Humanities desk
< July 20	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 22 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 21[edit]

French National Assembly[edit]

Is that anything like the US House of Representatives, both abstractly in in its legislative function, and in practice in terms of what its members do all day (sit in meetings, call donors on the phone for hours, etc.)? Is it a full time job? I was surprised to learn that celebrity mathematician Cédric Villani became a member in 2017. Not sure what the heck he would want to do in such an institution. He wasn't anywhere near washed up in math research or anything like that. The academic economist Yanis Varoufakis was Greek minister of finance for a while but that situation was different. 67.164.113.165 (talk) 09:24, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It is (although french law is quite limiting in the donation side). Slight difference: National Assembly (France) is utterly useless and pointless, as, as a whole, it just supports the government, upon which it as zero effective power. Scraping it altogether wouldn't change a thing (except, of course, reducing the number of politicians).

Depends on what you call a "full time job". MP get full pay, for sure. Now, they are not banned to have other activities -- usually, these are to be the de facto executive ruler of some city or district within their constituency (they are banned to be both MP and Mayor of a significant city/head of a district, but they just need a puppet to do their bidding). And this -- not their MP job -- will be their main concern and the thing they will work the most on, as it commands their being elected again, while what they do in the parliament doesn't matter much (the standard MP job is just to be silly supporter/opponent of the government; only a few can boast some real influence).

Cédric Villani is 45, at this age he IS certainly washed up in math research; or in math altogether, since he obviously doesn't even try to get basic arithmetic applied to France public finance problem. As brilliant he may be (or has been) as far as abstract thinking goes, (or maybe just because of that), he is (still) just a useful idiot in politics; he just was trampled in a bid to run to be Paris's Mayor; he seems upset and sulky of this, still refusing to endorse his party candidate. So, few people really understand what the heck he is doing as a MP (does he himself? his current constituency is not even in Paris). Since Villani was elected MP just because he supported the President, with few local support (see above: not de facto ruler of a city), his chance to be elected again are low.

Gem fr (talk) 16:02, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Prime Minister needs to have support from the National Assembly. If the majority of the National Assembly is from a different party than the President, then that very significantly reduces the President's powers, and the one actually running the country is the Prime Minister (with his majority in the National assembly). This is called a cohabitation and leaves only very few presidential powers (he is still head of the military and technically in charge of the foreign relations). And obviously the assembly votes the laws, keeps the executive branch in check etc, like the house in the US.

With regards to how much of Cedric's time this takes, in the case of the current assembly, there is a very large majority for the President (61%) so you don't need to be there for every vote. And as Gem said, donor money is not really a big deal in France, you can only receive and spend a limited amount on your campaign (this is to limit the power of the rich candidates over the poor candidates, if everyone spends the same, then it is the ideas or charisma that sway the voters, not the flashy stuff). --Lgriot (talk) 14:15, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Largest Pride parade in the world[edit]

Although NYC Pride is the largest LGBTQ parade in North America; Parada do Orgulho GLBT de São Paulo in Brazil is the world’s largest since 2006 as by Guinness World Records.

The referencing issues are:

1. For 2019’s NYC Pride, I’ve only found one source that Stonewall 50 - WorldPride NYC 2019 had four million at the parade. I suspect it’s higher but haven’t found anything.

2. I haven’t found anything to give a number for São Paulo‘s 2019 event.

3. I haven’t found any sourcing that compares the two, or others.

Any help appreciated. Gleeanon409 (talk) 09:51, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2. Three million per Rio Times, quoting the organizers. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 16:49, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wonderful! Thank you! Gleeanon409 (talk) 22:52, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What nations other that the USA have had elections like clockwork for more than 100 years?[edit]

