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Culture of Argentina

The culture of Argentina is as varied as the country geography and is composed of a mix of ethnic groups. Modern Argentine culture has been influenced largely by the Spanish colonial period and the 19th/20th century European immigration (mainly Italian and Spanish), and also by Amerindian culture, particularly in the fields of music and art. Buenos Aires, its cultural capital, is largely characterized by both the prevalence of people of Southern European descent, and of European styles in architecture. Museums, cinemas, and galleries are abundant in all of the large urban centers, as well as traditional establishments such as literary bars, or bars offering live music of a variety of music genres.

An Argentine writer reflected on the nature of the culture of Argentina as follows: With the primitive Hispanic American reality fractured in La Plata Basin due to immigration, its inhabitants have come to be somewhat dual with all the dangers but also with all the advantages of that condition: because of our European roots, we deeply link the nation with the enduring values of the Old World; because of our condition of Americans we link ourselves to the rest of the continent, through the folklore of the interior and the old Castilian that unifies us, feeling somehow the vocation of the Patria Grande San Martín and Bolívar once imagined.

Language
The spoken languages of Argentina number at least 40, although Spanish is dominant. Others include native and other immigrant languages; some languages are extinct and others are endangered, spoken by elderly people whose descendants do not speak the languages.

The most prevalent dialect is Rioplatense, also known as "Argentine Spanish", whose speakers are located primarily in the basin of the Río de la Plata. Argentines are amongst the few Spanish-speaking countries (like Uruguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras) that almost universally use what is known as voseo – the use of the pronoun vos instead of tú (Spanish for "you").

In many of the central and north-eastern areas of the country, the "rolling r" takes on a similar sound as the one both ll and y take in the more general Rioplatense dialect ('zh' – a voiced palatal fricative sound, similar to the "s" in the English pronunciation of the word "vision").

The Southern Quechua language is spoken by 0.4% of the population, mostly Bolivian immigrants who have arrived in recent years. There are 70,000 estimated speakers in Salta Province. The language is also known as Central Bolivian Quechua, which has six dialects. It is classified as a Quechua II language, and is referred to as Quechua IIC by linguists.

The Guaraní language is also spoken, mainly near the border with Paraguay, and is an co-official language in the province of Corrientes.

The Welsh language is the co-official language of the province of Chubut. This province was strongly influenced by Welsh migration and is home to the largest community outside the British Isles. The language is spoken in the Patagonian Welsh dialect.

The Afrikaans language, unlike the previous one, does not have co-official status in Chubut, that language arrived with the Boer migration between 1902 and 1908. The language is spoken in the Patagonian Afrikaans dialect.

The German language does not have co-official status but is spoken mainly by the descendants of the Germans, this being the 4th largest ancestry, it is spoken mainly in the provinces of Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, Córdoba, La Pampa, Buenos Aires, Río Negro and Misiones.

Other prominent languages without co-official status in Argentina are Polish, Ukrainian, Galician, Basque, Russian, Armenian, Yiddish, French, Ladino, English, Mapuche, among others.

Literature
Argentina has a detailed literary history, as well as one of the region's most active publishing industries. Argentine writers have figured prominently in Latin American literature, since becoming a fully united entity in the 1850s, with a strong constitution and a defined nation-building plan. The struggle between the Federalists (who favored a loose confederation of provinces based on rural conservatism) and the Unitarians (pro-liberalism and advocates of a strong central government that would encourage European immigration), set the tone for Argentine literature of the time.

The ideological divide between gaucho epic Martín Fierro by José Hernández, and Facundo by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, is a great example. Hernández, a federalist, was opposed to the centralizing, modernizing, and Europeanizing tendencies. Sarmiento wrote in support of immigration as the only way to save Argentina from becoming subject to the rule of a small number of dictatorial caudillo families, arguing such immigrants would make Argentina more modern and open to Western European influences, and therefore a more prosperous society.

Argentine literature of that period was fiercely nationalist. It was followed by the modernist movement, which emerged in France in the late 19th century, and this period in turn was followed by vanguardism, with Ricardo Güiraldes as an important reference. Jorge Luis Borges, its most acclaimed writer, found new ways of looking at the modern world in metaphor and philosophical debate, and his influence has extended to writers all over the globe. Borges is most famous for his works in short stories such as Ficciones and The Aleph.

Some of the nation's notable writers, poets, and intellectuals include: Juan Bautista Alberdi, Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Arlt, Enrique Banchs, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Bullrich, Eugenio Cambaceres, Julio Cortázar, Esteban Echeverría, Leopoldo Lugones, Eduardo Mallea, Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Victoria Ocampo, Manuel Puig, Ernesto Sabato, Osvaldo Soriano, Alfonsina Storni, María Elena Walsh and Oliverio Girondo.

Painting and sculpture

Argentine painters and sculptors have a rich history, dating from both before and since the development of modern Argentina in the second half of the 19th century. Artistic production did not truly come into its own, until after the 1852 overthrow of the repressive regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas. Immigrants like Eduardo Schiaffino, Eduardo Sívori, Reinaldo Giudici, Emilio Caraffa, and Ernesto de la Cárcova left behind a realist heritage influential to this day.

Impressionism did not make itself evident among Argentine artists until after 1900, however, and never acquired the kind of following it did in Europe, though it did inspire influential Argentine post-impressionists such as Martín Malharro, Ramón Silva, Cleto Ciocchini, Fernando Fader, Pío Collivadino, Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós, Realism, and aestheticism continued to set the agenda in Argentine painting and sculpture, noteworthy during this era for the sudden fame of sculptor Lola Mora, a student of Auguste Rodin.

As Lola Mora had been until she fell out of favor with local high society, monumental sculptors became in very high demand after 1900, particularly by municipal governments and wealthy families, who competed with each other in boasting the most evocative mausolea for their dearly departed. Though most preferred French and Italian sculptors, work by locals Erminio Blotta, Ángel María de Rosa, and Rogelio Yrurtia resulted in a proliferation of soulful monuments and memorials made them immortal. Not as realist as the work of some of his belle-époque predecessors in sculpture, Yrurtia's subtle impressionism inspired Argentine students like Antonio Pujía, whose internationally prized female torsos always surprise admirers with their whimsical and surreal touches, while Pablo Curatella Manes' sculptures drew from cubism.

Becoming an intellectual, as well as artistic circle, painters like Antonio Berni, Lino Enea Spilimbergo, and Juan Carlos Castagnino were friends as well as colleagues, going on to collaborate on masterpieces like the ceiling at the Galerias Pacifico arcade in Buenos Aires, towards 1933.

As in Mexico and elsewhere, muralism became increasingly popular among Argentine artists. Among the first to use his drab surroundings as a canvas was Benito Quinquela Martín, whose vaguely cubist pastel-colored walls painted in his Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca during the 1920s and 1930s, have become historical monuments and Argentine cultural emblems, worldwide. Lithographs, likewise, found a following in Argentina sometime after they had been made popular elsewhere. In Argentina, artists like Adolfo Bellocq, used this medium to portray often harsh working conditions in Argentina's growing industrial sector, during the 1920s and 1930s. Antonio Seguí, another lithographer, transferred his naïve style into murals in numerous nations, as did Ricardo Carpani, though in a realist style.

The vanguard in culturally conservative Argentina, futurists and cubists like Xul Solar and Emilio Pettoruti earned a following as considerable as that of less abstract and more sentimental portrait and landscape painters, like Raúl Soldi. Likewise, traditional abstract artists such as Romulo Macció, Anselmo Piccoli, Eduardo Mac Entyre, Luis Felipe Noé, and Luis Seoane co-existed with equal appeal as the most conceptual mobile art creators such as the unpredictable Pérez Celis, Gyula Kosice of the Argentine Madí Movement, and Marta Minujín, one of Andy Warhol's most esteemed fellow Conceptual artists.

The emergence of avant-garde genres in Argentine sculpture also featured Pablo Curatella Manes and Roberto Aizenberg, and constructivists such as Nicolás García Uriburu and Leon Ferrari, one of the world's foremost artists in his genre, today. In the 1960s and 1970s, many of these figures' abstract art found their way into popular advertising and even corporate logos.

Generally possessing a strong sentimental streak, the Argentine public's taste for naïve art and simple pottery cannot be overlooked. Since Prilidiano Pueyrredón's day, artists in the naïve vein like Cándido López have captured the absurdity of war; Susana Aguirre, and Aniko Szabó, the idiosyncrasies of everyday neighborhoods; Guillermo Roux's watercolors, a circus atmosphere; and Gato Frías, childhood memories. Illustrator Florencio Molina Campos's tongue-in-cheek depictions of gaucho life have endured as collectors' items.

To help showcase Argentine and Latin American art and sculpture, local developer and art collector Eduardo Constantini set aside a significant portion of his personal collection, and in 1998, began construction on Buenos Aires' first major institution specializing in works by Latin American artists. His foundation opened the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art (MALBA) in 2001.

Graphic arts
In the 1920s, Buenos Aires was overflowing with creative drawings and design. Argentine illustrators and sketchers were attracting worldwide recognition, including artists such as Jose Freire Segundo, creator of gráfica of Aikal (1940); Jose Luis Salinas, called upon by King Features to create a comic strip of worldwide fame, Cisco Kid; and Florencio Molina Campos, the brilliant sketcher of the Alpargatas Almanacs of rural life (1930), who collaborated on three Walt Disney films.

The culmination was the arrival, in 1927, of French painter, poster artist and sculptor Lucien Achille Mauzan, who was part of the artistic Art Deco movement. He settled in Buenos Aires and founded his own company Editorial Affiches Mauzan (Editorial Mauzan Posters) and created between 130 and 150 posters in the six years he spent in Argentina. He marks deeply in the poster art in Argentina, where his reputation is enormous. One of his well-known works is the amicably tortured head of Geniol.

