized private banking. In 2004, four private banks began operations. In August 2004, a committee was formed to supervise the establishment of a stock market. Beyond the financial sector, the Syrian Government has enacted major changes to rental and tax laws, and is reportedly considering similar changes to the commercial code and to other laws, which impact property rights.
Syria has produced heavy-grade oil from fields inside in the northeast since the late 1960s. In the early 1980s, light-grade, low-sulphur oil was discovered near Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria. This discovery relieved Syria of the need to import light oil to mix with domestic heavy crude in refineries. Recently, Syrian oil production has been about 379,000 barrels per day (bpd). Syria's oil reserves are being gradually depleted and reached 2.5 billion barrels in January 2009. Experts generally agree that Syria will become a net importer of petroleum by the end of the next decade. Recent developments have helped revitalize the energy sector, including new discoveries and the successful development of its hydrocarbon reserves. According to the 2009 Syria Report of the Oxford Business Group, the oil sector accounted for 23% of government revenues, 20% of exports, and 22% of GDP in 2008. Syria exported roughly 150,000 bpd in 2008, and oil accounted for a majority of the country's export income.
Ad hoc economic liberalization continues to add wealth inequality, impoverishing the average population while enriching a few people in Syria's private sector. In 1990, the government established an official parallel exchange rate to provide incentives for remittances and exports through official channels. This action improved the supply of basic commodities and contained inflation by removing risk premiums on smuggled commodities.
Foreign aid to Syria in 1997 totaled an estimated US$199 million. The World Bank reported that in July 2004 that it had committed a total of US$661 million for 20 operations in Syria. One investment project remained active at that time.
Despite the mitigation of the severe drought that plagued the region in the late 1990s and the recovery of energy export revenues, Syria's economy faces serious challenges. With almost 60% of its population under the age of 20, unemployment higher than the current 9% is a real possibility unless sustained and strong economic growth takes off.
Commerce has always been important to the Syrian economy, which benefited from the country's strategic location along major east-west trade routes. Syrian cities boast both traditional industries such as weaving and dried-fruit packing and modern heavy industry. Given the policies adopted from the 1960s through the late 1980s, Syria refused to join the "global economy". In late 2001, however, Syria submitted a request to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to begin the accession process. Syria had been an original contracting party of the former General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade but withdrew in 1951 because of Israel's joining. Major elements of current Syrian trade rules would have to change in order to be consistent with the WTO. In March 2007, Syria signed an Association Agreement with the European Union that would encourage both sides to negotiate a free trade agreement before 2010.
The bulk of Syrian imports have been raw materials essential for industry, agriculture, equipment, and machinery. Major exports include crude oil, refined products, raw cotton, clothing, fruits, and cereal grains.
Over time, the government has increased the number of transactions to which the more favorable neighboring country exchange rate applies. The government also introduced a quasi-rate for non-commercial transactions in 2001 broadly in line with prevailing black market rates.
Given the poor development of its own capital markets and Syria's lack of access to international money and capital markets, monetary policy remains captive to the need to cover the fiscal deficit. Although in 2003 Syria lowered interest rates for the first time in 22 years and again in 2004, rates remain fixed by law.
Under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, national debt in relation to GDP went from 152.09% 2000 down to 30.02% in 2010. Syria has made progress in easing its heavy foreign debt burden through bilateral rescheduling deals with virtually all of its key creditors in Europe. In December 2004, Syria and Poland reached an agreement by which Syria would pay $27 million out of the total $261.7 million debt. In January 2005, Russia and Syria signed a deal that wrote off nearly 80% of Syria's debt to Russia, approximately €10.5 billion ($13 billion). The agreement left Syria with less than €3 billion (just over $3.6 billion) owed to Moscow. Half of it would be repaid over the next 10 years, while the rest would be paid into Russian accounts in Syrian banks and could be used for Russian investment projects in Syria and for buying Syrian products. This agreement was part of a weapons deal between Russia and Syria. And later that year Syria reached an agreement with Slovakia, and the Czech Republic to settle debt estimated at $1.6 billion. Again Syria was forgiven the bulk of its debt, in exchange for a one time payment of $150 million.
Agriculture is a high priority in Syria's economic development plans, as the government seeks to achieve food self-sufficiency, increase export earnings, and halt rural out-migration. Thanks to sustained capital investment, infrastructure development, subsidies of inputs, and price supports, Syria has gone from a net importer of many agricultural products to an exporter of cotton, fruits, vegetables, and other foodstuffs. One of the prime reasons for this turnaround has been the government's investment in huge irrigation systems in northern and northeastern Syria. The agriculture sector, as of 2009, employs about 17% of the labor force and generates about 21% of the gross domestic product, of which livestock accounted for 16% and fruit and grains for more than 40%.
In 2015, Syria's main exports included spice seeds ($83.2 million), apples and pears ($53.2 million).
Most land is privately owned, a crucial factor behind the sector's success. Of Syria's 196,000 km² (72,000 square miles), about 28% of it is cultivated, and 21% of that total is irrigated. Most irrigated land is designated "strategic", meaning that it encounters significant state intervention in terms of pricing, subsidies, and marketing controls. "Strategic" products such as wheat, barley, and sugar beets, must be sold to state marketing boards at fixed prices, often above world prices in order to support farmers, but at a significant cost to the state budget. The most widely grown arable crop is wheat, but the most important cash crop is cotton; cotton was the largest single export before the development of the oil sector. Nevertheless, the total area planted with cotton has declined because of an increasing problem of water shortage coupled with old and inefficient irrigation techniques. The output of grains like wheat is often underutilized because of poor storage facilities.
Water and energy are among the most pervasive issues facing the agriculture sector. Another difficulty suffered by the agricultural sector is the government's decision to liberalize prices of fertilizers, which have increased between 100% and 400%. Drought was an alarming problem in 2008; however, the drought situation slightly improved in 2009. Wheat and barley production about doubled in 2009 compared to 2008. In spite of that, the livelihoods of up to 1 million agricultural workers have been threatened. In response, the UN launched an emergency appeal for $20.2 million. Wheat has been one of the crops most affected, and for the first time in 2 decades Syria has moved from being a net exporter of wheat to a net importer. During the civil war which began in 2011, the Syrian government was forced to put out a tender for 100,000 metric tonnes of wheat, one of the few trade products not subject to economic sanctions.
Less than 2.7% of Syria's land area is forested, and only a portion of that is commercially useful. Limited forestry activity is centered in the higher elevations of the mountains just inland from the coast, where rainfall is more abundant.
Phosphates are the major minerals exploited in Syria. According to estimates Syria has around 1,700 million tons of phosphate reserves. Production dropped sharply in the early 1990s when world demand and prices fell, but output has since increased to more than 2.4 million tons. Syria produced about 1.9% of the world's phosphate rock output and was the world's ninth ranked producer of phosphate rock in 2009. Other major minerals produced in Syria include cement, gypsum, industrial sand (silica), marble, natural crude asphalt, nitrogen fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer, salt, steel, and volcanic tuff, which generally are not produced for export.
Syria is a relatively small oil producer, accounting for just 0.5% of global production in 2010. Although Syria is not a major oil exporter by Middle Eastern standards, oil is a major pillar of the economy. According to the International Monetary Fund, oil sales for 2010 were projected to generate $3.2 billion for the Syrian government and account for 25.1% of the state's revenue.
In 2001 Syria reportedly produced 23.3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity and consumed 21.6 billion kWh. As of January 2002, Syria's total installed electric generating capacity was 7.6 gigawatts (GW), with fuel oil and natural gas serving as the primary energy sources and 1.5 GW generated by hydroelectric power. A network totaling 45 GW linking the electric power grids of Syria, Egypt, and Jordan was completed in March 2001. Syria's electric supply capacity is an important national priority, and the government hopes to add 3,000 megawatts of power generating capacity by 2010 at a probable cost of US$2 billion, but progress has been slowed by a lack of investment capital. Power plants in Syria are undergoing intensive maintenance, and four new generating plants have been built. The power distribution network has serious problems, with transmission losses estimated as high as 25 percent of total generated capacity as a result of poor quality wires and transformer stations. A project for the expansion and upgrading of the power transmission network is scheduled for completion in 2005.
As of May 2009 it was reported that the Islamic Development Bank and the Syrian government signed an agreement stating that the bank would provide a €100 million loan for the expansion of Deir Ali power station in Syria.
Syria abandoned its plans to build a VVER-440 reactor after the Chernobyl accident. The plans for a nuclear program were revived at the beginning of the 2000s when Syria negotiated with Russia to build a nuclear facility that would include a nuclear power plant and a seawater atomic desalination plant.
The industrial sector, which includes mining, manufacturing, construction, and petroleum, accounted for 27.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 and employed about 16 percent of the labor force. The main industrial products are petroleum, textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco, phosphate rock mining, cement, oil seeds crushing, and car assembly. Syria's manufacturing sector was largely state dominated until the 1990s, when economic reforms allowed greater local and foreign private-sector participation. Private participation remains constrained, however, by the lack of investment funds, input/output pricing limits, cumbersome customs and foreign exchange regulations, and poor marketing.
Because land prices are not controlled by the state, real estate is one of the few domestic avenues for investment with realistic and safe returns. Activity in the construction sector tends to mirror changes in the economy. Investment Law No. 10 of 1991, which opened the country to foreign investment in some areas, marked the beginning of a strong revival, with growth in real terms increasing over 2001 and 2002.
Services accounted for 60.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 and employed 67% of the labor force, including government, in 2008. As of May 2009, it was reported that Damascus office prices are skyrocketing.
Since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, there has been a capital flight to nearby countries. Syria has been subject to sanctions by US, Canada, EU, Arab League and Turkey because of the civil war. The currency of Syria is the Syrian pound (SYP). The pound's official exchange rate has deteriorated significantly, falling from 47 SYP for US$1 before the civil war to 1256 as in June 2020. On another hand, while its exchange rate for money transfer is 1250 SYP for US$1 , its non-official exchange rate (black market) has plunged to more than 2500 SYP for US$1 in June 2020 .
The Central Bank of Syria began operations in 1959. It controls all foreign exchange and trade transactions and gives priority to lending to the public sector. The Central Bank has been subject to US sanctions since May 2004, which has accused the Bank of money laundering. These US sanctions may have increased the role of Lebanese and European banks because a ban on transactions between U.S. financial institutions and the Central Bank of Syria created an increase in demand for intermediary sources for US$ transfers. The US, EU, Arab league and Turkey all also imposed sanctions on the Central Bank because of the Civil War.
The six specialized state-owned banks — the Central Bank of Syria, Commercial Bank of Syria, Agricultural Co-Operative Bank, Industrial Bank, Popular Credit Bank, and Real Estate Bank — are major financial operators. They each extend funds to, and take deposits from, a particular sector. The Industrial Bank also is directed more toward the public sector, although it is under-capitalized. As a result, the private sector often is forced to bank abroad, a process that is more expensive and therefore a poor solution to industrial financing needs. Many business people travel abroad to deposit or borrow funds. It is estimated that Syrians have deposited US$6 billion in Lebanese banks.
In the 2000s, Syria started reforms in the financial sector, including the introduction of private banks and the opening of the Damascus Securities Exchange in March 2009. In 2001, Syria legalized private banks and the sector, while still nascent, has been growing. Foreign banks were given licenses in December 2002, under Law 28 March 2001 which allows the establishment of private and joint-venture banks. Foreigners are allowed up to 49% ownership of a bank, but may not hold a controlling stake. As of January 2010, 13 private banks had opened, including two Islamic banks.
Syria has taken gradual steps to loosen controls over foreign exchange. In 2003, the government canceled a law that criminalized private sector use of foreign currencies, and in 2005 it allowed licensed private banks to sell specific amounts of foreign currency to Syrian citizens under certain circumstances and to the private sector to finance imports. In October 2009, Syria further loosened its restrictions on currency transfers by allowing Syrians travelling abroad to withdraw the equivalent of up to US$10,000 from their Syrian pound accounts. In practice, the decision allows local banks to open accounts of a maximum of US$10,000 that their clients can use for their international payment cards. The holders of these accounts will be able to withdraw up to US$10,000 per month while travelling abroad.
To attract investment and to ease access to credit, the government allowed investors in 2007 to receive loans and other credit instruments from foreign banks, and to repay the loans and any accrued interest through local banks using project proceeds. In February 2008, the government permitted investors to receive loans in foreign currencies from local private banks to finance capital investments. Syria's exchange rate is fixed, and the government maintains two official rates—one rate on which the budget and the value of imports, customs, and other official transactions are based, and a second set by the Central Bank on a daily basis that covers all other financial transactions. The government passed a law in 2006 which permits the operation of private money exchange companies. However, there is still a small black market for foreign currency.
Non-Arab visitors to Syria reached 1.1 million in 2002, which includes all visitors to the country, not just tourists. The total number of Arab visitors in 2002 was 3.2 million, most from Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Many Iraqi businesspeople set up ventures in Syrian ports to run import operations for Iraq, causing an increased number of Iraqis visiting Syria in 2003–4. Tourism is a potentially large foreign exchange earner and a source of economic growth. Tourism generated more than 6 percent of Syria's gross domestic product in 2000, and more reforms were discussed to increase tourism revenues. As a result of projects derived from Investment Law No. 10 of 1991, hotel bed numbers had increased 51 percent by 1999 and increased further in 2001. A plan was announced in 2002 to develop ecological tourism with visits to desert and nature preserves. Two luxury hotels opened in Damascus at the end of 2004. Since March 2011 tourism in Syria has fallen due to the ongoing civil war.
Syria has a population of approximately 21 million people, and Syrian government figures place the population growth rate at 2.37%, with 65% of the population under the age of 35 and more than 40% under the age of 15. Each year more than 200,000 new job seekers enter the Syrian job market, but the economy has not been able to absorb them. In 2017, the Syrian labor force was estimated to total about 3.767 million people. An estimated 67 percent worked in the services sector including government, 17 percent in agriculture, and 16 percent in industry in 2008. Government and public sector employees constitute about 30% of the total labor force and are paid very low salaries and wages.
According to Syrian Government statistics, the unemployment rate in 2009 was 12.6%; however, more accurate independent sources place it closer to 20%. About 70 percent of Syria's workforce earns less than US$100 per month. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many more Syrians are seeking work over the border in Lebanon than official numbers indicate. In 2002 the Unemployment Commission (UC) was established, tasked with creating several hundred thousand jobs over a five-year period. As of June 2009 it was reported that some 700,000 households in Syria - about 3.5 million people - have no income. Government officials acknowledge that the economy is not growing at a pace sufficient to create enough new jobs annually to match population growth. The UN Development Program announced in 2005 that 30% of the Syrian population lives in poverty and 11.4% live below the subsistence level.
A report by Strategic Foresight Group, an India-based think tank, calculated the opportunity cost of conflict for the Middle East for 1991–2010 at US$12 trillion in 2006 dollars. Syria's share in this was US$152 billion, more than four times the projected 2010 GDP of US$36 billion.
The Syrian Center for Policy Research stated in March 2015 that, by then, nearly three million Syrians had lost their jobs because of the civil war, causing the loss of the primary source of income of more than 12 million people; unemployment levels "surged" from 14.9 percent in 2011 to 57.7 percent at the end of 2014. As a result, 4 in 5 Syrians were by then living in poverty, with 30 percent of the population living in "abject poverty" and frequently unable to meet basic household food needs. An estimate from 2014 estimated the population below the poverty threshold in Syria to be 82.5%. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27476 |
Telecommunications in Syria
The Syrian Ministry of Communications retains governmental authority over the internet in Syria. Prior to the Syrian civil war, telecommunications in Syria were slowly moving towards liberalization, with a number of licenses awarded and services launched in the Internet service provision market. The initiative reflected the government's change in attitude towards liberalization, following its promise to the European Union to liberalize markets by 2010. All other forms of fixed-line communications are provided by the state owned operator, Syrian Telecom (STE).
International dialing code: +963
Landline telephones in use in 2009: 4,069,000.
Mobile phones in use in 2009: 11,696,000. The mobile operators are Syriatel and MTN . There is mobile phone coverage in most parts of Syria providing access to 96% of the population. Call quality ranges from Good to acceptable. Many international calls fail or are less clear over the mobile network compared to the landline network.
Radio: 14 AM, 11 FM, and 1 shortwave stations in 1998. The radio operators are the state owned Syrian Arab Republic Radio and Al-Madina FM, the first private radio station, launched in March 2005. Private radio stations cannot transmit news or political content.
Television: There are two television operators: the state owned Syrian Television which operates two domestic networks and a satellite channel, broadcasting in Arabic, English, and French and the private Addounia TV. There are no restrictions on the use of satellite receivers and many viewers watch pan-Arab TV stations. Roughly two-thirds of Syrian homes have a satellite dish providing access to foreign TV broadcasts.
Opposition satellite stations broadcast from abroad; they include London-based Barada TV and Orient TV, which operates from the UAE.
Country code: The top level domain for Syria is .sy.
There were 4,469,000 Internet users in Syria as of June 2011 for a 19.8% Internet penetration rate. Syria ranks 12th out of 14 countries in the Middle East region, just behind Jordan (26.8%) and ahead of Yemen (9.7%) and Iraq (2.8%). Growth in the number of Internet users has been fairly steady since 2005:
The internet first appeared around 1998. 35 organs of the Syrian government by July 1998 were connected to the internet.
There were 420 Syrian Internet hosts in 2010, placing Syria 187th out of 231 in the world.
With a measured download speed that averages 768 kbit/s, the speed of the Internet in Syria is relatively slow compared to the worldwide average of 4.6 Mbit/s.
ADSL service in Syria has been available since 2003. However, ADSL is not available in all locations and, where available, the local telco may not have enough ports for immediate activation. Through 2009 broadband Internet access had reached less than 0.2% of the Syrian population.
The 3G wireless Internet is available in all major cities as well as cities with significant tourism. 2.5G EDGE wireless Internet is available through mobile network operators, SyriaTel and MTN. Wireless Internet is accessed using a USB stick purchased from the mobile operators. In addition, 3G SIM cards for use on mobile phones may be purchased with a data plan. However, only WCDMA phones support data at the moment.
High-speed Internet is also available through many Internet cafes.
ISPs in Syria include:
Internet filtering in Syria was found to be pervasive in the political and Internet tools areas, and selective in the social and conflict/security areas by the OpenNet Initiative in August 2009. Syria has been on Reporters Without Borders Enemy-of-the-Internet list since 2006 when the list was established. In 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists named Syria number three in a list of the ten worst countries in which to be a blogger, given the arrests, harassment, and restrictions which online writers in Syria have faced.
Syria has banned websites for political reasons and arrested people accessing them. In addition to filtering a wide range of Web content, the Syrian government monitors Internet use very closely and has detained citizens "for expressing their opinions or reporting information online." Vague and broadly worded laws invite government abuse and have prompted Internet users to engage in self-censoring and self-monitoring to avoid the state's ambiguous grounds for arrest.
In February 2011 Syria stopped filtering YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is blocked completely and requires a proxy or Virtual Private Network (VPN) to work around it. However, VoIP operators that utilize non-standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) ports may function behind Syria's proxy.
Internet cafes, which are widespread and accessible to the public for a fee, can be used to access blocked sites. However, more restrictions have been placed on internet cafes, all public internet centers need operating approval from the security services, are required to keep detailed records of their customers' surfing habits, and people have been arrested after accessing blocked content.
In November 2012, it was reported that all Internet connectivity between Syria and the outside world appeared to have ceased, as of 29 November 2012. This coincided with reported intense rebel activity inside Syria. Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, reported that three undersea cables in Tartous, Syria and a fourth land cable through Turkey were connecting Syria to the internet prior to the event.
However, according to an August 2014 interview with Edward Snowden, the Internet blackout in Syria was related to a failed attempt by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to infiltrate malware on a core router of one of the country's main Internet Service Providers (ISPs). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27477 |
Syrian Armed Forces
The Syrian Arab Armed Forces () are the military forces of the Syrian Arab Republic. They consist of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Navy, Syrian Arab Air Defense Force, and several paramilitary forces, such as the National Defence Force. According to the Syrian constitution, the President of Syria is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
The military is a conscripted force; males serve in the military upon reaching the age of 18, but they are exempted from service if they don't have another brother who can take care of their parents. Since the Syrian Civil War, the enlisted members of the Syrian military have dropped by over half from a pre-civil war figure of 325,000 to 150,000 soldiers in the army in December 2014, due to casualties, desertions and draft dodging, reaching between 178,000 and 220,000 soldiers in the army, in addition to 80,000 to 100,000 irregular forces.
Before the start of the Syrian Civil War, the obligatory military service period was being decreased over time. In 2005, it was reduced from two and a half years to two years, in 2008 to 21 months and in 2011 to a year and a half. Since the Syrian Civil War the Syrian government has reportedly engaged in arrest campaigns and enacted new regulations, with citizens who have completed mandatory conscription being called up for reserve duty.
The French Mandate volunteer force, which would later become the Syrian army, was established in 1920 with the threat of Syrian−Arab nationalism in mind. Although the unit's officers were originally all French, it was, in effect, the first indigenous modern Syrian army. In 1925 this force was expanded and designated the Special Troops of the Levant (Troupes Spéciales du Levant). In 1941, during World War II, the Army of the Levant participated in a futile resistance to the British and Free French invasion that ousted the Vichy French from Syria during the Syria–Lebanon Campaign. After the Allied takeover, the army came under the control of the Free French and was designated the Levantine Forces (Troupes du Levant). French Mandate authorities maintained a gendarmerie to police Syria's vast rural areas. This paramilitary force was used to combat criminals and political foes of the Mandate government. As with the Levantine Special Troops, French officers held the top posts, but as Syrian independence approached, the ranks below major were gradually filled by Syrian officers who had graduated from the Homs Military Academy, which had been established by the French during the 1930s. In 1938 the Troupes Spéciales numbered around 10,000 men and 306 officers (of whom 88 were French, mainly in the higher ranks). A majority of the Syrian troops were of rural background and minority ethnic origin, mainly Alawis, Druzes, Kurds and Circassians. By the end of 1945 the army numbered about 5,000 and the gendarmerie some 3,500. In April 1946 the last French officers were forced to leave Syria due to sustained resistance offensives; the Levantine Forces then became the regular armed forces of the newly independent state and grew rapidly to about 12,000 by the time of the 1948 Arab−Israeli War, the first of four Arab−Israeli wars between 1948–86.
The Syrian Armed Forces fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War (against Israel) and were involved in a number of military coups. Between 1948–67 a series of coups destroyed the stability of the government and any remaining professionalism within the armed forces. In March 1949 the chief of staff, Gen. Husni al-Za'im, installed himself as president. Two more military dictators followed by December 1949. Gen. Adib Shishakli then held power until deposed in the 1954 Syrian coup d'etat. Further coups followed, each attended by a purge of the officer corps to remove supporters of the losers from the force.
In 1963 the Military Committee of the Syrian Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party spent most of its time planning to take power through a conventional military coup. From the very beginning the Military Committee knew it had to capture al-Kiswah and Qatana—two military camps—seize control of the 70th Armored Brigade at al-Kiswah, the Military Academy in the city of Homs and the Damascus radio station. While the conspirators of the Military Committee were all young, their aim was not out of reach; the sitting regime had been slowly disintegrating and the traditional elite had lost effective political power over the country. A small group of military officers, including Hafez al-Assad, seized control in the March 1963 Syrian coup d'etat. Following the coup, Gen. Amin al-Hafiz discharged many ranking Sunni officers, thereby, Stratfor says, "providing openings for hundreds of Alawites to fill top-tier military positions during the 1963–1965 period on the grounds of being opposed to Arab unity. This measure tipped the balance in favor of Alawite officers who staged a coup in 1966 and for the first time placed Damascus in the hands of the Alawites."
The Armed Forces were involved in the 1967 Six-Day War (against Israel). Since 1967 most of the Golan Heights territory of southwestern Syria has been under Israeli occupation. They then fought in the late 1960s War of Attrition (against Israel) and the 1970 Black September invasion of Jordan. During the Yom Kippur War of 1973 the Syrian Army launched an attack to liberate the occupied Golan Heights that was only narrowly repulsed with the help of the US. Since 1973 the cease-fire line has been respected by both sides, with very few incidents until the Syrian uprising of 2011 began.
Syria was invited into Lebanon by that country's president in 1976, to intervene on the side of the Lebanese government against a rebellion of PLO and Lebanese forces. The Arab Deterrent Force originally consisted of a Syrian core with participation by some other Arab League states. However, the other states withdrew their forces in the late 1970s.
Syrian forces, still technically known as the Arab Deterrent Force, lingered in Lebanon throughout the Lebanese civil war (1975–90). Eventually the Syrians brought most of the nation under their control, as part of a power struggle with Israel, which occupied areas of southern Lebanon in 1978. Following the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon continued until 2005, when they were forced out by widespread public protest and international pressure, following the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri. About 20,000 Syrian soldiers were deployed in Lebanon until 27 April 2005, when the last of Syria's troops left the country. Syrian forces have been accused of involvement in that murder, as well as continued meddling in Lebanese affairs, and an international investigation into the Hariri killing and several subsequent bomb attacks has been launched by the UN.
Engagements since 1979 have included the Muslim Brotherhood insurgency (1979–82), notably including the Hama Massacre, the 1982 Lebanon War (against Israel) and the dispatch of the 9th Armored Division to Saudi Arabia in 1990–91, ahead of the Gulf War against Iraq. The 9th Armored Division served as the Arab Joint Forces Command North reserve and saw little action. Syria's force numbered ~20,000 in strength (the sixth-largest contingent) and its involvement was justified domestically as an effort to defend Saudi Arabia. Syria's initial involvement in Operation Desert Shield also rolled into the Allied Operation Desert Storm, as Syrian forces did participate in helping dislodge and drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait City. Total losses sustained were two dead and one wounded. There were indications the Syrian government had been prepared to double its force to 40,000.
In recent years Syria has relied on Russian arms purchases to obtain modern weapons. Purchases have included anti-tank and air defense systems. In early September 2008 the Syrian government ordered MiG-29SMT fighters, Pantsir S1E air-defence systems, Iskander tactical missile systems, Yak-130 aircraft, and two Amur-1650 submarines from Russia. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asserted that the sale wouldn't upset the balance of power in the Middle East and were "in line with . . . international law."
Russia aims to turn the Russian naval base in Tartus into a permanent base. Israel and the US oppose further arms sales to Syria due to fears that the weapons could fall under the control of Iran or Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
Since the Syrian Civil War began, the Armed Forces have been sent to fight insurgents. As the uprising progressed into civil war, some Sunni soldiers began to defect from the Syrian Armed Forces and came together under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. In March 2012 the Syrian government issued new travel restrictions for military-aged males. Under the new restrictions, reported by local Syrian news outlets, all males between 18–42 were banned from traveling outside the country. In a late June 2012 interview given by the FSA's "Asharq Al-Awsat" he claimed Riad al-Asaad said that about 20–30 Syrian officers defected to Turkey each day.
On 18 July 2012 Syrian Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, former defense minister Hasan Turkmani and the president's brother-in-law Gen. Assef Shawkat were killed in a bomb attack in Damascus. Syrian intelligence chief Hisham Bekhityar and Head of the 4th Army Division Maher Al Assad—brother of President Assad—were also injured in the explosion.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war, human rights groups say that the majority of abuses have been committed by the Syrian government's forces, and UN investigations have concluded that the government's abuses are the greatest in both gravity and scale. The branches of the Syrian Armed Forces that have committed war crimes include at least the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force and the Syrian Military Intelligence. However the Syrian authorities deny these accusations and claim that irregular armed groups with foreign support are behind the atrocities, including Al Qaeda linked Insurgents.
The numbers in the Syrian armed forces have reduced considerably during the Civil War, although estimates vary.
Russian sources give higher estimates. In 2011, 300,000 reserves were reported in addition to regular forces. In 2014, Gazeta.ru reported that the regular army had reduced from 325,000 to 150,000 due to "mortality, desertions and deviations", but that this was supplemented by 60,000 Republican Guards and 50,000 Kurdish militias. In 2015, LifeNews still reported the same figures.
Despite shrinking by nearly half from the 2011 beginning of the civil war by 2014, the Armed Forces have become much more flexible and capable, especially in anti-guerilla warfare. Their "modus operandi" switched from traditional Soviet-modeled conventional military forces into a force of smaller groups fighting in close-quarters guerrilla combat with an increasing role for junior officers.
In September 2018, Statista Charts estimated that the Syrian military had lost 111 warplanes since the beginning of the civil war, including reconnaissance and attack drones. The Syrians lost most of their warplanes during the first four years of the war, with losses significantly decreasing after the Russian intervention into the war.
With its headquarters in Damascus, the Syrian military consists of air, ground and naval forces. Active personnel were estimated as 295,000 in 2011, with an additional 314,000 reserves. Paramilitary forces were estimated at 108,000 in 2011. Estimates of the declining size of the armed forces over time include:141,400 (June 2019)
In 2011, the majority of the Syrian military were Sunni, but most of the military leadership were Alawites. Alawites made up 12% of the pre-war Syrian population but 70% of the career soldiers in the Syrian Army. A similar imbalance is seen in the officer corps, where some 80% of the officers are Alawites. The military’s most elite divisions, the Republican Guard and the 4th Armored Division, which are commanded by Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher, are exclusively Alawite. Most of Syria’s 300,000 conscripts in 2011 were, however, Sunni.
In 1987 Joshua Sinai of the Library of Congress wrote that the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was the dominant military service, and as such controlled the senior-most posts in the armed forces and had the most manpower, approximately 80% of the combined services. In 1987 Sinai wrote that the major development in force organization was the establishment of an additional divisional framework based on the special forces and the organization of ground formations into two corps. In 2010 the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated army regulars at 220,000, with an additional 280,000 reserves. That figure was unchanged in the 2011 edition of the "Military Balance", but in the 2013 edition, in the midst of the war, the IISS estimated that army strength was 110,000. By the end of 2017, analysts estimated the SAA to have just 25,000 combat-ready troops.
The army's formations included three army corps (the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd), eight armored divisions (with one independent armored brigade), three mechanized divisions, one armored-special forces division and ten independent airborne-special forces brigades. The army had 11 divisional formations reported in 2011, with a fall in the number of armored divisions reported from the 2010 edition from eight to seven. The independent armored brigade had been replaced by an independent tank regiment. However, in addition to the 14th Special Forces Division, the 15th Special Forces Division has been identified by Human Rights Watch in 2011.
The former Defense companies were merged into the Syrian Army as the 4th Armored Division and the Republican Guard. The 4th Armored Division became one of the Assad government's most trusted security forces.
The Syrian Arab Air Force is the aviation branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It was established in 1948 and saw combat in 1948, 1967, 1973 and in 1982 against Israel. It has seen combat against militant groups on Syrian soil from 2011–12, during the Syrian civil war. Presently there are at least 15 Syrian air force bases throughout the country. In 2011, Russian sources reported 40,000 personnel in the Air Force, while Reuters reported 100,000.
In 1950 the Syrian Navy was established following the procurement of a few naval craft from France. The initial personnel consisted of soldiers who had been sent to French academies of naval training. In 1985 the Navy consisted of approximately 4,000 regular and 2,500 reserve officers and men. The navy is under the army's Latakia regional command. The fleet was based in the ports of Latakia, Baniyas, Minat al Bayda and Tartus. Among the 41 vessel fleet were two frigates, 22 missile attack craft (including ten advanced Osa II missile boats), two submarine chasers, four mine warfare vessels, eight gunboats, six patrol craft, four missile corvettes (on order), three landing craft (on order), one torpedo recovery vessel and, as part of its coastal defense system, Sepal shore-based, anti-ship missiles with a range of 300 km. In 2011, the Navy was estimated have 5,000 personnel.
In 1987, according to the Library of Congress Country Studies, the Air Defence Command, within the Army Command but also composed of Air Force personnel, numbered approximately 60,000. In 1987 units included 20 air defense brigades (with approximately 95 SAM batteries) and two air defense regiments. The Air Defence Command had command access to interceptor aircraft and radar facilities. Air defenses included SA-5 long-range SAM batteries around Damascus and Aleppo, with additional SA-6 and SA-8 mobile SAM units deployed along Syria's side of the Lebanese border and in eastern Lebanon.
At some later point in time, the Air Defence Command was upgraded into a separate Syrian Air Defense Force. In 2011, Russian sources reported 60,000 personnel in Air Defense.
"See: List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War#Syrian government and allies for more information on current paramilitaries due to the ongoing Syrian civil war."
As the Syrian Civil War progressed and casualties mounted, more and more positions were opened to women. The National Defense Force allows female volunteers into its ranks, mainly in securing checkpoints. The Republican Guard also formed a female section, an all-female tank battalion of 800 strong, nicknamed "Lionesses of Defense", fighting within the limits of Damascus.
The breakup of the Soviet Union — long the principal source of training, material, and credit for the Syrian forces — may have slowed Syria's ability to acquire modern military equipment. It has an arsenal of surface-to-surface missiles. In the early 1990s, Scud-C missiles with a 500-kilometer range were procured from North Korea, and Scud-D, with a range of up to 700 kilometers, is allegedly being developed by Syria with the help of North Korea and Iran, according to Eyal Zisser.
Syria received significant financial aid from Persian Gulf Arab states as a result of its participation in the Persian Gulf War, with a sizable portion of these funds earmarked for military spending. In 2005, Russia forgave Syria of three-fourths, or about $9.8 billion, of its $13.4 billion Soviet-era debt. Russia wrote off the debt in order to renew arms sales with Syria. As of 2011, arms contracts with Russia, Syria's main arms supplier, were worth at least $4 billion. Syria has conducted research and produced weapons of mass destruction.
In 1987, according to a Library of Congress Country Study on Syria, service uniforms for Syrian military officers generally followed the British Army style, although army combat clothing followed the older British model. Each uniform had two coats: a long one for dress and a short jacket for informal wear. Army officer uniforms were khaki in summer, olive in winter. Certain Army and Air Defense personnel (i.e., commandos and paratroops) may have worn camouflage uniforms. Air force officers had two uniforms for each season: a khaki and a light gray for summer and a dark blue and a light gray in winter. Naval officers wore white in summer and navy blue in winter while lower ranks wear the traditional bell bottoms and white blouse. The uniform for naval chief petty officers was a buttoned jacket, similar to that worn by American chief petty officers. Officers had a variety of headgear, including a service cap, garrison cap, and beret (linen in summer and wool in winter). The color of the beret varied by season and according to the officer's unit.
Syrian Commando and Paratroop uniforms consist of lizard or woodland-patterned camouflage fatigues along with combat boots, helmets and bulletproof vests. Headgear consisted of a red or orange beret.
The Syrian military provides NBC uniforms to soldiers in order to remain effective in an environment effected by biological or chemical agents. This uniform consisted of a Russian-made Model ShMS-41 mask similar to those made in the Desert Storm conflict. Previous models of the ShMS used a hose, while the improved "ShmS-41" used a canister-style Respirator.
It is difficult to assess how well equipped the Syrian Arab Army is. Although hundreds of hours of videos showing dead and captured Syrian soldiers filmed by rebels have been uploaded to social media, none show this equipment having been carried by or issued to frontline soldiers.
In 1987, according to a Library of Congress Country Study on Syria, the rank insignia of Syrian commissioned officers were identical for both the army and air force. These were gold on a bright green shoulder board for the army and gold on a bright blue board for the air force. Officer ranks were standard, although the highest is the equivalent of lieutenant general, a rank held in 1986 only by the commander in chief and the minister of defence. Navy officer rank insignia were gold stripes worn on the lower sleeve. The highest-ranking officer in Syria's navy is the equivalent of lieutenant general. Army and air force rank for warrant officers were indicated by gold stars on an olive green shield worn on the upper left arm. Lower noncommissioned ranks were indicated by upright and inverted chevrons worn on the upper left arm.
Although some twenty-five orders and medals were authorized, generally only senior officers and warrant officers wear medal ribbons. The following were some important Syrian awards: Order of Umayyads, Medal of Military Honor, the War Medal, Medal for Courage, Yarmuk Medal, Wounded in Action Medal, and Medal of 8 March 1963. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27479 |
Foreign relations of Syria
Ensuring national security, increasing influence among its Arab neighbours and securing the return of the Golan Heights, have been the primary goals of the Syrian Arab Republic's foreign policy. At many points in its history, Syria has seen virulent tension with its geographically cultural neighbours, such as Turkey, Israel, Iraq, and Lebanon. Syria enjoyed an improvement in relations with several of the states in its region in the 21st century, prior to the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War.
Since the ongoing civil war, the Syrian Arab Republic’s government has been increasingly isolated from the countries in the region, and the wider international community. Diplomatic relations had been severed with several countries including: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Japan, Qatar, Bahrain. Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in 2012. Syria continues to foster good relations with its traditional allies, Iran and Russia. Other countries that presently maintain good relations with Syria include China, North Korea, Angola, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guyana, India, South Africa, Tanzania, Pakistan, Armenia, Belarus, South Ossetia, Tajikistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Burundi, Romania, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Laos, Mongolia, Cambodia and others. From among the Arab League states, Syria continues to have good relations with Iraq, Egypt (after 3 July 2013), Algeria, Lebanon, Mauritania, Oman, Sudan, and The State of Palestine. Syria has never had diplomatic relations with Israel (which SAR does not recognize as a state), Kosovo (which SAR does not recognize as a state) and Taiwan (which SAR does not recognize as a state). The Syrian Arab Republic also recognizes Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Western Sahara.
In December 2018, after American president Donald Trump announced the partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, some countries initiated reopening of their diplomatic relations with Syria. After the visit of Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, the Arab League initiated the process of readmission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the organization, while the United Arab Emirates reopened their embassy in Syria on 27 December, and Bahrain, as well as reportedly Kuwait and Italy announced their intentions to reopen embassies.
Arab nationalism is a fundamental doctrine of Syrian government policy, and as such it doesn't consider inhabitants of other Arab states as 'foreigners'. Rather the Syrian Arab Republic is considered as part of one vast Arab homeland, "al-watan al-arabi".
Syria's relations with the Arab world were strained by its support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq War, which began in 1980. With the end of the war in August 1988, Syria began a slow process of reintegration with the other Arab states. In 1989, it joined with the rest of the Arab world in readmitting Egypt to the 19th Arab League Summit at Casablanca.
This decision, prompted in part by Syria's need for Arab League support of its own position in Lebanon, marked the end of the Syrian-led opposition to Egypt and the 1977–79 Sadat initiatives toward Israel, as well as the Camp David Accords. It coincided with the end of the 10-year Arab subsidy to Syria and other front-line Arab countries pledged at Baghdad in 1978. Syria re-established full diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1989. In the 1990–1991 Gulf War, Syria joined other Arab states in the US-led multinational coalition against Iraq. In 1998, Syria began a slow rapprochement with Iraq, driven primarily by economic needs. Syria continues to play an active pan-Arab role, which has intensified as the peace process collapsed in September 2000 with the start of the second Palestinian uprising (Intifada) against Israel. Though it voted in favor of UNSCR 1441 in 2002, Syria was against coalition military action in Iraq in 2003. However, the Syrian government accepted UNSCR 1483 (after being absent for the actual vote), which lifted sanctions on Iraq and established a framework to assist the Iraqi people in determining their political future and rebuilding their economy. Currently, much of the Middle East has condemned Syria's handling of the civil uprising, with only a few countries in the Middle East supporting Syria, most notably Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
Syria is a member of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Arab League, Arab Monetary Fund, Council of Arab Economic Unity, Customs Cooperation Council, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Food and Agriculture Organization, Group of 24, Group of 77, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Chamber of Commerce, International Development Association, Islamic Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Finance Corporation, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Maritime Organization, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, International Olympic Committee, International Organization for Standardization, International Telecommunication Union, League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (suspended 2012), Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, UN, UN Commission on Human Rights, UN Conference on Trade and Development, UN Industrial Development Organization, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Universal Postal Union, World Federation of Trade Unions, World Health Organization, World Meteorological Organization, and World Tourism Organization.
Syria's 2-year term as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council ended in December 2003.