If you had asked a USAian in 1919, when they expected presidential (and house and senate) elections to be in the years from then until 2019, they're expectation would have been fulfilled. Is there any other nation that has had clockwork elections for more than a century? I know a lot of nations like the United Kingdom don't have any particular schedule (other than a maximum time for one parliament) so that reduces the pool? Some place like Uruguay?Naraht (talk) 19:47, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The US had elections like clockwork for over two centuries by now, no? Futurist110 (talk) 23:05, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Nitpick: yes, in the sense that elections were held, but during the brief Civil War unpleasantness, the seceded states of course did not hold elections for the U.S. Congress or President. And then, as the war progressed and the Union occupied Confederate territory, elections for the Confederate States Congress were concomitantly disrupted. (The President of the Confederate States of America happened to be elected to a six-year term, so there was no opportunity for a second election to the office before the Confederacy was dissolved.) --47.146.63.87 (talk) 07:43, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Also, your question here only works for countries with regular elections since countries with parliamentary systems--such as Israel--often have irregular elections. Futurist110 (talk) 23:05, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Not Uruguay; see the Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay (1973-1985). Alansplodge (talk) 20:54, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Obviously only old democracies, not disrupted by WWI, WWII or coup, and fixed calendar, would qualify. This disqualify all of Africa, Asia, South and Latin america (except may be mexico?), Westminster system (anything from the British Empire), and the whole Europe except, may be, Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, Finland and a few micro-states (Andora, Lichtenstein, San Marino...) Gem fr (talk) 23:20, 21 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Is Fixed-term election comprehensive? The only examples it gives (not counting those like Canada/Australia which may have elections in other years) are USA, Sweden, Norway and Hong Kong. Sweden's only been on a fixed cycle since 1994, Norway since 1945 and Hong Kong since 2007. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 00:56, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

In Switzerland, elections to the House are held every four years on the penultimate Sunday in October, but Senators may be elected on a different election cycle, determined by their canton.. This seems to have been gone for long Gem fr (talk) 06:47, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The President of Mexico started to be elected by popular vote in 1917. But the duration of a presidential term has been legally changed several times, and this has affected the interval between elections.: "The presidential term was set at four years from 1821 until 1904, when President Porfirio Díaz extended it to six years for the first time in Mexico's history, and then again from 1917 to 1928 after a new constitution reversed the change made by Diaz in 1904. Finally, the presidential term was set at six years in 1928 and has remained unchanged since then. The president is elected by direct, popular, universal suffrage." Dimadick (talk) 09:38, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Clockwork may be a whisker exaggerated, but the bishops of Rome have been elected regularly for almost two millennia. Unlike POTUSes, quite a few of them of them have been sanctified, which seems unlikely in the case of either of the incumbent holders of the office. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 16:23, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

But the dates would not be predictable long in advance, which is what Naraht was asking. AnonMoos (talk) 17:24, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Your premise is wrong. See List of papal conclaves. The system of Papal elections was established by the document In nomine Domini (1059) by Pope Nicholas II, and the fist election under the new system was the 1061 papal election. Many of the previous Popes were not elected at all. They were appointed by the Byzantine emperors, by the Holy Roman Emperors, by the Counts of Tusculum, or by whatever other secular authority happened to be controling Rome at that point. Dimadick (talk) 17:42, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It is a somewhat moot point if POTUSi are democratically elected or if they are appointed by the Electoral College. Article Two of the United States Constitution is a bit of a compromise. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 18:02, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

See Captains Regent and the links near the bottom of the article. The position appears to have been elected regularly since at least the fourteenth century. Andorra's right out; one of the princes is appointed by a foreign official and holds life tenure, while the other one is elected by foreigners under a process that didn't operate for several years in the 1940s. Nyttend (talk) 23:30, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Awesome find! San Marino *has* to be the winner - every six months for 776 years. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 15:11, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This official San Marino government site suggests that there might have been a disruption to the election schedule in 1945. --M @r ē ino 17:59, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Napoleon did call it "the model of a republic". --47.146.63.87 (talk) 04:48, 24 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]