In the 1950s renowned Uruguayan-Argentine journalist, caricaturist Hermenegildo Sábat, portrayed political figures, as well as artists and other personalities. Many of his "Argentine cultural icons" are reproduced in ceramic tile in the Buenos Aires Underground.

Comics
Argentine comics were living its "Golden Age" between the 1940s and the 1960s. Cartoonists and comic creators have contributed prominently to national culture, including Alberto Breccia, Dante Quinterno, Oski, Francisco Solano López, Horacio Altuna, Guillermo Mordillo, Roberto Fontanarrosa, whose grotesque characters captured life's absurdities with quick-witted commentary, and Quino, known for the soup-hating Mafalda, and her comic strip gang of childhood friends, the theorist Oscar Masotta synthesized its contributions in the development of their own models of action comics (Héctor Oesterheld, Hugo Pratt), humor comics (Divito, Quino) and folkloric comics (Walter Ciocca) and the presence of four great artists (José Luis Salinas, Arturo Pérez del Castillo, Hugo Pratt and Alberto Breccia).

Architecture
The architecture of Argentina can be said to start at the beginning of the Spanish colonization, though it was in the 18th century that the cities of the country reached their splendour. Cities like Córdoba, Salta, Mendoza, and also Buenos Aires conserved most their historical Spanish colonial architecture in spite of their urban growth.

The simplicity of the Rioplatense baroque style can be clearly appreciated in Buenos Aires, in the works of Italian architects such as André Blanqui and Antonio Masella, in the churches of San Ignacio, Nuestra Señora del Pilar, the Cathedral, and the Cabildo.

Italian and French influences increased after the war for independence at the beginning of the 19th century, though the academic style persisted until the first decades of the 20th century. Attempts at renovation took place during the second half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, when the European tendencies penetrated into the country, reflected in numerous important buildings of Buenos Aires, such as the Santa Felicitam Church, by Ernesto Bunge; the Central Post Office and Palace of Justice, by Norbert Maillart; and the National Congress and the Colón Opera House, by Vittorio Meano.

The architecture of the second half of the 20th century continued adapting French neoclassical architecture, such as the headquarters of the National Bank of Argentina, and the NH Gran Hotel Provincial, built by Alejandro Bustillo, and the Museo de Arte Hispano Fernández Blanco, by Martín Noel.

Numerous Argentine architects have enriched their own country's cityscapes, and in recent decades, those around the world. Juan Antonio Buschiazzo helped popularize Beaux-Arts architecture, and Francisco Gianotti combined Art Nouveau with Italianate styles, each adding flair to Argentine cities during the early 20th century. Francisco Salamone and Viktor Sulĉiĉ left an Art Deco legacy, and Alejandro Bustillo created a prolific body of Rationalist architecture. Clorindo Testa introduced Brutalist architecture locally, César Pelli's and Patricio Pouchulu's Futurist creations have graced cities, worldwide. Pelli's 1980s throwbacks to the Art Deco glory of the 1920s, in particular, made him one of the world's most prestigious architects.

Argentina cities have varied architecture. Commonly each house has an individual design, and is very rare to find any tract housing neighborhood.

Another example of Argentine architecture is the Curutchet House, located in La Plata, was designed by the Swiss-French architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret. In 2016 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Cinema
The Argentine film industry created around 170 full-length titles in 2012. The world's first animated feature films were made and released in Argentina, by cartoonist Quirino Cristiani, in 1917 and 1918. Argentine cinema enjoyed a 'golden age' in the 1930s through the 1950s with scores of productions, many now considered classics of Spanish-language film. The industry produced actors who became the first movie stars of Argentine cinema, often tango performers such as Libertad Lamarque, Floren Delbene, Tito Lusiardo, Tita Merello, Roberto Escalada, and Hugo del Carril.

More recent films from the "New Wave" of cinema since the 1980s have achieved worldwide recognition, such as The Official Story (Best foreign film Oscar in 1986), Man Facing Southeast, A Place in the World, Nine Queens, Son of the Bride, The Motorcycle Diaries, Blessed by Fire, The Secret in Their Eyes, winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Wild Tales. Although rarely rivaling Hollywood productions in popularity, local films are released weekly, and widely followed in Argentina and internationally. A number of local films, many of which are low-budget productions, have earned prizes in cinema festivals (such as Cannes), and are promoted by events such as the Mar del Plata Film Festival and the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.

The per capita number of screens is one of the highest in Latin America, and viewing per capita is the highest in the region. A new generation of Argentine directors have caught the attention of critics worldwide. Cinema is an important facet of local culture, as well as a popular pastime, and levels of cinema attendance are comparable to those of European countries. Argentine composers Luis Bacalov, Gustavo Santaolalla, and Eugenio Zanetti have been honored with Academy Award for Best Original Score nods. Lalo Schifrin has received numerous Grammys, and is best known for the Mission:Impossible theme.

Music

Tango, the music and lyrics (often sung in a form of slang called lunfardo), is Argentina's musical symbol. The Milonga dance was a predecessor, slowly evolving into modern tango. By the 1930s, tango had changed from a dance-focused music to one of lyric and poetry, with singers such as Carlos Gardel, Hugo del Carril, Roberto Goyeneche, Raúl Lavié, Tita Merello, and Edmundo Rivero. The golden age of tango (1930 to mid-1950s) mirrored that of jazz and swing in the United States, featuring large orchestral groups too, like the bands of Osvaldo Pugliese, Aníbal Troilo, Francisco Canaro, Julio de Caro, and Juan d'Arienzo. Incorporating acoustic music and later, synthesizers into the genre after 1955, bandoneón virtuoso Astor Piazzolla popularized "new tango" creating a more subtle, intellectual and listener-oriented trend. Today, tango enjoys worldwide popularity; ever-evolving, neo-tango is a global phenomenon with renowned groups like Tanghetto, Bajofondo, and the Gotan Project.

Argentine rock, called rock nacional, is the most popular music among the youth. Arguably the most listened-to form of Spanish-language rock, its influence and international success are owed to a rich, uninterrupted development. Bands such as Soda Stereo or Sumo, and composers like Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Fito Páez and Andrés Calamaro are referents of national culture. Mid-1960s Buenos Aires and Rosario were cradles of the music, and by 1970, Argentine rock was well established among middle class youth (see: Almendra, Sui Generis, Pappo, Crucis, Pescado Rabioso). Serú Girán bridged the gap into the 1980s, when Argentine bands became popular across Latin America and elsewhere (Enanitos Verdes, Fabulosos Cadillacs and Virus). There are many subgenres: underground, pop-oriented, and some associated with the working class (La Renga, Divididos, Hermética, V8 and Los Redonditos). Current popular bands include Babasónicos, Los Auténticos Decadentes, Rata Blanca, Horcas, Attaque 77, Bersuit, Los Piojos, Catupecu Machu, Carajo and Callejeros.

European classical music is well represented in Argentina. Buenos Aires is home to the world-renowned Colón Theater. Classical musicians, such as Martha Argerich, Eduardo Alonso-Crespo, Daniel Barenboim, Eduardo Delgado, and Alberto Lysy, and classical composers such as Juan José Castro and Alberto Ginastera, and contemporary composers such as Osvaldo Golijov, Gerardo Gandini, and Oscar Edelstein are internationally acclaimed. All major cities in Argentina have impressive theaters or opera houses, and provincial or city orchestras. Some cities have annual events and important classical music festivals like Semana Musical Llao Llao in San Carlos de Bariloche, and the multitudinous Amadeus in Buenos Aires.

Argentine folk music is uniquely vast. Beyond dozens of regional dances, a national folk style emerged in the 1930s. Perón's Argentina would give rise to Nueva Canción, as artists began expressing in their music objections to political themes. Atahualpa Yupanqui, folk musician, and Mercedes Sosa would be defining figures in shaping Nueva Canción, gaining worldwide popularity in the process. The style found a huge reception in Chile, where it took off in the 1970s, and went on to influence the entirety of Latin American music. Today, Chango Spasiuk and Soledad Pastorutti have brought folk back to younger generations. León Gieco's folk-rock bridged the gap between Argentine folklore and Argentine rock, introducing both styles to millions overseas in successive tours.

Theater
Buenos Aires is one of the world's great capitals of theater. The Teatro Colón is a national landmark for opera and classical performances; built at the end of the 19th century, its acoustics are considered the best in the world, and is currently undergoing a major refurbishment in order to preserve its outstanding sound characteristics, the French-romantic style, the impressive Golden Room (a minor auditorium targeted to Chamber Music performances), and the museum at the entrance. With its theater scene of national and international caliber, Corrientes Avenue is synonymous with the art. It is thought of as the street that never sleeps, and sometimes referred to as the Broadway of Buenos Aires. Many great careers in acting, music, and film have begun in its many theaters. The Teatro General San Martín is one of the most prestigious, along Corrientes Avenue, and the Teatro Nacional Cervantes functions as the national stage theater of Argentina. The Teatro Argentino de La Plata, El Círculo in Rosario, Independencia in Mendoza, and Libertador in Córdoba are also prominent. Griselda Gambaro, Copi, Roberto Cossa, Marco Denevi, Carlos Gorostiza, and Alberto Vaccarezza are a few of the more prominent Argentine playwrights. Julio Bocca, Jorge Donn, José Neglia, and Norma Fontenla are some of the great ballet dancers of the modern era.

Cuisine
Besides many of the pasta, sausage, and dessert dishes common to continental Europe, Argentines enjoy a wide variety of Indigenous and Criollo creations, which include empanadas (a stuffed pastry), locro (a mixture of maize, beans, meat, bacon, onion, and gourd), humitas, and yerba mate, all originally indigenous Amerindian staples, the latter considered Argentina's national beverage. Other popular items include chorizo (a pork sausage), facturas (Viennese-style pastry), dulce de leche, a sort of milk caramel jam and the alfajor.