Syria has been temporarily suspended from the Arab League since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. On 26 March 2013, at the Arab league summit in Doha, the League recognised the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. The National Coalition was henceforth granted Damascus' seat at the summit. This act of recognition was opposed by Algeria, Iraq & Lebanon. On 9 March 2014, secretary general Nabil al-Arabi said that Syria's seat would remain vacant until the opposition completes the formation of its institutions.
Illicit drugs:
a transit point for opiates and hashish bound for regional and Western markets
This article is adapted from the United States Department of State "Background note" on Syria, December 2003, which is available here. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27480 |
Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
In 1998 the US Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508 (), agencies must give employees with disabilities and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others.
Section 508 was originally added as an amendment to the "Rehabilitation Act of 1973" in 1986. The original section 508 dealt with electronic and information technologies, in recognition of the growth of this field.
In 1997, The Federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility and Compliance Act was proposed in the U.S. legislature to correct the shortcomings of the original section 508; the original Section 508 had turned out to be mostly ineffective, in part due to the lack of enforcement mechanisms. In the end, this Federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility and Compliance Act, with revisions, was enacted as the "new" Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, in 1998.
Section 508 addresses legal compliance through the process of market research and government procurement and also has technical standards against which products can be evaluated to determine if they meet the technical compliance. Because technology can meet the legal provisions and be legally compliant (e.g., no such product exists at time of purchase) but may not meet the United States Access Board's technical accessibility standards, users are often confused between these two issues. Additionally, evaluation of compliance can be done only when reviewing the procurement process and documentation used when making a purchase or contracting for development, the changes in technologies and standards themselves, it requires a more detailed understanding of the law and technology than at first seems necessary.
There is nothing in Section 508 that requires private web sites to comply unless they are receiving federal funds or under contract with a federal agency. Commercial best practices include voluntary standards and guidelines as the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Automatic accessibility checkers (engines) such as "IBM Rational Policy Tester" and AccVerify, refer to Section 508 guidelines but have difficulty in accurately testing content for accessibility.
In 2006, the United States Access Board organized the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) to review and recommend updates to its Section 508 standards and Telecommunications Act Accessibility Guidelines. TEITAC issued its report to the Board in April 2008. The Board released drafts of proposed rules based on the committee's recommendations in 2010 and 2011 for public comment. In February 2015, the Board released a notice of proposed rulemaking for the Section 508 standards.
The original legislation mandated that the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, known as the Access Board, establish a draft for their Final Standards for accessibility for such electronic and information technologies in December 2001. The final standards were approved in April 2001 and became enforceable on June 25, 2001.
The latest information about these standards and about support available from the Access Board in implementing them, as well as the results of surveys conducted to assess compliance, is available from the Board's newsletter Access Currents. The Section 508 standards, tools, and resources are available from the Center for Information Technology Accommodation (CITA), in the U.S. General Services Administration's Office of Government-wide Policy.
When evaluating a computer hardware or software product which could be used in a U.S. government agency, information technology managers now look to see if the vendor has provided a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template® (VPAT®), created by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). A VPAT lists potential attributes of the product that affect the degree to which it is accessible. One issue is whether a software's functions can be executed from the keyboard, or whether they require the use of a mouse, because keyboards are usable by a wider spectrum of people. Because colorblindness is common, another issue is whether the device or software communicates necessary information only by differences in displayed color. Because not all users can hear, another issue is whether the device or software communicates necessary information in an auditory way. If the product can be configured to the user's preferences on these dimensions, that is usually considered a satisfactory adaptation to the Section 508 requirements. One challenge to the adoption of open-source software in the U.S. government has been that there is no vendor to provide support or write a VPAT, but a VPAT can be written by volunteers if they can find the necessary information. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27481 |
Slartibartfast
Slartibartfast is a character in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", a comedy/science fiction series created by Douglas Adams. The character appears in the first and third novels, the first and third radio series (and the LP adaptation of the first radio series), the 1981 television series and the 2005 feature film. The character was modelled after actor John Le Mesurier.
Slartibartfast is a Magrathean, and a designer of planets. His favourite part of the job is creating coastlines, the most notable of which are the fjords found on the coast of Norway on planet Earth, for which he won an award. While trapped on prehistoric Earth, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect see Slartibartfast's signature deep inside a glacier in ancient Norway.
When "Earth Mk. II" is being made, Slartibartfast is assigned to the continent of Africa. He is unhappy about this because he has begun "doing it with fjords again" (arguing that they give a continent a lovely baroque feel), but has been told by his superiors that they are "not equatorial enough". In relation to this, he expresses the view that he would "far rather be happy than right any day."
In any event, the new Earth is not required and, much to Slartibartfast's disgust, its owners suggested that he take a quick skiing holiday on his glaciers before dismantling them.
Slartibartfast's aircar is later found near the place where Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect, Trillian and Arthur Dent are attacked by cops, who are suddenly killed in a way similar to how the cleaning staff in Slartibartfast's study have perished. There is a note pointing to one of the controls in the aircar saying "This is the probably the best button to press."
In "Life, the Universe and Everything" Slartibartfast has joined the Campaign for Real Time (or "CamTim" as the volunteers casually refer to it, a reference to CAMRA) which tries to preserve events as they happened before time travelling was invented. He picks up Arthur and Ford from Lord's Cricket Ground with his "Starship Bistromath", after which they head out to stop the robots of Krikkit from bringing together the pieces of the Wikkit Gate.
Douglas Adams wrote in the notes accompanying that he wanted Slartibartfast's name to sound very rude, but still actually be broadcastable. He therefore started with the name "Phartiphukborlz", and changed bits of it until it would be acceptable to the BBC. He came closer to achieving this goal in the following episode, with the double-act Lunkwill and Fook. He adds to this statement in "", an analysis by Neil Gaiman:
Slartibartfast was first portrayed in the 1978 radio serial, in which he was voiced by Richard Vernon, who also portrayed him in the 1981 live-action miniseries. Richard Griffiths voiced him in the 2004 radio series. He was portrayed by Bill Nighy in the 2005 film adaptation of the first novel. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27485 |
Split screen (video production)
In film and video production, split screen is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye. There may or may not be an explicit borderline. Until the arrival of digital technology, a split screen in films was accomplished by using an optical printer to combine two or more actions filmed separately by copying them onto the same negative, called the composite.
In filmmaking split screen is also a technique that allows one actor to appear twice in a scene. The simplest technique is to lock down the camera and shoot the scene twice, with one "version" of the actor appearing on the left side, and the other on the right side. The seam between the two splits is intended to be invisible, making the duplication seem realistic.
Several studio-made films in the 1960s popularized the use of split screen. They include "Indiscreet" (1958), John Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix" (1966), Richard Fleischer's "The Boston Strangler" (1968), Norman Jewison's "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968), "Airport" (1970), "Woodstock" (1970), "The Andromeda Strain" (1971), "Sisters" (1972), "Carrie" (1976) and "More American Graffiti" (1979).
In "Indiscreet" the technique was famously used to bypass the censors and allow Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman to be in bed together, and even to appear to pat her on the bottom.
An influential arena for the great split screen movies of the 1960s were two world's fairs - the 1964 New York World's Fair, where Ray and Charles Eames had a 17-screen film they created for IBM's "Think" Pavilion (it included sections with race car driving) and the 3-division film "To Be Alive," by Francis Thompson, which won the Academy Award that year for Best Short. John Frankenheimer made "Grand Prix" after his visit to the 1964 New York World's Fair. The success of these pavilions further influenced the 1967 Universal exhibition in Montreal, commonly referred to as Expo 67, where multi-screen highlights included "In the Labyrinth", hailed by "Time" magazine as a "stunning visual display," their review concluding: "such visual delights as Labyrinth ... suggest that cinema—the most typical of 20th century arts—has just begun to explore its boundaries and possibilities," as well as "A Place to Stand", which displayed Christopher Chapman's pioneering "multi-dynamic image technique" of shifting multiple images. Directors Norman Jewison and Richard Fleischer conceived their ambitious split-screen films of 1968 after visiting Expo '67.
It's also common to use this technique to simultaneously portray both participants in a telephone conversation, a long-standing convention which dates back to early silents, as in Lois Weber's triangular frames in her 1913 "Suspense", and culminating in "Pillow Talk", where Doris Day and Rock Hudson share a party line. So linked to this convention are the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies that "Down With Love", the only slightly tongue-in-cheek homage, used split screen in several phone calls, explicitly parodying this use. In the 1971 Emmy Award-winning TV movie "Brian's Song" which portrays the story of former Chicago Bears running backs Brian Piccolo and Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, it's the night after Piccolo's second surgery and Piccolo (James Caan) is talking to Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) on the phone. There is a diagonal split screen from upper left corner to lower right corner (Piccolo on the right side and Sayers on the left). The BBC series "Coupling" made extensive use of split screen as one of several techniques that are unconventional for TV series, often to a humorous effect. One episode, 'Split', was even named after the use of the effect. The acclaimed Fox TV series "24" used split-screen extensively to depict the many simultaneous events, enhancing the show's real-time element as well as connecting its multiple storylines.
An unusual and revolutionary use of split screen as an extension to the cinematic vocabulary was invented by film director Roger Avary in "The Rules of Attraction" (2002) where two separate halves of a split screen are folded together into one seamless shot through the use of motion control photography. The much acclaimed shot was examined and detailed in Bravo Television's "Anatomy of a Scene".
The arrival of digital video technology has made dividing the screen much easier to accomplish, and recent digital films and music videos have explored this possibility in depth. Sometimes the technique is used to show actions occurring simultaneously; "Timecode" (2000), by Mike Figgis, is a recent example where the combination is of four real time digital video cameras shown continuously for the duration of the film. Split-screen can also be used to the extent that it becomes part of the narrative structure of a film, as in "The Boston Strangler".
Early use of split screen can be seen in the Russian silent film "The Queen of Spades" (1916), directed by Yakov Protazanov, where one screen depicts reality and the other a character's inner desires. This technique has been used to portray twins in such films as "Wonder Man" (1945), "The Dark Mirror" (1946), "The Parent Trap" (both the 1961 original and the 1998 remake), and "Adaptation" (2002). In the 1961 version of "The Parent Trap", conversations between the twins were simulated by filming the actress (Hayley Mills) as she stood at the left of the frame facing right, then filming her again, standing at the right and facing left. The negative of the first action was placed into a printer and copied onto another negative, the composite, but this other negative was masked so that only the right part of the original picture is copied. Then the composite was rewound and the negative of the second action was copied onto the right side of each frame. On this second pass, the left side was masked to prevent double exposure. This technique is then carefully hidden by background lines, such as windows, doors, etc. to disguise the split.
Hans Canosa's 2005 film "Conversations with Other Women" made extensive use of split screens. "Conversations" juxtaposed shot and reverse shot of two actors in the same take, captured with two cameras, for the entire movie. The film was designed to enlist the audience as perceptual editors, as they can choose to watch either character act and react in real time. While the shot/reverse shot function of split screen comprises most of the running time of the film, the filmmakers also used split screen for other spatial, temporal and emotional effects. "Conversations"' split screen sometimes showed flashbacks of the recent or distant past juxtaposed with the present; moments imagined or hoped by the characters juxtaposed with present reality; present experience fractured into more than one emotion for a given line or action, showing an actor performing the same moment in different ways; and present and near future actions juxtaposed to accelerate the narrative in temporal overlap.
The visionary French director, Abel Gance, used the term "Polyvision" to describe his three-camera, three-projector technique for both widening and dividing the screen in his 1927 silent epic, "Napoléon". The filmmaker Brian De Palma has incorporated split screens into many of his films, most notably in "Sisters" (1973) and they have since become synonymous with his filmmaking style (Specifically 1981's "Blow Out" and 1998's "Snake Eyes").
The "Interactive Olaf" bonus feature from the DVD release of "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" shows Jim Carrey's makeup tests from the movie in a four-way split-screen. Viewers can split the audio by selecting which one to listen to, then pressing "ENTER" on their DVD remote. The split screen has also been simulated in video games. Most notably "Fahrenheit" where it is used to allow a player to keep track of multiple simultaneous elements relevant to the gameplay.
A number of music videos have made creative use of split screen presentations. In Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" video a number of freeze frames are shown in split screen. Video and film director Michel Gondry has made extensive use of split screen techniques in his videos. One notable example is "Sugar Water" - Cibo Matto (1996), where one side of the screen shows the video played normally, and the other side shows the same video played backwards. Through careful and creative staging the two sides appear to interact directly - passing objects from side to side and visually referencing each other. The music video for "Doo Wop (That Thing)" by Lauryn Hill was filmed using a split screen technique, the video features Lauryn, performing the song at block parties in two different eras: the mid-1960s (The year 1967 is shown on the left of the video) and the late-1990s (The year 1998 is shown on the right).
The split screen has also been used extensively in television programs. Newscasts often show two reporters in a split screen frame. The sitcom "That '70s Show", Nickelodeon teen sitcom "Drake & Josh", Disney Channel teen sitcom "Lizzie McGuire", USA Network's "Burn Notice" and Fox's "24" made extensive use of split screens. It is sometimes used in game shows to show two contestants simultaneously, and on cable news shows, when participants in a discussion are in different locations.
Split screens are frequently used in motor racing, especially during safety car pit stops in the IndyCar Series and NASCAR, where four way splits are used, most often with three leading cars or trucks' pit stops shown on the left and a shot of the pit exit (where restart order is determined after pit stops) on the right, with some featuring just four different cars or trucks making pit stops. Often these pit stops can change the entire outcome of a race. In sports, an instant replay, highlights package, or featurette on a specific subject relating to the play may be shown in a corner while the main play is happening.
Split screens are sometimes used during commercial breaks, as in ESPN's "Side-By-Side" coverage of racing, where one side of the screen shows race footage and the other shows advertising. This allows commercial to be shown while not interrupting coverage of race action.
Split screens are also common in advertising, often to show comparison. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27487 |
Software documentation
Software documentation is written text or illustration that accompanies computer software or is embedded in the source code. The documentation either explains how the software operates or how to use it, and may mean different things to people in different roles.
Documentation is an important part of software engineering. Types of documentation include:
Requirements documentation is the description of what a particular software does or shall do. It is used throughout development to communicate how the software functions or how it is intended to operate. It is also used as an agreement or as the foundation for agreement on what the software will do. Requirements are produced and consumed by everyone involved in the production of software, including: end users, customers, project managers, sales, marketing, software architects, usability engineers, interaction designers, developers, and testers.
Requirements comes in a variety of styles, notations and formality. Requirements can be goal-like (e.g., "distributed work environment"), close to design (e.g., "builds can be started by right-clicking a configuration file and select the 'build' function"), and anything in between. They can be specified as statements in natural language, as drawn figures, as detailed mathematical formulas, and as a combination of them all.
The variation and complexity of requirements documentation makes it a proven challenge. Requirements may be implicit and hard to uncover. It is difficult to know exactly how much and what kind of documentation is needed and how much can be left to the architecture and design documentation, and it is difficult to know how to document requirements considering the variety of people who shall read and use the documentation. Thus, requirements documentation is often incomplete (or non-existent). Without proper requirements documentation, software changes become more difficult — and therefore more error prone (decreased software quality) and time-consuming (expensive).
The need for requirements documentation is typically related to the complexity of the product, the impact of the product, and the life expectancy of the software. If the software is very complex or developed by many people (e.g., mobile phone software), requirements can help to better communicate what to achieve. If the software is safety-critical and can have negative impact on human life (e.g., nuclear power systems, medical equipment, mechanical equipment), more formal requirements documentation is often required. If the software is expected to live for only a month or two (e.g., very small mobile phone applications developed specifically for a certain campaign) very little requirements documentation may be needed. If the software is a first release that is later built upon, requirements documentation is very helpful when managing the change of the software and verifying that nothing has been broken in the software when it is modified.
Traditionally, requirements are specified in requirements documents (e.g. using word processing applications and spreadsheet applications). To manage the increased complexity and changing nature of requirements documentation (and software documentation in general), database-centric systems and special-purpose requirements management tools are advocated.
Architecture documentation (also known as software architecture description) is a special type of design document. In a way, architecture documents are third derivative from the code (design document being second derivative, and code documents being first). Very little in the architecture documents is specific to the code itself. These documents do not describe how to program a particular routine, or even why that particular routine exists in the form that it does, but instead merely lays out the general requirements that would motivate the existence of such a routine. A good architecture document is short on details but thick on explanation. It may suggest approaches for lower level design, but leave the actual exploration trade studies to other documents.
Another type of design document is the comparison document, or trade study. This would often take the form of a "whitepaper". It focuses on one specific aspect of the system and suggests alternate approaches. It could be at the user interface, code, design, or even architectural level. It will outline what the situation is, describe one or more alternatives, and enumerate the pros and cons of each. A good trade study document is heavy on research, expresses its idea clearly (without relying heavily on obtuse jargon to dazzle the reader), and most importantly is impartial. It should honestly and clearly explain the costs of whatever solution it offers as best. The objective of a trade study is to devise the best solution, rather than to push a particular point of view. It is perfectly acceptable to state no conclusion, or to conclude that none of the alternatives are sufficiently better than the baseline to warrant a change. It should be approached as a scientific endeavor, not as a marketing technique.
A very important part of the design document in enterprise software development is the Database Design Document (DDD). It contains Conceptual, Logical, and Physical Design Elements. The DDD includes the formal information that the people who interact with the database need. The purpose of preparing it is to create a common source to be used by all players within the scene. The potential users are:
When talking about Relational Database Systems, the document should include following parts:
It is very important to include all information that is to be used by all actors in the scene. It is also very important to update the documents as any change occurs in the database as well.
It is important for the code documents associated with the source code (which may include README files and API documentation) to be thorough, but not so verbose that it becomes overly time-consuming or difficult to maintain them. Various how-to and overview documentation guides are commonly found specific to the software application or software product being documented by API writers. This documentation may be used by developers, testers, and also end-users. Today, a lot of high-end applications are seen in the fields of power, energy, transportation, networks, aerospace, safety, security, industry automation, and a variety of other domains. Technical documentation has become important within such organizations as the basic and advanced level of information may change over a period of time with architecture changes.
Code documents are often organized into a "reference guide" style, allowing a programmer to quickly look up an arbitrary function or class.
Often, tools such as Doxygen, NDoc, Visual Expert, Javadoc, JSDoc, EiffelStudio, Sandcastle, ROBODoc, POD, TwinText, or Universal Report can be used to auto-generate the code documents—that is, they extract the comments and software contracts, where available, from the source code and create reference manuals in such forms as text or HTML files.
The idea of auto-generating documentation is attractive to programmers for various reasons. For example, because it is extracted from the source code itself (for example, through comments), the programmer can write it while referring to the code, and use the same tools used to create the source code to make the documentation. This makes it much easier to keep the documentation up-to-date.
Of course, a downside is that only programmers can edit this kind of documentation, and it depends on them to refresh the output (for example, by running a cron job to update the documents nightly). Some would characterize this as a pro rather than a con.
Respected computer scientist Donald Knuth has noted that documentation can be a very difficult afterthought process and has advocated literate programming, written at the same time and location as the source code and extracted by automatic means. The programming languages Haskell and CoffeeScript have built-in support for a simple form of literate programming, but this support is not widely used.
Elucidative Programming is the result of practical applications of Literate Programming in real programming contexts. The Elucidative paradigm proposes that source code and documentation be stored separately.
Often, software developers need to be able to create and access information that is not going to be part of the source file itself. Such annotations are usually part of several software development activities, such as code walks and porting, where third party source code is analysed in a functional way. Annotations can therefore help the developer during any stage of software development where a formal documentation system would hinder progress.
Unlike code documents, user documents simply describe how a program is used.
In the case of a software library, the code documents and user documents could in some cases be effectively equivalent and worth conjoining, but for a general application this is not often true.
Typically, the user documentation describes each feature of the program, and assists the user in realizing these features. A good user document can also go so far as to provide thorough troubleshooting assistance. It is very important for user documents to not be confusing, and for them to be up to date. User documents don't need to be organized in any particular way, but it is very important for them to have a thorough index. Consistency and simplicity are also very valuable. User documentation is considered to constitute a contract specifying what the software will do. API Writers are very well accomplished towards writing good user documents as they would be well aware of the software architecture and programming techniques used. See also technical writing.
User documentation can be produced in a variety of online and print formats. However, there are three broad ways in which user documentation can be organized.
A common complaint among users regarding software documentation is that only one of these three approaches was taken to the near-exclusion of the other two. It is common to limit provided software documentation for personal computers to online help that give only reference information on commands or menu items. The job of tutoring new users or helping more experienced users get the most out of a program is left to private publishers, who are often given significant assistance by the software developer.
Like other forms of technical documentation, good user documentation benefits from an organized process of development. In the case of user documentation, the process as it commonly occurs in industry consists of five steps:
"The resistance to documentation among developers is well known and needs no emphasis."
This situation is particularly prevalent in agile software development because these methodologies try to avoid any unnecessary activities that do not directly bring value.
Specifically, the Agile Manifesto advocates valuing "working software over comprehensive documentation", which could be interpreted cynically as "We want to spend all our time coding. Remember, real programmers don't write documentation."
A survey among software engineering experts revealed, however, that documentation is by no means considered unnecessary in agile development.
Yet it is acknowledged that there are motivational problems in development, and that documentation methods tailored to agile development (e.g. through Reputation systems and Gamification) may be needed.
For many applications it is necessary to have some promotional materials to encourage casual observers to spend more time learning about the product. This form of documentation has three purposes: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27488 |
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; "By A Lady" appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (age 19) and Marianne (age 16 1/2) as they come of age. They have an older half-brother, John, and a younger sister, Margaret, 13.
The novel follows the three Dashwood sisters as they must move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up, Norland Park. Because Norland is passed down to John, the product of Mr. Dashwood's first marriage, and his young son, the four Dashwood women need to look for a new home. They have the opportunity to rent a modest home, Barton Cottage, on the property of a distant relative, Sir John Middleton. There they experience love, romance, and heartbreak. The novel is likely set in southwest England, London, and Sussex between 1792 and 1797.
The novel, which sold out its first print run of 750 copies in the middle of 1813, marked a success for its author. It had a second print run later that year. It was the first Austen title to be republished in England after her death, and the first illustrated Austen produced in Britain, in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series of 1833. The novel has been in continuous publication since 1811, and has many times been illustrated, excerpted, abridged, and adapted for stage and film. In March 2020, there were 20 different editions available as new books.
Henry Dashwood, his second wife, and their three daughters live for many years with Henry's wealthy bachelor uncle at Norland Park, a large country estate in Sussex. That uncle decides, in late life, to will the use and income only of his property first to Henry, then to Henry's first son (by his first marriage) John Dashwood, so that the property should pass intact to John's three-year-old son Harry. The uncle dies, but Henry lives just a year after that and he is unable in such short time to save enough money for his wife Mrs Dashwood, and their daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret, who are left only a small income. On his deathbed, Mr Henry Dashwood extracts a promise from his son John to take care of his half-sisters. But before Henry is long in the grave, John's greedy wife, Fanny, persuades her husband to renege on the promise, appealing to his concerns about diminishing his own son Harry's inheritance, despite the fact that John is already independently wealthy thanks to both his inheritance from his mother, and his wife's dowry. Henry Dashwood's love for his second family is also used by Fanny to arouse her husband's jealousy, and persuade him not to help his sisters financially.
John and Fanny immediately move in as the new owners of Norland, while the Dashwood women are treated as unwelcome guests by a spiteful Fanny. Mrs Dashwood seeks somewhere else to live. In the meantime, Fanny's brother, Edward Ferrars, visits Norland and is attracted to Elinor. Fanny disapproves of their budding romance, and offends Mrs Dashwood by implying that Elinor must be motivated by his expectations of coming into money.
Mrs Dashwood moves her family to Barton Cottage in Devonshire, near the home of her cousin, Sir John Middleton. Their new home is modest, but they are warmly received by Sir John and welcomed into local society, meeting his wife, Lady Middleton, his mother-in-law, the garrulous but well-meaning Mrs Jennings, and his friend, Colonel Brandon. Colonel Brandon is attracted to Marianne, and Mrs Jennings teases them about it. Marianne is not pleased, as she considers the thirty-five-year-old Colonel Brandon an old bachelor, incapable of falling in love or inspiring love in anyone.
While out for a walk, Marianne gets caught in the rain, slips, and sprains her ankle. The dashing John Willoughby sees the accident and assists her, picking her up and carrying her back to her home. After his rescue of her, Marianne quickly comes to admire his good looks and his similar tastes in poetry, music, art, and love. His attentions, and Marianne's behaviour, lead Elinor and Mrs Dashwood to suspect that the couple are secretly engaged. Elinor cautions Marianne against her unguarded conduct, but Marianne refuses to check her emotions. Willoughby engages in several intimate activities with Marianne, including taking her to see the home he expects to inherit one day and obtaining a lock of her hair. When an engagement, or at least the announcement of one, seems imminent, Mr Willoughby instead informs the Dashwoods that his aunt, upon whom he is financially dependent, is sending him to London on business, indefinitely. Marianne is distraught and abandons herself to her sorrow.
Edward Ferrars pays a short visit to Barton Cottage, but seems unhappy. Elinor fears that he no longer has feelings for her, but she will not show her heartache. After Edward departs, sisters Anne and Lucy Steele, vulgar cousins of Mrs. Jennings, come to stay at Barton Park. Lucy informs Elinor in confidence of her secret four-year engagement to Edward Ferrars that started when he was studying with her uncle, and she displays proof of their intimacy. Elinor realises Lucy's visit and revelations are the result of her jealousy and cunning calculation, and it helps Elinor to understand Edward's recent sadness and behaviour towards her. She acquits Edward of blame and pities him for being held to a loveless engagement to Lucy by his sense of honour.
Elinor and Marianne accompany Mrs Jennings to London. On arriving, Marianne rashly writes several personal letters to Willoughby, which go unanswered. When they meet by chance at a dance, Willoughby is with another woman. He greets Marianne reluctantly and coldly, to her extreme distress. She leaves the party completely distraught. Soon Marianne receives a curt letter enclosing their former correspondence and love tokens, including a lock of her hair. Willoughby is revealed to be engaged to a young lady, Miss Grey, who has a large fortune. Marianne is devastated. After Elinor reads the letter, Marianne admits to Elinor that she and Willoughby were never engaged. She behaved as if they were because she knew she loved him and thought that he loved her.
As Marianne grieves, Colonel Brandon visits and reveals to Elinor that Willoughby seduced, impregnated, then abandoned Brandon's young ward, Miss Eliza Williams. Willoughby's aunt subsequently disinherited him, and so, in great personal debt, he chose to marry Miss Grey for her money. Eliza is the illegitimate daughter of Brandon's first love, also called Eliza, a young woman who was his father's ward and an heiress. She was forced into an unhappy marriage to Brandon's elder brother, in order to shore up the family's debts, and that marriage ended in scandal and divorce while Brandon was abroad with the Army. After Colonel Brandon's father and brother died, he inherited the family estate and returned to find Eliza dying in a pauper's home, so Brandon took charge of raising her young daughter. Brandon tells Elinor that Marianne strongly reminds him of the elder Eliza for her sincerity and sweet impulsiveness. Brandon removed the younger Eliza to the country, and reveals to Elinor all of these details in the hope that Marianne could get some consolation in discovering Willoughby's true character.
Meanwhile, the Steele sisters have come to London as guests of Mrs Jennings. After a brief acquaintance, they are asked to stay at John and Fanny Dashwood's London house. Lucy sees the invitation as a personal compliment, rather than what it is: a slight to Elinor and Marianne who, being family, should have received such an invitation first. Too talkative, Anne Steele betrays Lucy's secret engagement to Edward Ferrars, Fanny's brother. As a result, the sisters are turned out of the house, and Edward is ordered by his wealthy mother to break off the engagement on pain of disinheritance. Edward, still sensitive of the dishonour of a broken engagement and how it would reflect poorly on Lucy Steele, refuses to comply. He is immediately disinherited in favour of his brother, Robert, which gains him respect for his conduct and sympathy from Elinor and Marianne. Colonel Brandon shows his admiration by offering Edward the living (a clergyman's income) of the Delaford parsonage, so to enable him to marry Lucy after he takes orders.
Mrs Jennings takes Elinor and Marianne to the country to visit her second daughter, Mrs. Charlotte Palmer, at her husband's estate, Cleveland. Marianne, still in misery over Willoughby's marriage, goes walking in the rain and becomes dangerously ill. She is diagnosed with putrid fever, and it is believed that her life is in danger. Elinor writes to Mrs. Dashwood to explain the gravity of the situation, and Colonel Brandon volunteers to go and bring Marianne's mother to Cleveland to be with her. In the night, Willoughby arrives and reveals to Elinor that his love for Marianne was genuine and that losing her has made him miserable. He elicits Elinor's pity because his choice has made him unhappy, but she is disgusted by the callous way in which he talks of Miss Williams and his own wife. He also reveals that his aunt said she would have forgiven him if he married Miss Williams but that he had refused.
Marianne recovers from her illness, and Elinor tells her of Willoughby's visit. Marianne realises she could never have been happy with Willoughby's immoral, erratic, and inconsiderate ways. She values Elinor's more moderated conduct with Edward and resolves to model herself after her courage and good sense. Edward later arrives and reveals that, after his disinheritance, Lucy jilted him in favour of his now wealthy younger brother, Robert. Elinor is overjoyed. Edward and Elinor marry, and later Marianne marries Colonel Brandon, having gradually come to love him. The two couples live as neighbours, with both sisters and husbands in harmony with each other. Willoughby considers Marianne as his ideal but the narrator tells the reader not to suppose that he was never happy.
Jane Austen wrote the first draft of the novel in the form of a novel-in-letters (epistolary form) perhaps as early as 1795 when she was about 19 years old, or 1797, at age 21, and is said to have given it the title "Elinor and Marianne". She later changed the form to a narrative and the title to "Sense and Sensibility".
Austen drew inspiration for "Sense and Sensibility" from other novels of the 1790s that treated similar themes, including Adam Stevenson's "Life and Love" (1785) which he had written about himself and a relationship that was not meant to be. Jane West's "A Gossip's Story" (1796), which features one sister full of rational sense and another sister of romantic, emotive sensibility, is considered to have been an inspiration as well. West’s romantic sister-heroine also shares her first name, Marianne, with Austen’s. There are further textual similarities, described in a modern edition of West's novel.
Austen may have drawn on her knowledge of Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, in her portrayal of Colonel Brandon. Hastings had been rumoured to be the biological father of Austen's cousin Eliza de Feuillide. Linda Robinson Walker argues that Hastings "haunts "Sense and Sensibility" in the character of Colonel Brandon": both left for India at age seventeen; both may have had illegitimate daughters named Eliza; both participated in a duel.
"Sense" means good judgment, wisdom, or prudence, and "sensibility" means sensitivity, sympathy, or emotionality. Elinor is described as a character with great "sense" (although Marianne, too, is described as having sense), and Marianne is identified as having a great deal of "sensibility" (although Elinor, too, feels deeply, without expressing it as openly). By changing the title, Austen added "philosophical depth" to what began as a sketch of two characters.
"Sense and Sensibility," much like Austen's other fiction, has attracted a large body of criticism from many different critical approaches. Early reviews of "Sense and Sensibility" focused on the novel as providing lessons in conduct (which would be debated by many later critics) as well as reviewing the characters. The Norton Critical Edition of "Sense and Sensibility," edited by Claudia Johnson, contains a number of reprinted early reviews in its supplementary material. An "Unsigned Review" in the February 1812 "Critical Review" praises "Sense and Sensibility" as well written with well supported and drawn characters, realistic, and with a "highly pleasing" plot in which "the whole is just long enough to interest the reader without fatiguing." This review praises Mrs. Dashwood, the mother of the Dashwood sisters, as well as Elinor, and claims that Marianne's extreme sensibility makes her miserable. It claims that "Sense and Sensibility" has a lesson and moral which is made clear through the plot and the characters. Another "Unsigned Review" from the May 1812 "British Critic" further emphasizes the novel's function as a type of conduct book. In this author's opinion, Austen's favouring of Elinor's temperament over Marianne's provides the lesson. The review claims that "the object of the work is to represent the effects on the conduct of life, of discreet quiet good sense on the one hand, and an overrefined and excessive susceptibility on the other." The review states that "Sense and Sensibility" contains "many sober and salutary maxims for the conduct of life" within a "very pleasing and entertaining narrative." W. F. Pollock's 1861 review from "Frasier's Magazine," titled "British Novelists," becomes what editor Claudia Johnson terms an "early example of what would become the customary view of "Sense and Sensibility."" In addition to emphasizing the novel's morality, Pollock reviews the characters in catalogue-like fashion, praising and criticizing them in according to the notion that Austen favours Elinor's point of view and temperament. Pollock even praises Sir John Middleton and Mrs. Jennings, even commenting on the humour of Mr. Palmer and his "silly wife." Pollock criticizes Sir John Dashwood's selfishness without mentioning Fanny's influence upon them. He also criticizes the Steele sisters for their vulgarity.
An anonymous piece titled "Miss Austen" published in 1866 in "The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine" departs from other early criticism in its sympathizing with Marianne over Elinor, claiming that Elinor is "too good" a character. The article also differs from other reviews in that it claims that the "prevailing merit" of the book is not in its sketch of the two sisters; rather, the book is effective because of its "excellent treatment of the subordinate characters." Alice Meynell's 1894 article "The Classic Novelist" in the "Pall Mall Gazette" also concurs with Austen's attention to small things. Meynell claims that Austen deals in lesser characters and small matters because "that which makes life, art, and work trivial is a triviality of relations." In her attention to secondary characters, Meynell discusses the children's function to "illustrate the folly of their mothers," especially Lady Middleton.
Austen biographer Claire Tomalin argues that "Sense and Sensibility" has a "wobble in its approach", which developed because Austen, in the course of writing the novel, gradually became less certain about whether sense or sensibility should triumph. Austen characterises Marianne as a sweet lady with attractive qualities: intelligence, musical talent, frankness, and the capacity to love deeply. She also acknowledges that Willoughby, with all his faults, continues to love and, in some measure, appreciate Marianne. For these reasons, some readers find Marianne's ultimate marriage to Colonel Brandon an unsatisfactory ending.
The Dashwood sisters stand apart as being virtually the only characters capable of intelligent thought and any sort of deep thinking. Brownstein wrote that the differences between the Dashwood sisters have been exaggerated, and in fact the sisters are more alike than they are different, with Elinor having "excellent heart" and capable of the same romantic passions as Marianne feels while Marianne has much sense as well. Elinor is more reserved, more polite, and less impulsive than Marianne who loves poetry, taking walks across picturesque landscapes and believes in intense romantic relationships, but it is very closeness between the sisters that allows these differences to emerge during their exchanges.
Many critics explore "Sense and Sensibility" in relation to authors and genres popular during Austen's time. One of the most popular forms of fiction in Austen's time was epistolary fiction. This is a style of writing in which all of the action, dialogue, and character interactions are reflected through letters sent from one or more of the characters. In her book "Romantic Correspondence: Women, Politics, and the Fiction of Letters," Mary Favret explores Austen's fraught relationship with epistolary fiction, claiming that Austen "wrestled with epistolary form" in previous writings and, with the publication of "Sense and Sensibility," "announced her victory over the constraints of the letter." Favret contends that Austen's version of the letter separates her from her "admired predecessor, Samuel Richardson" in that Austen's letters are "a misleading guide to the human heart which, in the best instances, is always changing and adapting." According to Favret, with the character of Elinor Dashwood is an "anti-epistolary heroine" whose "inner world" of thoughts and feelings does not find "direct expression in the novel, although her point of view controls the story." "Sense and Sensibility" establishes what Favret calls a "new privacy" in the novel, which was constrained by previous notions of the romance of letters. This new privacy is a "less constraining mode of narration" in which Austen's narrator provides commentary on the action, rather than the characters themselves through the letters. Favret claims that in "Sense and Sensibility," Austen wants to "recontextualize" the letter and bring it into a "new realism." Austen does so by imbuing the letter with dangerous power when Marianne writes to Willoughby; both their love and the letter "prove false." Additionally, Favret claims that Austen uses both of the sisters' letter writing to emphasize the contrasts in their personalities. When both of the sisters write letters upon arriving in London, Elinor's letter is the "dutiful letter of the 'sensible sister'" and Marianne writes a "vaguely illicit letter" reflecting her characterization as the "sensitive" sister. What is perhaps most striking about Favret's analysis is that she notes that the lovers who write to one another never unite with each other.
A common theme of Austen criticism has been on the legal aspects of society and the family, particularly wills, the rights of first and second sons, and lines of inheritance. Gene Ruoff's book "Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility" explores these issues in a book-length discussion of the novel. Ruoff's first two chapters deal extensively with the subject of wills and the discourse of inheritance. These topics reveal what Ruoff calls "the cultural fixation on priority of male birth." According to Ruoff, male birth is by far the dominant issue in these legal conversations. Ruoff observes that, within the linear family, the order of male birth decides issues of eligibility and merit. When Robert Ferrars becomes the eldest son, Edward is no longer appealing to his "opportunistic fiance" Lucy, who quickly turns her attention to the foppish Robert and "entraps him" in order to secure the inheritance for herself. According to Ruoff, Lucy is specifically aiming for a first son because of the monetary advantage for a man in this birth order. William Galperin, in his book "The History Austen," comments on the tendency of this system of patriarchal inheritance and earning as working to ensure the vulnerability of women. Because of this vulnerability, Galperin contends that "Sense and Sensibility" shows marriage as the only practical solution "against the insecurity of remaining an unmarried woman."
Feminist critics have long been engaged in conversations about Jane Austen, and "Sense and Sensibility" has figured in these discussions, especially around the patriarchal system of inheritance and earning. Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar's seminal feminist work "The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Imagination" contains several discussions of "Sense and Sensibility." Gilbert and Gubar read the beginning of "Sense and Sensibility" as a retelling of "King Lear" from a female perspective and contend that these "reversals imply that male traditions need to be evaluated and reinterpreted from a female perspective." Gilbert and Gubar argue that Austen explores the effects of patriarchal control on women, particularly in the spheres of employment and inheritance. In "Sense and Sensibility" they educe the fact that Mr. John Dashwood deprives his sisters from their home as well as promised income as an instance of these effects. They also point to the "despised" Mrs. Ferrars's tampering with the patriarchal line of inheritance in her disowning of her eldest son, Edward Ferrars, as proof that this construction is ultimately arbitrary. Gilbert and Gubar contend that while "Sense and Sensibility"'s ultimate message is that "young women like Marianne and Elinor must submit to powerful conventions of society by finding a male protector," women such as Mrs. Ferrars and Lucy Steele demonstrate how women can "themselves become agents of repression, manipulators of conventions, and survivors." In order to protect themselves and their own interests, Mrs. Ferrars and Lucy Steele must participate in the same patriarchal system that oppresses them.
In the chapter ""Sense and Sensibility:" Opinions Too Common and Too Dangerous" from her book "Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel," Claudia Johnson also gives a feminist reading of "Sense and Sensibility." She differs from previous critics, especially the earliest ones, in her contention that "Sense and Sensibility" is not, as it is often assumed to be, a "dramatized conduct book" that values "female prudence" (associated with Elinor's sense) over "female impetuosity" (associated with Marianne's sensibility). Rather, Johnson sees "Sense and Sensibility" as a "dark and disenchanted novel" that views "institutions of order" such as property, marriage, and family in a negative light, an attitude that makes the novel the "most attuned to social criticism" of Austen's works. According to Johnson, "Sense and Sensibility" critically examines the codes of propriety as well as their enforcement by the community. Key to Austen's criticism of society, per Johnson's argument, is the depiction of the unfair marginalization of women resulting from the "death or simple absence of male protectors." Additionally, the male characters in "Sense and Sensibility" are depicted unfavourably. Johnson calls the gentlemen in "Sense and Sensibility" "uncommitted sorts" who "move on, more or less unencumbered, by human wreckage from the past." In other words, the men do not feel a responsibility to anyone else. Johnson compares Edward to Willoughby in this regard, claiming that all of the differences between them as individuals do not hide the fact that their failures are actually identical; Johnson calls them both "weak, duplicitous, and selfish," lacking the honesty and forthrightness with which Austen endows other "exemplary gentlemen" in her work. Johnson's comparison of Edward and Willoughby reveals the depressing picture about gentlemen presented in the novel.
