text:
Rockefeller Republican

The Rockefeller Republicans were members of the United States Republican Party (GOP) in the 1930s–1970s who held moderate-to-liberal views on domestic issues, similar to those of Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York (1959–1973) and Vice President of the U.S. (1974–1977). Rockefeller Republicans were most common in the Northeast and the industrial Midwestern states (with their larger moderate-to-liberal constituencies), while they were rare in the South and the West.

The term refers to "[a] member of the Republican Party holding views likened to those of Nelson Rockefeller; a moderate or liberal Republican". —Geoffrey Kabaservice states that they were part of a separate political ideology, aligning on certain issues and policies with liberals, while on others with conservatives and on many with neither. Luke Phillips has also stated that the Rockefeller Republicans represent the continuation of the Whig tradition of American politics.

Rockefeller Republicanism has been described as the last phase of the "Eastern Establishment" of the GOP that had been led by New York governor Thomas E. Dewey. The group's powerful role in the GOP came under heavy attack during the 1964 primary campaign between Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater. At a point before the California primary, political operative Stuart Spencer called on Rockefeller to "summon that fabled nexus of money, influence, and condescension known as the Eastern Establishment". Rockefeller replied, "You are looking at it, buddy, I am all that is left".

Michael Lind contends that the ascendancy of the more conservative fusionist wing of the Republican Party, beginning in the 1960s with Goldwater and culminating in the Reagan Revolution in 1980, prevented the establishment of a Disraelian one-nation conservatism in the United States. The phrase "Rockefeller Republican" has come to be used in a pejorative sense by modern conservatives, who use it to deride those in the Republican Party that are perceived to have views which are too liberal, especially on major social issues. The term was adopted mostly because of Nelson Rockefeller's vocal support of civil rights and lavish spending policies. Historian Justin P. Coffey has stated that Rockefeller's liberalism is a myth, with former Vice President Spiro Agnew pointing out that the reality was quite different, stating: "A lot of people considered Rockefeller very liberal and very dovish on foreign policy, but he was not. He was harder than Nixon, and a lot more hawkish about the mission of America in the world."

On a national level, the last significant candidate for president from the liberal wing of the party was John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent in 1980 and garnered 6.6% of the popular vote. Despite their national decline, moderate Republican officeholders continue to win local elections, particularly in the Northeast, into the 21st century; examples include governors Bill Weld and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Phil Scott of Vermont, and Larry Hogan of Maryland.

Political positions
In domestic policy, Rockefeller Republicans were typically center to center-right economically; however, they vehemently rejected conservatives like Barry Goldwater and their laissez faire economic policies while holding beliefs in social policies that were often culturally liberal. They typically favored a social safety net and a continuation of New Deal programs but sought to run these programs more efficiently than the Democrats. Although Rockefeller Republicans opposed socialism and government ownership, and were strong supporters of big business and Wall Street, they supported some regulation of business; rather than increasing regulation of business, they advocated for developing a mutually beneficial relationship between public interests and private enterprise, drawing comparisons and similarities to the French dirigisme or the Japanese developmental state. They espoused government and private investments in environmentalism, healthcare, and higher education as necessities for a better society and economic growth in the tradition of Rockefeller. They were strong supporters of state colleges, trade schools, and universities with low tuition and large research budgets, and also favored investments in infrastructure such as highway projects.

Many supported the idea of a national health insurance program, with Nelson Rockefeller himself describing healthcare as "a basic human right". President Eisenhower, during his first term, tried to reform healthcare and implement expanded health insurance coverage. In the 1970s, Richard Nixon also tried to enact universal health insurance with the Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) Act; Republican New York Senator Jacob K. Javits concurrently sponsored a bill providing "Medicare for All". In 1971, eight Republicans in Congress co-sponsored a bill called the "Health Security Act", which would have led to the creation of a national health insurance system covering every individual in the country.

Reflecting Nelson Rockefeller's tradition of technocratic problem solving, most Rockefeller Republicans were known to have a pragmatic and interdisciplinary approach to problem solving and governance while advocating for a broad consensus rather than a consolidation of support. Also welcoming an increased public role for engineers, doctors, scientists, economists, and businesspeople over politicians in crafting policies and programs. As a result, many Rockefeller Republicans were major figures in business, such as auto executive George W. Romney and investment banker C. Douglas Dillon. In fiscal policy, they favored balanced budgets and were not averse to raising taxes in order to achieve them. Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush once called for Congress to "raise the required revenues by approving whatever levels of taxation may be necessary". Rockefeller Republicans differed on spending, with Nelson Rockefeller himself described as a big spender and Thomas Dewey noted for being more fiscally prudent.

A critical element was their support for labor unions, the building trades especially appreciating the heavy spending on infrastructure. In turn, the unions gave these politicians enough support to overcome the anti-union rural element in the Republican Party. As the unions weakened after the 1970s, so too did the need for Republicans to cooperate with them. This transformation played into the hands of the more conservative Republicans, who did not want to collaborate with labor unions in the first place and now no longer needed to do so to carry statewide elections.

In foreign policy, they tended to be Hamiltonian, espousing internationalist and realist policies, supporting the United Nations and promoting American business interests abroad. Most wanted to use American power in cooperation with allies to fight against the spread of Communism and help American business expand abroad.

Origins
The two major political parties throughout American history had been coalitions of interest groups rather than ideological vehicles. As recently as the 1960s, the Republican Party had contained large numbers of moderate and even liberal representatives. Geoffrey Kabaservice states that the form of conservatism which is now equated to the Republican party did not even exist until the 1950s, and remained a minority faction for many years afterward. In 1854, several disparate groups coalesced together to form the Republican party. Many were former members of the Whig Party, abolitionists and Northern industrialists and financiers. The Whigs had advocated an economic program known as the American System which called for an activist government especially in the construction of national infrastructure or "internal improvements", and support for a national bank. The Rockefeller Republican lineage can be traced back to this tradition of a more activist and reformist federal government.

Aftermath of the New Deal
The impact of the great depression upended the party coalitions and voting blocs leading to the New Deal Coalition and subsequent electoral dominance of the Democratic Party. The success of the New Deal and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's popularity during World War II meant that the Republican Party suffered several major electoral defeats and had become the minority party in congress. Thomas E. Dewey, the Governor of New York from 1943 to 1954 and the Republican presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948, believed that the Republican party could not survive if it repealed the policies implemented during the Depression to assure economic security for the average family. As the leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party in the 1940s and early 1950s, Dewey battled conservative Republicans from the Midwest led by Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, known as "Mr. Republican." Although Taft did not oppose government intervention where he thought it was essential such as federal support for education and a minimum income for individuals and families.

With the help of Dewey, General Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Taft for the 1952 Republican primaries and became the presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Eisenhower coined the phrase "Modern Republicanism" to describe his moderate vision of Republicanism. After Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York, emerged as the leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party, running for President in 1960, 1964 and 1968. Rockefeller Republicans suffered a crushing defeat in 1964 when conservatives captured control of the Republican Party and nominated Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona for president.

Evolution
Other prominent figures in the GOP's Rockefeller-wing included Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush, Pennsylvania Governor Raymond P. Shafer, Pennsylvania Senator Hugh Scott, Illinois Senator Charles H. Percy, Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield, New York Senator Jacob Javits, Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, Nelson's younger brother (who was somewhat of an aberration in the conservative, heavily Democratic South), Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, John Chafee of Rhode Island and Lowell Weicker of Connecticut. Some also include President Richard Nixon, who was influenced by this group. Although Nixon ran against Rockefeller from the right in the 1968 primaries and was widely identified with the cultural right of the time, he adopted several Rockefeller Republican policies during his time as President, such as setting up the Environmental Protection Agency, supporting expanded welfare programs, imposing wage and price controls and in 1971 announcing he was a Keynesian. The men had previously reached the so-called Treaty of Fifth Avenue during the presidential primaries of 1960, whereby Nixon and Rockefeller agreed to support certain policies for inclusion in the 1960 Republican Party Platform.

Opposition and decline
Nelson Rockefeller was an influential voice within the Republican Party, but he never had the level of support of Goldwater or Nixon. However, even that level of influence began to decline with the election of Nixon to the presidency in 1968.

Their Democratic counterparts were the Blue Dog Democrats. On a number of issues, the Rockefeller Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats agreed more with each other than they did with more extreme members of their own party.

Southern strategy
It declined further, when Nixon's Southern strategy brought former Democratic voters in the Southern states over to the Republican side, and cemented those gains in 1972 and beyond. The term Rockefeller Republican was never appreciated from the conservative wing of the party, and as the voices of the Reagan right grew in the 1970s and eventually captured the presidency in 1980, it was looked down upon even more as a pejorative.

1960s and 1970s
Barry Goldwater crusaded against the Rockefeller Republicans, beating Rockefeller narrowly in the California primary of 1964. That set the stage for a conservative resurgence, based in the South and West in opposition to the Northeast Rockefeller wing. However, the moderate contingent recaptured control of the party and nominated Richard Nixon in 1968. Easily reelected in 1972, Nixon was replaced as President upon his resignation by the moderately conservative Republican Gerald Ford. After Vice President Rockefeller left the national stage in 1976, this faction of the party was more often called "moderate Republicans" or Nixonians in contrast to the conservatives who rallied to Ronald Reagan. Four years after nearly toppling the incumbent Ford in the 1976 presidential primaries, conservative Ronald Reagan won the party's presidential nomination at the 1980 Republican National Convention and served two terms in the White House.

Reaganism and the Bushes
During the 1980s, Barry Goldwater, a leading conservative, partly aligned with the liberal side of the GOP due to his libertarian views on abortion and gay rights.

