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Talk:Democracy/Archive 8

All discussion up through December 2004 has been archived.

Archive 1 : Discussion in and before 2002. Topics: Should there be a distinction between a republic and a democracy?, Right to vote denied to prisoners?, Denial of right to vote on basis of race or ethnicity, Participatory Democracy, Direct democracy, Clear and practical examples of participative democracy

Archive 2 : Discussion from 2002 to January 2004. Topics: Origin of democratic system, Confusing paragraphs, 146.124.102.84's POV edits, Constitution, Anon's announcement, Weird edit, Statement removed, Moved paragraph, Sortition, Unencyclopedical quotes?

Archive 3 : Discussion from January to May 2004. Topics: Czaktisto's complaints/change requests, Democracy, Democracy and franchise, Democracy definition, Proposed refactoring, Direct Democracy

Archive 4 : Lengthy discussion in May-June 2004 about controversial parts of the article

Archive 5 : Discussion from June to September 2004.

Archive 6 : Discussion from October to December 2004.

Archive 7 : Discussion from all of 2005.

Bizarre taxonomy
I have just added an NPOV flag to this article, because of this language right in the introduction:

Democracies may be "liberal," where fundamental rights  of individuals in the minority are protected by law, or they may be "illiberal" where they are not.

This is not, as far as I am aware, the standard primary taxonomy for democracies. It is presumably the pet theory of some particular school or other.

Furthermore, the article fails to deal with the key problem surrounding any article on Democracy, which is that while most people agree that it's a good thing, nearly everyone has their own pet definition. This article would be much improved by stopping the war over defining it and recognising the differences explicitly.

if i'm not mistaken, the concept of illiberal democracy is from Fareed Zakaria. Thes entinel 02:09, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Immigrants and 'the people' "disadvantage"
How does this section regarding immigrants comprise a disadvantage of democracy? Would immigrants have not been "denied the basic right to participate in government" in a dictatorship? Even using this section as a complaint against a specific democracy vs. others with perhaps different immigration policies is weak, and POV for that matter. Who says it's inherently wrong? Citizenship can have both advantantages and disadvantages. keith 09:16, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

here it is if there's a desire to work with it some more...
 * ''===Immigrants and 'the people'===
 * Many democratic constitutions explicitly state (or imply) that power belongs to, or derives from, the people. One example is Article 20 of the German Constitution: Alle Staatsgewalt geht vom Volke aus'' - All state power derives from the people. The German example illustrates a recurrent problem with this ideal, because in German, as in English, the word people has a double meaning. It can refer to the population as an inclusive unit, or it can refer to an ethnic group - which by definition excludes non-members. If 'the people' are the German people, should immigrants be allowed to vote? The issue remains controversial in Germany, and in other countries where naturalisation of immigrants and their children is a disputed issue.

 * ''The European Union requires that resident EU migrants are given the vote, at least in European Parliament elections. In some member states, they are allowed to vote in local and regional elections.

 * ''An immigrant who is still a citizen in another country has the right to vote in his home country, in the government elections. That is why he is not allowed to vote for a government in the country where he is living. The principle behind this rule is that one person should not have two votes. If he becomes a citizen of the new country, and no longer is a citizen of the old country, he can vote for the government in the new country. In most European countries an immigrant worker has the right to vote in local elections and in European parliament elections, but he can only have one vote, not two votes.

 * ''In practice this system creates a massive population of people who cannot afford the often expensive, bureaucratic and lengthy process of becoming a citizen. For all practical purposes they are a citizens of the country they have immigrated to They work, live, raise families and contribute immensely to economic and social growth. However they are denied the basic right to participate in government.

keith 09:05, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Freedom House definition -- a point of departure for this article?
The Freedom House data set is used by political scientists around the world and is considered a consistent and measurable data set for measuring democratic freedoms. It is one of two such data sets in use, the other being the Polity data set. Polity and Freedom House should both be mentioned, and should be acknowledged as standard tools in political science, since if political science isn't part of this discussion then it's all just a bunch of meaningless babble.

--[[User: desmay|Dean Esmay] 03:45, 20 January 2006 (EST)

What Freedom House measures is closer to Liberal democracy than to democracy. "Democratic freedoms" are close to political rights. A liberal democracy means *roughly* democracy+human rights.

You all have Way too much free time
You all have Way too much free time to be bickering over this
 * Yeah I think all of these people are pretty deluded if they think a consensus can be reached as to what 'democracy' means. there's a broad range of overlapping but irreconcilable opinions.

Wrong
Political Scientists have measurements for these things, and if anyone can claim to have objective measurements then they do. The data sets most commonly used worldwide in political science for measuring whether or not a country is a democracy are Freedom House (a primarily US source with some international input) and Polity (a primarily UK source with some international input).

--Dean Esmay 03:47, 20 January 2006 (EST)

General skepticism of democracy
I've added a section summarizing some of the skeptical criticisms that are mounted against the idea of democracy. For a well-rounded article, I think this is a necessity. There are plenty of people who do not believe that democracy actually works in practice the way it is supposed to in theory; i.e., there is skepticism that the majority really holds most of the power. Even pro-democracy people admit that in many cases, it really does exist in name only (think the "Democratic" Republic of North Korea). There definitely should be a place in the article for the view that democracy in general is simply window-dressing for what really amounts to rule by the few. If anyone has a problem with this addition, please discuss here rather than just deleting it in a knee-jerk fashion. Meskhenet 14:44, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

I think that this view of democracy as a facade is well-founded and popularly endorsed. Low voter-turnout is a very good indication that the people generally do not believe that their views cannot be heard by the system. I think that this is mostly because of their inability to effectively choose the issues and the answers which resonate well with them and which are given a fair chance in the system. In other words, most people know that government doesn't care about their concerns, their solutions, or their sovereign will. They also know that the minority pretends itself to be the majority in its execution of unfair agendas in violation of equality and freedom without challenge by the system. A True Democracy should establish the sovereignty and equality of the people at all costs while using voter suffrage as a primary indicator of success.

One more thing: This Democracy article has been highjacked by those who wish to advance various "pet" agendas for democracy, especially including "liberal democracy." No discussion of democracy should depart much from the establishment of the sovereignty (of the majority) of the people.--Andy Landen 14:56, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

American bias for democracy
Let it be known that though Americans reap the benefits of a form of democracy, they are as uncomfortable as anyone in the world about change, either for improved democracy or for any other revisions of the current US government.

I am an American and proud of the power and freedom brought to the country and to the free world by democracy, but I also recognize American bias and American entanglement in foreign affairs. The fact is that all men are biased to their own ways of life and that all men will use their power to their own advantage when given the choice. The use of force violates the principles of equality and freedom embodied in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of the USA, except when used in defense of the principles of equality and freedom.

So Americans are active on Wikipedia, it's true, and this is good to see for all nationalities. But Americans are only united in their love for freedom and equality. One may legitimately stereotype some views, but in general this practice is usually wrong and bad. Please refrain from anti-American rhetoric; it's not productive or welcome here. Try to understand and work with the unique and valuable contributions, unless those contributions digress or harm valuable work.

I believe that the silent majority is less politically active because it doesn't like to shout above the partison politically active. If politics rested on the full majority, only the important things would be done in the most popular way. The faction and the mob would have no place in politics and vote brokering and special interest would become history. Please support the introduction of the concept of the real majority into this democracy article as a fundamental, core principle of democracy. Fight those who would delete it.

I love America, but even here the real majority does not rule. Democracy in the world is, thus far practiced, only a weak imitation, and many biased people would have us all remain in ignorance about that. Let your countries reap the benefits of True Democracy. Enjoy.--Landen99 15:24, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Q: Am I the only one who sees Equal Rights and Majority Rule as cancelling one another out? (pardon me first post, first visit,...)TParkGrrl 09:05, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

 * No, you're not the only one. in fact, the U.S. Bill of Rights was put in place partially to insure that those in the majority could not destroy those in the minority. Civil rights are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution because the majority cannot be trusted to protect the minority. Kingturtle 17:28, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Palestine's Hamas voted into power: An advantage, disadvantage or neutral aspect of democracy?
I personally haven't edited the democracy article, but after reading about how Hitler got into power through democracy, should a mention be made of Hamas too? Maybe some extra commentary on how democracy can result in "unfavourable results" with reference to this example can be used.

jsw663 12:15, 01 February 2006 (EST)

Wait on Hamas
Shouldn't you wait a little before using the recent Hamas victory in their elections as "unfavourable results"? It will certainly depend on the metric and we shouldn't jump to conclusions - I would still recommend that the Hamas victory be mentioned as, but I don't know that one can yet say it's similar to Hitler.

70.195.1.151 00:02, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

This is an interesting example, because there are cases where when a radical group is politicised, they become more moderate. It happened with the party they beat, Fatah (although admittedly they still have the Al Aqsr Martyrs Brigade as a wing of the party. Nevertheless they have moderated). Already Hamas are saying that they do not expect their "struggle" against Israel to be achieved in their generation and possible truces. In the long run this result may not be unfavourable 144.132.251.40 11:47, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

the basic idea of democracy lies in the ancient greek system even if thousands of slaves suffered for that democracy. so i suggest so stick to wikipedian neutrality--212.70.194.21 14:53, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
 * rewrite the article reffering to the idea of democracy and not her modern applications
 * then categorize to century based types of democracyl like the european democracies or usa type of democracy even if this systems dont hold on the basic terms of democracy and just use the name and the election system to deceive the masses
 * i understand that many usa citizens cannot accept the above statement so go read some chomsky or political sciences thats why they exist to remind us of what a political system is or to clarify these situations.

