The Western Hemisphere

The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is descended from the Communist Labor Party and the Communist Party, both founded in 1919. The membership of the CPUSA is concentrated in a few industrial states and is believed to be largely middle-aged or older. Communist parties in the western hemisphere, except for those of Cuba and Nicaragua, are generally small and sometimes illegal. Their significance stems from their support of leftist coalitions and, on occasion, guerrilla activities. The Cuban party is the only ruling Communist party in the western hemisphere. It depended on the Soviet Union for financial support, and during the 1970s and 1980s acted in fulfillment of CPSU policies by providing military assistance to "national liberation movements" abroad.

Communism is a form of government, an economic system, a revolutionary movement, and a philosophy. Communism calls for government control of economic activity and for government ownership of factories, machines, and other means of production. Communism, concept or system of society in which the major resources and means of production are owned by the community rather than by individuals. Theoretically, communist societies provide for equal sharing of all work, according to ability, and all benefits, according to need. As a concept of an ideal society, communism is derived from ancient sources. In the early 1800s the idea of a communist society was a response to modern capitalism by the poor and the dislocated. Later, the term was reserved for the philosophy advanced by German revolutionary theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their Communist Manifesto.

In their writings, Marx and Engels described human history as the attempt to control nature in order to improve the human condition. In the development of human productive forces, social institutions were created that introduced exploitation, domination, and other evils. Engels and Marx believed that the capitalist system would also destroy itself, culminating in a revolution in which the poor would rebel against their oppressors, do away with private ownership, and eliminate inequalities and coercive government. Marx and Engels expected this would happen in the most highly industrialized nations. However, communists have come to power in nations that lacked the preconditions Marx and Engels considered essential.

The first of these countries was Russia, which became known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) following the Russian Revolution (1917). When the Communist Party emerged victorious, it was faced with the need to modernize the Soviet economy and transform the country into a major military power. The Soviet leadership was ruthless in marshaling human and material resources for these tasks. The resulting system has been labeled totalitarianism or Stalinism, after Joseph Stalin, the leader who controlled the USSR for more than a quarter of a century. Stalinism scarcely resembled the communist utopia that Marx and Engels had envisioned. Three decades after Stalin's death, the USSR remained a society administered in authoritarian fashion by a managerial bureaucracy.

To the West, the Soviet Communist government appeared as a threat, and from the beginning attempts were made to destroy it by force. In its endangered position, the Communist regime tried to establish workable relations with other countries. Between 1945 and 1975 the number of countries under Communist rule increased greatly, partly because of the way the victorious powers in World War II had divided the world, and partly because revolutionary Communist movements were gaining strength in the Third World. By the early 1980s the USSR had become the world's second-ranking industrial power. However, it soon became apparent that Soviet Communism was in crisis. By the end of 1991 rapid political change had led to the collapse of Communist governments in Eastern Europe, the USSR, and elsewhere.

Confederation, union of sovereign states, each of which may act independently. It is distinguished from a federation, in which individual states are subordinate to the central government. Confederations existed in ancient times, notably the Delian League, formed under Athenian leadership in the 400s BC. In modern times the term applies to formerly independent states joined in a single political unit. During the American Revolution (1775-1783) the former colonies set up a confederation that later formed a federation under the Constitution of the United States. The southern states that seceded in 1861 formed themselves into a confederation. Several short-lived European confederations appeared in the 1800s, including the North German Confederation of 1866 to 1870.

Congress of the United States, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. In conjunction with the executive and judicial branches, Congress exercises the sovereign power of the people of the United States. Congress has only such functions and authority as are expressly conferred or implied by the Constitution of the United States. Among these are the power to tax, to borrow money on the credit of the United States, to regulate commerce with foreign nations and between states, to coin money, to establish post offices, to declare war, to form armies, and to make laws necessary for the execution of its own powers and those of the government of the United States. Constitutional limitations on the powers of Congress generally prohibit the abridgment or destruction of fundamental rights.

