Politics of the United States

The United States is a federal republic in which the president, Congress, and federal courts share powers reserved to the national government according to its Constitution. The federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments. The executive branch is headed by the President and is formally independent of both the legislature and the judiciary.

The cabinet serves as a set of advisers to the President. They include the Vice President and heads of the executive departments. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The judicial branch (or judiciary), composed of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts, exercises judicial power.

The judiciary's function is to interpret the United States Constitution and federal laws and regulations. This includes resolving disputes between the executive and legislative branches. The federal government's structure is codified in the Constitution. Two political parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, have dominated American politics since the American Civil War, although smaller parties exist such as the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and the Constitution Party. 

Generally, the Democratic Party is commonly known as the left-wing party within the United States, while the Republican Party is commonly known as the United States'right-wing party. There are a few major differences between the political system of the United States and that of most other developed democracies. These include greater power in the upper house of the legislature, a wider scope of power held by the Supreme Court, the separation of powers between the legislature and the executive, and the dominance of only two main parties.

Politics. The origin

Politics is the process of making decisions that apply to members of a group. It refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance - organized control over a human community, particularly a state. In modern nation states, people have formed political parties to represent their ideas. They agree to take the same position on many issues, and agree to support the same changes to law and the same leaders.

An election is usually a competition between different parties. Some examples of political parties are the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, the Tories in Great Britain and the Indian National Congress. Politics is a multifaceted word. It has a set of fairly specific meanings that are descriptive and nonjudgmental (such as "the art or science of government" and "political principles"), but often does carry a connotation of dishonest malpractice. 

The negative connotation of politics, as seen in the phrase "play politics", for example, has been in use since at least 1.853, when abolitionist Wendell Phillips declared: "We do not play politics; anti-slavery is no half-jest with us". A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries.

Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to the international level. It is very often said that politics is about power. A political system is a frame work which defines acceptable political methods within a given society. History of political thoughtcan be traced back to early antiquity, with seminal works such as Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics and the works of Confucious.

Political system in Castile-La Mancha

Castilla-La Mancha, sometimes written in English as Castile-La Mancha, is a south-western European region that was part of the Kingdom of Castile and one of the seventeen autonomous communities of modern Spain. It is bordered by Castile and Lion, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities.

Albacete is the largest and most populous city. Its capital city is Toledo, and its judicial capital city is Albacete. Castile-La Mancha was formerly grouped with the province of Madrid into New Castile (Castilla La Nueva), but with the advent of the modern Spanish system of autonomous regions (Estado de las autonomías), it was separated due to great demographic disparity between the capital and remaining New-Castilian provinces.

Also, distinct from the former New Castile, Castile-La Mancha added the province of Albacete, which had been part of Murcia; adding Albacete placed all of the historic region of La Mancha within this single region. Article 8 of the Statute of Autonomy states that the powers of the region are exercised through the Junta of Communities of Castilla-La Mancha (JCCM). Organs of the Junta are the Cortes of Castilla-La Mancha, the President of the Junta and the Council of Government.

The Cortes of Castilla-La Mancha represent the popular will through 33 deputies elected by universal adult suffrage through the secret ballot. They are elected for a term of four years under a proportional system intended to guarantee representation to the various territorial zones of Castilla-La Mancha. The electoral constituency is at the level of each province, with provinces being assigned the following number of deputies as of 2009; Albacete 6, Ciudad Real 8, Cuenca, 5, Guadalajara 5 and Toledo 9.

Article 10 of the Statute of Autonomy states that elections will be convoked by the President of the Junta of Communities, following the general, following the General Electoral Regime (Régimen Electoral General), on the fourth Sunday in May every four years. This stands in contrast to the autonomous communities of the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Andalusia and the Valencian Community where the president has the power to the convoke elections at any time. (In the Valencian Community that power has never been exsercised. Elections there have, in practice, taken place on a four year cycle).

Since the Spanish regional elections of 2015, the Cortes of Castilla-La Mancha has consisted of 16 deputies from the conservative People's Party, 15 from the socialist PSOE and 2 from the left-wing Podemos. The Cortes sits in the former Franciscan convent in Toledo, the Edificio de San Gil. About the Council of Government we must say that it is the collegial executive organ of the region. It directs regional political and administrative action, excercises and executive function and regulatory powers under the Spanish Constitution of 1978, the Statute of Autonomy, and the laws of the nation and region. The Council of Government consist of the president, vice president (if any) and the Councilors.

Catalonia

The territory that now constitutes the Autonomous communities of Spain Catalonia was first settled during the Middle Palaeolithic era. Like the rest of the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula, the area was occupied by the Iberians and several Greek and Carthaginian towns were established on the coast before the Roman conquest.

The area that is now Catalonia was the first area of Hispania conquered by the Romans. It then came under Visigothic rule after collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire. In 718, the area was occupied by the Moors and became a part of Muslim ruled Al-Andalus. The Frankish Empire conquered the area from the Muslims, beginning with the conquest of Rousillon in 760 and ending with the conquest of Barcelona in 801, as part or the creation of a larger buffer zone of Christians against Islamic rele counties known as the Marca Hispanica.

In time, the Christians took control of the region, thans not just to the Franks and their Spanish March but also to the Kingdom of Aragon (administrated by the Count of the Barcelona for the King of Aragon, the Crown of Aragon), which would govern those lands from that point onward.