Mary Poovey's analysis in "The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and Jane Austen" concurs with Johnson's on the dark tone of "Sense and Sensibility." Poovey contends that "Sense and Sensibility" has a "somber tone" in which conflict breaks out between Austen's engagement with her "self-assertive characters" and the moral codes necessary to control their potentially "anarchic" desires. Austen shows, according to Poovey, this conflict between individual desire and the restraint of moral principles through the character of Elinor herself. Except for Elinor, all of the female characters in "Sense and Sensibility" experience some kind of female excess. Poovey argues that while Austen does recognize "the limitations of social institutions," she demonstrates the necessity of controlling the "dangerous excesses of female feeling" rather than liberating them. She does so by demonstrating that Elinor's self-denial, especially in her keeping of Lucy Steele's secret and willingness to help Edward, even though both of these actions were hurtful to her, ultimately contribute to her own contentment and that of others. In this way, Poovey contends that Austen suggests that the submission to society that Elinor demonstrates is the proper way to achieve happiness in life.
"Sense and Sensibility" criticism also includes ecocritical approaches. Susan Rowland's article "The 'Real Work': Ecocritical Alchemy and Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility"" studies the effects of alienation upon Edward and Ferrars. Edward is alienated from society because he lacks what Rowland calls "useful employment." According to Rowland, Edward's condition represents problems with the history of work in Western industrialized societies. Edward's alienation from work also represents "the culture evolution of work" as a "progressive estrangement from nonhuman nature." Rowland argues that human culture estranges people from nature rather than returning them to it. Marianne also suffers from this estrangement of nature as she is ripped from her childhood home where she enjoyed walking the grounds and looking at trees. Rowland thus connects both Edward's and Marianne's progressive discomfort throughout the novel to their alienation from nature.
In 1811, Thomas Egerton of the Military Library publishing house in London accepted the manuscript for publication in three volumes. Austen paid to have the book published and paid the publisher a commission on sales. The cost of publication was more than a third of Austen's annual household income of £460 (about £15,000 in 2008 currency). She made a profit of £140 (almost £5,000 in 2008 currency) on the first edition, which sold all 750 printed copies by July 1813. A second edition was advertised in October 1813.
The novel has been in continuous publication through to the 21st century as popular and critical appreciation of all the novels by Jane Austen slowly grew. The novel was translated into French by Madame Isabelle de Montolieu as "Raison et Sensibilité". Montolieu had only the most basic knowledge of English, and her translations were more of "imitations" of Austen's novels as Montolieu had her assistants provide a summary of Austen's novels, which she then translated into an embellished French that often radically altered Austen's plots and characters. The "translation" of "Sense and Sensibility" by Montolieu changes entire scenes and characters, for example having Marianne call Willoughby an "angel" and an "Adonis" upon first meeting him, lines that are not in the English original. Likewise, the scene where Mrs. Dashwood criticizes her husband for planning to subsidise his widowed stepmother might be disadvantageous to "our little Harry", Mrs. Dashwood soon forgets about Harry and it is made apparent her objections are founded in greed; Montolieu altered the scene by having Mrs. Dashwood continuing to speak of "our little Harry" as the basis of her objections, completely changing her motives. When Elinor learns the Ferrars who married Lucy Steele is Robert, not Edward, Montolieu adds in a scene where Edward, the Dashwood sisters and their mother all break down in tears while clasping hands that was not in the original. Austen has the marriage of Robert Ferrars and Lucy Steele end well while Montolieu changes the marriage into a failure.
In 2013, Helen Edmundson adapted "Sense and Sensibility" for BBC Radio 4. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27490 |
Sanity
Sanity (from ) refers to the soundness, rationality, and health of the human mind, as opposed to insanity. A person is sane if they are rational. In modern society, the term has become exclusively synonymous with compos mentis (, having mastery of, and , mind), in contrast with "non compos mentis", or insanity, meaning troubled conscience. A sane mind is nowadays considered healthy both from its analytical - once called "rational" - and emotional aspects. According to the writer, G. K. Chesterton, sanity involves wholeness, whereas insanity implies narrowness and brokenness.
Alfred Korzybski proposed a theory of sanity in his general semantics. He believed sanity was tied to the structural fit or lack of thereof, of what is going on in the world. He imposed this notion in a map-territory analogy: "A map "is not" the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a "similar structure" to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness." Given that science continually seeks to adjust its theories structurally to fit the facts, i.e., improves its maps to fit the territory, and thus advances more rapidly than any other field, he believed that the key to understanding sanity would be found in the study of the methods of science (and the study of structure as revealed by science). The adoption of a scientific outlook and attitude of continual adjustment by the individual toward their assumptions was the way, so he claimed. In other words, there were "factors of sanity to be found in the physico-mathematical methods of science." He also stressed that sanity requires the awareness that "whatever you say a thing is, it is not" because anything expressed through language is not the reality it refers to: language is like a map, and the map is not the territory. The territory, or reality, remains unnamable, unspeakable, and mysterious. Hence, the widespread assumption that we can grasp reality through language involves a degree of insanity.
Psychiatrist Philip S. Graven suggested the term "un-sane" to describe a condition that is not exactly "insane", but not quite "sane" either.
In "The Sane Society", published in 1955, psychologist Erich Fromm proposed that not just individuals, but entire societies "may be lacking in sanity." Fromm argued that one of the most deceptive features of social life involves "consensual validation":
It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing is further from the truth... Just as there is a "folie à deux" there is a "folie à millions". The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane.
In criminal and mental health law, sanity is a legal term denoting that an individual is of sound mind and therefore can bear legal responsibility for their actions. The official legal term is "compos mentis". It is generally defined in terms of the absence of insanity ("non compos mentis"). It is not a medical term, although the opinions of medical experts are often important in making a legal decision as to whether someone is sane or insane. It is also not the same concept as mental illness. One can be acting under profound mental illness and yet be sane, and one can also be ruled insane without an underlying mental illness.
Legal definitions of sanity have been little explored by science and medicine, as the concentration has been on illness. It remains entirely impossible to prove sanity. Furthermore, as Korzybski has pointed out repeatedly, insanity to various degrees is widespread in the general population, which includes many people that are considered mentally fit in medical and legal terms. In this connection, Erich Fromm referred to the "pathology of normalcy," while David Cooper proposed that normality was opposed to both madness and sanity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27491 |
Sprouts (game)
Sprouts is a paper-and-pencil game that can be enjoyed simply by both adults and children. Yet it also can be analyzed for its significant mathematical properties. It was invented by mathematicians John Horton Conway and Michael S. Paterson at Cambridge University in the early 1960s. Setup is even simpler than the popular Dots and Boxes game, but game-play develops much more artistically and organically.
The game is played by two players, starting with a few spots drawn on a sheet of paper. Players take turns, where each turn consists of drawing a line between two spots (or from a spot to itself) and adding a new spot somewhere along the line. The players are constrained by the following rules.
In so-called "normal play", the player who makes the last move wins. In "misère play", the player who makes the last move loses. Misère Sprouts is perhaps the only misère combinatorial game that is played competitively in an organized forum.
The diagram on the right shows a 2-spot game of normal-play Sprouts. After the fourth move, most of the spots are "dead"–they have three lines attached to them, so they cannot be used as endpoints for a new line. There are two spots (shown in green) that are still "alive", having fewer than three lines attached. However, it is impossible to make another move, because a line from a live spot to itself would make four attachments, and a line from one live spot to the other would cross lines. Therefore, no fifth move is possible, and the first player loses. Live spots at the end of the game are called "survivors" and play a key role in the analysis of Sprouts.
It is not evident from the rules of Sprouts that the game always terminates, since the number of spots increases at each move. The correct approach is to consider the number of "lives" (opportunities to connect a line) instead of the number of spots. Then, we can show that if the game starts with "n" spots, it will end in no more than 3"n"−1 moves and no fewer than 2"n" moves.
In the following proofs, we suppose that a game starts with "n" spots and lasts for exactly "m" moves.
Each spot starts with three "lives" and each move reduces the total number of lives in the game by one (two lives are lost at the ends of the line, but the new spot has one life). So at the end of the game there are 3"n"−"m" remaining lives. Each surviving spot has only one life (otherwise there would be another move joining that spot to itself), so there are exactly 3"n"−"m" survivors. There must be at least one survivor, namely the spot added in the final move. So 3"n"−"m" ≥ 1; hence a game can last no more than 3"n"−1 moves.
This upper bound is actually the maximum, and it can be attained in many ways by ensuring that there is only one survivor at the end of the game. For instance, the game on the right has one survivor and 3"n"−1 moves.
At the end of the game each survivor has exactly two dead "neighbors", in a technical sense of "neighbor", "different from the ordinary graph notion of adjacency"; see the diagram on the right. No dead spot can be the neighbor of two different survivors, for otherwise there would be a move joining the survivors. All other dead spots (not neighbors of a survivor) are called "pharisees" (from the Hebrew for "separated ones"). Suppose there are "p" pharisees. Then
since initial spots + moves = total spots at end of game = survivors + neighbors + pharisees. Rearranging gives:
Consequently, a game lasts for at least 2"n" moves, and the number of pharisees is divisible by 4.
This lower bound on the length of a game is actually the minimum. The diagram on the right shows a completed game of 2"n" moves. It has "n" survivors, 2"n" neighbors and 0 pharisees.
Real games seem to turn into a battle over whether the number of moves will be "k" or "k"+1 with other possibilities being quite unlikely. One player tries to create enclosed regions containing survivors (thus reducing the total number of moves that will be played) and the other tries to create pharisees (thus increasing the number of moves that will be played).
Since Sprouts is a finite game where no draw is possible, a perfect strategy exists either for the first or the second player, depending on the number of initial spots. The main question about a given starting position is then to determine which player can force a win if he or she plays perfectly.
When the winning strategy is for the first player, it is said that the "outcome" of the position is a "win", and when the winning strategy is for the second player, it is said that the outcome of the position is a "loss" (because it is a loss from the point of view of the first player).
The outcome is determined by developing the game tree of the starting position. This can be done by hand only for a small number of spots, and all the new results since 1990 have been obtained by extensive search with computers.
"Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays" reports that the 6-spot normal game was proved to be a win for the second player by Denis Mollison, with a hand-made analysis of 47 pages. It stood as the record for a long time, until the first computer analysis, which was done at Carnegie Mellon University, in 1990, by David Applegate, Guy Jacobson, and Daniel Sleator. They reached up to 11 spots with some of the best hardware available at the time.
Applegate, Jacobson and Sleator observed a pattern in their results, and conjectured that the first player has a winning strategy when the number of spots divided by six leaves a remainder of three, four, or five. This is a mathematical way of saying that the pattern displayed by the outcome in the table below repeats itself indefinitely, with a period of six spots.
In 2001, Riccardo Focardi and Flamina Luccio described a method to prove by hand that the normal 7-spot game is a Loss.
Then, the computation results were extended in 2006 by Josh Jordan up to 14 spots. In 2007, Julien Lemoine and Simon Viennot introduced an algorithm based on the concept of nimbers to accelerate the computation, reaching up to 32 spots. They have extended the computation up to 44 spots in 2011, and three isolated starting positions, with 46, 47 and 53 spots.
The normal-play results so far are all consistent with the conjecture of Applegate, Jacobson and Sleator.
The computation history of the misère version of Sprouts is very similar to that of the normal version, with the same people involved. However, the misère version is more difficult to compute, and progress has been significantly slower.
In 1990, Applegate, Jacobson and Sleator reached up to nine spots. Based on their results, they conjectured that the outcome follows a regular pattern of period five. However, this conjecture was invalidated in 2007 when Josh Jordan and Roman Khorkov extended the misère analysis up to 12 spots : the 12-spot misère game is a win, and not the conjectured loss. The same team reached up to 16 spots in 2009. The same year, Julien Lemoine and Simon Viennot reached 17 spots with complicated algorithms. They were able to extend their analysis up to 20 points in 2011.
The results for misère play are now conjectured to follow a pattern of length six (with some exceptional values): the first player wins in misère Sprouts when the remainder (mod 6) is zero, four, or five, except that the first player wins the one-spot game and loses the four-spot game. The table below shows the pattern, with the two irregular values in bold.
A variant of the game, named Brussels Sprouts after the cruciferous vegetable, starts with a number of crosses, i.e. spots with four free ends. Each move involves joining two free ends with a curve, again not crossing any existing line, and then putting a short stroke across the line to create two new free ends. This game is finite, and the total number of moves (and thus the game's winner) is predetermined by the initial number of crosses: the players cannot affect the result by their play.
Each move removes two free ends and introduces two more. With "n" initial crosses, the number of moves will be 5"n" − 2, so a game starting with an odd number of crosses will be a first player win, while a game starting with an even number will be a second player win regardless of the moves.
To prove this (assuming that the game ends), let "m" denote the number of moves and "v", "e", "f" denote the number of vertices, edges, and faces of the planar graph obtained at the end of the game, respectively. We have:
The Euler characteristic for planar graphs is 2, so
hence
Bibliography | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27541 |
Supermarine
Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer that produced the Spitfire fighter plane, and a range of seaplanes and flying boats. The company had successes in the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes, with three wins in a row of 1927, 1929 and 1931.
The company was founded in 1913 as Pemberton-Billing Ltd on the River Itchen close to Woolston, Southampton, on ground previously purchased by Noel Pemberton Billing to construct motor launches. It produced a couple of prototypes using quadruplane designs to shoot down zeppelins, the Supermarine P.B.29 and the Supermarine Nighthawk. The aircraft were fitted with the recoilless Davis gun and the Nighthawk had a separate powerplant to power a searchlight.
Upon election as an MP in 1916 Pemberton-Billing sold the company to his factory manager and longtime associate Hubert Scott-Paine who renamed the company Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd. The company became famous for its successes in the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes, especially the three wins in a row of 1927, 1929 and 1931.
In 1928 Vickers-Armstrongs took over Supermarine as Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd and in 1938 all Vickers-Armstrongs aviation interests were reorganised to become Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, although Supermarine continued to design, build and trade under its own name. The phrase Vickers Supermarine was applied to the aircraft. The first Supermarine landplane design to go into production was the famous and successful Spitfire. The earlier Hawker Hurricane and the Spitfire were the mainstay of RAF Fighter Command fighter aircraft which fought off the Luftwaffe bombing raids with fighter escorts during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. While the Hurricane was available in larger numbers and consequently played a larger role, the new Spitfire caught the popular imagination and became the aircraft associated with the battle. It went on to play a major part in the remainder of the war, in a number of variants and marks, and it was the only allied fighter aircraft to be in production through the entirety of the Second World War. Other planes from the period include the Seafire (a naval version of the Spitfire). Supermarine also developed the Spiteful and Seafang, the successors of the Spitfire and Seafire, respectively, and the Walrus flying boat. The Supermarine main works was heavily bombed in 1940. This curtailed work on their first heavy bomber design, the Supermarine B.12/36 which was replaced by the Short Stirling.
After the end of the war, the Supermarine division built the Royal Navy's first jet fighter, the Attacker, developed from the final Spitfire type. It served front line squadrons aboard aircraft carriers and RNVR squadrons at shore bases. The Attacker was followed by the more advanced Swift which served in the fighter and photo-reconnaissance roles. The last of the Supermarine aircraft was the Scimitar. In the shakeup of British aircraft manufacturing, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) became a part of the British Aircraft Corporation and the individual manufacturing heritage names were lost.
In 1909 Noel Pemberton Billing purchased a number of engineering workshops on 3,000 acres of land at South in Sussex which he intended to develop as an airfield. At the same time he built a number of unsuccessful aircraft of his own design. To promote the venture he founded his own magazine "Aerocraft". Despite attracting some aircraft constructors the airfield venture failed within a year and about the same time he sold "Aerocraft".
In 1911 Billing purchased facilities to provide a base for a motor launch and yacht trading business at White's Yard off Elm Road (later renamed Hazel Road) on the Itchen river, upstream of Woolston. To manage the business Billing hired his friend Hubert Scott-Paine, whom he had first met while involved in property speculation in Shoreham. Billing, his wife and Scott-Paine lived on Billing's yacht "Utopia".
Under Scott-Paine's management the business was soon profitable, which allowing Billing (with the assistance of Scott-Paine) to design a series of flying boats with detachable propeller and wings so that with them removed it could be used as a motor launch.
He submitted a patent application for his design in October 1913. After obtaining his aviator's certificate on 17 September 1913 following a £500 bet with Frederick Handley-Page that he could obtain it within 24 hour of commencing flight training, he decided to build his own aircraft.
In partnership with Alfred Delves de Broughton, Billing established Pemberton-Billing Ltd on 27 June 1914 with capital of £20,000. Billing had 6,800 shares, Broughton 3,700 and works engineer Lorenz Hans Herkomer (1889–1922), 500. Herkomer's background was in electrical engineering and automobiles. Rumanian Carol Vasilesco was employed to prepare drawings and undertake the detailed design of airframes. On land at Oakbank Wharf on the river Itchen in Woolston, Southampton that Billing had previously purchased the company established a factory with Hubert Scott-Paine as work manager. Its registered telegraphic address, used for sending telegrams and cables to the company, was; "Supermarine, Southampton".
The first aircraft built by the new company was the Pemberton-Billing P.B.1 a single-seat open cockpit biplane flying boat. Following the modifications, the P.B.1 entered testing, but failed to achieve flight during testing. Billing who had designed the aircraft claimed he "wanted a boat which would fly rather than an aircraft that would float". Though no proof can be found Billing claimed that the aircraft made a short hop but other sources state that the PB.1 never flew. The sole P.B.1 was subsequently dismantled and no other examples were constructed.
Another early design was the P.B.7, a "flying lifeboat" with detachable wings.
The next significant design was the P.B.9 which used a set of wings that Billing had been obtained from Radley-England. One example was built and while it flew it was felt that production was not worth pursuing.
With no orders coming in Billing had to sell one of his yachts and lease out part of the facilities to Tom Sopwith who used it for assembly and then testing of his Bat Boat.
The outbreak of the war saw Billing enlisting in the Royal Navy Volunteer reserve and thus he was no longer involved in day-to-day activities.
With the business by now in serious financial trouble due to a lack of orders, 80 percent of the staff were fired, leaving only 14 employees.
On 14 November 1914 Broughton used his resources to pay off the company's debits which allowed the company to continue in business. Some work was obtained repairing aircraft subcontracting from Sopwith. Broughton then enlisted which left Scott-Paine in charge.
At some point in 1914 Carol Vasilesco died suddenly of a heart attack, which left the company without a designer.
In early 1915 the company obtained work building 12 Short S.38 seaplanes under licence.
Work still continued on the company's own designs with the next to see the light of day being the P.B.23. The prototype was delivered in September 1915 with tests conducted at Heldon indicating that the design had some promise. As a result, a reversed version designated the P.B.25 was produced, for which an order for 20 was received from the Royal Naval Air Service.
In late 1915 having completed serving with the RNVR and RNAS Billing returned to the company. As a result of his experience while involved in the organising of the air raid in November 1914 on the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance Billing believed that England was defenceless against attacks by Zeppelins.
As a result, his return led to the company concentrating on designing the quadruplane P.B.29, which was designed to shoot down zeppelins.
In May 1916 the company was awarded by the Air Department of the Admiralty a contract to build the flying surfaces for the AD flying boat and to undertake the detailed design and construction of the AD Navyplane. The AD Flying Boat was initially found to have poor performance in the water, which were eventually resolved. This led to 34 being built, though none saw service.
In March 1916 Billing was elected as an MP. Once in parliament he was very vocal in his support of air power, constantly accusing the government of neglecting the issue. As he intended to run a campaign against the Royal Aircraft Factory and its products, it became apparent that if the company was to maintain a good relationship with the Air Department and gain any further orders it was necessary for the company to distance itself from Billing. As a result, Billing sold his shares in the company for about £12,500 to Hubert Scott-Paine and the other directors who renamed the company Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd and officially registered it under that name on 27 June 1916. As well as Scott-Paine, the other directors were Alfred Delves de Broughton and solicitor Charles Cecil Dominy.
The first product of the new company was the P.B.31E Nighthawk which was a carryover from Billing's time for a quadraplane heavily armed and searchlight-equipped home defence fighter. Fitted with a recoilless Davis gun, it had a separate powerplant to power the searchlight. Only the prototype was built, which was found to have insufficient performance to be of any use against Zeppelins.
After completion of the Nighthawk Scott-Paine dropped Billing's fixation with anti-Zeppelin defence fighters, and in the hope of gaining orders for flying boats forged a strong relationship with the RNAS through their local liaison officer James Bird.
In early 1916 William Abraham Hargreaves was hired as chief designer.
By 1917 realizing that he needed to strengthen the company's technical capability Scott-Paine advertised for a personal assistant. The successful applicant was R. J. Mitchell, who so impressed Scott-Paine he was hired on the spot and given a range of roles within the company to expose him to every aspect of the business including within a year acted for a period as assistant works manager.
In 1917 the company was contracted to build Short 184 torpedo bombers and Norman Thompson NT2B trainers.
In response to the issue of Navy Air Board Specification N.1(b) in early 1917, the company designed what later was called the Supermarine Baby. Three were subsequently built.
Despite the signing of the armistice agreement and with little prospect of any military contracts for some time lead to the company diversifying by employing its woodworkers in constructing everything from toilet seats to wooden framed bodies for Ford Model T cars.
At the end of the war Supermarine was the only British aircraft constructor dedicated to building flying boats and Scott-Paine still wished the company to continue in this specialist field. To this end Supermarine joined the Society of British Aircraft Constructors in late 1919 and purchased from the government about 16 surplus AD Flying boats and the two completed Supermarine Babys. Supermarine modified 10 of the AD Flying boats to produce the commercial "Type C" Channel flying boats. The reconfigured aircraft provided accommodation for a pilot and three passengers in three open cockpits. Once the ban on civilian flying was lifted in May 1919 the ten aircraft were registered in June 1919, with three being granted civil certificates of airworthiness at the end of July of that same year. Services commenced in August from Southampton with typically three in service.
To pilot the commercial services Scott-Paine employed ex-RNAS pilots Henry Biard, Francis Bailey, Philip Brend. John Hoare, Basil Hobbs and Herbert Horsey.
Following the completion of his duties for the Royal Naval Air Service NZAS James Bird (1883–1946) was invited in 1919 by Scott-Paine to joined Supermarine as a director. A qualified marine architect he had previously been supervising contracts being undertaken by various companies in the Solent area for the RNAS.
In the summer of 1919 William Hargreaves left to work for Vospers and later in the year Mitchell at the age of 24 was promoted to succeed him as chief designer. In 1920, Mitchell's role was expanded to include that of chief engineer. In 1927, he was offered and accepted a position on the board as Technical Director.
Other than the income from operating commercial flights, the main income between 1919 and 1921 came from selling Channels with a modified design known as the Channel II being developed. As well as sales within Great Britain the company was able to sell 19 overseas, to customers, including Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden.
In 1919 Scott-Paine decided to enter an aircraft from Supermarine in the upcoming 1919 Schneider Trophy contest. A suitable aircraft was produced by heavily modifying N61, the youngest of the two Babys that it had purchased from the government. Fitted with a Napier Lion engine it was given the name Sea Lion. Flown by Basil Hobbs the aircraft sank on 10 September 1919 after it struck flotsam while competing in the event.
In early 1920 the company developed the Supermarine Sea King a single seat flying boat fighter resembling the Baby and the contemporary Sea Lion racing aircraft. While the prototype of which was exhibited at the Olympia air show but obtained no sales. This was subsequently fitted with new wings and tail surfaces and fitted with a more powerful engine, which Supermarine designating it as the Sea King II. No sales were however forthcoming.
For the 1922 Schneider Trophy contest, which was being held in Naples, Italy, the company modified the Sea King II by increasing the size of the rudder and fin and fitting a more powerful engine which gave a 50 percent increase in power. Designated Sea Lion II the aircraft won the contest and thus stopped the Italians from winning the trophy outright.
With it looking likely that no British company would be entering an aircraft in the 1923 Schneider Trophy contest Scott-Paine was persuaded by the British organizers to enter. As Supermarine being in a poor financial state, Mitchell was restricted to modifying the Sea Lion II, the result which was designated Sea Lion III and proved to be uncompetitive.
For the 1924 contest Mitchell began design work on a completely new flying-boat biplane design called the Sea Urchin, which would have been fitted with a Rolls-Royce engine. However, there was insufficient time to overcome a number of design issues which lead to Supermarine withdrawing from the event.
In the early 1920s the company developed a series of similar one-off amphibians. The most notable of these was the Seal II, which was a three-seater fleet spotter paid for by the Air Ministry. After it performed well during its evaluation by the RAF, two examples of an improved version, named the Seagull were subsequently purchased by the Air Ministry in 1922. Once these were completed faced with no further orders the company considered closing down part of the factory and laying off staff. Bird approached the Air Ministry for assistance and while he received no orders they were encouraging. At the same time Scott-Paine was close to forming the British Marine Air Navigation Company, which it was expected would place an order for aircraft with Supermarine. In expectation of receiving an order the directors decided not to reduce staff numbers. Meanwhile, to meet the requirements of the expected order Mitchell designed the Sea King in late 1922 to carry six passengers in an enclosed cabin. After receiving confirmation that subsidies would be available from the British government Scott-Paine was able together with Southern Rail and the Asiatic Petroleum to establish the British Marine Air Navigation Company in 1923. They subsequently ordered three Sea Kings, which were used to commence a daily service on 25 September 1923 between Southampton and Guernsey. Then late in 1922 orders were received from the Air Ministry for five Seagull IIs followed by two further orders in early 1923. Later orders for what was called the Seagull III were received in 1925 from the Royal Australian Navy.
Partly due to Scott-Paine's preoccupation with developing the airline business the relationship between him and Bird began to breakdown. As a result, Bird assembled sufficient funds and on 16 November 1923 he confronted Scott-Paine who after negotiation accepted Bird's offer of £192,000 of his shares and left the company.
In 1925 in an attempt to obtain additional funds with which to expand the business the original company was wound up with all creditors paid in full and a new public limited company with the same name was established and listed on the Stock Exchange with a capitalisation rising from £13,500 to £250,000.
In 1926 existing Chief Draughtsman Frank Holroyd was promoted to become Assistant Chief Engineer, while Joseph "Joe" Smith was designated as Chief Draughtsman.
Looking to expand away from the market for small amphibians and flying boats which was becoming more competitive as Blackburn and Short Brothers entered the market, the company designed large multi-engine flying boats to Air Ministry specifications. As a result, one example was built of the Scylla, a torpedo bomber triplane flying boat to specification 14/21. No orders were forthcoming. One example was also built of the Swan, a twin-engined biplane commercial amphibian to specification 21/22. Capable of carrying 12 passengers it was first flown in March 1924 and tested by the MAEE. The Air Ministry was so impressed with the results that they ordered a military derivative to specification 18/24. Six were ordered, subsequently entering service in 1925 as the Southampton. A further orders soon followed. To manufacture the Southampton, which was much larger than their previous designs a new fabrication workshop were built in 1924 and an erection hangar in 1926. Still short of room, in early 1927 the company took out a lease on the Air Ministry's large wartime flying boat assembly and testing facilities at Hythe. Final erection and testing of the Southamptons was then moved to Hythe, which was on the opposite side of the Solent from the Woolston works.
While the Southampton Mk I had wooden hulls, the Air Ministry indicated that they wanted future flying boats to be metal hulled and paid for the construction of a prototype. Compared with wooden hulls, metal hulls were stronger, lighter and didn't become heavier over time as the wood soaked up water.
To enable them to construct metal hulls Supermarine established a metallurgy department headed by Arthur Black (who joined the company at the end of 1925) and established metal production facilities at their Woolston works. The resulting metal hulled version of the Southampton entered service as the Mk II. The Southampton series was very successful with a total of 83 of all types being built.
As a result of the success of the Seagull and Southampton between 1923 and 1927 sales rose from £137,683 to £403,868 and profits from £58,002 to £111,935.
While it had been Scott-Paine' love of speed and competitive nature that had been the driving force behind the company's entry's in the early Schneider Trophy contests, Bird was happy to continue Supermarine's involvement as he wanted to use it to enhance the company profile. After the failure of their 1924 entry, and realizing that other countries designs were far superior, Mitchell reached the conclusion that racing flying boats were no longer competitive. As a result, he designed a monoplane seaplane called the S.4 which was used to set a new world air speed record over Southampton Water of 226.75 mph (364.9 kmh). . However the sole example crashed during testing prior to the event, forcing the company to withdraw from the event.
With sponsorship from the Air Ministry, Mitchell began to design a new streamlined monoplane aircraft designated the S.5. Compared with the S.4 which was completely fabricated from wood, the new design had metal floats and fuselage. This was a major risk as at the time Supermarine had no prior experience in metal construction and had still to commission their new metalworking department. Unfortunately as either the S.5 or any other design from a British company was ready in time Britain did not enter the 1926 contest. Once the design was finished Supermarine received an order in late 1926 for two examples, with an order for a third following in early 1927. The S.5 dominated the 1927 contest, finishing first and second. The third example crashed killing its pilot while he was attempting to set a new air speed record over the Solent in 1928.
In the late 1920s Vickers Ltd began a series of divestments and mergers as it attempted to improve the strength and profitability of the group. The most notable was their merging with long term rival in January 1928 with Armstrong Whitworth to form Vickers-Armstrongs, with the exception of the Armstrong-Whitworth aircraft division and Armstrong Siddeley motor car division, which were bought out by J. D. Siddeley, and so did not join the new group.
The new Vickers-Armstrong entity retained the existing Vickers aircraft manufacturing diversion which was restructured as a semi-independent subsidiary called Vickers (Aviation) Ltd under the management of Robert McLean. McLean was tasked with expanding the new company which he undertook by improving the capability of the existing factory and looking for new facilities. Identifying that a manufacturer of flying boats would be good fit with their existing expertise designing and constructing land-based aircraft they evaluated a number of possible acquisitions. Blackburn was in poor condition, Saunders was potentially too costly as a consortium headed by A.V. Roe was proposing to purchase them, while Short was too big and diverse. That left Supermarine.
Aware that Supermarine's ability to modernise and expand was limited by a lack of financial resources, Bird and the other directors agreed to sell to Vickers in 1928. Vickers paid £390,000 and renamed it as "Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd".
Subsequently, in December 1938, following both Air Ministry's and the Vickers board's concerns over delays to the Spitfire and Wellington manufacturing programmes, all Vickers-Armstrongs aviation interests were reorganised to become Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, with both Vickers and Supermarine now under a single management team. Both subsidiaries were then formally wound up, although Supermarine continued to design, build and trade under its own name. The phrase Vickers Supermarine was applied to the aircraft.
Despite selling his shares to Vickers-Armstrongs, Bird stayed on as Managing Director of Supermarine while Mitchell continued as chief designer. He had signed a 10-year employment contract in 1923, that included a clause that said, if he left Supermarine he could not work for any other competitor without the directors written consent.
While Supermarine was extremely profitable McLean and his management team were of the opinion that as well as wages being higher than at Vickers, it was also not being run efficiently, had poor record keeping, stock control, and was poorly equipped to build all-metal aircraft, with the ratio of unskilled to skilled labour at 1:3 compared with Vickers' 3:1. They therefore saw numerous opportunities to improve the profitability.
One measure Vickers undertook was to send their experienced engineer Barnes Wallis to overhaul the work practices in the design department. He arrived while Mitchell was away on his 1929 Christmas holidays and after installing himself in Mitchell's office began to make changes. Mitchell returned in the New Year, expressed his outrage at Wallis's presumption and immediately moved him to a disused loft in a remote corner of the Woolston works with orders to his staff not to make the interloper comfortable. Wallis eventually complained to McLean, who raised it with the board of Vickers-Armstrongs. Faced with Mitchell's threat to resign if Wallis remained, they backed down and Wallis was recalled back to Weybridge.
Shortly after Wallis's departure Major Harold Payn, an engineer from Vickers design department was appointed by Vickers as Mitchell's deputy. A former pilot with experience from World War I, as well as testing aircraft despite little design experience it was hoped that he would be more diplomatic in bringing Supermarine's design office into agreement with Vickers work practices.
That said the parent company provided the combined Vickers (Aviation) Ltd with £250,000 in 1929 to support research and development.
As a consequence the capabilities of the design team at Supermarine were expanded by employing among others Alfred Faddy, William Munro (who had expertise in hydrodynamics and metal hull construction) and Beverley Shenstone who was the first academically trained aerodynamicist at Supermarine. As a consequence the services of Mitchell's deputy Frank Holroyd were no longer required and he was dismissed. By 1931 the restructuring of the company ended with Mitchell still technical director and reporting to him, the Technical Office under Alan Clifton and the Drawing Office under Joe Smith.
Vickers' own pilots took over test flying, which led to Henry Biard's role as Supermarine's test pilot since 1919 coming to an end. As a result, he left in 1933.
Trevor Westbrook, a 28 years old and relatively inexperienced protégé of Robert McLean, was installed as Works Manager with a brief to improve the factory. His direct and forthright manner was not met with universal approval by the staff, but under his direction the factory was rebuilt, rationalised and extended, while the production methods were improved. In 1937 he was promoted within the Vickers group and left Supermarine. He was succeeded at Supermarine by H.B. Pratt.
In response to the onset of the Depression in 1929, with completion of contracts for Southampton running down and no new aircraft orders being received it was necessary to reduce construction staff numbers by a third over the winter of 1930. Vickers supported Supermarine by contracting it to build the wings and undertake the final completion of two Vickers Viastra airliners and then employing it to construct a special version called the Viastra X, for the Prince of Wales. The other notable work was the design of the Type 179, a six-engined flying boat, which lead to the company being awarded a contract to build a prototype. Construction proceeded as far as the construction of the hull before the contract was cancelled.
For the next contest Mitchell created the all metal S.6 which featured the smallest possible airframe that he could design around a Rolls-Royce engine instead of the Napier engines used in the S.4 and S.5. This design won the 1929 contest.
For the 1931 contest Mitchell created the S.6a, a derivative of the S6. This won the contest and as Britain had won the trophy three times in a row it confirmed Britain as the outright and final winner of the Schneider trophy.
Following the contest a S6b, flown by Flt Lt G. H. Stainforth went on to set a new world air speed record of 407.5 mph.
In response to a 1929 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) requirement for an aircraft to replace their Seagull IIIs, but with the ability to be catapult-launched from cruisers, the company in 1931 designated the Type 223 "Seagull V" as a private venture and built a prototype. This eventually led to the RAAF placing an order in 1934 for 24 production versions which were designated Type 228 "Seagull V". The Royal Navy was impressed by the new design and placed an order for 12 aircraft which were virtually identical except for a more powerful engine. Given the designation Type 236, they entered service as the Walrus. More orders were to follow until a total of 740 were built in all by Supermarine and other firms.
Following on from the Southampton Mk II the company developed the biplane twin-engined Southampton IV in response to specification R.20/31 for a general reconnaissance flying boat. Featuring all-metal construction with fabric covered flying surfaces, it had an enclosed cockpit. The prototype first flew in July 1932. Renamed the Scapa fifteen were built.
Soon after the design of the Scapa was finalised, the Air Ministry issued specification R.24/31 for a twin-engined general purpose flying boat, in response to which Supermarine developed the Stranraer. The prototype first flew in July 1934 and they entered service from April 1937, with the last being delivered to the RAF in 1939. Vickers in Canada also built them for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
In 1930, the Air Ministry began formulating the requirements for an advanced high-performance fighter which were spelled out in specification F.7/30, which was in turn issued in the autumn of 1931 to a number of aircraft manufacturers. Among them was Supermarine, who were keen to broaden its product range from seaplanes and flying boats. In response to the specification, Mitchell designed the Type 224, an all-metal monoplane design, with an open cockpit, un-braced cranked wing and fixed undercarriage. A single prototype was built and first flew in February 1934. Flight testing however identified that it had only average performance and so Supermarine received no production contract.
Unhappy at how the Type 224 had turned out Mitchell as was his wont commenced in July 1934 designing what he hoped would be a much improved fighter, which was given the designation Type 300. It was much better streamlined than the Type 224, with a shorter wing, retractable undercarriage and an enclosed cockpit. Mitchell continued to evolve the design, striving for the maximum performance he could get from the engine and airframe combination. In November 1934 the design was further revised to accommodate the promising new Rolls-Royce PV.XII (PV-12) engine, which was later named the Merlin. The estimated performance of the new design was such that McLean approved in November 1934 expenditure on detailed design of a prototype, as he was confident that funding of a prototype was extremely likely from what was a supportive Air Ministry. Within a month of receiving the initial data, the Air Ministry issued specification F.37/34 to cover the construction of a prototype Type 300.
Given the name Spitfire by the Vickers board, the prototype Type 300 when it first flew on 5 March 1936 at nearby Eastleigh airport marked a revolutionary advance for the RAF. The Air Ministry was so impressed that on 3 June 1936 it ordered 310.
The earlier Hawker Hurricane and the Spitfire were the mainstay of RAF Fighter Command fighter aircraft which fought off the "Luftwaffe" bombing raids with fighter escorts during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.
While the Hurricane was available in larger numbers and consequently played a larger role, the new Spitfire became adored by both the public and its pilots and became the aircraft associated with the battle. It went on to play a major part in the remainder of the war, in a number of variants and marks, and it was the only allied fighter aircraft to be in production through the entirety of the Second World War.
It went out of service in 1954.
At the time of receiving its first order for the Spitfire the company did not have the management skills, organisation tools and physical space as this one order was more than double the total number of aircraft they had built in the previous 20 years. As a result, much of the work had to be sub-contracted to other firms, which led to chaos with drawings and the delivery of parts. To compound the problem skilled sheet-metal workers were in short supply. Supermarine had contracted to deliver the first Spitfire in September 1937, but by early 1938 a single plane had still not left the factory.
Upon receipt of the order Supermarine commenced fitting out its Woolston Works for production of the new fighter. With the orders for the Spitfire as well as for the Stranraer and Walrus the company a new factory to the designs of the noted 1930's modernist architect, Oliver Percy Bernard and known as the Itchen Works was built on land reclaimed from the River Itchen just upstream from the Woolston Works. Opened in 1939, it was originally intended that it would be used to build the Walrus and Sea Otter, but because of its importance it was soon being used to construct Spitfire fuselages.
In 1938 with Walrus production having peaked the previous year the facility at Hythe was closed.
While it was intended that outside sub-contractors would be employed in manufacturing many major components, Vickers-Armstrongs was initially reluctant to see companies from outside of the group involved and so was slow in releasing the necessary sub-components and drawings. As delays mounted the Air Ministry proposed that Supermarine would only complete the initial order and then once the Hawker Typhoon was ready for service in 1941 switch over to making Bristol Beaufighters. Supermarine was able to convince the Air Ministry that the problems would be overcome, which allayed the concerns sufficient for them to receive another order for 200 Spitfires on 24 March 1938. Supermarine was to subsequently organise over 200 sub-contractors to produce components for the Spitfire, with 27 of them producing fully assembled major components, four building the main section of the wing, four building wing tips and another five building flaps. The major components were then taken on trucks to Eastleigh Airport where fitting of the engines, final assembly and flight testing was undertaken before being distributed to operational RAF bases.
Due to the production delays, the first RAF unit, 19 Squadron at Duxford, didn't start receiving Spitfire Mk Is until 4 August 1938.
Even then, production was slow to build up, and only 49 Spitfires had reached the RAF by 1 January 1939. By 3 September 1939 a total of 306 Spitfire Mk Is had been delivered to the RAF.
Aware of the desperate shortage of modern aircraft, the lack of manufacturing capacity and that as the majority of aircraft manufacturers were located in the south of England, which made them vulnerable to enemy air attack, the British government in 1935 commenced the "Shadow Factory" programme. These massive new "Shadow Factories", which it was intended would employ the latest production techniques, were to be set up in areas away from the immediate threat of attack and where it was felt there would be sufficient transferable skills which could be employed on the manufacturing process. For the Spitfire, Lord Nuffield offered to build the massive Castle Bromwich Shadow Factory near Birmingham.