By 1988, the Republicans had chosen Prescott Bush's son George H. W. Bush as its presidential candidate on a conservative to moderate platform. Bush's national convention pledge to stave off new taxation were he elected president ("Read my lips: no new taxes!") marked the candidate's full conversion to the conservative movement and perhaps the political death knell for Rockefeller Republicanism as a prevailing force within party politics. But Bush did have some ideology similar to them, such as in environmental policy, immigration, and being internationalist.

Social effects on decline
Ethnic changes in the Northeast may have led to the demise of the Rockefeller Republican. Many Republican leaders associated with this title were White Anglo-Saxon Protestants like Charles Mathias of Maryland. Liberal New York Republican Senator Jacob Javits, who had an Americans for Democratic Action rating above 90% and an American Conservative Union rating below 10%, was Jewish. As time went on, the local Republican parties in the Northeast tended to nominate Catholic candidates who appealed to middle class social values-laden concerns, such as George Pataki, Rudy Giuliani, Al D'Amato, Rick Lazio, Tom Ridge, Chris Christie and others, who in many cases represented the party's diversity more on the basis of religion and were often otherwise like their Protestant conservative counterparts on policy.

With their power decreasing in the final decades of the 20th century, many moderate Republicans were replaced by conservative and moderate Democrats, such as those from the Blue Dog or New Democrat coalitions. Michael Lind contends that by the mid-1990s the liberalism of President Bill Clinton and the New Democrats were in many ways to the right of Eisenhower, Rockefeller, and John Lindsay, the Republican mayor of New York City in the late 1960s. In 2009, CNN published an analysis describing how liberal and moderate Republicans had declined by the start of the 21st century. In 1997, in an interview with Geoff Kabaservice, Elliot Richardson noted that people didn't understand that the Clinton administration was to the right of the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations. In 2010, Scott Brown was elected to the Senate to fill the seat once held by Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. He was considered to be a moderate Republican in a similar mold as Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine. However, by middle of the century's second decade, only Senator Susan Collins of Maine remained as a moderately liberal Republican representing New England at the federal level.

Tea Party
In 2010, several moderate Republicans lost their primaries or were challenged by the Tea Party movement. In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski, the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, lost her GOP primary to conservative Tea Party challenger Joe Miller. The Tea Party's campaign organization "helped Miller portray the senator as too liberal for the state". Despite her primary defeat, Murkowski was reelected after waging a successful write-in campaign.

Mike Castle, a moderate former Governor and Representative of Delaware, lost his primary to conservative "insurgent" Christine O'Donnell, who depicted Castle as being too liberal. An op-ed of The Washington Post made the assertion that Castle's loss marked the end of the party legacy of Nelson Rockefeller.

Senator John McCain survived a primary in 2010, but his Tea Party opponent J. D. Hayworth accused him of being insufficiently conservative. A few years after, in 2014, the Arizona Republican Party censured McCain "for a record they called too 'liberal.

In upstate New York, GOP-nominated Dede Scozzafava was opposed by mainstream conservatives within the Republican Party during her election bid for a congressional district: "National PACs upset with Scozzafava's support of the federal stimulus, EFCA, same-sex marriage and abortion rights poured on money and attacks". She was pressured to drop out of the race, and when she did the Republican National Committee endorsed Tea Party-backed Doug Hoffman.

2010s revival in the Northeast
In 2014, socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republicans in the Rockefeller tradition were elected governor of Maryland (Larry Hogan) and Massachusetts (Charlie Baker). In 2016, New Hampshire (Chris Sununu) and Vermont (Phil Scott) also elected moderates. According to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight and polling by Morning Consult, the quartet consistently rank among the most popular governors in the country. In 2018, Baker was re-elected by a 2:1 margin, receiving more votes than Elizabeth Warren, who was also running for re-election. The National Review wrote that year, "A kind of Rockefeller Republicanism seems to be rising once again in recent years" in New England and the Northeast.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker "is socially liberal ... . He is pro-choice and has long supported gay marriage". In Vermont, the voters elected Phil Scott as Governor. Describing himself, Governor Scott stated: "I am very much a fiscal conservative. But not unlike most Republicans in the Northeast, I'm probably more on the left of center from a social standpoint. ... I am a pro–choice Republican." In 2017, The Washington Post described Larry Hogan, another Republican governor in a deep-blue state, as "a moderate Republican who is focused on jobs and the economy".

Modern usage
The term "Rockefeller Republican" has become somewhat archaic since Nelson Rockefeller died in 1979. The Atlantic has referred to the election of Northeastern Republicans as being similar to "Rockefeller-style liberal Republicanism", even though the label is not necessarily used by the candidates themselves. The Rockefeller Republican label has sometimes been applied to modern politicians, such as Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who served as a Republican in the Senate, was elected that state's governor as an independent, and later became a Democrat and briefly sought that party's 2016 presidential nomination. Some more conservative members of the Republican Party use the label in a derisive manner, along with other labels such as RINOs, i.e. Republicans in Name Only, or The Establishment.

Christine Todd Whitman, a former governor of New Jersey, referred to herself as a Rockefeller Republican in a speech about Rockefeller at Dartmouth College in 2008. Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, who is a registered Democrat, referred to himself as a "Rockefeller Republican" in a CNBC interview in April 2012. The retired four-star generals Colin Powell and David Petraeus have both described themselves as "Rockefeller Republicans". Former Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) are also two notable moderate Republicans from the Northeast. Former Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts), who ran a Senate campaign in New Hampshire, also had a voting record described as more liberal than most Republicans.

Senator John McCain was often referred to as a moderate during his 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns by opponents and commentators alike. In the 2000 primary, Bush described the race as "going to be a clear race between a more moderate-to-liberal candidate vs. a conservative candidate in the state of South Carolina". NPR covered the 2008 campaign reporting that "some conservative Republicans say McCain's voting record shows him to be too moderate a GOP candidate". The BBC reported that this reputation as being more centrist was "for his relatively moderate views on civil unions, abortion and immigration reform". However, the Associated Press reported that voters' perceptions of McCain as a centrist was at odds with his voting record, which it described as "much more conservative than voters appear to realize." In 2004 and 2006, McCain was one of a few Republicans who voted against banning same-sex marriage at the federal level, arguing that the issue should be left to the states. However, he still supported efforts to ban gay marriage at the state level, supporting such efforts in Arizona in 2006 and California in 2008. FiveThirtyEight, which tracks and scores Congressional votes, had found that McCain had shifted between being more moderate and more conservative based on its study.

In 2012, the GOP nominated Mitt Romney for president, a former governor who had described himself as moderate and progressive in 2002. Running for governor of Massachusetts, he said of himself: "I'm not a partisan Republican. ... I'm someone who is moderate, and ... my views are progressive." In his 1994 Senate campaign, Romney distanced himself from Ronald Reagan, noting that he was an independent during the Reagan presidency. One of his 2012 primary opponents, Newt Gingrich, even referred to Romney as a "Rockefeller Republican" in order to draw a contrast between Romney's former self-description and his own. However, in his own words during the 2012 campaign Romney described himself as a "severely conservative" Republican.

At the 1988 Republican National Convention, Donald Trump was asked by Larry King on CNN: "You might be classified as an Eastern Republican, Rockefeller Republican. Fair?", to which Trump replied: "I guess you can say that". During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump was described as both a modern-day Rockefeller Republican (by some conservative writers)  and as the heir to the Goldwaterite opposition to the Rockefeller Republicans.

In 2019, Bill Weld announced that he would consider a challenge to President Trump for the Republican nomination. Bill Weld has been described by The New York Times, in both his gubernatorial and presidential campaigns, as a moderate Republican. He has been likened to Rockefeller. Governor Weld is described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal. After declaring his candidacy, Weld described himself "the most pro-choice person" running for president.

U.S. Presidents

 * Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. President
 * Gerald Ford, 38th U.S. President
 * George H.W. Bush, 41st U.S. President

U.S. Vice Presidents

 * Nelson Rockefeller, 41st U.S. Vice President and 49th Governor of New York

U.S. Senators

 * Edward Brooke, former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
 * Clifford Case, former U.S. Senator and Representative from New Jersey
 * John Chafee, former U.S. Senator from Rhode Island
 * Jacob Javits, former U.S. Senator and Representative from New York
 * Charles Percy, former U.S. Senator from Illinois
 * Arlen Specter, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (switched parties to Democratic)
 * Ted Stevens, former U.S. Senator from Alaska
 * John Warner, former U.S. Senator from Virginia
 * Lowell Weicker, former U.S. Senator and 85th Governor of Connecticut (switched parties to A Connecticut Party, then became an Independent)

U.S. Representatives

 * John Lindsay, former U.S. Representative from New York and Mayor of New York City (switched to the Democratic Party)
 * George Wallhauser, former U.S. Representative from New Jersey

Governors

 * William Cahill, former Governor of New Jersey
 * Dan Evans, former Governor of Washington
 * Tom Kean, former Governor of New Jersey
 * Linwood Holton, former Governor of Virginia from 1970 to 1974
 * William Scranton, former Governor of Pennsylvania
 * Bill Weld, former Governor of Massachusetts (Changed parties to Libertarian, later reregistered as Republican)
 * George Pataki, former Governor of New York (1995-2006).

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

title: Rockefeller Republican


text:
User:Lowellian

About me: I began editing Wikipedia during the late night of Tuesday, November 4, 2003, or the early morning hours of Wednesday, November 5, 2003. I became an administrator on Monday, May 24, 2004. I am among the earliest editors and administrators on Wikipedia.

My primary areas of interest are, in alphabetical order, China, comic books, economics, history, and international relations.

Past
Last update to this "Past" section: 2020-02-19. The lists in this section do not include the many pages in which I make small edits, fixing factual, grammatical, and stylistic errors and wikifying text.

