20Th-Century United States

In the United States, positive liberalism expanded as programs, movements, and laws provided sanctions for government intervention in the economy. Legislation provided for old-age and survivors insurance, unemployment insurance, federal control of various financial interests, minimum wages, supervision of agricultural production, and the right of labor unions to organize and bargain collectively.

Libertarianism, ["lIbq'te(q)rIqnIzm] political philosophy emphasizing the rights of the individual. The doctrine of libertarianism stresses the right to self-ownership and the right to private ownership of material resources and property. Advocates oppose any form of taxation and favor a laissez-faire economic system. The Libertarian Party was founded in the United States in 1972.

Lobbying, practice of attempting to influence legislation. Lobbying is performed by agents, called lobbyists, of a particular interested group, known as the lobby. Guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, lobbying has become an accepted fact of American political life. Lobbyists may represent such varied interests as agriculture, transportation, professions such as medicine and law, or such groups as women voters or conservationists.

Local Government, agency organized to provide administrative, fiscal, and other services to the people who reside within its territorial boundaries. It is the level of government most directly accountable to the public. In the United States, local governmental units consist of five major types: county, town and township, municipality, special district, and school district.

Organized county governments exist in nearly every U.S. state. Counties have a local authority, most often called the county board of commissioners or board of supervisors, which levies taxes and performs various administrative, legislative, and judicial functions.

Townships exist in a number of U.S. states. In New England, the town meeting, or primary assembly of voters, convenes annually to elect officers, make appropriations, and enact laws. Municipal or city governments are usually patterned after one of three plans: the mayor-council plan, the council-manager plan, and the commission plan.Special districts provide services such as sewerage, parks and recreation, fire protection, hospitals, and libraries. School districts are special districts concerned with the administration and operation of public schools.

Medicare and Medicaid, programs of medical care for the aged and the needy, respectively, in the United States. Medicare and Medicaid are under the direction of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Medicare is the popular name for a federal health insurance program for people 65 years of age and over. Benefits include a basic hospital-insurance plan and a voluntary medical-insurance program. Medicare costs are met by Social Security contributions, monthly premiums from participants, and general revenues. Medicare also serves people under the age of 65 with certain disabilities.

Medicaid, a federal-state program, is usually operated by state welfare or health departments. Medicaid furnishes at least five basic services to needy people: inpatient hospital care, outpatient hospital care, physicians' services, nursing-home services for adults, and laboratory and X-ray services. Each state decides who is eligible for Medicaid benefits and what services will be included.

Monarchy ['mPnqkI] is a form of government in which a ruler, such as an emperor, king, or queen, holds power, either actually or ceremonially, for life. Monarchy, form of government in which one person has the hereditary right to rule as head of state during his or her lifetime; the term monarchy is also applied to the state so governed.

Throughout history many monarchs have wielded absolute power. By the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) the monarchical system of government had spread across Europe, and by the 15th and 16th centuries absolute monarchs ruled many European countries. Abuses of power, as well as growing dissatisfaction among the bourgeoisie, helped bring about the end of many absolute monarchies. Revolutions in England in the 17th century and France in the 18th century were major landmarks in limiting absolute power.

During the 19th century parliamentary authority grew as royal power diminished. Many Western monarchies ceased to exist after World War I (1914-1918). Some constitutional monarchies still survive, primarily as symbols of national unity.

Municipal Government, [mju:'nIsIp(q)l] in the United States, public corporation chartered by a state legislature to provide and supervise the governmental services and activities of an urban subdivision in that state. The first urban centers in the American colonies were patterned after the English boroughs, which were usually governed by elected aldermen and councilmen, and by an appointed mayor and a recorder. The New England townspeople preferred the town meeting, which they considered more democratic. Four major forms of government—weak-mayor-council, strong-mayor-council, commission plan, and council-manager plan—evolved from town meetings. These forms include an elected body of representatives, called a council, commission, or board. Members of the council are elected either by voters within a particular boundary, called a district, ward, or precinct, or by the voters at large.