Work began on its construction on 12 July 1938. However continual problems beset the factory and despite it having been planned that it would be producing 60 aircraft per week by April 1940 it was not until June 1940 (well into the Battle of Britain) that the problems were resolved by new management, with the first 10 Spitfires being delivered that month. Thereafter production increased to reach a maximum rate of 320 aircraft per month. By the end of the war it had produced a total of 12,129 aircraft (which was over half of all Spitfires made).
In response to Air Ministry specification B.12/36, which was issued in July 1936 to all the major aircraft manufacturers for a four-engined heavy bomber, Mitchell designed the Type 316 which carried its bombs in both the fuselage and wings. After submitting the Supermarine proposal, Mitchell in characteristic fashion began a total redesign called the Type 317 with new wings and different gun turrets. Two prototypes of the Type 317 were ordered in March 1937.
Following the death of Mitchell in June 1937 after a long battle with cancer and with Supermarine having problems meeting the demand for the Spitfire the Air Ministry realised that work on the prototypes would be delayed. Therefore, as a precaution they provided funding in 1937 for the development of the competing design from Short Brothers. This design eventually entered service as the Short Stirling.
The Type 317 prototypes were destroyed by an air raid in 1940, before work had progressed to a point where they flew.
Following the death of Mitchell, his deputy Harold Payn was appointed Chief Designer. However a security check in September 1939 identified that Payn had a German born wife. Concerns about the risk this posed to a major war program saw Payn dismissed. Joe Smith was promoted from Chief Draughtsman, at first to acting manager of the design department and finally to chief designer in 1941 following approval from the Ministry of Aircraft Production.
In 1940 Bird retired as general manager and was superseded by W.T. Elliot.
Upon the commencement of the war to protect the Supermarine factory at Woolston, anti-aircraft guns were placed at Peartree Green, the Railway Bridge and Taggarts Wharf.
At the time completed Spitfire wings and fuselages were taken on lorries from the Woolston and Itchen works, to the assembly hangar at Eastleigh Airport where the Merlin engines were fitted and the assembled aircraft tested. Under the supervision of works manager H.B. Pratt, a partial dispersal of Spitfire production away from the works at Woolston also begun. However, the production delays at Castle Bromwich meant that Supermarine could not afford any interruption in production at Woolston and Itchen which constrained dispersal. However progress was made on identifying suitable sites and requisitioning them.
To allow Supermarine to concentrate on Spitfires, Saunders Roe on the Isle of Wight took on the manufacture of the Walrus and Sea Otter.
The Supermarine factory and the Thornycroft naval shipyard (building destroyers, near the Woolston works) made Southampton a prime target for the Luftwaffe. Shortly after 5.30pm on the evening of 15 September 1940, the factory was directly attacked by eighteen Me 110s, each carrying two bombs. Only a few windows were broken, though nine people were killed in nearby houses.
The raid brought home that immediate action was now needed to disperse production. The buildings that had been sitting idle were prepared, and tools and jigs were gradually moved from Woolston and Itchen to the new facilities.
The Commercial and Personnel departments (which included payroll) moved to Deepdene House in Bitterne. This was fortunate as it allowed workers to receive emergency pay following later raids, when it was desperately needed, as the homes of many were destroyed by bombs.
On 24 September 1940, the works were attacked by 17 aircraft at 1.50pm and again by three aircraft at 4.15pm. The initial raid of Me 110s was led by Martin Lutz of TG210, and by flying low and fast achieved complete surprise, with the workforce receiving little warning of the raid. 29 high explosive bombs and one incendiary were dropped. There was little damage to the factory as most of the 17 bombs which fell on the site landed in the mud of the river. However, 42 were killed and 161 injured, many when the railway bridge, under which workers were still making their way to air raid shelters, received a direct hit, as did one of the already occupied bomb shelters beneath a railway embankment, where 24 were killed and 75 injured. Also many nearby houses were destroyed with terrible loss of life. Works manager H.B. Pratt was wounded and badly traumatised by the attack.
Two days later, on 26 September, sixty Heinkel He 111s of KG55 escorted by 60 Me 110 fighters of ZG26 attacked from 5.45pm onwards in two waves. The incoming attack was detected early, with factory sirens sounding just after 4pm, which gave the workers ample time to evacuate. In spite of anti-aircraft fire more than 70 tons of bombs were dropped, with seven bombs directly hitting the Woolston works and one hitting the Itchen works. The factory buildings at Woolston were so badly damaged that they were never rebuilt, and the ruins were at one stage used to train commandos in street fighting. Both prototypes of the Type 317 bomber and three complete Spitfires were destroyed, while over 20 Spitfires were damaged. Luckily, several of the critical production jigs had already been moved to other sites and the remainder of the most important precision machines were virtually undamaged. One bomb scored a direct hit on a bomb shelter, but it was unoccupied as – after the experience of previous raid – many of the employees had run well away from the factory area. Even so, 55 were killed and 92 injured.
By this time the new factory at Castle Bromwich was producing Spitfires, but with a desperate need for more aircraft Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister of Aircraft Production visited Southampton and immediately ordered a complete dispersal of Supermarine's facilities. The top floor of the Polygon Hotel in the centre of Southampton was immediately requisitioned by the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) for the use of Supermarine's production team.
Work immediately began by the production team under the leadership of the company's works engineer, Leonard G. Gooch on a dispersal program. Gooch's impressive efforts meant that by December 1940 he formally replaced Platt as Works Manager. The replacement of Pratt is also believed to have been partially orchestrated by Beaverbrook in retaliation for Pratt's refusal prior to the air raids to allow staff from the Ministry of Aircraft Production into the Supermarine factories without the proper credentials. Pratt, overworked and suffering from depression, committed suicide soon afterwards.
During the 26 September air raid at least one bomb had passed through the drawing office, out of the window and into the mud on the river bank below; another went straight through the floor without exploding. As a result, the majority of the design material and drawings survived. The design team were quickly moved to temporary accommodation in old World War 1 army huts, being used by the University College in Highfield.
On 7 December 1940 all of the company's design, production and administration was moved to a new permanent home at Hursley House. Located close to Winchester, this large stately house was requisitioned by the Ministry of Aircraft Production from the Dowager Lady Mary Cooper, who remained in residence until June 1942.
It was decided that new dispersed facilities should stay within 50 miles of Southampton so that control and communication could be maintained. By mid November 1940, 35 workshops were up and running. Eventually there were 250 sub-contractors supplying 60 workshops in Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire, clustered around four production centres: Reading (with assembly at Aldermaston and Henley), Salisbury (with assembly at Chattis Hill and High Post), Southampton (with assembly at Eastleigh) and Trowbridge (with assembly at Keevil). An additional area around Winchester and Chandler's Ford was linked to the main design base at Hursley Park.
Each production centre had workshops able to make each part of the plane and an airfield at which final assembly and delivery could be performed. The smallest assembly centre was High Post where the assembly hangar was so small that only three Spitfires could be assembled at a time. Production was six a week.
Castle Bromwich concentrated on the standard models of Spitfires, including the Mk II, V, IX and XIV, as it was time-consuming to change its mass assembly production lines from one model to another. In contrast the dispersed production and small output from each individual production centre surrounding Southampton had the advantage of allowing flexibility and responsiveness without major disruption to the overall production. Each production centre tended to specialise on a particular model of Spitfire and so could much more quickly provide smaller numbers of specialised aircraft in response to a new threat or requirement of the RAF and Royal Navy.
The Southampton workforce increased from 2,880 at the start of the war to 3,660 in September 1940, dropped to 3,079 in December 1940 as a result of the air raid before increasing to 10,000 (half of them women) by the end of 1944.
When looking for suitable sites, preference was placed on buildings with wide concrete floors, uncluttered by pillars, with high ceilings and large access doors. While garages, vehicle showrooms and other workshops were capable of constructing sub-assemblies and even complete fuselages, bus depots with their extra height were valued for the making of wings. Many local garages and large store premises were requisitioned to provide the required facilities. Among the buildings requisitioned were Carey & Lambert's showroom at Austin House in Southampton, Chiswell's Garage, Elliott's furniture factory in Newbury, Hendy's Garage, off Pound Tree Road in the centre of Southampton, Hendy's Agricultural Equipment Showroom at Chandlers Ford, Lowthers Garage on Park Road in Shirley, Seward's Garage, on Winchester Road in Shirley, Shorts Garage, Southampton, Sunlight Laundry also on Winchester Road, and Vincent's Garage in Reading.
While most owners left with little complaint there were some who objected. The Hants and Dorset Bus Depot on Winchester Road in Southampton was already being used to store sandbags and pumps needed by the Fire Brigade in the event of an air raid. The deputy town clerk refused to move the pumps as he considered them to be more important. Eventually sufficient official pressure was brought to bear and the council moved the buses and pumps out, leaving Supermarine with the job of disposing of sandbags. The Mayor of Salisbury initially objected to the takeover of the city's bus depot until it was pointed out to him by MAP that as the local patron of the Spitfire Fund, it was no use collecting money if there was nowhere to build the aircraft. Near Trowbridge the owner of the Barnes steamroller factory on Church Street in Southwick thought his steamrollers were more important and appealed to his local MP. An arbitration panel ruled that Supermarine could have 75% of the factory; a wall was built to separate the two activities. Later a large purpose-built facility was built on Bradley Road in Trowbridge, where the main body and wing were made, and parts incorporated from other Towbridge factories added, before being transported on trucks to Keevil Airfield. In a hangar at Keevil the Spitfire would be assembled, tested and then flown by an ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) pilot to a frontline airfield.
Often there were also conflicts with other Ministries, who had already requisitioned sites needed by Supermarine, but the Ministry for Aircraft Production usually ruled supreme as the production of aircraft had the highest priority.
Production fell from 363 aircraft in the quarter before the raids to 177 and 179 respectively in the next two quarters. It took another nine months before it was back to 100 per month, as the programme both had to find suitable new facilities, sufficient skilled workers to replace those killed and wounded and also the additional numbers needed to increase production, while at the same time provide accommodation for them. There was a great reluctance of Southampton-based workers to move away to the new dispersal facilities. Once the existing skilled workers were relocated it took time to train new semi-skilled workers. Many were straight out of school or older men who had undergone the Government's basic engineering training. As the war progressed more woman entered the workforce and began to take on more senior roles. By the end of the war, 8,000 planes had been built in the dispersal factories around Southampton.
In addition to the Spitfires and Seafires made at Supermarine's dispersed Southampton factories and at Castle Bromwich, several companies were subcontracted to make entire Supermarine designs. The most significant were Westland Aircraft who were responsible for the manufacture of the majority of the Seafire, making over 2,000, while Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft at their shadow factory at Eastleigh from 1942 converted 118 Spitfires VBs into Seafires before constructing over 520 new Seafires.
Joe Smith was confident that the Spitfire had great development potential and was successful in obtaining the maximum capability from the Spitfire and its naval version the Seafire through numerous variants, including the introduction of the Rolls-Royce Griffon-engined series, all of which ensured that it remained a front line fighter until the end of World War II.
By 1942, the designers had realised that the characteristics of the Spitfire's wing at high Mach numbers might become a limiting factor in further increasing the aircraft's high-speed performance. As a result, work commenced on the Spiteful and Seafang, which were designed to be successors of the Spitfire and Seafire, respectively. However, with the advent of jet propulsion, the future of high-performance fighters was clearly with the jet fighter, so only a small number were built.
Following the end of the war with no further need for dispersal of production the Itchen works was rebuilt but not the Woolston works. The manufacturing facilities were split into the Southern (Chilbolton, Eastleigh, Hursley and Itchen) under Leonard Gooch and Northern (South Marston and Trowbridge) under Stuart Lefevre.
With little demand for flying boats and lacking expertise in large multi-engined aircraft Supermarine concentrated on jet fighters, building the Royal Navy's first jet fighter, the Attacker. To expedite its development Smith used the wings of Spiteful mated to a new fuselage housing a Nene engine. It served front line squadrons aboard aircraft carriers and RNVR squadrons at shore bases. The Attacker was followed by the more advanced Swift which served in the fighter and photo-reconnaissance roles.
The last aircraft to bear the Supermarine name was the Scimitar, the final examples of which were delivered in 1957.
In the late 1950s Supermarine became engaged in non-aviation related work ranging from film equipment to hovercraft (from 1961). The Vickers-Armstrongs VA-3 hovercraft which was constructed in the reconstructed Itchen works.
In the consolidation of British aircraft manufacturing in the late 1950s, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) became a part of the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960 and the individual manufacturing heritage names were lost.
A separate Supermarine design office continued to exist at Weybridge until 1957 when many staff were absorbed into the main Vickers-Armstrong organisation or relocated to the new Supermarine headquarters at South Marston in Wiltshire. In response to government specification GOR.339, Vickers-Armstrong whose design team largely consisted of ex-Supermarine engineers (based in Weybridge) offered the Type 571. This design was eventually merged with that proposed by English-Electric/Short design to create the final design for the BAC TSR-2.
Premiering in February 2018 at NST City in Southampton Howard Brenton's play "The Shadow Factory" told the story of the impact of the air raids on the Supermarine factory in 1940.
The production starred David Birrell (Fred/Hugh), Catherine Cusack (Lil/Sylvia), Lorna Fitzgerald (Jackie Dimmock), Hilton McRae (Lord Beaverbrook) and Daniel York (Len Gooch).
The former Woolston Works is today the site of an aggregate unloading wharf and an apartment block. A nearby memorial plaque remembers those who died during the three air raids in 1940 that targeted the Supermarine works.
The name was revived in 1990 by a company in Burslem called Supermarine Aero Engineering Ltd. that hand builds parts for Spitfire planes.
Northshore Marine Motor Yachts builds a range of motorboats under the Supermarine name in Chichester, Portsmouth, England. The name is also used for Spitfire replicas made by an Australian company in Cisco, Texas.
Initially, the company had no system for naming projects with a structured system only coming into use just prior to the company being purchased by Vickers-Armstrongs. The new owners imposed the Vickers' system where once a new project was approved for further work a Type number was allocated. Vickers initially assigned a block of Type numbers from 178 to 190 to Supermarine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27548 |
Set theory
Set theory is a branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which informally are collections of objects. Although any type of object can be collected into a set, set theory is applied most often to objects that are relevant to mathematics. The language of set theory can be used to define nearly all mathematical objects.
The modern study of set theory was initiated by Georg Cantor and Richard Dedekind in the 1870s. After the discovery of paradoxes in naive set theory, such as Russell's paradox, numerous axiom systems were proposed in the early twentieth century, of which the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms, with or without the axiom of choice, are the best-known.
Set theory is commonly employed as a foundational system for mathematics, particularly in the form of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice. Beyond its foundational role, set theory is a branch of mathematics in its own right, with an active research community. Contemporary research into set theory includes a diverse collection of topics, ranging from the structure of the real number line to the study of the consistency of large cardinals.
Mathematical topics typically emerge and evolve through interactions among many researchers. Set theory, however, was founded by a single paper in 1874 by Georg Cantor: "On a Property of the Collection of All Real Algebraic Numbers".
Since the 5th century BC, beginning with Greek mathematician Zeno of Elea in the West and early Indian mathematicians in the East, mathematicians had struggled with the concept of infinity. Especially notable is the work of Bernard Bolzano in the first half of the 19th century. Modern understanding of infinity began in 1870–1874 and was motivated by Cantor's work in real analysis. An 1872 meeting between Cantor and Richard Dedekind influenced Cantor's thinking and culminated in Cantor's 1874 paper.
Cantor's work initially polarized the mathematicians of his day. While Karl Weierstrass and Dedekind supported Cantor, Leopold Kronecker, now seen as a founder of mathematical constructivism, did not. Cantorian set theory eventually became widespread, due to the utility of Cantorian concepts, such as one-to-one correspondence among sets, his proof that there are more real numbers than integers, and the "infinity of infinities" ("Cantor's paradise") resulting from the power set operation. This utility of set theory led to the article "Mengenlehre" contributed in 1898 by Arthur Schoenflies to Klein's encyclopedia.
The next wave of excitement in set theory came around 1900, when it was discovered that some interpretations of Cantorian set theory gave rise to several contradictions, called antinomies or paradoxes. Bertrand Russell and Ernst Zermelo independently found the simplest and best known paradox, now called Russell's paradox: consider "the set of all sets that are not members of themselves", which leads to a contradiction since it must be a member of itself and not a member of itself. In 1899 Cantor had himself posed the question "What is the cardinal number of the set of all sets?", and obtained a related paradox. Russell used his paradox as a theme in his 1903 review of continental mathematics in his "The Principles of Mathematics".
In 1906 English readers gained the book "Theory of Sets of Points" by husband and wife William Henry Young and Grace Chisholm Young, published by Cambridge University Press.
The momentum of set theory was such that debate on the paradoxes did not lead to its abandonment. The work of Zermelo in 1908 and the work of Abraham Fraenkel and Thoralf Skolem in 1922 resulted in the set of axioms ZFC, which became the most commonly used set of axioms for set theory. The work of analysts such as Henri Lebesgue demonstrated the great mathematical utility of set theory, which has since become woven into the fabric of modern mathematics. Set theory is commonly used as a foundational system, although in some areas—such as algebraic geometry and algebraic topology—category theory is thought to be a preferred foundation.
Set theory begins with a fundamental binary relation between an object and a set . If is a member (or element) of , the notation is used. A set is described by listing elements separated by commas, or by a characterizing property of its elements, within braces { }. Since sets are objects, the membership relation can relate sets as well.
A derived binary relation between two sets is the subset relation, also called set inclusion. If all the members of set are also members of set , then is a subset of , denoted . For example, is a subset of , and so is but is not. As insinuated from this definition, a set is a subset of itself. For cases where this possibility is unsuitable or would make sense to be rejected, the term proper subset is defined. is called a proper subset of if and only if is a subset of , but is not equal to . Also 1, 2, and 3 are members (elements) of the set but are not subsets of it; and in turn, the subsets, such as {1}, are not members of the set {1, 2, 3}.
Just as arithmetic features binary operations on numbers, set theory features binary operations on sets. The:
Some basic sets of central importance are the empty set (the unique set containing no elements; occasionally called the "null set" though this name is ambiguous), the set of natural numbers, and the set of real numbers.
A set is pure if all of its members are sets, all members of its members are sets, and so on. For example, the set containing only the empty set is a nonempty pure set. In modern set theory, it is common to restrict attention to the von Neumann universe of pure sets, and many systems of axiomatic set theory are designed to axiomatize the pure sets only. There are many technical advantages to this restriction, and little generality is lost, because essentially all mathematical concepts can be modeled by pure sets. Sets in the von Neumann universe are organized into a cumulative hierarchy, based on how deeply their members, members of members, etc. are nested. Each set in this hierarchy is assigned (by transfinite recursion) an ordinal number formula_1, known as its rank. The rank of a pure set formula_2 is defined to be the least upper bound of all successors of ranks of members of formula_2. For example, the empty set is assigned rank 0, while the set containing only the empty set is assigned rank 1. For each ordinal formula_1, the set formula_5 is defined to consist of all pure sets with rank less than formula_1. The entire von Neumann universe is denoted formula_7.
Elementary set theory can be studied informally and intuitively, and so can be taught in primary schools using Venn diagrams. The intuitive approach tacitly assumes that a set may be formed from the class of all objects satisfying any particular defining condition. This assumption gives rise to paradoxes, the simplest and best known of which are Russell's paradox and the Burali-Forti paradox. Axiomatic set theory was originally devised to rid set theory of such paradoxes.
The most widely studied systems of axiomatic set theory imply that all sets form a cumulative hierarchy. Such systems come in two flavors, those whose ontology consists of:
The above systems can be modified to allow urelements, objects that can be members of sets but that are not themselves sets and do not have any members.
The New Foundations systems of NFU (allowing urelements) and NF (lacking them) are not based on a cumulative hierarchy. NF and NFU include a "set of everything, " relative to which every set has a complement. In these systems urelements matter, because NF, but not NFU, produces sets for which the axiom of choice does not hold.
Systems of constructive set theory, such as CST, CZF, and IZF, embed their set axioms in intuitionistic instead of classical logic. Yet other systems accept classical logic but feature a nonstandard membership relation. These include rough set theory and fuzzy set theory, in which the value of an atomic formula embodying the membership relation is not simply True or False. The Boolean-valued models of ZFC are a related subject.
An enrichment of ZFC called internal set theory was proposed by Edward Nelson in 1977.
Many mathematical concepts can be defined precisely using only set theoretic concepts. For example, mathematical structures as diverse as graphs, manifolds, rings, and vector spaces can all be defined as sets satisfying various (axiomatic) properties. Equivalence and order relations are ubiquitous in mathematics, and the theory of mathematical relations can be described in set theory.
Set theory is also a promising foundational system for much of mathematics. Since the publication of the first volume of "Principia Mathematica", it has been claimed that most or even all mathematical theorems can be derived using an aptly designed set of axioms for set theory, augmented with many definitions, using first or second-order logic. For example, properties of the natural and real numbers can be derived within set theory, as each number system can be identified with a set of equivalence classes under a suitable equivalence relation whose field is some infinite set.
Set theory as a foundation for mathematical analysis, topology, abstract algebra, and discrete mathematics is likewise uncontroversial; mathematicians accept that (in principle) theorems in these areas can be derived from the relevant definitions and the axioms of set theory. Few full derivations of complex mathematical theorems from set theory have been formally verified, however, because such formal derivations are often much longer than the natural language proofs mathematicians commonly present. One verification project, Metamath, includes human-written, computer-verified derivations of more than 12,000 theorems starting from ZFC set theory, first-order logic and propositional logic.
Set theory is a major area of research in mathematics, with many interrelated subfields.
Combinatorial set theory concerns extensions of finite combinatorics to infinite sets. This includes the study of cardinal arithmetic and the study of extensions of Ramsey's theorem such as the Erdős–Rado theorem.
Descriptive set theory is the study of subsets of the real line and, more generally, subsets of Polish spaces. It begins with the study of pointclasses in the Borel hierarchy and extends to the study of more complex hierarchies such as the projective hierarchy and the Wadge hierarchy. Many properties of Borel sets can be established in ZFC, but proving these properties hold for more complicated sets requires additional axioms related to determinacy and large cardinals.
The field of effective descriptive set theory is between set theory and recursion theory. It includes the study of lightface pointclasses, and is closely related to hyperarithmetical theory. In many cases, results of classical descriptive set theory have effective versions; in some cases, new results are obtained by proving the effective version first and then extending ("relativizing") it to make it more broadly applicable.
A recent area of research concerns Borel equivalence relations and more complicated definable equivalence relations. This has important applications to the study of invariants in many fields of mathematics.
In set theory as Cantor defined and Zermelo and Fraenkel axiomatized, an object is either a member of a set or not. In fuzzy set theory this condition was relaxed by Lotfi A. Zadeh so an object has a "degree of membership" in a set, a number between 0 and 1. For example, the degree of membership of a person in the set of "tall people" is more flexible than a simple yes or no answer and can be a real number such as 0.75.
An inner model of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZF) is a transitive class that includes all the ordinals and satisfies all the axioms of ZF. The canonical example is the constructible universe "L" developed by Gödel.
One reason that the study of inner models is of interest is that it can be used to prove consistency results. For example, it can be shown that regardless of whether a model "V" of ZF satisfies the continuum hypothesis or the axiom of choice, the inner model "L" constructed inside the original model will satisfy both the generalized continuum hypothesis and the axiom of choice. Thus the assumption that ZF is consistent (has at least one model) implies that ZF together with these two principles is consistent.
The study of inner models is common in the study of determinacy and large cardinals, especially when considering axioms such as the axiom of determinacy that contradict the axiom of choice. Even if a fixed model of set theory satisfies the axiom of choice, it is possible for an inner model to fail to satisfy the axiom of choice. For example, the existence of sufficiently large cardinals implies that there is an inner model satisfying the axiom of determinacy (and thus not satisfying the axiom of choice).
A large cardinal is a cardinal number with an extra property. Many such properties are studied, including inaccessible cardinals, measurable cardinals, and many more. These properties typically imply the cardinal number must be very large, with the existence of a cardinal with the specified property unprovable in Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory.
Determinacy refers to the fact that, under appropriate assumptions, certain two-player games of perfect information are determined from the start in the sense that one player must have a winning strategy. The existence of these strategies has important consequences in descriptive set theory, as the assumption that a broader class of games is determined often implies that a broader class of sets will have a topological property. The axiom of determinacy (AD) is an important object of study; although incompatible with the axiom of choice, AD implies that all subsets of the real line are well behaved (in particular, measurable and with the perfect set property). AD can be used to prove that the Wadge degrees have an elegant structure.
Paul Cohen invented the method of forcing while searching for a model of ZFC in which the continuum hypothesis fails, or a model of ZF in which the axiom of choice fails. Forcing adjoins to some given model of set theory additional sets in order to create a larger model with properties determined (i.e. "forced") by the construction and the original model. For example, Cohen's construction adjoins additional subsets of the natural numbers without changing any of the cardinal numbers of the original model. Forcing is also one of two methods for proving relative consistency by finitistic methods, the other method being Boolean-valued models.
A cardinal invariant is a property of the real line measured by a cardinal number. For example, a well-studied invariant is the smallest cardinality of a collection of meagre sets of reals whose union is the entire real line. These are invariants in the sense that any two isomorphic models of set theory must give the same cardinal for each invariant. Many cardinal invariants have been studied, and the relationships between them are often complex and related to axioms of set theory.
Set-theoretic topology studies questions of general topology that are set-theoretic in nature or that require advanced methods of set theory for their solution. Many of these theorems are independent of ZFC, requiring stronger axioms for their proof. A famous problem is the normal Moore space question, a question in general topology that was the subject of intense research. The answer to the normal Moore space question was eventually proved to be independent of ZFC.
From set theory's inception, some mathematicians have objected to it as a foundation for mathematics. The most common objection to set theory, one Kronecker voiced in set theory's earliest years, starts from the constructivist view that mathematics is loosely related to computation. If this view is granted, then the treatment of infinite sets, both in naive and in axiomatic set theory, introduces into mathematics methods and objects that are not computable even in principle. The feasibility of constructivism as a substitute foundation for mathematics was greatly increased by Errett Bishop's influential book "Foundations of Constructive Analysis".
A different objection put forth by Henri Poincaré is that defining sets using the axiom schemas of specification and replacement, as well as the axiom of power set, introduces impredicativity, a type of circularity, into the definitions of mathematical objects. The scope of predicatively founded mathematics, while less than that of the commonly accepted Zermelo-Fraenkel theory, is much greater than that of constructive mathematics, to the point that Solomon Feferman has said that "all of scientifically applicable analysis can be developed [using predicative methods]".
Ludwig Wittgenstein condemned set theory philosophically for its connotations of Mathematical platonism. He wrote that "set theory is wrong", since it builds on the "nonsense" of fictitious symbolism, has "pernicious idioms", and that it is nonsensical to talk about "all numbers". Wittgenstein identified mathematics with algorithmic human deduction; the need for a secure foundation for mathematics seemed, to him, nonsensical. Moreover, since human effort is necessarily finite, Wittgenstein's philosophy required an ontological commitment to radical constructivism and finitism. Meta-mathematical statements — which, for Wittgenstein, included any statement quantifying over infinite domains, and thus almost all modern set theory — are not mathematics. Few modern philosophers have adopted Wittgenstein's views after a spectacular blunder in "Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics": Wittgenstein attempted to refute Gödel's incompleteness theorems after having only read the abstract. As reviewers Kreisel, Bernays, Dummett, and Goodstein all pointed out, many of his critiques did not apply to the paper in full. Only recently have philosophers such as Crispin Wright begun to rehabilitate Wittgenstein's arguments.
Category theorists have proposed topos theory as an alternative to traditional axiomatic set theory. Topos theory can interpret various alternatives to that theory, such as constructivism, finite set theory, and computable set theory. Topoi also give a natural setting for forcing and discussions of the independence of choice from ZF, as well as providing the framework for pointless topology and Stone spaces.
An active area of research is the univalent foundations and related to it homotopy type theory. Within homotopy type theory, a set may be regarded as a homotopy 0-type, with universal properties of sets arising from the inductive and recursive properties of higher inductive types. Principles such as the axiom of choice and the law of the excluded middle can be formulated in a manner corresponding to the classical formulation in set theory or perhaps in a spectrum of distinct ways unique to type theory. Some of these principles may be proven to be a consequence of other principles. The variety of formulations of these axiomatic principles allows for a detailed analysis of the formulations required in order to derive various mathematical results.
As set theory gained popularity as a foundation for modern mathematics, there has been support for the idea of introducing basic theory, or naive set theory, early in mathematics education.
In the US in the 1960s, the New Math experiment aimed to teach basic set theory, among other abstract concepts, to primary grade students, but was met with much criticism. The math syllabus in European schools followed this trend, and currently includes the subject at different levels in all grades.
Set theory is used to introduce students to logical operators (NOT, AND, OR) and semantic or rule description (technically intensional definition) of sets, (e.g. "months starting with the letter "A""). This may be useful when learning computer programming, as sets and boolean logic are basic building blocks of many programming languages.
Sets are commonly referred to when teaching about different types of numbers (, , , ...) and when defining mathematical functions as a relationship between two sets. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27553 |
Sabine Baring-Gould
The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1240 publications, though this list continues to grow. His family home, the manor house of Lew Trenchard, near Okehampton, Devon, has been preserved as he had it rebuilt and is now a hotel. He is remembered particularly as a writer of hymns, the best-known being "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "Now the Day Is Over". He also translated the carol "Gabriel's Message" from the Basque language to English.
Sabine Baring-Gould was born in the parish of St Sidwell, Exeter, on 28 January 1834. He was the eldest son and heir of Edward Baring-Gould (1804–1872), lord of the manor of Lew Trenchard, a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Devon, formerly a lieutenant in the Madras Light Cavalry (resigned 1830), by his first wife, Sophia Charlotte Bond, daughter of Admiral Francis Godolphin Bond, Royal Navy.
Sabine's paternal grandfather was William Baring (died 1846), JP, DL, who in 1795 had assumed by royal licence the additional surname and arms of Gould, in accordance with the terms of his inheritance of the manor of Lew Trenchard from his mother Margaret Gould, daughter and eventual heiress in her issue of William Drake Gould (1719–1767) of Lew Trenchard. The Gould family was descended from a certain John Gold, a crusader present at the siege of Damietta in 1217 who for his valour was granted in 1220 by Ralph de Vallibus an estate at Seaborough in Somerset. Margaret Gould was the wife of Charles Baring (1742–1829) of Courtland in the parish of Exmouth, Devon, whose monument survives in Lympstone Church, 4th son of Johann Baring (1697–1748), of Larkbeare House, Exeter, a German immigrant apprenticed to an Exeter wool merchant, and younger brother of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet (1740–1810), and John Baring (1730–1816) of Mount Radford, Exeter, which latter two established the London merchant house of "John and Francis Baring Company", which eventually became Barings Bank.
Sabine was named after the family of his grandmother, Diana Amelia Sabine (died 1858), wife of William Baring-Gould (died 1846), daughter of Joseph Sabine of Tewin, Hertfordshire and sister of the Arctic explorer General Sir Edward Sabine.
Because the family spent much of his childhood travelling round Europe, most of his education was by private tutors. He only spent about two years in formal schooling, first at King's College School in London (then located in Somerset House) and then, for a few months, at King's School, Warwick (now Warwick School). Here his time was ended by a bronchial disease of the kind that was to plague him throughout his long life. His father considered his ill-health as a good reason for another European tour.
In 1852 he was admitted to Cambridge University, earning the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in 1857, then Master of Arts in 1860 from Clare College, Cambridge. In September 1853 he informed Nathaniel Woodard of his desire to be ordained. He taught for only ten days at one of Woodard's boys' boarding schools in Sussex, Lancing College, but then moved to another, Hurstpierpoint College, where he stayed from 1857 to 1864. While there he was responsible for several subjects, especially languages and science, and he also designed the ironwork of the bookcases in the boys' library, as well as painting the window jambs with scenes from the "Canterbury Tales" and the "Faerie Queene".
He took Holy Orders in 1864, and became the curate at Horbury Bridge, West Riding of Yorkshire. It was while acting as a curate that he met Grace Taylor, the daughter of a mill hand, then aged fourteen. In the next few years they fell in love. His vicar, John Sharp, arranged for Grace to live for two years with relatives in York to learn middle-class manners. Baring-Gould, meanwhile, relocated to become perpetual curate at Dalton, near Thirsk. He and Grace were married in 1868 at Wakefield.
Their marriage lasted until her death 48 years later, and the couple had 15 children, all but one of whom lived to adulthood. When he buried his wife in 1916 he had carved on her tombstone the Latin motto "Dimidium Animae Meae" ("Half my Soul").
Baring-Gould became the rector of East Mersea in Essex in 1871 and spent ten years there. In 1872 his father died and he inherited the 3,000-acre (12 km2) family estates of Lew Trenchard in Devon, which included the gift of the living of Lew Trenchard parish. When the living became vacant in 1881, he was able to appoint himself to it, becoming parson as well as squire. He did a great deal of work restoring St Peter's Church, Lew Trenchard, and (from 1883 to 1914) thoroughly remodelled his home, Lew Trenchard Manor.
Baring-Gould regarded his principal achievement to be the collection of folk songs that he made with the help of the ordinary people of Devon and Cornwall. His first book of songs, "Songs and Ballads of the West" (1889–91), was published in four parts between 1889 and 1891. The musical editor for this collection was Henry Fleetwood Sheppard, though some of the songs included were noted by Baring-Gould's other collaborator Frederick Bussell.
Baring-Gould and Sheppard produced a second collection named "A Garland of Country Songs" during 1895. A new edition of "Songs of the West" was proposed for publication in 1905. Sheppard had died in 1901, and so the folk song collector Cecil Sharp was invited to undertake the musical editorship for the new edition. Sharp and Baring-Gould also collaborated on "English Folk Songs for Schools" during 1907. This collection of 53 songs was widely used in British schools for the next 60 years.
Although he had to modify the words of some songs which were too rude for the time, he left his original manuscripts for future students of folk song, thereby preserving many beautiful pieces of music and their lyrics which might otherwise have been lost.
Baring-Gould gave the fair copies of the folk songs he collected, together with the notebooks he used for gathering information in the field, to Plymouth Public Library in 1914. They were deposited with the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office in 2006. These, together with the folk-song manuscripts from Baring-Gould's library discovered at Killerton in 1998, were published as a microfiche edition in 1998. In 2011 the complete collection of his folk-song manuscripts, including two notebooks not in the microfiche edition, were digitised and published online by the Devon Tradition Project managed by Wren Music in association with the English Folk Dance and Song Society as part of the "Take Six" project undertaken by the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. It now forms part of the VWML's "Full English" website. Thirty boxes of additional manuscript material on other topics (the Killerton manuscripts) are kept in the Devon History Centre in Exeter.
Cecil Sharp dedicated his book "English Folk Song: Some Conclusions" (1907) to Baring-Gould.
Baring-Gould wrote many novels, including "The Broom-Squire" set in the Devil's Punch Bowl (1896), "Mehalah: a story of the salt marshes" (1880)"," "Guavas the Tinner" (1897), the 16-volume "The Lives of the Saints", and the biography of the eccentric poet-vicar of Morwenstow, Robert Stephen Hawker. He also published nearly 200 short stories in assorted magazines and periodicals. Many of these short stories were collected together and republished as anthologies, such as his "" (1904), "Dartmoor Idyllys" (1896), and "In a Quiet Village" (1900). His folkloric studies resulted in "The Book of Were-Wolves" (1865), one of the most frequently cited studies of lycanthropy. He habitually wrote while standing, and his desk can be seen in the manor.
One of his most enduringly popular works was "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," first published in two parts during 1866 and 1868, and republished in many other editions since then. "Each of the book's twenty-four chapters deals with a particular medieval superstition and its variants and antecedents," writes critic Steven J. Mariconda. H. P. Lovecraft termed it "that curious body of medieval lore which the late Mr. Baring-Gould so effectively assembled in book form."
He wrote much about the West Country: his works of this topic include:
Baring-Gould served as president of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for ten years from 1897.
Baring-Gould, along with his friend Robert Burnard, organised the first scientific archaeological excavations of hut-circles on Dartmoor at Grimspound during 1893. They then asked R. N. Worth, R. Hansford Worth, the Revd W. A. G. Gray and Dr Prowse to assist them with further investigations. This resulted in the formation of the Committee of the Devonshire Association for the exploration of Dartmoor. Baring-Gould was the secretary and author of the first ten annual reports until 1905. The Dartmoor Exploration Committee performed many archaeological digs of prehistoric settlements on Dartmoor and systematically recorded and in some cases restored prehistoric sites. The current state of many prehistoric stone rows and stone circles on Dartmoor owes much to the work of Sabine Baring-Gould and Robert Burnard and the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. Baring-Gould was president of the Devonshire Association for the year 1896.
He wrote much about Dartmoor: his works of this topic include:
He married Grace Taylor on 25 May 1868 at Horbury. They had 15 children: Mary (born 1869), Margaret Daisy (born 1870, an artist who painted part of the screen in Lew Trenchard Church), Edward Sabine (born 1871), Beatrice Gracieuse (1874–1876, aged 2 years), Veronica (born 1875), Julian (born 1877), William Drake (born 1878), Barbara (born 1880), Diana Amelia (born 1881), Felicitas (baptised 1883), Henry (born 1885), Joan (born 1887), Cecily Sophia (born 1889), John Hillary (born 1890), and Grace (born 1891).
His wife Grace died in April 1916, and he did not remarry; he died on 2 January 1924 at his home at Lew Trenchard and was buried next to his wife.
He wrote two volumes of reminiscences: "Early Reminiscences, 1834–1864" and "Further Reminiscences, 1864–1894".
One grandson, William Stuart Baring-Gould, was a noted Sherlock Holmes scholar who wrote a fictional biography of the great detective—in which, to make up for the lack of information about Holmes's early life, he based his account on the childhood of Sabine Baring-Gould. Sabine himself is a major character of Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes novel "The Moor", a Sherlockian pastiche. In this novel it is revealed that Sabine Baring-Gould is the godfather of Sherlock Holmes.
Josh Widdicombe claims ancestry from Sabine Baring-Gould. However, this was based erroneously on his composition of "Abide with Me" rather than "Onward, Christian Soldiers". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27557 |
Salt (chemistry)
In chemistry, a salt is a chemical compound consisting of an ionic assembly of cations and anions. Salts are composed of related numbers of cations (positively charged ions) and anions (negatively charged ions) so that the product is electrically neutral (without a net charge). These component ions can be inorganic, such as chloride (Cl−), or organic, such as acetate (); and can be monatomic, such as fluoride (F−) or polyatomic, such as sulfate ().
Salts can be classified in a variety of ways. Salts that produce hydroxide ions when dissolved in water are called "alkali salts". Salts that produce acidic solutions are "acid salts". "Neutral salts" are those salts that are neither acidic nor basic. Zwitterions contain an anionic and a cationic centre in the same molecule, but are not considered to be salts. Examples of zwitterions include amino acids, many metabolites, peptides, and proteins.
Solid salts tend to be transparent as illustrated by sodium chloride. In many cases, the apparent opacity or transparency are only related to the difference in size of the individual monocrystals. Since light reflects from the grain boundaries (boundaries between crystallites), larger crystals tend to be transparent, while the polycrystalline aggregates look like white powders.
Salts exist in many different colors, which arise either from the anions or cations. For example:
Few minerals are salts because they would be solubilized by water. Similarly inorganic pigments tend not to be salts, because insolubility is required for fastness. Some organic dyes are salts, but they are virtually insoluble in water.
Different salts can elicit all five basic tastes, e.g., salty (sodium chloride), sweet (lead diacetate, which will cause lead poisoning if ingested), sour (potassium bitartrate), bitter (magnesium sulfate), and umami or savory (monosodium glutamate).