Pages I started
- 2008 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles final - 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally - A. O. L. Atkin - Adams political family - Age of Apocalypse - Aimée Sommerfelt - American Conservative Union - Ames Straw PollDYK - all caps - all under heaven - alternate future - American Century - Anelle - Anglo-American relations - Annihilus - antagonistic contradiction - April Fifth Movement - Arthur Pigou - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. - artificial nails - authenticity - autorun - Avengers Mansion - bagua - balancing (international relations) - Ballantine Books - bandwagoning - BasalawarmiDYK - Barbie Horse AdventuresRD - Barbie Horse Adventures: Blue Ribbon Race - Barbie Horse Adventures: Mystery Ride - Bekka - Big Eight - black operation - Blastaar - blind man's buff - Bob Harras - Bob Shrum - Börte - Brian Clevinger - build order - by-catch - bya - byr - Caliber Comics - Carl Wolfgang Benjamin GoldschmidtDYK - Central Asian Republics - CGI.pm - Charles Tiebout - Chiang Nan - Chinese folk religion - Chinese school - Chinese traditional religion - Chinese yo-yo - Cimmeria (Conan) - claw vending machine - Clix (miniatures) - Clone Saga - Coase theorem - cocacolonization - Colorado Amendment 36 - comparative government - Comprehensive National Power - Confessions (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) - containment - corporate officer - Council of Science Editors - countersurveillance - CrossGen - Cruis'n (series) - CSS Profile - CVS/pharmacy - Dark Beast - Dark Phoenix Saga - David E. Kendall - David Hennessy - David W. Mack - DC Graphic Novel - death deity - Death's Messengers - dharmic religion - Dirk Pitt - door chain - Dou Wan - dragon dance - dress shoe - ear canal - Earth-616 - Eight Masters of Nanjing - Elektra (comics) - Elva Hsiao - Ever Victorious ArmyDYK - eye color - Faerûn - Fantastic Comics - Fantastic Force - Fantasy Flight Games - first appearance - First Taiwan Strait Crisis - first-wave feminism - fixed currency - fixed exchange rate - floating currency - floating exchange rate - flypaper theory (economics) - Foggy Nelson - folkloristics - Fong Sai-yuk II - Forbes 400 - foreign relations of imperial China - Forest Principles - fount of honour - Four Beauties - Four Olds - Freeport Doctrine - fundamental theorem - fundamental theorem of linear algebra - game developer - Gallic Wars - Gando Convention - Gen Con - Global Network Initiative - Globe (comics) - Great House - Green Forest, My Home - Gong Xian - Great Pyramid of Cholula - Greg Land - GribshundenDYK - Gya - Harvard University Press - head spade - heqin - Heresy: Kingdom Come - Hershey's Kisses - high tech - Ho Yinsen - Hollywood marriage - Homeland (supermarket) - horizontal monopoly - human chain - hunting hypothesis - hunting knife - HYP (universities) - hypergyny - ID3 - imminent lawless action - imprint - indifferent chosen-ciphertext attack - inflow (hydrology) - InQuest Gamer - internal field separator - international political economy - Isaac Perlmutter - Isabella Calthorpe - Jackal (Marvel Comics) - jade burial suit - Jae Lee - Jann of the Jungle - Jeph Loeb - Jewish American - Jungle Tales - Jungle Woman - Karen Berger - Kenneth Waltz - KevJumba - killer ape theory - Kisima - KnightSaga - Kunshan - Lake Manasarowar - Lake Rakshastal - land sailing - land yacht - Larry Scott (sports administrator)DYK - Latin honors - le Zénith - levirate - Library for WWW in Perl / LWP - Liebig's Law of the Minimum - lion dance - liquidus - list of African-American writers - list of Asian-American writers - list of Harvard University people

- list of Marvel Comics characters - list of NFL starting quarterbacks - list of NFL starting quarterbacks in 2008 - Liz Allan - love triangle - macromanagement (computer gaming) - Madelyne Pryor - Magic: The Gathering (MicroProse) - Magic: The Gathering sets - major film studio - manhua - María Beatriz Nofal - Marisol Padilla Sánchez - Marvel Age - Marvel Edge - Marvel Knights - Masako, Crown Princess of Japan - Maurice Strong - MAX (comics) - maximum sustainable yield - Meditations - megacorporation - merlion - Michael Turner (artist) - micromanagement (computer gaming) - Milton Academy - minimal surface of revolutionDYK - Monkey (book) - mooncake - Morgan Chu - Mount TangjiaRD - MPEG program stream - Mul (fantasy race) - Munchers - My Sassy Girl - Naacal - Negative Zone - Nien Rebellion - Noam Elkies - Okun's Law - Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States - Pacific Century - Paladin (comics) - Pan-Purple Coalition - Pantene - paper folding - periodic group - permanent residency - photo-referencing - Pigovian tax - plush toy - point of service plan - primogen - Princeton University Press - progressive inflammatory neuropathy - psychological evaluation - purge - Qingming Festival - Queen Mother of the West - Quentin Quire - R. A. Salvatore - reciprocal length - red bean cake - Red, Hot and Blue - regional power - religion in China - reprint - Rhinochimaeridae - Richard Rahl - Rio Declaration on Environment and Development - Robert Ardrey - Robert Jervis - RoboCop - rr (digraph) - Ruse (comics) - rush (video gaming) - Salvador Larroca - Schoof-Elkies-Atkin algorithm - Second Taiwan Strait Crisis - security dilemma - seek truth from facts - Server Application Programming Interface - Seven Warring States - shapeshiftingRD - Sheng Shicai - shuttle diplomacy - Silver Sable - Smithsonian Agreement - solar cycleRD - solar maximumRD - solar minimum - solidus (chemistry) - spawn (biology) - Stanford University Press - Stepford Cuckoos - Steve McNiven - student financial aid - Sun Tzu (mathematician) - suncake - survival of the fittest - suzerainty - tactical role-playing game - Taft-Katsura Agreement - Tainan - Taiwanese drama - Tarantula (DC Comics) - tech tree - Template:Barbie video games - Template:MTG PTs by country - Template:SockpuppetProven - Template:Undated

- temptation of Christ - Terror Tales - The East Is Red (song) - The Merchants of Venus - The Old Regime and the Revolution - The Resistance (comics) - The Three Snake-Leaves - The Transmutation of Ike Garuda - Three Pure Ones - Tim Sale (artist) - Times Higher Education - Titania - totalitarian temptation - trade barrier - trade war - Trionfi - triple helix - truth or dare? - Underdark - unit trust - Val Cooper - Valeria Richards - Vericon - vertical monopoly - Walgreens - warrior culture - Watchers (comics) - weeping painting - Categorized Deletion - Naming conventions (comic books) - Requests for adminship/Standards - Votes for deletion/High schools - Wikipedia is an MMORPG - William Carey University - Williams sisters - Wizard (magazine) - Wizard Press - World Chess Solving Championship - world egg - World Toilet Organization - Worth (magazine) - World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2003 - Yongsan - X-Mansion - Zaphkiel - Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander - Zhang Xuan - Zhang Zeduan

Pages, besides those I started, that I worked on considerably
- 1996 United States campaign finance controversy - 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball corruption scandal - 32 Demands - A Crown of Swords - A Song of Ice and Fire - angle of repose - Anna Van Hooft - Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. - Ascension (comics) - Asian values - Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp - Big Two - Black Lotus - Brian Michael Bendis - buffer state - C-pop - Catherine Asaro - Central Asia - Chapel (comics) - cheese knife - China Airlines - Chinese calendar - Chinese character - China lobby - Chinese New Year - Chinese Wikipedia - clear and present danger - Clive Cussler - cold warrior - comic book death - cover date - creature - Crossroads of Twilight - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - culture of South Korea - cyberpunk - DC Animated Movie Universe - death by a thousand cuts - Democracy in America - developing nation - Dick Rehbein - Dragon King - Drizzt Do'Urden - drow - Earth Summit - East Asia - economic surplus - Edwin O. Reischauer - Eight Banners - Ender's Game series - English Wikipedia - Exclusive Economic Zone - Facebook - February 28 Incident - Federer-Roddick rivalry - fenghuang - Field Marshal - Fire (Image Comics) - fishery - Flash Thompson - fleeting expletive - Forbes - foreign affairs - foreign aid - formula for primes - Fu Manchu - fungibility - Galactus - Goddess of Democracy - Golden Triangle - grave robbery - Gwen Stacy - Harvard University - Heisman Trophy - herald of Galactus - Hirokin - historical rankings of Presidents of the United States - Hu Na - Infinity Gauntlet - Inklings - Institute for Works of Religion - international relations - Irene Adler - Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships - J-pop - Jade Emperor - Jafar - Jiayuguan (pass) - Joe Quesada - John K. Fairbank - John Watson (Sherlock Holmes) - Journey to the West - K-pop - Katherine Webb - Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions - Kim Cloutier - King of Liang - Kirkpatrick Doctrine - Knife of Dreams - Lady Shiva - Lantern Festival - least developed countries - Leon Jay Williams - list of ciphertexts - list of Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour events - list of Marvel Comics people - list of NCAA Division I FBS football programs - Lord of Chaos - Love Story in Harvard - Magic: The Gathering - Marco Polo (game) - Marvel Comics - Marvel Graphic Novel - Marvel Rating System - Mary Jane Watson - Matsu (goddess) - MediaWiki:Monobook.css - Mia Rose - Mid-Autumn Festival - mid-ocean ridge - Mount Kailash - My Brute - mya - Mythology (book) - National Security Strategy of the United States - neutron flux - New Spring - New York City (discussion of name of article) - NSC-68 - Number Munchers - nunchaku - Nurhaci - pagoda - Pangu - Pax Sinica - Perfect Dark - periodic table (Chinese) - personal care - phase diagram - President of the United States - Prince of Persia - Pro Tour (Magic: The Gathering) - political science - political status of Taiwan - posthumous - power (international) - Ra's al Ghul - Radcliffe College - Republic of Taiwan - Research Triangle Park - Rielle Hunter - Robert Jordan - ROC presidential election, 2004 - ROC referendum, 2004 - Ruelle (singer) - sandworm (Dune) - Seven Seas - Shanghai Cooperation Organization - Sherlock Holmes - Sigilverse - Simplified Chinese characters - Sino-Indian relations - Sino-Islamic connection - Social Education Movement - StarCraft - Stella (singer) - Stephen L. Carter - strongly-typed programming language - sub-Saharan Africa - superpower - Sweety - Talia al Ghul - Ten Major Relationships - The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes - The Diamond Age - The Dragon Reborn - The Eye of the World - The Fires of Heaven - The Great Hunt - The Place Promised in Our Early Days - The Path of Daggers - The Shadow Rising - The Sign of Four - The Sword of Truth - The Wheel of Time - Three Links - Time of Judgment - timestream - tipping point - Traditional Chinese characters - Tsunami (Marvel Comics) - Tulsa, Oklahoma - Ultimate Marvel - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - United States Declaration of Independence - Utah metal monolith - Victoria's Secret Fashion Show - Vs. System - Wang Zhaojun - Watership Down - wheel of life - Widener Library - Edit summary legend - Wikipedia:Edit summary legend:Quick reference - Manual of Style - Sock puppet - William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition - Winter's Heart - Witchblade - Wizards of the Coast - Word Munchers - world currency - World Fantasy Award for Best Novel - xiangqi - yin and yang