The Argentine barbecue asado, includes succulent types of meat, among them chorizo, sweetbread, chitterlings, and morcilla (blood sausage). Thin sandwiches, known as sandwiches de miga, are also popular. Argentines have the highest consumption of red meat in the world.

The Argentine wine industry, long among the largest outside Europe, has benefited from growing investment since 1992; in 2007, 60% of foreign investment worldwide in viticulture was destined to Argentina. The country is the fifth most important wine producer in the world, with the annual per capita consumption of wine among the highest. Malbec grape, a discardable varietal in France (country of origin), has found in the Province of Mendoza an ideal environment to successfully develop and turn itself into the world's best Malbec. Mendoza accounts for 70% of the country's total wine production. "Wine tourism" is important in Mendoza province, with the impressive landscape of the Cordillera de Los Andes, and the highest peak in the Americas, Aconcagua (6952 m high) providing a very desirable destination for international tourism.

An event that changed the country's gastronomy was the Great European immigration wave to Argentina, millions of Italians, French, Germans, Spaniards, Poles, Irish, Russians, Welsh, Ukrainians and other groups arrived in the country. This caused gastronomy to change completely, the Fugazzeta, the Milanese, the Croissant, the Gnocchi, among other foods are now part of Argentine culture.

Sports

The official national sport of Argentina is pato, although it is not very popular. It is played with a six-handle ball on horseback.

Football is the most popular sport in Argentina. The national football team has won 25 major international titles, including three FIFA World Cups, two Olympic gold medals and 15 Copa América. Over one thousand Argentine players play abroad, the majority of them in European football leagues. There are 331,811 registered football players, with increasing numbers of girls and women, who have organized their own national championships since 1991, and were South American champions in 2006.

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) was formed in 1893, and is the eighth oldest national football association in the world. The AFA today counts 3,377 football clubs, including 20 in the Premier Division. Since the AFA went professional in 1931, fifteen teams have won national tournament titles, including River Plate with 33 and Boca Juniors with 24. Over the last twenty years, futsal and beach football have become increasingly popular. The Argentine national beach football team was one of four competitors in the first international championship for the sport, in Miami in 1993.

Basketball is the second most popular sport; a number of basketball players play in the NBA and European leagues including Emanuel Ginóbili, Andrés Nocioni, Carlos Delfino, Luis Scola, Pablo Prigioni, Juan Ignacio Sánchez and Fabricio Oberto. The national basketball team won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the bronze medal in 2008. Argentina is currently ranked third by the International Basketball Federation.

Argentina has an important rugby union team, "Los Pumas", with many of its players playing in Europe. Argentina beat host nation France twice in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, placing them third in the competition, and also finished 4th in the 2015 edition of the World Cup. The Pumas are currently ranked fifth in the official world rankings.

Historically, Argentina has had a strong showing within Auto racing. Juan Manuel Fangio was five times Formula One world champion under four different teams, winning 102 of his 184 international races, and is widely ranked as the greatest driver of all time. Other distinguished racers were Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Juan Gálvez, José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann.

Field hockey with the national team Las Leonas is one of the world's most successful, with four Olympic medals, two World Cups, a World League and seven Champions Trophy. Luciana Aymar is recognized as the best female player in the history of this sport.

Argentina reigns undisputed in Polo, having won more international championships than any other country and been seldom beaten since the 1930s. The Argentine Polo Championship is the sport's most important international team trophy. The country is home to most of the world's top players, among them Adolfo Cambiaso, the best in Polo history.

Other popular sports include tennis, handball, boxing, volleyball and golf.

The Vamos vamos Argentina chant is a trademark of Argentine fans during sporting events.

Values
Argentine values is a shared identity core that brings together actions and thoughts aimed at increasing social capital and fostering the common good among Argentines. As Rokeach state, "Values are the evaluative component of an individual's attitudes and beliefs. Values guide how we think about things in terms of what is right/wrong and correct/incorrect. Values trigger positive or negative emotions. Values also guide our actions "(Neuliep, 2009, p. 66). Argentine Values intends to create a community formed by all those who are convinced that Argentina is a great country. Argentina is a collective country where its values focus on diversity and solidarity.

In addition to being a collectivistic society. The Argentines are from traditional customs, but also kind and friendly. The greeting is a crucial element in the Argentine culture where we see that nobody leaves without being greeted; Men kiss women, Women kiss men, and other men kiss men on the cheek.

Another principal value for Argentines is the family. In Argentina, for example, it is prevalent for family members to visit traditionally on Sunday, meetings in which there are music, food, and games. But apart from these types of meetings, the family almost always meets for family events or gatherings such as births, weddings, and similar activities. For me that I had the experience of living three months in the country, it was very nice to see how generations come together, and "values are transmitted across generations" (Prioste, Narciso, Goncalves, & Pereira, 2017).

title: Culture of Argentina


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Contract with America

The Contract with America was a legislative agenda advocated by the Republican Party during the 1994 congressional election campaign. Written by Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, and in part using text from former President Ronald Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address, the Contract detailed the actions the Republicans promised to take if they became the majority party in the United States House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Many of the Contract's policy ideas originated at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

The Contract with America was introduced six weeks before the 1994 Congressional election, the first midterm election of President Bill Clinton's administration, and was signed by all but two of the Republican members of the House and all of the Party's non-incumbent Republican congressional candidates.

The contract described the plan of the Congressional Representatives, seeking to nationalize the Congressional election. Its provisions represented the view of many conservative Republicans on the issues of reducing the size of government, cutting taxes, and both tort reform as well as welfare reform.

The 1994 elections resulted in Republicans gaining 54 House and 8 U.S. Senate seats, flipping both chambers. The Contract was seen as a triumph by party leaders such as Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and the American conservative movement.

Content
The Contract's text included a list of eight reforms the Republicans promised to enact, and ten bills they promised to bring to floor debate and votes, if they were made the majority following the election. During the crafting of the Contract, proposals were limited to "60% issues", i.e. legislation that polling showed garnered 60% support of the American people, intending for the Contract to avoid promises on controversial and divisive matters like abortion and school prayer. Reagan biographer Lou Cannon characterized the Contract as having taken more than half of its text from Ronald Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address.

Government and operational reforms
On the first day of their majority in the House, the Republicans promised to bring up for vote, eight major reforms:

 * 1) Require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
 * 2) Select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
 * 3) Cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
 * 4) Limit the terms of all committee chairs;
 * 5) Ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
 * 6) Require committee meetings to be open to the public;
 * 7) Require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
 * 8) Guarantee an honest accounting of the federal budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Major policy changes
During the first one hundred days of the 104th Congress, the Republicans pledged "to bring to the floor the following [ten] bills, each to be given a full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote, and each to be immediately available for public inspection". The text of the proposed bills was included in the Contract, which was released prior to the election. These bills were not governmental operational reforms, as the previous promises were; rather, they represented significant changes to policy. They mainly included a balanced budget requirement, tax cuts for small businesses, families and seniors, term limits for legislators, social security reform, tort reform, and welfare reform.

Implementation
The contract promised to bring to floor debate and votes ten bills that would implement reform of the federal government. When the 104th Congress assembled in January 1995, the Republican majority sought to implement the Contract.

In some cases (e.g. The National Security Restoration Act and The Personal Responsibility Act), the proposed bills were accomplished by a single act analogous to that which had been proposed in the Contract; in other cases (e.g. The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act), a proposed bill's provisions were split up across multiple acts. Most of the bills died in the Senate, except as noted below.

Fiscal Responsibility Act
An amendment to the Constitution that would require a balanced budget unless sanctioned by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress (H.J.Res.1, passed by the US House Roll Call: 300-132, January 26, 1995, but rejected by the US Senate: Roll Call 65–35 (the amendment was defeated by a single vote, with one Republican opposed, Oregon Republican Senator Mark Hatfield; Bob Dole cast a procedural vote against the amendment to bring it up again in the future), March 2, 1995, two-thirds required.

Taking Back Our Streets Act
An anti-crime package including stronger truth in sentencing, "good faith" exclusionary rule exemptions (H.R.666 Exclusionary Rule Reform Act, passed US House Roll Call 289–142 February 8, 1995), death penalty provisions (H.R.729 Effective Death Penalty Act, passed US House Roll Call 297–132 February 8, 1995; similar provisions enacted under S. 735, April 24, 1996), funding prison construction (H.R.667 Violent Criminal Incarceration Act, passed US House Roll Call 265–156 February 10, 1995, rc#117) and additional law enforcement (H.R.728 Local Government Law Enforcement Block Grants Act, passed US House Roll Call 238–192 February 14, 1995).

Personal Responsibility Act
An act to discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by reforming and cutting cash welfare and related programs. This would be achieved by prohibiting welfare to mothers under 18 years of age, denying increased Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) for additional children while on welfare, and enacting a two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility. H.R.4, the Family Self-Sufficiency Act, included provisions giving food vouchers to unwed mothers under 18 in lieu of cash AFDC benefits, denying cash AFDC benefits for additional children to people on AFDC, requiring recipients to participate in work programs after two years on AFDC, complete termination of AFDC payments after five years, and suspending driver and professional licenses of people who fail to pay child support. H.R.4, passed by the US House 234–199, March 23, 1995, and passed by the US Senate 87–12, September 19, 1995. The Act was vetoed by President Clinton, but the alternative Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act which offered many of the same policies was enacted August 22, 1996.

American Dream Restoration Act
An act to create a $500-per-child tax credit, add a tax credit for couples who pay more taxes in aggregate if they are married than if they were single (but keep in place the concept of Earned Income Splitting), and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle-class tax relief. H.R.1215, passed 246–188, April 5, 1995.