Salts of strong acids and strong bases ("strong salts") are non-volatile and often odorless, whereas salts of either weak acids or weak bases ("weak salts") may smell like the conjugate acid (e.g., acetates like acetic acid (vinegar) and cyanides like hydrogen cyanide (almonds)) or the conjugate base (e.g., ammonium salts like ammonia) of the component ions. That slow, partial decomposition is usually accelerated by the presence of water, since hydrolysis is the other half of the reversible reaction equation of formation of weak salts.
Many ionic compounds exhibit significant solubility in water or other polar solvents. Unlike molecular compounds, salts dissociate in solution into anionic and cationic components.
The lattice energy, the cohesive forces between these ions within a solid, determines the solubility. The solubility is dependent on how well each ion interacts with the solvent, so certain patterns become apparent. For example, salts of sodium, potassium and ammonium are usually soluble in water. Notable exceptions include ammonium hexachloroplatinate and potassium cobaltinitrite. Most nitrates and many sulfates are water-soluble. Exceptions include barium sulfate, calcium sulfate (sparingly soluble), and lead(II) sulfate, where the 2+/2− pairing leads to high lattice energies. For similar reasons, most metal carbonates are not soluble in water. Some soluble carbonate salts are: sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate and ammonium carbonate.
Salts are characteristically insulators. Molten salts or solutions of salts conduct electricity. For this reason, liquified (molten) salts and solutions containing dissolved salts (e.g., sodium chloride in water) are called electrolytes.
Salts characteristically have high melting points. For example, sodium chloride melts at 801 °C. Some salts with low lattice energies are liquid at or near room temperature. These include molten salts, which are usually mixtures of salts, and ionic liquids, which usually contain organic cations. These liquids exhibit unusual properties as solvents.
The name of a salt starts with the name of the cation (e.g., "sodium" or "ammonium") followed by the name of the anion (e.g., "chloride" or "acetate"). Salts are often referred to only by the name of the cation (e.g., "sodium salt" or "ammonium salt") or by the name of the anion (e.g., "chloride salt" or "acetate salt").
Common salt-forming cations include:
Common salt-forming anions (parent acids in parentheses where available) include:
Salts with varying number of hydrogen atoms replaced by cations as compared to their parent acid can be referred to as "monobasic", "dibasic", or "tribasic", identifying that one, two, or three hydrogen atoms have been replaced; "polybasic" salts refer to those with more than one hydrogen atom replaced. Examples include:
Salts are formed by a chemical reaction between:
Strong salts or strong electrolyte salts are chemical salts composed of strong electrolytes. These ionic compounds dissociate completely in water. They are generally odorless and nonvolatile.
Strong salts start with Na__, K__, NH4__, or they end with __NO3, __ClO4, or __CH3COO. Most group 1 and 2 metals form strong salts. Strong salts are especially useful when creating conductive compounds as their constituent ions allow for greater conductivity.
Weak salts or "weak electrolyte salts" are, as the name suggests, composed of weak electrolytes. They are generally more volatile than strong salts. They may be similar in odor to the acid or base they are derived from. For example, sodium acetate, NaCH3COO, smells similar to acetic acid CH3COOH. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27558 |
Solar deity
A solar deity (also sun goddess or sun god) is a sky deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The Sun is sometimes referred to by its Latin name "Sol" or by its Greek name "Helios". The English word "sun" stems from Proto-Germanic *"sunnǭ".
The Neolithic concept of a "solar barge" (also "solar bark", "solar barque", "solar boat" and "sun boat", a mythological representation of the Sun riding in a boat) is found in the later myths of ancient Egypt, with Ra and Horus. Predynasty Egyptian beliefs attribute Atum as the sun-god and Horus as a god of the sky and Sun. As the Old Kingdom theocracy gained power, early beliefs were incorporated with the expanding popularity of Ra and the Osiris-Horus mythology. Atum became Ra-Atum, the rays of the setting Sun. Osiris became the divine heir to Atum's power on Earth and passes his divine authority to his son Horus. Early Egyptian myths imply the Sun is within the lioness, Sekhmet, at night and is reflected in her eyes; or that it is within the cow, Hathor, during the night, being reborn each morning as her son ("bull").
Mesopotamian Shamash plays an important role during the Bronze Age, and "my Sun" is eventually used as an address to royalty. Similarly, South American cultures have a tradition of Sun worship, as with the Incan Inti.
Proto-Indo-European religion has a solar chariot, the Sun as traversing the sky in a chariot. In Germanic mythology this is "Sol", in Vedic Surya, and in Greek Helios (occasionally referred to as Titan) and (sometimes) as Apollo. In Proto-indo-European mythology the sun appears to be a multilayered figure, manifested as a goddess but also perceived as the eye of the sky father Dyeus.
During the Roman Empire, a festival of the birth of the "Unconquered Sun" (or "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti") was celebrated on the winter solstice—the "rebirth" of the Sun—which occurred on 25 December of the Julian calendar. In late antiquity, the theological centrality of the Sun in some Imperial religious systems suggest a form of a "solar monotheism". The religious commemorations on 25 December were replaced under Christian domination of the Empire with the birthday of Christ.
The Tiv people consider the Sun to be the son of the Moon Awondo's daughter and the supreme being Awondo. The Barotse tribe believes that the Sun is inhabited by the sky god Nyambi and the Moon is his wife.
Some Sara people also worship the Sun.
Even where the sun god is equated with the supreme being, in some African mythologies he or she does not have any special functions or privileges as compared to other deities. The ancient Egyptian god of creation, Amun is also believed to reside inside the sun. So is the Akan creator deity, Nyame and the Dogon deity of creation, Nommo. Also in Egypt, there was a religion that worshipped the Sun directly, and was among the first monotheistic religions: Atenism.
Sun worship was prevalent in ancient Egyptian religion. The earliest deities associated with the Sun are all goddesses: Wadjet, Sekhmet, Hathor, Nut, Bast, Bat, and Menhit. First Hathor, and then Isis, give birth to and nurse Horus and Ra. Hathor the horned-cow is one of the 12 daughters of Ra, gifted with joy and is a wet-nurse to Horus.
From at least the 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, the Sun was worshipped as the deity Re (pronounced probably as Riya, meaning simply the sun), and portrayed as a falcon headed god surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. Re supposedly gave warmth to the living body, symbolised as an ankh: a "T" shaped amulet with a looped upper half. The ankh, it was believed, was surrendered with death, but could be preserved in the corpse with appropriate mummification and funerary rites. The supremacy of Re in the Egyptian pantheon was at its highest with the 5th Dynasty, when open air solar temples became common. In the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Ra lost some of his preeminence to Osiris, lord of the West, and judge of the dead. In the New Empire period, the Sun became identified with the dung beetle, whose spherical ball of dung was identified with the Sun. In the form of the sun disc Aten, the Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the Pharaoh Akhenaton.
The Sun's movement across the sky represents a struggle between the Pharaoh's soul and an avatar of Osiris. Ra travels across the sky in his solar-boat; at dawn he drives away the demon king Apep. The "solarisation" of several local gods (Hnum-Re, Min-Re, Amon-Re) reaches its peak in the period of the fifth dynasty.
Rituals to the god Amun who became identified with the sun god Ra were often carried out on the top of temple pylons. A Pylon mirrored the hieroglyph for 'horizon' or "akhet", which was a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set", associated with recreation and rebirth. On the first Pylon of the temple of Isis at Philae, the pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies in the presence of Isis, Horus and Hathor.
In the eighteenth dynasty, the earliest-known monotheistic head of state, Akhenaten changed the polytheistic religion of Egypt to a monotheistic one, Atenism of the solar-disk and is the first recorded state monotheism. All other deities were replaced by the Aten, including Amun-Ra, the reigning sun god of Akhenaten's own region. Unlike other deities, the Aten did not have multiple forms. His only image was a disk—a symbol of the Sun.
Soon after Akhenaten's death, worship of the traditional deities was reestablished by the religious leaders (Ay the High-Priest of Amen-Ra, mentor of Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen) who had adopted the Aten during the reign of Akhenaten.
In Armenian mythology and in the vicinity of Carahunge, the ancient site of interest in the field of archaeoastronomy, people worshiped a powerful deity or intelligence called Ara, embodied as the sun (Ar or Arev). The ancient Armenians called themselves "children of the sun". (Russian and Armenian archaeoastronomers have suggested that at Carahunge seventeen of the stones still standing were associated with observations of sunrise or sunset at the solstices and equinoxes.)
In Aztec mythology, "Tonatiuh" (, "Movement of the Sun") was the sun god. The Aztec people considered him the leader of "Tollan" (heaven). He was also known as the fifth sun, because the Aztecs believed that he was the sun that took over when the fourth sun was expelled from the sky. According to their cosmology, each sun was a god with its own cosmic era. According to the Aztecs, they were still in Tonatiuh's era. According to the Aztec creation myth, the god demanded human sacrifice as tribute and without it would refuse to move through the sky. The Aztecs were fascinated by the Sun and carefully observed it, and had a solar calendar similar to that of the Maya. Many of today's remaining Aztec monuments have structures aligned with the Sun.
In the Aztec calendar, Tonatiuh is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Death to 13 Flint. The preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Chalchiuhtlicue, and the following thirteen by Tlaloc.
The concept of the sun in Pre-Islamic Arabia, was abolished only under Muhammad. The Arabian solar deity appears to have been a goddess, Shams/Shamsun, most likely related to the Canaanite Shapash and broader middle-eastern Shamash. She was the patron goddess of Himyar, and possibly exalted by the Sabaeans and early Bedouin.
In Buddhist cosmology, the bodhisattva of the Sun is known as "Sūryaprabha" ("having the light of the sun"); in Chinese he is called "Rigong Riguang Pusa" (The Bright Solar Bodhisattva of the Solar Palace), "Rigong Riguang Tianzi" (The Bright Solar Prince of the Solar Palace), or "Rigong Riguang Zuntian Pusa" (The Greatly Revered Bright Solar Prince of the Solar Palace), one of the 20 or 24 guardian "devas".
Sūryaprabha is often depicted with "Candraprabha" ("having the light of the moon"), called in Chinese "Yuegong Yueguang Pusa" (The Bright Lunar Bodhisattva of the Lunar Palace), "Yuegong Yueguang Tianzi" ( The Bright Lunar Prince of the Lunar Palace), or "Yuegong Yueguang Zuntian Pusa" (The Greatly Revered Bright Lunar Prince of the Lunar Palace). Together with Bhaiṣajyaguru Buddha (Chinese: "Yaoshi Fo") these two bodhisattvas constitute the "Dongfang San Sheng" (Three Holy Sages of the Eastern Quarter).
The devas Surya and Candra are also recognized as deities that embody the Sun and Moon, respectively.
In Chinese mythology (cosmology), there were originally ten suns in the sky, who were all brothers. They were supposed to emerge one at a time as commanded by the Jade Emperor. They were all very young and loved to fool around. Once they decided to all go into the sky to play, all at once. This made the world too hot for anything to grow. A hero named Hou Yi, honored to this day, shot down nine of them with a bow and arrow to save the people of the Earth.
In another myth, the solar eclipse was caused by the magical dog of heaven biting off a piece of the Sun. The referenced event is said to have occurred around 2,160BCE. There was a tradition in China to make lots of loud celebratory sounds during a solar eclipse to scare the sacred "dog" away.
The Deity of the Sun in Chinese mythology is Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun (Tai Yang Gong / Grandfather Sun) or Star Lord of the Solar Palace, Lord of the Sun. In some mythologies, Tai Yang Xing Jun is believed to be Hou Yi.
Tai Yang Xing Jun is usually depicted with the Star Lord of the Lunar Palace, Lord of the Moon, Yue Gong Tai Yin Xing Jun (Tai Yin Niang Niang / Lady Tai Yin). Worship of the moon goddess Chang'e and her festivals are very popular among followers of Chinese folk religion and Taoism. Similar to Santa Claus and Christmas in the West, the goddess and her holy days are ingrained in Chinese popular culture.
Those who practice Dievturība, beliefs of traditional Latvian culture, celebrate the Sun goddess, Saule, known in traditional Lithuanian beliefs as Saulė. Saule/Saulė is among the most important deities in Baltic mythology and traditions.
The sun in Insular Celtic culture is assumed to have been feminine, and several goddesses have been proposed as possibly solar in character. In Continental Celtic culture, the sun gods, like Belenos, Grannos, and Lug, were masculine.
In Irish, the name of the Sun, "Grian", is feminine. The figure known as Áine is generally assumed to have been either synonymous with her, or her sister, assuming the role of Summer Sun while Grian was the Winter Sun. Similarly, Étaín has at times been considered to be another theonym associated with the Sun; if this is the case, then the pan-Celtic Epona might also have been originally solar in nature, though Roman syncretism pushed her towards a lunar role.
The British Sulis has a name cognate with that of other Indo-European solar deities such as the Greek Helios and Indic Surya, and bears some solar traits like the association with the eye as well as epithets associated with light. The theonym Sulevia, which is more widespread and probably unrelated to Sulis, is sometimes taken to have suggested a pan-Celtic role as a solar goddess. She indeed might have been the "de facto" solar deity of the Celts.
The Welsh Olwen has at times been considered a vestige of the local sun goddess, in part due to the possible etymological association with the wheel and the colours gold, white and red.
Brighid has at times been argued as having had a solar nature, fitting her role as a goddess of fire and light.
Anaxagoras was arrested in 434 BC and banished from Athens for denying the existence of a solar or lunar deity. The titular character of Sophocles' "Electra" refers to the Sun as "All-seeing". Hermetic author Hermes Trismegistus calls the Sun "God Visible".
The Ādityas are one of the principal deities of the Vedic classical Hinduism belonging to Solar class. In the Vedas, numerous hymns are dedicated to Mitra, Varuna, Savitr etc.
Hymn 7.99 of Rigveda, Indra-Vishnu produces the sun, his discus is a vestige of his solar creation, equivalent to the sun, the Vishnu purana identifies the Discus chakra with the following: 'thoughts, like the chakra, flow faster than even the mightiest wind.'.
Even the Gayatri mantra, which is regarded as one of the most sacred of the Vedic hymns is dedicated to Savitr, one of the principal Ādityas. The Adityas are a group of solar deities, from the Brahmana period numbering twelve. The ritual of "Surya Namaskaar", performed by Hindus, is an elaborate set of hand gestures and body movements, designed to greet and revere the Sun.
The sun god in Hinduism is an ancient and revered deity. In later Hindu usage, all the Vedic Ādityas lost identity and metamorphosed into one composite deity, Surya, the Sun. The attributes of all other Ādityas merged into that of Surya and the names of all other Ādityas became synonymous with, or epithets of, Surya.
The "Ramayana" has Rama as a direct descendant of the Surya, thus belonging to the Suryavansha or the clan of the Sun. The "Mahabharata" describes one of its warrior heroes, Karna, as being the son of the Pandava mother Kunti and Surya.
The sun god is said to be married to the goddess Ranaadeh, also known as Sanjnya. She is depicted in dual form, being both sunlight and shadow, personified. The goddess is revered in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
The charioteer of Surya is Aruna, who is also personified as the redness that accompanies the sunlight in dawn and dusk. The sun god is driven by a seven-horsed Chariot depicting the seven days of the week and the seven colours of rainbow which are seen due to the dispersion by Surya's rays.
In India, at Konark, in the state of Odisha, a temple is dedicated to Surya. The Konark Sun Temple has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Surya is the most prominent of the "navagrahas" or nine celestial objects of the Hindus. "Navagrahas" can be found in almost all Hindu temples. There are further temples dedicated to Surya, one in Arasavilli, Srikakulam District in AndhraPradesh, one in Gujarat at Modhera and another in Rajasthan. The temple at Arasavilli was constructed in such a way that on the day of Radhasaptami, the Sun's rays directly fall on the feet of the Sri Suryanarayana Swami, the deity at the temple.
Chhath (Hindi: छठ, also called "Dala Chhath") is an ancient Hindu festival dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity, unique to Bihar, Jharkhand and the Terai. This major festival is also celebrated in the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Chhattisgarh. Hymns to the Sun can be found in the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Practiced in different parts of India, the worship of the Sun has been described in the Rigveda. There is another festival called Sambha-Dasami, which is celebrated in the state of Odisha for the "surya".
The sun is prayed to by South Indians during the harvest festival.
In Tamil Nadu, the tamil people worship the sun god during the Tamil month of Thai, after a year of crop farming. The month is known as the harvesting month and people pay respects to the sun on the first day of the Thai month known as Thai pongal, or Pongal, which ia a four day celebration. It is one of the few indigenous worship by the Tamil people irrespective of religion.
In other parts of India, the festival is celebrated as Makar Sankranti and is mostly worshipped by the hindu diaspora of India.
According to one hypothesis about Christmas, it was set to 25 December because it was the date of the festival of Sol Invictus. This idea became popular especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Another speculation connects the biblical elements of Christ's life to those of a sun god. The Christian gospels report that Jesus had 12 followers (Apostles), which is claimed to be akin to the twelve zodiac constellations. When the Sun was in the house of Scorpio, Judas plotted with the chief priests and elders to arrest Jesus by kissing him. As the Sun exited Libra, it enters into the waiting arms of Scorpio to be kissed by Scorpio's bite.
Many of the world's sacrificed godmen, such as Osiris and Mithra, have their traditional birthday on 25 December. During this time, people believed that the "sun god" had "died" for three days and was "born again" on 25 December. After 25 December, the Sun supposedly moves 1 degree north, foreshadowing longer days. The three days following 21 December remain the darkest days of the year where Jesus (the sun) dies and remains unseen for three days.
At the beginning of the first century, the Sun on the vernal equinox passed from Aries to Pisces (1 A.D. to 2150 A.D). That harmonizes with the mentioned lamb and fish in the gospels. The man carrying a pitcher of water (Luke 22:10) is Aquarius, the water bearer, who is always seen as a man pouring out a pitcher of water. He represents the Age of Aquarius, the age after Pisces, and when the Sun leaves the Age of Pisces (Jesus), it will go into the House of Aquarius.
By "the sun of righteousness" in Malachi 4 () "the fathers, from Justin downward, and nearly all the earlier commentators understand "Christ", who is supposed to be described as the rising sun". The New Testament itself contains a hymn fragment in Ephesians 5: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Clement of Alexandria wrote of "the Sun of the Resurrection, he who was born before the dawn, whose beams give light".
The Philocalian calendar of AD 354 gives a festival of "Natalis Invicti" on 25 December. There is limited evidence that this festival was celebrated at around this time before the mid-4th century. The charioteer in the mosaic of Mausoleum M has been interpreted by some as Christ. Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot across the sky. This interpretation is doubted by others: "Only the "cross-shaped" nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent". and the figure is seen by some simply as a representation of the sun with no explicit religious reference whatever, pagan or Christian.
The idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December because this was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe who added it wrote: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day."
In the judgement of the Church of England Liturgical Commission, this view has been seriously challenged by a view based on an old tradition, according to which the date of Christmas was fixed at nine months after 25 March, the date of the vernal equinox, on which the Annunciation was celebrated. The Jewish calendar date of 14 Nisan was believed to be that of creation, as well as of the Exodus and so of Passover, and Christians held that the new creation, both the death of Jesus and the beginning of his human life, occurred on the same date, which some put at 25 March in the Julian calendar.
It was a traditional Jewish belief that great men lived a whole number of years, without fractions, so that Jesus was considered to have been conceived on 25 March, as he died on 25 March, which was calculated to have coincided with 14 Nisan. Sextus Julius Africanus (c.160 – c.240) gave 25 March as the day of creation and of the conception of Jesus. The tractate "De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae" falsely attributed to John Chrysostom also argued that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same day of the year and calculated this as 25 March. A passage of the "Commentary on the prophet Daniel" by Hippolytus of Rome, written in about 204, has also been appealed to.
Among those who have put forward this view are Louis Duchesne, Thomas J. Talley, David J. Rothenberg, J. Neil Alexander, and Hugh Wybrew.
The "Oxford Companion to Christian Thought" also remarks on the uncertainty about the order of precedence between the celebrations of the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun and the birthday of Jesus: "This 'calculations' hypothesis potentially establishes 25 December as a Christian festival before Aurelian's decree, which, when promulgated, might have provided for the Christian feast both opportunity and challenge." Susan K. Roll calls "most extreme" the unproven hypothesis that "would call Christmas point-blank a 'christianization' of Natalis Solis Invicti, a direct conscious appropriation of the pre-Christian feast, arbitrarily placed on the same calendar date, assimilating and adapting some of its cosmic symbolism and abruptly usurping any lingering habitual loyalty that newly-converted Christians might feel to the feasts of the state gods".
The nimbus of the figure under Saint Peter's Basilica is described by some as "rayed", as in traditional pre-Christian representations, but another has said: "Only the "cross-shaped" nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent" (emphasis added). Yet another has interpreted the figure as a representation of the sun with no explicit religious reference whatever, pagan or Christian. Among scholars who view the celebration of the birth of Jesus on 25 December as motivated by choice of the winter solstice, rather than that he was conceived and died on 25 March, some reject the idea that this choice constituted a deliberate Christianization of a festival of the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. For example, Michael Alan Anderson writes:
Both the sun and Christ were said to be born anew on December 25. But while the solar associations with the birth of Christ created powerful metaphors, the surviving evidence does not support such a direct association with the Roman solar festivals. The earliest documentary evidence for the feast of Christmas makes no mention of the coincidence with the winter solstice. Thomas Talley has shown that, although the Emperor Aurelian's dedication of a temple to the sun god in the Campus Martius (C.E. 274) probably took place on the 'Birthday of the Invincible Sun' on December 25, the cult of the sun in pagan Rome ironically did not celebrate the winter solstice nor any of the other quarter-tense days, as one might expect. The origins of Christmas, then, may not be expressly rooted in the Roman festival.
The same point is made by Hijmans: "It is cosmic symbolism...which inspired the Church leadership in Rome to elect the southern solstice, December 25, as the birthday of Christ ... While they were aware that pagans called this day the 'birthday' of Sol Invictus, this did not concern them and it did not play any role in their choice of date for Christmas." He also states that, "while the winter solstice on or around December 25 was well established in the Roman imperial calendar, there is no evidence that a religious celebration of Sol on that day antedated the celebration of Christmas".
A study of Augustine of Hippo remarks that his exhortation in a Christmas sermon, "Let us celebrate this day as a feast not for the sake of this sun, which is beheld by believers as much as by ourselves, but for the sake of him who created the sun", shows that he was aware of the coincidence of the celebration of Christmas and the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, although this pagan festival was celebrated at only a few places and was originally a peculiarity of the Roman city calendar. It adds: "He also believes, however, that there is a reliable tradition which gives 25 December as the actual date of the birth of our Lord."
The comparison of Christ with the astronomical Sun is common in ancient Christian writings. In the 5th century, Pope Leo I (the Great) spoke in several sermons on the Feast of the Nativity of how the celebration of Christ's birth coincided with increase of the Sun's position in the sky. An example is: "But this Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery.
Christians adopted the image of the Sun (Helios or Sol Invictus) to represent Christ. In this portrayal he is a beardless figure with a flowing cloak in a chariot drawn by four white horses, as in the mosaic in Mausoleum M discovered under Saint Peter's Basilica and in an early-4th-century catacomb fresco. Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot in this way across the sky.
Solar gods have a strong presence in Indonesian mythology. In some cases the Sun is revered as a "father" or "founder" of the tribe. This may apply for the whole tribe or only for the royal and ruling families. This practise is more common in Australia and on the island of Timor, where the tribal leaders are seen as direct heirs to the sun god.
Some of the initiation rites include the second reincarnation of the rite's subject as a "son of the Sun", through a symbolic death and a rebirth in the form of a Sun. These rituals hint that the Sun may have an important role in the sphere of funerary beliefs. Watching the Sun's path has given birth to the idea in some societies that the deity of the Sun descends in to the underworld without dying and is capable of returning afterward. This is the reason for the Sun being associated with functions such as guide of the deceased tribe members to the underworld, as well as with revival of perished. The Sun is a mediator between the planes of the living and the dead.
Copernicus describing the Sun mythologically, drawing from Greco-Roman examples:
The primary local deity in theosophy is the Solar Logos, "the consciousness of the sun".
Three theories exercised great influence on nineteenth and early twentieth century mythography, beside the Tree worship of Mannhardt and the Totemism of J. F. McLennan, the "Sun myth" of Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Max Müller.
R. F. Littledale criticized the Sun myth theory when he illustrated that Max Müller on his own principles was himself only a Solar myth, whilst Alfred Lyall delivered a still stronger attack on the same theory and its assumption that tribal gods and heroes, such as those of Homer, were mere reflections of the Sun myth by proving that the gods of certain Rajput clans were really warriors who founded the clans not many centuries ago, and were the ancestors of the present chieftains.
A "solar barge"—also known as a "solar bark", "solar barque", "solar boat", or "sun boat"—is a mythological representation of the sun riding in a boat. The most famous of these is the "Atet", the barge of the Egyptian sun god Ra. The "Khufu ship", a 43.6-meter-long vessel that was sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2500 BC, is a full-size surviving example which may have fulfilled the symbolic function of a solar barque. This boat was rediscovered in May 1954 when archeologist Kamal el-Mallakh and inspector Zaki Nur found two ditches sealed off by about 40 blocks weighing 17 to 20 tonnes each. This boat was disassembled into 1,224 pieces and took over 10 years to reassemble. A nearby museum was built to house this boat.
Other sun boats were found in Egypt dating to different pharonic dynasties.
Examples include:
A "sun chariot" is a mythological representation of the Sun riding in a chariot. The concept is younger than that of the solar barge, and typically Indo-European, corresponding with the Indo-European expansion after the invention of the chariot in the 2nd millennium BC.
Examples include these:
The Sun itself also was compared to a wheel, possibly in Proto-Indo-European, Greek "hēliou kuklos", Sanskrit "suryasya cakram", Anglo-Saxon "sunnan hweogul" (PIE ).
In Chinese culture, the sun chariot is associated with the passage of time. For instance, in the poem "Suffering from the Shortness of Days", Li He of the Tang dynasty is hostile and even deviant towards the legendary dragons that drew the sun chariot as a vehicle for the continuous progress of time. The following is the relevant except of that poem:
Solar deities are usually thought of as male while the lunar deity is female, but the opposite case is also seen. The cobra (of Pharaoh Son of Ra), the lioness (daughter of Ra), the cow (daughter of Ra), the dominant symbols of the most ancient Egyptian deities, carried their relationship to the sun atop their heads; they were female and their cults remained active throughout the history of the culture. Later a "sun god" (Aten) was established in the eighteenth dynasty on top of the other solar deities, before the "aberration" was stamped out and the old pantheon re-established. When male deities became associated with the sun in that culture, they began as the offspring of a mother (except Ra, King of the Gods who gave birth to himself).
In Germanic mythology the Sun is female and the Moon is male. The corresponding Old English name is Siȝel , continuing Proto-Germanic *Sôwilô or *Saewelô. The Old High German Sun goddess is Sunna. In the Norse traditions, Sól rode through the sky on her chariot every day, pulled by two horses named Arvak and Alsvid. Sól also was called Sunna and Frau Sunne.
Other cultures that have sun goddesses include the Lithuanians (Saulė) and Latvians (Saule), the Finns (Päivätär, Beiwe) and the related Hungarians. Sun goddesses are found around the world in Australia (Bila, Walo), India (Bisal-Mariamna, Bomong, Sāvitri, Savitā, Suryā, Kn Sgni), among the Hittites (Wurusemu), and Egyptians (Sekhmet), in the Canary Islands (Chaxiraxi)/(Magek), in Native America, among the Cherokee (Unelanuhi), Natchez (Wal Sil), Inuit (Malina), and Miwok (Hekoolas), and in Asia among the Japanese (Amaterasu). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27560 |
Soad Hosny
Soad Hosny (, ; January 26, 1943 – June 21, 2001) was an Egyptian actress born in Cairo. She was known as the "Cinderella of Egyptian cinema" and one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and the Arab world. She ascended to stardom at the end of the 1950s, performing in more than 83 films between 1959 and 1991. A majority of her films were shot in the 1960s and 1970s. Her final screen appearance was in the 1991 film, "The Shepherd and the Women", directed by her ex-husband, Ali Badrakhan.
Soad Muhammad Kamal Hosny was born in Bulaq district in Cairo, Egypt. She was one of three sisters born to prominent calligrapher Mohammad Hosni, her father from Egyptian village called miet ghamer and her mother an Egyptian woman from Bulaq district, Gawhara. She also had eight half-siblings from her father's first marriage. Her parents divorced and her mother remarried, to an Egyptian man, Abdul Monem Hafeez, with whom she had six more children, thus giving Soad and her two sisters no fewer than 14 half-siblings.
Her father's household was known as "the artists' home" because leading artists from across the Arab world regularly visited Hosni's home in Cairo for tuition and social interaction with the master calligrapher. Her father, whose artistic output included the production of frames for the silent movies and book covers, was well known across the artistic community. A number of his children became performance artists. Soad's half-sister, Najat, was an actress and singer. Her half-brother, Ezz Eddin Hosni (1927–2013), was a music composer and taught both Soad and Najat music and singing. Another sibling, Sami Hosni became a cello player, jewellery designer and also calligrapher. while yet another brother, Farooq, was a painter and his daughter Samira was also an actress.
At the age of three, she began her career when she sang in the popular children's TV program, "Papa Sharo". Her work included a wide range of genres – from light comedies and romances through to political satire. Her film debut was in "Hasan and Naeima" (1959). Her most well-known role was that of a college student who fell in love with her professor in the film, "Khali Balak min Zouzou" Watch Out for ZouZou (1974). Other important film credits include the role of a student and political activist, who was tortured in "Al-Karnak"; based on the novel by Naguib Mahfouz. In the film, "Shafika" she transformed the musical numbers into scathing satires which gave voice to the oppressed. For this and her other hard-hitting, politically relevant roles, she was seen as part of the intelligentsia.
During her lifetime, she was known as the "Cinderella of the screen". She starred in films of every important Egyptian director during the 60s and 70s and played women in complex plots. In her later career, she played women who had been abused or victimised.
Due to illness, she retired from acting in the 1991. Hosny's final screen appearance was in "Al Ra'i We El Nissa".
Soad Hosny was married four times. Around 1968, she was married to cinematographer Salah Kurayyem; the marriage lasted for approximately one year. In 1970, Hosny was married to the Egyptian film director Ali Badrakhan ; this marriage lasted for approximately eleven years. She was then married to Zaki Fateen Abdel-Wahab, son of Fateen Abdel Wahab and Leila Mourad in 1981. This marriage lasted only five months.
She was romantically linked with various celebrities including the Egyptian film star, Abdel Halim Hafez.
On June 21, 2001, Soad Hosny died after falling from the balcony of her friend Nadia Yousri's apartment in Stuart Tower building in London. Her death was surrounded in controversy, with authorities initially failing to provide details of how she fell; an omission that fuelled media speculation and rumours that her death may have been a suicide or murder, rather than accidental. Soad's body was flown home to Cairo and her funeral in Cairo was attended by some 10,000 people. She was buried in a family's plot of land on the outskirts of Cairo. She had no children and was survived by her last husband, writer Maher Awad, whom she married in 1987.
In 2013, Lebanese filmmaker Rania Stephan used snippets from Hosny's films to re-tell Hosny's story and the history of Egyptian cinema in "The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosny". It was featured in Berlin's Art Week. The "Three Disappearances" is an important archive, which while following the chronology of Hosni's career, simultaneously documents the costumes, sets and styles used from the 1950s to the 1990s, a period that marked the peak and decline of Egyptian cinema.
One of Hosny's songs, "I'm going down to the Square" became a popular "anthem" during the Arab Spring of 2011.
She appeared in more than 80 films. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27563 |
Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games () or the Games of the Olympiad, first held in 1896, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The most recent Summer Olympics were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) organises the Games and oversees the host city's preparations. In each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals are awarded for second place, and bronze medals are awarded for third place; this tradition began in 1904. The Winter Olympic Games were created out of the success of the Summer Olympics.
The Olympics have increased in scope from a 42 competition event programme with fewer than 250 male competitors from 14 nations in 1896, to 306 events with 11,238 competitors (6,179 men, 5,059 women) from 206 nations in 2016.
The Summer Olympics has been hosted on five continents by a total of nineteen countries. The Games have been held four times in the United States (1904, 1932, 1984, and 1996), three times in Great Britain (1908, 1948, and 2012), twice each in Greece (1896 and 2004), France (1900 and 1924), Germany (1936 and 1972), and Australia (1956 and 2000), and once each in Sweden (1912), Belgium (1920), Netherlands (1928), Finland (1952), Italy (1960), Japan (1964), Mexico (1968), Canada (1976), Soviet Union (1980), South Korea (1988), Spain (1992), China (2008), and Brazil (2016).
The IOC has selected Tokyo, Japan, for a second time, to host the 2020 Summer Olympics (due to take place in 2021). The 2024 Summer Olympics will be held in Paris, France, for a third time, exactly one hundred years after the city's last Summer Olympics in 1924. The IOC has also selected Los Angeles, California, to host its third Summer Games in 2028.
Only five countries have participated in every Summer Olympic Games – Australia, France, Great Britain, Greece, and Switzerland. The United States leads the all-time medal table for the Summer Olympics.
The United States has hosted the Summer Olympic Games four times: the 1904 Games was held in St. Louis, Missouri; the 1932 and 1984 Games were both held in Los Angeles, California, and the 1996 Games were held in Atlanta, Georgia. The 2028 Games in Los Angeles will mark the fifth occasion on which the Summer Games have been hosted by the U.S.
In 2012, the United Kingdom hosted its third Summer Olympic Games in the capital city, London, which became the first city ever to have hosted the Summer Olympic Games three times. The cities of Los Angeles, Paris, and Athens have each hosted two Summer Olympic Games. In 2024, France will host its third Summer Olympic Games in its capital, making Paris the second city ever to have hosted three Summer Olympics. In 2028, Los Angeles will become the third city ever to have hosted the Games three times.
Australia, France, Germany and Greece have all hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice. The IOC has selected Tokyo, Japan, to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, when it will become the first city outside the Western world to have hosted the Summer Olympics more than once, having already hosted the Games in 1964. The other countries that have hosted the Summer Olympics are Belgium, Brazil, China, Canada, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Soviet Union, and Sweden; each of these countries has hosted the Summer Games on just one occasion.
Asia has hosted the Summer Olympics three times, in Tokyo, Japan (1964), Seoul, South Korea (1988), and Beijing, China (2008); Asia will host the Games for the fourth time. Tokyo was for the second time slated to be the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Summer Olympics have been postponed to twelve months from the original scheduled date. Historically, the Summer Olympics has been held predominantly in English-speaking countries and European nations. Tokyo will be the first city outside these regions to have hosted the Summer Olympics twice; it will also be the largest city ever to have hosted the Games, having grown considerably since 1964.
The 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were the inaugural Summer Olympics to be held in South America and the first that was held completely during the local "winter" season. The only two countries in the Southern Hemisphere to have hosted the Summer Olympics have been Australia (1956 and 2000) and Brazil (2016). Africa has yet to host a Summer Olympics.
Stockholm, Sweden, has hosted events at two Summer Olympics, having been sole host of the 1912 Games, and hosting the equestrian events at the 1956 Summer Olympics (which they are credited as jointly hosting with Melbourne, Australia). Amsterdam, Netherlands, has also hosted events at two Summer Olympic Games, having been sole host of the 1928 Games and previously hosting two of the sailing races at the 1920 Summer Olympics. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Hong Kong provided the venues for the equestrian events, which took place in Sha Tin and Kwu Tung.
The modern Olympic Games were founded in 1894 when Pierre de Coubertin sought to promote international understanding through sporting competition. He based his Olympics on the Wenlock Olympian Society Annual Games, which had been contested in Much Wenlock since 1850. The first edition of de Coubertin's games, held in Athens in 1896, attracted just 245 competitors, of whom more than 200 were Greek, and only 14 countries were represented. Nevertheless, no international events of this magnitude had been organised before. Female athletes were not allowed to compete, though one woman, Stamata Revithi, ran the marathon course on her own, saying "If the committee doesn't let me compete I will go after them regardless".
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896. It was the first Olympic Games held in the Modern era. About 100,000 people attended for the opening of the games. The athletes came from 14 nations, with most coming from Greece. Although Greece had the most athletes, the U.S. finished with the most champions. 11 Americans placed first in their events vs. the 10 from Greece. Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, consequently Athens was perceived to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organised by Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, in Paris, on 23 June 1894. The IOC was also established during this congress.
Despite many obstacles and setbacks, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. Panathinaiko Stadium, the first big stadium in the modern world, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. The highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spiridon Louis, a water carrier. He won in 2 hours 58 minutes and 50 seconds, setting off wild celebrations at the stadium. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, who won four gold medals.
Greek officials and the public were enthusiastic about the experience of hosting an Olympic Games. This feeling was shared by many of the athletes, who even demanded that Athens be the permanent Olympic host city. The IOC intended for subsequent Games to be rotated to various host cities around the world. The second Olympics was held in Paris.
Four years later the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris attracted more than four times as many athletes, including 20 women, who were allowed to officially compete for the first time, in croquet, golf, sailing, and tennis. The Games were integrated with the Paris World's Fair and lasted over 5 months. It is still disputed which events exactly were "Olympic", since few or maybe even none of the events were advertised as such at the time.
Tensions caused by the Russo–Japanese War and the difficulty of getting to St. Louis may have contributed to the fact that very few top-ranked athletes from outside the US and Canada took part in the 1904 Games.
A series of smaller games were held in Athens in 1906. The IOC does not currently recognise these games as being official Olympic Games, although many historians do. The 1906 Athens games were the first of an alternating series of games to be held in Athens, but the series failed to materialise. The games were more successful than the 1900 and 1904 games, with over 900 athletes competing, and contributed positively to the success of future games.
The 1908 London Games saw numbers rise again, as well as the first running of the marathon over its now-standard distance of 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards). The first Olympic Marathon in 1896 (a male-only race) was raced at a distance of 40 km (24 miles 85 yards). The new marathon distance was chosen to ensure that the race finished in front of the box occupied by the British royal family. Thus the marathon had been for the first games in 1896, but was subsequently varied by up to due to local conditions such as street and stadium layout. At the six Olympic games between 1900 and 1920, the marathon was raced over six distances. The Games saw Great Britain winning 146 medals, 99 more than second-placed Americans, its best result to this day.
At the end of the 1908 marathon, the Italian runner Dorando Pietri was first to enter the stadium, but he was clearly in distress and collapsed of exhaustion before he could complete the event. He was helped over the finish line by concerned race officials, but later he was disqualified, and the gold medal was awarded to John Hayes, who had trailed him by around 30 seconds.
The Games continued to grow, attracting 2,504 competitors, to Stockholm in 1912, including the great all-rounder Jim Thorpe, who won both the decathlon and pentathlon. Thorpe had previously played a few games of baseball for a fee, and saw his medals stripped for this 'breach' of amateurism after complaints from Avery Brundage. They were reinstated in 1983, 30 years after his death. The Games at Stockholm were the first to fulfil Pierre de Coubertin's original idea. For the first time since the Games started in 1896 were all five inhabited continents represented with athletes competing in the same stadium.
The scheduled 1916 Summer Olympics were cancelled following the onset of World War I.
The 1920 Antwerp games in war-ravaged Belgium were a subdued affair, but again drew a record number of competitors. This record only stood until 1924, when the Paris Games involved 3,000 competitors, the greatest of whom was Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi. The "Flying Finn" won three team gold medals and the individual 1,500 and 5,000 meter runs, the latter two on the same day.
The 1928 Amsterdam games was notable for being the first games which allowed females to compete at track & field athletics, and benefited greatly from the general prosperity of the times alongside the first appearance of sponsorship of the games, from the Coca-Cola Company. The 1928 games saw the introduction of a standard medal design with the IOC choosing Giuseppe Cassioli's depiction of Greek goddess Nike and a winner being carried by a crowd of people. This design was used up until 1972.
The 1932 Los Angeles games were affected by the Great Depression, which contributed to the low number of competitors.
The 1936 Berlin Games were seen by the German government as a golden opportunity to promote their ideology. The ruling Nazi Party commissioned film-maker Leni Riefenstahl to film the games. The result, "Olympia", was widely considered to be a masterpiece, despite Hitler's theories of Aryan racial superiority being repeatedly shown up by "non-Aryan" athletes. In particular, African-American sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens won four gold medals. The 1936 Berlin Games also saw the introduction of the Torch Relay.