Two general and important restrictions are the presidential veto and the invalidation of legislation as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. If vetoed by the president, a bill cannot become law unless passed a second time and by a two-thirds majority of each house. Only the Senate may confirm presidential appointments, give consent to treaties, and try impeachments. However, impeachment may be initiated only by the House of Representatives. Only the House may initiate revenue bills.

The term of a Congress extends from each odd-numbered year to the next odd-numbered year; the First Congress convened in 1789. The houses of Congress meet separately in the Capitol in Washington, D.C., but convene in joint session for communications from the president or addresses by foreign dignitaries. Most sessions are open to the public. Each house makes its own rules of procedure and may punish or expel members for just cause. Both houses use a system of committees to consider and prepare legislation. Committees are composed of members of the majority and minority political parties in proportion to their strength. Members of the majority party chair the committees. A majority and a minority leader in each house, chosen by their respective party members, are influential in scheduling and shaping legislation.

The Senate is composed of two senators from each state, elected for six-year terms. Since 1959 the Senate has had 100 members. The terms of one-third of the members of the Senate expire every two years. Since 1913, when the 17th Amendment went into effect, senators have been elected by popular vote. A senator must be at least 30 years of age, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state in which he or she is elected. Each senator has one vote. The presiding officer of the Senate is the U.S. vice president, who may vote only in the event of a tie. In the absence of the vice president, the Senate is presided over by a president pro tempore.

The entire membership of the House of Representatives is renewed every second year. Representatives are elected by popular vote. The Constitution provides that each state have at least one representative and that the other representatives be apportioned among the states, based on a decennial census. At present the size of the House is fixed at 435 members, elected on the basis of one representative for about 500,000 inhabitants.

Members of the House generally represent congressional districts established by the states. A representative must be at least 25 years of age, a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and a resident of the state in which he or she is elected, but not necessarily a resident of the congressional district that he or she represents. Each representative has one vote. The presiding officer of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the House. The Speaker appoints all select committees and may vote, but generally does so only to break a tie.

Conservatism is a political belief in making changes in line with proven values of the past. Most American conservatives, for example, want to hold public governments strictly within the limits of their powers as set forth in the Constitution. Conservatism, general state of mind that is averse to rapid change and innovation and strives for balance and order, while avoiding extremes. Originally conservatism arose as a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment. Conservatives advocated belief in faith over reason, tradition over free inquiry, hierarchy over equality, collective values over individualism, and divine or natural law over secular law. Conservatism emphasizes the merits of the status quo and endorses the prevailing distribution of power, wealth, and social standing. Political conservative thought, however, has reconciled itself with constitutional democracy and individual rights as well as with prudent and orderly social and economic change.

Conservatism received its classic formulation in the works of British statesman Edmund Burke, who viewed society as an organic whole, with individuals performing various roles and functions: A natural elite provides leadership in a community held together by customs and traditions. Burke rejected the principles of equality, popular representation, and majority rule. He advocated order, balance, and cooperation in society; restraints on government; and the supremacy of law. After the mid-1800s gradual extension of voting rights, social legislation, and better cooperation between the poor and the rich became part of conservatism in Britain. In the 1900s the Conservative Party accepted economic controls by the state, broadened the state's social responsibility in some areas, and endorsed the tenets of the welfare state. Only after 1979 did the Conservative Party begin to reconsider these practices.

European conservatives, until the end of the 1800s, rejected democratic principles and opted for monarchies or for authoritarian government. A dominant conservative doctrine in many European countries has been corporatism, which advocates a close collaboration between employers and workers under the direction of the state. Corporatism remains a major influence on conservatism in Europe and in Latin America. For most of the 1980s, conservative parties held power in both Britain and West Germany. In France a Gaullist movement has been influential since 1958. In other European countries conservative forces are caught between left-wing and authoritarian movements.