Images I uploaded
- Image:CanMonsterMovieAlbumCover.jpg

- many, many set symbols for Magic: The Gathering

- Image:HorsePieceAgainstHorsePiece.gif

- Image:KreeSkrullWar.jpg

- Image:MovementOfHorsePiece.gif

Pages I moved to proper location (name given is current location)
I do considerable work on page names, enough that I found it to not be worthwhile to maintain a list and stopped doing so. Some pages from the past:

- bubble tea - Chinese yo-yo - D&D Adventurers League - Dream of the Red Chamber - Great Game - hostage crises: Beslan school hostage crisis, Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis, Moscow theater hostage crisis - Netherlands - yin and yang

Redirects or disambiguations I created or worked on
I do a ton of work on redirects and disambiguations, enough that I found it to not be worthwhile to maintain a list and stopped doing so.

Interests
- China - comic books - economics - history - international relations

Tools
- Edit breakdown - Help:MediaWiki namespace - MediaWiki:Monobook.css - MediaWiki:Vector.css - Pageviews - Special:CentralAuth/Lowellian - Special:MostRevisions - Special:MyPage/skin.css - Special:MyPage/skin.js - Special:Version - User:Lowellbot - User:Lowellian (Chinese) (Commons) (French) (German) (Japanese) (MediaWiki) (Meta) (Norwegian) (Polish) (Spanish) (Swedish) (Wikia) (Wikiquote) (Wikisource) (Wiktionary) - User:Lowellian/List template - User:Lowellian/monobook.css - User:Lowellian/monobook.js - User:Lowellian/Nomination for adminship - User:Lowellian/randomlink.js - User:Lowellian/Sketchpad - User:Lowellian/Table template - User:Lowellian/vector.css - User:Lowellian/vector.js - Goings-on - MediaWiki messages - Set index articles (SIAs) - Top 25 Report (Archives) - Wikipedia records - Wikipedia Signpost/Archives - Wikipedia talk:China-related topics notice board - Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Comics

Help:Magic words:

Templates
-, , and - - - - and  (alternative: ) - (see Ahura Mazda or grave robbery for examples of usage) - - and - - and - - (single-purpose accounts)

For :

Most bizarre articles
Some articles on Wikipedia are so bizarre they're humorous while still being informative.

- barreleye fish - exploding whale - fire balloon - Japanese toilet - OS-tan - Saturn's hexagon - vampire pumpkins and watermelons - Unusual articles

Need to be added as new article
-

Changes to be made
- myr and byr

Articles needing expansion
-

Articles to read
-

Articles to watch closely
- File:Current Major Military Alliances.png - Cybil - formula for primes - Great Game - Katherine Webb - Kim Cloutier - list of Super Bowl champions - Template talk:User Wikipedian for - totalitarian temptation - Naming conventions (definite and indefinite articles at beginning of name) - Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation

de:Benutzer:Lowellian

es:Usuario:Lowellian fr:Utilisateur:Lowellian ja:利用者:Lowellian no:Bruker:Lowellian pl:Wikipedysta:Lowellian sv:Användare:Lowellian zh:User:Lowellian

title: User:Lowellian


text:
Talk:Idempotence

Humorous Example
> Elevator call buttons are idempotent, though many people think they are not.

That cracked me up!

 * who actually believes this daesotho 20:42, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * What are you talking about? Dysprosia 23:32, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Obviously an old entry long ago deleted into history. Meaning that pressing the 3rd floor button several times does not cause a change to the elevator's destination. פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 07:47, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Pronunciation?
Is there a correct pronunciation for idempotent? Is it like omnipotent (om-nip-o-tent), so id-EMP-o-tent, or is it more like the two seperate words idem + potent

 * I'd say EYE-dm-POT-nt, but then I speak Brit. Charles Matthews 07:57, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Ditto, but then I speak Australian ;) Dysprosia 08:01, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Actually the British is more like EYE-dm-PO-tnt, I guess. Charles Matthews

 * I'd just like to pedantically point out that it would be pronounced i-DEM-po-tent because because syllable onsets are maximized. daesotho 20:33, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * The American pronunciation puts primary stress on the second syllable ('dem') and secondary stress on the fourth syllable ('tence'). Could somebody more familiar with IPA than I am please add this to the article as an accepted pronunciation?

 * My American dictionary says |ˈīdemˌpōtənt| for the adjective. I speak American (non-natively) and I wouldn't stress the second syllable for itempotence. My only question is, right now it says /ˌaɪdɪmˈpoʊtəns/ -- but can't it be stressed on the first syllable too? Should we add /'aɪdɪmˌpoʊtəns/ as an alternative? -- 87.160.141.177 (talk) 14:50, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

And by the way I think it's silly giving a pronounciation guide as this is just imposing a particular accent. (For what it's worth I pronounce idempotent with a short 'i', as in the word 'id'). Alex Selby

 * JA: I think this is an idyll question. Jon Awbrey 14:16, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Alex Selby - the pronunciation guide should be extended to show the variation, or removed. Strictly, there's no reason for the first i to be long (neuter idem has a short first syllable in Latin), and I can't find any authoritative source which advocates the pronunciation given. Ms7821 (talk) 22:59, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

I've added a section on pronunciation that mentions that there are competing pronunciations that have not yet settled. I've used a phonetic system comparing to other familiar words for readers unfamiliar with phonetic alphabets. I've only added entries for pronunciations I have heard and found a reference for in a dictionary. Essential8560 (talk) 21:48, 22nd January 2023 (UTC)

There is only one meaning given here
The article starts by claiming that there are two meanings, but clearly they are the same. The "unary operation" definition is the same because the operation involved is function composition which is a binary operation. If @ denotes function composition, then an idempotent function f is one satisfying f@f=f. This is in fact suggested in the parenthetical comment "(or for a function, composed with)" near the start, but then the article continues as if functions are special. They aren't. McKay 10:52, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Primitive Idempotents
Primitive idempotents are important in quantum mechanics as they are the pure states in density matrix or density operator theory. The pure states can be reprsented by spinors, for example if |a> is a spinor, then |a><a| is a primitive idempotent. See the "Density Matrix Formalism" portion of Frank Porter's quantum mechanics class notes (Cal Tech): http://www.cithep.caltech.edu/~fcp/physics/quantumMechanics/

Can we add this to the discussion? What other examples of idempotents are important in physics and mathematics? If this is something that should be included, let me know or do it yourself.

CarlAB 02:57, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Unary operation
I don't agree with this sentence: If f is a unary operation, i.e. a map f from some set X into itself... An unary operation doesn't have to be from one set to itself. Even if we are talking about idempotence. For example, if $$X \subseteq Y$$, function $$f: X \rightarrow Y$$ might be idempotent. If I'm right, then the next few sentences would need corrections as well. -- Obradović Goran ( t al k  20:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Merge proposal (Conclusion: merge; discussion archived)
The result was merge Idempotence (computer science) into Idempotence. Angus Lepper(T, C, D) 23:27, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

I've made a proposal at Idempotence (computer science) that it be merged into this article (or simply deleted and redirected here if — as I suspect — there is no real extra content in the other article which would serve a useful purpose here). The two terms describe exactly the same concept with the exception that this article a) does not provide examples from computing and b) provides a better and more formal definition of the subject. Any comment? Angus Lepper(T, C, D) 15:44, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

 * Support - the merge sounds like a good idea to me. --Allan McInnes (talk) 05:13, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * The following is transcluded from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Computer science
 * I agree with the merge proposal. Just adding a section in Idempotence to include the (rather limited) encyclopedic content of the other article seems sufficient. Gimme danger 17:54, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Transcluded by Angus Lepper(T, C, D) 17:14, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Typo
The first paragraph has embeded parens, and one is not closed. It is not clear how to fix this error.
 * Fixed, I introduced this error when merging. Angus Lepper(T, C, D) 23:45, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Physics
But the probability distributions associated with eigenstates are idempotents.