 * Your statements are very confusing to me. I'm not entirely sure I understand you correctly. What I can gather is
 * The term "democracy" does not apply to modern democracies.
 * The US democracy is not a democracy (Which follows logically from 1 since no contemporary democracy is a "real" democracy)
 * How is reading Chomsky specifically relevant to Americans? You just established that the only real democracy is the Greek version - if Chomsky supports this it would certainly be of interest to Europeans as well.

 * You probably want to read up on politics in Europe. For example, the political system in France is very much different from the political system in Sweden - there are massive differences across the borders. Europe is not just one country - there are many different countries, cultures and political systems. I refer you to List of European countries for further reading.

 * However, ideas and perceptions evolve - how we perceive "earth" has changed a great deal since 4000 BCE and you will notice that the article Earth contains the perceptions of today - not the perceptions of 4000 BCE with century and continent divided subpages. Gardar Rurak

Vote for What?

 * I'm not really familiar with Rome, but I've never heard of the Republic being put on a level with Athenian democracy. At any rate, a democracy is indeed a 'rule by the people'. What can be argued is the extent to which people actually rule in modern elective 'democracies' Druworos 01:02, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

 * It should be remembered that like 1% of the people would vote if there was a vote every day on today's new law (if voting on each and every one of the policies proposed). Now would that be democracy?--HJV 01:21, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

POV

 * Indeed, Aristotle clearly distinguishes between election and allotment. He claims that in ellections, only the powerful and/or well-connected stand a chance of getting elected. Thus, elections essentially serve to elect an oligarchy. Therefore, he classifies elective forms of government with oligarchies (such forms of government did indeed exist in Ancient Greece). As claimed by the anonymous above, it is absolutelly true that an ancient Greek person of reasonable education would view what we today term as democracy as oligarchy, while possibly recognising certain democratic elements in certain types of government (e.g. Switzerland). An article on democracy should indeed make mention of such facts, even if it is about modern Democracy, which is really not at all self-evident in this article. Druworos 00:54, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Cons of democracy
One instance where democracy has failed can be said in two words and a letter. George W. Bush. :) --HJV 01:22, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

"Democracy has few values of its own: it is as good, or as bad, as the principles of the people who operate it. In the hands of a liberal and tolerant people, it will produce a liberal and tolerant government; in the hands of cannibals, a government of cannibals." - Norman Davies, Europe: A History p969. -- Drogo Underburrow 11:48, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Democracy vs Republic
Although the article mentions to some degree the republicanism and democracy, more needs to be said about it. True democracy refered to the majority rule of the Athen system. A lot of people at the time were against it and has been charged with titles such as "Mob Rule". So in that case there are no democracies today. Most of the world is a republic. Republicanism is a lot different from democracy. Zachorious 03:59, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I have created an article to differniate the classical republics from democracy; it should prove helpful in your discussions. Wikinfo:Classical republics and democracy contrasted.  I hope you enjoy it; and I would appreciate any feedback you may have.  Thanks.  I have also posted this at the top of the page. WHEELER 18:24, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Missing points
I am surprised when glancing I don't find a mention of Ting Germanic-Scandinavian assemblies, and politics of Iceland.

There is also no mention of the direct democracy in some Swiss cantons.

 * You may find what you're looking for in the History of democracy and Direct democracy articles. — Stevie is the man!  Talk 06:22, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Organic democracy
Francoist Spain declared itself an "organic democracy". We have nothing on that.

Redirect disambig
I added a Redirect5 hatnote to the top of this article. I'm kind of new here, so I just wanted to make sure I did it right. BjornTheGreat 19:40, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Anarchists
It would help if we knew who Ultramarine was thinking of; the anarchist condition is rarely viewed or described as democracy, but I'm sure there are exceptions. Septentrionalis 20:28, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Ultramarine's latest edit appears to forget which article this is. We are not restricted to "liberal democracy". Septentrionalis 00:27, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * That's a problem with a few of editors of this article. They're wrongly equating democracy with freedom. If you're not in the majority, good luck holding on to your freedom. There is a bit of freedom in some democracies because it's not true democracy but more like an illusion of democracy, because people get to vote for politicians so it makes the people feel like they're governing when they're actually not. They're not actually governing because a constitution has been constructed in such a way as to protect individuals FROM democracy. RJII 04:33, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Most of us are outright repulsed by your version of "freedom", RJII. Also, I am curious, if democracy has nothing to do with freedom, then how come no dictatorship has ever obeyed a constitution or given individual rights to its citizens? -- Nikodemos 05:15, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Democracy is a good thing as long as there are protections for individual rights --that is, if democracy is restricted to just voting for people. Pure democracy is the problem. Pure democracy has not protections for individual rights. For example, if the majority of people are heterosexual there would be a danger of the majority executing all homosexuals because they would be easily outvoted. By, the way dictators have indeed allowed individual rights. Go to Dubai --it's probably the most liberal country Arab country. Of course, we can't trust dictators to protect individual rights, so elections and a rights protecting constitution are preferable. RJII 05:22, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Pure democracy, like all forms of government, is a tool that can be good or bad depending on who is using it. Just because the majority could execute all homosexuals doesn't mean that they will - in fact, the majority of the people in Western countries are tolerant and non-violent, so any pure democracies established in the West would likewise be tolerant and non-violent. If you believe that any form of government - dictatorship included - can go against popular opinion for very long and survive, you are gravely mistaken. Suppose the majority of the people in the United States really hated the Constitution. How long do you believe the Constitution would last?

Do not delude yourself into thinking that the Constitution protects you from majority rule. The only reason the Constitution still exists is because the majority supports it. -- Nikodemos 05:40, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

 * The US Constitution obviously does not give complete protection from majorities, but it has does some protective effect. The Constitution itself was made very difficult to change -a simple majority vote won't do it. RJII 05:46, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Note that you said: "Pure democracy, like all forms of government, is a tool that can be good or bad depending on who is using it." Ok, so you understand now that it's a real and useful concept since you're using it yourself. So, don't delete it from the article, ok? RJII 05:48, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

 * No, I was just assuming that "pure democracy" existed as the concept you describe; I was building an argument on your premises, but that doesn't mean I accept those premises. Perhaps it would have been better for me to say "Pure democracy, if it existed..." -- Nikodemos 06:01, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Undue weight
In its current form, the section "reactions to democracy" makes a passing reference to the tremendous acceptance and advocacy of democracy in the modern world, after which it proceeds to describe in great detail a number of fringe groups that oppose democracy. This is utterly undue weight. If the views of those groups belong in this article at all, they belong in a section on criticisms of democracy. -- Nikodemos 04:45, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree; it was an effort to make a working header for pre-existing paragraphs. It could have been Opponents, but the first paragraph seems to fit the prose flow where it is. If you have a better idea, go for it. Septentrionalis 05:09, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * On a somewhat related note, the one-paragraph intro we have left now seems a bit short... are you sure you want to split off the "kinds of democracy" section from the intro? And the paragraph about the widespread support for democracy in the contemporary world? -- Nikodemos 06:47, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * That's an idea; let me try something. If you don;t like it, change it. Septentrionalis 21:30, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Nikodemos deleting paragraph about Pure Democracy
Pure democracy is a well established concept. Athens Greece is regarded as having the system where there was no constitutional law but where majorities exercised their will without limit. RJII 04:57, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * See graphe paranomon. Septentrionalis 05:06, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

There is no evidence that (a) direct democracy ever existed, or (b) that anyone ever advocated its existence. For your information, there were clearly established laws and rules of procedure in Athens. See here. Also, the voting body was composed of male native-born non-slaves - a minority of the total population of Athens.

By the way, RJII, I am curious: What is the point of arguing against a form of government that no one supports? -- Nikodemos 05:11, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * For the same reason that the framers of the U.S. Constitution argued against it --to protect individual rights. I'm sure there are some that support pure democracy. Read James Madison's Federalist Paper #10 for more information. A pure democracy would have no Bill of Rights. RJII 05:15, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Why would individual rights need protection from something that doesn't exist and is not advocated by anyone? If you are so sure that there are people who support pure democracy, please cite them and their arguments. The framers of the US Constitution were arguing against an imaginary concept in order to explain their own views better. That makes "pure democracy" a literary tool, nothing more. -- Nikodemos 05:20, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Let me draw a comparison: Suppose I wanted to explain to you why eating kittens is wrong. In doing so, I might create an imaginary enemy who believs that eating kittens is right, in order to demonstrate how and why he is wrong. -- Nikodemos 05:23, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * That's ridiculous. The point is that classical liberals want protection FROM democracy. They don't want to be caught in the minority and tyrannized by the majority. Pure democracy has no protections for individual rights. Constitutional republicanism does. RJII 05:26, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * The point is that "pure democracy" is an imaginary enemy, not a real one. It has no supporters. Therefore, it exists only in the imagination of its enemies. -- Nikodemos 05:32, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * No, it existed in Athens. That was the first pure democracy. It didn't work out to well, did it? Even if you were correct that the system only exist in the imagination, it's still a system. What political or economic system exists in its ideal sense? None. Systems are ideals --abstracts. Then, after they're conceived they are put into an approximated form in the real world. Whatever. "Pure democracy" is a real concept that has been discussed for hundreds of years so you need to stop deleting it from the article. RJII 05:36, 29 March 2006 (UTC) Make that thousands of years. Plato argued against it. RJII 05:39, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * What didn't work so well? Athenian democracy? Are you mad? Athens defeated the Persian empire, became hegemon of Greece, and achieved an unheard-of standard of culture that formed the foundations of the Western world! Besides, I already pointed out that "pure democracy" did not, in fact, exist in Athens. And Plato, for your information, argued against all kinds of democracy (I do not believe he ever used the phrase "pure democracy").