Due to World War II, the Games of 1940 (due to be held in Tokyo and temporarily relocated to Helsinki upon the outbreak of war) were cancelled. The Games of 1944 were due to be held in London but were also cancelled; instead, London hosted the first games after the end of the war, in 1948.
The first post-war Games were held in 1948 in London, with both Germany and Japan excluded. Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals on the track, emulating Owens' achievement in Berlin.
At the 1952 Games in Helsinki the USSR team competed for the first time and immediately became one of the dominant teams (finishing second both in the number of gold and overall medals won). Soviet immediate success might be explained by the advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete". The USSR entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis, hence violating amateur rules. Finland made a legend of an amiable Czechoslovak army lieutenant named Emil Zátopek, who was intent on improving on his single gold and silver medals from 1948. Having first won both the 10,000 and 5,000-meter races, he also entered the marathon, despite having never previously raced at that distance. Pacing himself by chatting with the other leaders, Zátopek led from about halfway, slowly dropping the remaining contenders to win by two and a half minutes, and completed a trio of wins.
The 1956 Melbourne Games were largely successful, barring a water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union, which the Soviet invasion of Hungary caused to end as a pitched battle between the teams. Due to a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Britain at the time and the strict quarantine laws of Australia, the equestrian events were held in Stockholm.
At the 1960 Rome Games a young light-heavyweight boxer named Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, arrived on the scene. Ali would later throw his gold medal away in disgust after being refused service in a whites-only restaurant in his home town of Louisville, Kentucky. He was awarded a new medal 36 years later at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Other performers of note in 1960 included Wilma Rudolph, a gold medallist in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4 × 100 meters relay events.
The 1964 Games held in Tokyo are notable for heralding the modern age of telecommunications. These games were the first to be broadcast worldwide on television, enabled by the recent advent of communication satellites. The 1964 Games were thus a turning point in the global visibility and popularity of the Olympics. Judo debuted as an official sport, and Dutch judoka Anton Geesink created quite a stir when he won the final of the open weight division, defeating Akio Kaminaga in front of his home crowd.
Performances at the 1968 Mexico City games were affected by the altitude of the host city. The 1968 Games also introduced the now-universal Fosbury flop, a technique which won American high jumper Dick Fosbury the gold medal. In the medal award ceremony for the men's 200 meter race, black American athletes Tommie Smith (gold) and John Carlos (bronze) took a stand for civil rights by raising their black-gloved fists and wearing black socks in lieu of shoes. They were banned by the IOC. Věra Čáslavská, in protest to the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia and the controversial decision by the judges on the Balance Beam and Floor, turned her head down and away from the Soviet flag whilst the anthem played during the medal ceremony. She returned home as a heroine of the Czechoslovak people but was made an outcast by the Soviet-dominated government.
Politics again intervened at Munich in 1972, with lethal consequences. A Palestinian terrorist group named Black September invaded the Olympic village and broke into the apartment of the Israeli delegation. They killed two Israelis and held 9 others as hostages. The terrorists demanded that Israel release numerous prisoners. When the Israeli government refused their demand, a tense stand-off ensued while negotiations continued. Eventually, the captors, still holding their hostages, were offered safe passage and taken to an airport, where they were ambushed by German security forces. In the firefight that followed, 15 people, including the nine Israeli athletes and five of the terrorists, were killed. After much debate, it was decided that the Games would continue, but proceedings were obviously dominated by these events. Some memorable athletic achievements did occur during these Games, notably the winning of a then-record seven gold medals by United States swimmer Mark Spitz, Lasse Virén (of Finland)'s back-to-back gold in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, and the winning of three gold medals by Soviet gymnastic star Olga Korbut - who achieved a historic backflip off the high bar. Korbut, however, failed to win the all-around, losing to her teammate Ludmilla Tourischeva.
There was no such tragedy in Montreal in 1976, but bad planning and fraud led to the Games' cost far exceeding the budget. The Montreal Games were the most expensive in Olympic history, until the 2014 Winter Olympics, costing over $5 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ). For a time, it seemed that the Olympics might no longer be a viable financial proposition. In retrospect, the belief that contractors (suspected of being members of the Montreal Mafia) skimmed large sums of money from all levels of contracts while also profiting from the substitution of cheaper building materials of lesser quality, may have contributed to the delays, poor construction and excessive costs. In 1988, one such contractor, Giuseppe Zappia "was cleared of fraud charges that resulted from his work on Olympic facilities after two key witnesses died before testifying at his trial." There was also a boycott by African nations to protest against a recent tour of apartheid-run South Africa by the New Zealand national rugby union team. The Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci won the women's individual all-around gold medal with two of four possible perfect scores, this giving birth to a gymnastics dynasty in Romania. She also won two other individual events, with two perfect scores in the balance beam and all perfect scores in the uneven bars. Lasse Virén repeated his double gold in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, making him the first athlete to ever win the distance double twice.
Following the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, 66 nations, including the United States, Canada, West Germany, and Japan, boycotted the 1980 games held in Moscow. Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games – the smallest number since 1956. The boycott contributed to the 1980 Games being a less publicised and less competitive affair, which was dominated by the host country.
In 1984 the Soviet Union and 13 Soviet allies reciprocated by boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Romania, notably, was one of the nations in the Eastern Bloc that did attend the 1984 Olympics. These games were perhaps the first games of a new era to make a profit. Although a boycott led by the Soviet Union depleted the field in certain sports, 140 National Olympic Committees took part, which was a record at the time. The Games were also the first time mainland China (People's Republic) participated.
According to British journalist Andrew Jennings, a KGB colonel stated that the agency's officers had posed as anti-doping authorities from the IOC to undermine doping tests and that Soviet athletes were "rescued with [these] tremendous efforts". On the topic of the 1980 Summer Olympics, a 1989 Australian study said "There is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow Games, certainly not a gold medal winner, who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The Moscow Games might as well have been called the Chemists' Games."
Documents obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements. The communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field, was prepared by Dr. Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture. Portugalov was also one of the main figures involved in the implementation of the Russian doping program prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The 1988 games, in Seoul, was very well planned but the games were tainted when many of the athletes, most notably men's 100 metres winner Ben Johnson, failed mandatory drug tests. Despite splendid drug-free performances by many individuals, the number of people who failed screenings for performance-enhancing chemicals overshadowed the games.
The 1992 Barcelona Games featured the admittance of players from one of the North American top leagues, the NBA, exemplified by but not limited to US basketball's "Dream Team". The 1992 games also saw the reintroduction to the Games of several smaller European states which had been incorporated into the Soviet Union since World War II. At these games, gymnast Vitaly Scherbo set an inaugural medal record of five individual gold medals at a Summer Olympics, and equaled the inaugural record set by Eric Heiden at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
By then the process of choosing a location for the Games had become a commercial concern; there were widespread allegations of corruption potentially affecting the IOC's decision process.
An the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics, the highlight was 200 meters runner Michael Johnson annihilating the world record in front of a home crowd. Canadians savoured Donovan Bailey's recording gold medal run in the 100-meter dash. This was popularly felt to be an appropriate recompense for the previous national disgrace involving Ben Johnson. There were also emotional scenes, such as when Muhammad Ali, clearly affected by Parkinson's disease, lit the Olympic torch and received a replacement medal for the one he had discarded in 1960. The latter event took place in the basketball arena. The atmosphere at the Games was marred, however, when a bomb exploded during the celebration in Centennial Olympic Park. In June 2003, the principal suspect in this bombing, Eric Robert Rudolph, was arrested.
The 2000 Summer Olympics was held in Sydney, Australia, and showcased individual performances by local favorite Ian Thorpe in the pool, Briton Steve Redgrave who won a rowing gold medal in an unprecedented fifth consecutive Olympics, and Cathy Freeman, an Indigenous Australian whose triumph in the 400 meters united a packed stadium. Eric "the Eel" Moussambani, a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, received wide media coverage when he completed the 100 meter freestyle swim in by far the slowest time in Olympic history. He nevertheless won the heat as both his opponents had been disqualified for false starts. His female compatriot Paula Barila Bolopa also received media attention for her record-slow and struggling but courageous performance. The Sydney Games also saw the first appearance of a joint North and South Korean contingent at the opening ceremonies, though they competed as different countries. Controversy occurred in the Women's Artistic Gymnastics when the vaulting horse was set to the wrong height during the All-Around Competition.
In 2004, the Olympic Games returned to their birthplace in Athens, Greece. At least $7.2 billion was spent on the 2004 Games, including $1.5 billion on security. Michael Phelps won his first Olympic medals, tallying six gold and two bronze medals. Pyrros Dimas, winning a bronze medal, became the most decorated weightlifter of all time with four Olympic medals, three gold and one bronze. Although unfounded reports of potential terrorism drove crowds away from the preliminary competitions at the first weekend of the Olympics (14–15 August 2004), attendance picked up as the Games progressed. A third of the tickets failed to sell, but ticket sales still topped figures from the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics (1988 and 1992). IOC President Jacques Rogge characterised Greece's organisation as outstanding and its security precautions as flawless. All 202 NOCs participated at the Athens Games with over 11,000 participants.
The 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Several new events were held, including the new discipline of BMX for both men and women. Women competed in the steeplechase for the first time. The fencing program was expanded to include all six events for both men and women; previously, women had not been able to compete in team foil or sabre events, although women's team épée and men's team foil were dropped for these Games. Marathon swimming events were added, over the distance of . Also, the doubles events in table tennis were replaced by team events. American swimmer Michael Phelps set a record for gold medals at a single Games with eight, and tied the record of most gold medals by a single competitor previously held by both Eric Heiden and Vitaly Scherbo. Another notable star of the Games was Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who became the first male athlete ever to set world records in the finals of both the 100 and 200 metres in the same Games. Equestrian events were held in Hong Kong.
London held the 2012 Summer Olympics, becoming the first city to host the Olympic Games three times. In his closing address, Jacques Rogge described the Games as "Happy and glorious". The host nation won 29 gold medals, the best haul for Great Britain since the 1908 Games in London. The United States returned to the top of the medal table after China dominated in 2008. The IOC had removed baseball and softball from the 2012 program. The London Games were successful on a commercial level because they were the first in history to completely sell out every ticket, with as many as 1 million applications for 40,000 tickets for both the Opening Ceremony and the 100m Men's Sprint Final. Such was the demand for tickets to all levels of each event that there was controversy over seats being set aside for sponsors and National Delegations which went unused in the early days. A system of reallocation was put in place so the empty seats were filled throughout the Games.
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics, becoming the first South American city to host the Olympics, the second Olympic host city in Latin America, after Mexico City in 1968, as well as the third city in the Southern Hemisphere to host the Olympics after Melbourne, Australia, in 1956 and Sydney, Australia, in 2000. The preparation for these Games was overshadowed by controversies, including the political instability of Brazil's federal government; the country's economic crisis; health and safety concerns surrounding the Zika virus and significant pollution in the Guanabara Bay; and a state-sponsored doping scandal involving Russia, which affected the participation of its athletes in the Games.
The 2020 Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan that was originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020. The city will be the fourth in history to host the Games twice, being the first in Asia to have this title. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, the IOC and the Tokyo Organizing Committee announced that the 2020 Games were to be delayed until 2021, marking the first time that the Olympic Games have been postponed.
There has been a total of 42 sports, spanning 55 disciplines, included in the Olympic program at one point or another in the history of the Games. The schedule has comprised 28 sports for three of the most recent Summer Olympics (2004, 2008, and 2016); the 2012 Games featured 26 sports because of the removal of baseball and softball.
The various Olympic Sports federations are grouped under a common umbrella association, called the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).
Qualification rules for each of the Olympic sports are set by the International Sports Federation (IF) that governs that sport's international competition.
For individual sports, competitors typically qualify by attaining a certain place in a major international event or on the IF's ranking list. There is a general rule that a maximum of three individual athletes may represent each nation per competition. National Olympic Committees (NOCs) may enter a limited number of qualified competitors in each event, and the NOC decides which qualified competitors to select as representatives in each event if more have attained the benchmark than can be entered.
Nations most often qualify teams for team sports through continental qualifying tournaments, in which each continental association is given a certain number of spots in the Olympic tournament. Each nation may be represented by no more than one team per competition; a team consists of just two people in some sports.
Summer Olympic sports are divided into five categories (A – E) based on popularity, gauged by six criteria: television viewing figures (40%), internet popularity (20%), public surveys (15%), ticket requests (10%), press coverage (10%), and number of national federations (5%). The category of a sport determines the share of Olympic revenue received by that sport's International Federation. Sports that were new to the 2016 Olympics (rugby and golf) have been placed in Category E.
The current categories are:
Aquatics encompasses artistic swimming, diving, swimming, and water polo.
The table below uses official data provided by the IOC. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27566 |
Shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software which is initially provided free of charge to users, who are allowed and encouraged to make and share copies of the program. Shareware is often offered as a download from a website or on a compact disc included with a magazine. Shareware differs from freeware, which is software distributed at no cost to the user but without source code being made available; and open-source software, in which the source code is freely available for anyone to inspect and alter.
There are many types of shareware, and while they may not require an initial up-front payment, many are intended to generate revenue in one way or another. Some limit use to personal non-commercial purposes only, with purchase of a license required for use in a business enterprise. The software itself may be limited in functionality or be time-limited, or it may remind the user that payment would be appreciated.
Adware, short for "advertising-supported software", is any software package which automatically renders advertisements in order to generate revenue for its author. The advertisements may be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during the installation process. The functions may be designed to analyze which websites the user visits and to present advertising pertinent to the types of goods or services featured there. The term is sometimes used to refer to software that displays unwanted advertisements.
Shareware is often packaged with adware. During the install of the intended software, the user is presented with a requirement to agree to the terms of click through licensing or similar licensing which governs the installation of the software.
Crippleware has vital features of the program, such as printing or the ability to save files, disabled (or have unwanted features like watermarks on screencasting and video editing software) until the user buys the software. This allows users to take a close look at the features of a program without being able to use it to generate output. The distinction between freemium and crippleware is that an unlicensed freemium program has useful functionality, while crippleware demonstrates its potential, but is not useful on its own.
Trialware commonly has a built-in time limit. The user can try out the fully featured program until the trial period is up, and then most trialware reverts to a reduced-functionality (freemium, nagware, or crippleware) or non-functional mode, unless the user pays the license fee and receives a registration code to unlock the program. Trialware has become the norm for online Software as a Service (SaaS).
The rationale behind trialware is to give potential users the opportunity to try out the program to judge its usefulness before purchasing a license. According to industry research firm Softletter, 66% of online companies surveyed had free-trial-to-paying-customer conversion rates of 25% or less. SaaS providers employ a wide range of strategies to nurture leads, and convert them into paying customers.
Donationware is a licensing model that supplies fully operational unrestricted software to the user and requests an optional donation be paid to the programmer or a third-party beneficiary (usually a non-profit). The amount of the donation may also be stipulated by the author, or it may be left to the discretion of the user, based on individual perceptions of the software's value. Since donationware comes fully operational (i.e. not crippleware) with payment optional, it is a type of freeware.
Nagware (also known as begware, annoyware or a nagscreen) is a pejorative term for shareware that persistently reminds the user to purchase a license. It usually does this by popping up a message when the user starts the program, or intermittently while the user is using the application. These messages can appear as windows obscuring part of the screen, or as message boxes that can quickly be closed. Some nagware keeps the message up for a certain time period, forcing the user to wait to continue to use the program. Unlicensed programs that support printing may superimpose a watermark on the printed output, typically stating that the output was produced by an unlicensed copy.
Some titles display a dialog box with payment information and a message that paying will remove the notice, which is usually displayed either upon startup or after an interval while the application is running. These notices are designed to annoy the user into paying.
Freemium works by offering a product or service free of charge (typically digital offerings such as software, content, games, web services or other) while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services. For example, a fully functional feature-limited version may be given away for free, with advanced features disabled until a license fee is paid. The word "freemium" is a portmanteau combining the two aspects of the business model: "free" and "premium". It has become a popular model especially in the antivirus industry.
Postcardware, also called just cardware, is a style of software distribution similar to shareware, distributed by the author on the condition that users send the author a postcard. A variation of cardware, Emailware, uses the same approach but requires the user to send the author an email. Postcardware, like other novelty software distribution terms, is often not strictly enforced. Cardware is similar to beerware.
The concept was first used by Aaron Giles, author of JPEGView. Another well-known piece of postcardware is the roguelike game "Ancient Domains of Mystery", whose author collects postcards from around the world. Orbitron is distributed as postcardware. Exifer is a popular application among digital photographers that has been "postcardware". Caledos Automatic Wallpaper Changer is a "still alive" project cardware. "Empathy" is a postcardware for password-protected executables. Dual Module Player and Linux were also postcardware for a long time. An example for emailware is the video game "Jump 'n Bump". Another popular postcardware company is the Laravel package developers from Spatie, which have released over 200 open-source packages to the Laravel framework, which are postcardware licensed, and all shown at their website.
In 1982, Andrew Fluegelman created a program for the IBM PC called PC-Talk, a telecommunications program, and used the term "freeware"; he described it "as an experiment in economics more than altruism". About the same time, Jim "Button" Knopf released PC-File, a database program, calling it "user-supported software". Not much later, Bob Wallace produced PC-Write, a word processor, and called it "shareware". Appearing in an episode of "Horizon" titled "Psychedelic Science" originally broadcast 5 April 1998, Bob Wallace said the idea for shareware came to him "to some extent as a result of my psychedelic experience".
In 1983 Jerry Pournelle wrote of "an increasingly popular variant" of free software "that has no name, but works thus: 'If you like this, send me (the author) some money. I prefer cash.'" In 1984, "Softalk-PC" magazine had a column, "The Public Library", about such software. "Public domain" is a misnomer for shareware, and "Freeware" was trademarked by Fluegelman and could not be used legally by others, and "User-Supported Software" was too cumbersome. So columnist Nelson Ford had a contest to come up with a better name.
The most popular name submitted was "Shareware", which was being used by Wallace. However, Wallace acknowledged that he got the term from an InfoWorld magazine column by that name in the 1970s, and that he considered the name to be generic, so its use became established over "freeware" and "user-supported software".
Fluegelman, Knopf, and Wallace clearly established shareware as a viable software marketing method. Via the shareware model, Button, Fluegelman and Wallace became millionaires.
Prior to the popularity of the World Wide Web and widespread Internet access, shareware was often the only economical way for independent software authors to get their product onto users' desktops. Those with Internet or BBS access could download software and distribute it amongst their friends or user groups, who would then be encouraged to send the registration fee to the author, usually via postal mail. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, shareware software was widely distributed over online services, bulletin board systems and on diskettes. Contrary to commercial developers who spent millions of dollars urging users "Don't Copy That Floppy", shareware developers encouraged users to upload the software and share it on disks.
Commercial shareware distributors such as Educorp and Public Domain Inc printed catalogs describing thousands of public domain and shareware programs that were available for a small charge on floppy disk. These companies later made their entire catalog available on CD-ROM. One such distributor, "Public Software Library" (PSL), began an order-taking service for programmers who otherwise had no means of accepting credit card orders. Later, services like Kagi started offering applications that authors could distribute along with their products that would present the user with an onscreen form to fill out, print, and mail along with their payment. Once telecommunications became more widespread, this service also expanded online. Toward the beginning of the Internet era, books compiling reviews of available shareware were published, sometimes targeting specific niches such as small business. These books would typically come with one or more floppy disks or CD-ROMs containing software from the book.
As Internet use grew, users turned to downloading shareware programs from FTP or web sites. This spelled the end of bulletin board systems and shareware disk distributors. At first, disk space on a server was hard to come by, so networks like Info-Mac were developed, consisting of non-profit mirror sites hosting large shareware libraries accessible via the web or ftp. With the advent of the commercial web hosting industry, the authors of shareware programs started their own sites where the public could learn about their programs and download the latest versions, and even pay for the software online. This erased one of the chief distinctions of shareware, as it was now most often downloaded from a central "official" location instead of being shared samizdat-style by its users. To ensure users would get the latest bug-fixes as well as an install untainted by viruses or other malware, some authors discouraged users from giving the software to their friends, encouraging them to send a link instead.
Major download sites such as VersionTracker and CNet's Download.com began to rank titles based on quality, feedback, and downloads. Popular software was sorted to the top of the list, along with products whose authors paid for preferred placement.
If features are disabled in the freely accessible version, paying may provide the user with a licence key or code they can enter into the software to disable the notices and enable full functionality. Some pirate web sites publish license codes for popular shareware, leading to a kind of arms race between the developer and the pirates where the developer disables pirated codes and the pirates attempt to find or generate new ones. Some software publishers have started accepting known pirated codes, using the opportunity to educate users on the economics of the shareware model.
Some shareware relies entirely on the user's honesty and requires no password. Simply checking an "I have paid" checkbox in the application is all that is required to disable the registration notices.
In the early 1990s, shareware distribution was a popular method of publishing games for smaller developers, including then-fledgling companies Apogee Software (also known as 3D Realms), Epic MegaGames (now Epic Games), Ambrosia Software and id Software. It gave consumers the chance to play the game before investing money in it, and gave them exposure that some products would be unable to get in the retail space.
With the Kroz series, Apogee introduced the "episodic" shareware model that became the most popular incentive for buying a game. While the shareware game would be a truly complete game, there would be additional "episodes" of the game that were not shareware, and could only be legally obtained by paying for the shareware episode. In some cases these episodes were neatly integrated and would feel like a longer version of the game, and in other cases the later episodes would be stand-alone games. Sometimes the additional content was completely integrated with the unregistered game, such as in Ambrosia's Escape Velocity series, in which a character representing the developer's pet parrot, equipped with an undefeatable ship, would periodically harass and destroy the player after they reached a certain level representing the end of the trial period.
Racks of games on single 5 1/4 inch and later 3.5 inch floppy disks were common in retail stores. However, computer shows and bulletin board systems (BBS) such as Software Creations BBS were the primary distributors of low-cost software. Free software from a BBS was the motive force for consumers to purchase a computer equipped with a modem, so as to acquire software at no cost.
The important distinguishing feature between a shareware game and a game demo is that the shareware game is (at least in theory) a complete working software program albeit with reduced content compared to the full game, while a game demo omits significant functionality as well as content. Shareware games commonly offered both single player and multiplayer modes plus a significant fraction of the full game content such as the first of three episodes, while some even offered the entire product as shareware while unlocking additional content for registered users. By contrast a game demo may offer as little as one single-player level or consist solely of a multiplayer map, this makes them easier to prepare than a shareware game.
There are several widely accepted standards and technologies that are used in the development and promotion of shareware. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27567 |
Substance theory
Substance theory, or substance–attribute theory, is an ontological theory about objecthood positing that a "substance" is distinct from its properties. A "thing-in-itself" is a property-bearer that must be distinguished from the properties it bears. The corresponding concept in Eastern philosophy is svabhava.
"Substance" is a key concept in ontology and metaphysics, which may be classified into monist, dualist, or pluralist varieties according to how many substances or individuals are said to populate, furnish, or exist in the world. According to monistic views, there is only one substance. Stoicism and Spinoza, for example, hold monistic views, that pneuma or God, respectively, is the one substance in the world. These modes of thinking are sometimes associated with the idea of immanence. Dualism sees the world as being composed of two fundamental substances (for example, the Cartesian substance dualism of mind and matter). Pluralist philosophies include Plato's Theory of Forms and Aristotle's hylomorphic categories.
Aristotle used the term "substance" ( "ousia") in a secondary sense for genera and species understood as hylomorphic forms. Primarily, however, he used it with regard to his category of substance, the specimen ("this person" or "this horse") or individual, "qua" individual, who survives accidental change and in whom the essential properties inhere that define those universals.
In chapter 6 of book I the "Physics" Aristotle argues that any change must be analysed in reference to the property of an invariant subject: as it was before the change and thereafter. Thus, in his hylomorphic account of change, "matter" serves as a relative substratum of transformation, i.e., of changing (substantial) form. In the "Categories", properties are predicated only of substance, but in chapter 7 of book I of the "Physics", Aristotle discusses substances coming to be and passing away in the "unqualified sense" wherein primary substances (πρῶται οὐσίαι; "Categories" 2a35) are generated from (or perish into) a material substratum by having gained (or lost) the essential property that formally defines substances of that kind (in the secondary sense). Examples of such a substantial change include not only conception and dying, but also metabolism, e.g., the bread a man eats becomes the man. On the other hand, in accidental change, because the essential property remains unchanged, by identifying the substance with its formal essence, substance may thereby serve as the relative subject matter or property-bearer of change in a qualified sense (i.e., barring matters of life or death). An example of this sort of accidental change is a change of color or size: a tomato becomes red, or a juvenile horse grows.
Aristotle thinks that in addition to primary substances (which are particulars), there are secondary substances (δεύτεραι οὐσίαι), which are universals ("Categories" 2a11–a18).
Neither the "bare particulars" nor "property bundles" of modern theory have their antecedent in Aristotle, according to whom all matter exists in some form. There is no "prime matter" or pure elements, there is always a mixture: a ratio weighing the four potential combinations of primary and secondary properties and analysed into discrete one-step and two-step abstract transmutations between the elements.
However, according to Aristotle's theology, a form of invariant form exists without matter, beyond the cosmos, powerless and oblivious, in the eternal substance of the unmoved movers.
Early Pyrrhonism rejected the idea that substances exist. Pyrrho put this as:
"Whoever wants to live well (eudaimonia) must consider these three questions: First, how are "pragmata" (ethical matters, affairs, topics) by nature? Secondly, what attitude should we adopt towards them? Thirdly, what will be the outcome for those who have this attitude?" Pyrrho's answer is that "As for "pragmata" they are all adiaphora (undifferentiated by a logical differentia), "astathmēta" (unstable, unbalanced, not measurable), and "anepikrita" (unjudged, unfixed, undecidable). Therefore, neither our sense-perceptions nor our "doxai" (views, theories, beliefs) tell us the truth or lie; so we certainly should not rely on them. Rather, we should be "adoxastoi" (without views), "aklineis" (uninclined toward this side or that), and "akradantoi" (unwavering in our refusal to choose), saying about every single one that it no more is than it is not or it both is and is not or it neither is nor is not.
The Stoics rejected the idea that incorporeal beings inhere in matter, as taught by Plato. They believed that all being is corporeal infused with a creative fire called pneuma. Thus they developed a scheme of categories different from Aristotle's based on the ideas of Anaxagoras and Timaeus.
Neoplatonists argue that beneath the surface phenomena that present themselves to our senses are three higher spiritual principles or hypostases, each one more sublime than the preceding. For Plotinus, these are the soul or world-soul, being/intellect or divine mind ("nous"), and "the one".
The Christian writers of antiquity adhered to the Aristotelian conception of substance. Their peculiarity was the use of this idea for the discernment of theological nuances. Clement of Alexandria considered both material and spiritual substances: blood and milk; mind and soul, respectively. Origen may be the first theologian expressing Christ's similarity with the Father as consubstantiality. Tertullian professed the same view in the West. The ecclesiastics of the Cappadocian group (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa) taught that the Trinity had a single substance in three hypostases individualized by the relations among them. In later ages, the meaning of "substance" became more important because of the dogma of the Eucharist. Hildebert of Lavardin, archbishop of Tours, introduced the term "transubstantiation" about 1080; its use spread after the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215.
According to Thomas Aquinas, beings may possess substance in three different modes. Together with other Medieval philosophers, he interpreted God's epithet "El Shaddai" (Genesis 17:1) as self-sufficient and concluded that God’s essence was identical with existence. Aquinas also deemed the substance of spiritual creatures identical with their essence (or form); therefore he considered each angel to belong to its own distinct species. In Aquinas' view, composite substances consist of form and matter. Human substantial form, i.e. soul, receives its individuality from body.
Buddhism rejects the concept of substance. Complex structures are comprehended as an aggregate of components without any essence. Just as the junction of parts is called cart, so the collections of elements are called things. All formations are unstable ("aniccā") and lacking any constant core or “self” ("anattā"). Physical objects have no metaphysical substrate. Arising entities hang on previous ones conditionally: in the notable teaching on interdependent origination, effects arise not as caused by agents but conditioned by former situations. Our senses, perception, feelings, wishes and consciousness are flowing, the view "satkāya-dṛṣṭi" of their permanent carrier is rejected as fallacious. The school of Madhyamaka, namely Nāgārjuna, introduced the idea of the ontological void ("śūnyatā"). The Buddhist metaphysics Abhidharma presumes particular forces which determine the origin, persistence, aging and decay of everything in the world. Vasubandhu added a special force making a human, called “"aprāpti"” or “"pṛthagjanatvam."” Because of the absence of a substantial soul, the belief in personal immortality loses foundation. Instead of deceased beings, new ones emerge whose fate is destined by the karmic law. The Buddha admitted the empirical identity of persons testified by their birth, name, and age. He approved the authorship of deeds and responsibility of performers. The disciplinary practice in the Sangha including reproaches, confession and expiation of transgressions, requires continuing personalities as its justification.
René Descartes means by a substance an entity which exists in such a way that it needs no other entity in order to exist. Therefore, only God is a substance in this strict sense. However, he extends the term to created things, which need only the concurrence of God to exist. He maintained that two of these are mind and body, each being distinct from the other in their attributes and therefore in their essence, and neither needing the other in order to exist. This is Descartes' substance dualism.
Baruch Spinoza denied Descartes' "real distinction" between mind and matter. Substance, according to Spinoza, is one and indivisible, but has multiple "attributes". He regards an attribute, though, as "what we conceive as constituting the [single] essence of substance". The single essence of one substance can be conceived of as material and also, consistently, as mental. What is ordinarily called the natural world, together with all the individuals in it, is immanent in God: hence his famous phrase "deus sive natura" ("God or Nature").
John Locke views substance through a corpuscularian lens where it exhibits two types of qualities which both stem from a source. He believes that humans are born "tabula rasa" or “blank slate” – without innate knowledge. In "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" Locke writes that “first essence may be taken for the very being of anything, whereby it is, what it is.” If humans are born without any knowledge, the way to receive knowledge is through perception of a certain object. But, according to Locke, an object exists in its primary qualities, no matter whether the human perceives it or not; it just exists. For example, an apple has qualities or properties that determine its existence apart from human perception of it, such as its mass or texture. The apple itself is also “pure substance in which is supposed to provide some sort of ‘unknown support’ to the observable qualities of things” that the human mind perceives. The foundational or support qualities are called primary essences which “in the case of physical substances, are the underlying physical causes of the object's observable qualities”. But then what is an object except “the owner or support of other properties”? Locke rejects Aristotle's category of the forms, and develops mixed ideas about what substance or “first essence” means. Locke's solution to confusion about first essence is to argue that objects simply are what they are – made up of microscopic particles existing because they exist. According to Locke, the mind cannot completely grasp the idea of a substance as it “always falls beyond knowledge”. There is a gap between what first essence truly means and the mind's perception of it that Locke believes the mind cannot bridge, objects in their primary qualities must exist apart from human perception.
The molecular combination of atoms in first essence then forms the solid base that humans can perceive and add qualities to describe - the only way humans can possibly begin to perceive an object. The way to perceive the qualities of an apple is from the combination of the primary qualities to form the secondary qualities. These qualities are then used to group the substances into different categories that “depend on the properties [humans] happen to be able to perceive”. The taste of an apple or the feeling of its smoothness are not traits inherent to the fruit but are the power of the primary qualities to produce an idea about that object in the mind. The reason that humans can't sense the actual primary qualities is the mental distance from the object; thus, Locke argues, objects remain nominal for humans. Therefore, the argument then returns to how “a philosopher has no other idea of those substances than what is framed by a collection of those simple ideas which are found in them.” The mind's conception of substances “[is] complex rather than simple” and “has no (supposedly innate) clear and distinct idea of matter that can be revealed through intellectual abstraction away from sensory qualities”.
The last quality of substance is the way the perceived qualities seem to begin to change – such as a candle melting; this quality is called the tertiary quality. Tertiary qualities “of a body are those powers in it that, by virtue of its primary qualities, give it the power to produce observable changes in the primary qualities of other bodies”; “the power of the sun to melt wax is a tertiary quality of the sun”. They are “mere powers; qualities such as flexibility, ductility; and the power of sun to melt wax”. This goes along with “passive power: the capacity a thing has for being changed by another thing”. In any object, at the core are the primary qualities (unknowable by the human mind), the secondary quality (how primary qualities are perceived), and tertiary qualities (the power of the combined qualities to make a change to the object itself or to other objects).
Robert Boyle's corpuscularian hypothesis states that "all material bodies are composites of ultimately small particles of matter" that "have the same material qualities as the larger composite bodies do". Using this basis, Locke defines his first group, primary qualities, as "the ones that a body doesn't lose, however much it alters." The materials retain their primary qualities even if they are broken down because of the unchanging nature of their atomic particles. If someone is curious about an object and they say it is solid and extended, these two descriptors are primary qualities. The second group consists of secondary qualities which are "really nothing but the powers to produce various sensations in us by their primary qualities." Locke argues that the impressions our senses perceive from the objects (i.e. taste, sounds, colors, etc.) are not natural properties of the object itself, but things they induce in us by means of the "size, shape, texture, and motion of their imperceptible parts." The bodies send insensible particles to our senses which let us perceive the object through different faculties; what we perceive is based on the object's composition. With these qualities, people can achieve the object through bringing "co-existing powers and sensible qualities to a common ground for explanation". Locke supposes that one wants to know what "binds these qualities" into an object, and argues that a "substratum" or "substance" has this effect, defining "substance" as follows:
This substratum is a construct of the mind in an attempt to bind all the qualities seen together; it is only "a supposition of
an unknown support of qualities that are able to cause simple
ideas in us." Without making a substratum, people would be at a loss as to how different qualities relate. Locke does, however, mention that this substratum is an unknown, relating it to the story of the world on the turtle's back and how the believers eventually had to concede that the turtle just rested on "something he knew not what". This is how the mind perceives all things and from which it can make ideas about them; it is entirely relative, but it does provide a "regularity and consistency to our ideas". Substance, overall, has two sets of qualities — those that define it, and those related to how we perceive it. These qualities rush to our minds, which must organize them. As a result, our mind creates a substratum (or "substance") for these objects, into which it groups related qualities.
Kant observed that the assertion of a spiritual soul as substance could be a synthetic proposition which, however, was unproved and completely arbitrary. Introspection does not reveal any diachronic substrate remaining unchanged throughout life. The temporal structure of consciousness is retentive-perceptive-prognostic. The selfhood arises as result of several informative flows: (1) signals from our own body; (2) retrieved memories and forecasts; (3) the affective load: dispositions and aversions; (4) reflections in other minds. Mental acts have the feature of appropriation: they are always attached to some pre-reflective consciousness. As visual perception is only possible from a definite point of view, so inner experience is given together with self-consciousness. The latter is not an autonomous mental act, but a formal way how the first person has her experience. From the pre-reflective consciousness, the person gains conviction of her existence. This conviction is immune to false reference. The concept of person is prior to the concepts of subject and body. The reflective self-consciousness is a conceptual and elaborate cognition. Selfhood is a self-constituting effigy, a task to be accomplished. Humans are incapable of comprising all their experience within the current state of consciousness; overlapping memories are critical for personal integrity. Appropriated experience can be recollected. At stage B, we remember the experience of stage A; at stage C, we may be aware of the mental acts of stage B. The idea of self-identity is enforced by the relatively slow changes of our body and social situation. Personal identity may be explained without accepting a spiritual agent as subject of mental activity. Associative connection between life episodes is necessary and sufficient for the maintenance of a united selfhood. Personal character and memories can persist after radical mutation of the body.
Two irreducible concepts encountered in substance theory are the "bare particular" and "inherence".
In substance theory, a bare particular of an object is the element without which the object would not exist, that is, its substance, which exists independently from its properties, even if it is impossible for it to lack properties entirely. It is "bare" because it is considered without its properties and "particular" because it is not abstract. The properties that the substance has are said to inhere in the substance.
Another primitive concept in substance theory is the inherence of properties within a substance. For example, in the sentence, "The apple is red" substance theory says that red inheres in the apple. Substance theory takes the meaning of an apple having the property of redness to be understood, and likewise that of a property's inherence in substance, which is similar to, but not identical with, being part of the substance.
The inverse relation is participation. Thus in the example above, just as red inheres in the apple, so the apple participates in red.
Two common arguments supporting substance theory are the argument from grammar and the argument from conception.
The argument from grammar uses traditional grammar to support substance theory. For example, the sentence "Snow is white" contains a grammatical subject "snow" and the predicate "is white", thereby asserting "snow is white". The argument holds that it makes no grammatical sense to speak of "whiteness" disembodied, without asserting that snow or something else "is" white. Meaningful assertions are formed by virtue of a grammatical subject, of which properties may be predicated, and in substance theory, such assertions are made with regard to a substance.
Bundle theory rejects the argument from grammar on the basis that a grammatical subject does not necessarily refer to a metaphysical subject. Bundle theory, for example, maintains that the grammatical subject of statement refers to its properties. For example, a bundle theorist understands the grammatical subject of the sentence, "Snow is white", to be a bundle of properties such as white. Accordingly, one can make meaningful statements about bodies without referring to substances.
Another argument for the substance theory is the argument from conception. The argument claims that in order to conceive of an object's properties, like the redness of an apple, one must conceive of the object that has those properties. According to the argument, one cannot conceive of redness, or any other property, distinct from the substance that has that property.
The idea of substance was famously critiqued by David Hume, who held that since substance cannot be perceived, it should not be assumed to exist.
Friedrich Nietzsche, and after him Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze also rejected the notion of "substance", and in the same movement the concept of subject - seeing both concepts as holdovers from Platonic idealism. For this reason, Althusser's "anti-humanism" and Foucault's statements were criticized, by Jürgen Habermas and others, for misunderstanding that this led to a fatalist conception of social determinism. For Habermas, only a subjective form of liberty could be conceived, to the contrary of Deleuze who talks about ""a" life", as an impersonal and immanent form of liberty.
For Heidegger, Descartes means by "substance" that by which "we can understand nothing else than an entity which "is" in such a way that it need no other entity in order to "be"." Therefore, only God is a substance as "Ens perfectissimus" (most perfect being). Heidegger showed the inextricable relationship between the concept of substance and of subject, which explains why, instead of talking about "man" or "humankind", he speaks about the "Dasein", which is not a simple subject, nor a substance.
Alfred North Whitehead has argued that the concept of substance has only a limited applicability in everyday life and that metaphysics should rely upon the concept of process.
Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner, as part of his critique of transubstantiation, rejected substance theory and instead proposed the doctrine of "transfinalization", which he felt was more attuned to modern philosophy. However, this doctrine was rejected by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical "Mysterium fidei".
In direct opposition to substance theory is bundle theory, whose most basic premise is that all concrete particulars are merely constructions or 'bundles' of attributes or qualitative properties:
The bundle theorist's principal objections to substance theory concern the bare particulars of a substance, which substance theory considers independently of the substance's properties. The bundle theorist objects to the notion of a thing with no properties, claiming that such a thing is inconceivable and citing John Locke, who described a substance as "a something, I know not what." To the bundle theorist, as soon as one has any notion of a substance in mind, a property accompanies that notion.
The indiscernibility argument from the substance theorist targets those bundle theorists who are also metaphysical realists. Metaphysical realism uses the identity of "universals" to compare and identify particulars. Substance theorists say that bundle theory is incompatible with metaphysical realism due to the identity of indiscernibles: particulars may differ from one another only with respect to their attributes or relations.
The substance theorist's indiscernibility argument against the metaphysically realistic bundle theorist states that numerically different concrete particulars are discernible from the self-same concrete particular only by virtue of qualitatively different attributes.
The indiscernibility argument points out that if bundle theory and discernible concrete particulars theory explain the relationship between attributes, then the identity of indiscernibles theory must also be true:
The indiscernibles argument then asserts that the identity of indiscernibles is violated, for example, by identical sheets of paper. All of their qualitative properties are the same (e.g. white, rectangular, 9 x 11 inches...) and thus, the argument claims, bundle theory and metaphysical realism cannot both be correct.