How so? The probability distribution is simply constant in time. It's not equal to its square its composition with itself. Sure, an idempotent function relates the distribution at one time to that at another, but that's because it's the identity function. This doesn't belong in an article about idempotence, any more than anything else that's constant. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.200.247.124 (talk) 01:36, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

 * Since nobody has defended or changed this section, I've removed it. 72.75.97.3 (talk) 15:13, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Add use for web
I have heard a number of people use idempotence to describe web pages etc. A web request is idempotent if the same URL returns exactly the same page. POST actions are, by definition, not idempotent, but GET requests may be. So a Wikipedia page is idempotent only if nobody edits it. Many web pages fail to be idempotent because they include things like the current date and time. Thoughts? GhostInTheMachine (talk) 09:10, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Hmm. One way "idempotence" is defined in HTTP terms related to the effect on the server. The fact that you get pages with different times doesn't count. POST could return the same page, but order, as noted in the article, more than one car. Not being an expert, I believe that it should be in terms of server side effects, not client side effects. I first knew about it in terms of NFS, where reads or writes from/to a file are idempotent. Each includes the file offset. A file append operation is not idempotent, and NFS doesn't supply one. (Networks can duplicate packets, so this is important.)  Also, it seem that POST could be idempotent, but is often used for cases that aren't. Gah4 (talk) 21:19, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

Theoretical computer science?
I changed the classification Category:Theoretical computer science to Category:Computer science, since the meanings in computing described here, such as relating to databases and ESP, do in my opinion not belong to the realm of theoretical computer science. However, this change was reverted. What do others think, is this TCS or just CS? --Lambiam 14:22, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

"Alternative definition", huh?
''Sometimes a unary operation is called idempotent if, whenever it is applied twice to any value, it gives the original value. For example, the complex conjugation of a number is considered an idempotent operation.''

I've never heard of this. Could someone please point me to some references? (Because I haven't found any.) I think this is confusing (if not bogus), and should be removed. --Matt Kovacs (talk) 17:07, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * In the context of operator algebras within functional analysis one finds the expanded usage of idempotence.Rgdboer (talk) 00:40, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, okay, thanks. --Matt Kovacs (talk) 01:08, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry to nag, but can you show us an actual example of such usage? I could only find the standard definition in 10 mins of searching. For example, V. Paulsen, Operator Algebras of Idempotents, Journal of Functional Analysis, vol 181 (2001) 209-226, which is a paper in the field you mention, an operator E is called idempotent if E2=E. Frankly I find your claim very dubious. McKay (talk) 01:20, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

This seems strange to me as well. Personally, I suspect that the author of the comment may be confusing idempotent and involution. AlfredR (talk) 22:09, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I've never heard somebody call something involutary idempotent, so i'm also pretty sure the author mixed it up. Complex conjugation is definitely involutary and not idempotent. I'll just remove that part to avoid further confusion. Catskineater (talk) 19:03, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Broken Link
The External Link to SSW is broken ... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.12.219.245 (talk) 21:19, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Advertising Paragraph
Dunno if it's just me, but this reads as an endorsement for "Cfengine", and is at best, off-topic

It was inserted here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Idempotence&diff=prev&oldid=342290536 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonschreiber (talk • contribs) 03:27, 11 May 2010 (UTC) Jonschreiber (talk) 03:28, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Agree - The page for cfengine doesn't even mention idempotence. 21:46, 1 July 2010 (UTC)bloopyflam

Definition for computer science is wrong
This part of the computer science definition is not correct:

In computer science, the term idempotent is used to describe methods or subroutine calls that can safely be called multiple times, as invoking the procedure a single time or multiple times has the same result; i.e., after any number of method calls all variables have the same value as they did after the first call. Any method or subroutine that has no side effects is also idempotent.

According to this description, the following function would be idempotent, since it has no side effects:

def f(x): return x+1

But it's not. It's a pure function, or side effects-free if you prefer, but certainly not idempotent. must hold in computing too, for a given function or method to be called idempotent, and in the case above. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gniemeyer (talk • contribs) 21:01, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

 * I don't think it's completely wrong, but the present explanation in the article is definitely unclear. In computer programming, a piece of code usually is reentrant if running it multiple times in sequence has the same effect as running it just once. This is the case for your function. The reason reentrant is sometimes called idempotent is that in imperative programming, the effect of a piece of code is thought of as what modifications it causes to be made to the program state, and that effect can be modeled as a function on the space of potential program states - reentrance then is idempotence of that function. Rp (talk) 10:04, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

 * I see nothing wrong or unclear, except that it is perhaps not clear that the procedure is not intended to be interpreted as a function (i.e. acting on its own output). An idempotent procedure is one that, when called more than once in sequence, has no additional side effects. This has nothing to do with reentrancy, which refers to a procedure that may be halted at any (interruptable) point in its execution, another call to it executed (e.g. in an interrupt), and the first then completed with the same effect as if the calls had executed sequentially. — Quondum 14:46, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

 * Well, it is often implied that a reentrant procedure is idempotent, but it certainly isn't a requirement, so what I wrote is wrong - thanks for the correction. I maintain that it would be useful to explain how imperative code is interpreted as a function when it's called idempotent. Rp (talk) 09:38, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

 * Seems to me that this is mixing the mathematical and CS definitions. And since CS uses math, that could easily happen. I first knew idempotence from descriptions of NFS, where it is important when using UDP for the transport protocol. Networks can duplicate packets.  I suspect it is not unusual for math and CS to use the same term with different meanings, such that you have to say which one you are using.  Also, for NFS, the server could crash while doing an operation. The client will then repeat the request, without knowing if the previous request was satisfied. There is nothing related to   in that case. Gah4 (talk) 21:27, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

Splitting off ring-theoretic portion
I think this makes sense. An idempotent is an important concept in the ring theory and deserves its own article (not just a part of the general ideal). -- Taku (talk) 01:59, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

 * To make sure I'm understanding the suggestion, you mean an article named something like "ring idempotent" or "idempotent element" which the "idempotents in rings" section could point to? I think that makes sense too. There is quite a bit to say about them!
 * I was having a little trouble figuring out what the title would be. Integral element seems to establish a precedent of being an independent page which the redirect idempotent element might follow up on, although I see nilpotent element is a redirect to nilpotence. Rschwieb (talk) 15:02, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
 * That's what's meant. By the way, nilpotent element redirects to nilpotent (not nilpotence). That's probably not a good title. Because of physics materials, I'm not comfortable doing anything about it, though. An "idempotent element" sounds good to me too. -- Taku (talk) 17:04, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * As a general comment, the level of detail on ring idempotents seems to go beyond what would be sensible in an article that covers many definitions of idempotence, or at least its use in widely divergent fields. For this reason. I would strongly agree with splitting this topic off into a separate article that could be classified within the field of rings. Nilpotents do not necessarily serve as a counterexample if they are not described with nearly the same level of richness. — Quondum 17:43, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

 * OK, I went ahead and made preliminary moves. I could use help with formatting mistakes I've introduced, as well as fixing redirects. About redirects: I was thinking "idempotent" should maybe disambiguate between "idempotence" and "idempotent element"? If "idempotent" only redirects to "idempotence", I feel like a large portion of people will not be getting to the place they should have reached first.
 * Another "by the way" about the page I created: I defined "idempotent element" in the context of any binary operation, but that might wind up being too broad if a true "ring idempotent" page seems like a better approach. I was just trying to be a little conservative, but the scope should probably be discussed further. Rschwieb (talk) 19:40, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

 * To introduce a disambiguation page only to differentiate the word idempotent used as an adjective and as a noun seems clunky. As a noun, it is in  effect an abbreviation for idempotent element.  For this, redirecting idempotent to Idempotence seems okay, as the article does deal with it and gives a link to the main article.
 * The general concept of an idempotent element with respect to a binary operation is the abstract algebraic topic, dealt with by Idempotent element. The implications of this property when further structure is added (e.g. as in a ring) will naturally be interesting and involved. However, the implications within a ring (I imagine the most studied) are not yet necessarily too burdensome for the current article context (abstract algebra: at least the expected readership's eyes should not glaze over). Thus, I would not yet suggest taking the previous argument further to making an article Idempotent ring element, though it may make sense to create such a redirect. In time, it may become more textbooky (or simply more extensive), at which time the ring-specific portion could be split off again. I like the way the two articles are at the moment. — Quondum 06:10, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
 * @Rschwieb – Wow, looking at the number of links you've been having to change from idempotent to idempotent element, it is clear that the use of the term as a noun is quite common. Nevertheless, I think the result is pretty natural. — Quondum 05:02, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Idempotence of 1 in multiplication
Idemptoence of 1 in multiplication is demonstrated in both 1 x A = A, and in A x 1 = A.

Showing the example of 1 x 1 = 1, is a BAD example since it could bring the mistaken idea that 1 x 3 = 3 does not show idempotence of multiplication by one.

1 x 1 = 1 would not serve as a good example for the other definitions given in this article, even not for the idempotence of a binary function (where the example of Max(a, a) = a was given, since a x a = a is only correct in the case of 1.