 * Systems are ideal abstracts, true, but usually in the minds of their proponents. If a system has no supporters, it's just a punching bag, a straw man. You shall not push your straw men on this article. -- Nikodemos 05:47, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't call a system of slavery the height of "culture." Plato described Athenian democracy as a system where "the wolves voted on what to have for dinner." RJII 05:50, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * You think a system that accepts slavery is inherently immoral and evil? -- Nikodemos 06:02, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * It's certainly a system I wouldn't want to be a part of. RJII 06:05, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * So what do you think about people who support such a system? -- Nikodemos 06:12, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

 * I notice you did not answer. Probably because your beloved framers of the US Constitution were among the supporters of slavery, and because the system they set up was one that accepted slavery for nearly the entire first century of its existence. In fact, American slaves were generally treated worse than most ancient Athenian slaves. -- Nikodemos 06:43, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Perhaps he did not answer because your question was ambiguous. The word "support" as in the above question is present tense, and unaccompanied by further explanation ("... or who have ever supported") this question wouldn't necessarily be taken by a speaker of vernacular English to refer to persons long dead. More generally, if "support" is taken to mean "or who ever had supported" it is tone deaf to historical context, and to ask how one thinks about anyone in the whole history of the human species who has ever "supported" any form of slavery is to ask a meaningless question. Just a thought. --Christofurio 19:45, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

 * "A pure democracy can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is, that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." -James Madison Now, that you've had a free crash course in classical liberalism, stop deleting "pure democracy" from the article, ok? RJII 06:08, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * You have still provided no evidence that anyone ever supported "pure democracy". No support = no notability. -- Nikodemos 06:12, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Nonsense. That's not the criteria of notability. RJII 06:18, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes it is. Political ideas are notable in proportion to how many supporters they have. If an idea has few supporters, it is fringe. If it has no supporters at all, it's entirely non-notable. -- Nikodemos 06:43, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Not true at all. That's not the criteria of notability. You want to erase a concept from the mind of man by eliminating it from the encyclopedia, don't you? That's reprehensible. (See 1984). RJII 06:48, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Curses and drat! You have discovered my master plan! Yes, wikipedia has the power to erase concepts from the mind of man, and I am part of a great conspiracy headed by Big Brother and Xenu to achieve world domination through pure democracy. And I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids and your dog! -- Nikodemos 07:02, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Seriously, you know it's a real concept discussed by many for who knows how many hundreds or thousands of years, and you know that Wikipedia is supposed to make all such knowledge available, but you want to delete description of the concept from the encyclopedia. What gives? RJII 07:06, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh, you're resorting to ad hominems now? The fact is that the concept of "pure democracy" is a non-notable straw man used occasionally and inconsistently by a number of people to denote some vague notion of "too much democracy" which they oppose. Does that need to be mentioned in the first section of this article? No, we already cover the issue quite extensively in other sections. Does it need its own article? No, because (a) it doesn't have supporters, and (b) different opponents mean different things by "pure democracy". In many ways, it's a concept on the same level of ambiguity as "beautiful picture". Do we need a beautiful picture article? The phrase certainly is used a lot. That doesn't make it encyclopedic. -- Nikodemos 07:21, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * We'll see about that. RJII 07:27, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Regardless, you can see right there that Madison acknowledges that pure democracies have existed. Obviously someone must have supported them for them to exist. RJII 06:19, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree with Nikodemos. The concept is a non-notable straw man.Ultramarine 10:37, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Or rather, no evidence has been shown that concept exists. The reference given does not a describe a system, "pure" is only an qualifier. Today the expression would be "pure direct democracy".Ultramarine 11:42, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
 * You question whether the concept exists? LOL. How could you question that a concept exists unless the concept exists for you to question its existence? RJII 21:35, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm glad to see that the two of you are having fun; but can it be illegal in a "pure democracy" to propose certain laws? At Athens it was a capital crime. Septentrionalis 06:28, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I think it's turning out that "pure democracy" is just another name for "direct democracy." I wasn't up to date on the newer terminology. Correct me if I'm wrong. RJII 05:56, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I think you are still over-reading Madison. The eighteenth century generally used democracy to mean "direct democracy", as Aristotle had. So when Madison writes pure democracy, what he means is "direct democracy, unmixed with anything else" (like a Constitution, or a Senate). He's not defining a separate term. Septentrionalis 15:59, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
 * "Pure democracy" is a real term. It's a synonym for direct democracy. See sources below. RJII 18:16, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

"Pure democracy" isn't a scholarly term. Please keep it out. — Stevie is the man!  Talk 07:32, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes it is a scholarly term. Merriam-Webster defines "pure democracy" as "democracy in which the power is exercised directly by the people rather than through representatives" American Heritage also defines "pure democracy" as "A democracy in which the power to govern lies directly in the hands of the people rather than being exercised through their representatives."  And, there is entry for "direct democracy" in those dictionaries. And, this source here says they're the same thing  This source uses the terms interchangeably:, as do many others. And, "The citizens of a democracy take part in government either directly or indirectly. In a direct democracy, also called a pure democracy, the people meet in one place to make the laws for their community. Such democracy was practiced in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens and exists today in the New England town meeting" World Book Encyclopedia RJII 09:33, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Any lynch mob is an example of pure democracy. The lynchers always outnumber the lynchees underneath that particular tree. It's not bashing a straw man to make the point that such a situation shouldn't be an ideal. It's establishing an extreme by which to employ a perfectly valid sort of argument known as reductio ad impossibile (often confused with reductio ad absurdum, which is actually somewat different.) If we agree that the lynch mob 'democracy' is a bad thing, then we can appropriate ask advocates of various systems where their proposals differ in a principled way from that bad thing. --Christofurio 22:23, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Right on. It's amazing that this that has to be spelled out to people. RJII 04:29, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
 * "Pure democracy" is a phraseology, not a scholarly term. — Stevie is the man!  Talk 20:12, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

removed from article
I removed these two points from the section on necessary attributes of democracy:

 * there is constrained freedom to further the public good. Stated in negative terms, limits, sometimes vigorous ones, are essential to ensure that acts that infringe upon others freedom, such as murder and theft, do not occur. This may be thought of as negative liberty. Stated in positive terms, infinite freedom is of the essence to explore within, but not exceed, the boundaries defined by the edge of chaos, such as populist revolutions which identify, advocate for, and create consensus around new forms of government that can achieve both the social justice envisioned by Karl Marx and the economic prosperity envisioned by Adam Smith, but without fascism, anomie, or violence. This is thought of as positive liberty.
 * the demos has a long-term unity and continuity, from one decision-making round to the next, without secession of the minority.

Toward the first point: "there is constrained freedom to further the public good" is an odd phrase and I'm not sure what it means. The rest is not much clearer.

Toward the second: it's not at all clear why that is necessary for democracy. - Nat Krause(Talk!) 04:49, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

stevietheman deleting sourced content
Stevietheman is deleting the fact that "pure democracy" is a synonym for "direct democracy." There is no shortage of sources that indicate that this is the case. Merriam-Webster defines "pure democracy" as "democracy in which the power is exercised directly by the people rather than through representatives" American Heritage also defines "pure democracy" as "A democracy in which the power to govern lies directly in the hands of the people rather than being exercised through their representatives." And, there is entry for "direct democracy" in those dictionaries. And, this source here says they're the same thing This source uses the terms interchangeably:, as do many others. And, "The citizens of a democracy take part in government either directly or indirectly. In a direct democracy, also called a pure democracy, the people meet in one place to make the laws for their community. Such democracy was practiced in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens and exists today in the New England town meeting" World Book Encyclopedia RJII 20:18, 6 April 2006 (UTC) Moreover, he claimed in his edit-summary that a POV was being pushed. What POV is being pushed by noting this terminology? RJII 20:20, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

 * As a contributor to the Wikipedia, I have the same right as you to challenge content. I contend that direct democracy and pure democracy are not synonyms.  Your evidence is unconvincing.  Just because material is sourced doesn't make it correct. —  Stevie is the man!  Talk 20:23, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

 * If you think that, then you don't know the Wikipedia sourcing policy. By Wikipedia standards, if information is sourced then it is correct. I've given you 4 sources above. One of them explicitly says that direct democracy is also called democracy. Stop deleting this sourced fact. RJII 20:26, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I will delete what I believe to be opinion-pushing, and that is what you're doing. "Pure democracy" is a phraseology used to denigrate direct democracy, and further, they're not synonyms.  Direct democracy as it has been implemented historically is not "pure" by any stretch of the imagination. —  Stevie is the man!  Talk 20:31, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