National Security Restoration Act
An act to prevent U.S. troops from serving under United Nations command unless the president determines it is necessary for the purposes of national security, to cut U.S. payments for UN peacekeeping operations, and to help establish guidelines for the voluntary integration of former Warsaw Pact nations into NATO. H.R.7, passed 241–181, February 16, 1995.

Common Sense Legal Reform Act
An act to institute "loser pays" laws (H.R.988, passed 232–193, March 7, 1995), limits on punitive damages and weakening of product liability laws to prevent what the bill considered frivolous litigation (H.R.956, passed 265–161, March 10, 1995; passed Senate 61–37, May 11, 1995, vetoed by President Clinton. Another tort reform bill, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, was enacted in 1995 when Congress overrode Clinton's veto.

Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act
A package of measures to act as small-business incentives: capital-gains cuts and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages. Although this was listed as a single bill in the Contract, its provisions ultimately made it to the House Floor as four bills:
 * H.R.5, requiring federal funding for state spending mandated by Congressional action and estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost more than $50 million per year (for the years of 1996–2002 ), was passed 360–74, February 1, 1995. This bill was conferenced with S. 1 and enacted, March 22, 1995
 * H.R.450 required a moratorium on the implementation of federal regulations until June 30, 1995, and was passed 276–146, February 24, 1995. Companion Senate bill S. 219 passed by voice vote, May 17, 1995, but the two bills never emerged from conference
 * H.R.925 required federal compensation to be paid to property owners when federal government actions reduced the value of the property by 20% or more, and was passed 277–148, March 3, 1995.
 * H.R.926, passed 415–14 on March 1, 1995, required federal agencies to provide a cost-benefit analysis on any regulation costing $50 million or more annually, to be signed off on by the Office of Management and Budget, and permitted small businesses to sue that agency if they believed the analysis was performed inadequately or incorrectly.

Citizen Legislature Act
An amendment to the Constitution that would have imposed 12-year term limits on members of Congress (i.e. six terms for representatives, two terms for senators). rejected by the House 227–204 (a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority, not a simple majority), March 29, 1995; RC #277.

Other sections
Other sections of the contract include a proposed Family Reinforcement Act (tax incentives for adoption, strengthening the powers of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and elderly dependent care tax credit) and the Senior Citizens Fairness Act (raise the Social Security earnings limit, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance).

Non-implementation
A November 13, 2000, article by Edward H. Crane, president of the libertarian Cato Institute, stated, "the combined budgets of the 95 major programs that the Contract with America promised to eliminate have increased by 13%."

Effects
Some observers cite the Contract with America as having helped secure a decisive victory for the Republicans in the 1994 elections; others dispute this role, noting its late introduction into the campaign. Whatever the role of the Contract, Republicans were elected to a majority of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1953, and some parts of the Contract were enacted. Most elements did not pass Congress, while others were vetoed by, or substantially altered in negotiations with President Bill Clinton, who would sarcastically refer to it as the "Contract on America" implying that the Republicans' legislative package was akin to an organized-crime "hit" on the American public. As a blueprint for the policy of the new Congressional majority, authors Micklethwait and Wooldridge argue in The Right Nation that the Contract placed Congress back in the driver's seat of domestic government policy for most of the 104th Congress, and placed the Clinton White House on the defensive.

George Mason University law professor David E. Bernstein has argued that the Contract "show[ed] ... that [Congress took] federalism and limited national government seriously", and "undoubtedly made [the Supreme Court decision in] United States v. Lopez more viable".

Commentary
Journalist and senior congressional reporter Major Garrett equated the Contract with a game of miniature golf, "fun, popular, and largely diversionary exercise meant to satisfy middle-class sensibilities", contrasted with the golf of governing America and leadership. Republicans interviewed by Garrett when the Contract was being compiled said it was meant to be a political document of easy goals, not a governing document, with one senior aide explaining, "We don't care if the Senate passes any of the items in the contract. It would be preferable, but it's not necessary. If the freshmen do everything the contract says, they'll be in excellent shape for 1996".

In 2014, business and finance writer John Steele Gordon, writing in The American, an online magazine published by the American Enterprise Institute, praised the Contract, calling it the main reason for the Republican victory in 1994", in part because it "nationalized the election".

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

title: Contract with America


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ArbCom elections are now open!
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User talk:Boesche

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Democratic Alliance (South Africa)

The Democratic Alliance is a South African political party which is a part of the current South African Government of National Unity (GNU) together with the African National Congress (ANC), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), and several others. The party is broadly centrist, and has been attributed both centre-left and centre-right policies. It is a member of Liberal International and the Africa Liberal Network. The DA traces its roots to the founding of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party in 1959, with many mergers and name changes between that time and the present. The DA has a variety of ideologically liberal tendencies, including neoliberalism, social liberalism, classical liberalism, and conservative liberalism.

The current leader of the party is John Steenhuisen, who was announced as the new leader on 1 November 2020 after the party's Federal Congress. He had previously acted as the interim leader of the party from November 2019 to November 2020. Helen Zille is chairperson of both the Federal Council and the Federal Executive, the highest decision-making structures of the party. In addition to governing several major metropolitan municipalities, the DA has been governing the Western Cape, one of South Africa's nine provinces, since the 2009 general election.

In aftermath of the 2024 general election, the DA entered into a ruling grand coalition with the ANC and various other parties, called a government of national unity, formed between ten parties with jointly 287 seats in the House of Assembly (72%).

Beginnings in the Democratic Party
Although the Democratic Alliance (DA) in its present form is fairly new, its roots can be traced far back in South African political history, through a complex sequence of splits and mergers. The modern day DA is in large part a product of the white parliamentary opposition to the ruling National Party. The origin of the party can be traced to the mid-1950s when some younger members of the United Party felt that they were not providing strong enough opposition to the National Party and its policy of Apartheid, causing them to break away and form the Progressive Party in 1959. In the 1970s, as it rose to become the official opposition, the party merged with more splinters from the disintegrating United Party and become known first as the Progressive Reform Party and then as the Progressive Federal Party. The Progressives sought to change the system from within, but in doing so chose to comply with Apartheid legislation outlawing multi-racial membership. During this time, the party was led by liberal-minded opponents of Apartheid, such as Jan Steytler, Helen Suzman, Zach de Beer, Colin Eglin, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and Harry Schwarz. In 1989, it merged with two smaller reformist organisations to become the Democratic Party (DP), a name that was retained into the 1990s when freedom was achieved. It was marginalised by the National Party's shift towards the center after 1990, and fared relatively poorly in the first democratic election in 1994, won by the African National Congress.

The DP established itself as a more effective party of opposition, however, and eventually rose from relative obscurity and ascended to the status of official opposition in 1999 under the leadership of Tony Leon, mainly by taking votes from the New National Party, the renamed version of the NP. The party also became kingmakers in the Western Cape province, where it formed a coalition government with the NNP. With a fractured national opposition standing against an increasingly dominant governing party, there was a perceived need to better challenge the ANC. To this end, the DP reached a merger agreement with the NNP and the much smaller Federal Alliance (FA) in 2000. Together, they formed the Democratic Alliance. The merger was ultimately aborted, with both the NNP and FA leaving the DA. Many former NNP members remained, and the new name was kept.

The DP was disbanded after the 2003 floor crossing period, establishing the DA at all levels of government.

Since becoming the Democratic Alliance in 2003
The party consolidated its status as the official opposition in the 2004 general election, while the NNP collapsed. Having gone into opposition in the Western Cape in 2001 when the NNP formed a new coalition with the ANC, the demise of the NNP made the province a natural target for the party. In the 2006 municipal elections, the DA narrowly gained control of its largest city, Cape Town, in a multi-party coalition. Helen Zille, the executive mayor of Cape Town, then succeeded Leon as DA Party Leader in May 2007. In 2008, she re-launched the party as one that no longer acts solely as an opposition but also as an alternative choice for government. The party also introduced a new logo and a new slogan. Zille said the new DA would be "more reflective of our rich racial, linguistic and cultural heritage", and emphasized that she wanted it to be a "party for all the people" and not decline into a "shrinking, irrelevant minority". The Western Cape was won by DA with an outright majority in the 2009 general election, and Zille became the new provincial premier. In her newsletter, she wrote that "winning power in the Western Cape will allow us to show what co-operative governance between local authorities and a province can achieve". In the 2011 local government elections, the party won control of most of the municipalities in the Western Cape.

In 2013, the DA launched the "Know Your DA" campaign, in an attempt to try to show that the DA (via its proxy predecessor organisations) was involved in the struggle against apartheid. This campaign focused mainly on the role played by a few key individuals in opposing apartheid — particularly Helen Suzman and Helen Zille. The campaign received a certain amount of media attention, much of it somewhat sceptical. The ANC issued a detailed critique of the campaign, focusing especially on Suzman's role in the apartheid parliament. Partially on the basis of this campaign the DA contested the 2014 general election, where it once again grew its support base but failed in its stated goal of winning Gauteng province.

In the municipal elections of 2016, the DA made significant gains along with other opposition parties in some of the country's most important metropolitan areas. The DA currently governs Tshwane (including Pretoria, the administrative capital), Cape Town (South Africa's second-largest city and legislative capital) and various other municipalities.

In the general elections of 2019, the DA's national support declined for the first time in its history. The party retained control of the Western Cape but with a reduced majority and failed to win Gauteng once again. The conservative Freedom Front Plus made significant gains on the DA in the Afrikaner community. Since the election, the FF Plus has continued to make inroads in former DA strongholds.

In the run-up to the 2024 general election, the DA joined the Multi-Party Charter, an electoral alliance taking advantage of the unpopularity of the ANC. The ANC failed to gain a majority of seats in the National Assembly after the election, leading to the DA agreeing to form a coalition of national unity, entering ruling government for the first time.