Therefor I propose other examples such as 3.7 x 1 = 3.7 and 1 x 45 = 45 as better examples. My edit in that direction has been revoked. Your thoughts? פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 21:50, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

 * @ Well, 1 x 3 = 3 doesn't show idempotence of the map given by multiplication by 1. It demonstrates that 1 acts as an identity element but it does not demonstrate that 1 is idempotent. These two concepts are completely different.
 * It would be fair to say that $$1(x)=(1\circ1)(x)$$ demonstrates the the idempotence of the map 1, but that is the same thing as saying $$1\circ 1=1$$. Rewriting the composition as multiplication (because that's what it is in this case), $$1\cdot1=1$$ does a much better job. Regards Rschwieb (talk) 15:27, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

 * @ Here's the third definition given in the text:
 * Given a binary operation, an idempotent element (or simply an "idempotent") for the operation is a value for which the operation, when given that value for both of its operands, gives that value as the result. For example, the number 1 is an idempotent of multiplication: 1 × 1 = 1.
 * If what you say was correct this should be: when given two identical values for both of its operands...
 * I would add at the end of the definition and before the example:
 * i.e. f(x,x) = x
 * But, of course that is incorrect. The third definition with its example is where f(C,x) = x where f(C, is the idempotent operation and C is the idempotent element of that operation. Therefore 1 x 45 = 45 is just as idempotent as 45 x 1 = 45, and of course a better example than 1 x 1 = 1, for this definition. פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 13:15, 28 December 2015 (UTC)
 * But, of course that is incorrect. The third definition with its example is where f(C,x) = x where f(C, is the idempotent operation and C is the idempotent element of that operation. Therefore 1 x 45 = 45 is just as idempotent as 45 x 1 = 45, and of course a better example than 1 x 1 = 1, for this definition. פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 13:15, 28 December 2015 (UTC)
 * But, of course that is incorrect. The third definition with its example is where f(C,x) = x where f(C, is the idempotent operation and C is the idempotent element of that operation. Therefore 1 x 45 = 45 is just as idempotent as 45 x 1 = 45, and of course a better example than 1 x 1 = 1, for this definition. פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 13:15, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

 * @: I agree with . The text "when given that value for both of its operands" in the third definition in fact implies "when given two identical values for both of its operands", so the article's text is perfectly ok in my view; it should however give a citation (I couldn't yet find one). Anyway, adding "i.e. f(x,x) = x", as you suggested, is a good idea. Your sentence "The third definition with its example ..." appears to be syntactically incorrect, so I couldn't get what you meant. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 18:12, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

 * @ The collection of words "1 x 45 = 45 is just as idempotent as 45 x 1 = 45" doesn't make any sense. Equalities aren't idempotent. The article somewhat confusingly lists "three meanings" which should actually be manifestations of the first item. The core concept is the idea of a map obeying $$f(x)=(f\circ f)(x)$$. Given an element m of a monoid M, you can view left multiplication by m as a map from M into M, and $$m\circ m$$ is precisely $$m\cdot m$$ with the binary operation. If this map is idempotent, it is saying exactly that $$m\cdot m=m$$ since $$m\cdot m$$ and m are defining the same maps. That is how the third notion is related to the first. Frankly i have never heard of the second notion of idempotence, and I'm going to call it into question.  Rschwieb (talk) 20:52, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

 * Pending @'s questions about the validity of the second notion of idempotence, if the second notion is correct then it is saying that $$f(f(params))=f(params)$$. In particular: when $$f$$ is defined as $$multiply(1,x)$$ then multiplying the result of multiplication by 1, by 1, again and again will always result with the same result. So 1 x A = 1 x (1 x A) = 1 x (1 x (1 x A))... etc. hence 1 x A is idempotent. Not too hard to understand.
 * Also your argument against this is seemingly idempotent, because no matter what I explain and discuss, you are determined to say it is not... Just joking there. Please take that extra remark lightly. If you don't like it, tell me and I'll remove it forever. פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 21:13, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

 * The second notion is perfectly valid, I just hadn't seen it in the right light at the time. As for the function $$f(x):=1\cdot x$$, yes, that is a perfectly good example to demonstrate that f is idempotent. The problem with what you've written may then be more a problem with expression. Supposing for the moment that the A in your "1 x A" is meant to be the input of the function, it is incorrect to say that "1 x A" is idempotent because that denotes the image of A, not the function itself. You wouldn't say that $$f(25)=25$$ is idempotent, you would say that f is idempotent. That at least, we could agree upon. But saying that "1x45" is idempotent does not work. Rschwieb (talk) 14:52, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

 * I'm glad my correct reading of the formerly incorrect or at least imprecise definition, and therefore my formerly incorrect examples for idempotency, lead to the extreme clarity and simplicity that the article now has. Thanks Jochen Burghardt and Rschwieb!!
 * In some articles on the web people wrote that idempotency is a highly complex concept. But thanks to you, it has now become a no-brainer. Thank you again! פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 07:56, 2 August 2016 (UTC)
 * In some articles on the web people wrote that idempotency is a highly complex concept. But thanks to you, it has now become a no-brainer. Thank you again! פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 07:56, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Doubts about the second meaning being 'a thing'
Can we get a citation for the second meaning in the list of three meanings of idempotence?

"*A binary operation is idempotent if, whenever it is applied to two equal values, it gives that value as the result. For example, the function giving the maximum value of two equal values is idempotent: max (x, x) ≡ x."

This text feels like it might have been a botched explanation, but I could be wrong. To reformulate what it's saying, it seems to be saying that any function $$f:X\times X\to X$$ which sends elements of the form $$(x,x) \mapsto x$$ is an "idempotent binary operation."

It's perfectly reasonable to say that if X is a lattice and y is a fixed element of X, then $$f(-):=max( -, y) : X\to X$$ is an idempotent operation, that is, $$(f\circ f )(x)=max(max(x,y),y)=max(x,y)=f(x)$$. Perhaps this is what was intended? Otherwise, this notion is quite far departed from the more common meaning of idempotence, and really needs to be cited. Rschwieb (talk) 21:04, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

 * The second meaning is common at least in lattice theory and boolean algebra (see box "Proven properties"). E.g. Birkhoff proves on p.8 (lemma 1 in sect. I.5) the properties x∧x=x and x∨x=x, which he calls "Idempotent"; on p.111 (def. in sect.V.1), he defines cl(X)=cl(cl(X)) as a property of a closure operation, which he again calls "Idempotent". This shows that he used the second meaning as well as the first one. However, he didn't explicitly define any of both notions of idempotency. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 22:09, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

 * @ Rereading it and your comment, I guess I can live with it. It's just a different way of "slicing" the data. You fix an operation and observe which elements are idempotent, OR you apply the idempotence appellation to an operation which makes all elements idempotent. Thanks for the hints in your comment. Rschwieb (talk) 14:45, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

 * In fact, I think that's pretty good justifcation to put the "idempotent element" point above the "idempotent operation" point. Any opposition to that? Rschwieb (talk) 14:54, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

 * Ok for me. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 14:09, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

 * @: Wouldn't it be also a good idea to explain "idempotency of a unary operation" (now 1st item in lead) by "idempotent element" (now 2nd)? You did that in the above discussion: "If this map is idempotent, it is saying exactly that m·m=m since m·m and m are defining the same maps. That is how the third notion is related to the first." To fit this into the lead, I'd swap the 1st and 2nd item there, and then change the text "A unary operation (or function) is idempotent if, whenever ..." into: "A unary operation (or function) is idempotent if it is an idempotent element with respect to function composition, that is if, whenever ...".
 * Independent of that suggestion, it might be a good idea to highlight the key notions of each item (i.e. idempotent element — unary operation (or function) is idempotent — binary operation is called idempotent) in boldface. What do you think? - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 20:58, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Page fault idempotence and Citation Needed
''In a load-store architecture, instructions that might possibly cause a page fault are idempotent. So if a page fault occurs, the OS can load the page from disk and then simply re-execute the faulted instruction. In a processor where such instructions are not idempotent, dealing with page faults is much more complex.[citation needed]''  Which part of the description needs a citation? VS architectures are designed around this, such that instruction can be reexecuted. VAX has a special first part done flag for some instructions, to make sure that works. S/370 has trial execution for TR, such that it verifies that no page fault will occur before changing storage. S/370 MVCL saves state in registers, such that it can continue from where it left off. All those could be referenced. Gah4 (talk) 21:32, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

Examples
May be we could start with a simple example (which you do not need a university degree to understand) Bill W102102 (talk) 19:55, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

 * The "applied examples" section seems to contain those, but perhaps in the vein of what you're saying, it might be good for it to precede the technical examples. Rschwieb (talk) 21:46, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

 * I added an example along the lines of the "applied examples" section at the top. I didn't choose the crosswalk button since it has a timeout, while idempotency is unrelated to timing issues.
 * It is easy to give simple mathematical examples, too, at the top. However, there are different but related notions of idempotency ("idempotent element", "idempotent operation", "idempotent function"), and I guess they need to be explained before such examples. In fact, the examples are all there, but use a rather academic language to describe elementary facts. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 10:43, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * In section "Examples", I move some examples upwards and explained them on an elementary level. I hope they are easy to understand now. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 12:29, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

Idempotence or Idempotency?
Both terms are used on this page, as nouns. Is one preferable for Wikipedia? Do the terms differ in connotation (or denotation)? What's the relation between them? A footnote is given for Benjamin Pierce having introduced the concept of "idempotence", but did he actually use that term or just "idempotent"?