 * "Pure democracy" is not used to denigrate democracy. It's used to denigrate pure democracy, but just because you can't criticise something without naming what you are criticizing. Typically, those who oppose pure democracy are supportive of democracy. They support liberal democracy (in the form of a constitutional republic) instead that has constitutional protections for individual liberty that the popular vote can't overrule. They are concerned that the majority will violate the individual liberty of the minority --such as a if most people are of one religion and then force their oppressive rules on the minority. They would rather that the popular vote be used merely for electing representatives who then can only make rules if they accord with constitutional protections for individual liberty. I'm not "opinion pushing." I'm noting what is factual. I've provided sources. The term is a synonym for direct democracy. You have no justification to delete the information. RJII 22:23, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Definition of democracy
I'm unclear about what definition this article is using for the word "democracy". It begins by saying, "Democracy ... is a form of government where the population of a society controls the government." I don't think that really applies to a country in the world today. Therefore, there are no "20th century waves of democracy", etc. - Nat Krause(Talk!) 01:19, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Most people agree that Western states are democratic. Why are you changing democracy to "representative government"? Ultramarine 18:34, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * "Most people" is not a citation, nor is it terribly relevant to NPOV. However, I'm sure that most people agree that Western states are representative governments. Why not be clearer? - Nat Krause(Talk!) 20:17, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Nor do you have a citation. Most governments certainly state in their constitution that they are democracies. Ultramarine 20:27, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * It's true that neither of us has a citation. However, this is a nonproductive sort of argument, because it implies that the section in question should just be removed. And the fact that a government describes itself as democratic is, in practice, almost totally irrelevant to the question of whether it actually is. Repressive states are famous for calling themselves "democratic this-and-that" or "People's Free such-and-thus". - Nat Krause(Talk!) 20:31, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * See Freedom House for classifications of states regarding democracy. Ultramarine 20:39, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Freedom House is also not so authoritative of a source that it's statements can be taken as facts rather than as the opinions of Freedom House.
 * The basic problem with this article is that it begins with a definition that makes "democracy" sound laudatory or, at least, unnecessarily broad. Then, we start discussing political changes involving a fairly specific form of government, calling it "democracy", creating the implication that they are the same thing. That's a POV. We should be much clearer about what we're talking about. - Nat Krause(Talk!) 20:47, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Freedom House produces a well-respected, verifiable data set on democracy used in much research. It it not original research and can thus be used in Wikipedia.Regarding the definition in the introduction, it simply reflects the etymology and similar statements can be found in every dictionary. Ultramarine 20:52, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Brunei and India
This article says that Brunei's GDP is higher than that of India. How? Brunei's GDP is $6,842 million and India's GDP is $3.678 trillion. All Indians are not prosperous because there are too many people in India. How can a small oil rich country be compared to a huge overpopulated nation? Besides Indian economy in the 21st Century is one of the most powerful economies in the world. Standard of living in India is relatively low because of overpopulation and overpopulation is not related to democracy. I do not think that any economic/political expert would compare India and Brunei.--DIGIwarez 16:33, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Proportional Vs Majoritarian
The justification for the change to this section which was a day later reverted as "questionable" is as follows:

 * The first and last paragraph have retained their meanings but gained clarity.
 * The middle section was too vague to justify keeping (I shouldn't have added it in the first place, it was ideologically based)
 * I don't claim to have any rights or ownership of this proportional section, but I started it, have followed it closely, and do not make changes lightly.

I stand by the change and have made it a second time. I won't make it a third, but those are the reasons it should be there.

 * Update: One Part of middle section was important for clarification. Have added back in with minor grammatical improvements.

title: Talk:Democracy/Archive 8


text:
DirectX

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct", such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectSound, and so forth. The name DirectX was coined as a shorthand term for all of these APIs (the X standing in for the particular API names) and soon became the name of the collection. When Microsoft later set out to develop a gaming console, the X was used as the basis of the name Xbox to indicate that the console was based on DirectX technology. The X initial has been carried forward in the naming of APIs designed for the Xbox such as XInput and the Cross-platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT), while the DirectX pattern has been continued for Windows APIs such as Direct2D and DirectWrite.

Direct3D (the 3D graphics API within DirectX) is widely used in the development of video games for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox line of consoles. Direct3D is also used by other software applications for visualization and graphics tasks such as CAD/CAM engineering. As Direct3D is the most widely publicized component of DirectX, it is common to see the names "DirectX" and "Direct3D" used interchangeably.

The DirectX software development kit (SDK) consists of runtime libraries in redistributable binary form, along with accompanying documentation and headers for use in coding. Originally, the runtimes were only installed by games or explicitly by the user. Windows 95 did not launch with DirectX, but DirectX was included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2. Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 both shipped with DirectX, as has every version of Windows released since. The SDK is available as a free download. While the runtimes are proprietary, closed-source software, source code is provided for most of the SDK samples. Starting with the release of Windows 8 Developer Preview, DirectX SDK has been integrated into Windows SDK.

Development history
In late 1994, Microsoft was ready to release Windows 95, its next operating system. An important factor in its value to consumers was the programs that would be able to run on it. Microsoft employee Alex St. John had been in discussions with various game developers asking how likely they would be to bring their MS-DOS games to Windows 95, and found the responses mostly negative, since programmers had found that the Windows environment did not provide the necessary features which were available under MS-DOS using BIOS routines or direct hardware access. There were also strong fears of compatibility; a notable case of this was from Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King which was based on the WinG programming interface. Due to numerous incompatible graphics drivers from new Compaq computers that were not tested with the WinG interface which came bundled with the game, it crashed so frequently on many desktop systems that parents had flooded Disney's call-in help lines.

St. John recognized the resistances for game development under Windows would be a limitation, and recruited two additional engineers, Craig Eisler and Eric Engstrom, to develop a better solution to get more programmers to develop games for Windows. The project was codenamed the Manhattan Project, like the World War II project of the same name, and the idea was to displace the Japanese-developed video game consoles with personal computers running Microsoft's operating system. It had initially used the radiation symbol as its logo but Microsoft asked the team to change the logo. Management did not agree to the project as they were already writing off Windows as a gaming platform, but the three committed towards this project's development. Their rebellious nature led Brad Silverberg, the senior vice president of Microsoft's office products, to name the trio the "Beastie Boys".

Most of the work by the three was done among other assigned projects starting near the end of 1994. Within four months and with input from several hardware manufacturers, the team had developed the first set of application programming interfaces (APIs) which they presented at the 1995 Game Developers Conference. The SDK included libraries implementing DirectDraw for bit-mapped graphics, DirectSound for audio, and DirectPlay for communication between players over a network. Furthermore, an extended joystick API already present in Windows 95 was documented for the first time as DirectInput, while a description of how to implement the immediate start of the installation procedure of a software title after inserting its CD-ROM, a feature called AutoPlay, was also part of the SDK. The "Direct" part of the library was so named as these routines bypassed existing core Windows 95 routines and accessed the computer hardware only via a hardware abstraction layer (HAL). Though the team had named it the "Game SDK" (software development kit), the name "DirectX" came from one journalist that had mocked the naming scheme of the various libraries. The team opted to continue to use that naming scheme and call the project DirectX.

The first version of DirectX was released in September 1995 as the Windows Game SDK. Its DirectDraw component was the Win32 replacement for the DCI and WinG APIs for Windows 3.1. DirectX allowed all versions of Microsoft Windows, starting with Windows 95, to incorporate high-performance multimedia. Eisler wrote about the frenzy to build DirectX 1 through 5 in his blog.

To get more developers on board DirectX, Microsoft approached id Software's John Carmack and offered to port Doom and Doom 2 from MS-DOS to DirectX, free of charge, with id retaining all publishing rights to the game. Carmack agreed, and Microsoft's Gabe Newell led the porting project. The first game was released as Doom 95 in August 1996, the first published DirectX game. Microsoft promoted the game heavily with Bill Gates appearing in ads for the title.

DirectX 2.0 became a built-in component of Windows with the releases of Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows NT 4.0 in mid-1996. Since Windows 95 itself was still new and few games had been released for it, Microsoft engaged in heavy promotion of DirectX to developers who were generally distrustful of Microsoft's ability to build a gaming platform in Windows. Alex St. John, the evangelist for DirectX, staged an elaborate event at the 1996 Computer Game Developers Conference which game developer Jay Barnson described as a Roman theme, including real lions, togas, and something resembling an indoor carnival. It was at this event that Microsoft first introduced Direct3D, and demonstrated multiplayer MechWarrior 2 being played over the Internet.

The DirectX team faced the challenging task of testing each DirectX release against an array of computer hardware and software. A variety of different graphics cards, audio cards, motherboards, CPUs, input devices, games, and other multimedia applications were tested with each beta and final release. The DirectX team also built and distributed tests that allowed the hardware industry to confirm that new hardware designs and driver releases would be compatible with DirectX.

Prior to DirectX Microsoft had added OpenGL to their Windows NT platform. OpenGL had been designed as a cross-platform, window system independent software interface to graphics hardware by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to bring 3D graphics programming into the mainstream of application programming. Besides it could also be used for 2D graphics and imaging and was controlled by the Architectural Review Board (ARB) which included Microsoft. Direct3D was intended to be a Microsoft controlled alternative to OpenGL, focused initially on game use. As 3D gaming grew game developers were discovering that OpenGL could be used effectively for game development. At that point a "battle" began between supporters of the cross-platform OpenGL and the Windows-only Direct3D. Incidentally, OpenGL was supported at Microsoft by the DirectX team. If a developer chose to use the OpenGL 3D graphics API in computer games, the other APIs of DirectX besides Direct3D were often combined with OpenGL because OpenGL does not include all of DirectX's functionality (such as sound or joystick support).

In a console-specific version, DirectX was used as a basis for Microsoft's Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One console API. The API was developed jointly between Microsoft and Nvidia, which developed the custom graphics hardware used by the original Xbox. The Xbox API was similar to DirectX version 8.1, but is non-updateable like other console technologies. The Xbox was code named DirectXbox, but this was shortened to Xbox for its commercial name.

In 2002, Microsoft released DirectX 9 with support for the use of much longer shader programs than before with pixel and vertex shader version 2.0. Microsoft has continued to update the DirectX suite since then, introducing Shader Model 3.0 in DirectX 9.0c, released in August 2004.

As of April 2005, DirectShow was removed from DirectX and moved to the Microsoft Platform SDK instead.

DirectX has been confirmed to be present in Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.

Real-time raytracing was announced as DXR in 2018. Support for compiling HLSL to SPIR-V was also added in the DirectX Shader Compiler the same year.