However, bundle theory combined with trope theory (as opposed to metaphysical realism) avoids the indiscernibles argument because each attribute is a trope if can only be held by only one concrete particular.
The argument does not consider whether "position" should be considered an attribute or relation. It is after all through the differing positions that we in practice differentiate between otherwise identical pieces of paper. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27568 |
Superfluid helium-4
Superfluid helium-4 is the superfluid form of helium-4, an isotope of the element helium. A superfluid is a state of matter in which matter behaves like a fluid with zero viscosity. The substance, which looks like a normal liquid, flows without friction past any surface, which allows it to continue to circulate over obstructions and through pores in containers which hold it, subject only to its own inertia.
Known as a major facet in the study of quantum hydrodynamics and macroscopic quantum phenomena, the superfluidity effect was discovered by Pyotr Kapitsa and John F. Allen, and Don Misener in 1937. It has since been described through phenomenological and microscopic theories. The formation of the superfluid is known to be related to the formation of a Bose–Einstein condensate. This is made obvious by the fact that superfluidity occurs in liquid helium-4 at far higher temperatures than it does in helium-3. Each atom of helium-4 is a boson particle, by virtue of its zero spin. Helium-3, however, is a fermion particle, which can form bosons only by pairing with itself at much lower temperatures, in a process similar to the electron pairing in superconductivity.
In the 1950s, Hall and Vinen performed experiments establishing the existence of quantized vortex lines in superfluid helium. In the 1960s, Rayfield and Reif established the existence of quantized vortex rings. Packard has observed the intersection of vortex lines with the free surface of the fluid,
and Avenel and Varoquaux have studied the Josephson effect in superfluid helium-4. In 2006 a group at the University of Maryland visualized quantized vortices by using small tracer particles of solid hydrogen.
Figure 1 is the phase diagram of 4He. It is a pressure-temperature (p-T) diagram indicating the solid and liquid regions separated by the melting curve (between the liquid and solid state) and the liquid and gas region, separated by the vapor-pressure line. This latter ends in the critical point where the difference between gas and liquid disappears. The diagram shows the remarkable property that 4He is liquid even at absolute zero. 4He is only solid at pressures above 25 bar.
Figure 1 also shows the λ-line. This is the line that separates two fluid regions in the phase diagram indicated by He-I and He-II. In the He-I region the helium behaves like a normal fluid; in the He-II region the helium is superfluid.
The name lambda-line comes from the specific heat – temperature plot which has the shape of the Greek letter λ. See figure 2, which shows a peak at 2.172 K, the so-called λ-point of 4He.
Below the lambda line the liquid can be described by the so-called two-fluid model. It behaves as if it consists of two components: a normal component, which behaves like a normal fluid, and a superfluid component with zero viscosity and zero entropy. The ratios of the respective densities ρn/ρ and ρs/ρ, with ρn (ρs) the density of the normal (superfluid) component, and ρ (the total density), depends on temperature and is represented in figure 3. By lowering the temperature, the fraction of the superfluid density increases from zero at "T"λ to one at zero kelvins. Below 1 K the helium is almost completely superfluid.
It is possible to create density waves of the normal component (and hence of the superfluid component since ρn + ρs = constant) which are similar to ordinary sound waves. This effect is called second sound. Due to the temperature dependence of ρn (figure 3) these waves in ρn are also temperature waves.
Many ordinary liquids, like alcohol or petroleum, creep up solid walls, driven by their surface tension. Liquid helium also has this property, but, in the case of He-II, the flow of the liquid in the layer is not restricted by its viscosity but by a critical velocity which is about 20 cm/s. This is a fairly high velocity so superfluid helium can flow relatively easily up the wall of containers, over the top, and down to the same level as the surface of the liquid inside the container, in a siphon effect as illustrated in figure 4. In a container, lifted above the liquid level, it forms visible droplets as seen in figure 5. It was, however, observed, that the flow through nanoporous membrane becomes restricted if the pore diameter is less than 0.7 nm (i.e. roughly three times the classical diameter of helium atom), suggesting the unusual hydrodynamic properties of He arise at larger scale than in the classical liquid helium.
The equation of motion for the superfluid component, in a somewhat simplified form, is given by Newton's law
The mass "M"4 is the molar mass of 4He, and formula_2 is the velocity of the superfluid component. The time derivative is the so-called hydrodynamic derivative, i.e. the rate of increase of the velocity when moving with the fluid. In the case of superfluid 4He in the gravitational field the force is given by
In this expression μ is the molar chemical potential, "g" the gravitational acceleration, and "z" the vertical coordinate. Thus we get
Eq. only holds if "v"s is below a certain critical value, which usually is determined by the diameter of the flow channel.
In classical mechanics the force is often the gradient of a potential energy. Eq. shows that, in the case of the superfluid component, the force contains a term due to the gradient of the chemical potential. This is the origin of the remarkable properties of He-II such as the fountain effect.
In order to rewrite Eq. in more familiar form we use the general formula
Here "S"m is the molar entropy and "V"m the molar volume. With Eq. μ("p","T") can be found by a line integration in the p-T plane. First we integrate from the origin (0,0) to ("p",0), so at "T" =0. Next we integrate from ("p",0) to ("p","T"), so with constant pressure (see figure 6). In the first integral d"T"=0 and in the second d"p"=0. With Eq. we obtain
We are interested only in cases where "p" is small so that "V"m is practically constant. So
where "V"m0 is the molar volume of the liquid at "T" =0 and "p" =0. The other term in Eq. is also written as a product of "V"m0 and a quantity "p"f which has the dimension of pressure
The pressure "p"f is called the fountain pressure. It can be calculated from the entropy of 4He which, in turn, can be calculated from the heat capacity. For "T" ="T"λ the fountain pressure is equal to 0.692 bar. With a density of liquid helium of 125 kg/m3 and "g" = 9.8 m/s2 this corresponds with a liquid-helium column of 56 meter height. So, in many experiments, the fountain pressure has a bigger effect on the motion of the superfluid helium than gravity.
With Eqs. and , Eq. obtains the form
Substitution of Eq. in gives
with ρ₀ = "M"4/"V"m0 the density of liquid 4He at zero pressure and temperature.
Eq. shows that the superfluid component is accelerated by gradients in the pressure and in the gravitational field, as usual, but also by a gradient in the fountain pressure.
So far Eq. has only mathematical meaning, but in special experimental arrangements "p"f can show up as a real pressure. Figure 7 shows two vessels both containing He-II. The left vessel is supposed to be at zero kelvins ("T"l=0) and zero pressure ("p"l = 0). The vessels are connected by a so-called superleak. This is a tube, filled with a very fine powder, so the flow of the normal component is blocked. However, the superfluid component can flow through this superleak without any problem (below a critical velocity of about 20 cm/s). In the steady state "v"s=0 so Eq. implies
where the index l (r) applies to the left (right) side of the superleak. In this particular case "p"l = 0, "z"l = "z"r, and "p"fl = 0 (since "T"l = 0). Consequently,
This means that the pressure in the right vessel is equal to the fountain pressure at "T"r.
In an experiment, arranged as in figure 8, a fountain can be created. The fountain effect is used to drive the circulation of 3He in dilution refrigerators.
Figure 9 depicts a heat-conduction experiment between two temperatures "T"H and "T"L connected by a tube filled with He-II. When heat is applied to the hot end a pressure builds up at the hot end according to Eq.. This pressure drives the normal component from the hot end to the cold end according to
Here ηn is the viscosity of the normal component, "Z" some geometrical factor, and formula_5 the volume flow. The normal flow is balanced by a flow of the superfluid component from the cold to the hot end. At the end sections a normal to superfluid conversion takes place and vice versa. So heat is transported, not by heat conduction, but by convection. This kind of heat transport is very effective, so the thermal conductivity of He-II is very much better than the best materials. The situation is comparable with heat pipes where heat is transported via gas–liquid conversion. The high thermal conductivity of He-II is applied for stabilizing superconducting magnets such as in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
L. D. Landau's phenomenological and semi-microscopic theory of superfluidity of helium-4 earned him the Nobel Prize in physics, in 1962. Assuming that sound waves are the most important excitations in helium-4 at low temperatures, he showed that helium-4 flowing past a wall would not spontaneously create excitations if the flow velocity was less than the sound velocity. In this model, the sound velocity is the "critical velocity" above which superfluidity is destroyed. (Helium-4 actually has a lower flow velocity than the sound velocity, but this model is useful to illustrate the concept.) Landau also showed that the sound wave and other excitations could equilibrate with one another and flow separately from the rest of the helium-4, which is known as the "condensate".
From the momentum and flow velocity of the excitations he could then define a "normal fluid" density, which is zero at zero temperature and increases with temperature. At the so-called Lambda temperature, where the normal fluid density equals the total density, the helium-4 is no longer superfluid.
To explain the early specific heat data on superfluid helium-4, Landau posited the existence of a type of excitation he called a "roton", but as better data became available he considered that the "roton" was the same as a high momentum version of sound.
The Landau theory does not elaborate on the microscopic structure of the superfluid component of liquid helium. The first attempts to create a microscopic theory of the superfluid component itself were done by London and subsequently, Tisza.
Other microscopical models have been proposed by different authors. Their main objective is to derive the form of the inter-particle potential between helium atoms in superfluid state from first principles of quantum mechanics.
To date, a number of models of this kind have been proposed, including: models with vortex rings, hard-sphere models, and Gaussian cluster theories.
Landau thought that vorticity entered superfluid helium-4 by vortex sheets, but such sheets have since been shown to be unstable.
Lars Onsager and, later independently, Feynman showed that vorticity enters by quantized vortex lines. They also developed the idea of quantum vortex rings.
Arie Bijl in the 1940s,
and Richard Feynman around 1955, developed microscopic theories for the roton, which was shortly observed with inelastic neutron experiments by Palevsky. Later on, Feynman admitted that his model gives only qualitative agreement with experiment.
The models are based on the simplified form of the inter-particle potential between helium-4 atoms in the superfluid phase. Namely, the potential is assumed to be of the hard-sphere type.
In these models the famous Landau (roton) spectrum of excitations is qualitatively reproduced.
This is a two-scale approach which describes the superfluid component of liquid helium-4. It
consists of two nested models linked via parametric space. The short-wavelength part describes the interior structure of the fluid element using a non-perturbative approach based on the Logarithmic Schrödinger equation; it suggests the Gaussian-like behaviour of the element's interior density and interparticle interaction potential. The long-wavelength part is the quantum many-body theory of such elements which deals with their dynamics and interactions. The approach provides a unified description of the phonon, maxon and roton excitations, and has noteworthy agreement with experiment: with one essential parameter to fit one reproduces at high accuracy the Landau roton spectrum, sound velocity and structure factor of superfluid helium-4.
This model utilizes the general theory of quantum Bose liquids with logarithmic nonlinearities which is based on introducing a dissipative-type contribution to energy related to the quantum Everett–Hirschman entropy function.
Although the phenomenologies of the superfluid states of helium-4 and helium-3 are very similar, the microscopic details of the transitions are very different. Helium-4 atoms are bosons, and their superfluidity can be understood in terms of the Bose–Einstein statistics that they obey. Specifically, the superfluidity of helium-4 can be regarded as a consequence of Bose–Einstein condensation in an interacting system. On the other hand, helium-3 atoms are fermions, and the superfluid transition in this system is described by a generalization of the BCS theory of superconductivity. In it, Cooper pairing takes place between atoms rather than electrons, and the attractive interaction between them is mediated by spin fluctuations rather than phonons. (See fermion condensate.) A unified description of superconductivity and superfluidity is possible in terms of gauge symmetry breaking.
Superfluids, such as helium-4 below the lambda point, exhibit many unusual properties. (See Helium#Helium II.) A superfluid acts as if it were a mixture of a normal component, with all the properties of a normal fluid, and a superfluid component. The superfluid component has zero viscosity and zero entropy. Application of heat to a spot in superfluid helium results in a flow of the normal component which takes care of the heat transport at relatively high velocity (up to 20 cm/s) which leads to a very high effective thermal conductivity.
Another fundamental property becomes visible if a superfluid is placed in a rotating container. Instead of rotating uniformly with the container, the rotating state consists of quantized vortices. That is, when the container is rotated at speeds below the first critical angular velocity, the liquid remains perfectly stationary. Once the first critical angular velocity is reached, the superfluid will form a vortex. The vortex strength is quantized, that is, a superfluid can only spin at certain "allowed" values. Rotation in a normal fluid, like water, is not quantized. If the rotation speed is increased more and more quantized vortices will be formed which arrange in nice patterns similar to the Abrikosov lattice in a superconductor.
Recently in the field of chemistry, superfluid helium-4 has been successfully used in spectroscopic techniques as a quantum solvent. Referred to as superfluid helium droplet spectroscopy (SHeDS), it is of great interest in studies of gas molecules, as a single molecule solvated in a superfluid medium allows a molecule to have effective rotational freedom, allowing it to behave similarly to how it would in the "gas" phase. Droplets of superfluid helium also have a characteristic temperature of about 0.4 K which cools the solvated molecule(s) to its ground or nearly ground rovibronic state.
Superfluids are also used in high-precision devices such as gyroscopes, which allow the measurement of some theoretically predicted gravitational effects (for an example, see Gravity Probe B).
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, launched in January 1983 to gather infrared data was cooled by 73 kilograms of superfluid helium, maintaining a temperature of . When used in conjunction with helium-3, temperatures as low as 40 mK are routinely achieved in extreme low temperature experiments. The helium-3, in liquid state at 3.2 K, can be evaporated into the superfluid helium-4, where it acts as a gas due to the latter's properties as a Bose–Einstein condensate. This evaporation pulls energy from the overall system, which can be pumped out in a way completely analogous to normal refrigeration techniques.
Superfluid-helium technology is used to extend the temperature range of cryocoolers to lower temperatures. So far the limit is 1.19 K, but there is a potential to reach 0.7 K.
In the early 2000s, physicists created a Fermionic condensate from pairs of ultra-cold fermionic atoms. Under certain conditions, fermion pairs form diatomic molecules and undergo Bose–Einstein condensation. At the other limit, the fermions (most notably superconducting electrons) form Cooper pairs which also exhibit superfluidity. This work with ultra-cold atomic gases has allowed scientists to study the region in between these two extremes, known as the BEC-BCS crossover.
Supersolids may also have been discovered in 2004 by physicists at Penn State University. When helium-4 is cooled below about 200 mK under high pressures, a fraction (≈1%) of the solid appears to become superfluid. By quench cooling or lengthening the annealing time, thus increasing or decreasing the defect density respectively, it was shown, via torsional oscillator experiment, that the supersolid fraction could be made to range from 20% to completely non-existent. This suggested that the supersolid nature of helium-4 is not intrinsic to helium-4 but a property of helium-4 and disorder. Some emerging theories posit that the supersolid signal observed in helium-4 was actually an observation of either a superglass state or intrinsically superfluid grain boundaries in the helium-4 crystal. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27573 |
Statistical regularity
Statistical regularity is a notion in statistics and probability theory that random events exhibit regularity when repeated enough times or that enough sufficiently similar random events exhibit regularity. It is an umbrella term that covers the law of large numbers, all central limit theorems and ergodic theorems.
If one throws a dice once, it is difficult to predict the outcome, but if we repeat this experiment many times, we will see that the number of times each result occurs divided by the number of throws will eventually stabilize towards a specific value.
Repeating a series of trials will produce similar, but not identical, results for each series: the average, the standard deviation and other distributional characteristics will be around the same for each series of trials.
The notion is used in games of chance, demographic statistics, quality control of a manufacturing process, and in many other parts of our lives.
Observations of this phenomenon provided the initial motivation for the concept of what is now known as frequency probability.
This phenomenon should not be confused with the gambler's fallacy, because regularity only refers to the (possibly very) long run. The gambler's fallacy does not apply to statistical regularity because the latter considers the whole rather than individual cases. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27575 |
Statistical model
A statistical model is a mathematical model that embodies a set of statistical assumptions concerning the generation of sample data (and similar data from a larger population). A statistical model represents, often in considerably idealized form, the data-generating process.
A statistical model is usually specified as a mathematical relationship between one or more random variables and other non-random variables. As such, a statistical model is "a formal representation of a theory" (Herman Adèr quoting Kenneth Bollen).
All statistical hypothesis tests and all statistical estimators are derived via statistical models. More generally, statistical models are part of the foundation of statistical inference.
Informally, a statistical model can be thought of as a statistical assumption (or set of statistical assumptions) with a certain property: that the assumption allows us to calculate the probability of any event. As an example, consider a pair of ordinary six-sided dice. We will study two different statistical assumptions about the dice.
The first statistical assumption is this: for each of the dice, the probability of each face (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) coming up is . From that assumption, we can calculate the probability of both dice coming up 5: More generally, we can calculate the probability of any event: e.g. (1 and 2) or (3 and 3) or (5 and 6).
The alternative statistical assumption is this: for each of the dice, the probability of the face 5 coming up is (because the dice are weighted). From that assumption, we can calculate the probability of both dice coming up 5: We cannot, however, calculate the probability of any other nontrivial event, as the probabilities of the other faces are unknown.
The first statistical assumption constitutes a statistical model: because with the assumption alone, we can calculate the probability of any event. The alternative statistical assumption does "not" constitute a statistical model: because with the assumption alone, we cannot calculate the probability of every event.
In the example above, with the first assumption, calculating the probability of an event is easy. With some other examples, though, the calculation can be difficult, or even impractical (e.g. it might require millions of years of computation). For an assumption to constitute a statistical model, such difficulty is acceptable: doing the calculation does not need to be practicable, just theoretically possible.
In mathematical terms, a statistical model is usually thought of as a pair (formula_1), where formula_2 is the set of possible observations, i.e. the sample space, and formula_3 is a set of probability distributions on formula_2.
The intuition behind this definition is as follows. It is assumed that there is a "true" probability distribution induced by the process that generates the observed data. We choose formula_3 to represent a set (of distributions) which contains a distribution that adequately approximates the true distribution.
Note that we do not require that formula_3 contains the true distribution, and in practice that is rarely the case. Indeed, as Burnham & Anderson state, "A model is a simplification or approximation of reality and hence will not reflect all of reality"—whence the saying "all models are wrong".
The set formula_3 is almost always parameterized: formula_8. The set formula_9 defines the parameters of the model. A parameterization is generally required to have distinct parameter values give rise to distinct distributions, i.e. formula_10 must hold (in other words, it must be injective). A parameterization that meets the requirement is said to be "identifiable".
Suppose that we have a population of school children, with the ages of the children distributed uniformly, in the population. The height of a child will be stochastically related to the age: e.g. when we know that a child is of age 7, this influences the chance of the child being 1.5 meters tall. We could formalize that relationship in a linear regression model, like this:
height"i" = "b"0 + "b"1age"i" + ε"i", where "b"0 is the intercept, "b"1 is a parameter that age is multiplied by to obtain a prediction of height, ε"i" is the error term, and "i" identifies the child. This implies that height is predicted by age, with some error.
An admissible model must be consistent with all the data points. Thus, a straight line (height"i" = "b"0 + "b"1age"i") cannot be the equation for a model of the data—unless it exactly fits all the data points, i.e. all the data points lie perfectly on the line. The error term, ε"i", must be included in the equation, so that the model is consistent with all the data points.
To do statistical inference, we would first need to assume some probability distributions for the ε"i". For instance, we might assume that the ε"i" distributions are i.i.d. Gaussian, with zero mean. In this instance, the model would have 3 parameters: "b"0, "b"1, and the variance of the Gaussian distribution.
We can formally specify the model in the form (formula_1) as follows. The sample space, formula_2, of our model comprises the set of all possible pairs (age, height). Each possible value of formula_13 = ("b"0, "b"1, "σ"2) determines a distribution on formula_2; denote that distribution by formula_15. If formula_9 is the set of all possible values of formula_13, then formula_8. (The parameterization is identifiable, and this is easy to check.)
In this example, the model is determined by (1) specifying formula_2 and (2) making some assumptions relevant to formula_3. There are two assumptions: that height can be approximated by a linear function of age; that errors in the approximation are distributed as i.i.d. Gaussian. The assumptions are sufficient to specify formula_3—as they are required to do.
A statistical model is a special class of mathematical model. What distinguishes a statistical model from other mathematical models is that a statistical model is non-deterministic. Thus, in a statistical model specified via mathematical equations, some of the variables do not have specific values, but instead have probability distributions; i.e. some of the variables are stochastic. In the above example with children's heights, ε is a stochastic variable; without that stochastic variable, the model would be deterministic.
Statistical models are often used even when the data-generating process being modeled is deterministic. For instance, coin tossing is, in principle, a deterministic process; yet it is commonly modeled as stochastic (via a Bernoulli process).
Choosing an appropriate statistical model to represent a given data-generating process is sometimes extremely difficult, and may require knowledge of both the process and relevant statistical analyses. Relatedly, the statistician Sir David Cox has said, "How [the] translation from subject-matter problem to statistical model is done is often the most critical part of an analysis".
There are three purposes for a statistical model, according to Konishi & Kitagawa.
Those three purposes are essentially the same as the three purposes indicated by Friendly & Meyer: prediction, estimation, description. The three purposes correspond with the three kinds of logical reasoning: deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning.
Suppose that we have a statistical model (formula_1) with formula_8. The model is said to be "parametric" if formula_9 has a finite dimension. In notation, we write that formula_25 where is a positive integer (formula_26 denotes the real numbers; other sets can be used, in principle). Here, is called the dimension of the model.
As an example, if we assume that data arise from a univariate Gaussian distribution, then we are assuming that
In this example, the dimension, , equals 2.
As another example, suppose that the data consists of points (, ) that we assume are distributed according to a straight line with i.i.d. Gaussian residuals (with zero mean): this leads to the same statistical model as was used in the example with children's heights. The dimension of the statistical model is 3: the intercept of the line, the slope of the line, and the variance of the distribution of the residuals. (Note that in geometry, a straight line has dimension 1.)
Although formally formula_28 is a single parameter that has dimension , it is sometimes regarded as comprising separate parameters. For example, with the univariate Gaussian distribution, formula_13 is formally a single parameter with dimension 2, but it is sometimes regarded as comprising 2 separate parameters—the mean and the standard deviation.
A statistical model is "nonparametric" if the parameter set formula_9 is infinite dimensional. A statistical model is "semiparametric" if it has both finite-dimensional and infinite-dimensional parameters. Formally, if is the dimension of formula_9 and is the number of samples, both semiparametric and nonparametric models have formula_32 as formula_33. If formula_34 as formula_33, then the model is semiparametric; otherwise, the model is nonparametric.
Parametric models are by far the most commonly used statistical models. Regarding semiparametric and nonparametric models, Sir David Cox has said, "These typically involve fewer assumptions of structure and distributional form but usually contain strong assumptions about independencies".
Two statistical models are nested if the first model can be transformed into the second model by imposing constraints on the parameters of the first model. As an example, the set of all Gaussian distributions has, nested within it, the set of zero-mean Gaussian distributions: we constrain the mean in the set of all Gaussian distributions to get the zero-mean distributions. As a second example, the quadratic model
has, nested within it, the linear model
—we constrain the parameter to equal 0.
In both those examples, the first model has a higher dimension than the second model (for the first example, the zero-mean model has dimension 1). Such is often, but not always, the case. As a different example, the set of positive-mean Gaussian distributions, which has dimension 2, is nested within the set of all Gaussian distributions.
Comparing statistical models is fundamental for much of statistical inference. Indeed, state, "The majority of the problems in statistical inference can be considered to be problems related to statistical modeling. They are typically formulated as comparisons of several statistical models."
Common criteria for comparing models include the following: "R"2, Bayes factor, and the likelihood-ratio test together with its generalization relative likelihood. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27576 |
Statistical inference
Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to deduce properties of an underlying distribution of probability. Inferential statistical analysis infers properties of a population, for example by testing hypotheses and deriving estimates. It is assumed that the observed data set is sampled from a larger population.
Inferential statistics can be contrasted with descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics is solely concerned with properties of the observed data, and it does not rest on the assumption that the data come from a larger population. In machine learning, the term "inference" is sometimes used instead to mean "make a prediction, by evaluating an already trained model"; in this context deducing properties of the model is referred to as "training" or "learning" (rather than "inference"), and using a model for prediction is referred to as "inference" (instead of "prediction"); see also predictive inference.
Statistical inference makes propositions about a population, using data drawn from the population with some form of sampling. Given a hypothesis about a population, for which we wish to draw inferences, statistical inference consists of (first) selecting a statistical model of the process that generates the data and (second) deducing propositions from the model.
Konishi & Kitagawa state, "The majority of the problems in statistical inference can be considered to be problems related to statistical modeling". Relatedly, Sir David Cox has said, "How [the] translation from subject-matter problem to statistical model is done is often the most critical part of an analysis".
The conclusion of a statistical inference is a statistical proposition. Some common forms of statistical proposition are the following:
Any statistical inference requires some assumptions. A statistical model is a set of assumptions concerning the generation of the observed data and similar data. Descriptions of statistical models usually emphasize the role of population quantities of interest, about which we wish to draw inference. Descriptive statistics are typically used as a preliminary step before more formal inferences are drawn.
Statisticians distinguish between three levels of modeling assumptions;
Whatever level of assumption is made, correctly calibrated inference in general requires these assumptions to be correct; i.e. that the data-generating mechanisms really have been correctly specified.
Incorrect assumptions of 'simple' random sampling can invalidate statistical inference. More complex semi- and fully parametric assumptions are also cause for concern. For example, incorrectly assuming the Cox model can in some cases lead to faulty conclusions. Incorrect assumptions of Normality in the population also invalidates some forms of regression-based inference. The use of any parametric model is viewed skeptically by most experts in sampling human populations: "most sampling statisticians, when they deal with confidence intervals at all, limit themselves to statements about [estimators] based on very large samples, where the central limit theorem ensures that these [estimators] will have distributions that are nearly normal." In particular, a normal distribution "would be a totally unrealistic and catastrophically unwise assumption to make if we were dealing with any kind of economic population." Here, the central limit theorem states that the distribution of the sample mean "for very large samples" is approximately normally distributed, if the distribution is not heavy tailed.
Given the difficulty in specifying exact distributions of sample statistics, many methods have been developed for approximating these.
With finite samples, approximation results measure how close a limiting distribution approaches the statistic's sample distribution: For example, with 10,000 independent samples the normal distribution approximates (to two digits of accuracy) the distribution of the sample mean for many population distributions, by the Berry–Esseen theorem.
Yet for many practical purposes, the normal approximation provides a good approximation to the sample-mean's distribution when there are 10 (or more) independent samples, according to simulation studies and statisticians' experience. Following Kolmogorov's work in the 1950s, advanced statistics uses approximation theory and functional analysis to quantify the error of approximation. In this approach, the metric geometry of probability distributions is studied; this approach quantifies approximation error with, for example, the Kullback–Leibler divergence, Bregman divergence, and the Hellinger distance.
With indefinitely large samples, limiting results like the central limit theorem describe the sample statistic's limiting distribution, if one exists. Limiting results are not statements about finite samples, and indeed are irrelevant to finite samples. However, the asymptotic theory of limiting distributions is often invoked for work with finite samples. For example, limiting results are often invoked to justify the generalized method of moments and the use of generalized estimating equations, which are popular in econometrics and biostatistics. The magnitude of the difference between the limiting distribution and the true distribution (formally, the 'error' of the approximation) can be assessed using simulation. The heuristic application of limiting results to finite samples is common practice in many applications, especially with low-dimensional models with log-concave likelihoods (such as with one-parameter exponential families).
For a given dataset that was produced by a randomization design, the randomization distribution of a statistic (under the null-hypothesis) is defined by evaluating the test statistic for all of the plans that could have been generated by the randomization design. In frequentist inference, randomization allows inferences to be based on the randomization distribution rather than a subjective model, and this is important especially in survey sampling and design of experiments. Statistical inference from randomized studies is also more straightforward than many other situations. In Bayesian inference, randomization is also of importance: in survey sampling, use of sampling without replacement ensures the exchangeability of the sample with the population; in randomized experiments, randomization warrants a missing at random assumption for covariate information.
Objective randomization allows properly inductive procedures.
Many statisticians prefer randomization-based analysis of data that was generated by well-defined randomization procedures. (However, it is true that in fields of science with developed theoretical knowledge and experimental control, randomized experiments may increase the costs of experimentation without improving the quality of inferences.)
Similarly, results from randomized experiments are recommended by leading statistical authorities as allowing inferences with greater reliability than do observational studies of the same phenomena.
However, a good observational study may be better than a bad randomized experiment.
The statistical analysis of a randomized experiment may be based on the randomization scheme stated in the experimental protocol and does not need a subjective model.
However, at any time, some hypotheses cannot be tested using objective statistical models, which accurately describe randomized experiments or random samples. In some cases, such randomized studies are uneconomical or unethical.
It is standard practice to refer to a statistical model, e.g., a linear or logistic models, when analyzing data from randomized experiments. However, the randomization scheme guides the choice of a statistical model. It is not possible to choose an appropriate model without knowing the randomization scheme. Seriously misleading results can be obtained analyzing data from randomized experiments while ignoring the experimental protocol; common mistakes include forgetting the blocking used in an experiment and confusing repeated measurements on the same experimental unit with independent replicates of the treatment applied to different experimental units.
Model-free techniques provide a complement to model-based methods, which employ reductionist strategies of reality-simplification. The former combine, evolve, ensemble and train algorithms dynamically adapting to the contextual affinities of a process and learning the intrinsic characteristics of the observations.
For example, model-free simple linear regression is based either on
In either case, the model-free randomization inference for features of the common conditional distribution formula_8 relies on some regularity conditions, e.g. functional smoothness. For instance, model-free randomization inference for the population feature "conditional mean", formula_9, can be consistently estimated via local averaging or local polynomial fitting, under the assumption that formula_10 is smooth. Also, relying on asymptotic normality or resampling, we can construct confidence intervals for the population feature, in this case, the "conditional mean", formula_10.
Different schools of statistical inference have become established. These schools—or "paradigms"—are not mutually exclusive, and methods that work well under one paradigm often have attractive interpretations under other paradigms.
Bandyopadhyay & Forster describe four paradigms: "(i) classical statistics or error statistics, (ii) Bayesian statistics, (iii) likelihood-based statistics, and (iv) the Akaikean-Information Criterion-based statistics". The classical (or frequentist) paradigm, the Bayesian paradigm, the likelihoodist paradigm, and the AIC-based paradigm are summarized below.
This paradigm calibrates the plausibility of propositions by considering (notional) repeated sampling of a population distribution to produce datasets similar to the one at hand. By considering the dataset's characteristics under repeated sampling, the frequentist properties of a statistical proposition can be quantified—although in practice this quantification may be challenging.
One interpretation of frequentist inference (or classical inference) is that it is applicable only in terms of frequency probability; that is, in terms of repeated sampling from a population. However, the approach of Neyman develops these procedures in terms of pre-experiment probabilities. That is, before undertaking an experiment, one decides on a rule for coming to a conclusion such that the probability of being correct is controlled in a suitable way: such a probability need not have a frequentist or repeated sampling interpretation. In contrast, Bayesian inference works in terms of conditional probabilities (i.e. probabilities conditional on the observed data), compared to the marginal (but conditioned on unknown parameters) probabilities used in the frequentist approach.
The frequentist procedures of significance testing and confidence intervals can be constructed without regard to utility functions. However, some elements of frequentist statistics, such as statistical decision theory, do incorporate utility functions. In particular, frequentist developments of optimal inference (such as minimum-variance unbiased estimators, or uniformly most powerful testing) make use of loss functions, which play the role of (negative) utility functions. Loss functions need not be explicitly stated for statistical theorists to prove that a statistical procedure has an optimality property. However, loss-functions are often useful for stating optimality properties: for example, median-unbiased estimators are optimal under absolute value loss functions, in that they minimize expected loss, and least squares estimators are optimal under squared error loss functions, in that they minimize expected loss.
While statisticians using frequentist inference must choose for themselves the parameters of interest, and the estimators/test statistic to be used, the absence of obviously explicit utilities and prior distributions has helped frequentist procedures to become widely viewed as 'objective'.
The Bayesian calculus describes degrees of belief using the 'language' of probability; beliefs are positive, integrate to one, and obey probability axioms. Bayesian inference uses the available posterior beliefs as the basis for making statistical propositions. There are several different justifications for using the Bayesian approach.
Many informal Bayesian inferences are based on "intuitively reasonable" summaries of the posterior. For example, the posterior mean, median and mode, highest posterior density intervals, and Bayes Factors can all be motivated in this way. While a user's utility function need not be stated for this sort of inference, these summaries do all depend (to some extent) on stated prior beliefs, and are generally viewed as subjective conclusions. (Methods of prior construction which do not require external input have been proposed but not yet fully developed.)
Formally, Bayesian inference is calibrated with reference to an explicitly stated utility, or loss function; the 'Bayes rule' is the one which maximizes expected utility, averaged over the posterior uncertainty. Formal Bayesian inference therefore automatically provides optimal decisions in a decision theoretic sense. Given assumptions, data and utility, Bayesian inference can be made for essentially any problem, although not every statistical inference need have a Bayesian interpretation. Analyses which are not formally Bayesian can be (logically) incoherent; a feature of Bayesian procedures which use proper priors (i.e. those integrable to one) is that they are guaranteed to be coherent. Some advocates of Bayesian inference assert that inference "must" take place in this decision-theoretic framework, and that Bayesian inference should not conclude with the evaluation and summarization of posterior beliefs.
Likelihoodism approaches statistics by using the likelihood function. Some likelihoodists reject inference, considering statistics as only computing support from evidence. Others, however, propose inference based on the likelihood function, of which the best-known is maximum likelihood estimation.
The "Akaike information criterion" (AIC) is an estimator of the relative quality of statistical models for a given set of data. Given a collection of models for the data, AIC estimates the quality of each model, relative to each of the other models. Thus, AIC provides a means for model selection.
AIC is founded on information theory: it offers an estimate of the relative information lost when a given model is used to represent the process that generated the data. (In doing so, it deals with the trade-off between the goodness of fit of the model and the simplicity of the model.)
The minimum description length (MDL) principle has been developed from ideas in information theory and the theory of Kolmogorov complexity. The (MDL) principle selects statistical models that maximally compress the data; inference proceeds without assuming counterfactual or non-falsifiable "data-generating mechanisms" or probability models for the data, as might be done in frequentist or Bayesian approaches.
However, if a "data generating mechanism" does exist in reality, then according to Shannon's source coding theorem it provides the MDL description of the data, on average and asymptotically. In minimizing description length (or descriptive complexity), MDL estimation is similar to maximum likelihood estimation and maximum a posteriori estimation (using maximum-entropy Bayesian priors). However, MDL avoids assuming that the underlying probability model is known; the MDL principle can also be applied without assumptions that e.g. the data arose from independent sampling.
The MDL principle has been applied in communication-coding theory in information theory, in linear regression, and in data mining.
The evaluation of MDL-based inferential procedures often uses techniques or criteria from computational complexity theory.
Fiducial inference was an approach to statistical inference based on fiducial probability, also known as a "fiducial distribution". In subsequent work, this approach has been called ill-defined, extremely limited in applicability, and even fallacious. However this argument is the same as that which shows that a so-called confidence distribution is not a valid probability distribution and, since this has not invalidated the application of confidence intervals, it does not necessarily invalidate conclusions drawn from fiducial arguments. An attempt was made to reinterpret the early work of Fisher's fiducial argument as a special case of an inference theory using Upper and lower probabilities.
Developing ideas of Fisher and of Pitman from 1938 to 1939, George A. Barnard developed "structural inference" or "pivotal inference", an approach using invariant probabilities on group families. Barnard reformulated the arguments behind fiducial inference on a restricted class of models on which "fiducial" procedures would be well-defined and useful.
The topics below are usually included in the area of statistical inference.
Al-Kindi, an Arab mathematician in the 9th century, made the earliest known use of statistical inference in his "Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages", a work on cryptanalysis and frequency analysis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27577 |
Survey sampling
In statistics, survey sampling describes the process of selecting a sample of elements from a target population to conduct a survey.
The term "survey" may refer to many different types or techniques of observation. In survey sampling it most often involves a questionnaire used to measure the characteristics and/or attitudes of people. Different ways of contacting members of a sample once they have been selected is the subject of survey data collection. The purpose of sampling is to reduce the cost and/or the amount of work that it would take to survey the entire target population. A survey that measures the entire target population is called a census. A sample refers to a group or section of a population from which information is to be obtained
Survey samples can be broadly divided into two types: probability samples and super samples. Probability-based samples implement a sampling plan with specified probabilities (perhaps adapted probabilities specified by an adaptive procedure). Probability-based sampling allows design-based inference about the target population. The inferences are based on a known objective probability distribution that was specified in the study protocol. Inferences from probability-based surveys may still suffer from many types of bias.
Surveys that are not based on probability sampling have greater difficulty measuring their bias or sampling error. Surveys based on non-probability samples often fail to represent the people in the target population.
In academic and government survey research, probability sampling is a standard procedure. In the United States, the Office of Management and Budget's "List of Standards for Statistical Surveys" states that federally funded surveys must be performed:
selecting samples using generally accepted statistical methods (e.g., probabilistic methods that can provide estimates of sampling error). Any use of nonprobability sampling methods (e.g., cut-off or model-based samples) must be justified statistically and be able to measure estimation error.
Random sampling and design-based inference are supplemented by other statistical methods, such as model-assisted sampling and model-based sampling.
For example, many surveys have substantial amounts of nonresponse. Even though the units are initially chosen with known probabilities, the nonresponse mechanisms are unknown. For surveys with substantial nonresponse, statisticians have proposed statistical models with which the data sets are analyzed.
Issues related to survey sampling are discussed in several sources, including Salant and Dillman (1994).
In a probability sample (also called "scientific" or "random" sample) each member of the target population has a known and non-zero probability of inclusion in the sample. A survey based on a probability sample can in theory produce statistical measurements of the target population that are:
A probability-based survey sample is created by constructing a list of the target population, called the sampling frame, a randomized process for selecting units from the sample frame, called a selection procedure, and a method of contacting selected units to enable them to complete the survey, called a data collection method or mode. For some target populations this process may be easy; for example, sampling the employees of a company by using payroll lists. However, in large, disorganized populations simply constructing a suitable sample frame is often a complex and expensive task.
Common methods of conducting a probability sample of the household population in the United States are Area Probability Sampling, Random Digit Dial telephone sampling, and more recently, Address-Based Sampling.
Within probability sampling, there are specialized techniques such as stratified sampling and cluster sampling that improve the precision or efficiency of the sampling process without altering the fundamental principles of probability sampling.
Stratification is the process of dividing members of the population into homogeneous subgroups before sampling, based on auxiliary information about each sample unit. The strata should be mutually exclusive: every element in the population must be assigned to only one stratum. The strata should also be collectively exhaustive: no population element can be excluded. Then methods such as simple random sampling or systematic sampling can be applied within each stratum. Stratification often improves the representativeness of the sample by reducing sampling error.
Bias in surveys is undesirable, but often unavoidable. The major types of bias that may occur in the sampling process are:
Many surveys are not based on probability samples, but rather on finding a suitable collection of respondents to complete the survey. Some common examples of non-probability sampling are:
In non-probability samples the relationship between the target population and the survey sample is immeasurable and potential bias is unknowable. Sophisticated users of non-probability survey samples tend to view the survey as an experimental condition, rather than a tool for population measurement, and examine the results for internally consistent relationships.
The textbook by Groves et alia provides an overview of survey methodology, including recent literature on questionnaire development (informed by cognitive psychology) :
The other books focus on the statistical theory of survey sampling and require some knowledge of basic statistics, as discussed in the following textbooks:
The elementary book by Scheaffer et alia uses quadratic equations from high-school algebra:
More mathematical statistics is required for Lohr, for Särndal et alia, and for Cochran (classic):
The historically important books by Deming and Kish remain valuable for insights for social scientists (particularly about the U.S. census and the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan): | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27578 |
Statistical theory
The theory of statistics provides a basis for the whole range of techniques, in both study design and data analysis, that are used within applications of statistics. The theory covers approaches to statistical-decision problems and to statistical inference, and the actions and deductions that satisfy the basic principles stated for these different approaches. Within a given approach, statistical theory gives ways of comparing statistical procedures; it can find a best possible procedure within a given context for given statistical problems, or can provide guidance on the choice between alternative procedures.