Formation and mergers

 * 1959 – Progressive Party breaks away from United Party.
 * 1975 – Progressive Party merges with Harry Schwarz's Reform Party, to form Progressive Reform Party.
 * 1977 – Progressive Reform Party merges with the Committee for a United Opposition to form the Progressive Federal Party.
 * 1989 – PFP merges with Denis Worrall's Independent Party and National Democratic Movement, to form Democratic Party.
 * 2000 – Democratic Party merges with New National Party and the Federal Alliance, to form Democratic Alliance (NNP and FA later withdrew)
 * 2010 – Democratic Alliance begins absorbing Patricia de Lille's Independent Democrats.
 * 2011 – Democratic Alliance absorbs Ziba Jiyane's South African Democratic Convention.

Ideology and principles
The DA sums up its political philosophy as the belief in an "Open Opportunity Society for All". Former party leader Helen Zille has argued that this stands in direct contrast to the ruling ANC's approach to governance, which she maintains has led to a "closed, crony society for some". This formed the basis of the philosophy underlying the party's 2009 Election Manifesto, which seeks to build a society by linking outcomes to "opportunity, effort and ability".

The DA's historical roots are broadly liberal-democratic. During the 1990s, the party remained associated with liberal values, though party leader Tony Leon's support for the reintroduction of the death penalty, the party's controversial 1999 campaign slogan "Fight Back", and the short-lived alliance with the centre-right New National Party fuelled criticisms of the party from the left. After Helen Zille's election as party leader, the DA has attempted to reposition itself as a mainstream alternative to the ANC. The party's economic policy is also broadly centrist, and supports a mix of high spending on crucial social services such as education and health care, a basic income grant, and a strong regulatory framework, with more "moderate" policies such as a lower budget deficit and a deregulated labour market. At her 2009 State of the Province speech, party leader Zille described her party's economic policy as pragmatic: "We believe the state has a crucial role to play in socio-economic development. We are not free market fundamentalists. By the same token we do not believe that a state, with limited capacity, should over-reach itself."

Crime
In the DA's crime plan, "Conquering Fear, Commanding Hope", the DA committed itself to increasing the number of police officers to 250,000. This is 60,000 more than the government's own target. The party also announced plans to employ 30,000 additional detectives and forensics experts and 500 more prosecutors, in order to reduce court backlogs, and establish a Directorate for Victims of Crime, which would provide funding and support for crime victims.

In addition, the party announced its support for a prison labour programme, which would put prisoners to work in various community upliftment programmes. The proposal was criticised by labour unions, who believed it was unethical and would result in labour job losses.

In late 2008–2009, the DA took a stand against the South African Police Service's VIP Protection Unit, after several officers in the unit were charged with serious criminal offences. The party later released documentation of the unit's poor disciplinary record, and claimed its divisional commander had himself dodged serious criminal charges.

The DA strongly opposed the disbandment of the Scorpions crime investigation unit, and similar efforts to centralise the police service such as the nationwide disbandment of specialised Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units.

The party adopted a resolution declaring farm attacks and murders as hate crimes at its 2020 Federal Congress.

Social development
Central to the DA's social development policy, "Breaking the Cycle of Poverty", is a Basic Income Grant, which would provide a monthly transfer of R110 to all adults earning less than R46,000 per year. The party also supports legislation that would require the legal guardians of children living in poverty to ensure that their child attends 85 per cent of school classes, and undergoes routine health check-ups.

In addition, to aid with youth development skills, the party proposed a R6000 opportunity voucher or twelve month community service programme to all high school matriculants. The party also supports a universal old age pension, and the abolishment of pension means tests.

Education
The DA's education programme, "Preparing for Success", focuses on providing adequate physical and human resources to underperforming schools. The DA supports guaranteed access to a core minimum of resources for each school, proper state school nutrition schemes for grade 1–12 learners, and measures to train 30,000 additional teachers per year. The DA continues to support the introduction of new performance targets for teachers and schools, and also advocates a per-child wage subsidy, and a national network of community-based early childhood education centres.

Health
The DA's "Quality Care for All" programme is focused on tackling the country's high HIV/AIDS infection rate. Included in these plans is an increase in the number of clinics offering HIV testing and measures to provide all HIV-positive women with Nevirapine. The party's health policy also plans to devote more resources to vaccinations against common childhood illnesses.

The party also advocates creating a transparent and competitive health sector, to boost service delivery and encourage health care practitioners to remain in the country.

Economy
The DA's economic policy aims to create a society in which all South Africans enjoy both the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, and the opportunities to take advantage of those freedoms. In its 2010 Federal Congress booklet, The Open Opportunity Society for All, the party describes this society in the following terms: "Opportunity is the vehicle with which people are empowered to live their lives, pursue their dreams and develop their full potential. And the DA believes that the role of the government is to provide every citizen with a minimum basic standard of quality services and resources with which to be able to do so – a framework for choice."

The DA therefore advocates a mixed-economy approach, where the state is involved in the economy only to the extent that it can expand opportunity and choice.

The manifesto includes various proposals detailing how a DA government would manage the economy and facilitate growth. The majority of the interventions suggested by the party are aimed at creating an atmosphere conducive to job creation and greater foreign direct investment.

The DA has suggested measures to make South Africa's labour market more amenable to job creation. The party has also suggested several targeted interventions to allow for higher employment, especially amongst the youth. These interventions include a wage subsidy programme to reduce the cost of hiring first-time workers.

The DA has committed itself to a counter-cyclical fiscal policy approach. This is evident in the party's previous alternative budget frameworks, with both alternative budgets posting deficits. The party defended this stance by arguing that increased spending was necessary to help the economy out of recession. Other fiscal interventions have included a proposed scrapping of value added tax (VAT) on books and tax rebates for crime prevention expenditure by businesses.

The DA supports an inflation-targeting monetary policy regime similar to that of the ANC government. It has also repeatedly reaffirmed its support and commitment for reserve bank instrument independence. The DA proposes to incentivise savings by reducing taxes on income earned from fixed deposits that are held for longer than twelve months. The party states that this would help South Africa to boost its domestic savings rate to enable the country to invest in projects that will provide additional job opportunities.

The party has rejected the ANC's approach to Black Economic Empowerment, with former party leader Helen Zille arguing that the current policies have only served to enrich a small elite of politically connected businessmen. The party proposed an alternative it calls broad-based economic empowerment, which would provide for targeted interventions focusing on skills training and socio-economic investment instead of ownership targets. The party believes that this approach will give a broader group of black South Africans an opportunity to compete and partake in the economy.

The party advocates an active industrial policy that allows the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to co-ordinate industrial policy. Additionally it would also set up a sovereign venture capital fund to help support innovation in key industries. The DA also supports the creation of Industrial Development Zones and Export Processing Zones. The party suggests that by relaxing certain regulations in these zones, manufacturers and exporters would be able to grow faster and employ more people. This fits into the party's broader vision of growing the economy by cutting red tape and regulations it claims is holding back South Africa's economic growth.

The DA has been against the introduction of a national minimum wage, arguing that workers should be allowed to accept a wage of less than R3500 on their own terms. In contrast, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that the R3500 per month (R20 an hour) minimum wage was still not a living wage, and would only "advance the struggle for a living wage".

Land
The DA is resolutely against land expropriation without compensation. This is in response to the ANC and the EFF's recent attempts to change section 25 of the Constitution which deals with land reform. The DA says that changing the Constitution will open the floodgates and undermine property rights, allowing government to own all land and forcing all South Africans to be only permanent tenants of the land. The party says that it is committed to ensuring that those entitled to land receive it in the form of direct ownership, and not as lifelong tenants.

The DA's "Land of Opportunity" programme supports the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle, though it also allows for expropriation for reform purposes in certain limited circumstances. The party has been critical of the resources that government has allocated to land reform, claiming that government has not been sufficiently active in buying up land that comes onto the market. Though the DA believes this could speed up the pace of land reform, their policies have been vocally criticised by members of the Tripartite Alliance. Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza accused the DA of attempting to "stifle" land reform, while the South African Communist Party contended that the DA's policies overly favoured big business. In a speech at the DA's national congress in April 2018, DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane, praised DA Western Cape Provincial Leader, Bonginkosi Madikizela, for overseeing the delivery of 91 000 title deeds in the province and allowing residents to have full title deeds to their homes.

Environment and energy
In the build up to the 2009 elections, the DA announced it would create a new Ministry of Energy and Climate Change, to ensure improved integrated energy planning in order to deal with South Africa's growing carbon dioxide emissions. The DA's 2009 environment and energy plan, "In Trust for the Nation" proposed new measures to increase energy efficiency, and the introduction of sectoral carbon emission targets.

Electoral reform
The DA broadly supports reforms recommended by Frederik van Zyl Slabbert's electoral reform task-team, that would see the current party list voting system replaced by a 75% constituency-based/25% proportional representation-based electoral system that would apply at the national and provincial level. The DA's governance policy Promoting Open Opportunity Governance also makes provision for the direct election of the president, which would give voters a more direct link to the executive branch.

The DA believe voting rights should be extended to include all South African citizens who are living and working abroad, many of whom intend returning. Since 2013, South Africans living abroad can now register and vote in national elections.

Foreign policy
The DA holds a mostly pro-Western foreign policy.

The DA has been a strong supporter of Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War. South Africa, a member of the BRICS alliance, has remained neutral throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the DA (including DA-controlled legislatures and councils) supports Ukraine and has criticised South Africa's ambiguous position, though the ANC has denied supporting Russia and insists that it is neutral. Steenhuisen visited Ukraine in 2022 in solidarity. The party has also called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be arrested.

Unlike the ANC, which officially declared its support for Palestine and refusing to condemn Hamas for its attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, the DA, along with other members of the Multi-Party Charter, condemned Hamas for its attacks on Israel, declaring it an unprovoked attack. The DA, like the ANC, supports a two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, seeking peace between the two, and for Palestine to be free and unoccupied. Pro-Palestinian civilians in Cape Town have protested against the party for not publicly speaking out against Israel.