Components
DirectX is composed of multiple APIs:

 * Direct3D (D3D): Real-time 3D rendering API
 * DXGI: Enumerates adapters and monitors and manages swap chains for Direct3D 10 and later.
 * Direct2D: 2D graphics API
 * DirectWrite: Text rendering API
 * DirectCompute: API for general-purpose computing on graphics processing units
 * DirectX Diagnostics (DxDiag): A tool for diagnosing and generating reports on components related to DirectX, such as audio, video, and input drivers
 * XACT3: High-level audio API
 * XAudio2: Low-level audio API
 * DirectX Raytracing (DXR): Real-time raytracing API
 * DirectStorage: GPU-oriented file I/O API
 * DirectML: GPU-accelerated machine learning and artificial intelligence API
 * DirectSR: GPU-accelerated resolution upscaling API

Microsoft has deprecated the following components:
 * DirectX Media: Consists of:
 * DirectAnimation for 2D/3D web animation, DirectShow for multimedia playback and streaming media
 * DirectX Media Objects: Support for streaming objects such as encoders, decoders, and effects (Deprecated in favor of Media Foundation Transforms; MFTs)
 * DirectX Transform for web interactivity, and Direct3D Retained Mode for higher level 3D graphics
 * DirectX plugins for audio signal processing
 * DirectX Video Acceleration for accelerated video playback (Deprecated in favor of Media Foundation)
 * DirectDraw: 2D graphics API (Deprecated in favor of Direct2D)
 * DirectInput: Input API for interfacing with keyboards, mice, joysticks, and game controllers (Deprecated after version 8 in favor of XInput for Xbox 360 controllers or standard WM_INPUT window message processing for keyboard and mouse input)
 * DirectPlay: Network API for communication over a local-area or wide-area network (Deprecated after version 8 in favor of Games for Windows Live and Xbox Live)
 * DirectSound: Audio API (Deprecated since DirectX 8 in favor of XAudio2 and XACT3)
 * DirectSound3D (DS3D): 3D sounds API (Deprecated since DirectX 8 in favor of XAudio2 and XACT3)
 * DirectMusic: Components for playing soundtracks authored in DirectMusic Producer (Deprecated since DirectX 8 in favor of XAudio2 and XACT3)

DirectX functionality is provided in the form of COM-style objects and interfaces. Additionally, while not DirectX components themselves, managed objects have been built on top of some parts of DirectX, such as Managed Direct3D and the XNA graphics library on top of Direct3D 9.

Microsoft distributes debugging tool for DirectX called "PIX".

DirectX 9
DirectX 9 was released in 2002 for Windows 98, Me, 2000 and XP, and currently is supported by all subsequent versions. Microsoft continues to make changes in DirectX 9.0c, causing support to be dropped for some of the aforementioned operating systems. As of January 2007, Windows 2000 or XP is required. This also introduced Shader Model 2.0 containing Pixel Shader 2.0 and Vertex Shader 2.0. Windows XP SP2 and newer include DirectX 9.0c, but may require a newer DirectX runtime redistributable installation for DirectX 9.0c applications compiled with the February 2005 DirectX 9.0 SDK or newer.

DirectX 10
A major update to DirectX API, DirectX 10 ships with and is only available with Windows Vista (launched in late 2006) and later. Previous versions of Windows such as Windows XP are not able to run DirectX 10-exclusive applications. Rather, programs that are run on a Windows XP system with DirectX 10 hardware simply resort to the DirectX 9.0c code path, the latest available for Windows XP computers.

Changes for DirectX 10 were extensive. Many former parts of DirectX API were deprecated in the latest DirectX SDK and are preserved for compatibility only: DirectInput was deprecated in favor of XInput, DirectSound was deprecated in favor of the Cross-platform Audio Creation Tool system (XACT) and additionally lost support for hardware accelerated audio, since the Vista audio stack renders sound in software on the CPU. The DirectPlay DPLAY.DLL was also removed and was replaced with dplayx.dll; games that rely on this DLL must duplicate it and rename it to dplay.dll.

In order to achieve backwards compatibility, DirectX in Windows Vista contains several versions of Direct3D: Direct3D 10.1 is an incremental update of Direct3D 10.0 which shipped with, and required, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2008. This release mainly sets a few more image quality standards for graphics vendors, while giving developers more control over image quality. It also adds support for cube map arrays, separate blend modes per-MRT, coverage mask export from a pixel shader, ability to run pixel shader per sample, access to multi-sampled depth buffers and requires that the video card supports Shader Model 4.1 or higher and 32-bit floating-point operations. Direct3D 10.1 still fully supports Direct3D 10 hardware, but in order to utilize all of the new features, updated hardware is required.
 * Direct3D 9: emulates Direct3D 9 behavior as it was on Windows XP. Details and advantages of Vista's Windows Display Driver Model are hidden from the application if WDDM drivers are installed. This is the only API available if there are only XP graphic drivers (XDDM) installed, after an upgrade to Vista for example.
 * Direct3D 9Ex (known internally during Windows Vista development as 9.0L or 9.L): allows full access to the new capabilities of WDDM (if WDDM drivers are installed) while maintaining compatibility for existing Direct3D applications. The Windows Aero user interface relies on D3D 9Ex.
 * Direct3D 10: Designed around the new driver model in Windows Vista and featuring a number of improvements to rendering capabilities and flexibility, including Shader Model 4.

DirectX 11
Microsoft unveiled DirectX 11 at the Gamefest 08 event in Seattle. The Final Platform Update launched for Windows Vista on October 27, 2009, which was a week after the initial release of Windows 7, which launched with Direct3D 11 as a base standard.

Major scheduled features including GPGPU support (DirectCompute), and Direct3D 11 with tessellation support and improved multi-threading support to assist video game developers in developing games that better utilize multi-core processors. Parts of the new API such as multi-threaded resource handling can be supported on Direct3D 9/10/10.1-class hardware. Hardware tessellation and Shader Model 5.0 require Direct3D 11 supporting hardware. Microsoft has since released the Direct3D 11 Technical Preview. Direct3D 11 is a strict superset of Direct3D 10.1 — all hardware and API features of version 10.1 are retained, and new features are added only when necessary for exposing new functionality. This helps to keep backwards compatibility with previous versions of DirectX.

Four updates for DirectX 11 were released:
 * DirectX 11.1 is included in Windows 8. It supports WDDM 1.2 for increased performance, features improved integration of Direct2D (now at version 1.1), Direct3D, and DirectCompute, and includes DirectXMath, XAudio2, and XInput libraries from the XNA framework. It also features stereoscopic 3D support for gaming and video. DirectX 11.1 was also partially backported to Windows 7, via the Windows 7 platform update.
 * DirectX 11.2 is included in Windows 8.1 (including the RT version) and Windows Server 2012 R2. It added some new features to Direct2D like geometry realizations. It also added swap chain composition, which allows some elements of the scene to be rendered at lower resolutions and then composited via hardware overlay with other parts rendered at higher resolution.
 * DirectX 11.X is a superset of DirectX 11.2 running on the Xbox One. It actually includes some features, such as draw bundles, that were later announced as part of DirectX 12.
 * DirectX 11.3 was announced along with DirectX 12 at GDC and released in 2015. It is meant to complement DirectX 12 as a higher-level alternative. It is included with Windows 10.

DirectX 12
DirectX 12 was announced by Microsoft at GDC on March 20, 2014, and was officially launched alongside Windows 10 on July 29, 2015.

The primary feature highlight for the new release of DirectX was the introduction of advanced low-level programming APIs for Direct3D 12 which can reduce driver overhead. Developers are now able to implement their own command lists and buffers to the GPU, allowing for more efficient resource utilization through parallel computation. Lead developer Max McMullen stated that the main goal of Direct3D 12 is to achieve "console-level efficiency on phone, tablet and PC". The release of Direct3D 12 comes alongside other initiatives for low-overhead graphics APIs including AMD's Mantle for AMD graphics cards, Apple's Metal for iOS and macOS and Khronos Group's cross-platform Vulkan.

Multiadapter support will feature in DirectX 12 allowing developers to utilize multiple GPUs on a system simultaneously; multi-GPU support was previously dependent on vendor implementations such as AMD CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI.
 * Implicit Multiadapter support will work in a similar manner to previous versions of DirectX where frames are rendered alternately across linked GPUs of similar compute-power.
 * Explicit Multiadapter will provide two distinct API patterns to developers. Linked GPUs will allow DirectX to view graphics cards in SLI or CrossFireX as a single GPU and use the combined resources; whereas Unlinked GPUs will allow GPUs from different vendors to be utilized by DirectX, such as supplementing the dedicated GPU with the integrated GPU on the CPU, or combining AMD and NVIDIA cards. However, elaborate mixed multi-GPU setups requires significantly more attentive developer support.

DirectX 12 is supported on all Fermi and later Nvidia GPUs, on AMD's GCN-based chips and on Intel's Haswell and later processors' graphics units.

At SIGGRAPH 2014, Intel released a demo showing a computer generated asteroid field, in which DirectX 12 was claimed to be 50–70% more efficient than DirectX 11 in rendering speed and CPU power consumption.

Ashes of the Singularity was the first publicly available game to utilize DirectX 12. Testing by Ars Technica in August 2015 revealed slight performance regressions in DirectX 12 over DirectX 11 mode for the Nvidia GeForce 980 Ti, whereas the AMD Radeon R9 290x achieved consistent performance improvements of up to 70% under DirectX 12, and in some scenarios the AMD outperformed the more powerful Nvidia under DirectX 12. The performance discrepancies may be due to poor Nvidia driver optimizations for DirectX 12, or even hardware limitations of the card which was optimized for DirectX 11 serial execution; however, the exact cause remains unclear.

The performance improvements of DirectX 12 on the Xbox are not as substantial as on the PC.

In March 2018, DirectX Raytracing (DXR) was announced, capable of real-time ray-tracing on supported hardware, and the DXR API was added in the Windows 10 October 2018 update.