The most common form of municipal government in the United States is the strong-mayor-council plan. Under this plan the mayor, elected by the voters at large, has considerable appointive and removal powers, a strong veto power, almost complete control of administrative department heads, and full responsibility for the city budget. The council is restricted mainly to lawmaking functions. Under the weak-mayor-council plan, the mayor usually has limited appointive and veto powers and little control over the city administration. The council has both legislative and executive powers, including the authority to appoint and supervise administrative department heads. Under the commission form of municipal government, each of the popularly elected commissioners is responsible for a single, different phase of the local administration. In the council-manager plan, a popularly elected council is responsible for making laws. It also selects and employs a city manager to manage the day-to-day affairs of the city and direct its administrative agencies.

Most of the revenue for local governments comes from property taxes. Other sources of income are user fees, dividends from investments, special assessments, sale of property, and federal grants. In addition to education, some services normally provided by the municipality are public safety, health services, sewage collection and treatment, transportation systems, and park and recreation facilities.

Nationalism is a people's sense of belonging together as a nation.

Nationalism, movement in which the nation-state is regarded as the most important force for the realization of social, economic, and cultural aspirations of a people. Nationalism is characterized principally by a feeling of community among a people, based on common descent, language, and religion.

The beginnings of modern nationalism can be traced back to the disintegration of cultural unity and the social order in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century). The breakup of feudalism, the prevailing social and economic system, was accompanied by the development of larger communities, wider social interrelations, and dynasties that fostered feelings of nationality. During the Reformation (16th century), the adoption of either Catholicism or Protestantism as a national religion became an added force for national cohesion.

The French Revolution (1789-1799) was the turning point in the history of nationalism in Europe. As a result of the revolution, loyalty to the king was replaced by loyalty to the fatherland. In 1789 France achieved a truly representative system of government under the new National Assembly. Regional divisions were abolished, and France became a uniform and united national territory with common laws and institutions.

The Revolution of 1848 in central Europe marked the awakening of various peoples to national consciousness. Both Germans and Italians began movements for the creation of nation-states. After much political agitation and several wars, an Italian kingdom was created in 1861 and a German empire in 1871. The events in Europe between 1878 and 1918 were shaped by the nationalist aspirations of these peoples and their desire to form nation-states independent of the empires of which they had been part.

As a result of World War I (1914-1918), the rule of the dynasties in Turkey, Russia, Austria, and Germany was ended, and a number of new nation-states arose in central and eastern Europe. The inflammation of nationalist passions during and after the war led to the rise of fascism and National Socialism. Another far-reaching effect of the war was the rise of nationalism in Asia and Africa. Asian nationalism was inspired by Japan, the first Far Eastern country to transform itself into a modern nation. In the 1920s the Turks defeated the Western allies and modernized their state in the spirit of nationalism. During the same period the leader of the Indian National Congress, Mohandas Gandhi, deeply stirred the aspirations of the Indian people for national independence. In China the leader of the Nationalist People's Party, Sun Yat-sen, inspired a successful national revolution.

World War II (1939-1945) hastened the penetration of nationalism into colonial countries. Colonial powers, economically weakened by the war and influenced by political liberalism, willingly granted independence to their colonies. In the postwar period nationalist movements resulted in many new nation-states, including Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, the Sudan, Ghana, the United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria), and Iraq. In the 1960s and 1970s many formerly British, French, or Belgian colonies in Africa became independent. During the 1990s competing Jewish, Arab, and Palestinian nationalist aspirations continued to generate political instability in the Middle East. In Eastern Europe the decline of Communist rule unleashed separatist forces that contributed to the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.

National Health Insurance, government-operated system of insurance that provides financial benefits and medical services to persons disabled by sickness or accident. Systems of national health insurance frequently are coordinated with other national programs of social insurance, such as pension programs, programs of unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation. National health insurance systems are found in many countries, particularly in Europe.

In the United States, health insurance has traditionally been provided by private enterprise on a voluntary basis. National health insurance bills were introduced in the Congress of the United States in the 1930s, 1940s, and in 1993, but they were not enacted. The Social Security Amendments of 1965, however, created a governmental health insurance program known as Medicare, which is intended primarily for the aged.

The first country to provide health insurance on a national scale was Germany in 1883. Various types of national health insurance were adopted by other European countries. After World War II (1939-1945), the growth of national systems of health insurance in Europe was extensive. Britain's system of national health insurance is one of the most comprehensive systems in operation.

Neutrality, [nju:'trxlItI] legal status of a state that adheres to a policy of nonengagement during war. The rules covering wartime relations between a neutral and a belligerent were formulated largely in response to the limited conflicts of the 18th and 19th centuries.