Unlike the trend in England and the European continent, the main currents of American political thought converged throughout the 1800s into a broad consensus that incorporated economic individualism and constitutional democracy with powerful restraints on the government. With the Great Depression of the 1930s and the New Deal introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, American conservatism became a distinct political movement. The conservatives disapproved of the New Deal and restated the fundamental premises of a free-market economy. Conservatives gradually made important inroads among Republicans and even among Democrats. This led to the defeat of many liberal senators and representatives in the 1980 election.

Constitution is the written or unwritten collection of rules and principles followed by governments. Constitution, in politics, fundamental system of law, written or unwritten, of a sovereign state, established or accepted as a guide for governing the state. A constitution fixes the limits and defines the relations of the legislative, judicial, and executive powers of the state, thus setting up the basis for government. It also provides guarantees of certain rights to the people. The United States has a written constitution, while the United Kingdom has an unwritten constitution.

Coup d'état, ['ku:deI'tQ:] seizure of an existing government by a small group. This overthrow is sometimes accompanied by violence. A coup d'état involves relatively few members of the population, and these few frequently are military officers. For many years the coup d'état has been used in Latin America. This pattern now seems to be appearing in some African nations.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, manifesto adopted in 1789 by the National Assembly of France that formed the preamble to the new constitution of 1791. The declaration enumerated a number of rights with which "all men" were held to be endowed and nullified the divine right of kings, which was the former basis of French government.

The enumerated rights included participation in the making of laws; equality of all before the law; equitable taxation; protection against loss of property through arbitrary action by the state; freedom of religion, speech, and the press; and protection against arbitrary arrest and punishment. The declaration served as a model for most of the declarations of political and civil rights adopted by European states in the 19th century.

Democracy means rule by the people. It may refer to a form of government, or to a way of life. Democracy, political system in which the people of a country rule through any form of government they choose to establish. In modern democracies, supreme authority is usually exercised by popularly elected representatives. The representatives may be replaced by the electorate according to the legal procedures of recall and referendum, and they are in principle responsible to the electorate.

The city-states of ancient Greece and of Rome during the early years of the Republic were direct democracies, in which all citizens could vote in assemblies. Some European cities carried on the democratic tradition during the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century). Concepts of equal political and social rights were further defined during the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century), when the development of humanism was fostered, and later during the Reformation (16th century), in the struggle for religious freedom.

Beginning with the first popular rebellion against monarchy in England (1642), political and revolutionary action against autocratic European governments resulted in the establishment of democratic governments. This change was fostered largely by political philosophers, notably French philosophers Montesquieu and Jean Jacques Rousseau, and American statesmen Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. By the end of the 19th century, every major Western European monarchy had adopted a constitution giving considerable political power to the people. The British Parliament became a model for representative legislatures in Europe and around the world.

Later, democratic institutions in the United States served as a model for many nations. The major features of modern democracy include individual freedom, equality before the law, and universal suffrage (voting rights) and education. By the mid-20th century nearly every independent country in the world had a government that–in form if not in practice–embodied some of the principles of democracy.

Despotism is a form of government in which the ruler has unlimited power over the people. Despot, absolute ruler, unrestricted by any legal or constitutional process. In modern usage, the word carries connotations of cruel and oppressive policies, but in the original Greek usage it meant the master of a household, and denoted merely the possessor of unlimited power. In the Byzantine Empire, the term was a title of honor applied to the emperor.

Dictator is any ruler whose power is not limited by law or by the acts of any official body, such as a legislature. Dictator, title of a magistrate in ancient Rome, appointed by the Senate in times of emergency. The dictator held office usually for six months, and served as chief magistrate of the state. According to the Roman orator Cicero, the office was created to cope with civil disturbances. In the last years of the Republic, Roman politicians occasionally assumed the office with powers not permitted by law. Julius Caesar became dictator for life in 45 BC. In modern times, those who have assumed sole power over the state have been called dictators. Notable dictators include Francisco Franco, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Juan Perуn, Manuel Antonio Noriega, and Saddam Hussein.

Diplomacy, practices and institutions by which nations conduct their relations with one another.