In 2019 Microsoft announced the arrival of DirectX 12 to Windows 7 but only as a plug-in for certain game titles.

DirectX 12 Ultimate
Microsoft revealed DirectX 12 Ultimate in March 2020. DirectX 12 Ultimate will unify to a common library on both Windows 10 computers and the Xbox Series X and other ninth-generation Xbox consoles. Among the new features in Ultimate includes DirectX Raytracing 1.1, Variable Rate Shading, which gives programmers control over the level of detail of shading depending on design choices, Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback.

Version history
The version number as reported by Microsoft's DxDiag tool (version 4.09.0000.0900 and higher) use the x.xx.xxxx.xxxx format for version numbers. However, the DirectX and Windows XP MSDN page claims that the registry always has been in the x.xx.xx.xxxx format. Therefore, when the above table lists a version as '4.09.00.0904' Microsoft's DxDiag tool may have it as '4.09.0000.0904'.

Compatibility
Various releases of Windows have included and supported various versions of DirectX, allowing newer versions of the operating system to continue running applications designed for earlier versions of DirectX until those versions can be gradually phased out in favor of newer APIs, drivers, and hardware.

APIs such as Direct3D and DirectSound need to interact with hardware, and they do this through a device driver. Hardware manufacturers have to write these drivers for a particular DirectX version's device driver interface (or DDI), and test each individual piece of hardware to make them DirectX compatible. Some hardware devices have only DirectX compatible drivers (in other words, one must install DirectX in order to use that hardware). Early versions of DirectX included an up-to-date library of all of the DirectX compatible drivers currently available. This practice was stopped however, in favor of the web-based Windows Update driver-update system, which allowed users to download only the drivers relevant to their hardware, rather than the entire library.

Prior to DirectX 10, DirectX runtime was designed to be backward compatible with older drivers, meaning that newer versions of the APIs were designed to interoperate with older drivers written against a previous version's DDI. The application programmer had to query the available hardware capabilities using a complex system of "cap bits" each tied to a particular hardware feature. Direct3D 7 and earlier would work on any version of the DDI, Direct3D 8 requires a minimum DDI level of 6 and Direct3D 9 requires a minimum DDI level of 7. However, the Direct3D 10 runtime in Windows Vista cannot run on older hardware drivers due to the significantly updated DDI, which requires a unified feature set and abandons the use of "cap bits".

Direct3D 10.1 introduces "feature levels" 10_0 and 10_1, which allow use of only the hardware features defined in the specified version of Direct3D API. Direct3D 11 adds level 11_0 and "10 Level 9" - a subset of the Direct3D 10 API designed to run on Direct3D 9 hardware, which has three feature levels (9_1, 9_2 and 9_3) grouped by common capabilities of "low", "med" and "high-end" video cards; the runtime directly uses Direct3D 9 DDI provided in all WDDM drivers. Feature level 11_1 has been introduced with Direct3D 11.1.

.NET Framework
In 2002, Microsoft released a version of DirectX compatible with the Microsoft .NET Framework, thus allowing programmers to take advantage of DirectX functionality from within .NET applications using compatible languages such as managed C++ or the use of the C# programming language. This API was known as "Managed DirectX" (or MDX for short), and claimed to operate at 98% of performance of the underlying native DirectX APIs. In December 2005, February 2006, April 2006, and August 2006, Microsoft released successive updates to this library, culminating in a beta version called Managed DirectX 2.0. While Managed DirectX 2.0 consolidated functionality that had previously been scattered over multiple assemblies into a single assembly, thus simplifying dependencies on it for software developers, development on this version has subsequently been discontinued, and it is no longer supported. The Managed DirectX 2.0 library expired on October 5, 2006.

During the GDC 2006, Microsoft presented the XNA Framework, a new managed version of DirectX (similar but not identical to Managed DirectX) that is intended to assist development of games by making it easier to integrate DirectX, HLSL and other tools in one package. It also supports the execution of managed code on the Xbox 360. The XNA Game Studio Express RTM was made available on December 11, 2006, as a free download for Windows XP. Unlike the DirectX runtime, Managed DirectX, XNA Framework or the Xbox 360 APIs (XInput, XACT etc.) have not shipped as part of Windows. Developers are expected to redistribute the runtime components along with their games or applications.

No Microsoft product including the latest XNA releases provides DirectX 10 support for the .NET Framework.

The other approach for DirectX in managed languages is to use third-party libraries like:

 * SlimDX, an open source library for DirectX programming on the .NET Framework
 * SharpDX, which is an open source project delivering the full DirectX API for .NET on all Windows platforms, allowing the development of high performance game, 2D and 3D graphics rendering as well as real-time sound applications
 * DirectShow.NET for the DirectShow subset
 * Windows API CodePack for .NET Framework, which is an open source library from Microsoft.

Alternatives
There are alternatives to the DirectX family of APIs, with OpenGL, its successor Vulkan, Metal and Mantle having the most features comparable to Direct3D. Examples of other APIs include SDL, Allegro, OpenMAX, OpenML, OpenAL, OpenCL, FMOD, SFML etc. Many of these libraries are cross-platform or have open codebases. There are also alternative implementations that aim to provide the same API, such as the one in Wine. Furthermore, the developers of ReactOS are trying to reimplement DirectX under the name "ReactX".

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: DirectX


text:
Slalom skiing

Slalom is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline, involving skiing between poles or gates. These are spaced more closely than those in giant slalom, super giant slalom and downhill, necessitating quicker and shorter turns. Internationally, the sport is contested at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, and at the Olympic Winter Games.

History
The term slalom comes from the Morgedal/Seljord dialect of the Norwegian word "slalåm": "sla", meaning "slightly inclining hillside", and "låm", meaning "track after skis". The inventors of modern skiing classified their trails according to their difficulty. Slalåm was a trail used in Telemark by boys and girls not yet able to try themselves on the more challenging runs. Ufsilåm was a trail with one obstacle (ufse) like a jump, a fence, a difficult turn, a gorge, a cliff (often more than 10 m high), et cetera. Uvyrdslåm was a trail with several obstacles. A Norwegian military downhill competition in 1767 included racing downhill among trees "without falling or breaking skis". Sondre Norheim and other skiers from Telemark practiced uvyrdslåm or "disrespectful/reckless downhill" where they raced downhill in difficult and untested terrain (i.e., off piste). The 1866 "ski race" in Oslo was a combined cross-country, jumping and slalom competition. In the slalom participants were allowed use poles for braking and steering, and they were given points for style (appropriate skier posture). During the late 19th century Norwegian skiers participated in all branches (jumping, slalom, and cross-country) often with the same pair of skis. Slalom and variants of slalom were often referred to as hill races. Around 1900 hill races were abandoned in the Oslo championships at Huseby and Holmenkollen. Mathias Zdarsky's development of the Lilienfeld binding helped change hill races into a specialty of the Alps region.

The rules for the modern slalom were developed by Arnold Lunn in 1922 for the British National Ski Championships, and adopted for alpine skiing at the 1936 Winter Olympics. Under these rules gates were marked by pairs of flags rather than single ones, were arranged so that the racers had to use a variety of turn lengths to negotiate them, and scoring was on the basis of time alone, rather than on both time and style.

Course
A course is constructed by laying out a series of gates, formed by alternating pairs of red and blue poles. The skier must pass between the two poles forming the gate, with the tips of both skis and the skier's feet passing between the poles. A course has 55 to 75 gates for men and 40 to 60 for women. The vertical drop for a men's course is 180 to 220 m and measures slightly less for women. The gates are arranged in a variety of configurations to challenge the competitor.

Because the offsets are relatively small in slalom, ski racers take a fairly direct line and often knock the poles out of the way as they pass, which is known as blocking. (The main blocking technique in modern slalom is cross-blocking, in which the skier takes such a tight line and angulates so strongly that he or she is able to block the gate with the outside hand.) Racers employ a variety of protective equipment, including shin pads, hand guards, helmets and face guards.

Clearing the gates
Traditionally, bamboo poles were used for gates, the rigidity of which forced skiers to maneuver their entire body around each gate. In the early 1980s, rigid poles were replaced by hard plastic poles, hinged at the base. The hinged gates require, according to FIS rules, only that the skis and boots of the skier go around each gate.

The new gates allow a more direct path down a slalom course through the process of cross-blocking or shinning the gates. Cross-blocking is a technique in which the legs go around the gate with the upper body inclined toward, or even across, the gate; in this case the racer's outside pole and shinguards hit the gate, knocking it down and out of the way. Cross-blocking is done by pushing the gate down with the arms, hands, or shins. By 1989, most of the top technical skiers in the world had adopted the cross-block technique.

Equipment
With the innovation of shaped skis around the turn of the 21st century, equipment used for slalom in international competition changed drastically. World Cup skiers commonly skied on slalom skis at a length of 203 - 207 cm in the 1980s and 1990s but by the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the majority of competitors were using skis measuring 160 cm or less.

The downside of the shorter skis was that athletes found that recoveries were more difficult with a smaller platform underfoot. Out of concern for the safety of athletes, the FIS began to set minimum ski lengths for international slalom competition. The minimum was initially set at 155 cm for men and 150 cm for women, but was increased to 165 cm for men and 155 cm for women for the 2003–2004 season. The equipment minimums and maximums imposed by the International Ski Federation (FIS) have created a backlash from skiers, suppliers, and fans. The main objection is that the federation is regressing the equipment, and hence the sport, by two decades. American Bode Miller hastened the shift to the shorter, more radical sidecut skis when he achieved unexpected success after becoming the first Junior Olympic athlete to adopt the equipment in giant slalom and super-G in 1996. A few years later, the technology was adapted to slalom skis as well.