For a considerable time, the Kingdom of Aragon, and its little county and port of Barcelona retained its own laws and languages (i.e.: Aragones and also Catalan). Catalonia was just a county of the Crown of Aragon but this came to an end when the new Bourbon dinasty secured the throne of Spain in the War of Spanish Succession (1702-1714) and made the former Crown of Aragon territories into provinces of the Crown of Castile following the war.

Economically, Catalonia experienced commercial growth in the late 18th century when the Bourbons ended Castile's trade monopoly with Spain's American colonies. The Napoleonic occupation and war in Spain in the early 19th century began a period of political and economic turmoil. In the latter half of the 19th century Catalonia became a center of industrialization.

In the first third of the 20th century, Catalonia several times enjoyed and lost varying degrees of autonomy like other parts of Spain until the Second Spanish Republic confirmed the autonomies of Spain's traditional autonomous regions, including the autonomy of Catalonia and the official use of its language.

Like Madrid, the Basque country and much of Spain, Catalonia fought hard to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the devastating civil war of 1936-1939. With the defeat of the Spanish Republic by the right wing forces of Francisco Franco, the autonomies were cancelled.

In the years after the civil war life was difficult. With Spain devastated and cut off from international trade by boycotts, Catalonia, as a commercial and industrial center, suffered severely. The economic recovery was very slow and it was not until the mid-1950s that the economy reached the prewar levels of 1936. 

In 1959-1974 Spain exerienced the second fastest economic expansion in the world in what became known as the Spanish Miracle and Catalonia prospered greatly from the expansion as Spain's most important industrial and tourist zone. In 1975 Franco died, bringing to an end his dictatorial regime, and in 1978 Catalonia voted overwhelmingly for the new democratic Spanish constitution that recognised Catalonia's autonomy and language.

On the 9 November 2015, parliament approved a Declaration to start the independence process of Catalonia asserting the start of the process to create an independent Catalan state in the form of a republic. The independence motion was passed on 27 October 2017 in the 135-strong Catalan assembly with 70 votes in favour; 10 against and 2 blank ballots, the assembly's speaker said.

Just hours after the Catalan declaration of independence, the Spanish Senate invoked Article 155 of the Spanish constitution and authorised Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government to impose direct rule over Catalonia. Rajoy declared the dissolution of the Catalan parliament and dismissed Catalonia's regional government, including its leader Carles Puigdemont. Rajoy called a snap election in the region for 21 December 2017.

Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saezde Santamaria was chosen to assume the position of President of Catalonia, as part of the actions that resulted after the activation of Article 155. Santamaria was vested total control over the Catalan administration in addition to being appointed president. Josep Lluis Trapero was also relieved of his duty as chief of the Catalan police force.

But Catalans are fiercely protective of the region's high degree of autonomy, such as direct control over education, healthcare and the police. Mossos d'Esquadra, a group of Catalonia's police favouring independence, has already said its members will not follow instructions from the central government of Spain and will not use force to remove ministers and legislators from power.

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and teachings that belong to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to and study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.

Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes. Greek mythology is explicity embodied in a large collection of narratives, and implicitly in Greek representational arts, such as ancient vase-paintings and votive gifts. 

Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines and mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homer's epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War and its aftermath. 

Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and comedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.

Archaelogical findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear supplementing the existing literary evidence.

Maya mythology

Maya mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. Other parts of Maya oral tradition (such as animal tales and many moralising stories) do no properly belong to the domain of mythology but rather to legend and folk tale.

The oldest written Maya myths date from the 16th century and are found in historical sources from the Guatemalan Highlands. The most important of these documents is the Popol Vuh which contains Quichean creation stories and some of the adventures of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

Yucatán is an equally important region. The Books of Chilam Balam contain mythological passages of great antiguity, and mythological fragaments are found scattered among the early-colonial Spanish chronicles and reports, chief among them Diego de Landa's Relacion, and in the dictionaries compiled by the early missionaries.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, anthropologists and local folklorists committed many stories to paper. Even though most Maya tales are the results of an historical process in which Spanish narrative traditions interacted with native ones, some of the tales reach bach well into pre-Spanish times.

Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the transmission of traditional tales has entered its final stage. Fortunately, however, this is also a time in which the Mayas themselves have begun to salvage and pubblish the precious tales of their parents and grandparents.

Egyptian mythology

Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion. Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain a complete account of a myth and often describe only frief fragments.

Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, whereas the earliest periods of time were linear. Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the  pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew maat, the fundamental order of the universe. Amongst the most important episodes from the mythic past are the creation myths, in which the gods form the universe out of primordial chaos; the stories of the reign of the sun god Ra upon the earth; and the Osiris myth, concerning the struggles of the gods Osiris, Isis, and Horus against the disruptive god Set.

Events from the present that might be regarded as myths include Ra's daily journey through the world and its otherworldly counterpart, the Duat. Recurring themes in these  mythic episodes includ the conflict between the upholders of maat and the forces of disorder, the importance of the pharaoh in maintaining maat, and the continual death and regeneration of the gods. The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another and often seem contradictory.

Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating the essence and behaviour of deities into terms that humans can understand. Mythology proundly infuenced Egyptian culture. It inspired or influenced many religious rituals and provided the ideological basis for kingship. Scenes and symbols from myth appeared in art in tombs, temples, and amulets. In literature, myths or elements of them were used in stories that range from humor to allegory, demonstrating that the Egyptians adapted mythology to serve a wide variety of purposes.