Electoral performance

These charts show the electoral performance for the Democratic Alliance, and its predecessor the Democratic Party, since the advent of democracy in 1994:

National Assembly
! Election ! Leader ! Total votes ! Share of vote ! Seats ! +/– ! Government ! 1994 ! 1999 ! 2004 ! 2009 ! 2014 ! 2019 ! 2024
 * Zach de Beer
 * 338,426
 * 1.73%
 * in opposition
 * in opposition
 * in opposition
 * rowspan=2|Tony Leon
 * 1,527,337
 * 9.56%
 * 31
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * 1,931,201
 * 12.37%
 * 12
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * rowspan=2|Helen Zille
 * 2,945,829
 * 16.66%
 * 17
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * 4,091,584
 * 22.20%
 * 22
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * Mmusi Maimane
 * 3,621,188
 * 20.77%
 * 5
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * John Steenhuisen
 * 3,505,735
 * 21.81%
 * 3
 * ANC–DA–IFP–PA–GOOD–PAC–VF+–UDM–RISE–UAT coalition government
 * }
 * }

National Council of Provinces
! Election ! Total # of seats won ! +/– ! Government ! 1994 ! 1999 ! 2004 ! 2009 ! 2014 ! 2019 ! 2024
 * in opposition
 * in opposition
 * in opposition
 * 5
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * 4
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * 1
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * 7
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * 0
 * official opposition
 * official opposition
 * 0
 * Government of National Unity
 * }
 * }

Provincial elections
! rowspan=2 | Election ! colspan=2 | Eastern Cape ! colspan=2 | Free State ! colspan=2 | Gauteng ! colspan=2 | Kwazulu-Natal ! colspan=2 | Limpopo ! colspan=2 | Mpumalanga ! colspan=2 | North-West ! colspan=2 | Northern Cape ! colspan=2 | Western Cape ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! 1994 ! 1999 ! 2004 ! 2009 ! 2014 ! 2019 ! 2024
 * 2.05 || 1/56
 * 0.57 || 0/30
 * 5.32 || 5/86
 * 2.15 || 2/81
 * 0.21 || 0/40
 * 0.56 || 0/30
 * 0.50 || 0/30
 * 1.87 || 1/30
 * 6.64 || 3/42
 * 6.29 || 4/63
 * 5.33 || 2/30
 * 17.95 || 13/73
 * 8.16 || 7/80
 * 1.42 || 1/49
 * 4.48 || 1/30
 * 3.26 || 1/30
 * 4.77 || 1/30
 * 11.91 || 5/42
 * 7.34 || 5/63
 * 8.47 || 3/30
 * 20.78 || 15/73
 * 8.35 || 7/80
 * 3.59 || 2/49
 * 6.94 || 2/30
 * 5.00 || 2/33
 * 11.08 || 3/30
 * 27.11 || 12/42
 * 9.99 || 6/63
 * 11.60 || 3/30
 * 21.86 || 16/73
 * 9.15 || 7/80
 * 3.48 || 2/49
 * 7.49 || 2/30
 * 8.25 || 3/33
 * 12.57 || 4/30
 * 51.46 || 22/42
 * 16.20 || 10/63
 * 16.23 || 5/30
 * 30.78 || 23/73
 * 12.76 || 10/80
 * 6.48 || 3/49
 * 10.40 || 3/30
 * 12.73 || 4/33
 * 23.89 || 7/30
 * 59.38 || 26/42
 * 15.73 || 10/63
 * 17.58 || 6/30
 * 27.45 || 20/73
 * 13.90 || 11/80
 * 5.40 || 3/49
 * 9.77 || 3/30
 * 11.18 || 4/33
 * 25.51 || 8/30
 * 55.45 || 24/42
 * 14.89 || 11/73
 * 21.88 || 7/30
 * 27.44 || 22/80
 * 13.36 || 11/80
 * 5.96 || 4/64
 * 12.02 || 6/51
 * 13.24 || 5/38
 * 21.19 || 7/30
 * 55.30 || 24/42
 * }

Municipal election results
! Election ! Ward + PR votes ! % ! +/– ! 1995–96 ! 2000 ! 2006 ! 2011 ! 2016 ! 2021
 * 302,006
 * 3.48%
 * 3,816,909
 * 22.1%
 * 18.6
 * 3,203,896
 * 16.3%
 * 5.8
 * 6,393,886
 * 23.9%
 * 9.1
 * 8,033,630
 * 26.9%
 * 3.0
 * 5,082,664
 * 21.66%
 * 5.2
 * }

Democratic Alliance Youth
The Democratic Alliance Youth (DA Youth), which came officially into being in late 2008, was first led by Makashule Gana until 2013, Mbali Ntuli led between 2013 and 2014, Yusuf Cassim led from 2014 to 2018 and Luyolo Mphithi led from 2018 to 2022. The current Interim Federal Leader, Nicholas Nyati, was elected at the Interim Democratic Alliance Youth Federal Congress in 2022. Robin Atson, Kamogelo Makola, Chadwin Petersen and Lindokuhle Sixabayi are the Interim DA Youth Federal Deputy Chaipersons in Administration, Recruitment, Training and Development, and Media and Publicity, respectively.

In the Gauteng Province, the first dually elected Democratic Alliance Youth Provincial Executive Committee took office in November 2017 after they were elected at the Gauteng Provincial Congress the same year. It consists of Pogiso Mthimunye (chairperson), Patrick Oberholster (deputy chairperson), Khathutshelo Rasilingwane (Recruitment and Campaigns) and Prudence Mollo (Training and Development).

In the North West Province of South Africa, Emi Koekemoer is the elected Provincial Chairperson while Henning Lubbe takes the role as Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Administration, Quinton Booysen fills the role of Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Recruitment and Campaigns, Percilla Mompe is the Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Media and Publicity and Neo Mabote is the Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Training and Development.

Democratic Alliance Women's Network
Until 28 April 2021, the Democratic Alliance Women's Network (DAWN) federal leader was Nomafrench Mbombo, who is also the current Western Cape Minister of Health. The deputy federal leader is Safiyia Stanfley.

According to the DAWN constitution:

DAWN will:

 * promote the empowerment and development of women and help build their self-confidence to stimulate and activate initiatives.
 * promote amongst women a consciousness of accountability, patriotism and unity.
 * promote women's participation in every sector of public life.
 * promote a healthy culture of the recognition of women's rights as human rights.
 * oppose violence against women wherever possible.

Each province has a provincial DAWN chairperson. The provincial chairpersons are as follows:

 * Eastern Cape: Georgina Faldtman
 * Free State: Deliwe Mvala-Majola
 * Gauteng: Stefanie Ueckermann
 * KwaZulu-Natal: Shehana Kajee
 * Limpopo: Désirée van der Walt
 * Mpumalanga: Annerie Weber
 * Northern Cape: Gizella Opperman
 * North-West: Obakeng Molefe
 * Western Cape: Wendy Philander

Democratic Alliance Abroad
The DA Abroad is the Democratic Alliance's supporters network for South Africans who live outside the South African border. The DA Abroad aims to grow the DA's overseas voter base, actively lobby for international awareness and influence for the furtherance of policies and action programmes of the DA and develop a global interconnected community that supports an open opportunity society for all.

The Democratic Alliance Abroad (DA Abroad) was officially launched in November 2009. Previously the DA Abroad was led by Ludre Stevens between 2009 and 2015 and then by Francine Higham between 2015 and 2019 with Morné Van der Waltsleben as Global Operations Chair from 2013 to 2017. Between 2019 and 2021 it was led by Rory Jubber with Nigel Bruce acting as chairperson. On 27 August 2021, Ludre Stevens was elected unopposed as DA Abroad Leader.

The DA Abroad has hubs in the UK, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia.

Democratic Alliance Young Leaders Programme
The DA's Young Leaders Programme (YLP) is a political leadership development programme for South Africans between the ages of 18 and 35.

title: Democratic Alliance (South Africa)


text:
Pran Nath (musician)

Pandit Pran Nath (Devanagari: पंडित प्राणनाथ) (3 November 1918 – 13 June 1996) was an Indian classical singer and master of the Kirana gharana singing style. Promoting traditional raga principles, Nath exerted an influence on notable American minimalist and jazz musicians, including La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Don Cherry. He began performing in the United States in the 1970s, and established the Kirana Center for Indian Classical Music in 1972; he subsequently taught in various universities across the US and Europe.

Early life
Pran Nath was born into a wealthy family in Lahore in present-day Pakistan. While they were avid devotees of music, inviting musicians into the house to perform nightly, his family did not approve of his desire to become a musician, so he left home at the age of 13 and took up residence with the reclusive singer Abdul Wahid Khan of the Kirana gharana, cousin of the more widely known Abdul Karim Khan.

Pran Nath served Khan for seven years before he was accepted as a student, and stayed with Khan for nearly two decades. Both guru and disciple were much attracted to mysticism: Abdul Wahid Khan, a Muslim, to Sufism; and Nath, a Hindu, to a Shaivite sect in Dehra Dun. It is said that Nath lived in a cave near the Tapkeswhar temple to Shiva for five years, serving his guru intermittently. He eventually married and reentered the world at the request (guru dakshana) of his guru, in order to ensure the preservation of the Kirana style. In 1937, he became a staff artist with All India Radio.

However, Nath stuck to Abdul Wahid Khan's extra-methodical and austere singing style, with a heavy emphasis on alap and slow tempo, which suited his voice well but was not very popular. Like his teacher, Pran Nath's singing emphasized precise intonation and the gradual, note-by-note exposition of tone and mood in the alap section of the music.

Nath supported himself as a music teacher, and worked at the University of Delhi from 1960 to 1970.