Men's slalom World Cup podiums
In the following table men's slalom World Cup podiums in the World Cup since first season in 1967.

title: Slalom skiing


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Dachshund

The dachshund (  or  ;    German: 'badger dog'), also known as the wiener dog or sausage dog, badger dog and doxie, is a short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dog breed. The dog may be smooth-haired, wire-haired, or long-haired. Coloration varies.

The dachshund was bred to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals. The miniature dachshund was bred to hunt small animals such as rabbits.

The dachshund was ranked 9th in registrations with the American Kennel Club in 2022.

Etymology

The name dachshund is of German origin, and means 'badger dog', from ('badger') and  ('dog, hound'). The German word Dachshund is pronounced. The pronunciation varies in English: variations of the first and second syllables include, and , ,. It may be incorrectly pronounced as hound by some English speakers. Although Dachshund is a German word, in modern Germany, the dogs are more commonly known by the short name Dackel. Working dogs are less commonly known as Teckel.

Because of their long, narrow build, they are often nicknamed wiener or sausage dog.

Classification
While classified in the hound group or scent hound group in the United States and Great Britain, the breed has its own group in the countries which belong to the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (World Canine Federation). Many dachshunds, especially the wire-haired subtype, may exhibit behavior and appearance similar to the terrier group of dogs. An argument can be made for the scent (or hound) group classification because the breed was developed to use scent to trail and hunt animals, and probably descended from the Saint Hubert Hound like many modern scent hound breeds such as bloodhounds and Basset Hounds; but with the persistent personality and love for digging that probably developed from the terrier, it can also be argued that they could belong in the terrier, or "earth dog", group.

Appearance
A typical dachshund is long-bodied and muscular with short stubby legs. Its front paws are disproportionately large, being paddle-shaped and particularly suitable for digging. Its skin is loose enough not to tear while tunneling in tight burrows to chase prey. Its snout is long.

Coat and color
There are three dachshund coat varieties: smooth coat (short hair), long-haired, and wire-haired. Longhaired dachshunds have a silky coat and short featherings on legs and ears. Wire-haired dachshunds are the least common coat variety in the United States (although it is the most common in Germany) and the most recent coat to appear in breeding standards. Dachshunds have a wide variety of colors and patterns, the most common one being red. Their base coloration can be single-colored (either red or cream), tan pointed (black and tan, chocolate and tan, blue and tan, or isabella and tan), and in wire-haired dogs, a color referred to as wildboar. Patterns such as dapple (merle), sable, brindle and piebald also can occur on any of the base colors. Dachshunds in the same litter may be born in different coat colors depending on the genetic makeup of the parents.

The Dachshund Club of America (DCA) and the American Kennel Club (AKC) consider Double Dapple to be out of standard and a disqualifying color in the show ring. Piebald is now a recognized color in the Dachshund Club of America (DCA) breed standard.

Dogs that are double-dappled have the merle pattern of a dapple, but with distinct white patches that occur when the dapple gene expresses itself twice in the same area of the coat. The DCA excluded the wording "double-dapple" from the standard in 2007 and now strictly uses the wording "dapple" as the double dapple gene is commonly responsible for blindness and deafness.

Size
Dachshunds come in three sizes: standard, miniature, and kaninchen (German for "rabbit"). Although the standard and miniature sizes are recognized almost universally, the rabbit size is not recognized by clubs in the United States and the United Kingdom. The rabbit size is recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (World Canine Federation) (FCI), which contain kennel clubs from 83 countries all over the world. An increasingly common size for family pets falls between the miniature and the standard size; these are frequently referred to as "tweenies," which is not an official classification.

A full-grown standard dachshund typically weighs 16 to 32 lb, while the miniature variety normally weighs less than 12 lb. The kaninchen weighs 8 to 11 lb. According to kennel club standards, the miniature (and kaninchen, where recognized) differs from the full-size only by size and weight, thus offspring from miniature parents must never weigh more than the miniature standard to be considered a miniature as well. While many kennel club size divisions use weight for classification, such as the American Kennel Club, other kennel club standards determine the difference between the miniature and standard by chest circumference; some kennel clubs, such as in Germany, even measure chest circumference in addition to height and weight.

Eye color
Light-colored dachshunds can sport amber, light brown, or green eyes; however, kennel club standards state that the darker the eye color, the better. Dapple and double dapple dachshunds can have multi-coloured "wall" eyes with fully blue, partially blue or patched irises owing to the effect of the dapple gene on eye pigmentation expression. "Wall" eye is permissible according to DCA standards but undesirable by AKC standards.

Temperament
Dachshunds can be stubborn and refuse commands, especially if chasing a small animal which they have a propensity for. As dachshunds were originally used as badger hunters they have a keen sense for chasing smaller animals. Dachshunds are often stubborn, making them a challenge to train.

"Being the owner of dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor. Every sentence is a riot. Some day, if I ever get a chance, I shall write a book, or warning, on the character and temperament of the dachshund and why he can't be trained and shouldn't be. I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a dachshund to heed my slightest command. When I address Fred I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes. He even disobeys me when I instruct him in something he wants to do."

Dachshunds can be aggressive to strangers and other dogs. Despite this, they are rated in the intelligence of dogs as an average working dog with a persistent ability to follow trained commands 50% of the time or more. They can have a loud bark. Some bark quite a lot and may need training to stop, while others will not bark much at all. Dachshunds can be standoffish toward strangers. A Japanese study found the Miniature Dachshund to have higher rates of refusing to move whilst on a walk, barking at outside noises whilst inside, barking at strangers visiting their home, separation anxiety, inappropriate elimination (faecal and urinary incontinence), hesitancy to approach unknown humans and canines, and aggression towards family members. Highlighting the breed's stubbornness and aggression.

According to the American Kennel Club's breed standards, "the dachshund is clever, lively and courageous to the point of rashness, persevering in above and below ground work, with all the senses well-developed. Any display of shyness is a serious fault." Their temperament and body language give the impression that they do not know or care about their relatively small size. Like many small hunting dogs, they will challenge a larger dog. Indulged dachshunds may become snappy or extremely obstinate.

A 2008 University of Pennsylvania study of 6,000 dog owners who were interviewed indicated that dogs of smaller breeds were more likely to be "genetically predisposed toward aggressive behaviour". Dachshunds were rated the most aggressive, with 20% having bitten strangers, as well as high rates of attacks on other dogs and their owners. The study noted that attacks by small dogs were unlikely to cause serious injuries and because of this were probably under-reported.

Health

The breed is prone to spinal problems, especially intervertebral disk disease (IVDD), due in part to an extremely long spinal column and short rib cage. The risk of injury may be worsened by obesity, jumping, rough handling, or intense exercise, which place greater strain on the vertebrae. About 20–25% of dachshunds will develop IVDD. Dachshunds with a number of calcified intervertebral discs at a young age have a higher risk of developing disc disease in later life. In addition, studies have shown that development of calcified discs is highly heritable in the breed. An appropriate screening programme for IVDD has been identified by Finnish researchers and a UK IVDD screening programme has been developed for breeders with the aim to reduce prevalence of spinal problems.

Treatment consists of combinations of crate confinement and courses of anti-inflammatory medications (steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like carprofen and meloxicam), or chronic pain medications, like tramadol. Serious cases may require surgery to remove the troublesome disk contents. A dog may need the aid of a cart to get around if paralysis occurs.

A minimally invasive procedure called "percutaneous laser disk ablation" has been developed at the Oklahoma State University Veterinary Hospital. Originally, the procedure was used in clinical trials only on dachshunds that had suffered previous back incidents. Since dachshunds are prone to back issues, the goal is to expand this treatment to dogs in a normal population.

In addition to back problems, the breed is prone to patellar luxation where the kneecap can become dislodged. Dachshunds may also be affected by osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease). The condition seems to be mainly limited to wire-haired Dachshunds, with 17% being carriers. A genetic test is available to allow breeders to avoid breeding carriers to carriers. In such pairings, each puppy will have a 25% chance of being affected.

In some double dapples, there are varying degrees of vision and hearing loss, including reduced or absent eyes. Not all double dapples have problems with their eyes and/or ears, which may include degrees of hearing loss, full deafness, malformed ears, congenital eye defects, reduced or absent eyes, partial or full blindness, or varying degrees of both vision and hearing problems; but heightened problems can occur owing to the genetic process in which two dapple genes cross, particularly in certain breeding lines. Dapple genes, which are dominant genes, are considered "dilution" genes, meaning whatever color the dog would have originally carried is lightened, or diluted, randomly; two dominant "dilution" genes can cancel each other out, or "cross", removing all color and producing a white recessive gene, essentially a white mutation. When occurring genetically within the eyes or ears, this white mutation can be detrimental to development, causing hearing or vision problems.

Other dachshund health problems include hereditary epilepsy, granulomatous meningoencephalitis, dental issues, Cushing's syndrome, thyroid and autoimmune problems, various allergies and atopies, and various eye conditions including cataracts, glaucoma, progressive retinal atrophy, corneal ulcers, nonulcerative corneal disease, sudden acquired retinal degeneration, and cherry eye. Dachshunds are also 2.5 times more likely than other breeds of dogs to develop patent ductus arteriosus, a congenital heart defect. Dilute color dogs (Blue, Isabella, and Cream) are very susceptible to color dilution alopecia, a skin disorder that can result in hair loss and extreme sensitivity to sun. Since the occurrence and severity of these health problems is largely hereditary, breeders are working to eliminate these.

Factors influencing the litter size of puppies and the proportion of stillborn puppies per litter were analyzed in normally sized German dachshunds. The records analyzed contained data on 42,855 litters. It was found that as the inbreeding coefficient increased, litter size decreased and the percentage of stillborn puppies increased, thus indicating inbreeding depression. It was also found that young and older dams had smaller litter sizes and more stillborn puppies than middle-aged dams.