Apart from philosophical considerations about how to make statistical inferences and decisions, much of statistical theory consists of mathematical statistics, and is closely linked to probability theory, to utility theory, and to optimization.
Statistical theory provides an underlying rationale and provides a consistent basis for the choice of methodology used in applied statistics.
Statistical models describe the sources of data and can have different types of formulation corresponding to these sources and to the problem being studied. Such problems can be of various kinds:
Statistical models, once specified, can be tested to see whether they provide useful inferences for new data sets. Testing a hypothesis using the data that was used to specify the model is a fallacy, according to the natural science of Bacon and the scientific method of Peirce.
Statistical theory provides a guide to comparing methods of data collection, where the problem is to generate informative data using optimization and randomization while measuring and controlling for observational error. Optimization of data collection reduces the cost of data while satisfying statistical goals, while randomization allows reliable inferences. Statistical theory provides a basis for good data collection and the structuring of investigations in the topics of:
The task of summarising statistical data in conventional forms (also known as descriptive statistics) is considered in theoretical statistics as a problem of defining what aspects of statistical samples need to be described and how well they can be described from a typically limited sample of data. Thus the problems theoretical statistics considers include:
Besides the philosophy underlying statistical inference, statistical theory has the task of considering the types of questions that data analysts might want to ask about the problems they are studying and of providing data analytic techniques for answering them. Some of these tasks are:
When a statistical procedure has been specified in the study protocol, then statistical theory provides well-defined probability statements for the method when applied to all populations that could have arisen from the randomization used to generate the data. This provides an objective way of estimating parameters, estimating confidence intervals, testing hypotheses, and selecting the best. Even for observational data, statistical theory provides a way of calculating a value that can be used to interpret a sample of data from a population, it can provide a means of indicating how well that value is determined by the sample, and thus a means of saying corresponding values derived for different populations are as different as they might seem; however, the reliability of inferences from post-hoc observational data is often worse than for planned randomized generation of data.
Statistical theory provides the basis for a number of data-analytic approaches that are common across scientific and social research. Interpreting data is done with one of the following approaches:
Many of the standard methods for those approaches rely on certain statistical assumptions (made in the derivation of the methodology) actually holding in practice. Statistical theory studies the consequences of departures from these assumptions. In addition it provides a range of robust statistical techniques that are less dependent on assumptions, and it provides methods checking whether particular assumptions are reasonable for a given data set. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27579 |
Statistical unit
In statistics, a unit is one member of a set of entities being studied. It is the main source for the mathematical abstraction of a "random variable". Common examples of a unit would be a single person, animal, plant, manufactured item, or country that belongs to a larger collection of such entities being studied.
Units are often referred to as being either experimental units, sampling units or units of observation:
For example, in an experiment on educational methods, methods may be applied to classrooms of students. This would make the classroom as the experimental unit. Measurements of progress may be obtained from individual students, as observational units. But the treatment (teaching method) being applied to the class would not be applied independently to the individual students. Hence the student could not be regarded as the experimental unit. The class, or the teacher by method combination if the teacher had multiple classes, would be the appropriate experimental unit.
In most statistical studies, the goal is to generalize from the observed units to a larger set consisting of all comparable units that exist but are not directly observed. For example, if we randomly sample 100 people and ask them which candidate they intend to vote for in an election, our main interest is in the voting behavior of all eligible voters, not exclusively on the 100 observed units.
In some cases, the observed units may not form a sample from any meaningful population, but rather constitute a convenience sample, or may represent the entire population of interest. In this situation, we may study the units descriptively, or we may study their dynamics over time. But it typically does not make sense to talk about generalizing to a larger population of such units. Studies involving countries or business firms are often of this type. Clinical trials also typically use convenience samples, however the aim is often to make inferences about the effectiveness of treatments in other patients, and given the inclusion and exclusion criteria for some clinical trials, the sample may not be representative of the majority of patients with the condition or disease.
In simple data sets, the units are in one-to-one correspondence with the data values. In more complex data sets, multiple measurements are made for each unit. For example, if blood pressure measurements are made daily for a week on each subject in a study, there would be seven data values for each statistical unit. Multiple measurements taken on an individual are not independent (they will be more alike compared to measurements taken on different individuals). Ignoring these dependencies during the analysis can lead to an inflated sample size or pseudoreplication.
While a "unit" is often the lowest level at which observations are made, in some cases, a "unit" can be further decomposed as a statistical assembly.
Many statistical analyses use quantitative data that have units of measurement. This is a distinct and non-overlapping use of the term "unit."
Statistical units are divided into two. They are : | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27580 |
Statistical assembly
In statistics, for example in statistical quality control, a statistical assembly is a collection of parts or components which makes up a statistical unit. Thus a statistical unit, which would be the prime item of concern, is made of discrete components like organs or machine parts. The reliability of the statistical unit is, in part, determined by the reliability of the components in the statistical assembly, and by their interactions.
Much of the observation of a statistical assembly requires special preparation of the unit, which demands that the intervention must not prejudice the observations. A simple version of this kind of research uses the stimulus-response model.
In other contexts, statistical assembly refers to the process of constructing a manufactured item which must be carefully specified to contain given amounts of nonuniformity within it. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27581 |
Stimulus–response model
The stimulus–response model is a characterization of a statistical unit (such as a neuron). The model allows the prediction of a quantitative response to a quantitative stimulus, for example one administered by a researcher. In psychology, stimulus response theory concerns forms of classical conditioning in which a stimulus becomes paired response in a subject's mind.
Stimulus–response models are applied in international relations,
,
risk assessment,
,
neurally-inspired system design,
and many other fields.
Pharmacological dose response relationships are an application of stimulus-response models.
The object of a stimulus–response model is to establish a mathematical function that describes the relation "f" between the stimulus "x" and the expected value (or other measure of location) of the response "Y":
A common simplification assumed for such functions is linear, thus we expect to see a relationship like
Statistical theory for linear models has been well developed for more than fifty years, and a standard form of analysis called linear regression has been developed.
Since many types of response have inherent physical limitations (e.g. minimal maximal muscle contraction), it is often applicable to use a bounded function (such as the logistic function) to model the response. Similarly, a linear response function may be unrealistic as it would imply arbitrarily large responses. For binary dependent variables, statistical analysis with regression methods such as the probit model or logit model, or other methods such as the Spearman-Karber method. Empirical models based on nonlinear regression are usually preferred over the use of some transformation of the data that linearizes the stimulus-response relationship.
One example of a logit model for the probability of a response to the real input (stimulus) formula_3, (formula_4) is
where formula_6 are the parameters of the function.
Conversely, a Probit model would be of the form
where formula_8 is the cumulative distribution function of the normal distribution.
In biochemistry and pharmacology, the Hill equation refers to two closely related equations, one of which describes the response (the physiological output of the system, such as muscle contraction) to Drug or Toxin, as a function of the drug's concentration. The Hill equation is important in the construction of dose-response curves. The Hill equation is the following formula, where formula_9 is the magnitude of the response, [A] is the drug concentration (or equivalently, stimulus intensity), formula_10 is the drug concentration that produces a half-maximal response and formula_11 is the Hill coefficient.
Note that the Hill equation rearranges to a logistic function with respect to the logarithm of the dose (similar to a logit model). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27582 |
Statistical population
In statistics, a population is a set of similar items or events which is of interest for some question or experiment. A statistical population can be a group of existing objects (e.g. the set of all stars within the Milky Way galaxy) or a hypothetical and potentially infinite group of objects conceived as a generalization from experience (e.g. the set of all possible hands in a game of poker). A common aim of statistical analysis is to produce information about some chosen population.
In statistical inference, a subset of the population (a statistical sample) is chosen to represent the population in a statistical analysis. The ratio of the size of this statistical sample to the size of the population is called a sampling fraction. It is then possible to estimate the population parameters using the appropriate sample statistics.
A subset of a population that shares one or more additional properties is called a sub population. For example, if the population is all Egyptian people, a sub population is all Egyptian males; if the population is all pharmacies in the world, a sub population is all pharmacies in Egypt. By contrast, a sample is a subset of a population that is not chosen to share any additional property.
Descriptive statistics may yield different results for different sub populations. For instance, a particular medicine may have different effects on different sub populations, and these effects may be obscured or dismissed if such special sub populations are not identified and examined in isolation.
Similarly, one can often estimate parameters more accurately if one separates out sub populations: the distribution of heights among people is better modeled by considering men and women as separate sub populations, for instance.
Populations consisting of sub populations can be modeled by mixture models, which combine the distributions within sub populations into an overall population distribution. Even if sub populations are well-modeled by given simple models, the overall population may be poorly fit by a given simple model – poor fit may be evidence for the existence of sub populations. For example, given two equal sub populations, both normally distributed, if they have the same standard deviation but different means, the overall distribution will exhibit low kurtosis relative to a single normal distribution – the means of the sub populations fall on the shoulders of the overall distribution. If sufficiently separated, these form a bimodal distribution; otherwise, it simply has a wide peak. Further, it will exhibit [overdispersion] relative to a single normal distribution with the given variation. Alternatively, given two sub populations with the same mean but different standard deviations, the overall population will exhibit high kurtosis, with a sharper peak and heavier tails (and correspondingly shallower shoulders) than a single distribution. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27585 |
Sample (statistics)
In statistics and quantitative research methodology, a sample is a set of individuals or objects collected or selected from a statistical population by a defined procedure. The elements of a sample are known as sample points, sampling units or observations.
Typically, the population is very large, making a census or a complete enumeration of all the individuals in the population either impractical or impossible. The sample usually represents a subset of manageable size. Samples are collected and statistics are calculated from the samples, so that one can make inferences or extrapolations from the sample to the population.
The sample may be drawn from a population "without replacement" (i.e. no element can be selected more than once in the same sample), in which case it is a subset of a population; or "with replacement" (i.e. an element may appear multiple times in the one sample), in which case it is a multisubset.
A complete sample is a set of objects from a parent population that includes "all" such objects that satisfy a set of well-defined selection criteria. For example, a complete sample of Australian men taller than 2 m would consist of a list of "every" Australian male taller than 2 m. But it wouldn't include German males, or tall Australian females, or people shorter than 2 m. So to compile such a complete sample requires a complete list of the parent population, including data on height, gender, and nationality for each member of that parent population. In the case of human populations, such a complete list is unlikely to exist (the human population being in the billions). But such complete samples are often available in other disciplines, such as the set of players in a major sports league, the birth dates of the members of a parliament, or a complete magnitude-limited list of astronomical objects.
An unbiased (representative) sample is a set of objects chosen from a complete sample using a selection process that does not depend on the properties of the objects. For example, an unbiased sample of Australian men taller than 2 m might consist of a randomly sampled subset of 1% of Australian males taller than 2 m. But one chosen from the electoral register might not be unbiased since, for example, males aged under 18 will not be on the electoral register. In an astronomical context, an unbiased sample might consist of that fraction of a complete sample for which data are available, provided the data availability is not biased by individual source properties.
The best way to avoid a biased or unrepresentative sample is to select a random sample, also known as a probability sample. A random sample is defined as a sample where each individual member of the population has a known, non-zero chance of being selected as part of the sample. Several types of random samples are simple random samples, systematic samples, stratified random samples, and cluster random samples.
A sample that is not random is called a non-random sample or a non-probability sampling. Some examples of nonrandom samples are convenience samples, judgment samples, purposive samples, quota samples, snowball samples, and quadrature nodes in quasi-Monte Carlo methods.
In mathematical terms, given a probability distribution "F", a random sample of length "n" (where "n" may be any positive integer) is a set of realizations of "n" independent, identically distributed (iid) random variables with distribution "F".
A sample concretely represents the results of "n" experiments in which the same quantity is measured. For example, if we want to estimate the average height of members of a particular population, we measure the heights of "n" individuals. Each measurement is drawn from the probability distribution "F" characterizing the population, so each measured height formula_1 is the realization of a random variable formula_2 with distribution "F". Note that a set of random variables (i.e., a set of measurable functions) must not be confused with the realizations of these variables (which are the values that these random variables take). In other words, formula_2 is a function representing the measurement at the "i"-th experiment and formula_4 is the value obtained when making the measurement. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27586 |
Summary statistics
In descriptive statistics, summary statistics are used to summarize a set of observations, in order to communicate the largest amount of information as simply as possible. Statisticians commonly try to describe the observations in
A common collection of order statistics used as summary statistics are the five-number summary, sometimes extended to a seven-number summary, and the associated box plot.
Entries in an analysis of variance table can also be regarded as summary statistics.
Common measures of location, or central tendency, are the arithmetic mean, median, mode, and interquartile mean.
Common measures of statistical dispersion are the standard deviation, variance, range, interquartile range, absolute deviation, mean absolute difference and the distance standard deviation. Measures that assess spread in comparison to the typical size of data values include the coefficient of variation.
The Gini coefficient was originally developed to measure income inequality and is equivalent to one of the L-moments.
A simple summary of a dataset is sometimes given by quoting particular order statistics as approximations to selected percentiles of a distribution.
Common measures of the shape of a distribution are skewness or kurtosis, while alternatives can be based on L-moments. A different measure is the distance skewness, for which a value of zero implies central symmetry.
The common measure of dependence between paired random variables is the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, while a common alternative summary statistic is Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. A value of zero for the distance correlation implies independence.
Humans efficiently use summary statistics to quickly perceive the gist of auditory and visual information. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27587 |
Range (statistics)
In statistics, the range of a set of data is the difference between the largest and smallest values. It can give you a rough idea of how the outcome of the data set will be before you look at it actually
Difference here is specific, the range of a set of data is the result of subtracting the smallest value from largest value.
However, in descriptive statistics, this concept of range has a more complex meaning. The range is the size of the smallest interval (statistics) which contains all the data and provides an indication of statistical dispersion. It is measured in the same units as the data. Since it only depends on two of the observations, it is most useful in representing the dispersion of small data sets. Range happens to be the lowest and the hightest numbers subtracted
For "n" independent and identically distributed continuous random variables "X"1, "X"2, ..., "X""n" with cumulative distribution function G("x") and probability density function g("x"). Let T denote the range of a sample of size "n" from a population with distribution function "G"("x").
The range has cumulative distribution function
Gumbel notes that the "beauty of this formula is completely marred by the facts that, in general, we cannot express "G"("x" + "t") by "G"("x"), and that the numerical integration is lengthy and tiresome."
If the distribution of each "X""i" is limited to the right (or left) then the asymptotic distribution of the range is equal to the asymptotic distribution of the largest (smallest) value. For more general distributions the asymptotic distribution can be expressed as a Bessel function.
The mean range is given by
where "x"("G") is the inverse function. In the case where each of the "X""i" has a standard normal distribution, the mean range is given by
For "n" nonidentically distributed independent continuous random variables "X"1, "X"2, ..., "X""n" with cumulative distribution functions "G"1("x"), "G"2("x"), ..., "G""n"("x") and probability density functions "g"1("x"), "g"2("x"), ..., "g""n"("x"), the range has cumulative distribution function
For "n" independent and identically distributed discrete random variables "X"1, "X"2, ..., "X""n" with cumulative distribution function "G"("x") and probability mass function "g"("x") the range of the "X""i" is the range of a sample of size "n" from a population with distribution function "G"("x"). We can assume without loss of generality that the support of each "X""i" is {1,2,3...,"N"} where "N" is a positive integer or infinity.
The range has probability mass function
If we suppose that "g"("x") = 1/"N", the discrete uniform distribution for all "x", then we find
The probability of having a specific range value, "t", can be determined by adding the probabilities of having two samples differing by "t", and every other sample having a value between the two extremes.
The probability of one sample having a value of "x" is formula_7. The probability of another having a value "t" greater than "x" is:
The probability of all other values lying between these two extremes is:
Combining the three together yields:
The range is a simple function of the sample maximum and minimum and these are specific examples of order statistics. In particular, the range is a linear function of order statistics, which brings it into the scope of L-estimation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27588 |
Standard deviation
In statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A low standard deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean (also called the expected value) of the set, while a high standard deviation indicates that the values are spread out over a wider range.
Standard deviation may be abbreviated SD, and is most commonly represented in mathematical texts and equations by the lower case Greek letter sigma σ, for the population standard deviation, or the Latin letter s, for the sample standard deviation. (For other uses of the symbol σ in science and mathematics see the main article.)
The standard deviation of a random variable, statistical population, data set, or probability distribution is the square root of its variance. It is algebraically simpler, though in practice less robust, than the average absolute deviation. A useful property of the standard deviation is that, unlike the variance, it is expressed in the same units as the data.
In addition to expressing the variability of a population, the standard deviation is commonly used to measure confidence in statistical conclusions. For example, the margin of error in polling data is determined by calculating the expected standard deviation in the results if the same poll were to be conducted multiple times. This derivation of a standard deviation is often called the "standard error" of the estimate or "standard error of the mean" when referring to a mean. It is computed as the standard deviation of all the means that would be computed from that population if an infinite number of samples were drawn and a mean for each sample were computed.
The standard deviation of a population and the standard error of a statistic derived from that population (such as the mean) are quite different but related (related by the inverse of the square root of the number of observations). The reported margin of error of a poll is computed from the standard error of the mean (or alternatively from the product of the standard deviation of the population and the inverse of the square root of the sample size, which is the same thing) and is typically about twice the standard deviation—the half-width of a 95 percent confidence interval.
In science, many researchers report the standard deviation of experimental data, and by convention, only effects more than two standard deviations away from a null expectation are considered statistically significant—normal random error or variation in the measurements is in this way distinguished from likely genuine effects or associations. The standard deviation is also important in finance, where the standard deviation on the rate of return on an investment is a measure of the volatility of the investment.
When only a sample of data from a population is available, the term "standard deviation of the sample" or "sample standard deviation" can refer to either the above-mentioned quantity as applied to those data, or to a modified quantity that is an unbiased estimate of the "population standard deviation" (the standard deviation of the entire population).
Logan gives the following example. Furness and Bryant measured the resting metabolic rate for 8 male and 6 female breeding northern fulmars. The table shows the Furness data set.
The graph shows the metabolic rate for males and females. By visual inspection, it appears that the variability of the metabolic rate is greater for males than for females.
The sample standard deviation of the metabolic rate for the female fulmars is calculated as follows. The formula for the sample standard deviation is
where formula_2 are the observed values of the sample items, formula_3 is the mean value of these observations, and
"N" is the number of observations in the sample.
In the sample standard deviation formula, for this example, the numerator is the sum of the squared deviation of each individual animal's metabolic rate from the mean metabolic rate. The table below shows the calculation of this sum of squared deviations for the female fulmars. For females, the sum of squared deviations is 886047.09, as shown in the table.
The denominator in the sample standard deviation formula is "N" − 1, where "N" is the number of animals. In this example, there are "N" = 6 females, so the denominator is 6 − 1 = 5. The sample standard deviation for the female fulmars is therefore
For the male fulmars, a similar calculation gives a sample standard deviation of 894.37, approximately twice as large as the standard deviation for the females. The graph shows the metabolic rate data, the means (red dots), and the standard deviations (red lines) for females and males.
Use of the sample standard deviation implies that these 14 fulmars are a sample from a larger population of fulmars. If these 14 fulmars comprised the entire population (perhaps the last 14 surviving fulmars), then instead of the sample standard deviation, the calculation would use the population standard deviation. In the population standard deviation formula, the denominator is "N" instead of "N" − 1. It is rare that measurements can be taken for an entire population, so, by default, statistical computer programs calculate the sample standard deviation. Similarly, journal articles report the sample standard deviation unless otherwise specified.
Suppose that the entire population of interest was eight students in a particular class. For a finite set of numbers, the population standard deviation is found by taking the square root of the average of the squared deviations of the values subtracted from their average value. The marks of a class of eight students (that is, a statistical population) are the following eight values:
These eight data points have the mean (average) of 5:
First, calculate the deviations of each data point from the mean, and square the result of each:
The variance is the mean of these values:
and the "population" standard deviation is equal to the square root of the variance:
This formula is valid only if the eight values with which we began form the complete population. If the values instead were a random sample drawn from some large parent population (for example, they were 8 students randomly and independently chosen from a class of 2 million), then one often divides by instead of in the denominator of the last formula. In that case the result of the original formula would be called the "sample" standard deviation. Dividing by "n" − 1 rather than by "n" gives an unbiased estimate of the variance of the larger parent population. This is known as "Bessel's correction".
If the population of interest is approximately normally distributed, the standard deviation provides information on the proportion of observations above or below certain values. For example, the average height for adult men in the United States is about 70 inches (177.8 cm), with a standard deviation of around 3 inches (7.62 cm). This means that most men (about 68%, assuming a normal distribution) have a height within 3 inches (7.62 cm) of the mean (67–73 inches (170.18–185.42 cm))one standard deviationand almost all men (about 95%) have a height within 6 inches (15.24 cm) of the mean (64–76 inches (162.56–193.04 cm))two standard deviations. If the standard deviation were zero, then all men would be exactly 70 inches (177.8 cm) tall. If the standard deviation were 20 inches (50.8 cm), then men would have much more variable heights, with a typical range of about 50–90 inches (127–228.6 cm). Three standard deviations account for 99.7% of the sample population being studied, assuming the distribution is normal (bell-shaped). (See the 68-95-99.7 rule, or the "empirical rule," for more information.)
Let "X" be a random variable with mean value "μ":
Here the operator E denotes the average or expected value of "X". Then the standard deviation of "X" is the quantity
(derived using the properties of expected value).
In other words, the standard deviation "σ" (sigma) is the square root of the variance of "X"; i.e., it is the square root of the average value of ("X" − "μ")2.
The standard deviation of a (univariate) probability distribution is the same as that of a random variable having that distribution. Not all random variables have a standard deviation, since these expected values need not exist. For example, the standard deviation of a random variable that follows a Cauchy distribution is undefined because its expected value "μ" is undefined.
In the case where "X" takes random values from a finite data set "x"1, "x"2, ..., "xN", with each value having the same probability, the standard deviation is
or, using summation notation,
If, instead of having equal probabilities, the values have different probabilities, let "x"1 have probability "p"1, "x"2 have probability "p"2, ..., "x""N" have probability "p""N". In this case, the standard deviation will be
The standard deviation of a continuous real-valued random variable "X" with probability density function "p"("x") is
and where the integrals are definite integrals taken for "x" ranging over the set of possible values of the random variable "X".
In the case of a parametric family of distributions, the standard deviation can be expressed in terms of the parameters. For example, in the case of the log-normal distribution with parameters "μ" and "σ"2, the standard deviation is
One can find the standard deviation of an entire population in cases (such as standardized testing) where every member of a population is sampled. In cases where that cannot be done, the standard deviation "σ" is estimated by examining a random sample taken from the population and computing a statistic of the sample, which is used as an estimate of the population standard deviation. Such a statistic is called an estimator, and the estimator (or the value of the estimator, namely the estimate) is called a sample standard deviation, and is denoted by "s" (possibly with modifiers).
Unlike in the case of estimating the population mean, for which the sample mean is a simple estimator with many desirable properties (unbiased, efficient, maximum likelihood), there is no single estimator for the standard deviation with all these properties, and unbiased estimation of standard deviation is a very technically involved problem. Most often, the standard deviation is estimated using the "corrected sample standard deviation" (using "N" − 1), defined below, and this is often referred to as the "sample standard deviation", without qualifiers. However, other estimators are better in other respects: the uncorrected estimator (using "N") yields lower mean squared error, while using "N" − 1.5 (for the normal distribution) almost completely eliminates bias.
The formula for the "population" standard deviation (of a finite population) can be applied to the sample, using the size of the sample as the size of the population (though the actual population size from which the sample is drawn may be much larger). This estimator, denoted by "s""N", is known as the "uncorrected sample standard deviation", or sometimes the "standard deviation of the sample" (considered as the entire population), and is defined as follows:
where formula_2 are the observed values of the sample items and formula_3 is the mean value of these observations, while the denominator "N" stands for the size of the sample: this is the square root of the sample variance, which is the average of the squared deviations about the sample mean.
This is a consistent estimator (it converges in probability to the population value as the number of samples goes to infinity), and is the maximum-likelihood estimate when the population is normally distributed. However, this is a biased estimator, as the estimates are generally too low. The bias decreases as sample size grows, dropping off as 1/"N", and thus is most significant for small or moderate sample sizes; for formula_20 the bias is below 1%. Thus for very large sample sizes, the uncorrected sample standard deviation is generally acceptable. This estimator also has a uniformly smaller mean squared error than the corrected sample standard deviation.
If the "biased sample variance" (the second central moment of the sample, which is a downward-biased estimate of the population variance) is used to compute an estimate of the population's standard deviation, the result is
Here taking the square root introduces further downward bias, by Jensen's inequality, due to the square root's being a concave function. The bias in the variance is easily corrected, but the bias from the square root is more difficult to correct, and depends on the distribution in question.
An unbiased estimator for the "variance" is given by applying Bessel's correction, using "N" − 1 instead of "N" to yield the "unbiased sample variance," denoted "s"2:
This estimator is unbiased if the variance exists and the sample values are drawn independently with replacement. "N" − 1 corresponds to the number of degrees of freedom in the vector of deviations from the mean, formula_23
Taking square roots reintroduces bias (because the square root is a nonlinear function, which does not commute with the expectation), yielding the "corrected sample standard deviation," denoted by "s:"
As explained above, while "s"2 is an unbiased estimator for the population variance, "s" is still a biased estimator for the population standard deviation, though markedly less biased than the uncorrected sample standard deviation. This estimator is commonly used and generally known simply as the "sample standard deviation". The bias may still be large for small samples ("N" less than 10). As sample size increases, the amount of bias decreases. We obtain more information and the difference between formula_25 and formula_26 becomes smaller.
For unbiased estimation of standard deviation, there is no formula that works across all distributions, unlike for mean and variance. Instead, "s" is used as a basis, and is scaled by a correction factor to produce an unbiased estimate. For the normal distribution, an unbiased estimator is given by "s"/"c"4, where the correction factor (which depends on "N") is given in terms of the Gamma function, and equals:
This arises because the sampling distribution of the sample standard deviation follows a (scaled) chi distribution, and the correction factor is the mean of the chi distribution.
An approximation can be given by replacing "N" − 1 with "N" − 1.5, yielding:
The error in this approximation decays quadratically (as 1/"N"2), and it is suited for all but the smallest samples or highest precision: for "N" = 3 the bias is equal to 1.3%, and for "N" = 9 the bias is already less than 0.1%.
A more accurate approximation is to replace formula_29 above with formula_30.
For other distributions, the correct formula depends on the distribution, but a rule of thumb is to use the further refinement of the approximation:
where "γ"2 denotes the population excess kurtosis. The excess kurtosis may be either known beforehand for certain distributions, or estimated from the data.
The standard deviation we obtain by sampling a distribution is itself not absolutely accurate, both for mathematical reasons (explained here by the confidence interval) and for practical reasons of measurement (measurement error). The mathematical effect can be described by the confidence interval or CI.
To show how a larger sample will make the confidence interval narrower, consider the following examples:
A small population of "N" = 2 has only 1 degree of freedom for estimating the standard deviation. The result is that a 95% CI of the SD runs from 0.45 × SD to 31.9 × SD; the factors here are as follows:
where formula_33 is the "p"-th quantile of the chi-square distribution with "k" degrees of freedom, and formula_34 is the confidence level. This is equivalent to the following:
With "k" = 1, formula_36 and formula_37. The reciprocals of the square roots of these two numbers give us the factors 0.45 and 31.9 given above.
A larger population of "N" = 10 has 9 degrees of freedom for estimating the standard deviation. The same computations as above give us in this case a 95% CI running from 0.69 × SD to 1.83 × SD. So even with a sample population of 10, the actual SD can still be almost a factor 2 higher than the sampled SD. For a sample population N=100, this is down to 0.88 × SD to 1.16 × SD. To be more certain that the sampled SD is close to the actual SD we need to sample a large number of points.
These same formulae can be used to obtain confidence intervals on the variance of residuals from a least squares fit under standard normal theory, where "k" is now the number of degrees of freedom for error.
For a set of "N" > 4 data spanning a range of values "R", an upper bound on the standard deviation "s" is given by "s = 0.6R".
An estimate of the standard deviation for "N" > 100 data taken to be approximately normal follows from the heuristic that 95% of the area under the normal curve lies roughly two standard deviations to either side of the mean, so that, with 95% probability the total range of values "R" represents four standard deviations so that "s ≈ R/4". This so-called range rule is useful in sample size estimation, as the range of possible values is easier to estimate than the standard deviation. Other divisors "K(N)" of the range such that "s ≈ R/K(N)" are available for other values of "N" and for non-normal distributions.
The standard deviation is invariant under changes in location, and scales directly with the scale of the random variable. Thus, for a constant "c" and random variables "X" and "Y":
The standard deviation of the sum of two random variables can be related to their individual standard deviations and the covariance between them:
where formula_40 and formula_41 stand for variance and covariance, respectively.
The calculation of the sum of squared deviations can be related to moments calculated directly from the data. In the following formula, the letter E is interpreted to mean expected value, i.e., mean.
The sample standard deviation can be computed as:
For a finite population with equal probabilities at all points, we have
which means that the standard deviation is equal to the square root of the difference between the average of the squares of the values and the square of the average value.
See computational formula for the variance for proof, and for an analogous result for the sample standard deviation.
A large standard deviation indicates that the data points can spread far from the mean and a small standard deviation indicates that they are clustered closely around the mean.
For example, each of the three populations {0, 0, 14, 14}, {0, 6, 8, 14} and {6, 6, 8, 8} has a mean of 7. Their standard deviations are 7, 5, and 1, respectively. The third population has a much smaller standard deviation than the other two because its values are all close to 7. These standard deviations have the same units as the data points themselves. If, for instance, the data set {0, 6, 8, 14} represents the ages of a population of four siblings in years, the standard deviation is 5 years. As another example, the population {1000, 1006, 1008, 1014} may represent the distances traveled by four athletes, measured in meters. It has a mean of 1007 meters, and a standard deviation of 5 meters.
Standard deviation may serve as a measure of uncertainty. In physical science, for example, the reported standard deviation of a group of repeated measurements gives the precision of those measurements. When deciding whether measurements agree with a theoretical prediction, the standard deviation of those measurements is of crucial importance: if the mean of the measurements is too far away from the prediction (with the distance measured in standard deviations), then the theory being tested probably needs to be revised. This makes sense since they fall outside the range of values that could reasonably be expected to occur, if the prediction were correct and the standard deviation appropriately quantified. See prediction interval.
While the standard deviation does measure how far typical values tend to be from the mean, other measures are available. An example is the mean absolute deviation, which might be considered a more direct measure of average distance, compared to the root mean square distance inherent in the standard deviation.
The practical value of understanding the standard deviation of a set of values is in appreciating how much variation there is from the average (mean).
Standard deviation is often used to compare real-world data against a model to test the model.
For example, in industrial applications the weight of products coming off a production line may need to comply with a legally required value. By weighing some fraction of the products an average weight can be found, which will always be slightly different from the long-term average. By using standard deviations, a minimum and maximum value can be calculated that the averaged weight will be within some very high percentage of the time (99.9% or more). If it falls outside the range then the production process may need to be corrected. Statistical tests such as these are particularly important when the testing is relatively expensive. For example, if the product needs to be opened and drained and weighed, or if the product was otherwise used up by the test.
In experimental science, a theoretical model of reality is used. Particle physics conventionally uses a standard of "5 sigma" for the declaration of a discovery. A five-sigma level translates to one chance in 3.5 million that a random fluctuation would yield the result. This level of certainty was required in order to assert that a particle consistent with the Higgs boson had been discovered in two independent experiments at CERN, and this was also the significance level leading to the declaration of the first observation of gravitational waves.
As a simple example, consider the average daily maximum temperatures for two cities, one inland and one on the coast. It is helpful to understand that the range of daily maximum temperatures for cities near the coast is smaller than for cities inland. Thus, while these two cities may each have the same average maximum temperature, the standard deviation of the daily maximum temperature for the coastal city will be less than that of the inland city as, on any particular day, the actual maximum temperature is more likely to be farther from the average maximum temperature for the inland city than for the coastal one.
In finance, standard deviation is often used as a measure of the risk associated with price-fluctuations of a given asset (stocks, bonds, property, etc.), or the risk of a portfolio of assets (actively managed mutual funds, index mutual funds, or ETFs). Risk is an important factor in determining how to efficiently manage a portfolio of investments because it determines the variation in returns on the asset and/or portfolio and gives investors a mathematical basis for investment decisions (known as mean-variance optimization). The fundamental concept of risk is that as it increases, the expected return on an investment should increase as well, an increase known as the risk premium. In other words, investors should expect a higher return on an investment when that investment carries a higher level of risk or uncertainty. When evaluating investments, investors should estimate both the expected return and the uncertainty of future returns. Standard deviation provides a quantified estimate of the uncertainty of future returns.
For example, assume an investor had to choose between two stocks. Stock A over the past 20 years had an average return of 10 percent, with a standard deviation of 20 percentage points (pp) and Stock B, over the same period, had average returns of 12 percent but a higher standard deviation of 30 pp. On the basis of risk and return, an investor may decide that Stock A is the safer choice, because Stock B's additional two percentage points of return is not worth the additional 10 pp standard deviation (greater risk or uncertainty of the expected return). Stock B is likely to fall short of the initial investment (but also to exceed the initial investment) more often than Stock A under the same circumstances, and is estimated to return only two percent more on average. In this example, Stock A is expected to earn about 10 percent, plus or minus 20 pp (a range of 30 percent to −10 percent), about two-thirds of the future year returns. When considering more extreme possible returns or outcomes in future, an investor should expect results of as much as 10 percent plus or minus 60 pp, or a range from 70 percent to −50 percent, which includes outcomes for three standard deviations from the average return (about 99.7 percent of probable returns).
Calculating the average (or arithmetic mean) of the return of a security over a given period will generate the expected return of the asset. For each period, subtracting the expected return from the actual return results in the difference from the mean. Squaring the difference in each period and taking the average gives the overall variance of the return of the asset. The larger the variance, the greater risk the security carries. Finding the square root of this variance will give the standard deviation of the investment tool in question.
Population standard deviation is used to set the width of Bollinger Bands, a widely adopted technical analysis tool. For example, the upper Bollinger Band is given as The most commonly used value for "n" is 2; there is about a five percent chance of going outside, assuming a normal distribution of returns.
Financial time series are known to be non-stationary series, whereas the statistical calculations above, such as standard deviation, apply only to stationary series. To apply the above statistical tools to non-stationary series, the series first must be transformed to a stationary series, enabling use of statistical tools that now have a valid basis from which to work.
To gain some geometric insights and clarification, we will start with a population of three values, "x"1, "x"2, "x"3. This defines a point "P" = ("x"1, "x"2, "x"3) in R3. Consider the line "L" = {("r", "r", "r") : "r" ∈ R}. This is the "main diagonal" going through the origin. If our three given values were all equal, then the standard deviation would be zero and "P" would lie on "L". So it is not unreasonable to assume that the standard deviation is related to the "distance" of "P" to "L". That is indeed the case. To move orthogonally from "L" to the point "P", one begins at the point:
whose coordinates are the mean of the values we started out with.
formula_46 is on formula_47 therefore formula_48 for some formula_49.
The line formula_47 is to be orthogonal to the vector from formula_46 to formula_52. Therefore:
A little algebra shows that the distance between "P" and "M" (which is the same as the orthogonal distance between "P" and the line "L") formula_54 is equal to the standard deviation of the vector ("x"1, "x"2, "x"3), multiplied by the square root of the number of dimensions of the vector (3 in this case).
An observation is rarely more than a few standard deviations away from the mean. Chebyshev's inequality ensures that, for all distributions for which the standard deviation is defined, the amount of data within a number of standard deviations of the mean is at least as much as given in the following table.
The central limit theorem states that the distribution of an average of many independent, identically distributed random variables tends toward the famous bell-shaped normal distribution with a probability density function of
where "μ" is the expected value of the random variables, "σ" equals their distribution's standard deviation divided by "n"1/2, and "n" is the number of random variables. The standard deviation therefore is simply a scaling variable that adjusts how broad the curve will be, though it also appears in the normalizing constant.
If a data distribution is approximately normal, then the proportion of data values within "z" standard deviations of the mean is defined by:
where formula_57 is the error function. The proportion that is less than or equal to a number, "x", is given by the cumulative distribution function:
If a data distribution is approximately normal then about 68 percent of the data values are within one standard deviation of the mean (mathematically, "μ" ± "σ", where "μ" is the arithmetic mean), about 95 percent are within two standard deviations ("μ" ± 2"σ"), and about 99.7 percent lie within three standard deviations ("μ" ± 3"σ"). This is known as the "68-95-99.7 rule", or "the empirical rule".
For various values of "z", the percentage of values expected to lie in and outside the symmetric interval, CI = (−"zσ", "zσ"), are as follows:
The mean and the standard deviation of a set of data are descriptive statistics usually reported together. In a certain sense, the standard deviation is a "natural" measure of statistical dispersion if the center of the data is measured about the mean. This is because the standard deviation from the mean is smaller than from any other point. The precise statement is the following: suppose "x"1, ..., "x""n" are real numbers and define the function:
Using calculus or by completing the square, it is possible to show that "σ"("r") has a unique minimum at the mean:
Variability can also be measured by the coefficient of variation, which is the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean. It is a dimensionless number.
Often, we want some information about the precision of the mean we obtained. We can obtain this by determining the standard deviation of the sampled mean. Assuming statistical independence of the values in the sample, the standard deviation of the mean is related to the standard deviation of the distribution by:
where "N" is the number of observations in the sample used to estimate the mean. This can easily be proven with (see basic properties of the variance):
hence
Resulting in:
In order to estimate the standard deviation of the mean formula_66 it is necessary to know the standard deviation of the entire population formula_67 beforehand. However, in most applications this parameter is unknown. For example, if a series of 10 measurements of a previously unknown quantity is performed in a laboratory, it is possible to calculate the resulting sample mean and sample standard deviation, but it is impossible to calculate the standard deviation of the mean.
The following two formulas can represent a running (repeatedly updated) standard deviation. A set of two power sums "s"1 and "s"2 are computed over a set of "N" values of "x", denoted as "x"1, ..., "x""N":
Given the results of these running summations, the values "N", "s"1, "s"2 can be used at any time to compute the "current" value of the running standard deviation:
Where N, as mentioned above, is the size of the set of values (or can also be regarded as "s"0).
Similarly for sample standard deviation,
In a computer implementation, as the three "s""j" sums become large, we need to consider round-off error, arithmetic overflow, and arithmetic underflow. The method below calculates the running sums method with reduced rounding errors. This is a "one pass" algorithm for calculating variance of "n" samples without the need to store prior data during the calculation. Applying this method to a time series will result in successive values of standard deviation corresponding to "n" data points as "n" grows larger with each new sample, rather than a constant-width sliding window calculation.
For "k" = 1, ..., "n":
where A is the mean value.
Note: formula_73 since formula_74 or formula_75
Sample variance:
Population variance:
When the values "xi" are weighted with unequal weights "wi", the power sums "s"0, "s"1, "s"2 are each computed as:
And the standard deviation equations remain unchanged. "s"0 is now the sum of the weights and not the number of samples "N".
The incremental method with reduced rounding errors can also be applied, with some additional complexity.
A running sum of weights must be computed for each "k" from 1 to "n":
and places where 1/"n" is used above must be replaced by "wi"/"Wn":
In the final division,
and
or
where "n" is the total number of elements, and "n"' is the number of elements with non-zero weights.
The above formulas become equal to the simpler formulas given above if weights are taken as equal to one.
The term "standard deviation" was first used in writing by Karl Pearson in 1894, following his use of it in lectures. This was as a replacement for earlier alternative names for the same idea: for example, Gauss used "mean error". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27590 |
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