Life in the United States
In 1970, Pran Nath travelled to New York to visit the American composer La Monte Young and visual artist Marian Zazeela, who heard his first issued recording, Earth Groove: The Voice of Cosmic India (1968). In 1972, he established the Kirana Center for Indian Classical Music in New York City and lived in the US for the rest of his life. He was a visiting professor of music at Mills College, teaching one semester a year from 1973 to 1984.

Pran Nath attracted a strong following among the American minimalist composers, including Terry Riley, Marian Zazeela, Michael Harrison (musician), Jon Hassell, Catherine Christer Hennix, Charlemagne Palestine, and Henry Flynt. Jazz musicians such as Don Cherry and Lee Konitz also drew influence from his teaching.

Discography

 * Earth Groove (1968), Ragas Bhupali and Asavari
 * India's Master Vocalist (1972), Ragas Yaman Kalyan and Punjabi Berva
 * Ragas of Morning and Night (1986), Ragas Miya ki Todi and Darbari Kanada, two ragas for which Pran Nath was particularly noted
 * Midnight (2003), Raga Malkauns, two separate recordings made in 1971 and 1976
 * The Raga Cycle (2006), Ragas Shudh Sarang and Kut Todi, recorded in 1972

Unreleased recordings
Like his teacher Abdul Wahid Khan, Pran Nath did not emphasize recording or the releasing of records, preferring live performance. While only three recordings of Pran Nath were released during his lifetime, a large number of recordings exist under the care of La Monte Young. In Pran Nath's will, Young, as executor of his estate, was instructed to begin releasing recordings.

Films

 * 1986 – In Between the Notes: A Portrait of Pandit Pran Nath. Produced by Other Minds. Directed by William Farley.
 * 1995 – Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy - Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley. Directed by Michael Blackwood.

title: Pran Nath (musician)


text:
Venstre (Denmark)

Venstre (V;, lit. 'Left'), full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti (Left, Denmark's Liberal Party), is a conservative-liberal, agrarian political party in Denmark. Founded as part of a peasants' movement against the landed aristocracy, today it espouses an economically liberal, pro-free-market ideology.

Venstre is the major party of the centre-right in Denmark, and the second-largest party in the country. The party has produced many Prime Ministers. In the 2022 general elections, Venstre received 13.3% of the vote and 23 out of 179 seats. Following the resignation of Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, the party is led by Troels Lund Poulsen who serves as the country's Deputy Prime Minister. Since December 2022, the party has been a junior partner in the second Frederiksen government.

The party is a member of Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and has four MEPs in the European Parliament.

1870–1910
Venstre was founded in 1870 under the name Det Forenede Venstre ("The United Left"). Originally, the party consisted of multiple conflicting groups, all united under the classical liberal (then the standard left-wing) ideology, the safeguarding of farmers' interests and opposition to the then right-wing classical conservative party Højre (literally "Right"). After the party in 1872 gained an absolute majority in the Folketing, it became the leading voice in the battle for parliamentarism, whereafter the party in 1895 split in two, Venstrereformpartiet ("Venstre Reform Party") and Det Moderate Venstre ("The Moderate Left"). In 1905, social liberal factions split from the party and formed Radikale Venstre (also known as the Danish Social Liberal Party), and in 1910 Venstrereformpartiet and Det Moderate Venstre reunited again under the name Venstre.

1910–2009
With the decreasing numbers of farms and the growing urbanisation, membership and voter support dropped in the 1950s. During the 1960s the party gradually evolved from being a traditional farmers' party to a more general liberal party. In 1984 Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was elected chairman, and by profiling the liberal ideology in sharp confrontation to the Social Democrats, for example by campaigning for a reduction of the public sector, increasing market management and privatisation, and by being pro-EU, the party returned to its historical position as the biggest liberal party in the 1990s.

After a disappointing 1998 general election, Ellemann-Jensen resigned as chairman and Anders Fogh Rasmussen was elected in his place. He immediately changed the party's usual confrontational strategy, instead appealing to the political centre. In the 2001 general elections the party campaigned for tighter immigration policies and a "tax stop", which proved successful and the party once again became the biggest in parliament, winning 31.2% of the vote and 56 seats. Venstre formed a coalition government with the Conservative People's Party and the Danish People's Party. For the first time since 1929 a liberal government was no longer dependent on the centre parties. Despite a small decline in both the 2005 general elections (29% and 52 seats) and the 2007 general elections (26.2% and 46 seats), the party remained the biggest and the coalition government continued.

On 5 April 2009, Fogh Rasmussen resigned as chairman, instead serving as Secretary General of NATO. In his place Lars Løkke Rasmussen was elected.

2009–present
In the 2011 general elections, the party gained 26.7% of the vote and 47 seats, but was not able to form a government, instead leading the opposition against Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt's Social Democratic coalition.

Even though the party lost voter support in the 2015 general elections, only gaining 19.5% of the vote, the party formed a minority government. This government was short-lived, and in 2016 Løkke Rasmussen invited the Conservative People's Party and the Liberal Alliance to form a coalition government instead.

During the campaign of the 2019 general elections, Løkke Rasmussen published an autobiography, in which he opened up for the possibility of forming a government with the Social Democrats. This was seen as controversial in the liberal "blue bloc", and Social Democratic leader Mette Frederiksen immediately declined the proposition.

Following internal fighting in the party, Løkke Rasmussen and vice chairman Kristian Jensen both resigned on 31 August 2019. On 21 September 2019, political spokesman and former Minister for Environment and Food Jakob Ellemann-Jensen was elected the party's next chairman.

Following the 2022 general election, in which Venstre suffered its worst result since 1988, Venstre joined a grand coalition government led by Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen, and also comprising the Moderates, a Venstre splinter formed by former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

Ideology
Venstre is categorised as centre-right on the political spectrum, although it has been also described as centrist and right-wing. Ideologically, it has been described as conservative-liberal,   liberal-conservative,    liberal,   conservative, classical-liberal, and agrarian. Additionally, Venstre takes a nativist stance regarding immigration and asylum-seeking; they had also said that "immigrants should learn Danish and understand and respect Danish culture and traditions".

Venstre is an economically liberal party within the Nordic agrarian tradition, and today is notably more pro–free market than its sister parties. Since the elections in 2001, Venstre has enacted a so-called "tax stop" in order to halt the growth in taxes seen during the previous eight years under the Social Democrats. This tax stop has been under heavy fire from the parties on the left wing of Danish politics, allegedly for being "asocial" and "only for the rich."

Prime ministers

 * Johan Henrik Deuntzer (July 24, 1901 – January 14, 1905)
 * Jens Christian Christensen (January 14, 1905 – October 12, 1908)
 * Niels Neergaard (October 12, 1908 – August 16, 1909)
 * Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg (August 16, 1909 – October 28, 1909)
 * Klaus Berntsen (July 5, 1910 – June 21, 1913)
 * Niels Neergaard (May 5, 1920 – April 23, 1924)
 * Thomas Madsen-Mygdal (December 14, 1926 – April 30, 1929)
 * Knud Kristensen (November 7, 1945 – November 13, 1947)
 * Erik Eriksen (October 30, 1950 – September 30, 1953)
 * Poul Hartling (December 19, 1973 – February 13, 1975)
 * Anders Fogh Rasmussen (November 27, 2001 – April 5, 2009)
 * Lars Løkke Rasmussen (April 5, 2009 – October 3, 2011; June 28, 2015 – June 27, 2019)

Origin of the name
The fact that the major centre-right political party in a country calls itself 'Left' is often confusing to foreign (and sometimes Danish) observers. The name has, however, its historical explanation. At the time of its foundation, Venstre affirmed then-progressive ideas in the Danish parliament. Their opponents, Højre (Right), the forerunner of the present-day Conservative People's Party, advocated for established interests, particularly the Church of Denmark and the landed gentry. In current Danish politics there is a clear distinction between the concepts of Venstre (Left, i.e., the party bearing that name) and venstrefløj (left wing, i.e., socialist and other left-leaning parties). The use of the word for "left" in the name of the Danish political party Radikale Venstre (literally: "Radical Left") and the Norwegian party Venstre is meant to refer to liberalism and not socialism.

Members of the party are referred to as venstremænd and venstrekvinder, respectively "Venstre men" and "Venstre women" (singular: -mand, -kvinde).

European representation
In the European Parliament, Venstre sits in the Renew Europe group with four MEPs.

In the European Committee of the Regions, Venstre sits in the Renew Europe CoR group, with three full and two alternate members for the 2020–2025 mandate.

Youth and student wings

 * Venstres Ungdom
 * Liberal Students of Denmark (Danmarks Liberale Studerende)

title: Venstre (Denmark)


text:
Movement of Socialist Democrats

The Movement of Socialist Democrats (حركة الديمقراطيين الاشتراكيين, Ḥarakat ed-Dīmoqrāṭiyīn el-Ishtirākiyīn; Mouvement des démocrates socialistes, MDS, also translated as "Socialist Democrats Movement") is a political party in Tunisia.

The MDS was founded by defectors from the then ruling Socialist Destourian Party (PSD) and liberal-minded expatriates in 1978. The founders of the MDS had already been involved in the establishment of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) in 1976/77. Its first secretary general was Ahmed Mestiri who had been a member of the PSD and interior minister in the government of Habib Bourguiba, but was dropped from the government in 1971 and expelled from the party after he had called for democratic reforms and pluralism.

Tunisia was then a single-party state ruled exclusively by the PSD. The MDS remained illegal until 1981 when the more reform-minded Prime Minister Mohammed Mzali allowed oppositional parties to run candidates' lists in elections and announced to officially recognise them in case they won more than 5%. Among the minor, weakly institutionalised oppositional parties, the MDS presented the most appealing candidates list and threatened to actually beat the PSD in the capital Tunis. The government decided to rig the elections. So, according to official results, the MDS won only 3.2 percent, behind the ruling PSD with 94.6 percent.