148.87.23.9 (talk) 19:07, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

Polish calculator
The photo of the Polish calculator seems rather odd. Since the fact it's Polish is irrelevant, perhaps an English one would fit better in an article in the English Wikipedia. At first sight I thought it had something to do with Reverse Polish Notation but, of course, that isn't the case. Also, it isn't clear why the ON button is singled out in the caption as an example of idempotence, when the OFF button also has the characteristic. So, taken together it seems to be a rather weak example. The pedestrian crossing example seems much better. 87.75.117.183 (talk) 02:06, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

 * When I tried to add a photo some time ago, the desk calculator was the least odd one I could find at commons. If you have a better one at hand, please replace the current one by yours. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 08:38, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

 * Either way, please do not single out one button. Both are idempotent. At least change the text accordingly. Tessus (talk) 08:34, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Page protected
Other admins should feel free to adjust or undo the protection without asking me. Tom Harrison Talk 14:40, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

 * As for the trigger of the protection, note that the walk button example is present in section Idempotence, even with a source. Despite 49.184.196.30's wordy edit comments, it is my impression that s/he just wanted to make a constructive edit, not to vandalize. However, I'd prefer to omit the inserted sentence, not because it is WP:OR, but because we already have the everyday example in the image, and the aforesaid section. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 13:13, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Idempotence


text:
Rock garden

A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small Alpine plants that need relatively little soil or water. Western rock gardens are often divided into alpine gardens, scree gardens on looser, smaller stones, and other rock gardens.

Some rock gardens are planted around natural outcrops of rock, perhaps with some artificial landscaping, but most are entirely artificial, with both rocks and plants brought in. Some are designed and built to look like natural outcrops of bedrock. Stones are aligned to suggest a bedding plane, and plants are often used to conceal the joints between said stones. This type of rockery was popular in Victorian times and usually created by professional landscape architects. The same approach is sometimes used in commercial or modern-campus landscaping but can also be applied in smaller private gardens.

The Japanese rock garden, or dry garden, often referred to as a "Zen garden", is a special kind of rock garden with a few large rocks, and gravel over most of the surface, often raked in patterns, and no or very few plants. Other Chinese and Japanese gardens use rocks, singly or in groups, with more plants, and often set in grass, or next to flowing water.

Until the fairly recent past the removal for gardening purposes of both plants and stone from their natural wild locations has resulted in considerable problems, and many are now legally protected; English Westmorland limestone pavement is one example.

History
The use of rocks as decorative and symbolic elements in gardens can be traced back at least 1,500 years in Chinese and Japanese gardens. In China, large scholar's rocks, preferably soft rocks such as limestone worn in river beds or waterfalls into fantastic shapes, were transported long distances to imperial and elite gardens. Suseok are the Korean equivalent; the smaller Japanese suiseki are normally for indoor display.

Initially European artificial rockeries did not attempt to mimic natural scenes, and used exotic minerals such as feldspars, lava, and shells, with the plants chosen without a programme, though often including ferns. They were created in a similar spirit to the fashionable shell grotto. This phase lasted from the late 17th century into the early 19th.

During the Golden Age of Botany (early 1700s – mid-1800s), there was widespread interest in exotic plants imported to England and other European countries. Rock gardens dedicated to growing alpine plants came to prominence in England from about the 1830s, and soon became a considerable craze. Firms could supply complete rockeries, at great expense. Initially many used artificial stone or concrete, sometimes painted, but "authentic" weathered stone came to be preferred. Pulhamite was a successful material, produced by the leading firm James Pulham and Son.

Although others had previously written about growing alpine plants, a major work was Reginald Farrer's 1919 publication of his two-volume book, The English Rock Garden.

Rock gardens have become increasingly popular as landscape features in tropical countries such as Thailand. The combination of wet weather and heavy shade trees, along with the use of heavy plastic liners to stop unwanted plant growth, has made this type of arrangement ideal for both residential and commercial gardens due to its easier maintenance and drainage. In Canada, residents find that they help in yard cooling during the hot summer months.

Layouts
The standard layout for a rock garden consists of a pile of aesthetically arranged rocks in different sizes, with small gaps between in which plants are rooted. Typically, plants found in rock gardens are small and do not grow larger than 1 meter in height, though small trees and shrubs up to 6 meters may be used to create a shaded area for a woodland rock garden. If used, they are often grown in troughs or low to the ground to avoid obscuring the eponymous rocks. The plants found in rock gardens are usually species that flourish in well-drained, soil.

title: Rock garden


text:
Eurobarometer

Eurobarometer is a series of public opinion surveys conducted regularly on behalf of the European Commission and other EU institutions since 1973. These surveys address a wide variety of topical issues relating to the European Union throughout its member states.

The Eurobarometer results are published by the European Commission's Directorate-General Communication. Its database since 1973 is one of the largest in the world.

Forerunners of Eurobarometer
In 1970 and 1971, the European Commission conducted surveys in the six member countries (at that time) of the European Community (Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands). These surveys assessed public opinion on individual national priorities as well as integrated European functions and organisations, including the Common Market (European Economic Community).

Regular semi-annual polls of member nations – now also including Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom – began in September 1973, with the survey series first being given the name Eurobarometer in 1974. The fieldwork for Euro-Barometer 1 was conducted in April–May of that year, with results published in July.

A first international survey on attitudes towards European unification ("Attitudes towards Europe") was carried out in 1962 at the request of the Press, and Information Service of the European Communities in (Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands).

Standard Eurobarometer survey
The Standard Eurobarometer survey series is a cross-national longitudinal study, designed to compare and gauge trends within Member States of the European Union.

This survey is carried out each autumn and spring. Although the range of questions has been expanded over the years, the programme aims to keep most of the survey constant, so that data is comparable over time. Starting with Eurobarometer 34 (1990), separate supplementary surveys on special topics have been conducted under almost every Eurobarometer wave. Special irregularly repeated modules investigate topics such as agriculture, biotechnology, consumer behaviour, elderly people, energy, environment, family, gender issues, health, immigration, poverty, regional identity, science and technology, urban traffic, working conditions, youth, etc. from a European perspective. In the case of some supplementary studies, special youth and elderly samples have been drawn.

Flash Eurobarometer
The Flash Eurobarometer was introduced in the 1990s and consists of interviews, conducted by telephone, which are undertaken on an ad hoc basis. The main advantage of the Flash survey, as opposed to a normal Eurobarometer survey, is that it is much faster, providing results almost instantaneously. In addition, it is more suitable to the targeting of specific groups within the EU population.

Central and Eastern Eurobarometer
The Central and Eastern Eurobarometer series was carried out annually on behalf of the European Commission between 1990 and 1997. The CEEB surveys monitored economic and political changes, as well as attitudes towards Europe and the European Union, in up to 20 countries of the region.

Candidate Countries Eurobarometer
In 2001, the European Commission launched a series of surveys in the 13 countries that were applying for European Union membership under the title of "Candidate Countries Eurobarometer" (initially named "Applicant Countries Eurobarometer" or AC-EB). The CC-EB surveys were carried out in Bulgaria, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Since the EU enlargements of 2004 and 2007, the CC-EB countries that have become Member States have been included in the Standard Eurobarometer.

Transition to English unilingualism
Until 2021, the website had menus and explanations in French and English. Since January 2022 (under the French presidency of the European Union), the site is only in English.

Volunteer translations are available for some Eurobarometer reports in all official languages of the European Union, as well as on sites in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

title: Eurobarometer


text:
User talk:212.132.0.10

23 November 2005
 Attention:

This IP address, 212.132.0.10, is registered to Research Machines Ltd. and is shared by multiple users, who are likely to be school students involved in their Internet For Learning project. Comments left on this page may be received by other users of this IP and appear to be irrelevant. Caution should be used when blocking this IP or reverting its contributions without checking.

If you are an unregistered user operating from this address, note that this need not necessarily be the IP address of your machine. In many cases, it turns out to be the IP address of a proxy server that communicates between your browser and the Wikimedia Foundation servers. Such proxies are shared among a huge number of users compared to the number of persons using your particular machine.

If you are frustrated by irrelevant comments appearing here, you can avoid them by creating an account for yourself.

title: User talk:212.132.0.10


text:
Ping-pong diplomacy

Ping-pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of table tennis (ping-pong) players between the United States and the People's Republic of China in the early 1970s. Considered a turning point in relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China, it began during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, as a result of an encounter between players Glenn Cowan (of the US) and Zhuang Zedong (of the PRC). The exchange and its promotion helped people in each country to recognize the humanity in the people of the other country, and it paved the way for President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972.

Background
The United States viewed the People's Republic of China as an aggressor nation and enforced an economic containment policy including an embargo on the PRC, following its entry into the Korean War in 1950. After approximately 20 years of neither diplomatic nor economic relations, both countries finally saw an advantage in opening up to each other: China viewed closer relations with the United States as a beneficial counter to its increasingly tense relationship with the Soviet Union, which had seen the outbreak of a series of bloody border incidents, while the U.S. sought closer relations with China as leverage in its peace negotiations with North Vietnam.

From the early years of the People's Republic, sports had played an important role in diplomacy, incorporating the slogan "Friendship First, Competition Second". During the isolationist years, athletes were among the few PRC nationals who were allowed to travel overseas.

1971 World Table Tennis Championships
There were political questions in China regarding whether the country would send a team to the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships. The more radical among China's leadership opposed sending a team. Many of the players believed that China should not send a team due to political considerations. Ultimately, Mao Zedong strongly supported the idea of sending the team. He reviewed and approved the plan submitted by the team. Before the team left, Zhou Enlai instructed its members not to conduct propaganda to foreigners and that while they should not initiate conversations with the American team, they could shake the hands of their American counterparts at matches.

Once in Japan for the championships, the Chinese players engaged in conversations after they were greeted by their American counterparts. On March 30, 1971, American player Graham Steenhoven and the head of the Chinese delegation Song Zhong had two short conversations. Steenhoven told Song that the United States had just lifted its ban on travel to China. He also expressed his regret that the ban meant that the American team did not attend the 1961 World Table Tennis Championships (which were held in China) and stated that he hoped the U.S. team could compete in China in the future.

The Chinese delegation relayed this interaction to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Sports Commission, requesting instructions on how to respond. The MFA and the Commission did not respond positively, viewing it as inappropriate to invite American athletes to China before inviting American leftists. Zhou Enlai agreed, but requested that Chinese officials with the team in Japan obtain the American delegation's address and inform them of China's position on the Taiwan issue. Mao Zedong initially approved the resulting report, but two days later instructed the MFA to invite the American team to visit China.