A study in Japan found the Miniature Dachshund to have lower rates of glaucoma than other breeds. With 2.4% of cases belonging to the breed but the breed making up 10.1% of visits to the veterinary hospital.

Dachshunds are predisposed to hypothyroidism.

Life expectancy
A 2018 study in Japan of pet cemetery data put the Miniature Dachshund life expectancy at 13.9 years compared to 13.7 overall and 15.1 for crossbreeds. A 2024 study in the UK found a life expectancy of 13.2 years for the breed compared to an average of 12.7 for purebreeds and 12 for crossbreeds with the Miniature Dachshund found to have a life expectancy of 14 years. A 2024 Italian study found a life expectancy of 11.5 years for the breed compared to 10 years overall. A 2005 Swedish study of insurance data found 28% of Dachshund died by the age of 10, less than the overall rate of 35% of dogs dying by the age of 10.

History

The dachshund is a creation of German breeders and includes elements of German, French, and English hounds and terriers. Dachshunds have been kept by royal courts all over Europe, including that of Queen Victoria, who was particularly enamored of the breed.

The first verifiable references to the dachshund, originally named the "Dachs Kriecher" ("badger crawler") or "Dachs Krieger" ("badger warrior"), came from books written in the early 18th century. Prior to that, there exist references to "badger dogs" and "hole dogs", but these likely refer to purposes rather than to specific breeds. The original German dachshunds were larger than the modern full-size variety, weighing between 14 and 18 kg, and originally came in straight-legged and crook-legged varieties (the modern dachshund is descended from the latter). Though the breed is famous for its use in exterminating badgers and badger-baiting, dachshunds were also commonly used for rabbit and fox hunting, for locating wounded deer, and in packs were known to hunt game as large as wild boar and as fierce as the wolverine.

There are huge differences of opinion as to when dachshunds were specifically bred for their purpose of hunting badger, as the American Kennel Club states the dachshund was bred in the 15th century, while the Dachshund Club of America states that foresters bred the dogs in the 18th or 19th century.

Double-dapple dachshunds, which are prone to eye disease, blindness, or hearing problems, are generally believed to have been introduced to the United States between 1879 and 1885.

The flap-down ears and famous curved tail of the dachshund have deliberately been bred into the dog. In the case of the ears, this is to keep grass seeds, dirt, and other matter from entering the ear canal. The curved tail is dual-purposed: to be seen more easily in long grass and, in the case of burrowing dachshunds, to help haul the dog out if it becomes stuck in a burrow. The smooth-haired dachshund, the oldest style, may be a cross between the German Shorthaired Pointer, a Pinscher, and a Bracke (a type of bloodhound), or to have been produced by crossing a short Bruno Jura Hound with a pinscher. Others believe it was a cross from a miniature French pointer and a pinscher; others claim that it was developed from the St. Hubert Hound, also a bloodhound, in the 18th century, and still others believe that they were descended from Basset Hounds, based upon their scent abilities and general appearance.

The exact origins of the dachshund are therefore unknown. According to William Loeffler, from  The American Book of the Dog (1891), in the chapter on dachshunds: "The origin of the Dachshund is in doubt, our best authorities disagreeing as to the beginning of the breed." What can be agreed on, however, is that the smooth dachshund gave rise to both the long-haired and the wire-haired varieties.

There are two theories about how the standard long-haired dachshund came about. One theory is that smooth dachshunds would occasionally produce puppies which had slightly longer hair than their parents. By selectively breeding these animals, breeders eventually produced a dog which consistently produced long-haired offspring, and the long-haired dachshund was born. Another theory is that the standard long-haired dachshund was developed by breeding smooth dachshunds with various land and water spaniels. The long-haired dachshund may be a cross among any of the small dog breeds in the spaniel group, including the German Stoeberhund, and the smooth dachshund.

The wire-haired dachshund, the last to develop, was bred in the late 19th century. There is a possibility the wire-haired dachshund was a cross between the smooth dachshund and various hard-coated terriers and wire-haired pinschers, such as the Schnauzer, the Dandie Dinmont Terrier, the German Wirehaired Pointer, or perhaps the Scottish Terrier.

Symbol of Germany
Dachshunds have traditionally been viewed as a symbol of Germany. Political cartoonists commonly used the image of the dachshund to ridicule Germany. During World War I, the dachshund's popularity in the United States plummeted because of this association. As a result, they were often called "liberty hounds", just as "liberty cabbage" became a term for sauerkraut mostly in North America. The stigma of the association was revived to a lesser extent during World War II, though it was comparatively short-lived. Kaiser Wilhelm II and German field marshal Erwin Rommel were known for keeping dachshunds.

Owing to the association of the breed with Germany, as well as its particular popularity among dog keepers in Munich at the time, the dachshund was chosen as the first official mascot for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, with the name Waldi.

Sports
Some people train and enter their dachshunds to compete in dachshund races, such as the Wiener Nationals. Several races across the United States routinely draw several thousand attendees.

Despite the popularity of these events, the Dachshund Club of America opposes "wiener racing", as many greyhound tracks use the events to draw large crowds to their facilities. The DCA is also worried about potential injuries to dogs, owing to their predisposition to back injuries. Another favorite sport is earthdog trials, in which dachshunds enter tunnels with dead ends and obstacles attempting to locate either an artificial bait or live but caged (and thus protected) rats.

Dackel versus Teckel
In Germany, dachshunds are widely called Dackel (both singular and plural). Among hunters, they are mainly referred to as Teckel. There are kennels which specialize in breeding hunting dachshunds, the so-called jagdliche Leistungszucht ("hunting-related performance breeding") or Gebrauchshundezucht ("working dog breeding"), as opposed to breeding family dogs. Therefore, it is sometimes incorrectly believed that Teckel is either a name for the hunting breed or a mark for passing the test for a trained hunting dog (called "VGP", "Verband-Gebrauchsprüfung") in Germany.

Popularity
Dachshunds are one of the most popular dogs in the United States, ranking 12th in the 2018 AKC registration statistics. They are popular with urban and apartment dwellers, ranking among the top 10 most popular breeds in 76 of 190 major US cities surveyed by the AKC. There are organized local dachshund clubs in most major American cities, including New York, New Orleans, Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Notable dogs and owners

 * John F. Kennedy bought a dachshund puppy while touring Europe in 1937 for his then-girlfriend Olivia. The puppy, named Dunker, never left Germany after Kennedy started to get allergic reactions.
 * Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President, had a dachshund in the White House.
 * William Randolph Hearst was an avid lover of dachshunds. When his own dachshund Helena died, he eulogized her in his "In The News" column.
 * Fred, E. B. White's dachshund, appeared in many of his famous essays.
 * Lump (German for "rascal"), the pet of Pablo Picasso, who was thought to have inspired some of his artwork. Picasso & Lump tells the story of Picasso and Lump.
 * Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, had a dachshund named Sheba, which he often referred to as his wife. At the time he murdered Oswald, he had four of them—although he once had as many as 10.
 * Andy Warhol had a pair of dachshunds, Archie and Amos, whom he depicted in his paintings and mentioned frequently in his diaries.
 * Stanley and Boodgie, immortalized on canvas by owner David Hockney, and published in the book David Hockney's Dog Days.
 * Wadl and Hexl, Kaiser Wilhelm II's famous ferocious pair. Upon arriving at Archduke Franz Ferdinand's country seat, Konopiště castle, on a semi-official visit, they promptly proceeded to do away with one of the Austro-Hungarian heir presumptive's priceless golden pheasants, thereby almost causing an international incident. Another one of his beloved dachshunds, Senta, is currently buried at Huis Doorn, Wilhelm's manor in the Netherlands.
 * In Zelenogorsk, Russia, a parade of dachshunds pass by a dachshund monument every July 25 to commemorate the day the city was founded.
 * Joe was the dachshund of General Claire Lee Chennault, commander of the Flying Tigers and then the China Air Task Force of the US Army Air Forces, and became the mascot of those organizations.
 * Maxie, a dachshund owned by actress Marie Prevost, tried to awaken his dead mistress, who was found with small bites on her legs. Maxie's barking eventually summoned neighbors to the scene. The incident inspired the 1977 Nick Lowe song "Marie Prevost".
 * Liliane Kaufmann, wife of Edgar J. Kaufmann who commissioned the home Fallingwater from Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935, was a well-known breeder and owner of long-haired dachshunds. At the Fallingwater bookstore, visitors are able to purchase a book titled Moxie, which is about one of the dachshunds who lived at Fallingwater. Liliane raised long-haired dachshunds and they traveled from Pittsburgh to Bear Run with her.
 * The former Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, is one of several Danish royals to keep dachshunds. Margrethe of Denmark has a particular fondness of dachshunds and has kept many throughout her life. Her 80th birthday, celebrated in 2020, was marked by posing with one of her favourites (Lilia) on the grounds of Fredensborg Castle.
 * Obie is a dachshund who became infamous for his obesity, weighing as much as 77 lb, more than twice a normal-weight standard dachshund. He reached his target weight of 28 lb in July 2013.
 * Carole Lombard and Clark Gable had a dachshund named Commissioner.
 * Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund gained fame on social media. In 2015, Crusoe came out with his The New York Times best-selling book titled Crusoe: Adventures of the Wiener Dog Extraordinaire!. In 2018, Crusoe came out with another book titled Crusoe: The Worldly Weiner Dog. At the 9th annual Shorty Awards, Crusoe won the best animal category. In 2018, Crusoe won the People's Choice Awards Animal Star of 2018.

title: Dachshund