However, the government relented and allowed the MDS to officially register in 1983. It was one of three legal oppositional parties during the 1980s. The MDS welcomed Zine El Abidine Ben Ali taking over the presidency from the longterm head of state Bourguiba in 1987. Many MDS members believed that Ben Ali really pursued reforms and liberalisation and defected to his Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), weakening the MDS. Ahmed Mestiri led the party until 1990. In the early 1990s, the party was torn between cooperation with the government and opposition. Those who strove for a strictly oppositional course left the party or were edged out. In 1994, a group of MDS dissidents around Mustapha Ben Jaafar founded the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties (FDTL), which was only legalised in 2002.

In 1994, the electoral law was changed, ensuring the parliamentary representation of oppositional parties. The MDS received 10 of 163 seats (19 being reserved for the opposition). In 1999, it became the largest opposition party, with 13 seats in the Tunisian parliament. In 2001, the then-party leader Mohamed al-Mouadda was charged with having formed a pact with the banned Islamist group Ennahda. At the 2004 parliamentary election, the party won 4.6% of the popular vote and 14 seats. Their number of seats rose to 16 at the 2009 election, making it again the second-largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, behind the dominant Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD).

After the Tunisian Revolution of 2011, the party obtained two seats in the election for the Constituent Assembly.

The MDS has published the Arabic weekly newspapers Al-Moustaqbal ("The Future") and Al-Ra'i ("Opinion"), as well as the French-language L'Avenir.

title: Movement of Socialist Democrats


text: Talk:Demographics of Belize

title: Talk:Demographics of Belize


text:
List of musical instruments by Hornbostel–Sachs number

The Hornbostel–Sachs system categorizes musical instruments by how they make sound. It divides instruments into five groups: idiophones, membranophones, chordophones, aerophones, and electrophones. A number of instruments also exist outside the five main classes.

Main categories

 * List of idiophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number
 * See also: List of percussion instruments
 * List of membranophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number
 * List of chordophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number
 * List of aerophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number
 * See also: List of woodwind instruments

Electrophones
Electrophones are instruments in which sound is generated by electrical means. While it is not officially in any published form of the Hornbostel–Sachs system, and hence, lacking proper numerical subdivisions, it is often considered a fifth main category.

 * Croix Sonore
 * Denis d'or
 * Drum machine
 * Hammond organ
 * Keyboard bass
 * Kraakdoos (or Cracklebox)
 * Mellotron
 * Ondes Martenot
 * Synclavier
 * Synthesizer
 * Tannerin (a.k.a. Electro-Theremin)
 * Telharmonium
 * Theremin

Instruments that do not fit into any of the above five categories
A number of instruments neither fit wholly into any one of the above 5 categories, nor can they be properly described as belonging to some combination of these categories. Within the Hornbostel Sachs system they therefore do not have a number (hence the label NaN = Not a Number).

Hydraulophones
The first three Hornbostel Sachs numbers describe instruments that make sound from matter in its solid state. The fourth HS number describes instruments that make sound from matter in its gaseous state (air). The fifth HS number describes instruments that make sound from electricity and/or electrical energy.

A number of instruments have been invented, designed, and made, that make sound from matter in its liquid state. This class of instruments is called hydraulophones. Hydraulophones use an incompressible fluid, such as water, as the initial sound-producing medium, and they may also use the hydraulic fluid as a user-interface.

Plasmaphones
Another category of instruments has been invented that use matter in higher energy states, such as plasma, to produce the initial sound. These instruments are called plasmaphones. As flame is matter in a high energy state the class comprises the much older pyrophones.

Non-electrophonic quintephones
A number of computational musical instruments that are not electrophones have been invented, designed, built, and used in performances. These instruments are sound synthesizers that use mechanical, optical, or other forms of non-electric computation, sampling, processing, or the like.

It has been proposed that music synthesizers that perform computation, and/or that work by recording and playback of sound samples, or the like, be referred to as quintephones. This class of instrument includes electrophones as a special case.


text:
Conservative People's Party (Denmark)

The Conservative People's Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti, DKF), also known as The Conservatives (De Konservative) is a centre-right political party in Denmark. The party is a member of the International Democracy Union and the European People's Party.

History

The party was founded in 1916 based mostly on its predecessor, Højre ("Right") after its downfall, but also on the Free Conservatives and a moderate faction of the liberal party Venstre ("Left"). The party was a part of the coalition government during World War II, where the leader John Christmas Møller provided the voice for BBC London's daily radio to Denmark. However, while a number of conservatives participated in the resistance movement, some conservatives were sympathetic to fascist ideology, and the youth wing of the party praised several fascist movements in Europe during the 1930s.

Since World War II, the party has participated in several coalition governments, but only one Prime Minister of Denmark, Poul Schlüter, has come from this party; he served as prime minister from 1982 to 1993. His government had to resign after the Tamil Case, when the Justice Minister, Erik Ninn-Hansen (himself a former Conservative leader), was impeached.

The party used its first logo in 1950, consisting of the serif-letter "C" coloured green. On 24 August 2000, the Conservative People's Party rebranded itself as the Conservatives, and at the same time retired its 50-year-old green serif-letter "C" logo, thus launching a new logo for the first time since 1950. The new logo was a circle which contains a chartreuse circle with the letter "C".

From the 2001 parliament elections until 2011, the Conservative People's Party was the junior partner in a coalition government led by Venstre. In the 2004 European parliament elections, the party won a seat. Four months later, on 23 October 2004, it adopted a logo consisting of a green circle-squared box that contains a dark-green screen with the letter "C" that is coloured green; the "Konservative" wordmark is placed below the symbol, though it too is also coloured green. The member is currently Bendt Bendtsen, who is a member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. In the 2014 European election, the party garnered 9.1% of the national vote, retaining Bendtsen's seat as MEP.

In the 2011 parliamentary election for the Folketing (Danish national parliament), the Conservative People's Party won eight seats, 10 fewer than it had won in the previous election in 2007, and it received 4.9% of the vote, placing the party in eighth place nationally. On 27 September 2013, the Conservative People's Party received the current version of its logo: the colour of the letter "C" was changed to white, the circle-square retained its dark-green colour, and the circle-squared line was removed from it. At the same time, the party gave up being known as the Conservatives, reverting to its former name as the Conservative People's Party.

At the 2015 election, the party did badly and was reduced to a mere six seats, which made it the smallest party in the Folketing. But Søren Pape Poulsen (who had taken over as leader the previous year) managed to double the party's seats to 12 in the 2019 election with 6.6% of the vote. After that election, several opinion polls indicated that the party enjoyed wider popular support than Venstre,  but at the 2022 election gained just 5.5%, following an election campaign significantly influenced by affairs concerning Pape Poulsen's personal life. Poulsen died suddenly at the age of 52 on 2 March 2024, leaving the party leadership vacant.

Organization
The youth branch of the Conservative People's Party, albeit an independent organisation, is Young Conservatives, the earliest formed youth organisation in Denmark, founded in December 1904, and believed to be one of the oldest in the world, preceding the Conservative People's Party by 10 years. The student branch is Conservative Students, likewise an independent organisation, which has branches at all Danish Universities.

The party remains committed to a centre-right alliance, working most closely with the liberal Venstre and somewhat less closely with the right-wing populist Danish People's Party. The Conservative People's Party cooperated with the Social Liberal Party during its time in power in the 1980s, and also with the centre-left government under Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in the 1990s.

Ideology and policies
The party's current purpose clause states: "The Conservative People's Party aims to gather everyone who joins the party's program and to work for the spread of conservative views." The party has named Edmund Burke as one of its intellectual sources.

The Conservative People's Party presently advocates individual freedom and responsibility, a free market economy, respecting private property, the importance of community for the individual, modernization of the public sector, decentralization, ensuring up-to-date military defense, and an emphasis on protecting Denmark's national history and traditions. In foreign policy, the party supports economic cooperation with the European Union to aid Denmark's economic growth and keep peace in Europe, but maintains the EU must also respect the right to national identity and calls for a less centralized EU in which member states can maintain sovereignty over their national, regional and local decision making powers. The party also highlights environmentalism as one of its core philosophies in accordance to green conservatism.

Notable members

 * John Christmas Møller – World War II resistance figure in exile in England.
 * Poul Schlüter – The longest-serving Danish prime minister since Thorvald Stauning. Schlüter is the Conservative People's Party's only prime minister to date. He led the Conservative People's Party to its best-ever result at a national election, reaching 23.4% of the national vote. After his term as prime minister ended he was elected to the European Parliament in 1994, reaching a record breaking number of 247,956 personal votes.
 * Connie Hedegaard – Appointed as the European Union's first ever European Commissioner for Climate Action in February 2010, Hedegaard was elected to the Danish Parliament as a member for the Conservative People's Party in 1984 at the age of 23, becoming the youngest Danish MP ever at that time. In 1989, Hedegaard became first spokesperson for the Conservative People's Party, but left politics for journalism in 1990.
 * Stefan G. Rasmussen (born 23 July 1947), a former Danish pilot who captained the crash-landing SAS flight 751 on 27 December 1991, in which there were no fatalities. He then entered politics, serving in the Danish Folketing from 1994 to 1996.

title: Conservative People's Party (Denmark)


text:
Conservative People's Party

Conservative People's Party may refer to:
 * Conservative People's Party (Argentina)
 * Conservative People's Party (Bohemia), a political party in the 1900s and 1910s
 * Conservative People's Party (Denmark)
 * Conservative People's Party of Estonia
 * Conservative People's Party (Germany), a short-lived party of the late 1920s and early 1930s
 * Conservative People's Party (Poland)
 * Swiss Conservative People's Party, predecessor of the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland

title: Conservative People's Party