According to History of U.S. Table Tennis by Tim Boggan, who went to China along with the U.S. Table Tennis Team, three incidents may have triggered their invitation from China. Welshman H. Roy Evans, then President of the International Table Tennis Federation, claimed that he visited China prior to the 31st World Table Tennis Championship and suggested to non-Chinese sports authorities and Premier Zhou Enlai that China should take steps to get in contact with the world through international sport events after the Cultural Revolution. Furthermore, the American player Leah "Miss Ping" Neuberger, the 1956 World Mixed Doubles Champion and nine-time U.S. Open Women's Singles Champion, was traveling at the time with the Canadian Table Tennis Team that had been invited by China to visit the country. China diplomatically extended its approval of Leah Neuberger's application for a visa to the entire American team. The third incident, perhaps the most likely trigger, was the unexpected but dramatic meeting between the American player Glenn Cowan and the Chinese player Zhuang Zedong, a three-time world champion and winner of many other table tennis events. Zhuang Zedong described the incident in a 2007 talk at the USC U.S.-China Institute.

The events leading up to the encounter began when Glenn Cowan missed his team bus one afternoon after his practice in Nagoya during the 31st World Table Tennis Championship. Cowan had been practicing for 15 minutes with the Chinese player, Liang Geliang, when a Japanese official came and wanted to close the training area. Cowan boarded a shuttle bus carrying the Chinese team, most of whom treated him with suspicion. Chinese player Zhuang Zedong, however, shook Cowan's hand, spoke to him through an interpreter and presented him with a silk-screen portrait of Huangshan Mountains, a famous product from Hangzhou. Cowan wanted to give something back, but all he could find from his bag was a comb. The American hesitantly replied, "I can't give you a comb. I wish I could give you something, but I can't." This World Table Tennis Championships marked the return of China's participation after a six-year absence. When the Chinese team and Cowan walked off the bus, journalists who were following the Chinese team took photographs. In the political climate of the 1960s, the sight of an athlete of Communist China with an athlete of the United States was sure to garner attention. As a self-described hippie, Cowan presented Zhuang with a T-shirt with a red, white and blue peace emblem flag and the words "Let It Be," lyrics from a song by The Beatles, on the following day.

When a journalist asked Cowan, "Mr. Cowan, would you like to visit China?", he answered, "Well, I'd like to see any country I haven't seen before--Argentina, Australia, China, ... Any country I haven't seen before." "But what about China in particular? Would you like to go there?" "Of course," said Glenn Cowan.

During an interview in 2002 with the TV personality Chen Luyu, Zhuang Zedong told more of the story: "The trip on the bus took 15 minutes, and I hesitated for 10 minutes. I grew up with the slogan 'Down with the American imperialism!' And during the Cultural Revolution, the string of class struggle was tightened unprecedentedly, and I was asking myself, 'Is it okay to have anything to do with your No. 1 enemy?'" Zhuang recalled remembering that Chairman Mao Zedong met Edgar Snow on the Rostrum of Tiananmen on the National Day in 1970 and said to Snow that China should now place its hope on American people. Zhuang looked in his bag and first went through some pins, badges with Mao's head, silk handkerchiefs, and fans. But he felt these were not decent enough to be a good gift. He finally picked the silk portrait of Huangshan Mountains. On the following day, many Japanese newspapers carried photographs of Zhuang Zedong and Glenn Cowan.

American team visits China
On April 10, 1971, the American team and accompanying journalists became the first official American delegation to set foot in the Chinese capital since 1949. The trip also marked the return of American journalism to China, American reporters having been ousted shortly after the founding of the PRC and a prior effort to invite American reporters having been rebuffed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The meeting was facilitated by the National Committee on United States – China Relations. Prior to the visit by the American table tennis players, eleven Americans were admitted into the PRC for one week because they all professed affiliation with the Black Panther Party, which followed a Maoist political line.

On the first day of the American team's visit, Zhou arranged for them to watch a performance of The Red Detachment of Women, a popular model play. The American and Chinese teams played exhibition matches on the second day. Based on the principle of "friendship first, competition second," Zhou instructed that the Chinese team should not win all the games. It won four of the seven matches.

The American team visited significant sites, including Tsinghua University, an industrial museum, a people's commune, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Summer Palace.

On April 14, Zhou met with the American team. During the brief meeting, Zhou told the team that they were friends of China and that their visit was just the beginning of more Americans visiting China. He concluded the meeting by stating that the Chinese and American peoples used to have frequent exchanges and praising the American players for "opening the door for the friendly exchange between the two nations."

During the visit the U.S. relaxed currency controls on the People's Republic of China.

Chinese team visits the United States
During their April 1971 visit, the American team invited the Chinese team to visit the United States. In early 1972, Zhou told White House press secretary Ron Ziegler (who was in China preparing for President Richard Nixon's visit) that the Chinese team could visit that spring.

The Chinese team came to the United States on April 12, 1972. They were the first group of official Chinese visitors to the United States since 1949. The Chinese team toured cities in Michigan, Williamsburg, Washington D.C., Memphis, and Los Angeles. During these visits, the team played ping-pong with students at schools and colleges. Nixon met the team on April 18, telling them that "the big winner, because of this people-to-people contact you are initiating between our two peoples, will be friendship between the people of the United States and the people of the People's Republic of China."

The meeting with Nixon had nearly been canceled following the United States bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong on April 16. Although Zhou sought to cancel the meeting between the team and Nixon, Mao concluded that the visit was unofficial and to cancel the meeting would be undiplomatic given that the previous year the American team had met with Chinese leaders.

Reactions
Upon his return to the United States, one of the American players, Glenn Cowan, told reporters that the Chinese were very similar to people in the U.S. He said:

The people are just like us. They are real, they're genuine, they got feeling. I made friends, I made genuine friends, you see. The country is similar to America, but still very different. It's beautiful. They got the Great Wall, they got plains over there. They got an ancient palace, the parks, there's streams, and they got ghosts that haunt; there's all kinds of, you know, animals. The country changes from the south to the north. The people, they have a, a unity. They really believe in their Maoism.

After the American team's visit, China welcomed Americans from diverse backgrounds to visit China, beginning with the biologists Arthur Galston (Yale University) and Ethan Singer (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). They became the first American scientists to visit China since 1949. Galston and Singer had sent visa applications to Chinese embassy in Ottawa, Canada, and these applications were approved while they were visiting North Vietnam. Galston and Singer immediately traveled to China, where they met with Zhou on May 19, 1971. Zhou sought to address American concerns about China by telling them that while the Pacific Ocean was a small pond for the United States, it "was still a huge ocean for the Chinese to cross." Zhou stated that China had no desire to be a superpower or send soldiers abroad. Galston and Singer conveyed these messages to the American public through a report written by The New York Times a few days after their meeting with Zhou.

Ping-pong diplomacy was successful and resulted in opening the U.S.-PRC relationship, leading the U.S. to lift the embargo against China on June 10, 1971.

On February 28, 1972, during President Nixon and Henry Kissinger's visit to Shanghai, the Shanghai Communiqué was issued between the U.S. and the PRC. The Communiqué noted that both nations would work towards the normalization of their relations.

The response to Nixon's visit

Two months after Richard Nixon's visit, Zhuang Zedong visited the U.S. as the head of a Chinese table-tennis delegation, April 12–30, 1972. Notably, the Chinese delegation played a team of University of Maryland, College Park students at the university's Cole Field House on April 17, 1972. The president's daughter Tricia Nixon Cox was in the stands. Also on the itinerary were Canada, Mexico and Peru. Efforts to employ "ping-pong diplomacy" were not always successful, such as when the All Indonesia Table Tennis Association (PTMSI) refused China's invitation in October 1971, claiming that accepting the PRC's offer would improve the PRC's reputation. Because neither Soviet athletes nor journalists appeared in China following the appearance of the American players and journalists, one speculation is that the act showed the equal scorn of both countries towards the USSR.

1991 united Korean Team
Another example of Ping Pong Diplomacy occurred during the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan, where a unified Korean team played together for the first time since the Korean War.

The diplomatic efforts leading to the formation of this unified team were led by then-International Table Tennis Federation President, Ichiro Ogimura.

Prior to the championships, Ogimura visited South Korea 20 times and traveled to North Korea 15 times to plead for a unified team from the Korean peninsula. Ogimura also worked with local Japanese government heads to create joint training camps in the cities of Nagano, Nagaoka and Chiba, and secured agreement from the ITTF for North Korea and South Korea to compete under the unified name of “Korea”.

The Korean team played under a white flag depicting the Korean peninsula in blue and used the Korean folksong, Arirang, rather than the national anthem of either the North or the South.

The competition saw the Korean team win one gold medal, one silver and two bronze medals.

This action has since been repeated. At the 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships, the two Koreas entered separate teams in the competition but, when they were paired against each other at the quarter-final of the women's event, they negotiated instead to field a joint team for the semi-final.

Legacy
Ping-pong diplomacy became one of the most prominent examples of people's diplomacy in the context of China-United States relations.
 * In 1988, table tennis became an Olympic sport.
 * Ping-pong diplomacy was referenced in the 1994 film Forrest Gump. After suffering injuries in battle, Forrest develops an aptitude for the sport and joins the U.S. Army team—eventually competing against Chinese teams on a goodwill tour.
 * During the week of July 8, 2011, a three-day ping-pong diplomacy event was held at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. Original members of both the Chinese and American ping-pong teams from 1971 were present and competed again.

title: Ping-pong diplomacy